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Range Safety Waiver & Orientation
A Word About Gun Safety
The most important aspect of shooting sports is safety, if you are an individual who knows little about firearms, your perception is, understandably, that firearms can be dangerous if not handled properly. Strict emphasis on safety education is essential to an enjoyable and new sporting experience.
For anyone, no matter how young or how old, who wants to learn how to shoot, understanding the rules of firearms safety is the first and most important requirement. To know and follow these rules goes hand-in-hand with practicing and developing the discipline of good shooting skills.
Whether firearms are being purchased for personal or home protection or for shooting sports participation, chances are your child may come in contact with one. A youth shooting program, even if your child decides not to continue in the shooting sports, will give your child an important safety-awareness education.
If you’re a new shooter or a seasoned veteran take a minute of your time and visit the national shooting sports safety resources pages:
For additional information, please watch these helpful videos:
- Practical Real World based training
- Tier 1 – Unit Tactics
- Tier 2 – Team Tactics
- Tier 3 – Individual Tactics
- Practical Tactical Medicine | <urn:uuid:f39f1bdc-72bf-4606-bd42-c875978f484b> | {
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Those with disabilities or other special needs often have unique needs that require more detailed planning in the event of a disaster. Consider the following actions as you prepare:
- Learn what to do in case of power outages and personal injuries. Know how to connect and start a back-up power supply for essential medical equipment.
- Consider getting a medical alert system that will allow you to call for help if you are immobilized in an emergency. Most alert systems require a working phone line, so have a back-up plan, such as a cell phone or pager, if the regular landlines are disrupted.
- If you use an electric wheelchair or scooter, have a manual wheelchair for back-up. Teach those who may need to assist you in an emergency how to operate necessary equipment. Also, label equipment and attach laminated instructions for equipment use.
- Store back-up equipment (mobility, medical, etc.) at your neighborh's home, school or your workplace.
- Arrange for more than one person from your personal support network to check on you in an emergency, so there is at least one back-up if the primary person cannot.
- If you are vision impaired, deaf or hard of hearing, plan ahead for someone to convey essential emergency information to you if you are unable to use the TV or radio.
- If you use a personal care attendant obtained from an agency, check to see if the agency has special provisions for emergencies (e.g., providing services at another location should and evacuation be ordered).
- If you live in an apartment, ask the management to identify and mark accessible exits and access to all areas designated for emergency shelter or safe rooms. Ask about plans for alerting and evacuating those with sensory disabilities.
- Have a cell phone with an extra battery. If you are unable to get out of a building, you can let someone know where you are and guide them to you. Keep the numbers you may need to call with you if the 9-1-1 emergency number is overloaded. A whistle is another good way of alerting people that you need assistance if phones are not working.
- Learn about devices and other technology available (PDAs, text radio, pagers, etc.) to assist you in receiving emergency instructions and warning from local officials.
Source: Together We Prepare Oregon, page 12. | <urn:uuid:49e43260-d86f-49b3-b13b-6af1513b9153> | {
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This book is about using JavaServer Faces to create and deploy interactive applications delivered to end users via a browser interface. JavaServer Faces is the component-based technology enabling easy development of such applications, especially applications of the type commonly needed in enterprise environments. JavaServerFaces: Introduction by Example is a to-the-point, 250-page introduction to an important technology that every Java Enterprise Edition programmer should know and be able to use.
JavaServer Faces: Introduction by Example takes you through building and deploying servlet-based web pages built around JavaServer Faces, Facelets, managed Java Beans, and prebuilt user-interface components. You'll learn to build user interfaces that run in the browser, to display data drawn from corporate databases, accept user input, deal with errors and exceptions, and more.
JavaServer Faces is an important user-interface technology for any Java developer to learn who works in an enterprise environment. JavaServer Faces: Introduction by Example is your no-nonsense guide to getting started right away in taking advantage of the technology's component-driven approach. | <urn:uuid:f47545e3-ae55-4a22-b847-3cf3d73be275> | {
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The earliest evidence for a connecting rod appears on a late 3rd century AD Roman relief of a saw mill from Hierapolis, Asia Minor, as well as two 6th century Roman saw mills excavated at Ephesus respectively Gerasa, where the crank and connecting rod mechanism converted the rotary motion of the waterwheel into the linear movement of the saw blades.
Internal combustion enginesEdit
In modern automotive internal combustion engines, the connecting rods are most usually made of steel for production engines, but can be made of aluminium (for lightness and the ability to absorb high impact at the expense of durability) or titanium (for a combination of strength and lightness at the expense of affordability) for high performance engines, or of cast iron for applications such as motor scooters. They are not rigidly fixed at either end, so that the angle between the connecting rod and the piston can change as the rod moves up and down and rotates around the crankshaft. Conrods, especially in racing engines, may be called "billet" rods, if they are machined out of a solid billet of metal, rather than being cast.
The small end attaches to the piston pin, gudgeon pin (the usual British term) or wrist pin, which is currently most often press fit into the con rod but can swivel in the piston, a "floating wrist pin" design. The big end connects to the bearing journal on the crank throw, running on replaceable bearing shells accessible via the con rod bolts which hold the bearing "cap" onto the big end; typically there is a pinhole bored through the bearing and the big end of the con rod so that pressurized lubricating motor oil squirts out onto the thrust side of the cylinder wall to lubricate the travel of the pistons and piston rings.
The con rod is under tremendous stress from the reciprocating load represented by the piston, actually stretching and being compressed with every rotation, and the load increases to the third power with increasing engine speed. Failure of a connecting rod, usually called "throwing a rod" is one of the most common causes of catastrophic engine failure in cars, frequently putting the broken rod through the side of the crankcase and thereby rendering the engine irreparable; it can result from fatigue near a physical defect in the rod, lubrication failure in a bearing due to faulty maintenance, or from failure of the rod bolts from a defect, improper tightening, or re-use of already used (stressed) bolts where not recommended. Despite their frequent occurrence on televised competitive automobile events, such failures are quite rare on production cars during normal daily driving. This is because production auto parts have a much larger factor of safety, and often more systematic quality control.
When building a high performance engine, great attention is paid to the con rods, eliminating stress risers by such techniques as grinding the edges of the rod to a smooth radius, shot peening to induce compressive surface stresses (to prevent crack initiation), balancing all con rod/piston assemblies to the same weight and Magnafluxing to reveal otherwise invisible small cracks which would cause the rod to fail under stress. In addition, great care is taken to torque the con rod bolts to the exact value specified; often these bolts must be replaced rather than reused. The big end of the rod is fabricated as a unit and cut or cracked in two to establish precision fit around the big end bearing shell. Therefore, the big end "caps" are not interchangeable between con rods, and when rebuilding an engine, care must be taken to ensure that the caps of the different con rods are not mixed up. Both the con rod and its bearing cap are usually embossed with the corresponding position number in the engine block.
Recent engines such as the Ford 4.6 liter engine and the Chrysler 2.0 liter engine, have connecting rods made using powder metallurgy, which allows more precise control of size and weight with less machining and less excess mass to be machined off for balancing. The cap is then separated from the rod by a fracturing process, which results in an uneven mating surface due to the grain of the powdered metal. This ensures that upon reassembly, the cap will be perfectly positioned with respect to the rod, compared to the minor misalignments which can occur if the mating surfaces are both flat.
A major source of engine wear is the sideways force exerted on the piston through the con rod by the crankshaft, which typically wears the cylinder into an oval cross-section rather than circular, making it impossible for piston rings to correctly seal against the cylinder walls. Geometrically, it can be seen that longer con rods will reduce the amount of this sideways force, and therefore lead to longer engine life. However, for a given engine block, the sum of the length of the con rod plus the piston stroke is a fixed number, determined by the fixed distance between the crankshaft axis and the top of the cylinder block where the cylinder head fastens; thus, for a given cylinder block longer stroke, giving greater engine displacement and power, requires a shorter connecting rod (or a piston with smaller compression height), resulting in accelerated cylinder wear.
Compound rods Edit
Many-cylinder multi-bank engines such as a V-12 layout have little space available for that many connecting rod journals on a limited length of crankshaft. This is a difficult compromise to solve and its consequence has often led to engines being regarded as failures (Sunbeam Arab, Rolls-Royce Vulture).
The simplest solution, almost universal in road car engines, is to use simple rods where cylinders from both banks share a journal. This requires the rod bearings to be narrower, increasing bearing load and the risk of failure in a high-performance engine. This also means the opposing cylinders are not exactly in line with each other.
In certain types of engine, master/slave rods are used rather than the simple type shown in the picture above. The master rod carries one or more ring pins to which are bolted the much smaller big ends of slave rods on other cylinders. Radial engines typically have a master rod for one cylinder and slave rods for all the other cylinders in the same bank. Certain designs of V engines use a master/slave rod for each pair of opposite cylinders. A drawback of this is that the stroke of the subsidiary rod is slightly shorter than the master, which increases vibration in a vee engine, catastrophically so for the Sunbeam Arab.
The usual solution for high-performance aero-engines is a "forked" connecting rod. One rod is split in two at the big end and the other is thinned to fit into this fork. The journal is still shared between cylinders. The Rolls-Royce Merlin used this "fork-and-blade" style.
- Kinematic Models for Design Digital Library (KMODDL) - Movies and photos of hundreds of working mechanical-systems models at Cornell University. Also includes an e-book library of classic texts on mechanical design and engineering. | <urn:uuid:e935c676-21bd-45bc-a95d-582330d83191> | {
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What You Will Learn
We will review the entire process to keep the steps clear as we play the final version of the movie. New animators will be reminded of the planning, preparation, and hypothesizing that went into the successful invention of the new, unique creation which is the finished animated movie. You will see the sense of satisfaction and excitement that accompanies the completion of an animation.
Why It Is Important
Though the Animation Chefs invented the Remote Control Movie using this system, any subject matter can be animated using this process. It applies to animating the Water Cycle or Molecules, History or Holiday Cards, Recycling or Rocket Science, or any other subject matter. Find a character, put it in a setting, give it a big juicy problem. Storyboard a shot sequence. Build the sets. Animate. Do sound design. Press play. Viola'. You have reached the Blue Hat Skill Level. | <urn:uuid:86ee1dd1-edc7-4890-a30c-3048ccadf458> | {
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Spring 1998 — Long before the plate-tectonic revolution began in the 1960s, scientists envisioned drilling into the ocean crust to investigate Earth’s evolution. As early as 1881, Darwin suggested drilling Pacific atolls for scientific purposes. From the end of the nineteenth into the first half of the twentieth century, drilling was used to penetrate the reef and uppermost volcanic foundation of several oceanic islands, and these glimpses of oceanic geology whetted the scientific community’s appetite for deeper and more complete data.
The idea of ocean drilling gained momentum in the 1950s and resulted in the “Mohole project,” whose objective was to sample the material beneath the Mohorovicic discontinuity, or “Moho,” the boundary between Earth’s crust and mantle. The Mohole project proved to be ahead of its time, but the program’s test drilling in the deep eastern Pacific Ocean proved that ocean crust could be successfully drilled and cored from a dynamically positioned ship in several thousand meters of water. Mohole was succeeded beginning in the late 1960s by the hugely successful Deep Sea Drilling Project, the International Phase of Ocean Drilling, and the current Ocean Drilling Program. (For “An Abridged History of Deep Ocean Drilling” by Arthur E. Maxwell, see Oceanus Vol. 36, No. 4.)
A major scientific goal of all these efforts has been to recover a complete section of normal ocean crust and uppermost mantle. The lithology, properties, and geological relations of these rocks are key to understanding such varied phenomena as convection in the earth’s mantle, melting and transport mechanisms in the upwelling asthenosphere beneath mid-ocean ridges, rock deformation and alteration, the sources of magnetic anomalies in ocean basins, and hydrothermal circulation and formation of ore deposits.
The outstanding obstacle to drilling through the entire ocean crust is that normal crustal thickness is on the order of 6 to 7 kilometers. Penetrating it beneath several thousand meters of water is presently at the limits of drilling technology as well as beyond the financial boundaries of scientific funding. Currently, drilling to depths of 1.5 to 2 kilometers has yielded upper ocean crust samples, as well as sections of deeper crust and upper mantle where these rocks are exposed by natural tectonic processes. Pieced together, these sections are in many ways similar to our conception of what ocean crust should look like, based on studies of ophiolites, old seafloor parcels that have been exposed above sea level by various tectonic mechanisms. (See map in Peter Kelemen article.)
At its base, the “standard ophiolite model” (see top figure) includes an “ultramafic” layer (made up of dense rock rich in iron and magnesium) that represents the oceanic mantle. The overlying crust is formed from melt that rose buoyantly at a mid-ocean ridge from the hot, upwelling mantle. From bottom to top, the crust consists of layers formed by crystallization in presumed magma chambers or zones of hot crystal mush, a shallower section of vertically oriented, intrusive dikes,* and a volcanic surface layer of pillow basalts extruded onto the seafloor and capped by sediments. Laboratory analyses show that each of these sequences transmits sound waves with characteristic velocities, and seismologists studying sound propagation in the deep ocean basins have roughly equated observed crustal velocity layering with rock type in the standard ophiolite model. From mapping of seismic velocities, the subseafloor depth of the top of the mantle (the Moho), and thus the apparent thickness of normal ocean crust, appears to be remarkably uniform at about 6 to 7 kilometers.
However, there are several problems with relying too heavily on the ophiolite and velocity models. First, while ophiolites offer the convenience of being able to walk the outcrop and directly study geological relationships, there is considerable debate as to their value for interpreting the structure of normal ocean crust. Many ophiolites are known to have originated in unusual tectonic settings such as behind island arcs or above subduction zones, and it is uncertain how representative they are of crust beneath most large ocean basins. Second, it is likely that the standard ophiolite model is overly simplistic. Spreading rates and the associated levels and constancy of magma production vary dramatically among mid-ocean ridges, so the magmatic and tectonic structure of deep ocean crust probably seldom approaches the ideal model, particularly where magma supply is limited. Finally, our suppositions about the relative uniformity of crustal thickness and composition, as inferred from velocity-lithology correlations, could be seriously in error. In particular, normally high-velocity ultramafics of the upper mantle may become altered by seawater that penetrates deeply along faults and fractures. Such alteration can dramatically reduce sound velocity in these rocks, making them appear seismically to be part of the ocean crust and thus causing us to overestimate true crustal thickness.
To resolve such uncertainties, we are still faced with the need systematically to sample the entire crustal and uppermost mantle sequence within the ocean basins. To date, the best path to this goal has been to sample local tectonic exposures, but because of the intermittency and incompleteness of outcrops, this has been considered a piecemeal solution at best. Recent discoveries, however, indicate that complete, naturally occurring crust-mantle cross sections may be exposed on the seafloor by unusually long-lived faults. These sections have the potential to yield long-sought answers to questions about the structure and origin of oceanic crust.
To understand how tectonism exposes cross sections of the ocean crust, we must first consider the typical along- and across-axis structure of mid-ocean ridge (see second figure from top). The spreading axis, where magma wells up to form new ocean crust, is offset by discontinuities to form numerous individual spreading segments that extend from a few tens of kilometers to more than a hundred kilometers along the ridge axis. At the axes of slow-spreading ridges (where total spreading rate is less than about 35 to 40 millimeters per year), seismic studies of spreading segments, together with gravity studies of density distribution and direct seafloor sampling by dredging and submersible, indicate that crustal thickness is greatest near segment centers and that it thins markedly toward the discontinuities at segment ends. From this, we infer that upwelling of magma from the mantle is relatively focused near the centers of slow-spreading segments. At faster-spreading ridges, in contrast, crustal thickness tends to be more uniform along the length of spreading segments, and upwelling of magma therefore appears to be more evenly distributed along a segment.
Another significant difference between slow- and fast-spreading ridges is in magma supply. The rate of magma supply at slow-spreading ridges is relatively low compared to the rate of axial crust extension, while the rates are more comparable at fast-spreading ridges. The result is that tectonic extension, expressed in the form of large normal faults, is much more profound at slow-spreading ridges, particularly at segment ends. These faults cut deeply into and sometimes through the ocean crust. If extension occurs for a long enough period on a fault, then a significant portion of the ocean crustal section, and possibly even upper-mantle rocks, could be exhumed along the fault plane. Do these geological cross sections actually exist on the seafloor, and, if so, under what conditions are they formed?
Recent discoveries suggest an affirmative answer to the first question. In 1996, both British and US expeditions to the slow-spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge found remarkable seafloor edifices, each of which appears to have originated by long-lived slip on an individual normal fault. These features, which we term “megamullions,” have two distinctive characteristics: first, a domelike or turtleback shape extending over a diameter of some 15 to 30 kilometers, and second, conspicuous grooves or corrugations (mullions) that formed as part of the faulting process and that parallel the direction of fault slip over the domed surface. (See third figure from top.) We have interpreted the mega-mullions as footwall blocks, that is, blocks exhumed from beneath normal faults. (See figure above right.) In the case of megamullions, these faults have been unusually long-lived and areally extensive, and we refer to them as “detachment faults.” Once megamullions were recognized, our subsequent study of existing, detailed multibeam bathymetric data has identified a total of 17 of these features between about 21° N and 31° N on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and a number of other megamullions have been recognized where strong tectonic extension occurs on slow- to intermediate-spreading mid-ocean ridges in the Indian Ocean.
Each detachment fault that forms a mega-mullion has three notable features: a breakaway zone where the fault began, the exposed fault surface that rides over the megamullion dome, and a termination, which usually is marked by a valley and adjacent ridge. By identifying breakaway and termination ages from dated seafloor magnetic anomalies, we can establish that the faults forming the North Atlantic megamullions accommodated slip for periods between 1.0 and 2.6 million years, with an average period of 1.5 million years. The original dip of the faults is uncertain, but they probably dipped at up to about 45°, much like most seismically active normal faults presently observed at the axes of mid-ocean ridges. With this dip, the faults would have exhumed a full 6-kilometer-thick crust and even exposed the underlying mantle within less than a million years. As these rocks are drawn out from beneath the fault, the footwall “rolls over,” laying out the geological cross-section across the surface of the megamullion. The rollover also flexes the brittle footwall much like bending a wooden ruler—the upper part of the footwall block is under tension and new normal faults break through the detachment surface.
Under what conditions do these long-lived faults develop? In terms of their position on the seafloor, all megamullions identified thus far appear near segment ends at inside-corner (IC) locations (that is, within the bights between the actively slipping sections of ridge-axis discontinuities and the spreading axis). Geophysical data and recovered rock samples show that ocean crust at inside corners of slow-spreading ridges is intermittently thin or missing compared to relatively normal thickness, outside-corner (OC) crust on the opposite side of the spreading axis. This seems to be best explained by consistent orientation of faults dipping from inside corners toward outside corners; in this way the upper crust (hanging wall) is frequently stripped from the inside-corner footwall. However, this process cannot be continuously occurring on a single fault. If it were, all inside corners would exhibit megamullions (but only a small percentage do), and they would almost exclusively expose mantle rocks (which they do not). Rather, it appears that a single fault is normally active for only a short period of time (a few tens to hundreds of thousand of years) before it is abandoned and replaced by a new fault closer to the spreading axis.
What, then, promotes slip on a single fault for periods of up to 2 million years or more? And what eventually causes the fault to be abandoned? Clearly, for a fault to remain active it must be weak in comparison to adjacent crust where another fault might otherwise nucleate. Recent laboratory studies have demonstrated changes in deformation mechanism at sub-seafloor depths where faults in the brittle lithosphere flatten out into zones of plastic deformation in hotter, deeper rocks. These changes weaken the rock by a factor of ten or more compared to surrounding, unfaulted rocks, and they thus promote slip in the shear zone. Slip probably is also enhanced by the occurrence of weak serpentinites along faults at shallower levels within the brittle litho-sphere. Serpentinites form as sea-water percolates down fractures and reacts with ultramafic rocks in the lower crust and upper mantle at temperatures ranging from about 100° to 500°C.
These kinds of weakening, however, are not the entire answer to the question of fault longevity because they probably occur on many (if not most) faults in slow-spreading crust, whereas truly long-lived faults are few and far between. A more complete explanation can be devised if we consider the temporal variability of magmatism at the spreading axis. Episodes of magmatism are known to occur at time scales of tens to hundreds of thousands of years at slow-spreading ridges, and recent analysis of gravity data over ridge flanks also indicates a predominant cycle at a period of two to three million years. Megamullions consistently correlate with the parts of these longer cycles where the gravity data indicate the presence of thin crust and predominantly amagmatic extension. Thus, it appears that persistent slip on a fault occurs while the spreading axis is relatively cold, but that when magmatism is renewed, it heats and weakens the lithosphere, new faults form, and the long-lived fault is abandoned. The relative rarity and the locations of megamullions suggest that completely amagmatic extension is not common even in slow-spreading crust, and when it occurs it is restricted mostly to segment ends near ridge-axis discontinuities.
The cross sections through the crust and into the upper mantle that appear to be laid out across the surface of megamullions offer exciting new windows of opportunity finally to sample the oceanic lithosphere in detail. Marine geologists are now proposing to drill a series of half- to one-kilometer-deep holes, aligned in the direction of fault slip across the surfaces of megamullions. From these cores, we should be able to construct a composite, but relatively complete, picture of the entire crust-mantle section, without ever having to drill the 6 kilometers or more that would be required to reach the mantle beneath normal-thickness ocean crust.
There is, however, much to be done before the drilling occurs. A few samples have been obtained from megamullions, and as expected they include lower-crustal and upper-mantle rocks. Nonetheless, most of our interpretations are based on remotely sensed data such as gravity and bathymetry, together with models of the faulting process. Detailed surveys and sampling with deep-towed instruments and submersibles like Alvin are needed fully to document the geology of the outcrops and to select optimum locations for drilling. This mapping and sampling will also provide critical information for correlating data between drill holes and to understand the three-dimensional internal structure of the crust and mantle.
In addition to providing lithospheric cross sections, megamullions have the potential to yield significant insights into other outstanding geological problems. For example, it has long been thought that the primary source of marine magnetic anomalies lies in the upper, extrusive section of the oceanic crust. Yet, at megamullions, where this layer is thought to be missing, perfectly normal magnetic anomalies usually are developed. Either we are grossly mistaken in our interpretation of these features, or else the lower part of the ocean crust contains a substantial magnetic signature. Near-seafloor magnetic studies and laboratory analyses of magnetization in recovered rock samples will resolve this question.
Although the focus here has been on oceanic lithosphere, we also can benefit from and contribute to the study of tectonics in continental crust (see two photos above). Megamullions have dimensions, shape, and an apparent mode of origin via long-lived detachment faulting that are very similar to those of “metamorphic core complexes” exposed in extensional mountain belts such as those found in the southwestern United States. In these areas, domed core complexes have exhumed rocks from some 15 kilometers deep in the continental crust, and their structure and deformation history have been studied extensively for more than two decades. Cross-pollination of insights gained from both the continental and oceanic realms will allow us to develop a much more comprehensive understanding of extensional tectonism and the intriguing exposures of deep lithosphere both on land and in the ocean basins.
This mid-ocean ridge research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and WHOI’s Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Endowed Fund for Innovative Research. The author is indebted to colleagues Jian Lin, Marty Kleinrock (Vanderbilt University), Greg Hirth, Henry Dick, and Joe Cann (University of Leeds, UK) for stimulating discussions about tectonism in slow-spreading crust, and to Eric Frost (San Diego State University) and Kip Hodges (MIT) for superb field exposition of extensional tectonics in the Basin and Range. | <urn:uuid:4690586d-7345-4795-89b9-11519938f1b8> | {
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Understanding Indian Reservation Jails and Detention Centers
Because the legal system in ‘Indian County’ operates outside of the legal jurisdiction of the cities, counties and states where the individual Indian Reservations are located, and the land is wholly owned and governed by the Tribes, the jails and detention centers on those lands are maintained and run by the individual Tribes. The police that provide the security and enforce the laws and the courts that mete out justice are also controlled by the individual Tribes.
There are over 90 jails and detention centers throughout Indian Country, of which, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Office of Justice Services (OJS) staffs and operates a quarter of these facilities. The remainder are operated by Tribes through the PL 93-638, Self-Governance Compacts and a few are fully funded and operated by a tribe. Each jail is unique in operation and location.
Indian Reservation and Tribal laws also fall under the legal jurisdiction of the federal government. If a federal law has been broken, the Department of Justice may get involved. In that case, a convicted person from a crime committed on Indian Lands may be required to serve their time within the BOP (Federal Bureau of Prisons). | <urn:uuid:534ea430-bb76-42f6-bdda-3e9b2ae87f9e> | {
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Video could not be loaded.
A 30 minute look at generating terrain models from imported dwg files and creating plot plans in CAD.
21 - Terrain
49 - Creating a Terrain Perimeter
50 - Adding Elevation Information for Sloped Lots
51 - Creating a Walkout Basement
52 - Terrain Features
5482 - Building a Terrain
9903 - Focus: Terrain and Site Plans
1930 - Creating a Site Plan or Plot Plan
1931 - Importing Terrain Elevation Data
242 - Trace a Terrain Lot Image to Create a Site Plan or Terrain Perimeter
1056 - Import a Surveyor DWG file for a Site Plan or Terrain Perimeter | <urn:uuid:3682174d-ea66-420d-91e8-07a367563613> | {
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Seven Levels Of Thermal Protection
In any form of racing, heat is an issue drivers and crews have to deal with. From the effect of heat on the health of the driver in the seat, to the prevention of mechanical component failure or fluid system failure throughout the vehicle, the control and dissipation of heat is a major concern in motorsports.
Drivers in any division will sweat during the course of a race and an event weekend. Research has shown that an athlete’s (driver’s) performance can begin to be adversely affected with a loss of 2 percent of body weight. This would be 3 pounds in a 150-pound driver.
Even without the loss of fluids, the hot environment of a driver’s cockpit will affect a driver’s concentration and driving performance-not to mention that a driver getting burned on the foot or through the seat can be taken out of a race.
There are three main heat sources in the race car that affect the driver-the engine (including the radiator), the exhaust system, and the oiling system. Each of these has its own specific volume of heat and transfer method to deliver heat to the vehicle.
The engine and radiator, because of location and how they operate, will transfer heat to the firewall and under the car. The heat they release will be transferred in the volume of air that flows across them. The method of shielding most practical for these components is to begin at the parts that are affected. This method works best because there is not an effective way to contain the heat of the engine or radiator.
The heat from the exhaust system will be transferred to the firewall, frame, and undercar sheetmetal. The exhaust contains the most heat, and its transfer is the one of greatest concern. The heat from the exhaust will transfer directly to the surrounding air and to the other elements through conduction. The most effective way to shield exhaust heat is to start at the pipe itself and work your way toward the driver or heat-affected component.
Heat from the oiling system is a concern throughout the car. In a car with a dry-sump system that has a rear-mounted tank, there are oil lines running throughout. The tank itself is a significant source of heat normally positioned behind the driver. Controlling the heat given off by the oiling system is difficult because each piece is different and the method that will work best depends on the individual component.
Now that we know the origin of the heat, we should look at the most effective theories for shielding the driver and specific components from it. Too many teams take the Band-Aid approach after there’s a problem. They add more shielding at the driver’s point, not understanding that the problem stems from too little shielding at the source of the heat. If the source of the heat were effectively directed away from the driver, any extra shielding at the driver would be unnecessary.
When looking at insulation products, undoubtedly, the question will be asked or a claim will be made about temperature reduction. Most manufacturers will have an answer for that question. However, there is a problem if the person answering the question doesn’t have knowledge of your specific application or the true heat levels involved. These claims would be given more credibility if they were accompanied by test data, thermal imaging, or at least a description of the heat involved as radiant, conductive, and so on.
Level 1: Exhaust Pipe Coating
The best way to slow exhaust heat travelling to the rest of the car is to keep the heat in the exhaust pipe itself. Most often, the way to do this is through the use of coatings. One coating is called Emisshield, which makes use of the properties of emissivity, the ability to absorb and reradiate energy (in this case, heat). This coating is applied to the inside or outside of the exhaust pipes. The key is that it must have a “load” to reradiate toward. With the Emisshield applied, the heat energy is absorbed by the coating and reradiated back into the exhaust gasses as opposed to heat transferring through the metal pipe. Through dyno testing, the Emisshield has shown to maintain a higher exhaust gas temperature and a lower header pipe surface temperature when compared to an uncoated header pipe. The benefits of the Emisshield may be two-fold-protection for the rest of the car from the exhaust heat and its ability to maintain exhaust gas temperature, therefore sustaining exhaust velocity through the primaries.
Working with the emissivity principle (absorb and reradiate), Emisshield would not work the best in all situations. As an insulator from a heat source without any airflow to carry off the heat, the Emisshield would have limited places to reradiate the heat.
Level 2: Exhaust Pipe Shields
The next level after keeping the heat inside the pipe is to mount insulation materials to the exhaust pipe itself. A few years ago, fiberglass header wrap was outlawed by many sanctioning bodies because of its tendency to absorb oils and gasoline during an accident or engine failure. It would then continue to burn and fill the vehicle with smoke. In response to that rule, exhaust-mounted insulations were made by incasing the insulation inside metal such as stainless steel.
A few companies offer these stainless steel exhaust shields. These are made with ceramic and silica insulations. The stainless steel containers have grommets for attachment. They are attached to the exhaust using safety wire or stainless steel tie straps.
As an alternative to the stainless steel shields, 3M came out with an industrial fabric and insulation shield. This ceramic textile is used in place of the stainless steel as the outer shell material. The attachment uses the same methods as the stainless shields. These shields, although built of a high-tech textile, cause concern of absorbing the oil from a blown engine and smoking on the hot exhaust. However, if they do get normal oil drips on them, they can be cleaned.
Level 3: Under Floor and FireWall (Tunnel Shield and reflective fabric shielding)
At times, it is impractical to mount insulation onto the exhaust itself. In that case, the next best location for the insulation is on the floor and firewall. There are a few options, including reflective silicone foam, adhesive gold foil, and ceramic insulations. But the product that has taken off the most in the last few years is a composite material called Tunnel Shield. This material consists of an embossed aluminum face backed up with fiber insulation and an aggressive high-temperature adhesive on the mounting surface. This material can be cut and molded to fit any shape underneath the car. The adhesive has been shown to hold to 450 degrees F, but it is recommended that a few safety rivets be used if a large piece is being installed.
Level 4: Floor Coating
Once the heat has reached the sheetmetal floor, it has many paths from which to transfer into the vehicle. It is important to look at the interior sheetmetal as a place to continue to slow the transfer of heat.
Some teams have sprayed traction materials onto the floor to help prevent the driver’s feet from slipping. These materials, similar to truck bedliner materials, can act like hot sugar or hot cheese in that they hold heat as opposed to insulating. It’s important to be careful when selecting materials for the inside of the car. A material may work well for a specific task, but may hinder in another area.
One option for direct floor applications is a product like Nomex board. This material is a thin, hard Nomex laminate that provides excellent thermal shielding in short-race and lower-heat areas.
Level 5: Air Gap Insulating
We’ve talked about the physical means of shielding heat, but you can use air as an insulator. There are two main ways to accomplish this. The first is by building a false floor. This is a fabricated piece that raises the driver’s feet from the actual steel floor by 11/42 to 4 inches, depending on the car’s configuration and the size of the driver. This gap area does not have any insulation. The air in the gap will effectively slow the flow of heat. Some teams have even added a hose to direct a current of air into and out of this air gap and further help to slow the heat transfer.
The second way to use an air gap to insulate a driver is through the use of insulating items that contain a partial vacuum. One of the more popular options is the composite honeycomb board. The outer surface can be made out of the carbon, Kevlar, or other composite materials. The inner core of the board is a honeycomb cell structure that is 11/44 to 31/44 inch thick. Most composite shops can make a board of this type; however, the key to the insulating nature of this board is that it’s assembled under a partial vacuum. This processing method leaves a partial vacuum in the honeycomb cells. It is this vacuum, combined with the insulating nature of the carbon or Kevlar, that provides the thermal barrier. It is more difficult for a composite shop to set up and manufacture under a vacuum, so there are only a few shops and retailers that offer this type of board.
Level 6: Floor Mats and Component Shielding
In addition to air gap insulating, which can be expensive or difficult with space limitations, the next layer of protection is a physical layer of insulation directly below the driver’s feet. This layer of the insulation has more requirements because of where it’s placed in the vehicle. First, this layer will be closest to the driver and must act as a final line of defense. Secondly, the driver’s feet are rubbing on it, so the top material must be able to take more physical abuse than other insulation. Next, the floor mats have to fit in and cover complex floor- and transmission-tunnel configurations. Finally, it is the most popular piece of insulation shielding and may be installed when all other levels have been neglected. As a result, it must take up the workload of other items not installed.
Most floor mats use a coated fiberglass top material to provide an abrasion-resistant surface. Most often this coating is a silicone in black or iron-oxide color. The fiberglass or ceramic insulation will be under the top material. The insulation will be as thin as 11/44 inch to as thick as 1 inch, depending on the application and how effective the rest of the insulating system is designed. Special stitching techniques and patterns are used to slow the migration (or bunching up) of the insulation from the driver’s feet rubbing against the top material. The bottom material consists of a vapor barrier that is often a reflective material. The vapor barrier is installed so the insulation stays dry. The reflective material is not as effective as when used in other applications because it lays directly on the floor or other insulating materials, but it completes the package and provides a good look to the mat.
Level 7: Heel Boots
One of the first places most teams begin shielding a driver or a component is the last place they should look. The use of body or component shielding is popular because it is thought to attack the problem at the source of the complaint. A driver suffering burns or the failure of a component gets attention, but the root of the problem should be addressed. Doing this will reduce, if not eliminate, the need for extra shielding at the body or individual components in most cases.
That said, there will always be a place for heel boots and other component protective shielding. Fuel pump covers and reflective sleeves for fuel lines have grown in popularity and will always find their place in the industry.
System Concept Through each of the previous sections, we have tried to describe the system concept of thermal shielding. It is important to first look at the source of heat anytime you try to shield or redirect heat. Next, determine if it’s a source that can be shielded in such a way to contain the heat (i.e., exhaust pipe) or a source that is required to expel its heat (i.e., radiator). From that determination, you then look at what is to be protected (such as a driver, fuel line, or carburetor). Once you have identified the source and the pro-tected item, an effective plan can be devised to protect the driver or components. The system used may be made of many parts, which is better than relying on only one method of protection.
Thermal protection is highly important in motorsports. Many companies have spent time researching different methods and techniques to shield heat in a race car. It is important to utilize the resources of these companies and the products they designed in order to thermally shield your race car. | <urn:uuid:72e217c5-6aae-4eaa-8c2c-c402a684d4a1> | {
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As parents, sometimes when our offspring announce their intentions we can barely contain our horror, fear, or, perhaps less flatteringly, our unwillingness to accommodate phases that make extra work for us.
But if your teenager has decided to stop eating meat, don’t worry. According to the American Dietetic Association, a vegetarian diet can be safe for everyone. And there are documented health benefits like a reduced chance for high blood pressure and cancer. A vegetarian diet may even help your teen control his weight!
Wait up! It’s safe?
The unfortunate part of a vegetarian diet is how difficult it is to get foods rich enough in calcium and vitamin D to keep your teeth and gums strong and healthy. So if your teen is thinking about it, check in with your Austin dentist next time you come by for a visit.
It might be a good idea to make sure your teen understands the various types of vegetarian eating. Here are a few definitions:
- Vegetarians who only eat fish. These are called pescetarians–people who avoid all meat-based proteins except for fish. Most pescetarians also eat cheese and eggs.
- The most common vegetarian diet is called the lacto-ovo diet. These vegetarians consume animal products like cheese, eggs, and yogurt.
- Some vegetarians also avoid all animal-derived food sources including eggs, cheese, and milk. This diet is called a vegan diet. Some vegans even avoid honey!
For all types of vegetarians getting enough calcium and vitamin D might be tricky!
Here are a few things to help your teen with (if he’ll let you):
- Take him to a dietician. Many dieticians offer inexpensive exploratory consultations.
- Provide or encourage a diet rich in broccoli and dark leafy greens like kale, spinach, turnip greens, and collards to get enough calcium. A variety of vitamin calcium-fortified products are available at the supermarket: some brands of orange juice, tofu, soy milk, and cereal are calcium-enriched.
- Vitamin D is especially tricky for vegetarians because it naturally occurs primarily in fish. Make sure your teen understands that calcium is useless without vitamin D to help the body absorb it! Many of the products listed above that are fortified with calcium are also fortified with vitamin D.
- Offer a vitamin D supplement, especially if your teen isn’t big on soy milk, orange juice, or cereal.
Need more tips?
Come see us next time you’re near by and talk to us about how to help your teen protect his oral health while maintaining a vegetarian diet. Remind him that, while web research is an important starting place, it’s best to work in concert with his health professionals including us: his Austin dentist, his general practitioner, and any specialists he sees to ensure a balanced vegetarian diet.
Accepting patients from Austin, Westlake, and Cedar Park. | <urn:uuid:c443da37-efdf-4be3-815e-52874e18ba08> | {
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Capturing Biogas from Landfills and Using it for Cogeneration
In a process quite similar to the one that takes place in digester tanks in a wastewater treatment plant, bacteria in a landfill breaks down the trash in the absence of oxygen (anaerobic digestion). A by-product of this anaerobic breakdown is landfill gas, which contains approximately 50% methane and 50% carbon dioxide with small amounts of nitrogen and oxygen. Today’s companies must measure the amount of landfill gas produced to sell it, mix it, get emissions credits and meet reporting requirements. To do this, a series of pipes are embedded within the landfill to collect the gas. A “flare” is used to burn off the collected gas. For cogeneration, this gas is compressed and mixed with natural gas, which in turn can be used to run a generator.
The Sierra Solution
Landfill gas is very humid, at low pressure (20 - 40 mBarg) and about 40-60°C (100F) when it is produced by the landfill. Most companies are interested in measuring the biogas as it leaves the landfill, but this is difficult. Low pressure makes differential pressure (dP) devices like orifice plates unsuitable since dP devices require a fairly large differential pressure to operate. Also, the landfill gas is often very dirty, with a high moisture and particulate content. This can clog up devices like annubars and orifice plates, and gum up meters with moving parts like turbine meters. The flagship or North America’s best-selling (1) mass flow meter family of products, Sierra’s MultiTrak 640S, provides the solution for all of these problems. The insertion design eliminates pressure drop, has no moving parts, and can measure both high and low flows with a 100:1 turndown.
(1) 2009 Flow Reasearch Sudy, Yoder | <urn:uuid:e622d297-a56f-46a2-bfe2-1ba290f57e7d> | {
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Essay shakespeare romeo juliet
How to write romeo juliet essay [email protected] picking up select and significant episodes from the play written by shakespeare is how a romeo and juliet essay. Macdonnell topics: 1 in the prologue, romeo and juliet are described as “star-crossed lovers” and reference is made to their “death-marked love” they. 25 inspiring essay title ideas on romeo and juliet romeo and juliet is unquestionably one of the most remarkable tragedies of all time in. Till one of their choices they make brings an end to the both of them ultimately, shakespeare is showing us in the play that we are humans all act on our own freewill.
The most important questions about shakespeare's romeo and juliet. Romeo and juliet and romeo essay wahid sharifzad mr childs english 1 honors 29 january 2015 romeo & juliet metaphors william shakespeare’s the tragedy of romeo. Buy business essays hannie rayson inheritance essays on abortion barn burning symbolism essay on dead lucas romeo essay and shakespeare introduction juliet. Romeo and juliet is a tragedy written by william shakespeare in london from 1594 to 1596 it was first published in an unauthorized quarto in 1597 and auth.
Essay of romeo and juliet marli april 24, 2016 aug 8, where civil no feb 5 in william shakespeare's romeo and unconventional adaptation of william shakespeare at a. 02022018 get free homework help on william shakespeare's romeo and juliet: play summary, scene summary and analysis and original text, quotes, essays, character.
Shakespeare romeo and juliet essay - benefit from our inexpensive custom research paper writing service and get the most from unbelievable quality dissertations. Romeo and juliet essay is a classic paper on love - learn how to write a successful one by choosing the right topic and answering essay questions. Romeo and juliet essay examples 20,816 total results the theme of love and fate in william shakespeare's romeo and juliet 116 words 0 pages. Shakespeare’s romeo and juliet depicts the story of two star-crossed lovers from feuding families who, after a series of fateful events, choose to take their own.
02092012 student essay: romeo and juliet this is a condensation of an essay by a home school student who “themes in shakespeare’s romeo and juliet. Read these lines from the prologue of romeo and juliet and the continuance of their parents’ rage, which, but their children’s end, nought could remove.
02022018 essays and criticism on william shakespeare's romeo and juliet - essays.
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Romeo and juliet, which ranks among shakespeare's most popular and well-known plays, is considered by some critics to be the first and greatest example of romantic. In romeo and juliet, which is more powerful: fate or the characters’ own actions in the opening prologue of romeo and juliet, the chorus refers to the title. This lesson will include some important essay topics from william shakespeare's tragedy romeo and juliet these topics will be separated by. Romeo and juliet act 2 scene 2 analysis - with a free essay review - free essay reviews. | <urn:uuid:735f3442-3588-4d1f-b976-2a75fa71c7ce> | {
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Botanical: Foeniculum dulce
Family: N.O. Umbelliferae
---Parts Used---Seeds, herb.
Finnochio or Florence Fennel is a native of Italy, and bears a general resemblance to Foeniculum vulgare, but is an annual and a much smaller plant, being as a rule little more than a foot high. It is a very thick-set plant, the stem joints are very close together and their bases much swollen. The large, finely-cut leaves are borne on very broad, pale green, or almost whitish stalks, which overlap at their bases somewhat like celery, swelling at maturity to form a sort of head or irregular ball - often as big as a man's head and resembling a tuber. The flowers appear earlier than those of common Fennel, and the number of flowers in the umbel is only six to eight.
---Cultivation---The cultivation is much the same as for common Fennel though it requires richer soil, and owing to the dwarf nature of the plant, the rows and the plants may be placed closer together, the seedlings only 6 to 8 inches apart. They are very thirsty and require watering frequently in dry weather. When the 'tubers' swell and attain the size of an egg, draw the soil slightly around them, half covering them. Cutting may begin about ten days later. The flowerheads should be removed as they appear.
Florence Fennel should be cooked in vegetarian or meat stock and served with either a rich butter sauce or cream dressing. It suggests celery in flavour, but is sweeter, and very pleasantly fragrant. In ordinary times, it can be bought from Italian greengrocers in London. In Italy it is one of the commonest and most popular of vegetables.
It is grown in this country at Hitchin. | <urn:uuid:cadfb9d9-0ec5-48da-9c01-6a31eea4e7f1> | {
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DGGE-based detection method for Quahog Parasite Unknown (QPX)
Gast, Rebecca J.
Moran, Dawn M.
Uhlinger, Kevin R.
Leavitt, Dale F.
Smolowitz, Roxanna M.
MetadataShow full item record
Quahog Parasite Unknown (QPX) is a significant cause of hard clam Mercenaria mercenaria mortality along the northeast coast of the United States. It infects both wild and cultured clams, often annually in plots that are heavily farmed. Subclinically infected clams can be identified by histological examination of the mantle tissue, but there is currently no method available to monitor the presence of QPX in the environment. Here, we report on a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based method that will facilitate the detection of QPX in natural samples and seed clams. With our method, between 10 and 100 QPX cells can be detected in 1 l of water, 1 g of sediment and 100 mg of clam tissue. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) is used to establish whether the PCR products are the same as those in the control QPX culture. We used the method to screen 100 seed clams of 15 mm, and found that 10 to 12% of the clams were positive for the presence of the QPX organism. This method represents a reliable and sensitive procedure for screening both environmental samples and potentially contaminated small clams.
Author Posting. © Inter-Research, 2006. This article is posted here by permission of Inter-Research for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Diseases of Aquatic Organisms 70 (2006): 115-122, doi:10.3354/dao070115.
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
Epizootiology of Quahog Parasite Unknown (QPX) disease in northern quahogs (=hard clams) Mercenaria mercenaria Lyons, M. Maille; Smolowitz, Roxanna M.; Gomez-Chiarri, Marta; Ward, J. Evan (National Shellfisheries Association, 2007-08)The economically important marine bivalve mollusc, Mercenaria mercenaria, (commonly called a northern quahog or hard clam), has endured considerable mortalities caused by a thraustochytrid pathogen called Quahog Parasite ...
Gast, Rebecca J.; Moran, Dawn M.; Audemard, Corinne; Lyons, M. Maille; De Favari, Jacquelin; Reece, Kimberly S.; Leavitt, Dale F.; Smolowitz, Roxanna M. (Inter-Research, 2008-09-24)Quahog Parasite Unknown (QPX) is the cause of mass mortality events of hard clams Mercenaria mercenaria from Virginia, USA, to New Brunswick, Canada. Aquaculture areas in Massachusetts, USA, have been particularly hard ...
Development of a real time quantitative PCR assay for the hard clam pathogen Quahog Parasite Unknown (QPX) Lyons, M. Maille; Smolowitz, Roxanna M.; Dungan, Christopher F.; Roberts, Steven B. (Inter-Research, 2006-09-14)Quahog Parasite Unknown (QPX) is a thraustochytrid pathogen responsible for catastrophic mortalities of the northern quahog (hard clam) Mercenaria mercenaria. A real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay ... | <urn:uuid:6dbd38cd-08df-42e0-a1ea-145f1fc5ee48> | {
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Most of Europe set to miss Kyoto goals: study
LONDON (AFP) Dec 27, 2005
Most of Europe, which has criticized the United States over its stance on global warming, looks set to miss a set of goals to cut greenhouse gases under the Kyoto Protocol, a study revealed on Tuesday.
The findings by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) will make embarrassing reading for European governments that have berated Washington for its refusal to ratify the United Nations pact.
Of 15 countries in Europe signed up to Kyoto, only Britain and Sweden were on target to meet their commitments on reducing harmful gas emissions by 2012, said the IPPR, Britain's leading progressive think tank.
In contrast, 10 nations -- including Ireland, Italy and Spain -- would fail to do so unless they took urgent action, it said.
The 1997 treaty sets legally binding targets for developed countries to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming by 2012 compared with 1990 levels.
However, the refusal by the United States -- the world's biggest polluter -- to sign up has limited its impact on improving the climate.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair made the fight against global warming one of his key goals during Britain's one-year presidency of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations, which expires at the end of the year.
He has spent much of the past 12 months trying to find common ground on which all countries, including the United States, can agree.
Earlier in December, Kyoto's 159 members approved crucial decisions on strengthening the treaty's mechanisms at a conference in Canada.
They also agreed to launch negotiations from next May on cutting greenhouse gas pollution beyond 2012, when the present Kyoto pledges run out.
Pledges to reduce harmful greenhouse gases, however, were of little use unless countries followed through with action, the IPPR warned.
"We are nearing the point of no return on climate change," said the group's associate director Tony Grayling.
"We have very little time left to start reducing global greenhouse gas emissions before irreparable damage is done," he said.
"It is vital that EU countries keep their promises to cut pollution."
The IPPR used a traffic light system to grade countries on their ability to meet Kyoto pledges, giving those who looked set to fail a red warning.
France, Greece and Germany -- rated as amber -- would hit their targets only if planned policies were successfully carried out, the study found.
Grayling urged those countries that were falling behind to take action immediately to get back on track, suggesting energy saving and investment in renewable energy sources.
"In the new year, EU countries will need to adopt tougher limits on emissions from power stations and heavy industry, in the second phase of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme," he said.
All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. | <urn:uuid:a18f1c65-5b5b-44e9-823a-2385d855ef8c> | {
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To ground oneself in an effort to gain healthy mental health is very necessary. It’s not easy because we get caught up stuck in our heads, thinking too much.
Grounding helps us to calm down our minds so we can get clarity. Grounding facilitates that emotional release we need to heal ourselves.
We can’t heal ourselves from unsettled thinking through a cerebral process. It doesn’t work that way. Our unexpressed emotions and unexpressed truths will consume us until they are looked at and this is where grounding comes in.
Here are a few examples of grounding that worked for me:
- focusing on the breath gradually working up to about 2 minutes.
- paying attention to what you are thinking and write it down.
- coming back to the present moment, what are you doing at that moment.
- meditation, quiet time, reflection.
- do artwork, draw, paint, doodle, sew, knit, woodwork any kind of crafts.
- write, even if it is a word, or sentence, write what you hear, write from the heart.
- listen to music, any music that you like.
- take a walk, breath in deep, look at nature, go to the ocean.
- take a different action, redirect your actions.
- exercise, any exercise is better than none.
Grounding is an important part of getting in touch with your body where a lot of negativity, hidden memories, and confusion is stored.
Our mind needs grounding for clarity and our bodies need grounding to get rid of stored negativity, hidden memories and confusion that it holds.
By practicing grounding on a regular basis, even once a week reaps great benefit and help change your thinking by changing your emotional life for the better. | <urn:uuid:80e82776-e51b-40b4-accc-41a7a8fed408> | {
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"url": "https://purelysimplewords.com/tag/ocean/"
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An H-bomb, depending on its size, can produce an explosion powerful enough to devastate an area of approximately 150 square miles, while the searing heat and toxic radioactive fallout from such devices can impact an area of more than 800 square miles. The explosion of an atomic bomb by the Soviet Union in September 1949 ended the U.S. atomic monopoly and led to a nuclear arms race. The development of more powerful weapons such as the H-bomb and of new methods of delivering nuclear bombs, such as ballistic missiles, were primarily a result of the Cold War conflict and concomitant arms race.
In 1946 the U.S. Atomic Energy Act created the Atomic Energy Commission (USAEC). The USAEC was responsible for the development and control of the U.S. atomic energy program after World War II. The commission consisted of five members appointed by the president. A civilian advisory committee was also created, and Robert Oppenheimer, scientific head of the atomic bomb project, served as its chairman. The USAEC also worked with a military liaison with whom it consulted on all atomic energy issues that had military applications. By 1949, the year the Soviets exploded their first atomic bomb, Cold War tensions were running high. Nuclear physicist Edward Teller, USAEC Commissioner Lewis Strauss, and other scientists formed a coalition together with military officials to urge President Harry Truman to initiate a program to construct a superweapon, or H-bomb. This new weapon would be measured in megatons instead of kilotons and could yield an explosion equivalent to millions of tons of TNT. Despite opposition from Oppenheimer and several other nuclear scientists, Truman, under siege for being soft on communism, authorized an H-bomb program in January 1950.
It took the combined efforts of a number of scientists as well as Stanislaw Ulam, a mathematician, to solve the theoretical and technical problems related to building a hydrogen weapon. They carried out their work at Los Alamos, New Mexico, the same facility that had helped produce the atomic bomb. The prototype H-bomb was first detonated on 1 November 1952 on Enewetak Atoll in the South Pacific. The explosion virtually obliterated the island, creating a crater a mile wide and 175 feet deep. After the detonation of the prototype, scientists constructed an H-bomb that could be dropped by aircraft. That weapon was tested successfully in 1954. The Soviet Union tested its own H-bomb on 12 August 1953. The British also developed a hydrogen weapon, which they tested on 15 May 1957.
Unable to maintain a monopoly on nuclear weapons or to force the Soviet Union to alter its policies through either deterrence or the threat represented by nuclear arms, the United States instead found itself engaged in a nuclear arms race. Despite collective security agreements and pacts such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the United States maintained that only nuclear superiority would guarantee the security of the United States and its allies. The launching of the first satellite to orbit Earth, the Soviet-built Sputnik 1 in 1957, represented a dual threat to the West. It seemed to suggest that Soviet scientists had pulled ahead of their American counterparts. More critically, it also posed the high probability of delivering nuclear weapons with missiles rather than by planes. As a result, the United States increased funding for its space program and redoubled its efforts to fully develop and deploy intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and, later, submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).
The rapid proliferation of nuclear weapons, of course, increased the threat of nuclear war, whether by accident or by choice. With the advent of H-bombs and ballistic missile systems that could hurl bombs at an adversary in a matter of minutes, most civil defense preparations became exercises in futility. The Soviet Union's installation of nuclear-tipped missiles in Cuba led to the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. President John F. Kennedy imposed a naval quarantine around Cuba and refused to allow Soviet ships through the blockade. Faced with the real possibility of a catastrophic thermonuclear war, both sides engaged in a flurry of diplomacy. The Soviets backed down, dismantling the missiles by the end of the year. The Cuban Missile Crisis, one of the few direct confrontations between the Americans and Soviets, showed the potential peril of the nuclear arms race. After the crisis passed, both U.S. and Soviet officials sought new ways to avoid the unthinkable consequences of a nuclear exchange. In 1963, the Partial Test Ban Treaty had been agreed to by both sides, the first small step toward eventual nuclear arms reductions. The threat posed by nuclear weapons did not end with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, although reduced tensions have lessened the potential for a full-scale nuclear conflict.
Millett, Allan R., and Peter Maslowski. For the Common Defense: A Military History of the United States of America. New York: Free Press, 1994.; Rhodes, Richard. Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995. | <urn:uuid:9877448d-4a9e-4de6-a783-11af9ec18de3> | {
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Two years ago the Environment Agency started to release LiDAR data (Light Detection and Ranging) for the UK. This is an airborne mapping technique where a laser measures the distance between the aircraft and the ground. Most of the UK is now mapped and the data can be downloaded for free. Height measurements are recorded as a grid with a resolution of 2m, 1m, 50cm or 25cm.
Free software such as QGIS can be used to plot the data. This is a 25cm plot of the Merstham Rockshaw Road/M25/A23 junction in Surrey:
This could be rather useful for mapping lines of shakeholes or sinks.
So far about 70% of Wales has been mapped and the data is available from Natural Resources Wales. | <urn:uuid:9a5916df-39e8-46d6-a1b4-bf401fd5d999> | {
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About 100; see text
Fuchsia // is a genus of flowering plants that consists mostly of shrubs or small trees. The first, Fuchsia triphylla, was discovered on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (present day Dominican Republic and Haiti) about 1696–1697 by the French Minim monk and botanist, Charles Plumier during his third expedition to the Greater Antilles. He named the new genus after the renowned German botanist Leonhart Fuchs (1501–1566).
- 1 Description
- 2 Species
- 2.1 Section 1: Ellobium
- 2.2 Section 2: Encliandra
- 2.3 Section 3: Fuchsia
- 2.4 Section 4: Hemsleyella
- 2.5 Section 5: Jimenezia
- 2.6 Section 6: Kierschlegeria
- 2.7 Section 7: Pachyrrhiza
- 2.8 Section 8: Procumbentes
- 2.9 Section 9: Quelusia
- 2.10 Section 10: Schufia
- 2.11 Section 11: Skinnera
- 2.12 Section 12: Verrucosa
- 3 Cultivation
- 4 Cultivars
- 5 Pests and diseases
- 6 Pronunciation and spelling
- 7 History
- 8 References
- 9 External links
There are currently almost 110 recognized species of Fuchsia. The vast majority are native to South America, but with a few occurring north through Central America to Mexico, and also several from New Zealand to Tahiti. One species, F. magellanica, extends as far as the southern tip of South America, occurring on Tierra del Fuego in the cool temperate zone, but the majority are tropical or subtropical. Most fuchsias are shrubs from 0.2–4 m (8 in–13 ft 1 in) tall, but one New Zealand species, the kōtukutuku (F. excorticata), is unusual in the genus in being a tree, growing up to 12–15 metres (39–49 ft) tall.
Fuchsia leaves are opposite or in whorls of 3–5, simple lanceolate and usually have serrated margins (entire in some species), 1–25 cm long, and can be either deciduous or evergreen, depending on the species. The flowers are very decorative; they have a pendulous "teardrop" shape and are displayed in profusion throughout the summer and autumn, and all year in tropical species. They have four long, slender sepals and four shorter, broader petals; in many species the sepals are bright red and the petals purple (colours that attract the hummingbirds that pollinate them), but the colours can vary from white to dark red, purple-blue, and orange. A few have yellowish tones. The ovary is inferior and the fruit is a small (5–25 mm) dark reddish green, deep red, or deep purple berry, containing numerous very small seeds.
The fruit of all fuchsia species and cultivars is edible, with the berry of F. splendens reportedly among the best-tasting. Its flavor is reminiscent of citrus and pepper, and it can be made into jam. The fruits of some other fuchsias are flavorless or leave a bad aftertaste.
The majority of fuchsia species are native to Central and South America. A small additional number are found on Hispaniola (two species), in New Zealand (three species) and on Tahiti (one species). Philip A. Munz in his A Revision of the Genus Fuchsia classified the genus into seven sections of 100 species. More recent scientific publications, especially those by the botanists Dennis E. Breedlove of the University of California and, currently, Paul E. Berry of the University of Michigan, recognize 108 species and 122 taxa, organized into twelve sections. In New Zealand and Tahiti, section Skinnera now consists of only three species as F. × colensoi has been determined to be a naturally occurring hybrid between F. excorticata and F. perscandens. Also, F. procumbens has been placed into its own section, Procumbentes. Two other new sections are Pachyrrhiza and Verrucosa, each with one species. The Plant List, a cooperative endeavor by several leading botanical institutions to maintain a working list of all plant species, lists most currently accepted Fuchsia species and synonyms.
The vast majority of garden hybrids have descended from a few parent species.
Section 1: Ellobium
Mexico and Costa Rica. This section contains three species.
- Fuchsia decidua
- Fuchsia fulgens
- Fuchsia splendens
- F. splendens var. splendens
- F. splendens var. cordifolia
Section 2: Encliandra
Mexico to Panama. Flowers on the six species in this section have flat petals and short stamens and are reflexed into the tube. Fruits contain few seeds.
- Fuchsia cyclindracea
- Fuchsia encliandra
- Fuchsia encliandra subsp. encliandra
- Fuchsia encliandra subsp. microphyloides
- Fuchsia encliandra subsp. tetradactyla
- Fuchsia microphylla
- Fuchsia microphylla subsp. aprica
- Fuchsia microphylla subsp. chiapensis
- Fuchsia microphylla subsp. hemsleyana
- Fuchsia microphylla subsp. hidalgensis
- Fuchsia microphylla subsp. microphylla
- Fuchsia microphylla subsp. quercertorum
- Fuchsia obconica
- Fuchsia ravenii
- Fuchsia thymifolia
- Fuchsia thymifolia subsp. minimiflora
- Fuchsia thymifolia subsp. thymiflora
- Fuchsia × bacillaris
Section 3: Fuchsia
Northern Argentina to Colombia and Venezuela, and Hispaniola. With sixty-four currently recognized species, Sect. Fuchsia (syn. Eufuchsia) is the largest section within the genus. The flowers are perfect, with convolute petals. The stamens are erect and may or may not be exserted from the corolla; the stamens opposite the petals are shorter. The fruit has many seeds.
- Fuchsia abrupta
- Fuchsia ampliata
- Fuchsia andrei
- Fuchsia aquaviridis
- Fuchsia austromontana
- Fuchsia ayavacensis
- Fuchsia boliviana
- F. boliviana var. boliviana
- F. boliviana var. luxurians
- Fuchsia campii
- Fuchsia canescens
- Fuchsia caucana
- Fuchsia ceracea
- Fuchsia cinerea
- Fuchsia cochabambana
- Fuchsia confertifolia
- Fuchsia coriacifolia
- Fuchsia corollata
- Fuchsia corymbiflora
- Fuchsia crassistipula
- Fuchsia cuatrecasaii
- Fuchsia decussata
- Fuchsia denticulata
- Fuchsia dependens
- Fuchsia ferreyrae
- Fuchsia fontinalis
- Fuchsia furfuracea
- Fuchsia gehrigeri
- Fuchsia glaberrima
- Fuchsia harlingii
- Fuchsia hartwegii
- Fuchsia hirtella
- Fuchsia hypoleuca
- Fuchsia lehmannii
- Fuchsia llewelynii
- Fuchsia loxensis
- Fuchsia macrophylla
- Fuchsia macropetala
- Fuchsia macrostigma
- Fuchsia magdalenae
- Fuchsia mathewsii
- Fuchsia nigricans
- Fuchsia orientalis
- Fuchsia ovalis
- Fuchsia pallescens
- Fuchsia petiolaris
- Fuchsia pilosa
- Fuchsia polyantha
- Fuchsia pringsheimii
- Fuchsia putamayensis
- Fuchsia rivularis
- Fuchsia rivularis subsp. pubescens
- Fuchsia rivularis subsp. rivularis
- Fuchsia sanctae-rosae
- Fuchsia sanmartina
- Fuchsia scabriuscula
- Fuchsia scherffiana
- Fuchsia sessifolia
- Fuchsia simplicicaulis
- Fuchsia steyermarkii
- Fuchsia summa
- Fuchsia sylvatica
- Fuchsia tincta
- Fuchsia triphylla
- Fuchsia vargasiana
- Fuchsia venusta
- Fuchsia vulcanica
- Fuchsia wurdackii
Section 4: Hemsleyella
Venezuela to Bolivia. The fifteen species in this section are characterised by a nectary that is fused with the base of the flower tube and petals that are partly or completely lacking.
Section 5: Jimenezia
Panama and Costa Rica.
Section 6: Kierschlegeria
Coastal central Chile. This section is made up of a single species with pendulous axillary pedicels. The leaves are sparse. The sepals are reflexed and slightly shorter than the tube.
Section 7: Pachyrrhiza
Section 8: Procumbentes
Section 9: Quelusia
Southern Argentina and Chile, and Southeastern Brazil. The nine species in this section have the nectary fused to the base of the tube, or hypanthium. The hypanthium is cylindrical and is generally no longer than the sepals. The stamens are long and are exserted beyond the corolla.
Section 10: Schufia
- Fuchsia arborescens
- Fuchsia paniculata
- Fuchsia paniculata subsp. mixensis
- Fuchsia paniculata subsp. paniculata
Section 11: Skinnera
New Zealand and Tahiti. The three living species have a floral tube with a swelling above the ovary. The sepals curve back on themselves and the petals are small or nearly absent. A new fossil species from the Early Miocene in New Zealand was described in October, 2013.
- †Fuchsia antiqua
- Fuchsia cyrtandroides
- Fuchsia excorticata
- Fuchsia perscandens
- Fuchsia × colensoi - a natural hybrid
Section 12: Verrucosa
Venezuela and Colombia.
Fuchsias are popular garden shrubs, and once planted can live for years with a minimal amount of care. The British Fuchsia Society maintains a list of "hardy" fuchsias that have been proven to survive a number of winters throughout Britain and to be back in flower each year by July. Enthusiasts report that hundreds and even thousands of hybrids survive and prosper throughout Britain. In the United States, the Northwest Fuchsia Society maintains an extensive list of fuchsias that have proven hardy in members' gardens in the Pacific Northwest over at least three winters.
Fuchsias from sections Quelusia (F. magellanica, F. regia), Encliandra, Skinnera (F. excorticata, F. perscandens) and Procumbentes (F. procumbens) have especially proven to be hardy in widespread areas of Britain and Ireland, as well as in many other countries such as New Zealand (aside from its native species) or the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. A number of species will easily survive outdoors in agreeable mild temperate areas. Though some may not always flower in the average British summer, they will often perform well in other favorable climatic zones. Even in somewhat colder regions, a number of the hardier species will often survive as herbaceous perennials, dying back and reshooting from below ground in the spring.
Due to the favorably mild, temperate climate created by the North Atlantic Current, fuchsias grow abundantly in the West Cork region of Ireland and in the Scilly Isles, and have even colonised wild areas there. While F. magellanica is not widespread in Scotland it has been known to grow wild in sheltered areas, such as the banks of local streams in Fife. In the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, F. magellanica also easily survives regional winters.
Horticultural fuchsias may be categorised as upright and bushy or trailing, and some can be trained as hedges, such as F. magellanica. Faster-growing varieties are easiest to train. Unless specific hardy varieties are chosen, most popular upright Fuchsias such as 'Ernie', 'Jollies Nantes' and 'Maria Landy' are not winter hardy, but rather extremely tender (hardiness zone 10).
- 'Garden News' (light pink sepals, double magenta petals – hardy)
- 'Hawkshead' (white self)
- 'Lady Thumb' (compact, pink sepals, white petals)
- 'Mrs Popple' (vigorous, red sepals, purple petals – hardy)
- 'Riccartonii' (crimson sepals, purple petals)
- 'Swingtime' (double, scarlet sepals, white petals)
- 'Thalia' (tryphilla group, orange)
- 'Tom Thumb' (compact, pink sepals, mauve petals)
Pests and diseases
Fuchsias are eaten by the caterpillars of some Lepidoptera, such as the Elephant Hawk-moth (Deilephila elpenor) and the Black-lyre Leafroller Moth ("Cnephasia" jactatana). Other major insect pests include aphids, mirid bugs such as Lygocoris, Lygus and Plesiocoris spp., vine weevils (Otiorhynchus spp.), and greenhouse whitefly (Trialeurodes vaporariorum). Problematic mites include the fuchsia gall mite (Aculops fuchsiae) and red spider mite (Tetranychus urticae).
Pronunciation and spelling
While the original pronunciation from the word's German origin is "fook-sya" /ˈfʊksja/, the standard pronunciation in English is "fyusha" /ˈfjuːʃə/. As a consequence, fuchsia is often misspelled as fuschia in English.
Leonhart Fuchs was born in 1501. He occupied the chair of Medicine at the Tübingen University from the age of 34 until his death, on 10 May 1566. Besides his medical knowledge, according to his record of activities which was extensive for the time, he studied plants. This was natural, as most of the remedies of the time were herbal and the two subjects were often inseparable.
In the course of his career Fuchs wrote De Historia Stirpium Commentarii Insignes, which was published in 1542. In honour of Fuchs' work the fuchsia received its name shortly before 1703 by Charles Plumier. It was Plumier who compiled his Nova Plantarum Americanum, which was published in Paris in 1703, based on the results of his plant-finding trip to America in search of new genera.
The fuchsia was introduced to England in the 18th century by Plumier who took some seeds there after his expedition. The species he took was Fuchsia triphylla flore coccinea where specimens appeared in France. There is a reference to a fuchsia under the name of "Thiles" in the Journal des Observations Botaniques in 1725. Thiles seems to be the French version of the Spanish, Thilco or Tilco. However, Thilco, or more properly Chilco, is derived from the name by which the indigenous Mapuche people of Southern Chile and Southwestern Argentina referred to their native Fuchsia magellanica. In the Mapuche language, Chilco means "that which grows near the water" and this is a reference to its being found growing abundantly in moist but well-drained areas along streams and lakes. In Chile today, F. magellanica is still called Chilco.
Professor Philip Munz, in his A Revision of the Genus Fuchsia, 1793 says, however, that the fuchsia was first introduced into England by a sailor who grew it in a window where it was observed by a nurseryman from Hammersmith, a Mr. Lee, who succeeded in buying it and propagating it for the trade. This was one of the short tubed species such as magellanica or coccinea.
This report is further embellished in various publications where Captain Firth, a sailor, brought the plant back to England from one of his trips to his home in Hammersmith where he gave it to his wife. Later on James Lee of St. Johns Wood, nurseryman and an astute businessman, heard of the plant and purchased it for £80. He then propagated as many as possible and sold them to the trade for prices ranging from £10 to £20 each.
In the Floricultural Cabinet, 1855, there is a report which varies slightly from the above. Here it says that F. coccinea was given to Kew Garden in 1788 by Captain Firth and that Lee acquired it from Kew.
By this time plant-collecting fever had spread and many species of numerous genera were introduced to England, some living plants, others as seed. The following plants were recorded at Kew: F. lycioides, 1796; F. arborescens, 1824; F. microphylla, 1827; F. fulgens, 1830; F. corymbiflora, 1840; and F. apetala, F. decussata, F. dependens and F. serratifolia in 1843 and 1844, the last four species attributable to Messrs. Veitch of Exeter.
With the increasing numbers of differing species in England plant breeders began to immediately develop hybrids to develop more desirable garden plants. The first recorded experiments date to 1825 as F. arborescens Χ F. macrostemma and F. arborescens X F. coccinea where the quality of the resultant plants was unrecorded.
Between 1835 and 1850 there was a tremendous influx to England of both hybrids and varieties, the majority of which have been lost.
In 1848 Monsieur Felix Porcher published the second edition of his book Le Fuchsia son Histoire et sa Culture. This described 520 species. In 1871 in later editions of M. Porchers book reference is made to James Lye who was to become famous as a breeder of fuchsias in England. In 1883 the first book of English fuchsias was published.
Between 1900 and 1914 many of the famous varieties were produced which were grown extensively for Covent Garden market by many growers just outside London. During the period between the world wars, fuchsia-growing slowed as efforts were made toward crop production until after 1949, when plant and hybrid production resumed on a large scale.
In the United States, members of the American Fuchsia Society brought back approximately 50 plants to California from a trip to Europe in 1930. Half of these were cultivated at the University of California Botanical Garden in Berkeley and the other half at the Berkeley Horticultural Nursery, a local business. Many American hybrids were the descendants of this 1930 group.
- Clive A. Stace (2010). "Fuchsia L. – fuchsias". New Flora of the British Isles (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 365. ISBN 978-0-521-70772-5.
- Charles Plumier. Nova Plantarum Americanum Genera, Paris, 1703.
- (1910) The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information, 11th Edition: Volume XI, Franciscans to Gibbons The Encyclopædia Britannica Company: New York, page 272. Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
- "Fuchsia". Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
- "The Plant List – Fuchsia". Retrieved 20 June 2013.
- A. G. Puttock (1959). Lovely Fuchsias. London: Gifford.
- Fuchsia × bacillaris is a natural hybrid between F. microphylla ssp. microphylla and F. thymifolia ssp. thymifolia.
- Berry, P. E. (1982). The systematics and evolution of Fuchsia Sect. Fuchsia (Onagraceae). Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 69(1) 1–199.
- Berry, P. E. (1995). Two new species of Fuchsia section Fuchsia (Onagraceae) from southern Ecuador. Novon: A Journal for Botanical Nomenclature 5(4) 318–22, f. 2.
- Berry, P. E. (1988). Nomenclatural changes in the genus Fuchsia. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 75(3) 1150.
- Berry, P. E., et al. (1988). Fuchsia pachyrrhiza (Onagraceae), a tuberous new species and section of Fuchsia from western Peru. Systematic Botany 13(4) 483-92.
- "British Fuchsia Society". Retrieved 20 June 2013.
- "Northwest Fuchsia Society". Retrieved 20 June 2013.
- "Gardening by the sea". Retrieved 20 June 2013.
- Bartlett, George (2005). Fuchsias: a Colour Guide. United Kingdom: Crowood Press. ISBN 1852239999.
- "RHS Plant Selector – Fuchsia 'Alice Hoffman'". Retrieved 20 June 2013.
- "RHS Plant Selector – Fuchsia 'Dollar Prinzessin'". Retrieved 20 June 2013.
- "RHS Plant Selector – Fuchsia 'Garden News'". Retrieved 20 June 2013.
- "RHS Plant Selector – Fuchsia 'Genii'". Retrieved 20 June 2013.
- "RHS Plant Selector – Fuchsia 'Hawkshead'". Retrieved 20 June 2013.
- "RHS Plant Selector - Fuchsia 'Lady Thumb'". Retrieved 20 June 2013.
- "RHS Plant Selector – Fuchsia 'Mrs Popple'". Retrieved 20 June 2013.
- "RHS Plant Selector – Fuchsia 'Riccartonii'". Retrieved 20 June 2013.
- "RHS Plant Selector – Fuchsia 'Swingtime'". Retrieved 20 June 2013.
- "RHS Plant Selector – Fuchsia 'Thalia'". Retrieved 20 June 2013.
- "RHS Plant Selector – Fuchsia 'Tom Thumb'". Retrieved 20 June 2013.
- "Etymologia de CHILCO". Retrieved 20 June 2013.
- Pam Peirce (2004). Wildly Successful Plants: Northern California. Seattle: Sasquatch Books.
- American Fuchsia Society (1945). The Fuchsia Book. Berkeley: American Fuchsia Society.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fuchsia.|
- Local and National Fuchsia Societies
- American Fuchsia Society
- The British Fuchsia Society
- Euro-Fuchsia - An Association of European Fuchsia Societies
- National Fuchsia Society of New Zealand
- Northwest Fuchsia Society (USA)
- Western Cape Fuchsia Society (South Africa)
- Information Pages on Fuchsias
- Dave's Garden (USA) - Fuchsia information and reviews.
- Fuchsia Magic (UK) - Fuchsia photos.
- Fuchsias in the City (USA) - Extensive resource on all aspects of fuchsias.
- Lancaster, Morecambe & District Fuchsia Society (UK) - Fuchsia Flower: All you need to know.
- Nederlandse Kring van Fuchsiavrienden (NL) - Searchable database of fuchsia cultivars.
- Royal Horticultural Society (UK) - Fuchsia growing advice.
- Washington State University, Spokane County Extension (USA) - Fuchsia fact sheet. | <urn:uuid:9bd36421-4a71-4ddc-ad06-b760e1fd240e> | {
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of Genetic Terms
Definitions for the genetic terms used on this page
The History of Newborn Phenylketonuria Screening in the United States
From Promoting Safe and Effective Genetic Testing in the United States
Learning About Phenylketonuria (PKU)
What is phenylketonuria (PKU)?
Phenylketonuria (PKU) is an inherited disorder of metabolism that causes an increase in the blood of a chemical known as phenylalanine. Phenylalanine comes from a person's diet and is used by the body to make proteins. Phenylalanine is found in all food proteins and in some artificial sweeteners. Without dietary treatment, phenylalanine can build up to harmful levels in the body, causing mental retardation and other serious problems.
Women who have high levels of phenylalanine during pregnancy are at high risk for having babies born with mental retardation, heart problems, small head size (microcephaly) and developmental delay. This is because the babies are exposed to their mother's very high levels of phenylalanine before they are born.
In the United States, PKU occurs in 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 15,000 newborn babies. Newborn screening has been used to detect PKU since the 1960's. As a result, the severe signs and symptoms of PKU are rarely seen.
What are the symptoms of PKU?
Symptoms of PKU range from mild to severe. Severe PKU is called classic PKU. Infants born with classic PKU appear normal for the first few months after birth. However, without treatment with a low-phenylalanine diet, these infants will develop mental retardation and behavioral problems. Other common symptoms of untreated classic PKU include seizures, developmental delay, and autism. Boys and girls who have classic PKU may also have eczema of the skin and lighter skin and hair than their family members who do not have PKU.
Babies born with less severe forms of PKU (moderate or mild PKU) may have a milder degree of mental retardation unless treated with the special diet. If the baby has only a very slight degree of PKU, often called mild hyperphenylalaninemia, there may be no problems and the special dietary treatment may not be needed.
How is PKU diagnosed?
PKU is usually diagnosed through newborn screening testing that is done shortly after birth on a blood sample (heel stick). However, PKU should be considered at any age in a person who has developmental delays or mental retardation. This is because, rarely, infants are missed by newborn screening programs.
What is the treatment for PKU?
PKU is treated by limiting the amount of protein (that contains phenylalanine) in the diet. Treatment also includes using special medical foods as well as special low-protein foods and taking vitamins and minerals. People who have PKU need to follow this diet for their lifetime. It is especially important for women who have PKU to follow the diet throughout their childbearing years.
Is PKU inherited?
PKU is inherited in families in an autosomal recessive pattern. Autosomal recessive inheritance means that a person has two copies of the gene that is altered. Usually, each parent of an individual who has PKU carries one copy of the altered gene. Since each parent also has a normal gene, they do not show signs or symptoms of PKU.
Gene alterations (mutations) in the PAH gene cause PKU. Mutations in the PAH gene cause low levels of an enzyme called phenylalanine hydroxylase. These low levels mean that phenylalanine from a person's diet cannot be metabolized (changed), so it builds up to toxic levels in the bloodstream and body. Having too much phenylalanine can cause brain damage unless diet treatment is started.
NHGRI Clinical Research on PKU
Currently, NHGRI is not conducting clinical research on PKU. However, studies are currently underway [clinicaltrials.gov] in other institutes within the National Institutes of Health.
Additional Resources for PKU
- Phenylketonuria [nichd.nih.gov]
From the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development
- Phenylketonuria [health.nih.gov]
From the National Institutes of Health
- Phenylketonuria [nlm.nih.gov]
From Medline Plus
- Phenylketonuria [nlm.nih.gov]
From Medline Plus Medical Encyclopedia
- Children's PKU Network [pkunetwork.org]
Created to address the special needs and concerns of individuals with phenylketonuria and their families.
- Cystic Fibrosis & Genetic Disorders Group [liv.ac.uk]
The Cochrane Cystic Fibrosis & Genetic Disorders Review Group comprises an international network of health care professionals, researchers and consumers preparing, maintaining, and disseminating systematic reviews of randomised control trials in the treatment of cystic fibrosis and other genetic disorders.
- The Instituto Canguru - Group Specializing in Metabolic Disorders [instituticanguru.org]
The Instituto Canguru - Group Specialized in Metabolic Disorders is a non - profit Civil Society Organization of Public Interest - Oscip, whose main mission is to disseminate knowledge of inherited metabolic disorders among health professionals and society in general. Em Português.
- Michigan PKU & Associated Disorders, Inc. [michiganpku.org]
Provides information, helpful hints, resources, etc. for the Michigan PKU population.
- Mid-Atlantic Connection for PKU and Allied Disorders [macpad.org]
The mission of MACPAD is to enrich the lives of individuals and families of individuals with inherited metabolic disorders by disseminating information, providing supportive activities and encouraging the exchange of ideas.
- Ryan's PKU Foundation [ryanspkufoundation.org]
Ryan's PKU Foundation of Virginia is dedicated to providing a support network to individuals with PKU and their families; Promoting PKU wellness through increasing public awareness, developing and distributing educational materials, supporting research and sharing information among families.
- Phenylalanine Hydroxylase Deficiency [ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]
From GeneTests - which provides current, expert-authored, peer-reviewed, full-text articles describing the application of genetic testing to the diagnosis, management, and genetic counseling of patients with specific inherited conditions.
- Phenylketonuria [rarediseases.info.nih.gov]
Information from the Genetics and Rare Diseases Information Center.
- Finding Reliable Health Information Online
A listing of information and links for finding comprehensive genetics health information online.
Last Updated: August 21, 2014 | <urn:uuid:6757b599-a1f3-413c-a8d7-d83eb7d6a644> | {
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Bomba, Ty. "Outgoing Mail"
Divergence: 1846 CE
What if: Exploiting a border dispute, Mexico's improved army invaded Texas in 1846 and made for New Orleans, where a vicious siege occurred.
Summary: Provoked by the attack, the US government revises the Monroe Doctrine to mean US control of all North America, resulting in an Imperial Republic.
Published: In Strategy & Tactics, June/July 1989. | <urn:uuid:ad43f784-f611-47d0-91a8-7369f5caaccc> | {
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Speaking of Disabilities
By Peter Connor
Keeping people in the picture, and using the correct terminology associated with specific disabilities, are two main things to keep in mind when speaking about and/or to people with disabilities.
Here are a few guidelines:
- To put the subject in its proper perspective, understand the difference between the words disability and impairment. One is at the root of the other.
- When a person is restricted in his or her ability to perform an action within the usual parameters of an ably functioning human being, he or she has a disability with regard to that action.
- Disabilities have corresponding impairments: loss, diminishment, or dysfunction of psychological, physiological or anatomical structures or functions.
- When referring to people collectively, avoid using generic stereotypes, i.e., the mentally retarded, the handicapped, paraplegics. An easy fix is to replace both definite and indefinite articles with person, people, students, etc., and fill in the logical blanks—people who are mentally retarded, students with handicaps, accident victims suffering from paraplegia. It keeps the human being in the picture.
- Avoid impersonal references when speaking about individuals as well. Notice how a paraplegic dehumanizes the person in its rush to identify the disability, whereas a person with paraplegia puts the person front and center; the disability in its proper perspective, one characteristic, among many others, that contribute to the makeup of an individual.
- On that same note, when not germane, you can forgo all mention of disability. For instance, a brilliant scientist working on the Human Genome Project being blind is not germane to a discussion of said scientists' current research.
- Naturally, disparaging labels—cripple, retard, etc.—need to be avoided. A person whose mobility is impaired, or who has Downs Syndrome reflects the specific details without engaging in discriminatory language.
- Positive portrayals are always preferable. Refrain from saying that a person is wheelchair bound, for instance; he or she might require a wheelchair to get around and not consider it any more than a means to an end—a necessary adaptation for mobility's sake—and not something to which they are bound; from which they cannot get in and out.
- Avoid imprecise language like differently-abled and visually challenged. As euphemisms they are awkward, ineffective and miss the mark. | <urn:uuid:b89c779b-dde0-4715-bbde-c4a8f4617004> | {
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Modeling of a Gyroscope
Model ID: 15007
This model illustrates the working of a gyroscope used to measure or maintain an orientation. Its operation is based on on the principles of conservation of angular momentum.
In this model, all the components are modeled as rigid bodies. Hinge joints are used to establish a connection between different parts.
The orientation of the spinning disc is analyzed for a certain rotational speed of the disc. The model demonstrates that there are unbalanced forces on the spinning disc which try to change its orientation. These forces can be balanced by giving high angular momentum to the disc and hence keeping the orientation undisturbed. | <urn:uuid:8c7540b3-78db-4da7-b55e-f1e6bd08c3a4> | {
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Fifty Chimpanzees Held Captive for Future Experiments
The National Institutes of Health is making progress in phasing out government-funded chimpanzee experiments and retiring most federally owned chimpanzees to sanctuaries. But the agency shouldn’t hold 50 chimpanzees for future research.
"The Institute of Medicine made it clear that chimpanzees are neither necessary nor useful research subjects. While they suffer needlessly in laboratories, millions of taxpayer dollars are wasted on inappropriate housing and unproductive research," says Elizabeth Kucinich, PCRM’s director of government affairs. “While we are happy with the progress this report suggests, we advise that chimpanzee experiments be phased out completely.”
The report from the Council of Councils Working Group on the Use of Chimpanzees in NIH-Supported Research states that the NIH should permanently retire all but 50 of the 360 government-owned chimpanzees to a federal sanctuary program. The Working Group’s report recommends that NIH should not revitalize breeding of chimpanzees for any research, including new, emerging, or re-emerging disease research.
If the NIH accepts the recommendations of this report, the approximately 170 chimpanzees at the Alamogordo Primate Facility (APF) in New Mexico should be sent to sanctuaries. This includes Ken and the 23 chimpanzees, previously housed at APF, who are in poor health facing laboratory procedures at Texas Biomed in San Antonio. Ken, for example, is at risk of sudden cardiac death according to medical records obtained by PCRM through the Freedom of Information Act. Ken and the others should now be removed from the laboratory and reunited with the other Alamogordo chimpanzees in permanent retirement.
To learn more about ending chimpanzee experiments, visit PCRM.org/GAPCSA. | <urn:uuid:183c647f-995c-4aef-a8f4-fea0a6fb71cd> | {
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The gene for apolipoprotein E4, or ApoE4, confers the largest known genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease, but that's not all. People who carry the gene also do much worse if they develop multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease, Parkinson's disease, sleep apnea and other forms of dementia. They don't recover as well from traumatic brain injury or stroke. They are more likely to develop "pump head" — a combination of memory problems and mental fogginess — if they have heart bypass surgery. People with sleep apnea, who stop breathing many times during the night, tend to develop more memory and thinking problems if they carry the gene for ApoE4.
On top of that, problems caused by ApoE4 don't wait until old age. Effects have been detected much earlier in life. A recent paper in JAMA Neurology even reported that ApoE4 babies display brain changes that could contribute to Alzheimer's disease later in life.
Why would a gene that contains instructions for assembling the ApoE4 protein, which transports fats, cholesterol and other substances around the body, cause so much trouble? And why don't the genes for the ApoE2 and ApoE3 proteins — the two other forms of the protein in humans — cause the same problems?
Robert Mahley, who has studied cholesterol and the ApoE protein for decades, says the problem lies in one tiny difference that sets ApoE4 apart from the other two variations. And he believes this difference can be corrected, which would eliminate the vulnerability to brain dysfunction that ApoE4 carriers now face.
The ApoE protein consists of 299 amino acids linked like pearls on a coil. Most of the coil folds into a large domain that resembles the palm of a hand with the four fingers held tightly together. The other domain resembles the thumb extended away from the palm.
In ApoE2 and ApoE3, the "thumb" remains comfortably apart from the "hand," according to Dr. Mahley, president emeritus of the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco. The ApoE4 protein, however, possesses a different amino acid in one position that causes the thumb to stick to the hand. When the two domains stick together, the protein folds inappropriately, getting broken down by brain cells for recycling or elimination. The resulting fragments tend to accumulate in the cells, causing stress that contributes to their death.
Mahley and Yadong Huang, his longtime collaborator at Gladstone, believe they have a way of fixing this problem. In a paper published in 2012 they described a "structure corrector" known as PY-101 capable of preventing the thumb of the ApoE4 protein from sticking to the hand. This makes ApoE4 essentially identical to ApoE3, which carries no additional risk for Alzheimer's disease.
"We can change structure of E4 to make it E3-like, and in so doing we correct the detrimental effects ApoE4 has in mouse models," Mahley said.
Now Gladstone researchers are trying to develop a pill that will do the same in humans, and Mahley predicts human clinical trials may begin within two years. To help advance the idea the Wellcome Trust recently bestowed a $2.5 million "Seeding Drug Discovery Award" on Dr. Mahley and his colleagues, and they have formed a partnership with a drug design firm located near San Francisco to develop a structure corrector in pill form that will prevent human ApoE4 from misfolding.
"We've already proven that PY-101 gets into the brain, so we're trying to develop a formulation that's orally available," he said. "We're working that out in our mice right now."
Tom Valeo writes on health matters. He can be reached at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:f86ab46e-e429-4334-b8fc-7ace340463bb> | {
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Owl wings inspire a quieter wind turbine via treehugger
One of the most commonly heard complaints about wind turbines is that they’re loud. Wind farms are usually built a far enough distance away from communities that the noise is negligible, but a new biomimetic technology inspired by the stealthy flight of owls could lead to wind turbines, planes and even computer fans that are virtually silent.
This is significant because not only would quieter turbines make communities more open to having them nearby, but because wind turbines are currently heavily braked in order to keep noise to a minimum, having a way to make them operate quietly could mean that the bladed could run at much higher speeds and produce more energy. In fact, average-sized wind farms could add several megawatts to their capacity.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge, have come up with a prototype coating for wind turbine blades that could make them a lot quieter and they owe the advancement to one of nature’s greatest hunters, the owl….
“No other bird has this sort of intricate wing structure,” said Professor Nigel Peake of Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, who led the research. “Much of the noise caused by a wing – whether it’s attached to a bird, a plane or a fan – originates at the trailing edge where the air passing over the wing surface is turbulent. The structure of an owl’s wing serves to reduce noise by smoothing the passage of air as it passes over the wing – scattering the sound so their prey can’t hear them coming.” | <urn:uuid:e66eed4b-d1e1-4c27-9714-3efe952f61f7> | {
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- Hydrastis canadensis L.
- Buttercup family
Yellow Indian plant
Yellow paint root
Parts Usually Used
Roots and rhizomes
Description of Plant(s) and
A perennial hairy plant with a knotted yellow rhizome. It has one long-stalked basal leaf and a single stem, 6-12 inches long, with two leaves near the top; leaves are large, wrinkled and palmately cleft. Usually 2 leaves on a forked branch; one leaf larger than the other; each rounded, with 5-7 lobes; double toothed. Solitary terminal flower has three whitish sepals which soon fall and many greenish-white stamens in clusters. Fruit is head of small red raspberry-like fruit. Goldenseal is difficult to cultivate.
The bright yellow roots of goldenseal are one of the most widely consumed products sold through health and natural food stores. The plant grows in colonies. Individual plants have 1-2 leaves. The flowers lack petals but have numerous stamens. Flowers April-May.
The wild plant is scarce now and is cultivated for medicinal uses.
Originally found in rich woods from Vermont to Minnesota and south to Georgia and Arkansas, as far west as Nebraska. Wild plants are now rare or extinct in many places due to over-correcting.
Laxative, tonic, alterative, antipyretic, antibacterial, detergent (an agent that cleanses boils, ulcers, stops bleeding, wounds, etc.), ophthalmicum (remedy for diseases of the eye), antiperiodic (prevents the periodic recurrence of attacks of a disease; as in malaria), aperient (mild or gentle laxative), diuretic, antiseptic, and deobstruent (removes obstructions by opening the natural passages or pores of the body).
Albumin, alkaloid berberine, biotin, calcium, candine, chlorine, choline, chologenic acid, fats, hydrastine, inositol, iron, lignin, manganese, volatile and essential oils, PABA, phosphorus, potassium, resin, starch, sugar, B complex, and vitamins A, C, and E.
Legends, Myths and Stories
The aborigines of northern Australia were the first recorded as using goldenseal as far as can be determined.
Also used as an insect repellent.
The knowledge of goldenseal's value came from the Native Americans by early trappers, hunters, and adventurers. It grows in small colonies in rich woods. The leaves of the forest trees provide a leaf mulch which blend over winter to provide renewed fertilizer for goldenseal.
Goldenseal was highly regarded by the Cherokee Indians as a bitter tonic and also as an external remedy for various complaints. Early writers credited the Cherokees with introducing the plant to the settlers. Later, the medical profession took an interest in the herb and many reports of its use began to appear in medical writings. In reference to goldenseal, 1820 given as a strong tea for indigestion. 1833, review listed heartburn and morning sickness.
The Cherokee Indians used goldenseal to treat ulcers and arrow wounds.
A bitter, cure-all type of herb that strengthens the immune system, acts as an antibiotic, has anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties, potentiates insulin, and cleanses the body. Good for colds, flu, sinusitis, hay fever, bronchitis, earache, food allergies, laxative, fungal infections such as candida, canker sores, glandular swelling, gum diseases, morning sickness, diabetes, hypoglycemia, and ulcers. Promotes the functioning capacity of the heart, the lymphatic and respiratory system, the liver, the spleen, the pancreas, and the colon. Good for stomach, prostate, syphilis, gonorrhea, jaundice, hepatitis, inflammation of the bladder, and vaginal disorders. Cleanses mucous membranes, regulates menses, relieves painful menses, improves digestion, counters infections. Also decreases uterine bleeding and stimulates the central nervous system.
Externally, helps eczema, ringworm, impetigo, irritated gums and pyorrhea.
An infusion can be used as an eyewash, as a mouthwash, to treat skin irritations, and sores, as vaginal douche for vaginitis, and to treat piles.
Formulas or Dosages
For external use, add a tsp. of root to 1/2 pint of water and use as a skin lotion.
Eyewash: Add 1 tsp. rootstock and 1 tsp. boric acid to 1 pint boiling water; stir, let cool, and pour off the liquid. Add 1 tsp. of the liquid to 1/2 cup water to make an eyewash.
Douche: dissolve 1 tsp. of powder in warm water. Douche every 3 days for up to 2 weeks.
Calcium, fats, iron, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, starch, sugar, B complex, and vitamins A, C, and E.
The powdered root can be purchased from herbal suppliers.
Capsules: 1 to 2, up to 3 times daily
Extract: mix 5 to 10 drops in liquid, up to 3 times daily.
Powder: 1 tsp. dissolved in 1 pint of boiling water, let stand until cool. Take 1 to 2 tsp. for 3 to 6 times per day.
Caution: Do not use during pregnancy. (It is a uterine stimulant)
Caution: Eating the fresh plant produces ulcerations and inflammation of mucous tissue.
Do not use as eardrops if there is a chance the ear drum is perforated.
This herb can raise blood pressure; do not use if there is a history of high blood pressure.
Do not use this herb if there is a condition of emaciation, neurasthenia, vertigo, or chronic debility.
Goldenseal has a negative impact on the good intestinal flora and has many of the contraindications of antibiotic drugs
Scientists have disproved the rumor that goldenseal masks morphine in urine tests.
Long-term use may weaken the bacterial flora of the colon. When combined with gotu kola, goldenseal acts as a brain tonic.
Used for many ailments by the Native Americans, goldenseal has been called "one of the most wonderful remedies in the entire herb kingdom"; this claim has not been proven, and the plant is considered unsafe for internal consumption by many experts.
In large doses Goldenseal is very poisonous. Do not use longer than 2 weeks at a time. | <urn:uuid:3d3a4842-4374-45b2-9861-0e4116d8eea1> | {
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Microsoft WordGeneral: Main page History Standard Features Available Software
Software on windows: Word Word Perfect PDF
Software on: linux Mac OS Palm OS
Microsoft Word is a word processing program that allows for the creation of
both simple and sophisticated documents. The program is equipped with templates
and wizards to help you create useful documents such as resumes, letters and
fax cover sheets. There are also features that allow you to add professional
looking graphics to your documents.
Below is an image of the Microsoft Word Interface.
Title Bar: This bar lists the name of the program and the title of the current document. Menu Bar: This bar displays the headings for each drop-down menu. Commands are grouped under each of these menu headings according to function. Standard Toolbar: This toolbar contains short cuts to some of the most frequently used commands from the menu bar. Formatting Toolbar: This toolbar contains short cuts to some of the most frequently used commands found under the FORMAT menu item. Status Bar: This bar displays information about the active document.
At the top of the Word interface is the title bar. This bar is present on all Windows applications and acts as a reminder of the program that you are using, as well as the title of the document that you are editing. In this particular example, the document has not been named so it has the default name of Document1.
In the upper right hand corner of the interface you will notice a set of 3 buttons. The button with the flat piece ( _ ) on it is the minimize button. The button in the middle is the resize button and may have one square or two squares on it. The last button has an X on it and is called the close button.
In the image of the full screen shown at the top of this page you will notice that there are two sets of these buttons. The top set of these is for the program, Microsoft Word. The bottom set of these is for the document that you are currently viewing. For the top set, minimize will drop the program MSWord from your view, but will not close the program. Hold down the ALT key on your keyboard and press the TAB key to bring MSWord back into your view. The resize button will either make the MSWord window large enough to fit the full monitor (the single square) or small enough to where you can see it and whatever is behind it (the two squares). These work in a similar fashion for the document that you are working on. The minimize button will drop your document to the bottom of the page, where it will only be represented by a small title bar. The resize button will either make the document large enough to fit the full MSWord window (the single square) or small enough to where you can see it and other documents that you have opened simultaneously (the two squares). The close button will close the document, just as if you went to FILE | CLOSE on the menu or it will close the program, just as if you went to FILE | EXIT on the menu.
The menu bar is below the title bar. There are nine menu options on the menu bar. When you click on any of these options (File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools, Table, Window or Help) a drop-down menu of commands will appear below it.
Below the menu bar are the toolbars. Toolbars consist of icons that act as short-cuts to the commands found under the menus. The icons on the toolbars are organized according to function and according to the most commonly used commands in MSWord. The toolbar that usually appears directly below the menu bar is called the Standard Toolbar. The toolbar just below that is called the Formatting Toolbar. These toolbars can be customized and moved around on the screen. The option for displaying or hiding a toolbar is found under the menu item VIEW | TOOLBARS. The toolbar will be discussed in more detail in the next section of the MSWord tutorial. A ToolTip (yellow tag) appears when you move the mouse over any of the icons on the toolbar. The ToolTip explains what function that particular icon performs.
At the bottom of the Word interface is the status bar. This bar displays information about your document such as the page that is currently displayed on the screen (Page 1), the total number of pages in the document (1/1, i.e. 1 of 1) and the line in which the cursor is currently positioned (Ln 1). The right side of the status bar shows whether keys such as OVERTYPE are active or unactive. All of these keys in this example are unactive.
Name Function Menu Location New Creates a new, blank document FILE | NEW Open Displays the Open dialog box so that you can retrieve an existing document FILE | OPEN Save Saves the active document to a specified location FILE | SAVE Prints active document FILE | PRINT Print Preview Displays what the document will look like when you print it FILE | PRINT PREVIEW Spell Checker Checks active document for spelling and grammatical errors TOOLS | SPELLING Cut Cuts the selected text and places it on the clipboard EDIT | CUT Copy Copies the selected text and places it on the clipboard EDIT | COPY Paste Pastes the contents of the clipboard to a new location EDIT | PASTE Format Painter Copies the formatting of the selected text to a new text selection Undo Undoes the last document change EDIT | UNDO Redo Redoes the last action that was undone EDIT | REDO Insert Hyperlink Creates a hyperlink from the selected text INSERT | HYPERLINK Web Toolbar Shows web toolbar VIEW | TOOLBARS | WEB Tables Toolbar Shows tables toolbar VIEW | TOOLBARS | TABLES Insert Table Inserts a table TABLE | INSERT TABLE Insert Excel Worksheet Inserts an Excel Worksheet Text Columns Changes the number of text columns per page FORMAT | COLUMNS Drawing Shows drawing toolbar VIEW | TOOLBARS | DRAWING Document Map Changes the view of the document VIEW | DOCUMENT MAP Show/Hide Non-Print Characters Shows and hides non-print characters (for example the symbol for new paragraph) View Magnifies or reduces the document contents by the specified zoom percentage VIEW | ZOOM Office Assistant Help function HELP
Name Function Menu Location Style Changes the style of the selected text FORMAT | FONT Font Changes the font for the selected text FORMAT | FONT Font Size Changes the point size of the selected text FORMAT | FONT Bold Makes the selected text bold FORMAT | FONT Italic Makes the selected text italic FORMAT | FONT Underline Underlines the selected text FORMAT | FONT Align Left Aligns the selected text/paragraph(s) left FORMAT | PARAGRAPH Center Centers the selected text/paragraph(s) FORMAT | PARAGRAPH Align Right Aligns the selected text/paragraph(s) right FORMAT | PARAGRAPH Justify Justifies the selected text/paragraph(s) FORMAT | PARAGRAPH Numbers Creates a numbered list or numbers the selected paragraph(s) FORMAT | BULLETS AND NUMBERING Bullets Creates a bulleted list or adds bullets the selected paragraph(s) FORMAT | BULLETS AND NUMBERING Decrease Indent Decreases the indentation of the selected paragraph(s) FORMAT | PARAGRAPH Increase Indent Increases the indentation of the selected paragraph(s) FORMAT | PARAGRAPH Borders Creates a border around the selected text/paragraph(s) FORMAT | BORDERS AND SHADING Highlight Allows you to highlight specified text Font Color Allows you to change the color of the text FORMAT | FONT
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Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Financial, Acronyms, Idioms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
An organization of individuals conducting a commercial or industrial enterprise. A corporation, partnership, association, or joint stock company.
n. any formal business entity for profit which may be a corporation, a partnership, association or individual proprietorship. Often people think the term "company" means the business is incorporated, but that is not true. In fact, a corporation usually must use some term in its name such as "corporation," "incorporated," "corp." or "inc." to show it is a corporation. (See: business)
companyan association of persons formed for the purpose of some business or undertaking, which has a legal personality separate from that of its members. A company may be formed by charter, by special Act of Parliament or by registration under the Companies Acts. The liability of members is usually (but not always) limited by the charter, Act of Parliament or memorandum of association. A company may be a public limited company (PLC or plc), in which event its shares may be transferred freely among, and owned by, members of the public. All limited liability companies that are not public limited companies are private companies, denoted by the term Ltd. While companies are owned by their members (i.e. shareholders), they are managed by a board of directors. Historically, the duties owed by the board are fiduciary in nature and owed to the company rather than the shareholders. Companies are the major instrument for economic and financial growth and development in the Western world. A limited company encourages trade to the extent that in the event of insolvency the owners are liable only to the extent of their unpaid share capital. The limited company is a legal person in its own right and is sued in place of the owners or directors.
A company may be limited by shares or, in the case of a private company, by guarantee. Since the Companies Act 1980, it is no longer possible to create a company limited by guarantee and having a share capital in the UK. A company limited by guarantee is a company that has the liability of its members limited by the memorandum of association to such an amount as the members may undertake to contribute to the assets of the company upon its being wound up. A company limited by shares is a company having the liability of its members limited by the memorandum of association to the amount, if any, unpaid on the shares respectively held by them.
COMPANY. An association of a number of individuals for the purpose of
carrying on some legitimate business.
2. This term is not synonymous with partnership, though every such unincorporated compass is a partnership.
3. Usage has reserved this term to associations whose members are in greater number, their capital more considerable, and their enterprises greater, either on account of their risk or importance.
4. When these companies are authorized by the government, they are known by the name of corporations. (q.v.)
5. Sometimes the word is used to represent those members of a partnership whose names do not appear in the name of the firm; as, A.B & Company. Vide, 12 Toull. n, 97; Mortimer on Commerce, 128. Vide Club; Corporation; Firm; Parties to actions; Partnership. | <urn:uuid:f2fb766d-c8e8-41ba-9a4b-b7cb067037a2> | {
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Out With the Old, In With the New
It seems that Howson Taylor decided to design a new range wares to supplement and eventually replace the Ruskin Pottery's successful, standard lustre range. The fashion for lustre wares was in decline by the mid 1920s and so it is significant that the last year of major lustre forms at the pottery was 1926. Perhaps a fall off in sales was a major incentive to develop something new.
In searching for new forms the pottery turned away from work inspired by Chinese designs and instead looked to another tradition remote in space and time, Ancient Egypt; whose artefacts influenced the decorative arts for a time during the 1920s, as a result of the re-discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen by Howard Carter in 1922. There were many publications but one especially 'The Arts and Crafts of Ancient Egypt' by W.M.F. Petrie is important as the stone vases and a range of pottery forms were illustrated, which provided a style and in some cases shapes which were adapted at Ruskin Pottery for a new Egyptian Ware range as part of their new 'Art Craft' series. The thick band around the tip of Egyptian work was adapted for pieces along with rounded and more substantial structures.
No catalogue is know to exist for the complete range but some pieces are included in the 'Art Craft' catalogue issued in about 1928. The Pottery Gazette in its February 1928 issue wrote 'Today, we believe, the demand is chiefly for the production of a heavier type.' In many of these vases the wreath in the clay created by the throwers thumb and fingers are left in the finished article. Howson Taylor instigated a long series of glaze experiments to go on the new forms. Pots dated 1927, mostly bowls, occasionally appear which have a number in a rectangular reserve on the base. Recorded numbers range from 58 to 1074. These pieces confirm the Pottery Gazette report of 1928 that since last June over 700 experiments have been made by Mr Howson Taylor many of them on the basis of trial and error.' The glazes developed were mostly of matte or crystalline types. Apart from these experimental pieces examples dated 1927, especially crystalline glazed ones, are not numerous and production glazes would not have become available until 1928.
One of the reasons behind the new range can probably be discerned when examining the prices given in the brochure, where it can be seen that they are more or less the same as those of the pre-war exhibitions, despite the increase in general price levels and wages. Only two 12 inch pieces were over £2 and only two A shapes were over £1. By comparison with other makers' wares in 1928 the pots still do not appear cheap, although pre-war soufflés were cheaper, but margins had been reduced. However the new pots with no extra firing which lustres required could be made cheaply as a 1930 article noted.
A further attempt to reduce costs was the introduction in the late 1920s of a range of moulded wares, in particular table lamps, using the new glazes. The pottery issued a number of coloured postcards promoting these items, but it would seem with limited success as relatively few examples appear on the market. The crystalline glazes and effects using them represent a major achievement of W. Howson Taylor as until the advent of studio potters in recent decades they are one of the largest and most comprehensive groups of such work.
Ruskin's Art Craft 'A' Shape publicity folder circa 1928. | <urn:uuid:0ea4757d-82f5-44fd-83d5-f73281d43427> | {
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A new statistic has emerged in the debate about income inequality: labor’s share of America’s total economic output. Having averaged roughly two-thirds of GDP for over 30 years, it began to decline in the early 1980s and is now close to 50 percent. We need to get that back up, the argument goes, if America is to do well in the future.
Not necessarily. Before the Industrial Revolution, labor’s share of GDP would have been close to 90 percent. That’s how many Americans worked the land in order to feed 100 million people when farming was done with “40 acres and a mule.” Today, with modern equipment instead of mules, it takes only 3 percent of the population to feed more than 300 million people.
Some who bemoan the decline in labor’s portion of GDP blame it on the downward trend of union membership. They say that began when Ronald Reagan “broke” the air traffic controllers’ union by firing them.
Hardly. Air traffic controllers are public employees and public employee unions have grown rapidly enough since then to become the largest sector in the labor movement. The decline in union membership comes from the industrial unions, who are shrinking because industrial workers are increasingly unwilling to join them. The trend is so strong that union leaders have tried to eliminate the use of secret ballots in union elections.
Another charge is that Republicans have used the tax code to subsidize capital at the expense of labor. Here’s the record: Under Reagan, individual rates went down and capital gains rates went up. Under Clinton, the reverse: individual rates went up and capital gains rates went down — under Bush, both went down and under Obama, both went up. There has been no discernible tie between any of these actions and labor’s share of GDP. The real reason it has shrunk lies elsewhere.
We are in the midst of a revolution — the Information Revolution. Just as the Industrial Revolution eliminated backbreaking work on farms, the Information Revolution has eliminated repetitive work in factories. As an example, take the auto industry.
Before computers, America’s best-selling car, the Chevy, was built in a legacy factory in Detroit. It employed a lot of workers — all of them unionized — who spent most of their time performing a series of semi-skilled, repetitive tasks. The cost of labor was a significant portion of the cost of the final product.
Today, the best-selling car in America, the Honda Accord, is built in a modern plant in Ohio. I’ve been there. It employs far fewer workers — none of them unionized — who spend most of their time tending to the computers that control the robots that perform all of the repetitive tasks. The cost of labor is now a small portion of the final product, a better car than the old Chevy. Capital spent for technology pays off in terms of lower costs and increased productivity.
That’s why capital is increasing as a percentage of GDP. Honda didn’t go to Ohio looking for cheap labor to exploit. Like Nissan in Tennessee, Toyota in California and Mercedes-Benz in Alabama, it wanted to save shipping costs from Japan and make its cars more readily available to the market. Ford, GM, Chrysler and every other business surviving in the information age have made similar investment decisions.
We are no more going back to assembly lines that required thousands of workers to run them than we are to farms that required 90 percent of our population to tend them. Computers, robots and lasers are here to stay. No amount of political rhetoric can reverse that fact.
Robert Bennett, former U.S. senator from Utah, is a part-time teacher, researcher and lecturer at the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics.
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This month's document is the registration form for the schooner Maria, which was built in Alexandria in 1796. The ship was registered to Henry Bowcock of Alexandria and Christopher Edrington of Westmoreland County, Virginia on May 24, 1796. None of our indexes to Alexandria vital records had any further information about Henry Bowcock, but he did place an advertisement in the Columbian Mirror and Alexandria Gazette on May 24, 1796 offering the Maria "for Freight or Charter to Philadelphia or New York". Alexandria's port played a major role in the city's early history, and the newspaper is filled with similar advertisements, as well as information about which ships had arrived and sailed on any given day.
The registration for the Maria is located in the Manuscript Collection, Box 240 VF Ships and Shipping.
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Hong Kong Heritage Museum - Google Cultural Institute
The Hong Kong Heritage Museum, opened in December 2000, is under the management of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong SAR Government. It is a multi-disciplined museum which explores the unique cultures of Hong Kong, with special focuses on local living and creative culture such as design, photography, popular culture, Cantonese opera and intangible cultural heritage. It also showcases and connects the cultures of the world with the peoples of Hong Kong. A lively and diverse range of exhibitions and programmes are organized to engage the visitors in a highly enjoyable and educational experience.
The collection of the museum is wide-ranging but can be broadly classified as art, historical and cultural materials by nature. Its art collection consists of three main categories. The first category is Chinese fine arts collection, which includes Chinese antiquities spanning from the Neolithic period to Qing dynasty, as well as a comprehensive collection of Chinese paintings and calligraphy of the Lingnan master Chao Shao-an. The second category is applied art which includes photography and design, and the third is Hong Kong contemporary art which includes prints, ceramics, paintings, sculptures and other media. Apart from the art collections, the Heritage Museum also holds a number of important historical and cultural collections such as Cantonese opera artefacts, Hong Kong toys and comics, memorabilia of local popular artistes, as well as early calendar posters.
The Hong Kong Heritage Museum also manages three special branch museums, namely Sam Tung Uk Museum, Sheung Yiu Folk Museum and Hong Kong Railway Museum. The former two museums, which were originally Hakka villages, feature the rural life of the old days. The last one, originally a railway station, tells you the story of Hong Kong’s railway transportation.
Don’t forget to keep a close eye on the museum’s website to update the exciting programmes of the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. | <urn:uuid:0d1956c5-35c6-4481-ad95-ac0ad796c730> | {
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The present tense is often associated with literary fiction, short stories, students in writing programs and workshops, and first novels. The past .. I'm trying to write articles in English in my blog which is not my native language.
I'll be focusing on creative fiction in this post (mainly short stories and novels), but poetry, (auto)biography and creative non-fiction are all other forms of creative writing. Here's a couple of definitions: Creative writing is writing that . Writing and reading fiction is where I am at. Using proper English and sentence structure is my goal from start to finish, since I am not part of the Dumbing Down of America when it comes to writing of any kind. Working on getting the most
English Literature: An Analysis Of Conflicts In Three Selected Short Stories Of Flannery O' Connor. skripsi-skripsiun blogspotdotcom Short story is belongs to prose fiction, shorter in form than a novel. It is single directed either in It is true that every prose fiction contains a story. Yet, the point is what kind of . Contoh Skripsi Akuntansi:Analisis Pengaruh Perputaran Kas, Perputaran Piutang, Dan Perputaran Persediaan Terhadap Profitabilitas (ROA) Perusahaan.
This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas (in the 20th and 21st century sense) and novels. Short stories tend to be less complex than novels. Usually a short story focuses on one
The prompt could be a single word, a short phrase, a complete paragraph or even a picture, with the idea being to give you something to focus upon as you write. You may stick very closely to the original prompt or You will improve your English in only 5 minutes per day, guaranteed! Subscribers get access to our exercise archives, I was participating in this and discovered my short story was turning into a fiction novel. I haven't worked on it in some time because I
A dynamic story that can be read in one sitting, an evolving central character and vivid use of detail are all conventions that personal narratives and short stories have in common. However, they are . Reality Vs. Fiction. The biggest difference between a short story and a personal narrative is their degrees of truthfulness. In a short story, the plot and characters are invented by the author. Although they may be inspired by a real life experience, the details are usually significantly altered.
In the Golden Age, science fiction stories were mostly forays into the fantastic, the unreal: they were sweeping epics; they were grandiose space operas; they were explorations of sublime worlds, outlandish technologies, futuristic and expansive societies. Characters in this kind of . Editor's note: For a recent example of short fiction that exemplifies Lena's argument, check out Zadie Smith's short story “Meet the President,” published in The New Yorker in August 2013.
Flash fiction atau juga ada yang menyebutnya cerita sekilas, sudden fiction, micro fiction, micro story, postcard fiction dan short short story adalah sebuah karya fiksi yg sangat singkat, padat namun utuh. Dimana maksimal jumlah katanya lebih pendek dari cerpen. Saya sendiri juga masih terus mencari contoh-contoh flash fiction yang dipublish di blog atau web para penulis, yang sangat beragam. Kemudian mencoba mempraktekkannya. Jika hanya dibaca dan
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Venus & ISS
The brightest planet in the solar system is reaching its peak luminosity. On April 30th, Venus will shine at astronomical magnitude -4.7. That’s 190 times brighter than a 1st magnitude star, bright enough to see in broad daylight if your eye lands right on it.
Yesterday in the Czech Republic, something drew Martin Gembec’s eye directly to Venus. His guide was the International Space Station.
“We had a nice sunny afternoon picnic here in Jablonec,” says Gembec. “In the clear blue sky overhead, the ISS went right through Venus. It was a special moment.”
No ISS? No problem. Even without a spaceship, you can find Venus by looking 40° (about four fist-widths) east of the sun. Observing tip: Stand in the shadow of a tall building. You can also wait until the sun goes down. Venus is terrifically brilliant in the western twilight. | <urn:uuid:4ba44b61-86a6-431d-b675-87345acf5b36> | {
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- For Teachers
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- Kids Corner
- About the Resource
The students will investigate food packaging to understand how information on food labels can help them make better food choices.
This activity introduces the concept of food labelling. Start by and showing the class an example of a food label (U1L4R1). Then allow the students some time to study the label and to ask any questions that may arise from it.
Next invite further discussion regarding food labelling. Start by showing the video ‘How to Read a Food Label‘ and lead into discussion regarding this topic.
Click here to download a PDF version of “Let’s Solve The Mystery of Food Packaging” (U1L4R3). This white board lesson is a fully guided presentation about food labelling which includes examples and challenges for students. The white board lesson is presented in a fun and engaging way using a mystery character called ‘Super Sleuth Sam’ to help guide students towards solving the mystery of food packaging.
Take your students through the presentation “Let’s Solve The Mystery of Food Packaging” (U1L4R3) and complete the three challenges.
At each Challenge organise the students into pairs, explain the Challenge and provide the Worksheet Handouts, allowing 5-10 minutes to complete each Challenge. Regroup after each Challenge to discuss.
On completion of the challenges, assist the students to reflect on their learnings and list three things they have learnt from this lesson. Then share with other class members, and finally hand out healthy eating wallet cards (U1L4R7) for the students to keep.
Step 1: Select your school
Can't see your school or organisation? Click here | <urn:uuid:b7b2cf94-fef6-4cdb-b121-263b2fe880ee> | {
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Articles by Engels in the Labour Standard 1881
Source: Reproduced from the newspaper;
Written: late June 1881;
Published: No. 9, July 2, 1881, as a leading article;
Transcribed: [email protected], Labor Day 1996.
Since autumn 1837 we have been quite accustomed to see money panics and commercial crises imported from New York into England. At least one out of every two of the decennial revulsions of industry broke out in America. But that America should also upset the time-honoured relations of British agriculture, revolutionise the immemorial feudal relations between landlord and tenant at will, smash up English rents, and lay waste English farms, was a sight reserved for the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
And yet so it is. The virgin soil of the Western prairie – which is now coming into cultivation, not by piecemeal but in thousands of square miles – is now beginning to rule the price of wheat, and, consequently, the rent of wheat land. And no old soil can compete with it. It is a wonderful land, level, or slightly undulating, undisturbed by violent upheavals, in exactly the same condition in which it was slowly deposited at the bottom of a Tertiary ocean; free from stones, rocks, trees; fit for immediate cultivation without any preparatory labour. No clearing or draining is required; you pass the plough over it and it is fit to receive the seed, and will bear twenty to thirty crops of wheat in succession and without manuring. It is a soil fit for agriculture on the grandest scale, and on the grandest scale it is worked. The British agriculturist used to pride himself of his large farms as opposed to the small farms of Continental peasant proprietors; but what are the largest farms in the United Kingdom compared to the farms of the American prairie, farms of 40,000 acres and more, worked by regular armies of men, horses, and implements, drilled, commanded, and organised like soldiers?
This American revolution in farming, together with the revolutionised means of transport as invented by the Americans, sends over to Europe wheat at such low prices that no European farmer can compete with it – at least not while he is expected to pay rent. Look at the year 1879, when this was first felt. The crop was bad in all Western Europe; it was a failure in England. Yet, thanks to American corn, prices remained almost stationary. For the first time the British farmer had a bad crop and low prices of wheat at the same time. Then the farmers began to stir, the landlords felt alarmed. Next year, with a better crop, prices went lower still. The price of corn is now determined by the cost of production in America, plus the cost of transport. And this will be the case more and more every year, in proportion as new prairie-land is put under the plough. The agricultural armies required for that operation – we find them ourselves in Europe by sending over emigrants.
Now, formerly there was this consolation for the farmer and the landlord, that if corn did not pay meat would. The plough-land was turned into grass-land, and everything was pleasant again. But now that resource is cut off too. American meat and American cattle are sent over in ever-increasing quantities. And not only that. There are at least two great cattle-producing countries which are on the alert for methods permitting them to send over to Europe, and especially to England, their immense excess of meat, now wasted. With the present state of science and the rapid progress made in its application, we may be sure that in a very few, years – at the very latest – Australian and South American beet and mutton will be brought over in a perfect state of preservation and in enormous quantities. What is then to become of the prosperity of the British farmer, of the long rent-roll of the British landlord? It is all very well to grow gooseberries, strawberries, and so forth – that market is well enough supplied as it is. No doubt the British workman could consume a deal more of these delicacies – but then first raise his wages.
It is scarcely needful to say that the effect of this new American agricultural competition is felt on the Continent too. The small peasant proprietor mostly mortgaged over head and ears and paying interest and law expenses where the English and Irish farmer pays rent, he feels it quite as much. It is a peculiar effect of this American competition that it renders not only large landed property, but also small landed property useless, by rendering both unprofitable.
It may be said that this system of land exhaustion, as now practiced in the Far West, cannot go on for ever, and things must come right again. Of course, it cannot last for ever; but there is plenty of unexhausted land yet to carry on the process for another century. Moreover, there are other countries offering similar advantages. There is the whole South Russian steppe, where, indeed, commercial men have bought land and done the same thing. There are the vast pampas of the Argentine Republic, there are others still; all lands equally fit for this modern system of giant farming and cheap production. So that before this thing is exhausted it will have lived long enough to kill all the landlords of Europe, great and small, at least twice over.
Well, and the upshot of all this? The upshot will and must be that it will force upon us the nationalisation of the land and its cultivation by co-operative societies under national control. Then, and then alone, it will again pay both the cultivators and the nation to work it, whatever the price of American or any other corn and meat may be. And if the landlords in the meantime, as they seem to be half inclined to do, actually do go to America, we wish them a pleasant journey. | <urn:uuid:12d57815-a34e-4943-b9ef-320f99755e50> | {
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Flashcards in Biology 3 Deck (57):
The kidneys (Excretory system)
Excrete liquid and solute waste (excess water, salt, nitrogenous waste)
Osmolarity and blood pressure
Fenestrated capillary bed that strains the blood, allowing fluids, ions, and molecules the approximate size of glucose ofsmaller to pass through into Bowman’s capsule.
Blood cells and larger blood components remain within the capillaries and exit via the efferent
arteriole which eventually empties into the renal vein.
Spherical enclosure that captures filtrate and funnels it to the proximal convoluted tubule
Proximal convoluted tubule (PCT)
Section of the nephron between Bowman’s capsule and the descending limb of the Loop of Henle. Along the PCT sodium is reabsorbed via active transport and glucose is reabsorbed via secondary active transport
through a symporter identical to the one used to absorb glucose from the small intestine. Water
follows the solutes via facilitated diffusion. However, because water and solutes are reabsorbed
in the same ratio, the filtrate remains isotonic (i.e., the volume of filtrate decreases, but its
concentration remains constant).
Descending loop of Henle
Travels into the very hypertonic medulla. Impermeable to salts, but very permeable to water. Water flows out of the filtrate, concentrating the urine.
Ascending loop of henle
Carries filtrate out of the medulla and into the cortex. This portion of the loop is impermeable to water and actively transports ions out of the filtrate and into the medulla. This continuous dumping of salts into medulla account for its hypertonicity. At the top, filtrate is less concentrated due to the removal of ions.
Distal convoluted tubule (DCT)
Section of nephron between ascending loop and collecting duct. Passes directly by the opening of Bowman's capsule where the juxtaglomerular apparatus is located.
The DCT regulates calcium, hydrogen, and sodium concentrations (focus on sodium reabsorption regulated by aldosterone)
Reabsorbs calcium as a response to parathyroid hormone.
Detects decreased blood pressure in the afferent arteriole, it secretes Renin, setting into motion the renin-angiotensin pathway, which increases blood volume and blood pressure (negative feedback).
Carries filtrate through medulla towards renal pelvis. Becomes very permeable to water in response to ADH
Gas exchange. Oxygen diffuses down its concentration gradient into the blood, and CO2 diffuses down its concentration gradient out of the blood and back into the lungs.
Volume of air that enters and exits the lungs during an average, unforced respiration.
Inspiratory reserve volume (IRV) and Expiratory reserve volume (ERV)
Volume of additional air that can be exhaled or inhaled after a normal, unforced expiration or inhalation.
Amount of air left in the lungs after a forced, maximal exhalation.
Total amount of air the lungs can hold at maximum inflation, MINUS residual volume
Moves DOWN when it is FLEXED, moves UP when it is RELAXED.
Moves DOWN during inhalation, moves UP during exhalation.
Quarternary protein made of four protein chains, two alpha and two beta. Each protein has an Fe-containing "heme" group at its center, which can hold one O2 molecule.
Oxygen dissociation curves:
% Hb Saturation vs pO2
Right Shift: Increased [H+], [CO2], temp, or BPG
Left Shift: Decreased [H+], [CO2], temp, or BPG
How CO2 is carried in the blood
CO2 + H2O --> HCO3- + H+
Deliver oxygen and nutrients to the cells and tissues of body.
Electrical System of the Heart
Electrical signal originates from the SA node (sinoatrial node), then spreads across both atria to the AV node (atrioventricular), there is a pause for the ventricles to fill, then from the AV node it travels down the bundle of His, then up through the Purnkinje fibers.
Sympathetic and Parasympathetic effect on heart rate and blood pressure
Sympathetic activity INCREASES HR AND BP
Parasympathetic activity DECREASES HR AND BP
Transport nutrients, gases, waste products and hormones to and from cells; regulate extracellular environment, help maintain homeostasis; repair injuries, protect the body from foreign bodies (antigens).
All blood cells develop from stem cells in the bone marrow, process called HEMATOPOIESIS.
Contents of blood
White blood cells (leukocytes)
Red blood cells (erythrocytes)
Clotting factors (like fibrinogen)
Transport proteins (like albumin)
No Hb. Normal cells with organelles
Granulocytes: neutrophils, eosinophils, and basophils. LIVE HOURS TO DAYS
Agranulocytes: monocytes (become macrophages) and lymphocytes. LIVE FOR MONTHS TO YEARS.
Tiny membrane bound drops of cytoplasm. Sticky when exposed to injured epithilium and non-sticky to healthy epithilium. Release chemicals that activate other platelets and clotting factors. Derived from MEGAKARYOCYTES, a cell that remains in the bone marrow. Megakaryocytes produce and release small fragments into the circulating blood (fragments are the platelets).
A, B, AB, and O
A= A antigens only
B= B antigens only
AB= Both A and B antigens
O= neither A or B antigents
For MCAT questions on blood typing
ALWAYS FOCUS ON THE RECIPIENT. If a person's immune system sees any protein it does not have on its own blood cell membranes, it will attack it and rejection will result. O can be donated to anyone because it has no A or B antigens. AB person can receive from anyone because no donor will have any antigens this person's immune system hasn't seen previously.
Gather excess interstitial fluid and return it to the blood; remove from the interstitial spaces proteins and other molecules too big to be taken up by the capillaries; monitor the blood and lymph for infection.
Filled with lymphocytes. These immune system cells monitor the blood for foreign antigens and fight infections.
A lot like veins. Many, but not all, contain one-way valves used to move the lymph; single cells overlap slightly creating a trap door that allows things in, but not back out. Entire lymph system eventually drains into TWO MAIN VESSELS, the RIGHT LYMPHATIC DUCT and the THORACIC DUCT, which both dump back into the blood stream by merging with the large veins in the lower portion of the neck.
Includes the brain, spinal chord, peripheral nerves, neural support cells, and sensory organs such as the eyes and ears.
Specialized cell that can carry an electrochemical signal (Action potential)
1)Frozen in G0 phase (unable to divide)
2) Depend ENTIRELY on glucose for energy
3) Don't require insulin for glucose uptake
4) Have very low glycogen & oxygen storage capability and thus require high perfusion (blood flow)
Disturbance in the resting electric potential (voltage) across the membrane of a nerve cell. Once it is created, it will propagate along the cell membrane to neighboring portions of the neurons. As it does, the areas where it originally started gradually return to the normal resting potential.
-70 mV. This is the potential difference across the membrane when an action potential is NOT present.
An ATP pump that actively transports 3 Na+ ions OUT of the cell and 2 K+ ions INTO the cell per cycle. The net effect is more positive charge outside the cell and a progressively more negative charge inside the cell.
Voltage Gated Sodium Channels
Integral proteins that change shape (open) in response to a disturbance in the resting potential (voltage) across the membrane. In their "open" state, they allow the RAPID FLOW OF SODIUM BACK INTO THE CELL.
The opening of a voltage gated sodium channel causes a sudden spike in the membrane potential, from -70 mv to around +40 mv. This is called "depolarization"
This is the minimum stimulus that must be exerted upon the membrane to initiate a full action potential. It is usually somewhere around -55 mv. If a stimulus depolarizes the membrane above this threshold, the entire action potential will follow. If not, the membrane potential will return to -70 mV.
Voltage-gated Potassium Channels
Also integral proteins that respond to a change in the membrane potential. However, their threshold for responding is MUCH HIGHER than that for the voltage-gated sodium channels. They only react following the very large change in the membrane potential caused by depolarization. JUST BEFORE DEPOLARIZATION IS REACHED, THE NA+ CHANNELS BEGIN TO CLOSE AND THE K+ CHANNELS BEGIN TO OPEN.
Opening the potassium channels causes K+ ions to flow out of the cell due to the Na+/K+ pump. This results in a sudden DECREASE in membrane potential from +40 mV back down to -70 mV; referred to as "repolarization"
K+ channels are somewhat slow to close as the membrane potential approaches -70 mV. Thus, the membrane potential actually dips to around -90 mV before going back to -70 mV.
Absolute Refractory Period
Portion of time during which an action potential cannot be initiated regardless of the strength of the stimulus. This time period occurs during the progression of the previous action potential. The progression of an action potential involves the depolarization of the membrane and a second stimulus cannot be initiated until the membrane is repolarized.
Relative Refractory Period
Portion of time during which the membrane is hyperpolarized. Second potential CAN be initiated, but a STRONGER THAN NORMAL stimulus will be required. This is because there is a greater voltage difference from -90 mV to -55 mV.
Two types: Electrical synapses and chemical synapses
Gap junctions between cells that allow electrical signals to pass very quickly from cell to cell. In humans, only in specific locations: retina, smooth muscle, cardiac muscle, and CNS
Small gap between terminal button and either
1) the dendrite of a subsequent neuron or 2) the membrane of a muscle or other target ("effector")
Signal transmission in synapse
1) Action potential arrives at the presynaptic membrane
2) Triggers opening of voltage-gated calcium channels, calcium enters the cell.
3) Neurotransmitter bundles inside cell, in response to calcium, fuse to presynaptic membrane and dump contents into the synaptic cleft.
4) Neurotransmitters diffuse through the gap and bind to protein receptors on the postsynaptic membrane.
5) Receptors associated with voltage-gated sodium channels so that neurotransmitter binding opens the channels.
6) If enough sodiums enter, threshold will be met and new action potential will generate.
Stopping the Signal
Post-synaptic membrane will be continuously stimulated as long as neurotransmitter present. Specialized enzymes in the synaptic cleft must break down the NT to interrupt this action. ACETYLCHOLINESTERASE.
Agonist: another term for activator
Antagonist: ANOTHER TERM FOR INHIBITOR
Neural Support Cells
Schwann cells (oligodendricytes in the CNS), cells lining the cerebrospinal fluid cavities (ependymal cells) and structural support cells (astrocytes)
Rods= highly sensitive, perceive black and white only
Cones = less sensitive, perceive color
Includes "endocrine glands" and the fluids and ducts into which they are released.
Endocrine glands release HORMONES into the INTERNAL FLUIDS OF THE BODY (blood, lymph)
Peptide Hormones (water soluble)
Anterior Pituitary: FSH, LH, ACTH, hGh, TSH & Prolactin
Posterior Pituitary: ADH & Oxytocin
- (AP & PP are both regulated by "____ stimulating/releasing" hormones from the hypothalamus
Pancreas: insulin & glucagon (also an exocrine gland)
Embryo/placenta: hCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin)
Steroid Hormones (lipid-soluble, ALL STEROIDS ARE CHOLESTEROL DERIVATES)
Adrenal Cortex: Cortisol & Aldosterone
Gonads: Estrogen, progesterone, testosterone
Tyrosine Hormones (T3/T4 = lipid soluble; epi/norepi= water soluble)
Thyroid: T3 (Triiodothyronine) & T4 (thyroxine)
Adrenal medulla: Epinephrine & norepinephrine
Transport of hormones
Lipid-soluble require a protein carrier or a micelle/vesicle
Peptire hormones are water soluble and dissolve in the blood readily
Lipid-soluble hormones act almost exclusively by binding to a receptor on or inside the nucleus and act as TRANSCRIPTION FACTORS.
Peptide hormones act at a variety of cell locations | <urn:uuid:f68752db-e3a9-49bc-98e7-f1704220f0f3> | {
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Our main goal is keeping kids safe online while encouraging them to be educated and savvy digital citizens. We realize parents and educators everywhere are concerned about how best to keep their children safe online. Below are some helpful tools to get the conversation started and help both adults and kids better understand the best ways to stay safe and secure online.
Information for Parents to help keep their family safe online.
The nature of evolving technology sees the emergence of new trends and behavior among young people and new efforts by government and industry to combat harmful behaviors. FOSI provides periodic information to keep you informed about these issues.
The Global Resource & Information Directory (GRID) provides information on the state of online safety around the world. On an individual country basis it details online safety initiatives, education and legislation along with a family online safety directory.
FOSI provides a directory detailing point of contact, by country, for the reporting of illegal material found on the Internet.
FOSI provides a compendium of websites covering Internet safety arranged by country. | <urn:uuid:38744ad6-51c7-4439-a659-2eb947aee6ec> | {
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Caring for Your Joints
Eating Right Nourishes Joints
A healthy, balanced diet helps build strong bones. Strong bones can keep you on your feet, and prevent falls that may lead to joint damage. Make sure you get plenty of calcium every day. You can do this by eating foods such as yogurt, broccoli, kale, figs, and dairy if you don't have a dairy intolerance or allergy. If those foods don't tempt your taste buds, ask your doctor if calcium supplements are right for you.
Recent research indicates that a diet that contains the proper amount of vitamin D is important for good bone and joint health. Adequate vitamin D allows calcium from the foods you eat to be readily absorbed, so you may not need calcium supplements. You should ask your doctor about the proper amount of vitamin D and ways you can get it.
Oranges may also give your joints a healthy boost. Some studies suggest that vitamin C and other antioxidants can help reduce the risk of osteoarthritis.
Salmon is particularly beneficial for your joints. Not only is it a good source of calcium, it also contains omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s promote healthy joints and reduce joint pain and swelling in people with arthritis. Mackerel is another source of omega-3s. You can also get omega-3s by taking good fish oil capsules. Read the label for how much Omega 3’s are in them. | <urn:uuid:b9bcf145-b268-4609-9341-04a8a6df8267> | {
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1. What is a confidence interval? How do you properly interpret the level of confidence, 1 – a? 2. How does the t ‐distribution differ from the standard normal distribution? 3. When is it important to apply the finite population correction factor to the standard error when developing confidence intervals? 4. Summarize the different types of confidence intervals that one may construct, and provide a practical application for each. | <urn:uuid:517bedcf-0d68-4400-a041-1cb74c013e9b> | {
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The Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests extend from north central Colorado to central Wyoming. The national forests encompass portions of many mountain ranges, including Gore Range, Flat Tops, Parks Range, Elkhead, Medicine Bow Mountains, Sierra Madre, and Laramie Range. The national forests provide year-round recreation opportunities for thousands of people. They also provide wildlife habitat, timber, and forage for livestock and are a vital source of water for irrigation, domestic use, and industry. The topography varies greatly within the national forests. Elevation ranges from 5,500 to 12,940 feet. The climate ranges from semi-arid at low elevations to colder and less arid in the high country. Frost may occur at any time, and visitors to the higher elevations should be prepared for harsh weather, including snow and high winds, even during the summer months. National Grassland is located in northeastern Wyoming in the Powder River Basin between the Big Horn Mountains and the Black Hills. Elevation on the national grassland ranges from 3,600 to 5,200 feet, and the climate is semi-arid. The national grassland provides unique opportunities for recreation, including hiking, sightseeing, hunting, and fishing. There are no developed campgrounds; however, dispersed camping is allowed. The national grassland abounds with wildlife year-round, provides forage for livestock, and is underlain with vast mineral resources. Land patterns are very complex because federal, state, and private lands are intermingled. The Douglas Ranger District administers the Thunder Basin National Grassland.
Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest and Thunder Basin Grassland
- Category > Outdoor Activities
- City > Saratoga
- Region > Southeast Wyoming
- Deals (0)
- Events (0)
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There are lots of ways to make money: You can earn it, find it, counterfeit it, steal it. Or, if you’re Satoshi Nakamoto, a preternaturally talented computer coder, you can invent it. That’s what he did on the evening of January 3, 2009, when he pressed a button on his keyboard and created a new currency called bitcoin. It was all bit and no coin. There was no paper, copper, or silver—just thirty-one thousand lines of code and an announcement on the Internet.
Nakamoto, who claimed to be a thirty-six-year-old Japanese man, said he had spent more than a year writing the software, driven in part by anger over the recent financial crisis. He wanted to create a currency that was impervious to unpredictable monetary policies as well as to the predations of bankers and politicians. Nakamoto’s invention was controlled entirely by software, which would release a total of twenty-one million bitcoins, almost all of them over the next twenty years. Every ten minutes or so, coins would be distributed through a process that resembled a lottery. Miners—people seeking the coins—would play the lottery again and again; the fastest computer would win the most money.
Interest in Nakamoto’s invention built steadily. More and more people dedicated their computers to the lottery, and forty-four exchanges popped up, allowing anyone with bitcoins to trade them for official currencies like dollars or euros. Creative computer engineers could mine for bitcoins; anyone could buy them. At first, a single bitcoin was valued at less than a penny. But merchants gradually began to accept bitcoins, and at the end of 2010 their value began to appreciate rapidly. By June of 2011, a bitcoin was worth more than twenty-nine dollars. Market gyrations followed, and by September the exchange rate had fallen to five dollars. Still, with more than seven million bitcoins in circulation, Nakamoto had created thirty-five million dollars of value.
And yet Nakamoto himself was a cipher. Before the début of bitcoin, there was no record of any coder with that name. He used an e-mail address and a Web site that were untraceable. In 2009 and 2010, he wrote hundreds of posts in flawless English, and though he invited other software developers to help him improve the code, and corresponded with them, he never revealed a personal detail. Then, in April, 2011, he sent a note to a developer saying that he had “moved on to other things.” He has not been heard from since.
When Nakamoto disappeared, hundreds of people posted theories about his identity and whereabouts. Some wanted to know if he could be trusted. Might he have created the currency in order to hoard coins and cash out? “We can effectively think of ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ as being on top of a Ponzi scheme,” George Ou, a blogger and technology commentator, wrote.
It appeared, though, that Nakamoto was motivated by politics, not crime. He had introduced the currency just a few months after the collapse of the global banking sector, and published a five-hundred-word essay about traditional fiat, or government-backed, currencies. “The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work,” he wrote. “The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve.”
Banks, however, do much more than lend money to overzealous homebuyers. They also, for example, monitor payments so that no one can spend the same dollar twice. Cash is immune to this problem: you can’t give two people the same bill. But with digital currency there is the danger that someone can spend the same money any number of times.
Nakamoto solved this problem using innovative cryptography. The bitcoin software encrypts each transaction—the sender and the receiver are identified only by a string of numbers—but a public record of every coin’s movement is published across the entire network. Buyers and sellers remain anonymous, but everyone can see that a coin has moved from A to B, and Nakamoto’s code can prevent A from spending the coin a second time.
Nakamoto’s software would allow people to send money directly to each other, without an intermediary, and no outside party could create more bitcoins. Central banks and governments played no role. If Nakamoto ran the world, he would have just fired Ben Bernanke, closed the European Central Bank, and shut down Western Union. “Everything is based on crypto proof instead of trust,” Nakamoto wrote in his 2009 essay.
Bitcoin, however, was doomed if the code was unreliable. Earlier this year, Dan Kaminsky, a leading Internet-security researcher, investigated the currency and was sure he would find major weaknesses. Kaminsky is famous among hackers for discovering, in 2008, a fundamental flaw in the Internet which would have allowed a skilled coder to take over any Web site or even to shut down the Internet. Kaminsky alerted the Department of Homeland Security and executives at Microsoft and Cisco to the problem and worked with them to patch it. He is one of the most adept practitioners of “penetration testing,” the art of compromising the security of computer systems at the behest of owners who want to know their vulnerabilities. Bitcoin, he felt, was an easy target.
“When I first looked at the code, I was sure I was going to be able to break it,” Kaminsky said, noting that the programming style was dense and inscrutable. “The way the whole thing was formatted was insane. Only the most paranoid, painstaking coder in the world could avoid making mistakes.”
Kaminsky lives in Seattle, but, while visiting family in San Francisco in July, he retreated to the basement of his mother’s house to work on his bitcoin attacks. In a windowless room jammed with computers, Kaminsky paced around talking to himself, trying to build a mental picture of the bitcoin network. He quickly identified nine ways to compromise the system and scoured Nakamoto’s code for an insertion point for his first attack. But when he found the right spot, there was a message waiting for him. “Attack Removed,” it said. The same thing happened over and over, infuriating Kaminsky. “I came up with beautiful bugs,” he said. “But every time I went after the code there was a line that addressed the problem.”
He was like a burglar who was certain that he could break into a bank by digging a tunnel, drilling through a wall, or climbing down a vent, and on each attempt he discovered a freshly poured cement barrier with a sign telling him to go home. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Kaminsky said, still in awe.
Kaminsky ticked off the skills Nakamoto would need to pull it off. “He’s a world-class programmer, with a deep understanding of the C++ programming language,” he said. “He understands economics, cryptography, and peer-to-peer networking.”
“Either there’s a team of people who worked on this,” Kaminsky said, “or this guy is a genius.”
Kaminsky wasn’t alone in this assessment. Soon after creating the currency, Nakamoto posted a nine-page technical paper describing how bitcoin would function. That document included three references to the work of Stuart Haber, a researcher at H.P. Labs, in Princeton. Haber is a director of the International Association for Cryptologic Research and knew all about bitcoin. “Whoever did this had a deep understanding of cryptography,” Haber said when I called. “They’ve read the academic papers, they have a keen intelligence, and they’re combining the concepts in a genuinely new way.”
Haber noted that the community of cryptographers is very small: about three hundred people a year attend the most important conference, the annual gathering in Santa Barbara. In all likelihood, Nakamoto belonged to this insular world. If I wanted to find him, the Crypto 2011 conference would be the place to start.
“Here we go, team!” a cheerleader shouted before two burly guys heaved her into the air.
It was a foggy Monday morning in mid-August, and dozens of college cheerleaders had gathered on the athletic fields of the University of California at Santa Barbara for a three-day training camp. Their hollering could be heard on the steps of a nearby lecture hall, where a group of bleary-eyed cryptographers, dressed in shorts and rumpled T-shirts, muttered about symmetric-key ciphers over steaming cups of coffee.
This was Crypto 2011, and the list of attendees included representatives from the National Security Agency, the U.S. military, and an assortment of foreign governments. Cryptographers are little known outside this hermetic community, but our digital safety depends on them. They write the algorithms that conceal bank files, military plans, and your e-mail.
I approached Phillip Rogaway, the conference’s program chair. He is a friendly, diminutive man who is a professor of cryptography at the University of California at Davis and who has also taught at Chiang Mai University, in Thailand. He bowed when he shook my hand, and I explained that I was trying to learn more about what it would take to create bitcoin. “The people who know how to do that are here,” Rogaway said. “It’s likely I either know the person or know their work.” He offered to introduce me to some of the attendees.
Nakamoto had good reason to hide: people who experiment with currency tend to end up in trouble. In 1998, a Hawaiian resident named Bernard von NotHaus began fabricating silver and gold coins that he dubbed Liberty Dollars. Nine years later, the U.S. government charged NotHaus with “conspiracy against the United States.” He was found guilty and is awaiting sentencing. “It is a violation of federal law for individuals . . . to create private coin or currency systems to compete with the official coinage and currency of the United States,” the F.B.I. announced at the end of the trial.
Online currencies aren’t exempt. In 2007, the federal government filed charges against e-Gold, a company that sold a digital currency redeemable for gold. The government argued that the project enabled money laundering and child pornography, since users did not have to provide thorough identification. The company’s owners were found guilty of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business and the C.E.O. was sentenced to months of house arrest. The company was effectively shut down.
Nakamoto seemed to be doing the same things as these other currency developers who ran afoul of authorities. He was competing with the dollar and he insured the anonymity of users, which made bitcoin attractive for criminals. This winter, a Web site was launched called Silk Road, which allowed users to buy and sell heroin, LSD, and marijuana as long as they paid in bitcoin.
Still, Lewis Solomon, a professor emeritus at George Washington University Law School, who has written about alternative currencies, argues that creating bitcoin might be legal. “Bitcoin is in a gray area, in part because we don’t know whether it should be treated as a currency, a commodity like gold, or possibly even a security,” he says.
Gray areas, however, are dangerous, which may be why Nakamoto constructed bitcoin in secret. It may also explain why he built the code with the same peer-to-peer technology that facilitates the exchange of pirated movies and music: users connect with each other instead of with a central server. There is no company in control, no office to raid, and nobody to arrest.
Today, bitcoins can be used online to purchase beef jerky and socks made from alpaca wool. Some computer retailers accept them, and you can use them to buy falafel from a restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen. In late August, I learned that bitcoins could also get me a room at a Howard Johnson hotel in Fullerton, California, ten minutes from Disneyland. I booked a reservation for my four-year-old daughter and me and received an e-mail from the hotel requesting a payment of 10.305 bitcoins.
By this time, it would have been pointless for me to play the bitcoin lottery, which is set up so that the difficulty of winning increases the more people play it. When bitcoin launched, my laptop would have had a reasonable chance of winning from time to time. Now, however, the computing power dedicated to playing the bitcoin lottery exceeds that of the world’s most powerful supercomputer. So I set up an account with Mt. Gox, the leading bitcoin exchange, and transferred a hundred and twenty dollars. A few days later, I bought 10.305 bitcoins with the press of a button and just as easily sent them to the Howard Johnson.
It was a simple transaction that masked a complex calculus. In 1971, Richard Nixon announced that U.S. dollars could no longer be redeemed for gold. Ever since, the value of the dollar has been based on our faith in it. We trust that dollars will be valuable tomorrow, so we accept payment in dollars today. Bitcoin is similar: you have to trust that the system won’t get hacked, and that Nakamoto won’t suddenly emerge to somehow plunder it all. Once you believe in it, the actual cost of a bitcoin—five dollars or thirty?—depends on factors such as how many merchants are using it, how many might use it in the future, and whether or not governments ban it.
My daughter and I arrived at the Howard Johnson on a hot Friday afternoon and were met in the lobby by Jefferson Kim, the hotel’s cherubic twenty-eight-year-old general manager. “You’re the first person who’s ever paid in bitcoin,” he said, shaking my hand enthusiastically.
Kim explained that he had started mining bitcoins two months earlier. He liked that the currency was governed by a set of logical rules, rather than the mysterious machinations of the Federal Reserve. A dollar today, he pointed out, buys you what a nickel bought a century ago, largely because so much money has been printed. And, he asked, why trust a currency backed by a government that is fourteen trillion dollars in debt?
Kim had also figured that bitcoin mining would be a way to make up the twelve hundred dollars he’d spent on a high-performance gaming computer. So far, he’d made only four hundred dollars, but it was fun to be a pioneer. He wanted bitcoin to succeed, and in order for that to happen businesses needed to start accepting it.
The truth is that most people don’t spend the bitcoins they buy; they hoard them, hoping that they will appreciate. Businesses are afraid to accept them, because they’re new and weird—and because the value can fluctuate wildly. (Kim immediately exchanged the bitcoins I sent him for dollars to avoid just that risk.) Still, the currency is young and has several attributes that appeal to merchants. Robert Schwarz, the owner of a computer-repair business in Klamath Falls, Oregon, began selling computers for bitcoin to sidestep steep credit-card fees, which he estimates cost him three per cent on every transaction. “One bank called me saying they had the lowest fees,” Schwarz said. “I said, ‘No, you don’t. Bitcoin does.’ ” Because bitcoin transfers can’t be reversed, merchants also don’t have to deal with credit-card charge-backs from dissatisfied customers. Like cash, it’s gone once you part with it.
At the Howard Johnson, Kim led us to the check-in counter. The lobby featured imitation-crystal chandeliers, ornately framed oil paintings of Venice, and, inexplicably, a pair of faux elephant tusks painted gold. Kim explained that he hadn’t told his mother, who owned the place, that her hotel was accepting bitcoins: “It would be too hard to explain what a bitcoin is.” He said he had activated the tracking program on his mother’s Droid, and she was currently about six miles away. Today, at least, there was no danger of her finding out about her hotel’s financial innovation. The receptionist handed me a room card, and Kim shook my hand. “So just enjoy your stay,” he said.
Nakamoto’s extensive online postings have some distinctive characteristics. First of all, there is the flawless English. Over the course of two years, he dashed off about eighty thousand words—the approximate length of a novel—and made only a few typos. He covered topics ranging from the theories of the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises to the history of commodity markets. Perhaps most interestingly, when he created the first fifty bitcoins, now known as the “genesis block,” he permanently embedded a brief line of text into the data: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”
This is a reference to a Times of London article that indicated that the British government had failed to stimulate the economy. Nakamoto appeared to be saying that it was time to try something new. The text, hidden amid a jumble of code, was a sort of digital battle cry. It also indicated that Nakamoto read a British newspaper. He used British spelling (“favour,” “colour,” “grey,” “modernised”) and at one point described something as being “bloody hard.” An apartment was a “flat,” math was “maths,” and his comments tended to appear after normal business hours ended in the United Kingdom. In an initial post announcing bitcoin, he employed American-style spelling. But after that a British style appeared to flow naturally.
I had this in mind when I started to attend the lectures at the Crypto 2011 conference, including ones with titles such as “Leftover Hash Lemma, Revisited” and “Time-Lock Puzzles in the Random Oracle Model.” In the back of a darkened auditorium, I stared at the attendee list. A Frenchman onstage was talking about testing the security of encryption systems. The most effective method, he said, is to attack the system and see if it fails. I ran my finger past dozens of names and addresses, circling residents of the United Kingdom and Ireland. There were nine.
I soon discovered that six were from the University of Bristol, and they were all together at one of the conference’s cocktail parties. They were happy to chat but entirely dismissive of bitcoin, and none had worked with peer-to-peer technology. “It’s not at all interesting to us,” one of them said. The two other cryptographers from Britain had no history with large software projects. Then I started looking into a man named Michael Clear.
Clear was a young graduate student in cryptography at Trinity College in Dublin. Many of the other research students at Trinity posted profile pictures and phone numbers, but Clear’s page just had an e-mail address. A Web search turned up three interesting details. In 2008, Clear was named the top computer-science undergraduate at Trinity. The next year, he was hired by Allied Irish Banks to improve its currency-trading software, and he co-authored an academic paper on peer-to-peer technology. The paper employed British spelling. Clear was well versed in economics, cryptography, and peer-to-peer networks.
I e-mailed him, and we agreed to meet the next morning on the steps outside the lecture hall. Shortly after the appointed time, a long-haired, square-jawed young man in a beige sweater walked up to me, looking like an early-Zeppelin Robert Plant. With a pronounced brogue, he introduced himself. “I like to keep a low profile,” he said. “I’m curious to know how you found me.”
I told him I had read about his work for Allied Irish, as well as his paper on peer-to-peer technology, and was interested because I was researching bitcoin. I said that his work gave him a unique insight into the subject. He was wearing rectangular Armani glasses and squinted so much I couldn’t see his eyes.
“My area of focus right now is fully homomorphic encryption,” he said. “I haven’t been following bitcoin lately.”
He responded calmly to my questions. He was twenty-three years old and studied theoretical cryptography by himself in Dublin—there weren’t any other cryptographers at Trinity. But he had been programming computers since he was ten and he could code in a variety of languages, including C++, the language of bitcoin. Given that he was working in the banking industry during tumultuous times, I asked how he felt about the ongoing economic crisis. “It could have been averted,” he said flatly.
He didn’t want to say whether or not the new currency could prevent future banking crises. “It needs to prove itself,” he said. “But it’s an intriguing idea.”
I told him I had been looking for Nakamoto and thought that he might be here at the Crypto 2011 conference. He said nothing. Finally, I asked, “Are you Satoshi?”
He laughed, but didn’t respond. There was an awkward silence.
“If you’d like, I’d be happy to review the design for you,” he offered instead. “I could let you know what I think.”
“Sure,” I said hesitantly. “Do you need me to send you a link to the code?”
“I think I can find it,” he said.
Soon after I met Clear, I travelled to Glasgow, Kentucky, to see what bitcoin mining looked like. As I drove into the town of fourteen thousand, I passed shuttered factories and a central square lined with empty storefronts. On Howdy 106.5, a local radio station, a man tried to sell his bed, his television, and his basset hound—all for a hundred and ten dollars.
I had come to visit Kevin Groce, a forty-two-year-old bitcoin miner. His uncles had a garbage-hauling business and had let him set up his operation at their facility. The dirt parking lot was jammed with garbage trucks, which reeked in the summer sun.
“I like to call it the new moonshining,” Groce said, in a smooth Kentucky drawl, as he led me into a darkened room. One wall was lined with four-foot-tall homemade computers with blinking green and red lights. The processors inside were working so hard that their temperature had risen to a hundred and seventy degrees, and heat radiated into the room. Each system was a jumble of wires and hacked-together parts, with a fan from Walmart duct-taped to the top. Groce had built them three months earlier, for four thousand dollars. Ever since, they had generated a steady flow of bitcoins, which Groce exchanged for dollars, averaging about a thousand per month so far. He figured his investment was going to pay off.
Groce was wiry, with wisps of gray in his hair, and he split his time between working on his dad’s farm, repairing laptops at a local computer store, and mining bitcoin. Groce’s father didn’t understand Kevin’s enthusiasm for the new currency and expected him to take over the farm. “If it’s not attached to a cow, my dad doesn’t think much of it,” Groce said.
Groce was engaged to be married, and planned to use some of his bitcoin earnings to pay for a wedding in Las Vegas later in the year. He had tried to explain to his fiancée how they could afford it, but she doubted the financial prudence of filling a room with bitcoin-mining rigs. “She gets to cussing every time we talk about it,” Groce confided. Still, he was proud of the powerful computing center he had constructed. The machines ran non-stop, and he could control them remotely from his iPhone. The arrangement allowed him to cut tobacco with his father and monitor his bitcoin operation at the same time.
Nakamoto knew that competition for bitcoins would eventually lead people to build these kinds of powerful computing clusters. Rather than let that effort go to waste, he designed software that uses the processing power of the lottery players to confirm and verify transactions. As people like Groce try to win bitcoins, their computers are harnessed to analyze transactions and insure that no one spends money twice. In other words, Groce’s backwoods operation functioned as a kind of bank.
Groce, however, didn’t look like a guy Wells Fargo would hire. He liked to stay up late at the garbage-hauling center and thrash through Black Sabbath tunes on his guitar. He gave all his computers pet names, like Topper and the Dazzler, and, between guitar solos, tended to them as if they were prize animals. “I grew up milking cows,” Groce said. “Now I’m just milking these things.”
A week after the Crypto 2011 conference, I received an e-mail from Clear. He said that he would send me his thoughts on bitcoin in a day. He added, “I also think I can identify Satoshi.”
The next morning, Clear sent a lengthy e-mail. “It is apparent that the person(s) behind the Satoshi name accumulated a not insignificant knowledge of applied cryptography,” he wrote, adding that the design was “elegant” and required “considerable effort and dedication, and programming proficiency.” But Clear also described some of bitcoin’s weaknesses. He pointed out that users were expected to download their own encryption software to secure their virtual wallets. Clear felt that the bitcoin software should automatically provide such security. He also worried about the system’s ability to grow and the fact that early adopters received an outsized share of bitcoins.
“As far as the identity of the author, it would be unfair to publish an identity when the person or persons has/have taken major steps to remain anonymous,” he wrote. “But you may wish to talk to a certain individual who matches the profile of the author on many levels.”
He then gave me a name.
For a few seconds, all I could hear on the other end of the line was laughter.
“I would love to say that I’m Satoshi, because bitcoin is very clever,” Vili Lehdonvirta said, finally. “But it’s not me.”
Lehdonvirta is a thirty-one-year-old Finnish researcher at the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology. Clear had discovered that Lehdonvirta used to be a video-game programmer and now studies virtual currencies. Clear suggested that he was a solid fit for Nakamoto.
Lehdonvirta, however, pointed out that he has no background in cryptography and limited C++ programming skills. “You need to be a crypto expert to build something as sophisticated as bitcoin,” Lehdonvirta said. “There aren’t many of those people, and I’m definitely not one of them.”
Still, Lehdonvirta had researched bitcoin and worried about it. “The only people who need cash in large denominations right now are criminals,” he said, pointing out that cash is hard to move around and store. Bitcoin removes those obstacles while preserving the anonymity of cash. Lehdonvirta is on the advisory board of Electronic Frontier Finland, an organization that advocates for online privacy, among other things. Nonetheless, he believes that bitcoin takes privacy too far. “Only anarchists want absolute, unbreakable financial privacy,” he said. “We need to have a back door so that law enforcement can intercede.”
But Lehdonvirta admitted that it’s hard to stop new technology, particularly when it has a compelling story. And part of what attracts people to bitcoin, he said, is the mystery of Nakamoto’s true identity. “Having a mythical background is an excellent marketing trick,” Lehdonvirta said.
A few days later, I spoke with Clear again. “Did you find Satoshi?” he asked cheerfully.
I told him that Lehdonvirta had made a convincing denial, and that every other lead I’d been working on had gone nowhere. I then took one more opportunity to question him and to explain all the reasons that I suspected his involvement. Clear responded that his work for Allied Irish Banks was brief and of “no importance.” He admitted that he was a good programmer, understood cryptography, and appreciated the bitcoin design. But, he said, economics had never been a particular interest of his. “I’m not Satoshi,” Clear said. “But even if I was I wouldn’t tell you.”
The point, Clear continued, is that Nakamoto’s identity shouldn’t matter. The system was built so that we don’t have to trust an individual, a company, or a government. Anybody can review the code, and the network isn’t controlled by any one entity. That’s what inspires confidence in the system. Bitcoin, in other words, survives because of what you can see and what you can’t. Users are hidden, but transactions are exposed. The code is visible to all, but its origins are mysterious. The currency is both real and elusive—just like its founder.
“You can’t kill it,” Clear said, with a touch of bravado. “Bitcoin would survive a nuclear attack.”
Over the summer, bitcoin actually experienced a sort of nuclear attack. Hackers targeted the burgeoning currency, and though they couldn’t break Nakamoto’s code, they were able to disrupt the exchanges and destroy Web sites that helped users store bitcoins. The number of transactions decreased and the exchange rate plummeted. Commentators predicted the end of bitcoin. In September, however, volume began to increase again, and the price stabilized, at least temporarily.
Meanwhile, in Kentucky, Kevin Groce added two new systems to his bitcoin-mining operation at the garbage depot and planned to build a dozen more. Ricky Wells, his uncle and a co-owner of the garbage business, had offered to invest thirty thousand dollars, even though he didn’t understand how bitcoin worked. “I’m just a risk-taking son of a bitch and I know this thing’s making money,” Wells said. “Plus, these things are so damn hot they’ll heat the whole building this winter.”
To Groce, bitcoin was an inevitable evolution in money. People use printed money less and less as it is, he said. Consumers need something like bitcoin to take its place. “It’s like eight-tracks going to cassettes to CDs and now MP3s,” he said.
Even though his friends and most of his relatives questioned his enthusiasm, Groce didn’t hide his confidence. He liked to wear a T-shirt he designed that had the words “Bitcoin Millionaire” emblazoned in gold on the chest. He admitted that people made fun of him for it. “My fiancée keeps saying she’d rather I was just a regular old millionaire,” he said. “But maybe I will be someday, if these rigs keep working for me.” ♦ | <urn:uuid:f1b028e1-6b82-4c57-9330-0ebb8ab889b6> | {
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Margaret Thatcher, one of the most notable British politicians of all time, had famously predicted: “There will never be a female prime minister in my lifetime.” Little did she know that just a few years later, she would be the one proving herself wrong.
Britain has always been a culture comfortable with matriarchy. Victoria and both Elizabeths remain our most cherished monarchs, and The Iron Lady, as Margaret Thatcher came to be known, was regarded somewhat regally herself. Today, no politician polarizes debate more fiercely; but whether you loved her or hated her, nobody would forget or ignore her.
Margaret Thatcher was infamously pragmatic when it came to her achievements in politics. She eschewed feminism and did nothing to actively help the careers of other women in politics. Yet in doing so, she perhaps did something of even greater importance; set an example for other women to look up to.
Say what you want about Margaret Thatcher, but everything she achieved in politics she achieved herself; and that is the sort of woman who deserves success in politics.
In our modern era, too many people complain about the lack of women in positions of political authority, but their short-sighted efforts to redress that balance undermine their position, rather than strengthen it.
In Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair appointed female-only candidates during the election to get more women into parliament; but they were derided as “Blair’s babes” and mocked for having been given their positions due to their gender, rather than having earned them do to their skills and tenacity as politicians.
In America, feminists decry successful female politicians like Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin; yet they managed to achieve notable things without relying on efforts to “balance” the system. In contrast, the most famous female Democrat, Hilary Clinton, built her entire political career off the back of sharing her last name with a popular former president.
Margaret Thatcher asked for no special treatment, and got none. She rose from being a humble shop-keeper’s daughter to being the most infamous woman in modern political history without anybody giving her special opportunities because she was a woman.
She swam in the waters of politics when it was even more fiercely a “man’s world” and didn't just survive, but thrive. She beat the men at their own game, on a level playing field, and that means her political legacy means more than any female politician who’s come since. | <urn:uuid:53dd8680-4d1b-46b1-bff5-0b7239552239> | {
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This week, The Art Fix is focusing on Georgia O’Keeffe and her legacy to Art. Georgia O’Keeffe was an American painter born in 1887. Strict and self-disciplined, she knew that she was going to be a painter since she was a kid. Her formal art training at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago was not ideal.
“I was taught to paint like other people and I knew that I’d never paint as well as the person that I was taught to paint like. ”Georgia O’Keeffe
It’s hard to find this level of self-knowledge, let alone in a young artist. Georgia O’Keeffe was self-assured and hard-working. No wonder she was so successful. Her large scale flower paintings like Light Iris (pictured above) are little (or should I say big?) modernist miracles.Embed from Getty Images
Even though, flowers were a very common theme for women artists at the time, Georgia O’Keeffe would have hated to be limited by her female identity. In fact, the constant sexualization of her paintings by many art critics and her own peers, including her life companion, Alfred Stieglitz, drove her decision to start expanding her work to themes such as New York.
As you can see in Light Iris, O’Keeffe was a master of colouring. Along with that, she was excellent at transforming a simple subject matter such as a flower to impressive abstracts who transcend the basic reproduction of an image often found in nature that most of us would have tried to create. This is only one of the three works by Georgia O’Keeffe that we are going to showcase this week. Stay tuned for the other two, coming on Wednesday and Friday. If you like our content, make sure to subscribe by filling in the form below so that you can be notified for every new article we post! | <urn:uuid:6ef5581d-9b03-4bb7-92f2-1601b6ba1d99> | {
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Superstars of STEM: Searching for the secrets of marsupial pregnancy
Tamara Keeley leads a team looking for hormonal changes to improve captive breeding programs. Dion Pretorius reports.
When an animal becomes pregnant, hormonal changes in its body help to prepare for the development, growth, and birth of a baby. If these hormone fluctuations can be detected, and are unique to pregnancy, then a test can be developed to detect them.
Humans take pregnancy tests for granted, but it turns out that ours is one of the few species for which it can be easily measured.
Marsupials pose a particular challenge, for example, because gestation can be as short as two weeks before an underdeveloped foetus is born – which then continues to grow in the pouch. This leaves precious little time for any hormone changes to be detected.
Tamara Keeley from Australia’s University of Queensland is one of the country’s leading experts in wildlife endocrinology and reproductive biology. She is working with her team to devise better techniques for detecting pregnancy is koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus), wombats (Vombatidae) and other marsupials.
“The most efficient way to detect pregnancy is through faecal or urine analysis, as it’s relatively easy to get samples when working with wild or captive animals,” Keeley says.
“It’s difficult to successfully breed some marsupials in captivity, so being able to determine when complications occur, when trying to get captive wildlife pregnant, makes it much easier to rectify the problem.”
Previously, Keeley worked with Tasmanian Devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) and found that the levels of a hormones in pregnant mothers’ faeces peaked towards the end of their gestation.
“Unfortunately, because the gestation of Tasmanian Devils is only 12 to 13 days, this happened in all females, even if they weren’t pregnant,” she explains.
“It is easier for the Tasmanian Devils’ reproductive system to assume pregnancy following every ovulation, as it is such a short gestation.
“As koalas have a gestation of 35 days, we hope that the longer time in the womb will mean we might be able to detect hormonal changes that are unique for pregnant mothers.”
Keeley’s student colleague, Jade Fernance, is looking to see whether pregnant koalas have unique changes in prostaglandin metabolite (PGFM) levels, a biomarker for pregnancy in many feline species.
“This will be a really exciting development for koala breeding,” says Fernance.
“As the koala foetus is so small, we can’t tell if koalas in our breeding program are not getting pregnant at all, or if they are giving birth and the foetus is lost at birth or dying in the pouch.
“Once we understand where it’s going wrong, we can work to fix it.”
Keeley says it’s often useful to look at other wildlife species for inspiration, because some might share similar reproductive and endocrine hormonal changes during pregnancy.
“We’re also looking for hormonal markers found in pregnant giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) to see whether there are similar indicators in wombats.
“With comparable gestation times and other similarities, we think there might be some promising avenues to explore.”
Tamara Keeley is among 30 Superstars of STEM featured in this weekly series prepared by Science & Technology Australia (STA) – to learn more about the program, visit the STA website. | <urn:uuid:71d9463b-f19c-4253-a68a-bedd068143d4> | {
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Zoos: Good or Bad?
Most of us have been to a zoo, wildlife park or aquarium at some point in our lifetime. We can remember the first time we saw a huge lion, a friendly river otter or a dolphin show. As a child, I remember going to the zoo and being a cat lover, I couldn’t wait to see the wild cats. My excitement was depleted when I got to the exhibit and saw the cramped cement quarters that the big cats were forced to live in. They all looked so miserable and I remember wanting to let them free. Hopefully many of you have not had this experience, but it calls into question whether zoos are a good endeavor or not.
If you talk to those in support of zoos, they will tell you that zoo conditions have significantly improved over the last few decades. Gone are the cramped cement enclosures and iron bars. Instead, many zoos have opted for natural barriers such as ditches or moats (Horton). Zookeepers and veterinarians realize that mimicking the animals’ natural habitat is best for their well-being and animal exhibits are spacious and well kept.
On the other hand, those against zoos, including PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), claim that animals belong in the wild and are not meant to be held captive in small spaces. Even though zoos have made improvements on living quarters, they claim it does not hold up to an animal’s real habitat. The animals cannot practice normal hunting or mating activities and lack privacy.
Zoo supporters often talk about the role zoos play in saving endangered
species. With captive breeding programs, zoos have been able to capture an animal on the brink of extinction, increase their numbers through captive breeding and then release them back into the wild. The California Condor is a great example species of a successful program. Low in numbers, the Los Angeles Zoo began with a few dozen birds and through successful breeding, was able to bring those numbers to over 170 (Horton). If zoos did not implement these programs, then many species would have gone extinct.
Zoo opponents are not so optimistic about the captive breeding programs. Of the hundreds of species that zoos are trying to save from extinction, only a few are successful. Because of low populations, many newborn animals have birth defects and are not able to survive in the wild. Despite the zoos best efforts, the captive breeding programs are only a small success.
Years ago, zoos and circuses used to capture animals from the wild to display to the
public. Nowadays, most zoos get their animals from captive breeding programs; animals that were born in captivity. Some animals are rescued from traveling circuses, while others are obtained from the wild because they are injured and would not survive otherwise. Orphaned animals are also taken in.
There are however zoos that do obtain animals illegally or unethically. Endangered species are sold in the black market to small petting zoos. These types of zoos are rare and should be avoided.
Those who support zoos also claim that the care of animals in zoos has changed for the better. Zoo keepers are learning that animals need very specific diets, enrichment activities and need to run, play and hunt. Many times you will see toys, balls, tires and many other stimuli that keep animals entertained. Management and care of the animals has also improved, with caring and knowledgeable zookeepers and veterinarians caring for each animal.
Opponents claim that there is no way that a captive lifestyle can be the same as living in the wild. Being unable to hunt, scavenge, run, mate, or hide, many animals get bored and can enter into a state of zoochosis, or a display or repetitive, often harmful behaviors. This can be seen as an elephant pacing, a lion constantly grooming itself, or a giraffe bobbing its head. Some animals will even begin self-mutilation. Many say that larger animals such as elephants are especially prone to developing these problems, and should not be held in zoos. Some zoos also do not have good management, and animal abuse and cruelty can be evident in bad zoos.
Zoo directors say that zoos play an important role in educating the public about wild animals, the environment and conservation. They provide a hands-on experience that get people excited about animals and nature. Schools take classes on field trips to zoos. If it wasn’t for zoos, most people would never see or learn about some wild animals. In order to conserve wild life, we must know about it first.
On the other hand, those against zoos say that zoos are merely for human entertainment and not much learning happens. People walking through zoos mostly talk about unrelated things and spend only a few minutes at each exhibit. If zoos teach anything, they are telling humans that animals are to be held captive to do tricks for humans.
What do I think? I believe the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Although I initially had a bad experience in zoos, I have recently had a very good experience, which leads me to believe that zoos can be good. A few years ago I had the opportunity to do an
internship at the Belize Zoo in Belize, Central America. Contrary to what many zoos are like in third world countries, this small zoo is very well kept, with caring zoo keepers who are concerned about the animals well being and educating the country about their wildlife. I had the chance to feed birds, deer, tapirs, jaguars, otters, snakes, and foxes. All animals in the zoo are native to the area, and are enclosed in large area with natural rainforest cover. The big attraction of the zoo is the jaguars, mostly obtained through the “Problem Jaguar Program”. Around the rainforest, farmers have problems with jaguars killing their chickens and cattle for an easy meal. If the jaguar is simply relocated it will normally continue this behavior. Since these jaguars would otherwise be killed, the zoo takes them in. Some of them become friendly enough to be displayed to the public. The success of this program has saved many jaguars, give zoologists the chance to study them, and has educated the public about this endangered species.
With the experiences that I have had, I believe that good zoos are good for the animals and the people. I am often surprised at how little people know about animals and nature, even the ones that are in their own environment. Zoos are important in educating people about animals and getting the public into conservation and caring for the environment. I believe that with better study and education, captive breeding programs will become more successful and zoos will save many more species from extinction. Enclosures will get even better with more space, and animals will begin to experience some of their natural tendencies as they did in the wild. I hope that zoos do not go away because nature and wildlife are so overlooked in this busy, stressful and complicated world we live in. Observing and learning from animals brings us back to our roots and makes life seem more simple.
Next Topic: How to save the Amazon Rainforest – buy a tree!
-Dixon, T. (2009) Zoos: Summary: Should we ban the keeping of animals in zoos? International debate education association http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_details.php?topicID=1
-Horton, J. Are zoos good or bad for animals? Animal Planet http://animals.howstuffworks.com/animal-facts/zoos-good-or-bad2.htm
-Are Zoos Cruel? The Pros and Cons of Zoos and Wildlife Parks. Ceraplast http://www.cereplast.com/are-zoos-cruel-the-pros-and-cons-of-zoos-and-wildlife-parks/ | <urn:uuid:45214a73-10ca-4d04-a4ab-2279e6ae9ade> | {
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Before I began teaching each group, I reminded students to raise their hands to contribute answers. Each group spent about 15 minutes with me. When not with me, each group played chess games supervised by the Chess Program Director.
Bishop Day for Beginners
Let’s try to move a bishop from one location to another in the fewest
number of moves. I called on students to give examples, using their words/notation of squares, with my moving the bishop following their words/notation on the demonstration board. For example, "How can you move a bishop from f1 to f5?" (Similar drill will be done for capturing on f5). The student should respond either, "Bf1-d3-f5" or "Bf1-h3-f5." After one of those possible best responses, I moved the bishop as indicated. I also introduced the Blindfold Square Game from Children and Chess: A Guide for Educators.
Practice: Then students partnered up to try moving the bishop and the blindfold square game with each other. One student chose a place for the bishop to be and a place for it to move to, and then announce those locations in algebraic notation to the second student. As an option, for those who want more challenge, the second student can turn his back. Then that second student had to say how to get the bishop from the first square to the second square. After statements are made, then the second student should actually move the bishop as he or she had previously said in notation. Likewise, the students played the blindfold square game in partners.
Bishop Day for Experienced Players
Bishop Maze. This lesson plan is in more detail in my book Science, Math, Checkmate: 32 Chess Activities for Inquiry and Problem Solving, Mazes and Monsters lesson activity. Briefly, in a bishop maze, the black pawns and pieces do not move. A white bishop captures one pawn on each move. I called on each child to say one move, in algebraic notation, for each move of the bishop maze on the demonstration board until all the black chessmen are captured. There will be as many black chessmen on the demonstration board as there are students in the experienced group.
Practice: Have the children set up bishop mazes for each other on their chess boards and play out those mazes.
Bishop Day for Advanced Players
I reviewed the two-rook checkmate, calling on students to play the correct rook moves in a lecture format.
Practice: For practice, students tried an Exercise 7 “Queen versus Rook and Bishop.” from Read, Write, Checkmate: Enrich Literacy with Chess Activities. Quoting that exercise:
Have pairs of students get out a board, a white queen, a black rook, and a black bishop. Each piece should be placed on its starting square. Start the white queen on d1, the black rook on h8 or a8, and the black bishop on f8 or c8. White moves first. MacEnulty (2006, p. 116) recommends, ‘Let the two players chase each other around the board.” White wins if the black rook and the black bishop are captured. Black wins if the white queen is captured. After trying this from both sides, ask students whether it was easier to play white or to play black. I also tested one student at a time on the two-rook checkmate. | <urn:uuid:89a4db69-44fa-4964-9d70-e0575f8c49eb> | {
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30 Sep 2016
CLIMATE CHANGE: RATIFICATION OF PARIS AGREEMENT – 30 SEPTEMBERBrussels Daily
Climate change: Council speeds up process for EU ratification of Paris agreement
On 30 September 2016, the Council agreed to speed up the process of ratification of the Paris Agreement. This agreement sets the framework for global action on climate change.
The Council decided to go ahead with ratification at EU level. Member states will ratify either together with the EU if they have completed their national procedures, or as soon as possible thereafter.
To open the way for EU ratification, ministers endorsed a Council decision on EU conclusion of the agreement and asked the European Parliament for its consent.
Once the European Parliament gives its green light, the decision on conclusion will be formally adopted by the Council. The EU will then be able to ratify the agreement.
The Slovak Minister for the Environment and president of the Council, László Sólymos said: “Today is an important day not only for our action on climate but also for unity we have demonstrated. This means that EU and its member states will add their weight to trigger the entry into force of the Paris Agreement. Europe has shown leadership in Paris and will participate in its implementation in Marrakesh. Action for climate remains essential for livelihood of our planet and future generations”.
Member states’ ratification
The Paris Agreement is a mixed agreement, which means that some of the issues it covers are the responsibility of the EU and others of member states. It therefore has to be ratified by both the EU and all 28 member states.
So far France, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia have completed their national ratification procedures and several others are very close to doing so.
Paris Agreement: entry into force
The agreement will enter into force 30 days after the ratification by at least 55 countries accounting for at least 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions. So far 61 countries have ratified, accounting for 47.79% of global emissions.
If the threshold is met by 7 October 2016, the agreement will enter into force in time for the beginning of Marrakesh UN climate change conference (COP22) on 7 November 2016. The first meeting of the parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) could therefore be convened during the conference. By ratifying the EU secures its full participation at this meeting. | <urn:uuid:f3286aed-8114-49e0-9c90-efd4c61668e7> | {
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Welcome to the Mystic Games Acupuncture and Acupressure section! Acupuncture is a form of surgical operation, performed by pricking the part affected with a needle. It has long been used by the Chinese in cases of headaches, lethargies, convulsions, colics, etc.
In China, acupuncture is known as zhen1 jiu3. Zhen means needle (i.e. to prick), jiu means to cauterize by burning a herb called moxa. The prick and burning complement each other in the treatment.
Traditional Chinese theory holds that acupuncture works by redirecting mystical qi or life energy in the body. In recent years there has been overwhelming evidence that acupuncture itself can be effective for treating pain. | <urn:uuid:b0660e5d-4e14-4130-8aef-1cdab0f6cf8d> | {
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Good craftsmen were appreciated in ancient Egypt. They
usually lived comfortable lives. But, craftsmen were not allowed to
sign their work. Still, word got around if someone had talent.
had a special way of drawing or painting people. You would be very
uncomfortable if you tried to stand in the same position artists
painted people. The Egyptians drew heads, eyes, legs, and feet as if
you were looking at them from the side. They drew shoulders and chests
as if you were looking at them from the front. (You can see this in
the picture at the top of this page.) It was uniquely Egyptian, and
very distinctive. Men were usually drawn with dark colors and women
with light colors. | <urn:uuid:48f94236-d90b-4930-891f-480a1373acf4> | {
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What is the difference between Electronic Signature and
Digital Signature is the subset of the Electronic Signatures.
Digital Signatures and Electronic Signatures have extremely
different security properties. An Electronic Signature
refers to a signature on an electronic document. It is
equivalent to handwritten signature on paper. As per the
Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) an electronic
signature is "an electronic sound, symbol, or process,
attached to or logically associated with a record and
executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign
the record". Digital Signatures leverage the underlying
PKI infrastructure to provide signing and encryption for
documents. While the PKI deals with creation of key pairs
and issue / management of digital certificates, digital
signature technology deals with use of these keys for
various security functions from within the applications.
4. What are the benefits
of using Digital Signatures to sign the electronic documents?
The Digital Signatures have various advantages over the
handwritten signatures. The digital signatures allow conversion
of processes and transactions to electronic mode thereby
reducing time, costs and efforts required for creating
and maintaining physical records. More importantly the
Digital Signatures are used for maintaining data integrity,
as the messages or documents cannot be changed after signing.
They also provide authentication, i.e. the receiver of
a document or communication is assured of the signer authenticity.
5. Are the Digital
Signatures as legally valid as the handwritten signatures?
If any changes are made to the electronically signed documents,
it immediately invalidates the signature. Digital Signatures
can be used to authenticate the source of messages, i.e.
to assure the receiver that the message has been sent
by the authorized source only as it protects the electronic
document from forgery.
What are the laws and standards pertaining to Digital
Signatures in different parts of the world?
Many countries have enacted laws and regulations related
to the electronic signatures and digital signatures. Many
laws have been enacted to promote the use of digital signatures.
E-Lock Digital Signature solutions are compliant with
these e-signatures laws.
US E-Sign Act
Use of S/MIME as a security measure for online communication
The Hetitleh Insurance Portability and Accountability
21 CFR Part 11(a regulation governing the use of electronic
signatures within the pharmaceutical industry)
Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)
Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA)
For more information, visit | <urn:uuid:ab3a9035-0444-4447-8989-b031d8c1665c> | {
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Advice for Handling Overcrowding
Bobee-Kay Clark, an elementary school teacher in Sparks, NV., has some experience with supersized classes—and she doesn’t expect to see her class numbers drastically reduced any time soon.
“The largest class roster I had was 54 students when I taught 6th grade music,” says Clark. “I currently teach second grade at a multi-track school built for 850 kids; our enrollment topped out at almost 1,200 a few years back. My clever, creative colleagues invented ways to turn closets into welcoming classrooms.”
She offers some practical advice for making your crowded classroom feel bigger:
• Use tables instead of desks.
• Use chair pockets for storage.
• Removable stick-em hooks and plastic milk crates make cheap improvised cubbies.
• Leave one wall completely blank. Yes, blank. Your students are as overwhelmed by all the bodies in the room as you are.
• Border chalkboards and whiteboards with twinkle lights. When the overcrowding gets too noisy, turn off the main lights, and turn on the twinkly lights; the students will quiet down.
• Use area rugs; they cut down noise and define tight spaces.
• Keep hand sanitizer at the door, and encourage folks to use it; praise students openly for sneezing into their elbows. (Swine flu, anyone?)
• Keep houseplants about the room to keep the air fresh.
• Think of your room in levels. Use the space above the students, and under their desks.
• Declutter and simplify. | <urn:uuid:753611cc-e7fb-4423-9b18-878496e416d3> | {
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Many people love eating tofu because of its high protein content and other healthy claims about it. Unfortunately, the soy industry has been continuously brainwashing people and making them believe that soy is good to the health.
Now there where studies that proves that soy and tofu are not good to the health. Tofu contains protein but this protein is not properly absorbed by the body. And also there were reports that high tofu consumption may cause brain damage and other brain problems. Tofu is none fermented soy that contains phytoestrogen that causes vascular dementia.
Given that estrogens are important for maintenance of brain function in women; that the male brain contains aromatase, the enzyme that converts testosterone to estradiol; and that isoflavones inhibit this enzymatic activity (Irvine, 1998), there is a mechanistic basis for the human findings. Given the great difficulty in discerning the relationship between exposures and long latency adverse effects in the human population (Sheehan, 1998b), and the potential mechanistic explanation for the epidemiological findings, this is an important study.
As mentioned in the natural health article of Dr. Mercola, here are the bad effects of eating tofu (Soy):
- Increase thyroid damage, especially in women
- Increase the risk of breast cancer in women, brain damage in both sexes, and cause abnormalities in infants
- Contribute to thyroid disorders, especially in women
- Promote kidney stones
- Weaken your immune system
- Cause severe, potentially fatal food allergies
And he also advised that if we would like to eat soy we should have fermented soy like tempeh, miso, natto and soybean sprouts. | <urn:uuid:5546c28a-606e-43be-a682-4ce90af0faf7> | {
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The disease causes them blindness, sterility and death; no treatment for these marsupials.
AUSTRALIA – A nauseating smell is in the air when Robyn Sherwood, a 12-year old female koala, is directed to a room on the first Australian hospital for these marsupials.
At first glance the animal appears healthy. But the examination reveals that she has “wet buttocks”, a chlamydia infection signal that can cause blindness, sterility and even death.
There is no treatment for this sexually transmitted disease (STD) that can wreak havoc on these animals. Robyn has all the signs of an advanced stage and are thought to die within a few months.
Recent outbreaks of chlamydia infection are due in part to humans invading the territory of the koalas, says Cheyne Flanagan, director of the koala’s hospital of Port Macquarie.
“Animals are under pressure, they are forced to live closer to each other, which increases the interactions between individuals” and carries risks of contagion. The rivalry for territory and food increases stress, damaging the immune system.
A dire outlook of koalas on the east coast of Australia suffering dog attacks, the effects of climate change the outrages of cars.
When the first British settlers arrived in the country in 1788, there were more than 10 million koalas. As they live on top of the trees it is difficult to count, but the scientific committee of threatened species estimated them to be around 188,000 in 2010.
In some areas of Queensland they have disappeared, according to a recent study. In this state, as in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, they are considered a “vulnerable” species.
Damien Higgins, director of the koalas unit at the University of Sydney, said that he is not optimistic on the future of koalas. He is said that pressures persist, development continues, there will be so many people who want to live where koalas and exploit mines where koalas live, there will be problems.
Australian koalas are exposed to Chlamydia infections more than humans. According to recent studies, these infections can come from a strain of the bacteria present in the cattle brought by settlers two centuries ago.
A slow death
Koalas hospital, which opened in Port Macquarie in 1973, has in recent years had a change in patients. According to Flanagan, marsupials are increasingly elderly and less, followed by dying.
Urbanization reduces their territory and koalas have to travel more and more distance to be established. “It’s slow death,” says Flanagan.
A difficult issue to manage in areas with high growth, recognizes mayor Peter Besseling. “People want to live near the coast and we have to find ways to protect koalas long term,” he says.
The idea of distributing in the territory, taking them to other areas abound where they are threatened is not viable.
So, researchers study diseases that these animals suffer in an attempt to improve the chances of survival. It is not a magic wand; the problem remains unresolved. | <urn:uuid:5bf103c9-d118-4815-b62c-9a2f5c22e78d> | {
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Separate insurance contracts (i.e., insurance policies not bundled with loans or other kinds of contracts) were invented in Genoa in the 14th century, as were insurance pools backed by pledges of landed estates. The first known insurance contract dates from Genoa in 1347, and in the next century maritime insurance developed widely and premiums were intuitively varied with risks. These new insurance contracts allowed insurance to be separated from investment, a separation of roles that first proved useful in marine insurance.
The cost of insurance is on the rise: the price for auto insurance rose 3.6% between 2011 and 2012, and 3.1% for homeowners and renter’s insurance, according to the Insurance Information Institute. In fact, auto liability insurance premiums alone have been increasing by 2.8% annually for the past three years. This makes choosing the right coverage and provider all the more crucial to save money without sacrificing important aspects of coverage. | <urn:uuid:74e21685-3a72-47ac-8a48-c793220820e9> | {
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A multidisciplinary group of researchers from Finland (University of Turku and University of Helsinki) and Sweden (University of Skφvde) has now found evidence that hypnotic suggestion can modify processing of a targeted stimulus before it reaches consciousness. The experiments show that it is possible to hypnotically modulate even highly automatic features of perception, such as color experience. The results are presented in two articles published in PLoS ONE and International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis.
The nature of hypnotically suggested changes in perception has been one of the main topics of controversy during the history of hypnosis. The major current theories of hypnosis hold that we always actively use our own imagination to bring about the effects of a suggestion. For example the occurrence of visual hallucinations always requires active use of goal directed imagery and can be experienced both with and without hypnosis.
The study published in PLoS ONE was done with two very highly hypnotizable participants who can be hypnotized and dehypnotized by just using a one-word cue. The researchers measured brains oscillatory activity from the EEG in response to briefly displayed series of red or blue shapes (squares, triangles or circles). The participants were hypnotized and given a suggestion that certain shapes always have a certain color (e.g. all squares are always red). Participant TS-H reported constantly experiencing a change in color immediately when a suggested shape appeared on the screen (e.g. seeing a red square when the real color was blue). The researchers found that this experience was accompanied with enhanced high-frequency brain activity already 1/10 second after the stimulus appeared and it was only seen in response to the shapes mentioned in the suggestion. The second participant did not experience the color change or the enhanced activity. However, she reported a peculiar feeling when a suggestion-relevant shape was presented: "sometimes I saw a shape that was red but my brain told me it had a different color."
This enhanced oscillatory brain activity is proposed to reflect automatic comparison of input to memory representations. In this case the hypnotic suggestion "all squares are red" led to a memory trace that was automatically activated when a square was presented. Furthermore, for the participant TS-H the effect was strong enough to override the real color of the square. The matching must have occurred preconsciously because of the early timing of the effect and the immediacy of the color change. Also, both participants reported having performed under posthypnotic amnesia without conscious memory of the suggestions.
In the article published in International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis TS-H was tested in a similar type of setting, however, only behavioral data, including accuracy and response times in color recognition, were collected. These results further support that a hypnotic suggestion affects her color perception of targeted objects before she becomes conscious of them. Furthermore, TS-H was not capable of changing her experience of visually presented stable images without the use of hypnotic suggestions i.e. by using mere mental imagery.
Importantly, both of these experiments were done by using a posthypnotic suggestion. The effect was suggested during hypnosis but the experience was suggested to occur after hypnosis. Thus all the experiments were carried out while participants were in their normal state of consciousness.
This result indicates that all hypnotic responding can no longer be regarded merely as goal directed mental imagery. It shows that in hypnosis it is possible to create a memory trace that influences early and preconscious stages of visual processing already about 1/10 second after the appearance of a visual target. This result has important implications in psychology and cognitive neuroscience especially when studying visual perception, memory and consciousness.
The Finnish part of the research is funded by the Academy of Finland.
- Mika Koivisto, Svetlana Kirjanen, Antti Revonsuo, Sakari Kallio. A Preconscious Neural Mechanism of Hypnotically Altered Colors: A Double Case Study. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (8): e70900 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0070900
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Definitions of access
n. - A coming to, or near approach; admittance; admission; accessibility; as, to gain access to a prince. 2
n. - The means, place, or way by which a thing may be approached; passage way; as, the access is by a neck of land. 2
n. - Admission to sexual intercourse. 2
n. - Increase by something added; addition; as, an access of territory. [In this sense accession is more generally used.] 2
n. - An onset, attack, or fit of disease. 2
n. - A paroxysm; a fit of passion; an outburst; as, an access of fury. 2
The word "access" uses 6 letters: A C C E S S.
No direct anagrams for access found in this word list.
List shorter words within access, sorted by length
All words formed from access by changing one letter
Browse words starting with access by next letter | <urn:uuid:cc567754-4ac5-4f0c-bbd4-7614a2972d97> | {
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Comprehensive DescriptionRead full entry
| Common names: sanddab (English), lenguado (Espanol) |
Citharichthys xanthostigma Gilbert, 1890
Body elongate, height 43-48% of SL; head blunt, short, 29-31% of SL; eyes on left side, large, close together, front edge lower a little before front edge upper eye; mouth medium length, 31-33% of head length ends under front ½ of lower eye; blind side jaws not arched; teeth ~ equally developed on both sides of jaws, in 1 series of immovable teeth on each jaw, no canines but front teeth a little enlarged; gill rakers slender, long, 17-18 lower rakers; 79-89 dorsal rays; 61-69 anal rays; eye side pectoral longer than head, pointed; base of eye side pelvic on midline of body; urinary papilla on blind side, immediately behind anus; eye-side lateral line ~ straight, from edge of opercle to tail base; scales rough, 50 lateral line scales.
Eye side light olive-brown to dark brown, speckled with orange and white; row of ocelli (yellow center, blackish-brown border) along lateral line and 2 rows between it and each edge of body, lower rows paired, pectoral with faint dusky crossbars to black; blind side pale.
Size: 25 cm.
Habitat: sandy bottoms.
Depth: 2-200 m.
Southern California to central Baja. | <urn:uuid:91d2ae1a-b580-472a-9e09-b4e81eaf2a3f> | {
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In the wake of the end of the Space Shuttle program, and the effective cancellation of the Constellation program, Americans (and the rest of the world) have been wondering what comes next. On Wednesday, NASA announced the Space Launch System (SLS), a new heavy-lift launch vehicle that will carry astronauts and cargo to low-Earth orbit (LEO), initially, and eventually beyond. This new vehicle, planned for a 2017 launch at the earliest, uses some components from previous designs (for instance, the engines from the Shuttle program and the Orion crew vehicle from Constellation) but is a new design, and it will be the most powerful rocket yet built. Let’s go over some of the (announced) details, and see what exactly NASA has come up with.
First: the hardware. NASA focused on a design that would be both modular, combining different components for different missions, and reuse existing designs. The main engines will all be liquid-fueled, using hydrogen and oxygen (like the Space Shuttle main engine). To avoid the unnecessary expense of entirely new engines (see the Ares rockets), the new vehicle will use the RS-25 engines from the Space Shuttle main engines for the core stage and the J-2X, a variant of the J-2 engine from the Apollo-era Saturn V rockets, for the upper stage. The J-2X was originally designed for the Constellation program as a cheaper and more efficient engine compared to those used in the Space Shuttle.
The initial (announced) design will have a payload capacity of 70 metric tons (154,000 pounds), with a fully fueled liftoff weight of 5.5 million pounds (about 2500 metric tons), and use three RS-25 engines for a single stage, with solid rocket boosters similar to those used on the Shuttle. With additional boosters, this design could support 100 metric tons. Later, by adding two more RS-25 engines and an upper stage J-2X engine, the payload capacity will be upgraded to 130 metric tons (268,000 pounds). For some perspective, the three-stage Saturn V rocket used in the Apollo missions (the most powerful ever used, and hasn’t been used since 1973) has a maximum payload capacity of 119 metric tons.
For those unfamiliar with the concept of rocket staging, here’s a quick explanation. Chemical rockets basically generate thrust by expelling mass; in fact, the propellant mass is typically much larger than the actual payload and structure of the vehicle (for instance, propellant makes up 80 percent of the mass of the fully fueled Space Shuttle system at launch). In order to avoid carrying up unnecessary structural mass (which in turn requires additional propellant, and so on), rocket designers employ staging, where the entire vehicle is broken into self-contained stages that disconnect when their propellant is exhausted—think of the boosters and external tank falling off once the Shuttle gets to a certain altitude. Multiple stages increases complexity, but this is considered a worthy tradeoff when compared against considerable added propellant.
Now, where exactly is this vehicle going to take us? This part is a little more ambiguous. NASA plans on using the six-person Orion crew vehicle, now known as the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), with the SLS. The initial design could carry astronauts and cargo to LEO, where the International Space Station (ISS) and most satellite are located—but NASA is planning on using commercial spaceflight companies like SpaceX and Orbital Sciences to resupply the ISS, and their vehicles will be ready sooner than the SLS.
That leaves near-Earth asteroids, cis-lunar space, the Moon, and beyond (think Mars) for the SLS. I’m sure we’ll hear more about the destinations as the initial launch date (2017) approaches, but it is exciting to see that NASA has come up with a solid design, especially one that reuses known elements. The modularity of the design also allows for different missions, just by adding more boosters and an upper stage. Hopefully this pragmatism will allow this program to avoid the sweeping budget cuts of the current US government. | <urn:uuid:a8e6e276-4234-4c4d-b1cc-1bdb45aa678b> | {
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One of the most controversial figures in the history of the American West, Christopher "Kit" Carson (1809–1868) has been lauded as a great frontiersman and hero by some, and condemned as a mass murderer by others. The chief point of contention is his role in the last great Navajo war, which led to the forced relocation of roughly 8.000 Navajos from their traditional homeland to the wastelands of Bosque Redondo in eastern New Mexico. For the Navajo, this trek is known simply as the Long Walk, and its memory is alive and well—and painful—in their oral tradition.
Kit Carson was born on Christmas Eve, 1809, in Madison County, Kentucky. As a boy, he dreamed of heading west to the great Rocky Mountains where he hoped to carve out a niche for himself. In 1826, young Kit took off for Santa Fe and soon became a mountain man and fur trapper. He eventually found employment as a hunter at Bent's Fort in southeastern Colorado and earned a reputation as a reliable and experienced frontiersman. In the mid-1840s, Carson served as a guide to John C. Frémont, who was exploring the Rocky Mountain West for the U.S. government. Frémont recorded and subsequently published an account of his travels. The charismatic and rugged Carson was a central character in the report and soon gained notoriety and fame throughout the land. His reputation was further enhanced by his role in the Bear Flag Revolt during the Mexican–American War.
Between 1854 and 1861, Carson was Indian agent to the Utes, with whom he developed a positive rapport. When the Civil War broke out, Carson took a commission as colonel in the First New Mexico Volunteers. He fought off invading Texans in the Battle of Valverde and helped in expunging the Confederates from the New Mexico Territory. In 1863, Carson was reassigned and ordered to fight the Mescalero Apaches who were raiding the settlements of encroaching whites. The famed mountain man successfully brokered an agreement with the Indians, leading to their relocation near the watchful eye of Fort Sumner. Next, General James H. Carleton commanded Carson to conduct a campaign against the Navajos in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico. Hoping to return home to his family in Taos, a reluctant Carson nevertheless took the commission.
Though Carson was hesitant to wage war on the Navajo, he was relentless in carrying out his assigned duty. He launched an all-out assault against his adversaries, who quickly realized that they had to conduct a guerrilla-like war against Carson's formidable army. The Navajo hoped to disrupt the invaders by making quick lightning strikes before retreating back into the canyons and mesas spread across their homeland. Carson was not discouraged. If he could not fight them head-on, he would carry out a protracted war of attrition by destroying their crops and livestock and burning their homes and possessions. His scorched-earth strategy worked. The Navajos, on the run, were forced deep into Cañon de Chelly. As winter set in, the fugitives had no food or shelter; many starved or succumbed to the elements. Finally, in January 1864, most of the Navajos surrendered, accepting Carson's terms and their removal to Bosque Redondo. Carson was not present during the Long Walk to eastern New Mexico, but his roundup led directly to it. Like the Trail of Tears, the death and despair that marked the forced trek and the Navajos' confinement at Bosque Redondo were compounded by the psychological impact of being torn away from their home-land.
After his campaign against the Navajo, Carson went on to lead 1,000 troops, accompanied by Ute and Apache scouts, in an assault on the Kiowa and Comanche of the Great Plains. Soon, however, Carson's health began to decline, and he returned home to his family in Taos, New Mexico. On May 25, 1868, Kit Carson died.
Carson's reputation only grew after his untimely death. In the late nineteenth century he became the subject of countless dime novels. These sensationalist and, more often than not, fictitious books portrayed Carson as a near superhero. Though he was still celebrated, this pulp Kit Carson was a fearless Indian killer and scalper, rather than the trusty mountain man and guide described in John Fremont's report. In the 1960s and 1970s, Carson's image was further revamped. With the mounting Indian activism of the era, Kit was targeted for his role in the Indian wars and, more specifically, the campaign against the Navajo. Today, Carson remains a point of contention between scholars, who hope to restore his legendary status as an American icon and Western hero, and the Navajos, who can never forget the tears and suffering that he brought to their ancestors.
Hutton, Paul. 2006. "Why Is This Man Forgotten?" True West 53, no. 2: 24–32.; Trafzer, Clifford E. 1982. The Kit Carson Campaign: The Last Great Navajo War. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. | <urn:uuid:b7ad79ad-d808-4b5b-afdc-bcf48ac778c0> | {
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Know how to use "fewer" and "less"? Find out.
|synchronous rotation |
The rotation of an orbiting body on its axis in the same amount of time as it takes to complete a full orbit, with the result that the same face is always turned toward the body it is orbiting. Synchronous rotation is the result of tidal forces that over time slow the rotation of the smaller body until it is synchronized with its period of revolution around the larger body. The Earth's Moon exhibits synchronous rotation, as do a majority of moons in the solar system. Also called captured rotation. Compare synchronous orbit. | <urn:uuid:867fa9e6-af4e-42fb-bd89-820ba84a9ea7> | {
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European air traffic centres are bracing for possible operational disruption after an eruption by the Icelandic volcano Grimsvotn.
The volcano is the same one used as a basis by Eurocontrol to mount a test exercise in April of new ash crisis procedures, introduced to avoid a repeat of last year's blanket airspace closures when the Eyjafjallajokull peak in Iceland erupted.
Eurocontrol's Central Flow Management Unit stated that it had been advised of the eruption by the Icelandic meteorological office. "The plume height has been confirmed by aircraft [to be] 12km or higher," it added.
Iceland's meteorological office said the eruption started at 17:30UTC and put the plume at up to 20km. "Initially, the plume is expected to drift to the east and subsequently to the north," it said. "The ash is not expected to impact aviation in Europe, at least not during the first 24 hours."
Grimsvotn is located about 220km east of Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. The meteorological office said the volcano last erupted in November 2004.
Ash concentration forecasts by the London-based Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre suggest a broad dispersal of ash over and around Iceland by midnight on 23 May, with concentrations above 4,000 microgrammes per cubic metre, at flight levels below 20,000ft.
But for higher cruising altitudes this level of ash concentration appears to be primarily towards the north of the country.
"[There is] no threat to air travel yet," said Eurocontrol.
Initial results from the exercise conducted on 13-14 April, to test the revised volcanic response procedures, indicate that 70% of all planned flights would have taken place - a trebling of the number permitted to become airborne during last year's ash crisis. | <urn:uuid:4678c2a8-cf1c-45f2-bd92-36f01f6f29ee> | {
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Posts Tagged: yellow fever
What's medical entomolology?
Anyone who's an entomologist or who works in entomology is asked that question periodically. Medical, they know. Entomology? Often not. But medical entomology?
Well, it's the study of relationships among arthorpods, microbial pathogens and human health, according to medical entomologist Thomas Scott, professor of entomology at UC Davis.
Scott teaches courses on medical entomology. His next one: the 2009 winter quarter, Jan. 5 through March 16.
Worldwide, Scott says, arthropod-borne diseases have devastating effects on human health; they are a leading cause of human morbidity and mortality.
In his course, he explains the basic biology of medically important arthropods and the pathogens they transmit. The diseases include malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, West Nile virus, Lyme disease and River Blindness.
Scott, a noted mosquito-borne disease expert and newly elected fellow of the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science (for "distinguished contributions to the biology and ecology of mosquitoes and his leadership in developing strategic concepts for preventing dengue fever and other mosquito-borne diseases”) does research from his mosquito research laboratory at UC Davis and at field stations in Peru, Thailand and Mexico.
In January, Scott hosted the 42nd annual U.S.-Japan Parasitic Disease Conference on the UC Davis campus. Some 100 scientists from throughout the world participated in the three-day conference "to develop a cross-cutting perspective on what the priorities should be for the future research on arthropod vectors of disease," he explained.
With new and emerging diseases, increasing national and international travel, settlement in endemic areas, and the proliferation of commerce, we can expect disease from vector-borne pathogens to increase, Scott says.
It's obvious what we need less of (diseases) and what we need more of (medical entomologists).
Thomas Scott in Kenya
Mosquito that tranmits dengue | <urn:uuid:f2f0d4ef-5158-48bd-bd36-3161a68a3366> | {
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Decoding the Surprisingly Active Life Of Fat Cells
"There's a growing realization about the convergence of the medical problems associated with obesity and chronic inflammation, which wasn't appreciated for a long time but is coming to the fore scientifically," Lazar said. "Where does the inflammation come from? Surprise: It's the fat cells themselves."
But not from the fat cells alone. Scientists recently discovered that fat tissue is comprised of far more than just fat cells -- it is a complex amalgamation that includes key immune system cells called macrophages. Macrophages and fat cells produce powerful substances called tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-6, which help regulate the immune system.
Fat probably evolved a close connection to immune function because the body needs energy when it is fending off threats, scientists say.
"It's like if you are sending troops into battle," Hotamisligil said. "You have to send not just rifles but bullets."
But a surplus of fat cells and macrophages probably triggers unnecessary inflammation, which most likely explains at least part of why obesity increases the risk for so many diseases, including cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
"As fat mass increases, this is associated with a systematic stress response and inflammatory response, and that exhibits itself in a variety of diseases," Hotamisligil said.
Fat cells also send out signals that cause blood vessels to constrict, raising blood pressure, and make blood clots form, which may explain how obesity increases the risk for heart attack and stroke. At the same time, fat cells emit signals that promote blood vessel and cell growth, which could help explain why obesity increases the risk of cancer.
The more scientists learn about fat, the more intimidating it becomes. Because fat is so vital to survival, nature has created a complex system of overlapping feedback loops that make it very difficult to override the body's imperative to store energy.
"What we're trying to do is do like the physicists do: Build a theory of everything about fat tissue," Leibel said. "We'd really like to understand not only what the signals are but how they are integrated. There's so much that we simply do not yet understand about this."
© 2004 The Washington Post Company | <urn:uuid:350f550b-5791-4faa-ac90-51cd60d68090> | {
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BOSTON -- Mice lacking a gene for making telomeres -- chromosomal elements with a conjectured but controversial role in aging and cancer -- were found to go gray, lose hair faster, and recover less easily from the stress of surgery and chemotherapy than normal animals. They also developed tumors more often and died earlier, a team of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) researchers report in the March 5 Cell.
"Until now no one has shown the phenotypic effect of telomere loss on the aging organism," says Lenhard Rudolph, research associate in medicine at DFCI and Harvard Medical School (HMS), and lead author of the study. Telomeres -- nubs of protein and nucleic acids poised at either end of DNA strands -- are produced during embryonic development. They crumble away as cells mature and divide, suggesting telomere erosion might somehow control aging. But the process had been studied only in cultured cells.
By knocking out one of the genes for a telomere-making complex, telomerase, Ron DePinho, the American Cancer Society professor at DFCI, and his colleagues created successive generations of mice, each with shorter telomeres. Surprisingly, symptoms were not observed in the telomere-deprived newborns. For example, third generation mice displayed symptoms only after they had reached the age of 18 months. Even the most telomere-deficient sixth generation mice had to go through a waiting period, albeit shorter, before symptoms appeared.
In this and other respects, the mouse findings confirm but, intriguingly, confound expectations about the role of telomeres in aging and cancer. While telomere shortening is clearly important, it is not sufficient to bring about the depredations of age. "Something else in the aging organism cooperates with telomere dysfunction to compromise fitness," says DePinho, who is also a professor of medicine (genetics) at HMS. What else that is remains unclear. "That's one of the central questions in biology? What is the basis for organismal aging? Is it free radical damage that accumulates? Is it general mitochondrial dysfunction? Or are there other mechanisms?"
The experiments also demonstrate the widely held belief that telomeres are associated with cancer -- but not in the way researchers were expecting. Previously, tumor cells had been observed to display an excess of telomerase activity suggesting telomerase might be involved in the cell becoming immortal. But the new findings indicate a lack of telomerase can also lead to cancer. "These experiments have been to a certain extent mind-bending. No one would have anticipated that you could have gotten an increase in cancer from a lack of telomerase," DePinho says.
However, there is a possible explanation. Normally, telomeres keep chromosomal tips from unraveling or sticking to other chromosomes. Deprived of these protective shields, chromosomes might fuse, break, or undergo other changes that could lead to the loss or gain of genes and, in turn, to cancer. "So the studies teach us that if we lose telomerase function in normal cells, that might also set the stage for the initiation of cancer in aged individuals," DePinho says.
One of the goals fueling telomerase research is the hope that it might lead to new cancer treatments. Anti-telomerase compounds are being developed that could prevent aspiring cancer cells from making new telomeres and thus dividing endlessly. Rather than dashing such hopes, DePinho believes the real lesson of the new experiments is that cancer cells can turn all kinds of situations to their advantage. Some cancer cells may require telomerase while others thrive in its absence.
"We have learned that there are many roads to cancer. But if we throw up good roadblocks we can diminish the rate of cancer formation. So it's a numbers game," he says. "In a situation where many aspiring cells are moving towards cancer, by knocking out telomerase we may have a reasonable chance of decreasing the ratio of tumor formation," he says.
Earlier research had shown DePinho that the telomere story was not a simple one. For example, soon after cancer cells were shown to express telomerase, DePinho and his colleagues found that mice lacking the complete telomere-making complex could develop cancers. But how often they did so in comparison to normal mice was not known. Nor had anyone looked systematically at the effects of telomere loss on aging animals.
Previous observations had shown that while sixth generation knockout mice show some slight abnormalities even at birth, third generation newborns appear perfectly normal. Tracking the third generation mice, Rudolph found that 18-month-olds display an unusually high incidence of skin ulcerations in addition to graying hair and hair loss -- signs that organs with high proliferative rates were slowing down or undergoing cell death.
More significantly, when exposed to a blood-cell depleting agent, normal adults showed signs of recovering their blood cell supply after about a week whereas most of the older knockouts did not repopulate. In fact, many died. The knockouts also took longer to heal from minor wounds. Sixth generation adults ran into the same trouble, but sooner. Interestingly, young animals -- normal and knockout -- did not appear to be affected by the interventions.
Knowing more about such stress responses could help explain why surgery and chemotherapy take a greater toll on older people, the researchers say. Similarly, the finding that many telomere-deficient adult mice developed tumors could yield insight into why people are more likely to develop cancers as they age.
But just as telomere loss may mean different things to aspiring cancer cells, it may yield several different outcomes in other kinds of diseased cells. "The consequences of the loss of telomere function, and especially whether or not it facilitates or inhibits cancer, may be context dependent," DePinho says. "The bottomline is that it is really complex. Telomeres are definitely important -- they impact on life span, organismal fitness, and cancer incidence. But what this story tells us is that there's tremendous complexity."
This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
The above story is based on materials provided by Harvard Medical School. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
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The fact that people are seriously arguing that the US can torture prisoners is deeply troubling. It occurred to me that we can look at our own history – sending Japanese Americans to internment camps during World War Two, centuries of stealing Native American’s their land and sending them off to reservations and stealing their children and sending them to “Indian Schools” – and identify actions which are unambiguous historical and national crimes, but we can also identify far more ambiguous examples of a difficult, even horrific, moral calculus.
By 1945, it was clear that Japan was not going to emerge victorious from the war – there were simply too many factors working against them. However, it was also clear that a victory would come only after long and difficult battles. Harry Truman, thrust into the presidency unexpectedly and frankly unprepared (FDR never much cared for Truman but accepted him as VP to maintain party unity) was faced with horrible options.
The obvious option was an invasion of Japan. Despite heavy bombing, the Japanese mainland had been left relatively functional (for instance food continued to be shipped internally). In preparing for an invasion, the Allies would have stepped up attacks on transportation systems in the Japanese islands. Breaking the back of Japan’s national transportation infrastructure, would have plunged the Japanese population into mass starvation (as it was, there was widespread famine in Japan in 1946). Japan’s governing junta was prepared to put citizens on the frontlines of an invasion. An invasion of the Japanese homeland could easily have cost a million Allied soldiers and millions of Japanese citizens (I’ve read one article that estimated as much as 10% of Japan’s civilian population killed in battle – not counting those killed by starvation and bombing raids). In addition, an invasion of Japan would have almost certainly have resulted in the deaths of all POWs being held by the Japanese. Even faced with such a scenario, Japan’s leaders were convinced they could win a negotiated settlement that would leave them in power.
Truman could have informed the Japanes the US possessed atomic weapons and arranged a demonstration; I’ve never fully understood the reasons for not choosing this option but I also understand that such an option might easily have spurred the Japanese to develop nuclear weapons and then deploy them against the US (IIRC, Japan had two separate efforts to develop atomic weapons but they were hampered by bureacratic infighting).
Truman was concerned about the Soviet Union’s military and territorial ambitions in both Europe and Asia. A quick end to the war with Japan would present opportunities on that front.
Truman opted for the one scenario that seemed most likely to save the most lives: drop atomic bombs on a Japanese city. I once read a description of all the strategic reasons for choosing Hiroshima and Nagasaki but I’m not sure they matter at this point. Truman authorized the use of the atomic bomb against a Japanese city, with plans to drop a second bomb a few days later if the Japanese did not surrender.
As I undersatnd it, Japan’s leaders didn’t fully realize what they were facing; initially they suspected the city had been subjected to an attack using incediary devices or some new bombing strategy and discounted reports that a single bomb could have inflicted the damage the city suffered (their belief concerning the incendiary attack made sense given the massive conflagration that consumed much of Hiroshima). After Nagasaki, Japan’s leaders realized that continued war meant not just military loss but national suicide. Internal Japanese politics – including an attempted military coup – delayed Japan’s surrender a few days. (I never really known but I suspect that the Allies were largley ignorant of Japan’s internal political struggles and circumstance.)
It’s entirely possible that Truman’s choice to use atomic weapons is not morally defensible. The generally accepted explanation seems to hold – and I agree – that the use of such weapons saved millions of lives on both sides by ending the war more quickly. The moral value is that the lost of two hundred thousand lives is preferable to the loss of millions.
The morality of using atomic weapons (and that’s not a phrase you ever expect to write) can only be established within a very specific historical context – the context of a war that had already lasted for years, that promised to last for years more and cost millions of lives and many more casualties.
I’ve chosen this scenario because it really happened and it comes as close to any real world “ticking time bomb” scenario that defenders of torture like to offer. Literally, Japan and the US were aiming guns at each other. The suffering inflicted on the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was every bit as bad as the suffering torture would inflict on an individual. Certainly, if hurting one person is bad, then hurting a hundred thousand is worse.
Torture’s proponents tell us that the use of torture would be limited to circumstances in which it would get information to save lives. Truman’s use of the atomic bomb saved lives.
So, then, you might ask, am I defending the use of torture? Not at all. Even a basic examination of the two situations reveal deep and very differences. The basic moral arguments concerning the two circumstances are radically different.
The issues of foreseeability and intention are crucial components in assessing the morality of actions.
In Marc Hauser’s book Moral Minds, he explores four scenarios. The basic scenario is that there is a runaway trolley and the conductor has fainted and the trolley is going to run down five people on the track and kill them.
The first scenario, a passenger on the Trolley can flip a switch and divert the trolley onto another track.
In the second, a bystander can push a very fat man onto the track and that fat man will stop the trolley but the fat man will die.
I the third scenario, the fat man just happens to crossing the second track and he will be killed if someone diverts the trolley.
In the fourth scenario, there is a heavy object on the side track – if the trolley is diverted it will hit that object and be stopped but the same fat man from the earlier example has stepped onto the tracks just before the trolley is diverted.
(In what is sometimes called 2a, the very fat man just happens to be your arch-enemy and you realize that you’ll be saving the five lives but you also get to kill your enemy so you intend for him to die.)
Hauser summarizes the moral argument thus:
What emerges from these cases is a key insight: It is impermissible to cause an intended harm if that harm is used as a means to a greater good. In contrast, it is permissible to cause harm if that harm is only a foreseen consequence of intending to cause a greater good.
The argument for torture, at its least morally objectionable, generally turns on the notion that it is a regrettable necessity – we don’t want to torture someone, we just have no choice. Torture, in this formulation, is a desperate response to dire circumstances. The bad guy has hidden a ticking time bomb and won’t tell us where – we have to find out and must use any and all means necessary. Torture in this moral outlook is a realistic response to a person so hardened, so hostile, so resistant to interrogation that only the use of torture will make him/her give up information. It also proposes that torture be used in “extraordinary circumstances”, arguing in essence that some situations are so dire that it negates moral objections to torture – “Some maniac is going to release nerve gas in the subway at rush hour and you’re worried about hurting him?” In essence, we have to stop something horrific and there should be no limit on what we do to stop it.
Such a scenario demands we examine it further.
The proposal is simple – a bad guy or group of bad guys have engaged in some evil act. If we stop them now we prevent them doing something even worse. At some point, one of them is taken in custody – we are racing against the clock and must get information from him; he will only respond to torture so we must torture him.
The exact details vary – in some cases there’s an actual bomb, in another they might be on the verge of gang raping and slicing and dicing some innocent girl, or they might have kidnapped the president’s little daughter and are holding her hostage . . . the details don’t matter. The basic outline is always the same.
So, we have to examine the scenario.
The ticking time bomb scenario presumes that the suspected criminal is without motive. For instance, in the “rape and slice up” scenario, the person we’ve managed to arrest may only be going along with this plot to prevent the rest of the gang from doing the same thing to his daughter. Of course, that means we won’t have to torture him – if we can credibly claim we will be able to save his daughter, he will probably tell us what we need to know to save the little girl. If for instance, he has a political grievance we can find a way a way to negotiate with him. The scenario however asks us to believe that the person in question is simply and unquestionably a bad guy and is dedicated to doing bad things; it asks us to ignore that real people don’t act that way. No one acts without motivation of some sort .
The scenario imagines that the person we have in custody is the right person, that he/she is part of the plot and has valuable information. The scenario asks us to believe that somehow we know that we got the right guy – that we knew who it was, we were able to catch him before something bad happened. It’s a huge assumption. What did someone happen to notice a shifty eyed criminal and arrest him and the criminal mentioned in passing he was involved with the slice and dice plot?
It presumes that torture works – that the person being tortured will not lie, that he/she will tell us what we want to know. Of course that assumption falls apart – the history of the European witch trials which produced god knows how many “confessions.” Torture is a notoriously unreliable means of extracting accurate information. Let’s say, just for discussions sake, we have the right person and he’s dedicated to seeing the crime through to the end. He’s going to tell us all sorts of things that aren’t true to keep us chasing our tails until the bomb goes off or the little girl has been sliced and diced.
Finally, the scenario asks us to believe that the bad guy in question actually has useful information – he may be a genuine bad guy but he may not have been involved in planning this current plot or he may not have known the contingency plan that would kick in if one of the gang was arrested.
The ticking time bomb scenario is compelling for the same reason we listen to urban legends – its a good scary story. It doesn’t ask us engage in a meaningful way with the world as it is or humans as they are. The scenarios misleads us because it presumes the outcome. If you go back to Hauser’s scenarios, he poses a situation, and then asks “If you do this, and that is the outcome, is it moral?” The ticking time bomb scenario tries to limit the possible courses of action.
So to use Hauser’s approach:
We have the bad guy, we interrogate him in a nonviolent way, he tells us lies and we aren’t able to prevent the little girl from being sliced and diced.
We interrogate him and make a deal with him, which allows us to save the little girl from being sliced and diced.
We interrogate him a long time, we get no useful information, we resort to torture, he lies, we don’t prevent the little girl from being sliced and diced.
We torture him, he gives up the information and we prevent the girl from being sliced and diced.
If you go back to Hauser’s summary, the question of intent is central to the moral question – with torture, there can be no doubt about the intent to inflict suffering. As Hauser summarized it is permissible to cause harm only if that harm if a foreseeable but not intended outcome of doing acting on behalf of a greater good. The moral argument concerning torture holds that is necessary, that we must inflict harm in the name of doing good. It clearly violate the core moral notion Hauser identified in his study.
In choosing to drop atomic bombs on Japanese cities, Truman made a terrible moral choice – hundreds of thousands or millions. Truman’s choice wasn’t nobody dies or lots of people – it was lots of people die or even more people die. It was a profound and difficult choice but one rooted in the reality of the situation. Truman was forced to choose the lesser of two evils; it was still an evil choice. I believe Truman understood the nature of his choice. He didn’t try to pretend it was a good choice, only a necessary one.
Defending and justifying torture, too many Americans have dishonestly presented it as a regrettable hardheaded necessity – “We don’t want to torture anyone, but we’re being forced to” or “We just don’t have any choice – we’re dealing with people who only respond to torture. They won’t tell us any other way.” It’s a disturbing argument because it sounds convincing; it compels us by dressing up torture as a tragic and regrettable necessity; at its least morally reprehensible, the argument in favor of torture grants that torture is morally suspect but that it is a necessary response to people who cannot be reasoned with, on whom other interrogation techniques do not work. The honest proponents of torture grant that torture is morally reprehensible and pretend at hard-headed realism – we’re forced to engage in this morally reprehensible act as a result of the even more reprehensible acts of the bad guys.
Torture is morally reprehensible; it is the deliberate infliction of suffering – without any guarantee that the outcome will be positive. In Hauser’s scenarios, even the intentional act (pushing fat Fred onto the tracks to stop the runaway trolley) has a guaranteed positive outcome (stopping the trolley) but the intentional act of pushing fat Fred onto the tracks makes the act morally impermissible. Torture inflicts suffering without any assured positive outcome, making it doubly morally impermissible. Under the most optimistic circumstances, torture will produce a positive outcome (stopping the ticking time bomb) but that does not make it morally permissible.
Torture presents us with a systemic problem as well. An entity employing torture has engaged in a systemic abandonment of morality, it has lost the capacity to make moral distinctions and choices, which implicates each person within that system in moral wrongdoing. To take the example of Abu Ghraib, torture was inflicted on many people there on the basis of suspicion of guilt – in essence torture delivered the punishment in advance of a finding of guilt. Even granting the hypothetical that a person found guilty in trial would be subjected to torture, that person would have been found guilty of a crime and the torture would be his or her punishment. m Torture as an interrogation technique subjects the individual to suffering without concern for their actual guilt.
Having given up the ability to make moral distinctions, any torture regime subjects individuals to intentional, foreseeable suffering without regard to their actual innocence or guilt. A torture regime is in fact engaging in systemic terrorization of a target population. Given torture’s well documented lack of effectiveness, it seems reasonable to conclude that employing it in a systemic way serves the sole purpose of terrorizing the population and keeping them compliant. Torture is clearly a tool of oppression.
Advocates of torture would have us believe that certain circumstances demand torture – that somehow our current enemies are so depraved that they will only respond to torture, that cannot reason or negotiate with some individuals – our only option is torture. Such an argument fails a basic examination of human nature – if a person is so depraved that no other interrogation technique works, that person is so dedicated to his/her mission that you are not going to get your answers from him/her – even with torture. They will hold out or give false information.
As I bring this exploration to a close, I want to examine the potential connection between the bombing of Hiroshima and torture -namely the intentional infliction of suffering. There is simply no credible claim that Truman could not have known the results dropping an atomic bomb (although the first test had taken place only a few weeks before). Thus, it’s fair to argue that Truman’s choice was immoral – the deaths in Hiroshima were intentional and foreseeable. I think it’s safe to argue that using atomic weapons – like torture – is morally reprehensible in an of itself.
The final component of moral reasoning then is context. Truman’s immoral decision occurred within the specific context of a total war against Japan – the war in both Europe and Asia had been brutal, bloody, had involved massive attacks on military and civilian targets. Japan was preparing to defend itself against an invasion through a total mobilization of the its population to fight. Truman needed to choice between evils – the evil of an invasion versus the evil of using atomic weapons, but ultimately the choice was his and depended entirely on his moral agency. Truman knew and accepted the consequences of his choices.
The ticking time bomb scenario presents a skewed vision of moral agency – it pretends that the other person is so depraved we have no choice concerning our treatment of him, we have little or no moral agency. It attempts to absolve us of moral responsibility for our actions by limiting our moral agency; we have no other choice, therefore our action is morally permissible. By abdicating moral responsibility, defenders of torture seek to legitimize inherently illegitimate acts. “It’s not our fault, we had no other choice.”
But that does not absolve us collectively or individually for our actions. You always have a choice – even if the consequences appear horrific, you have a choice. Abu Ghraib represents a horrific, systemic failure of moral responsibility. The people engaging in the torture were told the victims deserved their mistreatment; the people authorizing the torture told everyone the victims deserved it and so on. By engaging in a systemic deception that the victims were first and foremost beyond the moral pale, that they possessed valuable information they were refusing to divulge, that the acts were justified by the extreme and extraordinary circumstances, the system failed utterly to exercise moral accountability.
The failure of torture, as a practical policy and as a moral proposition is obvious to me. It is presented to us as a necessity but the argument fails since torture is never the only option. If Truman had determined the using atomic weapons would not end the war and had done so anyway, then he would have been making the same choice the pro-torture Americans want to make today. The nightmare scenario for Truman would be deciding to use atomic weapons and having Japan refuse to surrender. Do you continue to use them? Do you devise an alternate plan? The pro-torture argument say in effect “Atomic weapons didn’t work so we ramp it up and use even more of them.”
At some point, it’s difficult not hear in arguments for torture the belief that torture is justified on the basis of inflicting suffering on accused wrong-doers. Which opens up a whole new area for exploration. One which I am unwilling to examine today. | <urn:uuid:fa3e134d-5657-424f-af04-03c8d8513ed8> | {
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1. Earth Science/Geography/Astronomy
In which city will you find Pergamon Museum, Charlottenburg Palace, and Alexanderplatz? It contained Checkpoint Charlie until 1990, and it has contained The Brandenburg Gate since 1791. Name this capital of Germany.
2. Language Arts
Which word refers to a British breed of large draft horses? Its more common meaning is an administrative subdivision of land. Give this word closely associated with The Lord of the Rings.
3. Geometry/Trigonometry (30 Seconds)
Give your answer in radians. What is the period of the graph y=cosine squared of x?
4. United States History
Which event was stopped by Hugh Thompson, Jr. and led to the conviction of William Calley? It led CBS commentator Mike Wallace to ask, “We've raised such a dickens about what the Nazis did, or what the Japanese did, but particularly what the Nazis did in the second world war, the brutalization and so forth, you know. It's hard for a good many Americans to understand that young, capable, American boys could line up old men, women and children and babies and shoot them down in cold blood. How do you explain that?” It happened on March 16, 1968.
ANSWER: My Lai (Massacre) (accept Pinkville, do not accept Vietnam War)
5. World Literature
The beginning of this novel contains several drunken ravings. After hearing one from a student, the protagonist pays a visit to Alyona Ivanovna, who is a pawnbroker, and her sister Lizaveta. Name this novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky about Raskolnikov.
ANSWER: Crime And Punishment (or Prestuplenye y Nakazanye)
6. Chemistry (10 Seconds)
What devices can be classified as differential scanning, high-energy particle, constant volume, or constant pressure? Cheap ones are often made out of pop cans, while strong ones can be classified as oxygen bomb types. Name this apparatus used to measure the heat generated by a chemical reaction.
7. Pop Culture
Which summer movie was based on a novel by Ann Brashares? It starred America Ferrera, Alexis Bledel, Blake Lively, and Amber Tamblyn; they portrayed girls whose mothers met in a prenatal class. As their lives move apart, they decide to share a magical piece of clothing.
ANSWER: (The) Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
8. Calculus/Combinatorics (30 Seconds)
Find the limit as x approaches 1 for the quantity 2x2+x-3 end quantity divided by the natural log of x.
Name the American who wrote a book in 1946 that has sold over fifty million copies. Many Conservatives blamed the 1960s on him, and he ran for President as a very Liberal Third Party Candidate in 1972. Name this author of The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care who encouraged parents to treat their children differently than they would treat adults.
ANSWER: (Dr. Benjamin) Spock
This term is a portmanteau coined by Kodak in 1984. Popular devices on the market today include the Canon Elura and Optura as well as products from Sony and Panasonic. What word refers to consumer devices that film moving pictures and put them onto 8 millimeter or VHS tapes or DVDs? It begins with the letter C.
Which opera is about Tamino and Pamina? Pamina is the daughter of the Queen of the Night. Linked strongly to Freemasonry, it was composed by Mozart near the end of his life. Name this opera whose name comes from an instrument given to Tamino.
ANSWER: (The) Magic Flute (or Die Zauberflöte)
12. Physics (30 Seconds)
Let little g equal 10 Newtons per kilogram. If a ten kilogram block is lying on a flat surface with a coefficient of friction of 0.25, what amount of force is needed to accelerate the block at one meter per second squared?
ANSWER: 35 Newtons (units can also be kilograms meters per second squared, prompt if no units are given)
13. United States Literature
Which popular writer went into a diabetic coma in 1998? She is still active, as seen by the release of her new book about the early years of Jesus Christ. Name this author famous for a series of ten novels written from 1976 to 2003 ending with Blood Canticle. The series is known as The Vampire Chronicles.
ANSWER: (Anne) Rice
This painter’s works often met with controversy. The Mocking of Christ was criticized for making Christ seem too human. The Execution of Maxmilian was censored because it pictured Frenchmen as executioners. Olympia was criticized for showing a modern woman rather than an ideal form. The Absinthe Drinker portrayed the underside of Paris. Name this artist credited with organizing the Impressionist movement. He also painted Luncheon on the Grass.
ANSWER: (Edouard) Manet (do not accept Monet)
15. World History
The Popes Leo The Tenth, Clement The Seventh, and Leo The Eleventh, as well as Cosimo The Elder, Lorenzo The Magnificent, and the wives of Leopold The Fifth, Henry The Second, and Henry The Fourth. What does this group all have in common? As a group, they were famous for supporting The Church of San Lorenzo and The Uffizi. Name this Florence family.
ANSWER: (Members of the d’)Medici (Family) (prompt answers relating to Florence or Italy)
There are two types, apical and lateral. The apical type is found at the ends of roots and shoots, while the lateral kind surrounds some parts of some plants. What term is used for the undifferentiated plant tissue from which new cells are formed?
According to Edith Hamilton, which Greek God appears the most often in tales of mythology? The son of Zeus and Maia, he stole Apollo’s herds during his first day of life, returning them later with a lyre. He was the guide of the dead, but he is better known for his sandals and wand. Name this messenger of the Gods.
ANSWER: Hermes (do not accept Mercury)
18. Algebra (10 Seconds)
One way to calculate this quantity is the Laplacian expansion by minors. It can also be calculated by the Leibniz Formula or the Gauss Algorithm. In singular cases, it is equal to zero. For transformations, it equals the proportionality constant of the affected area or volume. Give the name for this scalar which can be calculated for any square matrix. For a two-by-two matrix, you can use the formula A times D minus B times C.
19. Current Events
This two-word phrase started becoming controversial in the late 1980s. Two of its biggest proponents are Stephen Meyer and Phillip Johnson. It is promoted by The Discovery Institute, which has a campaign called Teach The Controversy. Name this belief based on the idea that natural systems cannot be explained by natural forces. It is often associated with Creationism.
ANSWER: Intelligent Design
20. British Literature
Which Shakespeare character is the daughter of Brabantio? She marries secretly and then follows her husband to Cyprus after telling her father of her marriage. She is also given a handkerchief by her husband. Name this wife of Othello.
TIEBREAKER: To break a tie, use the following questions in order. The first correct answer wins the match.
(30 Seconds) Include units in your answer. Find the total surface area of a right circular cylinder if its radius is 1 centimeter and its height is also 1 centimeter.
ANSWER: 4 Pi square centimeters
Who wrote nineteen novels from 1836 until his death in 1870, none of which has ever gone out of print? People who don’t enjoy his books like to point out that he invented the word “Boredom”. Name this author of Barnaby Rudge, Our Mutual Friend, The Pickwick Papers, Hard Times, Oliver Twist, and A Tale of Two Cities.
ANSWER: (Charles) Dickens
Which chemical element has atomic mass 14.01, atomic number 7, and atomic symbol N?
ANSWER: Nitrogen (Prompt N) | <urn:uuid:2fe2f26c-e87a-4b38-8676-76c8460a9286> | {
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|Presque Isle North Pierhead, PA|
Description: According to a legend passed down by the Erie Indians, Manitou, the Great Spirit, led the tribe to the shores of an inland sea where they would find game in abundance and enjoy the cool, health-giving breezes coming from the land of snow and ice. One day, the Eries ventured into the great waters to discover where the sun sank in the evenings. This intrusion greatly angered the spirits of the lake who caused a terrible storm to build on the waters. Hearing the cries of his favored people, the Great Spirit stretched forth his left arm into the sea to protect his children from the turbulent water and allow then to paddle their canoes safely back to shore. Where the benevolent arm of the Great Spirit had blocked the waters, a vast sand bar formed which ever since has provided protection and a safe harbor to his favorite people, the Erie.
The present white tower with its distinctive black band that is mounted on the outer end of the north pier forming the entrance to Presque Isle Bay and Erie Harbor has been guiding mariners since 1857. Known as Presque Isle North Pierhead Lighthouse or Erie Harbor Pierhead Light, the beacon has a design that is unique among surviving U.S. lighthouses. The lighthouse exhibited a fixed red light until 1995, when its fourth-order Fresnel lens was removed, and a modern flashing red light was installed in its place. The classic lens can now be seen at the Erie Maritime Museum.
An inspection report of 1837 noted that Erie Harbor, which it called “the largest and best to be found on Lake Erie,” was served by a lighthouse and a beacon. The lighthouse was Erie Land Lighthouse, which had been erected on a bluff overlooking the harbor in 1818, and the beacon was a light at the entrance to the bay that had just been established. In fact, Congress had appropriated $674 on March 3, 1837 for “completing the beacon-light at the end of the pier which forms the entrance into the harbor of Erie.” The 1837 report indicated that the beacon was “so situated that it cannot be seen by vessels running down the lake until they are very close to it,” and thus recommended that vessels use the lighthouse to gain the upper entrance to the harbor and then follow the beacon light.
In 1854, the wooden beacon light received a “catadioptric apparatus of the sixth order, illuminating an arc of 270°,” which replaced the former apparatus that had be described as being “very defective.” The beacon light and its new sixth-order lens were destroyed the following year, when a vessel entering the harbor during a gale struck the tower. A lens lantern suspended from a gallows frame was displayed on the pier until a replacement tower could be built.
The new Presque Isle North Pierhead Lighthouse commenced operation in 1857 and was similar to one built at the same time for Huron Harbor, Ohio. The iron tower stood twenty-six-and-a-half feet tall, and when originally built, the lower portion of the tower was open showing its spiral staircase, and only the watchroom beneath the lantern room was enclosed.
In addition to the pierhead light, various range lights have served nearby to help mariners enter the harbor over the years. In 1854, the Lighthouse Board adopted range lights that had previously been privately maintained. An 1857 Light List shows that there were three range beacons in use at Erie: one on the west end of the pier and two on the peninsula northwest of the pier.
In 1872, new octagonal frame towers were erected on the east and west ends of the recently extended pier to serve as a range for entering the harbor. At this time, the 1857 iron tower was on a crib behind the pier. A fog bell was established at the eastern end of the pier in 1880.
In 1882, the iron tower was moved to the outer end of the pier, and the fog bell was placed in its base. The light’s characteristic was changed from fixed white to fixed red at this time. An elevated walk, with a length of 934 feet, was built between the iron tower and the keeper’s dwelling in 1883. During the same year, the lenses in use at North Pierhead Lighthouse and at Crossover Island Lighthouse in New York were swapped, with the North Pierhead receiving a fourth-order lens and Crossover Island a sixth-order lens.
As the steam whistle was added to the responsibilities of the North Pierhead Station, a second assistant keeper was appointed, and in 1900 a new duplex was built for the head keeper and first assistant, while the second assistant was assigned to the old dwelling. Also in 1900, the fog bell was removed from the base of the iron tower and placed in an open framework structure at the end of pier, which had been extended 470 feet. The open framework structure had previously been used to exhibit a light on the pier at Dunkirk, New York. By 1911, a metal bell tower, with an enclosed upper portion and a square column that served as a drop tube for the weights that power the fog bell striking mechanism, had been placed east of the iron light tower.
An allotment of $38,500 was provided in 1923 to electrify the lights on the pierhead, to build a new compressed-air fog signal 500 feet east of the steam whistle, to erect a new steel tower for the western light on the pier, and to construct a new boathouse. Commercial electricity was supplied to the station via a submarine cable, but a generator was also installed in a new powerhouse at the station in case of a power failure.
The lights on the pier were electrified on July 18, 1924, and the new diaphone fog signal, which was housed in a steel tower and could be operated by remote control from the powerhouse, commenced operation a few weeks later on August 6, replacing the outdated steam whistle. The panorama picture below shows the north pier in 1924 with the following structures:
A string of at least seventeen head keepers, starting with Samuel Foster, are known to have served at the light. Keeper Robert Allen, who had the longest tenure as head keeper, received many accolades during his service. In 1913, he was awarded a lifesaving medal for rescuing two people who were about to drown while swimming near the pier. Victor Osburg was teaching Ruth McLaughlin to swim, when the current swept the pair into deep water. Keeper Allen was on the pier lighting up the beacon and quickly tied a line to a mop handle, which he was able to toss out to Osburg. After reeling the man in, Keeper Allen removed some of his clothes and plunged into the water after Miss McLaughlin, who had sunk by this time. Keeper Allen swam some sixty yards and then dove down, retrieved the woman, and brought her to the pier. A lifesaving crew had arrived on the scene by this time, and, after expelling water from Mrs. McLaughlin, they performed artificial respiration for four minutes before she finally revived.
Keeper Allen was awarded the lighthouse efficiency pennant for having the best-kept station in the district in 1914 and 1915. In 1918, Allen helped extinguish a fire aboard the fishing tug Gannet, and the following year, he, his assistants, and two of the keepers’ wives were recognized for helping rescue the crew of the steamer Tempest, which foundered in the channel near Erie Harbor. Finally, in 1925, Keeper Allen helped extinguish a fire that raged on the peninsula for several days.
The historic North Pierhead Lighthouse is now a popular destination for fishermen and for people just wanting to take a picturesque stroll in Presque Isle State Park.
Located on a pier at the eastern tip of the Presque Isle Peninsula near Erie. Scenic boat tours of Presque Isle are offered during the summer months. The tours give you the chance to view the three Erie-area lighthouses from the water.
The lighthouse is owned by the Coast Guard. Grounds open, tower closed.
Scenic boat tours of Presque Isle are offered during the summer months. The tours give you the chance to view the three Erie-area lighthouses from the water.
The lighthouse is owned by the Coast Guard. Grounds open, tower closed.
Pictures on this page copyright Kraig Anderson, used by permission. | <urn:uuid:58a2387a-6174-4346-84b9-a5e549c6fb79> | {
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You have likely seen the “TM” trademark symbol used in combination with various trademarks. The “TM” designation is widely utilized by individuals, businesses, and organizations to alert the public of their claim of ownership in a particular mark. Of course, using a “TM” does not necessarily mean that the user of the mark actually owns any common law or federal trademark rights whatsoever. For example, if I was to start selling soda under the name “COCA-COLA™,” I would be a dirty little infringer since I clearly cannot obtain any trademark rights in the famous COCA-COLA name.
Once a trademark is registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”), the owner of the trademark may use the “®” designation in place of the “TM” in order to provide notice to the world that the trademark is federally registered.
Proper Placement of the “TM” Trademark Symbol
The use of the “TM” symbol is completely optional. However, if it is used, the “TM” should either be placed to the lower right (subscript) or to the upper right (superscript) of the actual trademark. The SUBWAY example below illustrates a subscript placement. The GMAIL example below illustrates a superscript placement.
TM vs SM
What is the difference between the “TM” and “SM” designations? The “TM” symbol stands for “trademark” and is used in conjunction with marks that identify products. On the other hand, the “SM” symbol denotes a “service mark” and is used in conjunction with marks that identify services. However, it is perfectly acceptable to use the “TM” designation regardless of whether the particular mark identifies a product or a service.
Both the “TM” and “SM” symbols may be used with any unregistered mark. There is no requirement that there be a pending application seeking registration of the mark with the USPTO. The “TM” and “SM” can also be used with federally registered marks in place of the “®” symbol if the owner so chooses. However, it is strongly recommended that the “®” be used with registered marks in order to preserve the right to receive certain monetary compensation should you ever have to pursue a trademark infringement lawsuit. I encourage you to read my article about proper use and placement of the “®” when you have the chance.
It is Important to Understand Which Trademark Symbol to Use
The rules governing trademarks and trademark symbols can be rather confusing. So, if you have any questions about the proper use of the “TM,” “SM,” or “®” symbols in connection with a new or existing trademark or service mark, please do not hesitate to contact me (a US trademark attorney) for a free consultation. Also, be sure to ask how I can help clear and protect your trademarks so that you can minimize the risk of inadvertently violating someone else’s intellectual property rights. I may be reached via email at [email protected], by phone at (314) 749-4059, or through the contact form found on every page of my website. As always, I look forward to discussing your trademark questions and concerns. | <urn:uuid:0a431b02-1351-4374-96d1-1b85cf40ec74> | {
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Opinion, by Henri Kerkdijk Otten
27 - 01 - 2012
We know that Bubalus Murrensis, the wild European waterbuffalo, was present in Europe during the pleistocene. Osteological remains have been found from virtually all over Europe, except Scandinavia and the northeastern part of Europe. Remains have all been found near (large) rivers. Riverine habitats and close surrounding areas, seems to have been the habitat of choice of the waterbuffalo.
There is no doubt that the waterbuffalo formed an intricate part of the megafauna of Europe.
It is also noted that during the periods between the ice ages, the so called interglacials, Bubalus Murrensis seems to have migrated from Asia to Europe, with Europe being nothing more than a Peninsula of Asia. During the ice ages, Bubalus Murrensis locally died out in Europe or retreated to refugia in Asia. This retreat and return pattern happened during every glacial and interglacial in the Pleistocene.
It is very important to note that the Black Sea did not exist at that time and that the sea was flooded as recent as somewhere around 6500 to 5500 BC.
As we all know, the holocene presents a clear breach with former periods. The late pleistocene, but certainly the holocene, saw a very strong and growing anthropogene influence on animal species populations in Europe and elsewhere. For the first time after the last ice age, the recolonization of Europe by certain species failed or came to a halt somewhere in the course of time.
As an example; the European cave lion died out during the last ice age, but Europe was recolonized by lions coming from Asia from the subspecies Pantherus Leo Persica (Sommer et al., 2005, Bartosiewicz, 2009). Lions mainly colonized the Balkans and beyond. Relatively quickly after the recolonization, a gradual dwindling of Lion populations started. During the copper age, lions were still found in Hungary and Romania. Lions were pushed back further and further and died out somewhere in the 1st or 2nd century AD.
The Bubalus Murrensis died out in Europe or retreated to Asia, during the onset of the last ice age. Normally, Europe would have been recolonized by waterbuffalo after the last ice age. This happened with other species, such as the aforementioned lion. Bökönyi (1957, 1974) concluded after research that Bubalus Arnee, a very close Asiatic relative of Bubalus Murrensis, was present in the Carpathian Basin (Hungary and Romania) during the so called Atlanticum period, the period roughly between 8000 to 4000 BC. These findings are corroborated by osteological remains of Bubalus, that were found near Donnerskirchen in Austria, in the neighborhood of the Neusiedlersee and that are dated at the beginning of the Atlantikum period that started around 7000 BC (Pucher, 1991).
It has been confirmed that the Aurochs did survive in refugia like the Iberian and Italian Peninsulas, but that after the beginning of the Holocene, central and northern Europe were recolonized by Aurochs coming from the east and not from the south (Canon et al., 2000, Mona et al., 2010, Caramelli et al., 2011). The same is true for wild horses (Warmuth et al., 2011).
Just like with Bubalus Murrensis in the pleistocene, and just like with lions, aurochs and horses in the Holocene, Europe was recolonized by waterbuffalo coming from the east, from Asia. Not only is the waterbuffalo part of a trend, but there are actual findings of wild waterbuffalo from the era confirming this.
The fact that wild waterbuffalo are found in the Carpathian Basin and eastern Austria should come as no surprise. Waterbuffalo were present near, but also migrated along, large waterways. The Danube Delta and river and its tributaries seems to have been the highway whereby wild waterbuffalo reentered Europe from Asia. The observant reader will have noticed that the Black Sea as such did not exist before 6500 – 5500 BC and that the possible migration route presented a continues path from the Carpathian Basin to the rest of Asia, along which animals could migrate from east to west.
It seems that wild waterbuffalo were not able to push further west than Austria. This could ofcourse have to with the fact that more remains simply have not been unearthed yet. There also seems to be a trend to deny Bubalus findings on the basis that wild waterbuffalo simply could not have been present in Europe during the Holocene.
It is more important to note that migrations along large rivers presents a very narrow and limited path of migration. Humans were overly present near big rivers and expansion of wild water buffalo was simply stopped in its tracks because of that. This is a clear difference with the recolonization by Aurochs and wild horses and the importance of this difference cannot be stressed enough.
Without an ever stronger growing anthropogene pressure, there is no doubt that wild waterbuffalo coming from Asia would have been able to recolonize the rest of Europe, just like they did during every interglacial in the Pleistocene.
Apart from the clear advantages of waterbuffalo in nature management in Europe (Wiegleb and Krawczynski, 2010) and apart from the fact that they occupy an ecological niche that cattle and horses cannot occupy, the archaeozoological story alone justifies the use of waterbuffalo in nature management and rewilding schemes in Europe today. | <urn:uuid:0237b9fb-1fb2-4871-98ad-ffc03ae70a96> | {
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Disability is an impairment that may be physical, cognitive, intellectual, mental,
sensory, developmental, or some combination of these that results in restrictions
Definition of disability including types of disabilities and defining the meaning of
the various models.
Jul 22, 2015 ... A disability is any condition of the body or mind (impairment) that ... There are
many types of disabilities, such as those that affect a person's:.
There are many types of disabilities including physical, intellectual, sensory or
mental health. Not all people with the same disability will share experiences.
Remember a person with a disability is not defined by their condition; each
person is a unique individual. But a good place to start is an understanding of
Oct 11, 2016 ... Information about different types of disability, their causes, signs and symptoms,
diagnosis and support services.
The Office of Student Disability Services advises Johns Hopkins students with
disabilities on available services, guides you as you register for and request ...
Common Types of Disabilities. Leer este artículo en español. Many conditions
tend to occur together with visual impairment, even though they may not have ...
Types of Learning Disabilities. Student reading a book in classrom Learning
disabilities are neurologically-based processing problems. These processing ...
May 21, 2014 ... It's difficult to face the possibility that your child suffers from one of the many types
of intellectual disability. No parent wants to see his or her ... | <urn:uuid:19fe841f-7453-44d4-bd14-d39514e524f8> | {
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Off the Gulf of Tonkin in northern Vietnam, you'll find remote beaches, mangrove forests, and stunning grottoes.
Otherworldly outcroppings jut from the water at odd angles, monolithic islands topped by impossibly green, almost entirely inaccessible jungle. Thousands of these limestone karsts, shaped over millennia by the warm, wet climate of Ha Long Bay, dot this corner of the Gulf of Tonkin in northern Vietnam. A determined kayaker can navigate crag fissures to emerge in lagoons otherwise cut off from the world outside. Here, rhesus monkeys and black kites populate mangrove forests, looking down curiously on their rare human visitors.
In floating villages nearby, children play atop bobbing wooden platforms as if at a public park. Which, in a way, they are. Ha Long Bay, from its remote beaches to its stunning grottoes, is a natural playground unlike any other.
AAA can help you see Ha Long Bay—or nearly anyplace else in the world. For more information, visit your nearest AAA branch.
Photography by Scott Stulberg /Corbis.
This article was first published in May 2011. Some facts may have aged gracelessly. Please call ahead to verify information. | <urn:uuid:b77a608c-2629-4b59-b940-eb29e480eab8> | {
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view a plan
Students create a travel brochure to an imaginary place in this lesson
Art, Computers & Internet, Language Arts, Social Studies
6, 7, 8
Title – Travel Brochure
By – Charisse Riser
Primary Subject – Language Arts
Secondary Subjects – Social Studies, Art, Computers / Internet
Grade Level – 6- 8
Have students fold a piece of paper into threes. Your paper is to become a brochure, so you want it to be long and narrow.
Have students choose any place they would like to visit. As the teacher, you can stipulate if the destination is real or imaginative. I have had students create brochures for their imagination, Heaven, Friendshipland or Monopolyland. On the other hand, students have created brochures for NYC, Paris, Hawaii, the Grand Canyon, etc. It is completely up to you and your class.
The cover of the brochure needs to be a picture of their land. The inside needs to include; a brief description, things to do, places to stay, where to eat, directions, deals or coupons. You can bring in real brochures to give them ideas. If you have time, they can use the computer for more information. Explain to the class that you want it colored and no empty space. I have had some very amazing work in the years that I have used this project.
E-Mail Charisse Riser ! | <urn:uuid:4d8b692c-f2ce-4da2-b1a6-b2a1ee4fa0c2> | {
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Dr. Philip K. Schot
Biological Sciences, Exercise Science
Locomotion and movement economy are cornerstone topics in movement science. Modeling the leg as a hybrid mass-spring pendulum shows walking economy should be optimized when stride frequency matches the resonant frequency of the limb. Human walking is described as self-optimizing because mean preferred (PSF) and modeled resonant (RSF) stride frequencies usually are statistically equivalent, but this depiction may not be fully justified. Purpose: To more thoroughly examine the self-optimization characterization and the consequences of obligating use of the RSF. Methods: Forty-seven individuals of diverse statures completed 3 consecutive days of preferred walking trials on a treadmill where stride rate, stride length, walking speed, heart rate and walking economy measures were made under steady state heart rate conditions. Anthropometric measures were taken to build a hybrid model of the leg and model the RSF. Reliability across days was evaluated via repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and intra-class correlation (α=.05) and correlations were calculated for PSF and RSF. A separate sample of 20 participants walked under 3 conditions, (1) completely preferred; (2) at the original preferred speed using the RSF; and (3) with the option to establish a new preferred speed while using the RSF. Results: Gait characteristics were fundamentally reliable across days and the correlation between PSF and RSF was weak (8% explained variance). Walking economy improved 14% when using the RSF and allowed to self-select the speed / stride length used at that cadence. Conclusions: The results raised slight questions about current self-optimization presumptions and further emphasized the role of resonance in walking economy
gait, self-optimization, resonance
Arnall, Elizabeth; Pyatt, Jessica; Rice, Chelsie; Anderson, Katie L.; Mitchell, Duncan; Mijares, Rebecca; Seney, Megan; and Schot, Philip K.
"Resonance in Human Walking Economy: How Natural Is It?,"
International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities:
Vol. 4, Article 3. | <urn:uuid:3279ff8a-ff9b-4775-be6f-729a5870aa48> | {
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Bushfire smoke reaches stratospheric heights
Sky high Smoke from the 2009 Victoria bushfires travelled high into the stratosphere and circled the Earth for more than three months, a new study has found.
The finding challenges the notion that only volcanic particles are capable of passing into the upper layers of the atmosphere, and could have implications for climate modelling.
Using satellite data collected by the Odin atmospheric satellite, the researchers tracked the movement of particles from the bushfires as they rose into the atmosphere.
"We started tracking it ... and as it got higher and higher we got surprised," says Siddaway. "It had so much kinetic energy that it penetrated past the tropopause and into the stratosphere."
The researchers then noticed the particles travelled westward, circling the globe in about six weeks, reaching even higher altitudes. They remained in the stratosphere until the end of April, and by mid-June they had totally dispersed.
According to Siddaway, the base of the stratosphere ranges in height from approximately 8 kilometres above the poles to 16 kilometres above the equator.
He says there have been reports of smoke reaching the lower parts of the stratosphere above Canada, but this is the first time it has been seen reaching this layer in the equatorial regions.
"Looking at the scientific literature we noticed there weren't too many studies of bushfire smoke reaching this far up," he says.
Implications for atmospheric models
Siddaway says the stratosphere is much calmer than the troposphere immediately below, which means particles remain there for a longer period of time.
This is important for climate models, which take into account the effects of particles in the atmosphere on incoming solar radiation.
The researchers says smoke particles from bushfires haven't been taken into account, because it was thought they wouldn't accumulate in such large quantities at this altitude.
Siddaway admits it is difficult to know for certain what affect bushfire smoke would have in the stratosphere.
"If it was the normal type of aerosols that you could get from this type of forest bushfire, we think it could be a cooling effect."
The findings could also change the way we view how particles move through the tropopause - the boundary between the troposphere and stratosphere.
"The tropopause is sort of known as a dynamic barrier," says Siddaway. "So it's interesting that the smoke plume was able to penetrate the tropopause. [This is] important in the context of atmospheric dynamic models." | <urn:uuid:ad8acc0e-0cf2-4c04-a83d-13064be1156d> | {
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View video here.
February 3, 2014
Stanford professor traces roots of the psychedelic '60s to postwar America
New research by cultural history expert Fred Turner reveals how changing ideals about American democracy in the 1940s and '50s planted the seeds of rebellion that flowered in the counterculture of the 1960s.
By Tom Winterbottom
In a new book, cultural history expert Fred Turner investigates the surprising historical origins of the psychedelic counterculture.
Fred Turner, associate professor of communication, has one overriding humanistic desire in his work: "My deepest ambition is to create ways in which people can peer in and see the historical conditions in which they are living their lives."
A scholar of media, technology and American cultural history, Turner has shown how technology interacts with existing cultural and social practices to shape what we do in our daily lives.
That passion led him to investigate the roots of the 1960s counterculture, which is generally understood as a spontaneous rebellion against the stiff conservatism of the postwar period.
Not so, says Turner, whose latest book, The Democratic Surround: Multimedia and American Liberalism from World War II to the Psychedelic Sixties, investigates the surprising historical origins of the psychedelic counterculture.
"What I found is that the counterculture owes many of its ideals, and particularly its understanding of how media shapes people, to a generation earlier that really came to life during World War II. This is a unique and astonishing find."
By studying materials in more than a dozen archives, including the National Archives in Maryland and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Turner learned that 1940s and 1950s American liberalism offered a far more radical social vision than we now remember.
"During the early Cold War period, there was an extraordinary turn toward explicitly democratic, open and inclusive ideas of communication and with them new, flexible models of social order," Turner said.
In government policy statements, correspondence between artists and politicians, and even in course syllabi by influential Bauhaus artists, Turner found that 1960s thought was deeply influenced by these earlier ideas.
He shows that the earlier cultural shift, in the 1940s and 1950s, provided the basis for the revolutionary and wild-eyed individualism of the 1960s counterculture.
Whereas 1950s America has typically been remembered for McCarthy and the Korean War, Turner's findings completely redefine our view of this period and its indelible impact on the American psyche.
"In the '60s psychedelic counterculture boomed. People surrounded themselves with psychedelic media – videos, art, installations – thinking that it would turn them into a different kind of person, perhaps make them more personally satisfied and psychologically fulfilled," Turner said.
Culturally and ideologically, he says, much of this came from the previous decades and was not a spontaneous countercultural emergence.
"I was always told that the 1960s were a rebellion against the 1940s and 1950s, but that turns out to be far from the truth," Turner said.
'The Democratic Surround'
Turner, whose previous works have explored American cultural memory and cyberculture, found himself immersed in the works of German psychoanalyst Erich Fromm, American anthropologist Margaret Mead, English anthropologist Gregory Bateson and American mathematician Norbert Wiener as he delved into his investigation.
These figures, it turns out, were among the founders of an eclectic group of 60 of America's leading social and psychological scientists who theorized two things: the "democratic personality," and the development of media environments.
"In the 1940s, a group under the rubric of the Committee for National Morale convened in New York, led by Arthur Upham Pope, an art historian, and they became incredibly influential," Turner said.
He says that the democratic personality they promoted – opposed to fascism and, later, communism – was defined as being open, flexible, and able to integrate diverse experiences and to collaborate and coordinate with others.
In the same period, Bauhaus artists, commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, helped create American propaganda exhibits that could convey the Committee's idea of a democratic personality in American society.
At the Museum of Modern Art, for example, the Bauhaus artists created propaganda exhibitions that surrounded viewers with images, from above and below, and asked them to make sense of them in their own individual ways, as free, democratic individuals.
These multiscreen and multimedia environments would become a hallmark of psychedelic culture a decade later.
"The postwar foundation for democracy was built on Bauhaus aesthetics combined with social and psychological theorists working on the democratic personality," Turner said.
These two streams, he says, flowed together for 30 years and went in two directions.
"On the one hand, there is the propaganda throughout the Cold War," Turner said. "On the other, the movement developed culturally through the artists to Black Mountain College, John Cage and the counterculture of the 1960s.
"The children of the 1960s not only overthrew their parents' expectations but they also fulfilled them. They used multimedia environments to become the free individuals that Margaret Mead and the Committee for National Morale were calling for decades earlier."
From counterculture to cyberculture
Although Turner sees the democratic vision and the desire for integration and community of the 1960s underlying digital media today, he notes that few people are thinking about the significance of culture and aesthetics in shaping our tech-driven culture.
"Current trends toward entrepreneurship and resisting hierarchy, as well as the desire to create egalitarian work spaces, are nothing new," said Turner. "It is a rhetoric that comes right out of the 1940s."
As director of Stanford's Program in Science, Technology and Society (STS), Turner is showing students the value of understanding the potential societal and cultural impact of technological change.
Popular with a wide range of undergraduates, STS focuses on this interaction and has boomed in the past three years to become one of the leading majors on campus. It is the only major to offer both a BA and a BS degree.
"STS is a liberal arts major for an era suffused with science and technology. To be a good humanist now, you have to engage with current science and technology, much as one had to in the Middle Ages and in the Enlightenment," he said.
In STS, students essentially take two-thirds of a humanistic or social science major and two-thirds of a science or engineering major. English and computer science is one of the most frequent combinations.
"Humanities is a field willing to ask questions such as how should we live, and what's the right thing to do," Turner said.
"It's hard to keep track of how these moments in which we live have been shaped by others in the past. Of course, I want people to 'Be Here Now,' but I also want them to know how they got here."
Tom Winterbottom is a doctoral candidate in Iberian and Latin American cultures at Stanford. For more news about the humanities at Stanford, visit the Human Experience. | <urn:uuid:25707ed6-4bff-4df8-b540-a59913db440e> | {
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Breastfeeding improves a child's chance of climbing the social ladder and becoming a successful adult, according to a long-term study.
The health benefits of breastfeeding are well known, but the study is among the first to identify tangible benefits later in life.
Two groups of people - born in 1958 and in 1970 - were categorised by the job their father did when they were 10 or 11, and the job they themselves had when they were 33 or 34.
Social class was divided into four categories based on job type - from unskilled and semi-skilled manual work to professional or managerial work.
The analysis of more than 34,000 people found that those who had been breastfed as a baby were 24 per cent more likely to move up the social hierarchy and 20 per cent less likely to drop down.
The authors of the study, published in the medical journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, said that it provided evidence of long-term health, developmental and behavioural advantages to children, which crucially persist into adulthood.
Breastfeeding enhances brain development, which boosts intellect, which in turn increases upward social mobility, they argued.
"There are few studies that look at the long-term outcomes of breastfeeding, but this study shows its long-lasting positive effect," said Professor Amanda Sacker, one of the report's authors and the director of the International Centre for Lifecourse Studies in Society and Health at the University College London.
The NHS recommends breastfeeding to new mothers for the first six months of a baby's life.
Breast milk protects children from infections, and breastfed babies are also less likely to become obese or develop eczema.
The report's authors said that breastfeeding also helped to generate a strong emotional bond between mother and baby.
"Perhaps the combination of physical contact and the most appropriate nutrients required for growth and brain development is implicated in the better neurocognitive and adult outcomes of breastfed infants," they said.
Professor Sacker said that mothers who could not breastfeed could still aid their baby's emotional and cognitive development with cuddling and close skin-to-skin contact with their baby while feeding.
The study comes after figures that revealed the number of women breastfeeding their babies in England has dropped for the first time in a decade.
Numbers have been increasing in recent years, following a long-term decline associated with more women working and the increasing use of baby formula. Independent
Babies who were breastfed:
• 24 per cent more likely to have a "better" category of job than their father did.
• 20 per cent less likely to have a "worse" category of job.
• Based on a study of 34,000 people born in 1958 or 1970. | <urn:uuid:9878ef67-fdb0-45bd-b2e0-7e7f0d03d8d8> | {
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Updated March 1, 2016
San Francisco Bay marine protected areas are located within San Francisco Bay, from the Golden Gate Bridge northeast to the Carquinez Bridge. The bay is the fifth and final study region for consideration under the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA). To help ensure the success of any new or modified San Francisco Bay MPAs, the MLPA planning process may only occur here subsequent to the completion of historic ecosystem restoration and water supply reliability planning efforts in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. MPAs presented here were established prior to 2007, and were not a part of the MLPA planning effort. See the April 2012 message from Resources Secretary John Laird and California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Chuck Bonham regarding MPA planning for San Francisco Bay.
MPA Regulations and Maps
MPA maps and current regulations are presented here by coastal county. JPG maps are low-resolution files that can be quickly viewed on most computers. PDF maps are higher-resolution files, providing greater detail and clarity. Regulations are taken from California Code of Regulations (CCR) Title 14, Section 632.
Note: Map Datum used is North American Datum 1983 (NAD83) and position format is in Degrees Minutes Decimal Minutes (DDD MM.MMM). MPA boundaries shown in these maps do not replace the official boundaries found in CCR Title 14, Section 632(b).
Map of San Francisco Bay MPAs (all): JPG | PDF | <urn:uuid:89a6dec2-71de-4df4-8c7e-094322a4bbb4> | {
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How your puppy learns
Everyone wants a puppy that's well behaved, happy and sociable, but you'll only get from him what you give. That's why it's very important to start training early. Indeed, training will have probably started before you've collected him; your puppy may have been taught some basic obedience as well as toilet training. But now it's over to you.
Your puppy will learn very quickly, so it's important that he learns how to behave straight away. It might be stating the obvious, but your puppy cannot learn without being taught, so from day one, you'll need to teach him how to behave.
There are hundreds of books on the subject and you'll find puppy-training courses available in most areas. Your vet will be able to advise you on what's best for your pet and may even run courses themselves. There are many different ways to approach training, but there are some golden rules everyone should follow:
Good boy: Dogs learn by association, so if your puppy does something good, reward him. Then the action is much more likely to be repeated. But the reward must be linked to the action, so he must be rewarded quickly, within a second or two. The reward itself can be food or praise, or both; it can even be a game.
Keep your teaching session short, say two minutes, but have five or six sessions a day. And train your puppy in different environments; in and out of the house and on walks, but make sure there are no distractions, to give your puppy his best chance of understanding your requests.
Not so good boy: Your puppy needs to be taught what he can and can't do. Chewing, for example is part of his exploratory behaviour and he won't know what he can or cannot chew. You need to ignore such unwanted behaviour, but that doesn't mean you should shout at him or smack him or glare angrily at him. You should just pretend he's not there.
However, some types of behaviour may be too dangerous to ignore, such as chewing an electric cable. Again, shouting or smacking isn't the answer; you must interrupt with the word "No", get his attention and reward him when he stops and pays attention to you.
Just say NO
If there's one word you want your puppy to learn it's 'no'. If your puppy does something potentially dangerous or extremely destructive, you should interrupt the behaviour with a firm 'no'. There's no need to shout, just use a low, assertive tone. Once he stops the behaviour, reward him with lots of praise. | <urn:uuid:5d6696f6-a98f-430f-b972-2cc450ebf1dd> | {
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Social workers provide the bulk of mental health services that are provided in the United States in both mental health facilities and private practice. A social work therapist uses the same theories of clinical therapy that a trained psychologist or counselor would provide.
Social workers provide services to children in foster care, adoption, psychiatric treatment group homes, and residential treatment settings. Social workers also provide counseling services, serve as probation workers, and are employed in school settings.
Social workers are a vital part of the health care team, along with doctors, nurses, and other health professionals. Health care, in the home as well as in the hospital or nursing home, offers rapidly expanding employment opportunities for the social worker.
Social workers provide many of the services available through the public welfare auspices, including placement of children and older adults who have been removed from the home, managing public assistance grants and Food Stamp applications, and other direct services to people in need.
Schools increasingly employ social workers to help with some of the developmental and educational problems facing children and teachers. They often are able to provide the early support many children need to become secure, self-sufficient adults.
Social workers are unique among the helping professionals in the way they consider the individual within the context of the family and the larger social environment. By counseling individuals and families, and by building formal and informal networks of support in the community, social workers in community and family service agencies and in private practice help families cope with marital problems, unemployment, drug abuse, alcoholism or emotional stress.
Social workers help those with developmental disabilities by providing counseling, referral to appropriate services, and education in daily living skills. The social worker also helps people suddenly disabled by accidents or serious illness adjust to their disability and to live as independently as possible.
Services for Older Adults
Social workers help older adults and their families obtain necessary health and mental health services, maintain meaningful activities and relationships, and adapt to the aging process.
Industry, Business and Labor
Social workers work with employees and their families to solve problems such as alcohol and drug abuse, marital discord, or work-related stress. They help organize or staff health programs that can head off problems before they arise. They also help corporations and unions recognize and meet their responsibility to the community and to the greater society.
Social workers can be employed as probation workers, practice in forensic psychiatric clinics, provide counseling services to prison populations, provide expert testimony to the courts, and work with judges and other court officials to divert delinquent youth to prevention programs. | <urn:uuid:e9b3186e-d969-4eab-bdfc-509b12175c26> | {
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Holocaust learning finds African voice
As a young man, Roy Hellenberg was shot at with rubber bullets, beaten with batons and locked in an out-of-town warehouse - purely because he was black in South Africa.
Today, as a history teacher, he tells pupils how the perpetrators of apartheid were merely displaying normal human behaviour.
"When society says you're a second-class citizen, you question your ability to stand in society as an equal person," he said. "The messages are subtle, but they're insistent. And they remain there. You have to unlearn them and learn new messages in the process.
"But apartheid damaged the psyche of the perpetrators as much as mine. People taught they are superior are just as damaged as people taught they're inferior."
Mr Hellenberg is one of 38 international delegates attending a five-day Holocaust seminar in London this week. "Facing history" aims to show how teachers can use the Holocaust to highlight the universal human traits that allow genocide to happen.
So tendencies to reduce others to a single identity, scapegoat them or remain apathetic to ongoing events are examined, then related to more recent genocides in countries such as Rwanda, Sudan and Cambodia, as well as sectarian violence in South Africa and Northern Ireland.
Michael McIntyre, UK co-ordinator for "Facing history", said: "People are blamed because of the histories they carry around with them. But these are behaviours that are human, that happen everywhere. It's just that in some places they've led to genocide, violence and unrest."
Mr Hellenberg knows this from personal experience. Born into a black township, he spent his childhood afraid to go beyond its confines, terrified of being seen in the wrong place. He participated in anti- apartheid protests, which regularly ended in police violence. Protesters were locked in a large warehouse and left to wait.
"You'd be left there without any idea what would happen next," he said. "That uncertainty was quite difficult to deal with."
Today, he works with white perpetrators of apartheid, speaking to pupils about their distinct experiences. "Obviously, you carry baggage with you," he said. "You're coming to terms with anger, resentment and shame. But that capacity for doing evil to other human beings is a universal one. And the capacity to do good and listen to others is also a common one."
Pain, he points out, is not unique to South Africa. This is the aim of the project: to use the Holocaust to highlight the collective experiences behind individual suffering.
Julie Taggart, a history and citizenship teacher from Northern Ireland, believes this can help pupils to deal with their own country's turbulent past. She was five years old when the Troubles broke out.
"We had bomb scares whenever we went into Belfast, with the Army on the street with guns," she said. "That was normality; that was normal life. Teachers are of a generation who lived through that, so we all have our own baggage. But we can teach about the Holocaust in a non-biased way. You use something outside your own field of reference, so you can see Northern Ireland within a global context."
For Claire Mullord, head of citizenship at Woolwich Polytechnic School in south-east London, meeting teachers with first-hand experience of sectarian violence emphasises the urgent relevance of history. "You can look back on the Holocaust and say, `That was 60 years ago,'" she said. "But it happened again in our lifetime. That makes you think about the world in quite a different way."
She plans to use the Holocaust to address the experiences of her Rwandan and Afghan pupils. "We're giving children an awareness of where we're coming from, where we're going, where we are now," she said. "We're teaching them about the choices people make, but also the choices people don't make: the people who stood by and let things happen. It makes you realise the responsibility you have as a teacher."
Mr Hellenberg agrees. "We're providing an opportunity for honesty on a much deeper level, where understanding starts to dawn," he said. "It's everybody's responsibility to keep a watchful eye."
FACING UP TO HISTORY
`Facing history' was set up to show that history lessons can be about more than just the past.
The aim of the US-based project is to teach pupils the importance of tolerance and the risks of misunderstanding. Democracy, they are taught, is fragile.
The project provides resources, including an annual week-long seminar, online courses and full-day and after-school workshops. | <urn:uuid:3ea8e0c5-b3f2-4bbf-ac04-e98fcdaf567e> | {
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Moderate drinking during pregnancy -- 3 to 7 glasses of alcohol a week -- does not seem to harm fetal neurodevelopment, as indicated by the child's ability to balance, suggests a large study published in the online only journal BMJ Open.
But social advantage may be a factor, as more affluent and better educated mums-to-be tend to drink more than women who are less well off, say the researchers.
The researchers assessed the ability to balance -- an indicator of prenatal neurodevelopment -- of almost 7000 ten year olds who were part of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). The study did not assess other risk of harm to the baby that may be caused by consuming alcohol.
ALSPAC has been tracking the long term health of around 14,000 children born between 1991 and 1992 to women resident in the former Avon region of the UK.
Those children whose mothers' alcohol consumption during (18 weeks) and after pregnancy (47 months) was known, underwent a 20 minute balance assessment when they reached the age of 10.
The assessment included dynamic balance (walking on a beam); and static balance (heel to toe balance on a beam, standing on one leg for 20 seconds) with eyes open and then again with eyes closed. Each child had two attempts at the test.
Their dads were also asked how much alcohol they drank when their partners were three months pregnant. Over half said they drank one or more glasses a week, and one in five said they drank one or more glasses a day.
Most of the children's mums had drunk no alcohol (70%) while pregnant, while one in four drank between 1 and 2 (low consumption) and 3 and 7 glasses a week (moderate consumption).
Some 4.5% drank 7 or more glasses a week. Of these, around one in seven were classified as binge drinkers -- 4 or more glasses at any one time.
Four years after the pregnancy, more than 28% of the women were not drinking any alcohol, and over half were drinking between 3 and 7+ glasses of alcohol a week.
In general, the mums who drank more, but who were not binge drinkers, were better off and older; the mums who binge drank were less well off and younger.
Higher total alcohol consumption before and after pregnancy by the mums, as well as higher consumption by the dad during the first three months of pregnancy, were associated with better performance by the children, particularly static balance.
In an additional analysis, the genetic predisposition to low levels of alcohol consumption was assessed in 4335 women by blood test. If the apparently "beneficial" effects of higher parental alcohol consumption on children's balance were true, those whose mums had the "low alcohol" gene would be expected to have poorer balance.
But there was no evidence that the children of these women were less able to balance than those whose mums who did not have this genetic profile. In fact there was a weak suggestion that children of mums with the "low alcohol" gene actually had better balance, although the numbers were too small to show this reliably.
Taken together, the results show that after taking account of influential factors, such as age, smoking, and previous motherhood, low to moderate alcohol consumption did not seem to interfere with a child's ability to balance for any of the three components assessed.
But in general, better static balance was associated with greater levels of affluence and educational attainment. And in this group of mums, moderate alcohol intake was a marker for social advantage, which may itself be the key factor in better balance, possibly overriding subtle harmful effects of moderate alcohol use, say the authors.
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A recent study published on 14 November 2018 in the Journal of Physiology, has brought to light new information that will help towards the treatment of Restless Leg Syndrome.
Posts published in “Panda’s Anxiety Information”
So you’re wondering what’s Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?
Let’s imagine for a moment.
We're on a mission to find out all we can about Acute Stress Disorder! Feel like joining us?
Do wonder if you or someone in your life has Social Anxiety or if it's perhaps Selective Mutism?
A really fine line exists between selective mutism and social anxiety. In fact, the two often coexist.
Selective Mutism is a condition that most commonly affects children aged 3 onward and if treated properly the condition is often sufficiently dealt with by the time they reach adulthood. In rare cases, though, Selective Mutism remains a problem well into adulthood causing a lot of social strain and anxiety for the sufferer. | <urn:uuid:7ff2e318-7635-44c8-88c2-b7e3d09b8459> | {
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By Laynie Fry
Burma has never been a civil place. A place for good people to lead good lives. A place were everyone could be who they wanted to be without the fear of being displaced or feeling unwanted. This needs to change. Everyone deserves a fair chance in this world. No matter who you are, or what you believe, you deserve to live.
Rohingya Burma is located near China and India. This country was ruled by a Buddhist Army. Muslims represented about 10% of the population and were subjected to extermination and displacement.
In 1784 a Buddhist king feared the spread of the Islamic belief in his region, and from then on he persecuted the Muslims. Muslim children were burned, people were killed and tortured just because of their belief system. Some tried to escape and move to different countries, but nobody would take them in. Therefore they were forced to die by murder or starvation.
On September 8th, 2017 Burma was attacked. It was estimated that over 400 people have been killed in the attacks and over a quarter of a million Muslims have fled across the boarder to Bangladesh. Since August 25th there have been allegations of extreme human right abuse in Burma. There have been violent attacks and mass populated villages have been burned down. Even rivers in Burma are filled with blood and horror. A man by the name of Zahir Ahmed said he made a panicked escape during one of the attacked and hid. There by the river, he watched his family live their final moments.
As Americans we often take our religious freedom for granted. We tend to forget that there are other countries and people and this world that are not as privileged as us. For example, people in Burma are being killed for their beliefs and the majority of the people in America do not seem to notice. It pains me to hear of these people being killed just because of their beliefs. I hope after reading this your eyes are opened to just how lucky we are. | <urn:uuid:8908a49b-ee8c-4129-aeef-d2b77087ebfb> | {
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LATERAL AND MEDIAL EPICONDYLITIS
Get Back into the Swing of Things! You Have A Choice!
- WHAT IS LATERAL AND MEDIAL EPICONDYLITIS?
- TRADITIONAL TREATMENTS
- WHY TRY THERAPY FIRST
- PATIENT COMMENTS
- DOCTOR’S COMMENTS
Often referred to as tennis elbow, epicondylitis is a condition that occurs as a result of repetitive and over use of muscles and tendons. Not just limited to people in the sporting arena, lateral and medial epicondylitis is a condition that is linked to various professions and affects people in their work environment.
WHAT IS LATERAL AND MEDIAL EPICONDYLITIS?
Lateral epicondylitis is a condition characterized by pain and weakness along the muscles and tendons on the outside of the elbow right beside the bony protrusion (lateral epicondyle).
Medial epicondylitis is less common and characteristically occurs with wrist flexor activity and pronation- the rotation of the hand or forearm so that the surface of the palm is facing downward or toward the back.
This injury is seen in many sports and in professional environments where there is repetitive stress, over use and strain on these muscles and tendons. The narrowing of the muscle bellies of the forearm as they merge into the tendons creates highly focused stress where they insert into the bone of the elbow.
In the case of lateral epicondylitis, which is the most common upper extremity tennis injury, is often a result of (1) a one handed backhand with poor technique (2) a late forehand swing preparation with resulting wrist snap to bring the racquet head perpendicular to the ball, or (3) while serving, the ball is hit with full power and speed with wrist pronation and wrist snap which increases the stress on the already taught extensor tendons.
Medial epicondylitis is often referred to ‘golfer’s elbow and is a result of the wrist flexors as in a golf swing or baseball pitch which can cause an overuse injury to the inside of the elbow. Unlike lateral epicondylitis, which most often happens as the result of repetitive mechanical and postural flaws, medial epicondylitis is usually a true overuse syndrome or as the result of one forceful contraction such as a baseball pitch which set off the symptoms.
Epicondylitis, both medial and lateral, is a common and often lingering pathologic condition. It critical, therefore, to address the symptoms of pain and swelling before beginning a progressive strengthening program. Anti-inflammatories and icing the injured area will control and reduce the immediate symptoms. Sometimes a wrist splint and modification of aggravating factors are all effective initial treatment plans. In some instances surgery is considered.
WHY TRY PHYSICAL THERAPY FIRST
This condition is generally the result of repetitive stress on the muscles and tendons resulting in mild to severe pain and discomfort and often immobility. The most advantageous treatment to improve this condition is physical therapy to strengthen and repair the tendons and muscles that are affected. Physical Therapy addresses this condition with the focus on improving muscles strength and eliminating pain using various modalities without the added side effects of medications. This chronic type of pain/condition responds excellently to the exercises and treatments that are executed by your Physical Therapist.
When I came to Physiocare my goals were to get a good nights sleep and go back to playing tennis. These goals were achieved and I was very pleased with the treatment I received form my therapist.
“Physiocare does excellent hands on physical therapy and I recommend them without reservation.”
Irvine Mason, M.D., Diplomat – American Foard of Psychiatry & Neurology
“Physiocare rehabilitation has made a big difference in the lives of my patients. Their staff is professional , warm and always helpful in caring for their patients. I have never had a patient who was not completely satisfied with the rehabilitation at Physiocare.”
Michael D. Milstein, D.O. F.A.A.F.P., Internist
“My patients find that Physiocare provides prompt and successful relief to their pains and stiffness. I send most of my patients to Physiocare. I have found Physiocare to be the best physical therapy center in town.”
Daniel I. Nuchovich, M.D.
” Since referring my patients to Physiocare I have found that for the first time my patients actually want to return to their clinic for therapy treatment. Never before have I seen so many of my patients complimenting a rehabilitation clinic. The Physiocare team truly performs the best therapy and they continually exceed my expectations.”
Irma V. Lopez, M.D., Internist
References: Sources come from one or more of the following articles and sites:
Medicinenet.com / mediregister.com /mediline.net /mediinfo.co.uk / mhni.com /Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. /AmericanAcademyof Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery/Medline plus.org | <urn:uuid:3f15c1f9-f232-4e42-a569-4b6e724a967d> | {
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Effective leaders assume the immense responsibility to exceed expectations and respond successfully to the diverse need of multidisciplinary team members. It is not uncommon for leaders to face stressful challenging situations that require a delicate resolution and gingerly reconciling conflict. Often, there is a complex interplay of interpersonal issues and demands that require levels of resilience to expeditiously move forward positively.
Deconstructing Psychological Resilience
Resilience is a complex concept that encompasses physiological responses, psychological, cultural and spiritual characteristics which may determine how a person will respond and function in times of stress (Resilience Alliance, 2010). Resilience, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is ‘the ability to rebound or spring back, the power of something to resume its original shape or position after compression or bending’. In philosophical terms, it can be understood within a concept of conatus: a word variously translated as striving, endeavor, tendency and effort, and also with meanings related to power, will, and desire. Conatus is an essential attribute of all things, and in particular of human beings. It is our striving towards self-maintenance. For health researchers, resilience may be an interactive concept which refers to the capacity for successful adaptation in adversity, the ability to bounce back after encountering difficulties, negative events or hard times (Rutter, 2006). It includes a sense of self-esteem or self-confidence, patience and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances, humor in the face of difficulties and a belief that problems can be solved (Connor and Davidson, 2003). It is the process of adapting well in the face of emotional difficulties, adversity, trauma, tragedy, and overwhelming or unrelenting stress.
Core Concepts of Resilience
Core concepts of resilience are: 1) optimism and perseverance, 2) personal competence and tenacity, 3) social competence and support, 4) emotional awareness and tolerance of stress, and 5) internal locus of control (Siebert, 2005); and it can be beneficial for diverse leaders.
Selected Characteristics of Resilient People
Some of the common characteristics of resilient people include the following according to Tugade et.al, 2004:
- They have a sense of meaning, direction, and purpose. They are value-centered rather than reactive and defensive.
- They realize that the quality of our lives depends on how we focus our energy and our attention. They try to align their thoughts and actions with their values. They know how to motivate themselves to take action.
- They don’t judge themselves or others harshly when things go wrong. They focus on what they want, not on what they don’t want.
- They are able to tolerate ambiguity, uncertainty, and imperfection. They have a long-range perspective, so they give themselves and others room to grow. They can afford to be flexible and creative because they are centered in their values.
- They are reasonably optimistic. Even though they are dedicated to doing things well, they don’t take themselves too seriously.
- They take responsibility for their mental programming, their emotions, and their actions. If they have ineffective ways of thinking and behaving, they evaluate them and make appropriate changes.
- They look at adversity as a challenge rather than as a threat. They realize that no matter how the present situation turns out, they will learn and grow from it.
- They respect themselves and other people. They have a spirit of cooperation, looking for win-win solutions rather than trying to win over other people or ignoring their own wants and needs because of fear.
- They know how to let go of things they have no control over.
Strengthening Psychological Resilience
Building resilience is a personal journey that includes a combination of several factors, including: (1) establishing and nurturing healthy relationships that create love and trust, provide role models, and offer encouragement and reassurance, (2) demonstrating a positive view of yourself and confidence in your strengths and abilities, (3) harnessing skills in effective communication and problem solving, and (4) delineating the capacity to manage strong feelings and impulses. Some of the tools that may be useful include the following:
- Try to avoid viewing crises as insurmountable problems—you can’t change the fact that highly stressful events happen, but you can change how you interpret and respond to these events.
- Try to look beyond the present to how future circumstances may be a little better.
- Try to acknowledge small and/or subtle changes in how you feel as time goes on; this may help you to better deal with difficult situations moderately.
- Try to learn from your past-focusing on past experiences and sources of personal strength which can help you learn about what strategies for building resilience might work for you.
“If you’re not hopeful and optimistic, then you just give up. You have to take that long hard look and just believe that if you are consistent, you will succeed.”
–Congressman John Lewis
- Connor, KM., & Davidson, JR. (2003). Development of a new resilience scale: The Connor‐Davidson resilience scale (CD‐RISC). Depression and Anxiety, 18(2), 76-82.
- Oxford English Dictionary. Resilience. Retrieved from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/learner/resilience
- Resilience Alliance (2010). Assessing resilience in social-ecological systems: workbook or practitioners. Retrieved from http://www.lsln.net.au/jspui/handle/1/8086
- Rutter, M. (2006). Implications of resilience concepts for scientific understanding. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1094(1), 1-12.
- Siebert, A. (2005). The Resiliency Advantage: Master Change, Thrive Under Pressure, and Bounce Back from Setbacks. Berrett-Koehler. Portland, OR | <urn:uuid:8b6d3e67-efa9-4426-bd52-adf7fe9821b2> | {
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ATLANTA (CBS4) – A new study estimates nearly half of the meat and poultry sold at U.S. supermarkets and grocery stores is contaminated with a bacteria that can make you very sick. The bacteria is Staphylococcus aureus, also known as staph, which is a common cause of infection in people.
Researchers tested 136 samples of ground beef, chicken, pork and turkey purchased from grocery stores in Fort Lauderdale, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Flagstaff, Ariz.
In addition to finding the staph germ, half of the contaminated samples had a form of the bacteria that were resistant to at least three kinds of antibiotics, such as penicillin and tetracycline.
Proper cooking should kill the germs but the report suggests that consumers should be careful to wash their hands and take other steps not to spread bacteria during food preparation.
The meat was sold under 80 different brands and the study suggests that the livestock themselves, rather than contamination during processing and packaging, are the source of the bacteria.
The nonprofit Translational Genomics Research Institute in Arizona conducted the study. They say farmers and ranchers give millions of pounds of antibiotics to farm animals every year to make them grow faster and to prevent, rather than treat, diseases. Officials at the Arizona agency say the combination of bacteria, antibiotics, and livestock living in close quarters creates the perfect environment for bacteria to grow and mutate, which may explain the high-levels of drug-resistant Staph seen in the study.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture currently monitor the country’s meat supply for evidence of four major types of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (including Salmonella and E. coli). The study findings suggest that S. aureus should be screened for regularly as well, the researchers say.
(©2011 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.) | <urn:uuid:6450b967-0dcd-46fa-ab93-ab5350d3c7dc> | {
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Genetically Modified foods may have an impact on our mental and emotional health, something that is not evaluated in most traditional food safety assessments.
One Dutch experimenter just happened to notice that, besides weighing more, mice fed GM corn “seemed less active while in their cages,” and were “more distressed” than the other mice. “Many were running round and round the basket, scrabbling desperately in the sawdust, and even frantically jumping up the sides.”
Barbara Reed Stitt, author of “Food and Behavior,” was able to modify the “rude, obnoxious, and ill-mannered” behavior of students from a school in Appleton, Wisconsin simply by changing their diet. GM foods were taken off the menu.
Genetically Modified foods are finding their way in increasing numbers into the marketplace. Find out how to avoid them here:
1. Currently, the major genetically engineered crops are soy, cotton, canola and corn. Other modified crops include some U.S. zucchini and yellow squash, Hawaiian papaya and some tobacco. There may also be some remaining GM potatoes in the form of starch, but Monsanto is no longer marketing them. The GM tomatoes have similarly been taken off the market. China, however, has commercialized GM tomatoes, as well as cucumbers and a variety of pepper. US Dairy products may contain milk from cows injected with rbGH. And both meat and dairy products usually come from animals that have eaten GM feed. Even honey and bee pollen can contain GM sources.
2. There are genetically modified food additives, enzymes, flavorings, and processing agents in thousands of foods on the grocery shelves as well as health supplements. For example, the rennet used to make cheese is often a genetically engineered version. It is not allowed in organic cheese. Aspartame, the diet sweetener, is a product of genetic engineering. And GM bacteria and fungi are used in the production of enzymes, vitamins, and processing aids (xanthan gum, for instance, is a product that may be derived from a GM process).
3. Watch out for GM foods in oils: Soy, corn, canola or cottonseed. Unless the oil specifically says “Non-GMO” or Organic, it is probably genetically modified. Non-GM substitute oils include olive, sunflower, safflower, butter, almond, and just about any other oil available. For each type of food there is usually a brand that is non-GM. These are often found in health food stores.
4. Does Organic Mean Non-GMO?
The new rules do not allow a crop to be called organic if it is genetically modified. But organic certification does not require GMO tests.
Sign up for e-mail updates at seeds of deception to be informed of any additional GM crops that enter the marketplace. | <urn:uuid:b63be8ef-f2ab-4c8c-b1af-f523f581ae1d> | {
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Small teams of social scientists and anthropologists working with American units to map the "human terrain" in Iraq and Afghanistan and use "soft power" to engage local populations have saved lives and are an important tool in nation building, according to military officials.
In today's irregular wars, "battlefields are often civilian neighborhoods" where American troops face an "indistinguishable mix" of enemy fighters and innocent civilians, said Andre van Tilborg, deputy undersecretary of Defense for science and technology, at a hearing on Thursday before the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities. Social scientists can help provide the cultural knowledge that could mean the difference between gun battles and peaceful outcomes in troops' daily interaction with foreign cultures, van Tilborg said.
He said the Pentagon intends to spend roughly $150 million this year on social science research to better understand tribal cultures and social networks. The military wants to use part of that money to increase dramatically the number of Human Terrain Teams operating with military units. The proposal is highly controversial in the academic community, which believes it's an ethical violation for social scientists to work hand-in-hand with troops in war zones.
The program is small, with only eight HTTs -- six in Iraq and two in Afghanistan. The 5- to 8-person teams work with country-specific experts located at a Reach-back Research Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
The largely civilian scientific teams, using laptop computers and human terrain mapping software, conducted village assessments that provide commanders with a detailed data repository on the social groups within tribal communities: their interests, beliefs, motivating factors and leaders. "We learned that the population is the center of gravity, the enemy is hiding among the people and we must understand the culture to win," said Army Col. Martin Schweitzer, who recently returned from a 15-month combat tour in Afghanistan and whose brigade of paratroopers was the first to use an HTT.
He said the teams functioned not just as cultural advisers, but identified the key players within tribal communities whose power structure and patronage networks often confound Western minds. The scientific team questioned the aggressive and firepower-heavy tactics the American troops had used to combat Taliban insurgents in a particular Afghan province, Schweitzer said. That approach was based on a misreading of the local tribes, he pointed out.
The HTT learned that the true power brokers in the area were not the village elders, who were mostly Taliban supporters, but rather the local mullahs, who were Islamic clerics. After redirecting their outreach efforts to the mullahs, Schweitzer said his troops saw a dramatic decrease in Taliban attacks. "For five years, we got nothing from the community," he said. "After meeting the mullahs, we had no more bullets for 28 days, captured 80 Afghan-born Taliban and 32 foreign fighters." The "shadow Taliban" government in the area was eliminated, he said.
Addressing the concerns of the academic community about social scientists working in counterinsurgency operations, Schweitzer said: "The team is not an intelligence tool used to target individuals," and are not qualified or trained to aid in identifying or selecting enemy fighters to be either killed or captured. He said that role is performed by intelligence officers.
The Afghan population is exhausted by the constant fighting and deaths of innocent civilians caught in the crossfire, Schweitzer said, so any combat operation, even those that target the Taliban, can be seen as a "step back." The scientific team's impact was "exponentially powerful" he said, leading to a 60 percent to 70 percent reduction in combat operations in his area. The scientific teams typically work with Provincial Reconstruction Teams, small units made up of civil affairs troops and economic development experts from the Agency for International Development and the State Department, that operate in local communities.
Schweitzer said a PRT commander told him that before the HTT arrived, team members were just "ricocheting around," talking to random people, until they identified the power brokers in each village.
While some military personnel might serve with the HTT's, usually reserve officers, the teams are built around social scientists. Much more important than knowledge or expertise in the local Afghan culture, he said, was their scientific training and experience as anthropologists. That allows them to conduct the human dimension analysis and decipher a local culture's norms and values, Schweitzer said. At least one HTT should accompany each battalion-sized unit, roughly 800 troops, deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.
In a speech last week to the Association of American Universities, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon must further its understanding of foreign countries and cultures with the help of the social science research community. | <urn:uuid:168fc005-32fe-4239-ad07-d76e6f064b47> | {
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Once Upon a Rainbow
by Naomi Lewis Illustrated by Gabriele Eichenauer
Reviewed by Sierra S. (age 8)
Sierra S. is a student in Mrs. Zimmerman's 2nd Grade Class
In this book Anna wishes that the rain would stop. She's practicing the colors of the rainbow. Each color of the rainbow is a different land for her. She visits red, orange, yellow, green and blue. There's even an indigo and violet land. Every land has a special poem and character.
This book made me wonder if there are other worlds in our life. This book is not like any other book I've read. Why? Well, it is the most exciting story in the world, I think. My favorite part was the violet page because it made me think about the big Lilac bush in our backyard.
I would recommend this book to people who like mystery and exciting endings. | <urn:uuid:63310813-5b2b-42a7-935c-c0bb2ad3e60f> | {
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How to Improve Your Vocabulary While You Read : Reading is The Key
Perhaps the best method you can use to improve your vocabulary is to read. When I say read, I’m not just talking about comic books, mainstream magazines, or celebrity tabloids. I’m talking about reading materials that are actually challenging, those which may be beyond your vocabulary level. It is these books that will improve your vocabulary, and they will allow you to become much more skilled. It should also be emphasized that reading will not improve your vocabulary over night. Those who have excellent vocabulary skills are generally people who have been reading books for years.
They have a large repository of information stored in their brains, and they can reach into that repository to pull out words whenever they need them.
This is one of the reasons why it is so important for parents and teachers to emphasize vocabulary while their children are young. It becomes harder as you get older. Generally, children have more time to read than adults. Once you become an adult, and you are working to pay your bills and deal with other daily issues, you don’t have as much time to read as you used to have. This is why you will want to read early, and read often. You must also create a strong desire to strengthen your word power. You will want to learn how to use words in both your speech and your writing.
Improving Your Vocabulary Must be Deliberate
I would also like to point out that just picking up a book and reading it will not maximize your vocabulary. To succeed, you must make an honest attempt to do so. Your dictionary should be one of your most important reference manuals. You should literally go through the dictionary, reading it from start to finish, looking at various words. When you are reading something, and you come across a word you don’t know, you should look it up. The action of looking up the word will allow it to stick in your mind, and you are much more likely to remember it in the future.
It may not always be necessary to look up the word, as the sentence which surrounds it may convey its meaning. However, a dictionary should be an important manual for anyone who is truly interested in their vocabulary improvement. One method that many people use to increase their vocabulary is index cards. You can take a 3 x 5 card, and you can write down a word, followed by its syllable breakdown, and its markings. On the opposite side of the card, you will want to write the meaning of the word. It can be the actual definition, but some people find it easier to remember when it is used in a sentence.
Techniques you can Use to Build up Your Vocabulary
Many words will have multiple meanings, so you will want to address this on the opposite side of the card. You will want to hold a few of these cards, and it will be helpful for you to review them a few times a day. After you’ve reviewed them at least seven times, it is very likely that they will be stuck in your long term memory. When you see the words in the future, or when you hear them, you will automatically know what they mean. If you don’t do this, you run the risk of only storing them in your short term memory.
Your brain is a very sophisticated mechanism. It will get rid of any information that is only stored in your short term memory. Those who are successful with building their vocabulary are those who add these words to their long term memory. It is also important to learn how to build your vocabulary while you read.
If you come across a word you don’t know while you read, you will first want to attempt to learn its meaning based on the context in which it is used. Then you will want to analyze the structure of the word. The structure of a word can often determine whether it has negative or positive connotations.
You can sometimes learn a lot about a word by simply saying it out loud. The way it sounds may convey a message that may tell you a lot about it. Even then, you will want to look it up to find out exactly what it means. This will allow you to recognize the word if you should run across it in the future. | <urn:uuid:4f719e0e-64b5-40c9-8801-117364b9b240> | {
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Learning to Live With Graphene's ImperfectionsCategory: Science & Technology
Posted: January 23, 2013 05:45PM
Like just about every other material, graphene has imperfections that impair its abilities. Researchers across the planet are working to perfect graphene production methods, but thus far they have had limited success. That is why researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology have decided to study one kind of imperfection, to see how to minimize its effects, if not presence.
A common means to produce atom-thick sheets of graphene is Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD), in which carbon atoms arrange themselves into graphene as they fall onto a substrate. The catch is that multiple graphene crystals can form and grow on the substrate, eventually connecting at odd angles. These connections are called Grain Boundaries (GBs) and act as resistors within the graphene sheet. A GB is like a potential hill, that electrons may not be able to climb, and when they fall back down the electrons interfere with themselves, creating a standing wave pattern. In the end the effect is to slow the electrons down, which is not at all desirable if graphene is to be used in electronics.
While the grain boundaries are inescapably detrimental to graphene's performance, the researchers do have some good news. If the GBs are aligned and periodic, instead of randomly occurring along a sheet or wafer of graphene, then there should be less scattering, and thus less resistance. | <urn:uuid:8c107a4b-2aa4-44f2-bb1e-9f4fcaff61af> | {
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Written on October 7, 2011
Books: A Living History by Martyn Lyons (J Paul Getty Museum) – 170 color and 50 b/w illustrations
Product description from the publisher:
From the first scribbling on papyrus to the emergence of the e-book, this wide-ranging overview of the history of the book provides a fascinating look at one of the most efficient, versatile, and enduring technologies ever developed. The author traces the evolution of the book from the rarefied world of the hand-copied and illuminated volume in ancient and medieval times, through the revolutionary impact of Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press, to the rise of a publishing culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the subsequent impact of new technologies on this culture.
Many of the great individual titles of the past two millennia are discussed as well as the range of book types and formats that have emerged in the last few hundred years, from serial and dime novels to paperbacks, children’s books, and Japanese manga. The volume ends with a discussion of the digital revolution in book production and distribution and the ramifications for book lovers, who can’t help but wonder whether the book will thrive—or even survive—in a form they recognize. | <urn:uuid:b2f8ddef-68f0-48f1-b60a-e282bfbcbf8c> | {
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All propellers are inherently dangerous. Model airplane propellers are especially dangerous. Model airplane propellers used in high performance racing are extremely dangerous. Model airplane engines designed and modified to achieve maximum operating capabilities create unpredictable and potentially severe loads, leading to various forms of potential propeller failure. Ignoring reasonable safeguards may likely be catastrophic. This concern is the motivation for the following discussion.
Warnings included with propellers are intended to protect consumers. They also protect manufactures against claims resulting from misuse of the product. Most products with potential for causing injury contain ample warnings about misuse. Some advertisements for products now contain warnings, even before the product is sold! There is a strong proliferation of warnings in most products having potential for creating injury or damage. This inundation of warnings may cause consumers to become inured to product warnings.
The warnings about propeller use must be taken seriously, especially for racing applications. It is very risky to assume that a racing propeller blade will not fail, especially when used with state-of-the-art racing engines. Yet, nevertheless, occasionally model aircraft operators are observed standing in the plane of propeller rotation of high performance racing engines running at full power. This is very frightening and must be avoided. The following information reinforces the assertion that dangers of misuse are very real.
Ideally, a product can be designed with credible knowledge of the environment (loads acting on the product) and capabilities of the product to withstand that environment (not fail). There is nothing ideal about designing a model airplane propeller because some major components of propeller loads are very uncertain. The principle load components acting on a propeller are:
Another potential source of loading is aero-elastic tip flutter. This may be caused by self exciting aerodynamic loads at a resonant frequency.
These loads are discussed next in order.
Centrifugal loads are very predictable, given rotational speed and mass density distribution of a blade. Their contribution to total stress is relatively small.
Thrust/drag loads are somewhat uncertain due to complexities of aerodynamic environments. The relative axial speed at the prop (at any radial station) is aircraft speed, plus the amount the air in front of the blade is accelerated by the mechanics creating thrust. The latter may be approximated using first order classical theory. Much empirical lift/drag data (from wind tunnel tests) exists to quantify lift/drag loads, once relative velocity and angle of attack distributions are established.
Torsional acceleration loads are generally not known. Analytical estimating technique used by Landing Products to quantify torsional acceleration loads suggests that they can become dominant when pre-ignition or detonation occurs. These analytical observations are supported by test experience with very high performance engines running at elevated temperatures. The latter causes a high torsional load (about the engine shaft) which creates high bending stresses, adding to those from centrifugal force and lift/drag effects. These torsional acceleration loads depend on unique conditions for specific engines. Engines "hopped up" for racing appear to be especially prone to create high torsional loads when lean mixtures lead to high cylinder temperatures and pre-ignition/detonation.
Vibration causes additional loads from cyclic motions. These motions occur when resonant frequencies are excited or when cyclic load variations exist on the blade. The magnitude of these variations depends on how close the driving frequency is to the resonant frequency and the level of damping in the propeller material. Engine combustion frequency is an obvious excitation. Obstructions in front of or behind the blade can cause cyclic variations in thrust load. Once a blade starts to flutter, those motions alter the flow, causing variations in loading. High performance engines have caused propeller tips to break, presumably due to fatigue failure from vibration.
Aero-elastic flutter is speculated to be a dominant mechanism causing rapid fatigue failure near a tip when insufficient or destabilizing tip stiffness exists. The interaction between variable loading and deflection induces a high frequency vibration with unpredictable magnitude.
Efficient propeller design practice utilizes analytical/computational models to predict propeller performance and stresses. However, the uncertainty in impressed and inertial loading from complex phenomena requires testing to assure safe performance. Unfortunately, it is not possible to assure testing that convincingly replicates worst case conditions. The large combinations of engines, fuels, temperature, humidity, propeller selection, aircraft performance and pilot practices creates an endless variety of conditions. If the origins of severe loads were well understood, quantified, and measurable, structured testing might be feasible that focuses on worst case stack up of adverse conditions. However, since the origins of severe loads are really not well understood, it is essential to provide sufficient margins in material properties and design to assure safe performance. Propellers that are used in fairly routine and widespread applications (sport and pattern) lend themselves reasonably well to test procedures that provide reasonable confidence. In time, a sufficient data base develops that can be used to empirically quantify performance and "anchor" or "tune" assumptions used in analytical models.
However, propellers that are used for increasingly extreme performance applications do not benefit from the large empirical data base sport and pattern propellers enjoy. Assumptions and design practices developed for current generations of engines may not be valid for emerging engines whose technologies continue to push engine performance to greater extremes. Consequently, propellers that are used in applications where performance is already relatively high (and expanding) must be used with great caution.
An adverse cascading effect occurs when propellers are permitted to absorb moisture in high humidity environments. Composite strength, stiffness and fatigue endurance all reduce with increased moisture content. Reduction in stiffness typically causes resonant frequencies to move toward the driving frequency (increasing torsional loads) and, the reduction in strength reduces fatigue endurance. Composite propellers should be kept dry.
In summary, please abide by the safety practices recommended by propeller manufactures. This is especially important for high performance propellers. Assume that propellers can fail at any time, especially during full power adjustments on the ground. Never stand in or expose others to the plane of the propeller arc. | <urn:uuid:9f83e7bd-9675-4c59-a9ab-56fd390fa7ee> | {
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The new version of “Roots” that aired this past week was an important reminder of the degradation and brutality experienced by enslaved Africans in America. While the violence, rape and murders depicted in “Roots” shocked many viewers, the graphic miniseries helped underscore the real costs of slavery, the humanity of the enslaved and the depravity of the enslavers — unlike idealized pop-culture depictions such as “Gone With the Wind.” As a historian, I am dismayed at those who believe that people should “move on” from more than 250 years of slavery that continues to shape our collective history. For a deeper understanding of slavery’s toll in the United States, here’s some further reading and viewing.
“Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery,” by Heather Williams
Williams’s meticulously researched, poignant work looks at how the sale of enslaved children, mothers and fathers separated families, even after emancipation. Williams draws on newspaper advertisements, church publications and letters to chronicle the search for sold loved ones in these families’ own voices, and she shows the emotional pain people experienced. A must-read for understanding how truly devastating slavery was and how seeking lost family members during and after slavery created both hope and despair.
“North American Slave Narratives,”
Documenting the American South
This open-access resource is full of manuscripts, broadsides, letters and pamphlets written by slaves. The voices of those who experienced the horrors of slavery are invaluable for reclaiming the veracity of their experiences, giving the reader words and images that are not mediated by masters’ voices.
“Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household,” by Thavolia Glymph
In “Roots,” the plantation mistress, Nancy, plays an especially harsh role. Glymph’s book looks at how slave women interacted with the women of the planter class. Cruelties detailed by female former slaves in interviews with writers from the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s help illuminate how their mistresses were invested in supporting slavery and white supremacy. Glymph shows how domestic labor is key to understanding freedom and civil rights.
“The Birth of a Nation” (2016)
The story of Nat Turner and the rebellion he led, due for release in October. Turner starts out as a traveling slave preacher who makes money for his master by calling for peace, but his eventual realization of his complicity in the evils of slavery turns him into a leader of an uprising for freedom. Cleverly reusing the title of a 1915 film lionizing the Ku Klux Klan, the movie destroys the stereotypes written by William Styron in “The Confessions of Nat Turner.”
“Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market,” by Walter Johnson
A compelling book that gets at the heart of what the sale of Africans and African Americans in the New Orleans slave markets entailed, both in human and financial costs: the separation of families; the ways people were sold to cover debts of their masters; how the enslaved employed strategies to affect their sales.
“The Spread of U.S. Slavery, 1790-1860,” by Lincoln Mullen
This interactive map created by Mullen, a history professor at George Mason University, shows the spread of slavery in America, detailing where enslaved and free African Americans lived before the Civil War. It gives an excellent view of the pervasiveness of slavery in the United States.
“Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,” by Frederick Douglass
“I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land.”
Douglass’s searing first-person account of the brutality of slavery, religion’s role in his master’s savagery and his eventual escape is a powerful story of slavery’s destructiveness. Yes, it’s often taught in high school, but Douglass’s story bears another look, even if you’ve read it before. The “Narrative” is a testament of Douglass’s will to endure throughout the many atrocities he experienced, and when published in 1845, it was instrumental in furthering abolitionists’ cause.
Berlin’s book is a thorough history of slavery that presents a very different picture than the traditional one that focuses on the years leading up to the Civil War. Berlin shows what slavery was like before cotton plantations developed and how it changed afterward, juxtaposing the history of slavery with the history of the American idea of race. The book works against stereotypes, showing how slavery was constantly made and remade over its first 200 years. | <urn:uuid:98186539-cc91-4935-9d37-773a30344ff0> | {
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Translation is the process whereby RNA transcribed from DNA is used as the template for stringing together a specific sequence of amino acids for a new polypeptide.
mRNA (messenger RNA) is the template RNA transcript whose sequence of nucleotides is read in three-nucleotide portions (codons), each corresponding to either an amino acid or the directive to stop elongation of the polypeptide. rRNA (ribosomal RNA), assists at the site of translation, moving across the mRNA transcript and hosting the association of tRNA (transfer RNA) molecules that hold a specific amino acid and an anticodon region for binding to their matching mRNA codon.
In this manner, with mRNA providing a sequence of codons, tRNAs providing an anticodon binding region and corresponding amino acid, and rRNA providing active sites, these three classes of RNAs work in concert to translate a polypeptide product.
Ribosomes are a type of organelle that acts as the site of protein translation. Ribosomes free-floating in the cytosol will produce cytosol proteins, while ribosomes attached to the endoplasmic reticulum (forming rough ER) will produce proteins destined to be transported to an organelle or the cell membrane or outside of the cell. Attachment of the ribosome to the ER is determined by the presence of a signal peptide translated at the beginning of the growing polypeptide.
Each ribosome has a small subunit and a large subunit made of rRNA and proteins, which in eukaryotes are produced in the nucleolus of the cell.
The small and large subunits come together to form three distinct active sites in the ribosome — E site, P site, and A site. Each site has space for a tRNA molecule. As the ribosome moves across the mRNA transcript in the 5' → 3' direction it effectively aligns the transcript's codons with the ribosomal sites and therefore affording each opportunity to interact with a tRNA.
Translation occurs in three stages (similar to transcription) of initiation, elongation, and termination.
The A site provides space for a new approaching tRNA with attached amino acid and corresponding anticodon to match the next codon in the mRNA sequence. (The start codon is an exception, as it is matched to its tRNA at the P site during initiation, while all of the other codons are matched to tRNAs in the A site.)
With two amino acids held adjacent to each other, one attached to a tRNA in the A site and one attached to a tRNA in the P site, the ribosome's ribozyme-acting rRNA catalyzes peptidyl transferase activity which transfers the P site amino acid (as a single Met if it was the first or as a growing peptide chain) onto the A site amino acid. At the same time, the ribosome advances across the mRNA transcript, moving the former P site occupying tRNA into the E site, positioning the elongating polypeptide attached to a tRNA from the A site into the P site, and thereby freeing space in the A site for a new tRNA to enter for the next codon.
A tRNA moved into the E site, having just released its amino acid (and growing polypeptide chain if it was not the first tRNA), is then free to dissociate from the ribosome and mRNA (exit).
While the ribosome translates the elongating polypeptide by proceeding along the mRNA transcript 5' → 3', this process is setup in initiation by initiation factors helping to bring together the 5' end of the mRNA, the ribosomal subunits, and the correct tRNA (
5'-CAU-3' anticodon) into the P site.
When the ribosome advances such that a stop codon arises in the A site, release factors will bind instead of a new tRNA molecule. This signals termination, and the growing polypeptide is finished on its c-terminus and released from the ribosome, which breaks apart into its subunits.
A polypeptide can begin folding as it is being translated. Chaperone proteins can assist in this process to assure correct folding. Post-translational modifications may include the addition of sugars, lipids, or phosphate groups to the amino acids of the polypeptide. Additionally, proteins may be cleaved with removal of leading sequences to produce their final form.
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MCAT.me Tour → | <urn:uuid:7d928168-98a1-4fcd-acf2-e75ceacaa99d> | {
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This is your reminder to perform your monthly breast self-exam. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women today. Please take five minutes to do this important check. Early detection could mean the difference bewteen life and death.
There are two important ways to check your breasts. The first is by looking. A mirror should be used to check the breasts for pulls, dents, odd colouring, or lumps. The best positions for inspecting are leaning forward, arms on hips tightly, or standing upright with both arms over your head. When checking the breasts, keep in mind that both breasts should look the same, especially around the nipple.
The second way to check the breasts is by feeling. There are two ways to do this part of the exam and it is best to use a different one each month. One method uses water or oil on the skin to help fingers glide over the skin more easily. The shower can be a good place for this kind of exam. The second way is to use a thin T-shirt or sheet over the breasts. In both of these ways, the little skin lumps and bumps are less noticeable. Feel the breast tissue for any areas that feel different from the rest of the breast. Sometimes a difference will be a ball or lump. Yet other times it will be a thickened band or a deep, hard area that does not move like the rest of the breast.
When feeling the breasts
- Check the breast in two or three positions, such as lying down, standing up, and even leaning forward.
- Use the palm surface of the fingers, not the tips, to move the breast.
- Divide the exam into parts. Examine one part from the outside of the breast into the nipple, and then from the inside to the outer edge. Realize the breast tail goes into the armpit, so the exam needs to include that area.
- Remember the nipple is important, too. There is less breast tissue right under the nipple, so any lump there is a concern. The value of checking for discharge from the nipple is a debate since regular, hard squeezing of the nipple alone can cause a discharge. The gentle exam done towards your nipple is usually enough to show if there is a discharge. Any blood from the nipple needs to be evaluated by a doctor.
Breast self-exam is not a substitute for mammography or for regular exams by a doctor. Be sure to keep regular appointments as recommended by your doctor. | <urn:uuid:d47314f0-46ff-446c-8fbe-41cc5419f0bb> | {
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No one plans on having a premature baby, but it happens pretty often. And since half a million babies are born too soon in the US each year — that's about one in eight births — it’s worth knowing some key facts about the place all preemies visit upon arrival. Whether a baby is a micro-preemie (born at 26 weeks gestation or less) or born closer to term, he will no doubt spend time in a neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU). Here’s a quick guide to what you can expect.
What is the NICU, anyway?
A NICU is a high-tech nursery with special equipment and a highly trained staff who care for preemies and other newborns needing serious medical attention.
Who works there?
The NICU is a busy place. Heading up the team are neonatologists (pediatricians who specialize in caring for premature babies), neonatal nurse practitioners, and registered nurses (RNs). Social workers and psychologists are on call to help parents deal with the emotional impact of having and caring for a premature infant. Later, lactation consultants help transition the baby from feeding tube to bottle to breast. Physical therapists eventually work with babies as they get ready to go home.
There are tubes and machines everywhere.
If you give birth to a preemie, seeing your baby in the NICU for the first time can be a shock. The room is crowded, noisy, and brightly lit. Babies are nestled in closed incubators, which are heated to keep their tiny bodies at a consistent temperature. Depending on a baby’s needs, he may receive oxygen, especially right after birth. Heart-rate and oxygen monitors keep tabs on his vital signs, and a tiny IV will be attached to a hand, foot, or scalp. A preemie may have a nasogastric (NG) tube as well, to get precious breast milk or preemie formula into his stomach. (Babies born at less than 34 weeks gestation usually can’t eat on their own because they don’t have the strength and coordination to suck or swallow.)
There’s a lot of hand washing.
It’s important to be mindful of germs around any newborn — but in the NICU, good hygiene is crucial since preemies’ immune systems are very much a work in progress. For these little guys, even a cold can be deadly: So if you’re sick, stay away. (You can phone in for updates on your baby’s progress.) Whenever you enter the NICU, you must put on a gown and scrub up at a sink located near the entrance. Staff members wash their hands after handling each baby.
Visiting procedures are strict.
In the regular nursery, babies are typically on display and visiting hours are loose, with many families opting for rooming-in. But in the NICU, medical needs come first — and visiting hours are regulated. Generally, only parents can come any time, and even they are banned during shift changes. Other visitors (including siblings) are kept to a minimum and are usually allowed to visit only one at a time. | <urn:uuid:814d9bc4-4734-4abb-9cce-bae3f5b747fc> | {
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OVERVIEW: What every practitioner needs to know
Are you sure your HIV patient has liver disease? What should you expect to find?
Patients are most likely to present with fatigue and possibly hepatomegaly and/or jaundice.
Scleral icterus – liver diseases of all kinds threaten the organ’s ability to keep up with bilirubin processing. Starvation, infections, certain medications, hepatitis, and cirrhosis can all cause hepatic jaundice, as can certain hereditary defects of liver chemistry, including Gilbert’s syndrome and Crigler-Najjar syndrome.
Hepatomegaly – an enlarged liver upon physical examination is found frequently in patients with liver disease and can reflect liver involvement from opportunistic infections or HIV-associated malignancies, but also derive from acute viral hepatitis, drug toxicity or metabolic disorder.
Fatigue – may accompany liver disease and most likely results from the inflammation in the liver regardless of origin.
Loss of appetite – is frequently found in patients presenting with concomitant liver disease.
Fever – is the rule in mycobacterial disease and other infections of the liver but not necessarily present in metabolic or drug toxicity associated liver disease unless the liver is involved in a hypersensitivity reaction such as with nevirapine or abacavir.
Ascites – may be found in decompensated cirrhosis and advanced liver disease but also during mycobacterial disease with liver involvement or malignancies of the liver.
Skin findings – chronic liver disease of any origin can cause typical skin findings. Jaundice, spider nevi, leukonychia (white finger nails) and finger clubbing are well known features of chronic advanced liver disease. Palmar erythema, rosacea and rhinophyma are also common but often overlooked. More subtle signs include scratch marks, loss of axillary hair and gynecomastia caused by an imbalance in sex hormones.
How did the patient develop liver disease/liver infection? What was the primary source from which the infection spread?
The liver can be affected by HIV in many different ways. Liver involvement can occur in various AIDS defining diseases (see below). With the advent of potent antiretroviral therapy these complications have declined dramatically. At present, drug-associated hepatotoxicity and viral hepatitides represent the main manifestations of liver disease in people living with HIV. In the setting of advanced immunodeficiency hepatitis B, C and D, progress is faster to cirrhosis.
As a consequence, the proportion of morbidity and mortality attributable to liver disease has increased substantially in HIV-coinfected individuals.
Atypical mycobacteriosis–HIV patients with advanced immunodeficiency and a CD4-count below 50 cells/µl are at increased risk for development of atypical mycobacteriosis. The most common species found in AIDS-patients is M. avium, usually diagnosed as M. avium-intracellulare complex. Mycobacteria can colonize the lungs and then enter the bloodstream and spread throughout the body presenting as disseminated disease with frequent involvement of the liver, spleen, and intraabdominal lymph nodes. Symptoms include fever, night sweats, weight loss, appetite loss, fatigue, and progressively severe diarrhea, stomach pain, nausea, and vomiting.
Other opportunistic infections – Many AIDS defining opportunistic infections can also involve the liver: Disseminated fungal infections such as histoplasmosis and cryptococcosis, and more rarely microsporidiosis and cryptosporidiosis. Extrapulmonary infection of the liver with pneumocystis jirovecii has been reported in a few cases, particularly in patients who were on pentamidine PjP-inhalation prophylaxis.
CMV hepatitis – At least 60% of the US population has been exposed to CMV, with a prevalence of more than 90% in high-risk groups (e.g., men who have sex with men [MSM]). CMV is transmitted from person to person via close contact. It can be spread through the placenta, blood transfusions, organ transplantation, breast milk and sexually. Clinically significant CMV disease (reactivation of previously latent infection or newly acquired infection) frequently develops in patients immunocompromised by HIV infection and can present as CMV hepatitis.
Hepatitis A – The modes of transmission are mostly ingestion of contaminated water and food, such as raw clams or oysters, oral-anal contact, person-to-person spread via shared utensils or bath towels; or, very rarely, blood or blood product transfusion. MSM are at an increased risk for hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection. HAV does not seem to cause more severe clinical illness in HIV-infected individuals; however, acute HAV may require temporary interruption of antiretroviral (ARV) therapy, which has potential long-term consequences.
Hepatitis B – Due to shared routes of transmission, many patients infected with HIV have markers of past exposure to hepatitis B virus (HBV). Chronic HBV infection currently affects 5-10% of individuals with HIV infection in developed countries, despite HBV vaccination being widely available. Acute hepatitis B has become rare because of increased uptake of HBV vaccination programs. Flares of HBV may occur in patients with previously resolved HBV infection, particularly during HAART interruptions or during chemotherapy for malignancies.
Hepatitis C – HCV and HIV are both transmitted by blood and blood products with HCV being 10 times more infectious than HIV. Coinfection with HIV and hepatitis C is therefore frequent in persons with blood exposure. Thus, chronic hepatitis C can be found in 60-90 % of HIV-positive hemophiliacs and 50-70% of HIV-positive intravenous (IV) drug users. In contrast, sexual transmission of HCV is rare, which explains the low (4-8%) frequency of HCV coinfections in homosexual HIV patients. Small epidemics of acute HCV have been reported in men who have sex with men in European and North American cities, associated with a high number of sexual partners and sexual practices involving exposure to blood.
HIV associated malignancies – Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) as well as lymphoma (both Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma) can present as AIDS defining malignancies with liver involvement. When involving the liver, KS is already well established on skin and mucosa. Lymphoma in contrast can often present first in the liver.
Which individuals are at greater risk of developing liver disease?
Immunodeficiency – Antiretroviral-naïve HIV patients with a CD count less than 200/µl are at increased risk for development of AIDS defining events including opportunistic infections with liver involvement. Whereas tuberculosis can also occur at higher CD4 counts, the median CD4 count in patients with atypical mycobacteriosis is less than10/µl. AIDS defining malignancies can occur at any CD4 count but are much more frequent in patients with more advanced immunodeficiency.
Underlying liver disease – Patients with underlying chronic hepatitis B or C or alcoholic liver disease are at increased risk for hepatotoxicity after initiation of antiretroviral therapy and can develop grade 3-4 liver enzyme elevations.
In hepatitis B – HIV coinfection, hepatitis B may flare in the months after starting ART, particularly in the setting of more pronounced immune reconstitution.
Patients who are not vaccinated remain at high risk for contracting hepatitis A and B, underlining the need for vaccination in this particular patient group. Outbreak of acute hepatitis C in MSM warrants monitoring, especially when sexual practices involve exposure to blood.
Beware: there are other diseases that can mimic HIV associated liver disease:
Cholecystitis, cholangitis, and cholelithiasis
Malignancies of the bile duct system
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Alcoholic liver disease or alcohol hepatitis
Budd Chiari syndrome
What laboratory studies should you order and what should you expect to find?
Results consistent with the diagnosis
An initial step in detecting liver damage is to determine the presence of liver enzymes in the blood. Under normal circumstances, these enzymes reside within the cells of the liver. But when the liver is injured, they spill into the blood stream. Among the most sensitive and widely used of these liver enzymes are the aminotransferases. They include aspartate aminotransferase (AST or SGOT) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT or SGPT). The ACTG grading of liver enzyme elevations is listed in Table I.
The prevailing pattern of lab abnormalities allows to further differentiate different causes of liver disease. Acute cytolytic damage is characterized by high ALT or ALT/Alkaline phosphatase (AP) greater than 5, whereas acute cholestatic damage shows high AP or ALT/AP less than 2. A mixed pattern shows high ALT and AP or ALT/AP between 2 and 5.
Bilirubin is measured to diagnose and/or monitor liver diseases such as cirrhosis, hepatitis, or cholestasis due to gallstones. Bilirubin which is bound to glucuronide to form conjugated bilirubin is called direct bilirubin. Unbound bilirubin is also referred to as indirect bilirubin. Jaundice may be noticeable in the sclera (white) of the eyes at levels of about 2 to 3 mg/dL (34 to 51 μmol/L) and in the skin at higher levels. Increased total or unconjugated bilirubin may be a result of hemolytic anemias.
If conjugated bilirubin is elevated, there may be some kind of blockage of the liver or bile ducts, hepatitis, trauma to the liver, cirrhosis, a drug reaction, or long-term alcohol abuse. Inherited disorders of the bilirubin metabolism such as Gilbert’s disease can result in mild jaundice, found in about 5% of the population. Unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia caused by competitive inhibition of the uridine diphosphate-glucuronosyl transferase (UGT) 1A1 enzyme can be found during atazanavir or indinavir treatment and is particularly pronounced in patients with underlying Gilbert’s syndrome.
Alkaline phosphatases (AP) are a group of enzymes found primarily in the liver. When the liver, bile ducts or gallbladder system are not functioning properly or are blocked, AP is not excreted through the bile but released into the blood stream. Thus, the serum AP is a measure of the integrity of the hepatobiliary system and the flow of bile into the small intestine. It is typically increased in atypical mycobacteriosis but can also increase during other opportunistic infections affecting the bile duct system such as microsporidiosis or cryptosporidiosis.
International normalized ratio
The international normalized ratio (INR) is a test of blood clotting, which is primarily used to monitor warfarin therapy. In the context of liver disease the INR is a reliable test for liver synthetic function. Indeed INR has evolved over the past 2 decades as a key measure of assessing bleeding risk in liver disease. Moreover, it is one contributing laboratory parameter in the CHILD PUGH classification, which is used to assess the prognosis of chronic liver disease, mainly cirrhosis (see Table I). A total score of 5-6 is grade A (well-compensated disease); 7-9 is grade B (significant functional compromise); and 10-15 is grade C (decompensated disease). These grades correlate well with survival.
Albumin is a protein made by the liver. Albumin levels are decreased in chronic liver disease, such as cirrhosis. It is also decreased in nephrotic syndrome, where it is lost through the kidney. Albumin is also a laboratory parameter which is included in the CHILD-Pugh score (see Table II). However, coagulation factors are much more sensitive for assessment of liver synthetic function.
Results that confirm the diagnosis
Viral hepatitis testing
Viral hepatitis can be diagnosed by serologic and molecular markers which are summarized for the five most important forms of hepatitis in
Diagnosis of acute hepatitis A is based on the detection of anti-HAV IgM antibodies. Isolated HAV-IgG antibodies are indicative of resolved infection or past vaccination.
Chronic HBV infection is defined as detectable HBS-Ag for more than 6 months. In acute HBV infection HBc-IgM antibodies can be found. Detection of anti-HBs and anti-HBc antibodies is indicative of resolved prior infection and sole presence of anti-HBs-antibodies a sign for successful prior vaccination. The presence of only anti-HBc antibodies suggests occult HBV infection. In cases of advanced immunodeficiency with very low CD4 counts, loss of anti-HBs antibodies may occur, and this would warrant additional HBV-DNA testing. HBV-DNA can be measured quantitatively and is a marker of viral replication.
More recently, quantitative HBs-Ag measurements have been shown to be extremely useful in monitoring how well patients are responding to HBV therapy with interferon. Indeed quantitative measurement of change (or lack of change) in HBsAg levels as early as 12 weeks under a pegylated interferon based HBV therapy can predict its success as late as 5 years post-treatment.
In case of suspected acute HCV in a HIV-coinfected individual up to 6 months (in rare cases even longer; 5% are still antibody-negative after 12 months) can pass until HCV antibodies become detectable. Therefore HCV-RNA determination is important in order to make the diagnosis of acute HCV. In patients with HCV-antibodes but repeatedly negative HCV-RNA, resolved HCV infection must be presumed. A positive HCV RNA is indicative of chronic replicative disease.
A HDV infection absolutely requires an associated HBV infection. The diagnosis of acute hepatitis D is made after evaluation of serologic tests for the virus. Total anti-HDV is detected by commercially available radioimmunoassay (RIA) or enzyme immunoassay kits. The method of choice for the diagnosis of ongoing HDV infection should be RT-PCR, which can detect 10 to 100 copies of the HDV genome in infected serum.
Hepatitis E can be diagnosed by blood tests which detect elevated antibody levels of specific antibodies to hepatitis E or by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The highest rates of infection occur in regions where low standards of sanitation promote the transmission of the virus. Epidemics of hepatitis E have been reported in Central and South-East Asia, North and West Africa, and in Mexico. So far reports of hepatitis E in HIV patients other than in travelers have been rare, but chronic hepatitis E occurs in immunosuppressed individuals.
Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is a protein normally made by the immature liver cells in the fetus. At birth, infants have high levels of AFP, which fall to normal adult levels by the first year of life. Generally, in the adult normal levels of AFP are below 10 ng/ml. Moderate levels of AFP can be seen in patients with chronic hepatitis. Sudden increases as well as high levels of AFP are suggestive of liver cancer. Indeed, an elevated AFP blood test can be found in about 60% of liver cancer patients.
Biopsy of the liver establishes diagnosis of liver disease, and the severity of known liver disease, and can be used to monitor the effect of treatment. Particularly in HIV patients with advanced immunodeficiency and suspicion of an ongoing opportunistic infection with liver involvement, liver biopsy can be extremely helpful to establish diagnosis. For example histological evidence of granuloma and PCR can help to distinguish tuberculosis from atypical mycobacteriosis.
CMV staining can reveal CMV-hepatitis. Advanced stages of fibrosis in HIV infected individuals with chronic viral hepatitis are the basis for treatment interventions. Biopsy may help to differentiate between flare of underlying chronic viral hepatitis or drug toxicity.
What imaging studies will be helpful in making or excluding the diagnosis of liver disease?
Ultrasound of the abdomen- Ultrasound remains, based on easy access and low cost, the first-line imaging method of choice. The ultrasound of the liver can check the size, shape and position of the liver. An ultrasound will also provide information on causes of jaundice, presence of cirrhosis, fatty liver disease or liver masses. In addition, one can look for ascites and check for signs of portal hypertension and blood flow within the portal vein.
CT and MRI – CT and MRI are applied whenever ultrasound imaging yields vague results. Indications are the characterization of metastases and primary liver tumors e.g., benign lesions such as focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH), adenoma, hemangioma and malignant lesions such as hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC). CT is less costly and more widely available but has the disadvantage of radiation exposure. MRI is more sensitive for detection of small focal lesions in the liver and also allows reliably the identification of hemangioma which is a clear advantage over CT imaging.
Fibroscan – A fibroscan can measure the “stiffness” or “elasticity” of the liver, using an ultrasound scan to create waves and measure their speed. The wave speed is used to determine liver stiffness; the harder the liver tissue, the more rapidly the waves will pass through it. This scan is much less sensitive than biopsy to detect mild or moderate liver damage, but it is very sensitive at picking up severe damage. It can therefore identify people who need HCV treatment more urgently. Results are presented as kilopascals (kPa). The higher the figure, the stiffer and more damaged the liver. Overall, a score of over 7.2kPa indicates higher likelihood of significant fibrosis (F2 or greater on Metavir) and over 13kPa indicates cirrhosis (F4 on the Metavir scale).
Upper GI endoscopy – Every patient with more advanced stages of liver fibrosis, and in particular cirrhosis, should undergo upper endoscopy to check for esophageal varices. When esophageal varices are discovered, they are graded according to their size, as follows:
Grade 1 – Small, straight esophageal varices
Grade 2 – Enlarged, tortuous esophageal varices occupying less than one third of the lumen
Grade 3 – Large, coil-shaped esophageal varices occupying more than one third of the lumen
The esophageal varices are also inspected for red wheals, which are dilated intra-epithelial veins under tension and carry a significant risk for bleeding. The grading of esophageal varices and identification of red wheals by endoscopy predicts a patient’s bleeding risk, on which treatment (i.e. ligation, banding etc.) is based.
What consult service or services would be helpful for making the diagnosis and assisting with treatment?
If you decide the HIV patient has liver disease, what therapies should you initiate immediately?
No specific treatment exists for hepatitis A. Symptomatic treatment of nausea or dehydration may be warranted.
Indication for treatment of hepatitis B depends on level of HBV replication, live enzyme elevation and presence of cirrhosis. Patients with cirrhosis are immediate candidates for HBV therapy independent from other markers. Cirrhotic patients should be referred for variceal assessment, have regular monitoring for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC; includes AFP measurement and ultrasound of the liver every 6 months) and be referred early for transplant assessment. Patients with liver cirrhosis and low CD4 counts require careful surveillance in the first months after starting HAART in order not to overlook immune-reconstitution syndrome and subsequent liver decompensation. Patients with elevated liver transaminases and levels of HBV-DNA > 2000 IU/ml should also be offered HBV therapy, whereas patients with normal transaminases and low level viremia can be followed with regular monitoring, but without treatment. HBV-infected patients requiring HAART, particularly with advanced liver fibrosis (F3/F4), should receive tenofovir (TDF) +3TC or FTC.
Figure 1 summarizes the current HBV treatment algorithm from the EACS guidelines. Co-infected patients without an indication for treatment of their HIV infection (CD4 > 500/µl) are generally eligible for therapy with pegylated interferon, although little data is available on its efficacy in HIV/HBV co-infection. In general, it seems reasonable to expect lower response rates. In HBV-monoinfection positive predictors for successful seroconversion are infection with wildtype HBeAg, HBV genotype A, distinctly elevated liver enzymes, and a low hepatitis B viral load. Proposed treatment duration for Peg-INF is 48 weeks.
If tenofovir is contra-indicated, entecavir + adefovir may be tried, or tenofovir in doses adjusted to renal clearance in combination with effective HAART may be used. NRTI substitution should only be performed if feasible and appropriate from the perspective of maintaining HIV suppression. Caution is warranted when switching from a tenofovir-based regimen to drugs with a lower genetic barrier, e.g. FTC/3TC, in particular in lamivudine-pretreated cirrhotic patients, as viral breakthrough due to archived YMDD mutations has been observed. This has also been described in individuals with archived lamivudine resistance who have been switched from tenofovir to entecavir.
The combination of Peg-INF alpha and ribavirin (RBV) is the treatment of choice for HCV infection. The standard dose for Peg-INF 2a is 180 μg once weekly, and for Peg-INF 2b it is 1.5 μg/kg bodyweight once weekly. An initial weight-adapted dose of RBV of 1000 (wt ≤ 75kg) -1200 (wt > 75kg) mg/day, administered in two doses per day, is recommended for all HCV genotypes. Duration of therapy depends on prevailing HCV genotype and rapidness of responding to therapy (see
Boceprevir and telaprevir are direct-acting agents (DAAs) against HCV; they have become available in 2011 for patients with HCV mono-infection. In HIV/HCV co-infection their use is complicated by drug-drug interactions and overlapping toxicity. At the current time, it is difficult to give definitive recommendations regarding their use. Factors to be considered are the following:
HAART improves the prognosis not only of HIV, but also of HCV (plus 2 NRTIs) infection. Particularly in co-infected patients with low CD4 counts, optimization of HAART is the first priority.
Co-infected patients, in particular former intravenous drug users, are frequently infected with HCV genotype 1. While this genotype responds less well to therapy with peginterferon and ribavirin than genotypes 2 and 3, it is also less virulent with regard to the progression of liver disease to fibrosis and cirrhosis. In view of the rapid progress in HCV therapy and the probable availability of less toxic and more effective drugs within the next few years, watchful waiting may be the best option for many co-infected patients.
If good prognostic factors are present, such as low HCV viremia (< 400000 copies/ml) in combination with the IL28B CC genotype, consider using peginterferon plus ribavirin without DAAs.
If treatment with boceprevir or telaprevir is planned, consider replacing HIV protease inhibitors, or efavirenz, with raltegravir (because raltegravir has minimal drug-drug interactions). As a rule of thumb:
HIV/HCV co-infected patients who are on raltegravir (plus 2 NRTIs), or who are not on anti-HIV drugs, may use boceprevir or telaprevir at standard doses
Patients who receive atazanavir with or without ritonavir (plus 2 NRTIs) may use telaprevir at standard doses but should avoid boceprevir
Patients who receive efavirenz may use telaprevir at the higher dose of 1125mg every 8 hours but should also avoid boceprevir
In patients with Delta virus co-infection and significant liver fibrosis (>F2) long-term (>18 months), treatment with pegylated interferon might be considered in association with tenofovir based HAART. TDF has shown some efficacy, especially in patients with detectable serum HBV-DNA. Treatment efficacy should be monitored with: HBV-DNA and HDV-RNA measurement, when available, and with follow-up of biochemical and liver fibrosis estimates.
As no specific therapy is capable of altering the course of acute hepatitis E infection, prevention is the most effective approach against the disease. Hospitalization is required for fulminant hepatitis and should be considered for infected pregnant women.
When administering therapy for atypical mycobacteriosis please check for corresponding drug-drug interactions and necessary dosage adaptations (for example reduction in rifabutin dose to 150mg every second day in combination with most boosted HIV protease inhibitors. Table III lists preferred treatments.
Hepatitis is commonly observed in patients with primary CMV infection and usually recovers without treatment. CMV hepatitis in HIV patients with more advanced immunodeficiency may also occur and in the setting of advanced immunosuppression may warrant anti-CMV therapy with ganciclovir or valganciclovir.
What's the evidence?
Joshi, D, O’Grady, J, Dieterich, D, Gazzard, B, Agarwal, K. “Increasing burden of liver disease in patients with HIV infection”. Lancet. vol. 377. 2011. pp. 1198-209.
Lacombe, K, Rockstroh, J. “HIV and viral hepatitis coinfections: advances and challenges”. Gut. vol. 61. 2012. pp. i47-58.
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- OVERVIEW: What every practitioner needs to know
- Are you sure your HIV patient has liver disease? What should you expect to find?
- How did the patient develop liver disease/liver infection? What was the primary source from which the infection spread?
- Which individuals are at greater risk of developing liver disease?
- Beware: there are other diseases that can mimic HIV associated liver disease:
- What laboratory studies should you order and what should you expect to find?
- What imaging studies will be helpful in making or excluding the diagnosis of liver disease?
- What consult service or services would be helpful for making the diagnosis and assisting with treatment?
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