Facts About Termites
There are several species of subterranean termites throughout the country. In Georgia the eastern subterranean termite is the most common termite. In the spring, mature eastern subterranean termites swarm in search of new places to start a colony and unfortunately it can be your home. Since subterranean termite nymphs need constant contact with the soil, they feed on your home from the bottom up indicating their presence with termite tubes leading from the soil to the foundation of your home causing damage to the structure.
A termite inspection is a type of inspection that is conducted to determine the presence or absence of termites and other wood destroying organisms in a property. During this inspection our licensed pest control technician will examine the exterior and interior of the property, including the foundation, walls, attic and other areas throughout the property. A termite inspection is recommended before purchasing or selling a property, annual yearly inspections are also recommended and come standard with our termite service.
WDO Reports, also known as Wood Destroying Organism reports, serve the purpose of identifying any previous or existing damage caused by wood destroying organisms such as termites, powder post beetles, wood boring beetles, and wood decaying fungus (not molds or mildews). It provides an assessment of visible damage caused by the wood destroying organisms, this report is required by lenders, buyers, and sellers during a real estate transaction.


6.1. Optical/Infrared Surveys
Building on the success of 2dF and SDSS in delineating the evolution of optically selected quasars at high luminosity, a next logical and important observational step is to map the evolution of lower luminosity objects. They constitute the bulk of the AGN population, and they are also crucial for understanding the nature of the extragalactic ionizing background radiation. At high redshift, there is already evidence that the numbers of quasars are too few to account for the observed level of ionization of the intergalactic medium (McDonald & Miralda-Escudé 2001; Schirber & Bullock 2003).
On the observational front, the slope of the luminosity function of high-redshift quasars is quite uncertain. Although Fan et al. (2001b) have made estimates, and the upper limits on the number of AGNs in the HDF also sets constraints (e.g., Conti et al. 1999), direct observations are needed, because it is the slope that determines the number of faint AGNs.
Among the current surveys for fainter quasars at high redshift are the BTC40 (Monier et al. 2002), COMBO-17 (Wolf et al. 2001), and the NOAO DEEP survey (Januzzi & Dey 1999). All are multi-color imaging surveys. In addition, Steidel et al. (2002) are investigating the AGN population found in a deep spectroscopic survey of Lyman-break galaxies. The main properties of these surveys are:
BTC40 covered 40 deg2 in B, V, I and 36 deg2 in z and was designed to find quasars with 4.8 < z < 6. It reached 3 limiting magnitudes of V = 24.5, I = 22.9, and z = 22.9. To date it has yielded two quasars with redshifts of 4.6 and 4.8 and produced candidates down to I = 22 for future spectroscopy on 8-10 m telescopes.
COMBO-17 uses 17 filters covering the 0.37 - 2.2µ wavelength range to achieve in effect low-resolution spectroscopy for a 1 deg2 area down to R = 26 mag. This survey, which will include 50,000 galaxies as well as quasars and AGNs, is very ambitious and promises to yield very significant results when completed.
The NOAO DEEP survey is covering 18 deg2 of sky in BW, R, I, J, H, K to optical magnitudes of 26 and near-infrared magnitudes of 21. Because of its broad wavelength coverage and faint limiting magnitudes, it will provide very important data on the evolution of AGNs.
The Steidel et al. survey complements the multi-color ones in that it investigates the spectroscopic properties of galaxies at z 3 down to RAB 25.5 mag. It has found that about 3% of the galaxies are AGNs, many of which would not have been detected in deep X-ray surveys, and thus is sampling a part of parameter space not covered to date in other work.
An additional value of all these surveys will be to combine their results with those of the deep radio and X-ray surveys mentioned above. This will help define better the luminosity functions and statistics of quasars, AGNs of different types, and normal galaxies and thereby help improve our knowledge of the evolution of all these objects.


How Microbes Make Earth Habitable
Several recent discoveries point to amazing connections between global forces and Earth's tiniest creatures that maintain the habitability of our planet. Consider some examples and think about the implications.
First, let's talk about the atmosphere. As David Klinghoffer reported here last month at Evolution News, it appears we can dispense with the notion that a rise in oxygen caused the Cambrian explosion. That paper in PNAS suggests that "O2 levels capable of supporting animal physiology were present more than 500 million years before the appearance of animals." We know that oxygen is necessary for complex life. This paper says it was already here long before complex multicellular animals appeared.
Less recognized is nitrogen. Elizabeth Howell wrote in NASA's Astrobiology Magazine back in 2014 that oxygen could fool the search for life, but this year she wrote in the same Astrobiology Magazine that nitrogen "may be a sign of habitability."
We might commonly think of Earth as having an oxygen-dominated atmosphere, but in reality the molecule makes up only a fifth of our air. Most of what surrounds us is nitrogen, at 78 percent. Astrobiologists are beginning to see nitrogen -- and not just oxygen -- as a key indicator of a planet's habitability. Nitrogen is essential for life on Earth and could signal an atmosphere thick enough to stabilize liquid water on a planet's surface, fundamental to creating habitable conditions. [Emphasis added.]
Nitrogen and oxygen may not be sufficient for life (Saturn's moon Titan, for instance, has plentiful nitrogen), but they are both necessary. A leading source of free oxygen is photosynthesis in autotrophic microbes; and only microbes have the know-how to "fix" nitrogen by dismantling the triple bonds of atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia and other useful compounds. As we will see, microbes play a major role in maintaining the balance other essential atmospheric elements, too. Without that balance, complex life could not exist.
Nitrogen-Fixing Bacterium Does Solo Performance
Nitrification, the oxidation of ammonia via nitrite to nitrate, has always been considered to be a two-step process catalysed by chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms oxidizing either ammonia or nitrite. No known nitrifier carries out both steps, although complete nitrification should be energetically advantageous. This functional separation has puzzled microbiologists for a century. Here we report on the discovery and cultivation of a completely nitrifying bacterium from the genus Nitrospira, a globally distributed group of nitrite oxidizers. The genome of this chemolithoautotrophic organism encodes the pathways both for ammonia and nitrite oxidation, which are concomitantly activated during growth by ammonia oxidation to nitrate. Genes affiliated with the phylogenetically distinct ammonia monooxygenase and hydroxylamine dehydrogenase genes of Nitrospira are present in many environments and were retrieved on Nitrospira-contigs in new metagenomes from engineered systems. These findings fundamentally change our picture of nitrification and point to completely nitrifying Nitrospira as key components of nitrogen-cycling microbial communities.
We'll have to add a new term to our vocabulary now: comammox or "complete ammonia oxidizer"; see the summary from the University of Vienna. An article from from the same source describes the "incredibly exciting moment" when they found the "long-sought comammox organism" 1,200 meters deep in a Russian oil exploration well. A bigger surprise came when they realized "comammox was everywhere but was overlooked."
Electric Sediment Buffers Ocean
Life began in the oceans, but without bacteria, it might not survive. According to surprising findings announced in Current Biology:
Animals at the bottom of the sea survive oxygen depletion surprisingly often, and a new study identifies cable bacteria in the sediment as the saviors. The bacterial electrical activity creates an iron 'carpet', trapping toxic hydrogen sulfide.
The paper's title is, "Electrical cable bacteria save marine life." These "key organisms" link up into electrical "wires" in the top layers of ocean sediment, carrying electrons from sulfide oxidation up into the ocean water, where further reactions form an "iron firewall" that protects the ocean from a buildup of toxic hydrogen sulfide. This buffering of the ocean against harmful conditions even undergoes a seasonal cycle:
Essentially, the cable bacteria manage a sulfide storage facility made of reactive iron, where sulfide is stowed away during oxygen-poor periods and regained for efficient energy metabolism when oxygen returns. Seitaj et al. propose that the control of sulfide mediated by cable bacteria, which they observed at Grevelingen, could be widespread and may explain many cases where oxygen depletions are not followed by release of hydrogen sulfide and mass mortality of marine life.
Plankton Maintain Carbon Cycle
Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are an important concern to climate scientists. It's been known for a long time that plankton in the surface ocean waters play a big role in the carbon and oxygen cycles. Researchers at MIT took a closer look at certain members of the plankton community called "mixotrophs" -- those that can feed by photosynthesis and by consuming prey. They realized that "these microscopic, mixotrophic organisms may have a large impact on the ocean's food web and the global carbon cycle."
The MIT scientists note that mixotrophs have been overlooked in climate models. As these heavier plankton die, they take their carbon down into the seafloor sediments with them. Consequently, "mixotrophic organisms may make the ocean more efficient in storing carbon, which in turn enhances the efficiency with which the oceans sequester carbon dioxide." Without mixotrophs, there would likely be more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere -- and we all know what that means. One wonders if the earth would become less habitable over time if it were not for the planet-wide function performed by these tiny organisms.
Diatoms Promote Diatomic Oxygen
One fifth of the oxygen in our atmosphere comes from one-celled algae called diatoms. These incredible organisms, known for the variety of their beautiful silica houses (called tests) inhabit the oceans and fresh waters of the planet in vast numbers. Although Michael Denton doesn't discuss them in his new book Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis, he well could have pointed to their beautiful shells as non-adaptive forms inexplicable by natural selection. Why would an organism need to create triangles, rods, and five-pointed stars with intricate etched patterns on transparent glass? Every time a diatom divides, the daughter cells recreate the elegant shells of their particular species.
To do their important work for the global atmosphere, they need to find silicon. An exciting new discovery was announced by Friedrich Schiller University Jena. Diatoms can apparently "smell" silicate minerals, and migrate to where they are plentiful. In a petri dish, scientists watched biofilms of diatoms move two micrometers a second toward silicate sources, but away from toxic minerals. How they do this is unknown, but it was clear to them that "The algae have to search their environment for the building material" (italics in original). The results of their study are published in Nature Communications.
If diatoms lacked the ability to seek out and find what they need, the planet might have reduced oxygen, decreasing its ability to support complex life. Thus our pun on "diatoms" (Greek "cut in two") and "diatomic oxygen" ("two atoms," O2) -- two unrelated words about pairs of things that interact in a surprising way.
Microbes make earth a nice place to live. There's more to say on that theme, and we'll do so in an additional post coming up.
Image: Nitrospira bacteria, by Holger Daims via University of Vienna.


Just about everyone knows mercury is a dangerous substance that should be avoided but few people realize how common it is in skin creams and other cosmetics, especially those targeted to Latino, Asian, African-American and Middle Eastern consumers.
Many skin creams, soaps and lotions that advertise themselves as "anti-aging" or "skin lightening" contain mercury. Check the label for words including “mercurous chloride,” “calomel,” “mercuric,” “mercurio,” or “mercury.” All indicate the presence of mercury and mean you should stop using the product immediately, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns.
If the ingredients aren’t listed and there is no product label, don’t assume it’s fine. Federal law requires that ingredients be listed on the label of any cosmetic or nonprescription drug, so do not use a product that doesn’t have a label. In addition, don’t use drugs or cosmetics labeled in languages other than English unless English labeling is also provided, FDA advises. That’s also a sign that the product may be marketed illegally.
Jason Humbert of FDA’s Office of Regulatory Affairs says these products usually are manufactured abroad and sold illegally in the United States, often in shops catering to ethnic communities. They are also sold online.
“Even though these products are often promoted as cosmetics, they also may be unapproved new drugs under the law,” says Linda Katz, M.D., director of FDA’s Office of Cosmetics and Colors. FDA does not allow mercury in drugs or in cosmetics, except under very specific conditions where there are no other safe and effective preservatives available – conditions that these products do not meet.
Exposure to mercury can have serious health consequences -- both for those using products that contain mercury and for those around them.
“Your family might breathe mercury vapors released from these products. Your children might touch washcloths or towels that are contaminated with mercury. It could be as simple as touching someone’s cheek or face,” said Dr. Arthur Simone, an FDA senior medical advisor.
Pregnant women, nursing babies and young children are especially vulnerable to mercury toxicity, Simone adds.
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The smart Trick of solar panel cost That No One is DiscussingCongratulations, a person solar panel has become produced! The next part is right here in the event that you need to protect your solar panel from reverse recent. Existing flowing into a solar panel will destruction the solar cells and make them incapable of making electricity (this typically can come about If you have the solar panel related straight to a battery; When you've got a cost controller, the controller will stop this from taking place).
Measure and cut your entire tabbing wire. If you examine your polycrystalline cells, you’ll see a large number of modest traces heading in a single route (the long distance) and two greater lines likely in one other direction (the shorter distance).
Analysis is additionally undertaken With this field of synthetic photosynthesis. It consists of the use of nanotechnology to store solar electromagnetic Vitality in chemical bonds, by splitting water to generate hydrogen fuel or then combining with carbon dioxide to help make biopolymers for instance methanol. Many massive countrywide and regional research tasks on artificial photosynthesis are now wanting to develop strategies integrating improved light seize, quantum coherence methods of electron transfer and low-cost catalytic supplies that work beneath various atmospheric conditions.
Get yourself a bit of plexiglass. Buy a piece of plexiglass that's Slash to suit inside the box that you simply built in your panel. You can find this from a specialty shop or from your local components retailer. Ensure that you get plexiglass instead of glass, as glass is susceptible to breaking or chipping.
A lesser inverter might also preserve plenty of power. 500 watts could be massive adequate, and its smaller sized transformers and capacitors would have less standby losses. However, it might eat 1-two amps Together with the inverter on and nothing plugged in.
Though with any luck , helpful, the chart even now doesn’t incorporate other things such as the environmental performance of the production technique of the panels, how “green” the business is, or how the panels look.
Most PV cells slide into certainly one of two essential categories: crystalline silicon or thin-film. Crystalline silicon modules could be fashioned from either monocrystalline, multicrystalline, or ribbon silicon. Slim-film can be a time period encompassing a range of different systems, together with amorphous silicon, and a number of variants employing other semiconductors like cadmium telluride or CIGS (copper indium gallium diselenide).
wikiHow Contributor As it has two legs on each side it is actually probably a set panel meant to go to the roof.
Connect the solar unit towards the box. Glue the solar unit here to the completed box. Be sure that it is protected and the cells are going through up and could get daylight. There must also be two holes in the panel for the finishes of the bus wire to go through.
These solar cells appear to be the ones that happen to be from the LED route lights. Every single panel is coated with a transparent "tough plastic" coating rendering it environmentally protected and nearly unbreakable.
Let me point out up entrance which i almost certainly won't be able that may help you out Substantially if you decide to Construct your very own solar panel(s).
This calculator will help you figure out your solar + battery system desires. If you would like personalised, totally free, specialist and no-obligation suggestions on an Vitality Option personalized to your home or enterprise, connect with our helpful workforce nowadays on 133 SUN (133 786) or get a quick quote.
You're happy to simply make price savings on the electrical energy Invoice. You won't make any cash from Feed-in Tariff Using these schemes, but you are going to nonetheless preserve in your electrical energy bill.
The areas with highest once-a-year solar irradiance lie from the arid tropics and subtropics. Deserts lying in lower latitudes typically have few clouds, and will obtain sunshine for more than 10 hours every day.[sixty seven] These sizzling deserts form the Global Sunshine Belt circling the entire world.


If you’re having trouble sleeping, you might need a little boost to get your rhythm aligned with the cycles of nature. For instance, there’s a reason why we sleep at night when it’s dark and wake during the day when it’s light. In recent years, scientists have been studying the alternating cycle of sleep and waking and how that is related the hours of daylight and darkness.
It turns out that when an individual is exposed to the sunlight, a nerve pathway from the retina to an area in the brain is stimulated, and this initiates the release of certain hormones, which influence body temperature and other functions that play a role in feeling awake. This area of the brain works like a clock and regulates patterns of activities such as raising body temperature and releasing hormones like cortisol. Later in the day, this area of the brain is also responsible for the release of melatonin, which is related to functions of the body which bring on the need to sleep.
Melatonin is a supplement that individuals can take in order facilitate the ability to sleep and stay asleep longer. Because melatonin is a natural hormone created by the pineal gland, it’s a safe way to encourage the body to sleep when it needs to. The pineal gland is located in the middle of the brain. It is inactive during the day, but when night approaches, it begins to produce melatonin, which is released into the blood stream.
When there are higher melatonin levels in the body, an individual begins to feel less alert and sleep begins to feel like a necessary activity. At night, typically melatonin levels are high in the bloody stream and remain high throughout the night. However, during the day, levels of melatonin drop to a level that is barely detectable.
Interestingly, the hormone melatonin will not be released in the presence of bright sunlight. If a person is exposed to sunlight or if he or she is in a brightly light room, this hormone will not be produced. It is only produced by the pineal gland when it is dark. During the summer in Alaska, for instance, an individual might have a hard time sleeping with the longer hours of daylight.
In order to be effective, melatonin should be taken such that it addresses your unique sleep problem. For instance, taking melatonin at the wrong time of day may have an effect on the biological clock that most individuals possess. How much to take and when to take this supplement is important to determine with a doctor prior to beginning the use of it.
Melatonin is available at health food stores throughout the country. Interestingly, it is the only hormone that is available without a prescription. The reason it’s made available to the public is because it is contained naturally in some foods. For this reason, the U.S. Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 allows it to be sold as a dietary supplement, in vitamin or mineral form.
For many people. melatonin does improve sleep. However, in studies, when compared to a sleeping pill, melatonin shows little benefit. There is evidence that melatonin can affect the body’s clock and natural rhythm. Yet, it’s still not clear whether the use of melatonin or simply the removing light in one’s environment has a greater effect on the ability to sleep. Overall, research indicates the supplement can improve sleep when the right dosage is taken at the appropriate times.
Melatonin is a supplement that can naturally improve your sleep cycle, especially if it’s been disturbed by traveling or overworking or stress.


We're working with Halifax Solid Waste Management Services to build an educational robot out of recycled materials.
Project started 2018-05-29. Discussion is on our Google Group.
Build an educational robot that could be taken to Halifax schools to help educators teach children about recycling.
Proposed Stretch Goals:
We are targeting the 2018-2019 school year, but the project may continue to evolve beyond that.
Be careful about the carcinogenic(?) fumes!
Local company that may have cutoffs for us to reuse, skipping the melting and extrusion step for us:
Raspberry pi is the way to go, we think. Power: A decent sized USB powerbank can deliver 5 watts for 4 hours. A Pi with accessories needs about 5 watts? Need to check this guess…


The Iranian Revolution (1977-1979)
by Stephen Zunes
Nature of Struggle: revolution against dictatorship
Target: regime of Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi
Movement: urban poor, students, trade unions, intellectuals, leftists, Islamists, and others, led by Shi’a clerics
The Iranian Revolution of 1977-79 was the first in a series of mass popular civil insurrections which would result in the overthrow of authoritarian regimes in dozens of countries over the next three decades. Unlike most of the other uprisings that would topple dictators in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and parts of Asia and Africa, the result of the Iranian struggle was not the establishment of liberal democracy but of a new form of authoritarianism. However, except for a series of short battles using light weaponry in the final hours of the uprising, the revolutionary forces themselves were overwhelmingly nonviolent. The autocratic monarchy of Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi faced a broad coalition of opposition forces, including Marxists and constitutional liberals, but the opposition ultimately became dominated by the mullahs of the country’s Shia hierarchy. Despite severe repression against protestors, a series of demonstrations and strikes over the previous two years came to a peak in the fall of 1978, as millions of opponents of the Shah’s regime clogged the streets of Iran’s cities and work stoppages paralyzed the country. The Shah fled into exile in January 1979 and exiled cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile to lead the new Islamic Republic.
For much of the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century, Iran’s autonomy was challenged by Russia and, in particular, Great Britain. In 1890, an unpopular concession to British tobacco interests led leading Shia clerics to call for nationalist protests and a nationwide tobacco strike, which succeeded forcing the Shah (emperor) to cancel the concession in early 1892. In 1905, in opposition to widespread corruption by the Qajar dynasty and allied regional nobles and a series of other concessions to Russian and other foreign interests, an uprising – initially led by merchants and clergy – ensued which would continue for the next six years. What became known as the Constitutional Revolution, in which many thousands of Iranians engaged in such nonviolent actions as peaceful protests, boycotts and mass sit-ins, resulted in significant political and social reforms, including the establishment of an elected parliament to share power with the Shah and anti-corruption measures. A British-backed coup in 1925 led to the establishment of an authoritarian dynasty, initially under Reza Shah Pahlavi which turned the majlis (parliament) into a rubber stamp for his decrees.
In 1941, concerned with the Shah’s pro-Axis sympathies, British and Soviet troops occupied the country forcing the Shah to abdicate in favor of his son, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. In the more liberal climate following the Allied victory in World War II, the democratically-elected majlis reasserted its power, electing the nationalist prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh in 1950. Soon thereafter, the Mossadegh government nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, a British monopoly, which led to an international boycott of Iran’s primary export. As the economic situation deteriorated and political unrest grew, a power struggle ensued between the young Shah and the elected prime minister, with the Shah fleeing into exile in1953. A CIA-sponsored coup soon thereafter ousted Mossadegh and his nationalist supporters and returned the Shah to power as an absolute monarch. The oil companies were returned to their foreign owners, the majlis was largely stripped of its power, and leftists, nationalists, Islamists and all other opponents to the regime were ruthlessly suppressed.
Through mass arms transfers from the United States, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi built one of the most powerful armed forces ever seen in the Middle East. His American-trained secret police, the SAVAK, had been thought to have successfully terrorized the population into submission during the next two decades through widespread killings, torture and mass detentions. By the mid-1970s, most of the leftist, liberal, nationalist, and other secular opposition leadership had been successfully repressed through murder, imprisonment or exile, and most of their organizations banned. It was impossible to suppress the Islamist opposition as thoroughly, however, so it was out of mosques and among the mullahs that much of the organized leadership of the movement against the Shah’s dictatorship emerged.
Open resistance began in 1977, when exiled opposition leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called for strikes, boycotts, tax refusal and other forms of noncooperation with the Shah’s regime. Such resistance was met with brutal repression by the government. The pace of the resistance accelerated as massacres of civilians were answered by larger demonstrations following the Islamic 40-day mourning period. In October and November of 1978, a series of strikes by civil servants and workers in government industries crippled the country. The crisis deepened when oil workers struck at the end of October and demanded the release of political prisoners, costing the government $60 million a day. An ensuing general strike on November 6 paralyzed the country. Even as some workers returned to their jobs, disruption of fuel oil supplies and freight transit, combined with shortages of raw materials resulting from a customs strike, largely kept economic life in the country at a standstill.
Despite providing rhetorical support for an improvement in the human rights situation in Iran, the Carter administration continued military and economic support for the Shah’s increasingly repressive regime, even providing fuel for the armed forces and other security services facing shortages due to the strikes.
Under enormous pressure, the oil workers returned to work but continued to stage slowdowns. Later in November, the Shah’s nightly speeches were interrupted when workers cut off the electricity at precisely the time of his scheduled addresses. Massive protests filled the streets in major cities in December as oil workers walked out again and an ongoing general strike closed the refineries and the central bank. Despite thousands of unarmed protesters being killed by the Shah’s forces, the protesters’ numbers increased, with as many as nine million Iranians taking to the streets in cities across the country in largely nonviolent protests. The Shah fled on January 16, 1979, and Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile two weeks later. He appointed Mehdi Bazargan prime minister, thus establishing a parallel government to challenge the Shah’s appointed prime minister Shapur Bahktiar. With the loyalty of the vast majority clearly with the new Islamic government, Bahktiar resigned February 11.
While the revolution had the support of a broad cross-section of society (including Islamists, secularists, nationalists, laborers, and ethnic minorities), Khomeini and other leading Shi’a clerics—strengthened by a pre-existing network of social service and other parallel institutions—consolidated their hold and established an Islamic theocracy. The regime shifted far to the right by the spring of 1981, purging moderate Islamists—including the elected president Abolhassan Bani-Sadr—and imposing a totalitarian system.
The Iranian revolution relied on many methods of unarmed insurrection—such as demonstrations, strikes, boycotts, contestation of public space, and the establishment of parallel institutions—that would be used in the Philippines, Latin America, Eastern Europe and elsewhere in subsequent years.
Despite the bloody image of the revolution and the authoritarianism and militarism of the Islamic Republic that followed, there was a clear commitment to keeping the actual insurrection unarmed. Protestors were told by the leadership of the resistance to try to win over the troops rather than attack them; indeed, thousands of troops deserted, some in the middle of confrontations with crowds. Clandestinely smuggled audio cassette tapes of Ayatollah Khomeini speaking about the revolution played a key role in the movement’s mass mobilization, and led Abolhassan Sadegh, an official with the Ministry of National Guidance, to note that “tape cassettes are stronger than fighter planes.” Ayatollah Khomeini’s speeches, circulated through such covert methods, emphasized the power of unarmed resistance and noncooperation. In one speech, he said, “The clenched fists of freedom fighters can crush the tanks and guns of the oppressors.” There were few of the violent activities normally associated with armed revolutions such as shooting soldiers, setting fires to government buildings or looting. Such incidents that did occur were unorganized and spontaneous and did not appear to have the support of the leadership of the movement.
One element that contributed to people’s willingness to mobilize under harsh repression was the value of martyrdom in Shia Islam. The movement’s emphasis was to “save Islam by our blood.” Indeed, there are interesting parallels between the legacy of martyrdom inspired by early Shia leader Imam Hossein and the Gandhian tradition of self-sacrifice. As demonstrated by their subsequent rule, the Iranian revolution’s leadership clearly did not support nonviolence in principle, but recognized its utilitarian advantages against the well-armed security apparatus of the Shah’s regime.
The success of the U.S.-backed repressive apparatus of the Shah in suppressing liberal, secular, and leftist opposition, combined with the power of the Shia religious hierarchy, allowed for Islamist hardliners to consolidate their power by the spring of 1981. The war with Iraq, international isolation, a low-level urban guerrilla war, and a series of bloody purges created conditions where public nonviolent opposition to the regime during the subsequent decade became virtually impossible.
By the mid-1990s, enough political space had opened for the election of Mohammed Khatami, a moderate cleric, to the presidency, but hardliners blocked his efforts at reform, despite a series of large student-led demonstrations in support of Khatami’s proposals. Ultra-conservative clerics and their supporters reconsolidated their hold on power by 2004, but popular demand for change continued to grow among significant segments of the Iranian population, which resulted in the popular uprising following apparently stolen presidential elections in June 2009. Many of the tactics of the Islamic Revolution re-emerged during these massive protests, such as chanting “Allahu Akbar!” (“God is Great”) from rooftops at an appointed hour, the use of the color green (the color of Islam), and making handprints from the blood of killed and wounded demonstrators on city walls.
For Further Reading:
Albert, David [ed.] Tell the American People: Portraits of the Iranian Revolution. New Society Publishers, 1981.
Mohsen M. Milani, The Making of Iran's Islamic Revolution: From Monarchy to Islamic Republic. Westview, 1988
Saleh, M.M. Insurgency through Culture and Religion: The Islamic Revolution of Iran. Praeger, 1988
Stephan, Maria J. and Mohsen Sazegara “Iran's Islamic Revolution and Nonviolent Struggle” in: Stephan, Maria J. (ed), Civilian Jihad: Nonviolent Struggle, Democratization, and Governance in the Middle East, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010


Stones on Solstitial Axis most Carefully Shaped and DressedA detailed analysis of the first comprehensive laser survey of Stonehenge reveals that those stones on the outer sarsen circle visible when approaching from the north east have been completely pick dressed - that is, the brown and grey crust on the surface has been removed exposing a fine, bright grey-white surface. ....
The study also shows that the techniques and amounts of labour used vary from stone to stone. These variations provide almost definitive proof that it was the intent of Stonehenge's builders to align the monument with the two solstices along a north-east/south-west axis.
The sides of the stones that flanked the solstice axis were found to have been most carefully worked to form very straight and narrow rectangular slots. These stones include two of the north-east facing sarsens in the outer circle, the Great Trilithon in the inner sarsen horseshoe, and a now isolated upright stone in the south-west segment of the outer circle.
Since all other stones have visibly more natural, less neat outlines, this strongly suggests that special effort was made to dress those that flank the NE/SW axis to allow a more dramatic and obvious passage of sunlight through the stone circle on midsummer and midwinter solstices.
Reading Gowland's report of his 1901 excavation around Stone 56 adds to this story.
He says;"The underground face was found to be carefully tooled over its entire surface as shown in fig.28, which represents a large flake that became detached during the operation of raising the stone."
"This was particularly well seen on the base of No.56 where it extends below the ground, and had thus been protected from the action of the weather..."
"This tooling was apparently executed with small quartzite hammers. In order to demonstrate that a piece of sarsen was tooled in a similar manner by Mr Stallybrass with a quartzite pebble. On comparing it with the blocks tooled by the builders of Stonehenge, they were seen to be almost perfectly identical. I may say in this connection that Mr Stallybrass failed to produce anything at all like it with any of his mason's tools."
So why did the builders carefully dress the large area of the stone that was going to be buried?


A gelatinous sea creature’s swimming abilities could inform the design of underwater vehicles.
Nanomia bijuga, a marine animal related to jellyfish, swims via jet propulsion. A dozen or more squishy structures on its body pump water backwards to push the animal forward. And it can control these jets individually, either syncing them up or pulsing them in sequence.
These two different swimming styles let the animal prioritize speed or energy efficiency, depending on its current needs, researchers find.
Marine biologist Kelly Sutherland and postdoctoral researcher Kevin Du Clos of the University of Oregon and colleagues report their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“Most animals can either move quickly or in a way that’s energetically efficient, but not both,” says Sutherland. “Having many, distributed propulsion units allows Nanomia to be both fast and efficient. And, remarkably, they do this without having a centralized nervous system to control the different behaviors.”
Nanomia shares the gelatinous, ethereal form of its jellyfish relatives. But it’s a little more structurally complicated: Each one is technically a colony of individuals. For instance, each of Nanomia’s jets is produced by an individual unit called a nectophore. The nectophores are clustered on a stalk-like structure at the front of the animal. Meanwhile, wispy tentacles trail behind, carrying structures specialized for feeding, reproduction, and protection.
While many marine creatures move via jet propulsion, squid and jellyfish included, most just have one jet. Nanomia often has ten to twenty—the exact number varies colony-to-colony.
“We’re interested in why multi-jet swimming is useful, and what we were really interested in here was the timing,” Du Clos says. Nanomia can pulse its nectophores all at once, or activate them in a sequence. Du Clos and his colleagues wanted to see how those different modes impacted the animals’ swimming style, possibly illuminating an evolutionary advantage to having multiple jets.
At Friday Harbor Labs in Washington, the researchers scooped Nanomia out of the ocean and put them in tanks in the lab. Then, they used video recordings and computer models to analyze the swimming patterns.
The two different swimming modes are suited to different situations, the team found.
Synchronous pulsing sends Nanomia forward very quickly—perfect for a speedy escape from a predator. Asynchronous pulsing moves the animal a little more slowly, but more steadily, and the researchers’ modeling experiments suggested that it’s a more energy-efficient way to swim. So with Nanomia sometimes traveling hundreds of meters per day, asynchronous pumping might be better suited for everyday use.
The intricacies of Nanomia’s movement could be useful for engineers turning to nature for inspiration.
“It gives a framework for developing a robot that has a range of capabilities,” Du Clos says. For instance, an underwater vehicle could have multiple propulsors, and simple changes in propulsion timing could allow that one vehicle to move either quickly or efficiently as the need arises.
In future work, the researchers plan to dive more into Nanomia’s features, next focusing on better understanding how the arrangement of the animal’s tentacles affects its feeding.
Colonial animals are quite common in the open sea due to their potential hydrodynamic advantages, Sutherland adds. The team is currently looking beyond Nanomia at other species of colonial swimmers, to figure out how diverse arrangements of swimming units influence animals’ movement.
Source: Laurel Hamers for University of Oregon


Auditorium Building, Roosevelt UniversityPrint
430 S. Michigan Ave. | Neighborhood: Downtown
When first built in 1889, many referred to the Auditorium Building as the eighth wonder of the world. It was the tallest building in Chicago, the biggest building in the country, boasted the world's best theater acoustics and put famed architects Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler in the spotlight. The Richardsonian Romanesque-style building combined a theater, hotel and offices all under one roof. Louis Sullivan covered nearly every inch of the building’s interior with his trademark nature-inspired designs – most of which can still be seen today. In 1946 the building was sold to Roosevelt University which has called it home ever since.
Behind the Scenes Access: Visit the 10th floor library and Ganz Hall to see the intricate designs of Louis Sullivan.
Architect(s): Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler


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Environment Canada's Meteorological Service
Brochure - PDF (PDF - 1 MB)
Your Eye on Weather
Come sleet or shine, Canadians love their weather!
That's where Environment Canada's Meteorological Service of Canada comes in--providing Canadians with access to vital weather and environmental information and warnings 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
We maintain a Canada-wide observation network that monitors changes in weather, climate, water, ice and air. This network generates the data that are the foundation of weather and environmental prediction, and includes contributing data from organizations such as NAV CANADA, the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Coast Guard.
Our staff of expert meteorologists, scientists and technicians works around the clock to ensure that Canadians are always informed.
Environment Canada is your official source of weather warnings. We are also the principal scientific authority for standards, information and advice on the past, present and future state of the atmosphere (weather and climate), hydrosphere (lakes and rivers) and cryosphere (snow and ice).
What we do...
- Provide weather forecasts and severe weather warnings
- Provide the UV index, Air Quality Health Index, humidex and wind chill forecasts
- Monitor the quantity of water in Canadian lakes and rivers
- Forecast ice and wave conditions on navigable oceans and inland waters
How the Weather Gets to You
Did you know?
The Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) has been serving Canadians since 1871, and more than 100 years of climate data (7 billion observations) are stored in the MSC archives!
Weatheroffice: Your one-stop weather source on the Web
Environment Canada's Weatheroffice connects directly with Canadians in order to give you the most accurate, up-to-date forecasts and weather information.
On the Weatheroffice website (www.weatheroffice.gc.ca), you will find the following features:
- Weather Warnings and Special Weather Statements, radar and satellite images, lightning strike locations, and marine forecasts and warnings
- Your local weather page including a seven-day weather forecast, weather warnings in effect for your selected location, and current conditions that include temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind speed and direction
- The daily UV index and the local Air Quality Health Index forecasts for Canadian cities, and much more!
Weatheradio Canada: Broadcasting to you
Weatheradio Canada broadcasts weather information and provides weather warning bulletins 24 hours a day in many areas across the country. It is also the only service that will wake you up when severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings are issued!
Special Weatheradio receivers can be purchased as a single unit, and can also be found in many walkie-talkies and two-way communications products sold in Canadian stores.
Weather info on the go: Weather information at your fingertips
On the go and need weather info quickly? You can now receive updates on weather conditions and forecasts for your city by subscribing to Environment Canada's Weatheroffice RSS and Warning RSS feeds! To access, simply visit www.weatheroffice.gc.ca and click on the RSS link at the bottom of your city page.
Severe Weather: Prepare Yourself
Helping Canadians protect themselves, their families and their property from the hazards of severe weather is an important part of Environment Canada's mandate.
The Department issues warnings, watches and special statements for severe weather. These are available through www.weatheroffice.gc.ca and on Weatheradio, as well as through traditional broadcast media. These bulletins cover all severe weather conditions--hurricanes, tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, snowstorms, extreme cold and a variety of other occurrences.
Weather tips: Summer severe weather
During the summer, if severe weather approaches and you are swimming or boating, head to shore at the first sign of bad weather.
These are things you should do if you find yourself caught outside in a tornado:
- Lie flat in a ditch, ravine or other low-lying area and shield your head with your arms.
- Beware of flying debris.
- Use caution around post-storm hazards such as damaged or weakened structures and downed power lines.
The most important thing to remember about lightning is that if you can hear thunder, you are within striking distance of lightning. Take shelter immediately, preferably in a sturdy building such as a house or all-metal automobile (not a convertible). If caught outside far from a safe shelter, stay away from tall objects such as trees, poles, wires and fences and take shelter in a low-lying area.
There is no safe place to be outdoors during a thunderstorm. Once in a safe location, remain there for 30 minutes after the last rumble of thunder is heard before resuming your outdoor activities.
Did you know?
The UV index system, which informs the public about daily levels of ultraviolet radiation coming from the sun, was first developed by Environment Canada scientists and is now recognized and used all over the world.
Overexposure to the sun can, if not taken seriously, cause health problems for you and your family (even during the winter!).
- Always protect your eyes with UVA- and UVB-rated sunglasses.
- Use a sunscreen lotion or cream of SPF 15 or more, and apply it 20 minutes before going out.
Air Quality Health Index
The Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) is a scale designed to help you understand what the air quality around you means to your health. Air pollutants can become dangerous to human health if concentrations become too high, especially for people who are sensitive, such as the elderly, individuals with respiratory illness, and young children. Protect yourself from prolonged exposure to air pollution by regularly checking airhealth.ca for the latest AQHI readings in your community, and use it to plan your day.
Weather tips: Winter severe weather
Winter weather conditions in Canada can quickly become dangerous; winter storms and excessive cold claim over 100 lives each year in this country. This is why it is so important to know how to stay safe in all conditions.
Wind chill is when the wind makes cold temperatures feel even colder. Pay particular attention to Environment Canada’s wind chill index, which warns you of dangerously cold conditions. Be on alert for signs of frostbite by checking for numbness or white areas on your face and extremities (ears, nose, cheeks, hands and feet in particular).
If you must go outside during cold weather, make sure to dress properly. Wear multiple, thin layers of loose-fitting clothing to trap body heat and promote air circulation. Mittens are warmer than gloves, and because most body heat is lost through the head, always wear a hat when it is cold outside. If it is extremely cold, cover your mouth and exposed skin with a scarf, neck tube or face mask.
A blizzard is severe winter weather characterized by strong winds, and heavy or blowing snow that causes low to zero visibility. In whiteout conditions associated with blizzards, people have become lost even when going only short distances.
Remember, these storms can cause loss of electricity, heat and telephone service, and can trap you in your home for a few days. It is important to have ample supplies on hand in your home and in your car if you get stuck outside during a storm.
For more information on how to protect and prepare yourself for all types of severe weather and hazards, visit the Government of Canada’s 72-Hour Campaign at www.getprepared.gc.ca
Interesting weather facts
- Canadians are weather nuts! Nine in ten Canadians say they make a point of checking weather forecasts at least once a day.
- On average, Environment Canada issues 1.5 million public forecasts, 10 000 warnings and 500 000 aviation forecasts per year.
- We provide local forecasts, warnings and alerts to over 800 communities and cities across Canada!
- On average, three to four tropical storms or hurricanes threaten Canada or its territorial waters each year.
- In delivering its weather services, the Meteorological Service of Canada uses all kinds of tools and technologies. These range from traditional thermometers and rain gauges, to state-of-the-art supercomputers, Doppler radars (a specialized form of radar used in weather forecasting) and satellite receivers.
- Date Modified:


something essential for survival
something that people desire but that is not necessary for survival
the physical objects that someone produces
the actions or activities that one person performs for another
the principle that limited amounts of goods and services are available to meet unlimited wants
the study of how people seek to satisfy their needs and wants by making choices
a situation in which consumers want more of a good or service than producers are willing to make available at a particular price
a person who decides how to combine resources to create goods and services
factors of production
the resources that are used to make goods and services
all natural resources used to produce goods and services
the effort people devote to tasks for which they are paid
any human-made resource that is used to produce other goods and services
the human-made objects used to create other goods and services
the knowledge and skills a worker gains through education and experience
the act of giving up one benefit in order to gain another, greater benefit
guns or butter
a phrase expressing the idea that a country that decides to produce more military goods has fewer resources to produce consumer goods and vice versa
the most desirable alternative given up as the result of a decision
thinking at the margin
the process of deciding whether to do or use one additional unit of some resource
a decision making process in which you compare what you will sacrifice and gain by a specific action
the extra cost of producing one unit
the extra benefit of adding one unit
production possibilities curve
a graph that shows alternative ways to use the economy's productive resources
production possibilities frontier
a line on a production possibilities curve that shows the maximum possible output an economy can produce
the use of resources in such a way as to maximize the output of goods and services
the use of fewer resources than an economy is capable of using
law of increasing costs
an economic principle which states that as production shifts from making one good or service to another, more and more resources are needed to increase production of the second good or service
Please allow access to your computer’s microphone to use Voice Recording.
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|Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 1994. 32:
Copyright © 1994 by . All rights reserved
2.3. The Correlation Function
It is conventional in CMB work to expand the temperature fluctuations in spherical harmonics
and work in terms of the multipole moments am. One can define the sky correlation function
where the average is taken over the (observed) sky with the separation angle 21 held fixed. Using the properties of Ym the correlation function Csky(21) (hereafter we will drop the subscript "sky") is
where we have introduced the rotationally symmetric quantity a2 m |am|2. The a2 are not to be confused with (2 + 1) C (see later) which is often used to define the power spectrum of fluctuations in a Gaussian theory. At this point we have made no assumption about the underlying theory of fluctuations or the model of structure formation - the a2 are purely measured quantities on the sky. [Note that other authors' definitions of various quantities can differ from ours by 4, (2 + 1), or similar factors.] The COBE team (C. Bennett et al 1992, Kogut et al 1993, Fixsen et al 1994, Bennett et al 1994) quote results for the first two moments, i.e. a T0 / (4) for = 1, 2,
A common way of comparing theory and experiment is through the am. Of course an actual measurement of a temperature difference on the sky involves finite resolution and specific measurement strategies modifying Equation 5. These are usually included in the theoretically predicted correlation function through a window or filter function, W, described in Section 4.2.


Just a few days before World Cancer Day this year, an acquaintance of mine succumbed to this dreaded disease within 10 months of diagnosis, and became part of the world statistics of someone dying somewhere of lung cancer every 30 seconds. Of all known cancers, lung cancer has highest annual mortality (1.6 million) as well as incidence (1.8 million) globally, and is responsible for nearly 1 in 5 cancer related deaths.
I met Ismail (name changed) at King George’s Medical University (KGMU) Lucknow, where he had come for his 1st cycle of chemotherapy. An avid smoker since the age of 18, Ismail looked emaciated and much older than his 42 years. In January 2014, he felt severe pain in his limbs and bones which later spread to the chest. He was diagnosed with TB and completed the 6 months’ treatment regimen from the DOTS centre in his hometown. But when his condition did not improve, he was referred to KGMU, where he was diagnosed with stage 3B of lung cancer in November 2014.
“This delay in diagnosis is often the bane of lung cancer patients and costs them dearly,” says Dr Surya Kant, Head of the Pulmonary Medicine Department at KGMU, and Vice-President of Indian Chest Society. “Diagnosis of lung cancer is very difficult and often delayed as its symptoms closely mimic those of TB. In our country two third cases of lung cancer are misdiagnosed as TB at the first go. So by the time patients come to our hospital, they have already wasted at least 6 months on unnecessary TB treatment, during which time the cancer advances from its operable to non-operable stage. If Ismail had been diagnosed 6 months earlier in the operable stage of his cancer, he had better survival chances. But in our country only 10% patients are diagnosed in the operable 1st and 2nd stages of lung cancer. Timely surgery results in 5 years survival in 50% of the patients.”
“Then again, at times treatment is also delayed due to several myths prevalent in our society-like biopsy will make the tumour spread, or that chemotherapy is very toxic and it is better to die than undergo it, or some faith/fake healer promises to heal cancer without surgery and chemotherapy,” added Dr Surya Kant. Dr Kant was conferred upon the prestigious Dr Lachman Cancer Awareness and Research Award recently at 79th Annual Conference of Indian Medical Association (IMA). He is also a distinguished recipient of Hukum Chandra Jain Cancer Awareness Award.
According to 63 year old Rakesh (name changed), who is suffering from stage 3B of lung cancer, the name alone of this dreaded disease is enough to kill a patient. Rakesh suffered from breathlessness and chest pain in 2005. He was diagnosed with pleurisy as well as diabetes and put on treatment. Then, one day in March 2014, he suddenly lost his voice. “I showed myself to a local ENT specialist and was put on a heavy dose of antibiotics. The doctor said that I needed to be operated upon as it was an incurable disease and I was referred to this Medical College. I have never smoked but was addicted to chewing tobacco/paan since past 30 years.”
Rakesh was in the hospital for his 8th chemotherapy cycle with one more to go. (Dr Surya Kant informed that usually patients are administered 6 cycles of chemotherapy- which could extend to 9- at intervals of 3 weeks). Rakesh was happy that he had at least got his voice back and was also able to walk by himself. But how long he would survive is anybody’s guess.
Dr Surya Kant explained that are 3 parameters on which to rate the cancer-tumour size (T), formation of lymph nodes (N), and metastatis (M)-the TNM classification. Once node formation and/or metastatis (spread of cancer to other parts) occurs, the tumour becomes inoperable and life expectancy is drastically reduced. If size of the tumour is 7cm or more it becomes inoperable. But even very small tumours of 2 cm may become inoperable if metastatic. The time in which the tumour gets doubled in volume is called doubling time and it could range from 1 to 6 months.
In India there were an estimated 71000 cases (54000 in males and 17000 in females) and 64,000 deaths (49000 in males and 15000 in females) of lung cancer in 2012, thereby suggesting a slightly better survival rate in females. However Dr Surya Kant, who recently got the ‘Cancer Awareness Award’ for a second time from the UP Chapter of India Medical Association, feels that the actual figures would be much higher.
“Until about five years ago, we would have around 150 lung cancer patients per year in our hospital. Today we are diagnosing more than 500 cases per year. Of course this is not a matter of pride but the sign of times we are living in. Before five years ago, the ratio of male: female patients was 90:10, but now it is 70-30 in my hospital. More females are now getting diagnosed with lung cancer perhaps due to the increase in health awareness. Another surprising fact is that in my hospital survival rate in females is more than in males and there are female patients who have had more than 7 year survival, even when diagnosed in stages 3 and 4.”
“Lung cancer is the worst type of cancer with the highest mortality rate. Only one third of the diagnosed patients would survive beyond 1 year, and the best-case scenario gives only a 5 years lease of life and that too in 10%-12% patients only. And yet around 80% cases of lung cancer are preventable as they are related to smoking cigarettes and bidis (usually in males) or use of bio mass fuel (usually in females). A vast majority of rural Indian women still use this dangerous form of cooking, which is also an important risk factor for lung cancer.”
“The rest 20% patients get this dreaded form of cancer as a result of second hand smoke or through occupational hazards at work place like working in asbestos related industry, brick kilns, colour industry, glass industry. I have also come across a non-asbestos related malignant mesothelioma case-he was a farmer using chemical pesticides-which perhaps caused the lung cancer,” he shared.
Many studies corroborate that smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer. In one report from India, roughly two-thirds of all patients with lung cancer were smokers, using either cigarettes and/or bidis (hand-rolled tobacco). Another study in China revealed that lung cancer risk was two to four times higher among smokers as compared to non- smokers.
In the United States, cigarette smoking is linked to about 90% of lung cancers. A study conducted by the University of Hong Kong found that smoking increased the lung cancer risk for the elderly by a whopping 421% when compared with non-smokers. A large number of lung cancer deaths could be prevented by avoiding key risk factors, including tobacco smoke, urban air pollution and indoor smoke from household use of solid fuels. The take home message would be, as so aptly said by Dr Surya Kant-stay away from tobacco and stay safe from cancer.


Foot arches are one of those body parts that you don’t typically give much thought to until you have an problem with them. Arches help bear the forces that accompany walking or running and assist in propelling your body forward. When you have flat feet, your arches may not perform their intended functions in the right way. Fortunately, we can help!
Types of Foot Arches, Pronation, and Potential Issues
There are variations of foot arches. Normal ones are moderate in height, provide ideal support, and do not generally result in any particular problems or difficulties. Low arches (flat feet), on the other hand, compromise the way your feet are intended to work.
Your feet undergo an inward rolling motion with every step. This process (pronation) assists your lower leg in absorbing the force and shock that accompanies your stride, especially from high-impact activities like running. If the rolling motion is excessive, we refer to it as “overpronation,” and this is commonly seen in patients with flat feet.
Overpronation may cause pain in your foot, ankle, knee, hip, and lower back. Your foot’s excessive rolling motion is transferred to your lower leg, which then causes the knee and hip to come out of alignment and forces your back to rotate in an unnatural fashion.
Diagnosing Flat Feet
It may seem difficult to determine which of the arch styles you have, but observing your footprint can provide an easy clue. When your print is wide—as opposed to only seeing half (or less) of width at the midpoint—you likely have low arches.
Another easy way to tell if you have this condition is to simply examine your shoes. Individuals with low arches typically have extra wear in the ball of foot and heel areas of their footwear on account of overpronation.
If you are still unsure, there is another simple way to find out – schedule an appointment with us and let our foot specialists give you a definitive answer!
Risk Factors and Complications
Inherited foot structure is the most common explanation for flat feet, but there are a variety of other factors that lead to fallen arches. These other factors include: pregnancy, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, and even simply getting older.
With regard to arch type, it is important to know that low arches are actually common for infants and toddlers and are not likely cause for concern. This is because the longitudinal arches take time to develop. So when you notice that your young child has flat feet, take comfort in the fact that it is normal.
Treating Flat Feet
If you have low arches and are not experiencing any pain or problems, then it is unnecessary to treat the condition. However, should you lead a more active life and find that issues arise following periods of activity, come see us for help. We will assess your specific situation, but effective treatment options are generally nonsurgical and may include:
- Orthotic devices and arch supports specifically created for your unique feet by our office to provide the necessary support you are not receiving from your foot structure.
- A stretching regimen can help alleviate a tight Achilles tendon that is related to your flatfoot. We can provide instructions on stretches that will keep your tendon limber.
- Your workout program may be aiding to pain and discomfort, so we can offer advice on low-impact activities—walking, bicycling, swimming—that keep you from overworking your arches.
- You may find benefit by wearing structurally-supportive shoes, especially those that control your motion and decrease overpronation. Our office will help you find models that work best for you.
Our goal is to fix your condition with the use of conservative techniques, but if they aren’t relieving your pain, there may come a time when you need to consider surgery. At this point, we will carefully go over all of your options and ensure that you are able to confidently make an informed decision.
Richardson Podiatry Associates has helped many patients over the years to overcome issues that accompany flat feet. We will do the same for you when you contact our Richardson, TX office by calling (972) 690-5374 or using our online form to request an appointment.


Most glazes are applied to the piece either by brushing on or dipping into the glaze. The piece is then fired to a specific temperature which can range from 1600-2300 degrees Fahrenheit. Glazing is a very specific science that takes careful testing and formulating to master. Each type of clay body may require a different formula of glaze depending on the chemical composition of the clay and the desired outcome of the glaze.
Crystalline glazes are different from any other type of glaze. During the firing process crystals are 'seeded' and grown on the vessel. There is no special one ingredient that forms the crystal itself in the recipe of the glaze. Clay is generally added to a glaze so the glaze will stick to the piece, but this makes the glaze less transparent and interrupts the crystal formation. In crystalline glazes, since there is no clay in the glaze, it will flow downward when heated and there is nothing to make it stay where it is painted on.
To achieve the crystals on the vessel, the temperature and firing schedule are the most important factors. The kiln is heated at varying rates to the maturing temperature and then cooled at varying rates and held at key points to encourage the growth crystals. A computer is used to control the temperature inside the kiln and, once programmed, the computer can aide in making the necessary temperature changes to achieve the desired effect.
Since the glaze drips everywhere when fired, a special catch basin and pedestal must be custom-made to fit the bottom of each piece to catch the run-off so the pieces do not stick the shelves in the kiln or ruin them. Once the piece is fired, the catch basin is removed and the bottom of the piece is sanded down to be smooth and free of any rough edges that may have occurred from the catch basin. All of this is required to create just one vase, bowl, plate, etc. with the beautiful crystals.


Method of Training to Better Memory
People with extraordinary memory with the ability to remember the order of a deck of cards has been disturbed, or hundreds of random numbers within a few minutes, they did not have any special ability does. Their brain completely is like ours, but their secret lies in how to practice. Here are a few tips on the Nelson Dellis, champion of the tournament’s 15th USA Memory Championship sharing.
Before going into the specific mode of exercise below, readers can test your temporary numbers in the table below. Take 5 minutes for the brain
to operate at the station, and see how much you remember the 500 number.
Dry turn things into living image
500 above figures may be horrifying nightmare to anyone here, but do not be discouraged, if you know how, you can turn them from the dry pebbles into the dish much easier to swallow. Basically, there are 2 steps for you to remember anything, from any phone number in your phonebook to the car where this morning.
A. Things that turn your brain does not want to remember into vivid pictures.
B. Find a place to “anchor” to the image.
Let’s take the example above with the name Nelson. You can easily think of a popular character also has this name – Nelson Mandela. Next, the step 2, try to imagine a character with which to “anchor” to the name. For example, with Nelson’s oversized nose, you can imagine the scene ….. Nelson Mandela is on the nose strip of Nelson – the champion stood in front of you. Remember, the more to these images ridiculous how much more you will long remember this much information.
Particularly with names, do not ever look at how to write, but let’s focus on pronunciation. Break the name into syllables and turn it into single images. With the name Nelson, you can separate it into 2 parts Nel – kneeling (pronounced close to the knee) and Son – the sun (rhymes with Sun), and from there, you can think of a person image kneeling and pointing at the sun.
The “neo” is used can be anything, a certain details on the clothes, eyes, mustache … Anything to make an impression for you
So, when you meet someone and hear them introduce their names, try to split the name into one syllable, this syllable turn into vivid pictures and put them into a “neo” any it. When you meet again next time, just look at the details, you will immediately remember the ridiculous image they have imagined, and therefore easier to recall the person’s name.
For example, a patient with which the author has met this morning, with the name Marine – identical to the name of a very hot girl in my grade 2 class. The “anchor” that the author selected here is very provocative lips, and just a little imagination, such as Scene 2 wrapped her lips together in the environment, the author can easily recall the this name. Quite headed voice, but also very easy to remember.
Connect the associated
To remember a long solid row of numbers, or any order of a deck of cards, the separation technique-and-anchor should be applied, but you need to push it up another level.
Technique often used is called Dominic System, invented by Dominic O’Brien, a champion of the tournament Memory Champion. In principle, these numbers will be transferred into the name stands for someone, and they are “anchored” to one or more of the specific actions that we can more easily imagine . Take, for example the number 00. You will move into OO 2 digits – and many people will easily relate to the name of Ozzy Osbourne. Details used in this scene could be Ozzy’s chewing the broken bottom that a bat, and obviously this one’s easier to remember than a 0 between the plates.
For this approach to be effective, you need to personalize the frames. Closer and more “allergic”, we will be more easier to remember. Try to apply this method to remember the order of 52 cards. Take for example the military J Bich, perhaps you will think of the name Justin Bieber. Details can be attached to pretty feminine hair singer of this scandalous. Next, with ten Roman soldiers, yes, 2 MR stands as the author can not remember right to holy Mary, and details attached here sure do not need to discuss further.
This approach will make you very quickly remember the order of the cards. Imagine that the characters in the first card is taking action in the 2nd card, the card details in the 3rd. For example, Justin Bieber (J Bich), are themselves happy …. (Ten Ro) with his shorts of Axl Rose (at Rome).
It will take some time to quickly set up the association and the relationship between the cards (or numbers, or anything else), and it really makes you become more creative more. The Champion Memory Champion in the competition can easily remember the order of 52 cards in less than 2 minutes. (Nelson, the most recent champion to less than a minute).
Practice every day
Let yourself build up a storehouse of memory, starting with the most familiar place – your home. Pay attention to every detail, turning them into vivid pictures, and a little bit bizarre the better. Create any relationship between these details together, so that they seamlessly into a story without end. If you are not a person with a good imagination, let’s try to incorporate as many senses as possible – color, sound, taste …. Episode observed more and more attention. Remember, the lack of focus is the greatest enemy of memory.
You can follow the Revoseek on Twitter, add us to your circle on Google+ , like our Facebook page and Subscribe for Latest News with any web-based pod catcher.Keep yourself updated about the Revolution in Technology,IT, Life Style and Entertainment and Spread it.


Due to its wide conical taper, the cornet (French: cornet à pistons) is classified as a horn instrument, even though it looks more like a trumpet. The first instrument was built around 1828 by Louis Antiine Halary in France and was primarily used in its historical function in military and marching bands. Later, the instrument was introduced to the symphony orchestra of the romantic period, replacing the trumpet in some cases.
Compared to the trumpet, the cornet has a softer sound as a result of its construction, but a limited dynamic range. As tonal response is achieved easily, the instrument has become very popular especially in music education. More advanced trumpet players may easily switch to the cornet without specific training.
|Standard Library||Full Library|
|Download File Size||1.0 GB||2.5 GB|
|Installed File Size||1.9 GB||4.6 GB|


SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) - What is SDL?
Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) is a cross-platform multimedia library designed to provide low level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, 3D hardware via OpenGL, and 2D video Framebuffer. It is used by MPEG playback software, emulators, and many popular games, including the award winning Linux port of "Civilization: Call To Power". SDL has the word "layer" in its title because it is actually a wrapper library with operating-system-specific functions. The main purpose of SDL is to provide a common framework for accessing these functions. For further functionality beyond this goal, many libraries have been created to work on top of SDL.
Cross-platform programming is achieved at compile time by checking which operating system the program is being compiled on. This is done through the use of conditional preprocessor directives. Here is a code example of how you would implement platform-specific code blocks in an SDL program:
#ifdef _WIN32 /*Windows code here*/ #endif #ifdef _APPLE_ /*macOS code here*/ #endif #ifdef _linux_ /*Linux code here*/ #endif
These directives check the existence of predefined variables stored within the OS's compiler libraries. Depending on which are defined, the corresponding code will be executed for that particular system. This method also prevents OS specific code from conflicting with each other.
The reason for this separation is because operating systems have different ways of displaying graphics. Even though the code is different in each OS, most perform similar tasks such as creating a window, rendering to the window, grabbing user input, etc.. SDL brings these tasks together into a unified interface to allow you to code, compile, and run your program on multiple platforms.
SDL supports Linux, Windows, Windows CE, BeOS, MacOS, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, BSD/OS, Solaris, IRIX, and QNX. The code contains support for AmigaOS, Dreamcast, Atari, AIX, OSF/Tru64, RISC OS, SymbianOS, and OS/2, but these are not officially supported.
SDL is written in C, but works with C++ natively. SDL also has bindings to several other languages, including Ada, C#, D, Eiffel, Erlang, Euphoria, Go, Guile, Haskell, Java, Lisp, Lua, ML, Oberon/Component Pascal, Objective C, Pascal, Perl, PHP, Pike, Pliant, Python, Ruby, Rust, Smalltalk, and Tcl.
Software developers use SDL to write computer games and other multimedia applications that can run on many operating systems: Android, iOS, Linux, Mac OS X, Windows and other platforms. It manages video, events, digital audio, CD-ROM, threads, shared object loading, networking and timers.
SDL2[edit | edit source]
Simple DirectMedia Layer 2.0 (SDL2) is the second generation of the library. The new version comes with lots of new features such as full 3D hardware acceleration and the less restrictive zlib license.
[edit | edit source]


Upto 3 Months
By the age of 3 months, a parent should check for the following symptoms and in case of lacking criteria, one should immediately seek advice from a pediatrician.
- Observe a child’s sleeping position and monitor if the child holds the head in a prone position or if it is sleeping on the tummy.
- Observe if a child squeaks and watch for the giggle or laughter.
- Observe if a child puts a finger or fist in and out of the mouth.
- Observe if a child notices toys, people around and turns its head to look at the faces of other people when you hold the child in your arms.
- Observe if the child watches its own hands.
- Make sound at the level of an infant’s ear from behind with a cup/katori, spoon or a low frequency rattles if available and observe for a startle response.
- Observe if your child becomes quiet or smile in response to your voice even if you can’t be seen.


The Church of Ireland Community of Killala and Achonry
The Church of Ireland population of north County Mayo and south County Sligo in 1870 was unique. It was comprised mostly of small tenant farmers. This study examines the location of this Protestant Community, explaining why some areas of the diocese had large Protestant populations. It also explains why the number of Protestants decreased dramatically in some parishes, forcing the closure of churches and schools.
Publication Date: 8/27/1999


Miracle Dirt of Chimayó
Called “the Lourdes of America” (after the famous French healing shrine), El Santuariò de Chimayó in New Mexico is a place of pilgrimages. Scores visit the little adobe church daily, while thousands walk miles to worship there on Good Friday. Some carry heavy crosses, while others approach on their knees. Many come seeking a cure for their afflictions, scooping from a small pit in the church floor a reddish soil that they rub on afflicted areas of their bodies or even sprinkle on their food or brew in tea (Eckholm 2008). (Figure 1.)
The word Chimayó derives from hot springs that were sacred to the Tewa Indians (a linguistic group of Pueblos) who called them Tsimajopokwi (pokwì in Tewa means “pool of water”). After the springs dried up, the name was shortened to Tsimayo (Nealson 2001, 62). According to a pious legend (of which there are many versions), brethren from the secret Penitente Brotherhood were engaging in rites on a nearby hill on a dark Good Friday in 1810 when one saw a mysterious light coming from the valley. Investigating and finding a half-buried crucifix, the men sent for a priest, the nearest church being ten miles away in Santa Cruz. The priest had the wooden crucifix carried in a procession to his church, but by the next morning it had disappeared—having been miraculously returned to its original site! This removal and return occurred two more times before people understood the message: the crucifix was to remain on the spot, which had reportedly been a sacred area for the Pueblo Indians (Eckholm 2008).
This grafting of a Roman Catholic element onto a native one—a process called syncretism—was common. It was often similarly accomplished by the shrewd use of a “miracle.” (For example, a “miraculous,” actually tempera-painted, image of the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared in Mexico City in 1531 to prompt the building of a Catholic shrine—on a hill where the conquered Aztecs had had a temple to their virgin goddess, Tonantzin [Nickell 1988; 2004].)
One of the Penitente brothers, Don Bernardo Abeyta, built a small hermita (shelter) onto his house to enshrine the miracle crucifix. The hermita also allegedly “covered a hole from which came a blessed dirt that cured all ailments” (Kay 1987, 35). Abeyta himself was “instantly healed” of an undisclosed illness (Kutz 1988, 46–47). Alternately, Indian stories from the twentieth century suggested that a Tewa pueblo had once stood on the spot next to a pool whose mud had healing properties (Harrington 1916, 342). Revealingly, the chapel’s full name (El Santuariò de Chimayó de Nuestro Señor de Esquipulas) evokes a shrine in Guatemala that had long been venerated for its miraculous healing crucifix and surrounding earth with curative powers. As well, there are much-touted healing mud baths at Chilca, Peru (which I visited with a guide in 2006). In any event, in 1816 a chapel was completed on the Chimayó site by Father Francisco de Otocio, who was in charge of all New Mexico missions (Kay 1987, 29–37; Eckholm 2008).
The Nitty Gritty on the Dirt
Today, pilgrims visiting El Santuariò de Chimayó stoop to enter a small, single-windowed room that is said to be Abeyta’s original hermita. The central hole, El Posito (“little well”), measures some sixteen to eighteen inches wide and less than nine inches deep. Considering the great amount of earth that must have been scooped from it during its almost two centuries of history, however, this is a small hole indeed! Hence, there grew a pious legend “that the pit was refilled by divine intervention” (Eckholm 2008). (This was similar to the claim that regardless of how many pieces were taken from the True Cross, the alleged holy relic of Jesus’s Crucifixion, it never diminished in size [Nickell 2007, 91–92].)
But even though “legend still maintains that the hole miraculously replenishes itself,” in fact “priests periodically refill the hole with dirt from outside the church” (Kay 1987, 77). Indeed, previously tipped off to this fact by a television cameraman (Del Monte 2001), we searched for and found the storage area where five-gallon containers of the reddish soil are stored (Figure 2). In recent years, priests at El Santuario de Chimayó have increasingly taken pains to point out the shed where the trucked-in soil is stored, with one complaining, “I even have to buy clean dirt!” (Eckholm 2008).
In fact, the “holy dirt” is nothing very special. An analysis conducted for The Miracle Detectives television series identified the presence of carbonates that might have a beneficial effect on heartburn by neutralizing excess acid. “Beyond that,” stated series co-star Indre Vìskontas, the show’s skeptic, “there doesn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary” (Miracle Detectives 2011).
I agree. I had collected my own samples for testing on a visit to Chimayó in 2003 with investigator Vaughn Rees. In the guise of a pilgrim needing healing (again see Figure 1), I obtained a small plastic container from the gift shop, sold empty but labeled “Blessed Dirt.” My examination, in my little lab at CSI headquarters, showed that the “dirt” contains no appreciable humus but is largely sand, consisting of tiny grains of minerals and small bits of rock. (Application of hydrochloric acid yielded a strong effervescence that confirmed the presence of carbonates. The addition of potassium ferrocyanide reagent produced a Prussian-blue reaction that identified a significant amount of iron, consistent with its color of red ocher, an earthy iron oxide. Stereomicroscopic examination showed grains of such common minerals as crystalline quartz and mica, as well as small lumps of sandstone and occasional bits of organic material, including tiny fragments of bone and fine root stems.1)
Chimayó priest Father Jim Suntum concedes that the dirt itself has no miraculous power (Miracle Detectives 2011). In fact, the local dirt has actually acted in a very anti-miraculous way: it has posed a threat to the church’s artworks. As conservators found in 2003–2004, they “had to deal with the dirt.” Indeed, “It had drifted down from the ceiling and walls in the almost 200 years the church had existed, covering the paintings on the five altar screens, the crucifix and the carved bultos [sculptures] with a fine dust that needed cleaning. Dirt also had fallen behind the main altar screen to push it out of joint and threaten its very existence.” Still, a writer would claim that the preservation process itself, at least, was “almost a miracle” (Russell 2004, 36, 40).
The Healing ‘Miracles’
Nevertheless, while Father Suntum concedes it is not the holy dirt that heals but rather one’s “relationship with God,” he insists: “Something happens in this place.” However, he admits: “We can’t quantify it. We can’t document it. We do ask people to tell their story” (Miracle Detectives 2011). In fact, “officially, the Church has never investigated any of the claims” (El Santuariò ... 1994, 26).
The complete lack of records regarding alleged miraculous experiences means that claims are entirely dependent on anecdotal evidence, such as the unverifiable stories told by an aging priest at the site. For example, in the mid-1950s, he recalled, a man carried his frail, ill mother into the church. “A few minutes later,” said the priest, “he called me, something has happened. She was kneeling in front of the altar. She was talking and full of health” (Hamm 2006, 42, 45). Yet we do not need to invoke the miraculous to explain what may have been only a simple rejuvenation of the woman’s spirits.
Or consider the tale about a girl from Texas whose family “was told she had little time to live” and that even an operation might not save her. Following their visit to Chimayó the child was well and no operation was necessary. “Two days later,” recalls the old priest, “they came back to thank God for the cure” (qtd. in Hamm 2006, 45). Now, we cannot prove this story is untrue, but fortunately we do not have to. The tellers of such unverifiable tales have the entire burden of proof.
However, when such cases can be investigated, they are invariably illuminating. For instance, The Miracle Detectives examined the case of a Colorado woman, Deseree “Dese” Martinez, who claims the dirt of Chimayó helped her cancer go into remission. Diagnosed at the age of fifteen with aggressive bone cancer at numerous sites in her body, she visited Chimayó where she mixed the holy dirt with spit and applied it to a sore spot on her leg. The pain was gone by the next morning, and scans the following week showed the area healed. Inexplicably, she did not then rub dirt on the other lesion spots, but they soon disappeared too.
However, the woman’s doctor, Brian Greffe, at The Children’s Hospital in Denver, observed that with such non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in pediatric cases, the hospital’s “cure rates are quite high.” He attributed Martinez’s success to the chemo treatments, which had worked “within days” of their beginning. Obviously, there is no evidence that the interim application of holy dirt to a single site had any effect, although Greffe did say Martinez’s positive outlook and the support of her family were helpful (Miracle Detectives 2011).
As invariably shown by the evidence, so-called miraculous healings are never scientifically verified. Such claims, like those at Lourdes, the most famous “miracle” shrine, are derived from cases that are supposedly “medically inexplicable”; therefore, they are really examples of a logical fallacy called “arguing from ignorance”—that is, drawing a conclusion from a lack of knowledge. Besides, some illnesses are known to exhibit spontaneous remission, and other reputed cures may be attributable to a host of other factors: misdiagnosis, psychosomatic conditions, the body’s own healing mechanisms, and the like, including—as in the case of Martinez—prior medical treatment (Nickell 2008).
While the church displays crutches and canes—ostensibly cast off after previous cures—they may well have been discarded prematurely. Persons may feel better temporarily after experiencing the hope and excitement of a pilgrimage. Writer Anatole France, on visiting Lourdes and seeing the abandoned canes and crutches there, sagely remarked, “What, what, no wooden legs???” (qtd. in Hines 1988, 250).
As the evidence shows, therefore, claims made for holy dirt at Chimayó are unwarranted. Despite borrowed and contrived legends that the site is miraculous, the soil is actually an ordinary variety trucked in from elsewhere and merely blessed. Priests admit that the “something” that happens at the site cannot be quantified or documented—and indeed a major healing claim fell apart on investigation.
One suspects that the “something” is merely what is termed confirmation bias—the willingness to credit any supposed benefits while ignoring countless failures. One writer offers the apologetic, “It is a mystery why certain people and situations are granted a miracle and others are not” (Hamm 2006). But it is only a “mystery” if one chooses to be blind to the evidence.
1. Finally, I ran a battery of standard analyses using a commercial soil-test kit determining the pH was 7.0 (neutral), and that nitrogen, phosphorous, and potash were at insignificant levels.
Del Monte, Steven. 2000. Personal communication, October 20.
Eckholm, Eric. 2008. A pastor begs to differ with flock on miracles. The New York Times (February 20).
El Santuariò...: A Stop on the “High Road to Taos.” 1994. Silver Spring, MD: Sons of the Holy Family.
Hamm, Elizabeth Catanach. 2006. It’s a miracle: Hope, faith bond at El Santuario de Chimayó. New Mexico (March): 40–45.
Harrington, John Peabody. 1916. Cited in Kay 1987, 14.
Hines, Terence. 1988. Pseudoscience and the Paranormal. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books.
Kay, Elizabeth. 1987. Chimayó Valley Traditions. Sante Fe, New Mexico: Ancient City Press.
Kutz, Jack. 1988. Mysteries & Miracles of New Mexico. Corrales, NM: Rhombus Publishing Co.
The Miracle Detectives. 2011. Holy Dirt of Chimayó. Episode aired April 10.
Nealson, Christina. 2001. New Mexico’s Sanctuaries, Retreats, and Sacred Places. Englewood, CO: Westcliffe Publishers, 61–63.
Nickell, Joe. 1988. Secrets of the Supernatural. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 103–17.
———. 2004. The Mystery Chronicles. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 51–55.
———. 2007. Relics of the Christ. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.
———. 2008. Lourdes medical bureau rebels (blog entry). Free Thinking (December 25). Online at http://www.centerforinquiry.net/blogs/entry/lourdes_medical_bureau_rebels/.
Russell, Inez. 2004. Saving El Santuario: Preservation process almost a miracle. New Mexico (December): 36–41.


The Lantern Festival is a Chinese festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunar calendar. It marks the final day of the traditional Chinese New Year celebrations. During the Lantern Festival, children go out at night carrying paper lanterns and solve riddles on the lanterns.
This year, the Lantern Festival falls on February 19. To celebrate the special occasion, Beijing’s Palace Museum has been illuminated and opened to the public for night visits for the first time. “Lantern Festival in the Forbidden City” are held for two consecutive nights on the 19th and 20th of February.
As night fell yesterday, visitors were welcomed by a light show at the Meridian Gate exhibition hall. A dazzling array of lights also lit up the Supreme Harmony Hall. Chinese characters and traditional decorations were projected on the outer walls.
Please enjoy some beautiful pictures of the illuminated Palace Museum. Wish you a Happy Lantern Festival and a prosperous 2019 ahead!
Photo Credits: Pu Feng (The Beijing News), Palace Museum


CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (CBS) — Flooding from Hurricane Florence in the Carolinas is polluting rivers and the Atlantic Ocean. The News & Observer reports that a NASA satellite shows dark, polluted water flowing from rivers into the ocean.
Florence dumped nearly 8 trillion gallons of rain across North Carolina, leading to devastating flooding. NASA’s satellite images show the flooding has polluted creeks, rivers and streams in the state, according to The News & Observer.
The images also show how discolored the water is from the pollution.
“Organic matter – such as leaves, roots, or bark – contain pigments and chemicals (such as tannins) that can color the water when they dissolve. Depending on the amount of dissolved particles, the water in natural-color imagery can appear blue, green, yellow, or brown as the CDOM concentration increases,” NASA told The News & Observer.
Joshua Stevens, the lead data visualization and cartographer at NASA, said that the storm “brought a surge of new water to North Carolina.”
“Streams overflow with colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) as carbon moves from land to sea,” Stevens tweeted. “The dark plumes shooting into the Atlantic were seen by Landsat 8 two days ago.”
Scientists tell The News & Observer that water discoloration from pollutants can lead to mass fish kills and other environmental issues.
“In the discharges after hurricanes Floyd and Matthew, these dead zones grew large enough to affect shellfish and finfish habitats for miles,” Hans Paerl, a scientist at the University of North Carolina, told The News & Observer. “Fish kills lasted for months.”
The storm killed at least 44 people across North and South Carolina and Virginia.


SUMMARY: The first part of this article talks about using phage and antibiotics (separately and together) in vitro to reduce bacteria biofilm. Researchers found that phage alone was enough to reduce biofilm to almost zero; however, there is the concern (noted in other papers) that the bacteria could evolve resistance to phages. The end goal was to see if there was a way to force the bacteria to evolve resistance to phage therapy by giving up resistance to antibiotics; in this manner, the most effective treatment would be phage therapy with antibiotics. The second half of the article describes phage therapy used on someone who had a chronic aorta graft infection. It worked and even though his chance of reinfection was high, reinfection has not happened.
LESSON COMMENTS: For younger students, this is a good way to introduce viral lytic cycles, how antibiotics work, bacteria cell walls, and biofilms.
For older students, this is an easy paper to read; students can follow up with some of the research cited by this paper, then branch off into other forms of antibiotic resistant bacteria therapy (CRISPR, for example).
Chan, B. K., Turner, P. E., Kim, S., Mojibian, H. R., Elefteriades, J. A., & Narayan, D. (2018). Phage treatment of an aortic graft infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health,2018(1), 60-66. doi:10.1093/emph/eoy005


Previous article: Beginner’s Machine Learning (ML)
Dealing with a real-life problem, there is hardly any dataset that has only one dependent variable. Taking the example of a SmartPhone, everyone owns a phone which has a vast specification and took a lot of time to buy it. Because the phone was chosen on the basis of requirement whether it is for PUBG, MasterChef or ‘ये रिश्ता क्या कह लाता है’ |
Here the dependent variable is your requirement and independent variables are the specifications. For our youth, the best example is:
In the above example, the y=Tik Tok and the x1=camera and x2=slow motion feature, and this is an example of a multilinear example.
The basic formula on which multilinear regression works is
where y=dependent variable ; x1,x2,x3………..,xn=independent variable
b0= bias/constant ; b1,b2,b3……bn=weight/coefficient
let’s start the practical part:
we all have done this in the previous session.
In this practical, I have a dataset of placement of a college having these many columns (in the figure). We have to predict the salary of a selected one.
‘X’ having so much column or feature but all of them are really helpful to decide whether an individual gets the or will get the job?
Have you ever heard that if you got 10 CGPA in high school or 90% in intermediate or 12th standard you will get a job? I never heard that. This means that X has some useless columns that don’t matter in prediction. Let’s remove the useless things but again a question arises why to remove if they don’t have any effect on the result?
Answer:- We use Machine Learning to calculate weights and bias, the more the independent variable are there more the time will be consumed by the program to train the model. That’s why it is good practice to remove the useless ones.
This process is called or known as Feature elimination or selection.
And I did it! For this, one should know the domain (about dataset) or analyze the coefficient value (will be discussed ).
Now just repeat the linear regression process that was discussed and train your model but an error will come when you try this. Why? because program or function understands the only number, not a string and some of the attribute/columns/feature contains the string. These columns are known as a categorical variable.
Now the task comes to convert the string into the number and for this, we use one-hot encoding that gives a unique number to each string in a column but another question arises why we can’t just give a number to every string by ourself. Yes, you can do it but you know that this number indicates to this string but the machine will take this an ordering between categories.
For more Click here
You know Machine is quite similar to the brain when gets trained that is if I ask you the candidate is not a male then tell me what is the gender of the same? Anyone say ‘female’ similarly machine will also know the answer and this point creates a problem for him. The machine says these columns are correlated and I can’t differentiate between them so please remove one of them. This problem is known as the Dummy variable trap.
Here this part is complete. head() is used to see top rows.
You trained your model but how accurate it is. The motto of machine learning is not just to create a model but to be accurate. Accuracy is calculated by loss given by the model that is least the error, more the accuracy, and vice-versa.
Don’t get scared by the loss function, the machine will do it by itself and behind the scene uses ABSOLUTE MEAN ERROR.
Whenever you plot a graph in 2-D a line appears called a best-fit line or regression line. Actually, the machine puts a lot of lines on the graph according to the observation and finally puts a line having the least error known as best it line.
Then it should a better way to test the existing data to calculate the accuracy because you know the answer and it can be done by importing function:
Compare figure 4 and figure 6.
What is random_state?
I tried to train my model and the result is:
It says dataset has NaN that is not a number. It means the dataset contains a null value and we have to remove it.
Either remove the row which contains NaN, or the column but in our case, Y has NaN value. Or fill the value with mean value, the motive is to remove.
If you want the value of bias and coefficient:
Yes, sometimes weights have a negative value as it produces an adverse effect. For example, Your phone that is may be used for online classes but who knows which class you are attending…..Just kidding. Using phone also affect eyes that is negative affect.
Give a try to multilinear regression and again smash as ironman do.
In the next article, we will cover Feature Selection/ Elimination.