This is my first ever article. I have been working with so many applications of-late but never thought of publishing any of my work online. I am referring to this site since long, and now I think it's pay back time for me.
If you are familiar with Windows APIs, then you must be aware that they provide a great interface for developing out-of-the-box applications. There are so many of them available for use, but most of the time programmers hesitate to use them because there are some complexities involved in embedding them to the core application.
How To Use the Code
Just download and run the demo to see the animation in action.
How It Works
This article demonstrates the use of one of the Windows APIs called AnimateWindow. The API, among so many others is found in the user32.dll library. Detailed explanation of this API can be found here. A call to this API requires three arguments:
- A handle to the window (form) to be animated
- Animation duration (in milliseconds)
- Some flags describing the type of animation
The purpose of this application is fairly simple. The application will demonstrate the form animation using the
AnimateWindow API. There are two forms in this application. One provides the user with various options that can be used to animate any form. The other just shows the form animation effect in action.
I have created a separate class
WinAPI which is used to declare the constants that are used when calling the API and the API itself. The code for this class looks like this:
public class WinAPI
public const int AW_HOR_POSITIVE = 0X1;
public const int AW_HOR_NEGATIVE = 0X2;
public const int AW_VER_POSITIVE = 0X4;
public const int AW_VER_NEGATIVE = 0X8;
public const int AW_CENTER = 0X10;
public const int AW_HIDE = 0X10000;
public const int AW_ACTIVATE = 0X20000;
public const int AW_SLIDE = 0X40000;
public const int AW_BLEND = 0X80000;
public static extern int AnimateWindow
(IntPtr hwand , int dwTime , int dwFlags) ;
The Animated Child Form
The animated form has very little code in the
Load event, a call to the
static implementation of the original API.
What's more, the form can be animated when it appears and/or disappears.
WinAPI.AnimateWindow (this.Handle, animationTime, flags);
The Parent Form
The parent form is used to set the parameters of the animation and load the animated form. There are 6 buttons in this form in total. Listed below are the types of animations:
- Basic Animations
- Roll Left to Right
- Roll Right to Left
- Roll Top to Bottom
- Roll Bottom to Top
- Roll Collapse
- Roll Fade
- Slide Effect
- Slide Left to Right
- Slide Right to Left
- Slide Top to Bottom
- Slide Bottom to Top
Hope this code helps!!!
- 10th January, 2007: Initial post


Keeping the Past Present
Beverly Shores is a unique town. The phases of its history include a presence of a number of Native American tribes, a development project to create a community by Frederick and Robert Bartlett, an effort by local citizens and Senator Douglas to prevent steel mills and a power plant from taking over the lakefront, a plan by the United States government to acquire the lakeshore and beyond, house by house, using eminent domain, and, today, the co-existence of the town with the Indiana Dunes National Park surrounding it.
The Museum is here to share this history and the town’s continued evolution with people who visit Beverly Shores. Many people in town have contributed their time and amazing talents to make this possible. The Museum provides a number of virtual and in-person exhibits designed to educate and entertain visitors.
Vibrant local history exhibits creatively engage, enrich, and commemorate our community. By showcasing the people, places, and events that played a critical role in shaping our past, we embrace our understanding of who we are now. Our well-attended Second Friday events, highlighting our history exhibits, and the meaningful Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day exhibits and commemorations contribute significantly to the social fabric of our community.
Now Featured at the Museum
Disappearing beaches are not new to Beverly Shores; it's a pattern that has recurred ever since the land for the town was purchased by Fred Bartlett in 1929. From 1951 on,...
Beverly Shores History for the Asking
This oral history project explores the connections between past and present. A group of volunteers has interviewed former and current residents, painting an oral portrait of our community and preserving the rich experiences and memories of our Town. Those who follow in our footsteps will have an intimate glimpse into the events, large and small, that shaped our area.
Beverly Shores Heritage Trail
This walking tour of significant locations in our community reminds us of what has been created and contributed to this area in the Indiana Dunes. Trail Markers with QR codes link visitors, through their mobile devices, to our website materials explaining the significance of important places in our history. This project allows residents and visitors to experience the past in a new and meaningful way.


Buzzing doesn’t begin to cover the sounds made by the approximately one million species of insects in the world today. This album, recorded and narrated by Albro T. Gaul, includes samples of butterflies and dragonflies in flight, flies caught on flypaper, Japanese beetles on a rose, and insects walking and chewing. In the narration and the liner notes, Gaul provides information about each insect and sound. One interesting fact provided by Gaul is that counting a cricket’s chirps for fifteen seconds and adding forty to the total number of chirps will give you the current temperature (in degrees Fahrenheit). Through facts such as this one, Sounds of Insects provides a closer look and listen to the oft-overlooked world of insects that surrounds us.


As energy prices rise and the danger of global warming becomes ever more apparent there has been an unforeseen growth in the offers of energy efficient heat pump. Green water heaters may be electric or gas, function off solar energy or a heat pump device. They can also include a tank or function with no one. A green water heater is essentially designed to lessen the amount of greenhouse gases produced while it is heating water for utilization in the home.
Tankless heat pumps are proclaimed by several specialists to be the most efficient kind of water heating pump system available. That is because they do not include a tank that is able to constantly lose heat to the environment when it is stand by. Although this is technically correct, a recent research by the Australian Government has revealed that tankless systems actually take longer to provide hot water to where it is necessary. The extra time required to reach the desired temperature outcomes in more water being wasted, a big problem in drought prone regions. For this cause units with a tank system are preferred, and any loss of heat may be minimized by adequate insulation.
Green electric water heaters can also include an integrated tank device that stores hot water when it is not required. The greatest loss of energy occurs when a tank is quite big for the house. This results in excessive amounts of energy to support the water temperature inside the tank and may lead to higher energy expenses.
While electric and gas water heaters are becoming more energy effective they still depend on a non-renewable source of fuel. Solar hot water devices on the other hand are maintained by renewable solar power and really are green water heaters. In Australia there are now incentives and rebates accessible from Federal and State governments to develop the installation of solar hot water heaters. It is essential to mention that a lot of solar hot water heaters do have a backup electric element to ensure hot water in all weather conditions.
Heat pump systems are also supposed to be green, including a heat pump attached to a water tank. It operates alike to an air-conditioner in reverse taking heat from the surrounding air and employing it to warm the water inside the tank. They can function in quite low temperatures, but there is usually an integrated electric element because of the long term it takes to make the water hot.
The huge variety of ecologically friendly and energy effective water systems now accessible shows the necessity of lessening greenhouse gas creating and the reaction to rising energy expenses.


IN WORD AND PICTURE
by John H Marsh
Doomed, She Signalled Rescuers "Keep Away"
N0 SHIP of the Royal Navy ever won so warm a place in the hearts of South
Africans as H.M.S. Neptune. For more than half her short career, from
her arrival on the Africa Station in 1937, she had the closest associations with
the Union. About 20 Springbok sailors went with her to a wartime grave in the
Mediterranean in 1941, and when the manner in which they and their shipmates
faced their end becomes generally known, the Neptune will undoubtedly be
remembered as South Africa's Birkenhead.
She left the Cape in August, 5939, for her war station at Freetown, and within 24 hours of war being declared she sank the German freighter Innsbruck off the West African coast and brought her crew into Freetown. Early in November she helped the Ark Royal capture the Uhenfels. Later in the same month she made a 600-mile dash to try to capture the liner Adolph Woermann in the South Atlantic. The Germans, however, scuttled their ship, and the cruiser took the 150 passengers and crew back to Freetown. In November, 1940, she re-visited Table Bay in her warpaint, when this photograph of her was taken. In 1941 she was sent to the Mediterranean to join Rear-Admiral Rawlings' Seventh Cruiser Squadron at Malta.
One December night while searching for an enemy convoy bound for Tripoli the Neptune led her consorts Aurora and Penelope and four destroyers right into an unexpected minefield 20 miles from the enemy port. All three cruisers exploded mines. The other two managed to get out without further damage, but the Neptune struck two more mines and began to sink fast. The destroyer Kandahar tried to reach her but Captain R. C. O'Conor, R.N. of the Neptune signalled: "Keep away !" The Kandahar also struck a mine, and soon afterwards the Neptune hit her fourth mine and turned over and sank, only a handful of survivors reaching the Italian shore later as prisoners. The gallant destroyer also was lost.
"No Pathway Here" The Annexation of Prince Edward and Marion Islands
John Marsh Maritime Collection A collection of 18000 photographs taken by John Marsh from 1920 of ships calling at Cape Town


Antalgia is a term heard often in the back pain community, yet it is rarely understood by patients. Many believe it to be an actual painful spinal condition, but this is completely incorrect. The definition of this medical term simply means a method of removing pain or lessening pain. Therefore, the nomenclature can be applied to any pain relieving treatment, but is far more commonly associated with organic conditions demonstrated by the body in response to pain, such as postural compensation. The usual examples of this use include antalgic list and antalgic gait.
This discussion clarifies an important concept of organic adjustments caused by the expression of pain. We would not have to publish this essay if other idiotic websites did not consistently report antalgia to be a "painful back condition", with the search engines showing their support for this utter stupidity.
This particular anatomical term means that the patient has developed a different way of walking in response to pain. In the dorsopathy industry, a wide range of lower back pain and sciatica conditions can affect mobility or cause increased symptoms upon walking. This often expresses itself in an alteration of a normal gait pattern. It does not take a medical doctor to recognize this change, since the patient will obviously be walking strangely in most cases.
This condition should not be confused with changes in gait due to non-painful nerve compression, such as foot drop. In these cases, the change in gait is not due to pain, but instead, sourced in the simple fact that the mobilizing muscle is unable to move properly due to a lack of nerve energy innervating the structure.
This particular diagnostic term, also called an antalgic list, is very common in lower back pain conditions, but is also occasionally seen in middle back pain, upper back pain or even neck pain conditions. A list simply means that the patient is leaning or bending to one side without consciously enacting the movement. These lists are caused due to painful stimuli in the affected area and muscular response, including extreme tightening and spasming in a protective capacity.
The patient may be bent forward or to either side, creating a disturbing appearance and often scaring them half to death. Ironically, most list conditions resolve without treatment once the back muscle spasm ends and typically, the patient will suffer no lasting physical effects.
The psychological effect of this type of back pain is a completely different story altogether and most patients live in continuing fear of a recurrence.
The first form, antalgia, is a noun, describing the actual condition. The latter, antalgic, is a descriptive word, being used as a adjective or adverb. Otherwise, they are identical.
I suffered postural lists many times during the 18 years I endured regular patterned attacks of back pain. Sometimes, my entire pelvis was thrown violently to one side or the other. My chiropractors treated this aggressively with spinal adjustments, which were torturous to endure.
The spine can not be forced into place when the muscles are guarding. It seems they never understood this simple fact, as they did it over and over. God only knows what kind of damage was done to my muscles, ligaments, tendons and vertebrae by this constant abuse. Unfortunately, I have no one to blame but myself, since I allowed this torment to endure year over year until I finally woke up and got a clue about the real nature of my pain. Better late than never, I guess.


Chapter 11: Area of Polygons and Circles
The following pages are designed to help you with chapter 11, Area of Polygons and Circles. The above tabs will go over each section of chapter 11. They will have the "gapped" notes given in class, extra problems, and other helpful links.
The current page has review games to help you study and review.
Fraction and Decimal Help GAMES
Mountain View High School


CapitalHow much is enough?
Banks are having to puff up their capital cushions
IMAGINE A DRIVER'S licence that reflected your driving history. The longer you had gone without a crash, the faster you would be allowed to go until your chance of crashing was judged about average, when you would be told to stick to that speed. Or imagine cars with better brakes that could take the place of airbags, or aero-engines whose increased reliability could be offset by less frequent maintenance, leaving airlines about as safe as they were in the 1950s. The main aim of innovation would be not to reduce risk but to make cars or flights cheaper. The idea seems absurd, yet it has underpinned thinking about financial stability for the past three decades—and is proving remarkably persistent.
At the centre of the debate about how safe banks should be is the question of how much capital they should be required to hold. Having too little capital in the system may leave it crisis-prone and in need of regular bail-outs. Too much capital, on the other hand, could result in huge swathes of the banking business becoming unprofitable. This might result in higher borrowing costs and slower economic growth, though nobody knows for sure. A more pressing danger is that money and risk will flow into more dangerous and unregulated parts of the economy, possibly making the system even less stable.
Capital in a bank does many things. Its first job is to absorb losses, acting as a cushion to protect those who have entrusted the bank with their money from the mistakes of those who own and run it. Its second job is to restrain bankers' instinct for gambling by raising the stakes. It is clear that some banks had too little capital before the crisis. Royal Bank of Scotland, for instance, needed a huge bail-out not because its losses were so large but because it entered the crisis with a dangerously thin capital cushion of only about 3.5%.
This had become possible thanks to two sorts of innovation. The first concerned the rules themselves. Under the original international capital accord struck in Basel in 1988, banks were meant to hold capital worth 8% of their assets. Since some assets are safer than others, and some banks are better at lending safely than others, it seemed sensible to allow banks to calculate how much capital they actually needed, gauged by the probability of their own loans defaulting. Basel 2, a revised set of rules, explicitly permitted this. Banks with the most creditworthy clients could hold the least capital whereas those who pursued riskier business had to hold more. Yet financial models of the riskiness of loans failed badly when put to the test because they were based on data gathered in an unusually benign economic climate.
The second set of innovations concerned capital. In the years running up to the crisis, an army of bankers and lawyers put together new sorts of instruments that were supposed to be as cheap for banks as debt (interest payments in many countries are tax-deductible whereas dividends are not), yet still looked sufficiently equity-like to satisfy regulators. “Every week some banker or lawyer would come in and say they had some new tweak on a capital instrument,” says a bank supervisor. “Of course what they were doing was just pushing the boundaries.”
The new rules on capital, known as Basel 3, try to deal with both these points by forcing banks to hold a lot more capital and by requiring much of it to be in equity. In essence, they will more than triple the amount of equity that most large banks will have to hold compared with the period before the crisis. Minimum capital is to rise from 8% to 10.5% by 2019, but many banks are getting there early to show they are ready. The increase is much larger than it appears because under the new rules banks must hold at least 7% in equity, the gold standard of capital. These rules have also closed loopholes that allowed banks to hold less capital, for instance by shifting assets off their balance-sheets or classifying them as trading assets.
The massive increase in capital envisaged should show convincingly that the system itself is better buffered against loss. This will involve huge sums of money. Standard & Poor's, a rating agency, looked at 75 of the world's biggest banks and found that between them they will have to raise $763 billion in equity just to meet the new minimum. By McKinsey's reckoning, which includes smaller institutions, European banks will need to come up with €1.1 trillion in equity by 2019. American banks will have to raise $870 billion.
Many countries are now also considering getting banks to hold an additional cushion of convertible capital and bail-in debt. Convertible capital instruments, usually known as Cocos, are the simpler of the two. These are bonds that turn into equity if the bank's capital ratio falls too low. So far, Swiss regulators have been the most enthusiastic. They have asked their two biggest banks to hold Cocos worth up to 9% of their risk-weighted assets (out of total capital of 19%). As they see it, Cocos are not just a way for the banks to increase their capital reserves on the cheap but may also make them a bit more cautious, knowing that their shareholders will suffer big losses from dilution if the Cocos ever convert. There are still some worries about whether investors will buy the billions of dollars of Cocos that would have to be issued, but they lifted somewhat when Credit Suisse raised $8 billion in February.
Another potential source of capital for banks would be to convert some of their long-term debt into equity, or bailing the debt in. This would be similar to Cocos, but would ideally apply to all of a bank's long-term debt instead of just a thin sliver of it, so might be expected to be more controversial. Surprisingly, bond investors are generally more comfortable buying bonds that could be bailed in than they would be buying Cocos. The difference, in their eyes, is that the former would convert only when a bank actually went bust, at which point they would be taking losses anyhow, not when the bank was merely ailing. But any transition to these sorts of instruments will take years and they have yet to prove themselves in a crisis.
Two further layers of padding will also be stuffed into capital cushions. The first is a surcharge on very large cross-border banks because of their potential to cause an enormous amount of harm if they fail. The second is a “countercyclical buffer” intended to expand when economies are booming (which should make bubbles slower to inflate) and soften the landing when they crash. It will ensure that banks have surplus capital well above the minimum level to write off bad debts. This will help not only banks but also the economy as a whole, since the cushion would give banks the required level of capital even as they continue lending.
Countercyclical provisioning has gained much currency since its use by the Bank of Spain in trying to restrain the country's rampant property boom before the crisis. The Spanish experiment did not, in the end, protect the country from a huge property crash and banking crisis, but without it the fall would have been harder still. The idea is sound but difficult to implement, mainly because it requires central bankers or bank supervisors to be brave enough to spoil the party as it gets going.
There is little argument that higher capital standards may slow growth, but the scale of the effect is in dispute
Financial markets are also leaky. Credit can flow across borders and from shadow banks, which complicates the efforts of central bankers who hope to use capital regulation as a way of pricking bubbles, says James Mason of Roubini Global Economics. Japan provides a useful lesson. Two decades ago Japan's finance ministry clamped down on the loans that banks could make against property, hoping to prick the bubble that subsequently burst so catastrophically. Its efforts probably came too late to make much of a difference, but in any case they were thwarted by housing-finance companies able to sidestep the restrictions because they were not banks.
In America and Europe the huge growth of money-market funds and of the shadow banking system in the decades before the crisis largely reflected a shift of risk away from banks to escape regulatory capital charges (see chart 2). This trend was reversed during the crisis but is now resuming, with fixed-income hedge-fund activity and other alternative-asset managers growing much faster than banks.
One solution might be to widen the definition of banks and banking to encompass lending of all kinds. Anil Kashyap of the University of Chicago is among those who reckon that regulators ought to impose capital-like rules on repo markets, a part of the world's financial plumbing that does not usually attract much attention—until it gets blocked.
Deciding how much capital banks need ought to be a fairly simple mathematical process, but there is widespread disagreement even over how much capital banks should have held to have survived the past crisis, never mind the next. The disagreement has intensified in recent months after the publication of two influential papers, one co-authored by David Miles of the Bank of England and the other by a group of economists including Anat Admati and her colleagues at Stanford and Martin Hellwig of the Max Planck Institute in Bonn. They argue that banks should hold two or three times more equity than currently proposed because of the huge costs a collapse imposes on society. Moreover, they think that this should not cost all that much.
Part of the argument is about whether banks should simply have enough capital to survive a crisis without running out of money or whether they should have enough to absorb large losses and still keep lending. If the aim is the former, then the current levels are probably about right. In the recent crisis American banks absorbed losses equivalent to about 7% of assets. Since these took place over time, and some parts of the banks were still generating profits, setting capital levels at about 7% would do. If, however, the aim is to ensure that banks not only survive but are strong enough to keep lending, then capital levels would need to rise to about 15%, according to a paper by Mr Kashyap.
Over the past few decades regulators have tended to err on the side of too little capital. They now recognise their mistake. But most regulators and central bankers, with a few notable exceptions, are still reluctant to ask banks to hold much above 10%. Apart from Switzerland, which is proposing the highest capital standards in the rich world for its own big banks, and Britain, which is pondering a minimum of 10% in equity, it seems unlikely that any other developed countries will demand buffers of 15-20% of banks' assets.
That is because capital is costly. Higher capital standards reduce returns to shareholders and may slow expansion in fast-growing economies such as India or Indonesia, where bank lending is growing by 20-25% a year. Aditya Puri, managing director of HDFC, one of India's fastest-growing private banks, reckons that his bank can fund most of its own growth without having to raise much more capital because it is so profitable. So too can ICICI, India's second-largest bank. Yet the country's largest bank, the government-controlled State Bank of India, may have to ask shareholders for additional capital.
There is little argument that higher capital standards may slow growth, but the scale of the effect is in dispute. The New York Federal Reserve reckons that for each percentage point of extra capital that banks must hold, economic growth slows by about 0.09% a year. The Basel Committee and the Bank for International Settlements reckon the damage is only about a third of that and that it disappears over time. The OECD has come up with a range so wide that it can be reconciled with both. And the Institute of International Finance, a club of banks, reckons the impact could be up to ten times bigger.
Yet it is not clear that this would matter much. The OECD thinks that since the impact on growth will be caused mostly by higher borrowing costs, central banks could offset it with a slightly easier monetary policy. Nor should the costs be seen in isolation. Banks would be buying an insurance policy that might help to avert or mitigate another financial crisis.
It is also useful to think of capital as insurance when looking at the additional capital buffers that large global banks may be required to hold. Under Basel 2 the world's biggest banks were generally allowed to hold less capital than smaller ones because their risks were spread more widely. By and large that turned out to have been sensible. A number of big banks such as HSBC and J.P. Morgan kept credit flowing and assumed risk during the crisis as smaller banks withdrew. Yet the failure of Lehman and the bail-outs of Citigroup and AIG also showed that big and interconnected financial institutions could cause widespread harm if things went badly wrong.
Another lesson of the crisis was that supervisors should look at the health not only of individual banks but of the system as a whole. There is still disagreement about how to measure interconnectedness or think about systemic shocks, yet a consensus is emerging that banking involves complex networks where risk can arise from the interactions among banks rather than just from individual banks going broke. The implications are enormous because it means that financial systems may crumble even if most banks are fundamentally sound. It also suggests that some healthy banks may have to hold much more capital than they need to stay solvent to help guarantee the smooth functioning of the rest of the network.
Drawing a comparison with biology, Andrew Haldane, an economist, and Robert May, a zoologist, argue in a paper for Nature that big financial institutions are “super-spreaders” of financial contagion because they are connected to so many other participants. Just as epidemiologists looking at sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV-AIDS attribute much of its spread to a few very promiscuous people, Haldane and May argue that a few very big universal banks have a disproportionate number of connections to many small ones and thus pose an extraordinary danger. Forcing just a few big banks to adopt safer practices could significantly reduce the amount of risk in the system.
Financial markets are leaky. Credit can flow across borders and from shadow banks, which complicates the efforts of central bankers
One way of getting them to do this would be to insist that big, systemically important institutions hold an extra layer of capital. There is, however, considerable opposition to a global capital surcharge, not least from the largest and most promiscuous banks. They have the support of regulators in several countries with big banks that largely escaped the crisis, such as France and Japan. These countries argue, with some justification, that size alone is a poor measure of the systemic importance or riskiness of banks. Japan's biggest banks, for instance, are focused on their home market and are funded by deposits in Japan. Were one to fail, it would cause little harm beyond the country's shores, so slapping the same extra charge on all big banks across the globe would not be appropriate.
There is also some doctrinal opposition to having a list of big banks that pose a systemic risk. Any bank on it would be seen as too big to be allowed to fail, deserving a bail-out if necessary. When Elijah Brewer of DePaul University and Julapa Jagtiani of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve looked at bank mergers in America between 1991 and 2004, they found that banks were willing to pay a considerable premium to grow larger than $100 billion in assets, which at the time was seen as the threshold above which banks were considered too big to fail. Another study, by the New York Fed, found that when a list naming 11 American banks that were thought to be too big to fail was released in 1984, their credit ratings jumped and their borrowing costs dropped.
The advantages of a surcharge may, however, outweigh this risk in three respects. The first is that most of the banks concerned are already easily identifiable as systemically important. Naming them would make little difference. Second, a sufficiently large surcharge would reduce the probability of a bail-out by strengthening the banks. Third, if the charge were set high enough to offset the subsidised borrowing costs that come with big banks' implicit state guarantee, it could encourage them to become simpler and smaller.
Much, then, depends on the level at which the surcharge is set. The Basel Committee is likely to release its proposal on how much extra capital big banks should hold in June. The additional amount will probably end up somewhere between 1% and 3% and may consist only of convertible capital instruments, a cheaper and potentially weaker form of capital than equity. If so, the surcharge will be largely symbolic, neither big enough to reduce the risk of systemic failure by much, nor costly enough to encourage big banks to reduce the risk they pose to the system. The onus will then fall on regulators to force banks to cut back on their riskier trading business—and perhaps consider ways of separating their activities to make any failure less damaging.


How do transport modes influence people’s health? A new study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the ”la Caixa” Banking Foundation, has concluded that cycling is the mode of transport associated with the greatest health benefits: better self-perceived general health, better mental health and fewer feelings of loneliness.
The study formed part of the EU funded PASTA project and was carried out in seven European cities: Antwerp, Barcelona, London, Örebro, Rome, Vienna and Zurich. A baseline questionnaire was completed by more than 8,800 people, 3,500 of whom also completed a final survey, on transport and health that included questions about what transport modes they used, how often they used the different transport modes, and how they perceived their general health. The mental-health section of the survey focused on the four major dimensions of mental health (anxiety, depression, loss of emotional control, and psychological well-being), vitality (energy level and fatigue) and perceived stress. The survey also asked about participants’ social relations, including questions about loneliness and contact with friends and/or family.
The transport modes assessed in the study were car, motorbike, public transport, bicycle, electric bicycle and walking. The effects of these transport modes were analysed using both single- and multiple-mode models.
The findings, published in Environment International, show that cycling yielded the best results in every analysis. Bicycles were associated with better self-perceived general health, better mental health, greater vitality, lower self-perceived stress and fewer feelings of loneliness. The second most beneficial transport mode, walking, was associated with good self-perceived general health, greater vitality, and more contact with friends and/or family.
“Previous studies have either analysed transport modes in isolation or compared various transport modes to each other,” commented Ione Avila-Palencia, ISGlobal researcher and lead author of the study. “Ours is the first study to associate the use of multiple urban transport modes with health effects such as mental health and social contact.” “This approach allowed us to analyse the effects more realistically, since today’s city dwellers tend to use more than one mode of transport,” she added. “It also allowed us to highlight the positive effect of walking, which in previous studies was not very conclusive.”
The study’s conclusions regarding transport modes other than cycling and walking were not entirely conclusive. “Driving and public-transport use were associated with poor self-perceived general health when the transport modes were analysed separately, but this effect disappeared in the multiple-mode analyses,” commented Ávila Palencia. Cars were also associated with fewer feelings of loneliness in all of the analyses. “This result is most likely due to the fact that the study population drove very infrequently and most journeys by car were probably for social purposes, such as visiting a family member or a friend,” explained the researcher.
“The findings were similar in all of the cities we studied. This suggests that active transport—especially cycling—should be encouraged in order to improve health and increase social interaction,” commented Ávila Palencia. She added that the percentage of people who cycle “remains low in all European cities, except in countries like the Netherlands and Denmark, which means that there is plenty of room to increase bicycle use.”
Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, coordinator of the study and director of the Urban Planning, Environment and Health Initiative at ISGlobal, commented: “Transport is not just a matter of mobility; it also has to do with public health and the well-being of the population.” The study’s findings, he noted, show yet again that “an integrated approach to urban planning, transport planning and public health is needed in order to develop policies that promote active transport, such as adding more segregated cycle lanes in Barcelona, which are transforming the city into a better environment for cyclists.”
Other studies conducted as part of the PASTA Project have also highlighted the health benefits of cycling. One study found that cyclists have a lower body mass index than non-cyclists and another suggested that as many as 10,000 deaths could be prevented by expanding cycling networks in European cities.
Ione Avila-Palencia, Luc Int Panis, Evi Dons, Mailin Gaupp-Berghausen, Elisabeth Raser, Thomas Götschi, Regine Gerike, Christian Brand, Audrey de Nazelle, Juan Pablo Orjuela, Esther Anaya-Boig, Erik Stigell, Sonja Kahlmeier, Francesco Iacorossi, Mark J Nieuwenhuijsen. The effects of transport mode use on self-perceived health, mental health, and social contact measures: a cross-sectional and longitudinal study. Environment International. August 2018. doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2018.08.002


A report from Psychology Today indicates that emotional empathy may be in short supply in those who have had a bad night’s sleep.
Lead author Veronica Guadagni, MSc, a doctoral candidate at NeuroLab in the Department of Psychology at the University of Calgary, sums up the main finding this way: “If individuals describe their quality of sleep as poor—if they feel tired and not well rested—their ability to be empathic in unpleasant situations is reduced, compared to others who feel satisfied with their sleep.”
That could have practical implications in a wide range of situations, whether you’re responding to your partner’s hurt feelings in an argument or dealing with a client’s frustrated feelings while fielding a complaint at work. It suggests that you may be less prepared to handle such situations when you haven’t slept well. Chalk up one more reason to make sleep a priority—not only for your physical health, but also for your emotional and social well-being.


February 24 – December 31, 2017
February 2015 – December 2016
Showcasing manuscript items, images, and artifacts from the holdings from the College of Charleston’s Special Collections and Avery Research Center as well as the South Carolina Historical Society, this exhibit highlights the roles of South Carolinians in forging a new democracy and subsequent challenges to the Constitution during struggles for economic parity, citizenship, and suffrage. Included are letters from George Washington, John Adams, Henry Laurens, Lafayette, and Benjamin Franklin; incendiary pamphlets published during the Nullification Crisis; objects documenting the long struggle for citizenship and equal rights for African Americans; and materials that illustrate women’s fight for suffrage and equal rights in the twentieth century.
Open from September 2016 through January 2017, “Drawing with Light” showcased examples of photographic processes from the holdings of the College of Charleston Special Collections as well as the South Carolina Historical Society and explored the evolution of visual vocabularies and the functions of photographic images over time.
Open from May through August 2016, this exhibit featured archival objects that tell the story of the people and events that inspired Dubose Heyward’s tale of Porgy and the subsequent opera Porgy and Bess composed by George Gershwin. The installation coincided with the live performance of Porgy and Bess taking place during Spoleto Festival U.S.A. The exhibit was on display through the middle of September 2016.
Charleston is known for its beautiful public and private gardens. Spaces filled with manicured green shrubbery and fragrant blossoms are abundant. Residents of early Charleston such as Martha Logan, André Michaux, Robert Squibb, and John Drayton laid the foundations for planned outdoor spaces. But it was New York-born landscape architect Loutrel Winslow Briggs (1893 – 1977) who left the most voluminous and influential footprint on the cultivated landscape of Charleston and its environs. Archival objects from a variety of Charleston’s cultural heritage repositories are included in this exhibit and tell the story of how Briggs’ prolific and wide-ranging work unfolded and evolved. Plats, engravings, sketches, and tools represent the foundations upon which Briggs measured his considerable influence. Briggs’ own intricate pencil drawings demonstrate the range of projects to which he contributed. Scrapbooks and other ephemera created by the influential garden clubs of Charleston reveal the important role played by members of the gardening community in bolstering Briggs’ efforts to maintain the integrity and allure of Charleston’s outdoor heritage.


Feudalism is a social structure. they had the shogun that led to the rise of feudalism in japan. Three art forms are, calligraphy, another is painting, and a third is poetry. How these things changed society is they let them learn how to write. The social structure is, the emperor is on the top, the shogun is under the emperor, the diamyos and samurai are next then the peasant, the next one in line is artisans, last is merchants.


How Tackling Artificial Intelligence (AI) Bias Can Tackle the Bias in Humans Too
How can a machine be biased? The reality is that most machines are built on bias because they are still controlled by humans. AI, specifically machine learning (ML), has the potential to eliminate bias from many critical areas including recruitment, healthcare, law and order, and security and surveillance by eliminating human error and bias altogether. But as long as the programming is controlled by a human scientist, we cannot be completely free from innate bias.
While AI and machine learning are capable of ushering in an era that is unequivocally fair and balanced, the plausibility of this scenario is predominantly dependent on the human decision-making involved at the backend.
A 2019 study by McKinsey discusses how just like AI can help reduce bias, it can also “bake in and scale bias” by discussing how the same prejudices that exist in the subconscious of humans can be transferred to the algorithms that dictate AI systems. While experts often dismiss their explanation by blaming it on biased training data, there are many more nuances that stay undetected.
In this article, we will be delving deep into each of these nuances to look closely at what causes AI bias and how it can be tackled effectively.
3 Ways Bias Is Introduced To AI
Since a machine cannot think on its own, human bias can creep into it only through the original programming. This can happen in three ways:
Assumptions: Well before the system is coded, the data scientists may have some assumptions about how it should be or what it should do, which would eventually trickle down into the algorithm. This doesn’t necessarily mean the creators mean any harm to a particular gender, ethnicity, or community. Chances are that they don’t even realize what’s happening.
Training Data: All AI models need to be trained. If an organization has been historically hiring from the same demographic or has had the same job descriptions for decades, the AI tends to learn this and reject the candidates who do not meet the criteria.
Model: The parameters used in a machine learning model when it is designed, like gender, age, race, or traits could determine the predictions generated by the machine. Data scientists should also look out for factors that could act as proxies for race, gender, or places, which could alter the predictions.
5 Types Of AI (ML) Bias
There are namely 5 types of AI bias that data scientists and researchers have recognized:
Algorithm bias: This happens when there is an underlying issue with the algorithm that calculates the machine learning computations. Example: A widely-used algorithm in the US healthcare sector has a “race adjustment” that lowers the creatinine levels of African American patients below the normal levels. This makes it appear as if their kidney function is better than other races, preventing them from getting the specialty care they need. The logic behind this adjustment is the stereotype that African American people tend to be more muscular, which supposedly increases the creatinine levels in their blood.
Prejudice bias: In the case of prejudice bias, the training data used to configure the AI system may reflect stereotypes, prejudices, or construed societal notions, thereby transferring these assumptions into the AI. Example: When a group of US and European researchers fed the pictures of 20 congress members to the Cloud image recognition service of Google, the AI connected the women with appearance-related labels like “smile”, “skin”, and “beauty”, while the labels applied to men were “businessperson” and “official”.
Exclusion bias: Like the name suggests, this bias occurs when an important piece of data has been omitted. This usually happens when the data scientists do not recognize this particular piece of information as consequential. Example: Obstetricians recommend women who have undergone C-sections to not opt for another procedure due to increased risk to both the mother and child. But a maternal AI algorithm used to determine risk in natural birth automatically labels African American and Latinx women as “high risk”. This data pertains to a study by NCBI that concludes being unmarried or not having health insurance could increase a woman’s risk while giving birth. But both of these socioeconomic factors have been excluded from the algorithm.
Measurement bias: In this scenario, the bias is a result of the data being oversimplified, or incorrectly labeled or categorized. The major reason the data gets skewed is because there is something wrong with the measurement system. Example: MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini revealed the underlying bias in the face-analyzing AI of IBM, Microsoft, and Megvii (a Chinese company) when it comes to identifying gender. While all three systems correctly labeled white men 99% of the time, they consistently missed the mark on the gender of African American women 20-34% of the time. This could be because the training data mostly uses the pictures of men for face recognition, causing a disparity in how the AI labels genders. If the data contains only the pictures of white and colored men, confronted with a black woman, the AI would categorize her as a colored male.
Sample bias: This bias occurs when the sample data fed into the machine is skewed—either the data isn’t representative enough or large enough to train the system. Example: The PULSE AI tool came under fire recently for generating the output of a white man when a pixelated image of Barack Obama was fed into it. The algorithm used in PULSE called ‘StyleGAN’ is renowned for producing the hyper-realistic pictures of human faces which are so often used in fake social media accounts. The creators of PULSE admitted that when using StyleGAN to scale up pixelated images, the tool tends to generate Caucasian faces because that’s the sample data it was trained on.
2 Approaches To Minimize AI Bias
Though several approaches for enforcing fairness in AI systems are underway, they still have a long way to go.
1. Pre-processing approach:
The first method involves processing the data in advance to maintain as much as fairness and accuracy as possible while minimizing any link between the results and protected characteristics, or to generate data that do not contain information about sensitive parameters.
2. Post-processing approach:
The second method focuses on post-processing techniques that could transform the system’s skewed predictions until they meet the satisfactory fairness levels.
Researchers are also on the mission to develop other enhancements like classifying tasks by adding extra data points that could shield sensitive groups and using innovative training techniques like decoupled classifiers or transfer learning for various groups, in order to cut down discrepancies regarding facial recognition tools.
6 Ways Business and Policy Leaders Can Optimize AI Systems
If AI and machine learning are going to be the future, then it’s necessary to minimize the bias so as to maximize their potential. Here are 6 promising ways business leaders and AI practitioners can do this:
Establish clear-cut processes to test for and mitigate bias
Be mindful of the contexts in which AI can prevent bias or scale it up
Explore how humans and machines can work together seamlessly
Start conversations about how human decisions lead to AI bias
Include more female and colored members to the data scientist panel
Invest more in AI diversification and bias research
Let’s get one thing straight—AI bias is hard to fix. Given the unknown downstream impacts that could crop up midway through the model construction or the imperfect standard processes that have been designed without taking bias into consideration, finding a solution overnight is impossible. The lack of social context also plays a huge role in tacking AI bias; the way data scientists are trained to solve problems may not be sufficient to handle social issues. There is also the conundrum of how the definition of fairness may vary from person to person.
That being said, data researchers are already hard at work trying to find effective solutions to optimize AI. Since we are dealing with a vast domain that is constantly evolving, mitigating bias will always be an ongoing process. But what’s most important is that the world is not blind to this bias anymore. The first step to solving any issue is understanding it, and that’s exactly where we are right now.
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About the Company:
Peterson Technology Partners (PTP) has been Chicago's premier Information Technology (IT) staffing, consulting, and recruiting firm for over 22+ years. Named after Chicago's historic Peterson Avenue, PTP has built its reputation by developing lasting relationships, leading digital transformation, and inspiring technical innovation throughout Chicagoland.
Based in Park Ridge, IL, PTP's 250+ employees have a narrow focus on a single market (Chicago) and expertise in 4 innovative technical areas;
Cloud & DevOps
PTP exists to ensure that all of our partners (clients and candidates alike) make the best hiring and career decisions.
Peterson Technology Partners is an equal opportunity employer.


The Gulf War started on August 2, 1990, when the forces of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded oil-rich Kuwait. U.S. officials worried that the invasion might be Iraq's first step in a larger effort to consolidate its power over other nations in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia. Hussein defied United Nations Security Council demands to withdraw from Kuwait by mid-January 1991, and the Persian Gulf War began with a massive U.S.-led air offensive known as Operation Desert Storm. After 42 days of relentless attacks by the allied coalition in the air and on the ground, U.S. President George H. W. Bush declared a cease-fire on February 28, 1991.
Below is a timeline of the Gulf War that demonstrates how two High Pointers participated in Operation Desert Storm along with photographs and information from trusted historical sources.


Protecting Yourself from Mailbox Theft and Vandalism
Rural area mailboxes are vulnerable to vandalism because they are usually isolated, located on public thoroughfares, and frequently not visible to the box owners from their homes. City residential mailboxes are vandalized to a lesser degree.
Mailboxes are considered federal property, and federal law (Title 18, United States Code, Section 1705), makes it a crime to vandalize them (or to injure, deface or destroy any mail deposited in them). Violators can be fined up to $250,000, or imprisoned for up to three years, for each act of vandalism.
Postal Inspectors recommend these actions to protect your mailbox and any mail that may be inside it:
If you have information on mailbox vandalism, call the Postal Inspection Service to report it. Your cooperation helps apprehend violators. You may provide your information or complaints to your local postmaster or your nearest Postal Inspector.
Remember mailbox trolls will go through mailboxes to look for anything they may believe is valuable including your tax returns. If you are expecting packages, funds, checkbooks, credit cards, debit cards, etc., check your mailbox frequently or have a trusted friend do it for you.


The Arduino IDE supports editing multiple files in the same window. It uses a standard tab structure seen in many other applications, which allows uses to select which document to edit. As the sketch must have all its files in the same folder, you cannot edit a document located elsewhere. You can add files to the sketch folder yourself, or add them using the IDE.
Inside the IDE, the main menu bar has an option Sketch which contains Add file; this allows you to select a file to add to your project. You can refer to the image below for the menu option.
On adding an external file, it is copied to the sketch folder and the copy is loaded into a new IDE tab. The Arduino IDE will only open certain source files it knows about, they are listed below. For an explanation of each accepted file type, visit this FAQ: What are the different file extensions for?
Any other type of file added to a sketch will be copied into a sub directory labelled data. These modifications do not affect any files you have placed in the sketch folder manually.
For information on separating your sketch into multiple files, see this FAQ: Breaking a sketch into multiple files.Tags: tabs


Prescription Medicine Addiction
People take prescription medicines for many reasons. They may use them to ease pain, anxiety, or attention deficit disorder. Most of these people use such possibly addictive medicines correctly. But some people end up abusing them.
Prescription medicine abuse or misuse is when the medicine is used in a way other than prescribed by a healthcare provider. The goal of using the medicine becomes about the experience or feeling that it causes.
In some cases, people may abuse medicines that aren’t prescribed to them. They may get them from friends or family. Or they may buy them illegally from someone else. The number of teens and young adults ages 12 to 25 who abuse prescription painkillers has more than tripled since the mid-1990s.
Here is a Q and A about prescription medicine addiction. It can help you or a loved one seek help, if needed.
Q. What medicines are likely to be abused?
A. These 3 kinds of prescription medicines are most often abused without a prescription:
Opioids. These are for pain relief. They include morphine, codeine, and medicines that contain hydrocodone, oxycodone, and fentanyl.
Tranquilizers. These are for anxiety and sleep disorders. A few examples are alprazolam and diazepam.
Stimulants. These are for narcolepsy and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Examples are amphetamine, dextroamphetamine, and methylphenidate.
Q. What are the symptoms of prescription addiction?
A. Signs of addiction include:
Loss of control over taking a medicine
Obsessively counting pills
Finding ways to get more of a medicine by making unneeded visits to the emergency room or a healthcare provider's office
Taking a medicine more often than directed
Taking higher doses than instructed because the previous dose did not provide the same effect
Taking a medicine with other medicines or alcohol
Crushing and snorting a pill instead of swallowing it
Stealing prescription medicines from family or friends
Q. Who’s at risk for prescription addiction?
A. Both women and men abuse prescription medicines at about the same rate. Women are twice as likely to become addicted as men. People at the highest risk for addiction are those who have other addictions or who have abused prescription medicines in the past.
Q. What steps can be taken to prevent addiction?
A. Take medicines only as prescribed. Get possibly addictive medicines only from a single licensed healthcare provider at one pharmacy.
If you have opioids, tranquilizers, or stimulant prescription medicines, keep them in a safe place. Lock them up to keep them secure. Don’t share them with anyone else. The prescription is for only you. If you no longer need a prescription, dispose of the pills correctly. Many local law enforcement agencies will help with this. Many communities participate in National Take Back Day on October 27th of each year. The goal of this event is to reduce the amount of unused and possibly addictive medicines in the community.


As Americans enter middle age they become more likely to be very obese
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Blacks are among the most likely in the United States to be very obese, with about 9% falling into obese class II and 6% obese class III -- the highest Body Mass Index (BMI) categories. Asians are by far the least likely to fall into these two classes of obesity. Hispanics are on par with whites for each obesity class.
Relationships by race and the others presented in this article hold true even when controlling for age, ethnicity, race, marital status, gender, employment, income, education, and region.
The findings are based on data collected as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index from Jan. 1, 2010 through May 31, 2012, and include interviews with more than 800,000 American adults aged 18 and older. Gallup calculates respondents' BMIs using the standard formula based on their self-reported height and weight.
An average of 26.3% of all respondents surveyed reported a height and weight that led to a BMI calculation high enough to be categorized as obese. Gallup and Healthways have been tracking Americans' BMI levels daily since January 2008 and find obesity is slightly higher now than it was in 2008.
The World Health Organization defines a normal BMI range as being 18.50 to 24.99. It labels BMIs of 25.00 to less than 30.00 as overweight/pre-obese. BMIs of 30.00 or higher fall into one of three classes of obesity:
Obese class I = 30.00 to 34.99
Obese class II = 35.00 to 39.99
Obese class III = 40.00 or higher
Those with BMIs of 40 or higher -- obese class III -- are also frequently considered "morbidly obese." Based on their self-reports of height and weight, nearly 4% of American adults overall are this obese, with a total of about one in 10 with BMIs high enough to place them in the two highest obesity classes. However, all groups are more likely to fall on the lower end of the obesity scale than the higher end.
While men are more likely than women in general to be obese, including obese class I, women and men are equally likely to fall into obese class II -- and women are, in fact, more likely than men to have a BMI high enough to put them in obese class III. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also previously found that women are more likely than men to fall into obese class III, based on data from the 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which measured respondents' actual height and weight.
As with obesity in general, each of the three classes of obesity rise precipitously as Americans age -- peaking in late middle-age -- but then drop off as Americans enter their 70s. Part of the drop-off as age increases may be related to the shorter life expectancy among those who are obese.
Income and education level are also related to Americans' obesity levels. Those Americans with the lowest income levels and who are the least educated are the most likely to be very obese.
About 5% of low-income Americans have BMIs high enough to put them in obese class III, but that falls to 2.9% among those with annual incomes of $36,000 to less than $90,000, and 1.8% among high-income Americans ($90,000 or more per year).
Similarly, 4.4% of Americans with a high school education or less are categorized as class III obese. That falls as education rises -- to 3.6% among Americans with some college or vocational education, then to 2.3% among college graduates, and further to 1.8% among postgraduates.
Unemployed Americans are more likely than those who are employed to have high enough BMIs to be in obese classes II and III. But, the unemployed are only slightly more likely than the employed to be in obese class I.
This finding expands on a recent Gallup analysis showing that the unemployed are more likely than the employed to be obese in general. It may reveal that a lower level of obesity isn't as prohibitive to working as the more severe classes of obesity can be.
Obesity of all types is related to higher levels of chronic conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes as well as a lower quality of life -- including worse emotional health, more daily pain, and more missed work. It is also tied to shorter life expectancy. The more obese an individual is, the more likely he or she is to experience these types of problems. And, those who are morbidly obese -- with BMIs of 40 or higher -- are the most at risk.
Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index data reveal that black, low-income, middle-aged, less-educated, and unemployed Americans are the most likely to be very obese, including morbidly obese. As government, business, and healthcare leaders continue to try to develop policies and programs to reduce obesity in the United States, they may need to target specific efforts toward these high-risk groups. On the other hand, the study of those groups that are less likely to be obese -- including Asians, very young and very old Americans, and those with higher socioeconomic status -- may provide insights into behaviors and practices associated with a more normal weight.
The U.S. government is already taking steps to further address the nation's obesity problem, with the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force putting out in June new guidelines for obesity screenings. The task force is recommending that all adults get screened for obesity and that doctors should refer patients with a BMI of 30 or higher to "intensive, multicomponent behavioral interventions."
As more Americans gain access to doctors through the 2010 Affordable Care Act, it is possible that guidelines such as these will have an even greater impact on reducing obesity in the United States.
Gallup will be publishing an in-depth series further exploring why certain groups -- such as blacks and middle-aged Americans -- are more likely to be obese than others -- such as Asians. The forthcoming analysis will reveal the key predictors of obesity and will shed light on what else can be done to reduce it.
Results are based on telephone interviews conducted as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index survey Jan. 1 2010-May 31, 2012, with a random sample of 808,660 adults, aged 18 or older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±1 percentage point.
Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones and cellular phones, with interviews conducted in Spanish for respondents who are primarily Spanish-speaking. Each sample includes a minimum quota of 400 cell phone respondents and 600 landline respondents per 1,000 national adults, with additional minimum quotas among landline respondents by region. Landline telephone numbers are chosen at random among listed telephone numbers. Cell phones numbers are selected using random digit dial methods. Landline respondents are chosen at random within each household on the basis of which member had the most recent birthday.
Samples are weighted by gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education, region, adults in the household, and phone status (cell phone-only/landline only/both, cell phone mostly, and having an unlisted landline number). Demographic weighting targets are based on the March 2011 Current Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older non-institutionalized population living in U.S. telephone households. All reported margins of sampling error include the computed design effects for weighting and sample design.
In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
For more details on Gallup's polling methodology, visit http://www.gallup.com/.


Since 1990, the UK has slashed its greenhouse gas emissions at a faster rate than any other country, with 2020 taking gold as the greenest year on record. This was primarily achieved by transitioning the national grid away from fossil fuels to more sustainable sources of renewable energy. Five years ago 25% of electricity was produced by coal generated resources, as little as 1.6% of electricity stemmed back to coal in 2020.
It is important to recognise the contribution Temple can make to this decline as an SME. In order to remain on track and in line with the Paris Agreement, the introduction of the Pledge to Net Zero campaign seeks to convene fast climate action in the UK’s environmental sector, with an ultimate goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Since the launch in 2019 Temple were an early signatory, and now over 72 organisations have committed to pledge, spanning across 80% of the UK’s environmental consulting market.
By signing up to the Pledge, we are committed to pursuing three deliverables, the first of which involves setting and committing to greenhouse gas emission reductions using Science-Based Targets (SBTs) in line with either a 1.5°C climate change scenario or well below 2°C. Setting these SBTs is a complex process with a lot of factors to include, although with the help of the SBT Initiative framework we are on course and dedicated to achieving our well below 2°C goal.
For our second deliverable, we will produce a thought-leadership piece each year on the practical steps to delivering an economy in line with climate science which supports net zero carbon, whilst also providing insight on how this is paving the way to achieving our ultimate target of Absolute Zero emissions.
The final deliverable is producing a publicly facing report for our annual greenhouse gas emissions and progress towards our SBT. With work moving to employee’s homes at the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic, finding a methodology to calculate the carbon emissions of our business became somewhat more difficult and we thought this was a good opportunity to explain our approach and the challenges we encountered.
At Temple, we followed EcoAct’s Homeworking Emissions Whitepaper’s ‘Base Case’ approach to put a number on the amount of carbon we use for heating, lighting, and office equipment (scope 1 and 2). EcoAct’s methodology aligns with the standards set by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and is working towards the standardisation of their methodology.
The Base Case approach assumes a set consumption of electricity and gas per employee during working hours. We wanted to enhance our accuracy by collecting more data with a staff survey. The survey looked at the amount of annual and statutory leave to identify when energy would be used, the amount of hours heating was on throughout the year, how many people employees lived with to distribute their energy accordingly, green energy supply, and the type of work equipment staff members used. Upon our initial review of the data, we noticed a large increase in energy consumption compared to when we were still working in the office (approximately 115%). This was associated with the need for each employee to heat up an entire home in winter, compared to a single office in the previous year. However, about 40% of our staff use green energy, bringing down our market-based emissions slightly for 2020.
Throughout the process, we came across some drawbacks and questions to consider for next year’s carbon emissions measurements. Even with the support of our staff survey, a lot of assumptions had to be made to obtain data that was manageable for the calculations. Having gone through multiple lockdowns in the past year, we must also acknowledge that our working patterns have changed; many parents have had to work early in the morning or into the late hours of the night due to childcare and home-schooling during the day. Having the lights on when working in the evenings will have a higher carbon impact than working in the daytime and using natural light. Due to this high level of uncertainty, we followed the assumptions made in the ‘Base Case’ approach and assumed an annual average of 10 Watts per working hour for our 2020 reporting.
As we await a standardised methodology to calculate homeworking carbon emissions, we need to improve our approach to reduce the uncertainties we have faced, by elaborating on the assumptions that were made and expend the qualitative data captured in our staff survey. However, it is important to note that some assumptions will be required for the any method to be thorough and time effective; there are so many variables that the exercise in data capture can be time consuming and after a certain point will not make any material difference to the goal of reducing emissions. Lastly, as changes to working locations are likely to remain regardless of the pandemic we must work on our staff contribution, not only to collect more data but be engaged in tackling carbon reduction as a business when we are working from home.


Own a Legendary Piece of History
It is truly a rare occasion: after a century or more of stillness at the bottom of the sea, a ship that went to its watery grave with a dazzling array of precision metals and coins is discovered, its treasure intact. Rarer still is the opportunity to own one of these thrilling pieces of history.
Shipwreck coins possess several attractive qualities as numismatic investments, including:
Of the thousands of ships that sink very few are recovered and far fewer have viable coins aboard.
As tangible reminders of our rich heritage, authentic shipwreck coins offer a glimpse into America’s past.
Many shipwreck coins have retained their details, luster and full strikes, making them highly desirable to collectors.
Lost No More
Through a special arrangement, Blanchard has acquired a limited quantity of shipwreck coins for sale to the public. The legends behind these coins, combined with their awesome beauty, helps to make them some of the world’s the most desirable collectibles.
In December 1940, the S.S. Gairsoppa set sail from Calcutta, India. It was the height of World War II, and merchant ships on the open sea were easy targets for Nazi U-boats. Alone and unprotected, the steel-hulled British cargo ship was hit by a Nazi torpedo 300 miles southwest of Galway Bay and sank on February 16, 1941. Two expeditions beginning in 2012 recovered 99% of the insured silver aboard the ship — a haul valued at $35 million.
In 1865, the ex-military carrier S.S. Republic headed to New Orleans on her regular run from New York. On this trip, it was loaded with gold intended for use in rebuilding the fragile Post-Civil-War economy. The hurricane she encountered en route proved deadly, however, with the ship disappearing in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Savannah, Georgia.
In 1711, Spain was on the verge of bankruptcy after a hard-fought war with the Dutch and English, who had blocked and destroyed Spanish ships bringing treasure from the Americas to Spain. King Philip V had ordered an increase in treasure shipments to replenish Spanish wealth. Before long, the treasure was lying at the bottom of the sea.
In 1857, an elegant side-wheel steamer left San Francisco en route to New York, its passengers primarily prospectors who had made their fortunes during the California Gold Rush. A Category 2 hurricane resulted in the wreck of the S.S. Central America, loaded with more than two tons of gold dust, nuggets, coins and ingots. This shipwreck set off the Panic of 1857. After more than a century in 8,500 feet of water, the S.S. Central America was recovered, along with a trove of historical gold coins and bars now valued at more than $100 million.
On July 20, 1865, the S.S. Brother Jonathan set sail from San Francisco to Portland. Not long after disembarking, a storm engulfed the cargo-laden vessel, with 30-foot waves pummeling its decks. The captain turned the ship around in attempt to return to safety, but the ship struck a reef and sank. A portion of the ship’s gold coins and bars were recovered in 1996, but its safe containing millions of dollars worth of jewels, gold bars and gold coins has not yet been found.


"Did + Infinitive" vs "The Past Simple"
by Danielle Barazin
When do you write “did + the infinitive” or simply “the past simple”.
-1- He did repair his car.
-2- He repaired his car.
Thanks a lot,
This is really a grammar question...not a wish regarding material or content for the site. BUT I have a spare minute and I can explain this one quickly. :)
Basically, in the first sentence -1- you are confirming that the action has been done, where as in -2- you are merely (only) stating what was done.
Imagine that I ask you,
"Did you study for the exam?"
and you answer
"yes, I studied for 5 hours last night".
Now, imagine that I do not believe you.
"No you didn't. You didn't study at all, did you?"
and you reply,
"Yes I did study!"
In your first answer you are just stating what you did in the past...
(I studied) and in the second example (I did study) you are confirming the action was done.
I hope that helps Danielle.


territories meaning in tamil
territories meaning in tamil with example
territories tamil meaning and more example for territories will be given in tamil.
It said that under the policy States and Union Territories should have put in place separate policies but so far none had come out with a policy. In recent years the Zapatistas have kept to themselves focused on setting up alternative local government structures in the territories they control. An air of political uncertainty hangs over the Palestinian territories with radical Islamic group Hamas posing a serious challenge to the mainstream Fatah party and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hinting that the parliamentary poll could be postponed. Also the Value Added Tax VAT should be implemented in all States and Union territories while the Central Sales Tax CST should be reduced to 2 per cent from April 1 followed by its complete phasing out from April 1 2007. He said at Kuala Lumpur on January 11 that he had discussed this with the Chief Minister of Malaya before his departure for London and added that he considered that for the future welfare of both the territories they should be united soon. But the law which sailed almost unnoticed through Frances centreright dominated parliament in February 2004 has been increasingly criticised by residents of overseas territories such as Guadeloupe or Martinique. The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Centre all the States and Union Territories to examine the scope and powers of the States to allot houses to former Chief Ministers Ministers and other functionaries. They usually avoid dense forest canopies and prefer to be in the sundrenched territories where there is an abundance of grains seeds and insects to feed.


Stem cells have incredible potential for regenerative medicine, but getting hold of them in large enough numbers can be tricky. Amniotic fluid may be a plentiful source, and now scientists from Lund University in Sweden have developed a method and device that can collect the fluid during delivery of a baby by caesarean section, to safely harvest large amounts of stem cells.
With the ability to replicate into other cells in the body, stem cells are valuable as a potential starting point for treating a wide range of illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer's, and potentially restoring impaired hearing or vision. The problem is that current methods of extracting them are either invasive and painful – as is the case from bone marrow – ethically controversial when sourced from human embryos, or don't have a very high yield, such as from umbilical cord blood.
Amniotic fluid, the nutrient-rich liquid that surrounds and protects a developing fetus, may be one of the most promising sources of stem cells. It provides a substantial amount at once and, when collected during a planned caesarian section, it's no more invasive than the birthing procedure already is.
The Lund team developed a new device and method for collecting the fluid and harvesting the stem cells from it, specifically Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs). The device, which is 3D printed out of bio-inert plastics, forms a seal with the fetal cavity, allowing doctors to gently and safely extract the fluid that is usually regarded as medical waste. The liquid is then run through a gauze filter, a 100-micron cell strainer, and finally a centrifuge to isolate the MSCs, which are then grown in culture.
"We showed that using our device, we can collect up to a liter of amniotic fluid at full-term caesarean deliveries," says Andreas Herbst, corresponding author of the study. "The collection added on average 90 seconds to the operation, and was safe for both mother and child."
MSCs can differentiate into a wide variety of cell types, but the researchers took them a step further. They found that the MSCs can then be converted into a state similar to that of embryonic stem cells, which means they can potentially become any cell type in the body.
"The combination of this novel device and the coupled cellular selection and cultivation methods could be transformative for the stem cell field, as large quantities of newborn-MSC's can be provided by utilizing this waste material," says Marcus Larsson, corresponding author of the study. "The safety standards we adhere to are also a central component for gaining clinical acceptance. The obvious next step would be to evaluate these cells further in the laboratory and, if successful, in disease models."
The research was published in the journal Stem Cell Research & Therapy.
The harvesting technique is demonstrated in the following animation.
Source: Lund University
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Increasingly, as the number of elderly in our population rises, the neurologist is consulted because an otherwise healthy person begins to fail mentally and loses his capacity to function effectively at work or in the home. This may indicate the development of a degenerative brain disease, a brain tumor, multiple strokes, chronic subdural hematomas, drug intoxication, chronic meningoencephalitis (such as caused by HIV or syphilis), normal-pressure hydrocephalus, or a depressive illness. Formerly, when there was little that could be done about these clinical states, no great premium was attached to diagnosis. But there are now effective means of treating several of these conditions, and in some instances, of restoring the patient to normal mental competence. Moreover, diagnostic technologies allow earlier recognition of the underlying pathologic process, thus improving the chances of recovery or of preventing the disease's progression.
The definitions of normal and abnormal states of mind were considered in Chap. 20, where it was pointed out that the term dementia denotes a persistent deterioration of intellectual or cognitive function with little or no disturbance of consciousness or perception. In current neurologic parlance, the term is used to designate a syndrome of failing memory and impairment of other intellectual functions as a result of chronic progressive degenerative disease of the brain. Such a definition may be too narrow. The term more accurately includes a number of closely related syndromes characterized not only by intellectual deterioration but also by certain behavioral abnormalities and changes in personality. Furthermore, dementia can be the result of a static encephalopathy such as head trauma or cerebral anoxia or of a progressive degenerative disease, but it differs from "encephalopathy" in its chronicity. Thus, it is not possible to determine if a confused, amnestic person is demented until some time has passed and the deficits have perished. Encephalopathies, by contrast, are largely reversible.
Beyond the need to properly define these terms, the two entities have different causes. There are several states of dementia of differing causes and mechanisms and that a degeneration of certain systems of cerebral neurons, albeit common, is only one of the many types. Thus, it is more correct to speak of the dementias or the dementing diseases.
To understand the phenomenon of intellectual deterioration, it is helpful to have some idea of how intellectual functions, particularly intelligence and memory, are normally organized and sustained, and the manner in which deficits in these functions relate to diffuse and focal cerebral lesions. The neurology of intelligence is considered in this chapter as a prelude to a discussion of the dementias and the neurology of memory.
Intelligence, or intelligent behavior, has been variously defined as a "general mental efficiency," as "innate cognitive ability," or as "the aggregate or global capacity of an individual to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his environment" (Wechsler) in other words, the capacity to have ideas ...


The road to chronic disease — from arthritis to heart disease — is paved with sugar and refined carbohydrates. It’s a freeway that leads straight to insulin resistance syndrome, given the right conditions, most notably being overweight and inactive.
The devastating chain of events that leads to chronic disease goes like this:
- Carbs and sugar break down in the digestive tract to glucose that the body uses for energy.
- Beta cells in the pancreas make and secrete insulin into the blood to ferry any glucose you don’t use to muscle, fat, and liver cells for storage.
- Given the right conditions and more glucose than your cells can manage at the moment, the call goes out for even more insulin.
- Beta cells keep the insulin flowing but eventually the body’s cells can’t absorb it or the glucose building up in your blood stream. That’s called insulin resistance.
- Eventually the beta cells can’t keep up and insulin levels plummet. Now your bloodstream is flooded with glucose, which damages nerves and blood vessels, causes inflammation, and leads to a host of chronic diseases.
High Blood Pressure,
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease,
Prediabetes and diabetes,
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome,
Diabetes Type 2, once called non-insulin diabetes mellitus and by other names such as adult onset diabetes is a disease process that can be managed naturally and even reversed in certain situations. The key is not to think of managing type 2 diabetes, but rather helping the individual with diabetes to resolve the underlying cause or causes before the condition is irreversible. There is a point of no return.
The biggest concept to understand is that of labeling a disease process and then going about treating the label. Treating the label is NOT what the topic of this article is about. Rather the thrust of the information you are about to read is how can YOU reverse the process that led to your body’s inability to control blood sugar.
Dr. Karl R.O.S. Johnson DC,
A research study published in December 2012 sheds some light on a phenomenon we see quite often …
A patient has elevated TSH but normal T4 and T3.
You have no energy – after work you come home and you’re spent – nothing is getting done around the house. Getting to sleep is easy, but you wake up multiple times at night, never getting the quality of sleep that might help you feel better. When the alarm goes off, the thought of getting up in the morning gives you angst because you wonder when it will ever get better.
Dr. Karl R.O.S. Johnson,
Johnson Neuro-Metabolic Therapy


The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a health advisory on Thursday warning clinicians and public health authorities about a recent rise in invasive strep A infections in children.
The CDC was notified of a possible increase in infections at a hospital in Colorado in November, and possible increases in infections in other states were noted in the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s provider-based Emerging Infections Network.
The CDC says places where there have been an increase in respiratory syncytial virus, influenza viruses, COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses have also seen an increase in strep A infections.
While the number of overall cases have remained low and invasive strep A infections remain rare in children, the CDC said it’s investigating the rise in cases and has issued the health advisory.
Invasive group A streptococcal bacteria “can cause a range of illnesses, from pharyngitis (i.e., strep throat) and skin and soft tissue infections to uncommon but severe diseases such as sepsis, streptococcal toxic shock syndrome and necrotizing fasciitis. These severe and invasive diseases are associated with high mortality rates and require immediate treatment, including appropriate antibiotic therapy,” according to the CDC.
Who could be at risk?
Groups with the highest risk levels include:
- People aged 65 years or older
- American Indian and Alaska Native populations
- Residents of long-term care facilities
- People with medical conditions such as diabetes, malignancy, immunosuppression, chronic kidney, cardiac or respiratory disease
- People with wounds or skin disease
- People who inject drugs or who are experiencing homelessness
Recommendations from the CDC for health care providers include:
- Offering prompt influenza and varicella vaccinations to all people who are not up to date
- Educating patients on the signs and symptoms of invasive Strep A, especially those that are at an increased risk.
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A Big Discovery on a Little Space Rock
3 Oct 2011
Today, scientists working on the spacecraft Dawn made a big impact with an exciting new discovery: one of the largest mountains in the Solar System has been found on an asteroid!
Asteroids are lumps of rocky and icy material in space. They are very old and formed at the birth of the Solar System. Most of the asteroids in the Solar System are found between the planets Mars and Jupiter – a region that is called the Asteroid Belt.
By studying asteroids, astronomers hope to learn more about the formation of the Solar System. That’s why astronomers sent the spacecraft Dawn on a 4-year voyage to an asteroid called Vesta, which is found in the Asteroid Belt. Since July, it has been in orbit around the asteroid, photographing the surface of this space rock.
Vesta is much smaller than the Earth – you could fit about 14,000 of this asteroid inside the Earth! Yet, despite being a small rock, the pictures taken by the Dawn spacecraft show that Vesta has one of the largest mountains in the Solar System on its surface. This huge mountain is about 20,000 metres high – that’s about double the height of the tallest mountain on Earth!
Next July, the Dawn spacecraft will leave Vesta and head towards the largest asteroid in the Solar System, which is called Ceres. To travel to these two asteroids, the spacecraft is using a new type of engine, called an ‘ion drive’ – it sounds like something straight out of Star Trek!
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/McREL


Portable electronics are dependent on the development of ever-more powerful lithium-ion batteries, says Kenneth Ozoemena. Professor of Materials for Energy & Electrochemistry at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, he is also Chief Editor for the International Journal of Electrochemistry. Associating his two roles, he believes that the real strength in innovation comes from the ability to share scientific advances with all those who can put them to use.
Lithium-ion batteries, first conceived during the 1970s oil crisis, go hand-in-hand with the development of new-age electronics. Lightweight, rechargeable, and powerful, these essential components are found in portable electronic devices all over the world. We use them to help us work, listen, study, play and more.
As small energy storage systems, lithium-ion batteries have been crucial for the latest developments in technology, including alternative energies. Their relevance was acknowledged by the scientific community in 2019, when the Nobel Prize in Chemistry rewarded “the development of the lithium-ion battery” .
Prof. Kenneth Ozoemena foresees that their importance will continue to rise, “as the 4th Industrial Revolution comes to loom and various energy-hungry robotics take an increasing amount of space in our society, battery technology will become ever more important and play in the development of the global economy.”
“As [these] systems gradually take up more space in our lives, battery capacity will allow for an increase in smarter, more adapted electronics but also greener solutions,” he adds.
More efficient energy storage has allowed for greater use of green energy; from solar to wind power, and the creation of clean transport such as electric vehicles. Thanks to improvements in battery technology, the dream of a fossil fuel-free society is one step closer. Kenneth Ozoemena says that these clean energies will contribute greatly to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 .
“Electrochemistry is a two-century old subject that has forcefully re-emerged for the betterment of our human society,” adds Ozoemena. “As improvements in the field are made, they will continue to drive progress in our societies.”
A big step in the process is making these technological developments in lithium-ion batteries available to all. The world has embraced Open Access journals as the only route for unlimited knowledge-sharing and a pathway to unlock innovation. This is where the International Journal of Electrochemistry stands out as a journal of scientists and innovators of today and tomorrow.
“Anyone can access the information and act on it,” he says. “The research published in this journal is made readily available to society for immediate progress. Innovation should be shared with everybody and the International Journal of Electrochemistry is at the forefront of modern progress.”
He asserts, “I am still new to the team of the International Journal of Electrochemistry, but I’m keenly watching how things are done by the publishers. They are still guiding me, but I hope to learn from them so that, moving forwards, I can design implementable strategies for the journal.”
The journal has been in existence for some time now and as Chief Editor, Kenneth is hoping to elevate it from its current place in the Clarivate Analytics’ Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) to the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) [3,4].
“We are happy that the journal is abstracted and indexed by various databases, including the Web of Science,” he explains. “But it is most important for me to see this journal be upgraded to the next level, to the Science Citation Index Expanded, which will improve its visibility and reputation. It is our next challenge. ”
And these improvements will also impact author experience. The Chief Editor believes editor-author communication will be boosted. “Every author appreciates speedy review and decisions regarding their articles submitted for publication. I believe that my Editors understand this too. I will be there to remind them, but I will also keep in mind that they are themselves busy researchers, and that may sometimes delay editing due to their own work pressures. The key is to have a stable balance.”
Publishers and researchers share similar objectives – providing knowledge to the global community for a better world. Thus, there is a need for collaboration and support from each other. Publishers and researchers can work together to ensure that science innovations and progress are achieved and properly recognized. Nevertheless, the research does not only need to be published, it also needs to be seen by others and be visible to society.
There is a lot of information out there. It is important that progress is not lost in all that knowledge. “Publishers can make sure researchers are given the best platform to showcase their work, especially those from resource-limited countries,” concludes Kenneth Ozoemena. Affordable high-energy batteries will drive our future vehicles and power our future electronics, but only if the progress being made is seen and acted upon.
This blog post is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY). The illustration is by Hindawi and is also CC-BY.


Clinical Applications of Yoga for the Pediatric Population: A Systematic Review
Format: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2009
Source ID: shanti-sources-21364
Zotero Collections: Pediatrics and Contemplation
Abstract: Objective Evaluate the evidence for clinical applications of yoga among the pediatric population. Methods We conducted an electronic literature search including CINAHL, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), EMBASE, Medline, PsycINFO, and manual search of retrieved articles from inception of database until December 2008. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and non-randomized controlled trials (NRCTs) were selected including yoga or yoga-based interventions for individuals aged from 0 to 21 years of age. Data were extracted and articles critically reviewed utilizing a modified Jadad score and descriptive methodological criteria with summarization in tables. Results Thirty four controlled studies were identified published from 1979 to 2008, with 19 RCTS and 15 NRCTs. Many studies were of low methodological quality. Clinical areas for which yoga has been studied include physical fitness, cardio-respiratory effects, motor skills/strength, mental health and psychological disorders, behavior and development, irritable bowel syndrome, and birth outcomes following prenatal yoga. No adverse events were reported in trials reviewed. While a large majority of studies were positive, methodological limitations such as randomization methods, withdrawal/dropouts, and details of yoga intervention preclude conclusive evidence. Conclusions There are limited data on the clinical applications of yoga among the pediatric population. Most published controlled trials were suggestive of benefit, but results are preliminary based on low quantity and quality of trials. Further research of yoga for children utilizing a higher standard of methodology and reporting is warranted.


(b. ca. 1350, Firenze, d. 1390, Firenze)
Florentine painter, the son of Taddeo Gaddi. He continued the Giotto tradition but modified it still further in the direction of decorative elegance. He is particularly notable for his cool pale colours, which infiuenced the refined late Gothic art of artists of the next generation such as Lorenzo Monaco. Agnolo's works include frescos on The Story of the Cross in the chancel of Sta Croce (after 1374) and on The Story of the Virgin and her Girdle in the Chapel of the Holy Girdle in Prato Cathedral (1392-5). Many panel paintings also are attributed to Agnolo.


Tennessee River History
Historians believe that the first people to have lived in the Tennessee River Valley arrived at least 8,000 years ago, based on excavations at Russell Cave in northern Alabama. The river was also home to the ancient Mound Builders who settled into the watershed more than 1,000 years ago. In 1540, Hernando De Soto’s Spanish expedition reached the Tennessee River exploring from the present location of Chattanooga, TN to the current location of Guntersville, AL. De Soto and his men set up camp on Shoal Creek during the winter of 1540 near the present location of Davy Crockett State Park in Lawrenceburg, TN. De Soto’s expedition was the first recorded in the watershed by European explorers.
For the next two hundred years Native American tribes, including the Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Creek, remained virtually undisturbed in the Tennessee River watershed. Most of their towns were on the river and Native American life in the valley was tied strongly to the river. In the 1700s, the French had established several trading posts along the river but lost them to the English after the French defeat in the French and Indian War of 1760. From 1760 to 1820, the English and early Americans began establishing new settlements along the River in Knoxville, Guntersville, Decatur, Florence, Sheffield, Tuscumbia and Paducah. By 1791, Knoxville had become the capital of the territory. Conflicts occurred between Native Americans and the new European Americans as both peoples sought to locate their settlements near the water. In the winter of 1837, the US Federal Government forced seventeen thousand Cherokee to move west in what became known as the Trail of Tears.
Civil War – Tennessee Valley Authority
During the Civil War (1861-1865) the Tennessee River was a key target for Union soldiers as they advanced toward the western part of the Confederacy. Major battles were fought in towns on the River including Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Shiloh, TN. Shiloh was one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, in the end more than 23,000 American soldiers died.
On May 18, 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act creating the TVA. The Tennessee Valley Authority was designed to modernize the region, using experts and electricity to combat problems in the region. A primary part of the plan was to create electricty and provide flood relief by constructing a series of dams throughout the Tennessee River and its tributaries. In 1933, construction began on the first massive dam, Norris Dam on the Clinch River, and was completed in 1936. The building of Norris Dam and the changes it brought to the region inspired films, books, stage plays, and songs. By 1945, the Tennessee Valley Authority had completed a 650-mile (1,050-kilometer) navigation channel the length of the Tennessee River and had become the nation’s largest electricity supplier. In 1957, the construction of Chickamauga dam helped prevent Chattanooga from being covered by one of the largest floods in the river’s history. The 1960s were years of unprecedented economic growth in the Tennessee Valley. Electric rates were among the nation’s lowest and stayed low as TVA brought larger, more efficient generating units into service.