Dictionary Meaning and Definition on 'Past'
- earlier than the present time; no longer current; "time past"; "his youth is past"; "this past Thursday"; "the past year" [ant: present(a), future]
- of a person who has held and relinquished a position or office; "a retiring member of the board" [syn: past(a), preceding(a), retiring(a)]
- a verb tense or other construction referring to events or states that existed at some previous time; "past participle" n
- the time that has elapsed; "forget the past" [syn: past times, yesteryear, yore] [ant: future]
- a earlier period in someone's life (especially one that they have reason to keep secret); "reporters dug into the candidate's past"
- a verb tense that expresses actions or states in the past [syn: past tense] adv : so as to pass a given point; "every hour a train goes past" [syn: by]
- Past \Past\, adv.
By; beyond; as, he ran past.
The alarum of drums swept past. --Longfellow.
- Past \Past\, a. [From Pass, v.]
Of or pertaining to a former time or state; neither present
nor future; gone by; elapsed; ended; spent; as, past
troubles; past offences. ``Past ages.'' --Milton.
Past master. See under Master.
- Past \Past\, n.
A former time or state; a state of things gone by. ``The
past, at least, is secure.'' --D. Webster.
The present is only intelligible in the light of the
past, often a very remote past indeed. --Trench.
Wikipedia Meaning and Definition on 'Past'
Most generally, the past is a term used to indicate the totality of events which occurred before a given point in time. The past is contrasted with and defined by the present and the future. The concept of the past is derived from the linear fashion in which human observers experience time, and is accessed through memory and recollection. In addition, human beings have recorded the past since the advent of written language.
The past is the object of such fields as history, archaeology, archaeoastronomy, chronology, geology, (historical geology), historical linguistics, law, ontology, paleontology, paleobotany, paleoethnobotany, palaeogeography, paleoclimatology, and cosmology.
Time · Eternity · Arguments for eternity · Immortality[See more about Past at Dictionary 3.0 Encyclopedia]
Words and phrases related to 'Past'
'Past' in famous quotation sentence
* Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils but present evils triumph over it. - La Rochefoucauld
* Our American past always speaks to us with two voices the voice of the past, and the voice of the present. We are always asking two quite different questions. Historians reading the words of John Winthrop usually ask, What did they mean to him Citizens ask, What do they mean to us Historians are trained to seek the original meaning all of us want to know the present meaning. - Daniel J. Boorstin
Click here for more related quotations on 'Past'
Past Sample Sentences in News
- Coca-Cola and Kinder Morgan Report Big CEO Buys Over the Past Week
Over the past week we’ve seen several large insider buys as well as several coming from the companies’ CEOs. Read more on this news related to 'Past'
- U.S. Attracts CBA as Australia Swaps Cheapest Since 2012
Pedestrians walk past the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) branch at Martin Place in Sydney. Pedestrians walk past the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) branch at Martin Place in Sydney. Read more on this news related to 'Past'
- Forex: Euro to Look Past PMI and GDP Revisions, Focus on ECB Outcome
Forex: Euro to Look Past PMI and GDP Revisions, Focus on ECB Outcome Read more on this news related to 'Past'


This concise guide delivers all the practical information you need to care
for children and their families in diverse settings. It clearly explains what
to say and what to do for a broad range of challenges you may encounter in clinical
You’ll examine the anatomy and physiology of body systems along with common childhood conditions and disease processes, including critical nursing assessments, signs and symptoms, treatment procedures, laboratory work-ups, medications, and other important aspects of care. Strategies for advocacy, effective communication techniques, identification of potentially life-threatening issues, and advice from experienced pediatric nurses guide you every step of the way.
The straightforward writing makes complex topics easy to understand. A spiral binding with thumb tabs and a full-color design with illustrations will make it your reference of choice.
· Growth and Development Guide on the inside front and back covers
makes quick referencing easy.
· Pedogogical tools help ensure the best-evidence-based practices, including…
· “Alerts” that focus attention on potentially life-threatening issues and describe the appropriate interventions.
· “Why is this Important,” rationales for important topics.
· “Patient Education,” tips for helping patients and their caregivers to understand their health status.
· “Offering Support,” models of verbatim nurse-patient interactions that offer compassionate care advice and strategies for effective communication
· “Evidence for Best Practices” boxes highlighting research that support nursing practices, processes, and principles.
· “Best Practices,” sage advice from experienced practitioners.
· Common mnemonics, tricks to help you remember what to do and when.
Table of Contents
· Growth and Development in Children
· Child in the Hospital and in the Community
· Health Assessment in Children
· Nursing Care of Children
· Communicable and Immunologic Conditions in Children
· Respiratory Conditions in Children
· Gastrointestinal and Hepatic Conditions in Children
· Integumentary Conditions in Children
· Musculoskeletal Conditions in Children
· Behavioral and Developmental Conditions in Children
· Reproductive and Genitourinary Conditions in Children
· Endocrine or Metabolic Conditions in Children
· Hematological Conditions in Children
· Neurological, Neuromuscular or Sensory Conditions in Children
· Cardiac Conditions in Children
· Cancerous Conditions in Children


Bonding involves adhering composite resin material that is matched to the color of the tooth, to the front of the tooth. This is done to repair damage done to the tooth by decay, to alter the alignment of the tooth, close gaps between the teeth, or for other cosmetic purposes. First, the surface of the tooth is roughened in order to accept the bonding and hold it. A gel is applied to micro etch the tooth surface, and a primer/bond agent is applied so the material adheres to the surface. Then the material itself is placed on the tooth and hardened with intense light. The composite resin material is shaped and polished to get a lustrous finish as a last step.


About Measuring Up
The purpose of the state report card is to provide the general public and policymakers with information they can use to assess and improve postsecondary education in each state. Measuring Up 2008 is the fifth in a series of biennial reports.
The report card grades in six overall performance categories:
- Preparation: How adequately does the state prepare students for education and training beyond high school?
- Participation: Do state residents have sufficient opportunities to enroll in education and training beyond high school?
- Affordability: How affordable is higher education for students and their families?
- Completion: Do students make progress toward and complete their certificates or degrees in a timely manner?
- Benefits: What benefits does the state receive from having a highly educated population?
- Learning: What is known about student learning as a result of education and training beyond high school?
Grades compare the current performance of each state with the best performing states, but do not compare with past performance. Key indicators (back page) allow states to compare current performance with past performance.


April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month. The Insurance Industry is heavily investing resources and time in an effort to raise awareness and educate the public on just how deadly this action can be. Many non profit organizations and government agencies are participating as well. The statistics on distracted driving are absolutely alarming from all accounts and have reached epidemic proportions. According to the Claims Journal with over 40,000 deaths in the last two years and 4.57 million injuries. In contrast drunk driving is on the decline.
Incredulous as it may sound texting and driving is actually more insidious than drinking and driving as it is engrained into our work and our everyday life. Further, there is no similar social stigma associated with this behavior as there is with drinking. New research referenced above finds distracted driving is actually more dangerous due to the inherent danger of taking your eyes off the road. It also is the equivalent of drinking 4 beers or alcoholic drinks due to the loss of concentration and focus. Research has also shown that texting is becoming an addictive behavior.
It appears based on new legislative activities throughout the country that laws are becoming more intensely focused on imposing stricter penalties for distracted driving because both economic and societal costs for everyone are escalating and such behavior is increasing.
When drinking and driving awareness came about efforts were spearheaded by Mothers against Drunk Drivers. MADD still focuses on drinking and driving but has assisted the movement against distracted driving through teen activities and helping to raise awareness. New groups have formed including Focus Driver: Advocates for Cell Free Driving and Teen 365 which follows the same principals as MADD, as well as other organizations. High schools across the county try to teach youth by adding the subject to the curriculum. New slogans and billboards with catch phrases such as “assigning a designated texter while driving” are being promoted. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Safety Council are combining forces with advocates to campaign against distracted driving due to the growth of the issue.
Many states have enacting laws against distracted driving due to the hue and cry of concerned citizens and the victims of tragic accidents caused by distracted driving. In 2009, 19 states had enacted law prohibiting texting and driving. Now 41 states have enacted laws with an emphasis on cell phone usage and texting.
Cell phones were actually invented 45 years ago and the first call was made in the United States on April 3, 1973. Cell phone usage has grown by leaps and bounds beyond the inventor’s imagination I am sure. As the devices became more popular accidents increased, but usage continued to grow as the technology improved the range and signal, available battery life was enhanced, cell phone design and audio capability for music increased, and parents began to purchase cell phones for teens in order to be able to reach them wherever they were at in effort to keep their children safe.
As evidenced by the growing body of of new laws throughout the country distracted driving is no longer limited to using a cell phone for texting as many may believe. The law in the State of Washington specifically includes
- eating while driving,
- putting on makeup
- or fixing your hair.
All are considered forms of distracted driving. In essence it is any behavior that takes your eyes and your attention off the road. States are also banning the singular act of having your cell phone on while you are driving. Rhode Island is in the process of enacting laws which requires absolute hands free driving.
Even though it has been suggested public policy reasons do not allow insurers to just refuse to pay for injuries inflicted ty distracted drivers as innocent victim would be harmed and even more lives would be disrupted. So insurers have concentrated efforts to stop distracted driving through many avenues. First they have increased the consequences for the behavior similar to the manner in which drinking and driving were approached. The first step following the criminalization of the behavior by law, was for insurance carriers to cancel your insurance if you lose your license due to an accident. Virtually no insurer will insure someone who does not have a valid license.
Next is to make it more costly to engage in the behavior. There is no civic reason why insurers can’t raise your rates sky high or opt not to cover you, a family member or a person who has permission to drive your car who then engages in distracted driving.
Additionally insurers are seeking alternate approaches. Insurers now have immense amounts of data to predict risks and losses based on both historical comparison information related to drinking and driving and data on distracted driving after the invention of the cell phone. The cell phone industry also has data which is useful to carriers and lawmakers.
Insurance carrier are using the available data and technology to introduce new ways to curb distracted driving. Research has shown texting and driving increases in the late afternoon as workers start the voyage home. See Insurance Journal… It is also at the peak time when teens are leaving school, attending extracurricular events, going to part time employment or meeting with friend. As a result prevention campaigns are focusing on completing your texting and cell usage before getting on the road home from work or daily activites.
There are many thoughts and ideas on how to curb distracted driving in other ways. The Claims Journal has polled drivers and found that incentives and discounts for good driving are more persuasive than negative fines and penalties. The Claims Journal also indicates that insurers are supporting the use of data from telematics placed in vehicles which record the actions of the driver and identifies the cause of the accident. Cell phone distributors have smart phone technology to prevent texting while driving and or receiving calls while driving, but have routinely installed it. That industry is giving parents options and resources to prevent teens from texting or driving and receiving phone calls. Users also have the option to obtain an app with the same features. The drawback is the driver may need to use the cell phone for an emergency, themselves, so the consumer control of the option can be necessary. As a result these application are not mandatory. So insurers will still need to impose actions that deter distracted driving to protect their own profit margin but more importantly to protect the public and even the driver who is breaking the law.
If you assume that you or a family member has gotten two or more tickets for distracted driving in six months, you can anticipate that your insurer rates will most likely go up and upon getting another ticket you might be cancelled as you have become a high risk driver. You may be also be excluded on a combined policy for other household members. If a teen is the offender you can anticipate a very high premium. You could possibly receive a discount if the high risk driver attends a defensive driving course and it could increase your chances to remain covered. The more tickets you get in a certain time frame based on your state law, the more points you accumulate on your driver’s license. Some states allow drivers to take the course in lieu of the points. the points normally fall off your record in 3 years in most states but if you accumulate too many points your license will be suspended. Each state differs as to the amount of points assessed for various aspects of driving. The amount of points depends on what action your state considers a moving violation. You can still be ticketed if you are stopped at a traffic light. You can be ticketed in some states if you are stopped alongside the road to take a call or text, if it causes an accident. It could be a different number of points depending on if you are texting and driving, or just talking on the cell phone. It also depends on the age of the driver. Many state have enhanced penalties for young drivers based on that states law. Be aware that insurance carriers usually check an insured driving record upon renewal .Once you are classified as high risk you will no longer be eligible for any safe driving discounts.
Next assume you or family member causes a wreck or accident due to distracted driving. . Minor accidents usually come off of your records after 7 seven years but the penalties and fines are generally much higher if an accident occurs. You can be cancelled by your carrier or the carrier can elect not to renew your policy. Additionally, if you injure someone or cause the death of someone you can be charged criminally and you might end up serving a lengthy jail sentences.
So stay safe out there on the road and take every precaution you can to protect yourself and others from becoming a victim of distracted driving.


A national plant and animal phenology observation program enabling participants to provide valuable observations that scientists, educators, policy makers and resource managers can use to understand how plants and animals are responding to climate change and other environmental changes. Phenology refers to recurring plant and animal life cycle stages. It is also the study of these recurring plant and animal life cycle stages, especially their timing and relationships with weather and climate. Nature's Notebook offers opportunities for observing plants and animals, digitizing archival data for the North American Bird Phenology Program and sharing phenological plant or animal data taken by volunteers prior to joining the project.
- Principal Scientist: Jake Weltzin
- Scientist Affiliation: US Geological Survey
- Dates: Ongoing
- PROJECT TYPE: Observation
- COST: Free
- GRADE LEVEL: High/Secondary School
- TIME COMMITMENT: Variable
- HOW TO JOIN:
Observation: Search for plants and animals to observe in your area with the help of Nature's Notebook's Web site. Study the site's tutorial for observing. Create an account and enter your observations onto the Nature's Notebook site.
Rescue Historical Data: Sign up at the North American Bird Phenology Program Web site.
Share Your Existing Data: Sign up for an account.
For more information, contact Theresa Crimmins, USA National Phenology Network, firstname.lastname@example.org


Korean researchers said they have discovered a way to help diabetic patients receive dental implants more successfully.
|Professor Lee Jae-hoon of Prosthodontics Department at Yonsei University College of Dentistry|
The research team, led by Lee Jae-hoon, a professor of prosthodontics at Yonsei University College of Medicine, published a paper on Molecules, an international journal of chemistry, to explain why diabetic patients often have implant failure and how to resolve the issue.
The success of a dental implant relies on peripheral bone formation and adhesion after the procedure. The bones should grow well and be firmly attached to the implant so that the implant can function appropriately as a tooth.
Ordinary adults have a 95 percent success rate in dental implants. However, patients with uncontrolled diabetes are vulnerable to implant failure.
The researchers paid attention to hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α), a transcription factor. HIF-1α is expressed during bone repair after fracture or osteotomy. It mediates angiogenesis and osteogenesis to accelerate bone formation.
However, the expression of HIF-1α is unstable in diabetic patients because of uncontrolled blood sugar, the researchers said. High blood glucose inhibits the accumulation of HIF-1α.
Lee’s team set a hypothesis that exogenous HIF-1α might solve the problem and tested it in four different groups of animal models.
The four were: Group NH, normal mice with HIF-1α gel; Group NP consisted of normal mice with placebo gel; Group DH, diabetic mice with HIF-1α gel; and Group DP, diabetic mice with placebo gel.
Then, the researchers checked each group’s bone to implant contact (BIC) and bone volume (BV).
BIC shows how much and how strongly the implant was attached to the bone. BV indicates how stable the bone-supported implant is.
The results showed that BIC of the normal group with HIF-1α gel (NH) was 55 percent, compared with 45 percent BIC of the healthy group with the placebo gel (NP).
The diabetic group with HIF-1α gel (DH) had 38 percent BIC, whereas the diabetic group with the placebo (DP) had 18 percent BIC. Not only in the regular groups but in the diabetic groups, HIF-1α gel made a significant difference in the bone generation around the implant.
BV marked 50 percent, 50 percent, 47 percent, and 28 percent in NH, NP, DH, and DP, respectively. The figures signal that even if mice have diabetes, HIF-1α gel raises the level of bone formation.
“The data showed that HIF-1α had a crucial role in diabetic groups rather than normal groups,” the research team said.
The study is also noteworthy that the researchers used a protein transduction domain (PTD)-mediated DNA delivery system to inject HIF-1α gel in the implant site.
The reason Lee’s team paid particular attention to HIF-1α among various mechanisms inhibiting bone formation in diabetic patients was that HIF-1α had a low risk of complications.
“This study shows that diabetic patients will also have an opportunity to have a successful implant treatment,” Lee said. “It is meaningful because we found a method to easily deliver a transcription factor that is effective in a bone generation.”
<© Korea Biomedical Review, All rights reserved.>


Zooming in on Climate Change
Science Communications Specialist
Institute for Global Environmental
Thanks to the routine display of cloud cover during TV weather forecasts and the incorporation of satellite imagery into mapping platforms, including Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth, the value of satellite technology has never been more apparent. However, such applications do not come close to demonstrating the full potential of satellites to serve society, especially those of high-resolution commercial satellites in the increasingly important area of climate change.
Two recent reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have elevated the urgency of climate change research. The panel said in February 2007 that “warming of the climate system is unequivocal,” and then in April warned that “many natural systems are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases.”
Citing cost concerns and a need to view broad geographic areas, scientists have traditionally gravitated toward publicly available, lower-resolution satellite imagery for the purposes of studying climate change signals and impacts. But Mark Brender, vice president of marketing and corporate communications at GeoEye (Dulles, Va.), a major producer of satellite, aerial and geospatial information, says that evolving technology is turning up a growing number of uses for commercial imagery in climate-related research.
Figure 2 This four-meter IKONOS satellite image of Baker Island, located approximately 1,650 miles southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii, is being used by NOAA to monitor the coral reef ecosystem surrounding the island. Baker Island is about 1.6 square kilometers in size with the highest elevation of only 20 feet above sea level, and is a national wildlife refuge under the authority of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. NOAA research has shown that IKONOS imagery has been found to have a depth penetration of up to 30 meters in clear water. Visible on the island is an abandoned airstrip.
Baker Island is a national wildlife refuge, with sparsely scattered vegetation and no trees. It is not within the jurisdiction of any specific state of the U.S. Administrative authority was transferred from the Office of Territorial Affairs to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1974. The island has remained unoccupied since 1942 when it was attacked by the Japanese during World War II. At this time, public use is restricted to scientists and educators by special permit. IKONOS satellite image courtesy of GeoEye.
“The commercial remote sensing industry is an extra set of eyes in the sky that can be utilized in looking at a host of climate change indicators, including glaciers and coral reefs, and in the verification and monitoring of carbon sequestration efforts,” Brender said. “While high-resolution imaging satellites can't see climate change, they can certainly see the impact climate change has over the long term.”
That sentiment is echoed by Chuck Herring, director of corporate communications at DigitalGlobe (Longmont, Colo.), also a major provider of commercial satellite imagery and geospatial information. The resolution, accuracy and coverage of high-resolution commercial satellite imagery “makes it a perfect fit for documenting changes in the Earth for many different applications, from coastal monitoring to glacier melting to wildlife habitat mapping,” Herring said. Spot Image (Toulouse, France) also supplies imagery for a variety of climate change applications.
One discipline already benefiting from commercial satellites is the monitoring of oceans. The Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) on the OrbView-2 satellite, owned by GeoEye, has led to a better understanding of the ocean's role in the carbon cycle.
Figure 3 Buck Island Reef National Monument is located 1.5 miles off the northeast side of the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. This image clearly shows an extensive underwater coral reef ecosystem. The reef is being studied and monitored by NOAA. Six thousand feet long and a half-mile wide, uninhabited Buck Island rises to 340 feet above sea level. The 880-acre National Monument includes 176 acres of land and 704 acres of water and coral reef system.
First protected in 1948, the area was proclaimed a national monument in 1961. Many endangered species nest on the island, including the brown pelican, hawksbill, leatherback and green sea turtles. Buck Island is not volcanic in origin: its sedimentary rocks were uplifted by tectonic pressures. Two thirds of this largely tropical dry forest island are surrounded by an Elkhorn coral reef, which includes the Marine Garden area, closed to fishing and collecting activities. Resembling haystacks, Elkhorn coral patch reefs are scattered along the outside of the forereef and rise nearly to the water's surface from the seabed as much as 40 feet below. IKONOS satellite image courtesy of GeoEye.
By comparing climate records with SeaWiFS measurements of ocean plant life, as indicated by ocean color, NASA scientists found that as Earth's climate warms, ocean plant life is decreased. This reduction in ocean plant life has negative impacts not only on fisheries and ecosystems, but also on the ocean's capacity to store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, thus potentially producing a feedback effect of further warming. See Figure 1.
“SeaWiFS has been instrumental in increasing our understanding of the ocean's role in the carbon cycle, which affects what happens to all the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity,” said Greg Hammann, a senior director and chief oceanographer at GeoEye.
Figure 4 Pearl and Hermes Atoll, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The islands and atolls in the Hawaiian Archipelago are moving west at a rate of approximately 9 centimeters a year from the geologic “hotspot” from which all were formed. IKONOS image courtesy of GeoEye.
One of the ocean's most precious victims of warming may be coral reefs. A vital natural resource, coral reefs provide a safe habitat for about one million species of fish, act as a natural barrier in protecting tropical coasts from high waves and storm surges, and generate billions of dollars per year for local economies through recreational and commercial fishing. Warmer waters can lead to coral bleaching—the whitening of coral reefs due to the loss of microscopic algae—and the eventual death of coral. See Figures 2-6.
Measurements of sea-surface temperatures by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (NOAA's AVHRR), onboard its polar-orbiting satellites, are used to identify areas at risk for coral bleaching. High-resolution commercial satellites, like GeoEye's IKONOS and DigitalGlobe's QuickBird, can then penetrate 30 to 40 meters deep in clear water to detect features on the seafloor as small as a few meters in size. NOAA scientists are using data from these instruments to map every shallow-water coral reef within U.S. waters.
Tim Battista, a biological oceanographer for NOAA's Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment, explains that, for this purpose, satellite imagery is less expensive than airborne methods.
“A satellite allows us the flexibility to repeatedly shoot an area until we get an optimal scene, whereas the alternative is that you put an airborne platform over there, and you're kind of dictated on where you go based on where the clouds are on a given day, or the sea state,” Battista said. “It's much more cost-effective for us to shoot with a commercial satellite and wait the additional time for a good collection, than to put a plane on the ground somewhere with a limited time window.”
Figure 5 Kure Atoll in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands is located approximately 2,200 km west-northwest of Honolulu, and is the oldest emergent land area in the Hawaiian archipelago (approximately 30 million years). IKONOS image courtesy of GeoEye.
In the future, Battista expects commercial satellites to help coastal managers regularly monitor the distribution and health of coral reefs and their ecosystems, including the progress of reef restoration projects. “In order to do that, we have to have the imagery and methodologies that are cost-effective and efficient, and the commercial satellite imagery certainly plays a big part in that,” he said.
Commercial imagery has a role to play along the coast as well. In its effort to map shoreline change, NOAA augments medium-resolution data from Landsat with images from IKONOS and QuickBird.
“When you get down to right along the coast, the Landsat data fall apart—they're too coarse,” said Nicholas Schmidt, chief of NOAA's Coastal Geospatial Services. “When we start noticing trends or rapid development in certain areas, our plan is to use the high-resolution imagery to concentrate on those areas of high change.”
Even more than coral reefs and shorelines, ice can provide some of the most telling and dramatic signs of climate change. In this area, too, commercial satellites are proving to be an important monitoring and mapping tool.
A recent study by scientists at Texas A&M University used 1-meter IKONOS imagery to measure the retreat of tropical glaciers on New Guinea's Mount Jaya. The researchers found that from 2000 to 2002, the total area covered by ice on the mountain decreased by 7.5 percent, continuing a trend that began in the mid-1800s.
The increasingly small size of these glaciers makes high-resolution imagery all the more critical. According to Texas A&M researcher Joni Kincaid, in 2000 the largest of the Mount Jaya glaciers occupied an area slightly larger than one square kilometer. With IKONOS, Kincaid was able to measure glacial changes to within one square meter, whereas lower-resolution imagery may not have captured changes on such a small scale.
“There are thousands of tropical glaciers. Unlike large glaciers, these small glaciers respond quickly to climate changes, and therefore it's important to be able to determine change over small time periods,” Kincaid said.
While Kincaid concentrates on tropical land ice, Burcu Cicek is focused on Antarctic sea ice. Late last year, the University of Texas, San Antonio researcher sailed with an international team of scientists on a Swedish icebreaker as it chiseled a channel through frozen McMurdo Sound, clearing the way for supply and fuel ships to reach McMurdo Station. Using IKONOS imagery, Cicek now plans to map the channel's length, its width, and the amount of ice inside it.
Figure 6 This image of the French Frigate Shoals in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands covers approximately 690 square km. IKONOS image courtesy of GeoEye.
IKONOS will also aid Cicek in the mapping and detection of change in Antarctic melt ponds, areas of water that form as snow melts on top of ice. As these ponds absorb more sunlight than surrounding ice, they gradually grow in area and depth. The resulting imbalance between absorbed and reflected energy can impact regional and global climate. Therefore, knowing when and where melt ponds form could lead to improved climate projections.
“High resolution means more detail,” Cicek said. “We especially need better resolution for the remote areas such as Antarctica, since we have limited access to the region.”
Melting ice is more than just a signal of a warming climate—it can disrupt wildlife and entire ecosystems. For example, melting sea ice is stranding Pacific walrus in the Arctic Ocean, threatening the stability of a species that native Alaskans rely on for food, clothing and shelter. Biologists with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have been testing the usefulness of IKONOS and QuickBird to assist them in reliably estimating walrus counts.
Satellite imagery has long been a valuable tool for monitoring general characteristics, such as sea surface temperatures and water circulation, of marine mammal habitats. Now, with the advance of commercial high-resolution satellites, detailed population information can be collected in remote areas that are otherwise difficult to access.
“Earlier-generation satellites with lower spatial resolution were useful for imaging habitat features,” said Douglas Burn, a biologist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “The advantage of high-resolution satellite imagery is that it allows us to image the animals themselves.”
The capacity of high-resolution satellites to collect detailed, small-scale information may also play an important role as Europe and many U.S. states work to limit and reduce carbon emissions through carbon-trading programs. Some of these programs allow carbon emitters to gain carbon “credits” by paying farmers to maintain their land in a way that stores more carbon in soil, trees and grass, instead of releasing it to the atmosphere.
William Pickles, a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has tested the ability of airborne hyperspectral imagery to detect increases in soil carbon dioxide levels by observing resulting changes in plant life, and he says there's the potential to do the same from satellites. “Suppose you had a thousand sites over the whole world where CO2 was being sequestered, and you had a satellite that could measure one part per million CO2 and it could revisit all these sites every week or two.”
Another way carbon producers can earn credits is by agreeing to plant a certain amount of trees to store enough carbon to make up for that which they emit. Here again, Brender suggests, high-resolution commercial satellites may help to zoom in on specific locations to monitor and verify that trees were planted, and not subsequently damaged or lost.
“If, for example, a big oil company plants 1,000 trees in Laos in exchange for being able to build a plant in South Korea, who verifies the trees were planted, and not logged or destroyed by a storm?” Brender said. “High-resolution satellites are an ideal tool for verification and monitoring.”
As for cost, a factor that many government and university scientists say deters them from using commercial imagery, Brender says that it's not as expensive as some might think at $7.70/square km (minimum order of 49 square km). He also mentions the recently announced GeoEye Foundation, which awards imagery to university students and faculty, and to nongovernmental organizations, to advance research in GIS, environmental studies and humanitarian efforts.
“In the grand scheme of things, given the seriousness and impact of climate change, commercial satellite imagery should be considered another tool in the tool kit to help us better understand how changes in climate impact the environment,” Brender said.
Such tools are expected to become even more powerful with the next generation of commercial satellites scheduled to launch this year. GeoEye's GeoEye-1 and DigitalGlobe's WorldView I will boast resolutions of a half-meter or better, enabling even more detailed observations to support studies of Earth's changing climate.


Information Research, Vol. 1 No. 2, December 1995
Commercial activity on the Internet has only recently been possible. When conceived in 1969, the then ARPAnet was purely the domain of US government research agencies and academic institutions. Business use was prohibited by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) appropriate use policy. ARPAnet was developed at the height of the cold war as an indestructible computer communications network. Based on a vast number of links between many ‘host’ computers, the theory was that, if any of the links were to be broken the network would not collapse and communication would be preserved.
While ARPAnet grew, similar networks were developing with a more business-orientated slant, although they did not have access to ARPAnet. In the late 1980s ARPAnet was divided into Milnet (the US government military network) and NSFnet (for research and academic purposes). In 1991 NSFnet and the commercial nets were finally connected to form what is today called the Internet (Fielding, 1994; The Internet Group, 1994; CommerceNet, 1995; and Dern, 1994). Of the 25,000 different networks, over 60% are run by businesses (Tetzeli, 1994) and it is due to the presence of more and more of these businesses that the Internet is growing so rapidly.
The WWW is a sub-network which was developed at CERN in Switzerland (the European Laboratory for Particle Physics) and is the fastest growing part of the Internet. Based on the Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP), it uses hypertext mark-up language (HTML) to create ‘web pages’ which can be easily navigated through numerous hypertext links contained within them (Patch, 1994; Cortese, 1995).
Web browsers based on the ‘point and click’ principal which is so popular in today’s software, are freely available over the Internet and allow access to all the Web has to offer. The first of these browsers to be developed was Mosaic, of which 2.5 million copies were downloaded during its first year of release (Taylor, 1994) and of which 20,000 copies continue to be downloaded every month.
It is not only the order that the Web has brought to the Internet that has made it so popular. A great deal of its attraction stems from its excellent user- friendly front-end. Web pages can contain graphics, photographs, sound and even video clips in addition to plain text - they truly are multi-media documents. In his book devoted to the Web, Winder (1995) states that there are at least 5 million Web pages in existence today, with more and more being added all the time. The Web is believed to be growing at twice the rate of the Internet as a whole. Web traffic increased by 300,000% in the year 1994.
The Internet and, more particularly, the WWW are attracting businesses in their thousands, with the following appearing to be the main application areas:
The WWW appears to be an ideal medium for businesses attempting to promote themselves and their wares. Setting up a site on the WWW, and thus gaining instant access to millions of people all over the globe, can be achieved at a small fraction of the cost using more conventional methods (Watson, 1994).
It is already possible to visit ‘virtual malls’ full of ‘virtual shops’, browse through catalogues and examine various products in vast detail, all courtesy of the Web. This has all been made possible by the multi-media capabilities that the Web provides (Minio, 1994).
Companies, especially those involved in research and development, can use the Internet as an additional resource for collecting information. Tetzeli (1994) explains how it is possible to post a query on a bulletin board or join a discussion group and receive advice on how to solve the problem. Alternatively, there are millions of Web pages, some of which contain access to searchable databases of information relating to particular subjects.
The use of low-cost electronic mail (e-mail) is the Internet service used most extensively by businesses (Rosen, 1994). Kehoe (1994) illustrates the strength of e-mail with the example of ‘Digital Equipment’ which has over 31,000 computers linked up to the Internet and exchanges about 1.7 million e-mail messages each month with people external to the company.
When links are formed between companies, it can be easy for them to communicate through the Internet. One example of this is the collaboration between IBM and Bellcore who use Internet links to share a workstation (Tetzeli, 1994).
Although the WWW has only existed for the last two years, there are already over 20,000 business corporations with Web sites (Yahoo!, 1995), the figure having doubled in the last three months alone. There has been continued speculation, from a wide range of sources, that the Internet and more specifically the WWW will be the business tool of the future and that companies which do not expand in this direction will be left by the side of the information superhighway.
Two methods were employed in the study: first, a sample of 300 businesses with Web sites, across a wide range of industry types, was examined, by selecting (rather than sampling) companies from the Yahoo! directory (1995). The sites were investigated in relation to several areas - the purpose of the Web site, the use being made of electronic mail and the extent to which multi-media was being utilised. In addition, any other aspects of the site which were designed to make it more interesting to potential customers were also noted.
Secondly, an electronic-mail questionnaire was sent to 222 of the 300 companies surveyed: that is, those that provided an e-mail address for contact. 14 were returned immediately due to unknown addresses or technical problems. Of the remaining 208, 102 replies were received, five of which were of no relevance, leaving 97 completed questionnaires to examine; a response rate of 47%, which is surprisingly good for a survey of this kind.
The Standard Industrial Classification (Central Statistics Office, 1992) was used to classify the companies chosen. The breakdown is illustrated in Table 1:
|SIC Classification Category||% of sample|
|Agriculture, hunting & forestry||1.0|
|Mining & quarrying||0.7|
|Wholesale & retail||22.0|
|Hotels & restaurants||2.0|
|Tranport & communication||9.3|
|Real estate & business activities||26.3|
|Other community & public services||2.0|
In order to investigate the actual distribution business types across the WWW a separate study was undertaken. The Yahoo! directory was used as a basis for the creation of the typology as it already breaks down over 20,000 business entries into specific business types. It also gives the number of businesses in each break-down. An alternative classification scheme was used to create the typology as the Standard Industrial Classification was not appropriate for use with the Yahoo! directory. The results are shown in Table 2.
|Industry classification||% of sample|
|Real estate, renting & business activities||14.21|
|Transport, travel, storage & communication||10.41|
|Mining & quarrying||0.18|
|Engineering & manufacturing||3.39|
|Scientific & environmental||1.18|
Compared to the individual Web sites examined, the percentages of Retailing and Manufacturing companies are much lower here (6.38% and 3.39% respectively). This is due to the nature of the alternative classification scheme used in the whole Yahoo! directory. It should be noted that many of the companies in other classes are also engaged in retail or manufacturing activities. The rest of the classes contain small percentages of companies, but the wide variation of business types on the Web can easily be seen.
During the course of this study the number of companies cited in the Yahoo! directory rose from 11,704 to 20,612, almost doubling. Table 3 shows how the distribution of business types has changed in the three months from May 1995 to August 1995.
Most importantly Table 3 appears to show that the Real estate and business activity sector of businesses on the Web is growing much faster than any other sector. Conversely, the Computer and Internet-related businesses do not seem to be growing as fast. Basically, this means that some of the other industry types are starting to catch up with them, although it must be said that they have a long way to go.
|Industry classification||May 95 %||August 95 %||% change|
|Real estate, renting & business activities||9.18||14.21||+5.03|
|Transport, travel, storage & communication||9.27||10.41||+1.14|
|Mining & quarrying||0.16||0.18||+0.02|
|Engineering & manufacturing||2.88||3.39||+0.51|
|Scientific & environmental||0.93||1.18||+0.25|
The 300 companies making up the sample were classified as to the use of their Web site using the following scheme (the percentage of the sample in each class is shown in parentheses):
The results show that the majority of businesses in the sample use their WWW sites as a vehicle for displaying information about themselves and their products or services (class 2). In some cases there will be detailed information relating to products but the ‘hard sell’ is definitely not used at these sites. Typical examples of this class are Sanders and Mock and Oracle. .
The next largest proportion of use is class 3 (12.0%). This is similar to class 2 but encourages the potential customer to spend money by including price information alongside product or service details. The customer, however, has to order the goods or services in a conventional manner. Of the sites surveyed Arkatents is fairly typical of smaller businesses. It contains product and price information and advice on ordering by telephone, fax or mail. The majority of the larger businesses surveyed tend not to use the Web for publishing price information; they are more likely to use it for general marketing purposes (class 2). One exception is Fisher Scientific which is a large retailer of chemical products.
Bearing in mind the many problems currently involved in true electronic commerce, such as security and payment, it is not altogether surprising that the majority of companies are electing not to sell on-line at present. In fact, only 11.7% of companies surveyed are currently engaging in on-line selling with credit card details being sent over the Internet and only a quarter of these have secure servers. Examples are the sites owned by Doggie Diamonds who specialise in pet products and CD World, a company set up specifically to sell goods on-line over the Internet. A user of the Netscape browser will find that the key at the bottom of the home page is complete, indicating that the site is secure. The order form used by Flags of the World is typical of most sites offering on-line ordering.
0.3% of companies use a registration scheme to give their customers account numbers which are used to purchase directly over the Internet. The credit card details are stored safely by the company and do not need to be transmitted over the Internet. The Infocafé operates in this manner. A further 10.7% allow the customer to send the order by e-mail but the payment transaction occurs conventionally, with the company telephoning the customer to confirm the sale and get credit card details, or sending the bill with the goods. Both The Value International Warehouse and Micropatent use this method.
As on-line shopping becomes more accepted by the general public and technology develops solutions to the associated problems, the percentage of companies offering facilities for ordering and paying for goods and services over the Internet will undoubtedly increase. It is also important to remember that the majority of companies have had WWW sites for less than one year and are still coming to terms with many of the concepts involved in electronic commerce.
The sample companies were examined to find out how many of them are incorporating multi-media into their Web pages. The results were classified as shown in Table 4:
|Media used||% of sites|
|Text & graphics||39.3|
|Text, graphics & photos.||51.0|
|Text & graphics or photos, + sound or video||5.3|
One particular company making good use of the Web’s multi-media capabilities is CJ Sports Interactive Hat Guide. The user can select a ‘hello audio file’ upon entry to the site. Extensive use is made of product photographs, including all-sides views. The site owned by MCA/Universal contains huge amounts of information relating to various movies and recordings. Short video clips of some of the films are available. CD World offer visitors to their site the opportunity to listen to excerpts from recordings they sell. The Virtual Advertising site contains some interesting photos and offers the user the chance to watch a short film.
Electronic mail is the most widely used facility on the Internet. Business traffic is exceedingly heavy. The sample companies were investigated in respect of how they were making use of e-mail on their Web pages. The results were classified as shown in Table 5:
|E-mail use at site||% of sample|
|No e-mail address advertised on the Web site||9.7|
|E-mail enquiries encouraged only about the Web pages themselves||6.7|
|E-mail enquiries encouraged in relation to information about the company or its products or services||12.3|
|E-mail enquiries encouraged in relation to information about the company or its products or services||5.3|
|Credit card information sent over the Internet via e-mail||11.7|
A question of relevance to business is, ‘What will attract potential customers to your site and what will make them come back?’ Certainly the factors discussed above are of importance in this issue. A visually attractive site will impress users more than one which is mainly textual in format with a couple of basic graphics added as an afterthought. The addition of sound and video will become more important as technology progresses. A site which contains a regularly updated list of links to really interesting sites could also draw users back for regular visits. A competition is also likely to increase interest in a site. Of the 300 sample companies surveyed just under 4% of them were currently running competitions at their sites.
In the real world, a traditional method of attracting potential customers is to give them something that they do not have to pay for. This technique has also found its way onto the WWW. Just over 10% of the companies surveyed were offering visitors to their site free demonstrations of software, the chance to download free ‘shareware’ or the chance to send off for free products.
Intel offer visitors to their site the opportunity to download free screensavers and wallpapers for use on their PCs. Several of the publishing companies surveyed make back issues of their publications or certain articles available to users free of charge. Examples are The Economist and The Washington Telecom Newswire.
The inclusion of a searchable product database helps customers quickly locate something specific rather than having to search through pages and pages of product descriptions to find what they are looking for. Within the companies surveyed, examples of sites possessing such databases are those owned by Best Video which has a database of all its video titles in stock and Intel which has a database of all its components.
The inclusion of company histories, press releases and staff information were fairly commonplace amongst the sites surveyed. The site owned by Coca-Cola is a good example. Contained within the site is an extensive, very graphical history of Coca-Cola. A great deal of additional information can also be found there. There is no ‘hard sell’ of products at this site, it is basically used as a marketing vehicle for the company. As the site is visually very interesting, it is likely that users will be attracted back to the site for several visits, each time being reminded that the owner of this site is‘Coca-Cola. The Apple Computer site is large compared to many on the Web and contains a vast amount of information relating to the company and its products. In addition the site contains research details, white papers and technical reports of interest to Apple’s customers. The site is seen very much as a customer support tool, with much emphasis put on the client.
Several businesses are using their Web sites to advertise job opportunities within their organisations. Applied Innovation and Andersen Consulting are currently using the Web in this way. Applicants send their CVs to the personnel departments via electronic mail.
Some of the more innovative sites surveyed contain features which are in no way related to the business. These features are designed to entertain the user and bring him or her back to the site regularly. Planet Reebok is one such site. In addition to product information it contains a bulletin board for users to communicate with one another, sport and fitness tips and a large amount of sports related information. The Best Video site mentioned above also contains a ‘chat board’. A number of sites contain detailed information concerning subjects completely unrelated to their business. The Matsushita site is one such example with its 1996 Olympic Games pages. The Infovantage site contains a guide to the local region. Of all those visited, the Molson Ice Beer site takes this idea to the extreme. The site is entitled The Molson Ice Polar Beach and contains very little direct product advertising. The site has music reviews, competitions and detailed information relating to the local region, all sited in the ‘information igloo’. The site is aimed to attract their target audience (21 to 30 year olds) and keep them coming back. The Guinness site contrasts strongly with Molson’s. It has only a few pages with pictures of the product and nothing else; rather similar to a magazine advertisement.
There are currently over 250 ‘shopping centres’ or ‘malls’ sited on the WWW. They contain a number of shops gathered together, which can all be accessed from the same server. The way in which they are run varies from centre to centre. In some, all the shops are controlled by an overall managing party and it is possible to make a combined order, selecting goods from more than one shop. Others are more like directories, each shop controlling its own orders. A selection of twenty shopping centres were surveyed as part of this study.
The number of individual outlets sited within each shopping centre tends to vary widely from one centre to another. The results are represented by Table 6, which shows that most shopping centres surveyed contained fewer than ten individual shops and that, in total, only 25% of them contain more than 50. However, the number of products available for purchase within each shop differs hugely. It is not uncommon to find fewer than ten products sited at an individual shop. On the other hand, one of the sites surveyed was classified as having just five shops, but with over 20,000 products available is obviously a very extensive site. Several of the sites which contained only a small number of shops stated that many more were planned for the future, although this statement might well be simply a marketing device for the mall services.
|Number of shops||% of sample|
The majority of shopping centres on the WWW tend to be filled with shops a) from a particular geographical region, b) containing similar products or c) of various types. Of the shopping centres surveyed, 20% contained shops from a specific geographical area. Examples of these include The Alaskan Mall and Mexplaza. The remaining 80% contained a variety of business types, similar to that found on the WWW as a whole. None of the shopping centres surveyed specialised in a particular type of product or service, but these do exist, an example being ConsciousNet which contains spiritual and new age products and services.
It can be assumed that the majority of shopping centres on the WWW have been set up because the proprietors believe the Web is going to be a good place to make money. It is likely that various forms of on-line selling will be used more within the shopping centres than they are in individual business sites. The shopping centres surveyed were classified according to the following scheme:
Interestingly, only just under half of these had secure sites. The rest either recommended the use of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) to encrypt electronic mail or advertised no security at their sites whatsoever.The use of on-line ordering is far more common inshopping centres than is the case for individual companies. Only 16% of the shopping centres surveyed made no attempt to encourage on-line ordering or payment, preferring conventional methods instead.
The majority of shopping centres surveyed make fairly extensive use of multi-media within their Web pages. The sites were classified using the same scheme as the sample companies. The results are shown in Table 7, below.
|Media used||% of sites|
|Text & graphics||15.0|
|Text, graphics & phots.||65|
|Text & graphics or phots, + sound or video||15.0|
The percentage of sites using more than just text and graphics is somewhat higher than that of the sample companies, shown in table 4. The shopping centres appear to spending more time and effort in designing their Web pages. The majority of the shopping centres investigated used good menu layouts to make it easy for the user to navigate the sometimes extensive sites. Several contained search engines to help the user find what he or she wants as quickly as possible. An example of this is the Virtual Lynx Mall. Many of the sites investigated also contained features designed to make them more attractive to the potential customer. Most sites contain ‘hot links’ and sometimes relevant links to other centres. Three of the sites run ‘classified ads’ sections for users wishing to buy and sell items from each other. Fun and entertainment pages are common. By using multi-media and the features described above, the shopping centres are attempting to make a visit to their site an interesting experience, somewhat similar to a real shopping expedition. Attractive and entertaining sites will attract customers back, possibly to spend more money.
Information from the companies whose Web sites were examined was collected by sending out a brief questionnaire by e-mail to either contact names or offices identified on the company’s pages. The questions covered:
The companies were asked to state how long they had had access to the Internet in general. The results were:
|Time span||% of respondents|
|less than three months||9|
|three months to six months||21|
|over six months to one year||25|
|more than one year to two years||24|
|more than two years||22|
Like the Internet, business use of the WWW has grown massively since its launch two years ago. The sample companies were questioned about how long they have had a Web presence. The results were that 51.5% of the respondent companies had had their Web sites for less than six months (21% less than three months), with a further 28.9% having had theirs for less than a year. Only the remaining 19.6% have used this facility of the Internet for more than a year. This was the expected distribution of results, since the WWW is a recent development and has grown particularly quickly in the last year.
The companies were asked what was the purpose of their Web sites. The classes shown in Table 9 were presented in the questionnaire and respondents were allowed to select more than one category.
|Purpose of site||% of respondents|
|Advertising specific products and services||73.2|
|On-line selling of products and services||41.2|
|Customer support and liaison||43.3|
The number of companies setting up site on the WWW has grown exponentially in the last two years. Electronic commerce appears to have a great deal to offer the innovative businessman or woman. However, many of the sites surveyed in the last chapter are purely vehicles for basic publicity and advertising. To find out if owning a Web site is currently making any difference to business, the companies were asked if there had been any effect on turnover as a result of the Web site.
Just over a third (36%) of the companies stated that their WWW sites had had no effect on turnover whatsoever. This is slightly higher than the 31% who stated that the Web site did make a difference. The remaining third (33%) of companies stated that they did not know whether the site had had any effect. Several of these respondents stated that it was far too soon to tell. Considering that many of the companies have had their sites only a few months this is hardly surprising. In some cases it would be impossible to tell if the presence on the WWW had had any effect at all. This might be the case for very large corporations who use the Web simply for publicity purposes. It does appear that there is money to be made on the Web if the right approach is taken, but many companies have yet to find the right strategy. The companies who stated that their Web sites had had a positive effect on turnover were from many different industry sectors and using their site for several of the purposes earlier. The vast majority of these involved basic publicity and marketing, advertising with price information (but with conventional ordering) and on-line ordering of goods and services.
A number of problems must be overcome before electronic becomes a dominant form of business. The companies were asked what they believed to be the main hurdles to the success of electronic commerce. The following categories were presented for selection:
The companies were asked to select one or more of the categories. The results are shown in figure 1:
Figure 1: Problems facing electronic commerce
It is clear that many respondents believe that the most important problems facing the future of electronic commerce are security (53.6%) and payment issues (47.4%). This confirms the authors’ own opinion and agrees with many others in the field. These businessmen and women know that the general public will not be comfortable with purchasing products over the Internet until they can do so safely. The problem of payment is more of a long term issue, with all its associated legal and social problems.
The issue of access is viewed as the next most important problem (43.3%). Many businesses feel that it is necessary for more potential customers to gain access to the Web in general. One respondent commented that his target audience were not even on the Web yet.
The technical difficulties that users are currently experiencing are seen as a problem by 38.1% of respondents. Until connection times become faster, the Web will remain frustrating to many users. They may lose interest while waiting for a page with high multi-media content to download. As technology progresses this problem will undoubtedly disappear. Information overload is not seen as a great problem, with only 21.6% of respondents citing it as such. Most appear to believe that you cannot have too much of a good thing. The businesses questioned do not believe that on-line shopping is inherently unattractive to the general public, with only 16.5% stating that this is likely to hold back development of electronic commerce. However, as these companies already have Web sites it is not surprising to learn that the majority of them feel on-line shopping is something which people will enjoy.
22.7% of respondents argued that there are other important problems facing electronic commerce. Several respondents were concerned that the business world as a whole will not accept the Internet and WWW as a valid commercial medium. The following comments illustrate this point:
“The Web is often viewed by the business community as not being useful” and “Some companies are slow to change”.
Another concern was that users need to get used to the concept of on-line shopping and the Web in general, before they are comfortable purchasing goods on-line. Several companies complained that their site was not being accessed often enough to make it profitable. One respondent stated:
“I find people just stumble across my Webpage while surfing, look at it and then go on without putting it on their hotlist for future reference”
This comment also illustrates the need for better directories and organisation of information. Another respondent wrote:
“Currently there are no real attempts at analysing and targeting specific audiences on the net. Therefore the information is scattered, incomplete and sometimes totally incoherent.”
A few respondents felt that more Web tools and applications would have to be developed before electronic commerce really starts to make an impact.
The companies were asked to describe how they see their Web sites developing in the future. The ideas given varied widely. The classification scheme given below was used to group the comments. The majority fell into the classes given, but it was necessary to include an ‘other’ class for a few ideas which did not appear to fit anywhere. The classes and number of respondents (out of 90 replies to this question) are given in the table below:
|Enhancement||% of respondents|
|More interaction with users|
|More general content to be added||13.6|
|The addition of more products and services||11.0|
|The increased use of multi-media||11.0|
|The inclusion of new technologies||6.8|
|The addition of ‘fun pages’||5.9|
|The addition of links to and from the page||5.1|
|Sharing of information and building a community||5.1|
|On-line ordering and shopping||4.2|
|Uncertain of future direction||4.2|
|The inclusion of forms||2.5|
|The site will remain as it is||2.5|
It can be seen from table one that there is a wide distribution of ideas for future improvement of the respondents’ Web sites. It seems that becoming more interactive with other users of the WWW is something that several of companies are interested in. One respondent envisages the following scenario:
“Increased use of live applications to interact with customers and suppliers and distributors”
“We hope to move ahead from merely providing information to becoming a more interactive location with greater use of transactions”
The addition of more product and service information in a more exciting format will occur at a number of the sites:
“We see our complete product line being showcased in detail, including photos, complete specs and current prices” Some respondents were not particularly helpful, just stating that their sites would produce more business. How this was to be achieved was not discussed. Other companies noted that their sites will only develop as fast as technology will allow and that more links to their site are required so more potential customers can find their way there. It is also clear from a number of comments that businesses do see the need for their sites to become more entertaining. They know that they must become part of the virtual community by adopting an attitude of ‘information-sharing’. One Internet consulting group sees itself as “a centre for a virtual community”.
In addition to specific comments about their Web sites, a number of respondents gave more philosophical statements about electronic commerce as a whole. A selection of these are given below:
“We are here to secure a place or domain. The rate at which the Internet is growing could mean that there are no more domains left in two years. We feel it will take about two years until we see any real business as a result of the Web. We wanted to be in place when the big rush starts.”
“At the moment, the commercial application of the Internet is probably 85% hype and 15% substance. We feel this will change with wider use and awareness of its potential.”
“Sales are dismal and barely cover the cost of maintaining the Web page site through my Internet provider ... I do not see the Internet being a viable marketing tool for products other than computer products for at least 20 years.”
This study has illustrated clearly that electronic commerce is still very much in an embryonic stage. Of the 300 companies surveyed, only 11.7% were engaged in on-line selling of goods or services with the transmission of credit card details over the Internet. Before electronic commerce becomes a dominant form of business it is clear that the issue of security must be addressed. Customers do not feel comfortable sending sensitive information over the Internet and companies are not generally asking them to do so. The number of secure sites currently in place on the Web is relatively low (although the number is growing all the time). Shopping centres appear to be have adopted the technology currently available for secure transmission of data more quickly than individual businesses on the Web. Once the security problem has been overcome the issue of alternative payment systems must be addressed.
The multi-media capabilities of the WWW are not yet being fully exploited, the majority of sites using text, photos and graphics but not sound or video. As technology progresses and the design of Web sites becomes more of an art form this will surely change. Electronic mail is widely used at most of the sites investigated and will remain one of the most important aspects of the Internet, especially in relation to business use.
The creation of a typology of business use of the WWW (based on the Yahoo! directory) confirmed the view that many of the businesses currently owning Web sites are from Computer and Internet-related sectors. However, the Business activities and services sector appears to increasing its share of the overall total, which has doubled in the last threee months alone.
It will be extremely interesting to watch how businesses develop their Web sites in the future and how technological developments are received and incrporated. However, it is clear that the business as a whole has some way to go before true electronic commerce is achieved.
The results obtained from the electronic mail questionnaire made a useful supplement to the findings of the main surve. Most of the respondent companies have had access to the Internet for less than two years and been on the Web for under a year. The majority of the companies responding to the questionnaire are currently using their sites for publicity and advertising purposes. This is in direct agreement with the findings of the main study. Of the two-thirds of companies who knew the difference their Web sites had made to turnover, half of them stated that the effect had been positive. It appears, therefore, that there is profit to made on the Web, but this depends very much on what is being sold and in what manner.
Note: The descriptions of Web sites were correct at the time of the survey, but many are currently developing. Their content, layout, and even address may change.
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Fielding, H. (1994) ‘A non-anorak’s guide to the Internet’ The Independent, 29 May.
Kehoe, L. (1994) ‘Doing cyber business’ Financial Times, 6 June.
Minio, R. (1994) ‘Businesses and the Internet; some interesting experiments’ Management and Technology, 2 (1), 11-13.
Patch, K. (1994) ‘Businesses spin Web for distribution’ PC Week, 11 (25), 73-75
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Taylor, F. (1994) ‘Business and the Internet’
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How to cite this paper:
Cockburn, C. & Wilson, T.D. (1995) "Business use of the World-Wide Web" Information Research, 1(1) Available at: http://informationr.net/ir/1-2/paper6.html
© the authors, 1995. Updated: 28th October 1995


Cockroach infestations are a common reason why many home and business owners end up hiring professional pest control services . These bugs are despised by many, but what people may not realize is that they can affect human health. If youâre dealing with a cockroach infestation in Dublin, then watch this video to learn how cockroaches can affect allergies.
Itâs typical for people to think of pollen, dust, and animal dander when it comes to allergy and asthma triggers. However, many people donât realize that cockroaches can be triggers, too. The saliva, droppings, and decomposing bodies of these common household pests contain allergen proteins, which are known to trigger allergies and worsen asthma symptoms. A pest control company can inspect your home, determine where cockroaches are present, and then recommend a pest control strategy.
For many people, just the sight of cockroaches is disturbing enough for them to call a pest control company. However, these bugs can be more than unsightly. If youâve seen some of these pests in your home and youâre unsure if you should call for cockroach extermination in Dublin , then keep reading to learn how these vermin can affect your familyâs health.
They Can Spread Germs
The feeling of disgust that many people feel when they see a cockroach is not unjustified. These insects are known to spread a variety of human pathogens, such as salmonella, E. coli, and giardia. Cockroaches typically spread germs by crawling around in unsanitary areas and collecting bacteria and parasites on their legs. Then, as they crawl across tables and countertops at night, they can leave behind pathogens that may later be contracted by people.
They Can Trigger Allergies
Itâs bad enough that cockroaches can spread a variety of germs and diseases, but there is another health threat for you to consider. Cockroaches can trigger allergy symptoms in sensitive individuals, and they can also exacerbate asthma symptoms. The allergen trigger can be found in cockroach saliva, droppings, and decomposing bodies, and it can be particularly problematic for children. For these reasons, contacting a professional pest treatment company about your cockroach infestation can be a smart way to protect your familyâs health.
Theyâre Hard to Get Rid Of
Unfortunately for many homeowners, cockroaches are incredibly resilient, rendering many amateur attempts at extermination unsuccessful. If you have a cockroach problem that you want to eliminate as soon as possible, then consider calling a local pest control company. To help make your home less hospitable for cockroaches in the future, seal up all possible entryways, such as drains, light sockets, and gaps around your homeâs exterior. Also, remove sources of moisture, such as leaky pipes and dripping faucets. Finally, maintain a clean home by washing food dishes immediately, cleaning crumbs from eating surfaces, and vacuuming regularly.
Tree diseases can harm or even kill mature, healthy trees. When you are establishing pest control services for your home in Dublin, ask your technician about the importance of providing tree disease treatment for the trees around your yard. By keeping an eye out for the common signs of tree diseases , you can establish a tree disease diagnosis before the problem has advanced significantly.
A residential pest control and tree disease treatment professional will look for a few common signs and symptoms of diseases in trees. In California, many of the most common tree diseases are fungal infections that cause discoloration to the leaves and bark of the plant. If a tree is diseased, it may have large black or brown spots covering the surfaces of its trunk and limbs. Other common signs of disease include unusually yellowed leaves, falling branches, or a failure to produce leaves altogether. If you are starting to notice unusual symptoms in your trees, contact a pest treatment company right away.
A need for cockroach extermination is one of the primary reasons why people contact a pest control company. If youâre looking for ways to prevent a cockroach infestation in Dublin, then you may benefit from understanding more about these household pests. Continue reading to learn the truth about common myths regarding roaches.
Myth #1: All roaches are pests.
You may be unpleasantly surprised to learn that there are about 4,000 different cockroach species worldwide. Some of these bugs can fly and others canât, and some of them are black or dark brown in color, while others have light brown or reddish coloring. You may be glad to learn, however, that a relatively small number of cockroach species invade buildings and homes where they can pose a danger to human health. If you have spotted cockroaches in your home, then contacting a pest control company sooner rather than later can help prevent the problem from growing.
Myth #2: Roaches are invulnerable to nuclear explosions.
Itâs true that cockroaches are extremely tough insects and that there has been research concerning their ability to withstand radiation. Whatâs been found is that roaches that are exposed to 1,000 radon units live and experience decreased reproductive ability, and about 10% survive exposure to 10,000 radon units. Comparatively, humans die after exposure to about 400 to 1,000 radon units. However, cockroaches die after about an hour of being exposed to 115ÂºF temperatures, so they are unlikely to survive a nuclear explosion, in which temperatures reach more than 100,000,000 ÂºF.
Myth #3: A cockroach can live for months without a head.
Roaches have different circulatory systems than humans. Instead of capillaries and blood vessels, they have open circulatory systems that allow the body to seal off an injured area more easily. Also, cockroaches breathe through little holes, call spiracles, that are in each segment of their bodies, and their brains do not control their breathing. While these facts suggest that cockroaches can live for a while without a head, the inability to eat food or drink water will cause the average headless cockroach to die within a few weeks.
When it comes to commercial pest control near Pleasanton , restaurant kitchens can be more vulnerable to infestations that other locations, due to the amount of food and water thatâs present. Watch this video for tips on preventing pest contamination in the kitchen.
Cockroaches, flies, and rodents can spread germs and lead to contaminated food. For this reason, pest control must be practiced in all food-related areas to help keep customers safe. While pest extermination is essential for existing infestations, itâs best to prevent this type of problem in the first place. Also, keep in mind that pesticides should only be handled by licensed pest control applicators and when food is completely protected. To help keep your restaurantâs kitchen pest-free, repair any holes in the walls, keep trash cans covered, and clean up spills immediately.
A cockroach infestation in Pleasanton can pose a real risk for those who suffer from allergies, asthma, and other respiratory conditions. However, people with these conditions are not the only ones at risk. Itâs best to seek pest treatment as soon as you can in order to get rid of the roaches and maintain a healthy home environment. Feel free to read ahead if you would like to learn about the potential health effects of a cockroach infestation.
Cockroaches are smelly and unsightly, but they also come with a few health hazards that you should be aware of. They have antigens that can aggravate symptoms of respiratory issues like asthma and allergies, and they can also carry diseases. Whatâs worse is that itâs not just the cockroaches themselves that spread antigensâitâs also their droppings, body parts, and even their saliva that transmit disease. A cockroach infestation may lead to diseases like salmonella, streptococcus, and polio. If you or a family member suddenly has trouble breathing in the home, you might be dealing with an infestation. Donât wait to call your residential pest control expert to handle this infestation so you and your family can enjoy your health.
With the arrival of warmer weather, youâre likely to see more and more bugs emerging from overwintering sites in search of sustenance. To help avoid the need for pest extermination in Pleasanton , itâs important to make sure that your home isnât an attractive source of food, water, or shelter for insects. Read on to learn what can attract bugs to your home.
A Bug-Friendly Environment
Depending on the state of your yard, it may provide an ideal environment for pests to live in and later migrate from to your home. As part of the insect control process, examine your outdoor areas for problems like standing water or poor drainage, clogged gutters, rotted fascia or shingles, and old tree stumps. Also, maintain your landscaping by preventing your lawn from growing too high and keeping mulch a minimum of 15 feet away from your foundation. Lastly, repair any damage to your gutters, improve your propertyâs drainage if necessary, and store firewood and building supplies at least 20 feet away from your home.
Access to Your House
The easier it is for bugs to get into your home, the more likely it is that they will access and infest it. To practice good pest control this season, walk around your property and look for access points that pests may use, such as tree branches that touch your roof or torn vent screens. Seal up any cracks, holes, and tears that your find in your homeâs exterior and trim back overgrown trees and foliage.
The Availability of Food
Finally, eliminating sources of food for pests is one of the best ways to make your home less appealing to bugs. Start by placing any pet food or bird seed that you store outdoors into sealed containers. Next, check your trash and recycling bins for holes and functioning lids. Then, transfer your pantry items into airtight containers and ensure that pet food bowls are regularly emptied and cleaned. Removing sources of food in these ways can help prevent the need for professional pest control services.
Keeping your warehouse pest-free can be essential for maintaining a happy and healthy staff and protecting your goods from damage . If youâre wondering if you may need commercial pest control services for cockroach extermination in Pleasanton, then continue reading to learn about what signs can mean that these bugs are living in your building.
When a cockroach infestation is underway, you are likely to spot their droppings around your building. Large roaches produce feces that are dark and cylindrical. Smaller roaches leave droppings that resemble black pepper or coffee grounds. Seeing significant amounts of cockroach feces can indicate the presence of a large infestation or one that has been going on for a while.
There are many different cockroach species, and some of these are known for giving off odors. If you have picked up on a strong smell in your warehouse that has a musty or oily quality, then this may be a sign of a cockroach infestation.
Have you found what looks like an oval shaped egg sac behind a stack of boxes or in a crack in the wall? If so, then you may have located a cockroachâs egg case. Referred to by experts as oothecae, these egg cases are typically between 5mm and 10mm in length and are frequently found in hidden areas of a building that has a cockroach infestation.
Finally, one of the easiest signs to identify when it comes to cockroach infestations is a cockroach. If you find one or more of these bugs, dead or alive, anywhere in your building, then there is a good chance that there are plenty more that you canât see. Finally, if you are spotting cockroaches during daylight hours, then it is time to call a commercial pest control company. These insects are nocturnal, so seeing them during the day can mean that overcrowding has forced them out into the light and that you have a serious infestation underway.
When your home is experiencing a cockroach infestation , it may feel like these nasty insects are nearly unstoppable. In this video from National Geographic, you will learn why cockroaches are so good at surviving. Since cockroaches are able to survive through being squeezed, squished, and mashed with incredible force, it is very hard to control them using physical methods. A company offering pest control near Dublin can provide you with the best available cockroach extermination methods.
In order to achieve the best results from your pest control services, you will want to work with a team of experienced professionals. A company that provides insect pest control services will be familiar with the exclusion and extermination tactics that are needed to completely remove cockroaches from a property.
Cockroaches are among the most dreaded pests that can enter and invade your home. When you notice even a single cockroach scurrying around your house, this is a sign that you may have a full blown cockroach infestation on your hands. A company that offers residential pest control and pest removal services serving Dublin will have the tools needed to remove your cockroach problem safely and effectively. Rather than wondering whether you have been able to wipe out your cockroach problem on your own, you will want to hire a professional pest control company to do the work for you. Here is a closer look at what every homeowner needs to know about cockroaches.
Cockroaches Are Looking for Food and Shelter
When a cockroach colony invades your home, they will be looking for the elements that they need to survive. Like other living creatures, cockroaches require food, water, and shelter in order to live and thrive. By failing to lock up food sources or leaving cracks in your doorways, you may be accidentally inviting cockroaches into your home.
Cockroaches Live in Large Colonies
If you have only spotted one or two cockroaches around your home, you may think that you do not have a significant insect problem. However, the presence of even a single cockroach can signal a massive infestation on your property. Since cockroaches prefer to live in large colonies, spotting one cockroach means that there are hundreds of others hiding around your home.
Cockroaches Spread Harmful Diseases
A cockroach infestation is a significant health hazard for any household. Cockroaches live and breed in unsanitary areas, which can cause them to carry harmful diseases, such as E. coli, salmonella, and other bacteria. Cockroaches are also known to contribute to indoor allergy symptoms. When you hire a professional extermination company to take care of your cockroach problem, you will be able to ensure that the health and safety of your family is protected.
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Last week I discussed and showed the rate of improvement that we should expect from students, how to graph their results, and the types of goals.
You know all of this, but how often should students be assessed?
While I have chosen to assess weekly, monitoring can occur to fit your needs and the need of your students. Bi-weekly or monthly progress monitoring is also an option. When deciding on how often to give a CBM probe, you first need to decide what your purpose is.
- If CBMs are being used for screening or benchmarking, you will want to give them three times a year. Fall, winter, and spring.
- If CBMs are for progress monitoring, which is what should be happening when implementing RtI, students considered at risk should be assessed one to two times a week.
- CBMs can be administered for ALL students on a monthly basis to determine the effectiveness of instruction.


A Norman Huguenot lawyer’s son, he became a Catholic in the 1620s and began to take holy orders. His wit and effrontery won him the favour of Cardinal de Richelieu, and he was given a canonry at Rouen (1634) and an abbacy in Burgundy (1638)—posts in which he gave offense during his rare attendances. Meanwhile, he had published a paraphrase of the Psalms (1627); a novel, Histoire indienne d’Anaxandre et d’Orazie (1627; “Indian History of Anaxander and Orazia”); a tragicomedy, Pyrandre et Zysimène (1633); and anthologies of poems eulogizing King Louis XIII and Richelieu (1634–35). He used his influence with Richelieu not only to procure subsidies for other writers but also to promote the establishment of the French Academy.
When Louis XIII heard from his own intriguing favourite, the Marquis de Cinq-Mars, that Boisrobert had made sexual advances to Richelieu’s pages, he ordered Richelieu to dismiss him (1641). Under the next regime, Boisrobert’s wit appealed little to Cardinal Mazarin, and his blasphemies offended the Jesuit entourage of the queen mother, Anne of Austria. Hence, his last 20 years were occupied mainly with dramaturgy. His plays are largely forgotten except by students of 17th-century French theatre.


Silent letters came into the English language through progressive changes in pronunciation, foreign linguistic influences, and as guides for pronunciation.
Have you ever tried to spell complex words in English? It’s not the easiest thing to do. In fact, there are many competitions and grand prizes for those people who manage to get the spellings right. One of the primary reasons for such complexity in the English language is the existence of silent letters.
According to the Kent Jones Education Committee, Esperanto Society of Chicago, an estimated 60% of English spelling contains silent letters. That’s a lot to digest. For a non-native speaker, it can feel mind-boggling! Even if you were to learn every single letter and its corresponding sound, you might still find it difficult to spell out dictated words or pronounce a written text correctly. This begs the question… why does the English language include silent letters in the first place?
Origin of Silent Letters in English
Silent letters appeared in English as the result of three main factors. First, as the language propagated across regions and continents, varying accents and cultures modified the pronunciation of certain words and specific clusters of consonants. At least one of the consonants in such a cluster was relegated to become a silent letter. Second, the expansion of the English Empire led to the “borrowing” of many words from a variety of languages. These words tended to retain their original spellings, or in cases when a corresponding letter did not exist, imperfect substitutes were used. These imperfect substitutes were an amalgamation of existing English letters, but were pronounced very differently. This led to some letters in these amalgamations being silent. Finally, there have been instances where silent letters were specifically introduced as aids to differentiate between two homophones or to provide guidance on the pronunciation of certain words.
Progressive Change in Pronunciation
Historically, “Old English” orthography was about 90% phonemic, i.e., the words were pronounced exactly as they were spelt. For instance, the ‘k’ in words like ‘knife’, ‘knight’, ‘know’ and ‘knock’ was pronounced until the 16th century! The same is true for the ‘t’ in words like ‘often’, ‘soften’ and ‘castle’ as well as the ‘l’ in ‘palm’, calm’ or ‘almond’. As the adoption of English grew across the globe, especially during the Renaissance, diverse groups of people with an assortment of accents modified the pronunciation of certain words.
As a result, some particularly difficult words ended up losing certain elements of their pronunciation. Specifically, clusters of consonants proved quite a challenge. However, the spelling of these words remained standardized, and therefore they came to be spelt with “silent” letters. More recently, the explicit pronunciation of the ‘d’ in ‘sandwich’ and ‘handkerchief’ has been lost. We’ve even relegated the ‘t’ in ‘Christmas’ to the silent letters bench!
Other Linguistic Influences
With the rapid expansion of the English empire across the globe, the English language “borrowed” words from several different languages. These miscellaneous linguistic influences led to significant variations in terms of spelling. Often, the borrowed words retained the spelling from their original languages. For instance, the word ‘quiche’ is spelt in that specific way because it was borrowed directly from French.
At times, there have been words with sounds that simply didn’t have any corresponding letter in the English language. The Greek letter ‘rho’ was represented by ‘r’ or ‘rh’ in Latin and was often merged as a simple ‘r’ in English. ‘Psi’ from Greek has found space in the English language as an amalgamation of ‘p’ and ‘s’, such as in the word ‘psychology’. Sometimes, certain letters were included in words just to reflect their Latin origins, such as the silent ‘b’ in ‘debt’ and ‘doubt’, which come from Latin words like ‘debit’ and ‘dubitable’.
According to Kessler & Treiman, several of these borrowed words have led people to call English orthography “a pathological mishmash of correspondences randomly accrued over the past thousand years.”
As a Means of Differentiation or Emphasis
We find instances in the English language where silent letters were specifically added to words so they could be distinguished on paper from other similar sounding words (homophones). The extra ‘n’ in the word ‘inn’ serves the purpose of differentiating it from the preposition ‘in’. Similarly, we have the case of ‘bee’ and ‘be’. In certain situations, letters provided guidance regarding which consonants in the word a reader must emphasize. For example, the ‘fe’ in ‘giraffe’ hints at an emphasis on the latter half of the word, more than the beginning. The word ‘ride’ could have just as easily been written without the ‘e’ at the end, but that ‘e’ guides the reader to elongate the ‘i’ and thereby distinguish it from the way we pronounce the word ‘rid’.
In conclusion, silent letters may prove to be a significant hurdle for someone hoping to become adept at reading the English language. However, these letters do have their benefits. Some provide an interesting origin story about the corresponding word they came from, while others lend a helping hand in navigating the rough and rule-bending seas of English pronunciation!