As a new year begins, many people begin making resolutions in an effort to better themselves and others. Be careful with this trend, though, as resolutions can set you up for disappointment.
Goals, on the other hand, often set you up for success. Making goals that are achievable, practical and sustainable is a great way to ensure that you'll be pleased with the end results.
What's a good goal?
A good goal is one that will challenge you to be better, but doesn't defeat you mentally or physically each time you jump in the water, lace up your running shoes or hop on the saddle.
If a goal isn't realistic, it will be difficult to accomplish. Is finishing a half marathon in 1:15 realistic for you? How about completing an Ironman in less than 10 hours?
Some examples of good goals are to drink more filtered water daily, be physically active throughout the day, educate yourself on what you are putting into and on your body, implement a flexibility and strength routine, and practice better overall nutrition.
How can I make realistic goals?
To make realistic goals, set ones that pertain to you, not someone else. Sustainable goals are those that are personal to you.
With social media, it can be hard to make goals that reflect your abilities. Keep in mind that we're all in different areas of our life journey, and comparing yourself to others is rarely beneficial.
Why do I need goals?
"If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time," says Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar.
Goals not only help keep you motivated and focused, but they also keep you excited about life. When the winter holidays end, we find ourselves in the middle of a cold and dark season, and goals can be just what we need to keep us moving forward.
When it's hard to get out of bed on a chilly, dreary morning, goals can help us put in the effort so we can eventually cross the finish line with pride. Achieving a goal is satisfying because of the hard work and dedication you put in to make it happen.
How do I achieve my goals?
Actionable steps are vital when it comes to accomplishing goals. If you want to run a half marathon in less than 2:00, but your personal best is 2:30, it's going to be difficult to achieve the desired result without subset goals. To reach your ultimate goal, you'll need subset goals to achieve them.
Subset goals could include performing specific speed drills or hill runs once a week, participating in carefully chosen races to gauge your training and practicing smart nutrition to achieve your desired time.
If drinking more filtered water is your goal, subset goals could include having a 10-ounce glass of water as soon as you wake up in the morning, carrying a reusable water bottle with you at all times and always choosing water before other beverages.
After weeks of unhealthy holiday eating and drinking, it's natural to swear off sweets and hit the treadmill. Gyms offer deals and weight-loss products bombard us with commercials to help make the New Year's goal of weight loss a reality.
Weight loss is one of the most common New Year's resolutions, followed by commitments to quit smoking, eat healthier, drink less, and get fit, according to USA.gov.
Despite the best of intentions, only 8 percent are successful in achieving their goal, according to a report published by the University of Scranton. This is evident in gyms across the country when, sometime in February, the treadmills suddenly become empty again.
Resolutions are easy to make, but sticking to them is the real challenge. This year, make yours last.
1. Have a Plan
If you know that you tend to be starving by 4 p.m., be prepared. Pack a snack daily with fiber and protein (like grapes and string cheese). If you typically drink too much wine with dinner, start with a large glass of water.
Developing new habits take time, 66 days to be exact, according to a study in the European Journal of Psychology. Sit down and develop a plan, stick with it and soon it will be part of your routine.
2. Set Realistic Expectations
It probably took months or even years to put on the extra weight you want to lose. Don't expect to lose it overnight.
Start by simply making a promise to walk 30 minutes per day, or to cut 500 calories per day. You can start small: change just one habit, like drinking alcohol only on the weekends. Whatever it is, don't make it unachievable, or you will be forced to quit.


Tires can play an important role in making cars more fuel efficient. Many motorists are familiar with the concept of maintaining proper tire pressure to attain optimal gas mileage. Tires that are overinflated or underinflated will not be able to maintain proper rolling resistance, which will reduce the vehicle’s gas mileage. In addition to tire pressure, many motorists wonder whether tire size is also a factor.
The impact tire size can have on performance, including fuel efficiency, was examined in a recent issue of Car and Driver magazine. The article, titled Plus-Size Models: Testing the performance effects of upsizing wheels and tires, was written by Tony Quiroga and appeared in the April 2010 edition. The findings in the article were based on tests involving “nearly identical Goodyear Eagle GT ultra-high-performance all-season tires in all five sizes, inflated to manufacturer-recommended pressures.” In addition, they “used the stock steel wheels for the 15-inch test and went to the aftermarket for the larger wheels, as most owners would do. The aftermarket wheel … was a cast-aluminum ASA GT1, which is available in 16- to 19-inch sizes on the Golf.” One sentence offers a succinct summary: “What’s immediately apparent from the results is that as the wheel-and-tire packages get larger and heavier, acceleration and fuel economy suffer.” Specifically, the author cited a “10-percent drop in fuel economy … from the 15s to the 19s.”
The question of whether tire size affects gas mileage is not a new one and it is not limited to cars or personal vehicles. It was examined in an article in the December 2000 issue of Land Line Magazine, which is described as a business magazine for professional truck drivers. The article examined the issue of how tire specifications can affect fuel economy. Paul Abelson, the magazine’s technical editor, interviewed Peggy Fisher and Asa Sharp, both considered experts in this field. They addressed the issue of how “tire size and profile affect fuel economy.” They explained, “When low profile tires first came out, they were about 4 percent more fuel efficient. Low profile sidewalls are shorter, and therefore stiffer. That reduces flex but only slightly. Smaller tires weigh less than larger tires, so less energy is needed to get them rolling, and also to stop them.”
The experts, however, offered a word of caution lest truck drivers assume they should switch to smaller tires:
It is probably not worth switching to smaller tires, since any gains in fuel economy would be offset by the added cost of re-gearing to keep your engine operating in its most efficient rpm range. Remember, power and economy are affected by transmission, drive axle ratios and tire size (revolution per mile). Change one, and you throw the equation off. With today’s new tires, there is virtually no difference in mpg due to tire size.
As with many questions related to cars and tires, the answer to this question can have nuances, conditions, and variations. The answer that applies to truck drivers is different from the answer for the typical motorist. Before purchasing new tires, consider whether some of the aforementioned factors, such as your vehicle’s transmission, would be impacted positively or negatively by new tires, particularly if they are of a very different size. Tire treads can also affect your fuel efficiency, but depending on the conditions you drive in, safety should be a priority. There are many factors to consider when buying tires… let the experts at Dunn Tire help answer your questions.


Part 1 – The Assumptions
Uploading one’s consciousness into a computer is seen by many as an inevitable step in human evolution. It’s considered to be a means of achieving immortality and freeing our consciousnesses from the meaty, bone-bound prison currently encasing our substrate-neutral souls. This seems prima facie logically consistent and I am not disputing the possibility of this vision for the far distant future of humanity. However, I would like to counter some of the naïve assumptions that lead anyone to profit from claiming such an eventuality is close, or even that we have some idea of what needs to be accomplished scientifically to achieve it.
I think the most pernicious and obviously wrong assumption about the human brain is any comparison of it to a digital, serial computer. One line of reasoning, which asserts we are approaching computing power comparable to the human brain is almost absurd and displays a complete lack of understanding about how the brain operates. This is voiced most clearly by the futurist Ray Kurzweil in his book “The Age of Spiritual Machines.” On page 103, paragraph 2, he states:
“The human brain has about 100 billion neurons. With an estimated average of one thousand connections between each neuron and its neighbors, we have about 100 trillion connections, each capable of a simultaneous calculation … (but) only 200 calculations per second…. With 100 trillion connections, each computing at 200 calculations per second, we get 20 million billion calculations per second. This is a conservatively high estimate…. In 1997, $2,000 of neural computer chips using only modest parallel processing could perform around 2 billion calculations per second…. This capacity will double every twelve months. Thus by the year 2020, it will have doubled about twenty-three times, resulting in a speed of about 20 million billion neural connection calculations per second, which is equal to the human brain.”
A Spike is not a FLOP
To thoroughly discredit this foolish notion once and for all, let’s begin by looking at what’s actually being claimed and what some of the unspoken assumptions inherent in this argument are.
Assumption 1: A spike is in some way comparable to a FLOP.
This is the most fundamental error any theorist can make when prognosticating about the computational power of a biological brain. A FLOP, a floating point operation technically defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic (IEEE 754), is a single mathematical operation – generally an arithmetical or logical operation performed on an integer value. The power of computer processors is commonly measured in FLOPS, or the number of operations the processor can perform per second. For example, the computer I’m writing this article on has four processing cores, each capable of operating at 2.4GHz. A performance analysis program just told me my CPU is capable of reaching 38.4 GFLOPS. This is a modest amount compared to some of the peaks of computer power that now exist in the world’s supercomputer facilities.
The crucial assumption in this line of reasoning is that an action potential (spike) fired by one neuron, upon branching into every axonal terminal, equals one calculation at each synapse. Even a cursory examination reveals this doesn’t make sense. A spike is the result of upstream network activity. For a given neuron to spike, a huge amount of contingent information must have flowed through the earlier stages of the network before arriving at the neuron in question. It will then fire or not depending on the state of the network prior to receiving its input. In a way, each spike is a report of that neuron’s tuned appraisal of all previous network activity. Instead of being an elemental calculation, that spike is a report of an enormous amount of previous calculation. Just how much at an arbitrary unit is unknown, but we can take a look at some simple examples to get an appreciation of how much information must be conveyed by the lonely spike.
In the retina, light is collected by specialized cells called rods and cones. Cones detect the wavelength and presence of light, while rods just detect presence. Rods are sensitive to low light conditions while cones require more light to be active. Each of these is connected to a ganglion cell through bipolar cells. The bipolar cell signals to the ganglion the state of the light receptor by firing spikes into the ganglion cell’s dendritic arbors. The three types of retinal ganglion cell receive inputs from either a few, many or very many rod and cone cells. Each time these cells send a spike, that single spike represents the collective activity of a few to hundreds of other cells: rods and cones to detect the presence and type of light, bipolar cells to collect and transform this signal into something the rest of the retina can understand, horizontal and amacrine cells to add a layer of processing to amplify differences in contrast and rate of change of illumination and the ganglion cells themselves which send their reports on to the thalamus for further processing before going to the extremely large vision processing regions in the cortex. Even at this retinal level, one spike represents a very large number of elemental detection events. The physiology of the cells themselves adds information to the content of the spikes. Complex interactions between the membrane, the receptors, the detailed morphology of the cytoskeleton, which soluble proteins exist in which parts of the cytoplasm, the enormous amount of information in the nucleus stored as DNA and written into RNA as needed to control the dynamics of how the cell responds to its environment, all this information goes into whether or not there will be a spike and a spike represents all of this information.
And this is at the most basic primary sensory level. What happens when the spike arrives in the cortex? It meets countless other spikes, constant and ongoing network activity that its presence modifies. As cells further and further downstream from our sensory spike receive their inputs and spike in turn, these represent in some way all the previous spikes. The information-dense spike from the ganglion cell now explodes into spikes laden with context and memory, an enormous amount of information that is embodied by the physical matter of the cells themselves.
What does a spot of light mean? If you are underground in a cave and want to escape, it means something much different than if you are in a desert looking for shade. There has to be memory, so one knows what this event means for the organism. One must remember being trapped in a cave or being stranded in a desert. This information-dense context, a galaxy of spikes in its own right, takes the single ganglion spike, representing hundreds of other cells, as a meaningful stimulus that has relevant implications for the organism.
One can make a counterargument that each individual neuron, however complex, only knows if it receives a spike or not and does not need to know the previous state of the whole network for it to respond in a meaningful way. This is true, at least for a physical system like a brain. To simulate this in a computer would require more information than just an abstract spiking function at every synapse at an average rate. The computer would need to hold a physical model of each neuron and their activity constantly in memory because each unit is constantly being used, modifying the function of a huge number of the network’s other units, or potentially all of them.
One could say a digital computer FLOP needs to know the previous results of the prior FLOPs in order to make its calculation. After all, it operates in a serial fashion but this is not the same. The results of the operation are stored in a central addressed memory until they are needed again, so the history is stored in a memory bank separate from the processing units.
A neuron is both processor and memory. Its changeable physical structure is a record of its previous activity. Therefore, for a spike to be meaningful, it must take into account the complete biophysical configuration of the neuron that fired it. Since this is a dynamic and constantly changing process, a digital computer must model all this complex physics to decide to fire a spike, adding enormously to the computational complexity.
We can now see that comparing a spike to a FLOP is a spurious argument, based on a superficially hasty analogy between neural action potentials and serial processor operations. A CPU call is an elemental calculation in which some, in my case, 64-bit binary number is pulled from memory and subjected to a rule which transforms it into another 64-bit number and sends it back to memory. The FLOP needs only enough information to address the memory and hold the actual number. The spike depends on the entire biophysical configuration of the neuron as well as the entire history of the network and its activity that led to its being fired.
Therefore, we can see how doubting the claim that a spike is in any way equivalent to an elemental arithmetic calculation – a FLOP – is reasonable and persuasive.
Assumption 2: The spike is the unitary, constant unit of information transmission in the brain.
There are a variety of subtle neurobiological facts that render this assumption unsound, but let’s take first the most glaringly obvious. The brain is not composed entirely of neurons. Astrocytes are a critical cell type absolutely necessary for brain function. Many, if not most, synapses in the brain are abutted by an astrocytic process. These cells uptake excess glutamate to protect the neurons from the toxic effects of too high a concentration of the neurotransmitter in the synapse. They also bring nutrients to every neuron in the brain by reaching out to blood vessels and shuttling energy molecules and removing waste. They also communicate with each other through beautiful curtains of calcium waves that propagate through astrocytic gap junctions, affecting their duties to the neurons. These is even some evidence that neurons can communicate directly with astrocytes and vice versa through releasing a neurotransmitter, although this is still not widely agreed upon. Astrocytes are also the cause of the BOLD signal that is detected in functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) research. They bring oxygenated blood to the neurons which are highly active and they remove the deoxygenated blood that forms the basis of the signal. The dynamics of this process are constrained by the physiology of the astrocyte, lending a layer of complexity to interpretation of fMRI experiment results.
The number of astrocytes in a human brain outstrips the number of neurons by an order of magnitude. There are 10 times more astrocytes than neurons and the kind and quantity of information processing they add to the network is largely unknown at this point. Any putative comparison between a computer’s speed and the brain’s “speed” that does not take in to account the contribution of the astrocytes is meaningless.
Next, neurons are constantly signaling to each other without spiking. A spike only occurs if the membrane potential reaches a threshold value at the initial segment of the axon. Neurons continuously send transmitters to each other such as peptides, growth factors, steroid hormones, paracrine and autocrine signals and small molecules which cause subthreshold changes in the downstream neurons. These changes can manifest as an oscillation in the subthreshold potential, allowing temporal gating of a continuous input signal. Only when the intrinsic oscillation reaches its peak coincident with an incoming signal will the neuron spike. This process takes energy and must be maintained. It takes a great deal of information to describe these kinds of interactions. Subthreshold signaling can also lead to rearrangement of the internal environment of the cell, movement of proteins in the membrane, removal of proteins from the membrane, rearrangement of their relative positions or the configuration of the organelles supporting complex physiology. All this constitutes detailed, information-dense events that are represented by the presence of a spike.
Therefore, there are a number of fairly well understood processes within the brain that exchange information in the absence of spikes. Ignoring these just to take the low-hanging fruit of one spike = one FLOP is superficial and unrealistic. If we are really to be able to understand the brain in order to simulate it one day, we must above all be realistic.
Part 2 – A Detailed Look at a Non-Spike Information Process
“Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.” – Matthew 13:12
The Matthew Principle holds just as true in the brain as it does on the internet or in a social network. The rich get richer and websites with huge numbers of links attract the most attention, adding even more links. An already potentiated synapse is more likely to become activated and therefore potentiate again. Though this is pleasant for the wealthy and excellent business for large websites as they gain material advantages from such uneven and self-perpetuating resource allocation, were this to happen in the brain, the whole delicate dance of synaptic transmission would come quickly crashing to a halt as out-of-control positive feedback pushes the neural tissue into a runaway, epileptic, excitotoxic death spiral. Indeed, this very basic theory for how the brain learns, from the days of neuropsychology pioneer Donald Hebb to today, holds within it the seeds of its own destruction. Yet, as you and I can attest from our very existence, sitting here now, reading or writing these words, this does not happen.
Sure, the brain can get out of control and some people can experience periods of runaway excitation. Epilepsy is a serious, devastating disease that affects millions of humans and animals throughout the world. But this is not the normal state. Somehow the brain compensates for this mechanism of learning and memory in a way that undoes this destructive positive feedback. Yet this very compensation leads to difficult questions about the very nature of memory and consciousness in the brain, questions that must be recognized and addressed as we continue to develop our understanding of how the brain works.
The basic mechanism of long-term potentiation follows Hebb’s rule, at least schematically. Those that fire together, wire together. When one neuron synapsing on a second sends a strong enough signal to activate the second neuron, the connection between them becomes stronger. The second neuron (we call it the post-synaptic neuron) is aware of its own firing through somatic mechanisms involving calcium concentration mediated by L-type voltage gated calcium channels. This signal, embodied by the calcium is transduced through members of the calcium-calmodulin kinase family which lead to a variety of cellular metabolic processes. The binding of transmitters onto receptors in the particular synapses that were activated enough to cause this somatic depolarization causes local changes that increase the depolarization upon subsequent binding of the same amount of transmitter. In a later phase, substances made by the metabolism processes caused by increased somatic calcium are thought to be detected by the activated synapse and incorporated, leading to a longer term strengthening of the target synapse.
This means a subsequent signal from the first to the second at the same strength will be more likely to cause the second neuron to activate. The actual physiological mechanisms behind this are legion. The balance between the fluid number of AMPA receptors, the stately and discriminating NMDA receptors, the forest of post-synaptic active zone material, dynamic cytoskeleton, dendritic polyribosome availability, synaptic mRNA and spine apparatus configurations, among others; all these work together to actually underlay the potentiation in ways we are learning about every day.
One might think the way to prevent positive feedback from getting out of control would be to depress the potentiated synapses, or at least depress other synapses onto the same neuron. A little thought reveals this is no answer because to depress the potentiated synapses would erase the differences gained through potentiation, erasing a memory or an association. This would defeat the brain’s purpose entirely. Depressing other synapses on the same neuron would also not help. You can only depress something to zero, but an out-of-control positive feedback loop can go to infinity or at least until the system destroys itself.
The method the brain seems to employ to prevent this destructive feedback is called synaptic homeostasis. Before, we said the cell was aware of its own activity. It detects this by calcium concentration in the soma. Beyond this, it also can detect its level of activity. An activity level that is too high develops when the calcium concentration gets too big. This causes a negative feedback process leading to the elimination of excitatory receptors and even whole synaptic spines throughout the entire cell.
One would imagine that only the synapses that had strengthened too much would have their efficacy lowered, but this is not the case. Where a dendritic spine had 10 receptors before (this is a hypothetical example), after the downscaling it would have 5 whereas a neighboring spine which had 4 receptors now has 2. This causes the entire cell to regulate its ability up and down to sense incoming information from the network. However, once we have a mechanism that prevents synapses from becoming too strong, despite their continued co-activation we are left with a series of difficult conceptual problems.
Now we have as a constant the relative strengths of all the synapses on a given neuron. We say it is constant though the strength of a given synapse can move up or down depending on activity, but we mean that the scaling takes the current relative strength of all synapses and preserves it. We are now left with the input-to-output problem. If synapse X leads to activation pattern (spike train) X1, and synapse Y leads to spike train Y1, a compensatory synaptic scaling might lead pattern Y1 to look like X1, destroying the ability of the neuron to report differences in its input by its output. Indeed, different regions of the brain probably encode information differently. The presence of a spike in one region may signify something but in another, some rate of spikes or the change in the rate of some constant spike train might be the meaningful event.
If there is a process that can destroy the unique mapping of some input onto some output, what does that mean for cognition and memory? If memory is this differential ratio between strong and weak synapses that the neuron scales itself to preserve, outputs should lose a lot of information encoded as the absolute strength of these connections. How can we think memory is merely the strength of some synapses?
Really understanding which processes within the brain are correlated with, lead to or actually are cognition, memory, and consciousness is absolutely necessary before any fantasy of uploading or simulation can ever hope to be realized. Not only will we have to know how each of these conceivably separate processes underlie aspects of cognition or consciousness, or indeed if they do at all, we must also understand how physical changes at a level at least at the scale of individual proteins lead to changes in network activity and onward to higher order mental abstractions including consciousness and self.
We cannot say the brain is a computer and try to reconcile poorly understood facts about it with an old-fashioned concept of a digital process. For example, one cannot in any way meaningful way try to claim the brain is a processor that computes at X operations per second. People like Kurzweil have attempted this and these phantasms become gaping holes in their arguments because intellectual weight is placed upon their being true, when in fact there is no way to evaluate the truth value of these kinds of propositions.
True, the human brain has about 100 billion neurons, but this is far from certain. No one has ever counted; this is an estimate. There are far more cells of other kinds within the skull than neurons, astrocytes for example. Also, one cannot extrapolate from this number, multiply by the average number of synapses per cell, then multiply by the average rate of spiking and claim this is a digital process equal to that many events per second. A spike is not a FLOP. What one spike represents is almost always unknown. There are a very few instances when it can be claimed that a single spike leads to the detection of some external event. This is the case in some touch receptors on the skin. However, in this case a single spike represents a huge amount of information: pressure, location and duration. Once it arrives at the brain, it explodes into contextual meaning modified by the local environment and the entire history of the organism.
Thinking of how these complex metabolic and homeostatic processes work with the network is informative if we truly wish to understand how cognition, memory, and consciousness are supported by brain activity. Which components map to what? What parts of the brain map to which parts of the mind? Can we even think of cognition and mind like this? What is the role of the shape of the plasma membrane of a neuron? Where is the information stored? Is it the kind and density of molecules in a synapse, the configuration of receptors and scaffolding skeleton in a post-synaptic density? The shape and extent of organelles like the endoplasmic reticulum? The metabolic pathways connecting the genetic material in the nucleus to the environment? Any of it? All of it? Any hope of uploading or simulation is a mere mirage until we know which parts of the brain lead to which parts of the mind.


A meme has been floating around Facebook lately with a quote from Theodore Roosevelt. The quote reads:
“Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.”
Of course, if a nation is to be united, there must be a unifying language. When Italy unified in 1860, the Italian government legislated that they would be unified under the Florentine dialect, which would later become known as Italian. On the other hand, there are countries such as India that remain linguistically diverse despite being unified politically. The spoken language changes from region to region, or from city to city.
However, Roosevelt failed to take into consideration the natural process of the evolution of language — he attempted to resist the linguistically inevitable in the name of American nationalism.
One of the main principles of human language is that it evolves. Take, for example, the English language. Old English technically does not appear until 600 A.D. The development of the English language can be divided into four large stages throughout its history: Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English and Modern English.
If a community is healthy and global, it develops. If a language is not developing, like the Älvdalsk, an old Norse language spoken in a section of Sweden, it’s because the community has been isolated.
However, this is not the situation in which America finds itself. America is a global power. We exchange information and inventions with other world powers and thus adopt bits and pieces of other languages from other nations.
In addition to this, we are a nation of immigrants. The number of linguistic influences that infiltrate American English is unbelievable. You know the phrase “capisce?” That’s a derogatory form of “hai capito?” which the Sicilian-Americans brought over. “Squash?” That’s from eastern Native American tribes. “Boss?” That’s Dutch.
English is not a holy, untainted language. Like every other language spoken by human beings, it is affected by outside sources, and it develops. One has to learn to read the English of the 700s; one cannot just simply pick up the literature from that period and expect to read it unchallenged.
In addition to the linguistic impossibility of isolating English from influences in a very global world, it is unreasonable to expect all immigrants to learn a complicated language such as English within five years.
Yes, if they are going to work in the United States, they will be naturally forced to learn English out of necessity.
But what about that old Russian woman who was fleeing communism with her children? Is she supposed to learn English at 85 or be deported at 90? Or those trying to recover their lives after fleeing violence? Are we going to send them back because they couldn’t learn English within a five-year period?
Roosevelt’s idea of forcing immigrants to learn English within five years is unreasonable and is an attempt to resist the inevitable development of the English language.
If a country wishes to be completely monolinguistic, it must cut off all ties with any other linguistic influence and ban the further development of slang, another thoroughly natural form of linguistic development.


Inspired by the ABIM Foundation’s Choosing Wisely® campaign, the “Things We Do for No Reason” series reviews practices which have become common parts of hospital care but which may provide little value to our patients. Practices reviewed in the TWDFNR series do not represent “black and white” conclusions or clinical practice standards, but are meant as a starting place for research and active discussions among hospitalists and patients. We invite you to be part of that discussion.
A four-year-old girl, with a history of one wheezing episode, presents to the emergency department (ED) with wheezing, tachypnea, and respiratory distress. She receives three successive treatments of short-acting bronchodilators and is given one dose of dexamethasone, after which she improves significantly. Because of persistent tachypnea and wheezing, she is admitted for further management. By the next day she is much improved, now requiring bronchodilator treatment every four hours. She receives a second dose of dexamethasone to complete her steroid burst. Was the trajectory of this patient’s illness altered by treatment with systemic corticosteroids (SCS)? Is there any benefit to SCS treatment in a wheezing preschool-aged patient?
Wheezing is common in preschool-aged children (ages 2-5 years), with up to half in this age group having experienced a wheezing episode and up to one-third, recurrent wheezing.1,2 Young children with wheezing require ED visits and hospitalizations at much higher rates than older children and adults.3 Several studies have also demonstrated that children in this age group have higher rates of SCS prescriptions compared with older children.4,5 Despite the high prevalence of wheezing in this age group, there is great heterogeneity in the etiology and clinical progression of early childhood wheezing, with up to six described phenotypes each with varying levels of association with the development of asthma.6 Given the high frequency of asthma, preschool-aged children admitted with wheezing are often treated with SCS, as this is the standard of care for an acute asthma exacerbation.7
WHY YOU MIGHT THINK SYSTEMIC CORTICOSTEROIDS WOULD BE HELPFUL IN TREATING PRESCHOOL WHEEZE
The benefit of SCS in school-aged children and adolescents with multitrigger asthma exacerbation is well established and includes shorter time to resolution of acute illness and reduction in relapses.8 Because of these benefits, expert panels and regulatory agencies often include preschool-aged children in treatment recommendations for the older age groups.7,9,10 Consequently, apart from infants diagnosed with bronchiolitis, SCS remain a common and accepted treatment for young children presenting with asthma-like symptoms.4,5
Some data suggest that there may be clinical benefit from treatment with SCS in preschool children who wheeze. A recent trial by Foster et al. included 605 children, aged 24-72 months, presenting to a pediatric ED with wheeze plus viral upper respiratory symptoms.11 Patients were randomized to receive a three-day course of prednisolone (1 mg/kg) or placebo. The primary outcome was length of hospital stay until ready for discharge, which they found was significantly longer for placebo-treated patients (540 minutes) versus prednisolone (370 minutes).
WHY SYSTEMIC CORTICOSTEROIDS ARE NOT ROUTINELY HELPFUL IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN WHO WHEEZE
There are few randomized controlled trials evaluating the efficacy of SCS in preschool-aged children with viral-induced wheezing, and these children are often grouped with younger or older children in studies. While limited in number, these studies have evaluated SCS efficacy with acute wheezing in preschool-aged children in outpatient, ED, and inpatient settings (Appendix Table).12-16 The majority of trials of SCS in this age group have shown mixed or negative results.
Admission rates for preschoolers with viral wheezing were not statistically different in those receiving oral prednisolone versus placebo in a study conducted by Oomen et al. evaluating outpatient, parent-initiated prednisolone.14 Tal et al. found overall benefit with reduced admission rate for patients treated in the ED with methylprednisolone versus placebo; however, this finding was not statistically significant in patients 24-54 months old.16
For those requiring hospitalization, length of hospital stay and time until readiness to discharge were the primary outcomes assessed by Panickar et al. and Jartti et al. Neither study found a statistically significant difference between groups who received oral prednisolone versus placebo for 3 or 5 days. Secondary outcomes such as symptom scores, symptom duration, albuterol use, and 60-day relapse rate were also not improved in those taking oral prednisolone compared with placebo.14,15
The mixed results of studies assessing the efficacy of SCS in preschool-aged wheezing children may be attributed to the fact that wheezing in this age group likely represents multiple underlying processes. Most acute wheezing at this age is not associated with atopy and is often triggered by viral respiratory tract infections.17 Furthermore, 90% of wheezing in children under the age of five years does not persist to the asthma phenotype (recurrent episodes with multiple triggers, airway obstruction, and hyper-responsiveness) once they reach school age.18
While SCS are generally not expensive, their use is not without cost. Studies of oral corticosteroid use in children with asthma have shown adverse effects including vomiting, hypertension, and impaired growth.19 Children with recurrent wheeze receiving SCS may demonstrate biochemical hypothalamic-pituitary-axis dysfunction.20 Given the high utilization and SCS prescription rates in this age group, reducing the use of SCS with wheezing episodes could have a large clinical and financial impact.3,4 These medications should be used judiciously in order to balance benefit with potential risks.
WHEN MIGHT SYSTEMIC CORTICOSTEROIDS BE HELPFUL IN WHEEZING PRESCHOOLERS
Given that there is diversity in the phenotype of preschool-aged children who wheeze, it is possible that a subset of these children would benefit from SCS. Some studies have shown that certain groups of patients derive benefit, including those with rhinovirus infection, eczema, and children at higher risk for multitrigger asthma.11,13 Children who have atopic wheeze are more likely to have persistent symptoms that may eventually be diagnosed as asthma.18 These children will have airway inflammation secondary to eosinophilic infiltration and may be responsive to SCS at times of exacerbation. However, attempts to classify preschool children based on risk of asthma have not shown consistent results.
The Asthma Predictive Index (API), a tool developed as a part of the Tucson Children’s Respiratory Study, uses clinical factors including history of wheeze, atopic dermatitis, and allergic rhinitis to determine a young child’s risk of having asthma symptoms after age six years.21 Jartti et al. and Panickar et al. used the API to stratify patients based on future asthma risk.13,15 The high risk group in the Jartti et al. study showed the benefit of SCS, while there was no benefit in the Panickar et al. study. When Oommen et al. also attempted to stratify asthma risk using levels of blood eosinophil proteins, which when elevated, are predictive of persistent wheeze.14 There was no difference in drug efficacy between patients with high and low blood eosinophil proteins. Although Foster et al. demonstrated shorter length of stay (LOS) with SCS overall, this was only seen in the subgroup with a previous diagnosis of asthma.
Patients presenting with severe disease (including those requiring critical care or with the highest symptom scores) have mostly been excluded from these studies. Although patients with severe disease often receive steroids, there is insufficient evidence of the efficacy of SCS in this population.12,13,15,22 Foster et al. did include patients with high symptom scores (although they excluded patients with “critical wheeze”) and found that the efficacy of SCS was clearest for those with severe presentations.11
Finally, some studies have demonstrated a virus-specific effect, with a reduction in time to readiness for discharge and reduction in recurrent wheeze in children treated with prednisolone who were positive for rhinovirus.12,23 Rhinovirus infection has also been associated with allergic sensitization and recurrent wheezing.23,24 However, rhinovirus-specific steroid responsiveness has not been consistently replicated by other investigators.11
WHAT YOU SHOULD DO INSTEAD
The majority of preschool-aged children presenting with wheeze in the care of hospitalists have mild to moderate symptoms, triggered by viral infections.22 It can be helpful to categorize the wheezing child as atopic or nonatopic. Laboratory studies such as allergen-specific IgE, peripheral eosinophil count, and exhaled nitric oxide can aid in predicting response to asthma medications and progression to the classic asthma phenotype.25 In the absence of these diagnostic studies, which are often costly and challenging to obtain in young children, a clinical score such as the API, or the recently validated Pediatric Asthma Risk Score (PARS), can help to assess future risk of developing multitrigger asthma.21,26 A positive API requires a history of more than three episodes of wheeze over the past year as well as one major (physician-diagnosed atopic dermatitis or parental asthma) or two minor (peripheral blood eosinophilia, physician-diagnosed allergic rhinitis, or wheezing apart from colds) criteria.17 It has a sensitivity of 57% and specificity of 81%.26 The PARS uses the presence of parental asthma, eczema, early wheezing, wheezing apart from colds, African-American race, and ≥2 positive skin prick tests to predict asthma. The sensitivity and specificity of PARS are similar to the API at 68% and 79%, respectively.26
Given the mixed results from studies evaluating the benefit of SCS in preschoolers with atopic symptoms and/or a positive API, evidence is lacking to guide decision-making in these children.13-15 However, it is reasonable to treat those at higher risk for future multitrigger asthma with SCS. There is also insufficient evidence to determine whether those with more severe disease or those infected with particular viral pathogens may benefit. Therefore, for the majority of children presenting with viral-induced wheezing, with a negative API or low PARS, there is no evidence that treatment with an SCS provides benefit in the form of reduced LOS, reduction in clinical symptoms, treatment failure, or relapse rate.
- Do not routinely treat with SCS preschool-aged children who have episodic wheezing triggered by viral respiratory tract infections and who do not have risk factors for persistent asthma.
- For preschool-aged children with a history of atopy, a positive API, or elevated PARS, SCS can be considered during admissions for respiratory distress and wheezing.
- Preschool-aged children presenting with severe disease or requiring intensive care may benefit from SCS, but there is insufficient evidence to conclude whether this practice provides benefit.
Current evidence does not support the routine use of SCS for preschool-aged children admitted for mild to moderate wheezing episodes. The majority of these children have viral episodic wheeze that does not develop into the asthma phenotype. For children with severe disease or at higher risk for asthma, SCS may be considered, although there remains insufficient evidence as to their efficacy. The patient in the introductory case lacks risk factors that would suggest SCS responsiveness (eg, positive API, previous asthma diagnosis, inhaled corticosteroid use, or severe disease) and would likely receive no clinical benefit from dexamethasone treatment.
Do you think this is a low-value practice? Is this truly a “Thing We Do for No Reason?” Share what you do in your practice and join in the conversation online by retweeting it on Twitter (#TWDFNR) and liking it on Facebook. We invite you to propose ideas for other “Things We Do for No Reason” topics by emailing.
Dr. Jennifer O’Toole consulted with and received honoraria payment from the I-PASS Patient Safety Institute. She also holds stock options in the I-PASS Patient Safety Institute, a nonpublicly traded company. Drs. Jones and Hubbell have nothing to disclose.
Dr. Thomson was supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality under award number K08HS025138.


In India the children are the silent sufferers. They do not speak out and if they speak no one trusts them. Harmful traditional practices like child marriage ,caste system, discrimination against the girl child ,child labour and Devadasi tradition impact negatively on children and increase their vulnerability to abuse and neglect. Lack of adequate nutrition, poor access to medical and educational facilities, migration from rural to urban areas leading to rise in urban poverty, children on the streets and child beggars, all result in breakdown of families. This increases the vulnerability of children and exposes them to situations of abuse and exploitation.
The child abuse should be prevented at three levels:
At the primary level, the parents should be made aware of the rights of the child and the long term effects of the abuse on the personality development of the child.
At the secondary level, there should be early detection of causes of child abuse, quick intervention and provision of a supportive environment in schools and families.
At the tertiary level, there should be involvement of the police, courts, counselors, doctors and social workers.
The preventive measures in detail are as follows:
1. Awareness and Education
Proper education helps in creating awareness of the dangers of child abuse. Education on child abuse should be integrated in school and college curriculum. The mass media should provide enough publicity to the news of child abuse and try to generate a mass discussion on this topic.
2. Family Support
The family members of the child should understand that a healthy environment at home leads to a healthy child. A good parent-child relationship at home helps to create an environment where the child is confident, wanted, secured and where he can share all his feelings, his joys and sorrows. The parents should understand the intellectual limits of their child and they should keep their expectations from the child accordingly. The parents should not involve in useless comparison of their child with the other children. This will definitely create a positive impact on the personality development of the child.
3. Counselling Centres
The counseling centres may have helpline numbers for easy accessibility for the child to seek help. They may help the child to cope with traumatic situations. They help to improve the child’s ability to perform better. They also helps to improve te inter-personal relations and help to develop self-confidence.
4. Role of the NGO’s
The NGO’s should take active steps in preventing child abuse. They may work in areas like sexual abuse of child, street children , child labour etc.
5. Government Measures
The government should organize anti-child abuse campaigns. It should heavily fine and lay strict punishments to the offenders of child abuse. The government should gather support from the NGOs, the Police to find incidences of child abuse and should punish the abusers. The government should enact laws against child abuse. Infact in March 2011, the government has passed THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN FROM SEXUAL OFFECNCES BILL to protect the children from sexual abuse, sexual harassment and child pornography.


Last year, Asian Community AIDS Services (ACAS) introduced a group of LGBT brochures for parents and youth. This year, they will focus their attention on reaching transgender youth and their families by creating two culturally and linguistically appropriate educational booklets.
“It’s a very difficult topic to talk about, especially between a LGBTQ-identified child and their parents and to have something like this is a good starting point,” says Inex B Incubury, who is leading the project and works as the Women’s Education and Outreach Coordinator at ACAS.
In a recent online opinion poll held by ACAS’ Queer Asian Youth program, 100 percent of the 30 LGBT youth who responded expressed the need for trans-specific educational resources.
Specifically within the Asian community, ACAS has found that when parents conducted research about transgender issues in their own language, most of the resources were transphobic and contained inaccurate and/or harmful information.
ACAS says the need for more resources has been echoed within the community, and they have received feedback from youth wanting see a translation of current and accurate information on the challenges for trans youth.
For Incubury, creating a stand-alone resource focusing on transgender identity is necessary due to a lack of understanding between sexual orientation and gender identity with South and Southeast Asian parents.
“A lot of times there’s no clear understanding between a trans woman and a gay man, for example, or a trans man and a lesbian,” says Incubury.
“It is embedded in the culture, so it’s one of those things that’s not easy to address because it’s not one workshop or one sit-down with people,” adds Incubury. “It’s a continuous dialogue that needs to happen, especially if the family have a transgender youth.”
Two versions of the brochure will be developed — one aimed at parents explaining what it means if a family member is trans and how to support them, and the other aimed at youth, which will include information on how to speak to their family about gender identity.
“Generally speaking, second and third generations are more open to their children being LGBTQ-identified. However, with newcomers that’s not the case, especially when we’re talking about countries where it’s a bigger stigma than it is here to be trans-identified,” says Incubury.
Both brochures versions will be distributed in print and online and translated to seven Asian languages, including Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai and Tagalog. The Rainbow Grant from the Community One Foundation granted ACAS $5,000 for the project.
ACAS is currently in development phase of this year-long project and conducting interviews with trans youth and their families to help inform the content of their brochures. In order to address the needs of the community, ACAS will also work with the Asian LGBT community and their family members to establish an advisory committee to guide the development of the brochures, collect input and recommendations through a focus group or interviews, and translate the resources.
The release of the brochures is expected in April 2017.


Expert advice for the beginning gardener
by Maggie Brundige
Kaneland Krier Reporter
Spring is here, which means itâ€™s time to pull your green thumbs out of your pockets and begin planting.
Illinois has the perfect climate for not only flower gardens, but for vegetable gardens too. This is because the area gets enough precipitation throughout the year to moisten the soil, which is perfect for the growth and development of plants, Laura Widhalm, Kaneland High School horticulture teacher, said.
Selecting the right spot, and the plants that will thrive there, is key.
â€œYou need to know how much sunlight your plants need so you can pick a spot on your land to start your garden,â€ Tim Norris, of Spring Bluff Nursery in Sugar Grove, said. â€œYou will need to till the spot and fertilize it before you plant, as well as after.â€ Make sure water is accessible.
Norris and Widhalm offered the following tips for beginning gardeners:
1. Begin by finding an open piece of land to start your garden.
2. Till the soil with a shovel making sure every chunk of dirt is broken up evenly, giving your plants ability to breath.
3. Both vegetable and flower gardens need fertilizer to enhance the quality and growth. Lightly sprinkle fertilizer over the tilled soil, and mix it together with a shovel.
4. For a vegetable garden, the soil must be moistened, so gently sprinkle water on top with a hose until a layer of water is formed. Once all of the standing water has absorbed into the soil, begin planting seeds.
How much maintenance the garden will require varies, depending on the type of garden.
â€œThe type of garden will determine the amount of care needed every day. The basic tools you will need to take care of your garden will be a hoe shovel and a hose,â€ Andie Strang, a Kaneland High School junior whose family owns Strang Inc., said.
Strang said growing vegetables and flowers is a fairly easy task, but that beginning gardeners need to understand that gardening takes time.
â€œIf they research and take time, itâ€™s easy,â€ Strang said. â€œBut they have to put in more than one dayâ€™s effort. Gardening is a daily job.â€
Norris advised regular care as well.
â€œWeed on a daily basis, keeping the garden neat and clean,â€ Norris advised.
â€œYou will need to water it every day to keep them growing.â€
Vegetable gardens need water twice a day in order to grow healthy and develop to their full potential, Strang said.
â€œEvery specific plant needs specific care. Knowing the needs of each plant is extremely important,â€ Strang said.


In the summer of 2021, we witnessed Western and Central Europe fall victim to extreme flooding. Germany was particularly affected, with the federal states of North Rhine-Wetsphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate suffering considerable damage. More than 180 people lost their lives as a result of this disaster. To make matters worse, the whole world was still in the middle of a pandemic, and Germany was no exception. The two crises were now intertwined.


Teaching Children/Youth Coping Skills for Stress Management
"Your Body Changes with Stress."Within this lesson children are taught to name and demonstrate body change. For example, the teacher introduces the "sad" feeling and says,"When you are sad you might cry and your eyes get red and swollen and you make a frown. Teacher demonstrates body changes for children to see, then children imitate the sad feeling. They learn that body changes are called stress.
"Deep Breathing and Relaxation."The children participate in exercises to relax their bodies through deep breathing,muscle relaxation, and imagery relaxation. Numerous breathing exercises are supplemented with art, science, and manipulative activities, as well as dramatic plays, which have children involved in role playing and deep breathing when they are sad, mad, scared, and happy.
The Muscle relaxation techniques are similar to those you may have read about for adults, but they are well-explained and demonstrated to children. Fun muscle/tension games are included. With a Great deal of discussion and involvement, children learn positive image relaxation. It is very important to equip children with skills that help them become adequately prepared to handle the stress in their lives effectively and to improve their decision-making and problem solving skills. The Pre-School Stress Relief Project is designed to teach children coping skills early to equip them to deal with life's stressful events in a healthy manner that leads to wellness in our society. Primary prevention is defined as lowering the incidence of emotional disorder by reducing stress and promoting conditions that increase confidence and coping skills (Albee and Gullotta, 1992) Stress cannot be taught to show one how to positively deal with it. Young children cope with many things. It can be excitement of going to a birthday party or recieving a new puppy. Or it can be coping with family separations or the anger of trying to accept a new baby to the home. All of these are examples of situations which may be stressful. That stress can be positive or negative. It can be the "spice of life" or it can be associated with life's pressures and tensions. Both good and bad stress can cause one's body to respond to change.
Parents can help children learn to cope with stressful situations such as these by preparing the child for change whenever possible. This will give the child time to adjust. Children are sensitive and may sense that changes are occurring and worry even more if they are not properly informed and prepared for change. Remember that children are resilient; they can bounce back and handle situations a lot better than we give them credit for.Be honest with the child about what is going on. When explaining stressful situation to the child, always be truthful. Provide the child with extra security before potentially stressful situations.
Teachers see children handling stress in different ways. Two children may respond to a classroom visit from Smokey the Bear (person dressed up in a bear costume) in two distinct ways. One may be fascinated, the other terrified. Within this situation, the first child might show outward emotions by a smiling face or by jumping up and down with excitement, while the second may withdraw and show signs of fearfulness or nail biting. Teachers can help children to cope with happy and scared emotions by talking with children about their feelings and concerns. Allow children to express their own feelings as you listen with an open mind. Let them know that you are concerned about their feelings.Â
In today's fast-paced society children are faced with more stressors than ever before. They must cope with increased rates of divorced, child neglect, negative community environmental conditions and substance abuse. When stress is over- whelming, children seek relief. One child may act out negatively while another may turn inward. Stress and the inability to effectively manage it can lead to alcohol and other drug abuse. There is a relationship between stressful conditions and substance abuse, and alcohol and other drug use are learned responses to stress. Therefore, it is very important to equip children early with skills that help them to effectively cope with the stress in their lives. The results of the lack of positive coping skills for children/youth can carry over to later years, where statistics indicate a sharp rise in substance abuse, crime, violent acts and suicide.
Parents and teachers can help children to express anger positively. Children have a right to feel angry or upset. Allow them the opportunity to express their feelings. Teach positive ways to release anger. They can punch a pillow (teaches children to punch soft things that does not hurt themselves or others), count to 10, talk to someone about angry feelings, go for a walk, or take time out to rest and realx. Positive anger releases gives the child time to accept his/her anger and not hurt themselves and others in the process.Â


The Wright brothers’ wing warping invention from their 1902 glider include an elevator (31) and a moveable rudder (22) that enabled a pilot to control roll (up and down movement of the wings), pitch (up and down movement of the aircraft’s nose), and yaw (side- to-side movement of the nose). This three-axis control proved to be the key innovation that made controlled, sustained flight possible. Between 1909 and 1917, Orville and Wilbur filed multiple lawsuits against other aircraft manufacturers who, they felt, had infringed upon their patent. The court battles were expensive, time consuming, and led to public feuds between the Wrights and aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss and the Smithsonian Institution.
Wright Brothers v. Curtiss
Glenn Curtiss gained national attention in 1908 when he piloted the June Bug, a plane he designed while working with Alexander Graham Bell’s Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) to win the Scientific American Trophy prize on July 4, 1908. Curtiss became the first American to fly an airplane at least one kilometer in the presence of judges. Following the dissolution of the AEA, Curtiss formed his own airplane company in 1909 and quickly found himself the target of a Wright brothers’ patent infringement lawsuit.
The Wrights argued that Curtiss infringed on their wing warping patent with the use of small, triangular flaps, or ailerons, placed at the end of wings to help control and steer his airplanes. After a lengthy legal battle, the courts sided with the Wright brothers, stating that their wing warping patent was a “pioneer” innovation rather than an improvement on an existing invention. This meant that, although Curtiss’s ailerons were built and controlled differently that the Wright’s wing warping mechanism, it was the principle of how to control an aircraft described in the Wright’s patent that was infringed upon.


General view of the camp
The camp of Plaszow was originally designed to be a work camp. However, like many other Nazi camps, shortages of food existed, prisoners starved or were worked to death, or summarily shot for no reason. The camp had been opened in December 1942. More than 150,000 civilians were held prisoner in Plaszow.
One use of slave labor was to obliterate all trace of earlier mass murders. At Himmler's instigation, a series of special units, known collectively as Unit 10051, were forced to dig up the putrefied corpses of those slain, to burn them, and scatter the ashes. This work took nearly two years and involved exhuming more than two million corpses.At Plaszow, in January 1945 a Unit 10051 was forced to exhume 9,000 bodies from 11 mass graves.
Other units, working at different times at the murder sites, were themselves murdered once their work was done. The SS wanted no trace to survive either of their crimes, or of the slave laborers who were being forced to hide them.
Kommando in Plaszow.
The conditions of life in this camp were made dreadful by the SS commander of the camp Amon Goeth . A prisoner in Plaszow was very lucky if he could survive in this camp more than four weeks. After the liberation, commander Amon Goeth had been turned over to the Polish officials, tried, sentenced to death and hanged. The camp shown in Spielberg's film "Schindler's List" is the exact description of Plaszow. Life for the inmates was usually short and miserable.
As the Russian forces advanced further and further westward, the Germans began the systematic evacuation of the slave labor camps in their path. From the camp at Plaszow, many hundreds were sent to Auschwitz, others westward to Mauthausen and Flossenburg on January 18th, 1945, the camp was evacuated by Death Marches, during which thousands of prisoners died from starvation, disease or were shot if they were too weak to walk.. The last prisoners were transferred to Germany on January 16th, 1945.


Dr. Sabrina Greenwell
2 June 2010
The Importance of Positivity Early in Childhood
What is positivity? Ram Dass captures the essence of positivity saying, “Consciousness = energy = love = awareness = light = wisdom = truth = purity. It’s all the SAME. Any trip you want to take leads to the SAME place” (qtd. in Nelson XI). So, on this journey called life, it is safe to assume that if put into practice, these things will make our trip a more productive and positive one. That being said, I believe, above all, love is the most valuable emotion you can give to a child. It is necessary for the development of positive behavior. Additionally and just as important, there needs to be some form of discipline as a guide to making good choices. Furthermore, it is imperative to teach children how to respect themselves and others so that they will be able to see the value of every human being. Love, discipline, and respect are the basic fundamentals for teaching our children the positive aspects of life. This will enable them to build the self-confidence needed from childhood to adulthood allowing them to excel in school, have long lasting relationships, and over all good health, thus living fulfilling lives.
Unquestionably, as adults, it is our responsibility to make sure our children grow up to become successful adults themselves. The most important asset we have to use in this endeavor is love. Generally speaking there are many ways to express love to a child. To begin with, say “I love you”. Those three little words a have major impact on children, so tell them every chance you get. As a result, when they have a bad day at school, lose something that is important them, or just can’t understand why they have to eat brussel sprouts, they will be able to communicate their concerns in a positive way. Equally important, is showing them love; for instance, hugging, cuddling, leaving notes in creative places, playing games, kissing, or reading together will let...
Cited: Anthony, Julian. “Parenting Children to Respect Themselves & Others - Replacing Rude Behavior with New Manners.” Ezine Articles. Ezine Articles, 18 Mar. 2010. Web. 3 June 2010.
The Holy Bible: King James Version. Ed. Cambridge: Press Syndicate. Print.
Nelson, Lisa M. Getting There! : 9 Ways to Help Your Kids Learn What Matter Most in Life. Boston: Journey, 2000. Print.
Tague, Hildra. “Teaching Children Respect for Self and Others.” Suite101.com. Suite101.com Media Inc., 10 Jan. 2009. Web. 3 June 2010.
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Calculate the age of your cat in human years
Nowadays cats tend to live longer - the average life-span of a 21st century cat is estimated at between 10-15 years. There are many contributing factors, including better diet, care and medical advances. Cats mature very early. After one year they are fully developed and have reached sexual maturity. So you could say that the childhood of a cat is very short when compared to humans. Indeed the first two years of a cat's life is when the relative age difference between humans and cats is geatest.
Using the form below you can compare your cat's age to relative human years. Remember that this conversion is only an approximation; but it is a useful tool to help you understand the physiological changes which your cat undergoes as she ages.


Isolasi Dan Karakterisasi Bakteri Simbion Larva Kupu-Kupu Cossus cossus Penghasil Enzim Selulase
This study was conducted to characterize bacterial symbionts of butterfly larvae Cossus cossus capable of degrading cellulose. This study successfully purify and characterize isolates originating from the intestine (CC1 and CC2), head (CC3), middle (CC4), and tail (CC5). From a qualitative test using 0.1% congo red gained the clear zone indicates that the bacteria are able to degrade cellulose. Based on the test temperature and pH on the growth of the data obtained CC5 isolates including isolates of thermophilic bacteria, while others including mesophilic bacteria. While based pH test all isolates were able to grow well at neutral pH. Based on the data obtained growth curve maximum bacterial growth at the 24th hour. Based on morphology and physiology test obtained bacteria genus Acinotobacter, Pseudomonas, and Bacillus.


Copyright ©2007 by Paul Niquette. All rights reserved.
as blossoms outnumber bees by a lot, the aptness of Mongut's metaphor resides
in mathematics not entomology. In the first place, worker bees are
female. Meanwhile, sophisticated solvers will doubtless answer the
the puzzle as follows:
If your answer is Case 1, you are in good -- at least plentiful -- company. Case 1 was derived from a survey recently published by the U.S. Government, which concluded that men reported a median of seven female sex partners, while women reported a median of four male sex partners.
According to an August 12, 2007 article in The New York Times, entitled "The Myth, the Math, the Sex" by Gina Kolata, in many research studies conducted all over the world, males report more sexual partners than females.
Conventional explanations based on natural selection will invariably embrace behavior differences consistent with Case 1. However, in human populations wherein 'blossoms' and 'bees' are approximately equal in number, both Case 1 and Case 2 are just about mathematically impossible, as we shall see.
Explaining the Impossible
The subject of this puzzle is extremely popular among psychologists and important to researchers on health-care issues. A web-search will confirm the availability of studies by the hundreds, each with lopsided results not much different from those on which the Materix puzzle is based. Explanations vary widely. Here begins our metanalysis...
We start by creating a matrix of a population, labeling
the columns with male identities M1,
and the rows with female identities
Let an entry of 1 in the matrix indicate a romantic relationship
between the corresponding male and female -- a mating (hence the
coinage here of the portmanteau 'materix').
After sprinkling in some 1s, here is how our population
Now, we add up all the columns and divide by m then add up all the rows and divide by n, thereby finding the mating averages for m males and for n females. If m = n, of course, the averages come out the same for both genders -- whatever the pattern of entries. That rules out both Case 1 and Case 2 and confirms our "both" as the solution to the Materix puzzle. Or so it seems.
It is easy to show that for Case 1 to prevail, m / n = 4 / 7. and that for Case 2, m / n = 7 / 4. For that amount of lopsidedness, there would have to be 75% more females than males in the population or vice versa. Give the previous sentence exclamatory punctuation if you like.
Both the Materix puzzle and the survey by the U.S. Government postulated...
(a) "questionnaires completed by an equal number of males and females" and...In the population materix above, let us suppose that questionnaires were given only to M1, M3, M5, F2, F4, F6. The averages would come out two for males and one for females, even though both genders participated equally in what might be called a sampling materix.
By the way, you may have noticed that none of the males and females in that particular sampling materix ever mated with each other. Whenever that takes place, the entry of 1 applies to both genders equally, shifting the averages toward each other.
rothels are often cited as exceptions, since they trade in transitory romantic relationships for males while not bumping up the averages for females within the population. Please note, however, the magnitude of the seven-to-four ratio requires the existence of a huge romance-for-finance industry, at the same time excluding prostitutes from the population materix. Oh, and what about female passengers on cruise ships and gigolos at ports o' call?
Nevertheless, several reseachers offer prostitution as an explanation for the lopsidedness. Entries outside the sampling materix, whether occurring in bordellos or motel rooms, will indeed have the power to skew the averages one way or the other. Let us suppose for the moment that the sampling materix does accurately represent the population materix. Some people will insist that, if m = n, the lopsidedness in Case 1 means that a large number of males must simply be selecting romantic partners from outside the population materix. Sure, and females don't ever do that?
Here's the kicker: statistics for partners outside of the population materix really ought to be tabulated along with their own romantic experiences, which effectively appropriates their outside partners into the population materix. In concept, then, both m and n may be driven to increase exponentially, limited ultimately by the carrying capacity of the planet whereupon m = n and neither Case 1 nor Case 2 can prevail.
It may be instructive to note that one study did not inquire about cumulative life-long mating experiences but about desires instead. The question was of the form, "How many romantic relationships do you want to have over the next year?" Differences in the gender-specific responses were quite pronounced: males saying "many" and females saying "only one."
Each romantic relationship being considered on this page assumes the participation of one gynotaxic male and one androtaxic female. Suppose that there is a common flaw herein and also in the worldwide studies -- that they all inadvertently included same-sex partnerships. Such romantic relationships would count twice for androtaxic males and zero for females. Or vice versa -- twice for gynotaxic females and zero for males. The explanation for the lopsidedness in Case 1 would then depend on the relative frequencies of each sexual orientation in the population compounded with the lopsided distribution of romantic partners reported by males and females in each category.
Sophisticated solvers try not to offer explanations for statistical anomalies by introducing statistical unknowables.
What about age? Curiously, the research to date appears to neglect this question. Unmistakable gender asymmetry is commonly observed, with males at any age favoring romantic relationships with females at younger ages while females at any age being potentially attracted to males of every age. Let us visualize that the questionnaires are segregated into stacks according to age.
The study would surely find that young men have fewer opportunities for romantic relationships than young women. A typical male’s mating prospects will start out limited mainly to females at his own age and then increase with age.
A young female, on the other hand, has more abundant choices than a young male. Beginning at the earliest adult age, a female has romantic access to the whole population of males, although young chicks will seldom go for old codgers when there are plenty of young studs around.
ost of the statistical studies you will find on the web take place in university settings. An eligibility materix limited in scope to young people will surely have m > n, which favors Case 2 not Case 1. As males get older, the number of eligible females gets steadily larger and so, presumably, will the reported quantity of romances with them. Meanwhile, unlike the male, the female enjoys a target population of eligible males that will decline steadily with her own age.
An eligibility materix of middle-aged people will probably have m < n, which does favor Case 1 -- but only if it's not too late. Matrimony and parenting will put the statistical brakes on accumulating romantic relationships by both males and females.
Sophisticated solvers may notice that the Materix puzzle statement used the word "typical" ("typical males"..."typical females"). You are invited to interpret that phraseology as merely an informal way of saying "average" or mean. Oh, but then it is surely fair to take "typical" to mean median, as explicitly depicted in the U.S. Government report.
Some writers have tried to explain gender asymmetry in terms of the mathematical distinctions that can arise between median and mean. That subject is treated at length in Revenge of the DAR, where the power of the median is seen to discard outliers (trollops and Lotharios) in estimating "central tendency" -- exactly the opposite of what one needs for explaining the lopsidedness in either Case 1 or Case 2.
One final parsing of the Materix puzzle statement brings the word "reported" into consideration. And for good reason. The data in all of the studies necessarily comes from the subjects themselves, with no feasible corroboration.
Several writers argue that gender-specific standards of deportment for many cultures will account for the differences in the reported numbers -- that if asked, a man, believing he will be admired for having accumulated a lot of romantic "conquests," may have an incentive to exaggerate, and a woman, expecting to garner more approval for having withheld her charms, will tend to minimize her numbers.
Some studies blame differences on the value assigned by the respective participants to past romantic relationships. Women are said to remember the specifics of each and every relationship, while men remember only generalities, which allows plenty of fuzziness in estimating the actual number.
One particular study may have teased some statistical truth out of the reported numbers using anonymity as the independent variable. The sample-sizes (in the dozens) were too small to be any more than suggestive; nevertheless, here is the protocol.
Half of the males and half of the females were assured that their questionnaires would be kept anonymous. The others were told that the identities of participants would be disclosed at the end of the study. The results were striking. Almost deserving an exclamation point.


2017, Cinncinnati, Ohio, USA
Jacob’s big project is a coloring book for kids developed and designed by Molly Mariani, Abi Barret and Ashley Moher. The coloring book has several interactive pages that gets students of all ages involved in the conservation message. Along with the book, Ashley, Molly and Abi designed several worksheets for different age children. The one for younger students has pictures and the kids describe whether it’s helpful or harmful. The worksheets for older kids include a vocabulary sheet.
The team knew from the start that they wanted to do a project that involved younger students. They didn’t just want to design a book, so they thought if they made it more interactive, they could get younger students to understand their role in protecting the environment. Designing a coloring book that the younger students could color on was one way the girls could get the students more involved. They also made a change to their original plan by adding the interactive worksheets so that they could measure the students understanding of the problems and test their knowledge. The addition really boosted their project because it allowed them to measure their success through the kid’s ability to complete the activity worksheets.
To implement their project, Ashley, Molly and Abi visited local schools, which included a preschool and an elementary school. For the preschoolers, they read the book aloud to them then the preschoolers completed the “helpful or harmful” activity. For the elementary school visit, the kids read along with the story and colored the book. After the book was finished, they completed the vocab sheet to apply their knowledge.


Parasaurolophus is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur that lived in what is now North America during the Late Cretaceous Period, about 76.5–73 million years ago. It was an herbivore that walked both as a biped and a quadruped. Three species are recognized: P. walkeri (the type species), P. tubicen, and the short-crested P. cyrtocristatus. Remains are known from Alberta (Canada), and New Mexico and Utah (USA). The genus was first described in 1922 by William Parks from a skull and partial skeleton in Alberta.
By Mike1989 @ 2012-11-16 09:12:24


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1978 Greece 100 Drachmas Banknote 43750682
This is a great little example of the now superseded currency banknote from 1978 Greece valued at 100 Drachma or Drachmae depending on your preference.
The note is overall in above average condition and would make a splendid addition to any world currency collection.
Featuring Athena of Piraeus, the Charioteer of Delphi and the classic scholar Adamantios Korais it is a history lesson on a single piece of paper.
The photographs show a true representation of its grade and condition.
The Bank of Greece launched its operations on 14 May 1928. In order to deal with the technical problems concerning the replacement of the National Bank of Greece banknotes already in circulation and, given that there was a large stock of non-circulated banknotes issued in 1923-1927, it was decided to put them in circulation after overprinting them with "Bank of Greece". Five years later, on 3 May 1933, the first 500- and 5,000-drachma banknotes were put in circulation, printed by the American Bank Note Company in the United States.
In 1935, 1,000-, 50- and 100-drachma banknotes were printed in France in very different aesthetics, rich in colour and without heavy outlines and decorations. They depicted a woman from the island of Spetses holding a jar (1,000 drachmas), a female harvester holding a sheaf of wheat (50 drachmas) and the god Hermes (100 drachmas). When the issued banknotes were put in circulation, the overprinted series of the National Bank of Greece were withdrawn from circulation.
The Printing Works of the Bank of Greece (IETA) was established by virtue of a decision of the General Council as of 7 June 1938, which was entrusted with the task of preparing and issuing banknotes. The construction works at Holargos, Athens, began immediately and the first printing machines were ordered. However, because of the war, the operation of IETA started after Greece's liberation.
In 1939, 50-, 100-, 500- and 1,000-drachma banknotes were issued (2nd series), printed in England and France. The pre-1935 aesthetic perception returned, with ancient themes and heavy decorative frames. In order to meet immediate circulation needs, the 100-drachma banknotes were overprinted to denominate 1,000-drachmas, without this counting as a new series. The 50-drachma banknote, the last banknote issued in the pre-war era, was printed in 1941 and circulated in the Middle East.
During the German occupation, banknotes were issued both in occupied Greece and abroad. Banknotes issued abroad do not bear the issue date, but only the series. 100-drachma (3rd series), 500-drachma (3rd series), 100-drachma (3rd series), 5,000-drachma (2nd series), 20,000-drachma (1st series) and 50,000-drachma (1st series) banknotes were issued.
The 5,000-, 10,000- and 20,000-drachma banknotes issued in the Middle East are intriguing because they have different sizes and colours for the same denomination, without any change in the issue series.
Many banknotes were printed between 1941 and 1944 by various lithographers in the country in huge denominations, due to the galloping inflation; the last one, 100 billion drachmas, was printed on 5 November 1944.
Emergency Law 18/11 November 1944 established the first monetary reform, stating that one postwar drachma would equal 50 billion war drachmas.
The first postwar banknotes that were put into circulation on 11 November 1944 were those of 50 and 100 drachmas and depict the Nike of Samothrace and the portrait of captain Konstantinos Kanaris.
In 1947 the Bank of Greece Printing Works (IETA), which had in the meantime been equipped with modern machinery and staffed with excellent artists, painters, engravers and specialised personnel, printed the 1,000-drachma (Theodoros Kolokotronis), 5,000-drachma (maternity and Thetis bringing Achilles' armour), 10,000-drachma (Aristotle and the Charioteer of Delphi) and 20,000-drachma (head of Athena and Medusa) banknotes.
In 1950, the first banknote designed, prepared and printed entirely in IETA was that of 5,000 drachmas (4th series), depicting the Greek poet Dionysios Solomos.
The 5,000-drachma banknotes (1st series) were issued in 1950, showing the head of the Kore of Thrace and the temple of Poseidon at Sounion. Chalcography was used for the very first time in banknote printing.
Law 2824/20 June 1954 (Government Gazette 79 A) determined that the new drachma would equal 1,000 old ones and removed three zeros from the denomination of banknotes. Thus, in 1954 the 10,000-, 20,000- and 50,000-drachma banknotes were put in circulation as 10, 20 and 50 drachmas. In 1955 the following banknotes were put into circulation: 10-drachma (head of King George (I) and the Church of the Holy Apostles in Thessaloniki), 20-drachma (Demokritos and Plato's Symposium), 50-drachma (Pericles and Pericles orating on the Pnyx) and 500-drachma (Socrates and St. Paul on the Areopagus).
In 1956, the 1,000-drachma banknote was printed with Alexander the Great wearing a lion's pelt on one side and Alexander the Great at the battle of Issos on the other. From the launch of IETA operations until 1956, banknotes were designed by A. Matsoukis, G. Velissaridis, S. Yiannaris, A. Koroyiannakis and F. Mastichiadis.
The 50-drachma banknote was printed in 1964 depicting the head of Arethusa and a composition of an old and a modern shipyard, the 100-drachma banknote in 1966 (Demokritos and the Academy of Athens) and the 500-drachma banknote in 1968 (goddess Demeter, Triptolemos and Persephone). The banknotes were designed by G. Velissaridis and I. Stinis and engraved by L. Orphanos and G. Angelopoulos. Since 1964 IETA has launched a new practice for its banknotes, sorting them by denomination and defining a specific feature and colour for each denomination. Thus, the 50-drachma banknote is smaller in size, blue and comes under the "shipping" theme; the 100-drachma banknote is red and comes under the "education" theme; the 500-drachma banknote is green and relates to "agriculture"; the 1,000-drachma banknote is brown and relates to "tourism"; the 5,000-drachma banknote is blue and comes under the "1821 Revolution"; the 10,000-drachma banknote is violet and relates to "science-health"; and, finally the 200-drachma banknote is orange and relates to "enlightenment" .
The 1,000-drachma banknote printed in 1970 depicted Zeus, a girl from Hydra in local costume and a view of the island. The 50-drachma banknote issued in 1978 depicted the head of Poseidon and the construction of the Argo on the front and Laskarina Bouboulina in the castle of Nafplion on the back. The 100-drachma banknote printed in the same year depicted the head of Athena Promachos and the building of the University of Athens on the front and Adamantios Korais and the Monastery of Arkadi on the back.
In 1983, a 500-drachma banknote was issued, showing Ioannis Kapodistrias and the fortress of Corfu. The first 5,000-drachma banknote since 1950 was issued in 1984, depicting Theodoros Kolokotronis and the Church of the Holy Apostles at Kalamata. A 1,000-drachma banknote was issued in 1987, depicting the head of Apollo and the Discus-thrower by Myron on the one side and the temple of Hera at Olympia on the other. The last copperplate banknote, 10,000 drachmas, was put in circulation in 1995; the portrait of George Papanicolaou adorns the front and the healer-god Asclepius the back.
The last drachma banknote was that of 200 drachmas and was issued in 1996. The lithograph print depicted Rigas Feraios and N. Gysis' "Secret School".
From 1970 to 1996, banknotes were designed by painters I. Stinis, V. Sabatakos, P. Sotiriou and N. Nikolaou and engraved by L. Orphanos, G. Angelopoulos, I. Pipinis and E. Perraki. Engraver P. Gravvalos worked as an external associate.
*all history from The Bank of Greece for educational purposes
1978 Greece 100 Drachmas
Date of Issue: 8 December 1978.
Theme: Education and its contribution to the nation's independence.
Obverse: Head of Athena of Piraeus, goddess of wisdom and crafts, war and strategy, and inventions in science, industry, art and agriculture, a bronze statue from an Archeological Museum of Piraeus, wearing a crested Corinthian helmet, with Medusa's locks visible at her neck. Neoclassical headquarters of the University of Athens.
Reverse: Adamantios Korais (1748-1833), a classical scholar and medical doctor who earned the title of "Teacher of the Greek Nation" for his role in the intellectual revival that took place in Greece before the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence in 1821. The image is based on a portrait in the National Historical Museum in Athens. Church of Arkadi Monastery in Crete, a symbol of Greek independence from Turkey.
Watermark: Head of Charioteer of Delphi (Heniokhos), commissioned by Polyzalus, Delphi Archeological Museum.
Predominant colour: Light brown / red.
Printer: Idryma Trapezis Tis Ellados.
Dimensions: 158 x 67 mm


Innovation is part of farming
Regardless how good a variety is, it needs to adapt to changing conditions, e.g. changing pests and diseases. Farmers therefore, mainly by selection, develop varieties, regardless whether DUS or population varieties. Researchers have shown that participatory plant breeding leads to useful varieties, because breeding objectives are set according to farmers’ needs and priorities, and the breeding process employs farmers’ skills. Farmers also are not just passive recipients of seeds. Producing seeds from farmer bred varieties is an important rural income source.
Today, farmers continue their sustainable practices to develop varieties, occasionally supported by projects. For example, under the CBDC-BUCAP program which was implemented in five rice-growing countries - Bhutan, Lao PDR, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, farmers developed dozens of rice and other locally adapted varieties and increased their incomes.
A major condition for this innovative capacity is the naturally given capacity of plants to reproduce, of which farmers make use for the benefit of society. Farmers’ rights to save, exchange and sell farmed saved seeds and propagating material is a precondition for farmers’ innovation. This right is severely challenged, by technological and regulatory means.
Hybrid seeds are crossed from two inbred lines to make use of the heterosis effect – higher yield if growing conditions allow. Hybrid seed when multiplied, however, loses the hybrid yield advantage. If farmers want to produce for the modern market, they have to continue buying seeds and other inputs. If they can’t afford such expenses, they need to be able to return to open pollinated varieties. Therefore, open pollinated varieties as alternatives to hybrids must be available to ensure food sovereignty. Regulatory frameworks and subsidies should not prioritize hybrids.
Terminator technology is a genetic use restriction technology (GURT) based on genetic modification which makes seed sterile - farm saved seeds simply don't grow. Some terminator technologies are claimed to be reversible with the help of products sold by the seed company. This technology is obviously very dangerous for food sovereignty and has been temporarily banned by the United Nations.
Contract farming: Integrating farmers in value chains is often propagated as a chance for them to access world markets. In the first place, farmers are by such contracts compelled to pay for IPR protected seeds and other inputs. Such investments, mostly on credit, may lead to indebtedness. Farmers’ rights to save, reuse, exchange and sell such seeds, are usually curtailed by means of contract.
Intellectual property rights are regulatory genetic use restrictions on reproducible plant material that further impede farmers' innovation capacity. Patents and UPOV91 based PVPs don’t allow farmers to freely adapt and develop IPR protected seeds. Moreover, such seeds often represent an economic risk: Any license fees surely increase prices for seeds or planting material, while higher incomes from their claimed improvement depend on many factors, for example price developments.
Seed marketing legislation: In the North, in particular the EU, it is common to allow selling varieties only if they fulfill certain conditions. First, it has to show sufficient germination capacity, purity (all of the same variety) and health. In addition the variety needs to be admitted to the market. The criteria include distinctness, uniformity and stability, the same criteria that count for PVP.
Non-DUS varieties are banned from EU markets since 1966. Most traditional varieties have been lost in the meantime, and it is very likely that the sales ban has contributed considerably to the loss. Under pressure of the loss, for conservation purposes a niche was opened in 2009. However, this niche is heavily controlled. Quantitative and regional restrictions, fees and high bureaucratic burdens for each variety resulted in a failure: In the whole EU, only a small number of "conservation varieties" have thus legally entered the market. The large majority of non-DUS varieties are sold without the required regstration. They are tolerated because the EU citizens consider these varieties important for biodiversity, environment, gardening, food diversity, nutrition and health.
SEARICE Notes May 2009: SEARICE’s Contribution to Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic Resources