In 1990, Congress enacted legislation to establish the Smith River National Recreation Area (NRA) to protect the watershed, but the boundary of the NRA stopped at the Oregon border, leaving the North Folk of the Smith River and its tributaries unprotected.
Oregon’s Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden have introduced new legislation to expand the Smith River National Recreation Area by adding 58,000 acres, a move that would protect the diverse ecosystems of the rivers, streams, and adjacent lands of the North Fork Smith River watershed and help boost the local fishing and recreation industries that many Oregonian families rely on.
• Boundary Adjustment. The legislation will adjust the NRA boundaries to add approximately 58,000 acres of the North Fork Smith watershed in Oregon to the Smith NRA.
• Permanent Mineral Withdrawal. Like the NRA in California, all land located inside the National Recreation Area would be permanently withdrawn from new mining claims, helping protect this sensitive area from proposed nickel strip mines.
• Wild and Scenic River Protection. The legislation would designate 75 river miles of wild and scenic rivers, including Baldface Creek, Chrome Creek and nearby streams.
• Recreation Planning. The Forest Service will prepare an updated management and recreation plan for the NRA Expansion into Oregon.
• A Special Study. A special study of streams, fens, wetlands and potentially unstable and vulnerable aquatic habitat areas is requested in the legislation.
To learn more, go to Permanent North Fork Protection.


In the translation industry, “localization” refers to the process by which the source text is specially adjusted to suit the linguistic, cultural and geographical attributes of the target country or region. This is more than just a question of translation of words: units of measure, currencies, date and time formats, among other things, are all adapted to local conventions in order to produce a text that is specifically geared toward the target market. The ultimate goal is to create an “invisible translation” which, to the reader, does not appear to be a translation at all, but an original text in its own right.
As a natural extension of this concept, “multimedia localization” (MML) can be understood as the process of localizing not only written texts, but also audio and video content. This multimedia content can take the form of corporate films, product videos or eLearning courses. MML is a complex process which involves a number of special considerations, particularly on the part of the translators.
The process of multimedia localization generally comprises the following steps:
In the first step, all of the source material must be compiled. Spoken text is transcribed and all on-screen texts are organized in the form of a script.
2. Timecode creation
Next, each text segment in the script is assigned a timecode, defining the beginning, the duration and the end of each spoken segment. The timecode will later be used to check the length of the translated segments and time the finished audio track.
The task of translating a multimedia project (often referred to as “audiovisual translation,” or AVT) involves unique challenges which distinguish this process from other types of translation. In addition to ensuring that content and style are translated correctly, the translator must ensure that the translated text is of the appropriate length, that the audio material sounds natural when spoken and that video and audio content remain in sync. The length of the translation must be meticulously checked against the source material and adjusted as necessary.
The translated text is then sent to the customer for approval. In some cases, detailed pronunciation guides are created to ensure that proper nouns and foreign language words are pronounced correctly by the voice talent.
4. Voice recording or subtitling
After the customer has approved the script, the final text is taken to a recording studio where it is recorded – through dubbing or voice over – by a professional speaker. If needed, the customer may choose to observe or manage the recording in real time, either in person or via telephone. In the audio post-production phase, the final voice track is cleaned, mastered and precisely timed to match the video content.
As an alternative, the multimedia project can be subtitled. In this case, the translation is displayed in the form of a one to two-line text at the bottom edge of the screen. The subtitle text is timed to appear alongside the original spoken content.
5. Video production
To complete the multimedia localization process, it is also necessary to replace all on-screen texts with translated content that conforms to local conventions. In the video post-production phase, the finished voice track is combined with the video material and rendered in the appropriate format.
The result of this complex process is a fully localized product which is perfectly honed to meet the needs of the target market.
Through clear, concise presentation of information, multimedia content allows creators to appeal to consumers in an effective, direct and emotional manner – far more so than text on its own. So it’s not difficult to understand why more and more companies are beginning to rely on multimedia content to communicate information and promote their products.
Despite the increasing prevalence of English in the international business community, it is still more effective for companies to communicate with customers in their native languages. In fact, over 70% of customers prefer products and information presented to them in their own language – and over 50% will still choose these products even if they are more expensive than their English language alternatives. It just goes to show that companies aiming to sell their products and services in international markets must quite literally speak the language of their customers.
Follow the text&form Multimedia Department on twitter!
Voice talents have lent their voices to text&form.
A look behind the scenes: SAP goes multimedia


According to Greek mythology, back in the Odyssey, all monstrous creatures were banned from Earth; except for the cyclopes. As the first three cyclopes’ stuck around, Zeus became proud to call them his favorites. When more cyclopes came around, Zeus gave them land with plenty of food. They lived happy, but any visitors would find it a horror show. They had no government or any laws.
This part of the myth was told by the third-century Alexandrian poet Theocritus. The Greek prince Odysseus; on his way home from the destruction of troy, beached his ship on this land of cyclopes’. Beyond the shore was a cave with a fence around it. Odysseus and his sailing crew went through the open fence with some of their wine to give to the owners of the cave in return for hospitality. Instead of getting a hospitality, a giant men with one eye took two the men and smashed their brains against the walls of the caves, and ate them (horror show, i told you). The cyclopes; Prometheus, pushed a big stone over the exit of the cave. The men gave him the wine, bringing him into a drunken stupor and later on unconsciousness. Whilst Prometheus slept, the men sharpen a long piece of wood, making a stake. They heated the tip over a fire, and when the beast woke up, the pierced his single eye with it. As he struggles in his blindness, he opens the door to the cave. The men sail away on their boat, leaving Prometheus to sit on the shore, helpless.
In another tale of Prometheus; this one written by the satirist Lucian in the second century A.D., he somehow has his sight back. Perhaps it is given back to him by his father, who, in this tail, is Poseidon, God of the seas. Prometheus was in love with a sea nymph named Galatea. In the songs he sang about her, he described her as having white, milky skin. On the bright side he is not so much of a monster in this myth due to his affectionate feelings for the nymph, but unfortunately, Galatea has no feelings for him; but thinks he is a disgusting beast. However; in another myth, Galatea becomes a little less colder when she reminds herself that Prometheus is the son of Poseidon, and should not be treated like a savage. Much later, she falls in love with Prince Acris, who Prometheus kills out of jealousy. Unfortunately for Prometheus, Acris got the upper hand by reincarnating into a river god.


The onset of cold days brings with it many health problems along with changes in temperature. To avoid them, prevention and treatment at the right time are necessary, even more, important is the identification of these diseases. You can avoid them only if you have information about cold diseases.
Colds, Coughs, and Soreness
It is common to have a cold in cold weather, but if it is not taken care of properly, it can cause cough, cold and sore throat health and that is a bad effect on our health. To avoid these, avoid eating or drinking cold things and keep the body clean and covered properly. Gargling salt in a sore throat is a good option.
Headache due to cold is also normal, but to avoid it, you will need to avoid cold winds. These days, cover your head with a cloth, cap, stole or muffler so that there is no cold air and the heat remains.
Generally, there can be difficulty in breathing during winter, but asthma patients may have a lot of difficulty with this. This problem can be serious due to cold air or going to cold places. Know the ways of avoiding it properly and keep the medicine with you.
This is also common in cold days, but to avoid them, you will need to adapt to massage and proper exercise. Also, special care has to be taken on your food and drink.
During winter, high blood pressure can also cause heart problems. For this also you will need to focus on exercise and the right treatment.
Chest pain may occur due to phlegm or other reasons as cold increases. But if you are also coughing, then this chest pain can also cause irritation as well as difficulty in breathing.
Changing the weather does not only affect health, but also mental health. For example, the mental balance of many women is disturbed in winter. They become depressed. This is due to hormone imbalance due to short days in winter and lack of vitamin D in the body.
Prevention Measures- If you want to avoid depression in winter, then instead of locking yourself in the house for the whole day, take natural sunlight, that is, go in sunlight and get sleep.
One of the most common problems people face during winter is the itching of the skin. The skin starts itching due to low humidity in winter. The best way to prevent skin itching is to follow your grandmother’s prescription. Avoid eating oily street food. You can massage almonds, coconut or olive oil on the skin.


logging in or signing up Estimation mrferrell Download Post to : URL : Related Presentations : Let's Connect Share Add to Flag Embed Email Send to Blogs and Networks Add to Channel Copy embed code: Embed: Flash iPad Dynamic Copy Does not support media & animations Automatically changes to Flash or non-Flash embed WordPress Embed Customize Embed URL: Copy Thumbnail: Copy The presentation is successfully added In Your Favorites. Views: 4814 Category: Education License: All Rights Reserved Like it (0) Dislike it (0) Added: July 19, 2009 This Presentation is Public Favorites: 3 Presentation Description No description available. Comments Posting comment... Premium member Presentation Transcript Estimation? : Estimation? What does it mean to estimate? Is an estimate a guess? Estimation : Estimation A “ballpark” answer; close to the exact amount Estimate the following quantities: A. 17 gallons B. 1,982 feet C. 3.92 inches D. 23,872 ounces Objective : Objective Estimate to check whether or not the result of a real-world problem is reasonable. Computation Vocabulary : Computation Vocabulary SUM = ADD PRODUCT = MULTIPLY DIFFERENCE = SUBTRACT HOW MANY/MUCH FOR EACH = DIVIDE Reviewing Place Value of Decimals : Reviewing Place Value of Decimals 203.456 Which digit is in the ones place? Which digit is in the tenths place? Which digit is in the thousandths place? Reviewing Place Value of Decimals : Reviewing Place Value of Decimals 3.01 Which digit is in the tenths place? Which digit is in the ones place? Rounding Review : Rounding Review 203.456 Round the number above to the ones place. 14.56 Round the number above to the tenths place. 789.21 Round the number above to the tens place. Practice : Practice If you have $18, and you want to buy several cans of tennis balls that cost $3.87 per can, you don’t need to find the exact cost to decide how may cans you can buy. Since $3.87 is almost $4, 4 cans will cost a little under $16, and 5 cans will cost almost $20. So you can buy, at most, 4 cans with $18. $8.00 : $8.00 Jacob and Jadon went to the candy store. The jelly beans were $1.84 per pound. They bought 4.2 pounds of jelly beans. Estimate how much money they spent? 480 miles : 480 miles Tiffani has a car that drives 32.3 miles for every gallon of gas. The tank in her car holds 14.8 gallons of gas. If Tiffani fills her car with gas, estimate how many miles she can drive before she runs out. No! : No! Payton goes to Best Buy with a $20 gift card. He buys a CD for $7.89 and a DVD for $16.07 (both include tax). Does Payton have any money left on his gift card? Estimate to find your answer. 16 feet : 16 feet Allison wants to place a frame around the border of the following figure. ESTIMATE how much framing material she will need. No – About $10 : Jon received $100 for his birthday. He wants to buy shoes for $46 and a video game for $64. Will Jon have enough money to buy both items? About how much more money will he need? No – About $10 No – About $5 short! : Sabrina went shopping and bought milk for $2.44, Colby cheese packages at 3 for $4.99, crackers for $3.23, a pound of meat for $3.74, and a bag of carrots for $0.78. Sabrina brought along a twenty-dollar bill. Does Sabrina have enough money to purchase these groceries? No – About $5 short! Objective : Objective Estimate to check whether or not the result of a real-world problem is reasonable. You do not have the permission to view this presentation. In order to view it, please contact the author of the presentation.


terça-feira, 11 de junho de 2013
CHARLES DICKENS BIOGRAPHY
The most popular storyteller of his time, a zealous social reformer, the esteemed leader of the English literary scene and a wholehearted friend to the poor, Charles Dickens was an unrestrained satirist who spared no one. His writings defined the complications, ironies, diversions and cruelties of the new urban life brought by the industrial revolution.
Charles John Huffam Dickens was born in 1812, the second of eight children. Dickens lived into the golden era of Pax Britannica (a roughly 100-year period of relative peace in Europe), dying in 1870 when Queen Victoria still had another 31 years to reign.
Dickens lived his life at high speed, working constantly and accomplishing an astonishing amount in his 58 years. According to one published source, he mentioned some 13,143 distinct characters (real and fictional) in his vast body of work. The father of ten children, Dickens was driven, obsessed, and haunted by the prospect of failure and poverty.
Dickens's own childhood was often difficult, and would later be alluded to in his work. One of Dickens's first novels, (serialized in 1837-1839), follows the fortunes of a child heartlessly set adrift in life. This was in some measure Dickens's own story.
At age 12, Dickens began work at Warrens Blacking Warehouse, pasting labels onto bottles of shoe polish. He worked long hours and suffered in miserable conditions. The meager income young Dickens earned was not enough to keep his father out of debtor's prison, where the family patriarch served several months before the courts released him.
Young Dickens was later sent back to school at Wellington House Academy in London. Three years later at age 15, with his father again in financial straits, Dickens ended his formal education for good and took a job as a legal clerk. This position led to court reporting, journalism, and eventually fiction writing. Dickens was a celebrated author by the age of 24.
Many of the incidents, scenes, and personalities of Dickens' poignant boyhood are depicted in (1849-1850), his most autobiographical novel. (1855-1857) also draws on his early years. In that book, Amy Dorrit cares for her father in debtor's prison with a mixture of innocence and fatalism that must have been manifest in the young Dickens.
Unhappy childhood incidents can be haunting over a lifetime, but Dickens seems to have laid the demons largely to rest through his writing, a therapy he adopted for other aspects of his life. For example, in middle age he reconnected with Maria Beadnell, his first love, only to be disillusioned by how she'd changed. He referenced Beadnell with a mixture of satire and charm in the character Flora Finching in , who bears the same lost-love connection to the novel's hero, Arthur Clennam.
More cryptically, Dickens may have used fiction to work out anxieties and difficulties in his secret relationship with the young actress, Ellen Ternan, who appears to have been his mistress during the last dozen years of his life, after his separation from his wife in 1858. Some critics believe that the heroines of Dickens' later novels explore different sides of Ternan's character: the selfless and beautiful Lucie Manette in (1859), the emasculating Estella in (1860-1861), and the mercenary Bella Wilfer in (1864-1865).
Dickens's spent his last days at his home, Gad's Hill. After working a full day, Dickens had a stroke on June 8, 1870, and died the next day. Some friends linked his death to public readings Dickens had given of the last violent scene between Nancy and Bill Sikes in . Dickens was buried at Westminster Abbey.
Posted by Francisco Augusto Vaz Brasil at 17:31


If you’ve spent time fabricating any sort of flat plastic sheet material, you’re probably familiar with warp. Depending on the size of the sheet and the fabrication method, warp can leave you with a useless piece of material. Here are some of the factors that can cause warp and some steps you can take to minimize warp before and during fabrication to protect your sheet material investments.
WHAT CAUSES SHEET WARP?
Storing material improperly is the number one cause of sheet warp. Plastic sheet will "cold form" to shapes when stored on edge or across uneven surfaces. The longer a sheet material remains in those positions, the harder it will be to recover the sheet and return it to a flat state.
Most of the raw material used to manufacture plastic sheet for the signage industry are hygroscopic (water absorbing) and will warp to some degree if exposed to moisture for extended periods of time. These issues will be common among many materials and from all manufacturers. The material is not defective, as many fabricators have claimed, and is the inherent nature of the resin used to create the sheet.
According to Lucite, an acrylic monomer supplier, acrylic sheet will warp if exposed to variable temperatures. They further state that changing humidity levels cause the greatest variation. Hence, both variability and moisture are contributors to warp.
Protective removable masking of plastic sheet or the application of adhesives can be another source of warp. Tension of the mask or adhesive when applied to the sheet can induce additional stresses on the corners of the sheet and these stresses are often relieved in the form of curling.
Improper vs. proper sheet storage to minimize warp
PROTECT YOUR INVESTMENT
Always store sheets lying flat at all times. The number one cause of warp is storing sheets vertically or “on edge.” This causes the sheets to “set” into a curved position. If you have a sheet that has started to curve due to storing vertically, there’s still a chance to save it. Lay the sheet on a flat surface and give it some time. This can help the sheet return to its natural, flat state.
Avoid storing sheets in extreme temperatures or where there are wide fluctuations in temperature. It’s always best to store sheets as close to room temperature as possible.
If you’ve got a sheet that is warped, removing the protective masking can reduce tension across the sheet and allow the sheet to relax. Placing an even weight across the sheet (such as additional sheets of plastic) can help speed the process of reducing warp.
Wait until you’re ready to fabricate to apply adhesive tapes. Sheets stored for prolonged periods of time with adhesives applied can warp as the adhesive material dries out. If you’ve got a sheet that’s warped due to adhesive, removing the adhesive carrier and lying the sheet flat can help reduce the warp.
Using a mechanical hold-down device can help you save a warped sheet during the engraving process. Clamps can help hold a slightly warped sheet flat during fabrication, but they’ll only help to a point. Since they’re holding the material at the corners, a badly warped sheet may still “wave” even with clamps. Double-faced tape or “tacky mat” surfaces work well. They won’t remove the warp, but they may buy you enough time and hold the sheet down to complete the engraving process.
When you’re laser engraving, limit the power (watts) or reduce the dpi of raster images. Heat warps plastic, so using a higher power setting than recommended can cause warping during the lasering process. If possible, laser engrave text and graphics before cutting the sheets into smaller plates. Holding down smaller pieces can be tricky, and warp can be greater on smaller sheets.
WASTE NOT, WANT NOT
No one wants to waste valuable product, particularly when you’ve got an anxious customer waiting for you to finish a project. Taking a few precautions before you fabricate and using a few tips and tricks when you fabricate can help you make sure you’re getting the most out of your sheet material.
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Updated: Jun 23, 2022
Here's a handy guide to dealing with nightmares so that everyone can get a good night's sleep.
It’s a Nightmare: one way to help get a good night’s sleep!
Most children will experience nightmares at some point in their lives. They are a very common occurrence and can be genuinely frightening and distressing for children. Nightmares can become a problem if they make children anxious about going to sleep, being in their bedroom or being on their own.
Not Night Terrors
Nightmares are distinct from night terrors, which can be distressing for their parents who witness them, and may look worse than nightmares to the observer, but are not going to worry or trouble your child at all. The definition of night terrors is that they take place in a deep phase of sleep where the child will almost certainly have no memory of them.
Guide to Therapeutic Approach
This guide explains one technique for helping children manage nightmares, particularly a nightmare that happens several times or that is causing them anxiety that it will come back.
When to use it
This can work with children who are too young to articulate what has happened in the nightmare, but it is usually best if the child is old enough to draw some of it themselves and/or to give a detailed enough account for you to draw it for them. The technique is to get them to draw a picture of the nightmare, and then draw an alternative that isn’t so scary, and keep that less scary one somewhere in their room where they can see it. This won’t guarantee the nightmare won’t happen again, but it gives your child confidence they can cope if it does and gives them something nice to think about instead of worrying about the scary nightmare.
How to use it
Make sure you do this activity at a time and in a place where your child feels relaxed and secure. Do not attempt this in the 10 minutes before bedtime when they are already likely to be tired or feeling worried about sleep.
Get some pens or pencils and drawing paper ready. Explain to your child “We are going to draw some pictures of your nightmare/ bad dream so that we can help you to feel better about it”
Ask your child to draw a picture of what happened in their nightmare. Go gently. They may find even this scary. Try getting them to draw the least scary bit first. Try gentle questions: Were you in the nightmare? Do you remember where you were? What could you see? Were there any colours you noticed? Tell them it doesn’t matter if they can’t draw it exactly right. If there are bits they can’t draw or don’t want to draw, ask if you can draw it for them.
Once you have a drawing that your child thinks is a good enough idea of the nightmare, tell them “Now we are going to think of a way to make it not so scary. Can you think of something that would stop this from being so scary?”
Give them time to think about it, and if they can’t think of anything, try some gentle suggestions. Be creative! If your child isn’t sure, try making 2 or 3 different suggestions and see which one works for them.
“We could change the ending and make something different happen.” E.g instead of the storm blowing the tree down, we could build a great big tent over the tree to protect it, we could make it so the car doesn’t crash but it swerves and ends up in a massive sandpit and you get out and play in the sand
“We could think of something that would make the monster seem silly not scary!” e.g make it fall into a big hole, pelt it with bananas and custard, put a silly hat on it, make it unzip at the front and have a friendly person step out to show it was just someone dressed up for a fancy dress party……
“You could have a super power to defeat the baddie” e.g the robber wants to steal all the food in our house, so you could have laser eyes to see him coming through the wall and call the police; you could have turbo speed flying power so you can fly up into the sky and escape.
“You could have someone come and help – mum, dad, a super hero, grandma etc etc” Work out what the real or imagined person would do to help them feel safe and secure if they arrived in the nightmare e.g Mum could come and fight them off with her ninja moves; Grandma could lock them up in a big cage and hide the key until they say sorry.
We don’t want to stifle children’s creativity, but if possible, try to steer them towards doing something that is funny. This technique works best when the alternative picture they draw is something they would be happy to see on their bedroom wall, so chopping the baddie up into bits or blasting the monster with lasers is to be avoided! If you do find your child wants something like this, try and get to the next step where something funny or silly happens e.g if you chop the monster up, what would happen to all the pieces? Would they all turn into friendly fur balls that run around making beep noises? If you blasted it with a laser, would it shrink until you could pick it up and put it in the bin?
Reassure children that nightmares are scary, it is OK to feel scared, but they can’t really hurt you. Put the picture somewhere they can see it in their room and tell them “Now if that nasty dream comes back, you can look at your picture and know how to fix it”
This handy guide is from A Confident Start – clinical psychology and parenting advice to try at home - because your child’s story should be a good one.
With all best wishes,
Psychology that works for your family


The perennial herb soapwort, Saponaria officinalis, owes its prized cleansing foam to detergent-like compounds called “saponins.” But soapwort isn’t the only plant that produces the compounds; nor are their properties limited to removing dirt and grime.
In studies at the Agricultural Research Service’s National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research (NCAUR) in Peoria, Illinois, scientists are spiking laboratory diets fed to corn earworm and fall armyworm with saponins from soybeans, switchgrass, yerba maté, and other sources to determine what effects the compounds have on the caterpillar pests’ growth and survival.
ARS entomologist Pat Dowd says the studies are an integral part of a broader effort at Peoria to identify novel sources of resistance that can be put into corn—either through traditional plant breeding or biotechnological means. Ultimately, this could usher in new corn varieties that sustain less damage from caterpillars, are less prone to infection by toxin-making molds, or require fewer pesticide applications. Another potential benefit is staving off the ability of pests like corn earworms to build tolerance to existing sources of resistance—such as that endowed by insecticidal proteins from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, which is used in about 63 percent of U.S. corn, according to USDA’s Economic Research Service.
“Looking for natural methods of controlling pathogens and pests is a win-win situation for the environment, for businesses who want to grow their efforts in green technologies, and ultimately for the U.S. taxpayer, who benefits from a cleaner environment and a thriving economy,” remarks Alejandro Rooney, who leads NCAUR’s Crop Bioprotection Research Unit, where Dowd, ARS molecular biologist Eric T. Johnson, and others are evaluating the insecticidal properties of saponins and other natural compounds.
Making Sense of Saponins
In nature, the saponins are produced in the stem, seed, roots, leaves, or fruit of plants belonging to more than 100 different families, including Allianceae, Caryophyllaceae, Rosaceae, and Gramineae (of which corn and switchgrass are both members). But until recently, no cross-cutting studies have been done comparing the degree to which saponins from different plant species or families confer resistance to pests and pathogens, note Dowd, Johnson, and colleagues in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Chemical Ecology.
“Most grain crops, except for oats, do not have saponins in them,” Dowd says. Why this is so remains a mystery. But studying close relatives of today’s grain crops may reveal important clues. For example, examining saponins that make some types of switchgrass less palatable to fall armyworms may reveal dormant genes or biochemical pathways in a distant relative like corn that can be activated via genetic engineering or conventional breeding.
“Theoretically, selecting plants for beneficial agronomic traits could have resulted in the loss of pest-resistance genes,” says Dowd. “If these resistance genes were located near alleles of genes that conferred undesirable agronomic traits, they may have been bred out along with the undesirable genes during the process of developing commercial lines.”
Investigating the Lignin Connection
A crucial first step in studying a compound is to determine its biological activity, structure, and expression levels. This past year, Dowd, Johnson, and ARS chemist Mark Berhow conducted experiments in which they force-fed 1 of 10 different kinds of saponins, caffeine, and other compounds to first-stage fall armyworms and corn earworms. The team purchased two of the saponins, a steroidal type called “diosgenin” and a related form called “protodioscin,” after being alerted to their presence in switchgrass by Ken Vogel at ARS’s Grain, Forage and Bioenergy Research Unit in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Vogel’s team is interested in learning whether the saponins played a part in the resistance of some low-lignin lines of switchgrass to fall armyworms. The group had previously developed the low-lignin lines to expedite fermentation of the plants’ sugars into ethanol. One concern was that reducing the lignin content would also make the plants more vulnerable to chewing by fall armyworms. But in trials, 7 of the 14 switchgrass lines in fact resisted the caterpillar pests, though this depended on the timing of the growing season.
“This suggests there is a temporal as well as a genetic component to expression of the fall armyworm resistance,” says Gautam Sarath, an ARS molecular biologist at Lincoln who is collaborating with Vogel and ARS agronomist Rob Mitchell to explore switchgrass’s potential as a commercial ethanol crop.
Sarath says it is possible that diosgenin, which has been linked to digestive problems in livestock, may have compensated for the reduced lignin by helping wreak similar havoc on fall armyworms that attempted to feed on the low-lignin lines during tests.
In the lab tests at Peoria, protodioscin had some activity against fall armyworms, as did saponins from maté, soap bark tree, and soybeans. One type of soy saponin, called “soyasaponin B,” which has a sugar molecule attached, proved more effective than its sugar-free form against corn earworm caterpillars, reducing their growth by more than 50 percent.
Dowd notes that they evaluated different sources of saponins because some insect pests, like fall armyworms and corn earworms, are generalist feeders, but still have different host preferences. Thus, it was expected that saponins the pests don’t typically encounter in nature would be more toxic to them. But this wasn’t necessarily the case. Rather, the difference seemed to come down to whether the saponins harbored certain sugar groups.
None of the saponins tested killed either of the two pest species. But a smaller caterpillar isn’t necessarily a failure: Under field conditions, plants that taste bad can cause the caterpillars to seek out other plants; this could translate to reduced kernel damage as well as easier pickings for hungry predators.
Giving Pests the Blues
Besides saponins, the Peoria researchers are also evaluating the pest-fighting potential of phytochemicals such as anthocyanins, which give blueberries, plums, grapes, and flowers like petunias, for example, their blue and purple colors.
In feeding experiments, corn earworm larvae forced to feed on blue areas of petunia petals gained less weight than larvae that fed on white areas. Additional feeding experiments determined that anthocyanins isolated from the petunia petals also slowed the larvae’s growth. Cabbage looper larvae that fed on blue areas of one petunia cultivar’s petals died at higher rates than larvae that fed on white areas.
Although it’s unclear what petal compound or compounds were involved in looper mortality, the anthocyanins apparently increased the effectiveness of the toxic compound.
In other work, says Johnson, “We’re also very interested in proteins in maize that are produced at the seedling stage. The seedlings are quite resistant to insects, and this may be partly due to a combination of resistance biochemicals and proteins.”
If the proteins’ resistance role can be confirmed, then it may be possible to express the genes responsible for them at a later stage in the plant’s life cycle. “But this would be a matter of expressing them at sufficient levels,” Johnson adds.
Pest-Fighting and People-Friendly
Berhow, who’s in NCAUR’s Functional Foods Research Unit, is pursuing another line of inquiry. Some of the same phytochemicals that plants make to cope with stress caused by insects and pathogens also benefit people and livestock. For example, studies by Berhow and University of Illinois (UoI) colleagues indicated that some soybean saponins have potential as cancer-fighting agents known as “chemoprotectants.” Indeed, in test-tube experiments, “group B” saponins reduced cancerous human colon cell growth by 27 to 68 percent.
In addition to furnishing Dowd with purified material for the insect trials, Berhow has put his analytical chemistry skills to use assisting Elvira DeMejia, a UoI associate professor who is studying anti-inflammatory and other beneficial properties of saponins from yerba maté leaves, which are used to make a popular South American tea. Like other saponins tested, maté’s saponins also deterred caterpillar feeding.
Ultimately, such multifaceted studies could converge, giving rise to new crop varieties that boast dual-use phytochemicals. In furtherance of that possibility, scientists are continuing research to understand the full biological activity and effect of saponins in humans and livestock.—By Jan Suszkiw, Agricultural Research Service Information Staff.
This research is part of Food Safety (Animal and Plant Products) (#108) and Quality and Utilization of Agricultural Products (#306), two ARS national programs described at http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/programs.htm.
"Seeking Saponins and Other Compounds To Fortify Crops" was published in the August 2011 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.


Protecting Your Eyes from Solar Radiation
The sun supports life on our planet, but its life-giving rays also pose dangers. The sun's primary danger is in the form of ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Artificial sources, like welding machines, tanning beds and lasers, can also produce UV radiation.
Most people are aware of how harmful UV radiation is to the skin. However, many may not realize that UV radiation can harm the eyes, and other components of solar radiation can also affect vision.
There are three types of UV radiation. UV-C is absorbed by the ozone layer and does not present any threat. However, UV-A and UV-B radiation can have long- and short-term negative effects on the eyes and vision.
If your eyes are exposed to excessive amounts of UV radiation over a short period of time, you will likely experience photokeratitis. Like a "sunburn of the eye," photokeratitis can be painful. Its symptoms include red eyes, a foreign body sensation or gritty feeling in the eyes, extreme sensitivity to light and excessive tearing. Fortunately, these symptoms are usually temporary and rarely cause permanent damage to the eyes.
The longer the eyes are exposed to solar radiation, the greater the risk of developing cataracts or macular degeneration later in life. It is not clear how much exposure to solar radiation will cause damage. Therefore, whenever you spend time outdoors, wear quality sunglasses that offer UV protection and a hat or cap with a wide brim. Also, certain contact lenses can provide additional UV protection.
To provide adequate protection for your eyes, sunglasses should:
- block out 99 to 100 percent of both UV-A and UV-B radiation;
- screen out 75 to 90 percent of visible light;
- have lenses that are perfectly matched in color and free of distortion and imperfection; and
- have lenses that are gray for proper color recognition.
If you participate in potentially eye-hazardous outdoor work or sports, your sunglass lenses should be made from polycarbonate or Trivex® material. These lenses provide the most impact resistance.
If you spend a lot of time outdoors in bright sunlight, consider wearing wraparound frames for additional protection from the harmful solar radiation.
Don't forget protection for children and teenagers. They typically spend more time in the sun than adults.
Sunglasses Shopping Guide
Protecting Your Eyes from Shorter-Wavelength Visible Light
Chronic exposure to shorter-wavelength visible light (blue and violet light) may also be harmful to the retina. Many digital devices emit this shorter-wavelength visible light.
Blue light is part of the visible light spectrum. The sun emits blue light, as do artificial light sources, such as LEDs, computers and smartphones. Some types of blue light can be beneficial, helping us regulate our bodies' internal biological clocks.
However, blue-violet light can be harmful to the eyes, specifically the retina. It is a risk factor for the onset of age-related macular degeneration, a deterioration of the part of the retina responsible for sharp, central vision.
A recent study found that Americans spend almost 2 ½ hours on their tablets and smartphones every day. In addition, most offices and stores use fluorescent light bulbs, and LED lights are becoming increasingly popular.
Lenses that absorb harmful blue light but allow beneficial blue light through your lenses are entering the marketplace. You could also apply a special clear coating to traditional lenses to enhance their ability to block these harmful rays while you use computers and smartphones.
UV Radiation Checklist
If you can answer "yes" to one or more of the following questions, you could be at higher risk for harm to the eyes from UV radiation:
- Do you spend a great deal of time outdoors?
- Do you spend time skiing, mountain climbing or at the beach?
- Do you use a sunlamp or tanning bed?
- Do you live in the mountains or the U.S. Sunbelt?
- Are you a welder, medical technologist or do you work in the graphic arts or in the manufacture of electronic circuit boards?
- Do you take prescription or over-the-counter drugs that can increase your sensitivity to UV radiation? (If you are unsure, check with your optometrist, pharmacist or physician.)
- Have you had cataract surgery in one or both eyes?
See your optometrist every year for a comprehensive eye examination. It is a good way to monitor your eye health, maintain good vision and keep track of your solar radiation protection needs, as well as advances in eye protection.


Maharaja Hari Singh, the last ruler of princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, was born on 23rd Sept 1895 in Amar Mahal Jammu. He was son of Raja General Amar Singhji, younger brother of Maharaja Partap Singh. Watch video highlighting his important contributions towards his state as a king:
Watch video : 10 Things You Don’t Know About Mubarak Mandi
He ascended to the throne in 1925 after the demise of Maharaja Partap Singh. He was one of the most renowned ruler of British India being the emperor of geographically largest and strategically most important empire which continues to remain in the limelight for several political, strategic and historic reasons. He gained acclamation for being “the Last Ruling King of Independent India” since he continued to be Maharaja of J&K till 15th November 1952 while all other rulers of princely States had ceased to be Kings by 1948.


What is Future Contracts?
A future contract means a standardized contract which is conducted between two parties or persons to exchange some specific asset having specified quality as well as quantity for a price of today and delivering the asset in future. The party buying the asset is known as the ‘long’ and the seller is called the ‘short’. Buyer expects that the price of the asset may increase while the seller hopes that the price will decrease.
In other terms, the future contract is defined as the legally binding agreement which is agreed upon the buying and selling of a commodity or a financial instrument with price decided as per today’s price and to be delivered in future dates. Some future contracts are involved with the asset’s physical delivery while the others are settled in cash. The commodity for the financial contract may be currencies, securities or any other financial instruments. Intangible assets or referenced items like stock indexes and interest rates may also be treated as the commodity for future contract.
Definition of future contract
To describe the future contract we take two variables, one is the commodity J which will be delivered and another is time interval T.
· There exists in the market a quoted price F (t,T), which is known as the futures price at time t for delivery of J at time T.
- The price of entering a futures contract is equal to zero.
- During any time interval (t,s], the holder receives the amount F(s,T) − F(t,T). (this reflects instantaneous marking to market)
- At time T, the holder pays F (T, T) and is entitled to receive J. Note that F (T, T) should be the spot price of J at time T.
During the agreement of the future contact, an initial amount of cash is given by both the parties which is referred as the margin. According to the regular change in price the price of the commodity is also settled. The exchange draws the money out of the party’s margin account and is settled into the other’s account so that both the parties have equal share of profit or loss. If the margin account becomes less than a certain value, then ismargin call is generated and the account owner recovers the margin account. This process is termed as marking to market. In future contract, both the parties need to fulfill their contracts on future date certainly.
Future contracts become highly standardized by specifying the following constraints which also helps in ensuring their liquidity
- The underlying asset or financial instrument.
- The type of settlement, either cash settlement or physical settlement.
- The amount and units of the underlying asset per contract.
- The currency in which the future contract is quoted.
- The grade of the deliverable. If the bond is considered then it specifies the type of the bond and in case of the commodity the location of the delivery is considered.
- The delivery month.
- The last trading date.
- Other details such as the commodity tick, the minimum permissible price fluctuation.
Transtutors.com provides instant homework help at minimal charges with descriptive answers to your Financial Statement queries so that you can better understand about the topic at home. Our helpline is open to all e-learners for 24X7 and you can query at anytime from anywhere.


Creative people need to be given the tools to express themselves, to vent what’s inside to the outside world. They also need to develop communication skills appropriate to their inner talents. We are all creatives in a sense. Thoughts arise in my mind and get communicated to others, to be unpacked in such a way that others think what I think and feel as I feel.
The debunking of this outdated model of communication has exercised key philosophers, linguists and media theorists for some time. It assumes thoughts get conduited from one mind to another. Here are some propositions that run counter to the conduit model of thought.
- I sometimes don’t know what I think until I’ve said it.
- Thoughts and ideas seem to emerge from conversations, not premeditated thoughts.
- Thought has a strong social dimension. Communities think.
- An architect probably doesn’t know what she wants the building to be like until she starts sketching.
- My design comes out differently when I draw on paper, play around with cardboard or use a CAD system.
- The medium is the message (Marshall McLuhan).
What the mind generates is sometimes presented as a meaning. According to the conduit metaphor we package these meanings as words, drawings or actions, ready for other people to unpack and translate into meanings in their minds. The test for accuracy in communication is whether other people “get my meaning.” Noise often gets in the way to distort the signal. Contrary to the conduit metaphor, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein asserted.
When I think in language, there aren’t ‘meanings’ going through my mind in addition to the verbal expressions: the language itself is the vehicle of thought (p.107)
the meaning of a word is its use in the language (p.20).
The danger of the conduit metaphor is that it draws attention to concepts of the individual as the source of genius and diminishes the role of the social, of histories, legacies and cultures. It is also the first step towards Ayn Rand‘s selfish universe of supposedly creative and misunderstood heroes.
Whether for good or ill the conduit metaphor engenders confidence in technologies for direct communication between minds and machines (link).
Returning to noise — the signal between a sender and a receiver can become distorted; the flow gets interrupted; impurities enter the conduit. This shows the inevitable influence of the medium of passage on the message, and the crucial role of context. In fact according to certain readings communication is all context. If conduit is to be the metaphor then let’s focus on the noise.
- Reddy, Michael. 1979. The conduit metaphor: A case of frame conflict in our language about language. In A. Ortony (ed.), Metaphor and Thought: 284-324. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Wittgenstein, Ludwig. 1953. Philosophical Investigations. Trans. G. E. M. Anscombe. Oxford: Blackwell.


Encyclopedia of Cultivated Plants: From Acacia to Zinnia
Cumo, Christopher. ABC-CLIO, 2013
3v, 1236p 9781598847741 $248.45 9781598847758 $234.55
The Encyclopedia of Cultivated Plants: From Acacia to Zinnia is a three-volume reference guide which provides and interdisciplinary overview of 282 plant cultivars, describing each plant in both horticultural terms as well as in the context of its relationship to humans. It is an excellent initial reference source for students of botany, agronomy, plant pathology, plant breeding, genetics, taxonomy, entomology, chemistry, soil science, history, folklore, religion, anthropology, and geography.
As indicated in its name, this encyclopedia is organized in alphabetical order by the commonly used names of plants and, furnishes the names of the plant family, genus, and species. The most notable features of the encyclopedia are its chronological and geographic scope. It spans more than 1 million years of known historical history and to touches upon every locale where humans have cultivated plants.
The encyclopedia begins with an alphabetically ordered list of entries. The next section provides related topics and groups the plants by the genus (i.e., Alliums: onions, garlic, leeks) or use (i.e., Beverages: agave, barley, coffee, grapes, hops). The preface provides a background and description of the work.
The encyclopedia includes an introduction to the topic of cultivated plants, providing background and a historical overview of plants and human civilization, including their economic, nutritional, social, cosmetic, and religious uses.
The end of the third volume provides a selected bibliography of recommended print resources and a list of organizations and their Web sites. Many of these groups, botanical gardens, and agencies provide additional authoritative information about cultivated plants in their online offerings. The encyclopedia concludes with a comprehensive index.
Highly Recommended for anyone with a casual interest in plants or as a precursor to more serious academic study. Comprising three volumes and approximately half a million words, this work is likely the most comprehensive reference of its kind, providing detailed information not only about specific plants and food crops such as barley, corn, potato, rice, and wheat, but also interdisciplinary content that draws on the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.
Encylcopedia of Consumer Culture
Southerton, Dale. SAGE Reference, 2011
3v 1596p 9780872896017 $725.00
The Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture is the first reference work to outline the parameters of consumer culture and provide a critical, scholarly resource on consumption and consumerism. The topics covered include socio-economic change, media, civil society, technology, production, welfare, urban life, and much more.
The encyclopedia is designed to aid students and researchers sort through the existing literature, over-lapping theories and concepts of consumerism and, to gain a clear and thorough understanding of consumer culture and its components.
A Reader’s Guide is provided to assist readers in locating articles on related topics. It classifies articles into nine general topical categories: Everyday Life; Geographies and Histories of Consumer Culture; Methods and Trends; Persons; Politics and Consumption; Production, Exchange, and Distribution; Social Divisions and Social Groups; Technology and Media; Theoretical Perspectives and Concepts
Entries are organized alphabetically and written in clear, nontechnical, style to ensure accessibility and that the key ideas, arguments, perspectives, ways of researching consumption, and the empirical studies understandable.
To help the reader browse the encyclopedia, a Reader’s Guide is provided that organizes the content into nine thematic categories
Each entry contains a list of further readings and a set of cross-references to other entries within the encyclopedia and, a full index to the volumes is provided so that readers can identify particular issues and explore how they connect and contrast across the different entries.
Recommended. The Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture provides a critical, scholarly resource on consumption and consumerism over time.
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Creating a secure public access workstation is a process made up of many discrete procedures. Furthermore, these steps are interdependent with other features of your secure system, such as network security and user issues. In this age of the Internet, a computer is only very rarely a self-contained unit. Therefore, while this section focuses on how to create a secure public access computer, you should also remember that to truly secure that computer, you should secure your servers and your network, and you must have a way to evaluate and maintain your security. Even though the process outlined below may look formidable, there are fortunately some valuable tools and utilities that you can use to automate some of the steps.
In order to create a secure public access computer, you must:
- Secure the computer's BIOS
- Install the computer with minimal operating system features
- Require user authentication
- Keep the operating system and applications up-to-date with patches
- Install anti-virus software
- Install desktop security software
- Securely configure applications such as office productivity software and browsers
- Educate and constantly remind staff about the need for security
Tools and Utilities
Making a computer administrator's life easier is a top priority for many software developers. Here are several excellent tools that can make your life a lot easier.
- Desktop security software, which restricts user access to a desktop computer's operating system, desktop, printing functions and many applications
- Rollback software, which resets a public access computer to a previous state every time the computer is rebooted
- Cleanup software, which automates the process of deleting temp files and cookies
- Distribution agents, which can automate the process of deploying software to many computers at once
Finally, it is important to remember that the security configuration of your public access computers should be based on your library's Security Policy. Just as libraries need to create an Internet Acceptable Use Policy, they also need to create a Security Policy that details what their computer assets are, why they are trying to protect them, and how to protect them. A library with a Security Policy that considers all of the ramifications of security can then assist your efforts to create a secure public access workstation.
Next: Protecting the BIOS


The Senufo people of West Africa’s Ivory Coast are renowned for their cloth paintings. They believe their artwork has special meaning and helps protect them in their daily lives. Design motifs usually include birds, snakes, fish, frogs, crocodiles, and turtles as seen from above or side, covered with lots of geometric patterns.
1. I had to substitute manila paper for cloth, but someday would like to try this on muslin. I had the students draw a border around their paper the width of a ruler. I drew some very simple animal shapes on the board for them to refer to. They were to pick their favorite and draw it as large as they could in the middle of their paper. When complete, the animals were filled with geometric patterns as well as the border.
2. After the patterns are all drawn, I had the students trace the animal and border with a fat black Sharpie and the inside patterns with a thin one.
3. When coloring with oil pastels, I explained that the Senofu people thought all animals had spirits and often outlined them with a thick band of yellow to represent that kind of energy. Lastly, the background was colored whatever color they wanted. The borders were to remain with patterns only and no extra color.


National research with international significance
Our latest report, What do students know and understand about the Holocaust? Evidence from English secondary schools, draws on contributions from more than 8,000 11-18 year olds, making it the world’s largest ever study of its kind.
The research included a comprehensive survey and a series of in-depth interviews with more than 200 young people to build the most detailed and authoritative national portrait ever created of students’ knowledge and understanding of an important historical event.
Many of our findings are surprising, some deeply troubling, all will help to shape the future of Holocaust education for years to come.
Our evidence shows many young people encounter learning about the Holocaust in school and we know that they are interested and willing to learn more. However, significantly, their knowledge and understanding of the subject is often limited and based on inaccuracies and misconceptions.
For example, when the depth of student knowledge and understanding was explored further it emerged that overwhelmingly students saw ‘perpetrators’ of the Holocaust in the person of Hitler or a vague conception of the ‘Nazis’, with very little awareness of the complicity of a wide number of individuals, agencies and institutions in the Holocaust.
“UCL Centre for Holocaust Education…is not only a research institution – it is also the UK’s leading centre for the development of Holocaust pedagogy; it is part of a university that has been ranked first in the world for education two years running….and it is devoting its expertise not only to research that reveals classroom issues but in the development of resources and pedagogy that respond to these challenges.
Professor Yehuda Bauer
Academic Advisor to Yad Vashem ”
Opportunity and engagement
We found that students had multiple opportunities to encounter the Holocaust across all year groups and across a variety of different subjects. By Year 10, 85% of students reported that they had learned about the Holocaust within school. They also showed interest and willingness to learn.
- 83% believed the Holocaust was important to study at school
- 82% found the subject interesting
- 70% of those who had learned about the Holocaust wanted to know more
Despite this widespread exposure, the evidence showed that student knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust was often limited and based on inaccuracies and misconceptions. For example, just 37% of young people surveyed knew what the term ‘antisemitism’ means. So while young people knew that the Jews were primary victims of the Holocaust, most could not explain in any depth why they were murdered.
Fascinatingly students across all age groups framed ‘the Holocaust’ in remarkably similar ways. Their descriptions focused almost exclusively on what perpetrators did to their victims (see diagram). Overwhelmingly, the recurring refrain was ‘Hitler and the Nazis killed the Jews in the camps’. Other aspects, such as the scale of the Holocaust, when and where it happened, or – crucially – why and how it could have happened, were rarely touched upon.
These are troubling findings, particularly considering that the Holocaust has been a staple of the curriculum for almost 25 years.
The influence of wider society in the classroom
We do not see these findings as a failing of teachers or students, however, but as a result of the ‘common knowledge’ of the Holocaust which circulates widely within British society today, and the wide acceptance of myths and misconceptions about this complex past.
Popular culture is full of representations of Hitler and the Nazis, a shorthand for ‘evil’ now so common that people widely believe they know about the Holocaust without actually having studied it.
Students’ ideas appear to draw heavily from that popular culture. This is borne out by the certainty with which many students held incorrect ideas about the Holocaust. Wrong answers in the survey were not just guessed at: often students said they were confident that they were correct.
Oversimplifications, myths and misconceptions have not been effectively addressed in the classroom. Perhaps this is because they do not get in the way of a core message of ‘lessons from the Holocaust’ which has prevailed in the last 25 years. You do not need to know very much about the Holocaust to agree passionately that it demonstrates the ‘dangers of hatred, prejudice and racism’. Our research bears this out: young people agree strongly with the message, and they think the Holocaust is something we should never forget. The problem is, in common with much of British society, it appears that most do not know or understand very much about it.
More on key gaps in student knowledge and how we are addressing them
Click here to find out more about the dynamic relationship between the Centre’s research and our portfolio of lessons, which is under constant review and development as we continue to respond to the key findings emerging from the research.
World-leading research comes alive in the classroom
“I am far more confident with the use of student led tasks and stepping away from the didactic preacher form of teaching.
RE and PSHE teacher after attending UCL’s teacher development programme”
We believe secondary school education, with its potential for a deeper exploration of a subject, is uniquely placed to address misconceptions and misunderstandings about the Holocaust circulating in our wider culture. Our study serves as a call to action. We need to reclaim the classroom as a space for deeper, more challenging, and more meaningful teaching and learning about the Holocaust.
Better understanding of teachers’ and students’ needs enables us to create the most powerful and effective support for schools available – which means more inspiring learning for young people across the country.
The Centre’s teacher development programme and education materials are uniquely responsive to real life classroom contexts. We believe education practice should be informed by academic scholarship, empirical research and practical classroom experience. Our team is made up of globally renowned academics and educators, almost all of whom have worked previously as school teachers themselves, so we can ensure that every aspect of our programmes are designed with a deeper understanding of the realities of working in the classroom today.
Click the link below to download a PDF of the report
Ordering a hard copy of the report
Please submit your details via the form below and we will happily post you a hard copy of the report.
If you would like to order more than one hard copy of the report please contact us via email at firstname.lastname@example.org
This page includes photography by Olivia Hemingway


Going Full Circle on Gravity and Orbits - Day 1
Lesson 13 of 16
Objective: Students apply the circular motion equations to Newton's Universal Law of Gravity to derive circular orbit equations.
Much like in the lesson on Projectile Prediction, this lesson has students deriving equations based on the situation. In this case, they derive the equations for the velocity and period of a satellite in a circular orbit. The derivation requires Newton's gravity equation learned last lesson, The First Universal Law, and formula from Playing "A-Round" with Circular Motion. The equations allow students to calculate the orbital velocity and orbital period in terms of the mass of the large body being orbited, the radius of the orbit and the gravitational constant.
This involves CCSS Math Practice 4: Model with mathematics and NGSS Science Practice 5 Using mathematics and computational thinking. In order to perform this analysis, students will have to ask the right questions which is Science Practice 1: Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering). There are two NGSS performance standards which are in use for this activity, HS-PS2-4: Use mathematical representations of Newton’s Law of Gravitation Law to describe and predict the gravitational forces between objects and from HS.Space Systems, HS-ESS1-4: Use mathematical or computational representations to predict the motion of orbiting objects in the solar system.
I tell students that, "today you are NASA scientists". Their job is to determine the orbital conditions for a new satellite that will monitor the polar ice caps. In order to accomplish this feat of engineering, they apply Newton's Universal Law of Gravity to an object in circular orbit. The first slide of the Orbital period and velocity power point is displayed on the board as I give this overview.
The next few slides are review of the law of gravity learned last lesson, The First Universal Law. I expect students to write down the problems and practice them in their notebooks on their own. After students work through the problems, the answers are displayed in the power point. (Please note that animations in the power point do not work correctly in the preview mode; for full functionality, download the power point file.)
Then, as a class, we derive the formulas for velocity and period of a satellite in a circular orbit. I communicate that the students are expected to write down each step, as they need to reproduce these steps in the future. The power point leads the students through the process step-by-step. We begin with the centripetal force equation and set it equal to the law of gravity, since it is gravity that is applying the force that keeps a satellite in orbit. The hope in this exercise is that students understand that modeling with math is a powerful tool with many applications.
Mission Control Needs YOU!
I pretend to take a phone call on my smart phone, saying "Yes sir, right away sir. Oh yes, my scientist students are up to the challenge!". Then, I tell the students that I just talked to the NASA Director and that he wants their help! I display the first slide of Mission Control Needs You power point.
The next few slides details their mission, which is to determine the orbital conditions (velocity, period and radius) for a new satellite. The satellite is to take high resolution pictures in order to monitor the snow and ice covering over the arctic and antarctic. This requires that it must be at an altitude of 300 kilometers. Then I reveal a most vital part of the mission... the satellite name. NASA loves acronyms (I worked on the ACE satellite when I was in college which I show on the power point). I ask students to make an acronym for this mission that is both descriptive and a word. I provide some of the more fun and create examples from past years "mission scientists".
I display the requirements for this mission (slide 6) which details that the students must determine a name for the new satellite as well as the orbital velocity, period and radius given the requirement that it is 300 km above the Earth. Students can commence with the mission only after they prove derive the orbital equations on their own. All students are given the derive orbital equations sheet where they reproduce the orbital equations derivation, but they must do it independently with their notebooks closed.
This is to give them practice deriving equations, an important physics skill. To complete this derivation, they are allowed three life-lines: they can peak in their notebook for 10 seconds, ask a friend a single questions and ask me a single, specific question. Once a student successfully derives the orbital motion equations, they bring their work to me to begin work on the mission.
As students complete their derivation of orbital period and orbital velocity based on mass and radius, they bring their work to me. As students come up, I check their work and pair up students who have successfully derived the orbital motion equations. Together, the groups of two are to complete the NASA mission of where they determine the name, orbital radius, velocity and period of the new satellite. I continue this way until all students are grouped. This grouping method tends to create homogeneous pairs since the rate at which students finish the derivation is based on their math and physics skills. For this activity, this is appropriate since most students are able to complete this activity with the provided scaffolding.
After all students groups are formed, which takes about 10 minutes, I display the final slide from the Mission Control Needs You power point. This slide displays the needed variables for the mission; I spend a minute pointing out how the variables relate to the formulas. For instance, the altitude of the satellite is different from the radius of the orbit. Students have to add the altitude to the radius of the Earth. Also, students need the mass and radius of the Earth (which they should have in their notebooks). Most of the high performing groups, who have been working on the problem for 10 or more minutes, have figured this out. The groups who are in need of support are just starting the mission when I give this information, so they start with the right numbers.
Then I project the mission details (slide six) for students to reference in their write-up. (The correct answers are also posted in the notes section of slide six.) I intentionally include too much information on the mission details slide. I do this so that students have to choose what information is needed and what can be ignored. It is good to do this as it mirrors reality. Rarely, when faced with a complex task, do scientists have only the essential information. They often have to sift through a irrelevant information to find what information is needed.
As the lesson time concludes, I collect the student sheets to assess their understanding and assign a grade to this activity. I inform the students that tomorrow, they are to continue their roles as NASA scientists as they again apply the orbital equations to determine satellite positions.


Spondylosis, also known as spondylosis deformans in dogs, is a condition where osteophytes grow on the ventral (bottom) surface of the vertebral bodies. Osteophytes are commonly referred to as bone spurs and are bony projections that can form along joints in the body of a dog.
As bone spurs grow, they form bridges from one vertebrae to another. Though compression of the spine is usually not the result, the dog may gradually lose flexibility in the backbone and overall range-of-motion. As the dog ages, you may see a diminished capacity to run, jump and turn. Finally, trauma can snap the bridges of bone fusing the vertebrae, causing pinched nerves.
Swimming as a form of exercise is beneficial to dogs and will not put too much strain on the animal’s spine or on its joints. Swimming also allows the dog to build up its muscles especially around the spine area which with time helps in easing the pain that accompanies a case of spondylosis.
Other benefits include:
- Reduces pain – The soothing effect of the warm water encourages more fluid movement of the joints, leading to decreased levels of pain
- Reduced inflammation – Hydrostatic pressure applied by water can assist in reducing swelling or inflammation by forcing body fluid away from affected areas. This is assisted by exercising the limbs to enhance circulation
- Warmth of the water increases blood supply to surrounding soft tissues – helping to reduce spasm, stiffness and reluctance to move
- Improve quality of life
- Non-weight bearing – easier to move
- Increased active range of motion
- Feeling of well-being due to release of endorphins
- Reduction of frustration for dogs on reduced exercise
- Increased muscle strength
- Improved muscle patterning and recruitment
- Improved cardiovascular fitness
- Decreased pain and inflammation


When people talk about lithium batteries being “dangerous”, what they are really talking about are short circuits. A short circuit is when the positive terminal of a battery is somehow able to come in contact with the negative terminal of the battery, without anything in between to slow down the charge flow. Basically, the battery starts dumping energy into itself as quickly as it can, and with no where for the energy to go, it turns into heat. This is how lithium batteries can lead to fires in extreme cases.
Fortunately, good quality lithium battery cells don’t just short circuit on their own. Unlike cheap battery cells that are known to spontaneously catch on fire (though this is still rare), good quality lithium batteries are safe to use. The only danger comes from misusing these batteries and causing a short circuit.
When using a VRUZEND kit, if you follow the instructions when connecting batteries in series and in parallel, you won’t every experience a short circuit. However, if you aren’t paying attention or don’t understand how to connect batteries together, you can accidentally create a short circuit between one or more battery cells.
How a short circuit is made
Let’s look at how a short circuit can happen, that way we know how to avoid it. With your VRUZEND battery building kit, the easiest way to create a short circuit is by connecting terminal caps together in a way that connects the positive and negative ends of multiple battery cells together in a loop.
A simple short circuit could be caused by connecting both terminals on a single cell.
This type of short circuit would be fairly difficult to achieve with your VRUZEND kit because most connections will be made with busbars instead of wires, so the two terminals on opposite ends of the cells won’t be able to reach each other.
However, a multi-cell short circuit would be easier to create with the VRUZEND kit. This is where multiple cells are oriented in such a way that their opposite terminals could be connected into a short circuit, where the positive and negatives are all connected in a loop.
Imagine two cells in VRUZEND terminal caps, oriented opposite to each other. This would be how you’d start building a larger battery pack. A connection on one end would create a series connection, as you’d be connected the positive terminal of one cell to the negative terminal of the other cell. That’s fine – that’s actually how a series connection is supposed to work. The problem arises if you were to accidentally connect the other two terminals together also. That would create a circuit loop that runs through both cells with nothing in between them except for the bus bars. That would be a short circuit that could begin to overheat and destroy the battery cells, potentially resulting in a fire or explosion.
This type of short circuit can occur more easily during your pack construction. Something as simple as dropping a busbar on top of a partially finished battery can easily create this short circuit if the busbar lands between two cells that are connected in series on the bottom of the battery. Even a screw driver or hair pin could create a short circuit between two or more cells like this – anything metallic or conductive that could bridge that gap. Believe it or not, a sweaty palm could create a short circuit between battery cells if the conditions are right. All the more reason to wear gloves while building your battery!
What to do if you make a short circuit
Before you start working on your battery, you should have prepared your work area by removing any unnecessary metal and making sure you have a fire extinguisher nearby, just in case. You should also have a clear path to the outdoors, if possible, just in case you need to remove your battery.
If you accidentally create a short circuit, such as by dropping a busbar in the wrong place, you’ll likely see sparks as soon as the conductive object makes contact. Do not panic. If the short circuit was a glancing blow, as in the conductive material was removed immediately, then it is likely that no harm was done. A very short duration for a short circuit isn’t great for the battery, but it is unlikely to cause much lasting damage or result in a dangerous scenario.
Sometimes, a short circuit can weld itself together. A sufficiently strong current flow can weld in place whatever metal piece caused the short circuit. This is a bigger problem, because the short circuit will remain and current will be flowing. Again, do not panic. The first thing you want to do is attempt to remove the short circuit condition, likely by removing the part that caused the short. If possible, grab the metal and pull it away. It will quickly begin to heat up though, so if you don’t get to it within a couple seconds and you aren’t wearing gloves, you’ll need to use a tool to avoid burning fingers. Another great reason to wear gloves! A wooden or plastic tool is preferable for prying up whatever is causing the short, as it will keep you from accidentally making any more shorts with a metal tool.
If you absolutely can not remove the offending conductive part and your battery is stuck in a short circuit condition, then you’ll need to remove the battery from your work area. It will likely eventually enter thermal runaway, which will cause the cells to overheat and vent hot gas. If the battery is around other flammable materials, such as a wooden work desk, it could cause a fire.
If you have a clear area outside free of flammable materials, such as a concrete or asphalt driveway, or a dirt yard, that would be a good place for the battery. You’ll want to remove the battery from your home or work shop fairly quickly, as the battery will begin to heat up quickly. Working on a wooden board, such as a cutting board or piece of table top would be a good method to allow you to move the battery without having to hold it.
Once you have the short circuited battery in a clear area, you’ll need to watch it and let it burn itself out. It will likely release a lot of gas and flame. In some cases, individual cells may explode. If possible, dousing the battery with water can help prevent thermal runaway of nearby cells that didn’t experience short circuits. Don’t get too close to the battery though – a garden hose can help you maintain your distance.
Most common fire extinguishers don’t work very well on lithium batteries once they have begun thermal runaway – they are simply too hot. Plenty of water works better. A fire extinguisher is still an important tool to keep around though, as it can help keep the battery from catching other things in the vicinity on fire.
Once the battery has burned itself out, let it cool off for many hours. Water and/or dirt can help cool it faster. Lastly, you’ll need to dispose of it in an environmentally safe manner. Contact your local municipality and ask about how to dispose of lithium batteries or other hazardous waste materials.
If for some reason you can’t remove the battery from your house, such as if you live on the 20th floor of an apartment building, then you’ll want to put the battery in a safe location that won’t lead to anything else catching on fire. An oven in the kitchen or a BBQ grill on the balcony would be a good option. Anything that isn’t flammable and can contain the battery will work.
This article isn’t meant to scare you. Rather, I hope that it will A) teach you how to avoid short circuits, and B) prepare you in case you ever do experience a short circuit.
The best way to make sure you never need to deal with a short circuit is to simply work slowly and carefully. I’ve built hundreds of batteries and rarely ever had an issue with short circuits. The few times I did accidentally make a short, it was always because I got careless and wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing. I either laid a busbar in the wrong place when I working too quickly or dropped a tool on top of the battery. Each time, I quickly removed the part that caused the short and everything was fine.
Always remember to plan out your moves in advance and work slowly to ensure that you know what you’re doing and when you’re going to do it. If you’re careful, you should never encounter a short circuit. But if you ever do, just remember, remain and calm and remove the short circuit condition, or else remove the battery to a safe location and douse with water.
|About The Author|
|Micah Toll is a mechanical engineer, lithium battery builder and ebike educator. He’s written multiple books including DIY Lithium Batteries and The Ultimate DIY Ebike Guide. When he’s not tooting around Tel Aviv or Florida on his ebikes, you can probably find him reading, writing, running or vegging out on the couch.|


Irregularity is a philological concept which is not adequately defined. The
present volume aims to improve the understanding of irregularity within the
domain of morphology, relating to inflectional, derivation, and compounding.
Studies aim to discover the potential regularity behind irregularities, the fact or
hypothesis that regular (sound) change produces irregularity (Sturtevant's
Paradox), the nature of paradigms (esp. suppletion and overabundance), and the
interplay of irregular morphology with syntax and pragmatics. Perspectives are
synchronic and diachronic. A few studies approach irregularity from the
psycholinguistic point of view (issues of memory and acquisition).
Languages studied include Latin and its daughter languages French, Catalan
and Italian, but also English, German, Greek, Russian, Turkish, Thompson
Salish, and the Iroquoian languages. Theories discussed include Canonical
Typology, Distributed Morphology, Whole Word Morphology, Minimalism, and
the Procedural/Declarative Model.