Formal Specification helps build more robust, more maintainable software with fewer bugs and defects. It has a long history, but it is still a developing field. While it may not be suitable for all software projects, a case can be made that there are many projects not currently using formal specification that stand to benefit from it. As the methods and tools for formal specification develop it is increasingly becoming something that developers and software engineers should learn to use to their advantage.
What is Formal Specification
Formal specification is simply a matter of being more explicit and specific in defining the requirements of software. At the simplest level this can take the form of Design by Contract, where functions and procedures specify pre- and post-conditions and loops and objects include a set of invariant properties. In the more rigorous case formal specification involves building an explicit mathematical definition of the requirements of the software. Using such a definition one can prove the correctness of the system, or simply prove theorems about properties of the system. An implementation can also be checked against such a formalised specification, verifying that the implemented code does indeed do precisely what the requirements claim. At the most rigorous level the initial formal requirement specification can be expanded, through (mathematically rigorous) refinement, to ever more specific and detailed specifications resulting eventually in executable code.
All of these different levels allow a significantly greater degree of analysis of the software, be it improved static and runtime checking with contracts, to more complex data flow analysis and proof with more complete specifications. In the same way that static types allow more rigorous checking at compile time, catching a lot of simple errors, contracts and specifications allow even more analysis and checking, catching even more errors at the early stages of development when they are most easily and efficiently fixed.
A Simple Example
For good examples of formal specification at work I would suggest you try this Z case study or the case study for CASL in the CASL user manual. For those who want something more immediate I have a warning: To be short enough to present easily in this space the specifications are necessarily very simple and should be taken as a sample of the flavour of formal specifications rather than a serious example.
The specification for a simple stack, in SPARK, a version of Ada that adds formal specification semantics, would look something like the following:
--# own State: Stack_Type;
--# initializes State;
--# type Stack_Type is abstract
--# function Not_Full(S: Stack_Type) return Boolean;
--# function Not_Empty(S: Stack_Type) return Boolean;
--# function Append(S: Stack_Type; X: Integer) return Stack_Type;
procedure Push(X: in Integer);
--# global in out State;
--# derives State from State, X;
--# pre Not_Full(State);
--# post State = Append(State~, X);
procedure Pop(X: out Integer);
--# global in out State;
--# derives State, X from State;
--# pre Not_Empty(State)
--# post State~ = Append(State, X);
The package body, containing the implementation, can then follow.
The own simply declares the variable State to be a package global variable, and initializes means that the variable State must be initialized internally in this package. We then declare an abstract type (to be defined in implementation) and some simple functions. The in and out keywords in the procedure declarations tag the parameters: in means that the parameters current value will be read in the procedure, and out means the parameter will be written to in the procedure. The global keyword declares the the package global variable State will be used in the procedure (and both read from and written to). The derives keyword provides explicit declarations of which input will be used in determining values for variables that will be output or written to. The pre- and post-conditions should be largely self explanatory.
As you can see, mostly all we are doing is making explicit exactly how we intend the procedures to operate. This specificity provides automated verification tools the information necessary to properly analyse and validate implemented code: Prior to a compile step you can run a verification and flow analysis tool that catches many subtle errors.
A similar object, specified in an algebraic specification language like CASL might look something like this:
spec Stack[sort Elem] =
push: stack * Elem -> stack
pop: stack ->? stack
top: stack ->? Elem
not def pop(empty)
not def top(empty)
forall s : stack; e : Elem
pop(push(s,e)) = s
top(push(s,e)) = e
CASL offers syntax that can compact this considerably, but this longer version makes the workings of the specification more clear.
We declare a specification for a stack of generic elements, of sort stack; and with operations empty (which is in a sense the constructor creating and empty stack); push which maps a stack and an element to a "new" stack; pop a partial function (denoted by the question mark) which maps a stack to "new" stack; and top another partial function which maps a stack to an element. We then define axioms: first, as pop and top are partial functions, we say they are not defined on empty stacks; secondly we declare that pop and top should behave as (partial) inverses for push for all stacks and elements.
This is sufficient information to completely specify stacks as a universal algebra and brings a great deal of powerful mathematical machinery to bear on the problem, much of which has been coded into a set of analysis tools for CASL.
While these examples are very simple, they should give you the flavour of how formal specification can work. Both SPARK and CASL support structured specifications, allowing you to build up libraries of specification, making them scalable to very large problems.
Why Use Formal Specification?
Why use static types? Why do any compile time checking? Why produce design documents for your software? Not every project is worth writing design documents for, and some projects are better off being developed quickly using a dynamically typed language and runtime checking. Not every project really needs formal specification, but there are a great many software projects that could benefit greatly from some level of formal specification - a great many more than make use of it at present.
I would suggest that it is probably unimportant whether your paint program, music player, word processor or desktop weather applet uses formal specification. What about your spreadsheet application? Bothering with formal specification for the GUI might be a waste of time. Bothering to do some specification for the various mathematical routines, ensuring their correctness, would potentially be worth the extra trouble. Formal specification doesn't need to be used for a whole project, only those parts of it that are sensitive to error. Likewise any network services could easily benefit from formal specification on the network facing portions of the code to significantly reduce the possibility of exploits: it is far easier to audit and verify code that has been properly specified. Security software, and implementations of cryptographic protocols, are far safer if formally specified: with cryptography the protocols are often rigorously checked, and many exploits relate to errors where the implementation fails to correctly follow the protocol. Finally mission critical business software, where downtime can costs millions of dollars, could most assuredly benefit form the extra assurances that formal specification and verification can provide.
None the less, barring a few industries, formal specification has seen little use in the past 25 years. Developers and software engineers offer many excuses and complaints as to why formal specification isn't suitable, isn't required, or is too hard. Many of these complaints are founded in a poor understanding of how formal specification works and how it can be used. Let's consider some of the common complaints:
But Formal Specification is Too Much Work...
Formal specification can be as much work as you choose to make it. You can do as little as adding contracts to critical functions or classes, or you can write the entire project from the top down by progressive refinement of (and verification against) a specification for which you have created formal proofs of all important properties. There is a sliding scale from a dynamically typed script with no documentation or comments, all the way up to a completely explicitly specified and proven system. You can choose the level of specificity and verification, and you can specify as much or as little of the system as you need. Formal specification covers everything from adding contracts to a couple of critical routines to complete specification of the entire project.
Formal specification isn't necessarily significantly more work than you do now. Writing contracts is only a little more work than static typing: you are simply declaring formally what you intend the function to do, something you ought to have a clear idea of before you write the function anyway. Writing a basic specification is only a little more work that writing a design document: you are simply formalising the diagrams and comments into explicit statements. For a little extra work in the initial stages you gain considerably in debugging and testing. Extended static checking based on contracts can catch many simple errors that would otherwise go unnoticed, and debugging is significantly accelerated by the added information contracts supply about runtime errors. If you've gone to the trouble of writing a formal specification, you can statically verify properties of the system before it is even implemented. Once implemented you can validate the implementation against the specification. When performing testing you can use the specification to help determine the best coverage with the least testing.
Formal specification does work in practice, and the gains in efficiency in testing and debugging can often outweigh the potential extra overhead during design. Design by Contract, for instance, is often cited as saving time in the development process, and there are many real world success stories where systems were developed faster by using contracts. A 20 person team completed in 5 months what took a team of 100 people using standard C++ almost a year. For projects where robustness is critical, full formal specification has been used successfully. Companies like Praxis High Integrity Systems use formal methods successfully in the rail, aerospace, nuclear, finance and telecommunications industries (among others), and have sold their formal method tool-set to a variety of large companies. Reading through some of their recent work and case studies makes it clear that formal specification and verification can prove to be more efficient and faster to use.
But Formal Specification is Not Practical...
On the contrary, formal specification is used all the time in many industries, and there are various companies like Praxis High Integrity Systems, B-Core, Eiffel Software, Kind Software, and Escher Technologies who provide formal specification tools as a major part of their business.
Formal specification has proved to be practical in the real world. What it has lacked is mature tools to make development using formal specification faster and easier (try writing code without a good compiler; try doing formal specification without good static checking tools), developer awareness, and developers skilled in the languages and techniques of formal specification. It doesn't take much to learn - learning a specification language is not much harder than learning a programming language. Just as programming appears to be a difficult and daunting task to a person who doesn't know any programming languages, specification looks difficult and impractical to people who don't know specification languages. Take the time to learn and your perspective will change.
But the Project Requirements are Always Being Changed...
It is true that many projects face ever changing requirements. The question is not whether this renders formal specification useless (it doesn't) but how formal specification compares to informally specified software in such a situation.
First of all it should be noted that engaging in formal specification can help reduce the problem to begin with. By requiring you to rigorously specify at least some portions of the software, formal specification can assist in finding ambiguities, cases that were not covered, and other problems much earlier in the development cycle when changes are easiest to make. Those parts of the system, such as GUIs, that are often the target of more whimsical design or requirements changes are precisely the parts that benefit least from, and are least likely to use, formal specification. Changes to design or requirements for those parts of the system, then, are not likely to be more detrimental than for informally specified projects.
Secondly formal specification is quite capable of dealing with change, and even offers benefits in the face of changing requirements. A change in requirements results in a change in specification, but because the specification is formally written the impact of the changes can be analysed. You can check that new requirements remain consistent with the rest of the system. You can also determine all parts of the system that will be impacted by the change and avoid bugs introduced by the changes. Having a formal specification for the system when a change in requirements occurs makes it easier to see how the change will effect the system and easier to make the changes consistently and completely. Formal specification can make changes in requirements easier to deal with, not harder.
But I Already do Unit Testing...
Unit testing is fantastic, and there's no reason to stop just because you can write proofs for some aspects of your code. Unit testing is not a replacement for formal specification however. Testing only verifies the component for a very limited and specific range of cases. Specifically testing covers the cases that the developer thought of. A great many bugs, however, are those that occur from situations the developer didn't consider, and probably wouldn't have included in his test. You can improve the situation with testing tools like fuzzers, but you're still only checking a sampling of the whole space. Formal specification, on the other hand, allows construction of formal proofs that cover all possible cases. I would much rather specify and prove Pythagoras' theorem than simply assume it is true by testing it on random right angled triangles. Likewise, while testing is valuable (and easy) when assurance matters it is no replacement for proof based on a specification.
Does this mean you should give up Unit testing? In no way shape or form. Just as formal proofs in mathematics are much harder than trying a few cases, formal proofs from specifications require significant work - you most likely can't prove everything. That means the best method is prove those properties that are critical, and continue testing the system much as you normally would. Hopefully you'll see a lot less errors to debug based on the extended static checking of course.
But Formal Specification Still Can't Guarantee Perfect Software...
Correct, there are no guarantees. Complete proofs are often too complicated to perform, so theorem proving for specific properties is usually undertaken instead. Static checking can be enhanced significantly with suitable specifications, but not all errors can be caught. Your software is only going to be as stable and secure as the system it is running on. If you can't be perfect why try at all? Because significant gains can be made and the costs may be smaller than you think. Even if the whole system can't be proved, managing to prove key properties may well be all the assurance of correctness that is required for the application at hand. Even if you can't catch all the errors statically, reducing the number and severity of runtime errors can bring significant efficiency gains in the testing phase. Furthermore the cost of errors in software found after release can be sufficiently high that any reduction is worthwhile. Finally if you can't trust your compiler and operating system, then everything is compromised. At some level you have to trust something - we all trust a great deal of software right now that we expect to have flaws - reducing the source of errors to trusted components is still a significant gain.
But Formal Specification Is Only Viable for Trivial Examples...
Not even close to the truth. Formal specification and formal methods have been used for large projects involving hundreds of thousands of lines of code. Just look at many of the examples provided above: these were not small projects, and they were not toy trivial examples; these were large scale real world software systems. Examples of formal specification tend to be small simplistic cases because they are meant to be just that: easily comprehensible examples. In the same way that programming languages often use "Hello World" and quicksort as examples, formal specification languages use equally simple but demonstrative examples. Don't take this to mean that the language and method doesn't scale.
Formal specification isn't a silver bullet, and it isn't the right choice for every project. On the other hand you can use as much specification and verification as is suitable for your project. You can apply formal specification only to the portions that are critical, and develop the rest normally. More importantly, the techniques, languages and tools for formal specification continue to improve. The more powerful the methods and the tools, the more projects for which formal specification becomes a viable option. In an increasingly network oriented computing world where security and software assurance is becoming increasingly important, the place for formal specification is growing. If you are a software engineer it makes sense to be aware of options available to you.


So lately the weather has been coming up in conversation, and it dawned on me how many terms are, well, confusing! A cold front, high pressure, low pressure, micro-burst!? That's a lot to keep track of, especially for the little ones. Talking about the weather is a common conversation - maybe you're orienting someone, maybe you're on a date that's going south and you need to fill the dead air! Either way, weather has a presence.
That's why I created this activity pack to teach the little guys about weather terms! This is an introduction, so nothing too major or intricate. When you're using it, or when you're finished, you can hang the weather chart on your wall and go over everything daily!
This activity includes: -Weather term and photo match up -Weather bug slam game where students infer the type of day is bring presented -Weather chart -My favorite season worksheet
So get cracking on creating the future Sam Champions and Al Rokers of the world! LOL Download thi…
So I'm sure you all use music/songs/chants in your therapy. I know I do! It's a great way to connect with the kids, have fun, and teach concepts! I wanted to share this great resource/blog that I've been using. It's written by a passionate and talented music teacher -- plus, there are detailed instructions so you can't mess up if you're not so musically inclined! LOL
The blog is called "The Sharp Music Teacher" and the link can be found HERE.
Groundhog's Day is not only a crazy movie with Bill Murray, but an awesome way to teach your kids to say Punxsutawney as fast as possible! LOL All kidding aside, this holiday has some merit. It is pretty fun to teach though! To help you share the magic of Punxsutawney Phil, I've created this fun activity pack! Plus, a little printable story about good ole Phil! I promise you'll have a blast (as will the students) with this pack!
This packet includes: -A short, printable story about Groundhog’s Day (written by me) -Groundhog’s Day Vocabulary Worksheet -Groundhog’s Day Vocabulary Cards -Groundhog’s Day Poems and Songs with related questions -A Printable Groundhog’s Day Language/Vocabulary Board Game -Groundhog’s Day Craftivity
Let's chat about "One Snowy Day", shall we? It's probably a reality most New Yorkers will be living soon seeing as some snow is on its way. It's ALSO a great book by Jeffrey Scherer!
The story is adorable. A bunch of animals each bring something to make a snowman. They all work together to build the snowman, including rolling the snow and decorating it. It's a great story for vocabulary, sequencing, and categorization. Plus, it's an early-reader book meant for kindergarten/1st grade so it's basic enough that you can branch up or down easily. The packet includes: -Character cards-Character-Action match cards-Build your own snowman worksheet -Character attributes sheet -“What would you do if you were...” character sheet -Story-based question cards -Snowman sequencing sheet -“How do these things go together” using story items -Homework worksheet Download this activity HERE!
Here's the boring stuff before the fun stuff: I was given a free code to try this app. I was in no way compensated for my review of this app by Balbus Speech. This app review is the result of my own experiences with this app. Here's the review:
I, much like many of you, am obsessed with my iPad. I try to fit it into everything I do therapy-wise. I think it's a great motivator, an awesome wrap-up tool for the end of a session, and an even better data tracker. I also spend lots of time scouring iTunes and various websites to find great apps - I'm sure you iPad-enthusiasts do this as well! So, when I was approached by Balbus Speech to review their new app "Fluently" I was psyched, to say the least.
"Fluently" can be purchased from iTunes for $4.99 and it works on the iPhone and iPad. It does pretty much what it the title insinuates - it monitors fluency through easy onset using this great green-light, red-light system.
The Common Core can be intimidating. It's like a blind date. You're familiar with the situation, but the variables are different. You don't quite know what to expect, but you definitely have navigated these waters before. I've been blindly dating the Common Core for a while now, and I think I may have come up with activities that target some of the aspects. Now, many of my activities target many different standards. I'm hoping that highlighting this one standard will show how you can find standards in all the activities!
And now onto the activity... Work on attributes using this activity! According to the Common Core Standards students should be able to "Define words by category and by one or more key attributes (e.g., a duck is a bird that swims; a tiger is a large cat with stripes)." Teach this important skill by making a fun fruit salad! Have your students pick out what fruits they would need to make their fruit salads. S…
Who doesn't love Amelia Bedelia? She's drawing curtains, dressing turkeys...she's an awesome, literal, chick! The entire Amelia Bedelia series is pretty great, and right now I'm especially loving "Be My Valentine, Amelia Bedelia.
It's great for teaching idioms, of course. However, there is so much more to Amelia stories. I always feel like it shows the importance of knowing multiple meaning words and phrases by showing her looking so silly.
So why check this book out? The Valentine's Day idioms in here are illustrated in this book. So you have Amelia's friend being "stuck" on the sidewalk for "stuck on you". A great visual for students. Plus, the material isn't as serious and doing straight "idiom work" and the story is cute!
I've created a packet to go along with this book that mainly deals with the multiple meaning language in this book. It's fun, and I've included a "craftivity"!
Let's chat about "The Little Red Hen", shall we? It's a familiar story to you. The hen asks for help planting/sowing/milling/baking, no one wants to help, but everyone wants to eat the bread she makes. I find this story to be so aligned with life. Everyone wants the end result, but many do not want to work for it.
It's a great life-lesson for kids, that working hard and enjoying the results is important. Helping your friends when they ask is important. Overall helping, is important! You might even discuss with your students the nationwide movement to get people involved in service (click link for article from AP) in their communities on Saturday.
"The Little Red Hen" is a classic, and it gives students a ton of lessons to learn. The classic book is great to read, and the youtube video from Speakaboos (found HERE) is great to watch!
I've created this awesome packet to go with it. This 20 pager is totally stuffed (no chicken pun intended!) with activit…
I'd like to start this post with a little "review" of sorts. Please know that I have never received anything from this store for reviewing it, I'm just a happy patron!
There is no place in the world I love more than a good bookstore. I frequent an awesome bookstore near me called Book Revue. They have an amazing children's section where they feature different authors, including Jan Brett. If anyone is a local Long Islander (NY) I would highly recommend visiting and grabbing some budget-friendly, gently used books. A lot of the copies I buy are often just $4.50 and in great shape. ANYWHO I like promoting local businesses, especially awesome ones. Plus, I bought my Jan Brett books here so it was fitting!
And now for the activity... I'm always taking suggestions from followers! I think you guys have the best input because you're out in the trenches everyday in different environments working your SLP voodoo! When a follower suggested a book activity packet for &…
Use this fun, interactive game to teach your students about dreams, and Dr. King's "I have a dream" speech. This powerpoint game uses inferencing to go through many peoples dreams. Students will infer what this person's dream could be - i.e., doctor, lawyer, singer.
It's a great intro or wrap up activity for MLK, Jr. Day! Your kids will have fun trying to "guess" who this person is and what their dream could be. At the end, the question "what is your dream?" is presented. Have students go around and present what their dream is and why! Download this great activity HERE.
February 14th is coming soon to a speech room near you! In preparation, I created this all-in-one packet for you to use! It's great, a printable PDF chock-full of V-day activities! Plus, only the front cover is pink so your boy students won't be gagging too much! haha The story of St. Valentine is included in this packet, which I found pretty interesting. Who knew V-day was more than just a hallmark holiday?? Interesting stuff!
In this packet you'll find great activities including:
• Illustrate Valentine’s day worksheet • Valentine’s day acronym
• Valentine’s Day vocabulary and worksheets • Valentine’s Day fill-in poem
• DIY Candy Hearts worksheet
• Valentine’s Day Story and questions
Download this packet, your students will love you for it! Click HERE.
So this idea was discussed during dinner at my house the other night, LOL. You often see teachers/SLPs handing out "goals for the year" worksheets in September, and then they hand them back out in June. What happens in between though!?
Now that a new year is upon us, use this time to "forecast" until June! Have students use this monthly activity to inference what they think might happen that month. Then, at the end of the month, go back and have them fill in what really happened! Use the compare/contrast venn diagram to help them discuss what was different and what was similar.
Also, setting smaller goals can be helpful for students. Use these sheets as a way to set monthly goals with your students. At the end of the month they can go back and see if they've accomplished their goals!
HAPPY MONDAY! Lets start with an easy question: Who doesn't love Jan Brett? Uhm, probably no one. I mean the books are fantastic, the illustrations are even better, and the kids are always entertained. There are a lot of activities surrounding other books by Brett, but not a lot for "The Three Snow Bears". Enter in: my newest activity! This story pack is filled, and I mean filled with great activities to use with this book. A lot of compare/contrast with "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" to make for an interesting take!
This packet includes:
-Vocabulary from the book
-An Eskimo Go-fish to help learn the vocabulary
-A Venn Diagram to compare/contrast
-A Story Snowflake to breakdown the story
-A Character Web -A compare/contrast sheet for Goldilocks and Aloo-ki
-A Write Your Own Goldilocks story template! Just a note: You may notice a difference in how I am presenting my activities picture-wise. I ran into some issues with some "right-click+copy" offender…
Teaching what is and what isn't a sentence can often be difficult. Our students need a way to break it down and understand how to identify a sentence. My "Simply Sweet Sentences" Activity does just that!
Use this sweet activity to teach what is and what isn’t a sentence! Set up your baker sign to remind students about the two parts of a sentence. Then set up your cupcake tins – one for sentence cupcakes and one for non-sentence cupcakes. Hand out the cupcakes and start sorting! Try to fill up the cupcake tins correctly!
Plus, who doesn't love cupcakes!? LOL This activity targets simple sentence identification and breaks down what is and is not a sentence. By identifying what is/isn't a sentence students will reflect this understanding in their writing and comprehension!
So my greatest resource/feedback is always what my mom is doing with her kids in school. She's just a kick-butt, awesome SLP. As you know, I did my school practicum in a middle school, so a lot of my activities where a little higher-level than what my mom's kids needed at the elementary level.
Over the New Year's break we discussed how they're working on sentence combining and "what is a sentence?" This gave me a great idea to create an interactive sentence combining game!
Using this fun ppt game, you build a snowman by answering the questions and combining the sentences using commas and "and".
Check out the photos below, and be sure to download this great activity HERE.


Forms of Naturalism: McDowell and Hegel on the Meanings of Nature, Mind, and Spirit
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The word “nature,” like its Greek successor “physis,” has meanings that are easily confused. In its wide sense, “phyein” means “to be”—and everything is natural. To defend “naturalism” thus just means to stick to what there is. More to the point is already the enterprise of fighting superstitious spiritualism by a logical understanding of formal “entities” like “the mind” resp. “spirit” as constituted by verbal abstractions in order to reflect on mental faculties resp. joint understandings. However, nature also contrasts to culture and action. It is the domain of events that happen all by themselves without human interference. As a result, the topic of the natural sciences is not the whole world; and science is not the measure of all things, pace Sellars . Programs of naturalizing human epistemology, especially when “reducing” the mind to neuro-physiologically governed behavior are therefore misleading. Even though McDowell might agree so far, it is already a concession to philosophical Zeitgeist to bring personal intellectual faculties under the label “second nature,” which stands since Aristotle only for “habits” and “costume,” viewed in the way of methodical individualism. Instead, there is a need of renewing Geisteswissenschaften in the sense of canonized knowledge about spirit as the system of instituted forms of cooperation and communication, as already Hegel has seen.
- Carnap, Rudolf. 1975. Meaning and Necessity. A Study in Semantics and Modal Logic. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar


Ask some children to come out to the front give each of them a sheet of A5 sized paper and some scissors.
Ask them to cut a hole in the paper that they will be able to fit their whole body through.
Some of the children will immediately decide that this is not possible, while some may have an attempt!
Sometimes we are faced with problems that really worry us and that we don't know how to solve!
Now take a piece of the A5 paper and follow these instructions...
1. Fold the paper in half lengthways
2 Cut alternating 'up' and 'down' slits in the paper as shown
3.Cut through the fold of the paper, leaving the fold of the end slit pieces in tact
4. Open the paper out into a big circle that you can pass your whole body through!
You may need to try this a few times before you actually do it for real so that you know roughly how many slits you need to make for your body to get through.
Talk about the fact that sometimes we are faced with problems that we don't know how to solve- things that seem impossible to us. Ask children if they've ever felt like that in their lives. Talk about times when you've faced a problem like this yourself and how trusting in God has helped you. What amazing ways has God shown you that he cares and is helping you? Tell the children that the Bible says that all things are possible to God (Matthew 19:26, Mark 10:27) and that, knowing this, can give us hope that if we trust in Him he will do amazing things.


Success of the feeding program should be measured by how it achieves the breeder's goals for proper weight and development specific to each strain. Feed and the length of time required to attain certain weights in pullets and turkeys are presented in the growth and feed tables elsewhere in this chapter (see Nutritional Requirements of Poultry). The figures in these tables can be used as a guide to estimate the amount of feed required but will vary considerably because of differences in the nutrient density of feed, strain or breed of bird, amount of feed wasted, and environmental temperature.
Most diets used to feed poultry are nutritionally “complete” and commercially mixed, ie, prepared by feed manufacturing companies, most of which employ trained nutritionists. The formulation and mixing of poultry feeds requires knowledge and experience in purchasing ingredients, experimental testing of formulas, laboratory control of ingredient quality, and computer applications. Improper mixing can result in vitamin and mineral deficiencies, lack of protection against disease, or drug toxicity.
The physical form of the feed influences the expected results. Most feeds for starting and growing birds are produced as pellets or crumbles. In the pelleting process, the mash is treated with steam and then passed through a suitably sized die under pressure. The pellets are then cooled quickly and dried by means of a forced air draft. The conditions under which pelleting occurs (eg, use of an expander rather than an extruder, exposure to high temperature, use of soft pellets) have an important effect on the nutritional quality of the pellets or of the crumbles produced by crushing the pellets.
Last full review/revision May 2015 by Bruce Stewart-Brown, DVM, DACPV


The environment has an impact on our health. Preventing epidemics relies on activating the right counter-measures, and scientists are now trying to find out how better use of forecasting can help. The EU’s EO2HEAVEN project developed a risk map for correlating environmental and health data in order to identify where a disease may break out next. The concept will be on show at Booth E40 in Hall 9 of the CeBIT trade fair in Hannover.
Cholera has been all but eradicated in Europe, but this bacterial, primarily waterborne disease still claims thousands of lives in Africa every year. Scientists are examining the effects various environmental factors have on cholera epidemics in Uganda. As part of this work, the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB in Karlsruhe developed a software architecture for early warning systems that compares environmental and health data and presents the results graphically. “This allowed us to visualize the complex relationships between these factors for the first time on risk maps, leading to a better understanding of the processes,” explains project coordinator Dr. Kym Watson.
The scientists use sensors to measure environmental parameters such as rainfall, exposure to solar radiation and pH value, as well as temperature and concentration of nutrients in the water. Weather and climate forecasts are also factored into the analysis. At the same time, they use mobile applications to collect health data on cholera cases from hospitals and doctors, such as where patients have been and what their symptoms are. This data is collected and stored – anonymously – on a central server at the health authority in the Ugandan capital Kampala. Using the new software, each case appears as a red dot on a digital map. By correlating this information with the environmental data, scientists can see how fast and how far an outbreak is spreading.
“For the first time, Ugandan officials were able to visualize and comprehend the full extent and implications of the cholera outbreaks. Prior to this, individual cases were only ever recorded manually in written lists. Decision makers are now in a position to better deploy medical resources in the affected areas, and hospitals and doctors are better prepared and can respond much more effectively,” says Watson, recounting the project’s successes.
A variety of applications
This kind of early warning system can also be put to good use in other areas. As part of their work for EO2HEAVEN, the scientists investigated a further two case studies. In the German city of Dresden, they looked at the relationship between air quality – measured in terms of temperature, Particulate Matter and ozone – and cardiovascular diseases. And in the Durban industrial basin in South Africa, they investigated the correlation between air pollution and asthma.
In the long-term, members of the public also stand to benefit directly from the early warning system. “It’s conceivable, for example, that an app for asthmatics would allow a user to set up a personal profile with their own allergic reaction thresholds for pollen count and air quality,” says Watson. “By comparing this set of values with measured environmental data, the app would enable each individual to access a personalized risk map, and could issue a warning whenever the threshold values are exceeded.”
But the project was not without its challenges. In Germany in particular, obtaining the necessary health data from health insurance companies is difficult since it goes without saying that these data are strictly confidential. So it is important to prepare data in a way that guarantees anonymity in order to safeguard data protection.
What’s more, once a high-risk situation has been identified it’s not always easy to determine the right measures and actually carry them out; the IT solution is merely a tool that helps people in their decision-making. Whether cholera outbreaks in Uganda can really be confined naturally depends above all on the speed of the response, and on the quality of drinking water, hygiene practices and available medical resources.
A total of ten European and three African companies and research institutions collaborated in the EO2HEAVEN project, which had a budget of 8.7 million euros. Fraunhofer IOSB is implementing the cholera early warning system in collaboration with the World Health Organisation WHO and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA. The team is currently looking for additional sponsors and funding sources to advance the solution for widespread use in any affected country.


History of Edmeston, New York/1850s
The history of Edmeston, New York: 1850 through 1859
[This building was moved to the east side of South Street, near the four corners. It has been used at various times as a fire station, garage, apartments and a used clothing store. As of 1990, in poor repair is idle].
Post office established at East Edmeston (4/15/1856) closed 3/23/1857. — Dorothy Scott Fielder
Warren Chase postmaster of East Edmeston post office (discontinued 1861). — Flora Underwood
Otsego County was the leading national hop producing area. Throughout the year weekly papers carried market quotations, crop prospects and news of the hop situation overseas. — The "hoop skirt" was all the fashion and occasioned much comment and caricature as the "hobble skirt" of a much later day. One New York City factory was employing a thousand girls, using 300,000 yards of steel spring wire and 150,000 yards of tape a week and turning out 3,000 skirts a day. Harper's Weekly commented,
- "Smart girls, we are told, can easily make $4 a week...Four dollars a week, it need hardly be remarked, is very fair remuneration for work which is neither excessive or unhealthy."
When in August oil was struck in Pennsylvania, the modern petroleum age began. Before the end of the year kerosene was for sale in local stores at $1.25 a gallon. — This was the year the Colorado Potato beetle appeared here, and to stay. — Whisky could be bought for twenty five cents a gallon. Venison, bear meat, wild turkeys, and wild pigeons were displayed in the markets. — December, 1859, Abraham Lincoln consented that his friends might advance his candidacy as presidential nominee of the party. The result was that the first president born beyond the Appalachians entered the White House in 1861. — Roy Butterfield


a) Use the quotient rule. For ,
b) Vertical asymptotes typically show up where the denominator of the expression is 0.
c) If you are talking about asymptotes in class you should already know how to do this.
Call y = f(x):
d) This is the same as question b)????
e) Graph it. What is the test for a 1 to 1 function? (Hint: look up "horizontal line test."
f) Look at your graph. What does it look like the range might be? Now for the harder question: Is there any value of y that cannot be reached by any x? (Hint: think about the horizontal asymptote. Can the function take on this value of y?)
g) I did most of the work on this in c). You find the inverse function by switching the roles of x and y in the function and solving for the new y.
h) The domain of the inverse function is the range of the function. The range of the inverse function is the domain of the function. (You can also look at the graph of the inverse function to find out what these are.)
i) You should have already done this by now. If you haven't, do it now. You know the vertical and horizontal asymptotes. Now figure out where the function is positive and negative.
j) Same as the process for i).
k) "find (f of inverse)(x)" Huh?
l) You already did this. is your inverse function, just with the y replaced by . It's just a notation change.


When kids or teenagers tell adults they’re stressed, adults tend to take it with a grain of salt. After all, how stressed can they be? They don’t pay the bills, they’re not planning for retirement, and they don’t have to deal with overbearing bosses, annoying coworkers, or paying taxes.
Here’s a dose of science-based fact: stress – and the resulting anxiety – doesn’t know or care how old you are or how many bills you have to pay. Stress doesn’t know if its source is social, financial, interpersonal, or survival. When a human mind encounters stressful stimuli and the autonomic nervous system responds, the physical, emotional, and psychological consequences are as real for a 14-year-old as they are for a 40-year-old.
This means that if your teen says they feel stressed, it’s just as real as any stress you feel as an adult. Because stress, ultimately, is chemical. More specifically, stress and anxiety are caused by chemicals called hormones. Hormones are proteins produced and released by your endocrine system that circulate throughout your entire body. They’re chains of amino acids that cause physical, emotional, and psychological reactions – no matter who you are, no matter how old you are, and no matter why they ended up streaming through your bloodstream.
So: you have a stressed teen. Now that you know you should take it seriously and not shrug it off as something irrelevant or insignificant, what should you do?
Know the Warning Signs
We scoured reputable websites like those maintained by the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the National Alliance on Mental Health, and the Centers for Disease Control to find the most common warning signs of adolescent stress. Here’s a simplified list, so you don’t have to go search for yourself.
Top Ten Signs Your Teen is Stressed
- They express worry about school, friends, or other activities.
- They’re more irritable than usual.
- They get angry often and tantrum like a younger child.
- They begin putting off tasks they previously started with no problem.
- They neglect their school, home, and family responsibilities.
- Their appetite changes dramatically: they eat much more or much less than usual.
- Their sleep patterns change dramatically: they sleep much more or less than usual.
- They start getting sick more than usual.
- They’re unable to focus, follow-through, and complete tasks they used to complete with no problem.
- They avoid friends, family, hobbies, and social situations they used to enjoy.
If any of these things are true for your teenager, don’t ignore them. Because the stress hormones aren’t ignoring their body. They’re circulating. They’re causing short-term issues that, left unaddressed, could become significant long-term physical and emotional problems.
How to Your Teen With Stress
If your teenager complains about the stress in their lives, you can help them by showing them the following five tips, which we wrote specifically for them.
Teens: Use These Five Simple Tips for Reducing Stress
Pulling all-nighters might seem glamorous, cool, or something to brag about. And sure – an occasional all-nighter might be necessary. But sleep is way more important in the long run. Sleep is when your body and brain recharge. Long-term sleep deprivation leads to serious health problems, and short-term sleep deprivation leads to short-term decreases in cognitive capacity. Translation: if you don’t sleep, the next day your brain won’t work as well. Staying up all night to study for an exam might actually be counter-productive.
Garbage in, garbage out: you might know this phrase from computer science. Feed a program junk information, what you get is junk results. The same is true for your body: feed it junk food, and the result you get is junk. Feed your body good food – i.e. plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains – and you get good results. Not only for your body, but for your mind. The next time you have a big test, make sure you eat a balanced meal the night before, and a solid breakfast the morning of. It really does make a difference.
3. Let Go.
There’s no such thing as perfect. If you’re constantly striving for perfection, we can tell you right now you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. No one can be perfect all the time, and studies show an overemphasis on achievement and perfection can lead to anxiety disorders, stress, and self-esteem issues. So the next time you’re freaking out about a big test coming up, be like Elsa: Let it go, let it go!
4. Give yourself props.
Give credit where credit is due. If you get good grades, congratulate yourself for them. If you constantly criticize yourself, figure out a way to restate that self-talk. There’s never any reason to beat yourself up about anything. Instead of “Omg I’m an idiot, calculus is beyond me, I’ll never pass,” try something like “Omg calc is hard but I’m going to get a tutor, work on it, and do my best.”
Take a look at your schedule. Are you overextended? Even though you’re on the verge of adulthood, you’re not yet an adult. Don’t chafe at that fact: embrace it. Take advantage of the fact that you’re allowed – even expected – to have fun, be responsibly irresponsible, and do fun and frivolous things just because they’re fun and frivolous. Get the most our of the last few years of adolescence – responsibly, of course.
Early and Often
Like we said above: stress will never disappear completely from your life. That’s why you should learn to manage stress as early as possible – as in now – because a stressed-out teenager is likely to become a stressed out adult – and you know what they’re like, right?
You might also want to read: How to Help Kids with Anxiety
Angus is a writer from Atlanta, GA who writes about behavioral health, adolescent development, education, and mindfulness practices like yoga, tai chi, and meditation.


According to the American Academy of Dermatology, nummular dermatitis is a skin condition in which coin-shaped rashes break out and cause itching or burning. It is generally seen after some sort of skin injury, such as an insect bite, burn or friction-caused abrasion. One or many patches may break out, and it can persist for weeks or even months.Continue Reading
Nummular dermatitis may also be referred to as nummular eczema or discoid eczema and is considered to be non-contagious. The American Academy of Dermatology asserts that this particular skin condition is more common in men than women, citing that men will often have their first outbreak between the ages of 55 and 65. If women do have it, they will generally develop initial outbreaks much earlier in life, usually between the ages of 15 and 25.
Research suggests that living in a cold, dry climate increases chances of contracting nummular dermatitis, along will poor blood flow and other skin infections caused by bacteria. Certain medications may also increase the risk of contracting nummular dermatitis, such as interferon, which has been cited as causing wide-spread nummular dermatitis. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends seeing a dermatologist right away once the condition develops and asserts that these sores can be stubborn to treat.Learn more about Skin Conditions


Las Bela, also spelled Lasbela, district of Kalāt division, Balochistān province, Pakistan. A former princely state, it has an area of 7,048 sq mi (18,254 sq km) and is bounded north by Khuzdār district, east by the Kīrthar Range (separating it from Sind), south by the Arabian Sea, and west by the Hāla Range. An agriculturally underdeveloped zone with untapped water resources, it is mountainous in the east and has a central alluvial lowland drained by the Porāli and Kūd rivers; in the west is a narrow coastal strip dotted with mangrove swamps.
Cultivation depends upon flood irrigation, with jowār (sorghum) and oilseeds being the chief crops. Sheep, camels, and goats are bred extensively, and fishing is important along the coast. Sonmiāni is the principal seaport.
Bela (ancient Armabel, Armel), the district headquarters until it was replaced by Uthal, and site of the jām’s (chief’s) residence, lies just east of the Porāli at the apex of the Las Bela Plain; it is linked by roads with Karāchi and with Quetta via Kalāt and Mastung. Rugs, embroidery, and crochet work are local handicrafts. The caves at Gondrāni (north of Bela), hewn out of solid rock, are probably of Buddhist origin.
Las Bela is strategically located on the Makrān coastal trade route between Sind and Iran (Persia). The army of Alexander the Great retreated to Persia through the southern part in 325 bc, and the Arab general Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim followed the same path c. ad 711. Stone ruins at Gondakeha on the Kūd, 10 mi (16 km) northwest of Bela, indicate ancient Arab (possibly Ḥimyaritic) occupation.
Las Bela princely state acceded to Pakistan in 1948. In 1955 it became a district of Kalāt division and in 1961 of Karāchi division; it was returned to Kalāt after 1972. Its population is Muslim. The Lumris or Lasis, whence the prefix Las, are the dominant tribal groups; other tribes include the Baluchi and Brahui.


SDSU Significance of African American Urban Organization Essay
These essays are meant to demonstrate your intellectual engagement and reflections of the reading material. Please DO NOT turn in a summary of the readings, instead offer YOUR analyses of the readings and consider how their arguments relate to your own thinking, class discussions, as well as the debates and discourses of the larger society. Essays must be 2-3 pages in length, double-spaced, with 12-point font, and 1-inch margins. Please do not manipulate font size, spacing, or margins and be sure to proofread your work before you turn it in.
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For cancer prevention, the evidence is pretty clear: vitamins, minerals and other supplements alone don’t work. Not relying on supplements is one of AICR’s recommendations for cancer prevention — a recommendation made after analyzing the global research.
Now a review of the research supports this conclusion, finding that many popular supplements do not protect against both cancer and heart disease, the two leading causes of death in America. At least among healthy individuals. And some supplements may possibly cause harm among certain groups of people. The report was published by the US Preventive Task Force, an update to their 2003 report with similar findings.
The analysis reviewed all the new evidence since the last report, collecting only “good quality” studies. At the end of it, there were 26 new studies.
The studies included many of the most commonly used supplements, including vitamins B, C, D and E; zinc; magnesium; folic acid; beta-carotene; and selenium. All the studies included adults who were not nutrient deficient. Most were over 50 years old and participated in the study for under ten years.
Whether taking one supplement or a multivitamin, the analysis found no evidence that the supplement(s) affects risk of heart disease, cancer or overall mortality. This does not necessarily mean that certain supplements do not offer protection for certain populations.
As the authors note, except for vitamin E and beta-carotene there are few quality-studies.
Overall, the study found little evidence that supplements cause harm except for a few notable exceptions. Smokers who took beta-carotene supplements had an increased risk of lung cancer, for example. And a large trial found that the group taking vitamin D and calcium supplements had a small increase in kidney stones.
About half of US adults report taking supplements, and there are plenty of health reasons people do. For the healthy adult though who wants to protect against cancer, AICR recommends getting your vitamins, minerals and all the stuff of supplements through your food for a variety of reasons.
Vegetables, fruits and other plant foods contain numerous health-protective compounds, some identified only in recent years. Many also contain fiber, which protects against colorectal cancer and may help with weight control. Studies also increasingly suggest that the thousands of compounds in our foods work together to help our health.
Who should take supplements? We have more about that here.


It may become all too common in the current 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis that children and families will be confronted with the death of a loved one. More common still may be news of a death in their extended social contacts, and it is virtually unavoidable that children will learn of deaths in the community.
“While news of deaths in extended social circles or in the community may well cause difficult feelings, including anxiety and sadness, children are likely to feel the most intense grief in response to the loss of immediate or extended family members,” says Eric Lewandowski, PhD, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at NYU Langone and member of its Child Study Center.
Together with the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s WonderLab, Dr. Lewandowski offers advice for parents on how to help their children work through the death of a loved one.
Helping Your Child Manage Their Feelings
Even under normal circumstances, death triggers many feelings, including sadness, longing, fear, and anger. “As painful an experience as it is, it can be helpful to remember that death of a loved one is a universal experience that everyone faces at one time or another, and it is an experience that we are equipped to manage,” Dr. Lewandowski says. “It may be reassuring for parents to know that the process of grieving usually happens on its own.”
For most children, all that is needed is the support of loved ones, Dr. Lewandowski adds. “Every child, and person, may differ specifically in what they feel in response to a death,” he says. “There is no one right or normal way that your child is meant to experience their grief, and there is no one right way for you to offer support.”
The experience of sadness and longing at the death of a loved one, while painful, is in fact essential for coping. “As much as we want to protect our kids from this pain, it’s really impossible to do and isn’t even advisable—experiencing these emotions is one of the most important things that children, and all of us, need to do when a loved one dies,” Dr. Lewandowski says. “What is most needed is to meet your child in whatever they are feeling, to provide a chance to talk about the person who died and their feelings about the death, and to validate and normalize their experience.”
Usually sadness and longing are relatively easy to validate. Other emotions, like anger, including at the person who died or at the child’s parents, can be more challenging to validate but are no less important. “These feelings are part of a normal grief response, and parents should strive to be accepting of them,” Dr. Lewandowski says. “Usually, these feelings evolve over time and become less distressing as kids begin to re-engage in other aspects of life.”
Explaining Death to Your Child
To help with this process, when learning that a loved one has died, kids should be provided the essential facts about the death and the circumstances and have an opportunity to ask questions, as often as necessary. “Graphic details should be omitted. The goal is to provide an age-appropriate understanding of what happened so that children can begin to come to terms with the finality and consequences of the death,” Dr. Lewandowski says.
Young children may need some explanation about what death means. “There are no right words, but it’s important to convey that it is a permanent state and that people can’t come back from it,” Dr. Lewandowski says. “Also, it’s important to use the words death or died, rather than other language like ‘passed away’ as this may leave room for confusion about what has happened.”
Some examples of how to communicate to younger children what death is may include that it happens when a person’s body gets very sick—but not like a cold—and stops working; that it doesn’t breathe anymore or need to eat; it doesn’t hurt; and that it means that the person can’t come back. “The specific words you use don’t really matter, it’s the message that counts,” Dr. Lewandowski says. “Parents should check in intermittently so that kids understand that they can talk at any time about anything that is upsetting them about the death, but they should not be forced to talk about their grief or the person who died if they don’t want to.”
Helping Your Child Move Forward
Following a death, and especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, children may worry about what may happen to them or their surviving loved ones and others in the community. Parents should provide reassurance whenever possible about the precautions that are being taken to keep them and their loved ones safe. “When satisfying reassurances are not possible, instead focus on the steps that are being taken by your family, and in the community, to cope with the challenges at hand,” Dr. Lewandowski says.
The vast majority of kids, and people, are able to come to terms with the death and resume a life that has the potential for joy and satisfaction. “Parents should keep family routines as intact as possible, and also make sure to plan opportunities for fun or other positive experiences, either together as a family, or for their child with peers,” Dr. Lewandowski says.
Positive experiences, fun, and enjoyment are very important in supporting a child’s adjustment to a death in the family, and should be encouraged, letting them know that life will continue and that it is OK to have fun and to laugh. “The COVID-19 crisis presents new obstacles in this process, but the activities and opportunities for fun need not be extraordinary,” Dr. Lewandowski says. “Shared activities with siblings or family members, and even solitary engagement in other pleasant or enjoyable activity can be helpful. Keep in mind that youth, especially younger kids, may spend more time engaged in play rather than overt grieving. A helpful rule of thumb is that kids who appear to be coping well are likely coping well.”
Many families may face the additional pain in an already heartbreaking situation of being unable to say goodbye to a loved one who is dying, to be together in such difficult times, or to go through the usual rites, like a funeral. “Such important times have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it can be helpful to find alternative ways to come together to say farewell and to commemorate the person who died,” Dr. Lewandowski says. “Families may conduct a ritual or ceremony, an acknowledgement at a meal, or multiple meals, or virtual gathering, and of course a plan for after the crisis breaks to gather in person for the same purpose.”
Identifying the Need for More Help
The death of a loved one can be a profoundly painful experience, and in the immediate time afterward, it can be hard to distinguish between what is within the norm and what may need attention of a mental health professional. In the vast majority of cases, grieving children, and adults, are able to cope with the support of their loved ones and will not need professional support.
“While some of signs of depression and anxiety are commonplace in grief response, it is important to watch for signs that the sadness about the loss is having a broader impact on the child’s outlook on life or has seemed to impact his or her ability to participate in or enjoy other aspects,” Dr. Lewandowski says. “If a child’s grief seems not to have eased after a period of six months, they may benefit from extra support.”
Similarly, shorter periods of disruptions in sleep, eating habits, or attention to personal hygiene, may also signify the need to extra support. Finally, the emergence of suicidal thinking or self-harming indicates a need for consultation with a professional.
It can be difficult to make these distinctions, and parents should not feel they need to worry alone, Dr. Lewandowski says. Consulting with a professional, including mental health experts at NYU Langone, can provide reassurance that will help families continue their own coping, and can identify signs that more support is necessary. “Caregiver wellbeing is the most important factor in supporting kids through the death of a loved, and parents themselves should be encouraged to seek any support they need for themselves,” Dr. Lewandowski adds.
Additional Resources for Parents
Dr. Lewandowski suggest the following resources for parents to help their children with the death of a loved one:


Sanaaq is an intimate story of an Inuit family negotiating the changes brought into their community by the coming of the qallunaat, the white people, in the mid-nineteenth century. Composed in 48 episodes, it recounts the daily life of Sanaaq, a strong and outspoken young widow, her daughter Qumaq, and their small semi-nomadic community in northern Quebec. Here they live their lives hunting seal, repairing their kayak, and gathering mussels under blue sea ice before the tide comes in. These are ordinary extraordinary lives: marriages are made and unmade, children are born and named, violence appears in the form of a fearful husband or a hungry polar bear. Here the spirit world is alive and relations with non-humans are never taken lightly. And under it all, the growing intrusion of the qallunaat and the battle for souls between the Catholic and Anglican missionaries threatens to forever change the way of life of Sanaaq and her young family.
“Sanaaq begins abruptly and ends with a spiritual release, and everything in between carries the reader along the life journey of a small community tangling with the paradoxes, juxtapositions, and day-to-day realities of northern colonialism while also re-affirming the livelihoods and knowledge that people use to assert local ways of knowing upon colonial actors. This novel, now available in English, is important reading for anyone wishing to better understand the trajectories and ironies of mid-twentieth century state projects to furnish “welfare” to Canada’s northern peoples, and to understand how Inuit actors approached these new realities.”
“Despite being a figure of great literary and cultural importance, Mitiarjuk and her work are almost entirely unknown in English-speaking Canada.... Sanaaq may be read as an ethnographic or historical document, but to do so would be to miss the skill and complexity of the storytelling. The novel is a creative and critical intervention into the process of representing Inuit experience.”
"This simply told tale captures the stark and sometimes brutal reality of life in the Far North."


Predators are an important part of a healthy ecosystem. Predators cull vulnerable prey, such as the old, injured, sick, or very young, leaving more food for the survival and prosperity of healthy prey animals. Also, by controlling the size of prey populations, predators help slow down the spread of disease. Predators will catch healthy prey when they can, but catching sick or injured animals helps in natural selection and the establishment of healthier prey populations as the fittest animals are left to survive and reproduce.
If carnivores were removed from an ecosystem, what would happen?
1. Antelope herds would grow and grow.
2. Only bad weather such as a drought, or disease such as rabies, would slow down the herd growth.
3. Large antelope herds would overgraze their food source, and as the food disappeared, the whole herd would begin to starve.
Cheetahs and other predators help limit the growth of prey populations and prevent overgrazing of ranges. While human hunters can sometimes replace predators in the control of antelope populations, they generally do not remove the injured, sick, or older animals. Predators play an important role in maintaining healthy prey
The cheetah is a valuable member of its community. In addition to its role as a predator, cheetahs feed other animals, such as vultures, jackals, beetles, and other scavengers. After a cheetah kills an animal it usually begins eating at the hind quarters, which provide the greatest amount of meat. Because the cheetah is not an aggressive carnivore, larger predators, as well as jackals and vultures, can scare the cheetah off its kill. By leaving the remains of a carcass, the cheetah feeds other animals in the ecosystem.
Many people fear predators, especially big cats such as the lion, cheetah, and leopard. We are often taught to fear carnivores without understanding their unique behaviours, special adaptations, and essential roles in the maintenance of healthy ecosystems.
Wouldn’t a world without predators be something to fear even more?


Published: 30/01/2017 KS3 | Early Modern period: 1500-1750 11 pages
What were the attitudes to the Restoration?
Students use information on a selection of six different people's responses to the Restoration to plot a continuum. This can be developed into a role-play activity. Subscribers can use the PowerPoint version to plot the continuum as class.


5 Ways to Wellbeing | The Ultimate Guide to Feeling Good
5 Ways to Wellbeing
Research has shown there are five simple things you can do as part of your daily life, both at work and at home, to help build resilience, boost your mind and body wellbeing, and lower your risk of developing mental health problems.
These simple actions are known internationally as the Five Ways to Wellbeing.
The Five Ways to Wellbeing are;
- Be Active
- Take Notice
- Keep Learning
Why the Five Ways Work:
Connect: Strengthening relationships with others and feeling close to and valued by others, including at work, is critical to boosting wellbeing.
Be Active: Being physically active, including at work, improves physical health and can improve mood and wellbeing and decrease stress, depression and anxiety
Take Notice: Paying more attention to the present moment, to thoughts and feelings and to the world around, boosts our wellbeing.
Keep Learning: Being curious and seeking out new experiences at work and in life positively stimulates the brain.
Give: Carrying out acts of kindness, whether small or large, can increase happiness, life satisfaction and a general sense of wellbeing.
The Five Ways in Action:
When it comes to putting the 5 Ways to Wellbeing into practice, don’t overthink what it could entail. It could be as simple as;
Connect – with the people around you. With family, friends, colleagues and neighbours.
Be Active – Go for a walk or run. Step outside. Garden. Play a game etc
Take Notice – Remark on the unusual. Notice the changing seasons. Savour the moment
Keep Learning – Try something new. Rediscover an old interest. Take on a new responsibility at work.
Give – Do something nice for a friend or teammate. Thank someone. Volunteer your time.
Mental Health & Wellbeing
Mental health and wellbeing go hand in hand with feeling good, and meaningful conversations about mental health and wellbeing don’t have to be hard conversations. Being able to talk about our mental health, including our thoughts and feelings, is a sign of connection and a good attitude towards health
Simply engaging in conversation with someone, and listening to how people are feeling and what is impacting (positively or negatively) on their actions and relationships could be just what another person needs:
Simple questions could include;
- How are you?
- What’s up?
- How are things going with work / home / family / friends?
- What have you been up to recently?
- What did you get up to over the weekend?
- Did you manage to solve that issue you had?
- Can I help with anything?
- How are you finding your job?
- Are there any things that could make it better, easier, less stressful?
Strong relationships with others are an essential part of building resilience and boosting wellbeing.
Let’s Look Deeper into the 5 Ways to Wellbeing
We all need to feel close to other people and feel valued by them, and evidence shows that CONNECTING with others including colleagues, friends, and the wider community promotes wellbeing, and helps build a support network for when times get tough.
Connecting is about being there for others, talking and listening, and feeling a sense of belonging.
- Talk to someone – and really listen
- Organise a shared lunch
- Reconnect with an old friend
- Eat lunch with colleagues
- Find ways to collaborate
- Plan a social event at work
- Play with your kids
- Talk or phone instead of emailing
- Join a team or club
Being curious and seeking out new experiences positively stimulates the brain.
Learning improves our self-esteem, keeps us connected and involved and helps us adapt to change and find meaning in our lives. Setting goals, being open to new ideas and continuing to LEARN throughout life helps boost wellbeing and build resilience. It has also been shown to help prevent depression in later years.
Learning is more than just formal education – it’s about exploring new ideas, seeing opportunities, embracing new experiences and sharpening our skills. It means being curious and having an enquiring mind, in all areas of life
- Take a course
- Learn an instrument or language
- Visit a Museum or Art Gallery
- Set a goal and work towards achieving it
- Take on a new task or help someone
- Get to know your colleagues more
- Join a book club
- Listen to a podcast
Being physically active every day is great for our bodies and minds.
As well as improving physical health and fitness, being ACTIVE can also improve our mood and overall mental wellbeing, and decrease stress, depression and anxiety. These benefits are increased when we get outside.
Being active with others can also help us feel more connected and motivates us to build new habits. Being active does not have to mean going for a run. Do what you can to move your mood. Any form of physical movement can be beneficial – find something that you enjoy and that suits your level of mobility and fitness.
Think about how you could move or stand more – build habits to bring more active movement into your workday.
Some activity ideas include;
- Go for a gentle stroll at lunchtime
- Join a sports team
- Break up long periods of sitting
- Have walking meetings
- Take a yoga, Pilates or Tai Chi class
- Use the stairs instead of the lift
- Do some gardening
- Try some stretches
Paying more ATTENTION to the present moment, to thoughts and feelings and to the world around us, can boost our wellbeing.
Using attention to increase awareness, concentration, and focus on the current moment and the task at hand, has been shown to improve wellbeing and mood. These are skills that can give us greater creativity, accuracy, and productivity.
Becoming more aware of the present moment means noticing the sights, smells, sounds and tastes we’re experiencing, as well as the thoughts and feelings that occur from one moment to the next. It’s about reconnecting with the world around us, appreciating the little things and savouring the moment
- Keep a beautiful object near your desk
- Plan to look up at the night sky
- Notice signs of the season changing
- Practise gratitude
- Try mindfulness meditation
- Sit quietly in a garden or park
- Listen to your favourite music
- Take a break from digital devices
- Single-task – do one thing at a time
GIVING makes us feel good. Carrying out acts of kindness, whether small or large, can increase happiness, life satisfaction and general sense of wellbeing
Giving is more than just sharing material things with others. It’s about cultivating a spirit of generosity and actively supporting others. The acts of giving, receiving and being aware of acts of kindness, even indirectly, give us a sense of purpose and self-worth. Giving also builds mana and connection with others.
At work, a culture of giving helps to build a positive emotional environment and promotes connection, empathy and teamwork.
- Compliment someone
- Help a colleague with their work
- Share your ideas or feedback
- Get involved with a charity
- Express gratitude – thank someone
- Make someone a cup of tea
- Support a friend or colleague
- Do the dishes for someone
- Perform a random act of kindness for a colleague, friend or even a stranger
There are many resources available on the internet to help with wellbeing and generally feeling good, and so if you’d like to share any tips you have, we’d love to hear about them in the comments section below.
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With inverter grid synchronisation the key problem is that the grid frequency can vary. In fact the frequencies of AC systems around the world are different and they are also constantly changing. This makes it a challenge to connect renewable generation to the network.
AC System Frequency
- Aircraft AC systems run at 400Hz three phase. They do this to make the motors lighter with less iron due to the volt second integral being lower.
- Some railway locomotive AC systems are 16.7Hz single phase. These frequencies are chosen to minimise the current needed to charge the capacitance of the overhead line and so minimises the number of substations needed. The 16.7Hz is chosen to so as to not be a multiple of 50Hz. The was made by rotary frequency changers (this is truly what they were called as power engineers often lack imagination) but is now also made by static power electronic frequency changers. With modern static frequency changers with inverter grid synchronisation 16.7Hz is achieved.
- In Switzerland the railway has their own separate distribution grid.
- There have been railway frequencies as low as 8Hz and some train locomotives even operate from very low frequency AC with a frequency of zero. DC is the AC you have when you are not having AC.
- Early on GE decided that 40Hz would be good for AC distribution but it did not catch on.
- There are aluminium smelters in Australia where they have or had 60Hz, 50Hz, 25Hz and 16 2/3 Hz AC systems and reportedly all at the same time.
Other useful information for Inverter grid synchronisation.
- NATO ships are 60 Hz,
- The Swiss, German, and Austrian rail network reportedly changed to 16.7 Hz from 16 2/3 Hz in 1995. This to prevent over heating in the rotary converters.
- Japan has both 50 Hz and 60 Hz with the 50Hz built by the British and the 60Hz by the US after the second world war. The two systems are linked by HVDC links.
- 60 Hz is probably a better choice than 50Hz but it is too late now for the 50Hz countries.
- Reportedly Tesla (not the car company) chose 50Hz first and then 60Hz.
- There is a power station on the Argentina/Brazil border where half the generators make 60Hz for Brazil and half make 50 Hz for Argentina.
- Sometimes, in some countries, on some days, 50Hz AC systems will run at 38Hz. This presents an interesting inverter grid synchronisation problem.
Grid frequency varies constantly as the mismatch between generator and load power changes. In most countries the variation is not as large as the change to 38Hz.
The means that grid connected power converters must track or lock to the grid the grid. The best way to do this is with a phase locked loop.
Inverter Grid Synchronisation
Phase locked loops to track grid frequency are an essential part of grid connected converters. Click here to ask us about using an ELMG phase locked loop for inverter grid synchronisation.
ELMG are going to launch our FPGA IP Core licensing program. All ELMG know how as captured in our FPGA blocks will be available to speed your development and decrease time to market.
The list of ELMG FPGA Power Control IP Cores is available. Click here to see the compete list of ELMG Power Control IP Cores


Readers of THE MUNCHED-UP GARDEN, the first volume in the green Troublesome Creek series, may recall the quiet boy, James. This time, he becomes the hero of Troublesome Creek when he discovers the legacy of a long-ago war that is killing the fish in the stream and poisoning the Troublesome Creek gang's swimming hole. This is an eco whodunit with a happy, kids-take-charge ending.
Trouble in Troublesome Creek, was selected to represent Kentucky in the The Pavilion of the States at the 2010 National Book Festival in Washington, D.C
Author Nancy Kelly Allen’s words and the colorful drawings by K. Crawford both evoke a wonderful, carefree time when kids could wander freely, and a swimmin’ hole and a strong rope swinging over the water were all they needed to enjoy a perfectly gorgeous day. With that in mind, a lot of grown-ups will be awfully nostalgic when reading this book aloud or just for a look-see, even though “Trouble in Troublesome Creek” is very definitely a book for 6-to-9-year-olds. If your child believes that summer vacation isn’t long enough and the school year comes too soon, then having this book on your shelf can extend the season. For them, the fun in “Trouble in Troublesome Creek” is spot-on.
Before reading the book, ask the students the following questions:
1. What do you think might happen in the story?
2. What does the title tell us about the book?
3. Should we expect a problem? Explain.
Read and discuss Trouble in Troublesome Creek. Ask the following open-ended questions:
1. This story is told from the point of view of James. How would the story be different if Sallie or Liz had told it?
2. Sallie is rude to the other characters. Why do you suppose they hang out with her?
3. James was afraid to swing on the rope. Have you ever been with a group of friends and was afraid to do something the others were doing? If so, how did that make you feel?
4. Have you ever been lost? What are some things should you do if you’re ever lost?
5. The Troublesome Creek kids entered a cave without telling anyone where they were going. What would have been a better choice? What are some of the dangers of entering unexplored caves?
6. Minnie balls were polluting Troublesome Creek 150 years after they were left in the cave. What are some
things we can do today to prevent pollution of streams and land?
7. Why is it important to keep creeks clean and unpolluted?
8. Why do people pollute land and streams?
9. Why is studying the history of Minnie balls and the Civil War important?
10. Why is it important to keep artifacts, such as minnie balls, in history museums?
11. How did the main character, James, change by the end of the story?
12. Why is it everyone’s responsibility as good citizens to prevent pollution?
Five kids plus Aunt Pearl are the main characters in Trouble in Troublesome Creek and The Munched-Up Flower Garden. Write a story in which two of the characters first meet. Describe the event and the setting. How old were the characters? Why did they meet? Give the story a beginning, middle and ending.
Trouble in Troublesome Creek takes place in Knott County in Kentucky. Locate Knott County on a map. Explain that a real Troublesome Creek exists.
What is the Title?
Explain how titles reflect the story. Read a book without revealing the title and let students make up their own titles for a story.
Letter to the author:
Students write letters to the author. Students share reactions to the book.
Compare and contrast Trouble in Troublesome Creek with The Munched-Up Flower Garden. Consider character traits, illustrations, setting, events, resolving the problem, etc. Create a chart to display the data.
Compare/Contrast Troublesome Creek, a modern, rural community, with Troublesome Creek during the time of the Civil War in the 1860s. Chart the likenesses and differences. Consider population, transportation, foods, housing, pollution, etc.
Interview a character: A Student interviews one character from the book and writes a newspaper article about the interview.
Ten facts: Students write 10 Facts about Trouble in Troublesome Creek. The facts are statements about the story.
Comic book: Students turn different pages of the book into a comic book. Staple pages and add a cover sheet to make a classroom book.
Discuss setting. Write a report on how the setting was important to the story.
Spelunking is the sport of exploring caves. Students imagine they are spelunking. What three items would they take with them? If they became lost in a cave, what would they do to try to find the way back out? Should one person become the leader? If so, how should the leader be chosen? Divide class into groups comprised of 3 of 4 four students to brainstorm ideas and create a story. Tell the story with a skit performance.
Pollution Solution: Pollution affects every community and is harming our environment. Discuss preventive measures to slow or stop the destruction of pollution and to protect the environment. Create a chart of possible ways to stop pollution. Invite students to make posters encouraging others to not pollute or showing the dangers of pollution.
Dramatize three scenes from the book:
Three students will dramatize scenes from the beginning, middle and ending of the book. Students write a script for each scene and practice a few times before the presentation.
Bottle It Up:
Add three cups of water to a 2-liter bottle. Repeat the process so you have three bottles containing water. Discuss how the bottles and water represent a creek habitat and how the water is clean. Add one cup of oil to the first bottle. Discuss how animals that live in or drink the water can be harmed when oil spills into creeks. How does oil in water affect people who use the water? Add soap and detergents to the second bottle. Again, discuss how the pollution affects animals and people. Add oil, soap, and detergents to the third bottle. Again, discuss the affect of pollution of our water supply. Write articles on how pollution has long-lasting effects on the environment.
Write a travel brochure based on Troublesome Creek. Include flowers, cave, creek, swimming hole, and other sites people will want to see. Draw a map of the area where the events took place. You may also include events from The Munched-Up Flower Garden. Both books have a Troublesome Creek setting.
Make a Book:
Promote student observation and descriptive language by making a classroom book. Allow students to explore various textures of items found in the environment.
Examples: ground coffee, pebbles, sand, leaves, twigs, tempera paint, grass, string, pieces of construction paper, crumpled paper, cotton balls, bits of cloth, such as velvet and burlap, and other convenient items. Sort items into groups by similar texture and discuss the sense of touch: this feels smooth or this feels bumpy. Students make collages with groups of items. Combine the collage pages into a book.
Ending: Writing a different ending to the story.
Oral Book Reports: Students prepare oral book reports and answer questions about the book following the reports.
Newspaper Article: Write a newspaper article about the kids finding Minnie balls in the cave.
Create a commercial: Write the script and perform a commercial as if you’re trying to sell the Minnie balls. Invite students to illustrate posters as visual aid for the commercial.
Write similes: The author wrote, “The mountain gaped open like a yawn.”


The Key Points about Sunscreen:
1) SEEK sunscreen that contains zinc oxide or avobenzone to protect against UVA.
2) SEEK sunscreen with an SPF between 15 and 50.
3) REAPPLY your sunscreen often, no matter the SPF.
4) AVOID any type of application other than rubbing cream onto your skin. No powders, sprays or towelettes.
5) AVOID Super high SPF (over 50). SPF only refers to protection against UVB (the burning rays); they may not protect against UVA which can accelerate aging and cause cancer.
a. Oxybenzone. It’s estrogenic and linked to endometriosis.
b. Retinyl Palmitate in sunscreen. It might make lesions grow faster.
c. Bug Repellant in your sunscreen.


found in open forest and woodland in western Victoria, South Australia and south-western New South Wales.
a medium-sized tree which reaches 10-30 metres in height. The bark is retained on the lower trunk but the upper trunk and branches are smooth-barked and cream to grey in colour. The flowers are usually seen in autumn and winter and may be white, cream, pink or red.
It performs best in well-drained, moist soils but, once established is tolerant of extended dry conditions.
E.leucoxylon is regularly planted for windbreaks, shade, honey production and for ornamental purposes and it grows well in alkaline soils.
These two E luecoxylon were bought as tube stock, I have replanted them in 1L milk cartons as Im going to attempt to plant them in the paddock next autumn using Bill Hicks long stem planting method. In order to do this I need the roots to grow down to the bottom of the carton & the stems to grow taller than they are. Using the long stem planting method a 1 metre hole is dug & the tree is planted deeply with soil up its stem, it then grows roots from its stem making it more stable & stronger.
Casuarina cunninghamiana - River She-oak
Tall pine-like tree, usually straight, 35m high, with dark rough bark. Initially their shape is narrow pyramidal becoming more rounded in maturity. Dark green foliage with predominantly fine branchlets with leaves reduced to tiny scales or leaf teeth occurring in whorls or rings around the stems. These rings are 4-9 mm apart. River she-oak is the largest of Australia’s she-oaks. Trees have either male or female flowers. Male flower spikes are about 2 cm long: female flowers develop into woody fruits or cones, globular to 1 cm. long with hard, projecting valves which open to release winged seed.
Naturally occurring in Victoria, NSW, Qld and NT on freshwater streams and watercourses.
Hakea laurina - pincushion hakea
found in the south west of Western Australia, a small tree to 6m with rounded reddish flower heads, that look like pincushions in autumn to winter. Drought tolerant.
A rather boring post, but I want to record these little beauties right through, maybe I might even see them fully grown? It will also be interesting to see how the long stem planting goes, I will need all of my trees to be drought tolerant as they will be hand watered for their first two summers only, then they will need to survive on approx. 300mm of rainfall a year.


In interpretation of remote sensing images, it is possible that some images which are supplied by different sensors become incomprehensible. For better visual perception of these images, it is essential to operate series of pre-processing and elementary corrections and then operate a series of main processing steps for more precise analysis on the images. There are several approaches for processing which are depended on the type of remote sensing images. The discussed approach in this article, i.e. image fusion, is the use of natural colors of an optical image for adding color to a grayscale satellite image which gives us the ability for better observation of the HR image of OLI sensor of Landsat-8. This process with emphasis on details of fusion technique has previously been performed; however, we are going to apply the concept of the interpolation process. In fact, we see many important software tools such as ENVI and ERDAS as the most famous remote sensing image processing tools have only classical interpolation techniques (such as bi-linear (BL) and bi-cubic/cubic convolution (CC)). Therefore, ENVI-and ERDAS-based researches in image fusion area and even other fusion researches often don't use new and better interpolators and are mainly concentrated on the fusion algo-rithm's details for achieving a better quality, so we only focus on the interpolation impact on fusion quality in Landsat-8 multispectral images. The important feature of this approach is to use a statistical, adaptive, and edge-guided interpolation method for improving the color quality in the images in practice. Numerical simulations show selecting the suitable interpolation techniques in MRF-based images creates better quality than the classical in-terpolators.
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