Our experts explain how to tell if your well water is contaminated and how to…
Unsafe Water Conditions for Olympic AthletesWithin the last year, there have been suspicions that Rio’s water would not be safe for athletic competitions. City officials promised to have the water sanitized in time for the games, but these promises turned out to be a little too optimistic. The shortfall was not for lack of effort, it was really just an insurmountable task to begin with. Like many fast growing cities in developing nations, Rio De Janeiro only treats a small percentage of the raw sewage it produces. This sewage flows directly into the ocean, via a 14,000 foot (approximately 2.7 mile) long pipe, called a marine outfall. Marine outfalls like this are actually not that unusual, and Rio’s stretches pretty far out to sea comparatively, but the sewage needs better treatment at the source. Rio has built treatment plants to help filter out dangerous pathogens, but they also have to install the pipes to connect to these plants to the rest of the cities infrastructure.
The Challenges to Solving the City's Water Pollution ProblemsRio has seen haphazard growth in the twentieth century, with densely packed shanties creating extremely narrow roads and passageways in certain areas. Not only is it difficult to lay new pipeline in this kind of environment without causing a lot of destruction, but the crime in these areas has also prevented some municipal workers from entering. Even in more affluent areas, people simply choose to disobey the law. To avoid the costs associated with doing things the right way, many hotel and condo managers have hooked up sewage drainage lines directly to storm water drains. This again bypasses any potential route through a treatment plant, and dumps raw sewage directly into surrounding bodies of water. Overall about one third of Rio is not properly connected to a proper sanitation system. With Rio’s population currently at about 6.32 million, that is a lot of untreated sewage. Raw sewage isn’t the only thing contaminating Rio’s waters. Garbage is another big problem. Many areas of the city have irregular or unreliable trash collection, so people resort to throwing their old refrigerators, furniture, and anything else they can’t get rid of into rivers. To combat the problem, authorities have created trash collecting eco-boats to skim the bay, but the boats are tiny and the bay is huge, so it only puts a small dent in the problem. To top it all off, neighboring municipalities that need to interconnect have different utility companies, different infrastructure needs, and different people holding political office. Sprinkle in an epidemic of corruption and a nationwide economic crisis, and the outlook for resolving these issues expeditiously is looking rather grim. Hopefully the global attention the Olympics have brought will help.
Doctor's Advice for Surviving the Polluted WaterFor now, doctors are advising athletes to not put their heads under water. This approach could prove challenging for a long distance swimmer. According to the Associated Press, water conditions have shown “viral levels at up to 1.7 million times what would be considered worrisome in the United States or Europe. At those concentrations, swimmers and athletes who ingest just three teaspoons of water would result in a 99 percent chance of being infected.” Rios’s water problems have even managed to find their way to the swimming pool. During last night’s synchronized diving competition, spectators were stunned to see the pool turn a mysterious shade of murky green. Some even joked that it was an ode to Brazil’s national flag colors. While officials were unable to offer a definitive answer for what caused the discoloration, they assured competitors that they were at no immediate risk.
Call Your Raleigh Water Well SpecialistsIf your water turns green, A&T Well and Pump does not recommend you assume everything is okay. Give us a call 24/7 at (919) 291-4063 or fill out the contact form below for fast, reliable service.
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Earlier this month, Safe and Sound Schools participated in the Understanding the Digital Disconnect – Parents, Teens and the Internet Twitter chat hosted by stopthinkconnect.org.
Modern day technology has drastically changed the ways in which we consume and relay information. Today’s media and communication landscape is much different than what we experienced as kids. As a result, today’s parents are faced with the growing challenge of raising tech savvy kids in a digital world without having lived through a “connected” childhood themselves.
After a summer of reconnecting with my kids, I fear losing them again to the stresses and digital social lives that comes with back to school. Sure, the internet and the growing number of social media outlets provide our kids with an opportunity to explore the world and socialize with friends, but the thought of cyberbullying, predators, or losing interest in the real world is frightening for many parents.
The #ChatSTC provided some good insights, whether your kids are new to social/digital media, or if you just need a refresher after the summer. Key tips from the chat include:
- Talk to your kids. With the back to school season underway, a family tech talk discussion lends itself to perfect opportunity to remind your kids about the dangers of sharing personal information, location, and other types of content that may give predators insight into their life.
- Explain the “why.” Parents can help students understand the reasoning behind tech/digital rules and/or restrictions by maintaining open dialogue, explaining their rationale, and helping them see the consequences of certain actions with supporting online news stories, and periodically checking in.
- Involve your schools. Today’s schools can help children navigate the digital world safely by teaching healthy concepts of digital use and serving as a resource for parents who would like more information about the digital disconnect their child may be experiencing. Ask your students how they are using and talking about tech in the classroom. In addition, your child’s school counselor, psychologist, and tech specialist offer additional resources and insights to help bridge the digital divide.
You can browse below if you’d like to explore more content related to the Twitter chat.


The shield appears as a thin gray streak in the middle of the image. Photo by Marco Langbroek/ESA
April 6 (UPI) -- Marco Langbroek is a satellite tracker. But occasionally, his photographs spot chunks of space debris, too.
This week, Langbroek's camera spotted an especially large piece of space debris -- a massive thermal shield. The shield was mishandled by NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson during a space station spacewalk mission last week.
Kimbrough and Whitson successfully installed three new thermal shields, but the fourth got away.
In a series of images captured by Langbroek's Canon EOS 60D DSLR camera and a Samyang 1.4/85 mm lens, a faint, thin, gray streak can be seen orbiting out in front of the International Space Station. Langbroek published the images on his blog.
Measuring roughly five feet by two feet, the shield is large enough to be seen through binoculars from Earth. The shield will likely remain in orbit for a couple of months before dropping into the atmosphere, where it will be burned up.
"The item poses very little risk to navigation, and an accidental release like this is not unexpected given the complexity and challenges of working outside during a spacewalk," Holger Krag, head of the European Space Agency's Space Debris Office, said in a news release.
Though the escaped thermal shield is unlikely to cause problems, the massive amounts of space debris circling Earth is a topic of concern for space agencies and communication companies around the globe. Even small metal fragments can do series damage to a satellite or probe.
A variety of solutions for the problem of space debris have been proposed, including lasers, magnets and even a Pac-Man-like trash-eating space probe.
Those solutions and others will be discussed later this month at the 7th European Conference on Space Debris hosted by ESA's Space Debris Office.


Intel and KT Corporation (a South Korea telecom) are developing data centers that operate at temperatures above 30C (86F). Data centers normally operate at 18 – 21 C (64 – 70F).
Typically A/C for a data center is a significant operating cost.
According to the US Dept of Energy …” half the power used by a typical data centers supports its infrastructure, including cooling systems …”
Even small increases in temperature can result in large energy and cost savings. “Data centers save about 7 percent on air conditioning costs for every degree they raise the temperature above 22 degrees …”
Higher operating temperature = Lower Energy Costs = Smaller Carbon Footprint.
Plans are to first deploy this technology in KTs Cheonan data center in 2013 followed by eventual deployment at all 10 of their data centers in South Korea.
Via: Environmental Leader LINK


Abilities, Interests, Personality
The Prevue Assessment (also known as the ICES Plus Assessment) is a personality testing battery designed to assess 20 “scales” describing an individual’s characteristics: four mental abilities scales, three interest scales, twelve personality scales and a social desirability scale.
The mental abilities scales are not an IQ test. They provide information about an individual’s ability to learn new information which can be an important aspect in jobs that have to address changing circumstances and new information.
The four mental ability scales measured by the Prevue Assessment are:
Measures a person’s capacity to deal with ideas, to solve problems and to assimilate new information. It is an indication of how well a person thinks ahead to anticipate the effects of actions and decisions and how quickly he or she learns.
Working with Numbers:
An evaluation of numerical reasoning ability. It shows how well an individual reasons with new information, data and numbers. It indicates the ability to reason logically and solve problems.
Working with Words:
Relates to reasoning with and using written language effectively. It is an indication of written communication skills.
Working with Shapes:
Has to do with spatial skills, or how well a person is able to manipulate objects, both physically and visually. It is an indication of a person’s ability to think and reason in three dimensions.
Generally, people work more effectively in jobs that are aligned with their interests.
Working with People:
Measures the extent to which an individual needs or wants involvement with people. It also indicates whether a person wants to mentor, negotiate, instruct, supervise, delegate, persuade, interact, serve and help.
Working with Data:
Measures how a person feels about working with statistics, symbols, facts and figures. It is different from Working with Numbers because it measures interests, not abilities. Working with Data indicates an interest in synthesizing, co-ordination, analyzing, compiling, computing, copying and comparing.
Working with Things:
Measures an individual’s interest in working with inanimate objects such as machinery, tools and equipment. An interest in Working with Things includes setting up, precision working, operating-controlling, driving-operating, manipulating, tending, feeding-unloading and handling.
The Prevue Assessment uses personality testing to measure four major personality scales, each of which is supported by two minor scales.
The four major scales are:
They are generally referred to as ICES. Each of these major and minor scales measures a personality trait in terms of two extremes. Thus, by way of example the opposite of Extrovert is Introvert and the opposite of Competitive is Co-operative.
Sten Graph Reliability Scale:
The last dimension related in the graph report is the social desirability scale. This scale is not a personality testing measure per se; rather it is a reliability scale that serves as an indicator of possible behavior. The scale provides insight into how a candidate has completed the Prevue Assessment. Candidates with a (1,2) or (9,10) score may have endeavored to manipulate the results of their Prevue Assessment. The extremes of the scale provide the following information:
Social Desirability – Low:
When people are overly frank, they have either presented an overly negative picture of themselves or they are lacking in a number of socially acceptable attributes.
Social Desirability – High:
When people try to present themselves as overly socially acceptable, they exaggerate their finer qualities. However, there is the possibility that a high social desirability rating can indicate a truly “good person”.
The following is the full graph page


Lead levels in metro-east water are well below the “action level” set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but the level may not necessarily be a good standard of safety, some health advocates say.
The EPA requires water systems to take broad action when more than 10 percent of the samples submitted by a town in a testing period, which is at least every three years, contain more than 15 parts per billion of lead.
Since January 2010, metro-east residents have had their water tested for lead 3,385 times, and 45 samples, or 1.3 percent, tested above 15 ppb, according to data from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
The results above 15 ppb were not located in one bad patch but were spread out across the region during the five-year period. Two water suppliers reached the action level, including Evansville, in 2010; and the Mound City Public Water District, in 2011. After those suppliers took steps to improve their water, tests the following year showed the lead amounts dropped below the action level.
Although only two towns reached the action level, some people believe the best measure of safety is 0 ppb.
“There is no safe level of lead in drinking water,” said Anurag Mantha, a PhD student working with the Flint Water Study, a Virginia Tech research team studying the water in the embattled Michigan city.
The metro-east does not compare to the crisis in Flint. In August, 19 percent of 269 water samples there were above the action level, and 90 percent had at least some measure of lead. Lead problems occur most frequently at the home, where there are lead pipes, service lines and solder; Flint's water was corrosive and encouraged these issues.
In the metro-east — Bond, Clinton, Madison, Monroe, Randolph and St. Clair counties — 901 tests, or 26.6 percent, returned some amount of lead over the past five years, while 2,484 of the samples, or 73.4 percent, contained no lead. If a town has no water samples with lead, however, it does not mean that all homes there are lead-free, and they still must be periodically tested.
Some towns submitted many more water samples with lead than others. In 2015, all of Glen Carbon’s 20 tests contained lead, up from 5 in 2012. In 2011, lead showed up in 29 of 30 samples from Bethalto; three years later, lead showed up in 17. And in 2014, 21 of Edwardsville’s 30 tests had at least some level of lead, up from 11 in 2011.
One guideline from the Flint Water Study suggests that if a sample taken from a first draw of water in the morning is between 5 and 30 ppb, then there is a “significant contamination problem.”
In the metro-east, 225 samples were at least 5 ppb, which accounted for 6.6 percent of all tests.
Reactions to the tests
When Kathryn Campbell’s water in Columbia tested at 18.9 ppb in July 2014, she wasn’t really concerned.
Campbell’s water had also been tested in 2012, and it was fine then, she said. She thought the most recent test could have been a fluke, and she’s going to have it tested again, maybe this year.
“Honestly, I’m not gonna freak out about this,” she said.
An office building at McKendree University in Lebanon turned up a sample of 17 ppb. Staff members were informed of the test, and they drink bottled water that a faculty member brings in, wrote Lisa Brandon, a spokeswoman for the college, in an email.
The highest concentration of water lead levels in the metro-east came from one sample in Alton that reached 463 ppb — more than 30 times the action level.
Karen Cotton, a spokeswoman for the utility company Illinois American Water, recalled that test; it was a false alarm.
There is no safe level of lead in drinking water.
Anurag Mantha, researcher on the Flint Water Study
“This particular sample was from a brass faucet that was said by the customer to be rarely used,” she wrote in an email, meaning that water had collected more lead by sitting in the pipe for a long time. “Our team tested water from other sites in the home and those tests came back well below 15 ppb.”
Isaac Gustafson, of New Baden, was more concerned about his results. He has submitted two tests since his family moved to their current home in 2011, and both were above the action level — 19.4 ppb in 2012 and 15.7 ppb last year.
Gustafson said his family received a letter with their result that explained what to do to mitigate the effects of possible lead exposure in their drinking water. Recommendations included flushing the home’s water lines with cold water for two minutes in the morning to expel the highest concentrations of lead.
After moving in, the Gustafsons installed a reverse osmosis and deionization water filter for their fish aquarium. The brand, Kent Marine, states on its website that it can filter 95 percent of lead.
Gustafson doesn’t know what lead levels are like throughout the day, as the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t require samples to be taken after the first draw, but when the second lead test — all tests must come straight from the tap — came back above 15 ppb, he said his family started drinking water from the filter exclusively.
Gustafson said he sometimes forgets to drink water from the filter, but the rest of his family does, and he believes they are safe. They haven’t been to the doctor to check whether their blood has elevated levels of lead, and he isn’t worried about the long-term effects, but, he said, “it’s something we think of.”
Joan Scharf, on the other hand, thinks about lead all the time.
Scharf, who works with the St. Clair County Lead Hazard Control Program, said she doesn’t think people take lead as seriously as they should because people can’t see or taste it, and it doesn’t cause immediate harm or physical deformities.
Still, Scharf’s house calls have shown the irreversible damages of lead poisoning. On one visit to investigate the source that sickened a child, she found no lead in the house itself. The grandmother’s house was lead-free, too, as was a suspicious lot down the street where a different old house had been. Then, at the child’s home, Scharf’s eyes settled on the china cabinet.
She asked the mother whether they had used the good dishes recently. She said yes, on Thanksgiving.
Scharf turned over one of the pieces. “Lead” was written on the bottom in capital letters. It was in the glaze and in the decorative flowers cast on the edges. The hot meal had leeched lead into the food.
Scharf recounted a handy way to picture how easy lead poisoning is to contract: Imagine filling a single sugar packet with lead dust and then spreading it across a football field. That level of concentration is enough, she said.
She recommends that everyone have their children’s blood tested.
Water only part of the problem
Tom Bigley, the Director of Plumbing at United Association, a Maryland-based union with a branch in Belleville, remembers lead solder well. One popular type that contained 50 percent lead and 50 percent tin didn’t require much heat to turn it into a liquid bead that effortlessly wrapped around a connecting seam.
Lead pipes held a similar adoration from plumbers and pipefitters. Malleable enough that they could adjust when the ground settled, the pipes wouldn’t break like the old-time galvanized steel did.
The Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments in 1986 all but banned lead solder and pipes for drinking-water use. Among other things, the act defined that “lead-free” solder contained less than 0.2 percent of lead and that lead pipes contained less than 8 percent lead.
Today, old lead pipes and solder are still present in many water systems, but only about 20 percent of lead exposure comes from water, according to the U.S. EPA. The agency says that it could also be present in consumer products, soil, playgrounds, and “folk remedies.”
But the biggest problem contributing to lead poisoning is old paint.
According to the 2014 Illinois Lead Program Annual Lead Surveillance Report from the Illinois Department of Public Health, “Deteriorating lead-based paint is a primary source of lead poisoning in houses built prior to the residential lead paint ban of 1978.”
Further, the department stated that “2 million of the 5.2 million housing units in Illinois have a prevalence of lead-based paint.”
Because most lead-based paint — the metal was added to make it more durable — has been covered up with safer types of paint over the years, it doesn’t pose much risk, though paint around old windows can easily loosen, chip and turn into dust from repeatedly opening and closing them. It can blow inside when the windows are open, and kids often breathe or ingest it.
To get an idea of how many children are affected by lead, the Illinois Department of Public Health collects yearly information about blood lead levels in children aged 6 and under. In 2014, almost a quarter of children in the state were tested.
Lead is a potent neurotoxin, and childhood lead poisoning has an impact on many developmental and biological processes, most notably intelligence, behavior, and overall life achievement.
American Journal of Public Health
The recommended federal guideline for public health intervention is a venous blood test of 5 micrograms per deciliter (mcg/dl) — 30 times less concentrated than the lead measurement in water. In 2014, 6.8 percent of children in Illinois were above 5 mcg/dl, according to the 2014 Surveillance Report. About two-thirds of tests were confirmed venous tests; the others were finger pricks.
In the metro-east, the highest rate above the intervention level, at 7.5 percent of tests, came from the East Side Health District, which includes the townships of Canteen, Centreville, Stites and East St. Louis. That was primarily due to heavy industry and the use of residential lead paint before 1978, Elizabeth Patton-Whiteside, the health group’s Public Health Administrator, or CEO, wrote in an email.
Children are especially susceptible to lead poisoning.
“Lead is a potent neurotoxin, and childhood lead poisoning has an impact on many developmental and biological processes, most notably intelligence, behavior, and overall life achievement,” researchers wrote in a peer-reviewed article published in the February edition of the American Journal of Public Health.
“There is no safe level of lead in the body,” echoes the 2014 Surveillance Report. However, the document does not say how many children tested at 0 because the most labs can’t detect that level, wrote Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health, in an email.
According to the state public health agency, the most at-risk populations for lead exposure in the home include the poor, racial and ethnic minorities, recent immigrants, people who live in older and “poorly maintained” rental properties, and kids whose parents come into contact with lead at work.
However, the 2014 Surveillance Report does not keep good track of that information. Just 41,000 of the 270,000 children tested statewide were recorded as black, white, Latino or “other,” a category that included mixed-race children. Of those, 4.9 percent of black children were tested based on their estimated population; 2 percent of white children; and 4.2 percent of Latino children. Those numbers came from the National Center for Health Statistics, Arnold wrote.
To help deal with the problem of lead in the home, the St. Clair County Health Department recommends washing children’s toys, floors and counter tops, and “most importantly, having children assessed for lead poisoning each year.”
The county also offers grants for home renovation through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Applicants should call Joan Scharf at 618-825-3211 for program eligibility.
Where to test children for lead
To test your children’s blood lead levels, contact a doctor, or call local health clinics for service eligibility, including the St. Clair County Health Department (618-233-7703), the Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation (618.332.0694), or the East Side Health Department (618-271-8722).
Want to test your water?
For a list of accredited laboratories, visit the Illinois Environmental Protection agency at epa.illinois.gov/
Dealing with lead
- Run the faucet for 30 seconds to 2 minutes if you haven’t run the water in a few hours.
- Lead dissolves more easily in warm water, so run cold water and then heat it up.
- Consider buying a filter, but check their ratings first.
Source: U.S. EPA


The coyote is one of the most adaptable mammals, found in a variety of habitats ranging from deserts and grasslands, to mountains and city suburbs.
One of the most adaptable animals in the world, the coyote can change its breeding habits, diet and even its group dynamics to survive in a wide variety of habitats. The quick and clever coyote uses keen senses to find and follow prey over long distances if necessary, waiting for the precise moment to attack.
The coyote holds its head up, jaws agape and canines exposed, to make its distinctive howl. Howls by individuals seem to announce location, while pack howls may have a territorial function. The coyote’s tail is used in threat displays. The tail becomes bushy and is held horizontally when the coyote displays aggression. The coyote walks with only its toes touching the ground. It has five digits on the forefeet, including a dew claw, and four digits on the hindfeet. The coyote’s sense of smell is highly developed. The coyote uses smell to locate prey and carrion and to detect the scent left as territorial markers by other coyotes. The coyote’s hearing is very sharp. The ears are also used to communicate rank and mood.
The coyote has spread over a vast range in both North and Central America. The coyote can be found in Alaska, western and central Canada, throughout the U.S. and into Central America as far south as Panama. The coyote’s natural habitat is open grassland, but, like the red fox, it will move wherever food is available.
An opportunistic predator, the coyote draws on a variety of hunting techniques to catch small mammals, such as rabbits, which make up the bulk of its diet. Although it operates as a lone hunter to catch small prey, a coyote may join others to form a pack so that it is able to hunt large mammals, such as deer. The coyote may track down prey and stalk it patiently from a distance or it may use its great stamina to chase prey over long distances.
Several solitary males may gather to court a female at the start of the mating season, but the female forms a relationship with only one of them. The mating season extends from January to March so that the pups are born in spring when food is abundant. The pups are born blind in a natal den. After about 14 days their eyes open and they emerge from the den a few days later.
The pups suckle for five to seven weeks, by the end of summer they can care for themselves. They may leave or stay with their parent, depending on food availability and habitat conditions.
While many predators are under threat due to habitat loss or hunting by humans, the coyote is expanding its range. The main reason for this appears to be the coyotes ability to adapt, which may stem from its guile and its intelligent nature. Alone, in pairs or packs, coyotes maintain territories by marking it with urine. They also use calls to defend territories, strengthen bonds and communicate. Its howls include barks, bark howls and yip howls.
Although the coyote is thriving, it has been persecuted because of its reputation as a predator of domestic farm stock. The coyote is so numerous that it is controlled by an open hunting and trapping season. The species is protected in 12 states in the U.S.


Research into the Mental Lexicon Representation of Chinese English Learners Based on Spreading Activation Model
Nowadays, the main idea regarding the organization of the lexicon is that words are stored in an organized intertwined semantic network. However, relatively little is known about the actual process that takes place during the course of activation production. Therefore, in order to gain a deeper understanding of the problems in question, this study conducted word association test to 150 sophomores in Dalian University of Technology (DUT) and tried to show the internal relations of mental lexicon in data by calculating the word frequency between certain words through a computer program which is written based on the actual calculating steps. And the innovation of this study is to show the abstract lexicon relation in data and illustrate the mental lexicon representation in three-dimensional figures by Netdraw software. Through the study we find: (1) The responses with higher frequency in the first few positions may not ensure themselves high association strength to the stimuli. And the current research also proves that activation of mental lexicon is not a “one stop” process but a linear forward one. (2) The data of association strength obtained from this study may help us convert the abstract lexicon relation into concrete statistical facts and establish representation of the mental lexicon network model. At last, the mechanism of Spreading Activation Model is illustrated and the implications for future English teaching are provided. Key Words: Mental lexicon; Word association test; Mental lexicon representation; Association strength
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A low distortion audio frequency sine wave can be easily generated by passing the output of a simple square wave oscillator through a sharp cut off low pass filter to attenuate the odd harmonic components. The output level of the sine wave is precisely defined by the rail voltage and the gain or loss in the filter.
A problem is that most filters have a fixed cut off frequency hence such a sine wave source is restricted to a small frequency range. There is, however, one type of integrated circuit package containing a switched capacitor fitter in which the cut off frequency can be controlled by the frequency of a clock running at a multiple of the cut off frequency. The circuit described in this article makes use of a switched capacitor low pass filter type MF6-50 (a sixth order Butterworth) which operates with a clock frequency 50 times its cut off frequency. By controlling the frequency of the clock, the cut off frequency can be set to a range of values extending to above 20 kHz.
Using this filter, the circuit forms a variable frequency sine wave oscillator which can be tuned, at constant output level, over a frequency range of 2 Hz to 20 kHz with harmonic components less than 0.1 percent of the fundamental frequency amplitude, that is, more than 60 dB below that amplitude. As the sine wave is formed from a square wave, the square wave is also available as an alternative output.
The basis of the system is shown in the block diagram, Figure 1. A clock (fck), tunable within the range of 112 Hz to 1.12 MHz drives both the switched capacitor fitter and a divide by 56 counter which gives square wave output in the range of 2 Hz to 20 kHz. The counter output is fed to the input of the filter which has a cut off' frequency (fc) equal to fck divided by 50, that is, 12 percent higher than the output frequency of the counter. With this arrangement, odd order harmonics in the square wave are attenuated to a level less than 60 dB below the fundamental frequency. Whatever the fundamental frequency, the cut off frequency tracks at 12 percent higher because both are controlled by the same clock source.
A characteristic of the filter is that it produces components near clock frequency 34 dB down from the fundamental frequency. These can be clearly seen on the CRO display and the spectrum plot of the filter output illustrated in Figure 2. The actual components are the clock frequency itself plus difference components between the clock frequency and the fundamental frequency. For general audio frequency testing, these components, around 56 times the operating frequency, are possibly unlikely to upset the results of the testing. Notwithstanding this, their presence is a little disconcerting hence a simple secondary R-C filter is included, at the output of the switched capacitor filter, to reduce their level.
The complete circuit is shown in Figure 3. In addition to the switched capacitor filter, the MF6-50 package includes circuitry which can be connected up to form the clock by the addition of an external resistance-capacitance network which determines the frequency of oscillation. A frequency range of 112 Hz to 1.12 MHz can easily be covered with four ranges of selected capacity using a 40 kohm potentiometer, however it was found that eight ranges using a 25 kohm potentiometer was more satisfactory, firstly because of the improved resolution in setting a given frequency and secondly because of a problem in making the secondary R-C filter effective over too wide a range. The clock R-C network in Figure 3 is made up of R4, RV1 and C3A-H.
The secondary R-C filter is provided by resistor R6 and capacitors C6A-H switched in tandem with those selected for clock frequency range. The circuit reduces the high frequency ripple component to 55 dB below the operating frequency level at the high frequency end of the selected range (refer to Figure 4) and 45 dB below at the low frequency end (refer Figure 5). At 45 dB down, the ripple can just be seen on the CRO trace.
Capacitor values of C3 and C6 switched in for the the various frequency ranges are given in the following table:
|1||2 - 6.3 Hz||200 nF||1.2 uF|
|2||6.3 - 20 Hz||62nF||390.0 nF|
|3||20 - 63 Hz||20nF||120.0 nF|
|4||63 - 200 Hz||6.2 nF||39.0 nF|
|5||200 - 630 Hz||2nF||12.0 nF|
|6||630 Hz - 2 kHz||510 pF||3.9 nF|
|7||2 - 6.3 kHz ||130 pF||3.0 nF|
|8||6.3 - 20 kHz||27 pF||1.5 nF|
Included in the MF6-60 package are two operational amplifiers. One of these is used as a source follower stage to isolate the secondary filter and output level control from the output circuit as well as providing low source resistance at the output. A transistor (V1) is included in the operational amplifier loop to provide sufficient current drive for the amplifier to operate as a 50 ohm source. Output of the stage is directly coupled to eliminate the very large coupling capacitor needed to prevent excessive waveform drop on 2 Hz square wave. Output resistance is set to 50 ohms by resistor R8.
A switch is provided so that either sine wave or square wave can be selected. The sine wave circuit is coupled via capacitor C7, found necessary because the output of the switched capacity filter had a DC offset.
The 4520B package contains two four-stage counters connected to divide by seven and eight respectively. The divide by seven counter must not be placed last because a divide by seven counter has an asymmetrical output waveform. The high speed CMOS version of the 4520 was used to ensure short rise time in the square wave output.
Provision of a split power rail (dual five volts) simplifies the application of direct coupling used throughout the circuit. The supply must be regulated as both clock frequency and output amplitude vary with rail voltage.
Figure 6 is a spectrum plot showing the level of harmonics in the output. The highest level component is the third harmonic at 62 dB down and other odd order harmonics are more than 80 dB down. The second order component, 65 dB down, is not actually a harmonic originating from the square wave at the input to the filter. It is caused by interference from the second to last stage of the counter running at the second order frequency.
Examining the circuit (Figure 3), large capacitors are connected across the rails to ground at both circuit packages. These are essential to reduce interference from the counter and are quite large because of the very low frequency ranges covered by the oscillator.
The capacitor values in the secondary filter have been carefully selected to reduce the high frequency ripple as much as possible without upsetting the consistency of output voltage over the tuning range. An increase in capacitance value can reduce the ripple further but would cause a reduction in output level as the high frequency end of each range is approached.
On the highest frequency range, the switched capacitor filter produced an increase in output level towards the high frequency end of the range. The reason for this was not clear but its effect was compensated by increasing the secondary filter capacitor to a higher order than the other ranges. In consequence, the ripple level on this range is lower than on the other ranges.
Maximum output level for both sine wave and square wave is 1.5 VPP when unloaded or half that with 50 ohms load. DC load current on the five volt rails is 28 mA, mainly consumed by the output transistor.
With the clock operating to a frequency above 1 MHz, at a voltage level of 10 VPP inappropriate layout and proximity of wiring can lead to coupling of clock frequency component into sections of the output circuit. In the experimental model built, it was found necessary to shield all wiring following the switched capacitor filter output to reduce stray coupling into the output circuit when operating on the two highest frequency ranges.
Range selection capacitors were mounted around the switch wafers rather than on the component mounting card. This eliminated the need for a large number of wires between the switch banks and the card. The values of capacitors (C3A-H) which set the clock frequency are shown in Figure 3 and in the table, as nominal values. In the experimental model, ordinary 10 percent ceramic capacitors were used and trimmed by experiment using large and small values in parallel to make the frequency ranges overlap.
The circuit described is an interesting alternative to the conventional Wien Bridqe oscillator which requires a ganged variable tuning capacitor and feedback to stabilise the output level. A criticism could be the ripple level near clock frequency 45 to 55 dB down. The level of this is determined by the secondary filter and could be improved with a more complex filter circuit than the simple one used.


A severe drought threatens millions of people in East Africa. Crop harvests are well below normal and the price of food has doubled across much of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and nearby countries.
The last major drought in the region, in 2011, caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. They are becoming more frequent and more intense – and each has a disastrous impact on the economies of nations and livelihoods of people.
So what is causing these droughts? And why are they becoming more common?
At least part of the explanation lies with a climate phenomenon known as the “Indian Ocean Dipole”. The dipole, often called the Indian Niño due to its similarity with El Niño, is not as well known as its Pacific equivalent. Indeed, it was only properly identified by a team of Japanese researchers in the late 1990s.
The dipole refers to the sea’s surface temperatures in the eastern Indian Ocean off Indonesia, cycling between cold and warm compared to the western part of the ocean. Some years the temperature difference is far greater than others.
We are currently coming out of a particularly strong dipole. At its peak, in summer 2016, the sea off the Indonesian coast was 1℃ or so warmer than waters a few thousand kilometres to the west.
Warmer seas evaporate more water and, on this sort of vast scale, a relatively small temperature difference can have a big effect. In this case it meant there was a lot more moisture in the atmosphere above the eastern Indian Ocean.
As moist air is cooler than dry air, this in turn affected the prevailing winds. Wind is simply the atmosphere trying to equalise differences in temperature, density and pressure. Therefore, to “even out” the unusually cool air, a warm, dry wind began to blow eastwards from Africa across the ocean.
This is disastrous for farmers in the Horn of Africa who rely on moisture from the Indian Ocean to generate the “short rains” that run from October to December and the “long rains” from March to June. With winds blowing out to sea, the air was even drier than usual. The 2016 short rains were a month late and in some places failed entirely. Aid agencies warned the failure of these rains could trigger mass famine across northern Kenya, South Sudan, Somalia and eastern Ethiopia.
Things will not improve any time soon. As with El Niño, global warming means the Indian Ocean Dipole has become more extreme in recent years. In East Africa, these severe droughts will become the norm.
What can be done?
There are no easy answers. However, while we cannot control the Indian Ocean, we can change the way humans interact with the East African environment, making communities more resilient to climate change.
Past land use offers us some important clues. For example, a number of sites across East Africa demonstrate the impact of switching to more drought-sensitive New World crops such as maize. Maize was introduced in 1608 and since then it has largely replaced more traditional and drought-resistant crops such as cassava or sorghum.
Maize provides excellent calorific returns in good years, but it often fails and has challenges around infestation and storage during drought years.
Further lessons from history show us that pastoral communities have become less mobile. Livestock farmers are settling down and becoming increasingly reliant on irrigation and crop growing, which makes them more sensitive to drought. Competing demands to conserve land for wildlife add to the problems.
There are a few things East Africans can do to ease the impact of climate change, especially droughts. Livestock farmers could share large communal “grazing banks” to act as an insurance scheme and spread the risk of pasture failure. Pastoral movements could be better managed to ensure areas do not become overgrazed and conflicts with conservation areas are minimised. Mountain forests could be valued more and managed better to capture useful water without the need for costly and vulnerable irrigation systems. And finally farmers could switch to varieties of crops that are better at coping with climate variability.
The “Indian Niño” isn’t going anywhere, along with the regular and severe droughts it causes. People in East Africa must prepare.


Katsura: Picturing Modernism in Japanese Architecture - Nakamori, Yasufumi - Yale University Press
Jul 06, 2010
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Katsura: Picturing Modernism in Japanese Architecture
Photographs by Ishimoto Yasuhiro
Winner of the 2011 Alfred Barr Award for Smaller Museums, Libraries, and Collections, given by the College Art Association
Originally published by Yale University Press in 1960, Katsura: Tradition and Creation of Japanese Architecture is the most significant photographic publication about the relationship of modernity and tradition in postwar Japan. Designed by famed Bauhaus graphic artist Herbert Bayer, Katsura comprises 135 black-and-white photographs by Ishimoto Yasuhiro depicting the 17th-century Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto, with essays by architects Walter Gropius and Tange Kenzo.
This new publication argues that Tange, motivated by a desire to transform the architectural images into abstract fragments, played a major role in cropping and sequencing Ishimoto’s photographs for the book. The author provides a fresh and critical look at the nature of the collaboration between Tange and Ishimoto, exploring how their words and images helped establish a new direction in modern Japanese architecture. The book serves as an important contribution to the growing scholarly field of post-1945 Japanese art, in particular the juncture of photography and architecture.
Yasufumi Nakamori is assistant curator of photography at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston06/20/10-09/12/10 OTHER TITLES BY THIS AUTHOR
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The Hungarian Helsinki Committee is a public benefit human rights organization that protects human dignity through legal and public activities. We provide help to refugees, detainees and victims of law enforcement violence.
1989: The foundation of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee
1994: We begin providing professional legal assistance
Signature of the Border Monitoring Agreement between the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, the Hungarian National Police Headquarters and the UNHCR
What does it mean that we are a human rights organization?
We often feel vulnerable in the face of the giant state. Many individuals are even more vulnerable, like those living with disabilities, Roma people, foreigners, to name a few. They are usually discriminated against or are simply unable to protect their interests because, for example, they cannot afford attorneys when aggrieved.
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee helps those whose human rights the state violated. Our clients are refugees, detainees and discriminated people.
With only a handful of members at the time of founding, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee has grown to an organization of more than twenty professionals by 2015. Our colleagues include lawyers, attorneys, medical doctors, economists, sociologists and journalists as well. In the early years we only focused on free legal assistance and representation while today our portfolio also includes research and professional training activities spanning through a wide range of fields.
Our main areas:
Protection of the rule of law
Protection of the rights of refugees
Monitoring law enforcement activities
Protection of the rights of detainees
Why do we have the city of Helsinki in our name?
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee is a Hungarian organisation. We almost exclusively deal with Hungarian issues, with the human rights violations of Hungarian authorities. So, why ‘Helsinki’? Helsinki is the trademark of human rights and a respected human rights movement. The governments of Europe and North America signed the Helsinki Final Act on August 1, 1975 in which they committed themselves to respect fundamental human rights.
As a result self-organising groups in the countries of the communist block, referring to the Final Act in their names, began demanding that their states respect the rights laid out in Helsinki. The Hungarian group was founded in 1989 to monitor the fairness of the first free elections, but already designated the issues of refugees and detention as its main operational foci in its Founding Declaration.
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee, together with other 14 Hungarian human rights NGOs have urged the respective committee to recommend that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe rejects the candidates nominated by the Hungarian Government to be the next Hungarian judge at the European Court of Human Rights.
Hungarian Judge ...
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee - together with 10 other NGOs – sent an open letter to the Minister of Justice requiring him to withdraw the list of candidates to the post of judge at the European Court of Human Rights and select candidates in a procedure that meet the requirements ...


What types of injuries can cause traumatic brain injury?
There are four main categories of injury that may cause traumatic brain injury: toxic injuries, penetrating injuries, closed head injuries and anoxic injuries.
1. Toxic injuries are the result of exposure to chemicals. The chemical agent crosses the blood-brain barrier, killing brain cells.
2. Penetrating injuries damage the brain's neurons. Examples include gunshot wounds and other injuries that leave an object embedded in the skull.
3. Closed head injuries result when the brain suffers an impact or is whiplashed from side to side, front to back or both, causing fluid buildup, pressure and other neurological changes.
4. Anoxic injuries are the end result of oxygen starvation and cause brain cells to die.
LEARN MORE ABOUT BRAIN INJURIES:
Brooks Schuelke was a huge asset. I wholeheartedly endorse Mr.Schuelke without a moment's hesitation.


Although kissing a toad is asking a lot-even if it might turn into a handsome prince-smart gardeners love this voracious, bug-eyed amphibian, warts and all. And no wonder! A toad's long, sticky tongue seldom misses its target: slugs, beetles, cutworms, flies, grasshoppers, moths, sow bugs, pill bugs, centipedes, millipedes, crickets and ants. A toad can eat three times its weight in tiny, tasty critters every day, but it doesn't eat flowers or vegetables.
Children appreciate toads, too. Most giggle when they surprise one hidden under lush, green foliage, then gleefully chase it for a closer look. Once smitten, many young nature lovers enjoy making their garden pal a simple shelter, a toad abode. Another fun project for kids is creating a tadpole nursery-great for witnessing jelly-like eggs hatch into tiny self-propelled tadpoles that slowly metamorphose into juvenile toads.
Toads are often confused with frogs, and the differences are quite subtle. Toads typically have dry, bumpy skin-not really warts as folklore would have it. They use their hind legs for hopping, and live as adults on land in damp, shady places, returning to the water only when they breed. Frogs, on the other hand, usually have smooth skin and longer hind legs than toads that they use for leaping. They live their entire lives in lakes, ponds and water-filled ditches. Frogs tend to lay eggs in masses, toads in chains; but the larvae of both are called tadpoles.
Toads in Canada
American toad. In spite of its name, this primarily nocturnal toad-the model for many artists who draw for children-lives in central and eastern Canada as well as the U.S. Generally, it's found in grasslands, meadows, yards or deciduous forests from southeastern Manitoba to Labrador and Newfoundland. Typically, it has one or two brownish-red spot on each brown or grey-green blotch on its back, a spotted belly, a large head, a short snout and large, gold speckled eyes. Its musical trill can last almost 30 seconds.
Canadian toad. This diurnal American-toad-look-alike (except for the bump it has between its eyes) lives mainly in the wetlands, pastures, forests, grasslands-but not on the dry prairies-of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories. It has a brief, harsh trill.
Fowler's toad. Fast becoming a rare species in Canada, the Fowler's toad inhabits sandy beaches and wooded areas in southwestern Ontario. This nocturnal toad also looks a lot like the American toad, except it has three or four spots in each brownish blotch on its back. Its call is a piercing scream.
Great Plains toad. This toad, more tolerant of heat than others found in Canada, lives in the short grass Prairie and semi-desert areas of southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan. This toad is covered in dark blotches with small spots, on a pale brownish grey or olive background, and can easily be identified by its cranial crests. Usually nocturnal, during breeding season it's sometimes active during the day. Its high-pitched, long mechanical trill can be heard for almost two kilometres on the Prairies.
Western toad. The Western toad lives in semi-arid and moist forested areas throughout British Columbia and central Alberta. (It's the only toad found in B.C.) It usually has a thin, light-coloured stripe down its back; it has a quiet, bird-like call. Usually nocturnal, at higher elevations it sometimes basks in the summer sun.


Habitat Directive: Annex IV. MED Conservation Status: Unknown
IUCN Red List: “Vulnerable” (VU) at global level, estimated population of 100.000. The Mediterranean sub-population is considered as “endangered” (EN), with an estimated population of 1,720 declining.
It is found in all temperate waters of the world and very rarely in tropical and polar ones. It is a predominantly pelagic species (it lives off-shore) and can only rarely go further in-shore in search of food. During summer, it tends to concentrate in its feeding zone, while it disperses during winter. It is distributed throughout the Mediterranean, especially in the western and central Mediterranean.
How to recognise it at sea
Size: 20-25 meters in length, 70-75 tonnes of weight. Females are usually slightly larger than males. From the surface of the water, an imposing dark moving back can be seen, with a small dorsal fin on the top, very curved and displaced towards the tail. It has an asymmetric pigmentation of the lower jaw that allows its identification when swimming close to the surface: white or creamy yellow colour on the right side (extending to the tongue and baleen) and uniform grey colour on the left side. The head is V-shaped, flat at the top, with a single ridge running from the blowhole to the tip of the rostrum.
Its breath forms a double jet of vertical water spray (reaching up to 6 metres in height), visible from long distances. It generally does not show its caudal fin before diving and usually travels solitary or in pairs.
It is the largest cetacean in the Mediterranean Sea and the second largest in the world, after the blue whale.
It belongs to the suborder Misticeti (toothless cetaceans). Instead of teeth, it has long rows of bristles called baleen bristles, with which it filters the water. It feeds on tiny crustaceans, krill, which it catches by opening its mouth while swimming, and can consume up to 2 tonnes of food per day. To hunt it dives on average to a depth of 250 metres (the maximum recorded is 470 metres) holding its breath for 15 minutes.
Mediterranean specimens are slightly different from those living in the Atlantic and, genetically, the populations are distinct with little genetic exchange between populations.
Sexual maturity reaches around 8 years of age and gestation is about 11 months. The female gives birth to a cub every two to three years. The cub is weaned after about 8 months.
The average lifespan of these marine mammals is 85 years.
- The largest beached specimen was found in Sorrento harbour on 14 January 2021: 19.77 metres long.
- A specimen showing signs of hybridisation with the blue whale was recently found..
- It is the fastest of the large whales (10 m/s), perhaps to escape from orca attacks!


Throughout the northeast and mid-Atlantic regions of the country, communities are dealing with the many ramifications of flooding caused by Irene and exacerbated by Lee. As my family attempts to drain a basement that seems likely to be inundated with more water at the next hint of rain, I began to wonder about the environmental consequences of all this flooding. The news media that I follow, however, are not covering that aspect of the floods, as they continue to focus on the economic cost of all that water. As it turns out, flooding can have serious environmental costs to the individuals and the communities involved.
A paper written by Burrell E. Montz of Binghamton University’s Department of Geology and Environmental Studies delineates some of the many environmental hazards posed by flooding. Much of the risk involves contamination, which can range from less serious, accidental contamination by household products that leak into the water systems to more serious contamination of human water sources or plant and animal ecosystems. It is easy to imagine how these ecosystems can be completely destroyed by rapid, overwhelming flooding, seriously endangering the species that inhabit them. On a personal note, my current town has been reeling from flooding ever since Irene hit, and one of the many ramifications is that the town’s water has been deemed unsafe and all residents are being told to drink bottled water. I can only imagine the carbon footprint created by my town’s bottled water consumption, let alone that of all the similarly affected towns across the east coast.
A number of factors can influence the severity of the environmental threat posed by flooding. Montz reports that “depth of water, velocity of flows, and duration of inundation, in combination with land-use attributes” can all impact the environmental damage posed. It makes sense of course that areas with faster and greater volumes of water would take the greatest hit, but we may not immediately think that areas intended for specific purposes may be more prone to environmental damage. For example, farmland would be in great danger because vast acres of cleared land are left without the protection that trees can provide. The devastation would be magnified in farm areas where pesticides or other chemicals are used, since they would be flooded into water systems at high rates.
Of course, there are ways in which we can adequately prepare and therefore lessen the potential for serious environmental harm. Sandbagging can reduce the risk of flooding in certain areas, which would obviously decrease the risk of secondary environmental effects. Montz also recommends being mindful of all household chemicals and potentially hazardous materials beforehand, as to avoid letting them be washed into the flood waters. Residents should also severely limit water use in their homes during the heavy rains that lead to flooding, because town water waste and treatment facilities are likely so overburdened that household use just compounds the threat of flooding.
Regions across the country are now being reminded that preparedness can save resources, human lives, and environmental integrity. Unfortunately, natural disasters like floods often remind individuals and communities of the costs associated with some of our current ways of life. In one such instance, a town in Pennsylvania is suffering after a different generation, forty years prior, decided to forego the protection of extra levees in favor of picturesque river views (New York Times). Reflection on the environmental implications to the whole region adds yet another dimension of consideration for communities weighing similar options.
Floods can be ruinous, and portions of our country may be victimized by flooding as an unavoidable result of severe weather patterns. However, it is important to know how you can minimize damage to your family, property, and even natural environment. Whether or not you have been lucky enough to escape Irene’s and Lee’s wraths, please take a moment to consider your flood preparedness plan. The state of New York’s Department of Health has a thorough online reference to help you prepare for floods, and other states across the country have comparable resources immediately available. A little consideration and forethought may go a long way in protecting your home and community.
New York Department of Health’s Flood Preparedness Guide:
“Flood Preparedness.” New York State Department of Health. Web. 13 Sept. 2011. <http://www.health.state.ny.us/environmental/emergency/flood/>.
Montz, Burrell E. “Quick Response Report #93 – The Environmental Impacts of Flooding in St. Maries, Idaho.” University of Colorado Boulder. 7 Feb. 1997. Web. 13 Sept. 2011. <http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/research/qr/qr93/qr93.html>.
Saulny, Susan. “A Choice Made Decades Ago Comes Back to Haunt a Town.” The New York Times – Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 11 Sept. 2011. Web. 12 Sept. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/us/12flood.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=levee%20or%20view&st=cse>.


Honey and allergies: Perhaps the most frequently asked question about honey is whether it is useful as a natural remedy for allergies.
Or as a natural hay fever remedy.
And the answer is…
I know: "maybe" isn't a very satisfying answer!
But there’s very little scientific proof one way or the other about honey’s effectiveness as a natural remedy for allergies.
On the other hand, there really haven’t been any scientific studies performed in an attempt to answer that question – at least, none that I’ve been able to find.
In spite of the controversy about honey and allergies, though, there are many, many people who believe that eating honey has helped them with their allergies or hay fever.
The idea behind eating honey for allergies is that by eating honey produced locally, the honey will contain pollen grains that are specific to your area.
And that means that the honey likely contains pollen grains from some of the plants that cause your allergy or hay fever symptoms.
How does that help you?
Well, the theory is that when you ingest the pollen grains with the honey, your body develops a tolerance to the pollen.
And this tolerance helps to reduce the severity of your body’s reaction when you are exposed to airborne quantities of the same type of pollen.
If you're eating honey in the hope that it might help alleviate your allergy symptoms, that honey must be local – the closer to your home it was produced, the better.
For the most part, honey you might purchase at the supermarket will offer little or no natural allergy relief.
That honey will likely have been produced hundreds or thousands of miles away. And so any pollen grains it contains will have been produced from few – if any – of the plants in your area.
So it's less likely that non-local honey will contain any of the strain of pollen that causes your allergy symptoms.
And most supermarket honey will probably have been heated and filtered, a process that removes most of the pollen grains.
That's why honey consumed for allergies must also be raw honey (unheated) and it must be unfiltered (strained is fine).
Though there is little proof, it does seem reasonable that eating honey containing local pollen could work to reduce the symptoms of allergies and hay fever.
In fact, there is an immunotherapy treatment called ‘Sublingual Immunotherapy’ (SLIT) that works in much the same way that eating local honey might work.
When a patient is treated with SLIT, allergen extract is placed under the tongue and then swallowed (or sometimes spat out after allowing some to be absorbed).
SLIT has been used as an alternative to allergy shots for many years in Europe. And it has been proven to be at least somewhat effective.
The SLIT treatment does provide evidence that orally consuming an allergen can help to alleviate the body’s reaction to that allergen.
So it's not much of a stretch to think that eating honey containing grains of the pollen that plagues you might help to alleviate symptoms.
To whatever extent eating local honey might offer a natural remedy for allergies, it’s effect will be limited to a degree.
That's simply because the bees probably don’t visit every pollen producing plant in your area.
So if a particular plant causes you problems, and it’s not a plant that the bees gather nectar or pollen from, then eating local honey won’t help reduce any of your symptoms that are caused by that particular plant.
But if you can reduce your allergy symptoms by any amount simply by eating a tasty treat, that’s a pretty sweet deal!
If you’re considering eating honey for the natural allergy relief it may offer, use caution.
You should be aware that some people have suffered severe, even life-threatening reactions from eating local honey containing pollen to which they were severely allergic.
An extreme reaction is exceedingly rare, but it does happen.
And it only makes sense that the more extreme your allergy symptoms, the greater the chance that you will have an adverse reaction to eating honey containing the allergens that cause your symptoms.
In fact, if you’ve not eaten raw, local honey before, and you have severe allergy problems, it would probably be wise to consult your doctor first.
If you decide to try using honey for allergies, it’s recommended that you begin with a very small quantity on a daily basis (probably less than half a teaspoon).
Monitor your reaction, and then gradually increase the quantity if there are no adverse reactions.
If you're going to try to get relief from your allergy symptoms by eating honey, I wish you good luck.
Perhaps you’ll join the very large group of people who absolutely swear that honey is a valuable ally in the fight against allergies and hay fever.
NOTE: It’s important that honey not be given to infants under 1 year of age due to concerns about infant botulism.


What you'll need
The Paintbrush tool in the Toolbar is used to create free-form paths that can have a more hand-drawn feel. With the Paintbrush tool, you can draw a path and apply a brush to the stroke at the same time to give paths an artistic look, like calligraphy, for instance.
Set Paintbrush or Pencil tool options
Select either the Paintbrush or Pencil tool in the Toolbar, and then click Tool Options in the Properties panel or double-click the tool in the Toolbar. You can set a few options for how the tool works in the dialog box that opens.
Begin drawing with the Paintbrush or Pencil tools
With either tool, an asterisk appears next to the pointer, indicating that you can draw a new path. Drag to start drawing.
Choose a brush before drawing with the Paintbrush tool
With the Paintbrush tool selected, you can apply a different brush by choosing it from the Brush menu in the Properties panel before drawing a path or after (with the path selected).
Redraw parts of the path
To redraw parts of a path with either tool, move the pointer over a selected path. When the asterisk disappears, drag and redraw.
Presenter: Brian Wood


The trust assets could be protected from seizure by creditors if the settlor subsequently becomes bankrupt.
As wealth management and family offices are attracting more attention, Hong Kong has become a popular place to set up trusts for families, especially those from mainland China. This article explains how a trust works and why it may benefit a family.
Typically, a family trust is a legal arrangement where a family member (the settlor of the trust) transfers assets to a third party (the trustee, which could be a company or an individual) so that the trustee becomes the owner of the trust assets. The trustee in fact holds the assets for the benefits of family members (the beneficiaries of the trust) and has the duty to manage and ensure that the trust assets are applied for the enjoyment of the beneficiaries. It is important to note that those assets, when transferred to the trustee, will no longer belong to the settlor.
Under common law and the concept of trusts, it is important to distinguish between the legal title to the trust assets held by the trustee, and the equitable interest of the trust assets (i.e., the right to enjoy the benefits of the trust assets) held by the beneficiaries.
The settlor may set up a family trust during their lifetime, or may do so in a will (also known as a “will trust”). With the latter, the trust comes into effect on the death of the settlor and the assets to be transferred to the trust are those specified in the will.
Another categorisation of a family trust is whether it is a fixed trust or a discretionary trust. A fixed trust provides benefits to specified beneficiaries in a predetermined proportion. Under a discretionary trust, the beneficiaries are usually described as a class (i.e., beneficiaries are not fixed) and the trustee can determine the amount to be distributed among the beneficiaries.
The assets in a trust do not have to be transferred to any beneficiary in one go. The trust may set out conditions for making distributions (the assets or income generated from the assets) in order to protect vulnerable beneficiaries, who may make unwise spending decisions if they obtain assets in their own names too early. It may also set aside money for future purposes, such as education of the settlor’s descendants, or expenses of family members who need long-term medical care or special care.
A discretionary trust allows flexibility in determining the beneficiaries, e.g., to include the settlor’s children who are not yet born when the trust is set up, or to exclude descendants’ spouses.
As a trust can exist for a very long period of time beyond the lifetime of the settlor, a family trust may be used for succession planning. The family business can be put in the trust which may then provide financial security and career opportunities to family members. As the business and the family wealth in the trust do not belong to any particular branch of the family, they may be managed through future generations and support loyalty among family members.
Assuming there is no fraud and the required conditions are met when the settlor sets up the trust, the trust assets could be protected from seizure by creditors if the settlor subsequently becomes bankrupt. This is because neither the legal title to nor the equitable interests in the trust assets belong to the settlor. The assets settled into a trust may only be available to the settlor’s creditors under very restricted circumstances, such as:
Privacy is another benefit in setting up a trust because trust arrangements are confidential. With trust assets held in the name of the trustee, it would be difficult for the public to establish a connection of the assets with the settlor or the beneficiaries. Settlors in countries where extortion or kidnapping are common may find this privacy reassuring. Nevertheless, some countries have a central register where beneficial interests in trusts must be disclosed to the authorities.
Replacing a trustee
It may be necessary to replace the trustee to ease concerns of an unhappy working relationship between the settlor and the trustee. A role known as “protector” can be created in a trust. The protector usually has powers to replace the trustee, appoint new beneficiaries and exercise other powers to preserve the trust assets.
A trust is great tool for wealth planning and protecting family assets and family businesses. However, to actualise benefits of a trust, it is crucial for potential settlors to seek legal advice from qualified and experienced practitioners.


by Alexandros Roniotis, Kostas Marias, Vangelis Sakkalis
One of the major aims of the ContraCancrum Project is to develop a composite multilevel platform for simulating glioma development as well as tumour and normal tissue response to therapeutic modalities and treatment schedules. By efficiently predicting the evolution of a tumour and how this alters with different therapeutic schemes, clinicians could optimize the disease treatment procedure in the patient's individualized context.
Glioma is the most malignant type of brain cancer. Glioma cells invade into neighbouring normal tissues so rapidly that all common imaging techniques (MRI, CT, PET) cannot detect them. Even if a tumour is detected using medical imaging, there will be glioma cells dispersed beyond this area. Thus, if the clinicians apply therapeutic schemes only in the imaged tumour, the remaining cells around it will still proliferate and cancer will recur. Moreover, leaving safety margins around the imaged bulk is inefficient, because glioma migration is anisotropic, being facilitated along white fibres. Apart from this, the speed of migration in white matter is five times faster than in grey matter.
The ContraCancrum Project develops diffusive models to simulate the diffusive behavior of glioma, taking anisotropy and matter heterogeneity of invasion into account. These models use medical data (DICOM images) taken from the Oncologic Clinic of Saarland University in Germany. Tumour areas and initial glioma concentration are initially annotated by radiologists, using the DoctorEye application. DoctorEye is an open-source platform developed by FORTH, and is being used for fast and precise delineation of tumours, segmentation of clinical images and visualization of volumes.
The next step is to segment the images to white/grey matter and extract the direction of white fibres using data with Diffusive Tensor MRI. As a subsequent step, the model uses numerical methods to predict the concentration of glioma after some time. Parameters for therapy are also included in the model, thus differentiating the results for different schemes.
The predicted tumour is then visualized in either two or three dimensions, with the initial state of the tumour being visible. An example of visualizing a simulated brain tumor after 65 days of evolution, using the DoctorEye Tool, is presented in Figure 1. The initial tumour is reddish, while the simulated tumour is greenish.
Figure 1: An example of visualizing the simulated tumor in brain, using the DoctorEye Tool, after 65 days of evolution. The initial tumor is reddish, while the simulated tumor is greenish.
The modelling and therapy parameters used in the diffusive models are initially extracted from the literature. The model is then validated using clinical data from the same patient taken at different times. Real and simulated data are compared by clinicians, and metrics of model efficiency are extracted.
The core idea behind the implementation of our diffusive model is that concentration of glioma cells in brain follows the diffusion reaction equation. This partial differential equation cannot be solved algebraically, thus iterative numerical methods have been developed for approximating its solution. Finite Differences have been used for meshing the brain, while the biconjugate gradient method solves the derived big sparse system of equations. The result of the solver is the estimated concentration of glioma cells in the brain after a specific period of time.
In future, ContraCancrum aims to incorporate the deformation of brain matter caused by proliferating cells. Biomechanical Engineering techniques suitable for this purpose have been proposed in the literature and are currently under research.
The partners of the project include the medical branch of Philips Technologies GmbH (Germany), Saarland University (Germany), University College London (United Kingdom), University of Bedfordshire (United Kingdom), University of Bern (Switzerland), University of Karlova (Czech Republic), Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (Greece) and the National Technical School of Athens (Greece).
The ContraCancrum Project: http://www.contracancrum.eu
DoctorEye Tool: http://biomodeling.ics.forth.gr/
Tel: +30 2810 391 672


Indigenous Writings from the Convent
Negotiating Ethnic Autonomy in Colonial Mexico
While colonial sources that refer to indigenous women are not scant, documents in which women emerge as agents who actively participate in shaping their own identity are rare. Looking at this minority agency—or subaltern voice—in various religious discourses exposes some central themes. It shows that an indigenous identity recast in Catholic terms was able to be effectively recorded and that the religious participation of these women at a time when indigenous parishes were increasingly secularized lent cohesion to that identity.
Indigenous Writings from the Convent examines ways in which indigenous women participated in one of the most prominent institutions in colonial times—the Catholic Church—and what they made of their experience with convent life. This book will appeal to scholars of literary criticism, women’s studies, and colonial history, and to anyone interested in the ways that class, race, and gender intersected in the colonial world.
“One of the great strengths of this study is Díaz’s detailed discursive analysis of the numerous examples of religious literature that proliferated during the period . . . which have often been neglected by historians and literary scholars alike. Mónica Díaz’s fascinating and highly interdisciplinary study will be of great interest to specialists in the history and literature of colonial Latin America.”—Chasqui
“Contributes significantly to colonial studies, women’s and religious history, as well as to a more nuanced understanding of late colonial Hispanic American (especially Mexican) institutions and peoples. More specifically, it provides a context for and analysis of the written record surrounding the establishment and running of the Corpus Christi convent for indigenous women. Mónica Díaz’s study of a richly complex society provides a clear theoretical framework, brings together useful material about colonial religious discourses, and paves the way for further research and investigation.”—Hispanic Review
“[Díaz] has forged new interpretations by correlating her re-reading with knowledge from little-known sources. Her book is an elegant and well-written exploration of the complexities of colonial discourse about gender and ethnicity.”—The Americas
“A welcomed addition to the growing research on the adaptations and transformations of Indian elites in colonial society, as well as the study of convent writings in Colonial Spanish America.”—South Atlantic Review
“Díaz has done a very good job of acknowledging precursive and pioneering works in history, literature, and ethnic studies while establishing her own critical originality. Her occupation of a cultural studies viewpoint is in contrast to previous studies by both historians and literary critics, supporting her conclusions and opening new lines of dialogue.”—Jennifer L. Eich, author of The Other Mexican Muse: Sor María Anna Águeda de San Ignacio (1695–1756)


What is it?
- Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) is a type of cancer of the blood and bone marrow — the spongy tissue inside bones where blood cells are made.
- The word "acute" in acute lymphocytic leukemia comes from the fact that the disease progresses rapidly and affects immature blood cells, rather than mature ones. The "lymphocytic" in acute lymphocytic leukemia refers to the white blood cells called lymphocytes, which ALL affects.
Signs and symptoms of acute lymphocytic leukemia may include:
- Bleeding from the gums
- Frequent infections
- Frequent or severe nosebleeds
- Loss of appetite
- Lumps caused by swollen lymph nodes in and around the neck, underarm, stomach or groin
- Pale skin
- Shortness of breath
- Weight loss
- Weakness, fatigue or a general decrease in energy
- Acute lymphocytic leukemia occurs when a bone marrow cell develops errors in its DNA. The errors tell the cell to continue growing and dividing, when a healthy cell would normally die. When this happens, blood cell production goes awry. The bone marrow produces immature cells that develop into leukemic white blood cells called lymphoblasts. These abnormal cells are unable to function properly, and they can build up and crowd out healthy cells.
- It's not clear what causes the DNA mutations that can lead to acute lymphocytic leukemia. But doctors have found that most cases of acute lymphocytic leukemia aren't inherited.
Factors that may increase the risk of acute lymphocytic leukemia include:
- Cancer therapy. Children and adults who've had certain types of chemotherapy and radiation therapy or treatment for other kinds of cancer may have a small, but greater, risk of developing acute lymphocytic leukemia than does the general population.
- Exposure to radiation. People exposed to very high levels of radiation, such as survivors of an atomic bomb blast or a nuclear reactor accident, have an increased risk of developing acute lymphocytic leukemia. This includes children who were exposed to significant radiation during the first months of prenatal development.
- Genetic disorders. Certain genetic disorders, such as Down syndrome, are associated with some increased risk of acute lymphocytic leukemia.
- Having a brother or sister with ALL. People who have a sibling, including a twin, with acute lymphocytic leukemia are slightly more likely to develop ALL.
How is ALL Diagnosed?
- Blood tests. A blood test may reveal too many white blood cells, not enough red blood cells and not enough platelets. A blood test may also show the presence of blast cells — immature cells normally found in the bone marrow but not circulating in the blood.
- Bone marrow test. During bone marrow aspiration, a needle is used to remove a sample of bone marrow from the hipbone to look for leukemia cells. The sample is sent to a lab for testing. Doctors in the lab will classify blood cells into specific types based on their size, shape and other features. They also look for certain changes in the cancer cells and find out whether the leukemia cells began from the B lymphocytes or T lymphocytes. This information helps your doctor develop a treatment plan.
- Imaging tests. Imaging tests such as a chest X-ray, computerized tomography (CT) scan or an ultrasound examination may help determine whether cancer has spread to the brain and spinal cord or other parts of the body.
- Spinal fluid test. A lumbar puncture test, also called a spinal tap, may be used to collect a sample of spinal fluid. The sample is tested to see whether cancer cells have spread to the spinal fluid.
In general, treatment for acute lymphocytic leukemia falls into separate phases:
- Induction therapy. The purpose of the first phase of treatment is to kill most of the leukemia cells in the blood and bone marrow.
- Consolidation therapy. Also called post-remission therapy, this phase of treatment is aimed at destroying the leukemia cells remaining in the brain or spinal cord.
- Maintenance therapy. The third phase of treatment prevents leukemia cells from regrowing. The treatments used in this stage are often given at much lower doses.
- Preventive treatment to the spinal cord. People with acute lymphocytic leukemia may also receive treatment to kill leukemia cells located in the central nervous system during each phase of therapy. In this type of treatment, chemotherapy drugs are injected directly into the fluid that covers the spinal cord. This kills cancer cells that can't be reached by chemotherapy drugs given by mouth or through an intravenous line.
Depending on your situation, the phases of treatment for acute lymphocytic leukemia can span 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 years.
Treatments may include:
- Chemotherapy. Chemotherapy, which uses drugs to kill cancer cells, is typically used as an induction therapy for children and adults with acute lymphocytic leukemia. Chemotherapy drugs can also be used in the consolidation and maintenance phases.
- Targeted drug therapy. Targeted drugs attack specific abnormalities present in cancer cells that help them grow and thrive. One targeted drug, imatinib (Gleevec), specifically attacks cancer cells that have a certain abnormality called the Philadelphia chromosome. The drug dasatinib (Sprycel) works in a similar way. These drugs are approved only for people with the Philadelphia chromosome-positive form of ALL.
- Radiation therapy. Radiation therapy uses high-powered beams, such as X-rays, to kill cancer cells. If the cancer cells have spread to the central nervous system, your doctor may recommend radiation therapy.
- Stem cell transplant. A stem cell transplant may be used as consolidation therapy in people at high risk of relapse or for treating relapse when it occurs. This procedure allows someone with leukemia to re-establish healthy stem cells by replacing leukemic bone marrow with leukemia-free marrow. A stem cell transplant begins with high doses of chemotherapy or radiation to destroy any leukemia-producing bone marrow. The marrow is then replaced by bone marrow from a compatible donor (allogeneic transplant). In some cases, adults with ALL are able to use their own bone marrow for transplantation (autologous transplant). This may be possible if you go into remission and healthy bone marrow is then harvested for a future transplant.
- Clinical trials. Clinical trials are experiments to test new cancer treatments and new ways of using existing treatments. While clinical trials give you or your child a chance to try the latest cancer treatment, treatment benefits are still being evaluated. Discuss the benefits and risks of clinical trials with your doctor.
ALL in older adults
Older adults, such as those older than 65, tend to experience more complications from ALL treatments. And older adults generally have a worse prognosis than children who are treated for ALL. Discuss your options with your doctor. Based on your overall health and your goals and preferences, you may decide to undergo treatment for your ALL. Some people may choose to forego treatment for the cancer, instead focusing on treatments that improve their symptoms and help them make the most of the time they have remaining.
No complimentary treatments have been found to cure acute lymphocytic leukemia. But some alternative therapies may help ease the side effects of cancer treatment and make you or your child more comfortable.
Complimentary treatments that may ease signs and symptoms include:
Talk to your doctor if you're interested in trying complimentary treatments. Some complimentary therapies are safe, while others can interfere with your cancer treatments.
Coping and support
Although treatment for acute lymphocytic leukemia is typically very successful, it can be a long road. Treatment often lasts 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 years, although the first three to six months are the most intense. During maintenance phases, children can usually live a relatively normal life and go back to school. And adults may be able to continue working. To help you cope, try to:
- Learn enough about leukemia to feel comfortable making treatment decisions. Ask your doctor to write down as much information about your specific disease as possible. Then narrow your search for information accordingly. Write down questions you want to ask your doctor before each appointment, and look for information in your local library and on the Internet.
- Lean on your whole health care team. At major medical centers and pediatric cancer centers, your health care team may include psychologists, psychiatrists, recreation therapists, child-life workers, teachers, dietitians, chaplains and social workers. These professionals can help with a whole host of issues, including explaining procedures to children, finding financial assistance and arranging for housing during treatment. Don't hesitate to rely on their expertise.
- Explore programs for children with cancer. Major medical centers and nonprofit groups offer numerous activities and services specifically for children with cancer and their families. Examples include summer camps, support groups for siblings and wish-granting programs. Ask your health care team about programs in your area.


What is “Yes, and…”?
“Yes, and…” is a rule-of-thumb that encourages a participant to listen to and build on an idea that another participant presents. This approach keeps the lines of communication open and fosters cooperation and friendship.
For example, Alice starts the scene as a surgeon. Bob accepts this offer (the “yes”) and continues the scene as a nurse who is secretly in love with the surgeon (the “and…”). They’ve begun a good storyline that can go in many creative directions.
Applying “Yes, and…” to work
Now it’s time to build on that idea to make it better. My favourite is mind-mapping, using a diagram to organize information visually. Utilizing a mind-map allows my team and me to develop multiple ideas simultaneously. Sometimes, we can connect or combine different plans and create a brand new solution that we haven’t considered before.
The “Yes, and…” principle keeps me supportive, open-minded, and flexible. I’m lucky to have been part of many teams that follow this approach.


Ongoing disasters & violence in our country have made clear, that there is an increased need for everyone to learn how to take steps to be ready in the case of an emergency. Being prepared, allows you to respond with confidence and helps to reduce the fear, anxiety and losses that accompany many emergencies. The Boston Society of Vulcans, in partnership with the American Red Cross, American Heart Association, Department of Public Health Fire Injury Prevention Program, Public Health Commission, Executive Office of Public Safety, and the Urban Public Safety Coalition, have partnered to offer training, for groups and individuals of all ages, to develop safety skills and resources to the community, that may safe a life......
Our goals through these programs & services are: 1) to raise the public's awareness of the natural and human-caused hazards that threaten them; 2) to educate people on what they can and should do to better protect themselves and their property; and 3) to motivate them to take those steps. We distribute a variety of materials designed by our partners to educate the public through electronic, printed and video materials as well as Public Service Announcements (PSAs) and community presentations that inform the public about how to stay safe to protect their home and families.
It is estimated that 75% percent of the families and homes in Boston are not prepared for a disaster, or have the basic safety skills to respond to a disaster, or emergency in their home......
Disaster can strike quickly and without warning. It can force you to evacuate your neighborhood or confine you to your home. What would you do if basic services--water, gas, electricity or telephones--were cut off? Local officials and relief workers will be on the scene after a disaster, but they cannot reach everyone right away. Therefore, the best way to make your family and your home safer is to be prepared before disaster strikes.
Floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, and other natural hazards rob families of their homes and belongings, cause major disruptions to businesses, and cost billions in property damage and economic losses. The soaring social and economic costs of disasters can be dramatically reduced if individuals, families, businesses, and communities take the necessary steps to reduce their vulnerability and properly prepare.
Through this program we offer disaster preparedness training along with a CPR First Aid program, designed to educate community members about the importance of being prepared, what to do , and how to find resources that will help them in the event of a disaster. The program includes a special focus on neighborhood residents working together to develop a disaster plan, along with kits and other needed personal supplies.
Make sure your family has a plan in place before a disaster occurs. Tips are provided on how to prepare for any event with a plan that includes a supplies kit and emergency checklist for your important personal considerations, items and documents. Emergencies can strike at any time. Be prepared with an Emergency Preparedness Kit, with a supplies including water, food, radio, a flashlight, batteries and more.
One of the instructions you may be given in an emergency where hazardous materials may have been released into the atmosphere is to shelter-in-place. This is a precaution aimed to keep you safe while remaining indoors. (This is not the same thing as going to a shelter in case of a storm.) Shelter-in-place means selecting a small, interior room, with no or few windows, and taking refuge there. It does not mean sealing off your entire home or office building.
Do you know where to go if you are told to evacuate your neighborhood, or city. In this section we will cover information on the citys evacuation routes, going to a shelter and the type of preparedness kit you will need to take.
What is Mass Dispensing? An area designed to provide medication as fast as possible to as many residents as possible to prevent illness in the event of a public health emergency. An undertaking on this scale requires the commitment of many volunteers, as the assumption is that state and federal resources will be overwhelmed and our success depends upon our communitys local resources. A part of this training will include: Stressing the need for volunteers for the Medical Reserve Corps- it is important to have a trained core of volunteers prepared in advance to best respond to an emergency. Extensive planning has been done to prepare in the event of a large scale medical emergency, or pandemic outbreak, but the need for volunteers to assist and for the public to be trained on how and where to respond is crucial in providing treatment and stopping the outbreak from spreading. Training also includes universal precautions such as proper handwashing, wearing masks and gloves and their proper disposal.


On March 2, 1826, George Dillon was born in Ireland and, after emigrating to the U.S., "crossed the plains" to the mud flats of Tomales Bay because of its "bounty of clams." The milelong beach at the mouth of the bay was also a big draw for tourists (pictured in 1890) traveling up the coast to see the redwoods, and Dillon took full advantage by building a hotel and restaurant and running a stagecoach to pick up travelers at the train stop in the town of Tomales. In the early 1900s, Dillon sold his resort to John Keegan with the agreement that the beach would be named Dillon Beach. Keegan later sold his holdings to the Lawson family — Lawson's Landing is still a destination for picnickers and campers.
History Watch is provided by the Marin History Museum, www.marinhistory.org, and appears Tuesday in the Generations section. Images included in History Watch are available for purchase by calling 382-0770 or by email at firstname.lastname@example.org.


From the 15th-21st May it is Deaf Awareness week, in the UK there are an estimated 10 million people that have hearing loss. This makes hearing loss the second most common disability in the UK. This can result from over exposure of noisy environments, perhaps in work or socially.
In the workplace if the noise level reaches 85dB then hearing protection must be made mandatory. There are 3 solutions to protect your hearing which are custom ear plugs, disposables and ear defenders. At the point where you reach 140dB is where pain is experienced from the amount of noise, for example being close to a Jet taking off.
There are quite a few signs to see whether you have hearing loss such as turning the TV up louder than other users and asking people to repeat what they’re saying. If these are the symptoms you are encountering then a hearing test is recommended.
There are two main types of hearing loss Conductive hearing loss, usually caused by wax build not allowing sounds to pass through to the inner ear. Sensorineural hearing loss is caused by harm to the cochlea hair cells and/or the hearing nerve. This can be caused by either over exposure, ageing and other factors.
ProtectHear® is a great product which allows you to hear conversations, whilst still blocking out the harmful noises that can damage your hearing. Check out our FAQ’s guide.