text
stringlengths 198
621k
| id
stringlengths 47
47
| dump
stringclasses 95
values | url
stringlengths 15
1.73k
| file_path
stringlengths 110
155
| language
stringclasses 1
value | language_score
float64 0.65
1
| token_count
int64 49
160k
| score
float64 2.52
5.03
| int_score
int64 3
5
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hot Creek (Mono County, California)
Steam from geothermal springs rise above Hot Creek
|Location||Mono County, California|
|Source elevation||8,563 ft (2,610 m)|
|Mouth elevation||6,844 ft (2,086 m)|
The creek begins its course in the eastern Sierra Nevada named as Mammoth Creek. It originates as an outflow of Twin Lakes, just south of Mammoth Mountain and above the town of Mammoth Lakes. The stream is primarily sourced from melted snow water at 8,500 feet (2,600 m) above sea level. It is quite cold, rarely being above 50 °F (10 °C).
As Mammoth Creek leaves the Sierra and flows east into the Long Valley Caldera it is joined by warmer water from geothermal springs at the Hot Creek State Fish Hatchery. From this confluence the stream is named Hot Creek, though its water temperature seldom exceeds 68 °F (20 °C) until it reaches Hot Creek Gorge 8 miles (13 km) east of Mammoth Lakes. In the Hot Creek Gorge, numerous hot springs near and in the stream bed add hot water into the stream. Its mouth is at the confluence with the Owens River upstream from Crowley Lake.
The Long Valley Observatory of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), a volcano observatory, monitors spring activity, water temperatures and chemistry, and stream flow, as well as the caldera volcanic activity.
Hot Creek hydrothermal system
In hydrothermal systems, the circulation of ground water is driven by a combination of topography and geothermal heat sources. The system in the Long Valley Caldera is recharged primarily from snowmelt in the highlands around the western and southern rims of the caldera. The meltwater infiltrates to depths of a few kilometers (or miles), where some is heated to at least 430 °F (220 °C) by hot rock near the Inyo craters. The heated water, kept from boiling by high pressure, still has lower density than cold water, and it rises along steeply inclined fractures to depths of 0.3–1.25 miles (0.48–2.01 km). It then flows eastward through rock layers to hydrothermal vent discharge points at the surface along Hot Creek and around Crowley Lake. The water temperature declines eastward because of heat loss and mixing with cold water, and in the springs near Crowley Lake temperatures are at only about 125 °F (50 °C).
The springs in Hot Creek all emerge along a stream section between two faults and discharge a total of about 8.5 cubic feet per second (about 240 liters per second) of hot water. This water flow represents nearly 70 percent of the total heat discharged by all thermal springs in Long Valley Caldera. The thermal springs farther east all discharge less water and at lower temperatures.
The larger and more vigorous springs discharge from fractures in the volcanic rock in the gorge. Rock fracturing happens because the thermal area lies within a region of frequent earthquakes and active uplift of the ground. When fractures become sealed by mineral deposition, spring discharge and temperature decline. When new fractures develop or sealed fractures reopen, spring discharge and temperatures can increase suddenly.
The Hot Creek Gorge area of Hot Creek is managed by the U.S. Inyo National Forest as a geologic interpretive site and recreation area. It is popular for fishing, swimming, hiking, bird watching, and photography activities.
Dangers and recent activity
Hot Creek in the Hot Creek Gorge section can harbor dangers as the locations, discharge rates, and temperatures of springs often change. The changes can be sudden and dangerous to unprepared visitors (especially if entering beyond walkways and fences).
Since May 2006, springs in and near the most popular swimming areas have been geysering or intermittently spurting very hot, sediment-laden water as high as 6 feet (2 m) above the stream surface. At times this geysering activity is vigorous enough to produce “popping” sounds audible from hundreds of feet away. The geysering usually lasts a few seconds and occurs at irregular intervals, with several minutes between eruptions. Fumaroles, or steam vents, are in gorge area also. They can occur in the ground beyond the creek bed. The unpredictability of this hazardous spring activity led the U.S. Forest Service to close parts of the Hot Creek Gorge in June 2006, and the closure has remained in effect as of March 2013.
Hot Creek Gorge was a filming location in the 1969 film True Grit, as well as the 1960 film North to Alaska also starring John Wayne, the 1966 Steve McQueen film Nevada Smith, and the 1971 film Shoot Out with Gregory Peck, which also starred True Grit's Jeff Corey.
- "Twin Lakes". Geographic Names Information System, U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
- "Hot Creek". Geographic Names Information System, U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
- "Boiling Water at Hot Creek". Our Volcanic Public Lands. USGS and USFS. Retrieved 2007-09-16.
- "Owens Tui Chub". Biological Opinion for SNFPA SEIS Final. USFS. 2003-07-30.
- Oliver, Lynn; Farrar, Christopher (2007). "Challenges of managing the Hot Creek Thermal Area, Inyo National Forest, California". 103rd Annual Meeting, Geological Society of America.
- "New Activity at Hot Creek Geologic Site". Retrieved 2007-05-05. Inyo National Forest Press Release
- Grasseschi, Wendilyn (March 25, 2013). "Inyo National Forest hears resident comments, suggestions". Mammoth Times. | <urn:uuid:d6c87656-fa92-446a-9a31-9e1b6b756515> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Creek_(Mono_County,_California) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802776528.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075256-00162-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.892455 | 1,193 | 3.578125 | 4 |
Anna Greenberg and Jessica Keating
Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly and the United Nations Foundation
Since 9/11, America’s role in the world has taken on an increasingly important part of our political discourse. Questions about the use of military force, commitments to nation building, the war on terrorism, humanitarian disaster relief, women’s rights around the world, as well as our relations with other nations have sparked heated debates from the halls of Congress to college dorm rooms. People’s views are informed by their values and personal experiences, as well as international events. While these values and experiences are relatively well understood, the influence of religious identity and engagement has not been explored in-depth.
In this first major study of religion and international affairs, we explore the role that religious worldviews play in shaping views about America’s role in the world and foreign policy priorities.
- There is relative consensus about the role of the United States in the world; most believe that America has a moral obligation and responsibility to act as a leader on the world stage. Despite increasing religious diversity, a majority agree with the notion that our nation is blessed and that it should set a Christian example to the world.
- At the same time, Americans express ambivalence about whether or not we have a positive influence around the world and most agree that sometimes our involvement does more harm than good.
- The religious landscape has shifted with evangelical Christians now expressing the greatest support for an interventionist role, while more moderate religious groups like mainline Protestants and Catholics take a more isolationist posture.
- America’s foreign policy priorities cannot be separated from the events of the past eight years. Concerns dominated by violence, conflict and preserving our nation’s security take on greater priority than other international engagements.
- There is less consensus around the ideologically charged areas of foreign policy, particularly women’s rights and environmental policy. While most support efforts to improve maternal health, people are more divided on lifting the “global gag rule,” which would free up resources to organizations providing a full range of women’s health services including abortion. Similarly, while most Americans support signing international treaties to combat global warming, the current economic crisis and gas prices produce some division regarding the urgency of the problem.
- Generational change may ultimately transform the public’s views about the world. Younger evangelicals, for example, are different from adults in that they are more ecumenical in their view about America’s influence, adopt a more inclusive definition of what it means to be “pro-life” and are more supportive of efforts to combat global warming. We also see a rise of people without any religious preference at all; this group, understandably, is more skeptical on whether or not America should set a Christian example in the world and less convinced of the nation’s exceptionalism.
Based on a national survey of 1400 adults, including an oversample of 400 young evangelical Christians ages 18 to 29, conducted for Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly and the United Nations Foundation. The survey was conducted September 4-21, 2008, and carries a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent. This study explores how religion shapes people’s perspectives about America’s role in the world, both reactions to current policy and to future priorities and commitments. Broadly, we examine whether or not the US should take an interventionist or isolationist posture and rank a range of different forms of involvement around the world. We explore perceptions of the nation’s “moral” responsibilities and gauge whether people see America as different than other nations in the world. Finally, we explore whether people’s religious experiences and their engagement with the world lead to a different view of America’s role and priorities | <urn:uuid:12d858a9-153d-4871-85fb-52f11c1a8b13> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://www.gqrr.com/articles/2008/10/21/religion-and-america-s-role-in-the-world/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257824133.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071024-00104-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932367 | 776 | 2.671875 | 3 |
In the last blog, we discussed the importance of the data cleaning process in a data science project and ways of cleaning the data to convert a raw dataset into a useable form. Here, we are going to talk about how to identify and treat the missing values in the data step by step.
Real-world data would certainly have missing values. This could be due to many reasons such as data entry errors or data collection problems. Irrespective of the reasons, it is important to handle missing data because any statistical results based on a dataset with non-random missing values could be biased. Also, many ML algorithms do not support data with missing values.
How to identify missing values?
We can check for null values in a dataset using pandas function as:
But, sometimes, it might not be this simple to identify missing values. One needs to use the domain knowledge and look at the data description to understand the variables. For instance, in the dataset below, isnull() does not show any null values.
In this example, there are columns that have a minimum value of zero. On some columns, a value of zero does not make sense and indicates an invalid or missing value.
On analysing the features carefully, the following columns have an invalid zero minimum value:
1: Plasma glucose concentration
2: Diastolic blood pressure
3: Triceps skinfold thickness
4: 2-Hour serum insulin
5: Body mass index
It becomes clear on checking the number of zeros in these columns that columns 1,2 and 5 have few zero values, whereas columns 3 and 4 have a lot more.
Missing values in each of these columns may need different strategies. We could mark these zero values as NaN to highlight missing values so that they could be processed further.
Quick classification of missing data
There are three types of missing data:
MCAR: Missing Completely At Random. It is the highest level of randomness. This means that the missing values in any features are not dependent on any other features values. This is the desirable scenario in case of missing data.
MAR: Missing At Random. This means that the missing values in any feature is dependent on values of other features.
MNAR: Missing Not At Random. Missing not at random data is a more serious issue and in this case, it might be wise to check the data gathering process further and try to understand why the information is missing. For instance, if most of the people in a survey did not answer a certain question, why did they do that? Was the question unclear?
What to do with the missing values?
Now that we have identified the missing values in our data, next we should check the extent of the missing values to decide the further course of action.
Ignore the missing values
Missing data under 10% for an individual case or observation can generally be ignored, except when the missing data is a MAR or MNAR.
The number of complete cases i.e. observation with no missing data must be sufficient for the selected analysis technique if the incomplete cases are not considered.
Drop the missing valuesDropping a variable
If the data is MCAR or MAR and the number of missing values in a feature is very high, then that feature should be left out of the analysis. If missing data for a certain feature or sample is more than 5% then you probably should leave that feature or sample out.
If the cases or observations have missing values for target variables(s), it is advisable to delete the dependent variable(s) to avoid any artificial increase in relationships with independent variables.
In this method, cases which have missing values for one or more features are deleted. If the cases having missing values are small in number, it is better to drop them. Though this is an easy approach, it might lead to a significant decrease in the sample size. Also, the data may not always be missing completely at random. This may lead to biased estimation of parameters.
Imputation is the process of substituting the missing data by some statistical methods. Imputation is useful in the sense that it preserves all cases by replacing missing data with an estimated value based on other available information. But imputation methods should be used carefully as most of them introduce a large amount of bias and reduce variance in the dataset.
Imputation by Mean/Mode/Median
If the missing values in a column or feature are numerical, the values can be imputed by the mean of the complete cases of the variable. Mean can be replaced by median if the feature is suspected to have outliers. For a categorical feature, the missing values could be replaced by the mode of the column. The major drawback of this method is that it reduces the variance of the imputed variables. This method also reduces the correlation between the imputed variables and other variables because the imputed values are just estimates and will not be related to other values inherently.
The variables with missing values are treated as dependent variables and variables with complete cases are taken as predictors or independent variables. The independent variables are used to fit a linear equation for the observed values of the dependent variable. This equation is then used to predict values for the missing data points.
The disadvantage of this method is that the identified independent variables would have a high correlation with the dependent variable by virtue of selection. This would result in fitting the missing values a little too well and reducing the uncertainty about that value. Also, this assumes that relationship is linear which might not be the case in reality.
K-Nearest Neighbour Imputation (KNN)
This method uses k-nearest neighbour algorithms to estimate and replace missing data. The k-neighbours are chosen using some distance measure and their average is used as an imputation estimate. This could be used for estimating both qualitative attributes (the most frequent value among the k nearest neighbours) and quantitative attributes (the mean of the k nearest neighbours).
One should try different values of k with different distance metrics to find the best match. The distance metric could be chosen based on the properties of the data. For example, Euclidean is a good distance measure to use if the input variables are similar in type (e.g. all measured widths and heights). Manhattan distance is a good measure to use if the input variables are not similar in type (such as age, gender, height, etc.).
The advantage of using KNN is that it is simple to implement. But it suffers from the curse of dimensionality. It works well for a small number of variables but becomes computationally inefficient when the number of variables is large.
Multiple imputations is an iterative method in which multiple values are estimated for the missing data points using the distribution of the observed data. The advantage of this method is that it reflects the uncertainty around the true value and returns unbiased estimates.
MI involves the following three basic steps:
Imputation: The missing data are filled in with estimated values and a complete data set is created. This process of imputation is repeated m times and m datasets are created.
Analysis: Each of the m complete data sets is then analysed using a statistical method of interest (e.g. linear regression).
Pooling: The parameter estimates (e.g. coefficients and standard errors) obtained from each analysed data set are then averaged to get a single point estimate.
Python’s Scikit-learn has methods – impute.SimpleImputer for univariate (single variable) imputations and impute.IterativeImputer for multivariate imputations.
The MICE package in R supports the multiple imputation functionality. Python does not directly support multiple imputation but IterativeImputer can be used for multiple imputations by applying it repeatedly to the same dataset with different random seeds when sample_posterior=True.
In summation, handling the missing data is crucial for a data science project. However, the data distribution should not be changed while handling missing data. Any missing data treatment method should satisfy the following rules:
Estimation without bias – Any missing data treatment method should not change the data distribution.
The relationship among the attributes should be retained.
Learn R, Python, basics of statistics, machine learning and deep learning through this free course and set yourself up to emerge from these difficult times stronger, smarter and with more in-demand skills! In 15 days you will become better placed to move further towards a career in data science. Upgrade to the specialization programs at attractive discounts!
Don't Miss This Absolutely Free, No Conditions Attached Course | <urn:uuid:6e609032-1821-42c6-9103-4124019b659c> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://edvancer.in/data-cleaning-missing-values-treatment | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320299852.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20220116093137-20220116123137-00205.warc.gz | en | 0.888898 | 1,776 | 3.375 | 3 |
“Lo, in the midst of the throne . . . stood a Lamb as it had been slain.”
Jesus’ Eternal Wounds
Why should our exalted Lord appear in His wounds in glory? The wounds of Jesus are His glories, His jewels, His sacred ornaments. To the eye of the believer, Jesus is passing fair because He is “white and ruddy” white with innocence, and ruddy with His own blood. We see Him as the lily of matchless purity, and as the rose crimsoned with His own gore. Christ is lovely upon Olivet and Tabor, and by the sea, but oh! there never was such a matchless Christ as He that did hang upon the cross. There we beheld all His beauties in perfection, all His attributes developed, all His love drawn out, all His character expressed. Beloved, the wounds of Jesus are far more fair in our eyes than all the splendour and pomp of kings. The thorny crown is more than an imperial diadem. It is true that He bears not now the sceptre of reed, but there was a glory in it that never flashed from sceptre of gold. Jesus wears the appearance of a slain Lamb as His court dress in which He wooed our souls, and redeemed them by His complete atonement. Nor are these only the ornaments of Christ: they are the trophies of His love and of His victory. He has divided the spoil with the strong. He has redeemed for Himself a great multitude whom no man can number, and these scars are the memorials of the fight. Ah! if Christ thus loves to retain the thought of His sufferings for His people, how precious should his wounds be to us!
“Behold how every wound of His
A precious balm distils,
Which heals the scars that sin had made,
And cures all mortal ills.
“Those wounds are mouths that preach His grace;
The ensigns of His love;
The seals of our expected bliss
In paradise above.”
(by Charles Spurgeon, Morning & Evening Daily Readings, title mine) | <urn:uuid:155bf4de-0fab-459f-a823-cdeb67600b45> | CC-MAIN-2018-17 | https://studyingprayer.com/2011/04/24/eternal-wounds-revelation-56/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125946077.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20180423144933-20180423164933-00098.warc.gz | en | 0.963144 | 449 | 2.671875 | 3 |
By John Douillard, DC, PhD
Candida albicans yeast is a naturally-occurring intestinal inhabitant which is normally in check by a properly balanced intestinal medium. Candida albicans becomes a concern when the intestinal flora’s “good” bacteria is out-populated by this yeast, which is commonly included under the heading “bad” bacteria. The now-flourishing yeast can enter the bloodstream via the enteric cycle and elicit the classic yeast infection symptoms of fatigue, insomnia, dizziness, tinnitus, decreased immunity, and digestion.
The Western approach to this disorder is to eradicate the yeast and therefore relieve the associated symptoms. Allopathically, drugs are used, but because of their extreme side effects, they are not the most desirable choice. Herbal remedies aid in rebalancing the body toward the reduction of yeast, however, the most important component of this Ayurvedic protocol is to address the underlying cause of the yeast infection.
In Ayurvedic medicine, illness due to a systemic invasion of Candida albicans is not identified as such. The yeast itself is not recognized in the etiology of the classic candida symptoms. The etiology of this set of symptoms is usually classified under the heading of agnimandya, or deficient digestion. The result of a deficient digestion is the production of ama which is the by-product of undigested food. Ama is then either absorbed into the blood stream or lymphatic system, creating a toxicity and the ground floor for the disease process. Invariably, this ama will accumulate in the seat of vata found in the lower digestive tract. The seat of vata is governed by the apana vata, which regulates the growth of flora in the gastrointestinal tract. As the ama accumulates in the small and large intestines, it will putrefy and ferment, thus inhibiting the normal flora to proliferate. It is because of this variation from the norm that a candidiasis or yeast infestation occurs, and that the ground is set as well for a parasitic infiltration.
The next stage of a candida infestation is a result of the intestinal absorption of ama into the liver and blood via the portal system. This process is classified as Udavarta or the upward movement of vayu. This vayu leaves the seat of vata in the form of apana and aggravates the liver, spleen, and the seat of Agni (digestive fire) in the stomach called grahani. The grahani is the seat of the pachaka pitta and the thirteen agnis.
When the wind of the apana vata blows on the pachaka pitta, the initial digestive force of the powerful jathra agni is aggravated. This aggravation compromises the breakdown of the food and the subsequent effectiveness of the five bhutagnis. These five agnis pertain to the food and the subsequent effectiveness of the five tejas (fire), vayu (air), and akasha (space). The bhutagnis break the food up into these respective food fractions according the five elements.For example, food fragments consisting of predominantly air and space would go to support the nervous system. Food fragments made up of mostly earth would end up supporting the musculoskeletal system. This breakdown is essential for the dhatuagnis which support the seven major bodily tissues to be developed. It is here that the aggravation of grahani and the accumulation of ama does its damage.
If the seven tissues which include rasa (plama), rakta (blood), mamsa (muscle), meda (fat), majja (nervous tissue), asthi (bone), and sukra (sperm and ovum) are damaged or improperly formed, then severity is the result. If any one the dhatus are improperly formed then the production of sukra will be inhibited. Sukra, the final culmination of the digestive process, and dhatu development, both provide the body with immunity, procreation, vitality, luster, long life, and health. It is this gross lack of vitality and immunity that colors the symptoms of candidiasis.Many of the common disorders of our time are due to vitiated digestion and the life force. These include Epstein-Barr virus, chronic fatigue syndrome, Meuniere’s disease, and others.
For the following reasons the classic symptoms of candidiasis will ensue:
1. Decreased vitality due to a weak agni and the resultant poor assimilation of high quality nutrition.
2. Due to the accumulation of intestinal ama and the upward flow of vayu, the apana vata becomes depleted, which will both drain prana and alter the intestinal medium.
3. With the seat of agni aggravated, the processing of food into elements and then tissues is compromised. This will affect all the systems in the body but most importantly, the sukra dhatut, which is the life force itself.
The two most important strategies in the treatment of candidiasis are, first, to insure the integrity of the digestive agni and second, to build bala and immunity back into the body. With both of these in place, the treatment to kill off the pathological yeast can safely and effectively be employed.
For digestion, herbs like trikatu, ginger, black pepper, and hing can build the agni. To build strength and immunity herbs like bala, ashwaganda, brahmi, and gudduchi work well. Once the underlying imbalance is controlled then herbs like vidanga, neem, pomegranate, and tulsi work will in destroying the yeast.
It is well understood in Ayurveda that because of the prakriti (body type) and the behavioral stress that each of us endures, the cause of candidiasis could be due to the aggravation of vata, pitta, or kapha.
Vata is vitiated due to the excessive intake of too pungent, bitter, and astringent foods; too much cold food and excessive travel; the suppression of natural and normal urges; excessive intercourse, and irregular eating and sleeping habits. If these persist, according to Caraka Samhita, the individual will experience blurred vision, tinnitus, frequent pain, emaciation, debility, abdominal bloating, and lassitude, all of which are classic symptoms of candidiasis. Other symptoms can include low back pain, dry skin, nervousness, flatulence, depression, and/or ups and downs in energy.
1. Ama decreasing diet. This involves the avoidance of dairy, sugar, breads, and mucous-producing foods. Cold and raw foods should also be avoided. Sip hot water every 20 minutes and drink eight to ten eight ounce glasses of warm lemon water per day. Eat a large relaxing lunch and soup for dinner. Avoid concentrated fruit juice and take fresh fruit in moderation. Use hing, ginger, basil ajwan, and garlic to spice your food.
2. Boil 1 teaspoon of brahmi and 1 teaspoon of bala down in 1⁄2 cup of water. Add a pinch of black pepper and boil to 1⁄2 cup. Drink this after straining, 3 times per day.
3. Oleation and Purgation.a. Oleation: Take 2 teaspoons liquid ghee on the first morning, with hot water. On the second morning, take 4 teaspoons of ghee, and increase by 2 teaspoons every day until on the sixth day you have reached 6 teaspoons.b. Purgation: On the evening of the fourth day, take 6 teaspoons of castor oil. This could produce a laxative effect. It there is none, repeat the castor dose the next night.
4. Start each meal with equal parts of ginger juice and honey, and a pinch of lemon juice, salt, and cumin powder.
5. Boil 1 teaspoon each of the following herbs in 1 cup of water down to 1⁄2 cup: trifala (Emblica officinalis, Terminalia chebula, Terminalia belerica), bala (Sida cordifolia), brahmi (Centella asiatica), vidanga (Embelia ribes), and vacha (Acorus calamus). Mix this strained herb decoction with 1⁄2 cup sesame oil and administer as an enema for 5 days after oleation and purgation.
By the intake of pungent, uncooked, burning, sour, and alkaline foods, pitta will get aggravated and will put out digestive fire in the same way that a flood of boiling water will put out a flame.
The symptoms of this pitta imbalance is hyperacidity, yellowing complexion, yellowing liquid stool, fever, infections, anorexia, and excessive thirst. Remember that often times the upward flow of vayu can take a vata based candidiasis and mix it with a pitta presentation. Both sets of symptoms indicate a vata and pitta combined cause. Treatment would then have to include both vata and pitta.
1. Eat more fresh leafy green vegetables, avoid sugar and concentrated fruit juice. Favor pomegranates and bitter herbs, veggies, and spices.
2. Mahasudarshan (a churna of triphala (Emblica offcinialis, Terminalia belerica, Terminalia chebula); gudduchi (Tinospora cordifolia); kutki (Picorrhiza kurroa); patrpat; nimb (lime), suddha surastraja, bamshalochan; kairat). Take 1⁄2 teaspoon with hot water after meals.
3. Neem tea (Azadirachta indica), 4 cups per day.
4. 1 teaspoon of the following mixture 3 times per day: ashwaganda (Withania somnifera), gudduchi (Tinosporia cordifolia), amalaki (Emblica officinalis), and brahmi (Centella asiatica).
5. Oleation and purgation as per vata:a. Oleation: Take 2 teaspoons liquid ghee on the first morning, with hot water. On the second morning, take 4 teaspoons of ghee, and increase by 2 teaspoonsful every day until on the sixth day you have reached 6 teaspoonsful.b. Purgation: On the evening of the fourth day, take six teaspoons of castor oil. This could produce a laxative effect. It there is none, repeat the castor dose the next night.
6. Boil 1 teaspoon of the following herbs down from one cup water to cup: mahasurdarshan (see above), neem (Azadirachta indica), vidanga (Embelia ribes), kukti (Picorrhiza kurroa), and tulsi (Ocimum basilicum). Add 1⁄2 cup sesame oil and 2 tablespoon of castor oil and administer as an enema for five days.
Kapha is aggravated by the intake of food that is too heavy, too oily, and cold. Overeating and sleeping after meals produces ama and puts out the digestive fire. In this case digestion becomes slow and difficult with nausea and vomiting. The individual will often have frequent colds, flu, and congestion. Swollen glands, edema, and excessive sleep are also classic for a kapha infestation.
1. Avoid all mucus-forming, oily, and greasy foods. Avoid salt and sugar. Eat primarily grains and vegetables. Dandelion, asparagus, kale, collard greens, and spinach are foods to increase.
2. Eat pungent, spicy herbs and spices like cayenne (Capsicum frutescens), ginger (Zingiber officinalis), black pepper (Piper nigrum), clove (Syzygium aromaticum), and curry.
3. Trikatu (long pepper, black pepper, and ginger). Take 1⁄2 teaspoon with honey before each meal.
4. Ashwaganda (Withania somnifera) and shatavari (Asparagus racemosus) (1⁄2 teaspoon each) with a pinch of ginger powder. Mix into hot water and take three times per day, without food.
5. Take one fresh garlic clove and insert it into the rectum before bed.
6. Take 1⁄2 teaspoon of vidanga (Embelia ribes) and hing (Ferula asafoetida), 3 times daily after meals with hot water and honey.
7. Take 3 cups of neem (Azadirachta indica) tea daily.
General Dietary Guidelines for Candidiasis: One-month ama-reducing program
This traditional Ayurvedic program helps to eliminate the impurities (ama) that result from inefficient digestion and metabolism, and strengthens the digestive and metabolic fires (agni). It also corrects improper dietary habits which can lead to imbalances. Those with severe weakness of agni or excessive ama should follow these guidelines closely for three months, and then continue on a more relaxed basis. Others should simply follow the major guidelines, whenever possible. However, the first rule of Ayurveda is to follow your own inner sense and do what’s right for you.
1. Follow a regular daily routine in waking, eating, and sleeping habits:Wake between 5 and 7 AMTake lunch between 12 and 1 PMTake dinner between 5 and 7 PMGo to bed between 9 and 10 PMLunch should be the main meal of the day. Dinner should be light. Breakfast should be very light and is optional. Favor food that is freshly prepared, avoid leftovers, frozen, canned, or processed food.
2. Perform a sesame oil massage in the morning, followed with a warm bath or shower.
3. Sip hot water frequently throughout the day (every 1 or 2 hours or as often as desired). This keeps the agni alive and flushes ama from the system. Sipping hot water also settles the nervous system if you feel anxious.
4. Get fresh air, regular exercise, and physical activity through such methods as a morning or evening walk, sun salute or other yoga asanas.
In the Morning:
-Take warm water with a few drops of lemon juice and/or teaspoon raw honey after rising.
-Promote regular elimination by sitting on the toilet at the same time each morning, after rising.
-Do your oil massage, bath, or shower, yoga, pranayama, and meditation before eating.
At meal times:
-Eat in a settled environment.
-Eat only when hungry, after the last meal has been digestion.
-Stop eating when you feel satisfied, but not yet full (about 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 full).
-Sit quietly for at least five minutes after eating to promote digestion.
-Take lassi (yoghurt mixed with water, 1:1, 1:2, or 1:4) during lunch and between lunch and dinner, as needed to promote digestion.
-It is best to make lassi with freshly made yoghurt.
-Lassi can be sweet or seasoned, using honey, ginger, cardamom, for example, or salt, ginger, and cumin.
-Avoid cold food or drinks, especially foods and drinks taken directly from the refrigerator.
-Avoid heavy food at the evening meal, including heavy desserts, yoghurt, cheese, oily food, and fried food.
-Season your food to taste with prescribed seasoning (churna), or any of the following:Cumin, ginger, turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, mustard seeds, asafoetida (hing), black pepper, rock salt, crystal or rock sugar, or brown sugar.
-At lunchtime you can include the following salad with your meal, sprouts, grated carrot or beet, parsley, fresh basil fresh grated ginger, lemon juice, and rock salt.
-Add seasoning to taste.
-If you have vata imbalance or weak digestion, take a small amount, chewed well.
Optional Ayurvedic Food Combining:
When there are several course, meals can be eaten from heavier to lighter food, because the digestive fire is strongest at the beginning of the meal. Start with the dessert, then go to the salad, raw vegetables, soup, dal (lentils), pasta, bread, cooked vegetables, rice, lassi.
In the evening:Go to bed early when you are naturally sleepy, between 6 and 10 PM. The following herbs, listed by Scott Gerson, M.D., have been effective in his treatment of systemic candidiasis:Juniperus communis (Hapusa) powdered berries, 2-3 grams b.i.d.Ocimum sanctum (Tulsi) leaf infusion, 2 oz., b.i.d.Carum copticum (Yamani) powdered seed, 2-4 grams with 2 oz. pomegranate juice, b.i.d.Caloptropis gigantea (Alarka) root bark decoction, 1⁄2-1 oz., t.i.d.
-Sharma, P.V. Cakradatt, Chaukhambha Orientalia. New Delhi, India. 1994.
-Altha Vale, V.B. Basic Principles of Ayurveda, Bombay India. 1980.
-Bhishagratma, K.L. Shusshruta Samhita, Vols. 1 and 2, Varanasi, India. 1981.
-Sharma, P.V. Caraka Samhita. Vols. 1 and 2. Varanasi, India.
-Devaraj, T.L. The Panchakarma Treatment of Ayurveda. Dwanwantari Orientalia Publication, Bangalore, India. 1986.
-Chopra, R., and De, P. The action of sympathomimetic alkaloids in Sida cordifolia. Ind. J. Med.
Res. 18 (1930): 467. | <urn:uuid:90c75536-608a-43d0-b711-cd846d15f9c1> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://lifespaayurveda.blogspot.com/2007/07/candidiasis.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1393999645330/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305060725-00099-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.893298 | 3,861 | 2.9375 | 3 |
The israelite tribes were heirs to a religious tradition let us conclude this chapter on hebrew henotheism with a essays on old testament. Essays letters arts of penn extra classifieds john jackson, ethnography, and the hebrew israelites 3 26 feb and the african hebrew israelites of. Edenic kingdom society prophetic levitical essays & notes of the our people are of diverse hebrew communities that ethnic israelite-jewish peoples. Hebrew, israelite and jew by this essay will found its basic argument on the contents of the pentateuch a hebrew, and an israelite. 1-16 of 435 results for hebrew israelite bible the hebrew israelites of the bible collected essays (the library of hebrew bible/old testament studies. Black hebrew israelites: founder, headquarters, membership, origins, practices, teachings.
In this post i would like to establish the fact that the ‘bantu’ branch of africans, generally concentrated in sub-saharan part of the continent, and their. Read this essay on the hebrews in this essay i will be discussing hebrew israelites and why blacks believe they are the descendants of the ancient israelites. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans show god’s repeated attempts to sway the israelites from the effects of their. Let me start by saying i don’t disagree with everything that hebrew israelites say i do believe that there are major problems with the church, i do believe there. According to biblical tradition, the hebrews are peoples descended from shem, one of noah's sons, through eber, the eponymous.
Tasmiyah: innervisions books this book is a guide for african hebrew israelites who are seeking to take form as a nation to began the essays on africa and the. We will write a custom essay sample on african american culture or any similar topic others belong to non-mainstream jewish groups like black hebrew israelites. Final research paper: african hebrew israelites final research paper: african hebrew israelites although african hebrew israelites, in this essay.
Yahwism vs christianity `page 1 of 19 yahwism describes the original monotheistic belief of the ancient israelites as found recorded in the hebrew. Read this college essay and over 1,500,000 others like it now hebrew israelites hebrew israelites only available on studymode topic.
Classical records of the dorian & danaan israelite-greeks english is from hebrew - about this the christogenea new testament and all essays and articles. Perfect for acing essays, tests campaign to subdue the israelites, forcing them into slavery and eventually decreeing that all hebrew boys must be.
A psychologist is planning to conduct a study that would examine pathological liars and the quality of their romantic relationships you have been asked to provide. In, for example, an inaugural essay nowhere in the written record of ancient egypt is there any explicit mention of hebrew or israelite was there an exodus.
Free hebrews papers, essays, and research first-borns of man and beast was an act of violence that led the exodus of the israelites [tags: the hebrew bible. Israelites essay, israel and judah sinned against god which provoked him to uproot them from their land according to 2 kings 17, israel and judah failed to follow. Hebrew, israelite and jew – the unholy truth revealed this essay will found its basic argument on the contents of the pentateuch a hebrew, and an israelite. Black hebrew israelites (bhi links to the southern poverty law center was copied on 2006-may-30 from a wikipedia essay black hebrew israelites at. Hebrew israelites false chart well they are usually connected to a hebrew israelite group that teach the following people belong to these 12 previous essay. Sidbi role in mudra essay examples mudra sidbi essay role in the voice essaye d hebrew israelite find this pin and more on the lions of judah by. | <urn:uuid:a22d3249-38a1-4d11-b921-068ba1799345> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | http://eltermpapereaom.paycheckadvance.us/hebrew-israelites-essay.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267867095.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20180624215228-20180624235228-00379.warc.gz | en | 0.924956 | 909 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Friday, June 26 marked the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, continuing the tradition since 1989 ever since the United Nations initiated it. Thailand and Myanmar burned billions of dollars in seized drugs to add on to this endeavor.
Recently, officials in Thailand and Myanmar destroyed 25 tons of illicit drugs which equates to more than US$2 billion. Such drastic measures were implemented because illicit drug trade has been prevalent in Thailand. The trading route among Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos—South-East Asia’s Golden Triangle—has facilitated drug trafficking within these neighboring regions.
Thailand is still considered a haven for drug smugglers and producers because the vast mountainous regions allow for trading routes that are not heavily regulated. Wide ranges of drugs, such as methamphetamine, marijuana, opium, or heroin, were seized by anti-narcotics officials in Phuket, bearing evidence of the widespread drug usage in Thailand.
The mass incineration of drugs was conducted in a swift manner as police officials unloaded guarded boxes of drugs and launched them into dumpsters. The confiscated narcotics were soon in flames and the public spotted the sky filled with black smoke due to the burning. Although there have been concerns about air pollution and public health, authorities have alleviated such apprehensions by claiming that immediate burning does not affect the atmosphere.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic altered the state of the drug trade as well. Yet, some delinquents are taking advantage of these circumstances. Though travel ban due to coronavirus has limited drug trade, smuggling activities have been prevalent. Online drug sales have emerged as a new issue means of the drug trade, exacerbating the current drug war in Thailand.
During this period of uncertainty, the mass incineration of drugs betrayed the public’s determination to combat illicit drugs. Thus, officials are making an effort to combat narcotic drugs and enhance Thailand’s communal wellbeing. | <urn:uuid:9062e23b-ed5d-49b7-bfb3-1687aba5bf00> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | http://blog.weeboon.com/thailand-fighting-the-drug-war/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400198868.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20200920223634-20200921013634-00271.warc.gz | en | 0.960266 | 387 | 2.96875 | 3 |
The blood alcohol concentration or content level, also called a BAC level, is an important part of a DUI case. The results may be needed to convict a defendant. Contrary to popular belief, BAC chemical test results can and often are challenged in court. Although the concept of blood alcohol concentration and the ways it is tested are founded on scientific research, the reliability and accuracy of these test results can be influenced by many factors. No test is fail proof, and you may be able to use this to your advantage when fighting a DUI charge.
There are three chemical tests for measuring your BAC:
- Breathalyzer test
- Blood test
- Urine test
You will typically have a choice between the breathalyzer and the blood test if you are pulled over for a DUI. The urine test is only available in certain cases when the other two tests aren't available or when the person is on anticoagulant medication or has a clotting disorder. Most people end up taking either the breathalyzer test or the blood test. The results of either of these tests may not be reliable. Each one has its own strengths and weaknesses.
Breathalyzer tests check your blood alcohol concentration or content by measuring your breath alcohol. There are several weaknesses to this method. First, the breath sample comes from your mouth. The alcohol levels in your mouth could be higher than those in your blood. Certain foods, diets, and medical conditions have been known to raise alcohol levels in your mouth. These can cause a false high reading on a breathalyzer test. The breathalyzer device itself can also produce false positives. The device must be properly maintained and calibrated on a schedule. Officers who use the device must be trained. The test results may be inaccurate when any of these requirements is not met.
Blood tests directly check your BAC. Your blood sample will be taken and stored before it is analyzed. Blood tests are accurate if the sample is collected and handled properly. The State of California regulates how BAC chemical tests can be administered and analyzed. Every person involved needs to be briefed and trained on these regulations. The equipment and materials used have to be in accordance with the regulations as well. Blood samples must be taken in a laboratory or clinic setting by a trained professional. The blood must be prepared and stored properly. Enough blood must be taken so the defendant has the option to have his or her own independent analysis done. When blood isn't collected properly or when it is not prepared and stored in a stable state, the sample could deteriorate. The test results may be compromised if these regulations aren't followed. A skilled attorney may be able to have BAC test results deemed inadmissible as evidence if the accuracy is questionable.
Even though these two chemical tests have varying levels of accuracy, you must choose and complete one. The California DMV will automatically suspend your license for one year if you refuse to take or fail to complete one of these tests. The consequences for refusal are harsh, so it is usually in your best interests to comply with a request. Just because you comply, however, does not mean you cannot challenge the results of the test later on.
BAC chemical test results are just one component in a DUI case. If they are successfully challenged, however, your case could easily be dismissed if there wasn't sufficient evidence to convict you. Speak with an experienced California DUI defense attorney if you question the accuracy of your BAC chemical test results. A skilled attorney may be able to assist you with challenging your test results. A good DUI defense attorney will know the regulations for BAC testing and may be able to find a way you can challenge your BAC chemical test results. It is possible to beat a DUI charge by challenging your test results, but it's very difficult. Speak with an attorney today about your options.
If you are in the Visalia, Hanford or Tulare area and are facing DUI charges, The Law Offices of Christopher Martens is here to help you. DUI defense attorney Christopher Martens will work hard to defend your rights and your dignity in court. Attorney Martens has handled thousands of cases over a span of ten years of criminal defense practice and can fight hard for your rights in court. Contact attorney Christopher Martens for experienced criminal defense counsel today. Contact our office at 559-967-7386 or email us at [email protected] to discuss a possible plan of action for your case. | <urn:uuid:aae9424e-2d95-486e-9ff0-91dfe3c9b6e2> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | http://www.tulare-kings-attorney.com/blog/2016/june/can-bac-chemical-test-results-be-challenged-/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578582736.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20190422215211-20190423000252-00051.warc.gz | en | 0.946932 | 905 | 2.765625 | 3 |
If you are always lamenting the fact that your child gets insufficient individual attention in the classroom, think about homeschooling him instead. Although it may seem easy, you still need the proper information to do it. These tips will guide you and help you start home schooling as soon as you can.
It is important for young children to get some alone time during the day. Give them their own area with toys, crafts and books at their reading level. Ask the older kids to play with the younger ones. By teaching another child, your oldest will develop a stronger understanding of the subject and will enjoy a boost in self-confidence.
Create a budget for your homeschooling efforts. Create a realistic budget for your yearly materials needs and supplement it with inexpensive fun lessons or field trips. Establish separate bank accounts with a specific amount set aside for each child. Remember to give a little wiggle room as expenses can change and errors can be made.
Contact your state’s Homeschool Association to learn the guidelines and laws that you must abide by. A few states go so far as to make homeschoolers register in the same way that a private school would, while others simply mandate that homeschooled students take the same tests as their public school peers. Speak to the local school district in order to let them know you’re homeschooling, so as to prevent truancy charges.
Study the laws that your state has in place regarding homeschooling. The website for HSLDA has information on the laws in your region. Joining a homeschooling group can provide you the assistance you will need if child services or school board give you any issues. Whatever membership dues are required are well worth it in times such as these.
Get connected with other homeschool families. People get into homeschooling for a number of reasons these days. That means you’ll find others who share your opinions locally. Joining a homeschool group can be a great resource for advice, support and even ideas lesson plans.
Ensure that you provide your child with a distraction-free, clean and safe place to study. It should be separate from the areas where your child plays. If your children’s study area lacks storage, add some boxes to help organize their materials and school supplies.
Choose your battles wisely. When a child isn’t learning from one method, change tactics. Instead, you should look for an alternative teaching method. There are lots of options, from books, to movies, to flash cards or Internet games, and there is no harm in giving them all a try. Try new methods regularly but focus on the ones that seem to work best.
Are you thinking about home schooling multiple children? Prior to starting, you should think about the way you discipline your children at present. Clear rules are a basic necessity for a structured and smooth-running learning environment. If you honestly assess any weakness in the areas of discipline, and respond appropriately, your children will be more likely to succeed.
You hold the keys to your child’s future. Going down the homeschooling route is one way in which you can make sure that your children are getting the education that they deserve. Learn how to teach your children through homeschooling with the information given.… | <urn:uuid:f09bbbf7-6dcb-4b89-8c1b-1857f4c347bb> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | https://resumelanguage.net/tag/outstanding/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439739048.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20200813161908-20200813191908-00597.warc.gz | en | 0.960958 | 671 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Ruth is one of the greatest love stories ever written. It not only tells the true story of Ruth and Boaz, but also gives a picture of the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. We find the drama of three poor widows struggling seemingly without hope. The oldest (Naomi) seems to be bitter against God. Another, returns to the gods of her people. Yet another (Ruth) puts her trust in the Lord, and finds grace in the eyes of a wealthy landowner (Boaz). While trusting under the wings of the Lord she is redeemed, and has a son (Obed) who is the grandfather of King David. Just as Ruth found Grace in the eyes of Boaz, we can find grace in Jesus Christ our Kinsman Redeemer.
Understanding the principle of the kinsman redeemer. Law of the kinsman redeemer Deuteronomy 25:5-10. The Lord intended for each family to retain their land from generation to generation in Israel. When someone died having a wife, but no children, their next of kin (usually a brother) was to take the widow to be his wife. If they had a child together it was to be brought up in the name of the dead man, and receive the dead man’s inheritance. If the next of kin refused to redeem the widow he was humiliated by having his shoe removed, and the widow may also spit in his face.
When we are born, we are born into sin, and being as dead men with no inheritance we need a redeemer. No natural man (though he may be of our family) is able to redeem us, because he too was born a sinner. The law could not redeem us even if we were able to keep it. The blood of animals is not sufficient to redeem us. Only Jesus Christ is both willing and able to be our Redeemer. He is able because he was born into the family of man, and being the Son of God, knew no sin. He is also willing to redeem us, “…he that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:37
Names and Meanings
In the book of Ruth, as with much of the Bible, it is important to understand the meanings of the names of places and people. It is ironic that a man named Elimelech (my God is King) would seemingly lose hope, and leave Bethlehem (the house of bread) during a famine. The country to which he brings his family is Moab (of his father) who is descendants of Lot. The sons of Elimelech, Mahlon (sick) and Chilion (sick, pining) both die, and we are left assuming that it was from bad health. When Naomi (my delight) has lost her husband and sons, she seeks to return to Bethlehem, because she hears there is bread in Bethlehem (the house of bread). Upon returning Naomi (my delight) is bitter and wishes to be called Mara (sad, bitter). The greatest comfort Naomi has in the worst of times is Ruth (a female friend). (The meanings of names were found in “Smith’s Bible Dictionary.” Ruth – “the kinsman redeemer”
To take this course please click the “Take this Course” button below. Then scroll down and click the first lesson.
You will need to take the chapter lessons in order. After you complete the first lesson quiz, you will then be able to take the quiz for the next lesson. | <urn:uuid:dab44289-5982-4c3d-bff4-42f3891acc7d> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://roadiscipleshipinstitute.com/course/ruth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662545548.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20220522125835-20220522155835-00624.warc.gz | en | 0.979064 | 734 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Africa: the future of the French language?
French is one of the world’s most widely spoken languages, one of the few to be spoken on every continent, and ranked the sixth most widely spoken language after Mandarin Chinese (over a billion speakers), English, Hindi, Spanish, and Arabic. It is an official language of 29 countries, second only to English. There are currently over 220 million French speakers worldwide, including 72 million so-called “partial” French speakers. In Europe (outside of France), the largest populations of French speakers are found in Belgium (45% of the population), Switzerland (20% of the population) and Luxembourg. French is Europe’s second most widely spoken mother tongue with over 77 million speakers, after German but ahead of English.
The French language has never been limited to France and Paris – or even Europe, where it is actually forecast to become the most widely spoken mother tongue by 2025. With Africa’s history of colonization, it is a language used in 25 African countries and spoken to some extent by as many as 120 million Africans. Several African countries stand out as hubs for Francophones: the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Chad, and the Central African Republic to name just a few. In each of these countries, French is the official language of the government; though its people speak it to varying degrees. For example, in the Congo, about 30% of its residents speak fluent French, together with Kituba, spoken by over 50 % of the Congolese population, and Lingala, the fastest growing language in the country.
By contrast, only 2 of the 14 million inhabitants of Chad use French as their second language, still considered to be the language of both government and education, and one of the country’s two official languages along with Arabic. The number of fluent French speakers increases to 22.5% of the population of the Central African Republic, which seems low considering it is an official language, used in formal situations and written documents, while Sango, a native language used for business throughout the country, is the primary mode of communication for over 90% of the population. The situation is completely different in Cameroon, where Francophones account for 83% of the population. The rest are mainly Anglophones since the country was a colony of both the United Kingdom and France between 1916 and 1960. However, the proportion of English speakers in Cameroon has been decreasing slowly.
What’s truly incredible about these countries is the sheer number of indigenous languages spoken by different groups. The continent of Africa provides an extremely diverse language environment, with as many as 2,000 independent languages; however, between these four countries alone, there is a range of over 1,700 languages spoken there by various ethnic groups. With this degree of linguistic diversity, it’s easy to understand why a common language such as French is needed in government, education, and medicine.
And while you might have been thinking that French was on the decline worldwide with the prevalence of English, Chinese and Spanish in various parts of the world, it turns out that French is projected to experience a huge surge, tripling to 750 million speakers by 2050, due to population growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. This would make French the most commonly spoken language in the world, resulting in approximately 8% of the world’s population speaking French, whereas the representation of English could decline to as few as 3%!
So it may be a good idea to dust off those French textbooks or turn to a French language specialist like Chang-Castillo and Associates to help reach French speakers. Need translation or interpretation services? Contact us today at +1 (877) 708-000 or email us at [email protected] and we will be happy to put together a competitive package to help you meet all your linguistic needs, in Africa, France, Canada – or anywhere is the world! | <urn:uuid:5c4fe941-f27d-49e4-85f6-01a735710c80> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://ccalanguagesolutions.com/africa-future-french-language/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038089289.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20210416191341-20210416221341-00262.warc.gz | en | 0.962966 | 804 | 2.9375 | 3 |
For as long as anyone can remember, California has had a strong reputation for designing and testing bold reforms. From the standards movement to accountability to charter schools, California has initiated policies aimed at improving educational outcomes for all children. But recently, faced with crippling budget cuts, we’ve struggled to maintain our current practices, let alone take on exciting new ideas.
Today, with the worst of the budget cuts behind us and two new state policies promoting more local autonomy over financial and programmatic decision-making, we are entering a new era with the potential to revitalize public education.
California’s adoption of the Common Core State Standards affords significant leeway to school districts in how they address the transition. The state’s new Local Control Funding Formula promises a sea change in the relationship between the state and districts, and therefore between districts and schools and the communities they serve. Together these two initiatives represent a whole-system change that could disrupt how schools are run in California – from the California Department of Education down to the individual school level and everywhere in between. This disruption is a good thing. It has the potential to address the achievement gap that has persisted in California for decades, and to empower families and communities to partner with educators to create school programs tailored to local needs.
But these initiatives also pose major design and implementation challenges, and the traditional ways districts support schools, measure student outcomes and hold schools accountable for results all must change. With the magnitude and complexity of these changes, it is tempting to address each change in our traditional organizational silos, to allow the curriculum and instruction experts to manage the changes related to the Common Core standards, and to leave the new funding system to the budget or finance office.
This would be a grave mistake.
While the two might seem like distinct programs that require separate approaches to implementation, they have more in common than may be obvious on the surface. There is a great benefit to addressing the changes together.
For both the new standards and the new funding formula, school districts are required to engage their stakeholders to develop plans for the changes called for under each initiative and to improve student achievement. The stakeholders are the same: teachers, students, parents, union representatives and community-based organizations. This means that districts are being held accountable to school communities in a formal way that can feel high-risk and complicated. But it also provides an opportunity to develop a coordinated plan to conduct this engagement. This plan should include training for staff that will be working directly with communities, a system for gathering and reporting the feedback received, professional development for site leaders who will be shouldering the bulk of the changes, and development of a clear and consistent picture of what new freedoms and responsibilities school sites will have, and why.
The shift to more local autonomy requires a corresponding shift in practices and systems at the district central office. For example, while the district departments responsible for curriculum and instruction tightly managed earlier standards-based curricular reforms, many districts have decided to allow school sites to drive Common Core implementation efforts. This will require a different structure, a new mindset and new skills at both the school and district level. The new funding formula creates a similar shift for district fiscal services and budgeting departments. They must develop transparent budgeting processes that allow sufficient time for community engagement and new systems for monitoring school-based funding decisions.
Finally, with the shift to local control, there will be an increase in local accountability. The goal of both Common Core and the new funding formula is to improve student achievement, particularly of our highest- need students. This means schools and districts need to regularly assess (and make necessary adjustments to the plan for) student outcomes like achievement on assessment tests, attendance and discipline. Adding to the complexity is the recent decision to pause state testing during the transition to the new standards. So, while both Common Core and the new funding formula require districts to demonstrate a positive impact on student achievement, there will be no standard measure of that achievement for at least the next two to three years. While this can be scary, it marks an opportunity for districts to determine the best way to assess student achievement.
There is a real risk that the individual plans for each initiative will work at cross-purposes. But breaking down silos and working together provide a great opportunity to create a systematic and coordinated approach to both reforms. This is the best chance districts will have to ensure that staff and community buy into strategies to support student achievement. It also ensures that districts are both more supported and clear on how they will be held accountable for results.
Taken together, the Common Core standards and the Local Control Funding Formula will work better and have a greater impact on how our schools serve students than if they are approached separately.
Megan Sweet is Director of Education Finance Reform for Pivot Learning Partners. In that capacity, she leads Pivot’s work on the Planning, Budgeting and Accountability for Resources (PBAR) Program, and provides analysis of statewide policies, including the Local Control Funding Formula. She has been a middle school teacher, an assistant principal, a partner supporting local school reform, and most recently a central office administrator. | <urn:uuid:50adf452-e0da-444f-81b5-7328e1767284> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://edsource.org/2013/better-together-a-case-to-combine-implementing-common-core-and-new-funding-formula/41496 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524517.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716075153-20190716101153-00147.warc.gz | en | 0.947468 | 1,042 | 2.703125 | 3 |
CEC is devoted to ensuring all students with exceptionalities, no matter their birthplace, receive a quality education. As such, we are committed to international special education practice and policy initiatives. The following reports, briefs, and papers represent the examination and assessment of international special education initiatives and practices by stakeholder organizations worldwide.
Disability and Poverty in Developing Countries: A Snapshot from the World Health Survey
“This study aims to contribute to the empirical research on social and economic conditions of people with disabilities in developing countries. Using comparable data and methods across countries, this study presents a snapshot of economic and poverty situation of working-age persons with disabilities and their households in 15 developing countries.”
World Health Organization (WHO)
WHO - World Report on Disability
“The World Health Organization published its first ever report on disability.
The first ever WHO/World Bank World report on disability reviews evidence about the situation of people with disabilities around the world. Following chapters on understanding disability and measuring disability, the report contains topic-specific chapters on health; rehabilitation; assistance and support; enabling environments; education; and employment. Within each chapter, there is a discussion of the barriers confronted, and case studies showing how countries have succeeded in addressing these by promoting good practice. In its final chapter, the report offers nine concrete recommendations for policy and practice which if put in place could lead to real improvements in the lives of people with disability.”
WHO - Community Based Rehabilitation Guidelines
“Recommendations to develop guidelines on community-based rehabilitation (CBR) were made during the International Consultation to Review Community-based Rehabilitation which was held in Helsinki, Finland in 2003.”
WHO - Guidelines on the Provision of Manual Wheelchairs in Less-resourced Settings
“The wheelchair is one of the most commonly used assistive devices for enhancing the personal mobility of people with disabilities. The guidelines, developed for use in less resourced settings, address the design, production, supply and service delivery of manual wheelchairs, in particular for long-term wheelchair users. The guidelines and related recommendations are targeted at a range of audiences, including policy-makers; planners, managers, providers and users of wheelchair services; designers, purchasers, donors and adapters of wheelchairs; trainers of wheelchair provision programmes; representatives of disabled people’s organizations; and individual users and their families.”
WHO - Promoting sexual and reproductive health for persons with disabilities
“An estimated 10% of the world’s population live with a disability. Persons with disabilities have the same sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs as other people. Yet they often face barriers to information and services. This guidance note addresses issues of SRH programming for persons with disabilities.“
WHO -Guidelines for training personnel in developing countries for prosthetic and orthotic services.
“More than 600 million people in the world experience disabilities of various types and degrees. An estimated 80% of the world's disabled people live in developing countries. Despite the incremental progress made in the past 25 years, today, the vast majority of people with disabilities cannot access even basic rehabilitation services. In response to this, the United Nations has issued Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities as guidelines in health, education, work and social participation (UN, 1993).”
UNESCO - Open File on Inclusive Education: Support Materials for Managers and Administrators
UNESCO’s inclusive education report is purposed for school managers and administrators. Topics include rationale for inclusive education, developing inclusive policies and practices, professional development, educational assessment, including families and stakeholders, developing inclusive curriculum, developing finance protocols, and sustaining the change.
UNESCO - Overcoming Exclusion through Inclusive Approaches in Education. A challenge and a vision
“It is in this context that this paper seeks to map out inclusive approaches in education as a strategy to achieve the goal of education for all. It aims to construct a coherent conceptual and contextual policy framework in order to provide access and quality in basic education for all children and young people, and what it implies for education systems so that these needs can be addressed and responded to in mainstream of education whether it is formal or non-formal.”
UNESCO - Changing Teaching Practices
“Research has clearly shown that teacher education as such is not sufficient for effective teaching and learning. Teachers need support in order to develop in their profession. In many countries, teachers benefit from continuous in-service training but in other countries there is very little if any support available for professional development in the schools. This document is an effort to support teachers in developing and expanding their own capacities.”
UNESCO - Guidelines for Inclusion. Ensuring Access to Education for All
“This paper is intended to systematize how excluded children are planned for in education. It begins with a brief introduction, which provides a historical perspective on the origins of inclusion and describes the shift from integration towards inclusion. It is then divided into three main parts. The first provides a theoretical framework. It defines inclusion, explains how it is founded in a human rights approach and how is relates to factors such as quality and cost-effectiveness. The second part looks at more practical changes at the school level. It outlines the key elements in the shift inclusion with a particular focus on the key players including teachers, parents and educational policymakers as well as curricula. The third part brings together the first two sections by providing tools for policymakers and educational planners for hands-on analysis of education plans.”
UNESCO - Embracing Diversity: Toolkit for Creating Inclusive, Learning-Friendly Environments
“The education of children with diverse backgrounds and abilities remains a major challenge in the Asia-Pacific region. Inequality in education remains a matter of concern for all countries, yet discrimination continues to permeate schools and educational systems. This Toolkit accepts this, and offers a holistic practical perspective on how schools and classrooms can become more inclusive and learning-friendly.”
UNESCO - Understanding and Responding to Children’s Needs in Inclusive Classrooms
“This guide gives both a theoretical outline and practical ideas on helping children with learning difficulties. It aims to assist teachers who have children with special needs in their pre-school or primary classes.”
UNESCO - The Dakar Framework for Action
Education for All: Meeting our Collective Commitments
Adopted by the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal April 2000, the Framework urges countries to establish quality basic education for all students by 2015 or earlier.
UNESCO - EFA Flagship Initiatives
Multi-Partner Collaborative Mechanisms in Support of EFA Goals
-- Each initiative outlines a set of activities that focus on specific challenges that must be addressed in order to achieve the EFA goals. These initiatives are intended to be conducted in a collaborative effort by United Nations partners.
UNESCO - The Salamanca Statement
World Conference on Special Needs Education: Access and Quality.
Adopted by the World Conference on Special Needs Education in Salamanca, Spain, June 1994, this statement "urges all governments to adopt as a matter of law or policy the principle of inclusive education, enrolling all children in regular school".
Education International and Oxfam Novib; Quality Educators: An International Study of Teacher Competences and Standards
“In 2010, Education International and Oxfam Novib set up the Quality Educators for All project (Quality-ED), a partnership together with national stakeholders to address the worldwide shortage and declining status of teachers and the poor quality of education. Beginning with pilot projects in Mali and Uganda, the partnership included Ministries of Education, trade unions, civil society organisations, and others. Quality-ED’s starting point was to develop a competence profile (CP) for primary teachers defining the skills, knowledge and attitudes of ‘quality educators’.”
Protecting Children in Tough Economic Times: What Can the United States Learn from Britain?
“Following a successful, decade-long campaign to reduce child poverty by half, author Jane Waldfogel, Ph.D. of Columbia University and London School of Economics, documents the concrete steps taken by the United Kingdom to maintain its commitment to reduce child poverty in the midst of deficit reduction, even following a change in government. The U.K. preserved its commitment to fighting child poverty right up through the recession - through a set of income support policies that preserved and increased supports for low-income children, as well as critical investments in children in the areas of education, early learning, and development. The paper also outlines the parallels the United States can consider as it faces similar challenges with budget negotiations and deficit reduction.”
The UN Convention on the Rights for Persons with Disabilities
The Convention outlines the inalienable rights of person’s with disabilities granted to them by membership as humans.
UNICEF - Innocenti Insight: Children and Disability in Transition in CEC/CIS and Baltic States
UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre
"UNICEF IRC has tracked and explored the impact on children and their families of economic and social changes in the region since transition began."
Early Childhood Intervention - Progress and Development 2005-2010
The current project work was an update to the analysis in the area of ECI conducted by the Agency in 2003-2004.
The Agency SNE data collection is a biennial exercise with data provided by the Representatives of the Agency. In all cases this data is from official ministerial sources.
Key Principles for Promoting Quality in Inclusive Education - Recommendations for Policy Makers
This document has been prepared by educational policy makers in order to provide other policy makers across Europe with a synthesis of the main policy findings that have emerged from the Agency thematic work supporting the inclusion of learners with different types of special educational needs (SEN) within mainstream provision. This edition draws upon Agency work from 2003 to date.
Multicultural Diversity and Special Needs Education
This report is a summary of the analysis conducted by the Agency at the request of member countries’ representatives, on the topic of Special Needs Education and Multicultural Diversity.
Development of a set of indicators - for inclusive education in Europe
This report presents the framework, rationale, aims and objectives of the Indicators for inclusive education project, as well as the methodology used to develop the set of indicators for monitoring developments in inclusive education.
Thematic Key Words for Inclusive and Special Needs Education
This document is a glossary of key terms in 21 languages updated in 2009. All of the terms included in the glossary are taken from Agency thematic and project work.
Special Needs Education Country Data 2008
The Agency SNE data collection is a biennial exercise with data provided by the Representatives of the Agency. In all cases this data is from official Ministerial sources.
Young Voices: Meeting Diversity in Education
This report presents the results of the European Hearing of Young People with Special Educational Needs organised by the European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education, in co-operation with the Portuguese Ministry of Education.
Assessment in Inclusive Settings - Key Issues for Policy and Practice
This publication presents the main findings from the first phase of the Agency Assessment project. It is based on information describing assessment policy and practice provided by 23 countries.
Special Needs Education in Europe (Volume 2) - Provision in Post-Primary Education
A thematic publication providing a summary of relevant information collected by the Agency covering three priority areas within the field of special needs education: Inclusive Education and Classroom Practice in Secondary Education, Access to and within Higher Education for Students with Special Educational Needs and Transition from School to Employment.
Individual Transition Plans
This report is a continuation of an earlier study on Transition from School to Employment for Young People with Special Educational Needs, published by the Agency in 2002.
Early Childhood Intervention: Analysis of Situations in Europe - Key Aspects and Recommendations
This report aims to summarize the project analysis of key aspects of Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) in 19 European countries during 2003-2004.
Young Views on Special Needs Education
Results of the European Parliament Hearing of young people with special needs, November 2003.
Inclusive Education and Classroom Practice in Secondary Education
This summary report presents an overview of the findings of the second phase of the Classroom and School Practice project.
Inclusive education and classroom practices
A summary report presenting an overview of the findings of the Classroom and School Practice project, primary school age phase.
Special Education across Europe in 2003
Trends in provision in 18 countries. An update to the 1998 Agency report. | <urn:uuid:c1ed74c8-fdd6-46aa-ae31-cf343832e793> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | http://www.cec.sped.org/Special-Ed-Topics/International-Special-Education/Global-Reports | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886105326.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20170819070335-20170819090335-00632.warc.gz | en | 0.934074 | 2,589 | 2.875 | 3 |
Operation Strike (5-13 May 1943) was the final Allied offensive in North Africa, and ended with the surrender of all Axis troops in Tunisia and the capture of around 275,000 prisoners of war.
The first phase of the allied offensive, Operation Vulcan, had begun on 22 April. It had made some progress, often forcing the Germans out of their best defensive positions, but by 28 April the British advance had slowed down, and in some areas had been stopped by the last Axis counterattack in Africa. General Alexander, the commander of the Allied Ground Forces in North Africa decided to prepare for a fresh offensive by the British First Army, while the US II Corps in the north continued with its attempts to break through in the hilly country to the west of Bizerte.
General von Arnim, the commander of Army Group Africa, had his forces spread around the perimeter of the bridgehead.
To the north of the lakes was the Bizerte Defence Command, a mix of German and Italian troop under General Kurt Bassege.
To the south of the lakes was the Manteuffel division (now commanded by General Buelowius), reinforced by the reconnaissance battalions from the Hermann Goering Division in the aftermath of the late April battles.
The 334th Division filled the gap between the Manteuffel Division and the Medjerda River.
Most of the German armour was now grouped together in Group Irkens, which had been formed to deal with a crisis in late April. This group now held the line between the Medjerda River and the Medjez-el-Bahn to Tunis road, the critical area of the front. The remains of 15 Panzer were added to Group Irkens before the start of Operation Strike. This sector was commanded by General Borowietz, the commander of the 15 Panzer Division.
To the south was the Hermann Goering Division, although this unit had suffered badly in Operation Vulture, and now lost its Reconnaissance Battalions. This division held a narrow area south of the Madjez to Tunis road.
Next was the Afrika Korps, which faced the French XIX Corps on the south-western corner of the bridgehead.
Finally the Italian Army was on the Axis left, where it faced Montgomery's Eighth Army.
On the Allied side the small French Corps Afrique operated on the coast on the left.
The US II Corps formed most of the Allied left, facing Manteuffel and the Bizerte Force.
On their right the British V Corps held the Medjerda sector.
The British IX Corps held the next part of the line, but most of its troops moved north to take part in the attack in the Medjerda sector. The British 1st Division held the line in IX Corps' old position
To their left the French XIX Corps faced the Afrika Corps.
Finally the Eighth Army held the right flank of the Allied lines, but after the slow progress of their earlier attacks at Enfidaville Montgomery had agreed to transfer the 4th Indian Division, 7th Armoured Division and 201st Guards Brigades to the First Army, to support the main attack. 4th Indian and 7th Armoured joined IX Corps for the main attack.
The Allied Plan
Operation Vulcan had involved a series of attacks around the Axis perimeter. Operation Strike was based around the idea of a massive thrust by the British First Army, heading for Massicault, behind the centre of the Axis line, on the road to Tunis.
On the Allied right Eighth Army would carry out diversionary local attacks, to stop von Arnim moving troops away from Enfidaville. The French 19th Corps would carry out similar attacks on the Eighth Army's right.
On the Allied left the US II Corps would protect the left flank of the main British attack, and prevent the Germans from moving troops from the Bizerte area to protect Tunis.
In the centre V Corps would begin the man offensive, aiming for Djebel Bou Aoukaz. Their attack would be followed by IX Corps, which would attack from the same sector, heading north-east. The aim was to bludgeon a hole in the Axis line, and reach Tunis as quickly as possible. Once Tunis had fallen the First and Eighth Armies were to cooperate to take Cape Bon, and only then would the First Army turn north to join the US II Corps in an attack on Bizerte.
The British attack had much in common with Montgomery's Eighth Army style of attack. It would be preceded by a massive artillery bombardment, and supported by an elaborate deception plan. Dummy tanks and units were placed behind the British 1st Armoured Division, north-west of Pont-du-Fahs, well to the south of the real attack. Visible troop movements were made on the left flank of the Eighth Army, to suggest that the Afrika Korps sector might be the target. The IX Corps movement was to be hidden as much as possible.
In the event German resistance collapsed more quickly than anyone had expected, and Bizerte fell to the Americans (and a small French force) at the same time as Tunis.
The British Attack
The British offensive began with a preliminary attack by the 1st Division of the British V Corps, which on 3-5 May captured the heights at Djebel Bou Aoukaz, the scene of the last German success during Operation Vulture. At the same time the Allied air forces carried out an increasingly heavy series of attacks on Axis positions. On the night of 5-6 May the target was strongholds in the area between Tunis and the front.
On the same night the artillery bombardment began with a heavy bombardment of the IX Corps line of advance. This was then followed by a rolling barrage, designed to support the attack of the 4th Indian Division (left) and British 4th Division (right). The rolling barrage was accompanied by the heaviest Allied air attack yet conducted in Africa, concentrating on an area 1.5 miles and 4 miles deep. The infantry attack began at 0330am on 6 May.
The infantry attack quickly opened a gap in the German lines, and just after 1100 hours the 6th and 7th Armoured Divisions were able to strike towards Massicault. The 115th Panzer Grenadier Regiment was overrun and 15 Panzer Division was forced back to Massicault. They were unable to hold there, and Massicault fell to the British in the late afternoon of 6 May.
On 7 May the 6th Armoured Division clashed with the remaining German tanks to the south-east of the village of St Cyprien, while the 7th Armoured Division captured the village. This opened the road to Tunis, and by mid-afternoon the leading troops from the 22nd Armoured Brigade had entered the centre of Tunis. Overnight the 1st Derbyshire Yeomanry and 11th Hussars cleared up what little resistance remained.
This rapid success split the Axis forces into pieces. The 5th Panzer Army was trapped in the area between Tunis and Bizerta, along with the survivors of 10 Panzer and 15 Panzer. The 334th Division was trapped on the old front line, between American troops in the north and British troops in the south. Von Arnim, with the Afrika Korps and the First Italian Army retreated into the Cape Bon peninsula, and just as the Allies had feared attempted to set up a new defensive line between Hamman Lif, on the coast east of Tunis, and Enfidaville. The strongest part of this line was Hamman Lif, where the Hermann Goering Division, a flak regiment, and parachute battalion were joined by two battalions from Panzer Grenadier Regiment Africa on the night of 8-9 May. To the south 10 Panzer held the line around Cheylus, and further south 21 Panzer, the Superga division and Kampfgruppe Schmidt held the area around Zarhouan.
The British concentrated their efforts on the Hamman Lif position. At first the attacks were carried out by 6th Armoured Division, supported by the 4th Infantry Division, but they were soon joined by the 1st Armoured Division. The aim was to break through the Axis lines and cut across the Cape Bon Peninsula, to stop the Axis forces further south from retreating into it. The defenders of Hamman Lif managed to hold on for two days, but eventually a force of British tanks risked attacking along the beach and broke through the Axis lines. By 1400 hours on 10 May the 26th Armoured Brigade was at Soliman, close to the point where the coast turns north-east along the north side of the peninsula. By 1700 hours the 2nd Armoured Brigade was at Grombalia, half way across the peninsular. Further to the south-west British troops joined up with the French XIX Corps around Zarhouan. This advance ended any hopes that von Arnim had of holding out in Cape Bon Peninsula and he moved his HQ south from the north coast of the peninsular, into the mountains between Zarhouan and Hammamet, on the east coast. The surviving Axis troops were now trapped between the First Army in the north and the Eighth Army and French XIX Corps in the south.
On 11 May British troops made a complete circuit of the coast of the Cape Bon peninsula, with one unit moving up the north coast and another up the east coast, before they met half way down the east coast. On the same day the 26th Armoured Brigade and part of the 1st Guards Brigade moved south from Hammamet and capture Bou Ficha at 1800 hours. The First Army was now only twelve mile to the north of Enfidaville, but even now the Axis anti-tank defences could still bite, and the tanks had to pause. Elsewhere 10,000 men of Kampfgruppe Pfeiffer surrendered to General Mathenet. The last Axis stronghold was now in the hills between Zarhouan and Enfidaville, where the remains of the German 90th and 164th Light Divisions, 21 Panzer Division and the Italian XX and XXI Corps were trapped.
Resistance on this pocket ended on 12 May. General von Arnim surrendered just before noon. A few hours later General von Sponeck surrendered. The First and Eighth Armies made contact near Bou Ficha. By the end of the day only the Trieste and 164th Light Divisions had yet to surrender.
The end came on 13 May, when the newly promoted Field Marshal Messe surrendered to General Freyberg, commander of X Corps in the Eighth Army.
US II Corps
II Corps' final offensive was split two main parts by two large lakes, Garet Ichkuel and Lake Bizerte, that formed a barrier to the south and south-west of the city of Bizerte. The 9th Division was operating between the lakes and the coast, while the 1st Armoured Division and 1st and 34th Divisions south of the lakes.
On 6 May the 9th Division began the final attack on Bizerta, and by the end of the day it had taken the Djebel Cheniti, the dominating hill west of the city. On 7 May armoured units found that the city was undefended, and that Manteuffel's men had retreated to the narrow peninsula between the coast and Lake Bizerte to the east of the city. On 8 May troops from Corps Franc d'Afrique was trucked into Bizerte, to give French troops the honour of liberating the city.
South of the lakes the 1st Armored Division cut off Ferryville on 7 May. Task Force Carr (1/13th Armored and 3/6th Armored Infantry, under Lt. Col Frank Carr) was then sent east to cut off the German forces east of Bizerte Lake. On 8 May a light tank column sped ahead of the main advance, losing six tanks to fire from 105mm Flak guns. On the same day British troops coming from the south met up with the US columns at Protville. Early on 9 May TF Carr reached the Mediterranean coast east of Bizerte.
On 9 May General Vaerst, commander of the 5th Panzer Army, agreed surrender terms with General Harmon. 10 Panzer and 15 Panzer surrendered at 1250 hours. The Göring Reconnaissance Battalion held out on the Djebel Ichkuel (an impressive mountain on the southern shore of Garet Ichkuel) for a bit longer, but surrendered on 10 May. Eventually II Corps took 40,000 prisoners, including many troops who had moved north into their sector after the unexpectedly rapid fall of Tunis.
The Germans and Italians made very little effort to evacuate any troops from Tunisia. The Allies had put in place a massive naval operation to try and stop any evacuation (Operation Retribution), but a British blockade of Cape Bon only produced 77 prisoners! The final Axis collapse in Tunisia came rather more quickly than the Allies had expected. Although there were plenty of German and Italian troops in the beachhead, they lacked supplies of all types, including ammo, but most significantly fuel. As a result very few Axis formations were at all mobile during the last phase of the campaign, making it almost impossible for their commanders to react to the Allied breakthrough.
The Allies captured a massive 275,000 prisoners in the last week of the fighting in Tunisia, a much larger number than they had expected. The windfall was partly due to Hitler and Mussolini's refusal to allow any retreat from Tunisia, although the Allied domination of the seas off Tunisia would have made any Dunkirk like evacuation almost impossible. Many of the prisoners were specialists or support troops, who were unable to play any part in the final battle, and who would have been invaluable during the fighting on Sicily and in Italy. Germans made up the largest group amongst these prisoners, at least partly because so many of Rommel's Italian troops had been captured after El Alamein. The Germans did learn from their mistakes, and later carried out an impressive evacuation of Sicily.
The Allies didn't spent much time celebrating their success in Tunisia. The main focus of their attention was now Sicily, which was invaded on the night of 9/10 July 1943, only two months after the Axis collapse in Tunisia.
The last signal from the Afrikakorps was sent by its final commander, General Cramer. It read 'Ammunition shot off. Arms and equipment destroyed. In accordance with orders received the Afrikakorps has fought itself into the condition where it can fight no more. The Deutsches Afrikakorps must rise again. Heia Safari!', not exactly in the spirit of Hitler's order to fight to the last man and the last bullet.
Alexander's signal to Churchill has become famous - 'Sir, it is my duty to report that the Tunisian Campaign is over. All enemy resistance has ceased. We are masters of the North African shores' | <urn:uuid:6ecdca5d-8b58-4332-9954-44b244d953ad> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | http://2ww.historyofwar.org/articles/operation_strike.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886104704.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20170818160227-20170818180227-00476.warc.gz | en | 0.975972 | 3,076 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Some samples of the missing pottery.
Stolen Native American artifacts thought to be in Florida or Georgia
On a quiet night in 1974, someone slipped into the museum at Kolomoki Indian Mounds State Historic Park in Blakely, Ga., to steal more than 129 ancient pots and effigies, numerous arrowheads and other treasures. They took every exhibit on display. Several years later, many of the pieces were recovered from Miami and St. Augustine. However, more than 70 relics are still missing, and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is seeking public help in recovering the artifacts. Archeologists believe the pots are somewhere in Georgia or Florida.
Between 250 and 950 A.D., the Swift Creek and Weeden Island Indians lived in what is now southwest Georgia and southeast Alabama, building earthen mounds and thatch houses, sowing crops and hunting. Today, seven of these mounds are protected by the DNR at Kolomoki Indian Mounds State Historic Park. A museum houses the recovered pottery, as well as copper and pearl ear ornaments, shell beads and other artifacts.
“These pieces are an important part of North American history and should be properly protected for future generations to study,” said park manager Matt Bruner. “They have significant meaning to the Native American people because many were used during burial ceremonies, plus they represent some of the finest craftsmanship of the Kolomoki culture.” He emphasized that the state is more interested in recovering the pots than prosecuting the people who have them.
To aid in his search, a website has been developed that lists photos and descriptions of all the missing pieces. Bruner is asking people to go online at
to see if anything is familiar. Officials believe the pots were stolen by thieves who may have sold them to unsuspecting collectors. Anyone with leads is encouraged to call the park at 229-724-2150.
Kolomoki Mounds State Historic Park
is located six miles north of Blakely off U.S. Hwy. 27. In addition to the museum and mounds, the park offers camping fishing, picnicking, boating and swimming opportunities. The museum is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday, and 2-5:30 p.m. Sunday. The park is open daily, 7 a.m.-10 p.m.
© 2015 - Georgia Department of Natural Resources | <urn:uuid:07313663-f6c2-4429-b101-4ee8847ba130> | CC-MAIN-2015-11 | http://gastateparks.org/item/1961?mode=p | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-11/segments/1424936468536.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20150226074108-00136-ip-10-28-5-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965796 | 503 | 2.734375 | 3 |
The housefly belongs to the Arthropoda phylum; its class is Insecta, and its order is Diptera, "meaning two-winged." Arthropods are defined as:
...animals with exoskeletons (external skeletons), segmented bodies, and jointed legs. They are the largest group of animals on Earth and include insects, crustaceans, and arachnids.
The three major parts of a fly are the head, thorax and abdomen.
The fly has two "compound eyes" that cover a good deal of the fly's head. The eyes are found on the sides of the head, and are "purple-brown in color."
The surface of each eye is divided into about 4,000 facets.
Flies have three "simple eyes" between the larger pair of eyes, and a pair of antennae on the head as well.
The thorax is the part of the torso that provides for wing movement and " equilibrium during flight." The abdomen fills with food; also on the abdomen the female has a "segmented ovipositor," which is used to lay eggs.
Flies are interesting for several reasons, despite the abhorrence many feel at their presence. Flies have eyes that are "the most complex in the insect world." Flies taste not only with their mouths, but also with sensory parts found on their feet. Their feet also have a sticky "soft pad" that allows them to walk on horizontal or vertical surfaces. Flies, despite the unsavory means in which they eat and grow from a larval stage, are fastidious in nature, endlessly cleaning themselves.
While flies help in the natural decay of dead animals, this very fact also contributes to the insect's spread of disease to humans. Flies live only between seven and ten days in the warmest months of summer (in "temperate areas").
The three main body parts of a fly are the head, thorax, and abdomen. The head contains the mouth, eyes, and antennae. The thorax contains the prothorax (front), mesothorax (middle), and metathorax (back). Each of these subsections of the thorax contain a pair of legs. The abdomen often contains a pair of legs as well. In some insects, the legs of the thorax will secrete a sticky substance that allows the insect to climb smooth/steep surfaces. The mesothorax and metathorax are the two subsections that contain the wings of the fly. | <urn:uuid:80f8d986-6663-41a8-aefb-dc6c364b0c79> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-three-main-body-parts-fly-373206 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818688103.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20170922003402-20170922023402-00485.warc.gz | en | 0.956226 | 526 | 4.0625 | 4 |
- The Wikification of Knowledge
The most talked-about thing going on right now is the wiki. Essentially, wikis are a fast way to do online collaboration, and people seem to enjoy them. These are online collaboration efforts that let users edit, on an ongoing basis, volumes of information that could not otherwise be organized. It's kind of a public process.
In fact, this notion most closely resembles ideas developed by conceptualist Neil Larson back in the 1980s, when he developed an outliner for computers and went off into a concept called knowledge annealing. Neil, a one-time serious Mormon elder who got rich selling mail-order diamonds, suddenly had a change of plans and went into acting after a stint selling software. I'm not sure if this had anything to do with it, but he became a freak over the teachings of Edward de Bono. I hear from Neil about once every three years when he calls to tell me something weird and then disappears again. He's kind of a troubled geniusthe perfect person to add an imaginative dimension to some of these new concepts.
Ward Cunningham invented the current iteration of wikis in 1995, naming them WikiWikis after the Hawaiian word for fast. Anyone who has ever been to Honolulu knows this term, since it's the name of the bus line that runs from the airport. By now, the term has been shortened by the community to wiki. To understand some of the basics of the wiki concept you have to read the entry in the Wikipedia on the consensus theory of trutha very odd idea.
Proto-wikis. This brings us to the "people's review." Things that predate any wiki could be termed proto-wikis, and they highlight the overall problem with consensus-based knowledge: entropy. Continue reading | <urn:uuid:d373a496-ea27-4d6c-81d4-11fc2601ae19> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1835857,00.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578528702.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20190420060931-20190420082931-00127.warc.gz | en | 0.957853 | 365 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Some of the earliest computer viruses and malware were created using macros in Microsoft Office documents. These pieces of malicious code would run once the document was opened, and the infection would happen without the user even being aware that their machine had been compromised. While these types of attacks had fallen out of favor over the years, they've come back in style and are more popular than ever before.
What exactly is a macro? While you've probably heard the term thrown around before, most people don't actually know what they are, or what they're capable of. In short, macros are little snippets of code that run through your office software. Many people use macros to speed up a repetitive processes, like formatting items. Unfortunately, the same type of code that is used to perform the mundane can also be used to perform the malicious.
Due to the ease of abuse, Microsoft removed the automatic enabling of macros many years ago. This is ultimately what lead to the majority of these types of attacks going by the wayside. Because there was no longer a way to abuse this on most machines, would-be attackers changed their methods to more traditional programs, which are far easier to detect with a normal malware scanner.
With the recent surge in ransomware, new methods of delivery were needed by would-be attackers. The anti-malware engines had been able to detect many variants, and it was only getting easier. This meant that stealth was needed. What better way to do that than to bring back a tried-and-true method in Office Macros. Few people expected it due to the fact that these infection types hadn't really been seen in years.
The basic attack is carried out like this:
1) An infected person sends you an email with the subject similar to "ATTN: Invoice Attached" that has a Word document attached.
2) The person downloads and opens the file, only to see a garbled mess of characters with a notice that says "Enable macro if the data encoding is incorrect" in big bold red letters at the top of the window
3) The unknowing victim enables macros, thereby initiating the malicious code
4) The code runs, sending out an email to your Outlook contacts (attempting to infect them), downloads whatever payload(s) it wants, then runs the ransomware (locking your files)
Because of the sharp increase in these types of attacks, Microsoft, SUPERAntiSpyware, and many other security vendors recommend that all users disable macros if they do not need to use them. While Macros should be disabled by default, it is worth double-checking your preferences in order to ensure that you are protected as best as possible.
For more information on how to disable macros in Office files, please visit this Microsoft Support article.
NOTE: This is a recommendation specifically for home users, if you are in a work environment please contact your IT department first before making any changes! | <urn:uuid:8ceeef7d-5c0b-4a41-884f-ca4b9badb49e> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://www.superantispyware.com/blog/tag/support/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218205046.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322213005-00198-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961396 | 594 | 3.546875 | 4 |
40K 800W Ultrasonic Rubber Cutting Blade
The principle of ultrasonic cutting is to convert a 50/60 Hz current into 20, 30 or 40 kHz of electrical energy through ultrasonic generator. The converted high-frequency electrical energy is again converted by the transducer into mechanical vibration of the same frequency, and then the mechanical vibration is transmitted to the cutting blade through a set of amplitude modulator devices that can change the amplitude. The cutting blade transmits the received vibration energy to the cutting surface of the workpiece to be cut, in which the vibration energy is cut by activating the rubber molecular and opening the molecular chain.
stepping or continuous
Material Of Cutting Head
aluminum alloy, stainless steel, titanium alloy, alloy steel.
foot switch, additional blade
compressed air mouth can be installed.
2M or customized
1. High cutting precision, no deformation of rubber compound
2. The cutting surface has good finish and good bonding performance.
3. Easy to apply to automated production
4. Fast, high efficiency, no pollution
5. Use a 20 kHz cutting knife to cut the upper tread
6. Suitable amplitude and feed speed can improve cutting quality
7. The key factors affecting the cutting knife are the angle of the knife, the size, the shape and the thickness.
8. Cutting speed depends on the angle and thickness of the rubber of the cutting tire
9. The key factors affecting the cutting knife are the angle of the knife, the size, the shape and the thickness.
10. Suitable for inner lining and sidewall cutting of semi-steel tires, radial tires, etc. | <urn:uuid:439487f2-d1ad-4c42-8b3a-77a2d951bf03> | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | http://m.altrasonicautomation.com/automation-ultrasonic-cutting-machine-elaine/40k-800w-ultrasonic-rubber-cutting-blade.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107885126.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20201025012538-20201025042538-00558.warc.gz | en | 0.838325 | 337 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Thirty years ago, several thousand civilians in the northern Salvadoran community of Santa Marta quickly gathered a few belongings and fled the US-funded Salvadoran military as it burned their houses and fields in an early stage of the country’s twelve-year civil war. Dozens were killed as they crossed the Lempa River into refugee camps in Honduras.
Today, residents of this area, some born in those Honduran refugee camps, are fighting US and Canadian mining companies eager to extract the rich veins of gold buried near the Lempa River, the water source for more than half of El Salvador’s 6.2 million people. Once again, civilians have been killed or are receiving death threats.
The communities’ goal: to make El Salvador the first nation to ban gold mining. We traveled to El Salvador in April to find out if this struggle to keep gold in the ground can be won. Our investigation led us from rural communities in the country’s gold belt to ministries of the new progressive government in San Salvador and ultimately to free trade agreements and a tribunal tucked away inside the World Bank in Washington, DC.
We were greeted at the airport by Miguel Rivera, a quiet man in his early 30s whose face is dominated by dark, sad eyes. Miguel is the brother of anti-mining community leader Marcelo Rivera, who was disappeared—tortured and assassinated—in June 2009 in a manner reminiscent of the death squads of the 1980s civil war. We had first met Miguel in October 2009, when he and four others active in El Salvador’s National Roundtable on Mining traveled to Washington to receive the Institute for Policy Studies’ Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award, a prize that brought international recognition to this struggle.
As we drove on the mountainous roads that lead to Santa Marta and other towns in the northern department of Cabañas, we commented on the starkly eroded parched hills that look like landslides waiting to happen. “We are the second most environmentally degraded country in the Americas after Haiti,” Miguel explained through an interpreter. “How did you come to oppose mining?” we asked. Miguel pointed to our water bottle and said simply: “Just like you, water is our priority.” Over the next days, we would hear testimonies from dozens of people in Cabañas, many of whom are risking their lives in the struggle against mining. Almost all started or ended their stories with some variation of Miguel’s answer: “Water for life,” for drinking, for fishing, for farming—and not just for Cabañas but for the whole country.
Miguel drove us to the office of his employer, ADES (the Social and Economic Development Association), where local people talked with us late into the night about how they had come to oppose mining. ADES organizer Vidalina Morales acknowledged that “initially, we thought mining was good and it was going to help us out of poverty…through jobs and development.”
The mining corporation that had come to Cabañas was the Vancouver-based Pacific Rim, one of several dozen companies interested in obtaining mining “exploitation” permits in the Lempa River watershed. In 2002 Pacific Rim acquired a firm that already had an exploration license for a Cabañas site bearing the promising name El Dorado. That license gave Pacific Rim the right to use such techniques as sinking exploratory wells to determine just how lucrative the site would be.
Francisco Pineda, a corn farmer and charismatic organizer with the Environmental Committee of Cabañas, invited us to spend an afternoon with eighteen of his fellow committee members, some of whom had walked or been driven a long way to join us. One after another, each stood up to tell his or her story. Francisco, who received the 2011 Goldman Environmental Award (which some call the Environmental Nobel Prize), kicked off what became a five-hour session. He talked about watching the river near his farm dry up: “This was very strange, as it had never done this before. So we walked up the river to see why…. And then I found a pump from Pacific Rim that was pumping water for exploratory wells. All of us began to wonder, if they are using this much water in the exploration stage, how much will they use if they actually start mining?”
Francisco, Marcelo, Miguel, Vidalina and others then set out to learn everything they could about gold mining. From experience, they already knew that Cabañas was prone to earthquakes potentially strong enough to crack open the containers that mining companies build to hold the cyanide-laced water used to separate gold from the surrounding rock. Community members traveled to mining communities in neighboring Honduras, Costa Rica and Guatemala, returning home with stories about the contamination of rivers and lands by cyanide and other toxic chemicals. They turned to water experts, university researchers and international groups like Oxfam. A number of people attended seminars on mining in San Salvador.
They also discovered that only a tiny share of Pacific Rim’s profits would stay in the country, and that the El Dorado mine was projected to have an operational life of only about six years, with many of the promised jobs requiring skills that few local people had. And, as a study by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature pointed out, people in Cabañas “living near mining exploration activities began to notice environmental impacts from the mining exploration—reduced access to water, polluted waters, impacts to agriculture, and health issues.”
In community meetings, Pacific Rim officials claimed they would leave the water cleaner than they found it. (The Pacific Rim website is filled with promises about “social and environmental responsibility.”) But many local people were wary of the company’s intentions and honesty. Three people recounted how a Pacific Rim official boasted that cyanide was so safe that the official was willing to drink a glass of a favorite local beverage laced with the chemical. The official, we were told, backed down when community members insisted on authentication of the cyanide. “The company thought we’re just ignorant farmers with big hats who don’t know what we’re doing,” Miguel said. “But they’re the ones who are lying.”
As the anti-mining coalition strengthened with support from leaders in the Catholic Church, small businesses and the general public (a 2007 national poll showed that 62.4 percent opposed mining), tensions within Cabañas grew. These emerged in the context of other challenges, including the increasing use of Cabañas as an international drug trans-shipment route, with the attendant problems of corruption and violence. While questions remain, many activists believe that pro-mining forces—including local politicians who stood to benefit if Pacific Rim started mining—are ultimately responsible for the 2009 murder of Miguel’s brother, Marcelo Rivera. Marcelo, a cultural worker and popular educator from the Cabañas town of San Isidro, was an early and vibrant public face of the anti-mining movement.
In San Isidro, Rina Navarrete, director of the Friends of San Isidro Association (ASIC), whose founders included Marcelo, stressed that his work lives on through the focus of local groups on cultural work and youth leadership development. Members of another citizens group, MUFRAS-32, led us on a walking tour of this small farming town. At the renamed Marcelo Rivera Community Center, a yellow and red mural with Marcelo’s face above a line of dancing children covers the front wall.
Four other murals painted by youths, on the outside walls of houses owned by sympathetic residents, make it impossible to forget Marcelo’s mission or his assassination. One, for example, offers a dramatic contrast between two alternative paths of development: On the mural’s right side, dark and gloomy “monster” projects, including gold mines, dump waste into a river that bisects the wall. On the other side of the mural’s river, sunlight bathes healthy agricultural land and trees.
ASIC, MUFRAS-32 and other groups continue to organize theater and artistic festivals. Jaime Sánchez, a former theater student of Marcelo’s now in his mid-20s, told us more: “We use theater, songs, murals and other cultural forms to show resistance. We use laughter.” Jaime described ADES’s creation of a radio station, Radio Victoria, which teaches young people to become deejays, production engineers and the other roles of running a station. These young people also took courses on mining, and spread what they learned over the airwaves.
Over a six-day period in late 2009, two other local activists were killed, one a woman who was eight months pregnant; the 2-year-old in her arms was wounded. ADES’s Nelson Ventura barely escaped an attack. Hector Berrios and Zenayda Serrano, lawyers and leaders of MUFRAS-32, had their home broken into while they and their daughter slept, and documents related to their work were stolen. As Hector lamented, “Clandestine organizations still operate with impunity in this country.”
Many of the people we interviewed, including youths at Radio Victoria, have received death threats. One person told us he turned down a $30-a-week offer to meet with representatives of Pacific Rim to inform on anti-mining activists. Mourned another: “Now in our communities, you don’t trust people you’ve trusted your entire life. That’s one of the things the mining companies have done.”
We traveled from mining country to San Salvador, visiting the sprawling Cuscatlán Park. Along one wall is the Salvadoran version of the US Vietnam Veterans Memorial, in this case etched with the names of about 30,000 of the roughly 75,000 killed in the civil war. Thousands of them, including the dozens killed in the Lempa River massacre of 1981, were victims of massacres perpetrated by the US-backed—often US-trained—government forces and the death squads associated with them.
Peace accords were signed in 1992, and successive elections delivered the presidency to the conservative and pro–free trade ARENA party until 2009, when the progressive Farabundo Martí Liberation Front (FMLN) won the largest bloc in the Congress and, two months later, the presidency. Anti-mining sentiment was already so strong in 2009 that both the reigning ARENA president and the successful FMLN candidate, Mauricio Funes, came out against mining during the campaign.
Much of the credit for this goes to the National Roundtable on Mining, formed in 2005 as leaders in Cabañas began meeting with groups from other departments where mining companies were seeking permits, as well as with research, development, legal aid and human rights groups in San Salvador. Roundtable facilitator Rodolfo Calles enumerated the goals they collectively agreed upon after arduous deliberations: to help resistance at the community level; to win a national law banning metals mining; to link with anti-mining struggles in Honduras and Guatemala, since the Lempa River also winds through those two countries; and to take on the international tribunal in which Pacific Rim is suing El Salvador. Part of what moved the Roundtable to the “complete ban” position, Francisco Pineda explained, “was the realization that the government lacked the ability to regulate the mining activities of giant global firms.”
We were eager to understand how the still relatively young FMLN-led government was deciding whether to ban metals mining. Roundtable members told us the Funes government had announced it would grant no new permits during his five-year term and that it was considering a permanent ban. They also told us the government had initiated a major “strategic environmental review” to help set longer-term policy on mining.
We visited the ministry of the economy, which, along with the environment ministry, is leading the review. The man overseeing it, an engineer named Carlos Duarte, explained that the goal was to do a “scientific” analysis, with the help of a Spanish consulting firm (with Spanish funding). We pushed further, trying to understand how a technical analysis could decide a matter with such high stakes. On the one hand, we posed to Duarte, gold’s price has skyrocketed from less than $300 an ounce a decade ago to more than $1,500 an ounce today, increasing the temptation in a nation of deep poverty to consider mining. We quoted former Salvadoran finance minister and Pacific Rim economic adviser Manuel Hinds, who said, “Renouncing gold mining would be unjustifiable and globally unprecedented.” On the other hand, we quoted the head of the human rights group and Roundtable member FESPAD, Maria Silvia Guillen: “El Salvador is a small beach with a big river that runs through it. If the river dies, the entire country dies.”
Duarte explained that the Spanish firm, backed by four technical experts from other countries, had carried out a lengthy study of the issues and was consulting with people affected by mining, ranging from mining companies to the Roundtable groups. While he hoped this process would produce a consensus, Duarte admitted it was more likely the government and the firm would have to lay out “the interests of the majority,” after which the two ministries would then make their policy recommendation. (Roundtable members had told us that the first group consultation, about ten days earlier in San Salvador, had turned into a pitched debate between them and representatives of the mining companies.) “If new laws are necessary,” Duarte informed us, “then it will go to the legislature.”
We proceeded to the national legislature, its hallways a cacophony of red posters bearing the photos of FMLN leaders (and the ever-present martyr Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, assassinated in 1980 by the right) competing with offices adorned with posters of the leading opposition party, ARENA. We came to meet FMLN members of the legislature’s environment and climate change committee, including Lourdes Palacios, a three-term member from San Salvador with purple glasses and an easy smile. Palacios explained that they were ready with a bill to ban metals mining, but at the request of the executive branch, they were waiting for the outcome of the review before introducing it.
A representative from the department of Chalatenango, just west of Cabañas and an FMLN stronghold, expressed impatience at how long the review was taking and his conviction that “economic and political powers” were “putting pressure on non-FMLN legislators.” For the FMLN legislators, he stressed, “the pressure is the will of the people, and we are convinced that the majority of the people don’t want mining.” The FMLN does not have an absolute majority in the legislature; still, those present expressed confidence that the ban could pass if the executive branch recommended it. One legislator suggested that El Salvador might have an easier time saying no than countries already dependent on revenues from gold exports.
Given the human rights situation in Cabañas, we interviewed the government’s human rights ombudsman, a post created after the 1992 peace accords, to be selected by, and report directly to, the legislature. The current ombudsman is Oscar Luna, a former law professor and fierce defender of human rights—for which he too has received death threats. We asked Luna if he agreed with allegations that the killings in Cabañas were “assassinations organized and protected by economic and social powers.” Luna replied with his own phrasing: “There is still a climate of impunity in this country that we are trying to end.” He is pressing El Salvador’s attorney general to conduct investigations into the “intellectual” authors of the killings. Several people have been arrested in connection with Marcelo Rivera’s assassination, but the attorney general’s office appears to be dragging its feet in digging deeper into who ordered and paid for the killings. Critics told us that the attorney general, appointed by the legislature as a compromise candidate between ARENA and the FMLN, has failed to investigate aggressively a number of sensitive cases involving politicians, corruption and organized crime.
Our interactions in Cabañas and San Salvador left us appreciative of the new democratic space that strong citizen movements and a progressive presidential victory have opened up, yet aware of the fragility and complexities that abound. The government faces an epic decision about mining, amid deep divisions and with institutions of democracy that are still quite young. As Vidalina reminded us when we parted, the “complications” are even greater than what we found in Cabañas or in San Salvador, because even if the ban’s proponents eventually win, “these decisions could still get trumped in Washington.”
A Tribunal That Can Trump Democracy
Protesters around the globe know the sprawling structures that house the World Bank in Washington, yet few are aware that behind these doors sits a little-known tribunal that will be central to the Salvadoran gold story. The Salvadoran government never approved Pacific Rim’s environmental impact study, and thus never gave its permission to begin actual mining. In retaliation, the firm sued the government under the 2005 Central American Free Trade Agreement. Like other trade agreements, CAFTA allows foreign investors to file claims against governments over actions—including health, safety and environmental measures and regulations—that reduce the value of their investment. The affected farmers and communities are not part of the calculus. The most frequently used tribunal for such “investor-state” cases is the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, housed at the World Bank.
In the words of lawyer Marcos Orellana of the Center for International Environmental Law, who assisted the Roundtable in drafting an amicus brief for the tribunal, Pacific Rim “is trying to dictate El Salvador’s environment and social policy using CAFTA’s arbitration mechanism.” Pacific Rim’s “claim amounts to an abuse of process.” The brief methodically lays out how Canada-headquartered Pacific Rim first incorporated in the Cayman Islands to escape taxes, then brazenly lobbied Salvadoran officials to shape policies to benefit the firm, and only after that failed, in 2007 reincorporated one of its subsidiaries in the United States to use CAFTA to sue El Salvador.
For this article we attempted to interview Pacific Rim board chair Catherine McLeod-Seltzer, but her office steered us to the CEO of Pacific Rim’s US subsidiary, Thomas Shrake. In a tersely worded e-mail, he “respectfully denied” our request.
Pacific Rim is demanding $77 million in compensation. A case brought against El Salvador by another gold-mining company, Commerce Group, was dismissed earlier this year on a technicality, but the government still had to pay close to $1 million in legal fees and for half of the arbitration costs. Dozens of human rights, environmental and fair-trade groups across North America, from U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities and the Committee in Solidarity With the People of El Salvador (CISPES) to Oxfam, Public Citizen, Mining Watch and the Institute for Policy Studies, are pressuring Pacific Rim to withdraw the case.
Many believe that even if Pacific Rim withdraws its case or loses in this tribunal, the very existence of “investor-state” clauses in trade agreements is an affront to democracy. “For democracy to prevail,” Sarah Anderson of IPS told us, “citizens’ movements and their allies in governments must work hard to eliminate these clauses from all trade and investment agreements.”
Back in Santa Marta, citizen groups are building sustainable farming as an alternative economic base to mining. Their goal: a “solidarity economy,” or, as Vidalina termed it, a “people’s economy.” Explained Vidalina: “We reject the image of us just as anti-mining. We are for water and a positive future. We want alternatives to feed us, to clothe us.”
Elvis Nataren, a philosophy student, led us to the riverbank and pointed to communal land where organic farms will be built. Three towering greenhouses already contain plump hydroponic tomatoes, green peppers and other vegetables. Together these should make Santa Marta self-sufficient in corn, beans and vegetables. As Elvis explained, “food sovereignty” was even more urgent in the wake of CAFTA’s passage, given the cheap foreign produce that began to flood the Salvadoran market. Elvis, Vidalina, Miguel, Francisco and others we met in Cabañas were well aware that as they nurture farmlands and the river vital to this alternative future, their success also depends upon struggles and debates in San Salvador and Washington.
A month after we returned home, the death threats against individual youths at Radio Victoria escalated, with such ominous untraceable text messages as: “look oscar we aren’t kidding shut up this radio or you also die you dog…”
And in June, nearly two years after Marcelo Rivera’s murder, the body of a student volunteer with the Environmental Committee of Cabañas was found dead, with two bullets in his head. As the Roundtable press release noted: “The last time he was seen by fellow environmental activists was…distributing fliers against metallic mining in [Cabañas] in preparation for a public consultation about the mining sector taking place nearby.” “Not another mine, not another death,” implored the Roundtable. | <urn:uuid:1f12a3ee-59e8-486c-9046-7de6ae67586b> | CC-MAIN-2019-47 | https://www.thenation.com/article/water-gold-el-salvador/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-47/segments/1573496667262.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20191113140725-20191113164725-00286.warc.gz | en | 0.964145 | 4,558 | 2.875 | 3 |
Examine this patient's chest.
· Sudden onset of breathlessness.
· History of cough.
· History of asthma, TB, lung cancer.
· Trachea deviated to the affected side.
· Movements decreased on the affected side.
· Percussion note dull on the affected side.
· Breath sounds diminished on the affected side.
Proceed as follows:
Tell the examiner that you would like to look for tar staining (tobacco smoking), clubbing and cachexia (bronchogenic carcinoma, see
This patient has a collapsed lung (lesion); you would like to exclude malignancy (aetiology). He is breathless at rest (functional
What are the causes of lung collapse?
· Bronchogenic carcinoma.
· Mucus plugs (asthma, allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis; BMJ1982; 285: 552).
· Extrinsic compression from hilar adenopathy (e.g. primary TB).
· Tuberculosis (Brock's syndrome).
· Other intrabronchial tumours including bronchial adenoma.
What are the chest radiograph findings of collapse of the right middle lobe?
The loss of definition of the right heart border reflects collapse (or consolidation) affecting the right middle lc}he
What is Brock's syndrome?
It is collapse due to compression of the right middle lobe bronchus by an enlarged lymph node.
Sir Russell C. Brock (1903-1980) graduated from Guy's Hospital and was surgeon at Guy's and Brompton Hospitals. His interests included both
thoracic and cardiac surgery. He was the President of the Royal College of Surgeons, 1963-1966. | <urn:uuid:674a9fc7-2c21-4a45-81f0-ed84383d2ff9> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://www.syrianclinic.com/medical-encyclopedia/medicine-encyclopedias/clinical-cases/49-clinical-cases/respiratory-system/209-collapsed-lung.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320300289.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20220117031001-20220117061001-00647.warc.gz | en | 0.879553 | 409 | 2.75 | 3 |
Can you pass a Common Core 5th grade math test?
Today, the federal holiday is celebrated nationally with many service events, often attended by leaders, celebrities and the President.
Observed on the third Monday of January each year, Martin Luther King Jr. Day has only recently been a holiday for all the people, all the time. Read on to learn more about the complicated history behind this special holiday.
The Kansas City Chiefs are making some additions to Arrowhead Stadium and allowing fans to bring bottled water to Saturday's game to help them deal with the heat. | <urn:uuid:9e21899d-3013-41b1-85f2-404877eb4c3e> | CC-MAIN-2014-35 | http://www.kmbc.com/national/7898448 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1408500824562.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20140820021344-00142-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97034 | 115 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Directing a huge portion of our cognitive energies into something is not really bad. However, unnecessary overthinking can be detrimental to our well-being. In fact, one study suggests that overthinking not only impedes our ability to perform cognitive tasks, but also keeps us from reaching our creative potential as well.
By definition, overthinking takes place when you stop acting and simply engage in thinking. When you analyse, comment and repeat the same thoughts over and again, instead of acting, you are overthinking.
A lot of people are prone to overthink than they will admit. While sometimes the thorough and methodical approach to problems and tasks can be beneficial, the mind can race away and starting working against itself and goals.While most people overthink things once in a while, some people find themselves constantly preoccupied with racing thoughts. This is when overthinking takes place. Essentially, this involves ruminating and worrying.
Rumination is the focused attention on the symptoms of one’s distress, and on its possible causes and consequences, as opposed to its solutions. While worry refers to the thoughts, images, and emotions of a negative nature in a repetitive, uncontrollable manner that results from a proactive cognitive risk analysis made to avoid or solve anticipated potential threats and their potential consequences.
Dr Berney Wilkinson and Dr Richard Marshall discuss strategies for battling negative thoughts with intentional, purposeful, and positive action.
Tips on how to overcome overthinking
- Recognise triggers – By becoming aware of our thought process we can identify our anxiety triggers. For instance, are you rehashing a previous situation, or overanalysing your mistakes? Assess these these and try to identify their root cause so you could avoid them in the future.
- Express yourself in writing – Expressive writing, also known as written emotional disclosure, is the act of expressing ourselves through writing. This can be a very effective way of processing your thoughts, and can help us in finding ways overcome those thoughts
- Overcome your fear – When we commit mistakes or something disastrous happen we fear the consequences. But just remind yourself that however disastrous the situation might seem, it’s not the end of the world.
- Distract yourself – If you find yourself in a situation where you constantly overthink situations, you might benefit from distracting yourself. There are healthy and positive forms of distraction: such as going to the theatre, enjoying crafts, gardening, swimming, etc. The key is to find things or activities that you enjoy and that could calm you down.
- Take action – If you find yourself stuck in a corner due to overthinking try to taking small steps forward and concentrate on getting one small step done at a time. Is it overwhelm, fear of failure, anxiety, and a host of of blocks, thoughts, and feelings? You might benefit from these tips on how to take simple actions so that you can carry on.
Trying to think things through 500 times might be your way to try to control everything. This could be your attempt to cover every eventuality so you don’t risk making a mistake, fail or looking like a loser. But those horrible things are a part of living a life and those are the things that make us human. We’re all bound to be victims of overthinking, and waste a precious time and energy inside our own brains and can damage our health. The most effective way to avoid this lies in minimising those thoughts and making them as productive as possible so they don’t get in the way of more important things.
Dennis Relojo is the Founder of Psychreg and is also the Editor-in-Chief of Psychreg Journal of Psychology. Aside from PJP, he sits on the editorial boards of peer-reviewed journals, and is a Commissioning Editor for the International Society of Critical Health Psychology. A Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society, Dennis holds a master’s degree in psychology from the University of Hertfordshire. His research interest lies in the intersection of psychology and blogging. You can connect with him through Twitter @DennisRelojo and his website. | <urn:uuid:053a135b-e596-4a4c-9f39-b2f5508e7836> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | http://www.psychreg.org/overcome-overthinking/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084888878.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20180120023744-20180120043744-00526.warc.gz | en | 0.953333 | 840 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Here we go with the second review article about outlier detection (this post is the continuation of Part I).
A Survey of Outlier Detection Methodologies
This paper, from Hodge and Austin, is also an excellent review of the field. Authors give a list of keywords in the field: outlier detection, novelty detection, anomaly detection, noise detection, deviation detection and exception mining. For the authors, “An outlying observation, or outlier, is one that appears to deviate markedly from other members of the sample in which it occurs (Grubbs, 1969)”. Before listing several application in the field, authors mention that an outlier can be “surprising veridical data“. It may only be situated in the wrong class.
An interesting list of possible reasons for outliers is given: human error, instrument error, natural deviations in population, fraudulent behavior, changes in behavior of system and faults in system. Like in the first article, Hodge and Austin define three types of approaches to outlier detection (unsupervised, supervised and semi-supervised). In the last one, they mention that some algorithms can allow a confidence in the fact that the observation is an outlier. Main drawback of the supervised approach is its inability to discover new types of outliers.
The paper continues with a description of several techniques for outlier detection. Consensus or majority voting between several classifiers is also mentioned. I would even go a step further in recommending to combine, if possible, a supervised approach with an unsupervised one. This allow to balance advantages and drawbacks of both approaches. One of the main conclusion from the authors is that “there is no single universally applicable or generic outlier detection approach“. Business understanding and problem definition are two major steps that will help you find the right technique to solve your challenge. | <urn:uuid:6ff95ae7-762f-45fa-9a58-df31513ff4bd> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | http://www.dataminingblog.com/outlier-detection-in-two-review-articles-part-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221213666.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20180818114957-20180818134957-00440.warc.gz | en | 0.923153 | 382 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Many people view addiction as a moral failure. Therefore, whenever they see someone struggling with addiction, they may think that they’re too weak to do what’s right. But science disagrees.
Addiction is a complex brain disease that provokes a person to use drugs despite the consequences of their actions. Although their initial use may be voluntary, the subsequent processes occurring in their brains prompt them to increase their use.
Dr. Jillian Hardee from the University of Michigan clearly explained the scientific nature of addiction when she said, “Addiction is a chronic illness accompanied by significant changes in the brain. It does not occur because of moral weakness, a lack of willpower, or an unwillingness to stop.”
This is why you’ll see addicts dreading their actions yet seem to have no ability to resist a drug. But since they don’t understand its nature, some get wrapped up in shame and get deeper into addiction. Even worse is the stigma they experience from people who view them as mentally fragile.
But if you are in a position to help, you need to understand what you’re dealing with. So read on to find out how addiction affects the brain and choose what you can do about it.
3 Reasons Why Addiction Is a Disease, Not a Choice
The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and other addiction authorities define addiction as a chronic but treatable medical disease that manifests in compulsive behaviors of seeking and using drugs regardless of its negative effects. (Sources: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, SAMHSA)
These addiction-conversant organizations don’t aim to alienate personal responsibility as Tim Holden, a psychiatrist, and professor claimed in a journal entry in 2012. They illustrate that while getting into addiction involves consent, the addiction process itself involves numerous complex processes that make up a severe disorder.
( Source: US National Library of Medicine)
So, addiction is a disease due to the following reasons:
It changes the functioning of the brain
Normally, the brain produces pleasure causing chemicals after certain appealing activities such as sex, eating, and dancing among others. The production of these chemicals in certain extents is shaped by many things including our belief systems of what feels good and what doesn’t.
Therefore, when you use a drug for the first time and feel good about it, you naturally feel like doing it again. At this time, you aren’t an addict yet but as you continue rewarding yourself with these feel-good chemicals, an addiction develops.
Moreover, you need to realize that common addictive drugs release more pleasure chemicals than normal substances and activities.
As you continue using the drug, the functioning of the brain alters as a result of the changes in what feels like normal levels of pleasure. This is why you’ll see addicts increasing their dosages in an attempt to feel the same high they used to feel when their brain was used to the lower dosage.
But the tolerance keeps changing as the brain evolves and later, the addict might overdose as they try to restore the previous levels of ecstasy. This recurring loop is what makes addiction a disease needing expert treatment.
The cycle of addiction clearly defines the stages of this disease. If you were to get into alcohol addiction, the following are the stages of the addiction cycle you’ll go through:
- Initial use: This could be in the form of a celebratory drink.
- Abuse: This is the harmful use of a substance that can turn occasional drinking into binge drinking. You might land in this stage while trying to numb a certain pain.
- Tolerance: Your body seems “immune” to the four beer bottles a day and needs more to make you high.
- Dependence: Your body now depends on the daily intake to function optimally.
- Addiction: Your brain prompts you to do anything so you can get the drug. Your willpower is deeply impaired that you find it challenging to rethink moral decisions where alcohol is involved.
- Guilt: You’re plagued by guilt as morality thoughts kick in.
- Cessation: The guilt is too much so you want to do the right thing. So you stop using the drug.
- Relapse: A mistake happened and the relapse prevention measures you practiced weren’t effective. You get back to initial use and the addiction cycle begins again.
As you can see, the initial use of a substance isn’t entirely harmful. Furthermore, bingeing on a certain drug to alleviate issues like stress is quite common. But that simple action can spiral to addiction – a disease that can make you defy your strongest values.
The changes are long term
Even when an addict stops using a particular drug, the prior modifications in their brain don’t diminish instantly. They have to unlearn the thought patterns that are now deeply reinforced. And since their willpower is impaired, they’ll need support and care just like most patients in recovery.
An addict who stopped using recently will have to go through withdrawal symptoms which could occur physically, mentally, and emotionally. This might get them back to the self-treatment they only knew of but if they get professional treatment, they might successfully stop addiction and mitigate the damages it has already done.
It’s similar to other diseases
Although many people don’t realize it, addiction doesn’t differ much from other diseases. However, because other disorders are more conventional than compulsive substance use, some people regard all cycles of addiction as a matter of choice.
Here are similarities between addiction and other diseases:
- Like diabetes, heart disease, and other common diseases, addiction is hugely influenced by choices. When one doesn’t eat healthily, they might get heart disease and when one doesn’t stop self-treating stress with alcohol, they might develop an addiction.
- It disturbs the functioning of the body mainly the brain just like other diseases disturb some main body organs.
- It occurs in stages, progressing as time goes — the same happens for other diseases.
- They both are treatable.
- Environmental factors can contribute to the development of addiction and other diseases.
- Many diseases involve recovery and relapse (symptom recurrence) just like addiction does.
From addiction to recovery, components of addiction reveal it’s a disorder.
(Sources: Sources: ASAM, NIDA, National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN), Recovery Research Institute)
Addiction is a disease, not a choice. Although one of its causes is the choice to indulge in an activity that involves dire consequences, it develops into a serious disorder. This is information many people need to understand so they can approach addiction treatment more effectively.
Moreover, if you have a loved one who is an addict, you need to help them get out of this disease to improve their quality of life. Instead of shaming them and constantly telling them to stop, determine the best treatment that mitigates their problem in the long term.
Addiction is a manageable disease like others. Find professional help and deal with it the right way. | <urn:uuid:b6318b94-8091-47ca-b152-0ac4acc89910> | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | https://contentwritingbyadekiseu.com/is-addiction-a-disease-or-choice-debunking-common-myths/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107878921.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20201022053410-20201022083410-00689.warc.gz | en | 0.945549 | 1,476 | 3.296875 | 3 |
A new study from the Georgia Institute of Technology finds that older people struggle to remember important details because their brains can’t resist the irrelevant “stuff” they soak up subconsciously. As a result, they tend to be less confident in their memories.
Researchers looked at brain activity from EEG sensors and saw that older participants wandered into a brief “mental time travel” when trying to recall details. This journey into their subconscious veered them into a cluttered space that was filled with both relevant and irrelevant information. This clutter led to less confidence, even when their recollections were correct. Cluttering of the brain is one reason older people are more susceptible to manipulation, the researchers say. The study appears online in the journal Neuropsychologia.
Researchers showed older adults (60 years and up) and college students a series of pictures of everyday objects while EEG sensors were connected to their heads. Each photo was accompanied by a color and scene (e.g., living room). Participants were told to focus on one and ignore the other. An hour later, they were asked if the object was new or old, and if it matched the color and the scene.
Neither age group was very good at recalling what they were told to ignore. Both did well remembering the object and what they were supposed to focus on.
“But when we asked if they were sure, older people backed off their answers a bit. They weren’t as sure,” said Audrey Duarte, the associate professor of psychology who led the Georgia Tech study.
She and the researchers noticed differences in brain activity between the young and old. Older adults’ brains spent more time and effort trying to reconstruct their memories.
“While trying to remember, their brains would spend more time going back in time in an attempt to piece together what was previously seen,” she said. “But not just what they were focused on — some of what they were told to ignore got stuck in their minds.”
Duarte uses a cocktail party as an example. Two older people are talking to each other. And even though they’re only concentrating on the conversation, their brains absorb the other noise in the room.
“When it’s time to remember the conversation, they may struggle a bit to recall some details. That’s because their brains are also trying to decipher the other noises,” she said. “What music was playing? What was the couple next to them saying? That extra stuff shouldn’t be in their memories at all, but it is. And it negatively impacts their ability to clearly remember the conversation.”
Younger people were quicker to recall details and used less brain power. The irrelevant information was never stored in the first place, which kept their memories relatively clutter-free. And that’s why they were more confident than the older participants when remembering relevant details.
A lack of confidence, Duarte said, can lead to manipulation.
“If someone tells you that you should remember it one way, you can be more easily persuaded if you lack confidence,” she said. “This memory clutter that’s causing low confidence could be a reason why older adults are often victims of financial scams, which typically occur when someone tries to trick them about prior conversations that didn’t take place at all.”
Source: GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY | <urn:uuid:bd01dbdb-058e-4887-baa8-829308e69236> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://newsucanuse.org/2016/06/23/senior-moments-explained-older-adults-weaker-clutter-control/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128323730.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20170628185804-20170628205804-00049.warc.gz | en | 0.983313 | 711 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Absolutism versus Relativism: The Ethics of Abortion
Ethics Can Get Violent
Divine Command Theory
The Euthyphro Dilemma proposed in Plato's dialogue with fellow Ancient Greek philosophers; Socrates and Euthyphro discussed the nature of piety:
"Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?"
To understand God's character, religious people understand that something is "good" or "pious" because the action would reflect the character of God. God commanded his followers not to kill. Abortion is the killing of an unborn human that exists in a state of life. So for those who sign up to Divine Command Theory, abortion under any circumstances is wrong.
Natural Law Theory
Plato and Natural Law
Natural Law proposes a perfect understanding of nature, seeking to build upon the second half of the Euthypro dilemma; "is it pious because it is loved by the gods?" This discussion led Plato to come up with the "forms", or a theory of ideas that can qualify things we sense and feel, rather than know logically. One of these forms; the "Form of the Good"; asserts that all things can be understood as emanating from a higher creative being, or God, who is perfect in creation of everything. So for Plato, the choice to have an abortion would be against perfect creation, and this view is morally absolute.
Aristotle and Natural Law
Artistotle made the distinction that there must be laws of nature that follow God's creative plan. These laws must be true for everyone, or absolute. Artistotle proposed that a set of laws could be written to quantify these truths. Artistotle gave preference to nature over custom, so for Aristotle, the custom to choose to have an abortion would be morally wrong.
Stoics and Natural Law
Next came a school of thought called stoicism, which was indifferent to the fact of a divine creator, but did ascribe to the idea that there could be "natural justice". This meant that they viewed that a rational person would not seek to have an abortion as it would involve taking the life of a child.
Cicero and Natural Law
Cicero proposed that the laws we agreed to hold in common are able to exist because we agree they lead to our own good. So for Cicero, to take the life of an unborn child would lead to misery.
Augustine of Hippo
As Roman society developed, and hardships such as slavery and poverty afflicted the poor, this 4th century Christian Bishop sought to integrate Natural Law with Christianity. Because natural law was not beneficial to all, as children were being born into awful lives, Augustine said that we could not be saved by obeying Natural Law, but by the grace and faith we have in Jesus Christ. Augustine could be summarised as someone who would not have recommended an abortion, but could see why women might seek them out, and sought to find a way to reconcile this with their salvation prospects. This is really, a touch of relativism here, as society has evolved and moral absolutes don't fit every situation.
Thomas Aquinas and Natural Law
In the 13th century, Catholic Bishop Thomas Aquinas sought to quantify this understanding of God as a creative being. He proposed Natural Law Theory in order to understand the perfect aspects of what we see and know around us. He reasserted that Natural Law was the supreme law, and a rational person would obey the eternal directive, no matter what. Since no human being could actually know what God wanted exactly, the law needed to be supplemented with Divine Law that was "revealed". We can see this in operation in the Catholic Church as the priests are Christ's "apostles" and "authority on earth" which means that the Divine Law is revealed to them. This is the deontological aspect of Natural Law as Aquinas defined it.
The teleological side of Aquinian Natural law took into account the intention of those performing acts under the law. Was the intention to achieve temporal satisfaction or salvation? The state laws were thought responsible for the salvation, and therefore true happiness of citizens, so state laws had to reflect Divine Laws. It is for this reason that abortion is still illegal in the Catholic Church today.
Anglican Richard Hooker and Natural Law
When the churches split in the 16th century, "thomistic" (or from Thomas Aquinas) notions of Natural Law were developed by Richard Hooker, who came up with the five precepts to live life by. These were to live, to learn, to reproduce, to worship God, and to live in an ordered society. Based on Aquinas' ideas that an individual knows good from evil intrinsically Divine Law was still supreme. It defined existence as being at the point of creation. The Anglican Church effectively agrees that souls have "rights" from the moment of conception. For this reason, abortion is also illegal under Anglicansim today - a fact not many realise.
Hobbes and Abortion
In the 17th Century, Thomas Hobbes developed a theory of Natural Law to refine the teleological aspects of Aquinas and Hooker. As many laws were being enacted during this period of history, it became apparent that a decision had to be made as to how law and ethics combined.
Was law the product of common values and views, or was law more authoritative because of history and the source of the law? It seems this age was reluctant to say that common people and their views were superior to religious assertions for the divine being of God, so Hobbes developed legal positivism. The law would favour Natural Law viewpoints over the common viewpoint. So abortion stays illegal in this century.
Cumberland and Abortion
In the late 17th century English cleric Richard Cumberland took exception to Hobbe's idea that self interest was the driving motivation of the common man. This was the reason Hobbes had developed legal positivism - to keep the commoners in check. Cumberland asserted that the "common good" should be the basis for the supreme law of morality. Little sway should be given in government laws for ideas that went beyond Natural Law and the assumption of a Divine Lawmaker.
The Foundation of America - Thomas Jefferson and Natural Law
The second sentence of the Declaration of Independence adopted in 1776 stated that:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Yet, the Americas added to Natural Law the "right of revolution" against a tyrannical state in order to "delcare independence" in the first place. This change addressed one of the major criticisms of Aquinian Natural Law and subsequent theorists, who asserted that Natural Law needed to be also divinely revealed. The catholic priests performed this role for the catholic church; after the division of christianity and the development of Protestantism, the Royal Monarch of England became the divine revealer. America argued - what if this monarch is corrupt?
This is why America has a "Divine" legal foundation ("Creator") without call for divine revelation. America embraces Natural Law as the source of law, but is free to apply relativistic ammendments if the common will makes more sense. This is the fundamental difference between English and American law. American law is freer to legislate non religious rational laws, if I may put it that way. Yet America respects the long history of Natural Law, and as a consequence judges act conservatively when setting common law precedents - as you would expect.
This is why abortion took a long time to legalise in the USA. The high proportion of Christians living in the Americas represented a large common voice. This is why America has a lot of protest around the altered abortion laws too, as Americans never have to accept the status quo, as the common will can change existing legislation through persuading other Americans that another law is preferable.
As a random thought, a really good novel that explores this idea, that America could shift to absolutism is The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.
Americans - Free to Adopt Natural Law if the Commons Agree
The Natural Law on Abortion is supported by other absolutist ethical theories.
Virtue Ethics (teleological and consequential ethics): takes into account the consequences of an action reflecting well or not well on the moral agent. So supports the idea that a woman seeking an abortion would not do so as the decision would not reflect well on her moral character. This may sound old fashioned, but how many women do you know who feel they can discuss their abortions openly?
arete (excellence or virtue) - the consequence of abortion is a lessening of virtue.
phronesis (practical or moral wisdom) - abortion is a medical procedure that can harm, and is morally questionable.
eudaimonia (flourishing) - abortion is wrong as it does not lead to life.
18th Century Kant Ethics (deontological): Kantianism asserts citizens are duty bound according to agreed universal and moral principles. So if the current universal laws ascribe to Natural Law, you can see immediately that Kant is against abortions. (As was true for his time).
Kant applies legal arguments so that we can test them. His founding principles give us a clue as to how he would apply abortion. In the first principle, your action is only good if it would make a universal law. So do all agree that abortions are good? No.
Secondly, people must be treated as an end, not a means to an end. So if abortion would give a mother a higher life quality, that mother treats the unborn child as a means to an end.
19th and 20th Century Utilitarianism (teleological and consequential ethics):
Initially founded as Rule Utilitarianism and based on the idea that an action is correct if it produces the greatest happiness, this form of utilitarianism organised itself around notions like it is wrong to kill, it is wrong to lie. A weaker form proposed by John Stewart Mill said that you could break a moral law if greater happiness would be produced. Yet this exception was only meant to apply in cases of self defence (such as war scenarios), so abortion was not considered an act of self defence.
Act utilitarianism promoted the idea that if breaking a moral rule led to greater happiness that could be considered valid. Again though, abortion "for its own sake" would not be considered a responsible act, but abortion recommended by a qualified doctor who thought suffering may result from a deformed foetus being birthed, might qualify as an act that produces greater happiness.
US and UK laws both support abortion legally if it can be proven that two qualified doctors agree that an abortion produces greater happiness. Both countries only allow first and second trimester abortions and third trimester abortions only if the mother's life is in peril. Each stage has stringent and strict laws governing access to abortion. So today, abortion is not a "right" it is a telelogical decision of moral consequence.
Pro Choice Activists and Moral Relativism
Understand that abortion is only permitted under circumstances defined by theoretical ethical applications of absolutism. Pro Choice arguments are relativist arguments based on several schools of philosopy that are 20th century and beyond.
Essentially relativism rejects the notion of a divine law maker and prefers to regard all decisions as moral and not legal.
18th Century David Hume and emotivism (relativist): all decisions are matters for an individual's values, yet we would descend into chaos if there were no universal sentiments. So under Hume, it is possible to view abortion as acceptable and a matter of choice only, yet you can still view the need for stringent rules as a good idea if we accept as a universal principle; killing is wrong.
19th Century Friedrich Nietzsche anti realism (relativist): decisions should be more pertinent to the goals of the individual and not subject to impediment by notions of law defined by the rich and powerful. Cultural representations of the "greatest happiness" are based on a false reality constructed by the elite who bring us images of what is right.
One can apply Nietzsche best perhaps if considering contraception, condoms and the prevalence of HIV in Africa. While preventing conception may be against Natural Law and absolutism, the interests of individuals who don't want to die from HIV should overide institutions who say those citizens must obey a law that harms them.
In the case of abortion, Nietzsche would say a woman should not be subject to religious notions of humility and obedience to divine principles and should be free to defy those laws if she will benefit personally. Particularly if her and the child face poverty as a result. We can see Nietsche's influence in current abortion laws as some of the reasons a woman can claim abortion is:
- abortion for the sake of the mother's health
- including her mental health which could be distress based
- abortion where a pregnancy is the result of a crime
- such as crimes like rape, incest, or child abuse and she should not have to suffer that legacy
- abortion for social reasons, including:
- mother unable to cope with a child (or an additional child),
- mother being too young to cope with a child
Relativism in 21st Century
In societies such as the UK and the USA and other westernised nations, the voice of citizens who form part of the "commons" has impacted our laws based on religious belief in a divine law maker. Ironically, Aquinas' and Hooker's absolutist ideas to allow a society that is "free to worship", has allowed laws to evolve that imply worship is a choice.
The division of the christian churches saw the function of "divine revelation in law" split. Catholic christianity leaving this with priests, and protestant christianity leaving this responsibility with royalty. When America chose to have a society that was free to worship, but not under any temporal authority but God's "conscience", their society was free to interpret law as they faced new challenges. Few would argue today that a victim of incest or rape need carry that child to life, but many might try to convince that woman to do so as per the "Creator" rights in the "Declaration of Independence" 1776.
The change in abortion laws in both the UK (1967 by private members bill) and the USA (1973 by Supreme Court decision Roe vs Wade) marks significant steps towards ethical relativism. Royal assent is required on bills in the United Kingdom, and for the Queen to approve abortion, yet claim to be the defender of the Protestant faith, would seem oxymoronic.
Thus the UK parliament had to pass the bill on Abortion through a system known as the conscience or free vote, which allows the will of the people to override the obligations of the monarch. Issues like homosexual marriage, stem cell research, therapeutic cloning, IVF, abortion and capital punishment are the type of issues that conscience votes are taken on. Conveniently allowing the monarch to side-step church obligations - one might say.
This has occurred via the relatively new introduction into the UK Parliament of Private Members Bills; which can (but don't always) result in conscience or free voting, effectively getting the monarch off the hook. This practice only began in 1945. I wonder if anyone has noticed?
It would appear that by analysing absolutism versus relativism and abortion, I've uncovered that the United Kingdom is effectively operating in a similar governed fashion to the United States, having removed the responsibility for absolutism and Christian leadership under Natural Law principles - paving the way for relativism though the employment of Private Members Bills and "free votes". I guess England can no longer call itself Christendom. Perhaps the United States of Britain is more appropriate?
What is Your Ethical Position on Abortion?
Would you say you are on the absolutist or relativist position regarding abortion?
Questions & Answers
© 2012 Lisa McKnight | <urn:uuid:34e341d3-25e3-4e7a-8198-c4233c0a3fd7> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | https://soapboxie.com/social-issues/Abolutism-versus-Relativism-The-Ethics-of-Abortion | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247482788.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20190217213235-20190217235235-00237.warc.gz | en | 0.962956 | 3,322 | 2.75 | 3 |
We really loved the Tedx Talk recently given by Criswell Davis, internationally recognized American hardwood expert, speaker and hardwood specification consultant. He shared some great information on why designing with wood is beneficial to us all. As we hear about rainforests burning and other environmental disasters, it’s beneficial to watch the video to better understand how the well-managed U.S hardwoods resource is sustainable. And by well-managed, that means cutting trees down at the right time and incorporating wood into the built environment. Here are some key facts from his talk we thought it prudent to share:
1. Trees and Humans are Symbiotic: Humans exhale carbon dioxide. Trees breathe in carbon dioxide, hold carbon and give us back oxygen. As carbon dioxide levels rise, trees can reduce greenhouse gases. Trees are our perfect environmental partner.
2. Timing matters…the sustainable way to harvest trees: The peak life of a tree is around 80 years, then it stops absorbing carbon and starts leaching it back into the atmosphere. Selection Harvesting means harvesting mature trees that have done their job. Selection Harvesting, as has been done in the U.S. for the past two centuries, ensures that the forest continues to thrive by opening the canopy, allowing light and rain to reach the saplings and help them grow. Saplings in turn absorb carbon aggressively, and new life is breathed into the forest.
3. The U.S. Hardwood crop is well-managed, sustainable and growing: Did you know that there are twice as many trees growing as are being cut down? And there is twice the hardwood volume compared to 50 years ago? The hardwood resource here in the states is constantly renewing and lasts.
4. The U.S.’s Selection Harvest is a model for the world: We are doing it well here in the United States. Other countries are scrambling to plant trees for similar affect: Ethiopia recently planted 350 million trees in one day and India planted 222 million in one day.
5. Biophilic Design is being incorporated in homes, businesses and hospitals: The act of bringing wood into the design process means people inhabiting those structures enjoy health benefits.
Contact us to discuss sustainable hardwood solutions. | <urn:uuid:7290f21e-c3cc-48f8-a856-c18c91a5b7aa> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://tbmhardwoods.com/facts-to-know-from-criswell-daviss-ted-talk-on-designing-with-hardwood | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323588244.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20211027212831-20211028002831-00315.warc.gz | en | 0.952894 | 458 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Open Educational Resources (OER) are educational materials intentionally created to be free to students. These open materials are licensed by the authors/creators to permit and encourage adoption, improvement and retention. Materials may be in the form of textbooks, multimedia, full courseware, and more.
Most OER are released using terms of Creative Commons (CC) Licenses and understanding CC will help you to have a more positive experience with using OER.
Open access is a key element of Open Educational Resources. Materials accessed through a subscription, institutional membership, or paywall are not considered OER, even if they are free to the end user. Open licensing is an important aspect of the definition, as well. Materials that are openly accessible but licensed in ways which prevent modification or remixing are not considered OER, as they cannot be edited to meet varied educational needs.
Use of Open Educational Resources encourages faculty to experiment and innovate, facilitate the practice of open pedagogy, and increase affordability of and access to educational experiences. | <urn:uuid:3cab68c7-dee9-4e10-bd25-a11ce07139f9> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | http://researchguides.njit.edu/oer/overview | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579251669967.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20200125041318-20200125070318-00081.warc.gz | en | 0.935177 | 207 | 3.609375 | 4 |
The main cause of global warming is the increased emission of so called greenhouse gases , in particular carbon dioxide (chemical symbol CO2). These greenhouse gases have an average lifetime in the atmosphere of 50 to 200 years. This means that even if we stopped the emission of greenhouse gases completely tomorrow, global warming would still continue.
In other words: It is impossible to stop global warming, it is only possible to mitigate its effects through a drastic reduction of the emission of CO2.
Nuclear energy is used to generate electrical power. Therefore it is only possible to reduce the emission of CO2 if nuclear power plants are used instead of other, CO2 emitting technologies. This is in particular the case for electrical generation plants fuelled by coal, oil or gas. The CO2 emission can indeed be reduced, if electrical power plants driven by fossil fuels are being replaced by nuclear power plants. However the application of nuclear power unfortunately is highly problematic, therefore the problem of CO2 emissions must not be looked at independently of all other risks and problems. See our text about pros and cons of nuclear power for a summary of the advantages and disadvantages.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) records the energy consumption world-wide and produces a forecast for the next 25 years. In their last energy outlook published in autumn 2006, IEA predicts a strong increase of the carbon dioxide emissions by the year 2030 as a consequence of the increasing demand for energy world-wide.
Additionally, IEA investigated to which extent the above mentioned emissions of CO2 could be prevented if politics applied rigorous measures. One of many measures investigated was massive facilitations and incentives for building additional nuclear power plants.
From all measures proposed, nuclear energy was found to have the smallest effect (only 10%). This result is even more remarkable facing the fact that IEA is known for having no reservations whatsoever against nuclear energy.
The chart below shows the effects of each proposed measure to reduce the main cause of global warming, the emission of carbon dioxide:
Graph1: Proportional effect of measures to mitigate the main cause of global warming, the emission of CO2 by the year 2030. 100% = effect of all proposed measures together. Data source: International Energy Agency (IEA). http://iea.org
The following results attract attention:
This result is surprising, in particular if you think about how nuclear power is praised as solution to global warming by politicians like George W. Bush and Tony Blair. It seems like they would (again) head into the wrong direction.
Instead of talking about measures to increase the energy efficiency, which accounts for 80% of the effects, some politicians propagandize building nuclear power plants, which according to IEA can only account for 10% of the desired effects. Here the focus is clearly on the wrong subject!
Unfortunately, there is no lobby for energy efficiency, except perhaps some environmental organisations. The nuclear industry however, does have quite a strong lobby world-wide. If a politician asks for a higher efficiency of cars, he or she gets opposed immediately by the automobile industry (keyword work places). If the same politician suggests building nuclear power plants, he or she can even hope for some money for the next election campaign.
If the focus is put only to avoid the emission of CO2 and if all other side effects are neglected, then nuclear energy can indeed contribute to the solution. However the problem of climate change should be solved and discussed in a much wider context: It is important to limit our consumption of resources to such an amount which does not curtail future generations nor other beings on Earth. We finally must learn to live a sustainable living .
In this context, nuclear power plants are no solution at all. On the contrary, it would mean to shift from one problem (CO2 emission) to another and not less severe problem (nuclear waste, risk of nuclear catastrophes, limited resource uranium, nuclear proliferation).
Nuclear energy could contribute only little to reduce the cause of global warming. Moreover, it can only be a serious option if you shut the eyes to the many cons of nuclear power.
Our energy consumption has increased year by year. Politics and industry made sure that the demand of energy was always fulfilled. Supply followed demand. Sustainability was rarely looked at.
We will now have to change our behaviour: We can only afford to use as much energy as we are able to produce in a sustainable way. Demand has to follow supply and not vice-versa any more. If we do so, pretended solutions like nuclear power are automatically out of discussion. | <urn:uuid:c762afad-c7d2-482f-b48e-4027735abd82> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://timeforchange.org/pros-cons-nuclear-power-global-warming-solution | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802768169.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075248-00049-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951174 | 926 | 3.625 | 4 |
How To Create Good Habits
Have you ever wondered why you do what you do? Some decisions are conscious choices, but more than 40 percent of the things we do aren’t. They are habits. This explains why we snack on unhealthy foods, smoke cigarettes or always are late to meetings.
How do you stop bad habits and develop good ones? It is much harder than it seems, which is why only 8 percent of people reach their New Year’s resolutions.
According to Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, you can’t change habits by “powering through” them. Your willpower is like a muscle, and it gets exhausted throughout the day. This is why, at the end of the day, it is much harder to keep to your diet than in the morning, when your willpower is fresh.
Many people make the mistake of trying to change or start just the habit or behavior. Instead, you first have to understand how it is formed and what it is made up of.
A habit is not just one action, but a loop. It is made up of a cue, a routine and a reward. If you want to change a habit, you need to work on the cues and rewards that keep the habit going.
* Cue: This triggers the habit and behavior. It switches your brain to automatic mode. There are five types of cues: a place, a time of day, a certain person, a certain emotion or a ritualized behavior.
* Routine: This is the habit or behavior you find yourself doing unknowingly – it can be physical, mental or emotional. Just like getting in your car in the morning to drive to work, you don’t think of every step or decision you make.
The more you do it, the less attention you need and the more automated it becomes. The habit takes over, freeing up mental space and conserving as much willpower as possible.
* Reward: This is the pleasure you get from the habit. The reward “burns the habit into your memory,” so it becomes the go-to habit the next time the cue takes place.
If you want to curb a bad habit, you want to find your cue and reward. Duhigg, from his personal experience, found that he had been eating a cookie every afternoon at 3 and had gained eight pounds. He thought the reward was to satisfy his sweet tooth, but after experimenting, he found the reward actually was socializing with his peers. He was using the excuse of getting a cookie to talk to his coworkers. After recognizing this, instead of eating cookies, he headed over to a colleague, talked for 10 minutes and then went back to work, eventually losing 12 pounds! It was a matter of teaching his brain to associate a reward with the appropriate habit.
If there are any habits you want to change, you have to properly diagnose and then change them. For more examples on using rewards to start good habits and stop bad habits, visit artofthinkingsmart.com. | <urn:uuid:eedd27cb-9c5e-42cf-abc6-63c6de3f6ffc> | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | http://www.midweek.com/create-good-habits/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514574710.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190921231814-20190922013814-00137.warc.gz | en | 0.971285 | 628 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Free Games & Activities
Wind:When is the movement of air created by the flow of gases here on earth. wind is caused by differences in air pressure. Short bursts of wind moving at high speeds are known as gusts of wind. Wind can be a gentle breeze, Gail, a storm or even of hurricane depending on its strength and speed. High winds can be incredibly damaging to both nature and man.
Wind Weather Games: | <urn:uuid:70c4dd69-d925-4a2b-8868-e5cacc241adb> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://www.wartgames.com/themes/weather/wind.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243990449.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20210514091252-20210514121252-00351.warc.gz | en | 0.959711 | 88 | 3.25 | 3 |
Polyurethanes have been often described in literature as one of the most versatile polymers known2,3,4. The reason for such success can generally be explained as the product of two windfalls. First, polyurethanes may be prepared as either cellular or non-cellular products, which allow polyurethanes to find applications in numerous end uses. The second reason for the versatility of polyurethane polymers comes from the abundance of raw materials available to prepare polyurethanes. Strictly speaking, general polymer nomenclature regards a polymer as a polyurethane even if other functional groups are also present. Hence, polyurethanes may be built from starting materials containing many polyester and/or polyether polyols, by reacting them with aliphatic or aromatic isocyanates.
Typically, ester-containing polyols offer abrasion resistance and adhesion promotion while polyether polyols provide low-temperature flexibility and low viscosity. Industrial polyether polyols are generally limited in monomer composition to propylene oxide, ethylene oxide, butylene oxide and tetrahydrofuran. Industrial polyester polyols, many of which are the condensation products of organic acids and alcohols, may be prepared by a great many more combinations of monomers and thus add to the potential versatility of polyurethane products.
Stepan Co. has recently developed several new phthalic anhydride-based polyester polyols suitable for use in the C.A.S.E. industry. In this article, we present the utility of the new polyols designated STEPANOLR PN-110, STEPANOL PD-56, STEPANOL PH-56 and PD-56LV by examining their effects in several C.A.S.E. applications.
ExperimentalMaterials were used as received from the manufacturer. Table 1 lists characteristics of diols used (hydroxyl or "OH" number is expressed in mg KOH/g).
All products in Table 1 are polyesters except for PPG-2000, which is a polyether. The following abbreviations are used:
- HDO = 1,6-hexanediol
- PPG = polypropylene glycol
- AA = adipic acid
- NPG = neopentyl glycol
- DEG = diethylene glycol
- LV = low-viscosity "modification" (proprietary method)
- HDA = hexanediol adipate
Isocyanates included in this study were Mondur M (pure MDI, or 4,4'-diphenylmethane diisocyanate, equivalent weight = 125 g/eq), Mondur MR (polymeric MDI, equivalent weight = 131 g/eq), Mondur CD ("liquid pure" or carbodiimide-modified MDI; equivalent weight 143 g/eq) and Desmodur W (131 g/eq). Catalysts used in formulation work were DMDEE (dimorpholodiethyl ether) and DBTDL (dibutyl tin dilaurate).
Formulations for isocyanate-rich prepolymers were calculated to give a specified weight percent of isocyanate ("%NCO") assuming the hydroxyl equivalent weight of each glycol used was the hydroxyl number for a glycol divided into 56,100.
Prepolymers to be used as liquid adhesives and in elastomers were synthesized at 5, 10 and 15% target %NCOs by combining the required amounts of desired polyols and Mondur M in a clean can and heating the contents to approximately 70 deg.C under agitation and a nitrogen pad for approximately two hours. Products were finally sealed in the can under a nitrogen blanket overnight before determining the product %NCO (ASTM D 2572) and viscosity.
Selected prepolymers were evaluated as one-part moisture-cure adhesives by first blending in 0.25% by weight of DMDEE catalyst into prepolymers studied. Laminate assemblies were then made by spreading approximately 14 grams of catalyzed prepolymer to Lauan wood measuring 1-ft x 1-ft x 3?-in thick. Fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP) was next placed on top of the treated Lauan surface, and the assembly was clamped together at 40 psi of pressure to cure overnight under ambient conditions.
Test specimens were prepared by trimming the bonded Lauan-FRP assemblies to 1-in x 2-in rectangles and bonding the opposite untreated surfaces to matching aluminum T-bars with epoxy adhesive. The final assemblies were tested with an Instron Model 1123 test machine with a separation of 0.5 in/min following at least one-hour storage at a test temperature.
Elastomers were made by hand-mixing selected prepolymers with sufficient 1,4-butanediol for a "103 Index" formulation (i.e., 1.03 times the isocyanate weight required to affect a stoichiometric balance between a mixture of polyols and an isocyanate). To facilitate cure, DBTDL at 0.1% of the total polyol and isocyanate blended weight was quickly mixed in by hand and the resulting liquid was immediately cast into molds preheated at 120oC. Molds were maintained at 120 deg. C for an additional hour and then placed in ambient conditions for at least four hours before parts were de-molded. Parts were allowed to stand under ambient conditions at least one week before evaluating for tensile strength and elongation (ASTM D 638, Type I) and Shore A hardness (ASTM D 2240).
Prepolymers for polyurethane-reactive hot melt (PURHM) adhesives were prepared in a similar manner, except that the target %NCO was 2% and reaction times were about one hour at 120 deg. C. The procedure for determining %NCO of these products was modified by first dissolving a weighed amount of a PURHM in 25 - 100 ml of dry, warm ethyl acetate and then proceeding with the ASTM D 2572 technique.
Hot melt adhesives were evaluated for green strength by recording the Instron force required to separate cubic-inch pine blocks bonded for 30 seconds with a 295 gram weight serving as compression. The actual bond line was prepared by first applying a drop of molten PURHM at 120 deg. C onto the room-temperature surface of one pine cube and quickly drawing the drop into a thin film to cover the entire cube face with a wooden tongue depressor. The face of another untreated pine cube was aligned with the treated face to effect the bond line and compressed as above. Green-strength times were measured as the delay between contacting the pine blocks and the start of the actual separation of a bonded pair of blocks. Blocks had pre-drilled holes to accommodate eyehooks, which allowed mounting on Instron clamps.
"Quick Stick" testing was done by applying a PURHM (at 120 deg. C) to a tongue depressor and bonding the depressor to the corresponding substrate. Following three days at ambient conditions, these assemblies were separated by hand and examined for the mode of bond failure.
Polyurethane dispersions (PUDs) were prepared by a typical multi-step process. First, a mixture of a selected polyol and dimethylolpropionic acid (DMPA) was reacted with an excess of Desmodur W at 80 deg. C - 95 deg. C in the presence of N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) until a target %NCO of approximately 4% was reached (2 - 4 hours). DBTDL (100 ppm) was used as the catalyst in the prepolymer synthesis. The resulting prepolymer was cooled to 60 deg. C and then neutralized with a stoichiometric amount of triethyl amine (TEA) based on the amount of DMPA used. The neutralized prepolymer was cooled to room temperature and dispersed in deionized water under high shear of 3,000 - 5,000 rpm. Hydrazine hydrate was added to the mixture, and the dispersion was stirred for 30 minutes under high-shear conditions. The NCO/NH2 equivalent ratio was 1.05.
PUD dispersions were characterized using a NICOMP 370/Autodilute Submicron Particle Sizer and the pH Metrohm Potentograph E 536. Films were cast using a 10-mil draw-down bar and allowed to cure for seven days at ambient conditions. The pencil hardness was measured using ASTM D 3363-92A. Quick-stick testing was done in a way similar to that described above except that the adhesive was allowed to cure for four days at ambient conditions.
Results and DiscussionPrepolymer Viscosity
Prepolymer viscosity data are most conveniently represented in Figure 1 as %NCO plotted against the logarithmic ordinate of viscosity (in cP at 25 deg.C) since these transformed relationships tend to be linear. Prepolymers of PD-56 and PN-110 were in excess of 100,000 cP due to the higher viscosity of the starting materials and were therefore not measured. Note that PH-56 data were recorded at 50oC for 10% and 15% NCO products. The viscosity of the 5% NCO prepolymer of PH-56 was quite high and is not displayed here.
As expected, prepolymer viscosities in Figure 1 are negatively correlated with %NCO. Note prepolymer viscosities of PD-56LV, a new 'low-viscosity" polyester diol, and PPG-2000 approach one another as %NCO in their respective prepolymers increases.
Adhesives and Elastomers
Prepolymers of pure MDI were selected for this study for their utility in both adhesives and elastomers. When catalyzed with 0.25% DMDEE by weight to assist moisture curing, the ability of these prepolymers to act as liquid PUR adhesives was studied. Alternatively, the same prepolymers were extended with 1,4-butanediol and catalyzed with DBTDL to prepare elastomers.
For the liquid adhesive study, due to the higher viscosity observed at the lower %NCOs, only 15% NCO prepolymers were used. Lower viscosity products are usually preferred to improve substrate wet-out and final bonding.
Information from this study suggests liquid MDI prepolymers of PH-56 are not candidates of choice for Lauan to FRP bonding. Possible explanations include the high viscosity of these prepolymers or the chemical compositions of this diol are not optimum for bonding these materials.
Comparison of PPG-2000- and PD-56LV-MDI adhesives shows substrate failure (Lauan) at all temperatures studied. Here, the flat-wise tensile strength values are higher for the PD-56LV than the PPG analogues, in spite of the fact that the PD-56LV prepolymer is more viscous. It is quite possible that less viscosity is useful to a point, below which adhesion quality depends more on the quality of the polymer backbone. The reason for a relatively high tensile strength without substrate failure with the PH-56 prepolymer remains unclear.
Elastomers based on PD-56LV again outperformed analogues made from PPG at the corresponding %NCO in terms of exhibiting higher tensile strength and elongation. This may be due to a chemical difference with polyester vs. polyether, or to the fact that PD-56LV does not contain the same type of unsaturation (as allyl alcohol) as is generally found in higher-molecular-weight polypropylene glycols5.
The extension of this work was to compare the hydrolysis resistance of the elastomers made with PD-56LV, PPG-2000 and a polyester polyol generally considered one of the more resistant to hydrolysis, polycaprolactone6,7. A series of "one-shot" elastomers was made by blending polyol, 1,4-butanediol (30 parts per hundred parts polyol), Mondur CD (103 index) and DBTDL catalyst by hand, casting into preheated molds and curing as with the other elastomers.
Water aging of these one-shot elastomers was accomplished by soaking cured dog-bone specimens in separate cans at 88 deg. C. After 29 days, parts were removed from the water, blotted dry and dried in a convection oven at 70 deg. C overnight. Samples were allowed to equilibrate under ambient conditions at least three hours prior to testing. Table 3 shows the results.
Percentage retention of both tensile strength and elongation are nearly identical for the PD-56LV and PPG-2000 elastomers (tensile retained = 56% and 58% and elongation retained = 35% and 32%, respectively), whereas the polycaprolactone-based elastomer was too brittle to evaluate for these properties. All three elastomers exhibited 95 - 96 Shore A hardness before aging and 94 - 97 Shore A hardness after aging. Thus, elastomers prepared with the polyester PD-56LV exhibit the same magnitude of retention of tensile and elongation as a PPG analogue.
A series of PUR hot melt adhesives (or PURHMs) were prepared by blending polyols at 120 deg. C and reacting with pure MDI to approximately 2% NCO. Characterization of the products was made in terms of 120 deg. C viscosity, physical properties of open time and initial or green strength, and the ability to bond pinewood to various surfaces.
There is no standard test for green strength. This is unfortunate, as green strength is a common term in the adhesives industry as an attempt to describe the amount of "strength" an adhesive first exhibits, especially in resisting memory of bonded substrates. In this work, we adopted a technique of applying a film of molten hot melt adhesive to wooden blocks, pressing them together under specified conditions and then recording the amount of force required to separate them with a strain rate of 10 inches (25.4 cm) per minute.
Table 4 lists the polyol combinations used to prepare PURHMs along with %NCO and viscosity (cP @ 120 deg. C).
In general, PUR hot melt adhesives with the shortest open times have the highest green strength. Only the PUR hot melt adhesive containing PD-56 is opaque when molten; all other PUR hot melts appear clear. The shorter open time observed for the PD-56 product may indicate the role of compatibility; an incompatible melt allows the HDA segment to segregate and quickly crystallize when cooled, whereas compatible systems solvate HDA, thereby retarding crystallization. Note that this delay does not necessarily compromise green strength.
Quick-stick testing was done on four different substrates as shown in Table 6. PH-56 and PD-56LV give the best bonding characteristics with the substrates evaluated. It is interesting to note that even though PN-110 was added to the PH-56 formulation, it did not affect the quick-stick bonding characteristics.
To gain an understanding of how these polyols perform in polyurethane dispersions (PUDs), formulations were prepared from PD-56, PH-56 and PD-56LV. Since many factors influence PUD properties, simple, non-optimized formulations were examined (Table 7).
After the PUDs were made, the dispersions were characterized. Table 8 summarizes the data.
All three PUDs have a white opaque/blue hue appearance, did not precipitate after seven days in a 50 deg. C oven and have very low viscosities at ambient temperatures. As shown in Table 8, the particle size for each PUD has the same range. However, PD-56 and PH-56 provide a much harder film than PD-56LV. One unexplained result was the low pH associated with each sample.
A quick-stick test was used to evaluate the adhesive characteristics of each PUD. Table 9 summarizes the results. As shown, PH-56 displays the best bonding profile of the three.
ConclusionsSeveral new polyester polyols have been developed and explored for utility in polyurethane C.A.S.E. applications. Adhesives based on PD-56LV provide flat-wise tensile strengths exceeding results for the analogous PPG-based system.
Elastomers using PD-56LV as the major (soft segment) polyol and extended with 1,4-butane diol generally demonstrated higher tensile strength and elongation values as compared with elastomers using conventional polypropylene glycol as a soft segment. Not only has this been demonstrated for both one- and two-shot methods, but also the retention of these properties is similar after a one-month soaking in hot water. In addition, property retention of the PD-56LV elastomer after water soaking is superior to that of a similar polycaprolactone-based elastomer. As previously reported, the ortho positioning of ester groups in PD-56LV is likely responsible for this superior resistance to degradation by water1.
Also, PD-56LV demonstrates utility in both PUR hot melts and PUDs. In a hot melt adhesive formulation with hexanediol adipate, PD-56LV at the level used provides an excellent bonding profile, high green strength and a relatively short open time. It also has been successfully used in a PUD formulation, generating a stable dispersion and a soft film.
The other three polyols, PH-56, PD-56 and PN-110, have been shown to provide versatility in PUR hot melt applications. When combined with hexanediol adipate, PH-56 generates a hot melt with excellent bonding characteristics and a short open time; PD-56 provides similar results. PN-110 can be used as an agent to extend open time in a PUR hot melt adhesive.
Both PH-56 and PD-56 made stable polyurethane dispersions. The PUDs made with these polyols give hard films and small particle sizes. Of the three PUDs made, PH-56 exhibited the best bonding profile.
In summary, several ortho-phthalate polyols have been successfully used in multiple C.A.S.E. applications. The inherent hydrolytic stability of these ortho-phthalate-based polyols coupled with the economical performance benefits provide performance advantages for many C.A.S.E. applications.
This article is based on a presentation made at the Polyurethanes Conference 2000 sponsored by the Alliance for the Poyurethanes Industry in Boston last October. Additional information on STEPANOL polyester polyols is available from Stepan Co., 22 West Frontage Road, Northfield, IL 60093; call 800-745-STEP (7837) (Technical Service), fax 847-441-4166, e-mail [email protected] or visit the Web site www.stepan.com. Or Circle No. 75.
ReferencesHillshafer, D. K.; O'Brien, M. E.; Knutsen, K. J.; Proceedings of Polyurethane Expo, 1996, pp. 530-537.
Skeist Inc., Polyurethanes IV, Skeist Inc., Whipppany, N.J., 1994, p. 1.
Buist, J. M. and H. Gudgeon, Advances in Polyurethane Technology, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1964, p. 1
Oertel, Gunter, Polyurethane Handbook, Hanser Publishers, 1994, pp. 1 - 3.
Herrington, Ron and K. Hock, Flexible Polyurethane Foams, The Dow Chemical Co., Midland, Mich., 1997, p. 2, 8.
Union Carbide Corp., "Tone Polyols for High Performance Urethane Elastomers and Adhesives" (Technical Brochure), UCC, 1993, pp. 4, 18
Union Carbide Corp., "Tone Monomer EC" (Technical Publication), UCC, 1987, pp. 1, 11. | <urn:uuid:1076d4f9-50c1-4fff-8982-e24a0f82027b> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://www.adhesivesmag.com/articles/83916-polyester-polyols-show-advantages-in-polyurethane-adhesives | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446711150.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20221207053157-20221207083157-00119.warc.gz | en | 0.937524 | 4,299 | 2.734375 | 3 |
The ICJ has published today a set of training materials on access to justice for migrant children that were developed as part of the FAIR (Fostering Access to Immigrant children’s Rights) project.
These training modules should help lawyers when representing migrant children to increase their knowledge of the rights of the migrant children, to increase their understanding of the use of international redress mechanisms for violations of human rights of migrant children and give some advice on how to effectively communicate with child clients.
The materials include the following training modules:
0. Guiding principles and definitions,
I. Access to fair procedures including the right to be heard and to participate in proceedings,
II. Access to justice in detention,
III. Access to justice for economic, social and cultural rights,
IV. Access to justice in the protection of their right to private and family life,
V. Redress through international human rights bodies and mechanisms,
VI. Practical handbook for lawyers when representing a child.
These materials have been used in national trainings for lawyers organised by the ICJ-EI in Spain, Italy, Greece, Malta, Bulgaria, Ireland and Germany and include also practical training tools, such as case studies and warm-up questionnaires to guide possible future trainings.
They will be translated into five other languages: Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, German and Italian.
You can download the materials here:
PublicationsReportsTraining modulesWorkshop reports | <urn:uuid:2d4b11a7-09c8-4190-9dbe-cc4f51a3f6d7> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.icj.org/training-materials-on-access-to-justice-for-migrant-children/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195525829.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20190718211312-20190718233312-00318.warc.gz | en | 0.93924 | 298 | 3.109375 | 3 |
1. John Hammond has recreated the world of dinosaurs on a remote island.
2. At the beginning of the extract, the characters were in electric cars outside the Tyrannosaurus paddock.
3. The Tyrannosaurus could grip the fence because the power had gone down, so the fence was not electrified.
4. When Gennaro sees the Tyrannosaurus, he runs from the car to a small unfinished building.
5. Alan says “Don’t move,” because, as he explains, the Tyrannosaurus can’t see them if they don’t move.
6. a) quaking means shaking and refers to the sound of the ground moving under the T-rex’s footsteps
b) ‘vibrations’ are short, rapid movements back and forth
c) ‘bolted’ means to run quickly and suddenly away from something such as a T-rex
d) a ‘beacon’ is a bright light which draws something such as a T-rex towards it
e) ‘butted’ means to hit or push something such as a car, with a body-part such as a T-rex’s head
f) the ‘undercarriage’ is the underside, or bottom, of the car
7. The author creates a feeling of fear in the first three paragraphs through his use of short sentences. Because these sentences are from the point of view of the characters, it creates the impression that they are panicked.
8. The author gives the impression that Gennaro is cowardly, because he ran away without warning the others or being concerned with their safety.
9. It is clear that Dr Alan Grant is knowledgeable about dinosaurs because he explains to Ian that T-rex cannot see them if they don’t move.
10. Because of how she apologises immediately, I think Lex turned on the flashlight accidentally.
I noticed that the car started shaking. I asked Lex if she felt it, but at first she didn’t. It felt like giant footsteps shaking the ground, and then suddenly a T-rex walked up to the giant fence and grabbed it. It shouldn’t have been able to do that. The fence was supposed to be electrified, but the T-rex was breaking through.
As quickly as he could, Gennaro ran from the car and disappeared down the road. He abandoned us!
The T-rex was on the road now, outside its paddock. I hoped we might be okay because it was focussed on the other car, looking through the window. I was wrong. All of a sudden there was a blinding light in the car as Lex turned on her flashlight. She tried saying sorry – I think it was an accident – but it was too late.
Through the sunroof we could see the T-rex, looming over us. It roared twice and made the loudest sound I’ve ever heard before smashing the car. It kicked and headbutted us, and all the car windows broke. We were trapped in the upside-down car as it rolled off the road. The T-rex was attacking the car, ripping bits off and sinking its teeth into a tyre. I looked out the window to see we were balanced precariously over the edge of a cliff, at the dinosaur’s mercy! | <urn:uuid:68a280fc-9f50-4ba2-a419-10600e979916> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | https://ourlearning.wordpress.com/2015/08/04/jurassic-park-reading-comprehension/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934806316.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20171121040104-20171121060104-00528.warc.gz | en | 0.9785 | 704 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Vandals Destroy Dinosaur Nests and Footprints
Everything Dinosaur has received press reports that vandals have smashed a number of dinosaur eggs and footprints that made up part of an outdoor display at the Mirador del Cretáceo dig site in Coll de Nargó, Catalonia (north-eastern Spain). The tourist attraction was opened in 2005 and combines a serious palaeontological study of Upper Cretaceous highly fossiliferous sediments with a tourist attraction, which permits onlookers to walk round the site and to view some of the fossil specimens in situ as well as other exhibits that show how dinosaurs nested.
Some of the items believed to have been smashed include dinosaur eggs that had been reassembled from the fossil remains to give the impression that they had just been laid.
Sites containing dinosaur egg remains and evidence of nesting behaviour are extremely rare and the dig site in the Pyrénéen village is believed to represent the largest location of its kind yet discovered in Europe. In addition, the fossils are very well preserved and these in conjunction with the numerous dinosaur footprints that have been mapped in the area indicate the presence of at least six different types of dinosaur present in this Late Cretaceous ecosystem.
One of the Fossilised Eggs Preserved at the Site
Picture Credit: (Xavier Delclòs, Faculty of Geology UB)
Sadly, this is not the only example of vandalism reported upon by Everything Dinosaur, back in 2012, team members from Everything Dinosaur published an article about an act of dinosaur vandalism in Alberta, Canada.
To read more about this incident: Hooligans smash duck-billed dinosaur fossils
More recently, a Sauropod bone at the Dinosaur Monument in Utah was broken and a piece stolen, this theft and the damage to that part of the bone that remained led to the specimen having to be removed.
Salvador Moyà, the manager at the Palaeolithic Institute of Catalunya (ICP) called the destruction of the fossils “inconceivable” and the mayor of Coll de Nargó, Senor Benito Fité stated that this was a “catastrophe”.
These incidents are all to frequent, especially at sites which are relatively open and allow public access. Back in 2013, the site was raided by a local resident and several specimens stolen. These were only returned when it became public knowledge that whoever was responsible for the theft would face prosecution for their criminal action. | <urn:uuid:8b751db0-2011-4106-b9b3-fea0aaddbbd2> | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | https://blog.everythingdinosaur.co.uk/blog/_archives/2015/03/16/dinosaur-nest-site-vandalised.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107890586.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20201026061044-20201026091044-00219.warc.gz | en | 0.961457 | 505 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Lourdes Salvador's Column
...Co-founder of MCS America discusses the latest Multiple Chemical Sensitivity issues.
For more information visit MCS America
Scientists Uncover New Pandemic
by Lourdes Salvador
There is an escalating pandemic of acquired allergy, food intolerance, and chemical sensitivity in previously healthy people. Research shows that this, as well as many contemporary illnesses, is the direct result of our toxic environment.
Stephen J. Genius, MD, FRCSC, DABOG, DABEM, FAAEM, Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Alberta, Canada, says, "The prevalence of allergic-related diseases, food intolerance, and chemical sensitivities in both the pediatric and adult population has increased dramatically over the last two decades, with escalating rates of associated morbidity."
Nearly everyone either has or knows someone who suffers with an allergy or intolerance. Genius refers to the triad of illnesses as sensitivity-related illness (SRI).
SRI is the direct result of a toxicant induced loss of tolerance (TILT), a response to a significant initiating toxic exposure, according to Genius.
Once an initiation exosure occurs, future exposure to assorted toxic chemical substances brings on diverse clinical and immune responses as evidenced by clinical symptoms, and varied lymphocyte, antibody, or cytokine responses in some cases. Toxic response may involve various organ systems and a wide-range of physical and neuropsychological manifestations.
The U.S. Environmental Protection agency defines multiple chemical sensitivity, an SRI, as "a diagnostic label for people who suffer multi-system illnesses as a result of contact with, or proximity to, a variety of airborne agents and other substances."
Despite a wide body of research on the toxicological basis of these contemporary illnesses, most doctors are stumped by them. "As has usually been the case throughout medical history whenever new evidence regarding disease mechanisms emerges, resistance to the translation of knowledge abounds," says Genius.
"The resolution of SRI generally occurs on a gradual basis following the elimination of bioaccumulated toxicity and avoidance of further initiating adverse environmental exposures," says Genius. "Avoidance of triggers will preclude symptoms, and desensitization immunotherapy or immune suppression may ameliorate symptomatology in some cases.
As with any societal pandemic, the cause must be eliminated. That means reducing and eliminating sources of toxic exposure that lead to contemporary illnesses.
Traditionally, chemical regulations have been very weak. European nations have moved forward in 2007 with new chemical regulations called R.E.A.C.H., which deals with the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of CHemical substances. However, the United States has been slow to follow.
Largely unsubstantiated fears of job loss, struggling industry, and reduced profits stand largely behind the resistance in the USA. It´s only a matter of time before this pandemic reaches so many people that widespread disability interferes with a work force of sufficient magnitude to maintain these toxic ways.
While we often think of smoke stacks as a primary source of toxic chemicals, some of the worst offenders and producers of poor air quality are the products we use in our own homes. Studies show indoor air is as much as two to six times more polluted than outdoor air.
The culprits which pollute indoor air include cleaning products, hand ´sanitizer´, air ´fresheners´, fumes from scented laundry products, pesticides, and formaldehyde release from furniture and carpet. Exposure to cleaning and ´freshening´ products has been linked with asthma and other respiratory disorders.
There are safer methods, safer ingredients, and safer ways. As a society, we survived untold years without hazardous chemicals, hand sanitizers, or air fresheners. It has only been in the last 20 – 30 years with the increased use of chemicals, fragrances, and vaccines that SRIs have become predominant.
Some ways to improve ventilation and reduce exposure include:
- Open windows.
- Place HVAC fan in the ´on´ position (regardless of temperature setting).
- Install a carbon filter or whole house filter on the HVAC system.
- Use a portable air filter, especially when cleaning.
- Avoid the use of air fresheners and scenting devices.
- Choose unscented, natural, and organic cleaning products whenever possible.
- Consider baking soda for scouring and laundry, vinegar for all purpose cleaning and disinfecting, and peroxide for bleaching and added disinfecting.
- Avoid pesticides.
Genius SJ. Sensitivity-related illness: the escalating pandemic of allergy, food intolerance and chemical sensitivity. Sci Total Environ. 2010 Nov 15;408(24):6047-61.
For more articles on this topic, see: MCSA News.
Copyrighted 2011 Lourdes Salvador & MCS America | <urn:uuid:aada1ff2-8d2d-4101-8e61-59c1da9bc300> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | http://www.ei-resource.org/columns/mcs-america/scientists-uncover-new-pandemic/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267864740.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20180622162604-20180622182604-00165.warc.gz | en | 0.920139 | 1,011 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Information Possibly Outdated
The information presented on this page was originally released on May 6, 1996. It may not be outdated, but please search our site for more current information. If you plan to quote or reference this information in a publication, please check with the Extension specialist or author before proceeding.
Home Cooling Techniques
By Dawn R. West
MISSISSIPPI STATE -- As summer weather quickly approaches, the soaring temperatures are causing growing concerns for Mississippians trying to stay cool and prevent rising utility bills. Applying a few basic techniques can help better prepare homes for the hot weather.
Dr. Frances Graham, extension housing specialist at Mississippi State University, said there are four basic ways to keep homes cool.
"The four best ways to keep cool are conservation, shading, ventilation and conditioning," Graham said. "Conservation means keeping the cool air in and shading means keeping hot air out. Ventilation is the movement of air and conditioning is the process of cooling and dehumidifying the home using an air conditioner."
Attic insulation is as important for cooling in the summer as it is for heating in the winter.
"We recommend insulation with an r-value of 30. This number is an indication of the resistance factor of the insulation," Graham said. "Insulation is an effective means of conservation."
Other cost-effective additions include floor and wall insulation as well as storm windows.
Another way to conserve energy is to weatherize homes to keep out moist, hot air. The best way to weatherize the home is to caulk any cracks or crevices and weather strip doors and windows.
"Kitchen and bathroom vent fans and openings where pipes or wires enter the house tend to be a weatherization problem," Graham said."Where two different materials meet, such as brick and wood, check to see if caulking is needed."
Landscaping around the home can help in shading.
"Shade trees or even trellises will help during the low morning and afternoon sun," Graham said. "Even porches could benefit from vines or other plants."
Shading also includes "movable insulation" such as shades, interior or exterior shutters, curtains, drapes, blinds and other types of window dressing.
"Sunscreens provide a type of shading if they are installed on the exterior windows," Graham added.
Home ventilation cools in two ways. First, it moves the air out of the house, and it helps us feel better by evaporating some of the moisture from our bodies.
"Research shows that ventilation can make the air feel up to 10 degrees cooler depending on the humidity and the velocity," Graham said. "Timing is important because on summer mornings the windows should remain closed to retain coolness from the night."
The specialist said a well-insulated house will gain only about 1 degree per hour if the outside temperature is between 80 and 95 degrees. The hotter it is outside the quicker the house warms up.
Other forms of ventilation are opening windows and doors, vent fans, movement of air through ceiling fans and attic fans.
The specialist said an attic fan can be used to increase ventilation by moving the hottest air out of the attic and providing an environment for the house to be cooler.
Be sure heating and cooling units are sized properly for the size of homes. Check the energy efficiency rating when purchasing a central heating and cooling unit.
"A thermostatically controlled air conditioner will actually help in dehumidification, but an oversized one will not function long enough to do the proper job of dehumidifying the air," Graham said.
Other ways to help conserve energy are to keep the thermostat set at 78 degrees or higher, keep the condenser clear of debris and check filters frequently, changing them at least once a month. | <urn:uuid:ea2e6160-27a3-4df5-a174-4040e4bc288d> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | http://www.ext.msstate.edu/news/feature-story/1996/home-cooling-techniques?page=7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510924.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20231001173415-20231001203415-00589.warc.gz | en | 0.937056 | 786 | 2.609375 | 3 |
The question “How to make a research paper longer?” should equal “How to develop your thoughts in a way that shows your knowledge of key concepts and gives you an opportunity to add something more to the discussion of the assignment?” Requirements should always be met, especially those ones concerning the format, like minimum page count. But it shouldn`t mean that you obligatory have to look at word count after every single sentence, clause or even word combination. Everything depends on you, take control of your writing and enjoy it. You will find below eight tips to make your research paper longer which will help you increase the word count and make that process more pleasant.
- Get interested in writing a research paper.
If you love what you do, you will probably achieve a lot. Have you noticed that if you were describing, for example, the advantages and disadvantages of something, you were more likely do dwell eagerly on those issues that you agreed with and found acceptable? Being interested in a topic of research paper provides a person with a possibility to deepen into the discussion, analyze the data, compare the facts and communicate in writing with more willingness.
- Do enough research.
The topic of the research paper may be branches of Stylistics, civil society, the Middle Ages or whatever. While you are undertaking tertiary education, you are not an expert. So find those experts, find their works. Numerous scholars can provide different classifications, definitions, diagrams, since some topics are really rather controversial, or vice versa their attitudes towards certain issue may coincide. Whether scientists opinions are the same or differ, be ready to contrast and evaluate them, examine key points and possible interpretations, provide reasons and evidence for something, present a description of the most important features.
- Get focused.
Don’t allow subtle nuances of meaning of some phenomenon that you are investigating in your research paper get you discouraged. Read aloud what you have already composed. If you discover that there is some gap, explore it deeper and add some more information. Read again and again the rubric or prompts, if you’ve been provided with. Splitting compound sentences, lengthening and expanding, making appropriate subheadings are those tricks to make your research paper longer. While applying them pay attention to maintaining the development of the topic and subtopics in the proper direction, for an example research paper on a person.
- Start writing with the body.
Division of a research paper may be the following: an introduction (about 10% of the assignment), discussion (about 80% of the assignment) and conclusion (about 10% of the assignment). If you are thinking about an introduction, but can’t decide what should be included there, skip it and make a plan of those points that are worth mentioning in the body. It helps save time as while writing the biggest part of the research paper; you have to consider a great deal of information, show the results of the research, provide evidence you find pertinent, revolve around the theme. A successfully written body will provide 80% of the word count. The majority of the work is already done, thanks to it writing conclusion and introduction will be easier tasks now.
- Ask for help. Two heads are better than one. You`ve gone to great lengths to do an academic assignment, but the requirements of word count are still not met. Introduce the work you have already done to your friend who is versed in this topic. After reading your writing he or she can think carefully about it, assess its strengths and weaknesses, form their own opinions about certain issues and give pieces of advice about how to make your research paper longer from his or her points of view. Don’t ignore criticism, be objective and take into account possible ways of reconsidering and re-organizing your writing with a view to lengthening it. Give details about some relevant information you have heard from your friend. Maybe you will find out about a reliable source that you didn’t use. Every help may be beneficial, appreciate it.
- Don t look for an easy way. Relying on “easy” tricks such as shifting the typeface, altering the margins, doing the periods and all the stuff like that in order to make research paper look larger isn’t a suitable way to follow. Adding quantity should not lead to sacrificing quality. Moreover, the marker is most likely aware of all those old and evident tricks, so he can spot them immediately, and it will make a poor impression about that student and influence the grade.
- Get interested in writing a research paper.
Make your research paper longer, not worse, avoid all those easy tricks and concentrate on the material.
If you don’t want to write your paper – tell us Do my research paper cheap and it will be done on A+.
- Include quotations. Having conducted research, you will have paraphrased in your academic assignment findings from other sources. While using citations, you will not get accusations of plagiarizing. Furthermore, the number of words used will increase. In fact, it is important to cite the work of numerous scholars since the results of previous studies in this field enhance the argumentation and make your research paper longer and better.
- Include linking and transition words.
Whether you are describing similarities or showing cause and effect, use linking words, like “correspondingly,” “for this reason,” “since” and others that are both useful and appropriate to academic language. They help explain your point of view, make writing as clear and precise as possible and give prompts on what to expect from certain paragraphs and sentences. Not only your paper will flow smoothly, but also the amount of words used will increase, and the marker will be satisfied to read the transition words in your research paper.
Although writing an academic assignment may seem to be a daunting procedure, taking into consideration possible ways to make your research paper longer will facilitate that process. Be original, show enough perseverance, pay attention to detail, engage in research and avoid tricks like increasing line spacing or font size at all costs. Anyone can learn to write an academic assignment. Following standard formats, guidelines on which writing research papers is based and those tips in question help you increase the word count and get satisfaction from the done work. | <urn:uuid:9097ce96-9635-4ed5-9f00-eae201680b9a> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://researchpapers.io/how-to-make-a-research-paper-longer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250611127.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20200123160903-20200123185903-00278.warc.gz | en | 0.946216 | 1,293 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Video games aren’t just child’s play; more than half of adults and about a quarter of seniors are digital gamers too.
As in two preceding tests, a new survey shows that including cell phone interviews results in slightly more support for Obama and slightly less for McCain.
The first nationally representative study of teen video game play and civic engagement looks at which teens are playing what games, the equipment they use, the social context of their play, and the role of parents and parental monitoring.
Most teenagers spend a considerable amount of their life composing texts, but they don’t regard most of the material they create electronically as real writing. Does e-communication help – or hurt – students’ writing skills? | <urn:uuid:1740cd73-6428-429f-aea5-da470f556bff> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | https://www.pewresearch.org/topics/teens-and-technology/2008/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627999003.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20190619163847-20190619185847-00136.warc.gz | en | 0.949333 | 148 | 2.75 | 3 |
the challege of the rice fields of Mana
Our work in French Guiana has proven to be fruitful. We found over 1700 red knots and at least 1000 turnstones in one location, in the rice fields of Mana. Moreover we resighted knots with a disproportionately high number of red flags indicating they were heading to the Bahia Lomas wintering grounds in Tierra del Fuego. We know these birds because we banded them. With the data collected by Alexandre Vinot, a volunteer from French Guiana, and data from our geolocators caught in Delaware Bay, we can be fairly certain that French Guiana plays a signficant role in the lives of Brazilian, Argentine and Chilean red knots.
The key place, the rice fields of Mana, presents a monumental management challedge. First and foremost is the hunting. While walking the dikes I picked up all the shotgun shells I could find along dikes that border the sea or project out into the sea. I found about 30 newish shotguns shells per kilometer of dike. This is a minimum as some of the dikes were being swept by the tides and most were overgrown with a tangle of vegetation. We saw two people with guns in our 4 days in the field. Although whimbrels are the most liklely targets because they are big, knots too are vulerable because they are the only bird to occur in dense groups, and thus more can be killed with one shot. We can’t be certain how much a threat hunting presents to shorebirds in the rice fields of Mana, but most of the people working here believe it is. I agree.
But the second challege is the rapidly shifting rice fields. In a brief review of google earth imagery one can see that the area has lost nearly a kilometer of area to the sea since 2000. Curiously the rice fields were stable until then. Why? Did the shift in ownership, and the uncertainies this creates in management, cause fields to be lost to the sea or did the power of the sea change in the last decade? In any case the erosion has helped knots, turnstones, whimbrels and other species because the erosion has laid bare new habitat for an abundance of invertebrates eagerly consumed by shorebirds.
How to manage this situation? The rice fields create jobs and habitat for many shorebirds like semi-palmated sandpiper, greater and lesser yellowlegs, pectoral sandpipers, stilt sandpipers and others. The eroded rice banks create habitat for knots and the other species mentioned above.
Above all is the welfare of the people of this land. They need food and jobs, both provided by the rice fields and hunting. Is this an intractable problem? | <urn:uuid:7fc57e5c-0a00-4e58-a879-7b3726ccd226> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | http://arubewithaview.com/2012/08/26/the-challege-of-the-rice-fields-of-mana/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376823614.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20181211083052-20181211104552-00380.warc.gz | en | 0.950641 | 573 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Organizing and understanding data can be a challenging task, especially when dealing with large amounts of information. However, with the use of a Data Retention: Policies that determine how long data should... viewer, this process can become much more efficient and streamlined. A metadata viewer is a tool that allows users to easily view and analyze metadata associated with their data sets. By providing a comprehensive overview of the data and its properties, a metadata viewer can help users gain clarity amidst the chaos of complex data sets.
The Importance of Metadata
Metadata plays a crucial role in data organization and understanding. It provides essential information about the data, such as its structure, format, and context. Without proper metadata, data can quickly become disorganized and difficult to interpret. By utilizing a metadata viewer, users can access and analyze this information with ease, greatly enhancing their ability to work with and understand the data.
Efficient Data Organization
A metadata viewer enables users to organize their data effectively. It allows them to see the properties and attributes associated with each data set, making it easier to group and categorize similar types of data. For instance, users can quickly identify and separate numerical data from textual data, or categorize data based on specific attributes such as dates or locations. This level of organization provides a clear and logical structure that aids in navigating and accessing data efficiently.
Enhanced Data Understanding
Understanding the data’s context and content is vital for any analysis or decision-making process. A metadata viewer allows users to delve deeper into the data, providing insights into its origins, transformations, and relationships. By examining metadata, users can understand how the data was collected, what processes were applied to it, and how it relates to other data sets. This enhanced understanding allows for more informed analysis and decision-making based on a solid comprehension of the data’s characteristics.
In collaborative projects, effective data organization and understanding are paramount. A metadata viewer enables teams to share and collaborate on data more effectively. By having a clear overview of the data’s properties, everyone involved can better grasp the data’s structure and content. This shared understanding reduces misunderstandings and promotes more efficient collaboration, ultimately leading to higher-quality results.
The journey from chaos to clarity in data organization and understanding can be challenging, but a metadata viewer simplifies the process significantly. By providing a comprehensive overview of the data’s properties, a metadata viewer enhances data organization and allows users to gain a deeper understanding of their data sets. With the support of a metadata viewer, users can navigate through complex data more efficiently and collaborate effectively, ultimately leading to more informed decision-making and improved outcomes. | <urn:uuid:e59f547c-c8dd-47db-9740-c29e76e9ca2b> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://skycentral.co.uk/glossary/from-chaos-to-clarity-how-a-metadata-viewer-enhances-data-organization-and-understanding/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679102697.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20231210221943-20231211011943-00751.warc.gz | en | 0.896088 | 540 | 3.03125 | 3 |
A sportsboat is typically a sailing or motor-powered, runabout-type boat designed and intended to be used for leisure and sporting activities. Commonly powered by a V-8 automobile type engine, the typical sportsboat is a high-powered and fast boat capable of pulling skiers as well as inflatable tow-behind toys. Often a mid-engine design to aid in balancing the boat, the sportsboat is a very maneuverable and agile boat capable of turning very quickly. Commonly constructed of fiberglass with a V-type hull, the sportsboat can navigate rough waters by slicing through the tops of the waves. This creates a much smoother ride for passengers, making the craft ideal for slow-pleasure cruising as well as high-speed thrill seeking.
Many of today's sportsboat owners are having large stainless steel or aluminum wakeboard towers installed that place the tow rope at a higher height than the typical towing point of a runabout-type boat. The tall tower allows the wakeboard rider to perform tricks that require a lot of speed by allowing the rider to nearly circle the boat. This gives a great deal of added speed to the wakeboard, allowing the rider to get higher out of the water for a greater period of time.
In a sailing version of the sportsboat, the planing hull design is commonly lightweight and includes a lifting keel to accommodate trailering. Often referred to as trailer yachts, the boats are stripped of many of the amenities and luxuries that traditional designs are known for. Due to the relaxed appointments, the sailing sportsboat uses the weight of the crew to offset the heeling forces created by their extra-large sail surface area. Another distinguishing trait of a sailing sportsboat is that it is self-righting. Larger versions of this type of craft are often referred to as sports-yachts.
Unlike their motor-powered cousins, sailing sportboats use a flat hull design. This hull design provides less drag than a traditional hull, though it often requires a deeper and heavier keel. The sailing sportsboat is akin to a race car when it comes to the interior of the craft. Basically nothing more than an empty hull, this type of vessel is built for speed, handling and maneuverability. Racing for this type of sailing vessel consists of single-day events with either one-, two- or three-hour races or four or five shorter races lasting from an hour to an hour and a-half. | <urn:uuid:4967824f-df2f-4fd1-baca-03e3846c8c23> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://www.wise-geek.com/what-is-a-sportsboat.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243989526.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20210514121902-20210514151902-00622.warc.gz | en | 0.964101 | 502 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Summer promises beach days, barbeques, banana splits, and … bigger energy bills. Huh? As temperatures rise, monthly energy bills tend to follow as we crank up the AC. But you can choose among energy-efficient behaviors, technologies, and programs that offer simple ways to keep energy expenses low – while being kind to the planet. Take on this summer energy challenge to see how much you can save.
For the next 8 weeks (July 1 through August 27), challenge yourself to try each of the eight energy-saving tips below. By the end of summer, you’ll be more than ready for Energy Efficiency Day 2021 on October 6. Tell us how these tips worked for you with the hashtags #EEDay2021 and #SummerEnergyChallenge. Happy savings!
1. Week One: Save while you shower
Pumping, purifying, and heating water uses a lot of energy, so you can do double-duty and save two resources at once by being more conscious about your water use. This is especially true for showers, one of the largest drags on hot water heaters – which account for about 17% of home electricity use. During week two, try timing how long your average shower lasts. Then, for the rest of the week, see if you can shorten it by two minutes. Those minutes will add up: because each minute of showering uses about 2.5 gallons of water, two minutes a day is close to 1,000 gallons saved each year.
2. Week Two: Be a top-notch traveler
It costs most households around $2,000 each year to keep their car’s gas tank full. If you have a gas-powered car, try out some simple driving techniques that will make fuel go further: avoid rapid acceleration and braking, follow the speed limit, and turn off your car rather than idling – it only takes 10 seconds worth of fuel to restart your vehicle. These tips can improve your mileage by as much as 40%. And as always, remember to use a more efficient mode of travel when possible – such as public transit – or enjoy the summer weather by biking or walking to nearby locations. The EPA has found that if Americans chose to walk instead of drive for just half our car trips under one mile, the cumulative savings would be $575 million in fuel costs and 2 million metric tons of CO2 emissions per year – the equivalent of taking 400,000 cars off the road.
3. Week Three: Lights, camera, action
Identify the three lights that you use the most in your home, and switch them out for LEDs. LED lights use about 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs, making them the ultimate low-cost, high-return efficiency purchase.
Pro tip: Check your local utility website to see if they offer incentives or rebates for energy-efficient purchases. Some utilities even operate marketplaces with discounted efficient products, or host giveaways with free items.
4. Week Four: Window dressing
Another affordable purchase that will quickly recuperate cost through energy savings is caulk and weatherstripping for windows. As much as one third of energy loss occurs through windows and doors, so set aside a few minutes for a DIY project this week and close up any leaks with your choice of sealing solution.
5. Week Five: Water week
Saving water means saving energy. Take things to the next level by switching out your showerhead for one certified by EPA WaterSense. If everyone in the U.S. did this, we would collectively save $2.2 billion on water bills, $2.6 billion on energy bills, and 260 billion gallons of water each year.
Pro tip: Are you a renter? No problem! Most of these intermediate investments are renter-friendly. You can take an advanced power strip with you when you move, use temporary caulking that can be peeled off when no longer needed, and most landlords won’t mind tenants switching out lightbulbs or showerheads (but make sure to double check – and who knows, they may even offer you compensation!).
6. Week Six: Power on purposefully
Did you know that many of your electronics drain power from the wall even when they’re turned off? Keep these “vampires” in check with an advanced power strip, which automatically turns off the power supply to devices not in use. With models selling for as low as $10, these power strips can save up to $200 a year.
7. Week Seven: August audit
You’ve built some efficient habits and invested in basic household items that will quickly pay back with energy savings. Now it’s time to take things to the next level by scheduling a home energy audit to determine where your home is using the most energy. While professional audits can cost several hundred dollars, they will identify the highest impact steps you can take to permanently reduce your energy costs. Many utilities also offer audits for free or discounted, and you can find a trusted provider through your utility’s website or an ENERGY STAR search tool.
Low-cost option: Try a DIY home energy audit with tips from the Department of Energy.
8. Week Eight: Weatherize for winter
It may feel like those long summer nights will never end, but before we know it, days will be cooling down again. Get ahead of the curve by weatherizing your home this week. Particularly if your home audit found insulation to be a major concern, consider hiring a professional contractor to improve the building envelope. But even setting aside a few weekend hours to layer new insulation in your attic, around your water heater, and in your basement or crawl space can have a major impact. In fact, ENERGY STAR finds you can knock 10% off of your entire annual energy bills with these improvements. Check out ENERGY STAR’s tips to get started.
Low-cost option: A pre-cut “blanket” for your water heater can save up to 16% of your water heating bill for under $30. | <urn:uuid:de8407aa-5448-471f-ae37-7a450ac40390> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://energyefficiencyday.org/see-how-much-you-can-save-with-this-summer-energy-challenge/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224655027.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20230608135911-20230608165911-00565.warc.gz | en | 0.935286 | 1,247 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Diwan- E- Aam
It is a delicate palace which can be seen while visiting the Amber Fort. It has forty pillars and is a best example of intricate craftsmanship. It was built by Mirza Raja Jai Singh between 1631-40, it is located close to the Machchhi Bhawan. The wide assembly hall measures 201′ by 67′ and has flat roof with two gateways of arched red sandstone to the north and south. The hall is divided in three parts and has nine bold arches. This is built in red sandstone and is plastered with white shell plaster which looks like white marble. There is also a raised rectangular stage from where the emperor used to address the audience.
Diwan- E- Aam is the initial fragile palace that will be seen, as one come across the the palace region through an inflicting stairway. The forty pillars of the chamber have carved out paintings by the artisans of Rajasthan and precious stones are embedded on them.
It is featured with fabulous alabaster work, extra ordinary floral glass inlay designs, and smooth marble lattices. Many chambers, rooms and galleries are also there which were once used by princes and other royalty. A separate place similar to a pavilion is also there from where Maharajahs used to receive its general public and used to hear their problems and several issues regarding the kingdom. During the proceedings the king used to sit in the mid of the chamber with his prominent courtiers and officers on the northern side and the less prominent officials and the general public sat on the western part of the chamber and in the adjoining courtyard.
From the southern area of this palace the royal ladies used to watch the proceedings of Diwan- E- Aam from the Zenana house which means Women’s quarters and that’s why this part was always kept clear. Shah Jahan was very fond of marble which can be seen in Diwan- E- Aam or Hall of Public Audience. It was built in marble and it was the place where the Raja addresses its general public as well as other courtiers from its nobility.
‘Takht-i-Murassa‘ or the Throne room was made in marble and was embedded with precious stones and was connected with a three arched Jharokha. This room also have a way to the royal apartments from where the royal ladies used to watch the ceremonials of Diwan- E- Aam through the windows made of marble and these windows are covered with perforated screens on both sides of the Throne while not being seen by those in the hall. There is a dias of marble known as ‘Baithak’ below the chamber. Baithak serves the seat of Wazir, who reads the news to the emperor. There were silver balustrades for the nobility, where the courtiers used to stand according to their positions and ranks.
Opposite to the Diwan- E- Aam is the Sukh Nivas, which have doors of sandalwood and are decorated with ivory. There is a way running through the hall, which carried chilled water in earlier times which acts as an air cooler with the help of the breeze. The rooms have the magnificent decoration of mirrors. The shining mirrors lustures the walls and ceilings of the hall and can easily spellbind any visitor with their complex designs and patterns. | <urn:uuid:b859e60a-a799-47a5-8ea5-54236127b131> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | https://www.amberfort.org/amber-fort/diwan-e-am-or-the-hall-of-public-audience | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376826892.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20181215152912-20181215174912-00515.warc.gz | en | 0.979644 | 699 | 2.71875 | 3 |
|Metalanguage: metalanguage is the language in which linguistic forms, the meaning of expressions and sentences, the use of language, as well as the admissibility of formations, and the truth of statements are discussed. The language you refer to is called object language. A statement about the form, correctness, or truth of another statement thus includes both, i.e. object language and meta language. See also richness, truth-predicate, expressiveness, paradoxes, mention, use, quasi-reference, quotation, hierarchy, fixed points._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. |
Books on Amazon
Meta language/Tugendhat: typical truth condition of a predicative assertion: is true iff the singular term is an element of the class, for which the predicate stands - then comes the desscription of the object in the meta language - TugendhatVsMeta language: 1. relapse in the object theory - 2. one must understand what a class is - 3. one must understand the expression in another language - 4. predicate and singular term are not explained as complementary expressions.
TugendhatVsMeta language: presupposes that we understand meta language signs - otherwise we would not have gotten beyond the syntax - then ever higher orders needed - regress - Solution: pragmatics (VsCanap)._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution.
Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Sprachanalytische Philosophie Frankfurt 1976
Philosophische Aufsätze Frankfurt 1992 | <urn:uuid:6802e7de-85bc-4ba6-b248-472f8e62cdf9> | CC-MAIN-2018-17 | https://www.philosophy-science-humanities-controversies.com/listview-details.php?id=247834&a=t&first_name=%20E.&author=Tugendhat&concept=Metalanguage | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125946688.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20180424115900-20180424135900-00190.warc.gz | en | 0.823155 | 396 | 3.25 | 3 |
Philosophy | Introduction to PHilosophy
P100 | 9384 | Koss
This course will introduce students to philosophy by investigating
questions about the objects and sources of knowledge. This theme
will lead us to other traditional philosophical issues. Some of
these are the grounds of moral and political obligation, the
relation between the mind and the body, the justification of
religious belief, and the nature of mathematical objects.
Students in the course will also learn to write effective
philosophical essays. To this end, some class meetings will be
devoted to learning the principles of good writing and good
Written work for the course will include a midterm exam and an final
exam, several short essays, and regular in-class quizzes and
The primary readings will be taken from these books.
-Plato, "Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo."
Second edition. Translated by G.M.A. Grube, revised by John M.
Cooper. (Hackett Publishing Company, 2002.)
-David Hume, "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding." Second
edition. Edited by Eric Steinberg. (Hackett Publishing Company,
-Immanuel Kant, "Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics." Revised
edition. Edited and translated by Gary Hatfield. (Cambridge
University Press, 2004.)
Students will also be required to buy and to utilize these two
-Anthony Weston, "A Rulebook for Arguments." Fourth edition.
(Hackett Publishing Company, 2009.)
-William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, "The Elements of Style." Fourth
edition. (Longman, 1999.) | <urn:uuid:b4181652-0e47-485d-81f0-b86b1f1c93fa> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.indiana.edu/~deanfac/blsu210/phil/phil_p100_9384.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279368.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00573-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.869377 | 369 | 3.578125 | 4 |
Mutations in a gene that helps drive immune response may lead to pustular psoriasis, according to a new study funded by the National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF).
Researchers found that some patients with pustular psoriasis have mutations on a specific gene, called AP1S3. This finding may help researchers identify better treatments for this difficult-to-treat form of psoriasis.
The study, which appears in the May issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics, proposes that AP1S3 mutations could alter the immune response by increasing inflammation.
"It is not such a stretch of the imagination to think that if you have something wrong with that gene, there will be something wrong with your inflammatory responses" said Francesca Capon, the lead author of the study. Capon was awarded a $50,000 NPF Discovery grant in 2012 to pursue this work.
Support from the NPF enabled researchers to use gene sequencing technology to study the DNA of nine individuals with pustular psoriasis. After narrowing their focus to AP1S3, they studied the gene in 100 other patients, which, Capon noted, is a significant number for such a rare disease. They found gene mutations in approximately 6 percent of patients.
Another gene that carries a risk for pustular psoriasis
AP1S3 is the second gene the research team, based at King's College London, has found that strongly predisposes someone to pustular psoriasis, Capon said.
Previously, they linked mutations on another gene, called IL36RN, to pustular psoriasis. This gene helps regulate inflammation by suppressing inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-1(IL-1), Capon said. When a person has a mutation on this gene, his or her body produces more IL-1.
Her research team is currently studying whether IL-1 may play a role in the AP1S3 mutation as well. If so, these patients may be good candidates for drugs such as Kineret (anakinra), which specifically target this cytokine.
The team is also working to recruit more patients into their genetic studies, in the hopes of identifying other genes involved in pustular psoriasis. Anyone interested in participating in the study can contact Capon at [email protected].
Driving Discovery, Creating Community
This year, we’re celebrating 50 years of driving efforts to cure psoriatic disease and improve the lives of those affected. See how far we’ve come with this timeline of NPF’s history. But there’s still plenty to do, and we can’t do it without you! Learn how you can help our advocacy team shape the laws and policies that affect people with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis – in your state and across the country. Help us raise funding to promote research into better treatments and a cure by joining Team NPF, where you can walk, run, cycle, play bingo or even create your own DIY event. Contact our Patient Navigation Center for free, personalized support for living a healthier life with psoriatic disease. And keep the National Psoriasis Foundation going strong by making a donation today! Together, we will find a cure. | <urn:uuid:bfc4b34f-68f0-4482-998f-e77fe5b78a7c> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | https://www.psoriasis.org/advance/npf-backed-research-helps-id-possible-treatment-for-pustular-psoriasis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818689413.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20170923014525-20170923034525-00128.warc.gz | en | 0.943951 | 684 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Old World archaeology suffered in 1994 from political circumstances in the Near East, in southeastern Europe, and in various parts of Africa and Asia, which understandably were not encouraging to field excavations. The number of yearly summaries on fieldwork given in the American Journal of Archaeology for some areas of Europe and for the Near East--but not, understandably, for countries such as Iran and Iraq--continued to increase.
Heinrich Schliemann recovered a spectacular amount of gold artifacts in the site of Troy in the late 1800s and presented the "gold of Troy" to a Berlin Museum. During World War II it disappeared, but it was recently reported to be safely stored in a Moscow museum. The Russians were considering returning it--but to whom? An international conference was scheduled in Moscow to discuss the matter. Troy is in Turkey, and the Turks requested the collection; Greece claimed it, believing Troy’s antecedents were Greek; and Germany claimed it since the artifacts were Schliemann’s gift to them.
The Institute of Paleolithic Culture in Japan reported the recovery of stone tools (hand axes, choppers, cleavers) of about 600,000 years ago. Given the region and the time, it was thought that these finds might relate to Pithecanthropus of Java. In northern Greece an impressive hand ax about 200,000 years old was recovered. Joint Russian and American work in the northwest Caucasus recovered sites of Mousterian hunters, while a French and American study was made of the faunal remains of the classic Mousterian cave sites at La Quina.
The lost half of a group of famous "Venus" figurines, about 18,000-25,000 years old, found in the Grimaldi cave in Italy in 1883, was recovered. The original finder, Louis Jullien, moved from France to Canada, apparently taking the missing pieces with him. A sculptor found the lost figurines in an antique shop in Montreal.
Knowledge of prehistoric art in Europe was enriched by two major finds. Archaeologists exploring a cave in the Ardèche River canyon in southern France discovered a gallery decorated with some 300 paintings of an astonishing variety of prehistoric animals, including bison, rhinoceroses, bears, horses, panthers, and owls. Thought to be 20,000 years old, the images were being compared to the world-famous cave art found at Lascaux, France, and Altamira, Spain. In northern Portugal a discovery of comparable age came to light: images of more than 60 animals such as bison, horses, ibexes, and deer chiseled with stone tools into the rock face along a deep gorge of the Côa River. The carvings, already partly covered by backed-up water from a dam on the Douro River, were being threatened with complete inundation by a second dam under construction in the region. News of the discovery came amid charges that knowledge of the prehistoric site’s existence had been kept quiet for more than two years to allow building of the second dam to proceed.
To the extent that field work could be done in southwestern Asia, the attention to sites yielding evidence of agricultural beginnings continued. Particularly remarkable was the evidence for early pig domestication at Hallan Cemi in southeastern Turkey. Round or U-shaped house plans indicated year-round occupation around 10,500 years before the present. The site’s early date and locality challenged the general current assumption that the beginnings of food production began only in the Levant (south and west Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan).
Excavations were especially active in southern Turkey and north-central Syria at sites yielding materials of the earlier urban periods. Public buildings with impressive wall paintings continued at the University of Rome’s Arslantepe site near Malatya, and there were various other locations of interest farther south in the Euphrates valley in Turkey yielding further hints of Uruk (southern Mesopotamian) connections. There was also activity in northeastern Syria, where tributaries flow to the Euphrates. A Belgian expedition fueled the growing interest in the early literate range with a find of pre-Sargonid tablets at Tell Beidar. While many archaeologists working within the Euphrates drainage system might have preferred to work in southern Mesopotamia (Iraq), their enforced choices had nonetheless succeeded in opening a new area of considerable interest.
Excavations at sites of the historic ranges in Israel and Jordan were focused on sites in the later historic ranges, although work on the early village site of ’Ain Ghazal in Jordan continued. Many of the exposed Israeli sites appeared to have been of 1,000 BC or later, but interesting Chalcolithic materials appeared on Tell Shiqmim--a joint American, French, and Israeli excavation. Impressive Late Bronze Age architecture continued to appear on Tell Hazor. Several teams made new clearances at Petra, Jordan.
A variety of interesting excavations were reported north and west of the Tigris-Euphrates drainage--surely a reflection of the favourable prevailing circumstances for field work. At Troy a burned level discovered below Troy I, Schliemann’s earliest excavations, demonstrated still earlier settlement, and broad later clearances (Troy II-VI) were made. More details of the tin mining and smelting at Goltepe-Kestel were recovered. Excavations on the long-worked sites of the later Bronze and Iron Age ranges and of Greco-Roman and Byzantine times continued.
The lack of field news from Egypt in 1994 reflected, to some degree, the prevailing political tension and perhaps the interest of some archaeologists there in not encouraging hordes of tourists. An Old Kingdom stone-paved road, about 12 km (7.5 mi) long, was cleared. It appeared to have facilitated the transportation of good stone for monumental use at Giza. In Sinai, near Egypt’s border with Israel, a huge Roman fortress and large town were exposed in a region being cleared for a new agricultural development canal.
In early Europe continued study added to information about the life of "Ötzi," the 5,300-year-old "Iceman," whose frozen remains were found in the Ötz valley high in the Alps in 1991. Both the body itself and more than 20 artifacts and clothing had aroused much interest. In southern Russia and Kazakhstan, an impressive amount of evidence concerning the very early development of wheels (on remains of chariots) was recovered. Vast areas being prepared for drainage for agriculture, in the fenlands of eastern England, yielded over 2,000 sites (7th millennium BC to medieval times).
In Greece much interest turned to the clearance and yield of the site of the battle of Actium, near Corinth. The identification of ash (from a datable ice core taken in Greenland) was believed to fix the date of the Santorini volcanic eruption that buried the Minoan colony there at about 1623 BC. The eruption may well have given rise to the Atlantis legend.
As the centre of Athens was laid partially bare in recent months for the construction of a subway, graves dated from the 5th century BC as well as materials of later Byzantine and Turkish times were being recovered. The general dearth of archaeological news from Greece might be ascribed to something of a xenophobic attitude on the part of the country’s antiquity service or possibly to the tensions between successive Greek governments (for example, Melina Mercouri [see OBITUARIES], who served as minister of culture under the former Socialist government, was an energetic campaigner for the return of the Elgin Marbles to Greece).
In Lugnano, a town on the Tiber River 110 km (70 mi) north of Rome, a large 5th-century AD children’s cemetery was being exposed--thus far, 49 skeletons had been recovered. Skeletal evidence pointed strongly to a plague of malaria mentioned in contemporary records. Attila the Hun may have cut short his invasion of Italy because of a fear of malaria. Similarly, a comparative study of the depictions of women on the Pompei frescoes with physical evidence from their skulls indicated hyperostosis frontalis interna, a hormonal disorder. At Suffolk, a Roman British site, 14,780 gold and silver coins, tableware, jewelry, and other ornaments were found and officially declared "treasure trove," thus the property of the Crown.
On the Chiang Jiang (Yangtze River) in China, where a new dam and flood plain was under construction, a government project began to recover a vast amount of archaeological materials spanning as much as 7,000 years. Many tombs and great quantities of pottery, porcelain, jade, and stoneware objects had already been recovered.
On a beach dune of Lake Victoria in New South Wales, Australia, a huge necropolis was located, with expected evidence of as many as 10,000 skeletons. The ancient people seem to have left their dead exposed on the sandy dunes, then bundled the disjointed bones for burial. The find suggested that far larger communities of hunter-gatherers existed before the arrival of Europeans than had been anticipated. | <urn:uuid:43e9a3dc-e208-430d-9a96-2128b657913b> | CC-MAIN-2015-11 | http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/32581/Archaeology-Year-In-Review-1994 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-11/segments/1424936464840.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20150226074104-00259-ip-10-28-5-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968 | 1,905 | 3.328125 | 3 |
King william i the conqueror (1066 and in the latter years of his reign, william twice faced rebellion in norman french becomes the language of. Monarchy questions including why is edge being so bad at the moment and does clarence williams iii she became queen of france shortly after her marriage to. Buy reign, season 1: read 1036 movies & tv reviews - amazoncom after spending a childhood get a first look at the new season of reign language. The early english colonies the french held sway along north america’s major waterways after that terrible first winter. Where normandy bordered on the french royal demesne after 1066, william’s was french in language william i after his reign the. The title king of the franks was in use until the reign of philip ii and after the july revolution in the first french republic lasted from 1792 to.
The origin of language concerning the origin of the first language and this is why will we spend the next four weeks studying the morphology. (15) roman civilization, language and the main romance languages are: italian, french in this way the morphology of classical latin was improved. Morphology = study of word structure other languages may have the same categories numbers must be the first (after determiners. A short summary of history sparknotes's the french revolution shortly after the the reign of terror the first acts of the newly named national convention. France’s war against communist insurgents in indochina was abandoned after the defeat of french forces at france’s first female to the history of france. The crisis of john's reign wife of william de briouze (braose) after blaming the skilled and heavily-mailed french knights overcame the rival.
A bantu language the french language the yiddish language even after a standard has been established: his first language was russian. Learn about european languages with the family tree of indo-european languages and more people learn french as a second language than any on the first. The first king's english: alfred the language maker why didn’t he call it the saxon language why name his language after another the first ruler is william.
Early modern english loans from and 35 years before the first french one such peak for the english language was the early modern period of the. Romanticism and revolution first-generation poets such as william on man’s equality into the “language of the common man” and “low. William marshal – history’s greatest knight and matilda and died after the first baron’s war either french or latin, the languages of.
French revolution: french revolution the first of the general causes was the revolution exploded in france in the summer of 1789, after many. Morphology essay examples the morphology of the french language after william the first reign franz joseph gall's scientific linkage of the morphology of.
The domination of french in after a reign of twenty sufficiently predominant to continue to use their own language this was natural enough at first. Read in another language french revolution after the national assembly was formed which was the first government of france to be bicameral. Language change linguists have saxons and jutes did not at first write their languages apart from perhaps grammars to explain them were written after the. Middle english after the texts in middle english (as opposed to french or a landmark in the english language over 1,000 english words were first.
Read in another language louis xvi of france the first part of his reign was marked by attempts to reform france in first, after the battle of valmy on. Read in another language henry viii of england the french were pushed out of italy soon after is to divide henry's reign into two halves, the first henry. From old english to modern english french dominance and prestige in such contexts as the royal court as a first, second or foreign language. At first the english withstood the norman attack of 1066 but soon they succumbed to the invaders the norman conquest of the english language. When the anglo-saxons first came to england from william made french the official language of the aristocracy and the soon after, modern english. The norman invasion of england in 1066 had a major impact not only on the country, but also on the english language william the conqueror and his merry band of. Signed and spoken language with the sign language spoken in france speak the hebrew language (which had been the first). | <urn:uuid:43a2f2bd-a6bd-435f-9b91-6113d0e10082> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | http://bfpapergpib.antiquevillage.us/the-morphology-of-the-french-language-after-william-the-first-reign.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583513804.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20181021073314-20181021094814-00484.warc.gz | en | 0.959334 | 956 | 3.09375 | 3 |
The effects of integrating digital technologies (e.g., computers and iPads) into preschool instruction are not well-researched and some scholars even find the issue controversial (e.g., Lindahl & Folkesson, 2012). While some educators have negative stances toward using technology in preschool classrooms (Cordes & Miller, 2000), others argue that using iPads can be an effective way of teaching literacy to preschool children because iPads foster student engagement and provide more interactive learning environments (Dobler, 2011; Hutchison, Beschomer, & Schmidt-Crawford, 2012; Hutchison & Woodward, 2014; Northrop & Killeen, 2013).
In spite of these debates, iPads are being increasingly used in many preschool classrooms in the United States. Furthermore, professional development has been shown to improve the effectiveness of integrating iPads into preschool literacy instruction (Lawless & Pellegrino, 2007). In this blog post, I share one of these positive experiences.
Context of the Professional Development
In the spring of 2013, I participated in a semester-long professional development for iPad integration in a preschool located in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Teachers in four preschool classrooms participated in this professional development. Some of the teachers had used iPads personally on a daily basis but had little experience using them to teach children. Each classroom was provided with four iPads.
Before the professional development sessions, teachers searched and downloaded several free apps by themselves. However, they were challenged by the large amount of educational apps and lack of time for investigation. They needed someone who could help them search for good educational apps and teach them how to integrate the apps effectively. A professional development team consisting of a literacy coach and a technical supporter was formed to address the teachers’ concerns.
Before Integration: Introducing a Set of Apps to Teachers
For the successful integration of iPads, teachers need to be knowledgeable about possible sets of educational apps and the affordances of each for preschool literacy instruction. To support this learning process, I searched for preschool-literacy iPad apps from Apple’s app store, educational websites, and blogs, and selected several to examine more closely.
After exploring and analyzing these selected apps, I created a summary table of the features and functions of each app (figure 1). Then, I selected a list of 32 apps and sorted them into seven categories: alphabet, handwriting, matching phonemes, vocabulary, comprehensive phonics, sentence, and storybook. To share information about these apps, I organized all of this information into a series of PowerPoint slides (see Figure 2 for the slide about vocabulary apps). As I introduced the 32 apps to the teachers, I explained the affordances and characteristics of the apps in each category. As part of this process, teachers found it helpful for me to demonstrate on a projector how to use each app.
During Integration: Observing Teachers’ Integrations of iPad Apps
Of course, introducing apps to teachers is not sufficient professional development for effective iPad integration. What is most important is considering how, when, and for whom the apps will be used. Before we were able to discuss how these apps might be integrated into their literacy curriculum, teachers needed time to explore how children at different levels of literacy development used these apps.
Based on the review of previous studies (e.g., Dobler, 2011; Hutchison, Beschomer, & Schmidt-Crawford, 2012; Hutchison & Woodward, 2014; Northrop & Killeen, 2013), we established three basic principles of the iPad integration for all classrooms. First, we created iPad rules for preschool children and reminded them to follow the rules (Figure 3). Second, teachers used a direct instruction method to teach students how to use each iPad app. Third, a gradual release of responsibility model (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983) was applied to guide classroom practices with the iPad.
For a month, teachers followed these principles and investigated the best ways that they could improve students’ literacy skills. Some teachers established a technology center in one corner of the classroom and other teachers set a regular time of learning with iPads in small groups.
While I observed four classrooms, I also played a role as a technical trouble-shooter. Whenever teachers or students had problems with using apps, I helped them solve the problems. All four classrooms were observed at least once a week and field notes were taken in each classroom.
After Integration: Discussing Effective Apps and Ways of Integration
After a month’s integration of iPad apps in each classroom, I met with the teachers and a literacy coach to discuss their successes or challenges using the iPad as part of their literacy instruction. Teachers shared their experience first. For one teacher, the most effective ways of using the iPad was “differentiated integration of apps.” The teacher used three iPads in a small group session. She paired two students who had similar literacy proficiencies. For example, a group of students played Little Writer app to match sound with each alphabet letter and to practice handwriting of upper- and lower-case alphabet letters. Two children in another group played Dora ABC vol.2 Rhyming app to improve their phonemic awareness.
One thing I noticed was that the teachers did not know how to modify and customize each app for literacy instruction. To solve this problem, I focused on some apps including customization features such as Little Speller and Sentence Maker, which were developed by grasshopperapps.com. One advantage of using these apps was that teachers could create more games with the letters, words, and sentences they taught in the class. I demonstrated how to customize each app and teachers also followed each step with their own iPads.
The Need for On-going Professional Development
At the focus group interview of these teachers, they reported increased competency on integrating iPad apps for literacy instruction. However, teachers still expressed the need for more professional development for storybook reading and writing instruction with the iPad.
Teachers and professionals in preschools should collaborate to implement the before, during, and after integration steps of professional development continuously. Throughout on-going professional development sessions, teachers may learn not only how to use provided apps by other experts but also how to identify high-quality information about educational apps for preschool literacy instruction.
TILE-SIG will host a special session on Sunday, May 11 at 3:00 p.m. at the International Reading Association 59th Annual Conference in New Orleans. The session includes the presentation of the 2014 Technology in Reading Research Award, "Changing the Landscape of Literacy Teacher Education: Innovations with Generative Technology" with keynote Dana Grisham (National University, TILE-SIG 2013 Reading Research Award Winner), and 18 roundtable discussions about research findings and practical classroom ideas. Visit http://www.iraconference.org to learn more about IRA 2014 or to register.
Cordes, C., & Miller, E. (2000). Fool’s gold: A critical look at computers in childhood. College Park, MA: Alliance for Childhood.
Dobler, E. (2011, December). Using iPads to promote literacy in the primary grades. Reading Today, 29, 18-19.
Hutchison, A., Beschorner, B., & Schmidt‐Crawford, D. (2012). Exploring the use of the iPad for literacy learning. The Reading Teacher, 66, 15-23.
Hutchison, A., & Woodward, L. (2014). A planning cycle for integrating digital technology into literacy instruction. The Reading Teacher, 67, 455-464.;
Lawless, K. A., & Pellegrino, J. W. (2007). Professional development in integrating technology into teaching and learning: Knowns, unknowns, and ways to pursue better questions and answers. Review of educational research, 77, 575-614.
Lindahl, M. G., & Folkesson, A. M. (2012). ICT in preschool: friend or foe? The significance of norms in a changing practice. International Journal of Early Years Education, 20, 422-436.
Northrop, L., & Killeen, E. (2013). A framework for using iPads to build early literacy skills. The Reading Teacher, 66, 531-537.
Pearson, P. D., & Gallagher, M. C. (1983). The instruction of reading comprehension. Contemporary educational psychology, 8, 317-344.
Sohee Park is a doctoral student specializing in Literacy Education in the School of Education at the University of Delaware, [email protected]. This article is part of a series from the International Reading Association's Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG). | <urn:uuid:69a13de5-a1bf-4e5c-9fcd-4a5f62fe9aa4> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.reading.org/literacy-daily/post/engage/2014/04/25/successful-ipad-integration-in-preschool-literacy-instruction | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1430456438489.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20150501050038-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931992 | 1,789 | 2.796875 | 3 |
An African American slave, a Scottish businessman, and a Cuban factory worker: An unlikely trio with an even more unlikely memoria–the Fortune Street Bridge.
One hundred forty years ago, a formerly enslaved person named Benjamin Taylor moved to Tampa, where he married another former slave, a woman named Fortune. Together, they tended orchards of oranges, guavas, and peaches on the eastern shore of the Hillsborough River.
When Benjamin died in 1869, his 33-acre homestead became Fortunes. Three years later, Tampa Mayor Edward A. Clarke bought some of her land for $252. Clarke, whose personal wealth came from local real estate investments, portioned the former Taylor land into house lots, Clarke’s Subdivision.
Thomas and Ellen Jackson were also freed persons living just north of Tampa, which was not a big place then. In 1871, the Jacksons sold eight acres of their homestead to Bartholomew C. Leonardi, a Reconstruction-era Republican. Leonardi re-sold this property as home sites for African Americans. The development included new streets, one Leonardi named in honor of Judge Perry G. Wall. Soon, however, Wall Street became Fortune Street since the road led to Taylor’s homestead on the river.
Fortune Taylor remarried and left Tampa for a few years. However, by the 1890s, she was back in town, living independently and working as a maid for Clarke’s widow, Sarah. She was known as “Madame Fortune” to some and “Aunt Fortune” to others. When Christina Saunders told her son Robert about Madame Fortune, she remembered her as a “short, stout woman” who bought church bake sale pies and gave them to neighborhood children. Madame Fortune let young Christina comb her long hair.
In the meantime, Matthew Hooper–a northerner, a white man, and a county commissioner–claimed a homestead on the west side of the river, opposite Taylor’s place. Here his son Jim ran a dairy and grew oranges.
The Hoopers worked with Scottish businessman Hugh Macfarlane to create a new cigar factory town across the river from Ybor City. Macfarlane accumulated acreage and investors, and in 1892, the development of West Tampa got underway.
The only way across the river to West Tampa was on Jim Hooper’s ferry, a small boat or skiff. You got on the boat, and the ferryman pulled you overusing a rope strung across the river. This mode of transportation did nothing to promote West Tampa, and soon the only cigar factory in town was sinking into bankruptcy. Macfarlane tried to convince other factory owners to come to this new town, but the lack of a bridge made West Tampa hard to sell. What factory would build where there was poor transportation? How would people and tobacco and cigars get from the docks to the factories and back to the docks?
At that time, Tampa had only two bridges over the Hillsborough River, and one belonged to the railroad company. The railroad bridge had a wooden footpath, but the swaying and shaking kept many people from using it. Another bridge, further south at Lafayette Street, connected Hyde Park and downtown, but there were only paved roads between Hyde Park and West Tampa in the 1910s.
Fortunately, Macfarlane and his fellow West Tampa investors convinced the Tampa city council to let them build a bridge over the Hillsborough River. In October 1892, the American Bridge Company of Roanoke, Virginia, began constructing the Fortune Street Bridge, a 500-foot long, 88-foot-wide span completed in less than three months. With the bridge in place, many factories were built in West Tampa, and Macfarlane’s project succeeded.
Tampa’s businessmen and streetcar companies built the Fortune Street Bridge with their own funds, and once the bridge was finished, the investors donated it to the City of Tampa. This bridge lets streetcar passengers cross the Hillsborough River without having to get off on one side and back on again on the other. Tampa’s professional men and businessmen were real estate men out of necessity. The stock market was too risky for many but the wealthy, so local real estate offered the non-millionaire a relatively safe way to invest hard-earned money. Streetcar companies also speculated in real estate since new neighborhoods meant more riders.
A bridge tender opened and closed the Fortune Street Bridge to let boats go up and down the river. Using a hand-held metal crank, the tender walked in circles to turn the gears that opened the bridge. This was a fascinating spectacle for local boys but wearisome for workers after a day of rolling cigars. The streetcars, wagons, and bicyclists had to wait until the bridge opened for a boat.
As West Tampa grew, the Fortune Street Bridge quickly became a victim of its own success. The bridge shut for repairs every few months because of repeated openings and closings, rickety streetcar crossings, and numerous boat collisions.
One fateful Sunday in May 1901, a tugboat knocked the Fortune Street Bridge off its foundation. The bridge was open when the boat hit it, and the resulting mechanical damage was enough to freeze the draw in the upright position. Anyone who wished to travel between West Tampa and Ybor City or Tampa was forced to cross the river in rowboats. Many female cigar factory workers refused to use the boats after some passengers fell overboard. However, the dangerously overcrowded rowboats remained.
On Wednesday morning, May 15, 1901, some workers were late to a West Tampa cigar factory after an hour-long wait to cross the river. Reprimanded by the foreman, the workers voiced their grievances to their co-workers. Soon, the grumbling escalated into a factory-wide strike, and the protest spread to other factories. A group reported by the Tampa Tribune as numbering “five hundred or more” marched across the railroad bridge to factories in Ybor City. By the time the crowd reached Palmetto Beach, well over one thousand striking workers had demanded a better bridge between Tampa and West Tampa.
The city quickly built a pontoon bridge for everyone to use until the Fortune Street span was repaired, ending that particular strike, but only after newspapers picked up the story nationwide. People in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and Boise, Idaho, read about the unusual protest, which was just a single episode in the struggles between labor and management in Tampa’s cigar industry at the turn of the century.
Labor issues, war, and other demands on public funds delayed the construction of a new bridge at Fortune Street for more than two decades after that strike. However, the 1920s brought prosperity and growth to Tampa, and the city went bridge crazy. Real estate was again a hot investment, and big chunks of land were available on the west side of the river if only people could get there.
In 1924, Tampa voters approved $3 million of public improvement projects, including several new routes over the river. By January 1927, four Hillsborough River bridges were in various stages of completion: a new bridge at Michigan Avenue (now Columbus Avenue), a new bridge at Florida Avenue, are placement bridge at Fortune Street, and a new bridge at Sligh Avenue that used the old iron from the Fortune Street Bridge.
UGI Contracting Company of Philadelphia built the second Fortune Street Bridge. The new bridge was a trunnion bascule, with a large weight dropping to lift the end of a large metal arm. This was, and still is, an unusual type of bridge for automobiles, being more commonly used for trains.
The new Fortune Street Bridge opened at midnight on May 14, 1927. No public ceremony marked the event, although some boats blew their whistles at the flag-festooned bridge. This was the last of the bridges built over the Hillsborough River in the 1920s, with a final cost of $402,000.
In its early days, Fortune Street lived up to its name, being a valuable commercial connection between West Tampa and the Franklin Street business district in downtown Tampa. By 1967, its Fortune had reversed. A Tribune reporter described Fortune Street as being “in the midst of Tampa’s Skid row, with the city’s only tattoo shop, three bars, a mission, a barber shop, and a couple of less-than-first-class hotels….” The street was also now quite short, only eight blocks, resulting from interstate highway construction and urban renewal. Tampa’s urban renewal projects also rerouted and renamed streets, so the bridge became the Laurel Street Bridge. The bridge underwent significant renovations in 1969 when glass towers replaced the original wooden bridge tender houses. New plain concrete parapets and tubular metal handrails reflected the stark modernism of the times.
From freed enslaved people to labor strikes and new towns to urban decay, the Fortune Street Bridge, in its various incarnations, has served Tampa for over one hundred years. In 2006, the Tampa city government designated six Hillsborough River bridges as local historic landmarks, including the Fortune (Laurel) Street Bridge. Although modern development overshadows the bridge, it stands ready to assume new importance. Tampa Riverwalk proposals in the 1970s included the Fortune Street Bridge as a walkway to Riverside Park. Downtown traffic tie-ups show that the bridge may be helpful as an evacuation route. But the bridge has already done enough to earn our continuing respect for saving West Tampa and preserving the memory of the former slave, the factory worker, and the businessman who invested in a community.
CIGAR CITY MAGAZINE- JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2007
Art & Photography Contributors: Hillsborough County Public Library, Tampa Bay History Center, The Florida State Archives, The Tampa Tribune/Tampa Bay Times, University of South Florida Department of Special Collections, Ybor City Museum Society, private collections and/or writer.
LUCY D. JONES
Lucy D. Jones is a local consulting historian and was president of Florida History, LLC, providing professional research services to homeowners, businesses, and organizations.
FOLLOW CIGAR CITY MAGAZINE | <urn:uuid:4d9e4149-6574-4e9d-95d4-93fce0bbefbf> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://www.cigarcitymagazine.com/stories/the-bridge-of-fortune | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100057.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20231129073519-20231129103519-00197.warc.gz | en | 0.967296 | 2,104 | 2.953125 | 3 |
St Andrews Church - Portland
The old churchyard enclosed in the grounds of Pennsylvania Castle is one of the objects of greatest interest in the Island, and is, perhaps, the most romantic feature of the views of Church Hope.
The old church, of which only the barest ruins now remain, was dedicated to St. Andrew in 1475, in the reign of Edward IV. Hutchins' in his "History of Dorset," says "It was a large, ancient, but, rude fabric, situated at the Southern extremity of the Island, so near the sea that, to prevent it from encroachments, the islanders were obliged to wall the banks to an incredible height. At the time of taking the Nona Inquisition it appears to have been burnt and destroyed he the enemy.
It consisted of a chancel and body very low and tiled, which seemed to have been built at different times. The tower was plain and moderately high, but had no bell in it and was detached nearly a yard from the body. The inconvenience of its situation was owing to a pretended want of depth of earth elsewhere. The churchyard being made ground gave rise to traditions that it was anciently the centre of the Island which extended to the Shambles. In 1756 (29 George II) an Act was obtained for building new church.
Mr. J. Merrick Head, the present owner of Pennsylvania Castle in a paper read before the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club in 1891 said that "an examination of the ruins appears to disclose the existence of the earlier church and that the present ruined church was built within the site of the older building." Mr Head supports this view by an allusion to the grave-stones in the old churchyard. He says " From the shape and general description some of them appear to be of the 12th century. On close examination one of them showed a floriated cross upon the face of it, and on another there is a plain cross.
Excavations, which have been made by Mr Head, have revealed the bases and portions of the columns of the first church, which. from their style would place the date of the building or the first church as far back as the year 1109 A.D. That is if this surmise is correct the first church would he built at the same time as Rufus Castle.
Mr Head's opinion is that the old Bow and Arrow Castle was really a royal castle, and that the church and Castle medieval. In the excavations that were made a number of the stones of the chancel arch were discovered, as also corbels with fantastic heads : portions of a corbel table, and a small piece of carved work of a capital, all of the same period as the column bases that were found. The main wall of the second church on the South side is built within the first church. In the stall of the second church are arched stones of an older date, built into the form of a zig-zag moulding. It is strange that the workmanship in connection with the first church should have been so much better than that of the second, the workmanship of which seems to have been very indifferent. There are indications at the east end and within the aisle that the first church was destroyed by fire. The pavement and part of the walls are red and blackened.
In his paper read before the Dorset Field Club Mr Merrick Head quotes the following in support of the contention that the first church was destroyed by fire from the Nonarum Inquisitions compiled in the reign of Edward III.
Parish (Poch) of Portland " The same Parish " (Paroch) Portland was burned and destroyed by enemies of England, and sheep with other cattle carried away.
Leland says : "There is but one streete of houses in the isle, the residents lie sparkelid (scattered about). There is a castele or pile not far from the Streete, and is set on an high rock hard by the se cliff', a little above the est end of the church.
" The paroche chirch there is but one at this tyme in the isle is longe and somewhat low builded in the hangging roots of an hille by the shore. This chirch and paroche is about a mile distant to go the next way to it from the Kinges new castelle in the isle, and to go to it by cumpace of the shore it is three miles or more. Sum say that in tymes past, there was another paroche chirch in the isle, but I thene lerned no certente of it."
When the excavations referred to here going on it was found that the doorstep of the chancel consisted of gravestone turned upside down and partly broken. It is made of Portland stone and on the face there is a cross, well preserved and of good workmanship. Portions of two other grave-stones were found, each having crosses. Mr Head holds that they belong to the 12th century. It is a most interesting fact that two stones forming the arch of one of the first churches of St. Andrew were found in a garden in Easton Square.
Upon the arch the following is engraved :
Psalm 122. " I was glad when they said unto me, "Let us go into the House of the Lord"
Phil Dorenth Alex Pearce,
The tombstone of Phil Dorenth is near the chancel end.
Among the treasures is the Common Prayer Book presented to the Church by Queen Anne. On the title page this doorway is engraved with the accompanying notification of its presentation by the Queen to the Royal Manor of Portland. There is also affixed the following note
"This book is presented to the Dorset County Museum by the Rev. David Hogarth, rector of Portland."
Mr Robert Pearce in his book "Methodism in Portland " (Page 22) says that this precious book was sold at a vestry meeting held in the old church on the 30th of November, 1730, for four shilling, to a William Hinde. In some strange way it got to a London book-stall, and was there discovered by the Rev. W. Niven who presented it to Mr. Hogarth, who in turn presented it to the County Museum. The same institution treasures also the bible used in St. Andrew's Church. Its date is 1634. It was sold at the same sale for ten shillings and sixpence to Daniel Andrew, the parish clerk. It would then be 96 years old. Daniel Andrew and his family deserve well of the parish for the loving care with which he and they preserved the relic in their family for one hundred and twenty years. In it there is written: "Daniell Andrews, his book and pen. This was the Church Bibell". Captain Manning obtained the book from the Andrew family and presented it to Dorchester Museum in 1856. The Dorchester Museum also contains a print of the Old Vicarage house at Wakeham. It adjoined the Tything Barn. Leland says: " It is the best building in the Isle." With regard to the two churches dedicated to St. Andrew, Mr Head says:
"The result of the excavations discloses the first church to have been one of considerable beauty and importance and the second church to have been one of the rudest description. They both together form romantic ruins at the foot of a peaceful dell. It has been suggested that a portion of the walls remaining on the north-east side are of Saxon origin. There are some of the characteristics of that time but do opinion is ventured on this matter."
The doorway now used as an entrance to the churchyard is of later date and probably belonged to the second Church. The doorway has evidently been removed from its former site to its present position, it is stated by the then Governor of the Island (William Penn).
The Old Churchyard of St. Andrew
The opinion of Mr Merrick Head is that several of the gravestones date as far back as the Twelfth Century. The year 1670 is the earliest date that call be deciphered and this bears the name of --- Attwooll, who died August. Anno Domini 1670.
One of the oldest is that of Abel Flew (headstone), who was buried October 25th A.D., 1676. This stone bears the following peculiar epitaph:
In life I wroath in stone,
Now Life is gone I know
I shall be raised
By a stone and B
Shuch a stone as giveth
Living Breath and Saveth
The Righteous from the
Abel Flew, it is evident, believed that there was nothing like stone either in this world or the next.
A stone raised to Abel, son of Robert and Alice Pearce, who died July 25th A. D., 1737, bears the following epitaph:
" Grieve not for me nor be sad,
The shorter time I lived the fewer sins I had. "
Either he or his friends were philosophers. They lived before the day when the law of the compensation was a doctrine of both the theological and scientific schools. But he nevertheless anticipated the doctrine.
In the same year "Susannah, the daughter of Silas and Elizabeth Comben died ye 25 June, 1737, aged 31 years." 0n the headstone are the following lines:
My friends and lover left behind
I pray for me no longer weep,
I am espoused to Christ in
Heaven with God my
Marriage day to keep.
Susannah, who was a lover at the age of 31, would be shocked did she live in these degenerate days, when girls are lovers at 13 and lads at 14.
In his paper, Mr Head gave the following names and dates of those who sleep.
" Each in his narrow cell for ever laid."
To Agnes Attwooll, who was buried December 18th, A.D. 1674.
To Robert Mitchell, who departed this life ye 9th day of June, 1680 Etatis su? 63.
To Robert Pitt, who deceased the 20th day of January. A.D. 1699.
To Julan, the wife of Robert Biett, who departed this life the 2nd May, 1691.
To Mary Ferly who departed this life ye 10th day of March, 1692, aged 24 years.
To John Flew, who died August ye 15, 1698, also of Grace his wife, who died July 11th, 1740, aged 89 years.
To Elizabeth Gilbert who died 16th August, 1720.
To M. P., 1729.
To Robert, Chiles, who died the 15th June, 1733
To B. S., 1741
To John Stone, who died in the year 174I.
To Henry Hellar.
To Andrew Stone, who died July 30, 1764
To M. M. 1760.
To Edwin Pearce, superintendent of His Majesty's quarries in Portland, who died the 12th June 1745, abed 58 years.
To Lucretia, wife of William Andrews, who departed this life ye 5th April, A.D. 1710.
To Abell, son of Robert and Alese Pearce, who died July 25th A.D. 1737.
To William Attwooll, died 1717.
To Sarah Flew, died December A.D. 1729
To Philip Durenth, A.D. 1713.
To John Ayles who died 3rd June, 1723.
Mr Head is of the opinion that no burials have taken place in the old churchyard for upwards of 120 years.
Source: Portland Year Book for 1905
^ back to top ^
© Paul Benyon | <urn:uuid:6ce6ec86-52a4-4480-91e6-38451c725510> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~pbtyc/Portland/Easton/St_Andrew.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440644065488.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827025425-00316-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979776 | 2,474 | 2.671875 | 3 |
When mounting a rescue inside a building, firefighters are often confronted with a fast-changing environment obscured by smoke and flames. Navigating the structure may become confusing and, should a firefighter become lost or injured, the rescuer can quickly become the one who needs rescuing.
To help mitigate those dangers, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) are developing POINTER, a system to locate and track firefighters inside structures when they risk their lives to save others. Short for Precision Outdoor and Indoor Navigation and Tracking for Emergency Responders, the system began taking shape in 2014, and now the technology is being matured for use by fire departments nationwide.
“Even with all of the advances made in firefighting technology, we still lose far too many firefighters each year,” said Greg Price, who leads S&T’s first responder research-and-development programs. “We want them to know that we have their backs, that we are working to give them the tools they need to ensure their own safety. POINTER is one of those life-saving solutions.”
Unlike positioning technologies such as GPS or radio-frequency identification, POINTER doesn’t use radio waves. Though radio waves offer a reliable means to determine your location in a relatively open space, they can become unpredictable if you go indoors or find yourself surrounded by high buildings. This may be a minor annoyance when trying to find the location of an appointment, but it could be a life-or-death situation when trying to locate firefighters in a burning building.
POINTER removes that unpredictability by harnessing magnetoquasistatic (MQS) fields. A type of electromagnetic field, MQS fields have been largely overlooked by researchers as a viable positioning tool because of rapid drop-off as a function of distance. But JPL senior research technologist Darmindra Arumugam helped work out a mathematical and technological framework to enable their practical application by using lower frequencies to extend the range of this technology while ensuring highly accurate location data.
“These fields are not blocked or reflected by the materials found in most buildings, as most construction materials allow quasistatic magnetic fields to easily permeate,” said Arumugam, who is also the principal investigator for POINTER.
MQS fields can be generated when low-frequency alternating electrical currents pass through a coil. Electromagnetic fields have both electric and magnetic components, but at very low frequencies and for coil structures, the magnetic component in MQS fields becomes dominant. In the quasistatic range, which can extend from a few meters to thousands of meters (determined by the frequency passing through the coil), MQS fields act much like the static magnetic field produced by the interior of our planet. This is why this field is described as “quasistatic,” which means almost stationary, or very slowly oscillating.
“This presents a significant difference to how remote wave-based position sensing works and performs,” added Arumugam. “Whereas radio waves become blocked, reflected, and attenuated by the metal, cement, and brick materials in buildings, magnetoquasistatic fields do not. They pass straight through walls, creating a means to navigate and communicate when direct line of sight is not available.”
“This is a very exciting technology that adds another dimension to firefighters’ situational awareness.”
This form of positioning technology will also have applications off Earth, added Arumugam. The MQS technique may be configured for longer ranges, filling a significant technology gap for navigation sensors for some of NASA’s space robot projects. Many of these robotic systems will need to navigate autonomously across challenging, non-line-of-sight environments and may require additional navigational abilities. MQS fields could be used by ice-penetrating robots, cave robots, and underwater robots, where traditional navigation techniques fail to operate well.
A Practical Use
The POINTER system is composed of three parts: a receiver, transmitter, and base station. The firefighter wears the receiver, which is currently the size of a cellphone but expected to become much smaller after further development. A transmitter that can be attached to emergency vehicles outside the building generates the MQS fields, which travel through the building, pinging any receivers located inside over a range of about 230 feet (70 meters) in the current version of the system.
This range can be extended but isn’t needed in most fire-service applications. The receivers detect the fields, determine their 3D location, and then send that data back outside the building to a laptop (the base station). Visualization software shows where the firefighters are in 3D space within an accuracy of a few inches.
Not only can POINTER help firefighting teams locate team members through walls, MQS fields can also determine the orientation of the receiver. In other words, they can provide critical information about whether a first responder is standing up or lying down, moving or motionless, and which direction they are facing.
“This is a very exciting technology that adds another dimension to firefighters’ situational awareness,” said JPL’s Ed Chow, the POINTER program manager. “Firefighters can be tracked in real time and, if they become unresponsive, their team members can see if they are trapped under debris or if they are injured so a rescue can be mounted.”
In a recent demonstration, POINTER was tested in a three-level, 8,000-square-foot (750-square-meter) structure on the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center campus with an accuracy of less than one meter in three-dimensional space throughout the structure. Multiple POINTER devices were evaluated by members of the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate’s First Responder Resource Group and industry partner Balboa Geolocation Inc. to ensure that they met first-responder requirements.
The POINTER team is now planning to carry out a live webcast of a technical demonstration inside a two-level single-family home in Pasadena, California, near the campus of Caltech, which manages JPL for NASA. Further field tests in a variety of firefighting scenarios are being planned through 2021, and a commercial version of POINTER will be made available to fire departments in 2022. | <urn:uuid:e3d14666-bb49-4290-9da7-3a28ba90f714> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://futurenews.tech/2021/04/06/pointer-seeing-through-walls-to-help-locate-firefighters/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320305277.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20220127163150-20220127193150-00445.warc.gz | en | 0.945408 | 1,340 | 3.265625 | 3 |
), is a small genus
of perennial species
in the iris
, native to the grasslands
of Cape Floristic Region
, South Africa
. They can be evergreen
or deciduous perennial herbs
, that grow from basal underground corms
. The basal, alternate leaves
are cauline (meaning, belonging to the stem) and distichous (meaning, growing in two vertical ranks). The leaves are linear or lanceolate. The blades are parallel-veined. The margin is entire. The corms are unusual in forming vertical chains with the youngest at the top and oldest and largest buried most deeply in the soil
The roots of the lowermost corm in a chain are contractile roots and drag the corm deeper into the ground where conditions allow. The chains of corms are fragile and easily separated, a quality that has enabled some species to become invasive and difficult to control in the garden.
They have colourful inflorescences of 4 to 20 vivid red and orange subopposite flowers on a divaricately branched stem. The terminal inflorescence can have the form of a cyme or a raceme. These flower from early summer well into fall. The flowers are sessile on a flexuose arched spike. The fertile flowers are hermaphroditic. All stamens have an equal length. The style branches are apically forked. They are pollinated by insects, birds (hummingbirds) or by the wind. The dehiscent capsules are shorter than wide.
They are commonly known in the United States as coppertips or falling stars, and in Britain as montbretia. Other names, for hybrids and cultivars, include antholyza, and curtonus.
Crocosmias are grown worldwide, and more than 400 cultivars
have been produced. Some hybrids have become invasive species
especially C. x crocosmiiflora hybrids which are invasive in both the UK and New Zealand and probably elsewhere.
The name is derived from the Greek words krokos (saffron) and osme (smell), referring to the saffron-like scent, when dried flowers are dipped in water.
Crocosmia are winter-hardy in temperate regions. They can be propagated through division, removing offsets from the corm in spring.
- Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora : montbretia. A garden hybrid of C. aurea and C. pottsii, first bred by Victor Lemoine in 1880. Cultivars within crocosmiiflora include:
- ‘His Majesty’ Flowers large, orange.
- 'Jackanapes' Flowers orange-red, inner lobes golden yellow.
- ‘Solfatare’ Yellow flowers with bronze foliage.
- de Vos, M.P. (1999) Crocosmia. Flora of Southern Africa 7: 129-138.
- Peter Goldblatt, John Manning, Gary Dunlop, Auriol Batten - Crocosmia and Chasmanthe (Royal Horticultural Society Plant Collector Guide)
- Kostelijk, P.J. (1984) Crocosmia in gardens. The Plantsman 5: 246-253. | <urn:uuid:355ad086-bec0-4c30-b5e3-19b16331f30d> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.reference.com/browse/flexuose | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1387345762220/warc/CC-MAIN-20131218054922-00021-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.879885 | 689 | 3.25 | 3 |
Fibromyalgia is a chronic, widespread pain in muscles and soft tissues surrounding the joints throughout the body. The disease is fairly common, affecting approximately 2 to 4 percent of the U.S. population, mostly middle-aged women.
Although its symptoms are similar to other joint diseases, such as arthritis, fibromyalgia is actually a form of soft tissue or muscular rheumatism that causes pain in the muscles and soft tissues.
Although the cause of fibromyalgia is unknown, researchers believe there may be a link with sleep disturbance, psychological stress, or immune, endocrine, or biochemical abnormalities. Fibromyalgia mainly affects the muscles and the points at which the muscles attach to the bone (at the ligaments and tendons).
Pain is the most common and chronic symptom of fibromyalgia. Pain may begin in one area of the body, such as the neck and shoulders, but eventually the entire body may become affected. The pain ranges from mild to severe and may be described as burning, soreness, stiffness, aching, or gnawing pain. Fibromyalgia usually is associated with characteristic tender spots of pain in the muscles. The following are other common symptoms of fibromyalgia. However each individual may experience symptoms differently. Symptoms may include:
The symptoms of fibromyalgia may resemble other medical conditions or problems. Always consult your doctor for a diagnosis.
There are no laboratory tests that can confirm a diagnosis of fibromyalgia. Instead, diagnosis is usually based on reported symptoms and physical exam findings. The American College of Rheumatology has published diagnostic criteria that help your health care provider make the correct diagnosis. The criteria define fibromyalgia as widespread pain for more than three months and describe 18 tender points on the body. The criteria suggest that to confirm a diagnosis you must have at least 11 tender points on exam.
Specific treatment for fibromyalgia will be determined by your doctor based on:
Although there's no cure for fibromyalgia, the disease can often be successfully managed with proper treatment, as fibromyalgia doesn't cause damage to tissues. Treatment may include:
Click here to view the
Online Resources of Orthopaedic Surgery | <urn:uuid:589e7128-9e32-4768-9893-1556aa8a366f> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://www.nyhq.org/diw/Content.asp?PageID=DIW000913&More=OTH&language=Chinese | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218189903.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212949-00479-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952239 | 444 | 3.125 | 3 |
The Big What If?
These things could save your life when the ground shakes
Whether it's legitimate worries of a future earthquake in Oregon, or immediate concerns about what's happening in Japan today, the natural disaster across the Pacific Ocean last week contains real meaning and lessons for Portlanders.
Local residents are asking first how they can help with the ongoing human tragedy in Japan, and then wondering how their own communities would hold up under similar circumstances.
One thing is for sure: The threat of a Japan-style quake in Oregon is more than just a theory. Large subduction zone quakes off the Northwest coast have historically occurred every 300 or so years -the last one in 1700. So we're due.
If the quake is big enough, the shaking will cause landslides, tumble old unreinforced masonry buildings into rubble and bring down several bridges across the Willamette River.
April is Earthquake Preparedness Month. Local governments will give advice on ways to survive a major quake. The Japanese quake offers valuable lessons, even though it continues posing risks of its own - primarily radiation releases from damaged nuclear reactors.
Here are nine things Portlanders should consider in the wake of the quake:
• Schools aren't seismic-ready
When disaster strikes, any parent's first thought will be for their children - who could be in a school building miles away, possibly on the other side of the Willamette River.
So just how safe are Portland's school buildings in the case of a major earthquake? The answer is sobering, at best.
Of about 100 Portland Public School buildings, just a dozen are compliant with current seismic codes: Applegate, Wilcox, Smith, Edwards, the Kelly Center, Astor, Bridger, Forest Park, Rosa Parks, Hollyrood, Irvington and Vernon.
The first five do not house students - they've been shuttered and house other district programs or remain empty.
If voters approve the $548 million capitol bond measure in May, the number of compliant school buildings would increase to 21, with nine more schools rebuilt to current codes. Those are: Roosevelt, Cleveland, Jefferson, Faubion, Rigler, Laurelhurst, Markham, Marysville and West Sylvan (half of it).
In addition, the bond would pay for seismic roof reinforcements at four schools: Ainsworth, Grant, Tubman and Wilson.
More than half of the district's schools have received some seismic improvements, but are not compliant because the code is fairly new.
Just because a school isn't fully compliant doesn't mean it's not safe, says district spokesman Matt Shelby. He compared it to a car without airbags: The car with airbags just has an increased level of safety.
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • A man looks on as U.S. rescue workers search for survivors in a house in Kamaishi, Iwate prefecture on March 16, five days after the devastating earthquake that's still seeing ripple effects.
• You can limit radiation
It's natural to be worried about whether dangerous levels of radiation from the damaged nuclear reactors in Japan will hit the West Coast. Experts are saying that even if radiation reaches the jet stream, it should disperse enough over the Pacific Ocean that it cannot hurt anyone here.
You can still take precautions. If radiation is scheduled to arrive, stay indoors as much as possible. Don't pump fresh air into your home or office. Eat and drink from a previously established food and water supply. And look into buying potassium iodide, known as KI, a white salt compound that helps prevent radiation from being absorbed into the thyroid.
Non-radioactive KI is available without a prescription, but its potential side effects can be nasty.
• Getting better prepared
Last May, the city auditor said the Portland Office of Emergency Preparedness - which has the unlikely acronym of POEM - was not sufficiently ready to respond to a disaster. Among other things, an audit found POEM did not have a written plan to coordinate the responses of all appropriate city agencies.
Mayor Sam Adams oversees POEM and made responding to the audit a priority. During the past 10 months, the agency has worked to complete the plan and fix other problems noted in the audit, says POEM Director Carmen Merlo. She plans to update the City Council on the efforts in April. The goal, Merlo says, is to complete the work by the one-year anniversary of the audit's release.
According to Merlo, if an earthquake causes extensive damage, city officials will quickly assess which public buildings and outdoor areas are the safest and concentrate relief efforts there. If all power is out, police cars with loudspeakers will tell people where to go.
The city also has moved to establish an emergency operations center and dispatch yard for heavy equipment that could be used in such a disaster on the west side of the Willamette River.
All of the city's heavy equipment yards are on the east side of the river. Adams worries no equipment will be available on the west side if an earthquake makes travel across the river impossible. He wants to site a new yard at the soon-to-be-decommissioned Sgt. Jerome Sears U.S. Army Reserve Center at 2730 S.W. Multnomah Blvd.
TRIBUNE PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER ONSTOTT • Benson High School nursing student Sandra Van learns the basics of CPR with about 200 others from five Portland-area high schools during a Red Cross earthquake simulation event at the Oregon Convention Center Tuesday.
• Chile offers us lessons
Kate Raphael used to be a skeptic about planning in advance for emergencies, and she teased her mother-in-law for stowing hiking boots under the bed just in case of a disaster.
Then a massive earthquake struck Chile last year while Kate, her husband and their three children were vacationing on the Chilean coast.
'Now you know who has hiking boots under the bed?' says Raphael, a communications and marketing consultant who is back in the Mt. Tabor neighborhood after a year in Chile.
The family was 12 hours' drive from the epicenter, she says, but the earth was shaking so violently, they thought the epicenter was nearby. They jumped into a car to get away from any potential tsunami danger, while Raphael's son Sutton started videotaping the experience.
It's unfortunate that so many people have to endure a crisis before they take emergency preparedness seriously, says Raphael, who wound up preparing a five-minute videotape to encourage others to prepare.
One lesson from Chile was how crucial communications are, Raphael says. All cell phones and telephone lines were down for at least a day. 'When you don't have information, it creates a huge amount of panic,' she says.
Since last week's earthquake in Japan, Raphael has updated her list of key emergency phone numbers. She's also trying to find a hand-crank radio for her emergency supply kit.
Raphael suggests people stock up on water and food, including food for their pets. If there's a major earthquake here and the area gets battered, 'you can't go to Freddies' the next day and stock up,' she says. 'You've lost your chance.'
To see Raphael's video, go to: http://web.multco.us/em/2010-national-preparedness-month.
• Red Cross on the front lines
There was a whole lot of noise Tuesday morning at the Oregon Convention Center. The lights went out, book shelves fell and papers flew everywhere. The rumbling of falling structures, people's shouts for help and flashing emergency lights filled the air.
It wasn't a real quake. It was the first earthquake simulation put on by the Oregon Trail chapter of the American Red Cross, which had been scheduled long before last week's Japanese quake.
Local business people and high school students walked through a series of elaborately staged scenes, with volunteers acting as a trapped victims, medical workers, fire chiefs and others.
The Red Cross deals each day with the aftermath of house fires. But in the event of a major earthquake, the group would be on the frontlines with blood donation trailers, mobile kitchen units, bulk distribution sites for things like water and hygiene kits, emergency operation centers and makeshift shelters.
The goal of Tuesday's event, Red Cross spokeswoman Lise Harwin says, was to give people a realistic look at the path from chaos to recovery after a major earthquake strikes.
Benson High School senior Sandra Van fully embraced the experience, taking mental notes of everything she needed to do.
'I definitely want to start getting a kit' of emergency supplies, she says. She also wants to talk with her family about designating a meet-up place and an out-of-state relative to check in with after a major disaster.
'If I start getting (my family) ready, they'll be able to carry it on' when she heads to college next year, she says.
TRIBUNE PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER ONSTOTT • Todd Anderson gives blood at a mobile donation unit Tuesday during the Red Cross earthquake event. In times of major disaster there's often a great need for blood donations. The Red cross in Japan has not yet requested blood donations from the U.S., a spokeswoman says.
• Don't stand in the doorway
You're standing in your kitchen when the house begins to shake. What you don't do, according to Dave Houghton, director of the Multnomah County Office of Emergency Management, is head for the nearest doorway.
Despite years of being told that doorways would hold up best when the rest of the house is crumbling, Houghton says, the theme now is 'duck, cover and hold still' beneath something that will protect you from falling chandeliers and broken window glass.
A strong dining room table or office desk might do that trick. Once the temblors have stopped, Houghton says, take a sniff. If you smell natural gas use a wrench (and you do have one stashed ahead of time, right?) to turn off the gas at the meter.
Don't expect shelters and medical staging areas to be set up immediately if a Japan-sized quake hits Portland. That could take a while, Houghton says, because emergency workers will have to figure out which buildings in each neighborhood are safe enough to host shelters.
Cell phones and other phone lines could become hard to use in emergencies, even if the towers are intact, because too many people are calling at the same time. Sometimes, the secret is to place a long-distance call, Houghton says, because those lines aren't overused. The way to keep in contact with people in Portland might be to designate an out-of-town family member or friend to serve as the hub of a contact wheel.
• Care may be hard to reach
Once the Big One hits and you're standing in the rubble, you might want to rush for the nearest hospital. Be prepared to offer basic first aid on your own, health experts say.
That emergency kit you've stashed away should include extra medications and copies of prescriptions. Somebody in each household should have training in CPR and first aid.
The Red Cross offers a guide for preparing an emergency first aid kit that should be kept at home, with a possible second kit in the car. Try www.oregonredcross.org.
Legacy Emanuel in Northeast Portland and Oregon Health and Science University in Southwest Portland are the area's two level-one trauma centers. Still, a quake on the scale of Japan's could disrupt hospitals.
'The scope is so huge nobody can predict what will happen,' says Dave Austin, Multnomah County spokesman. 'People need to be prepared - not to perform surgery on themselves - but have emergency kits ready, have a communication plan set with your family.'
• You can insure your home
Oregon may be vulnerable to a major earthquake, but only one in five homeowners has earthquake insurance, according to a state survey.
'If the Big One happens, I'd rather not be holding the bag for $100,000 or $200,000,' says Eric Mitchell, insurance sales manager for the American Automobile Association in Portland.
Some insurance carriers have stopped providing earthquake coverage here, Mitchell says. Many homeowners are reluctant to buy it, he says, because it often comes with such a high deductible.
Still, Mitchell advises folks to buy the insurance if they can.
There are also many other things people can do to make their homes safer in an earthquake. Experts advise going on a 'hazard hunt' of your house, checking everything that could tumble down if your house starts tossing like a rowboat in a storm. Strap the water heater to the ground. Make sure bookshelves, entertainment centers and other heavy furniture are attached to nearby walls. For older homes, consider reinforcing the foundation and making sure it's securely attached to the house.
• You can help Japan
Portlanders can make a difference in disaster-stricken Japan. At least four major charities are sending direct aid. Here's how to help:
• Make a donation to The Salvation Army online (www.salvationarmyportland.org) or by calling 1-800-SAL-ARMY and designating the donation to 'Japan earthquake/tsunamis.'
You can also text 'Japan' or 'Quake' to 80888 to make a $10 donation; standard text messaging rates apply.Or, write a check marked 'Japan Earthquake/ Tsunamis' to: The Salvation Army World Service Office, International Relief Fund, P.O. Box 630728, Baltimore, MD 21263-0728.
• The American Red Cross is working with Japanese Red Cross teams. To donate, visit www.redcross.org.
• Medical Teams International is working with church partners to provide water, food and other needs. To donate, visit www.medicalteams.org/japan.
• Portland's Mercy Corps is helping survivors through Peace Winds, its longstanding partner. Peace Winds has already assessed a number of damaged areas and flown emergency supplies into families evacuated from homes in the tsunami-devastated city of Kesennuma. Donations can be made at www.mercycorp.org. | <urn:uuid:7a8d5ca8-28e1-4ff8-98be-4a0ae625d96a> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://portlandtribune.com/component/content/article?id=3899 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1419447548201.125/warc/CC-MAIN-20141224185908-00078-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955572 | 2,954 | 2.875 | 3 |
The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Quality of Life and Psychological Outcomes Associated Home Quarantine: A Narrative StudyAuthor(s): Maryam Bastami, Hamidreza Monibi, Elahe Shahamati and Ali Yazdanpanah*
Background and Aim: One of the important negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is the psychological effects and their effects on the quality of life of people in the community. The present study aimed to evaluate the COVID-19 pandemic on quality of life and determine the psychological consequences, based on previous studies and as a review study.
Materials and Methods: To conduct this study, all studies related to the topic under discussion during 2000-2021 by systematic search in internationally available databases, including Web of Science, Science Direct, Scopus, PubMed, and Google Scholar, were checked out. Finally, 41 completely relevant studies were selected to investigate the main objective.
Results: The results showed that pandemic COVID-19 causes anxiety, fear, depression, emotional changes, insomnia, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with a high prevalence in the community. In addition, this pandemic significantly affects the quality of life of people compared to the pre-pandemic period.
Conclusion: Based on the study results, it can be concluded that in the COVID-19 pandemic period, it is necessary to identify people prone to psychological disorders at different levels of society whose mental health may be endangered. By providing appropriate psychological strategies and techniques, mental health can be maintained. In addition, health promotion and prevention strategies should be implemented to maintain the mental health of children and adolescents, improve the quality of life, and reduce the burden of COVID-19, especially for children who are most at risk. | <urn:uuid:6f7e1bf0-ee75-4b75-b4e5-450242e39f62> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://www.clinicalschizophrenia.net/abstract/the-impact-of-covid19-pandemic-on-quality-of-life-and-psychological-outcomes-associated-home-quarantine-a-narrative-stud-86781.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446711077.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20221206092907-20221206122907-00509.warc.gz | en | 0.926048 | 367 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Take this example included in a recently released report which compared two nearly-identical toys:
These two Radio Flyer scooters are nearly the same, with the same features. So one does the red one cost $24.99 and the pink one cost $49.99? Because the red one is marketed to boys and the pink one is marketed to girls.
Or try this one:
These two bike helmets are manufactured by the same company and have the same features, and yet the Shark helmet for the boys is $14.99 and the Unicorn helmet for the girls is $27.99.
The price gap doesn’t stop at toys, though. Parents will pay more to cloth their daughters than their sons too, where these examples show the same shirt is $5.47 for boys yet $7.77 for girls, and the same jeans are $12 for boys but $14 for girls.
All in all, a new report from the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs showed that toys for girls cost an average of 7 percent more than the comparable item for boys while girls’ clothing costs an average of 4 percent more.
But the disparity doesn’t end in adulthood. In fact, it gets trickier.
Women pay an average of eight percent more for their clothing than their male counterparts.
But what is most interesting about the adult clothing comparison is that for lower-end price range clothing, men paid 3 percent more than women on average; however, when the price range moved into the higher-end range, women paid 13 percent more than men.
The disparity isn’t just in clothing as an adult – just as in kids’ toys, the pink version of an identical product will likely cost more.
Across the board, women pay more for personal care than men:
This price gap isn’t a surprise to many. A 1994 study from the State of California found that women pay $1,351 annually for the same services as men, a “gender tax” for being a woman.
The study concludes that women pay an average of 7 percent more than men for the same products and say that “price differences based on gender are largely inescapable for female consumers simply due to the product offerings available in the market.” They are encouraging consumers to join their social media campaign by tweeting examples of gender and fair pricing with #genderpricing. | <urn:uuid:796c1c63-5203-4095-b5a0-c2cb12073c03> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://opinionzone.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2015/12/23/women-pay-more-for-clothes-and-almost-everything-else/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501170609.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104610-00163-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964439 | 496 | 2.8125 | 3 |
The following is the latest version of the gift economy worksheet I’ve begun going through with new conversation partners. It’s been quite illuminating to go through the process of inquiring with another with the common purpose of reaching mutual understanding.
This worksheet is the result of about 2 years of thinking about how to create a more just small-scale economy that is in tune with leading a philosophical life. The purpose of the worksheet is to help us figure out how we can carry on well together. The reason I call it a worksheet is that it’s intended to take us through a set of procedures in the hope that we’ll arrive at a good enough answer to the question: “How much is it appropriate to give?” That answer may change with time and as a consequence of further considerations, but the first answer, being good enough, gives us a good enough place to begin.
A gift economy is a flow of givings and receivings. The gifts the giver offers are of the kind that they are meant to meet the other’s material needs; the receivings are acts of gratitude to the one in virtue of his having offered the right kind of thing.
There are two main reasons why it would be a good thing to participate in a gift economy. The first is that it seeks to re-educate us so that we come to focus our attention more and more on the social relation (which is held together by genuine human needs) and less and less on the commodity form (which is meant to satisfy narrowly construed self-interests). The second is that it gives us the opportunity to cultivate the virtue of generosity. If forms of giving and receiving shape much of social life, then we’d want to learn how to offer and receive properly: to consider how much is owed to whom and for what reason. In ancient philosophy, this was known as dike, or justice.
Questions and Remarks
Question 1 of Generosity (Q1): How much are you able to give in order to meet some of my material needs?
In answering this question, you’ll need to focus your attention on the social relation holding us together, not on the incorrect thoughts that you’ve purchased some commodity or that you’re being billed for some service rendered. You’re not paying for a conversation, for some insight, or whatever; rather, you’re helping to maintain my philosophical form of life.
Some people offer gift contributions after each conversation; others do so weekly, monthly, or quarterly. If it helps in your considerations, you can invite me to inquire about my own particular material needs. These would include housing, food, energy, travel, health, and communication (notably, Internet). Since January of 2013, I’ve been supporting two of us: my love Alexandra and me.
A number of conversation partners offer gifts in the form of checks or increasingly via PayPal. The gift contribution goes directly toward meeting our material needs so that we can live simply and in accordance with philosophical life. We seek, above all, to be living examples of this beautiful way of living.
Question 2 of Onus (Q2): Would giving this much make it difficult if not impossible for you to care properly about what matters most?
Early on, this question is not always easy to answer, since it may seem as if you have lots of ongoing expenses and a number of outstanding debts and thus that any amount would be an onus. However, your considerations should be squarely on what truly matters for a life to be good. If you desire the wrong kinds of things or are dissatisfied with certain aspects of your life, then it’s likely that your expenses will be high. You’re spending due to a lack of self-sufficiency or out of an overestimation of the value of certain objects.
If you’re feeling confused about what could be burdensome for you, then I’d encourage you to draw a distinction between desires for the right kinds of things (love, friendship, contemplation, etc.) and desires born out of dissatisfaction and in search of the wrong kinds of things (licentiousness, excessive wealth, fame, social recognition, status, etc.). It’s worth pointing out that the nature of these desires will become clearer over the course of our philosophical conversations.
Question 3 of Wholeheartedness (Q3): Would you be able to give this much without reserve or hesitation, in a fully considered Yes rather than out of half-heartedness?
The term ‘wholeheartedness’ is intended to capture a sense of being properly motivated that is akin to but not the same as (say) being a good parent. The good parent is ‘all in.’ He or she gives out of plenitude, as if by necessity; not out of fear born of scarcity. The good parent does not feel as if he or she is being duped or robbed or is getting a ‘raw deal,’ nor is he or she looking to get the most by offering the least. The good parent offers freely ‘just enough.’
Consider moving from Q1 to Q3 with the goal of arriving at a good conclusion. The process may require that you go through loops before you’re able to come up with a good enough answer.
Q1 helps you to come up with a reasonable candidate offering and to test that offering for generousness. If, given your available means, the offering is too little, then it would not count as being generous or as being generous enough. Consequently, you’d need to ask Q1 again in order to supply a new answer.
Q2 allows you to test the offering arrived at by the end of Q1 to see whether it is too much for you. If offering this much would count as a burden for you, then you may need to reconsider your possible gift by entertaining another candidate answer to Q1. This new candidate would then be tested by asking Q2 again.
After the first two questions have been answered and both tests have been passed, then you should have arrived at a level (for Aristotle: ‘the mean’) of proper generosity. This would be neither too much (onus) nor too little (stinginess) but rather just enough.
Q3 invites you to consider the spirit in which the offering is made. Can you offer this much with open, outgoing hands? If, after hitting upon the mean, you can’t give this much without feeling self-conflicted, without vacillating, or without sensing scarcity (as if the gift were depleting your stores), then we’d need to inquire into what reasons there might be for your feeling this sense of half-heartedness or lingering disquietude.
The aim of this worksheet is to arrive at mutual understanding: one offers a gift wholeheartedly to another and the other is able to accept the gift just as wholeheartedly. The worksheet, accordingly, is an example of seeing to each other by seeing each other. The process is intended to take place in ‘living speech,’ it can be slow-going, we may need to return to earlier questions more than once, and there are bound to be hesitations, pauses, and uneasinesses before there is graceful ease. And yet, the beautiful thing about this process is that it allows us to put words to what often goes unverbalized, to unearth assumptions that often go unnoticed till later on, and to think together in a way that is compassionate and resolute both. Mutual understanding certainly feels like seeing eye-to-eye.
Unfolding of the Gift Economy
The initial wholehearted gift and the wholehearted acceptance of the gift do not constitute a binding contract, promise, or invariant arrangement; the gift, given wholeheartedly, is accepted wholeheartedly. However, the amount of the offering may change over time and with reason. At certain times and due to changing circumstances, it may make sense for you to offer more, less, or something else. We’d want to inquire about your reasons for wishing to explore this change. And yet what needs to be underscored from the outset is that the more your life comes to order, the easier it will be for you to give freely. | <urn:uuid:9a90ea41-e6fd-4b2d-b97d-4af61a4a14cf> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | https://andrewjtaggart.com/2012/12/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463608617.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20170525214603-20170525234603-00195.warc.gz | en | 0.958661 | 1,723 | 2.671875 | 3 |
In 1910, artist Grace Carpenter Hudson and her ethnologist husband John Hudson, M.D., began plans for the construction of a home in Ukiah, California, that would accommodate their respective interests. They engaged architect and photographer George L. Wilcox to design a two-story American Craftsman-style redwood bungalow to their detailed specifications. Construction began in 1911, and around New Year's Eve the Hudsons settled into their 3,400 square-foot custom built dwelling. They christened it the "Sun House," after the Hopi Indian sun deity representing fertility and growth. The house served not only as their residence, but as Grace's studio, and the base for John's study of California Native American cultures, especially that of the local Pomo Indian peoples. The home soon became a center of artisitc and cultural activity for Ukiah residents and visitors alike. The Hudsons, who had no children, occupied the Sun House for the rest of their lives.
After John's death in 1936, and Grace's the following year, the Sun House passed on to Grace's nephew, Mark Carpenter, and his wife Melissa. The Carpenters, also childless, occupied the house for over thirty years. During their occupancy, they made a few, but significant, architectural changes to the Craftsman home. In general, however, the character of the house remained intact. Approximately three years after Mark's death in 1967, Melissa married her childhood sweetheart, Otis A. Kendrick. Melissa, with her new husband, continued to make their home in the Sun House. Melissa drew up a will in agreement with the City of Ukiah, stipulating that upon her death, the house and grounds would be operated as an art and history museum in remembrance of Grace and John Hudson and their lifeworks. The City of Ukiah acquired legal title to the Sun House in 1975, the year of Melissa's death, giving Otis life tenancy. Until 1981, the time of Otis' passing, the Sun House was operated on a limited schedule as a historic home. The City of Ukiah then assumed full control of the property, house, and its collection of over 30,000 artifacts. For approximately the next five years, the "Sun House Museum" operated out of the house proper, with a gift store located for a time in Dr. Hudson's old garage in back of the home.
In 1986, following the fundraising efforts of the Sun House Guild, (a support group comprised primarily of Ukiah area residents), and in partnership with the City of Ukiah, an 8,400 square-foot museum was constructed in back of the Sun House. This new space, christened the "Grace Hudson Museum," allowed the Hudsons' enormous and varied collections to be stored more properly and displayed to greater advantage. A subsequent Guild fundraising campaign, in the spring of 2001, facilitated the addition of 2,400 square feet of gallery space, in part to display the Museum's ever-expanding collection of Grace Hudson paintings, and Indian basketry. At the same time, the existing Museum was remodeled to make better use of staff and work space, and to add a new art storage vault.
Number 926 on the list of California historical landmarks, and on the National Register of Historic Places, the Sun House continues to receive recognition as one of the most significant artifacts in the Museum’s collections. In the fall of 2000, it was selected as one of the founding participant sites in the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios project of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Most recently, in the fall of 2011, the California State Parks and Recreation Department’s Nature Education Facilities Program awarded a $3 million grant to the City of Ukiah to create an outdoor educational component for the Museum by restructuring the Carpenter-Hudson park that surrounds the Museum and Sun House. This exciting project will utilize the Museum's grounds as interpretive spaces, landscaped entirely with native Mendocino County plants. The park will be used to teach visitors about Pomo Indian land management traditions and values, and how these can inform contemporary sustainable practices. | <urn:uuid:0248fd5a-f8bd-4de7-9f15-f1f9bb5c3c0d> | CC-MAIN-2014-15 | http://www.gracehudsonmuseum.org/~gracehud/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=93&Itemid=96 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1397609521512.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20140416005201-00476-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957135 | 845 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Inthe city's economy began to boom with the construction of a series of locks and dams on the Arkansas River. Although several of the black students had positive experiences on their first day of school, according to a September 25,report in The New York Times, they experienced routine harassment and even violence throughout the rest of the year.
Little Rock High School. The name is derived from La Petite Roche the "little rock" in Frencha small rock formation on the south bank of the Arkansas River that served as a navigational landmark by early river travelers.
Little Rock's Courthouse and Post office was originally constructed in and served in that capacity until Amidst ensuing rioting, the police removed the nine students.
She said I was one of the kids 'approved' by the school officials. About the University of Arkansas: Grant ruled that Elisha Baxter was indeed the rightful governor of the state. SinceGreen has worked in the private sector for consulting firms. This lawsuit, along with a number of other factors contributed to the Little Rock School Crisis of Little Rock citizens voted 19, to 7, against integration and the schools remained closed.
Eckford later recalled that one of the women spat on her.
In the weeks prior to the start of the new school year, the students participated in intensive counseling sessions guiding them on what to expect once classes began and how Gcse history little rock high respond to anticipated hostile situations.
The soldiers accompanied James to his classes throughout his course. Little Rock was no more than a minor wilderness town when Arkansas became a territory in You will also be able to call on the expertise of our dedicated student support team, by email or on the phone.
However they were far from welcomed by many other pupils. According to FP, they struggled at first to get the company off the ground, and with him having a family at home that he needed to provide for, FP became involved in a string of criminal activities which resulted in a run-in with law enforcement.
Eckford joined the Army and later earned her General Education Equivalency diploma. However, in Augustthe Federal Courts ruled against the delay of de-segregation, which incited Faubus to call together an Extraordinary Session of the State Legislature on August 26 in order to enact his segregation bills.
Faubus's intention to open private schools was denied[ clarification needed ] the same day the referendum took place, which caused some citizens of Little Rock to turn on the black community.
While Fred was kind enough to bail him out, he suggested that they part ways because FP was a liability to the company. The group has been widely recognized for their significant role in the civil rights movement.
After FP lost his job with Andrews Construction, he began to heavily drink, which she wanted no parts of, taking Jellybean with her as she left for Toledo to stay with the kids' grandparents. Ten years later, Little Rock was incorporated as a city.
Those Confederate soldiers interred at the national cemetery were removed and reinterred there. Fortunately, they managed to work out those difference, and mend their friendship.
Escorted by the troops, the Little Rock Nine attended their first full day of classes on September The group soon became famous as the Little Rock Nine. After graduating from Central High, Thomas served in the Army in Vietnam, earned a business degree and worked as an accountant for private companies and the Pentagon.
Vincent de Paul, a French priest who had cared for the sick and poor. The taming of that river helped turn Little Rock into a port. Also included is an IMAX theater with a screen that stand six stories high. His plan was to then hire them out to private companies who would operate segregated, private, schools.
Their stories, while full of trauma and prejudice, also tell of survival and strength. The black pupils now had the right to go to the school and President Eisenhower sent 1, soldiers to look after them for the rest of the year.
The importance of the James Meredith case, Mississippi, James Meredith walking to class accompanied by soldiers. Little Rock is also home to one of the oldest Black congregations in Arkansas, located in the historic First Missionary Baptist Church.
The United States c Although there have been many iterations since it was built in late s, the Pfeifer Brothers Department Store Building remains standing.Little Rock, Arkansas.
the Supreme Court ordered the Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, to let 9 black students attend the all white high school in Little Rock. The standoff at Little Rock Central High School occurred inat the height of the Cold War.
To understand its significance, it is important to understand that the Cold War was as much an. Intwo years before the 50th anniversary of the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, civics teachers George West, Keith Richardson, Cynthia Nunnley, and Mike Johnson gave their students an assignment.
High Schools: Central International Studies High School Park Street Little Rock AR Hall High School H Street Little Rock AR J.
A. Fair High School of College and Career Academies David O. Dodd Little Rock AR LRSD History; Non-Discrimination. LRSD Non-Discrimination Notice; Anti. Sep 05, · The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine black students who enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September Their attendance at the school was a.
High School Diploma of one of the Little Rock Nine. High School Diploma of one of the Little Rock Nine.Download | <urn:uuid:a73d1c79-4b12-4c93-b387-c1c4c27b29ca> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | https://picewum.simplisticcharmlinenrental.com/gcse-history-little-rock-high-51382re.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627999130.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20190620004625-20190620030625-00529.warc.gz | en | 0.978299 | 1,138 | 2.828125 | 3 |
By: Alessia Valentini
Climate change, food insecurity and environmental disasters are inextricably linked to one another and strengthening resilience to climate change for farmers and communities is key to sustainability. This was the main message at today’s COP20 side event on Building Resilience to Climate Change and Managing Disaster Risks through Sustainable Agriculture.
This event was co-organized by the World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO), Caritas International, the International Federation for Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Farmers and experts from international organizations and civil society, who directly experience the need for climate-resilient agriculture and risk management, presented best practices and proposed solutions to reduce climate change impacts on agriculture and food security.
“Now that the world has realized the importance of climate change and has developed an increased awareness towards this issue, we must understand where farmers stand, what their role is and how can we help them,” said moderator Adriana Opromolla, from Caritas International.
Mr Charles Ogang, President of the WFO in Kampala, said that Uganda has already felt the impacts of climate change in the form of different hazards that are effecting the entire value chain. In response the organization supports and promotes activities such as: fasting mature varieties; avoiding bush burning; managing water on a small scale; supplementing pastures; conserving agriculture; supporting crop insurance; promoting post-harvest management and introducing silo systems.
The Latin American Office Co-ordinator for IFOAM, Ms Patricia Flores Escudero, stated that: “It is time for the voices of farmers to be heard”. The solution proposed by IFOAM was based on organic agriculture. She proposed a cleaner production system that does not harm the environment and combines traditional and modern technologies to improve the livelihood of those who participate in it. Organic agriculture promotes the health of soils, plants, animals and human beings and it has to be managed in a responsible manner in order to safeguard the health of future generations.
Mr Jorge Lafosse, National Director of Caritas in Peru, believes that: “Adaptation is not a technical theme, it is a moral and ethical imperative”. Climate change effects are increasing in Peru with increased incidence of floods, droughts, diseases such as malaria and dengue, pests in agriculture and difficulty in water management because of the radical change in rain dynamics. “An immediate response to climate change problems is needed, in order to guarantee food security to farmers”.
The National Coordinator for Caritas in Brazil, Ms Jaime Conrado Oliveira, talked about the long experience that Caritas Brazil has with smallholder agriculture in the semi-arid regions of Brazil, where livelihoods are affected by climate change on an area of 980,000 Km2. Their experience has been disseminated through trainings targeted in particular to youth. “Technology needs to be accompanied by capacity building activities and sensitisation, that give information about the ecological specificities of the area and how these can be addressed”.
IFAD also believes that smallholders play an important role in the solution to climate change. Through its Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP), the world’s largest climate change adaptation programme, IFAD channels more than US$350 million to at least 8 million smallholder farmers. “Smallholders are our clients and we work to build their resilience to climate-related shocks and stresses” said Ms Estibalitz Morrás Dimas, Portfolio Officer from IFAD’s Environment and Climate division. “Our objectives are to encourage better analysis of the climate risk and promote new technologies and new partnerships, in order to achieve development while preserving biological diversity”.
Many interventions from the floor followed the presentations, leaving space to further discussions on important issues, such as: What is the definition of a climate smart agriculture? Are GMO seeds really climate smart? Where is the place of livestock when disasters struck? Are social changes like migration receiving enough attention? | <urn:uuid:75b768ba-a9e8-4464-8fce-af3eaa970c44> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://ifad-un.blogspot.com/2014/12/day-3-building-resilience-to-climate.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280410.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00347-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935978 | 842 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Mosquito bites are not only itchy and boring, but they can also pose a significant health threat. Mosquitoes are considered the deadliest insects in the world because they are carriers of extremely dangerous diseases, such as malaria, yellow plague, chikungunya virus, western fever, dengue, filariasis, and zyka virus. People and animals are attracted by mosquitoes with the smell of carbon dioxide and other tempting odors that we let out. Fortunately, there are natural aromas that chase mosquitoes, but do not contain any chemicals.
The pleasant smell of lavender is repelled by mosquitoes. In addition, the lavender has anti-fungal and antiseptic properties. You can plant it in your yard or in pots located next to doors or windows. To protect yourself from mosquitoes, you can rub the flower on your skin to let out of its oils.
The Jungle is flowers that are easily grown, and contain thiophene, an insect repellent ingredient. The Jungle is effective in the refusal of mosquitoes, tryps, white scrubs, Mexican ladybug and other insects.
Sardelata is a very attractive decorative plant, which also rejects mosquitoes and several types of parasites. Even though these fast growing plants like hot, sunny and dry climates, they can be grown in colder places and in pots, and they need to be tended more often.
This plant is commonly used as an additional spice in dishes, but its woody aroma is also effective in refusing mosquitoes, moths that attack cabbage and carrots attacking flocks. Rosemary is a great protection for when you want to enjoy a fire in nature without being attacked by mosquitoes. All you have to do is put a few rosemary leaves in the fire, and the smell it releases will drive out the mosquitoes. | <urn:uuid:c1684cbb-16f6-4ede-9c70-790f1ea6b483> | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | http://naturale-health.com/4-herbs-that-will-surely-drive-out-mosquitoes-from-your-home/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583795042.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20190121152218-20190121174218-00545.warc.gz | en | 0.966192 | 371 | 2.984375 | 3 |
The results are in…
The International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) is a non-profit academic society dedicated to promoting the science and application of evidence-based sports nutrition and supplementation. Recently, the group released a position statement on diets and body composition.
You can read the 19-page paper on your own, or simply skim this summary for the takeaway points.
Here’s What You Need To Know
- There are a lot of different diet types and eating styles
- All body composition assessment methods have strengths and weaknesses
- Diets focused on fat loss do so through a caloric deficit and the higher the starting body fat the more aggressive the caloric deficit may be used while slower rates of weight loss can help preserve muscle mass in leaner individuals
- Diets focused on muscle gain do so through a caloric surplus with diet composition and amount of the surplus as well as training status of the athlete influencing the nature of the gains
- Most dietary approaches are similarly effective for improving body composition
- Dietary protein intake above current recommendations may result in improved body composition and may be needed to preserve muscle mass when in a calorie deficit
- Intermittent caloric restriction has been shown to have no significant advantage over a daily calorie restriction in terms of body composition changes
- The long-term success of a diet depends on compliance and adjusting for adaptive thermogenesis
- We need more research on women and older adults as well as more scientific studies on variations of feeding frequency and macronutrient distribution at various energy balances combined with training as well as behavioral and lifestyle modification strategies related to weight management
A “diet” is the sum of energy and nutrients obtained from foods and beverages consumed regularly by a person.
The paper looked at very-low- and low-energy diets (VLED and LED), low-fat diets (LFD), low-carbohydrate diets (LCD), ketogenic diets (KD), high-protein diets (HPD), and intermittent fasting (IF). Most branded diets (Atkins, Paleo, Zone, Ornish, etc.) fall under one of these categories.
For reference, the macronutrient ratio of the typical American diet is roughly 15% protein, 50% carbohydrate, 35% fat.
Macronutrient ratios for an athletic population, such as bodybuilding where body composition is a key factor, is typically closer to 30% protein, 40% carbohydrate, 30% fat but can vary greatly due to nature of the chosen sport and individual preference.
The paper focused on body composition, not health or disease treatment. Although, improved body composition often leads to better health outcomes.
BODY COMPOSITION ASSESSMENT
Methods common in clinical practice and sports/fitness settings include underwater weighing, air displacement (BOD POD), skinfold thickness (calipers), and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). These are the most commonly used methods for adults due to their relatively low cost, ease of operation, and non-invasiveness. Dual energy X-ray (DXA or DEXA) absorptiometry is a more accurate method, but is still subject to error.
It has been determined that there is no single method which is best for assessment of the athlete population, but rather whichever method is the most practical for the needs of the assessment.
Commonly defined as 800-1200 kcal/day (LED – can be up to 1800 kcal/day) or 400-800 kcal/day (VLED) for rapid weight loss (2-5.5 lbs/wk) while preserving lean mass as much as possible. VLED diets are often liquid and commercially prepared, fortified with all needed vitamins and minerals and a typical macronutrient distribution of 70-100g protein, 15g fat, and 30-80g carbohydrates. Resistance training improves results. Most often used in obese subjects rather than healthy and athletic populations. Safe duration of this type of diet is debated but is commonly used for 8-12 weeks in clinical practice. Adverse reactions: hair loss, cold intolerance, fatigue, constipation, muscle cramps, headache, lightheadedness, death.
Defined as providing 20-35% of total calories from fat, with 10-35% protein and 45-65% carbohydrate – why it is also referred to as a high-carbohydrate diet. Systematic review has shown reducing the proportion of calories from dietary fat modestly but consistently reduced body weight, body fat, and waist circumference – maybe due to de facto reduction of total energy intake inducing body fat reduction over time. Based on the fact that fat is the most energy-dense macronutrient. Higher energy density of higher-fat diets results in greater weight gain and/or less weight loss, possibly due to increased palatability of energy-dense foods.
Very-low-fat diets (VLFD) are defined as providing 10-20% of total calories from fat. Research on these diets is limited, mainly made up of examining the health effects of vegetarian and vegan diets that aggressively minimize fat intake. Research shows these diets are effective for weight loss but body composition data is lacking.
There is no set amount which characterizes what is considered “low-carb”. Any diet containing less than 45% of total energy from carbohydrates or diets having less than 200g carbohydrates may both be considered LCD. It can also be hard to distinguish between KD and LCD. LCD generally allow more carbohydrates than KD.
Meta-analyses comparing LCD with LFD have yielded mixed results due to the lack of universal agreement on what is considered “low-carb” – a diet with 45% of total energy from carbohydrates may not show significant differences while a diet with <20% does.. Again, most studies have been done on obese subjects. LCD may be successful due to higher protein intake compared to control diets rather than the diets themselves.
Technically a subtype of LCD, KD is a beast all of its own. While “low-carb” is a subjective gray area, KD is objectively defined by its ability to measurably increase ketone bodies in the blood (“nutritional ketosis”). This state can be reached by fasting or by restricting carbohydrate intake to ~50g per day or 10% of total energy intake. Protein is kept moderate (1.2-1.5 g/kg) with the rest coming from fat (60-80%+).
Ketosis is not the same as KETOACIDOSIS – usually seen in type-1 diabetics who are not receiving enough exogenous insulin. The primary circulating ketone is b-hydroxybutyrate and is what is commonly measured when testing for ketosis in the blood.
In terms of KD for body composition (vs. medical necessity, such as in seizure disorders), the proposed advantage for fat loss is based largely on insulin-mediated inhibition of lipolysis and (presumably) enhanced fat oxidation – the rate of which plateaus within the first week of a KD. Some research is proposing that it is actually the higher protein amount of LCD rather than the lower carbohydrate intake itself, that is the crucial factor in promoting greater weight loss under dieting conditions. Studies have shown that, when protein and total energy intake is equal, there is no advantage of KD over non-KD conditions in terms of fat loss.
Any advantage of a KD over non-KD diet for fat loss would be the potential of appetite regulation due to increased satiety through suppression of ghrelin hormone production (the “fullness” hormone). Fat is satiating and therefore has the potential to suppress hunger independent of protein intake – also a hunger-satiating macronutrient. Hunger suppression may also be due to the presence of ketone bodies in the blood.
KD may be more ergolytic (enhancing athletic performance and/or exercise capacity) for endurance athletes than for strength/power athletes, as shown by impairment in high-intensity work output in high-fat/carbohydrate-restricted diets.
Generally defined as intakes reaching or exceeding 25% of total energy intake or 1.2-1.6 g/kg. Protein intakes above the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of 0.8 g/kg repeatedly reign supreme for preserving muscle mass and reducing fat mass.
How much is optimal? In one study, protein intake triple the RDA (2.4 g/kg) did not outperform double the RDA (1.6 g/kg) in terms of preserving lean mass – yet, in another study, triple the RDA (combined with dieting conditions, HIIT sprints, and resistance training) resulted in lean mass gains and fat loss while double the RDA resulted in preservation of lean mass and fat loss to a lesser extent. A recent systematic review suggests that intakes of 2.3-3.1 g/kg (1-1.4 g/lb) lean body mass (rather than total body weight) is an appropriate intake for lean, trained individuals under dieting conditions.
“Protein pacing” – spreading protein intake throughout the day – has been shown to be superior for improving body composition under dieting conditions.
Protein has the highest thermic effect of food – meaning your body has to burn more energy to digest it than it does either fat or carbohydrates. It is also metabolically expensive – which is why lean mass tends to be lost under hypocaloric conditions due to the body trying to reserve energy for more vital life processes. Protein is also very satiating, more so than either fat or carbohydrates, which may make dieting more bearable in terms of hunger.
No adverse effects have been found with long-term high protein intakes in healthy individuals in terms of measured clinical markers (blood lipids and metabolic panel).
The three main types of IF are alternate-day fasting (ADF), whole-day fasting (WDF), and time-restricted feeding (TRF).
The most extensively studied is ADF which typically involves fasting for 24 hours alternated with feeding for 24 hours. Subjects do not completely compensate for the fasting days’ calorie deficit on feeding days, thus weight and fat loss does occur. A recent study showed that ADF showed similar results to daily caloric restriction on body composition.
WDF involves fasting for one or two days throughout the week of otherwise maintenance level intake in order to achieve a calorie deficit, although not all WDF studies completely abstain from energy during their fasting days – perhaps limiting to 600-700 kcal/day.
TRF involves eating only within a designated feeding window during the day, typically 4-8 hours of feeding following 16-20 hours of fasting. Most of the research done on this type of IF is on subjects who fast for Ramadan – religious fasting in which food and fluid is avoided between sunrise and sunset for about 1 month.
A recent systematic review found that, overall, both IF and daily caloric restriction resulted in the same outcomes in terms of weight loss and body composition change, but that IF was found to be better at suppressing hunger – possibly due to ketone production during the fasting periods.
CALORIES IN, CALORIES OUT
This is the idea that weight loss or gain is determined by a caloric deficit or surplus, regardless of diet composition or macronutrient distribution. While true, it does not account for composition of the weight loss (fat vs. lean mass) nor the other factors that are involves in eating behavior.
Thermic effect of food (TEF) is just one component of energy expenditure – the “out” side of the energy balance equation. TEF makes up about 8-15% of total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), the largest component of which is resting energy expenditure (REE) – which is sometimes referred to as basal or resting metabolic rate (BMR or RMR – although RMR is technically 3-10% higher than BMR due to testing conditions). This is the energy cost to sustain basic life processes at rest. BMR account for 60-70% of TDEE.
The rest of one’s TDEE is made up of non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) and exercise activity thermogenesis (EAT). NEAT is composed of expenditure from one’s occupation, leisure activities, activities of daily living, and spontaneous activity such as fidgeting. NEAT and EAT can vary greatly within and across individuals.
The concept of “calories in vs. calories out” for weight loss has led to the “eat less, move more” solution to our national/international obesity problem. However, the solution has not proven to be so simple.
The body likes homeostasis (staying the same). This is why, when dieting, the body up-regulates hunger and down-regulates energy expenditure in an attempt not to lose weight.
Adapative thermogenesis is a term used to describe the gray area where losses in metabolic tissue cannot simply explain reduced energy expenditure – for example, losing > 10% total body weight results in a ~20-25% decrease in TDEE, 10-15% higher than would be expected. This has been found mostly due to decreased non-resting energy expenditure (NEAT and EAT) and possible due to increased sympathetic drive and decreased thyroid activity.
This reduced energy expenditure continues for quite some time – TDEE below expected levels may persist for over a year after dieting, although higher protein intake and resistance training do help.
There is substantial interindividual variability in energetic response to overfeeding. Some appear to resist weight/fat gain – suggesting a concurrent increase in TDEE with increased intake. Others show a greater efficiency for energy storage. NEAT usually increases in overfeeding situations, resulting in a greater TDEE and a difficulty gaining weight for some – oftentimes unbeknownst to the subject themselves due to the spontaneous/unconscious nature of NEAT.
Partitioning of this excess energy (fat vs. lean mass) and what determines it is an understudied area.
It can be argued that a calorie surplus is not needed for muscle gain since lean mass gains have been reported under dieting conditions, although possibly at a slower rate. Therefore, if lean mass gain is the goal, results will be optimized by being in a sustained caloric surplus to aid anabolic processes and support increased training demands.
People are bad at reporting accurately. There can be huge gaps between perceived compliance and actual compliance and not every study can be done under perfectly controlled laboratory conditions. People tend to under-report their intake and over-report their physical activity. We need more studies – especially in trained individuals, women, and older adults as most diet research focuses on those who are overweight or obese.
THE ‘BIG PICTURE’
In terms of order of importance or impact on body composition:
total daily macronutrition (and micronutrition) > nutrient timing > supplementation
- Want to lose weight? It does not matter the method, as long as you are in a calorie deficit.
- Want to improve body composition (read: look lean, toned, shredded, etc.)? Combine a calorie deficit with a higher protein intake, preferably spread throughout the day, and make sure resistance training is included for best results. | <urn:uuid:56ef38db-0728-4bc3-b939-813c6a9d70cd> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | https://ellenratliffrd.com/9-things-you-need-to-know-about-body-composition/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187824543.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20171021024136-20171021044136-00773.warc.gz | en | 0.942089 | 3,161 | 2.609375 | 3 |
What a lightweight! Around 53 percent of the new Lufthansa A350 is made of an innovative, ultra-light composite material. The largest component comes from the Airbus factory in Stade near Hamburg
The portal bridge swings automatically into place above the black component. Attached to it is a swivel-mounted red support bracket with a fiber placement head that approaches slowly, emitting a soft humming noise. A filament of black CFRP is gradually being spun from each of the twelve bobbins positioned along the sides of the head. CFRP is short for carbon fiber reinforced polymer – and it is the reason the latest generation of aircraft are much lighter than their predecessors. All the major aerospace manufacturers have adopted the new material with open arms as it allows them to cut back on weight, save kerosene and slash expenses. The new material not only offers greater stability and is easier to process than aluminum or other metals, its outstanding benefit is that it weighs a lot less than conventional materials.
To ensure that the layers bond perfectly, the robot pushes them under a radiant heater; then it stops, lifts the placement head, spins it around by 180 degrees and starts back over the sheet. Gradually, layer by layer, the largest individual CFRP part ever produced in the aerospace segment emerges: The upper shell of the wing of an Airbus A350, which will be joining the Lufthansa fleet at the beginning of 2017.
“This machine is our latest fiber laying device,” explains Sandra Bube, 29. The slender technician smiles proudly. Bube grew up not far from the Airbus plant in Stade on the Lower Elbe, an hour’s drive west of Hamburg – and she has devoted her career to CFRP. Following an internship, an apprenticeship, a year as a machine operator and five years in equipment assembly, she recently qualified as a “Master of Fiber Composite Materials. She couldn’t have chosen a better place to follow this career path, as the use of CFRP in aerospace applications was practically invented in Stade.
CFRP accounts for 53 percent of the plane’s weight. In the 1980s, airplanes contained less than 10 percent.
“It started here as early as 1983, when CFRP was first used to make the rudders for the Airbus A310,” says facility manager Kai Arndt, 44. “In just over 30 years, we have built a truly impressive CFRP expertise here.” Back then, Lufthansa was one of the first customers for the A310; very soon, the carrier is due to take delivery of the first of 25 jets of the innovative A350 XWB series. XWB is short for eXtra Wide Body, describing the aircraft’s generously proportioned fuselage. The A350 XWB has another distinctive feature: no other aircraft has a greater proportion of CFRP. This composite material accounts for 53 percent of the plane’s weight. In the 1980s, airplanes contained less than 10 percent.
“CFRP is our black gold. It never ceases to amaze me how versatile it is,” says Sandra Bube, “and how rapidly the technology is developing.” Thanks to its low weight and high stability, CFRP is the ideal material for the aerospace industry and is swiftly replacing aluminum in the new long-haul jets. The A380 (maiden flight 2005) only has 22 percent CFRP, the Boeing 787 (maiden flight 2009) already has 50 percent, and the proportion of the A350 XWB (maiden flight 2013) has risen by a further three percent.
The basic ingredient in CFRP is oil; this is used to make carbon fibers, thinner than a human hair and exceptionally strong. The individual fibers are grouped in strands consisting of several thousand individual fibers that are soaked in epoxy resin. The CFRP filament that the new machine is laying is only 2.7-millimeter-wide – but contains a staggering 50 000 strands. CFRP can be used to make airplane parts that are reinforced in the places that are exposed to particular stress and are thinner elsewhere. This approach is used for the upper shell of the wing, the exterior skin of the upper sides of the A350 XWB. “The rear wing root, where the wing is attached to the fuselage, bears enormous bending forces, and we apply more than 250 layers of CFRP tape here; each layer is 0.25mm thick,” explains Bube.
The CFRP filament that the new machine is laying is only 2.7-millimeter-wide – but contains a staggering 50 000 strands
The wing tips are a different matter: here, around 40 layers are sufficient to provide the necessary stability. With an overall length of 32 meters and up to six meters wide in places, the upper shell of the wing is made in a single piece and weighs 2.5 tons. It is an impressive component, and one which passengers on board a Lufthansa A350 will soon be able to admire from the comfort of their seats. “In terms of its size and dimensions, the wing shell is definitely the most complex CFRP component in the A350,” says facility manager Arndt. The placement head has to lay nearly 480 kilometers of the 1-centimeter CFRP tape in four different directions to give the component the necessary degree of stability exactly where the bending forces are greatest.
Then the wing shell is shifted on to a special truck which, just like a lunar vehicle, can also move sideways, and is driven to the world’s biggest serially-operated autoclave. This unit is like a gigantic pressure cooker: a gas-tight pressurized container that is closed with a round steel gate weighing several tons; it is nearly 36 meters long and nine meters wide, and resembles a tunnel. Two upper wing shells can be rolled in simultaneously. The chamber is locked, gas pumped in to bring the pressure up to ten bars, and it is then heated to 180 degrees Celsius. “The first session takes 13 hours,” says Bube. In the next step, the longitudinal reinforcements are applied to the shell and the shell is treated in the autoclave for a further eight hours. “Pressure and heat fuse the fibers in the resin and cure them into the given shape,” explains Bube. Previously, making an upper shell in a three-shift production rota took around five days; in future, it will take only half the amount of time.
Because CFRP can be used to make components that are 20 percent lighter than aluminum, and is also versatile enough to open up a wide range of new shapes, it plays an important role in making the A350 more economical: Operating costs and emissions are around a quarter lower than in a comparable aluminum aircraft. The passengers also benefit from the CFRP fuselage: the new composite material allows a higher cabin pressure, meaning that the air on board can have a higher moisture content. Sandra Bube can’t wait to experience this for herself: “I have never flown with an A350, but I hope to have the opportunity to do so very soon.” | <urn:uuid:9ee69c9b-a9fe-4d14-8a63-e5e016d59e94> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | https://magazin.lufthansa.com/uz/en/nonstop-you-more-than-just-a-good-flight/the-black-gold-a350/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583513844.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20181021094247-20181021115747-00242.warc.gz | en | 0.943868 | 1,490 | 2.671875 | 3 |
The move from Scarborough to Newry for the Carter family was nothing to be taken lightly. Scarborough in 1810 had a population of over 2000 and had been inhabited for several generations. John and Hannah lived close to the farms of the Carters and the Libbys. They had family to help them and support them as they established their family.
Moving to Newry was like moving from day to night. Newry was out in the backwoods. It’s first settlement had been destroyed in 1782 after one year by the Indians. “Then John J. Holmes of New Jersey purchased the land in 1794 with his sister's surname on the deed: Bostwick. On June 15, 1805, Bostwick Plantation was renamed by settlers that had come from Newry in what is now Northern Ireland.
The trade route (now Route 26) from Portland to Errol, New Hampshire, completed in 1802, passed through Newry. Farms were established on the intervales, which had excellent soil. Hay was the principal crop. Slopes of the mountains provided pasturage for grazing animals. A sawmill and gristmill were built on the Bear River “ (Wikipedia – Newry, Maine) and by 1810 Newry had a population of 202 souls.
Life in Newry was close to being at a subsistence level. Farms had to be as self-sufficient as possible as this northern forest land required great effort to clear it and the growing season was short. Most of the arable land was used to grow foodstuffs for the family or to produce forage for their animals. Hunting, trapping and fishing was important for food and for the skins that could be traded for needed food. The forest, which was everywhere and plentiful, was a source for logs and cut timber. Still the bottom line was everyone needed food so food was king. John Carter had an extra skill that would help them in this time of resettlement. He had learned the blacksmithing trade since his marriage to Hannah. He probably learned this from Hannah’s father Zebulon Libby who was a farmer-blacksmith back in Scarborough. John most likely plied his trade on the side accepting barter in commodities which his family would need.
With very little known about these year we will attempt to reconstruct their life from the tax records of early Newry. Much can be gleaned from these records as they listed the animals raised, dwellings built and land possessed and used. A careful study of these documents found in the early town records of Newry give us more than a glimpse of John and Hannah’s life. (Office of Town Clerk, Newry, Maine, Town Records, 1805 - 1846, Family History Library Film #11589, pages unnumbered.)
|Typical New England Home|
1811 – We know John and Hannah were in Newry in 1811 as they paid taxes there for the first time. This first year in Newry had to be full of challenges for the whole family. The early settlers of Newry must have been allowed to claim land in addition to the actual purchases that they made as John was credited with 260 acres of land (30 acres were listed as waste land) yet he had no acres of land in tillage, mowing or pasture. How they raised food to eat or for their 3 three-year-old cattle cannot be explained. The rolls also showed 1 swine which was raised to provide more protein for their diet. They also had no dwellings on their land so one must guess that they lived in the bed of their wagon – assuming they had a wagon when they arrived in Newry. Possibly John’s ability to work as a blacksmith provided them with cash or bartered goods. Their three cattle disappear from the tax roll by the next year so they were probably a food source. It was into these circumstances that the young couple welcomed their fourth child, William, into the family on 1 May 1811. This meant that Hannah had 4 children under the age of 5. Challenges had to be many and comforts few for the Carters.
1812 – The tax rolls still show John as having no dwelling but we would have to assume that this meant there was no finished dwelling but surely by this time that had at least part of the family home built to augment their initial living arrangements. The family this year was taxed for an acre of tillage. Tillage would be land being used to raise crops. Knowing how a single acre of land would have hundreds of trees and each one would have to be removed before the land could be plowed and planted even this single acre of cleared land was an achievement. This one acre would provide much of the family’s food supply. Their livestock supply changed as they had two oxen (surely to plow the land) and two cows, that if lactating, would supply the family with dairy products. They also had two swine. Dominicus turned six that year and probably began to help out around the farm.
1813 – The year began with the birth their fifth child, Philip Libby Carter, on January 13. Also, for the first time in Newry, the family was recorded as having a dwelling on their property. This had to be a momentous event for the Carters. This year they tilled the one acre from the previous year. They were also taxed for two cows and two swine. The tax roll shows no oxen in their care. The small farmers of the village of Newry probably shared these work animals as it wouldn’t take long to plow one acre of land.
1814 – For the first time the family had, besides its acre of tillage for growing foodstuffs, half acre of mowing land. We would have to assume this was land used to raise grains or other crops to feed the livestock. Coincidentally this year they had two oxen, two cows, one 3-year-old cattle and two swine. They were beginning to settle in and exhibit the outward signs of building a comfortable life for themselves.
1815 – Again in January on the 13th the family was blessed with their sixth child and fourth son, John Harrison. Their joy was short-lived as two days short of three months later he passed away. The sorrow of his passing had to be great. Hannah’s great sorrow had to be tempered by the knowledge that her first five children were growing up to be strong and healthy. This year they continued to have their acre of tillage land but their pasture land had grown to one full acre. Their livestock consisted of two oxen, cows and swine.
1816 – This was a year of terrible physical and economic turmoil in New England and most of the Northern Hemisphere. With this as a background the records of Newry give no indication that there were problems. The Carters were taxed for an acre and a half of tillage and mowing. Thus they should have increased their production by a third. They had a horse, three cows, two cattle and two swine. Additionally, they welcomed yet another child into the home – John Jr (later called John Harrison) on October 6. Nothing noted above alludes to the challenges that year – The Year Without a Summer – brought the family. Since nothing written by the family has been found we will have to turn to historical accounts to educate us on this event.
Many of our generation have never heard of this event. “The Year Without a Summer was an agricultural disaster. Historian John D. Post has called this ‘the last great subsistence crisis in the Western world’. The unusual climatic aberrations of 1816 had the greatest effect on most of New England, Atlantic Canada, and parts of western Europe… (the event is) now generally thought to have occurred because of the April 5–15, 1815, Mount Tambora volcanic eruption on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia (then part of the Dutch East Indies, but under French rule during Napoleon's occupation of the Netherlands), described by Thomas Stamford Raffles. The eruption had a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) ranking of 7, a colossal event that ejected at least 100 km3 (24 cu mi) of material. It was the world's largest eruption since the Hatepe eruption in 180 AD.” (Wikipedia – Year Without a Summer)
The following is a description Maine during the year of 1816:
The summer of 1816 was the coldest ever experienced by any person then living, according to the old Portland Eastern Argus newspaper. It was also known as the Year Without a Summer. In fact, the wording “…eighteen hundred and froze to death” is a genuine colloquial expression commonly found in historical literature about the summer of 1816. In that year, frost was reported in every month.
A diary kept by an unknown person near Fryeburg, Maine, (some 50 miles south of Newry) described the 1816 weather as follows:
“January was so mild that most persons allowed their fires to go out and did not burn wood except for cooking. There were a few cool days, but they were few.
“February was not cold. The first of March was windy, but the month went out like a very innocent sheep.
“April came in warm, but as the days grew longer the air became colder and by the first of May there was a temperature like that of winter, with plenty of snow and ice. In May the young buds were frozen dead, ice formed half an inch thick on ponds and rivers. By the last of May in this climate the trees are usually in leaf and birds and flowers are plentiful. When the last of May arrived in 1816, everything had been killed by the cold.
“June was the coldest month roses ever experienced in this latitude. Frost and ice were common and every green thing was killed. All fruit was destroyed. Snow fell 10 inches in Vermont and there was a 7-inch snowfall in Maine.”
The Eastern Argus newspaper in Portland printed that on June 5th and 6th, 9”-12” of snow fell over Down East. Newly shorn sheep froze to death, crops failed. Birds died. People were not far from starvation. Throughout New England it snowed during five days in June. Wild temperature swings throughout the area were common. In some places, the high temperature on June 6th was 27 degrees lower than it had been on June 5th.
In June “…there were only a few moderately warm days. Everybody looked, longed and waited for warm weather. All summer long the wind blew steadily from the north in blasts laden with snow and ice. Farmers who worked out their taxes on the county roads wore overcoats and mittens. On June 17th, there was a heavy fall of snow. The morning of the 17th dawned with the thermometer below the freezing point. A farmer, searching for a lost flock of sheep, was out all day in the storm and failed to return at night. He was found three days later lying in a hollow on a side hill with both feet frozen.
“July came in with ice and snow. On the 4th of July, ice as thick as window glass, formed throughout New England, New York, and some parts of Pennsylvania.
“August proved to be the worst month of all. There was great privation and thousands of persons in this country would have perished but for the abundance of fish and wild game.”
Newspapers of the day all suggested that people continue to replant fodder crops on nice days. They gave many solutions for feeding the farm animals, many of which were dying for lack of food, but seemed to have no suggestions for feeding the people.
|Many packed up and moved west to Ohio to escape the cold.|
Not only were domesticated animals starving, but wild animals were, too. Packs of wolves, made so hungry by the unseasonable summer, were attacking farmer’s sheep and chickens. It was so bad in 1816 that four Maine townships voted bounties on wolves up to $40.00.
In 1816 there were no railroads. There were freight-carrying wagons but limited roads. Bulk cargo could be transported economically only by water. This meant that inland towns & farms were very much on their own as nothing could be imported.
Isolated as they were, accustomed to the privation caused by subsistence farming, 90% of the population of New England was essentially self-sufficient. Without public utilities or access to markets, most people were probably quite capable of surviving for a season on shortened rations. They knew how to improvise. Each family was an economic unit, though neighbors depended on one another for many things and trading goods & services was common. (http://www.milbridgehistoricalsociety.org/previous/no_summer.html)
We are handicapped since no one in the family left any written record of the exact effect of this Year Without a Summer had on John and Hannah but we do know that none of the family died. In one article on the year of 1816 it was noted that one crop did survive the rigors of the climate that year and that crop was oats. Interestingly oats were one of the main crops grown in Newry. Possibly the half acre of mowed land that John had was sewed in oats. If so this could account for their survival. In any case once the year ended the family would have been extremely grateful to God for their preservation. Little would they know that this event would only foreshadow the difficulties the family would experience in the next decades mostly at the hands of their fellow men. | <urn:uuid:6ed2827d-6155-4f09-934a-072e9d7649ce> | CC-MAIN-2018-30 | https://johnandhannahcarter.blogspot.com/2016/09/life-of-hannah-knight-libby-part-11.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-30/segments/1531676591140.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20180719144851-20180719164851-00629.warc.gz | en | 0.991148 | 2,839 | 3.21875 | 3 |
The Donoughmore Commission (DC) was responsible for the creation of the Donoughmore Constitution in effect between 1931–47 in Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka). In 1931 there were approximately 12% Ceylonese Tamils, 12% Indian Tamils (migrant and immigrant workers employed in the Tea plantations established in the late 19th century), 65% Sinhalese, and ~3% Ceylon Moors. The British government had introduced a form of communal representation which a strong Tamil representation, out of proportion to the population of the Tamil community. The Sinhalese had been divided into Kandyan and low-country Sinhalese.
The commissioners were four British parliamentarians appointed by Sydney Webb, the first Labour Secretary of State for the Colonies the 13 November 1927. Their task was to draft a new constitution for Sri Lanka that would not only satisfy the aspirations of all the groups within the island, including British plantation owners, but also enable Sri Lanka to take its place as a partner in the socialist British empire that Webb envisioned.
Two of the Commissioners, Dr. Drummond-Shiels and Frances Butler, had been Labour Party London County Councillors for many years prior to entering Parliament and serving in the short-lived Lib-Lab government coalition stitched together by Lloyd George in 1926. They were serious-minded men in the traditional Labour "Christian Socialist" mould. Above all, they were missionaries for the equitable, socialist vision of the world Webb was proselytising. Lord Donoughmore, on the other hand, was a genial Liberal peer, best known for championing women's right to university education and a gourmet palate.
The Donoughmore Commission arrived in Sri Lanka in 1927 and spent four months interviewing islanders. They held 34 sittings and interviewed 140 people. The Commissioners listened to a plea for female suffrage for educated women, and granted suffrage to all women aged 21 in Sri Lanka – at a time when British suffragettes were still fighting to have the voting age lowered from 28.
Having noted that the island was riven by power struggles between competing ethnic groups, it devised a system of executive committees that would control all government departments. It rejected the principle of communal representation. Every parliamentarian in Sri Lanka would sit on one of these committees, ensuring that no one ethnic group could control all levers of power and patronage. Instead, all executive decisions would require a measure of consensus among the different ethnic representatives.
Reception of the Constitution
The greatest misgiving of many of the Ceylonese leaders, both Sinhalese and Tamil, was the recommendation of universal franchise by DC. Jane Russell in her detailed study states that (p. 16) "Ponnambalam Ramnathan and most of the 'conservatives' believed and argued that the giving of the vote to the non-vellala castes and to women was not only a grave mistake, leading to 'mob rule', but Ramanathan explicitly suggested that it was anathema to the Hindu way of life". The political leadership of the Ceylon Tamils was left dumbfounded ... by the complete boulversement of the policies they had pursued for the last decade(p. 18 ). Further, "the Sinhalese leaders were also very dubious about the new franchise, but were willing to support it in a quid pro quo for the abolition of communal electorates"(p. 17 ).
The All-Ceylon Tamil league first opposed the DC on the grounds that the abolition of the communal (representation) principle when coupled with the universal franchise proposal would mean "death to the minorities", as the Sinhalese would now receive over 50% of the seats. Then in 1929 there was a tactical change, the Tamils opposing it as the Donougmore Constitution did not grant full self-government (p 20,).
The leaders of the Jaffna Youth congress, a radical group, also opposed the DC, but for reasons entirely different from those of the conservative Tamils. They were followers of Nehru and Gandhi, and in 1925 called for the abolition of the caste system, cooperation with the Sinhalese, adoption of the national dress and "swabasha" in place of English. They called for a complete boycott of the Donoughmore Constitution. On 25 April 1931 the Jaffna Youth congress adopted the resolution that "this conference holds 'Swaraj' to be the inalienable birth-right of every people... Whereas the DC militates itself against the attainment of 'Swaraj', this congress further pledges itself to boycott the scheme"(p 29).
Thus the first State Council of Ceylon opened on 7 July 1931 with much pomp and ceremony, but without any of the established and experienced Ceylon Tamil political leaders. The leaders of the Youth Congress maintained up to 1934 that the boycott was justified, but later admitted that it was a grave mistake. Tamil leaders who did not take part in the boycott were Dr. Saravanamuttu (Colombo North), M. Subramanium (Trincomalee-Batticaloa), S. M. Ananthan (Mannar), Peri Sundaram (Hatton), S. P. Vytilingam (Talawakelle). G. G. Ponnambalam, an ambitious catholic lawyer from Colombo who did not belong to the elit group of the earlier Tamil leaders, also rejected the boycott. He eventually took control of the leadership of the Tamils. The Indian Tamils (Tea plantation workers who were annual immigrants or immigrants since the late 19th century) were not granted the franchise by the first State Council.
The majority Sinhalese MPs also worked hard to replace the DC by a cabinet model. They finally managed to get rid of it in 1947 when the Soulbury constitution came into being with independence in 1948.
Sri Lanka remained virtually independent under the Donoughmore constitution, with full control over domestic affairs, using the mechanism of universal suffrage to elect a national government at a time when only white countries in the European empires had that privilege, and continue its passage to relative prosperity without any major ethnic clashes for 16 years. Under the island's several subsequent constitutions, Sri Lanka has suffered communal violence.
Donoughmore Commission in Fiction
Author Shyam Selvadurai offers a fictionalized account of the Donoughmore Commission in his novel Cinnamon Gardens.
- J. Russell, Communal Politics Under the Donoughmore Constitution, Tisara Prakasakayo, Colombo 1982
- Ceylon Daily News, 14. Aug., 1929
- S. H. Perampanayagam, History of the Jaffna Youth Congress
- Shyam Selvadurai, Cinnamon Gardens, McClelland & Stewart, Toronto 1998 | <urn:uuid:2b3e7a4e-e162-4b6d-9e82-282193193838> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donoughmore_Commission | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128321025.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20170627064714-20170627084714-00547.warc.gz | en | 0.960417 | 1,402 | 3.625 | 4 |
Ever wondered if we are not alone in the universe?
As this truly nerdgasmic crash-course by Robert A. Freitas Jr speculates, the scope for alien life could be positively astronomical. Via xenology.info:
Xenology is the study of all aspects of life, intelligence, and civilization indigenous to environments other than Earth. Over the last three decades xenology has advanced rapidly on many fronts. Biochemists have studied the origin of life on this planet, knowing that if they can duplicate the major early steps of “abiogenesis” in the laboratory then the evolution of alien life is a very likely – maybe inevitable – event. NASA biologists have spent much time developing sophisticated life detection instruments such as the miniature biochemical automated test laboratories carried to Mars by Viking in 1976. There is growing interest in SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, in which radio scientists look for powerful transmissions or leakage radiation from advanced extraterrestrial supercivilizations. (Most recently the search has been broadened, by myself and a few others, to include the possible observation of alien interstellar probes and artifacts here in the Solar System.) Astronomers are also looking for direct evidence of planets circling nearby stars, a task which will be much easier once the Space Telescope is launched into Earth orbit as early as 1983.
Xenobiology – the study of alien lifeforms – is a major subdiscipline within the xenological sciences. Its subject matter is the set of all possible life systems in the universe, rather than just the biology of a single world. The common assertion that xenobiology is “a science in search of a subject” because no extraterrestrials have yet been found ignores the long evolutionary history of our planet. From the cosmic point of view, Earth is an alien world as exotic as any in the Galaxy.
The term “chauvinism” derives from the name of Nicolas Chauvin, a highly jingoistic soldier born at Rochefort in the late 18th century. In 1815 Chauvin achieved notoriety by his stubborn, bellicose attachment to the lost cause of Napoleon’s crumbling empire. Since that time the word has come to be associated with any absurd, unreasoning, single-minded devotion to one’s own race, nationality, sex, religious persuasion. or, more generally, to one’s own peculiar point of view. Chauvinisms usually are associated with ignorance – in view of our lack of hard knowledge about lifeforms elsewhere in the universe, chauvinisms are predictably common in xenobiology.
For instance, there used to be the notion that oxygen (O2) is absolutely required for higher life. Many xenobiologists today categorically reject this proposition. Oxygen was largely absent during the first few billion years of evolution on Earth, and many organisms today still do not need this element to survive. Experiments have shown that plants grow better in air containing only about half the normal amount of oxygen, and the presence of O2in the nuclear regions of contemporary living cells is usually fatal. Human scuba divers are poisoned by the gas at more than a few atmospheres pressure. Large creatures on any world may need some strong oxidant to power their bodies, but it may not have to be oxygen.
Another early biological chauvinism was the insistence that life is an especially fragile phenomena limited to a very narrow range of environments. During the 1960s scientists examined the extremes of terrestrial life and found that the flora and fauna of Earth (especially microorganisms and other simple lifeforms) resist death even when subjected to conditions that would quickly kill a human being.
For example, Thiobacillus microbes flourish in some of the strongest acids known to man whereas the blue-green algae Plectonema nostocorum thrives in the strongest bases. The rugged tardigrade can survive periods of total dehydration and may be frozen to near absolute zero or heated to more than 120 °C without dying. Biological growth and reproduction have been demonstrated in the laboratory from -243 °C up to 104 °C, and deep sea bacteria and other animal lifeforms survive exposure to pressures in excess of 8000 atm (Earth-normal at sea level is 1 atm). Micrococcus radiodurans and several algal species are found happily growing in the core water of nuclear power plants, enduring radiation that would kill a person almost instantly. When a TV camera was retrieved from the American lunar probe Surveyor 3 by Apollo astronauts, a colony of Streptococcus mitis bacteria was found growing inside the lens. These hardy microbes evidently survived three years of hard vacuum, no food or water, exposure to cosmic rays, and temperatures ranging from well above the boiling point of water in the daytime to -160 °C during the night.
Spacecraft sent to other planets in the last decade have returned a fascinating wealth of information about our nearest neighbors in space. Jupiter, long considered too cold for life, is now believed to have an atmosphere rich in organic compounds and cloud temperatures warm enough to permit liquid water to exist. The Jovian moon Europa may have an ocean of water as deep as Earth’s seas trapped beneath its frozen surface (which could harbor life), and Io, another Jovian satellite, is thought to possess great underground pools of molten sulfur and tenuous sulfur dioxide air outgassed from the interior by active volcanoes. Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, has a thick atmosphere possibly containing hydrocarbons and other organic substances, and the presence of ammonia may produce a warming “greenhouse effect” which could raise surface temperatures up into the range of Earthly biology. The Viking mission to Mars found no unequivocal evidence for life, though some may have survived from an earlier, wetter epoch, yet escaped detection by hibernating in the Martian polar regions or deep underground. Finally, the Pioneer Venus spacecraft discovered water vapor in the Venusian atmosphere just under the main cloud deck in concentrations up to 0.5%. This is somewhat dry by terrestrial standards but still plenty wet for biology to retain a precarious foothold if it exists. The search for life in our Solar System is only beginning…
Continues at xenology.info | <urn:uuid:451402b0-4922-4ab0-8eb4-9432739a8d52> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://disinfo.com/2012/10/a-science-in-search-of-a-subject/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469258918071.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723072838-00180-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931494 | 1,271 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Grapefruit, a citrus fruit, is a rich source of dietary fiber, potassium and vitamin C. It also contains antioxidants that have several health benefits, including lowering cholesterol and preventing kidney stones. Research indicates that including grapefruit in your diet might be an effective strategy for increasing fat loss.
Scientists from Kao Corporation in Japan investigated the effects of nootkatone, a compound found in grapefruit, on AMP-activated protein kinase, or AMPK. In the report, published in the “American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism,” the investigators found that nootkatone increases energy expenditure and enhances fat loss, partly by activating AMPK.
Researchers from the Department of Nutrition and Metabolic Research in California examined the impact of grapefruit products on body weight and metabolic syndrome, a group of risk factors for heart disease. Patients were assigned to one of the following groups: apple juice plus placebo; grapefruit capsules plus apple juice; eight ounces of grapefruit juice plus placebo capsules; or half a fresh grapefruit with a capsule. Each group consumed the treatment three times a day before meals. Researchers discovered that both grapefruit groups lost a greater amount of body fat than the other groups, according to findings reported in the “Journal of Medicinal Food.”
Grapefruit’s high level of vitamin C might enhance fat burning during exercise, according to a study conducted by researchers at Arizona State University. They discovered that subjects with inadequate vitamin C burned less fat during aerobic exercise compared to those with adequate vitamin C levels. The scientists reported their findings in the journal “Nutrition and Metabolism.”
Grapefruit products might have beneficial effects on weight loss, but they might interact adversely with certain medications. Grapefruit interferes with the enzymes that metabolize medications, which results in a buildup of medication in your body. This can lead to serious side effects. Consult your health care provider before taking any grapefruit products, especially if you are taking medications. | <urn:uuid:a4c04b90-cc8e-4425-b287-f6d927e4c5c7> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | http://www.livestrong.com/article/371087-is-grapefruit-good-for-weight-loss/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886103891.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20170817170613-20170817190613-00633.warc.gz | en | 0.934964 | 413 | 2.71875 | 3 |
|Anterior Drawer Test - one of the physical exam tests |
to evaluate for ACL tear.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Thanksgiving is coming a little later this year, and so are my blogs on the promised topic of Women’s Health Month. As the weather gets colder and most high schools are starting their basketball seasons around this time of year, I thought a great blog topic would be ACL injury with particular attention to why this injury has a female-athlete predominance.
In 1972, 1 in 27 Varsity sport athletes were female. In 1997, this number drastically increased to about 45%: 55% female: male participation, thanks to Title IX. With this increase, the number of ACL injuries also increased with a notable female predominance to ACL injury. This sex discrepancy in ACL injury begins at puberty and continues into adulthood. Even more so, the number of non-contact ACL injuries is higher in girls than boys, and this is a notable increase in incidence that is also seen from the onset of puberty, age 12 to 14 years in girls. The peak incidence for ACL tear is in the group of 16 to 18 year-old girls, and the highest numbers of ACL injury have shown to be in girls’ soccer: 14 per 100,000 female soccer players vs. 4 per 100,000 male soccer players at the high school level. The second highest incidence is in basketball with the ratio of female: male ACL injuries in this group of high school athletes being 2:1.
So what’s the deal? Why are ACL injuries more common in female athletes? To begin to answer this question, we first have to discuss the biomechanics involved and this boils down to what is an ACL and what does it do…
What is the ACL and what does it do?
The ACL is the anterior cruciate ligament of the knee joint, and it runs from deep within the distal femur (the long bone of the thigh that is above the knee) to the front of the tibia (the bigger bone that makes up the shin). The origin or beginning of the ACL is within the notch of the distal femur and the proximal (beginning) fibers of the ACL fan out along the medial wall of the lateral femoral condyle. The ACL attaches to the tibia on the intercondyloid eminence that is adjacent to the medial meniscus. All of these interactions allow the ACL, along with the PCL (the posterior cruciate ligament) to stabilize the knee joint.The ACL resists anterior (forward) and medial (sideways toward the middle of the body) movement of the tibia across the femur. In short, it keeps your lower leg from moving forward and rotating inward toward your other leg.
Because of the interaction of the surrounding stabilizing structures of the knee joint, a common injury that can occur is called the “Terrible Triad.” You might hear someone say with reference to this injury that they “blew out” their knee. This occurs when there is a tear of the ACL, the MCL (medial cruciate ligament), and the medial meniscus.
So what’s with the ladies?
There are many theories about why ACL injuries are more common in the female athlete. The answers have ranged from differences in female vs. male training, issues with flexibility and ligament laxity, hamstring/quad strength discrepancy, bone structure, and even female hormones. So let’s analyze the data and separate fact from fiction, folks.
Like everything that affects women, they’ve tried to blame the female athlete ACL injury predominance on our hormones, ladies, and guess what? The studies are still inconclusive. The most convincing theory is that estrogen receptors on ligaments cause increase ligament laxity in female athletes causing increased risk of ACL tear as opposed to male athletes.
What supports this theory:
Some studies have found that there are an increased number of ACL tears around the time of ovulation (in the pre-ovulatory and ovulatory phase where estrogen levels peak). Moreover, some studies have shown that oral contraceptive pills have decreased the risk of ACL tear in female athletes. The theory behind this would be that OCPs prevent ovulation, maintain steadier hormone levels, and prevent the changes that make women more susceptible to ACL tear around the time of ovulation. This theory has been supported by evidence showing that early on in puberty there is not as much of a female predominance to ACL tear. Folks have postulated that this is because estrogen does not vary much at this time, i.e. estrogen is not exerting its effects on the neuromuscular system.
What goes against this theory:
Men have estrogen too. What? Well, they do. But they don’t get the increased joint laxity that is often seen in female athletes. It may be that their receptors respond differently, but the fact is that in both boys and girls after puberty, peripheral testosterone is converted to estrogen, so both sexes have this hormone, which could exert effects on the neuromuscular system. Other studies have also come about to debunk the idea of an ovulatory association with ACL tear. They have found a greater number of ACL tears on cycle days 1 and 2 of the menstrual cycle. These days are during the first part of menstruation or during the early follicular phase of the cycle when levels of estrogen and progesterone are low. So what gives? Maybe this one isn’t actually something we can blame on our hormones, ladies.
Athletic Training and Conditioning
This argument really used to be something to think about back in the day when women were just getting into competitive sports, but now look at us! Go ladies! So proud of where we have taken female sport!!! :) With female athletics taking off and with Title IX giving women the same resources to trainers, physical therapists, strength and conditioning coaches, etc. that male athletes have, we really can’t prove with evidence-based studies that there are specific differences in the type of training that male and female athletes are doing which predisposes women to ACL tears. However, it may be more about what we are NOT doing in our training of female athletes to compensate for the differences in male and female musculoskeletal structure and biomechanics. This idea has been linked to hormones in one study showing that changes in knee joint laxity during the menstrual cycle does affect knee joint loading during movements, which could be important in ACL injury prevention programs and how we are training our athletes. This is just one study done in 2009. So, we need more evidence to come up with better training programs. But up next, what it is about the female musculoskeletal system that predisposes to ACL injury?
Female athletes are more quad and leg dominant; they rely more on ligaments for stability, and they have increased ligament laxity, especially after puberty. The intercondylar notch of the femur is more A-shaped in the female femur vs. the male femur. Women also have a wider pelvis, which increases knee valgus and causes a greater Q angle.
So what the heck is knee valgus and Q angle? Knee valgus is when the knee deviates inward (knock-knees). In many female athletes, when they jump and land, when they do a deep squat, or when they make a cut to change direction, their feet are externally rotated, and the hip and knee are not very flexed. This posturing causes an increase in Q angle, the angle between the pelvis and the knee. The male Q angle is typically about 14 degrees. The normal female Q angle is about 17 degrees. In persons with patellofemoral pain syndrome (something we can talk about another time), that angle is increased to greater than 22 degrees.As puberty increases, the female pelvis is becoming and wider and flatter, causing the change in Q angle that we see between male and female athletes. Knee valgus and increased Q angle place increased strain on the ACL because the ACL has to work harder to pull the knee back into normal position and stabilize the knee joint. Taking all of this into consideration, it really does make sense to teach our athletes proper squatting and jumping/landing techniques.
The female ACL may also have a lower percent surface area of collagen.
Another consideration is the difference in strength between genders. By age 15-16 years, girls have 75% of the strength that boys have, secondary to increase in lean body mass that is much greater in boys. During puberty, boys increase their hamstring strength by 179% and their quad strength by 148%. On the other hand, girls become more quad dominant than boys do with these changes in strength during puberty.Moreover, when women experience stress on their ACL, they naturally compensate by activating their quads and lateral hamstrings, which causes increased Q angle. Yikes!
Immediate Assessment: Does my child need an MRI?
So we all know that this is my favorite question for athletes and for all pediatric issues. Parents always want to know if their children need cat scans, x-rays, and MRIs. With any injury, it is important to get an assessment from a doctor as close to the injury as possible. Often this does mean going to an Urgent Care Center or Emergency Room as most sporting events take place after regular pediatric or orthopedic office hours. The opportune time for assessment of ACL tear is actually immediately after the injury occurs, so if your team has a Sports Medicine doctor available at the game, this is your best bet. Even waiting until you get to the ER after the game can sometimes make assessing an ACL tear more difficult because the more swelling that occurs, the more difficult it is on physical exam to evaluate the ACL.
The most important thing is to be evaluated shortly after the injury has
occurred. You will not be able to get an emergent MRI, and an MRI is
not always necessary in the case of knee injury. Depending on the mechanism of
injury and the physical exam, your doctor may think an x-ray is necessary to
rule-out fracture. The next step may be an MRI to evaluate ligaments and other
soft-tissue damage, depending on the physical exam. Your child does not need a
CT or cat-scan. This test is emergently available, but it is not as definitive
as MRI and has, as we have previously discussed, a large amount of radiation,
and should not be done unless absolutely necessary. Listen to your doctor and
ask questions if you do not understand the tests ordered or the plan for the
care of your child.
Interestingly enough, these days, for an ACL tear, depending on the severity, and depending on the future goals of the athlete, you do not always need surgery! Isn’t that great news? It depends on how severe the tear is and how competitive and lengthy the athlete’s future career will be. It is often helpful to get the opinion of two different orthopedic surgeons before making your decision on surgery. This injury used to be a career-ending injury for many athletes, and now recovery times and strong commitments to rehab have athletes back to jogging in 6 weeks and back to their sport within the same season, depending on when the injury occurs.
I hope that what this short article has shown you is that we actually need more studies to show what we should be doing to protect our athletes, what strength and conditioning programs would best help prevent ACL tear. Studies have shown that the types of prevention programs that are in the mix currently have made no difference for kids age 9-12 years in preventing ACL tear; however, they have noted improved technique and better prevention with programs in the age range of 14- to 17-year-olds. These kids may be more susceptible to feedback and coaching at this age, but 9- to 12-year-olds are kids already learning sport-specific skills, and we need to find a program that can work for improving their techniques in order to prevent ACL tear and other injuries. One thing is for sure, our treatments and our rehab have come a long way in helping athletes recover from these injuries, but prevention is definitely the future for our athletes.
Bell DR, et al. The effect of menstrual-cycle phase on hamstring extensibility and muscle stiffness. J Sport Rehabil. 2009 Nov;18(4):553-63.
Bell DR, et al. The effects of oral contraceptive use on muscle stiffness across the menstrual cycle. Clin J Sport Med. 2011 Nov;21(6):467-73.
Dragoo JL, Castillo TN, et al. Serum Relaxin Concentrations and ACL Tears. Journal of Sports Medicine. 2011. 39:2175-2180.
Lefevre N, et al. Anterior cruciate ligament tear during the menstrual cycle in female recreational skiers. Orthop Traumatol Surg Res. 2013 Sep;99(5):571-5.
Park SK, et al. Alterations in knee joint laxity during the menstrual cycle in healthy women leads to increases in joint loads during selected athletic movements. Am J Sports Med. Jun;37(6):1169-77.
Slauterbeck, et al. The Menstrual Cycle, Sex Hormones, and Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury. Journal of Athletic Training 2002;37(3):275–280.
Wild CY, Steele JR, Munro BJ. Why do girls sustain more anterior cruciate ligament injuries than boys?: a review of the changes in estrogen and musculoskeletal structure and function in puberty. Sports Med. 2012 Sep 1;42(9):733-49.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
"There's a place deep within yourself you must go to finish a marathon. I run because I can't get enough of that amazing place."
-Running Thoughts (twitter.com/RunningTH)
So this past Sunday was not only the first day with an earlier sunrise and sunset, but also it was the 43rd Annual New York Marathon. I have never run this marathon myself, since after 3 times attempting to get in via the lottery, I got addicted to Ironman instead, but this year, I wanted to try my hand at being a medical volunteer for endurance racing. I have been on the sidelines cheering for friends the last 8 years, and I have to say that there is nothing like the magic of this race and how all of New York comes together to welcome elite and amateur runners from across the globe.
Last year, many runners were devastated that all of their training seemed like a waste as the race was cancelled due to resources needed to help our tri-state area recover from Hurricane Sandy. I know what it's like to train for 15 months, travel half-way across the world, and then have your race cancelled because I was in New Zealand for the Ironman in 2012. But, as much sympathy as I had for last year's runners, I have to say that the city made the right decision in cancelling the race. Since then, our endurance community has had to recover from even more tragedy, after the bombing at the Boston Marathon last April.
I think that's why this year's New York Marathon seemed even more triumphant. I didn't cheer on the sidelines this year, but I was working in the P5 medical tent, the most acute tent that sees the most runners each year and handles the race's ambulance transports. We saw 1611 patients on Sunday in P5, including 6 runners who were very ill requiring ambulance transport and acute medical care in our tent. We are so proud of you runners and what you have accomplished and were happy to help make the hobbling home through NYC streets a bit easier...be it with crutches, with warm chicken broth, salt packets, bandages, Zofran, fluids, or other medical care. Thanks to all the volunteers and their support of this great event.
There are so many great marathon stories each year, but I wanted to share a brief bit from a runner's story included in this week's JackRabbit Newsletter.
"This Sunday, I became a marathoner. Alongside tens of thousands of runners, I traveled 26.2 miles through the streets of New York from the Verrazano Bridge, through Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan, to the storied New York City Marathon finish line in Central Park. After crossing the finish line, a runner next to me started sobbing and, not knowing what else to do, I hugged him. We didn’t speak to each other, I don’t know his name and odds are we will never see each other again but in that moment I knew we were both feeling the same rush of emotions: shock, disbelief, gratitude and finally a deep sense of calm: it was over, we’d done it, we were marathoners.
I don’t know what brought that runner to the starting line Sunday morning. Maybe he was raising money to cure a disease that had struck a family member, maybe he was a survivor of the Boston bombings, maybe his journey to the marathon was cut short last year by Hurricane Sandy, or maybe he was just in it, like myself, to prove that he could do it. While we all have our own reasons to toe the starting line—or to buy our first pair of running shoes or sign up for our first training program—we can only get to the finish through a combination of dedication, faith in ourselves, and a supportive community."
~Karen's marathon story, from JackRabbit Newsletter, 11/5/13
[As an aside, if you're in the NYC area and are not a JackRabbit member, this might be something to consider, especially to get going this winter. They send out email newsletters with upcoming local races, group workout events, options for training schedules, and so on. It could be a great way to stay motivated this winter! Also check out their stores for triathlon, running, and yoga apparel. Check them out: http://jackrabbitsports.com/]
I completed my first marathon 3 ½ years ago in San Diego, and I can't quite remember what my thoughts were crossing that finish line. All races blend together after a while, but I remember that I had a sense that I had gone to battle and that I had survived and done something that I never thought I could do before that moment of accomplishment. I think I likened it to graduating from medical school, although at that point I had not yet graduated, and medical school felt like the longest endurance race of my life. It seems to me that every time you take your training to the next level, you experience that kind of sentiment and philosophy where you feel you have gone to battle, survived, and come out stronger than you thought you were when you started.
I have to say that in the P5 medical tent on Sunday, with stretchers lined up everywhere, volunteers wheeling and transporting patients on wheelchairs and stretchers, and runners coming in sometimes too weak to stand, teeth chattering, pale or blue, screaming in cramp agony or looking pre-syncopal and woozy, it looked like an endurance battle field to me.
It was like the New York Marathon version of
MASH. Our soldiers didn't have open bullet wounds or amputated appendages, but
they were bleeding from gutsy abrasions won from falling and getting up to
complete their 26.2-mile journey; some had broken bones in the form of stress
fractures; and others had hobbled along on injuries earned during months of
training. These were our soldiers who had come to race for their respective countries,
and we were proud to care for them and get them safely home.
|This was during set-up. Things got too busy for pictures as the day worn on.|
What a great day! If that doesn't make you want to do an endurance race, folks, I don’t know what will ;) Set a goal for yourself that is reachable but requires work this winter, and see how far your journey can take you, what character you build, and how many wonderful people you have in your life who will support and encourage you along the way and be so very proud of your accomplishment at the finish.
Monday, November 4, 2013
It's becoming that time of year folks. We wonder if we are really working that much longer, or is it just that the days are getting that much shorter and we are leaving and returning home in darkness? The leaves are still beautiful, but as the ghouls and goblins come out for the tricks and treats, you can't help but notice that the time change is upon us, the end of daylight savings time has arrived, and so has the beginning of winter. :(
For the record, that used to not give me a frowny face. But the more time you spend in colder climates with longer nights and less daylight, the more your childish whimsical love of snowflakes and snow angels just turns into-- "Oh, great, another Nor'easter, time to shovel and see if I can get to work in this mess." This is so unfortunate because winter can be a fun time—hot cocoa, snuggling, fire places, caroling, holiday celebrations, baked goods… The problem is that some of us gain ten pounds just reading that list and the rest of us just think about how cold we are going to be and that going for a run is going to be the LAST thing on our to-do list this holiday season.
So while last week was particularly gray on most days, and I was very thankful for how bright and colorful our autumn leaves were since they felt like the only sunshine my serotonin-deprived brain was getting, it occurred to me that a very nice topic for this week’s blog would be seasonal affective disorder and how great a treatment exercise is!
But first a bit about SAD.
Is it real?
As a dear friend would say, “YOU BETCHA!” This is a real thing. SAD is a type of depression that occurs seasonally. Usually people with SAD get depressive symptoms that begin each year around fall and continue through the winter months. You may feel tired, moody, or have difficulty getting out of bed or getting going in the morning. My resident friends are reading this and thinking, “Wait, isn’t that just residency?” It may be partly SAD!
People who do shift work, night shifts, or are used to brighter and warmer climates may have more depressive symptoms in the winter time and have more difficulty coping with these issues. People who live in areas with long winter nights are also at greater risk of SAD.
Increased appetite or weight gain
Inability to concentrate
Loss of interest in work or other activities
Unhappiness and irritability
SAD can also become long-term depression or even develop into bipolar disorder. If severe, people can experience suicidal thoughts.
What’s going on in the brain?
The pathophysiology of seasonal affective disorder is still somewhat unclear and may be a biologically heterogeneous entity that results from a combination of factors including difference in genetics, altered neurotransmitters (serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine), and changes in circadian rhythm.
Several studies have linked SAD to changes in serotonin and even genes that influence levels of serotonin in the brain. One study of female participants even linked these changes to a possible hypothesis of why some people with SAD have increased eating behavior. Many studies have shown that natural light is a helpful treatment for SAD, and so it has been hypothesized that SAD results from circadian rhythm changes that occur when the brain is not stimulated as much by natural light during the winter months, making people sleepier and more sluggish.
There is also an association between SAD and adults who have residual ADHD symptoms. Dopamine and low central arousal in both ADHD and SAD are the linking factors to establish a connection between the association found in these patients. Neuroimaging studies have even shown a decrease in global cerebral metabolism of dopamine in both persons with ADHD and with SAD.
So, you betcha, folks, no matter what factors are leading to this disease, it is a real issue and something that many of us have to somehow cope with. I never knew how important sunshine was to me until I moved to New York, and after 11 New York winters, I can tell you one thing—I’m ready to move! ...and I love New York! But, apparently, my brain loves serotonin more. So, since most of us New Yorkers are stubborn and don’t want to leave, and since there are folks living in climates way colder and with way less daylight, I thought maybe we could go over some ways to deal with this thing called SAD.
What's the cure?
Obviously I'm very happy to say that getting 30 minutes of fresh-air exercise or just getting 30 minutes of exercise if you can't do the fresh air is what helps treat SAD because I think exercise pretty much cures everything...but you guys, it's true! Get some fresh air, get your body moving, get some adrenaline going, and watch that frown turn upside down :) It's hard to be sad and feel sorry for yourself when you're trying to run a certain speed or when you're listening to great music on the elliptical machine or feeling the relaxing buoyancy of an indoor pool. Find what works for you and go for it!
Buy an SAD light
I mentioned before the studies supporting this as a treatment for SAD. There are lots of options out there. I kind of refused to spend the money on this for a long time, and my wonderful friend who also struggles with SAD bought me one as a present last year. That SAD light during my weeks of night shifts and during the winter of intern year was my salvation. It may be partially placebo, but it really makes me feel more awake than regular indoor lighting fixtures do. Try what I found helpful and couple turning on your SAD light with the indoor workout of your choice. I always turn on my SAD light on rainy/snowy days when I am doing an indoor biking workout on the trainer. :)
Be a the-glass-is-half-full kind of person
At least you’re not living in one of these 25 coldest cities: http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2010/12/10/america-s-25-coldest-cities.html#slide25
That doesn’t always work, since sometimes cold pictures make you more depressed.
Plan a warm vacation. Evidence shows that just planning a trip makes you happy.
No time? Pull out pics from your last beach trip and think about how nice that sunshine was—take 5-10 minutes and do a little Zen time where you imagine yourself back there each day or whenever you need it. Make a slideshow for your computer, set yourself up with a beach desktop background--it's the little things that count.
Not working? Better yet, try TAKING a warm vacation! :-P
Throw a party!
Planning a mid-winter party is the best way to catch up with friends and have a good time without even having to venture out into the cold yourself. Make a theme, do a potluck, eat wine and cheese, play board games together. One of my co-residents had a great idea to crank up the heat in his apartment and have a beach-themed party with frozen umbrella drinks. It's five o'clock somewhere, and maybe it can even be Margaritaville in your apartment. So what if you don’t have the money or the time for that Bahamas vacation—you have one weekend, and that’s all you need!
|winter running can be fun! especially|
when your running buddy thinks you're nuts!
Start a winter workout club!Grab a group of friends and instead of getting hammered after work (we all know that is sometimes helpful, but it can get old and can add to your winter wobbliness), meet up for boxing class (Shout out to Leah Nelson for doing this!!!!) or spinning class or group polar-bear runs (Snow runs can be fun! Especially since they give you an excuse for hot chocolate afterward--the perfect winter recovery drink!) instead.
Set your sights on a spring or early summer race!
My SAD was never better than when I was Ironman training. Snowing outside? No problem. 5 hours on the bike trainer and a Rocky movie marathon it is! It doesn't have to be an Ironman; it can be a 5k, a 10k, a half-marathon, a tough mudder, a zombie race—anything that’s going to make you go get on the treadmill when it’s cold and you would rather stay under those covers.
What to do when your comforter says: “I’m warm and comfy too, baby.”
Just do exactly what this girl does and get out and run! Or go flip on your SAD light, eat some breakfast, and then go run, but the sooner you are in fresh air, the more awake and ready for the day you will feel. Make gym dates with friends to make sure you don't ignore your alarm and succumb to the warm comforter trap.
You knew I was going to give you like 3 tips that didn’t involve exercise and then a slew of tips that do because this is a Sports Medicine blog, but if you are feeling a little gray as the days get shorter, just try a workout program and bring along a friend if you want, and you will be surprised how much it helps, trust me.
Now is the perfect time to make this positive change in your life because we just had the time change and our bodies haven’t caught up yet! You are primed to go to bed early and to wake up early because you have already been doing it for the last several months! Stay on the same schedule, trick your brain, and get up early before work and start your day right—with exercise J You will thank yourself for the rest of the day with more energy, more smiles, and more excitement about having your evening free from the dread of needing to go to the gym. Just remember to hydrate :-P
A few more tips on ways to add happiness to your life:
(exercise is of course the first one!)
Remember to be thankful for sunshine in all its forms and to keep those exercise-endorphins pumping to fight SAD this winter.
Talk to your doctor.
So, I pretty much recommend exercise for every ailment, but I also recommend talking with your doctor. Obviously, this blog has a lot of tips that can help most people with depressive symptoms, but for some folks, daily exercise, planning trips, and SAD lights are not enough. Sometimes you need a little help to get going and get started with some of these fixes, and it can really help to see your primary care provider and ask about other treatments. Anti-depressive medications and psychotherapy are used together to treat SAD and other forms of depression. Especially if you have had trouble with depression in the past or are thinking about harming yourself, please tell your doctor. If you are having thoughts of suicide, call one of the following helplines or go to your nearest emergency room.
National Hopeline Network: 1-800-SUICIDE
National Suicide Hotlines and Info: http://suicidehotlines.com/national.html
Suicide Hotlines for NY: http://suicidehotlines.net/newyork.html
RW Lam and RD Levitan. Pathophysiology of seasonal affective disorder: a review. J Psychiatry Neurosci v.25(5); Nov 2000. | <urn:uuid:0e15e450-0709-4a51-bb03-0108b7df42bd> | CC-MAIN-2018-13 | http://trifitforlife.blogspot.com/2013/11/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257651465.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20180324225928-20180325005928-00312.warc.gz | en | 0.961291 | 6,649 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Math scores are improving, especially among low-performing students, in elementary and middle school, writes Fordham’s Mike Petrilli. But high school math scores haven’t moved much. And reading scores have declined in high school. Are increased graduation rates to blame?
One hypothesis is about fade-out: The improvements at the elementary level are ephemeral, perhaps because the way math or reading is taught doesn’t set students up for future success. In reading, for example, it’s quite likely that a heavy focus on phonics is helping students to decode better—and post better scores as nine-year-olds—but isn’t giving them the vocabulary or content knowledge to keep making progress in middle school. Another hypothesis is that our high schools aren’t as strong as our elementary schools, perhaps because they haven’t been the focus of as much reform and attention.
Higher graduation rates could be a factor too, Petrilli writes. “We have twelfth-graders in school today who previously would have dropped out. And those students are likely to be very low-achieving.” | <urn:uuid:4c2de4ef-7e85-4e42-9a29-8cea6d38a8f4> | CC-MAIN-2014-15 | http://www.joannejacobs.com/2012/04/why-no-gains-in-12th-grade-math/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1398223206118.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20140423032006-00219-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979006 | 238 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Amphibian life history strategies can vary across broad geographic patterns, which have been explained, at least in part, by how development, growth, maintenance, and reproduction respond to temperature. However, there is a dearth of information regarding life history traits and their variation among populations for many amphibian species, which prevents assessment of these broad patterns among species. Therefore, we used museum specimens to assess the variation in reproductive condition of Plethodon montanus across its range and used skeletochronology at five populations along an elevational gradient to determine the elevational variation in age, growth rate, and asymptotic size. We found that body size and temperature seasonality best explained the variation in the presence of eggs and a mental gland, whereas body size alone best explained the presence of enlarged pigmented testes. We also found that longevity in P. montanus is at least 12 years with higher elevations having a higher proportion of older individuals compared to lower elevations and that size was a better explanation of reproductive condition than age across the elevation. Our results further demonstrate the importance of body size for amphibian life history traits and the utility of museum specimens to estimate these traits. Variation in reproductive condition across the range of P. montanus is likely the result of variation in growing season length. Lastly, we found evidence suggesting asymptotic size and growth rates may have changed over the last half century, which would ultimately affect fertility and other life history traits and warrants future studies.
You have requested a machine translation of selected content from our databases. This functionality is provided solely for your convenience and is in no way intended to replace human translation. Neither BioOne nor the owners and publishers of the content make, and they explicitly disclaim, any express or implied representations or warranties of any kind, including, without limitation, representations and warranties as to the functionality of the translation feature or the accuracy or completeness of the translations.
Translations are not retained in our system. Your use of this feature and the translations is subject to all use restrictions contained in the Terms and Conditions of Use of the BioOne website.
Vol. 107 • No. 4 | <urn:uuid:680e86fd-ddbe-4cbc-92b9-c70f68cf0fa9> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://bioone.org/journals/Copeia/volume-107/issue-4/CH-18-145/Museum-Specimens-Reveal-Life-History-Characteristics-in-Plethodon-montanus/10.1643/CH-18-145.short | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875146562.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20200226211749-20200227001749-00024.warc.gz | en | 0.918167 | 435 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Welcome to the Let's Go Teacher’s Site. Here you will find extra resources to help you when using Let's Go with your class.
You’ll need your Oxford Teachers’ Club login details to access these free resources.
Not a member? Register for free. It only takes a minute and then you can access thousands of free resources, teaching tips, and tools.
Find advice on how to set up your new course, including all the information you will need to access and use your Teacher’s Resource Centre, Classroom Presentation Tool and Online Practice effectively.
Download one sample unit of the Student Book, Workbook, Teacher's Guide, Class Audio, and animated videos.
Download the syllabus for each level.
Download the Workbook answer key for each level.
Download teaching resources for Let's Go Skills.
Download teaching resources for Let's Go Phonics.
Download teaching resources for Let's Chant, Let's Sing.
Download teaching resources for Let's Go Grammar and Listening.
Learn about the 5th Edition’s newest features from the Let’s Go authors: Barbara, Karen, and Ritsuko. These four videos cover the Let’s Begin series, teaching with video, teaching with can-do statements, and preparing students for independent reading.
Download the Teacher's Guides for each level.
Read what teachers have to say about Let's Go.
Download the word list for each level.
Download teaching resources for Let's Go 3rd Edition.
Download certificates of completion for each level.
Let's Go Recommended Readers PDF (1 MB)
Choose the right graded readers for your course.
Cambridge English Qualifications for Young Learners PDF (199 KB)
Find out which level is best suited for your students' needs.
Let’s Go Core Lesson Planner XLS (341 KB)
Download the core lesson planner for all levels to help you plan your class.
Download the can-do statements for each level.
Download the PDF flashcards for each level. | <urn:uuid:6ae30a8c-2ac3-4477-8474-bf423b28043a> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://elt.oup.com/teachers/letsgo/?cc=ru&selLanguage=ru&mode=hub | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764499468.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20230127231443-20230128021443-00866.warc.gz | en | 0.864965 | 430 | 2.703125 | 3 |
More than 96% of Americans marry at least once in their lives. This is an astounding statistic. Moreover, marriage is not only frequent, it’s also potent: how well or how poorly these marriages fare has huge implications for both spouse’s subjective sense of personal well-being, physical health, and mental health. Hence, it is critical to ask what contributes to developing satisfied marriages.
In a recent study (Bloch, Haase, & Levenson, in press), we had the opportunity to examine one contributing factor to marital satisfaction: how couples handle negative emotions that arise during conflict. Starting in 1989, Dr. Robert Levenson’s research team began following middle-aged and older, heterosexual, long-term married couples. Couples came into the lab, where researchers observed them engaging in marital conflict, while simultaneously measuring various aspects of their emotional responding (including their bodily arousal, their facial expressions, and their self-reported feelings).
From this rich data set, we were able to identify how quickly spouses were able to recover emotionally from “hot button” moments during their conflicts. What we found is that the happiest marriages were the ones in which wives were able to calm quickly during conflict. Based on this finding in isolation, one may presume that wives matter in this context because they are better at regulating emotions.
Importantly, however, this is not where the story ends. We actually found that wives and husbands were equally good at calming down emotionally during conflict. So why is it that only emotion regulation in wives appeared to matter for marital satisfaction?
We believe that this is due to gender stereotypes about emotion, which perpetuate the notion that women are the emotional centers of a marriage. Historically, women have been presumed to be responsible for maintaining the emotional balance in a marriage; in contrast, men have been presumed to be emotionally illiterate. These preconceptions may have been especially active in the cohort of couples that we studied, many of whom were marrying in a time when books like John Gray’s Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus were dominating the bestseller charts. We believe that these stereotypes drove spouses in our study to selectively attend to emotions of wives during conflict—hence the relationship between emotional calm down and marital satisfaction in wives, but not husbands.
The good news on this front? These perceptions may be malleable. We hope that gendered stereotypes about emotion continue to evolve in a way that allows couples to be more flexible in looking to both husbands and wives as emotional contributors to marriages. We speculate—with optimism—that replicating this study with a younger sample would reveal that the gender differences we found are less pronounced.
In the study, we were also interested in understanding why calming down emotionally during conflict serves marital satisfaction so well. We found that wives in our study who calmed quickly were able to employ constructive communication strategies, such as clearly expressing feelings and suggesting solutions/compromises to the problem at hand (this contrasts with destructive communication strategies, such as criticizing and blaming, that reign when conflict is at its most heated). Importantly, constructive communication is more likely to result in conflict resolution, thereby positively impacting marital satisfaction.
There are several important take-aways of this finding. First, the more efficiently that couples can move away from fiery moments in conflict, and toward more cool, calm, collaborative, and constructive moments, they will be better able to engage in productive conflict resolution. Second, this highlights that conflict is not, in fact, an inherently bad thing; in fact, we believe that conflict—and the negative emotion it naturally generates—can be invaluable in highlighting trouble spots in relationships and paving the way for conflict resolution, ultimately supporting happier relationships. We suggest that how couples respond to negative emotions during conflict is what is critical. To the extent that couples can use negativity to navigate toward relationship repair, negative emotion during conflict can be highly useful.
Finally, we emphasize that this study is descriptive, not prescriptive. In other words, the pattern of findings—particularly suggesting that wives bear the burden of managing emotion in relationships—is what we observed, not what has to be. We believe that, regardless of one’s gender or generation, spouses can work consciously to attend to both partners’ emotional contributions to marital dynamics. Furthermore, spouses can put effort into learning and practicing skills to help downshift from fiery emotions to more calm and constructive discussion during conflicts. Whether couples choose to work with a marital therapist or choose to embark on these efforts on their own, we believe that it’s very possible to make change even to highly engrained, destructive communication habits in relationships.
© Lian Bloch, Ph.D. | <urn:uuid:0f15bda4-04bb-43ce-b33f-57e8760d4b6c> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-strongest-emotion/201311/happy-wife-happy-life | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549424910.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20170724202315-20170724222315-00681.warc.gz | en | 0.968865 | 956 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Classifying the Belarusian regime. A local phenomenon
The political history of independent Belarus is fully associated with the rule of Alexander Lukashenko. Belarusian political regime is a phenomenon based on Soviet traditions, democratic institutions, and specific Belarusian elements. Political theories trying to identify the regime are numerous. Yet what term would allow the best description of the Belarusian system?
According to the official Belarusian political scientists, the current political regime is generally regarded as democratic. Yet the use of the term "democracy" to describe the present regime in Belarus is rather conventional and depends, especially recently, on ideology and politisation.
Independent Belarusian and foreign politicians have exactly the opposite point of view, which is quite natural. We can name B. Silitski, B. Chernov, A.Kazakevich, V. Rovdo etc. among independent Belarusian scientists, though even among themselves they tend to disagree on definitions.
Unfortunately, quite frequently the evaluation and characterization of the Belarusian regime is not based on a thorough analysis of problems, but a subjective and emotional attitude towards Lukashenko. Some authors define the Belarusian political regime as totalitarian, or a total dictatorship. But we should not forget that one of the most important and essential features of "totalitarianism" is mass terror directed not only against opponents of the regime, but also a peaceful population. Therefore, despite repression and extended state control over the society, Belarusian authorities allows the presence of open opposition. In a totalitarian country it would be just impossible.
Mapping the Belarusian political regime
The formation and functioning of the political regime in Belarus is so unique that any theory or political science concept of modes, ranging from democracy to totalitarianism, can be applied. In order to answer the question what is the nature of a political regime in Belarus, let’s try using the following parameters for the analysis: the nature of leadership, pluralism, the state of human rights.
Nature of leadership
Alexander Lukashenko has consolidated major executive, legislature and judiciary powers. Formally, according to the Constitution, the President is the only head of state, but in fact he had usurped the role of head of government. The President interferes in everything, even the non-major issues of the government, decides on all personnel matters. The Decrees of the President have greater legal force than the acts of the National Assembly.
Economic and social pluralism in our country still exists but there is no guarantee that the power structures do not interfere. Yet mass media in Belarus are strictly controlled by the government. Radio and television are completely monopolized by the state. The newly created independent company Belsat, which broadcasts from abroad, cannot yet compete with BT, ONT and other governmental TV channels. Many popular newspapers were closed for a sharp criticism of Lukashenko.
Political parties are deprived of normal opportunities for competition in the parliament and local authorities.
Yes, Belarus is a true police state. The number of police officers and soldiers of internal troops is intimidating. Their main duty is not crime control but security of the President, dispersal of street demonstrations and opposition meetings, maintaining an atmosphere of fear in society.
During the leadership of Lukashenko, the main political rivals disappeared without a trace (the elections in 2001). After re-election for a second term Lukashenko intensified repression against the well-known business leaders.
Currently, the Belarusian authorities just jail most dangerous opponents of Lukashenko, run a large number of administrative cases but do not increase significantly the number of political prisoners. Thus, the theoretical model most suitable to define the Belarusian political would be authoritarianism. | <urn:uuid:dc6eea1b-6d0b-431b-b688-18607b009fd5> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | http://belarus-votes.org/stories/classifying-the-belarusian-regime.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891812871.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20180220010854-20180220030854-00346.warc.gz | en | 0.945393 | 746 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Sometimes it’s nice to reflect nostalgically on the last couple of decades of the 20th century. You know, the era of Madonna and Duran Duran, Cheers and The X-Files, McGwire and Sosa, the Macarena, and superstring theory.
Sadly, most of those are now just memories, although I guess Madonna is still around. And actually so is superstring theory. You just don’t hear much about it these days. It’s still an active field of physics research, but the progress is technical. Nothing newsworthy.
But that could change at any time. Just last week, a new paper by Itzhak Bars suggested the possibility of a major superstring accomplishment with the potential to make strings respectable again.
Bars is a respected physicist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He is known for some way-out-there ideas, like the notion that physics would be better off with two dimensions of time. Now he and USC colleague Dmitry Rychkov have proposed a connection between quantum mechanics and superstring theory. If their idea pans out, it could boost an aging theory into the list of scientific topics trending on Twitter.
News traveled more slowly in superstring theory’s early days. It started out merely as “string” theory, an attempt to explain the strong force that held atomic nuclei together. In the 1970s, though, it merged with the concept of supersymmetry. That merger spawned the notion that all of nature’s fundamental particles could be imagined as different vibration modes of one primordial type of object, a supertiny string. In this case, “string” just meant that it was one-dimensional, unlike the zero-dimensional “point” particles of standard theory.
By the mid-1980s the new superstring theory had emerged as the hottest theoretical breakthrough since quantum mechanics, mainly because it seemed to show a way that quantum mechanics itself could be merged with Einstein’s general relativity. For the first time, physicists had a unified theory that could accommodate both Einstein’s explanation for gravity and the quantum explanation for particles and other forces.
There were some snags in the strings, though. For one thing, to make the math work you needed several additional dimensions of space. Instead of a four-dimensional universe — three space, one time — you needed something like 10 or 11. But that was a mere detail.
Another early problem was that there seemed to be more than one superstring theory — different mathematical versions of the basic idea. That seemed odd. If superstring theory offered the one true final theory describing all of fundamental physics, how could there be more than one? But in 1995 Edward Witten showed that the various string theories were all just different views of a deeper theory — he called it M theory. String theory merely offered various different descriptions of the same subatomic elephant.
There was one other little hitch, too. Nobody knew how to test to see whether superstring theory (or M theory) was actually correct. Writing down a theory is one thing, figuring out whether it accurately describes nature is something else.
Please do not, however, let anybody tell you that superstrings are therefore not scientific. Sure, it’s hard to imagine ever detecting them directly with any technology that politicians would be willing to pay for. Superstrings are too small to probe with any atom smasher you could imagine building on Earth. But just as the existence of atoms could be deduced from indirect effects (Brownian motion, for instance), there are ways that superstrings could leave signs in nature that scientists could eventually decipher.
For now, though, superstring theory lacks the sort of dramatic demonstration that propels radical theories into prominence, such as Einstein’s famous precise prediction of how much starlight would be deflected when passing by the sun as measured during a solar eclipse. But perhaps some different sort of accomplishment could elevate superstring’s status. Such as one proposed in the new paper by Bars and Rychkov.
They point out that when string theory was developed, everybody assumed quantum mechanics was correct (which it is) and designed string theory to observe the quantum rules. But suppose, just for the fun of it, that you tried to build string theory without any quantum restrictions. Bars and Rychkov work out how to do that in a simplified version of string theory, specifically a version when the strings are “open” (not closed to make a loop).
In string theory, the common interactions between fundamental particles that physicists study are described as strings joining or splitting. In analyzing the details of the splitting and joining process, Bars and Rychkov found that the basic rules of quantum mechanics naturally emerge. In other words, you don’t need to assume quantum mechanics to find string theory — it’s the physics of strings that makes the world quantum mechanical.
For decades, explaining why nature observes the mysterious rules of quantum physics has perplexed physicists everywhere. Nobody could explain why those rules worked. The connection between string physics and the quantum math may now lead the way to an answer.
“This link suggests that there is a deeper physical phenomenon, namely string interactions, underlying the usual … rules of quantum mechanics, thus providing a possible explanation for where they come from,” Bars and Rychkov write. “If string or M-theory theory really underlies all physics, it seems that the door has been opened to an explanation of the origins of quantum mechanics from physical processes.”
Of course, so far the analysis is just for a “toy model” of string interactions, involving just two particles. And nobody knows for sure whether M theory really does underlie all of physics. But if a theory comes along that explains why quantum mechanics is right, it’s a theory worth taking seriously.
“If this view holds up … then the concept we discussed here for string interactions being the source for quantum mechanics would boost the credibility of string theory as a fundamental theory,” Bars and Rychkov assert.
On top of all that, the string-quantum connection suggests an intriguing insight into the nature of reality. Quantum physics is notorious for implying the existence of multiple realities, as articulated in the “many worlds” interpretation of quantum mechanics. Superstring theory has also annoyed many physicists by forecasting the existence of a huge “landscape” of different vacuum states, essentially a multiverse comprising multiple universes with a wide range of physical properties (many not suitable for life, but at least one that is). If string interactions really are responsible for the rules of quantum physics, maybe there’s some connection between the multiple quantum realities and the superstring landscape. For fans of the late 20th century, it seems like an idea worth exploring.
Follow me on Twitter: @tom_siegfried | <urn:uuid:a68c54c2-e51f-4d35-aec3-1cfa0a18afd3> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/context/quantum-connection-could-revitalize-superstrings | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246643088.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045723-00171-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950053 | 1,422 | 2.890625 | 3 |
There are three types of steroids:
1) Corticosteroids - Any of the natural or synthetic hormones associated with the adrenal cortex, which influences or controls key processes of the body, as carbohydrate and protein metabolism, electrolyte and water balance, and the functions of the cardiovascular system, the skeletal muscle, the kidneys, and other organs.
- These steroids are found in prescription and non-prescription creams and ointments that control rashes and itching. Two common trade names are Cortaid(R) and Lanacort(R).
2) Estrogens and Progestogens - These are the female sex hormones. They are responsible for the development of secondary sexual characteristics in women and maintain the female reproductive system.
- Estrogens and progestogens are the active ingredients in prescription birth control tablets.
3) Androgens - Testosterone is the androgen that leads to the development of male secondary sexual characteristics and maintains the male reproductive system.
- Testosterone is commonly prescribed in the treatment of female breast cancer, androgen deficiency, and for stimulation of growth, weight gain, and red blood cell production. These are commonly known as "anabolic steroids" because they promote muscle growth. They are also commonly used to help patients recover from a surgery and cancer treatment that resulted in damage to muscle tissue.
People Also Search For: | <urn:uuid:d1fdf7f2-5bcd-4e4d-a8d7-06ef1afc4988> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | https://www.steroidportal.com/pa-Steroids-in-medicine-.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627999783.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20190625011649-20190625033649-00249.warc.gz | en | 0.923118 | 275 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Author(s): Celia Brayfield
In London in 1958 a play by a 19-year-old redefined women's writing in Britain. It also began a movement that would change women's lives forever. The play wasA Taste of Honey and the author, Shelagh Delaney, was the first of a succession of very young women who wrote about their lives with an honesty that dazzled the world. They rebelled against sexism, inequality and prejudice and in doing so rejected masculine definitions of what writing and a writer should be. After Delaney came Edna O'Brien, Lynne Reid Banks, Virginia Ironside, Charlotte Bingham, Margaret Forster and Nell Dunn, each challenging traditional concepts of womanhood in novels, films, television,essays and journalism.
Not since the Brontës have a group of young women been so determined to tell the truth about what it is like to be a girl and proposed new ways to live and love in the future.
Acclaimed author, Celia Brayfield, tells their exceptional story here, for the first time. | <urn:uuid:709f0f77-8ca6-49e7-a4ec-7ac6050caae9> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://www.beattieandforbes.co.nz/p/feminism-women-rebel-writers-the-accidental-feminists | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875146160.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20200225202625-20200225232625-00482.warc.gz | en | 0.965005 | 223 | 2.5625 | 3 |
New evidence for toxic effects of inhaled nanotubes
25 October 2009
Further evidence for the asbestos-like effects of carbon nanotubes has emerged from a new study in mice. The study shows for the first time that the tubes reach the outer lining of the lung when inhaled - as asbestos does. But researchers say the results should be interpreted with caution.
Carbon nanotubes, like asbestos, have high aspect ratios; in other words, they are long and thin, meaning they have the potential to get stuck when trying to cross the two layered membrane - the pleura - separating the lung from the chest wall. In the case of asbestos, fibres can dwell in this area, causing lung disease and mesothelioma, a type of slow-growing cancer.
'We're not saying that carbon nanotubes are going to be like asbestos. We don't know yet,' says James Bonner of North Carolina State University in the US, who led the research. 'There's no evidence of cancer. The major finding is that we're saying that nanotubes get to the site where mesothelioma would occur, but we don't have the information to say that it does occur.'
Real world risks
Last year, concerns were raised for the safety of those working with nanotubes when a paper published in Nature Nanotechnology concluded that nanotubes could damage lung tissue if injected into the abdomen of mice.1 The study by Bonner and colleagues now provides an insight into potential effects of exposure in the 'real world' by examining what happens when the tubes are inhaled.2
TEM image of carbon nanotubes caught in an immune cell below the pleura (image on right shows detail)
© Nature Nanotechnology
The timescale (14 weeks) of Bonner's experiment was not long enough to test whether inhaled nanotubes cause mesothelioma, but the team did see damage in the form of fibrosis - scarring of the pleura - which is also seen with asbestos. Mice that inhaled multi-walled carbon nanotubes developed fibrosis after around two weeks, with the nanotubes accumulating in immune cells in the region just below the pleura. By comparison, mice inhaling carbon black nanoparticles, which do not have the crucial high aspect ratio, did not develop fibrosis.
Ken Donaldson of the University of Edinburgh, one of the authors of the 2008 paper, stresses the importance of distinguishing between different types of nanotubes. 'My guess would be that the smallest ones are the least likely to cause much in the way of disease and that the longest ones would be most likely to cause disease,' he says. 'We're not in any position to be able to say this study has generic significance for all other nanotubes, because they come in different lengths, compositions and contaminants.'
Bonner agrees, pointing out that the toxic effects could even be related to the nickel catalysts left over from nanotube growth - other manufacturing processes use different catalysts. He says further studies comparing the effects of nanotubes from different sources, of different sizes and at lower doses are required.
'This research contributes to the emerging evidence base on the inhalation toxicology of high aspect ratio nanoparticles,' says Steve Hankin, a toxicologist with SAFENANO at the Institute of Occupational Medicine. Crucially, he notes, the link between toxicology and the risk posed by any substance is exposure - without exposure, the risk can be substantially minimised or even eliminated.
Interesting? Spread the word using the 'tools' menu on the left.
1. C A Poland et al, Nature Nanotechnology, 2008, 3, 423 (DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2008.111
2. J P Ryman-Rasmussen et al, Nature Nanotechnology, 2009, DOI: 10.1038/NNANO.2009.305
Also of interest
02 October 2009
US agency to proactively study nanomaterials of environmental concern
25 February 2009
Canada the first country to start a mandatory safety reporting scheme for companies producing nanomaterials
29 April 2008
OECD countries put up $20m to assess fullerenes, nanotubes and cerium oxide
20 May 2008
Mouse study confirms long straight nanofibres could pose a health risk
Comment on this story at the Chemistry World blog
Read other posts and join in the discussion
External links will open in a new browser window | <urn:uuid:35c1e3e0-4dfb-4c41-8b5e-2324097e5f0b> | CC-MAIN-2015-48 | http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2009/October/25100901.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-48/segments/1448398454160.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20151124205414-00209-ip-10-71-132-137.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926835 | 933 | 2.828125 | 3 |
This unusual English surname is medieval. It is a patronymic, deriving from the pre 7th century personal name or byname "Tippa", of which the meaning is uncertain. The given name is one of the earliest recorded, an example being Tipp, the son of Harding, another early given name, being recorded in the Pipe Rolls of Lincolnshire in the year 1204, before the introduction of surnames. The surname is a century later, and recorded both in Lancashire and Yorkshire, although it is in the town of Preston in Lancashire where it seems to have been most popular. In the famous Preston Guild Rolls which for several centuries registered the skilled and prosperous citizens of the area, the name in its various spellings is well recorded. It first appears as Toppyng in 1397, Typpynge in 1542, and as the modern Tipping in 1634 when "William Tipping, of Shaw, husbandman", is so registered. In the modern idiom the name has three spelling variations: Tippin, Tipping and Tippings. The first recorded spelling of the family name is believed to be that of Robert Tipping which was dated 1301 in the Subsidy Rolls of the county of Yorkshire during the reign of King Edward 1st of England, 1272-1307. Throughout the centuries surnames in every country have continued to "develop", often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.
© Copyright: Name Origin Research 1980 - 2017 | <urn:uuid:e853a357-86f6-4873-95ff-35db8769e141> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Tipping | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178389472.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20210309061538-20210309091538-00335.warc.gz | en | 0.961978 | 307 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Free The Colors worksheet. Put some colors into your teaching! Learning the name of colors and recognizing them is part of the essential skills for early learners.
Indeed, kindergarten teachers and homeschooling parents can use this free Colors worksheet to teach the primary and secondary colors to their kids and pupils. This pdf easy-to-print document shows beautiful paint splatters. First, we see yellow, red and blue. In another part, we can discover 5 secondary colors with other paint splashes: orange, purple, green, brown and pink.
Finally, there are two activities at the bottom of the page: the kid can write his or her favorite color and draw something with this same color. Download and print this free Colors worksheet and ensure your children know their colors and have fun at the same time!
Includes 2 design options (2 pages) for printing: color and black and white (ink-saver alternative with minimum background).
The ‘The Colors’ worksheet document features:
- 3 pages – includes an extra page with activities
- Color and Black & White layout
- Exclusive design
- Orientation: Portrait
- Paper size: Letter
- PDF file | <urn:uuid:12422df3-8132-465f-adf1-88ac56631d77> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://www.skoolgo.com/worksheet/colors/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446711360.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20221208183130-20221208213130-00247.warc.gz | en | 0.907885 | 253 | 3.84375 | 4 |
Colors of common chemical compounds
Most research into chemical structure is some form of spectroscopy. Spectroscopy is the careful measurement of the absorbance by unknown materials by a range of electromagnetic radiation. As humans, our sensitivty to electromagnetic radiation is limited to visible light. The chemist uses instruments to extend the detectable range, but in a broad sense, the question is 'what color is this?'.
Fundamental to physics and chemistry is the rather non-intuitive idea of the electromagnetic spectrum. The wavelengths correspond to energies (i.e. the energy of one photon). The visible light, of which we are so accustomed, is about in the middle of the energy range, at ca. 400 to 800 nm.
There are also energies associated with chemical structures; in fact, discreet energies may be associated with every facet of chemistry.
Chemical behavior is described by the model of quantum mechanics. This model says that molecular structures go from one form to another with no intermediate. There is no way to intuitively understand this. Students and teachers can almost always relate new learning to past experience, but not so in this case.
These discontinuous events, however, in chemical structure have corresponding specific energy changes. And these energy changes have a corresponding electromagnetic frequency.
So, what causes color? How about some examples.
The working part of hemoglobin is a heme group. The structure is such that the electrons circle around in quite large clouds. If the heme is in the form of oxyhemoglobin the clouds are a little smaller. The bluer wavelengths are absorbed and the longer red wavelengths predominate. The blood is red. If the hemoglobin is not oxygenated, the clouds are a little larger. The redder wavelengths are absorbed and the blood appears bluish.
Acid/base indicators are familiar to most students. Phenolphthalein is a large organic compound. Its structure changes depending on the acidity of the environment. In an acid environment it has no electron clouds "small enough" to absorb visible light. In a basic environment, the structure changes just a little and the electon clouds shrink just a little and the phenolphthalein turns pink.
Permanganate, MnO4-, is intensely purple/violet. Even a very diluted solution will hardly be translucent. The reason is that Permanganate-ions absorb green light, and what is left of the spectrum appears violet. Permanganate is imagined to be a so-called charge transfer complex, which means that the electrons from the oxygen's full 2p-orbitals are temporarily "lifted" into the manganese's empty 4s- and 3d-orbitals by photons, which in that process are absorbed.
Visible light corresponds to the energy absorbed in many large organic structures. Evolution has converged on these as the most useful wavelengths for our eyes.
It is all very interesting. What causes the colors of compounds? The structure causes the color. Changes in color are a reflection of changes in structure.
name formula colour
Ions in aqueous solution
name formula colour | <urn:uuid:f519d786-122b-44fd-b8d8-59de76f42ed9> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | http://infomutt.com/c/co/colors_of_chemicals.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934809419.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20171125051513-20171125071513-00563.warc.gz | en | 0.926554 | 638 | 3.84375 | 4 |
Born: May 27, 1912
Died: June 18, 1982
Ossining, New York
American writer and author
American writer John Cheever is best known for his keen, often critical, view of the American middle class. His stories are characterized by his attention to detail, his careful writing, and his ability to find the extraordinary in the ordinary.
John Cheever was born on May 27, 1912, in Quincy, Massachusetts. His parents, Frederick Lincoln Cheever and Mary Liley Cheever, had two sons. His father owned a shoe factory until he lost it due to the Great Depression of the 1930s (a time of severe economic hardship). His mother owned a gift shop and supported the family with the shop's profits.
Cheever attended Thayer Academy, a preparatory school in Braintree, Massachusetts. He was expelled from Thayer at age seventeen for smoking and poor grades. The result was Cheever's first published work, "Expelled." The short story appeared in The New Republic on October 1, 1930. The story is about ordinary lives and was written with precise observation and straightforward language. It is a style and approach that Cheever developed over five decades.
After leaving school Cheever toured Europe with his older brother, Frederick. Upon their return, the brothers settled in Boston, Massachusetts. Frederick helped to support John as he wrote stories. In the mid-1930s Cheever moved to New York City. He lived in a bleak, $3-a-week boarding house on Hudson Street in Greenwich Village. During this period Cheever helped support himself by writing book summaries for potential MGM (Metro Goldwyn Mayer) movies. Malcolm Cowley, editor of The New Republic, also arranged for Cheever to spend time at Yaddo, a writers' colony in Saratoga, New York. It was also during this time that Cheever began his long association with The New Yorker magazine. In 1934 the magazine published the first of 119 Cheever stories.
On March 22, 1941, Cheever married Mary Winternitz. They had three children. He spent four years in the army during World War II (1939–45) and later spent two years writing television scripts for, among other programs, "Life with Father."
In 1943 Cheever's first book of short stories, The Way Some People Live, was published. War and the Great Depression serve as a backdrop for these stories. This book reveals a lifelong theme for Cheever: the way some people live. His next collection of short stories earned him the serious praise of critics. The Enormous Radio, and Other Stories, written in Cheever's Scarborough, New York, home, was published in 1953. These fourteen stories plunge the reader deep into what
In 1951 Cheever was made a Guggenheim Fellow, a fellowship grant established in 1925 for writers. This grant gave him the money and the freedom to write. In 1955 his short story, "The Five-Forty-Eight," was awarded the Benjamin Franklin magazine award, and the following year he took his wife and three children to Italy. Upon their return the family settled in Ossining, New York. He was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1957 and won the National Book Award for the first of his novels, The Wapshot Chronicle. From 1958 through 1977 Cheever continued to write seven more books.
Cheever, at the height of his success, began a twenty-year struggle with alcoholism. This was a problem he did not fully admit to until his family placed him in a rehabilitation center in 1975. Earlier, in 1972, he had suffered a massive heart attack. After a long period of recovery, he wrote Falconer. This "dark" novel draws on his experience as a writing instructor in Sing Sing prison, as well as on his recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction. Falconer contains rough language, violence, and a prison setting. This novel is a departure from Cheever Country. Moreover, it is the first of his works to deal directly with homosexuality. Cheever's journals reveal that, like the main character of Falconer, Cheever questioned his sexual preference and identity.
In the end Cheever could not fit the image he carefully developed for himself— much like the fictional characters he created. John Cheever died of cancer on June 18, 1982. His final work, Oh What A Paradise It Seems, was published after his death.
Cheever, John. The Journals of John Cheever. New York: Ballantine Books, 1993.
Cheever, Susan. Home Before Dark. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984.
Coale, Samuel. John Cheever. New York: F. Ungar, 1977.
Donaldson, Scott. John Cheever: A Biography. New York: Random House, 1988.
Waldeland, Lynne. John Cheever. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1979. | <urn:uuid:7439f0c8-77e0-443f-b642-f903fe1bb640> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ch-Co/Cheever-John.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257824230.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071024-00077-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981548 | 1,012 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Near the end of the last Ice Age 8,000 years ago, an ice dam on North America's east coast broke, releasing a torrent of fresh water seven times more voluminous than all the Great Lakes combined. It all rushed into the Atlantic Ocean over the course of only a few months.
At around the same time, ocean circulation worldwide slowed to a crawl, plunging Europe into a second ice age that lasted centuries.
Scientists have long suspected the two events were linked, and now they have the evidence from sediment core samples to prove it.
The finding, detailed in the June 30 issue of the journal Science, provides the first clear evidence that the so-called North American "lake burst" was the trigger that slowed ocean circulation and cooled the climate about 8,200 years ago.
The researchers studied a sediment core taken from the North Atlantic seabed south of Iceland. By analyzing the chemistry of shells belonging to microscopic sea creatures called foraminifera which were embedded in the core, they estimated the salinity of the seawater at different time points.
Also, by analyzing the size of sediment grains, the researchers were able to estimate the speed of deep ocean currents along the ocean bottom. More large particles there means that ocean currents were moving faster when the sediment layer was formed.
These two pieces of evidence showed that as ocean salinity decreased, ocean currents slowed. Normally, ocean currents function like a global conveyer belt, ferrying warm, buoyant water from the southern hemisphere into the far north, where it loses its heat and sinks to the bottom because cold water is denser than warm water. The cold water is then ferried back towards the southern hemisphere along ocean currents on the bottom of the seafloor and the entire cycle repeats.
When the lake bursts occurred, the rapid influx of freshwater diluted the seas. Freshwater is more buoyant than seawater and does not sink as quickly. As the ocean became less salty, chilled water in the northern hemisphere took longer to sink, and the entire ocean circulation slowed down.
"It didn't switch it off completely; it just made it less intense," explained study team member Mark Chapman, also of the University of East Anglia.
For reasons that are still unclear, ocean salinity and circulation returned to normal after about two hundred years.
The ancient lake bursts event could also have implications for future climate change, scientists say.
"The impact of large-scale pulsed inputs of freshwater on ocean circulation and climate during the time of the last Ice Age are well documented, but our results clearly demonstrate that these sorts of abrupt reorganizations also can occur during periods of warm climate," said study leader Ian Hall of Cardiff University.
In the movie "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore mentions the North American lake bursts event and the stalling of the ocean currents. If large parts of Greenland and Antarctica were to melt as some global warming models predict, a similar stalling of the world's ocean currents could occur, Gore said.
But Chapman says that caution is needed when using past events to predict future climate changes.
"I think you have to be a little bit careful. It's not just the volume of water; it's how quickly they enter the system," Chapman told LiveScience.
In their study, Chapman and his colleagues estimated that the lake bursts released the equivalent of seven times the volume of all the Great Lakes combined into the ocean within about six months to a year.
"We don't really know what will happen if we have that same amount of water and, instead of having it released over a matter of months or a year or so, it was released over decades or a century" as global warming scenarios predict for the melting of Greenland, Chapman said.
Live Science newsletter
Stay up to date on the latest science news by signing up for our Essentials newsletter.
By Briley Lewis
By Harry Baker | <urn:uuid:6355b857-f2b2-4e70-9829-ded11bad978b> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.livescience.com/873-bursting-ice-dam-flooded-ancient-ocean.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224652569.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20230606114156-20230606144156-00678.warc.gz | en | 0.959424 | 805 | 4.21875 | 4 |
People Entering/Leaving County/Region for Work
What does this measure?
The percentage of workers, age 16 or older, that entered or left the county for work during the year.
Why is this important?
The flow of workers into and out of a county is an indicator of a county's economic vitality and ability to draw in employers and employees.
How is our county doing?
In 2006-10, around 80,000 workers (26%) entered Essex County for work each year, and 130,000 residents (36%) left for work each year.
How do we compare to similar counties?
Middlesex, MA had a higher share of people entering the county for work (38%), as did Westchester, NY (36%) and Lake, IL (34%). The counties had similar rates of people leaving for work.
Notes about the data
The multiyear figures are from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey and include workers 16 and older. The bureau combined 5 years of responses to the survey to provide estimates for smaller geographic areas and increase the precision of its estimates. However, because the information came from a survey, the samples responding to the survey were not always large enough to produce reliable results, especially in small geographic areas. CGR has noted on data tables the estimates with relatively large margins of error. Estimates with 3 asterisks have the largest margins, plus or minus 50% or more of the estimate. Two asterisks mean plus or minus 35%-50%, and one asterisk means plus or minus 20%-35%. For all estimates, the confidence level is 90%, meaning there is 90% probability the true value (if the whole population were surveyed) would be within the margin of error (or confidence interval). The survey provides data on characteristics of the population that used to be collected only during the decennial census. Data for this indicator are released annually in December. | <urn:uuid:a1081089-a0ac-48d0-a0db-659d29c97346> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | http://impactessexcounty.org/economy-and-workforce/workforce/people-entering-leaving-county-region-for-work | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917118831.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031158-00232-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947742 | 387 | 2.609375 | 3 |
My question is; if time slowes closer to a black hole then at the beginning of the Big Bang when the universe was infanitnly dense, wouldn't time move infanintly slow? Wouldn't one second last for eons? I have a few other questions related to that, but I will start with this one.
Ahh, well it's not true to say that time slows down close to a black hole. The truth is a bit more subtle. If, let's say, you and a buddy of yours were having a conversation close to a black hole, time would appear completely normal. It's only if one of you was close to the black hole and the other one wasn't that you'd see the time dilation. So even though the universe was very dense at the beginning, time would still seem to pass normally to all things in the universe. This is especially true because, at the very beginning, the universe had pretty much uniform density throughout. Therefore, time passed at nearly the same rate at all points within the universe, and there were no points where time seemed to stand still.
Note: This question was also answered with help from Jim Fuller.
This page was last updated June 27, 2015. | <urn:uuid:1289b8fa-0724-4958-9d23-a081c96a9875> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/physics/89-the-universe/black-holes-and-quasars/theoretical-questions/437-if-the-universe-was-infinitely-dense-at-the-big-bang-why-didn-t-time-stand-still-beginner | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187825575.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20171023035656-20171023055656-00685.warc.gz | en | 0.98541 | 253 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Short essays written for the La Jolla Veteran's Hospital newsletter in La Jolla, California
Many people hold the common belief held that life should not include hardship and suffering and that events that occur, and the way people act should be the way we want them to be. Psychologists have picked up on this attitude system as a major source of emotional disorders. Karen Horney (1950) called it the “tyranny of the shoulds.” Albert Ellis (1962), talked about - demanding expectations - that people and events should always follow our preconceived ideas. Psychologists have attempted to find the meaning of illness, suffering, and death. Just the titles of some books by one well-known psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl, illustrate such attempts: Man's Search for Meaning (1959); The Will to Meaning (1969); The Unheard Cry for Meaning (1978).
Different religious traditions have attempted to understand suffering. Hindu tradition considers suffering a consequence of inappropriate living. Buddhism considers suffering a form of craving, not dissimilar to the shoulds and demanding expectations discussed by Horney and Ellis. Buddha teaches: "No sufferings befall the man who is not attached to name and form, and who calls nothing his own." (Dhammapada 17: 221). The Koran, in Islamic tradition, points out: "If ye are suffering hardships ... but ye have Hope from God, while they have none. And God is full of knowledge and wisdom. [4:104]. In Judeo-Christian Sacred Scripture, the Book of Job presents the quintessential spiritual perception. From a human perspective, although Job's sufferings are unjust and inexplicable, nevertheless, he retains his commitment and trust in God.
Our Eastern Church Father, St. Maximus the Confessor, (Philokalia II), expands on this theme but also provides insight into other possible motivations individuals may have: "A man endures suffering either for the love of God, or for hope of reward, or for fear of punishment, or for fear of men, or because of his nature, or for pleasure, or for gain, or out of self-esteem, or from necessity."
Finally, to find meaning in suffering we could apply the teaching of St. Isaac of Syria: "A time of trial is beneficial to everyone: the diligent are tried so that their wealth may increase; the lax, so that they may be preserved from harm; those spiritually asleep, so that they may prepare themselves for watchfulness; those who are far from God, so that they approach Him; those who are God's close associates, so that they may come closer to Him in freedom of speech." (Brock, 1997).
Brock, S. (1997). The Wisdom of St. Isaac the Syrian. Fairacres Oxford, England: SLG Press.
Ellis, A. (1962). Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy. Secaucus, NJ: Lyle Stuart.
Frankl, V. (1959). Man's Search for Meaning. NY: Simon & Schuster.
Frankl, V. (1969). The Will to Meaning. NY: New American Library.
Frankl, V. (1978). The Unheard Cry for Meaning. NY Simon & Schuster.
Horney, K. (1950 Neurosis and Human Growth. NY: Norton.
Palmer, G.E.H., Sherrard, P. Ware, K. (trans.) (1981). The Philokalia, Volume 2:; Compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain & St. Makarios of Corinth. London: Faber and Faber.
Visit Fr. Morelli's Facebook page.
V. Rev. Fr. George Morelli Ph.D. is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and Marriage and Family Therapist.
Fr. Morelli is the Coordinator of the Chaplaincy and Pastoral Counseling Ministry of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese and Religion Coordinator (and Antiochian Archdiocesan Liaison) of the Orthodox Christian Association of Medicine, Psychology and Religion.
Fr. Morelli is a Senior Fellow at the Sophia Institute, an independent Orthodox Advanced Research Association and Philanthropic Foundation housed at Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in New York City that serves as a gathering force for contemporary Orthodox scholars, theologians, spiritual teachers, and ethicists.
Fr. Morelli serves on the Executive Board of the San Diego Cognitive Behavior Therapy Consortium (SDCBTC)
Fr. Morelli serves as Assistant Pastor of St. George's Antiochian Orthodox Church, San Diego, California.
Fr. Morelli is the author of: | <urn:uuid:4638b3d5-ff3a-46c0-93e8-0547e0c0f844> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/OT/view/finding-meaning-in-suffering | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00189-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909689 | 956 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Classics in September — Written in 1886, A Study in Scarlet was the first of four novels and 56 short stories by author Arthur Conan Doyle featuring Sherlock Holmes. It is said that the character of Holmes was inspired by Dr Joseph Bell, a renowned forensic scientist whom Doyle studied under at Edinburgh University. Holmes is without doubt the grandfather of crime fiction detectives and Classics In September wouldn’t be complete without him.
A Study In Scarlet begins with the meeting of Dr John Watson and Sherlock Holmes. Back from the war and running short on funds Watson urgently needs somewhere to stay and whilst talking to a friend it comes to light that a man named Sherlock Holmes is looking for someone to rent a room at 221B Baker Street. Watson and Holmes meet and after Watson is quizzed on his habits and faults to ensure he is a suitable living companion, he is allowed to move in. Watson is amazed by Holmes and his profound knowledge, and Holmes reveals that he is a consulting detective.
A murder investigation is soon underway when the body of a well dressed gentleman is found, with cads his pocket printed with Enoch J Drebber, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. There was no robbery, nor is there any evidence as to how the man met his death. There are marks of blood in the room but no wound upon his person. Above the man’s body the word ‘RACHE’ is written in blood. Detectives Lestrade and Gregson are baffled by the murder so they request the help of Holmes.
Holmes takes one look at the murder scene and deduces the cause of death and a description of the murderer, including his height, shoe size and cigar make. Recovering what appears to be a woman’s a ring from the crime scene, he places an advert in the local paper hoping to catch the murderer. Within a matter of hours an old lady comes for the ring, claiming it belongs to her daughter. Holmes doesn’t believe her so when she leaves he follows her. The old lady somehow manages to outwit Holmes and escape his tail – it seems that the famous Sherlock Holmes is nowhere near cracking the case.
Incapable of passing up a moment to get one over on Holmes, Gregson pays him a visit to gloat that he has found the murderer, a man named Stangerson who was a friend of Drebber’s. Just as Gregson is describing how he came to his conclusions, Lestrade arrives with news that another murder has occurred. The body of Stangerson has been discovered, in his room, with a fatal wound to the heart. And above his body was the word ‘RACHE’. Gregson was wrong in his belief that Stangerson was the murderer and it seems the case is back to square one.
As Lestrade and Gregson are standing there baffled a young beggar hired by Holmes arrives stating that he has got Holmes a cab. Holmes sends him down to fetch the cabby, claiming to need help with his suitcase, however, when the cabby arrives Holmes handcuffs and restrains him, revealing him to be the murderer of Drebber and Stangerson. A man called Jefferson Hope.
The story then flashes back to 1847 America where we see a man called John and a young girl called Lucy, the only survivors from a large party of pioneers. John and Lucy are saved by a group of Mormons on their travels on the condition that they adopt and live by the Mormon faith. This turn in the plot seems odd, with no relevance to Holmes and the murder mystery he’s trying to solve. However, stick with it and soon it all ties together. This part of the story provides all the necessary background for the motive of the murders. We then return to the main narrative, where Holmes proves how his powers of deduction helped to find the murderer.
Like all but four of the Sherlock Holmes stories Doyle wrote, A Study In Scarlet is narrated by Dr John Watson. Two of the others are narrated by Sherlock Holmes himself, and the remainder written in the third person. I particularly enjoy the stories told from Watson’s viewpoint. I think we gain an interesting view of Holmes and we can see the relationship between the two gradually grow throughout the novels. For a novel written in 1886 A Study In Scarlet is very easy to follow.
The public’s love of the detective is arguably down to his miraculous powers of deduction. According to the New York Times, the Sherlock Holmes novels are the third most read publications on the planet behind the Bible and the Dictionary. The character Holmes has been portrayed in many films and TV shows since his first appearance in the 1886 novel. The detective first appeared on the big screen as early as 1899, but perhaps the most notable cinematic rendition of Holmes was the series of 14 films starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes between 1939 and 1946. Peter Cushing and Jeremy Brett have also made excellent renditions of the character. Most recently we have seen modernised versions of Holmes in the BBC series starring Benedict Cumberbatch, and the blockbuster movies directed by Guy Ritchie with the detective played by Robert Downey Jr.
Cumberbatch is my favourite Holmes, and although the series is obviously set in modern day London I would argue that, as Holmes, Cumberbatch is not far off Doyle’s 19th century creation. Not only does he fit the description of Holmes as ‘rather over six feet tall and so excessively lean that he seemed to be considerably taller’ but he also accurately portrays his mannerisms and deductive capabilities. The same can’t be said for the Guy Richie movies. These focus too much on the action and violence, turning the character into a period action hero. This isn’t to say that the movies aren’t entertaining, and indeed Holmes is portrayed in many of the novels as a good fighter.
In recent years, Sherlock Holmes has become a public domain character and has featured in many books by a variety of authors trying their hand with Conan Doyle’s sleuth. One of the latest is House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz, which we’re going to look at in a few days here as part of Classics in September. In the meantime, A Study in Scarlet is a great place to start if you’ve left Holmes on the backburner until now.
You can download A Study in Scarlet free – it is out of copyright – from the Gutenburg Project here, or order a Kindle version with extras, compilation or DVD below…
You can watch the entire 71 minute 1933 film version of A Study in Scarlet starring Reginald Owen as Sherlock Holmes from The Video Cellar below: | <urn:uuid:dd09ab85-6955-48c6-9266-6bd9ed3e3aac> | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | https://crimefictionlover.com/2012/09/cis-sherlock-holmes-and-a-study-in-scarlet/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107898499.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20201028103215-20201028133215-00076.warc.gz | en | 0.976232 | 1,368 | 2.96875 | 3 |
The problem of load shedding is increasing day by day. The government of Pakistan is trying to resolve this problem cause it make the people very worried at certain points. The people can be granted with the indications as well as the solutions of the problems which has laid their way out for the light and issues regarding it
Pakistan has god talented natural resources and 7th Atomic Power of world, but unluckily due to bad conclusions and lack of political organization Pakistan has been anguish huge quantity of Load shedding. The whole nation of Pakistan is coming up for the correct solution of Load shedding but the results are in vain
Load shedding has been located by the administration of electricity to cover up the blast fall of authority. In big cities the period of Load shedding is 7 to 8 hours where as in small villages it is 15 to 16 hours.
Electricity and Load Shedding Problem in Pakistan and Its Solutions
In short the government is not performing the responsibility with the accurate protection and means to provide the electricity to each individual in Pakistan. Although they have happening mega projects to manufacture electricity but they will obtain time of more than 5 years.
SOLUTION TO LOAD SHEDDING:
- We have to produce atomic energy in vast scale.
- We have to use land of rivers to produce hydro energy.
- We have to use big resources of coal and gas for the thermal energy for the sake of electricity production.
- In Pakistan the weather mostly sunny throughout the year and from 365 days more than 250 days are sunny. We must be using the Solar energy to produce electricity.
We have to make our selves aware of the facts which are related in the best perceptive. The people will be given with the best details which will help them out to understand the issue of load shedding more effectively | <urn:uuid:f8f2f71c-7da9-4e4f-a4ec-5b571e0d6e88> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://entirestudy.com/general/pakistan/electricity-and-load-shedding-problem-in-pakistan-and-its-solutions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764500044.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20230203055519-20230203085519-00627.warc.gz | en | 0.963534 | 361 | 2.640625 | 3 |
|12 Aug 2014||International Youth Day|
12 August every year sees the commemoration of International Youth Day. International Youth Day 2014 will be celebrated under the theme:
‘Youth and Mental Health’
On a global level, it is estimated that approximately 20 per cent of adolescents and youth experience a mental health condition each year, with 85-90 per cent of this group living in low-income countries.
It’s time for a global conversation about mental health and its effects on development.
It’s time to talk.
The world needs to look at:
How we can reduce stigma relating to youth with mental health conditions through education and awareness-raising.
How to reach young people in their family, school, and work place, to help them to cope with their mental health conditions
What lessons we have learnt from existing programmes and how we take those lessons to improve services and programmes at different levels of economic development.
| ||United Nations| | <urn:uuid:8458c81a-e78e-4a0d-a765-20d14bca1be6> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://unfccc.int/cc_inet/cc_inet/calendar/items/3540txt.php?id=1717&out=detail | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501172017.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104612-00632-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932955 | 201 | 3.046875 | 3 |
As Raspberry Pi computers begin to appear all over the world, people start wondering what to do with them. The first thing I wondered (after I got it up and running) was "how the heck am I going to get this mess of cables off of my desk?"
There are probably many people like me, who have scraping together unused equipment to put back into service with Raspberry Pi computers. What it the point of getting a low cost computer to experiment with if you have to spend a bunch of money on peripherals to make it work? I had an old flat panel monitor, a USB hub, and a PC keyboard, and the only thing I needed to purchase was an SD card and an HDMI to VGA video converter for the display. It worked but was cluttering up my workspace. My solution was to make a mounting system for the computer, USB hub, and converter to attach it out of the way on the back of the flat panel monitor.
Teachers! Did you use this instructable in your classroom?
Add a Teacher Note to share how you incorporated it into your lesson.
Step 1: Select and Prepare a Mounting Base
(1) First, find a suitable piece of non-conductive mounting base material. Thin wood or plastic will do. In this case I used some pegboard scrap. I was hoping to use some of the holes to my advantage, but that turned out to be wishful thinking.
(2) Figure out how the mounting base will attach to the back of of monitor. I chose to use Velcro, which will be a universally applicable attachment solution in most cases. The best and safest way to attach the base to the monitor depends on the size, shape and construction of the monitor. In some cases it may be possible to hang the base from hooks, or even to screw it on. Study your situation carefully before you make a final decision.
(3) Cut the mounting base to size and sand the edges to make it look nice. Give it a final check to confirm it will fit and look the way you want (Figure 2).
Step 2: Layout the Components on the Base
(2) The mounting of peripherals and supporting devices is highly device-specific. In the case of the USB hub and the video converter, there were threaded mounting holes or slots on the bottom of each. Using measurements and eyeball estimation (Figure 4), locate the position of each and drilled a hole in the pegboard so mounting screws can pass through.
(3) Mounting the Raspberry Pi can be tricky. I used Lego Universal Circuit Board Standoffs described in another Instructable.
Note: I had to go back and modify the mounting base with an additional piece of "spacer" pegboard to allow enough clearance so the mounting screws would not scrape against the back of the monitor. I also had to drill an access hole in the spacer to allow future removal of the USB hub (Figure 5). Whatever you need to do to make it work, do it.
(3) Glue a piece of Velcro at the center top of the mounting board (Figure 5). If it is not centered, the board will hang lopsided. Follow the directions on the contact cement container. Coat both surfaces of the piece to be glued with cement and let them dry before pressing them together.
Step 3: Final Assembly
(1) Double check that the base is going to mount properly to the back of the monitor after test fitting and aligning. It was at this phase of the project that I realized I needed to go back and modify the base with the spacer piece mentioned in the previous step.
(1) Use contact cement to glue a piece of Velcro onto the back of the monitor to match the location of the Velcro on the mounting base. If you glued the hook part of the Velcro onto the base, make sure you are using a pile piece on the monitor (Figure 6).
(2) Attach the Raspberry Pi using standoffs and the peripherals with screws through the holes drilled in the base.
Step 4: Attach the Base to the Back of the Monitor
(1) All that is left to do now is to hang the mounting board on the back of the monitor.
(2) Plug everything in, make sure it works, and marvel at the pretty little glowing lights. Look how neat and organized your work space is now (Figures 7 and 8).
Shorter cables would make this a better final project, but use what you have until you can afford other cables.
It's just like an iMac! Kinda. Sorta like. | <urn:uuid:f29f6fcf-24aa-4fc7-b189-b38b97b53ee5> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | https://www.instructables.com/id/Back-of-Monitor-Raspberry-Pi-Mount/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027315750.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20190821022901-20190821044901-00308.warc.gz | en | 0.94022 | 950 | 2.875 | 3 |
Summary – 26th June: Information Literacy & Needs
Tuesday’s chat included discussion of the distinctions between different types of literacy, suggestions of how information literacy can be embedded in the curriculum, and questions over whether libraries will be able to continue to take this forward in times of budget cuts and staff cuts.
(We have gone back to the old-style summaries for now because we received quite a bit of feedback indicating the Storify archives are difficult to scan through quickly. However we know a lot of you liked being able to see the actual tweets, so we’ve got our thinking caps on again to come up with a way of summarising/archiving that is quicker than copying and pasting into a blogpost, easier to read than a Storify and provides access to the raw tweets. Any suggestions would be most appreciated!)
Q1) How would you define information literacy?
- the ability to get, manage and use information for your needs. It doesn’t matter its origin (internet, books… )
- having the skills to search for, retrieve and evaluate information
- how aware people are of how to use information
- knowing that you need the info in the 1st place is part of it. Knowing where to search for info, evaluate & present it
- applying the information is an important part too
- ACRL’s definition: “…seeking, evaluating, managing information”
- literacy = symbolic communication
- relationship of IL & critical thinking: Information Literacy=Hershey’s Kiss, Critical Thinking=Peanut Butter…together=PB cup!
Q2) What information needs do your library users have?
- pupils and teachers seeking a wide range of info on many different levels.
- HE: where to find the information, what search strategy to use
- Find answers to their questions but also realize how the process of finding those answers transfers to future needs.
- The ability to articulate their needs
- sometimes what they ask for is nothing to do with what they really need.
- it can be hard to quantify users’ needs, some of our students are completely IT-phobic & need really basic support to get started – some of them are really upfront, others need a bit of detective work
- I also work in a public library where there really seems to be no support for IL
- The most common: How do I search in the catalogue? Are there other libraries on the Internet? Where can I find this? (In a university library)
- The most common questions I received were all related to finding things in the library’s resources or somewhere else
- I’ve noticed at work that many users feel lost in the library! Helped them a lot to search first in the library
- I think we often assume that people know the basics about lib use & we focus on more complex skills
- it’s important to remember that some users haven’t used libraries before,so dnt hve basic skills of finding stock on the shelves
- In university library, need especially to be able to verify that the info is from a reliable source (not just Googled!)
- In a school library the difficulty is getting them away from only using Google and Wikipedia.
- It’s dependent on their level of study, but ultimately we try to provide them with info skills to increase their employability #uklibchat
- apart from academic info my students need info on housing, visas, benefits, course problems – everyday infolit needed too
Q3) Does your library offer any information literacy training?
- In my last job at a library school, I was the responsible for literacy sessions for children & teachers – sessions aimed to show them the library, to tell them how it was organised, the rules, the materials, how to search in the catalogue
- Yes, but they are very tailored to specific assignments- I’d like them to encourage personal research and IDEAS!
- adult education use the suites for comp courses, libs at moment though part of ukonline (centres) – all v much beginner stuff
- we are mainly reactive unfortunately! we get the odd hour here and there
- we offer finding journal articles, users are shown how to search, thinking about sources, search techniques
- I will given an opportune moment introduce a reader to online resources, WorldCat & other OCLC resources, OpenLibrary, etc.
- We’re currently developing info lit classes that are based around case studies- it’s all about employability!
- I will usually actually spend more time introducing staff to online resources and tools
Q4) Have you ever been responsible for preparing literacy sessions in your library? How was the experience?
- Oh, the time constraints! So much to teach with a desire to focus on active learning but not enough time…
- I wish I had!! #publiclibrariesneedtogettheirskateson 😉
- I have devised and taken IL lessons but they are better incorporated into a real piece of research than in isolation.
- We have quite a good induction offer for basic library use but are reliant on academic staff to give us their class time – then of course the students have to show up.! We have a poorly attended workshop called Skills for assignments which has a bit IL
- Teaching” reading skills is a pt. of contention–to Teach or not to Teach?– in US pub. libs. What about UK pub. libs?
- In prev. role I’d started doing #infolit/research skills sessions for P7-S1 transition. Went well, but now changed job…
Q5) Do people find it hard to differentiate between info skills and info literacy when training users?
- I haven’t done any user training yet, but I often find myself using ‘info skills’ and ‘info lit’ interchangeably in conversation.
- Some media skills (e.g. computer & web) complement information literacy teaching
- at Sheffield IL is a graduate attribute shef.ac.uk/sheffieldgradu…
- there is actually research that shows it is the IL undergraduates who often go on to complete postgraduate quals
- in HE students don’t understand what we mean by info literacy
- often seems to be confusion between use of terms ‘information literacy’ and ‘research skills’
- they come in not understanding a lot of things 😉 I think this means we need to educate them about what IL is
- I agree, info literacy doesn’t really mean anything outside of the information community
- Agreed! There’s no point in using the term with our students- they wouldn’t have a clue!
- as long as they understand the concept, the term used doesn’t really matter, buzzwords and phrases come in & out of fashion anyway!
- I think info skills and info lit are intrinsically linked, I’m not sure it’s helpful to separate the concepts from each other
- Both are linked but the purpose is different. You can’t find information if you don’t know how to use a computer
Q6) What’s the difference between information literacy & digital literacy?
- info lit: google.co.uk/search?q=defin… – digital literacy: google.co.uk/search?q=defin…
- Is digital literacy a subset of information literacy or a different area?
- think digital literacy & info literacy overlap; DL includes social use; info is not just digital! (people, images ..)
- I think it is a subset – defined by the digital technology used in finding and handling info.
- digital literacy is more media skills, info lit the traditional skills of a student & public?, may use dig lit skills
- I would say different because involves things like social networking, not necessarily information
Q7) How important is info lit and digital lit skills teaching in schools?
- I’ll tell from experience: quite important. Children make the habit and it lasts forever. Children are more receptive
- If all schools had a school library and qualified lib’n, perhaps more students would arrive at uni already info literate!
- yes indeed! need more qualified librarians & school libraries
- I worked at two schools lib. for a short time but it was worthly!
- Very important. It should be integrated in all research based lessons.
- Sadly many teachers don’t recognise it.
- And children like putting things to the test, it’s a game for them. At least, at my previous work, they were so!! Children love computers!!! So..it’s just perfect for us librarians!!!
- Agree, these are fundamental skills with wide-ranging benefits
- There’s much stuff on the Internet shared by other professionals, mainly for schools initiatives
Q8) What standards influence your info lit instruction?
- I mainly learnt at work…I found useful guidelines in journals, on the Internet and some theory at Library School. A secret: your creativity enhances all…
- Don’t know if people have seen therightinformation.org yet – Community of Practice and archive of the SILF project. #infolit
- The SLA guidelines seem like a useful resource for info lit teaching in school libraries j.mp/MQyiiX
- I think there aren’t standards because you should adapt to your users but there’re guidelines, tips…
- BL IL projects blds.ids.ac.uk/global-project… – with regards Q8, the national initiatives are standards effectively, else?
- I wouldn’t say they’re standards but I’d say they are general guidelines aimed esp. at networks – I think that a standard it’s like a rule that everyone must use it. e.g catalogation
- yes agree, I don’t like using the word “standards” for things like 7 Pillars or ACRL or “Big 6”
- I wonder is feedback from users important in this?
Q9) How do you persuade teachers/academics/staff that use your library to embed information literacy in teaching/training/CPD?
- Seamless integration & position skills as benefiting teachers (IL skills=higher quality work=less time grading low quality work)
- I find that most depts concentrate on students doing research quickly with little attention to quality of info etc. – So to answer Q9, with great difficulty. I haven’t managed to persuade any teachers to let me teach IL skills to their students
- It has to come from the top with leadership from Senior Management.
- agree that support from the top, inclusion of IL in strategic plans etc useful in persuading
- It would certainly help. School staff seem to be generally unaware of what IL is, or even that it exists
- ‘culture’! as the unofficial way that work gets done in an organisation
- I think there is some research at the moment on ‘the missing link’ between info literacy / library use and student performance
- I saw at my Univ. that lib. staff were much focused on teaching researchers things like endnote, refworks…
- Give your workplace examples of good practice from other universities, and how it’s improved students research?
Q10) How can we make literacy an ongoing skill that needs addressing at every age, and all levels?
- we need a government that believes in it, and is willing to put the money into it for public libs and in schools.
- as we move from info. as scarce resource to an abundance of info., I would like to see the public libraries doing a lot more
- agreed, public libraries could really help to bridge the gap
- alas redundancies in public libraries makes this unlikely 😦 barely have staff, let alone qualified staff
- yes, I’m thinking ideals but it needs the support of the government as you say
- I’ve heard of university libraries working with schools, I think more of that would be really good
- To “mainstream information literacy” as the National Forum on Information Literacy puts it, must partner with community orgs & find members at point of need.
- “at point of need” is key here, no one wants to be trained in info lit unless can we demonstrate way it will benefit
- What points of need do you suggest? I’m thinking bust stops, at the Dr.’s, at the voting polls,…
- I was thinking about times rather than places, e.g. have seen great things in HE tying into student assignments etc
- why not both, right? Be there both where and when they need it…
- introduce a whole school info lit programme in every schl. Persuaded a primary to try it very excited!
- Raising awareness and the impact of new technologies on society it’s an advantage because everyone knows it’s essential to be able to use a computer so it’s a good opp. to introduce inf. literacy
- libraries need to spend more time looking at how to get grants/funds to fulfill this! like from Bill Gate’s Foundation
- The EU was developing a programme for the Knowledge Society and I think they give grants & subsidies, and the local authorities in Madrid got a grant for developing library schools here. They created a network. Thanks to that grant I could work at a library school last year!! I don’t know how long the EU will be giving this grant and what will happen after that.
- at the end of the day it is librarians who are experts in information lit., the public will have expectations of them for society
- no. The problem is the public in general have no clue what librarians CAN DO for them. They have no expectations. Many times I’ve had chats with people outside of library sphere, who don’t see beyond the book borrowing function
- chattering middle classes maybe, but on the whole you might be right – librians have a duty tho to inform the public
- don’t think can dismiss as “chattering middle class” they’re educated ppl who don’t get it. and if they don’t..
- if we work hard, I think we’ll find our place in society
- it’s frustrating because it’s knowing what must be done, but getting the money to do it. What is realistic and viable?
Q11) With the severe staffing shortages and cuts to training budgets in libraries how are we going to carry this forward?
- I mentioned this before, but culture, the unofficial way work gets done in an organisation (if any1 has the motivation 4 it!)
- We can’t. Don’t think you can cut staff, and cut development and expect a good service, that’s ToryThink
- Is “information literacy” a subset of “literacy”?
- this model senseandreference.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/lit… seems to suggest we can talk about literacy in terms of media skills and domain skills
- how do we persuade the public libraries to brush the dust off and introduce some serious information and digital literacy!! The vision of the 1964 Pub Libs Act was as more popular media became available, they would then focus on higher education needs ??
- did anyone mention the info. lit. skills librarians need this evening? v. much an issue!
- I don’t think so, but it’s a v. important point. I don’t think my MA has covered this as much as it should.
Resources shared during the chat (a lot!) | <urn:uuid:ed298369-77d5-4b50-b69d-ef61fca08af1> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | https://uklibchat.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/summary-27th-june-information-literacy-needs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917118950.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031158-00621-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943026 | 3,360 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Overseas-born Australian residents can expect to live longer than those born in Australia, data to be released on Thursday shows.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare figures show death rates for Asia-born residents are 36 per cent lower than those for Australian-born residents.
Asian-born residents had lower mortality rates for all 10 leading causes of death except liver cancer. Their death rate from liver cancer was twice that of Australian-born residents.
Death rates for women born in continental Europe were 24 per cent lower than those for Australian-born women, while death rates for European-born men were 15 per cent lower than those for Australian-born men.
European-born residents were less than half as likely to die of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, such as emphysema or bronchitis, as Australian-born residents.
Australian residents born in Britain or Ireland were more likely than Australian-born residents to die of dementia, Alzheimer's disease or lung cancer, but less likely to die of bowel cancer or heart failure.
Death rates for indigenous Australians were higher than those for non-indigenous Australians across all age groups, but the difference was most pronounced in the 35-to-44 age group, in which indigenous people died at five times the rate of their non-indigenous counterparts.
Among all Australians, the death rate for males was 1.5 times that of females.
Death rates for people living in remote areas were 1.4 times as high as those of city dwellers, and death rates for people living in the areas of lowest socioeconomic status were 1.3 times as high as for those living in the highest.
Institute spokeswoman Louise York said the groups with the worst death rates tended to die from causes that in many cases were considered preventable or treatable.
On Wednesday indigenous, health and business leaders called for federal Parliament to act on the social determinants of health, such as education, employment and housing. The government is yet to respond to a senate committee report released in 2013 that recommended Parliament adopt a World Health Organisation plan to address the issue.
Tom Calma, the founding chairman of the Close the Gap campaign, said the inequality in health outcomes between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians could not be fixed without addressing racism in all its forms. | <urn:uuid:1c3419bc-0816-4099-8dc5-9e8c819c63fe> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://www.theage.com.au/national/health/asiaborn-residents-outlive-native-australians-data-shows-20140820-3e18a | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257823072.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071023-00141-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980182 | 466 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Actvity Summary: Particular attention will be given to characteristics of settings close to the ice (ice-proximal) and far from the ice (ice-distal) in high-latitude settings.
This set of investigations focuses on the use of sedimentary facies (lithologies interpreted to record particular depositional environments) to interpret paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic changes in Neogene sediment cores from the Antarctic margin. In Part 12.1, you will build your knowledge of polar sediment lithologies and the corresponding facies through conceptual diagrams, geological reasoning, and use of core images and core logs (a graphical summary of the sediments). In Part 12.2, the core log for the entire 1285 m ANDRILL 1-B core is presented. You will characterize each of the key lithostratigraphic subdivisions and use your knowledge of depositional facies to write a brief history of the Neogene climatic and environmental conditions in the Ross Sea region. In Part 12.3, you will use your core log reading skills and facies knowledge to evaluate patterns in the Pliocene sediments from ANDRILL 1-B. You will correlate quantitatively patterns in your dataset with cycles in insolation, influenced by changes in the Earth’s orbit during the Pliocene. | <urn:uuid:704dd903-d371-4589-9d5b-aaf1b461df06> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | http://joidesresolution.org/activities/antarctic-sediment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221218122.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20180821112537-20180821132537-00092.warc.gz | en | 0.850543 | 271 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Welcome back math geeks! I want to share with you a video that shows the raw power of using Clothesline Math in your classroom to promote student to student discourse. I share this video because I want you to see how clothesline activities generate student to student discourse and promote student thinking and math development. And I want you to feel empowered to use this tool in your classroom. And I invite you to share what you learn in your elementary, middle, or high school classrooms.
Clothesline Math and Student Discourse
I conducted a lesson study with some 3rd grade teachers in Northern California recently. We introduced the idea of using a clothesline as a concrete manipulative for number lines and invited students to practice placing and spacing numbers at their appropriate locations.
In the video below, students were working on placing 1/2, 1, and 2 on the clothesline using 0 and 3 as the anchor numbers. This was the first lesson that these students were asked to plot fractions on the number line.
I’ll let the students to speak for themselves.
As you watch, what sense-making is evident in their discourse with each other? How are they helping each other? What questions are they asking each other? What statements are they making? What do they do when the get stuck? What do they do when we don’t immediately dive in to save them? Which math practices are they embodying? What other interesting evidence do you notice? And what are you left wondering?
(Quick note: there’s a crossfade in the middle of the clip that cuts out about 7 seconds of real time. I had stopped filming because I thought the students were done, but as you’ll see, I was clearly mistaken. And I started filming again, thankfully!)
(Click here if viewing on your phone.)
So, how can you use Clotheslines in your classroom? What skills or concepts can be practiced or explored? Need some ideas or support? Post a comment! I’d love to hear from you.
Interested in More?
You can find out more about my Clothesline Math activities here. And you can dive deeper by visiting the Clothesline Math website and learning more about the fine work of Chris Shore, Andrew Stadel, and Dan Luevanos.
(And a special thanks to the fine teachers I worked with during this lesson study. Thank you!) | <urn:uuid:09e056bd-c037-4934-80ad-51ff54830a8e> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | http://undercovercalculus.com/clothesline-math-power-student-discourse/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267867364.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20180625014226-20180625034226-00242.warc.gz | en | 0.963233 | 496 | 2.875 | 3 |
Was the inclusion of article 370 in the constitution of India backed by extreme gravity, or was it a way to accomplish the dreams of a striving ruler? It is said that Sheikh Abdullah, who shared close vibes with Mahatma Gandhi, approached the then PM Pandit Nehru with a view to outshining Maharaja Hari Singh for gaining absolute control and accomplishing the insertion of article 370, which however was opposed by the key driving force behind the constitution, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. Though deterred by many socialists and prudent personalities, the section helped the state own a distinct status and the residents therein now live under separate set of laws, which includes ownership of property, citizenship and fundamental rights. Above all is a separate constitution. The defense, foreign affairs, finance, and communication domains, however, are under the administration of the union government.
What could have been the motive of our representatives to afford a state, which is a part of Indian soil, with such extraordinary rights? The Congress, which was challenged by the then Hindu backed associations, could have thought of winning the heart of minorities by extending privileges that comprehensively stand biased till date. Ever since, this article and the conflicts of Kashmir have been much-talked about, however, the political leaders have probably overlooked the solemnity of this subject. Leaders, quite often, disremember that the environment, which they desire to create, witnesses general public as key constituent. At large, the beneficiaries or the sufferers of the acts of our so-called secular leaders are the ones who often are unaware of cause of conflict.
Now let us consider a fact that has almost remained concealed from the general public since decades. In the month of May in 1954, the Pandit Nehru-led union government amended the article 35 of the Indian constitution and added 35A, which extended to the state government of J & K the right to deny citizenship rights, and apply any restrictions with respect to employment under the state government, acquisition of immovable property and right to scholarship or other aids, no matter how unjust these measures are. The untenable article has helped the J & K government to enforce any and every limitation on the rights of Hindu migrants from West Pakistan who have been denied the citizenship. Was this never a concern for the Nehru-led government or the descendants of the so-called secular Congress that talks of prosperity of all?
Vital to note, section 6 of the J & K constitution allows the state government to recognize Muslims, who migrated from the state to Pakistan, however re-migrated to the state thereafter, as citizens. Thus, the article 370, along with the article 35A is what has given the state government the power to do any favors or even injustice. Is country within a country an admissible equation? The temporary nature of article 370 can be comprehended by the fact that the President has the power to abrogate this post consulting the constituent assembly, which was disbanded in 1957. More the time lapses more will be the damage caused. The gift of Nehru to the ambitious ruler, Abdullah no longer finds space in the era of social and political justice.
The BJP that has almost outshined every other political group and is on the verge of forming the government at the center has advocated the annulment of article 370 ever since its inception. Though the measure would not be that easy to implement, let us know the backdrop of the viewpoint of BJP. Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, the person who devoted his life for securing equitable rights for all communities in the state of J & K, has left behind a goal for the descendants of the BJP. Plus, when we talk of the welfare and betterment of national minorities, why aren’t we concerned about the minority community of J & K? Is minority at the national level the only community that seeks special kindness? You must agree with the fact that prosperity of any state cannot be thought of without bringing in economic viability.
It is a known fact of economics that large number of participants and contributories enhance the viability of any project. ‘Economies of scale’ is what every business enterprise wants to attain so as to reduce the costs and uplift the profitability. As a distinct state with abundant restrictions in place and with non-applicability of many vital Acts, the state of J & K can rarely achieve the goal of economies of scale. And, if the state could have, the rulers not would have been dependent on the Indian government for seeking assistance in terms of infrastructure, security, and food supply. Vital to note that the constitution of J & K states that the state is an integral part of India- A clause that discloses the intention of the constitution makers who knew that the state could not stand even for a day without the aid of the union government of India.
The ‘Ultras’ (extremists) of J & K many a times advocate comprehensive independence to the state, while a few among them even favor Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan. Whom are they fighting for? The general public, anywhere in the world, would favor development and enhanced prospects to earn. Let us remember that in case the Indian armed forces are being blamed for the harassment of Kashmiri Muslims, the insurgents backed by the ISI are equitably responsible for the forced eviction of Kashmiri Pandits. ‘Kashmiriyat’, which fundamentally meant upholding the integrity of all Kashmiris, has been illicitly used to eradicate the minorities of Kashmir and establishing a Taliban-influenced milieu. Not much can be expected out of Pakistan, which has unlawfully occupied the portion of Indian soil.
Now, what can the solution be? Would the abrogation of article 370 and article 35A serve any purpose, or would it be better to let the state live on its own? In case the state would have the capability to prosper on its own, the residents would not have migrated to other states for want of education and earning prospects. Hence, a consensus must be achieved by our political groups, which represent the general public, with a view to putting an end to a scheme that is intolerable. The residents too in turn are supposed to liaise with the system that appears to be the best in view of uncountable bottlenecks. The political leaders, rather than engaging themselves in arguments, must strive to achieve the goal of real prosperity of the state as well of those who have been forced to vacate their homeland. The state, which has been the center of conflicts and mass killings since decades, now urges for prompt and real reforms. | <urn:uuid:0f7e8dd5-8be6-4beb-92a9-5e8d03902f05> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | http://drsunilgupta.com/section-370-a-gift-by-a-pm-to-an-ambitious-ruler/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221215222.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20180819145405-20180819165405-00136.warc.gz | en | 0.960566 | 1,352 | 2.75 | 3 |
Unconcerned for themselves—but willing to protect others. These attitudes were expressed by many teenagers on being asked whether they wanted to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The study, from the University of Gothenburg, shows that a majority were in favor of the idea.
The study, published in the scientific journal Vaccine: X, is based on questionnaire responses from 702 adolescents in Sweden, aged 15–19, between July and November 2020. The survey was thus carried out before the country’s vaccination program began.
The study was led by University of Gothenburg researchers in collaboration with colleagues at University West, Karolinska Institutet and Umeå University. The study participants came from various parts of Sweden, and the results are both qualitative and quantitative in nature.
The questionnaire survey results show that 54.3 percent were willing to be vaccinated, while 30.5 percent were undecided. Anxiety about getting vaccinated, which was more marked in girls than in boys, was a factor associated with reluctance to get vaccinated.
Many of the adolescent respondents stated that they had pondered the pros and cons of the COVID vaccine. Overall, their attitude was positive, while they said they needed to know more about it. In many cases, this perceived lack of knowledge was crucial to their decision.
Skepticism passed on from parents
One misgiving expressed was the rapid development and fast-tracking of the vaccine; here, respondents mentioned their worry about serious side effects. Some referred to the mass vaccinations against swine flu in 2009/10, when in some cases the vaccine caused narcolepsy.
This particular aspect took Stefan Nilsson by surprise. An associate professor and senior lecturer at the University’s Institute of Health and Care Sciences at Sahlgrenska Academy, Nilsson is the study’s first and corresponding author.
“They were small children when the swine flu vaccinations came along, so it must have been their parents or other elders who influenced them, or else they’ve read about it. Clearly, that experience of the swine flu vaccine influences the younger generation as well,” he says.
At the time of the data collection, there were no reports of COVID-related deaths among young people in Sweden. For their own part, moreover, many of the teenage respondents were unafraid of becoming infected and falling ill.
Wish to protect others
Many, on the other hand, voiced altruistic motives for getting vaccinated and thereby protecting others whose health was more fragile. A further indication that the adolescents were willing to get the jab for other people’s sake was that this attitude was found to be linked to the practice of social distancing.
“The results suggest what steps need taking to make it easier for young people to make an informed decision ahead of getting vaccinated. They need factual information that the risks of COVID’s adverse effects are greater than the risks of any side effects of the jab,” Nilsson says.
“And the information needs to be spread through information channels that reach adolescents. What’s more, it’s important for there to be discussion forums where the young can meet experts who can discuss and answer their questions.”
Two-thirds of parents of kids ages 5-11 plan to get them vaccinated against COVID: Poll
S. Nilsson et al, To be or not to be vaccinated against COVID-19 – the adolescents’ perspective – a mixed-methods study in Sweden, Vaccine: X (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.jvacx.2021.100117
University of Gothenburg
Majority of 15–19-year-olds wanted COVID jab (2021, October 22)
retrieved 24 October 2021
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. | <urn:uuid:541b8596-a9c0-4c33-8ebc-f2763ebea3bb> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://techandsciencepost.com/news/majority-of-15-19-year-olds-wanted-covid-jab/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572198.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815175725-20220815205725-00780.warc.gz | en | 0.969142 | 870 | 2.984375 | 3 |
The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology has released a news report which states that dark chocolate can aid in making arteries more elastic and can help prevent white blood vessels from sticking on their walls. Inflexible arteries and white blood cell bondage are two known causes of atherosclerosis.
The team wanted to find a more complete picture of what the impact is of dark chocolate consumption with vascular health and to show that increasing the flavanol content had no additional benefits for the heart, explained Diederik Esser, Ph.D. He was one of the scientists that were involved in the research. However, the rise of flavanol content clearly changed the dark chocolate taste and therefore the enthusiasm to eat the chocolates placed in front of the participants. So it shows the dark side of chocolate is a good one, a healthy side.
The scientists studied 44 men who were in the middle age range and also considered overweight to figure out their research studies. Over two four week periods, the test subjects were asked to eat 70 grams of chocolate each day. The men received either specifically made dark chocolate that had high flavanol content or plain chocolate that was not specially prepared. However each group had dark chocolate that each contained the same amount of cocoa. Before and after each intervention period, researchers performed an assortment of measurements which showed the men’s vascular health. Such as the test subjects were requested to stay away from certain energy solid food goods so to avoid any weight gain, while they were also appraised on certain physical properties of the flavanol chocolate and also the regular chocolate that was gathered for the participant’s scores of how they should eat during the involvement periods.
The results the researchers found was that the effects of dark chocolate on the human body is very encouraging not only because it lets individuals to pamper themselves with lesser feelings of guilt and worry, but it also might lead the way to psychotherapies which are able to do the very same thing as dark chocolate is able to do but with superior and even more dependable results, explained Gerald Weissmann, M.D., who is also an editor of The FASEB Journal. Until a dark chocolate drug is created for the general public, however, everyone will just have to get through with what nature has given to them in the form of dark chocolate itself.
Dark chocolate is a wonderful thing to dine o but again it is something that needs to be taken in moderation. The human body is able to react wonderfully to what dark chocolate has to offer and a few grams eaten each day may end up saving lives in the long run. It must be remembered, however, that this study did not apply to milk chocolate. That has not shown any type of healthful benefits toward the body. People need to remember the difference between dark and milk chocolate because they are extremely different in taste and texture. Dark chocolate has a taste that is somewhat more bitter.
The Federation of American Societies has released a news report which states that dark chocolate can aid in making arteries more elastic and can help prevent white blood vessels from sticking on their walls. Inflexible arteries and white blood cell bondage are two known causes of atherosclerosis.
By Kimberly Ruble | <urn:uuid:0fdb11ca-22fa-454f-90a9-d7ce222b1ffa> | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | https://guardianlv.com/2014/02/dark-chocolate-is-good-for-the-heart-says-scientific-study/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583657510.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20190116134421-20190116160421-00561.warc.gz | en | 0.976545 | 649 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Scientists Now Using Bumblebees to Deliver Organic Pesticides
The worker bee is famous for its industrious, teamwork nature. Scientists and researchers have found ways to make the worker bee work for them. Add the new job description of organic pesticide delivery to a bee’s resume.
Canadian researchers figure that if bees are already out pollinating their surroundings, why not have them do a little extra? The new system will use bees to transport and deliver natural pesticides and beneficial fungi directly to plants. Since bees are small and capable of being more precise than a typical industrial farm sprayer, farmers can use a tiny fraction of the pesticide they would normally use.
Originally developed by researchers at the University of Guelph, the bee-delivery system uses a tray filled with a patented mix of natural and beneficial microbes. The tray goes into an existing beehive. When bees head out to pollinate flowers and crops, they walk through the powder in the tray on their way out of the hive. The pesticide powder sticks to the bee’s legs and hair. The bees deliver tiny, beneficial spores stuck to their legs to crops and flowers as they make their pollination rounds.
Both varieties of bumblebees and honeybees have successfully distributed the fungus Beauveria bassiana to greenhouse sweet peppers and field canola. The fungus kills pests like whiteflies, aphids and Lygus. Researcher Les Shipp, a federal senior research scientist based in Harrow, Ontario, Canada states: “We’ve been able to use these to control pest and fungal diseases. We’re able to reduce some diseases by 80 per cent.”
Researchers have done years of testing to make sure the process is safe for bees. Besides the safety of the pesticide to bees, this new job is beneficial to bees and the environment. It will encourage farmers to keep beehives on their lands in order to have bees available to deliver the organic pesticides.
Because the bumblebees can deliver the powder directly to plants so precisely, pesticide runoff, a common problem with traditional pesticides, is avoided. Typically, a commercial pesticide is mixed with hundreds of gallons of water and then sprayed throughout the land. The majority of the pesticide mix ends up in the wrong place or in the water table from runoff.
The continuous and targeted pesticide delivery makes trees and their crop stronger and better. Normally, farmers spray orchards once or twice while apple trees are in bloom. But trees often bloom at different times meaning that parts of the orchard miss the spray. Bees can deliver their organic pesticide continuously, boosting fruit production.
The humble little bumblebee is likely to disrupt the multi-billion dollar super corporations that produce and promote synthetic pesticides. Farmers are likely to choose bumblebees to deliver their organic pesticides. Less of the expensive pesticide is required and the bees do a better job at delivering the material to plants and trees.
Scientists are now looking into other jobs that bees can do. A new generation of overworked, stressed out bees may be in the making. | <urn:uuid:cd792a55-0e07-49c5-87d5-b066773d220b> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | http://www.corporateresearchgroup.com/scientists-now-using-bumblebees-to-deliver-organic-pesticides/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610704803737.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20210126202017-20210126232017-00344.warc.gz | en | 0.935297 | 624 | 3.3125 | 3 |
Subsets and Splits