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The spot is linked to the hippocampus, that is involved in storage. Alzheimer’s is certainly characterised by two elements: a build-up of amyloid-beta plaques in the mind, and a lack of neurons. CSIRO’s Preventative Wellness Flagship Theme Innovator, Dr Cassandra Szoeke, stated the puzzle for experts was that the elements of the brain that got shrunk because of neuron loss weren’t exactly like those showing elevated deposits of amyloid-beta. Using MRI scans to review Alzheimer’s disease-affected brain cells, the researchers discovered that shrinking of the hippocampus was connected with plaque deposits in the temporal inferior cortex. The outcomes indicate that the elevated accumulation of amyloid in the temporal inferior cortex disrupts connections with the hippocampus, evoking the neurons to die.For the entire future of life on the world perhaps. Here’s a few of what Jeffrey Smith says in this brand-new video: [GMO pollution causes] intense, insidious environmental degradation that may under no circumstances be able to end up being cleaned up. And similar to the oil spill, you can trace it back to authorities incompetence and collusion, and sector manipulation – – putting out technologies that are not safe a long time before the research is ready. What about the self-propagating genetic pollution? Once it gets out, it then spreads, and cross pollinates. It becomes a self-propagating pollution that could outlast the effects of global warming or nuclear waste materials. That is an impossible issue to clean up, and we are bequeathing to all upcoming generations the folly of the generation. | <urn:uuid:64d4a292-2480-4f41-9139-6646c2e57b54> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | http://valley25x25.org/neurology/the-spot-is-linked-to-the-hippocampus | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267867424.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20180625033646-20180625053646-00271.warc.gz | en | 0.927877 | 336 | 3 | 3 |
You’ve heard of the hotly debated Intelligence Quotient (IQ). And perhaps you have even heard of the more recently developed concept of the Emotional Quotient (EQ), and how aspects of each, IQ and EQ, can essentially be used to predict various definitions of success in life. The former assesses whether you have a mixture of school-based academic knowledge and mental flexibility and agility to navigate the world. The latter deals with your ability to understand your own and others’ motivations and emotions, as well as the ability to adequately manage the expression of them.
While it’s clear to most of us that knowledge and mental acuity will help us get through school, and emotional awareness will enhance our relationships with others, including increasing chances of landing us a job, not enough emphasis is put on authentic happiness.
What brings authentic happiness in life?
Presently in our first world country we are indoctrinated into believing that achieving a 4.0 GPA, getting into a top university and landing a high paying job so that we can buy lots of “awesome stuff,” as Laurie Santos, a professor at Yale University calls it, is the road to golden happiness. But the research around the world continues to prove otherwise. We repeatedly misjudge how happy we will be when we get those things we want, and how unhappy we will be if we don’t. We also disregard how quickly the sheen of something new (even great relationships) wears off.
None of this is to say that not having any money, or no job, etc. don’t add to unhappiness. Rather, the point is that having those things doesn’t equate to happiness. This means that we must find happiness elsewhere. And in actuality the research shows we have to take intentional action to make our own happiness.
How to take action for intentional happiness:
Writing about gratitude.
Writing sentences in a journal about those things for which you are grateful, for 5-10 minutes a day, solidifies your awareness of what is good in your life. It forces you to acknowledge those things we so often take for granted.
Engage in savoring.
This is a mindfulness practice. When you are eating that delicious dinner your partner cooked, or able to go for a walk in the sun, notice the taste of the food or the warmth on your skin, and absorb it.
Imagine life without.
What would your life be like had you not met your partner or gotten the job you have? What if your children had never been born? What if all the many possible obstacles that could have prevented you from having this good thing in your life had actually gotten in your way? In a way, everything we experience is kismet, as there are so many things that could go wrong. And yet clearly in this case they didn’t.
Practice random acts of kindness are underrated.
Random acts of kindness are underrated. The science shows that when we do something nice for someone else, whether it’s buying them a coffee or writing them a letter about how much we appreciate them, we feel better and we feel more likable.
Connect with others.
Socializing pays off in spades. Whether we spend time with loved ones or if we chat up a fellow person in line, we add to our, and their, well-being. Social connection, even small ones, enhance our day.
What’s perhaps most striking about this list of intentional actions you can take to increase your happiness and have a higher Happiness Quotient, is that they are all free, can be done by anyone, and take little to no time. What’s stopping you?
Check out these “happiness” resources:
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s TED Talk – Flow, the secret to happiness
- Carol Dweck’s TED Talk – The power of believing that you can improve
- Michael Norton’s TEDx Talk – How to buy happiness
- Matthew Killingsworth’s TED Talk – Want to be happier? Stay in the moment
- Hedy Kober’s TEDx Talk – How can mindfulness help us | <urn:uuid:d7f51eb3-0d3d-4c99-b24d-b725cdc0a6a7> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://evereststrongcoaching.com/2020/07/02/how-to-improve-your-hq-the-happiness-quotient/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510214.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20230926143354-20230926173354-00129.warc.gz | en | 0.950787 | 877 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Top 10 Skills for High-School Studentsby Clint Page
Whether you're a freshman or a senior, developing the following 10 skills will help you achieve success in school, in your chosen career, and in life.
1 of 11
You know the deal: There are just 24 hours in each day. What you do with that time makes all the difference. While high-school students average 35 hours per week of class time, college students log an average of 15 to 18 hours per week.
Getting your "free" time under control now will help prepare you for managing that extra 20 hours a week come freshman year of college — when you'll need to study and want to socialize more than ever.
If you don't already, start using a daily planner. This could be a datebook you keep in your bag, an online version you maintain at home, or both. It's easy to over-schedule or "double-book" if we aren't careful. Manage your time wisely and you'll get the maximum out of each day.
Next: Good Study Habits
More on: Preparing for College | <urn:uuid:fb3a074f-e541-43f0-9bcc-ed918ac4d9d5> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://school.familyeducation.com/skill-builder/college-prep/37653.html?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802770815.118/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075250-00142-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949119 | 230 | 3 | 3 |
25 Jun What are Co-Occurring Disorders?
America is currently grappling with a new devil; opioids. Despite the monumental war America has waged on drugs, it seems the problem only worsens. Everyday overdose death rates continue to flare up in parts of the US and drugs are continuously finding their way into our borders. Worse yet, with new substances like fentanyl—a synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin—this epidemic is harvesting a death toll in the thousands. Fentanyl is now responsible for half of the overdose deaths in the US. In fact, the opioid epidemic has become America’s grim reaper; today, the #1 cause of death for Americans under the age of 35 is overdose.
While our efforts are expended on securing our borders, instilling extreme punishments for drug dealers and traffickers, and establishing infrastructure for addicts in need, perhaps the solution begins with a dialogue that’s directed inward. Not to say only within our borders but within the human psyche.
For years we have upped the availability of medicine geared towards combating addiction, created programs supporting addicts in recovery, and issued billions on funding to combat the problem, but many would agree that instead of pulling the root of the issue, we’re only weeding out the surface, allowing for the evil to grow time and time again.
While experts say the opioid crisis in the US begins first with how we categorize pain, then with the standards of our healthcare system, treating mental illness is still a topic of extreme controversy. Yet, mental illness and addiction are often mutually exclusive.
America, it’s time to talk about co-occurring disorders.
What Are Co-occurring Disorders?
Co-occurring disorders is now the term used by healthcare professionals to describe what was once a dual disorder or a dual diagnosis. Despite what term is used, all three mean the same thing; an individual affected by both a mental illness and a substance abuse disorder. This shouldn’t be a shock to you, as tropes surrounding this phenomenon have lived on for decades.
The Vietnam vet returns from the war riddled with PTSD, then turns to heroin. The teen with severe depression looks to prescription pills to cope. The homeless man with schizophrenia chases the dragon at the corner. Tragically, mental illness often begets drug use, which makes those afflicted more prone to developing a substance-use disorder.
COD (co-occurring disorders) do not follow a strict set of classifications. Any number of them can occur. The commonalities often exist when one drug pairs well with ‘curbing’ the symptoms onset by a certain mental illness. For example, severe depression and uppers (cocaine, meth, Adderall, etc.), anxiety disorder and alcohol or benzos (Xanax, valium, etc.), schizophrenia and alcoholism, and so forth. As you can see there’s a push and pull relationship between substances and specific mental illness. Those with depression look to uppers to make them happy. Those with anxiety look to benzodiazepines and alcohol to give them tranquility. Those with schizophrenia drink to ease the confusion. Yet, any combination of co-occurring disorders can exist.
A Deadly Mix
It’s approximated by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) that nearly 8 million adults suffer from COD. Worst yet, those that are diagnosed with COD are usually only treated for one condition leading up to their dual diagnosis. But their two afflictions are mutually exclusive and by treating one the other continues to have a negative impact on the individual at hand.
Furthermore, those with COD are vulnerable to a host of issues someone with only one condition isn’t. And what’s that idiom, fire feeds fire? Unfortunately, those with COD have this saying in their lifeblood. As they try to heal, they’re at risk of relapse. If this occurs, it leads to psychiatric distress, which can only amplify the original mental illness. As the original illness worsens, they’re then subject once more to the risk of relapse. This vicious cycle, if untreated, can send an addict reeling into despair.
Thus, when we say this is a conversation that needs to be had, it is a very well one that could save lives and change the fate of the mentally ill. Understanding COD is also understanding that when treating an individual victim to it, if treated in the same fashion as substance-abuse disorders, the treatment itself lacks its efficacy and the patient will have a cumbersome recovery with a dramatically larger propensity for failure or relapse.
Are There Distinct Symptoms?
Mental illness began as a disease that was arduous to diagnosis. Many individuals expressed symptoms that differed from one another and in different severities, making them hard to distinguish. It took the healthcare industry years to accurately diagnose certain mental illnesses and draw commonalities between them and unfortunately, due to the nature of COD, the same issue coats the diagnosis process.
Certain substance abuse patterns and mental health deficiencies will work to mask the other. Someone that’s severely depressed after their fix is removed can be regarded as someone in the clutches of withdrawals, as emotions run wild during this period. Someone having extreme substance abuse withdrawals can be perceived as suffering from symptoms of a certain mental illness.
Thus, finding a system that can separate and identify the two in isolation is paramount for successful recovery of those with COD. But doing so is a task of extreme difficulty. Sadly, it’s the exact reason why many with COD are never diagnosed correctly and ultimately don’t respond well to the common treatments.
How Do They Diagnose Co-occurring Disorders?
Co-occurring disorders can be screened for via multiple processes, one of the most prominent being developed by SAMHSA. There’s a variety of different screenings and tools used to isolate substance abuse disorder and mental illness. Often, it’s more of a trial and error, as an individual will have their background and history dissected and their progress in dual diagnosis treatment centers analyzed. Measuring history and progress within standard treatment can be a telltale sign of COD and is commonly one of the more accurate ways to diagnose.
However, the process of diagnosis is dependent on the medical professional, as usually each person will integrate and adhere to their own system.
Co-Occurring Disorders and Homelessness
It shouldn’t be a surprise to you that the homeless are often a victim to COD. Due to the severity of these cases, the homeless population usually needs assistance well beyond that of someone suffering specifically from mental illness or substance abuse disorder. The harrowing fact is this: to treat homeless with COD, integrated care is vital to recovery, and a dismal number of the population has access to it.
Being that COD—the nightmarish disease it is—can work to create somewhat of an implosion in the human psyche, because the homeless don’t have access to integrated care they often degrade to a point that chronic homelessness becomes their reality. We’re currently trying to address this issue and establish infrastructure that will not only screen for COD in homeless populations but provide treatment for it as well.
However, this is an ongoing process and time can be a sharp blade. Without help, as you very well know, someone that could’ve been treated will lose their social skills, behavioral health, economic security, and become a slave to their own disease, thus a slave to homelessness and disconnection.
Co-Occurring Disorders and Veterans
You’re probably familiar with the tragic stories of veterans that return home from war, only to crumble beneath the wrath of PTSD. PTSD then begets drug use, commonly as a coping mechanism, and substance abuse disorders can develop in the blink of an eye. According to the Veteran’s Affairs Department (VA), about 33% of veterans fall into the category of COD.
However, veterans have more organizations supporting COD than the homeless and have access to a host of different resources that can not only help with diagnosis but treatment too.
As listed on SAMHSA’s own website, there are a few primary resources for veterans with COD.
National Center for PTSD (PTSD)
PTSD created an educational course for practitioners that covers managing PTSD in relation to COD. This is regarded as excellent material that helps equip professionals with the right weapons to combat the disease.
The Veteran’s Affairs Department
The VA also created their own set of guidelines which intelligently dissect methods of screening, assessment, and treatment of the horrible combination (PTSD and substance abuse disorders).
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
This organization provides a list of recommendations from the Institute of Medicine on integrating efficient care for veterans with co-occurring disorders.
What Exactly is Integrated Treatment?
As aforementioned, in the case of COD one fire feeds the other. The substance abuse disorder fuels the mental illness and vice versa. Thus, integrated care is a type of treatment that, instead of isolating one or the other, treats both at the same time, in the same location, by the same healthcare professionals.
This means that once an individual is admitted to treatment, healthcare professionals from the treatment team will study the issues at hand and treat them individually. Often, this can be a prolific process, more of a learn-as-we-go method of operating that doesn’t usually couple the normal types of treatment. This is due in part because COD can be quite diverse, with the recovery process having a tendency for volatility not witnessed in isolated cases.
A common structure for these treatments go as following:
The Thought Process
A clinician or treatment team will offer a judgment-free space for the afflicted to think about the role drugs or alcohol has played in their lives. They can then formulate the problem to its core—as you could deduce, this often means that rather than seeing a vice as a coping mechanism, it’s regarded as something negative and not conducive to healing.
The team will then educate the patient, explaining how COD affects the brain and the way in which drugs can amplify a preexistent problem. This will then grant the patient the knowledge to understand their experience on an objective plane, helping them further discern between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ when it comes to the choices they make.
Community and Resources
This falls in line with most in-patient style rehabs, but the treatment team will encourage the patient to socialize with like-minded peers who are dealing with similar problems and provide community-driven resources to help them heal. It’s the ‘you’re not alone’ theme materialized by joining a community of others who have struggled with COD.
As the patient progresses, they will then be encouraged to outline their future goals and what they hope to accomplish with not only sobriety but mental stability. This will mean not only abstinence from certain substances but the ways to mitigate the symptoms of their mental illness and cure it altogether.
This category is an umbrella for all the resources given to someone specifically with COD. This could be a certain type of therapist, strategy, medicine-plan, and so forth. Essentially, it’s everything the treatment team does they know is specific to those suffering with COD—all of which tackles both problems at once. The above can be thought of as branches from this tree.
It’s important to note there that, more often than not, COD is treated via outpatient programs. Reason being: those afflicted usually need a host of other resources that the typical rehab patient does not. This means assisted living, ongoing management, medication management, and so forth. COD is a viscous disease that can render someone incapable of dealing with society.
Sometimes they need to be socialized again and exposed—with guidance—to the outside world once more.
When it comes to the war on drugs and the problem America currently faces, all manners of dialogue need to be had regarding our epidemic. No one will argue that we keep throwing money at the problem with little to show for. By addressing problems like COD and analyzing them intuitively, we’re one step closer to treating and curing the problem… rather than slapping a band-aid on it.
With that being said, if you suspect that someone is suffering from COD, it’s paramount that you reach out to a healthcare professional or an organization that can help. Those with the disease have a higher propensity for falling off the wagon, and, unfortunately, never getting back on it. Education is awareness, awareness is a weapon, and cultivating this tool begins first and foremost with these conversations.
The more we address COD, the further our efforts will escalate on the war against drugs, aiding our veterans, and saving our homeless.
“Co-Occurring Disorders.” Psychology Today. 14 Mar. 2019. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/conditions/co-occurring-disorders
“Co-Occurring Disorders.” Mental Health America. 14 Mar. 2019. http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/conditions/co-occurring-disorders
“Co-Occurring Disorders Treatment Guide.” American Addiction Centers. 14 Mar. 2019. https://americanaddictioncenters.org/co-occurring-disorders | <urn:uuid:91039f62-66b3-4ced-b1fb-55619642be03> | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | https://georgiadrugdetox.com/resources/co-occurring-disorders/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514573070.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20190917101137-20190917123137-00534.warc.gz | en | 0.952318 | 2,788 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Georgia Question B
, also known as the Question to allow persons who are absent from their residence due to health reasons to continue to receive a homestead exemption
, was on the November 3, 1998
election ballot in Georgia
as a legislatively-referred constitutional amendment
, where it was approved
. It passed, with 82.7% of voters in favor.
| Question B|
| Yes|| 1,312,521|| 82.7%|
Text of measure
The language that appeared on the ballot:
An act which authorizes certain individuals who are absent from their residence due to health reasons to continue to receive homestead exemptions. | <urn:uuid:b9537779-24ff-4c18-bc0c-bdf98f04d3e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Georgia_Question_B_(1998) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705284037/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115444-00084-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966052 | 136 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Thursday March 21st, 2019
Community ownership agreement in Mugandu-Buramba wetland has kept the wetland intact for 40 years while helping farmers gain livelihoods
Story and multimedia by Fredrick Mugira
Technical support by Annika McGinnis and Code for Africa
CLICK HERE to see full multimedia story
There are blooming flowers in Mugandu–Buramba wetland in the southwestern Uganda’s district of Kabale, those of lavender; white; red; yellow; blue and pink – most of them tube-shaped, amidst green leaves.
Mugandu–Buramba wetland, which drains into Lake Bunyonyi, the second deepest lake in Africa, is one of the few wetlands that are still intact in Uganda, a country that has had most of its wetlands degraded.
The limited availability of land in the hilly sub county of Rubaya forced farmers to opt for this wetland to grow their crops. But through wise use and creation of management plans, they have been able to use, protect and preserve it for decades, which is enabling them to earn a living.
CLICK HERE to see full multimedia project on how the community was able to conserve the wetland for almost 40 years. | <urn:uuid:42ee72ff-a063-4b1a-8a3a-570f2dd99c27> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | https://infonile.org/en/2019/03/decades-of-wise-use-pay-off-for-a-kabale-wetland/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027315551.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20190820154633-20190820180633-00549.warc.gz | en | 0.96012 | 255 | 2.859375 | 3 |
The point of divergence rests on the outcome of Admiral James Leyton's coup on Earth. In the Pendragon timeline, the coup was successful and triggered the start of a Federation Civil War which lasted until 2374.
Another key event that furthered the divergence between the timelines was the destruction of Deep Space 9 during the war, which sealed the Bajoran wormhole and prevented the Dominion War from beginning.
Events not stemming from the outcome of Leyton's coup, such as the second Borg incursion in 2373, occurred in the Pendragon timeline as in the mainstream universe, albeit sometimes with different outcomes.
This timeline was called the "Pendragon universe" because of the importance of the USS Pendragon in the years following the civil war.
The Department of Temporal Investigations eventually compared the events of the Federation Civil War to their database of other known timelines, and determined that while no temporal disruption was involved, a point in 2372 nonetheless marked a significant divergence from the majority of neighboring quantum realities in which there had been a Dominion War from 2373-2375, followed eventually by a Borg invasion in 2381. Those "prime events" ultimately resulted in greater devastation and loss of life than this timeline's Civil War and subsequent minor conflicts, leading some psychohistorians and temporal researchers of the 25th century to conclude that Admiral Leyton's actions may indeed have been justified. Further study indicated the effects of conservation of history at work as the timeline began to show greater synchronicity with the quantum meridian during the late 2370s and 2380s. | <urn:uuid:cf0e6edb-4533-4f93-906d-5b695ccda49c> | CC-MAIN-2015-22 | http://stexpanded.wikia.com/wiki/Pendragon_timeline | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-22/segments/1432207930423.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20150521113210-00045-ip-10-180-206-219.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955706 | 320 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Are You Financially Literate?
Financial Literacy (fi-nans'-shal lit' a-ra-see) n. 1. your knowledge of the facts, concepts, principles and technological tools fundamental to being smart about money.
|Complements of the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE).|
Links to Literacy!
- Financial Awareness Counseling (Department of Education Counseling full of interactive tools that are linked to the National Student Loan Database System so you can incorporate your actual student loan debt into your financial planning.)
- NSLP Financial Literacy Online (Website operated by the National Student Loan Program. Contains online courses on budgeting, contracts, credit, identity theft and more.)
- 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy (Website operated by The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Contains a special section just for issues related to college students.)
- MyMoney.Gov (U.S. Government website dedicated to teaching Americans the basics of financial education. Contains many links to helpful websites, calculators and worksheets.)
- Financial Goals Worksheet (created by Southwestern College - a worksheet designed to assist you in plannning your financial future.)
- FREE Annual Credit Report (The only source for your free credit reports. Authorized by law)
- FREE Credit Score (Credit Sesame believes that access to your credit information is a personal right.)
Great Ways to Save on Education
The United States government has taken steps to make paying for school easier. Be sure to consult your tax advisor to determine whether you may take advantage of any of these incentives.
American Opportunity Credit
Claim up to a $2,500 credit on college and other post-secondary expenses, even if you don't owe any taxes. Learn more on the IRS YouTube website.
HOPE Tax Credit
Qualifying taxpayers can claim a tax credit of up to $1,500 for each qualifying family member who is attending an eligible school. You can claim 100% of the first $1,000 of your "out-of-pocket" educational expenses for each student, plus 50% of the next $1,000. The student must be enrolled at least half time and in the first or second year of a degree of certificate granting program.
Lifetime Learning Tax Credit
Qualifying taxpayers can claim a maximum credit of up to $2,000 (20% of the first $10,000). This credit is calculated per family, not per student. You can claim this credit at any time during a student's education at an eligible school. The student needs to be enrolled in at least one course.
Coverdell Education Savings Account
This program allows you to save money for future educational expenses. A Coverdell Account can be established for anyone under 18 years of age. Contributions are not tax deductible, but the funds grow untaxed.
These state-sponsored investment programs permit taxpayers to make contributions on behalf of a beneficiary. The account earnings are untaxed until withdrawn for the beneficiary's qualified college education expenses. Listed below are links to more information about the 529 plans for just a few of our neighboring states.
For a comprehensive list of plans as well as more information about Saving for College, check out Savingforcollege.com -- a website founded in the spring of 2000 by a curious, mild-mannered public accountant with a mission of helping families figure out ways of paying for college. | <urn:uuid:e9a28824-ebed-48dd-9321-7d12ccc687ac> | CC-MAIN-2016-36 | http://www.sckans.edu/student-services/financial-aid/are-you-financially-literate/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-36/segments/1471982292659.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160823195812-00043-ip-10-153-172-175.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929643 | 707 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Milk and other dairy products are a major source of nutrients in the American diet. One of the most important of these nutrients is calcium. Calcium is essential for the growth and repair of bones throughout life. In the middle and later years, a shortage of calcium may lead to thin, fragile bones that break easily, a condition called osteoporosis.
A concern for both children and adults with lactose intolerance is getting enough calcium in a diet that includes little or no dairy products.
The Institute of Medicine released a report listing the requirements for daily calcium intake. How much calcium a person needs to maintain good health varies by age group. Recommendations from the report are shown in the following table.
Daily Calcium Recommendations, by Age Group
|Age Group||Amount of calcium to consume daily, in milligrams (mg)|
|0–6 months||400 mg|
|6–12 months||600 mg|
|1–5 years||800 mg|
|6–10 years||1,200 mg|
|11–24 years||1,200–1,500 mg|
|19–50 years||1,000 mg|
|51–70 years||1,500 mg|
In addition, pregnant and nursing women need between 1,200 and 1,500 mg of calcium daily.
In planning meals, people with lactose intolerance should make sure that each day’s diet includes enough calcium, even if dairy products are not included. Many non-dairy foods are high in calcium, including dark green vegetables such as broccoli, or fish with soft, edible bones, such as salmon and sardines. To help in planning a high-calcium, low-lactose diet, the table that follows lists some common foods that are good sources of dietary calcium and shows how much lactose they contain.
Recent research shows that yogurt with active cultures may be a good source of calcium for many people with lactose intolerance. Even though yogurt is fairly high in lactose, the bacterial cultures used to make it produce some of the lactase enzyme required for proper digestion.
Clearly, many foods can provide the calcium and other nutrients the body needs, even when intake of milk and dairy products is limited. However, factors other than calcium and lactose content should be kept in mind when planning a diet. Some vegetables that are high in calcium (Swiss chard, spinach, and rhubarb, for example) are not listed in the chart because the body cannot use the calcium they contain because these foods also contain substances called oxalates, which stop calcium absorption.
Calcium and Lactose in Common Foods
|Calcium Content||Lactose Content|
|Soymilk, fortified, 1 cup||200–300 mg||0|
|Sardines, with edible bones, 3 oz.||270 mg||0|
|Salmon, canned, with edible bones, 3 oz.||205 mg||0|
|Broccoli, raw, 1 cup||90 mg||0|
|Orange, 1 medium||50 mg||0|
|Pinto beans, 1/2 cup||40 mg||0|
|Tuna, canned, 3 oz.||10 mg||0|
|Lettuce greens, 1/2 cup||10 mg||0|
|Yogurt, plain, low-fat, 1 cup||415 mg||5g|
|Milk, reduced fat, 1 cup||295 mg||11g|
|Swiss cheese, 1 oz.||270 mg||1g|
|Ice cream, 1/2 cup||85 mg||6g|
|Cottage cheese, 1/2 cup||75 mg||2-3g|
Calcium is absorbed and used only when there is enough vitamin D in the body. A balanced diet should provide an adequate supply of vitamin D from sources such as eggs and liver. Sunlight also helps the body naturally absorb vitamin D, and with enough exposure to the sun, food sources may not be necessary.
Some people with lactose intolerance may think they are not getting enough calcium and vitamin D in their diet. Consultation with a doctor or dietitian may be helpful in deciding whether dietary supplements are needed. Taking vitamins or minerals of the wrong kind or in the wrong amounts can be harmful. A dietitian can help plan meals that will provide the most nutrients with the least chance of causing discomfort. | <urn:uuid:eb7e1b30-f84c-4950-904a-7417b81ba6eb> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://iffgd.org/diet-treatments/calcium-in-non-dairy-foods.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370494064.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20200329074745-20200329104745-00439.warc.gz | en | 0.922015 | 925 | 3.796875 | 4 |
The missing Amendment is referred to as the "title of nobility" Amendment, but the second prohibition against "honour" (honor), may be more significant.
According to David Dodge, Tom Dunn, and Webster's Dictionary, the archaic definition of "honor" (as used when the 13th Amendment was ratified) meant anyone "obtaining or having an advantage or privilege over another". A contemporary example of an "honor" granted to only a few Americans is the privilege of being a judge: Lawyers can be judges and exercise the attendant privileges and powers; non-lawyers cannot.
By prohibiting "honors", the missing Amendment prohibits any advantage or privilege that would grant some citizens an unequal opportunity to achieve or exercise political power. Therefore, the second meaning (intent) of the 13th Amendment was to ensure political equality among all American citizens, by prohibiting anyone, even government officials, from claiming or exercising a special privilege or power (an "honor") over other citizens.
If this interpretation is correct, "honor" would be the key concept in the 13th Amendment. Why? Because, while "titles of nobility" may no longer apply in today's political system, the concept of "honor" remains relevant. For example, anyone who had a specific "immunity" from lawsuits which were not afforded to all citizens, would be enjoying a separate privilege, an "honor", and would therefore forfeit his right to vote or hold public office. Think of the "immunities" from lawsuits that US judges, lawyers, politicians, and bureaucrats currently enjoy. As another example, think of all the "special interest" legislation US government passes: "special interests" are simply euphemisms for "special privileges" (honors). | <urn:uuid:9ec7be7b-5971-48a2-a13e-2ee47abfe561> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/essays/general/the-missing-13th-amendment/honor.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131309986.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172149-00018-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965431 | 359 | 3.84375 | 4 |
Human Trafficking Emphasis on Human Rights
Human trafficking is not only a crime, it is also a gross violation of human rights. Traffickers treat trafficked persons like a commodity, trampling on their basic rights to make their own decisions, to move freely, and to work where and for whom they choose. A human rights approach when addressing human trafficking is crucial to restore the dignity and well-being of the trafficked person.
One of the stated purposes of the Trafficking in Persons Protocol is to protect and assist the trafficked person, with full respect for their human rights.
In 1948, the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which declares that:
- All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights
- No one shall be held in slavery or servitude
- No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
Human Rights at the Centre. The U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights has encouraged all nations—and by extension, all service providers—to place human rights "at the centre of all efforts to prevent and combat trafficking and to protect, assist and provide redress to victims." (From Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking, 2002).
By taking these human rights away, says Kyung-wha Kang, U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, human trafficking "violates the most fundamental of rights we all hold dear: the right to life, to equality, dignity, and security; the right to health; the right to freedom of movement, freedom from violence and abuse, the right to be recognized as a person before the law." (From a speech delivered at the U.N.’s Trafficking in Women and Girls: Meeting the Challenge Together Conference, 2007.
My Story: They killed my spirit and made me feel so down. They are allowed to jail you, to treat you like an animal. One day I was dancing upstairs, because the place has two floors. I didn't hear my music and my boss came with a security guard and grabbed my arm pulled me downstairs and put me on the stage.
In addition to the Trafficking in Persons Protocol, there are numerous other relevant international treaties which inform responses to trafficking in persons. These can be found in the web resources list in the Resources section of this training
In Module 4, you will learn what it means to take a human rights approach when assisting a trafficked person.
Copyright © 2014 Province of British Columbia. | <urn:uuid:f92b52e3-9451-46cb-a25b-8245e3f5a3f1> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/justice/criminal-justice/victims-of-crime/human-trafficking/human-trafficking-training/module-1/human-rights | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038071212.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20210413000853-20210413030853-00122.warc.gz | en | 0.921904 | 518 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Animal-inspired robots are often being created to improve the way emergency response teams react to the operations while reducing human risk at dangerous on-site locations. Now, inspired by the way octopus grasp objects, the Army is developing soft-bodied, octopus-esque robots for search and rescue.
(Photo by Doug Lafon, ARL photographer)
Octopuses have dozens to hundreds of flexible suckers on each of their arms. These handy cups can generate substantial amounts of force for grabbing things.
For more than five decades researchers have been trying to create robots with such ability.
A traditional suction grasper uses one vacuum pump as a central suction source, which limits the effectiveness of the technology for grasping if some cups on the grasper do not attach to a given object, creating leak points where air enters at the point of engagement.
Researchers at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center work together with the University of Maryland to create individually activated robotic suckers.
The team modified the technology so a robot could grasp a large range of items by maximizing the strength of the suction. The self-sealing suction cup features a plug that sits nominally in the suction inlet. When the source pump is turned on, the plug of any cup not in contact with an object gets sucked in, sealing itself. This increases the pressure differential and strengthens the suction capability of the cups that are engaged on an object. The design also uses passive reaction forces that cause the cup to activate and open when the lip contacts an object, breaking the seal to initiate suction.
To get the combination of strength and precision, the researchers have been building their prototypes on a multi-material 3D printer, using rigid materials like nylon and a liquid photo polymer that hardens when blasted with ultraviolet light.
(ECBC engineering technician Brad Ruprecht used a multi-material 3D printer to produce suction cup prototypes. | Photo by Doug Lafon, ARL photographer)
"With 3D printing, you're getting a working ensemble of suction cups right off of the machine with the elastomeric and rigid materials together", said Brad Ruprecht from the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center.
The self-sealing suction cup ranges anywhere in size from the palm of a hand to the point of a fingertip. A little test shows that four fingertip cups can just pick up a bottle of wine.
(Photo by Doug Lafon, ARL photographer)
The researchers hope that the suckers could work even better underwater. The extra pressure from the depths of the sea gives more force to utilize for the effectiveness of the cups.
Under-water prototypes will need to use different materials. "If you were to go underwater with it, you probably wouldn't use the same materials. They tend to absorb moisture and degrade faster. You'd want something that is going to hold up to salt water like a thermal plastic." Ruprecht said.
With 3D printing researchers could produce twenty prototypes of varying sizes and shapes within twenty minutes. It allows the researchers to continue with testing out different printed prototypes to find out which ones truly suck.
Though the 3D printer is limited to the materials it was designed to print, Ruprecht said the technology serves the purpose of giving a researcher adequate time to gather large amounts of data from the prototypes.
In the future these robots could be sent into dangerous environments, for example a Fukushima-type disaster, to perform some sort of manipulation activity like closing a valve, recovering an object or operating a tool in a contaminated area.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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- 3D printed Makie dolls approved for use by kids aged 3 and up
- 6 lovely things to 3D print for Valentine's Day | <urn:uuid:6e4f635a-cbdc-4035-9005-bba8397bfe21> | CC-MAIN-2016-22 | http://www.3ders.org/articles/20130222-3d-printed-octopus-inspired-suckers-help-robots-to-the-rescue.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-22/segments/1464049277313.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20160524002117-00015-ip-10-185-217-139.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916365 | 903 | 3.5 | 4 |
English shopping vocabulary to help you shop 'til you drop.
Types of shops in English
department store - a shop that sells many different items in different departments. Harrods is probably the world's best known department store.
supermarket - a large shop that sells mostly food and household items.
grocer (UK) / grocery store (US) - a shop that sells food.
greengrocer - sells fresh fruit and vegetables.
butcher - sells fresh meat.
baker - sells fresh bread and cakes.
fishmonger - sells fresh fish.
chemist (UK) / drugstore (US) - sells medicines and toiletries.
pharmacy (US) - sells medicines.
newsagent - sells newspapers and magazines.
stationer - sells paper goods.
optician - sells glasses / contact lenses.
DIY store - sells things for home improvement.
hardware shop / hardware store / ironmonger - hard goods, such as nails and screws.
corner shop (UK) - a shop on the corner of your street, selling a range of basic goods - food, newspapers, sweets, bread, etc.
delicatessen (deli) - sells specialist food not normally found in supermarkets. For example, an Italian deli, an Asian deli.
bookshop / bookstore - books.
market - market traders (people who work on a market) have stalls that sell fruit and vegetables, clothes, household items and so on.
petshop - for pets and pet food.
flea market - a group of stalls selling old furniture or clothes.
tea shop (UK) - like a cafe, but sells tea and cakes.
petrol station (UK) / gas station (US) sells petrol, car products and sometimes food.
When we talk about shops, we often put an 's on the end. For example, "I'm going to the chemist's / greengrocer's / butcher's / baker's / newsagent's / fishmonger's / optician's."
We don't use an 's with these shops: supermarket, hardware store, petrol station, department store.
Shopping vocabulary - "In the Sales"
Here's some useful shopping vocabulary for finding a bargain in the sales.
December 26 (or Boxing Day) is traditionally the start of the winter sales in the UK, when items are heavily discounted. In fact, bargain hunters can find some items reduced up to 50% off their pre-sale price.
An unbeatable offer / prices slashed (= cut) or give-away prices mean very low prices.
Clearance Sale / Everything must go! = signs in shop windows advertising the sales
snap up a bargain = to buy something cheaply
Asking for things in shops
"Do you have any...?"
"I'm looking for..."
"I wonder if you could help me...?"
What the shopkeeper says
"I'm sorry, we're out of stock."
"I'm sorry, that's the last one."
"I'm sorry, that's all we have left."
What a sales person says
"Can I help you?"
"Are you looking for anything in particular?"
"I'm just looking, thank you."
"I'm just browsing, thank you."
Asking about things in shops
"Do you have this in another size?"
"Do you have this in another colour?"
"Is this made of leather / silk / plastic...?"
"Does this come with a guarantee?"
"Is this fully refundable?"
"Can I bring this back if it's not the right size?"
"Can I bring this back if it doesn't fit?"
Paying - what the shopkeeper says
"Do you have anything smaller?" (If you pay with a large denomination note.)
Paying - what you say
"I'm sorry, I don't have any small change."
"I don't have anything smaller."
"Would you have change for this?"
"Can I have the receipt, please?'
"Can I pay by credit card?"
"Can I pay in cash?"
"Is this on sale?"
Shopping Phrases Quiz
Level: Elementary and higher
- It's impolite to say ''I want'' in English to someone you don't know. You can make it more polite by saying ''I'd like''. The expression ''I'm just looking thanks'' means you are browsing and don't need help at the moment.
- Try on = put on the item of clothing.
- That looks great on you = It really suits you and you look wonderful! (The last one in stock = we don't have any more left.)
- A cashier is the person who takes your payment.
- A guarantee means you can bring the item back if it doesn't work. You usually get a guarantee for one or two years. (A refund is when you get your money back.)
- The receipt (pronounced ''receet'') is the piece of paper you get when you buy something with the details of the price and time you bought it.
- A refund is when they give you the money back. (An upgrade is on an aeroplane when you get a better seat.)
- On sale = at a reduced price for a particular length of time.
- We pay ''by credit card'' or ''in cash'' (not ''coins'').
More help with shopping vocabulary and phrases
Here are some useful speaking exercises to help you when you go shopping. You can listen to the conversation, record your sentences, then compare your recording with the original. | <urn:uuid:932bf068-5e45-4779-a407-e60db841aefe> | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | https://www.english-at-home.com/business/shopping-vocabulary/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583722261.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20190120143527-20190120165527-00012.warc.gz | en | 0.936488 | 1,186 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Native to the topics, but grown in North America as an ornamental plant or as a crop for castor oil.
Ricin (highly toxic)
Access to ornamental plants or pruned foliage most common in poisonings. Ricin is a highly toxic component that inhibits protein synthesis; ingestion of as little as one ounce of seeds can be lethal. Signs typically develop 12 to 48 hours after ingestion, and include loss of appetite, excessive thirst, weakness, colic, trembling, sweating, loss of coordination, difficulty breathing, progressive central nervous system depression, and fever. As syndrome progresses, bloody diarrhea may occur, and convulsions and coma can precede death.
Toxic to Dogs
Toxic to Cats
Toxic to Horses | <urn:uuid:cef72975-9a9e-4568-8988-e667d2905d63> | CC-MAIN-2014-23 | http://www.aspca.org/print/pet-care/animal-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants/mole-bean-plant | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1404776435439.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20140707234035-00026-ip-10-180-212-248.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.851141 | 152 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Big Bass on the Border
Falcon is so hot, anglers can follow the smoke to the lake.
By Larry D. Hodge
A constant struggle takes place along the Texas-Mexico border, with millions of dollars at stake.
It’s a classic example of yin and yang, the dynamic interaction between seemingly opposite forces that are, in fact, interconnected and interdependent, one giving rise to the other. It’s not so much a struggle to win as a complicated dance of coexistence, a performance of life.
Falcon International Reservoir is the stage.
The anglers zooming around the lake armed with stout fishing rods spooled with strong line are more than just the audience for this performance. They are also part of the cast.
They are here to do battle with fish.
Big, big bass.
Jason Brudnicki caught ShareLunker No. 525 in December 2011 at Falcon.
“This reservoir is considered to be the top trophy lake in the country right now by many people,” says Randy Myers, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department fisheries biologist in charge of managing the lake’s fishery. “A lot of that is due to where it’s located here in deep South Texas, where there is a long growing season.”
Most people assume fish simply live in water, and to an extent that’s true. But on another level water is just the substance from which fish draw oxygen. Fish use what is suspended in and surrounded by water to reproduce, feed and grow. It’s called habitat, and the forces of yin and yang produce Falcon’s habitat in an interaction between wet and dry.
South Texas is often called the Brush Country, and for good reason. Rainfall is insufficient to support trees except near water. But nature’s selective hand, operating over millennia, has sifted out a variety of plants superbly equipped to endure the dry and flourish in the wet — or what passes for wet in this arid land. Those plants are here because they are survivors, and they don’t let a little thing like reservoir levels that fluctuate up to 50 feet over a year’s time defeat them.
When Falcon’s water level falls, plants go on the march, following the retreating water line. You can see the evidence all around the shore: bigger, older brush higher up, smaller, younger brush near water’s edge, tops of brush (sometimes still with green leaves) emerging from the water far from shore.
Those brush tops attract anglers buzzing around the lake the same way flowers draw bees. But the brush is more than an aiming point for a cast. It’s the secret to why the anglers are here in the first place.
“This reservoir is like a lot of other South Texas reservoirs in that the water level is highly dependent on rainfall,” Myers says. “When we have a drought, Falcon goes down quite a bit. The water level is also highly dependent on irrigation needs downstream. The soil here is pretty productive, and when the water level stays down long enough, the brush grows up.
“When the water level comes up again, it floods all that brush, and you have all this inundated woody habitat,” Myers explains. “It’s thick and provides good cover for the fish, especially young fish that need a place to hide from bigger fish to avoid being eaten. Decaying vegetation releases nutrients into the water, and the lake becomes very productive. The forage base grows, which feeds the predator species. You get a boom-bust fishing cycle because of these dynamic water levels.”
Native Texas northern largemouth bass developed in rivers and streams, and not so long ago, a 5-pound bass would have given an angler bragging rights for a lifetime. Today a 5-pounder isn’t a decent picture fish for most anglers (unless they have really long arms and the photographer has a wide-angle lens).
The importation of Florida largemouth bass into Texas in the 1970s, coupled with new angler attitudes that changed bass fishing from catch-and-eat to catch-and-release, transformed recreational fishing in Texas.
Florida largemouth bass, which can grow to nearly twice the size of northern largemouths, gave fisheries biologists a tool to turn reservoirs built for flood control and water supply into cash cows. Freshwater fishing in Texas generates an estimated $2.38 billion in direct expenditures annually, and most of that comes from bass fishing. Reservoirs became the modern equivalent of the philosopher’s stone, transforming Micropterus salmoides floridanus into treasure.
The money is in the DNA of Florida largemouths, and TPWD fisheries biologists use those genes to maximize the potential of fisheries like Falcon. Impounded in 1954, Falcon has been stocked with 3.7 million Florida largemouth bass since 1975. Some 35,000 of those were the offspring of ShareLunkers, largemouths weighing more than 13 pounds used in TPWD’s spawning program.
Genetic input from those stockings provides the natural spawns that take place in the lake, the building blocks for a bass fishery like few others.
In 2004, the Texas seesaw between dry and wet shifted in favor of wet.
“After years of low water levels during which brush and other vegetation grew up in the dry lake bottom, Falcon rose in 2004 and completely filled in 2008 and again in 2010,” Myers says. “There were tremendous natural spawns in 2004 and 2005.”
Randy Brudnicki caught this bass weighing 9 pounds 13 ounces in April 2012.
Falcon enjoyed high water levels again during the spring 2011 spawning season.
It takes a bass in most Texas reservoirs eight to 10 years to reach 13 pounds, the magic number at which fish become eligible to be entered into the Toyota ShareLunker program. Because summer seemingly lasts nearly the entire year in South Texas, bass in Falcon have been known to cross the 13-pound threshold in seven years.
Do the math. 2004 + 7 = 2011.
Jan. 31, 2011: Ky Martin of Grandview catches Toyota ShareLunker No. 510, 13.22 pounds. A 13.84-pounder in mid-February is followed by a four-fish outburst in nine days in March.
Falcon is so hot, anglers can follow the smoke to the lake.
The number of double-digit and near-double-digit bass being caught on Falcon is unknown, but its reputation for producing big bass eclipses every other lake in the nation.
That reputation drew Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine Publisher Randy Brudnicki and his sons Dustin and Jason to Falcon in late December 2011. They were on a mission: to catch a Toyota ShareLunker.
Cold fronts do make it as far south as Falcon on occasion, and for the first two days of their trip a north wind kept them from fishing where they wanted to. Then the south wind returned.
“I knew to look for places where the south wind would blow in to points,” says Randy Brudnicki.
On their last day they put in at the county ramp in Zapata and wound up fishing a ledge near the city’s water intake structure. The ledge slopes down into the water, and brush grew along it during one of the lake’s low-water times.
Jason Brudnicki was throwing a crankbait (given to him as a Christmas present by Dustin) when a fish hit it just as he was ending his retrieve. Seconds later, three stunned anglers were looking at the biggest bass any of them had ever seen, much less caught.
So they did what anglers in that situation do.
They put it in the livewell and went back to fishing, hoping to catch another one.
A few casts later, Jason caught another big fish, and they decided to weigh the two. The smaller fish was 8 pounds, but the big fish bottomed out their scale. A trip into town to a certified scale showed it to weigh 13.36 pounds.
ShareLunker No. 525 had been caught. Mission accomplished.
Now they had to keep the fish alive until a TPWD truck could arrive from the A.E. Wood Fish Hatchery in San Marcos — a five-hour drive — to pick up the fish. Battling engine trouble and losing battery power to run their livewell pump and aeration system, they stayed on the water all afternoon, finally turning the fish over about 7 p.m.
After that experience, Randy Brudnicki was itching for a chance to try to catch his own ShareLunker. Little more than a month later, I joined him on Falcon to see if good luck would come his way.
“This time of year, the fish are moving back to areas where they might start spawning,” Brudnicki says. “I like to fish areas where there are rocks and brush together. I’ll do some exploring by throwing some lipless and diving crankbaits to cover some water. If I find fish, I’ll slow down and fish with plastics.”
Brush and rocks are the keys to fishing Falcon as well as a source of income for tackle shop owners.
“They say if you’re not losing baits, you’re not fishing the right places,” Brudnicki says.
It’s a down day for tackle shop owners. Brudnicki apparently doesn’t fish the right places and doesn’t lose any baits. He doesn’t catch the ShareLunker he’s looking for, either. His best fish of the day is 6 pounds or so, a fish that would have made the front page of newspapers 30 years ago but that took all Brudnicki’s arm length and my camera lens zoomed to its widest angle to make it worthy of a picture that day.
In a follow-up trip with his sons and son-in-law, Brudnicki and the boys hit it just right and caught numerous 8- to 10-pound bass, but they still are chasing that second ShareLunker.
Randy Brudnicki caught this 6-pound bass in January 2012.
Dustin Brudnicki slammed these 8- and 9-pound-plus bass in April 2012.
Gary Wingate of Amarillo did better on March 16. Whether he lost any lures that day is not known, but he did catch the largest ShareLunker of the season, a 14.39-pound fish that ate a plastic worm in 12 feet of water.
And that catch begins the next chapter in the Falcon saga.
DNA testing showed the fish to be pure Florida and therefore eligible to be spawned in the ShareLunker program. Just 13 days later, Wingate’s fish — Toyota ShareLunker No. 531 — produced a huge spawn of 42,157 eggs. On April 4 it spawned again, 29,263 eggs.
Fingerlings from those spawns will be mixed with those from other spawns and stocked into each of the lakes that produced ShareLunker entries during the 2011-12 season.
“We feel that this breeding process results in the best possible genetics being returned to the lakes, and we hope to increase the chance of more trophy bass being produced in the future,” explains Allen Forshage, director of the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center.
“Although these big females have no doubt spawned in years before they were caught, they did not necessarily mate with a pure Florida male. Everything we know about genetics tells us that the parents with the best genes produce the highest quality offspring. This is the scientific basis of our breeding program.”
TPWD biologists conduct trap netting surveys on Falcon Lake.
Forshage also notes that the main purpose of stocking ShareLunker fingerlings is not to produce trophy fish for anglers to catch.
“The reason we stock these fish, and the reason we want to use only pure Florida largemouth bass in the selective breeding program, is that we know Floridas grow bigger and faster than native northern largemouths,” he says. “By stocking pure Florida fingerlings from trophy fish, we will have a greater impact on the genetics of the overall largemouth population in the lake. In addition, since fingerlings from different parents are mixed before being stocked, these stockings help to promote genetic diversity.”
The Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center also uses some of the ShareLunker offspring to produce broodfish for TPWD’s regular largemouth bass stocking program, which annually stocks millions of fish into Texas public waters.
“In this way we are introducing ShareLunker genetics into the general largemouth bass population,” Forshage says.
There is money in those Florida genes. And you can take that to the bank – on your way to Falcon.
The sun sets on a great trip to Falcon.
Read the story about catching a Toyota ShareLunker and other ShareLunker information in the Texas Fishing 2012 digital magazine. | <urn:uuid:4d468cc2-42b5-4be6-8d71-6b9b7bbba9e5> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://tpwmagazine.com/archive/2012/aug/ed_3_falcon/index.phtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246644200.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045724-00182-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955465 | 2,757 | 2.6875 | 3 |
India recognizes transgender citizens as ‘third gender’
According to the court decision, state and federal governments will now allow transgenders to identify themselves on official documents, such as birth certificates, passports and driving licenses, as a third gender along with males and females. Any person who has undergone surgery to change his or her sex will be recognized as belonging to the gender of their choice said the court, adding that transgender people would have the same right to adopt children as other Indians.
"The spirit of the (Indian) Constitution is to provide equal opportunity to every citizen to grow and attain their potential, irrespective of caste, religion or gender," the court said in its decision.
“Recognition of transgenders as a third gender is not a social or medical issue but a human rights issue," said Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan, who headed a two-judge bench on the case.
Transgenders will also be included in welfare schemes offered to other minority groups, and the government will provide public sector jobs, places in schools and colleges and medical care for them, said Sanjeev Bhatnagar, a lawyer representing the petition.
The Supreme Court’s decision comes after representatives of the transgender community in India sent a petition in 2012 to the court, demanding recognition for the transgender population as well as equal rights with other Indian citizens.
According to India’s prominent transgender rights activist, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, the court decision is a step towards ending discrimination against transgender people.
"Today I feel a proud citizen of India. This verdict has come as a great relief for all of us," said Tripathi who, along with a legal agency, filed the petition, "Today my sisters and I feel like real Indians and we feel so proud because of the rights granted to us by the Supreme Court."
India's Election Commission has already introduced a law allowing a third gender choice — "other" — on voter registration forms, which was made before the national elections being held in phases through May 12.
Third gender politics worldwide
India’s transgender community, numbering hundreds of thousands people, wasn’t officially recognized by the authorities until Tuesday’s court ruling.
Sanjay Srivastava, professor of sociology at the Institute of Economic Growth in New Delhi, defines transgender people as those who have either had sex change operations, or who regard themselves as the opposite of their born gender.
Transgenders and eunuchs or hijras - cross-dressers and castrated men - didn’t identify with the gender stated on their birth certificate and often had no access to jobs or education. Traditional Hindu culture often sees them as inauspicious and even cursed, which is why they are ostracized, discriminated against, abused and often have to beg or take up prostitution to survive.
The ruling of the Supreme Court says the law only applies to transgender people and not to gays, lesbians or bisexuals. In December 2013, the Indian Supreme Court upheld a ban on decriminalizing homosexual sex.
India is not the first Asian country which officially recognizes a third gender. Nepal's 2011 census was the first national census in the world to allow people to register as a gender other than male or female.
In Thailand and Cambodia, these are sometimes referred to as kathoey or ladyboys, who are basically males that dress and behave like women.
In November, 2013 Germany became the first European country to allow parents of babies born with no clearly-defined gender characteristics to leave the ‘male/female’ field on birth certificates blank, creating a ‘third sex’ category in the public register.
As adults, German intersex individuals will soon be spared the necessity to conform to the conventional gender framework, as the current two options of entering either ‘M’ for male or ‘F’ for female in passport gender fields, will be officially supplemented by a third option: ‘X’.
This kind of three-gender-choice system was introduced in Australia in 2011. New Zealand followed suit in 2012. | <urn:uuid:bf92b75d-00e0-48ae-a457-51c7585ea543> | CC-MAIN-2018-17 | https://www.rt.com/news/india-court-third-gender-636/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125946578.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20180424080851-20180424100851-00347.warc.gz | en | 0.966615 | 844 | 2.609375 | 3 |
The Information Society
Information Society is a term for a society in which the creation, distribution, and manipulation of information has become the most significant economic and cultural activity. An Information Society may be contrasted with societies in which the economic underpinning is primarily Industrial or Agrarian. The machine tools of the Information Society are computers and telecommunications, rather than lathes or ploughs.
Progress in information technologies and communication is changing the way we live: how we work and do business, how we educate our children, study and do research, train ourselves, and how we are entertained. The information society is not only affecting the way people interact but it is also requiring the traditional organisational structures to be more flexible, more participatory and more decentralised. (Chair's conclusions from the G-7 Ministerial Conference on the Information Society, February 1995.)
The idea of a global Information Society can be viewed in relation to Marshall McLuhan's prediction that the communications media would transform the world into a "global village. | <urn:uuid:82cdcd4f-6d59-4d1b-ba27-46517a47d861> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | http://www.elitemv.com/2019/09/the-information-society.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764499695.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20230128220716-20230129010716-00195.warc.gz | en | 0.913088 | 205 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Editor’s note: This update supplants the 2009 practice brief “Redisclosure of Patient Health Information.”
Redisclosure is the act of sharing or releasing health information that was received from another source (e.g., external facility or provider) and made part of a patient’s health record or the organization’s designated record set. A designated record set is a group of records maintained by or for a covered entity that is “used, in whole or in part, by or for the covered entity to make decisions about individuals.”1
It is critical that organizations determine their responsibilities and processes for classifying and managing records received from other sources. Identifying records as part of the designated record set will determine how an organization should redisclose them.
This article offers guidance for the practice and management of the bidirectional redisclosure of protected health information. It is applicable regardless of the form or medium of health information.
Receipt of Outside Health Information
A healthcare provider’s records may contain patient information that originated from another healthcare provider. For example, copies of selected reports are often sent by an attending physician to the hospital where a patient is admitted. Similarly, reports compiled during the patient’s hospitalization are sent to the attending physician to assist in continued patient care. Information received from a previous provider is often incorporated into the patient’s health record at the receiving facility.
Although redisclosure of protected health information (PHI) is necessary for patient care across the healthcare continuum, the practice often leads to questions about the appropriateness of disclosing information that originated in or at another healthcare facility. However, the HIPAA Privacy Rule does not expressly prohibit covered entities from specifically redisclosing information received from other facilities. When information received from other facilities is used in whole or in part to make treatment decisions about a patient and made part of the facility’s designated record set, it may be subject to redisclosure in accordance with applicable state and federal laws. Alcohol and substance abuse confidentiality (42 CFR Part 2) which expressly prohibit redisclosure of information without the consent of the individual it pertains and redisclosures, if any must include probation statement.
Federal and State Laws
Organizations must understand their redisclosure responsibilities under all relevant federal and state laws. Most states permit redisclosure of health information if the request for information does not conflict with authorized purposes for which the information is sought. Check your state laws for any redisclosure statute.
Requirements for the proper redisclosure of health information created by another provider and made part of the organization’s designated record set may exist at both the federal and state levels.
Substance Abuse Patient Records
The Confidentiality of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Patient Records regulations apply to records of the identity, diagnosis, prognosis, or treatment of patients maintained in connection with the performance of drug abuse prevention functions conducted, regulated, or directly or indirectly assisted by any department or agency of the US government. The rules generally prohibit redisclosure of health information. In fact, the rules require that a notice accompany each disclosure made with a patient’s written consent. The notice must state:
The information has been disclosed to you from records protected by federal confidentiality rules (42 CFR Part 2). The federal rules prohibit you from making any further disclosure of this information unless further disclosure is expressly permitted by the written consent of the person to whom it pertains or as otherwise permitted by 42 CFR Part 2. A general authorization for the release of medical or other information is not sufficient for this purpose. The federal rules restrict any use of the information to criminally investigate or prosecute any alcohol or drug abuse patient.
The regulations do not prohibit redisclosure:
- To medical personnel to the extent necessary to address a genuine medical emergency.
- If authorized by an appropriate court order of competent jurisdiction granted after an application showing good cause. However, the court is expected to impose appropriate safeguards against unauthorized disclosure.
The following situations illustrate the difficult decisions facilities face in redisclosing information.
Question: Can we redisclose behavioral health records received from another healthcare provider to a new healthcare provider treating the patient?
Answer: Yes, with certain exceptions. There may be state preemption issues for behavioral health, alcohol/drug abuse, or other restricted health information, which must be taken into consideration. The Confidentiality of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Patient Records rules, which apply to records of the identity, diagnosis, prognosis, or treatment of patients maintained in connection with the performance of drug abuse prevention functions conducted, regulated, or directly or indirectly assisted by any department or agency of the US government, generally prohibit redisclosure of health information.
Question: A patient has authorized that we disclose all of his health records relating to his recent treatment in our alcoholic rehabilitation center. We have received records from the patient’s previous encounters. Can we redisclose these records along with our records?
Answer: No. The patient should be referred back to the healthcare provider that originated the health records unless any part of the record was used in providing treatment or making a decision about the patient because then it becomes a part of the facility’s DRS..
Question: We are a nonprofit community-based care facility reliant on our state Medical Assistance program to sustain our services. The Medical Assistance program requires health records to determine eligibility, including health records obtained from other healthcare providers. Can we redisclose this information for purposes of eligibility and payment?
Answer: Yes, if the records are not protected by or fall under the Confidentiality of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Patient Records rules. Records disclosed should be limited to the minimum necessary need to carry out the function.
Question: When a parent requests a copy of her child’s health records for transfer of care, we have always provided the information that we have created within our practice. Recently a parent requested copies of the health records she brought with her for her daughter’s first visit. Upon receipt of these records, we filed them on the patient’s chart. Can we provide the mother with these records as well as the ones we created?
Answer: Yes, if the records were made a part of the child’s designated record set, they may be disclosed upon authorization.
Subpoenas: Two Case Examples
Court orders must be followed to the letter of the law, but subpoenas may not be quite as clear. The following two scenarios illustrate situations in which providers receive subpoenas that may involve redisclosure.
Pursuant to a Subpoena
A patient with degenerative disc disease is under the care of a pain management specialist. The patient’s pain is becoming increasingly difficult to manage, so the pain management specialist orders x-rays and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It is discovered that the patient has worsening spinal stenosis. The pain management specialist refers the patient to an orthopedic surgeon and sends the x-rays and the MRI along with the patient. Upon reviewing the x-rays and MRI, the surgeon determines surgery is necessary. The surgeon also decides that redoing the x-rays and MRI is not necessary. These results become part of the surgeon’s health record, supporting his decision to perform the surgery.
Months later the surgeon receives a subpoena requesting the patient’s health record. In response to the subpoena, the surgeon includes the x-ray and MRI reports received from the pain management specialist, as he used the reports to further diagnose and treat the patient and incorporated them into the health record. This type of redisclosure of PHI is appropriate.
Patient Transfer and Subsequent Subpoena
While out of town visiting relatives, a patient is involved in a car accident. She is taken to a local hospital and treated for injuries. Because the patient is unknown to the local doctors and her injuries are extensive, she receives a complete evaluation. Once stabilized, the patient wishes to be transferred to a local rehabilitation hospital to recover from her injuries.
The hospital that provided her with her primary care sends along a copy of the patient’s entire health record when transferring her to the rehabilitation hospital. In addition, the rehabilitation hospital asks the patient to authorize her family physician to provide information on her past and current healthcare. The family physician opts to send the entire health record. Upon receiving both health records, staff members at the rehabilitation hospital choose to use only select information from the two health records in providing rehabilitation treatment to the patient. The remaining information is kept on file in the health record but is never used by the rehabilitation hospital to treat the patient.
A lawsuit is filed against the other driver in the car accident. The rehabilitation hospital receives a subpoena to release the health record. In responding to the subpoena, the rehabilitation hospital chooses to disclose only the information within the transferred records that was actually used to treat the patient. Because the patient is attempting to prove that her injuries were the result of the accident and not a preexisting condition, records from the primary care hospital and family physician are also subpoenaed.
In this situation, it is appropriate for the rehabilitation hospital to redisclose only the information that was actually used to treat the patient as defined by the organization’s definition of the legal health record. However, it should be noted that circumstances could exist that would require the rehabilitation hospital to redisclose all the records received from the transferring hospital and family physician. If the facility maintained the outside records then they could be asked to produce them. Many facilities do not keep “all” of the outside records they receive if they are not used for patient care. Therefore they would not be able to produce them for a subpeona. Generally they are sorted and only pertinent records maintained.
HIPAA Privacy Rule
The HIPAA privacy rule defines health information as any information, whether oral or recorded, in any form or medium, that:
- Is created or received by a healthcare provider, health plan, public health authority, employer, life insurer, school or university, or healthcare clearinghouse
- Relates to the past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition of an individual; the provision of healthcare to an individual; or the past, present, or future payment for the provision of healthcare to an individual
The rule states that a valid authorization must include a statement that information used or disclosed pursuant to an authorization may be subject to redisclosure by the recipient and no longer protected by the rule.
The privacy rule’s minimum necessary requirements should be followed as applicable to the circumstances of redisclosed personal health information.
The Department of Health and Human Services issued these responses to two frequently asked HIPAA questions on redisclosure:
Question: Does the Privacy Rule permit a covered entity to use or disclose protected health information pursuant to an Authorization form that was prepared by a third party?
Answer: Yes. A covered entity is permitted to use or disclose protected health information pursuant to any Authorization that meets the Privacy Rule’s requirements at 45 CFR 164.508. The Privacy Rule requires that an Authorization contain certain core elements and statements, but does not specify who may draft an authorization (i.e., it could be drafted by any entity) or dictate any particular format for an Authorization. Thus, a covered entity may disclose protected health information as specified in a valid Authorization that has been created by another covered entity or a third party, such as an insurance company or researcher.3
Question: A provider might have a patient’s health record that contains older portions of a health record that were created by another or previous provider. Will the HIPAA Privacy Rule permit a provider who is a covered entity to disclose a complete health record even though portions of the record were created by other providers?
Answer: Yes, the Privacy Rule permits a provider who is a covered entity to disclose a complete health record, including portions that were created by another provider, assuming that the disclosure is for a purpose permitted by the Privacy Rule, such as treatment.4
Individual states may have their own laws or regulations relative to redisclosure for all or some particularly sensitive types of health information. State law may preempt HIPAA when the state law provides stricter confidentiality protections or provides patients with greater right of access to their health information.
Organizations should consider the following recommendations when determining their policies and practices around redisclosure:
- Unless otherwise required by state law, incorporate in the facility’s designated record set the health information generated by other healthcare providers that was used in making treatment decisions.
- Become knowledgeable about and implement organizational compliance with federal and state laws and regulations that address redisclosure. Any redisclosure must comply with federal and state laws and regulations.
- Consult with legal counsel when federal and state redisclosure requirements differ and it is unclear which should prevail.
- Develop facility policies and procedures that address redisclosure. Include the requirement that prior to disclosure, the disclosing staff member verify the authority of the person to receive the information.
- Modify existing authorization forms to incorporate required language in the HIPAA privacy rule.
- In general, healthcare providers should redisclose PHI:
- To other healthcare providers when it is necessary to ensure the health and safety of the patient.
- When necessary to comply with Medicare and or Medicaid right of subrogation under third party liability claims for treatment provided to beneficiaries paid for by Medicare and or Medicaid. For Medicaid beneficiaries please check your state laws
- To patients when necessary.
- When necessary to comply with a valid authorization.
- When necessary to comply with a legal process.
- Ask legal counsel to review draft policies and procedures prior to implementation.
- Educate staff on new or revised policies and procedures.
- Implement policies and procedures and monitor compliance.
- When in doubt about a potential redisclosure, consult legal counsel.
- When asked to certify or testify about the authenticity of redisclosed health information, state that the information was received from another healthcare facility’s health record through normal business practices, your facility received the information in good faith, and that you cannot knowledgeably speak about the record-keeping practices of the originating organization.
- Modify existing certification forms when indicated.
The following practice briefs offer related guidance on redisclosure. They are available online in the AHIMA FORE Library: HIM Body of Knowledge at www.ahima.org.
- “Defining the Designated Record Set”
- “Notice of Privacy Practices”
- “Patient Access and Amendment to Health Records”
- “Understanding the Minimum Necessary Standard”
- HIPAA. 45 CFR § 164.501 – Designated Record Set. Available online at http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/administrative/combined/index.html
- Department of Health and Human Services. “Authorization Use and Disclosure.” August 8, 2005. Available online at www.hhs.gov/hipaafaq/use/472.html.
- US Department of Health and Human Services. “HIPAA—Frequent Questions.” Available online at www.hhs.gov/hipaafaq/providers/smaller/214.html.
- 42 U.S.C.A. § 1395y Medicare & Medicaid Secondary Payers program
- Hughes, Gwen. “Defining the Designated Record Set.” Journal of AHIMA 74, no. 1 (Jan. 2003): 64A–D.
Public Health Service, Department of Health and Human Services. “Confidentiality of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Patient Records.” Code of Federal Regulations, 2000. 42 CFR, Chapter I, Part 2.
“Standards for the Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information; Final Rule.” 45 CFR Parts 160 through 164. Federal Register Vol 78, no. 17 (January 25, 2013).
“Standards for the Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information; Final Rule.” 45 CFR Parts 160 through 164. Federal Register 65, no. 250 (December 28, 2000). Available online at http://aspe.hhs.gov/search/admnsimp/FINAL/pvcguide1.htm.
“Standards for the Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information; Final Rule.” 45 CFR Parts 160 through 164. Federal Register 67, no. 157 (August 14, 2002). Available online at www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fedreg/a020814c.html.
“Modifications to the HIPAA Privacy, Security, Enforcement, and Breach Notification Rules Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act; Other Modifications to the HIPAA Rules; Final Rule.” 45 CFR Parts 160 and 164. Federal Register 78, no.17 (January 25, 2013)
Kathy Downing, MA, RHIA, CHPS, PMP
Godwin Odia, PhD, NHA, RHIA| CAPT,
Maxwell Agyei, RHIA
Marlisa Coloso, RHIA, CCS
Nancy Davis, MS, RHIA
Julie Dooling, RHIA
Beth Hjort, RHIA, CHPS
Chrisann Lemery, MS, RHIA
Leslie Kedlec, MA, RHIA
Brenda Olson, MEd, CHP, RHIA
Yvonne Pennell, MA, RHIA
Angela Dinh Rose, MHA, RHIA, CHPS
Andrea Thomas-Lloyd, MBA, RHIA, CHPS
Diana Warner, MS, RHIA, CHPS, FAHIMA
LaVonne Wieland, RHIA, CHP
Original Prepared By:
Jill Clark, MBA, RHIA
Angela Dinh Rose , MHA, RHIA
AHIMA Practice Brief. "Redisclosure of Patient Health Information (2013 update)"
(Updated November 2013) | <urn:uuid:535280f6-00ef-481f-b4dd-59d8b9369ee6> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | http://library.ahima.org/doc?oid=300263 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187821017.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20171017091309-20171017111309-00277.warc.gz | en | 0.926454 | 3,747 | 2.53125 | 3 |
The fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE represents the nexus (or crossroad) of all of history, Western Civilization in particular. Before the fall, the Jews and descendants of Abraham were partakers of a National Covenant with God Almighty. In Jeremiah chapter 11 they were warned that calamity would overtake them if they did not repent. But they did not repent and Jerusalem finally fell in 586 BC in Jeremiah chapter 52 .
What if they had repented and turned back to God? History might have looked very different. God was able to deliver the children of Israel from the Pharaoh of Egypt in the time of the Exodus. He performed mighty acts that today we call miracles. The ten plagues, parting of the red sea, manna from heaven, water from the rock, defeat of Jericho , etc.
It is not hard to project the outcome of history for a people who were in a covenant relationship with God Almighty. Nebuchadnezzar would not have taken Jerusalem. In fact, it is entirely plausible to think that, with God’s help he would have been routed and finally defeated, thus expanding the territory of Israel to the Mesopotamian region. Then the other great power would have been defeated, Egypt. Finally, we would not see the rest of history that has unfolded–no Persians would have defeated Babylon, no Alexander the Great would have defeated the Persians, no Roman Empire would have defeated the Greeks, and so on.
Western Civilization today would be Jewish in culture, and temple worship to God Almighty would continue until the coming of the messiah. | <urn:uuid:064b1aa9-bbc4-408b-9210-079d3962ab47> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | https://jeremiah3131.net/the-fall-of-jerusalem-586-bce/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027312128.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20190817102624-20190817124624-00381.warc.gz | en | 0.98405 | 322 | 3.234375 | 3 |
A History of Early Childhood Education in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand
By: Larry Prochner (author)Hardback
1 - 2 weeks availability
In the early nineteenth century, governments introduced kindergartens and infant schools to give children a head start in life. These programs hinged on new visions of childhood that origin-ated in England and Europe, but what happened when they were exported to the colonies? This book unwinds the tangled threads of this history, from early infant schools in England to three Commonwealth countries - Canada, Australia, and New Zealand - where systems of educating young children were transplanted but adapted to suit local ideas, politics, and populations. This unique, comparative approach to the history of early childhood education provides fresh insight into how to reconcile educational theory and practice in an increasingly global world.
Larry Prochner is a professor of early childhood education at the University of Alberta.
Acknowledgments 1 Childhood and Education 2 Infant Schools in Britain 3 Infant Schools in the Case-Study Countries 4 Childcare and Daycare 5 Kindergarten from Germany to England and America 6 Kindergarten in the Case-Study Countries 7 Winnipeg Free Kindergarten Association 8 Kindergarten Union of New South Wales 9 Wellington Free Kindergarten Association 10 Conclusion: Change and Continuity Notes; Selected Bibliography; Index
Number Of Pages:
- ID: 9780774816595
- Saver Delivery: Yes
- 1st Class Delivery: Yes
- Courier Delivery: Yes
- Store Delivery: Yes
Prices are for internet purchases only. Prices and availability in WHSmith Stores may vary significantly
© Copyright 2013 - 2017 WHSmith and its suppliers.
WHSmith High Street Limited Greenbridge Road, Swindon, Wiltshire, United Kingdom, SN3 3LD, VAT GB238 5548 36 | <urn:uuid:014823c9-794a-4a9c-8354-80f8155f0b5e> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | https://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/a-history-of-early-childhood-education-in-canada-australia-and-new-zealand/9780774816595 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501170708.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104610-00441-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.865698 | 375 | 2.84375 | 3 |
06/30/11 Portland, Ore.
Joe Gray, PhD, Associate Director for translational research for the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, and Paul Spellman, PhD, of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory discuss findings
Discovery underscores how understanding the abnormalities that develop in the beginning stages of cancer can identify the root causes of the disease.
The study’s findings, which are published in the July edition of Cancer Discovery, are the result of a collaboration of scientists at the Oregon Health & Science University Knight Cancer Institute; the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of California, San Francisco; and the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology.
The researchers focused on assessing mutations involving TP53, a gene that normally prevents cells from becoming cancerous. By examining how additional copies of the mutant gene accumulated, they found that changes in TP53 occurred earlier in the disease’s progression than previously believed.
Cancers are the result of multiple mutations, but the ones that happen first set the stage for additional abnormalities.
- The full OHSU media release is available online | <urn:uuid:cdfdc650-9868-443e-a5da-6f0e8cc1c8c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/education/schools/school-of-medicine/about/school-of-medicine-news/research-news/order-of-mutations-63011.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.899171 | 218 | 2.546875 | 3 |
|Aphaenogaster gamagumayaa |
Naka & Maruyama, 2018
Aphaenogaster gamagumayaa sp. nov., a new troglobiotic (true cave-dwelling) ant species, from a limestone cave on the island of Okinawa (Okinawa-jima), Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan is described. This is the first discovery of a troglobiotic ant in Japan and the second verified record worldwide. This species has only been found in a cave area with heavy guano deposits, and some worker ants were observed carrying guano. The evidence for categorizing this new species as troglobiont is discussed.
Keywords: Hymenoptera, cave-dwelling species, guano, island, limestone cave, Myrmicinae, Okinawa-jima, Ryukyu Archipelago, troglobiont.
|FIGURES 1–4. holotype worker of Aphaenogaster gamagumayaa sp. nov. 1) whole body in lateral view; 2) head; 3) head capsule; 4) mesosoma and fore segments of abdomen. Scales= 1.0 mm.|
|FIGURES 5–8. habitat photos of Aphaenogaster gamagumayaa sp. nov.5) guano hall where the type series found; 6) the nest entrance; 7) two workers walking together; 8) worker carrying a guano ball.|
Aphaenogaster gamagumayaa Naka & Maruyama, sp. nov.
Diagnosis. This species is distinguished from the other East Asian species by having the most elongate body, the longest antennae and legs, and the most reduced eyes. Among the Japanese species, it is most similar to A. irrigua Watanabe & Yamane, 1999 described from Ryukyu Archipelago. It differs from A. irrigua in lighter color, smaller eyes (EL 0.19 x TmL vs. 0.38 x TmL), basal margin of mandible with weaker serration, and scapes more elongate and slim (SL 2.28 x HW vs. 1.53 x HW).
Etymology. The specific epithet is a Ryukyuan dialect “gamagumayaa” (= cave-dwelling hermit), referring to the habitat of the new species.
Biological notes. The type series of Aphaenogaster gamagumayaa is based on workers probably from a single nest, collected in a limestone cave on the island of Okinawa. All specimens were found in a guano hall (Fig. 5), an area of approximately 25 m2 (2–3 m in height), approximately 20 m from the cave entrance. The hall is completely dark, and during the study period (August to October 2017), it was consistently cooler (< 25°C during the day) than the exterior of the cave (28–32°C). The cave contains no pools or streams but is generally wet, and the substrate is clay soil.
Takeru Naka and Munetoshi Maruyama. 2018. Aphaenogaster gamagumayaa sp. nov.: The First Troglobiotic Ant from Japan (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Myrmicinae). Zootaxa. 4450(1); 135–141. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4450.1.10
日本で初めて、世界で 2 例目となる「洞窟性アリ」の発見 | <urn:uuid:057f9bbf-6d9f-498f-8b93-c06dd58c8a8a> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | http://novataxa.blogspot.com/2018/07/aphaenogaster-gamagumayaa.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221209755.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20180815004637-20180815024637-00242.warc.gz | en | 0.84762 | 783 | 2.578125 | 3 |
During most periodontal procedures, including periodontal cleanings, the tooth is cleansed under the gum's edge. This usually causes minor gum bleeding, which is often unnoticed by the patient. However, when bleeding occurs it is likely that some mouth bacteria will enter the bloodstream (bacteremia). This is a common phenomenon, and may even occur with toothbrushing if the gums are inflamed. Normally the bacteria are destroyed when they enter the bloodstream, but with certain medical conditions they may potentially cause a problem. If the bloodflow is slowed as it passes through the heart, such as may be seen with mitral valve prolapse, the bacteria may have time to adhere to the vessel walls, forming a colony that causes an infection. This may lead to bacterial endocarditis, a serious medical condition. Thus patients with mitral valve prolapse or other heart conditions need to take antibiotics to ensure the bacteria are destroyed. Similarly, a newly placed orthopedic joint may be susceptible to infection, and antibiotic coverage is recommended for two years after joint placement.
For almost all cases, taking a single dose of antibiotics one hour before your appointment is all that is needed, unless surgery has been scheduled. Here the antibiotics may be continued for 7 - 10 days. Below is a listing of the current American Heart Association's Guidelines.
Please click the image below for a larger view. | <urn:uuid:4becc3c2-2d53-42a3-bab3-87077d756583> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | http://www.periopartner.com/prophylactic-antibiotics.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627999261.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20190620145650-20190620171650-00024.warc.gz | en | 0.940817 | 281 | 3.109375 | 3 |
We all know that it's not wise to park children in front of the television for hours. Studies have linked excessive viewing to everything from aggressive behavior and obesity to attention problems. Yet research also reveals that television is a fact of family life: The television set is on an average of 53 hours a week in U.S. homes with preschoolers, and 74 percent of all infants and toddlers have watched television before the age of two, according to a 2003 report from the Kaiser Family Foundation. There are a variety of reasons television plays such a large role in homes today, many of which have to do with the demands of balancing work and family life. So, rather than feel guilty about the fact that your little one is watching television, why not take control and help him become a smart viewer?
One person who knows a lot about children's programming is Anne Wood, a mother, a former teacher, and the creator of such shows as Teletubbies and Boohbah. As a teacher and a parent, Wood recognized the deficit of high-quality, nonviolent television shows for young children and decided to do something about it. "I saw no reason why children's programming couldn't be of the same quality as a good book. It should encourage young ones to explore and be curious," says Wood.
As the creative director of Ragdoll Limited, a London-based children's television company, Wood's mission is to continue to provide developmentally appropriate programming to meet the needs of families with young children. "Producers of children's television have the responsibility to create shows that reflect the world from a child's eyes," says Wood. While programmers have become more sensitive to the learning styles and interests of young children, parents have the responsibility to stay informed about what and how long their children are watching. The editors of Scholastic's Parent & Child asked Wood for her best advice on how to choose worthwhile shows for young ones and draw out their educational benefits.
Parent & Child: What can children learn from watching television?
Anne Wood: I don't think of television as a teacher; it shouldn't be used to accelerate learning. Rather, if done well, it's something that can engage the child's imagination in a way that he can then transfer to his play. Creative play is such an important part of learning and growing up, and it's a marvelous thing to see a young child pretending to be his favorite character or making up songs or games.
Good-quality television can also help your child develop critical thinking skills and empathy. Children get to see others like themselves and can express their feelings about that. I remember observing a 4-year-old girl watching a scene in Boohbah, in which children were bringing gifts to the story people. She said, "That little girl is black, like me. But she's not me." It was an important realization for her to be able to make.
P&C: Should you be watching television along with your child?
Wood: Sometimes. It's great to have sharing time, and you can learn a lot about your child while watching how she responds to her favorite programs. Being able to cuddle up and watch television together is very calming, and it is a tremendous bonding experience for you and your child. But the reality is that parents also need time to do other things. And that's a service that good children's television, videos, and DVDs can provide. You get the security of knowing that your child is viewing something safe if you're unable to watch with her.
P&C: What is the best resource for finding appropriate children's shows?
Wood: Stick with the reputable children's networks in your area. Parenting magazines often review and suggest worthwhile programming, but always trust your own instinct about whether a show is right for your child.
P&C: There is an abundance of children's programming out there. What should I be looking for to make the right choices?
Wood: Television should be designed for children at different ages and stages. For toddlers and young preschoolers, programs should be slow-paced. The background should be clear, and the action should take place in the foreground of the screen. If there's too much going on at once, it will be difficult for your child to follow.
By around age 5, children are able to evaluate and decode television images a bit more quickly. Children's thinking develops through pattern-making, so look for repetitive actions and images. For example, in one scene, a particular character may greet your child, then decide to take a walk. This allows your child to learn concepts like "far away" and "close at hand" through the language of gesture and movement.
Young children need opportunities to consider the meaning of what they're seeing, and a chance to talk back to the characters. Programs should always allow ample time for your child to respond. The younger the child, the more time she needs to do that. Shows should help children anticipate and predict what might happen next.
People sometimes say to me, apologetically, something like, "My daughter is 4 years old and she doesn't watch Teletubbies anymore." Well, that's a good thing. We didn't make it for 4 year olds; we made it for 2 year olds! She's outgrown that program, and that's wonderful!
P&C: How can parents draw out the educational benefits of television?
Wood: I think the educational benefits manifest themselves, if you listen carefully and watch your child as he watches television, to discover what's exciting him. For example, if your toddler loves Clifford, the big, red dog, then it's lovely to suggest that you go find red things together. It's not about drilling them on colors or numbers. It's about sharing the experience together in a spirit of fun and playfulness.
Allow your child to get up and move around during the show, too. Research has demonstrated that children don't simply sit still when watching television. A lot of the time they walk away or play with their toys, yet they're still engaged with the program. That's why I was inspired to create Boohbah, a show about physical movement. It encourages children to run and jump about. JoJo's Circus also encourages movement.
If your child invites you to sing or dance along with him, of course join in the fun. But know when to sit on the sidelines, too. There are times when your child is much happier if you just watch what he can do, rather than do it with him. Let him show off for you. Build his confidence by applauding and saying, "That's great!"
P&C: Kids often want to watch the same thing over and over. Is that something to worry about?
Wood: Young children find comfort in watching familiar shows. It's reassuring for a toddler or preschooler to know what's coming next — that when this happens, that always follows — and it helps to build prediction skills. It's a stage they will grow out of quickly, so it's okay to let your child watch a well-loved video a few times in a row.
However, I do believe you need to put limits on television viewing. You can say something like, "We're going to watch our favorite show now, but when it's over, we're going to turn it off." Help your child understand that a show is finished when the characters say goodbye. A little bit of television is fine when paired with other learning experiences like reading, theater, music, and physical activity.
Must-See Preschooler TV
The Backyardigans (Nickelodeon): Five spirited animal friends rely on their imaginations — and musical expression — to embark on fantastic adventures in their own backyards.
Clifford's Puppy Days (PBS): Even as a puppy — he fits inside Emily Elizabeth's backpack — Clifford shows that you can have a big heart and lots of friendships no matter what size you are.
JoJo's Circus (Disney): JoJo, a young circus clown in training, invites viewers to stand up and sing, dance, and move along with her as she has adventures galore.
Koala Brothers (Disney): Two koala bears, Frank and Buster, send a strong message about friendship and community as they roam the Australian outback to help others in need.
Maya & Miguel (PBS): The wacky neighborhood adventures of these bilingual city twins promote pride, respect for others, and tolerance.
Miffy and Friends (Noggin): Based on the award-winning book series by Dick Bruna, little bunny Miffy teaches preschoolers about discovery and exploration with unbridled enthusiasm and limitless energy.
PEEP! and the Big Wide World (Discovery Kids): This show teaches science to preschoolers and nurtures curiosity as Peep and his friends explore the world around their pond.
Thomas & Friends (PBS): Thomas and his rail-yard friends Percy, Henry, Edward, and the whole Island of Sodor gang are back in new episodes that explore themes of friendship, humor, collaboration, and problem solving.
Check your local listings for times and channels.
Recommended Products for Your Child Ages 3-4 | <urn:uuid:063efa58-b3ef-4248-9149-926dd6c2ac3a> | CC-MAIN-2015-32 | http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/parent-child/smart-viewing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042989891.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002309-00287-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968921 | 1,889 | 2.875 | 3 |
By CPN Behavioral Health Department
Citizen Potawatomi Nation Health Services
We’re virtually here to help!
Anger and hope. Many of us have experienced loss, or the news of family, friends, or pets being sick at times in our lives. This can be devastating news, and what can be worse is that even when we know, we can still be surprised when things happen exactly the way we have heard they’ll go.
I remember once after a loved one passed away, I found a pamphlet from the hospital titled “Hope.” I cannot tell you how angry that made me to read about the hope for recovery from something that did exactly what I had expected. Looking back, this can sound like an overreaction; but that does not mean I was not allowed to be angry, and the same goes for you.
Many of us are angry with what is happening; we either want to blame someone or are confused because there is no person to blame. And that is okay. We are certainly entitled to our feelings. Feeling angry is a natural reaction when life is disrupted this way. It is how we handle our anger that can be dangerous.
Ask yourself, “Where is this coming from?” I don’t mean, “What is making me angry?” Instead, try asking yourself, “What other feelings are happening right now?” Anger is what we consider a secondary emotion, meaning that there are other feelings required for anger to be present. Anything from confusion or frustration to anxiety can be the root of anger. Once we are able to identify those other feelings, we can get a better handle on the impulses that come with the anger.
Of course, you can always check with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention at cdc.gov with questions and helpful information during this time. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is also available at 1-800-273-TALK(8255) or text CONNECT to 741741, or online at suicidepreventionlifeline.org. | <urn:uuid:188d78cd-4226-4781-baaf-04279a006645> | CC-MAIN-2021-25 | https://www.potawatomi.org/blog/2020/05/01/anger-and-hope-in-trying-times/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623487634616.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20210618013013-20210618043013-00173.warc.gz | en | 0.955326 | 426 | 2.640625 | 3 |
The health benefits of whole grains and dietary fibre are well established, however intakes of both remain low across the globe. Innovative added-fibre refined grain products may present a solution to increase fibre intakes given potential sensory barriers to whole grain intake. However, to consider the efficacy of such products, or potential alternative measures, an awareness of consumer knowledge, perceptions and attitudes towards both whole grain and added-fibre grain foods is needed. Focus groups (with adults with no formal nutrition education) were conducted to explore factors affecting consumer grain choice. Discussions were transcribed verbatim and analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Nine focus groups composed of 52 participants (23 men; 29 women) were conducted. Participants tended to report choosing 'grainy' bread but few other whole grain foods. Most participants were unaware of the long-term health benefits of whole grains, recommended whole grain intakes, or how to identify foods that were high in whole grains, thereby limiting motivation to increase intake. Additionally, scepticism surrounding the health value of carbohydrate-based foods appeared to hinder grain intakes in general. These findings suggest that further public education and promotion of whole grain benefits, with a focus on food-based targets and messaging, may be important in efforts to increase whole grain and subsequently fibre intakes. Added-fibre grain products may be a useful addition, specifically for avid whole grain-avoiders who are unlikely to accept whole grain sensory properties. However, as most participants were open to whole grain consumption, industry innovation should also focus efforts on increasing availability and variety of products high in whole grains. | <urn:uuid:d6c8d163-6bbc-4dd7-819b-bd5222e8f6c8> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://ro.uow.edu.au/smhpapers1/1231/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764500080.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20230204012622-20230204042622-00126.warc.gz | en | 0.965723 | 333 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do Piano Notes
There is evidence of a precursor to the modern Sol-fa scale dating back to Greco-Roman periods. It is a method of music conceptualization that places emphasis on the fact that a scale in any of the Keys can be represented by using placeholder symbols. Single syllable sounds to represent each of the 8 tones in the scale.
Here is a simple representation of this on the stave with free printable sheet music available.
What Happens When Students Start To Master Chord Patterns Beautiful Music I Call This Level After Year Two
Free easy piano sheet music for your students who are past level one.
Now students start using moving chords in the left hand, requiring more hand coordination.
Also, the range of notes is greater than in The First Year and After Year One.
Some, like Harp Ballad, are more appropriate in Year 3 or 4, but for older students, such as students who start as beginners in their teen years, they may reach this level very quickly, with a strong understanding of chords.
America the Beautiful
Happy Birthday – several arrangements, from very easy to very full-sounding
Harp Ballad – a beautiful piece that will spur your student to new skills!
Hava Nagilah – well-known Hebrew folk song
House of the Rising Sun – with exciting left hand chords
How Doth the Little Crocodile -a creepy-sounding song with lyrics from Alice in Wonderland
Hungarian Dance – Brahms’ #5, a duet version
In the Hall of the Mountain King – a one-page arrangement of the main theme
In the Mood – the famous Big Band song, still popular!
Irish Washerwoman – this is NEW! Pretty and full of energy.
Irish Wedding – This is the most advanced arrangement of this popular piece that even my beginners play
Kookaburra – A good arrangement for classroom singing.
Lake Pirates – modeled after The Hobbit Soundtrack, Hobbit 3!
Largo, from the New World Symphony – A famous and beautiful theme.
Lavender’s Blue – the “Cinderella song lyrics”!
Louie Louie – a set of chords used as an exercise, that sounds like real music.
The Itsy Bitsy Spider
Children love singing this song and its pretty simple to play, too. One fun idea is for you to play the song while your child does the motions, then switch roles.
The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spoutG C C C D E E E D C D E CDown came the rain and washed the spider outE E F G G F E F G EOut came the sun and dried up all the rainC C D E E D C D E CAnd the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout againG G C C C D E E E D C D E C
Heres a super slow tutorial that is easy to follow along with:
Lets Be Clear: If You Dont Learn To Read Music You Limit Yourself
We challenge you to find a pianist who learned to read music and regretted it. But there are plenty who wish they had learned earlier. Like any language, you can get by without taking the time to read or write, especially in the beginning. In the long term, however, being able to read music holds a range of benefits, and you limit yourself without them.
Its quicker than you think. This isnt strictly a good thing. But if the only downside to learning is time and effort, its worth stressing that it doesnt take that long. Notation may look like lines and dots on a page right now, but you will be reading and playing your first piece of music in no time. Work systematically, gradually build up knowledge of new notation, and you will be surprised how quickly you understand literally everything.
Sight reading. This is the ability to read a piece of music for the first time and play as you go, as easy as reading this sentence out loud. It takes time and practice, but eventually if you have the written music, you can play it. Since written music is widely available online, learning to sight read music gives you the ability to immediately play practically anything.
A permanent memory aid. Playing by ear means remembering everything you ever decided to learn. Written music offers a record of anything you have ever learned, or plan to learn. If you dont have a perfect memory, you can develop your own notation. But when there is a universal language already in place, why bother?
Additional Beginner Sheets & Music
Waltzing Matilda with helper notes
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
What Child is This, lettered notes & helper notes
What Do You Do with a Drunken – or GRUMPY – Sailor
What Wondrous Love
White, Orange & Green
Wiegenlied, “Mozart’s Cradle Song”
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The 10 Easiest Piano Songs To Play With Letters And Notes
Would you like to learn to play the easiest piano songs with letters? Youve come to the right place!
There are many easy piano sheet music available on the internet. However, not everyone knows how to decipher a score. When we start playing the piano, we are more looking for easy tutorials and less complex learning systems, such as letters on notes.
Thats why we decided to write this article that will save you precious time. We have listed the 10 easiest piano songs to play with letters on notes.
But this article doesnt stop there. For each of them, it offers you a tutorial explaining how to play the notes of each hand with letters, as well as a video tutorial showing the notes descending on a virtual piano, always accompanied by the letters.
You can learn to play all these easy songs in no time.
Ready to play? Lets go!
Tips: you can find all these songs in the catalog of our application dedicated to simplified piano learning. You can learn them at your own pace by connecting your piano to your device. If you like this type of tutorial, you can also check out our articles about 10 piano songs to play with numbers and the best piano songs with chords.
Joris, the author of this article, recommends the following resource: Piano tutorials: learn the 10 easiest songs
Learn to play the best piano songs with letters
La Touche Musicale app features over 1,500 songs to learn with letters. Connect your piano to your device and play them at your own pace while having fun.
Getting The Basics Down
Some parents are hesitant to teach their children basic music skills because they dont know where to begin. The good news is that you dont need to be a professional player to teach your child easy keyboard songs like the ones below. In fact, you dont need any musical experience to get started you can even learn alongside your child!
First off, youll need to learn the location of the notes on the piano. Start by finding C its the white key directly to the left of the group of two black keys. Using only the white keys, the notes continue in alphabetical order up to G, and then they restart at A.
You can label the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, and B with stickers to make it easier for your child. Most easy piano song notes will all fall on the white keys, so theres no need to worry about labeling sharps and flats just yet. Once youve found where these seven notes are, you and your kids can start learning basic piano songs!
Read Also: How To Add Music To Music Library On Iphone
Free Easy Piano Sheet Music
Piano sheet music that’s fun to learn and easy to play. Arranged for early to early intermediate levels.
We’ve listed some of our best easy piano pieces below including well known traditional pieces, hymns, classical pieces, and originals written specifically for early elementary through early intermediate students.
Sheet music on our site is free to view and play. Paired with a tablet or even a smartphone, you can easily sight read our pieces in the browser while seated at the piano. We also have an option for PDF downloads/prints for every piece on our site.
Easycarol Of The Bells
- An easy-to-read exclusive arrangement of the widely-beloved Ukranian Christmas melody known as Carol of the Bells.
- Each note is labeled with its musical letter-name, INCLUDING ALL ACCIDENTALS. Example note-name labels: E, F#, G, Db, C.
- Your piano sheet music PDF file can be downloaded immediately and/or later, from any device using your private non-expiring link.
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Top 30 Easy Disney Piano Songs For Beginners
Since 1923, Disney has played an important role in everyones childhood. It doesnt matter whether youre a senior or a Gen A kid. Were pretty sure almost anyone has vivid childhood memories attached to Disney.
The company has created thousands of amazing animated movies and shows to bring colors into kids lives. Be it the earliest Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs or the latest Coco these thoughtful animations are popular throughout the world.
So, in todays post, weve rounded up the top-30 easy Disney piano songs for beginners. The difficulty level increases down the list. That said, even the most challenging one has a 6/10-rating. Read more!
Old Macdonald Had A Farm
This is another classic childrens piano song that your son or daughter will love playing over and over again so they can sing about every animal on the farm.
Old MacDonald had a farmG G G D E E DE-i-e-i-o
G G G E C B A
Happy birthday to you
F F E C D C
This handy tutorial shows you how to play this number at a slow tempo. Once you get comfortable with it, you can speed it up.
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So How Do You Choose Instructional Materials For Them
So how do you choose beginner piano music? Well, all kids love to play what is familiar to them.
You will have to stretch them, expanding their tastes, but you must still satisfy their desire to play what sounds like music to them or risk losing them as students.
Never will I forget an account by the late John Holt in his book, Never Too Late: My Musical Life Story, about meeting another adult cello student.
I See The Light Tangled
Difficulty score: 5/10
A nice and simple melody almost all played on the white keys of the keyboard, and recognizable to anyone who has seen Tangled.
This is a really good song to learn for absolute beginners who want to be able to play one of their favorite Disney tracks, and if youve got the singing voice, you can even wow people with piano accompaniment to your vocals.
It gets a bit more complex at the end with the piano solo section, and the melody changes significantly, which is why the difficulty score isnt the lowest.
Also Check: How To Upload Music To Video
If Youre Happy And You Know It
This is one of the most fun keyboard songs for beginners. The tune gives your little musician the chance to clap and dance while playing. The only tricky part of this song is the inclusion of B flat.
This note is the small black key located directly between the A and B keys. If you are using a toy piano or xylophone, you may not have this key and can leave it out.
If youre happy and you know it, clap your handsC C F F F F F F E F GIf youre happy and you know it, clap your handsC C G G G G G G F G AIf youre happy and you know itA A Bb Bb Bb Bb D DThen your face will surely show itBb Bb A A A G F FIf youre happy and you know it, clap your handsA A G G G F E E D E F
Heres another helpful tutorial:
Christmas Music Of All Styles For All Tastes
There are all skill levels of songs represented on this very long page, and most of the pieces have multiple versions, and not just for piano, but guitar and voice!
All You That in This House – This unusual carol is offered as a lead sheet in several keys, with just one chord, and with an intermediate piano arrangement
Angels We Have Heard On High – Four different versions
Arabian Dance or Arab Dance – intermediate level, from The Nutcracker Suite. Very evocative, very hypnotic.
Arabian Dance – easy arrangement for first or second year
Away in a Manger – an easy but pretty arrangement
Bring a Torch – a fun, bouncy energy characterizes this sweet carol from France.
Carol of the Bells – a very simple approach to Carol of the Bells, also known as “Hark How the Bells” in my studio
Christ Child’s Lullaby – there are no lyrics to this lovely lullaby, but a lilting, unusual melody.
Christ Was Born On Christmas Day – This little carol can scoot right along, with the fixed left hand chords. Pretty easy.
Coventry Carol – a minor-key song that tells a sad story about a Bible prophecy. Very beautiful, and familiar
Deck the Halls – the sounds of this fun carol immediately call Christmas to mind!
Ding Dong Merrily On High – a pretty carol with energy that is fun to play and sing
Read Also: Can I Play Music While Streaming On Twitch
Youll Be In My Heart Tarzan
Difficulty score: 3/10
Around the same era as Elton John writing songs for The Lion King, Phil Collins was given the task for Tarzan.
Youll Be in My Heart has stood the test of time and is one of the easiest Disney piano songs for beginners. Its easily recognizable, too, and not too quick or complex for beginners, children, and adults to learn.
Easy Piano Songs With Letters For Simple Playing
- ChordPresso Staff
If youre completely new to the piano then you may not have fully grasped how to read sheet music. Having easy piano songs with letters means you can still play recognizable and fun songs without having to learn the ins and outs of classic music. We would always suggest that you do eventually pick up on musical theory but weve given you a starting point to learn to play just using letters.
Piano playing typically involves using both of your hands. In our list, we have a selection of songs that use one hand and then adding in the left to improve your skill level. A great tip is to learn each hand separately and then combine them together.
We havent given you the finger notation for these songs so just use the most logical option as you play through the piano songs. You want to be able to get around each note easily and in order. Never use the same finger to play all of the notes. Get used to using all of your fingers as this will be essential for you to grow as a pianist.
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Easiest Piano Songs For Your Kid To Play
The best toddler piano models are easy to play and you can get your child playing simple melodies in next to no time. At this stage, you dont need special lessons or techniques to start creating music and playing along with your child is a great experience. Start by learning a little about your instrument, but dont force the child to start learning, its important to let them explore. At first, they will just explore the feeling of the keys and start making sounds as they get comfortable. If your child already knows a melody or part of a favorite song you can encourage them to play it repeatedly.
Weve already covered marking the keys with the corresponding letters, but what if your child doesnt know the alphabet yet? Well, this is a great time to learn letters and if your child is younger you can always use colored stickers instead. Simply match the color with the corresponding not on your music sheet and this will still be an effective teaching tool.
Happy Birthday To You
Happy Birthday to You is a popular song inspired by a popular song, Good Morning to All, composed by Patty Hill and Mildred J. Hill in 1893.
It is now traditionally sung to celebrate the birthday of a loved one.
Happy Birthday to You is therefore one of the most played songs on the piano. In this part, we will see how to learn to play it with both hands and the letters of the notes.
Also Check: How To Add Music On Imovie Iphone
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Twinkle Twinkle is probably the first song anyone ever learns on the piano, especially younger students. Adults can benefit from learning this song at the beginning of their playing too. Get prepared to play by placing your right-hand thumb onto the middle C note. All of the notes you need for the song will now be sitting under your fingers apart from the highest note in the piece. This note is only one note above your pinky finger though so it wont take much stretching.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
C C G G A A G
How I wonder what you are
F F E E D D C
Up above the world so high
G G F F E E D
Like a diamond in the sky
G G F F E E D
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
C C G G A A G
How I wonder what you are
F F E E D D C | <urn:uuid:b87e10f8-16e8-46dc-9cc7-7f97a1e54dc4> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.musicproclub.com/easy-piano-sheet-music-with-letters/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334528.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925101046-20220925131046-00763.warc.gz | en | 0.929472 | 3,719 | 3.5 | 4 |
This Dawn FC (framing camera) image shows a part of Vesta’s northern hemisphere, which is mostly in darkness. Since Dawn’s arrival at Vesta the sun has not illuminated Vesta’s most northerly latitudes. This is because the tilt of Vesta with respect to the sun has not been suitable for illuminating these parts of the asteroid. But, as Vesta progresses from its winter to its spring more of these northerly latitudes are being illuminated. As seen in this image the illumination begins by the low-angled sun revealing a few higher elevation parts of the surface, while the rest of the lower-lying surface is still covered in darkness. More of this area will need to be illuminated for any meaningful interpretations of it to take place.
This image is located in Vesta’s Bellicia quadrangle and the center of the image is 50.6 degrees north latitude, 40.7 degrees east longitude. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft obtained this image with its framing camera on Nov. 19, 2011. This image was taken through the camera’s clear filter. The distance to the surface of Vesta is 275 kilometers (171 miles) and the image has a resolution of about 25 meters (82 feet) per pixel. This image was acquired during the transfer to LAMO (low-altitude mapping orbit) phase of the mission.
The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington D.C. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. The Dawn framing cameras have been developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, with significant contributions by DLR German Aerospace Center, Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, and in coordination with the Institute of Computer and Communication Network Engineering, Braunschweig. The Framing Camera project is funded by the Max Planck Society, DLR, and NASA/JPL.
More information about Dawn is online at http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA | <urn:uuid:20adcd9f-cd7b-4c2d-90f9-cb4e49911d04> | CC-MAIN-2016-36 | http://www.dlr.de/pf/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-7725/13169_read-33643 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-36/segments/1471982296721.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160823195816-00139-ip-10-153-172-175.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92841 | 476 | 3.4375 | 3 |
How to Conduct Comprehensive Video Collection
Much of Bellingcat’s work requires intense research into particular events, which includes finding every possible photograph, video, and witness account that will help inform our analysis. Perhaps most notably, we exhaustively researched the events surrounding the shoot down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) over eastern Ukraine. The photographs and videos taking near the crash in eastern Ukraine were not particularly difficult to find, as they were widely publicized. However, locating over a dozen photographs and videos of the Russian convoy transporting the Buk anti-aircraft missile launcher that shot down MH17 three weeks before the tragedy was much harder, and required both intense investigation on social networks and some creative thinking. Most of these videos were shared on Russian-language social networks and YouTube, and did not involve another type of video that is much more important today than 2014 — live streaming. Bellingcat has also made an effort to compile all user-generated videos of the events in Charlottesville on August 12, 2017, providing a database of livestreamed videos on platforms like Periscope, Ustream, and Facebook Live, along with footage uploaded after the protest onto platforms like Twitter and YouTube.
Verifying videos is important, as detailed in this Bellingcat guide, but first you have to find them. This guide will provide advice and some tips on how to gather as much video as possible on a particular event, whether it is videos from witnesses of a natural disaster or a terrorist attack. For most examples in this guide, we will assume that the event is a large protest or demonstration, but the same advice is applicable to other events.
First set of searches: livestreams
As you would imagine, the first videos that appear showing an event are the ones that happen in real time — livestreams. For a large demonstration — the example we are exploring in this guide — there will be a large numbers of participants or media members who livestream the event as it occurs.
For demonstrations, the following are the most popular platforms for livestreaming:
One of the newest platforms on this list, Facebook Live has gained quick popularity due to its enormous user base and ease of use. Finding live videos is quite easy — go to https://www.facebook.com/live, then click a blue dot in the location you are interested in. However, these videos only appear on the map while they are streaming.
To find previously-aired videos from Facebook Live, you have a couple of options. For one, you can go to the Facebook page of either an individual or page that you know aired a stream and search through their videos. For example, the previously streamed Facebook Live videos of popular American protest streamer Rebelutionary_Z can be found at facebook.com/RebZtv/videos.
Alternatively, you can search broadly for Live videos through the Facebook search function. Unfortunately, Facebook’s search function is not very easy to use, but you can find most results by filtering for only “Live” videos.
Despite being a much larger video platform, YouTube Live is not yet a very popular livestreaming service for normal users, though it is used quite often for professional news outlets.
Like with Facebook, you can filter your search results to only show “Live” videos, whether they are still active or archived away.
One of the most popular platforms for livestreaming is Periscope, which was purchased by Twitter in 2015. Like with other platforms in this guide, it is difficult to search for videos through the interface of the Periscope site–in fact, it is barely even worth using the search interface on the Periscope site, and it is much easier to search the site via Google or Twitter. For example, below we can search for some (but not all) of the Periscope livestreams from August 12, 2017, the day of the Charlottesville events, with the word “Charlottesville” in the title.
But this will not give you comprehensive results. Almost all Periscope streams are tweeted out at least once, either by their creator (as Twitter accounts are often linked to Periscope streams) or someone watching. It may be more useful to search a similar search string in Twitter along with Google, though you will likely have more results to sift through. The “Latest” and “Videos” options will give a number of good results–often people linking to or mentioning certain streams–but the recently-added “Broadcasts” option will give the most direct results. In the search string below, we are finding all broadcast streams with the word Charlottesville in the accompanying tweet and Periscope (including the URL) on August 12, 2017 (in Twitter searches, you have to enter the since: and until: dates as seen below to find all tweets sent on one day–August 12, 2017, in this case).
Once you find one video from the event you are looking for, search through the rest of the Periscope user’s videos–you will likely find a few more streams from the same place and time.
One of the oldest services on this list, Livestream.com has waned in popularity since the rise of social media platforms offering livestreaming options, but it is still used by a number of groups and individuals. Thankfully, its search functions are much more robust than those of Periscope and some other platforms; however, they are still not perfect. Searching for videos posted on specific days is difficult, with the search filters much closer to that of YouTube, with “Past 24 hours,” “Past week,” and so on as filters, rather than a specific date range. Still, there are far fewer videos on this platform than YouTube and Periscope, cutting down the time in sorting through useful and extraneous results.
As with other platforms, previous livestreams are archived away for future viewing. As seen below, the popular Unicorn Riot channel, which frequently livestreams protests, has almost 300 archived videos of previous livestreams that are available for viewing.
Lastly, UStream was a popular streaming platform for protests, but after being purchased by IBM in early 2016, it has fallen off the map.
Second set of searches: day-specific filters on various platforms
Usually, the most popular videos from events are the ones published soon after they take place, but are not necessarily live streams. Most often, these videos pop up on the Twitter and Facebook streams of local reporters or correspondents, or ordinary people who happened to be witnesses. Our next set of searches after livestreams are videos posted on particular days–the one of the event being the most useful, of course–on the most popular video hosting platforms.
With the recent earthquake in Mexico City, we can find plenty of tweets from normal people showing the event by specifying only tweets on September 19, 2017 (the day of the earthquake). The search operator to find these videos is quote simple, using Twitter’s advanced search interface at twitter.com/search-advanced. From there, we should choose the “Videos” tab to only see videos uploaded to Twitter.
— Ernesto Muñoz Gomez (@mg_ernesto) September 19, 2017
MEXICO HOW MANY EARTHQUAKES WE HAVING WHEN I VISIT IN OMG pic.twitter.com/kkNe9nPuTt
— Keitaro (@KeitaroTime) September 19, 2017
Along with reporters at the scene:
Mexico City was just shaken by another earthquake 5.6 magnitude. These ppl were at a 4th floor gym pic.twitter.com/PTyk9rPd1a
— N. Parish Flannery (@NathanielParish) September 19, 2017
Tracking down these videos is a matter of knowing the right keywords to use and having the endurance to sift through all of your results. When looking for videos related to an event, don’t just search the obvious hashtags and topic words that will bring most of your results — for example with the August 12 protests, the terms #UnitetheRight and Charlottesville. Also use specific phrases, words, and hashtags that locals would use to find results from people who may not be trying to broadcast to a massive audience. Imagine what you, a local observing the event, would write to describe the event–perhaps you would use the city name, or more likely if you were only intending to broadcast to a smaller audience, just the place name most familiar with locals. A Charlottesville resident may not write globally-used hashtags or the word “Charlottesville” when posting a photograph or video from outside his or her house, but instead a more local reference, such as a street name or nearby landmark (e.g. a store or park).
Another obvious strategy is using local language and not just English. In the case of the Mexico City earthquake, you will find more success searching the Spanish word for earthquake, “sismo,” or common local terms for Mexico City, such as CDMX (short for Ciudad de México). Otherwise, you run the risk of only getting results for English-speaking tourists and reporters.
YouTube and Google Videos
For YouTube, you can use filters to only find videos posted in a certain time span. However, these filters are limited in not giving us the ability to search for a specific date or date range, rather just relative time spans related to when you are conducting the search. If you are searching for videos of an event within a week of its occurrence, then the “This week” filter should work fine.
However, if you are searching for videos after more time has elapsed from the event, then it may be more useful to search YouTube videos within Google, which has far more powerful search options than the YouTube user interface. In the search below, we asked Google to bring back results for every YouTube video (site:youtube.com) posted on August 12, 2017 (date parameter under “tools”) with the word “Charlottesville” (in quotation marks to bring back only results with that exact word).
By using the same search parameters in video.google.com, minus the YouTube specification, we will mostly find videos posted to news organizations who may not share their content on YouTube. There is no single platform that will collect all of the content from professional news organizations in one place, so your best bet is a combination of YouTube searches (for the news organizations that share their content across their official YouTube channel) and Google Video searches, which will detect video content on each site.
Searching for videos shared on a specific date on Facebook is much more difficult than with YouTube or Twitter. There are no search operators on Facebook to specify a date range, rather only years.
Much like with YouTube, we need to outsource or search operations to Google, due to the limitations of Facebook’s user interface. If we search on video.google.com for videos with the keyword “Charlottesville” on Facebook for August 12, 2017, we receive a number of useful results, similar to our date-specific search for YouTube videos.
There are a number of regional social networks that are also worth using, depending on the event you are focusing on. For this guide, we will focus on the two most popular regional social networks in countries of the former Soviet Union: Vkontakte (VK) and Odnoklassniki (OK). With both of these platforms, it is pretty easy to conduct video searches through the sites’ interfaces.
On VK, video searches are limited to sorting by upload date, but with far fewer videos available on other platforms, this does not make searching prohibitively time-consuming. After inputting your search term, select “Videos” (or “Видео” in Russian if you cannot change the language settings) to limit your results.
Odnoklassniki has roughly the same options as Facebook in video searches, as it includes the choice to include rarely-filmed live videos from Odnoklassniki. Just as with VK, conduct a search on the site (account creation may be required), and then select “Video” to filter results.
Unless the event you are concerned with took place in a location with a number of VK and OK users, it may not be worth the effort to search on these platforms for new video footage, as the bulk of clips on these sites are re-shared from other sources.
Third set of searches: hard-to-find Snapchat and Instagram content
Snapchat and Instagram are two very common sources for videos, but also two of the most difficult platforms to trawl for clips. Neither has an intuitive search interface that easily allows researchers to sort through and collect videos.
Searching for video clips on the Instagram website is almost useless, unless you are lucky or searching specific locations via geotag. By just searching a search term or hashtag, there is no way to sort through only video results, or to search within a specific date range or video length.
You can sort through the most recent videos with a specific search term or hashtag, but for popular terms like a city name, this will give you far more results than you need. Searching by geotag can be useful, but will bring back scattershot results–not all videos have hashtags, and even those that do may not use the one you are searching for. For example, the hashtag for Charlottesville, Virginia will give you some results, while the hashtag for a certain park or street name will give you different ones. Unless you are using a paid service like EchoSec, there is no way to map out the results to measure proximity.
Yet again, Google is often the best tool we have to search for videos on a social platform. By using the same search operators described with other sites, we can find video results for specific search terms and date ranges–but with very limited results.
There is little doubt that there were far more than five videos with the word “Charlottesville” posted on Instagram on the day of the protests, but these are the only results given by Google. Unfortunately, searching for videos on Instagram is an arduous task, and you may have better luck searching for mentions of Instagram videos on other platforms, such as Twitter, rather than on the Instagram platform itself.
Unless you use an Android emulator (and even if you do this, there is limited success), there is currently no way to search for Snapchat videos on a laptop or desktop computer–you are limited to using the Snapchat app on your tablet or phone. From within the Snapchat app, just search for a keyword or location in the search function to find Snapchat stories. Like with Instagram and Facebook, this content may be restricted by the privacy settings of users.
It is increasingly vital for journalists and researchers to be able to find and verify (see this guide) videos when writing on events. While the most explosive and interesting videos often find a spotlight on them thanks to reposts and shares on various social media platforms, often you can find overlooked details in harder-to-find videos on more obscure platforms.
If there are any video platforms or searching methods that were overlooked or not included in this guide, please leave your thoughts in the comment section, or tweet to @bellingcat. | <urn:uuid:96567142-5c63-4883-9157-52b3c5a50747> | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/how-tos/2017/10/17/conduct-comprehensive-video-collection/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656104354651.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20220704050055-20220704080055-00245.warc.gz | en | 0.938121 | 3,178 | 2.515625 | 3 |
A Laser Beam Towards the Milky Way's Centre*
In mid-August 2010 ESO Photo Ambassador Yuri Beletsky snapped this amazing photo at ESO’s Paranal Observatory. A group of astronomers were observing the centre of the Milky Way using the laser guide star facility at Yepun, one of the four Unit Telescopes of the Very Large Telescope (VLT).
Yepun’s laser beam crosses the majestic southern sky and creates an artificial star at an altitude of 90 km high in the Earth's mesosphere. The Laser Guide Star (LGS) is part of the VLT’s adaptive optics system and is used as a reference to correct the blurring effect of the atmosphere on images. The colour of the laser is precisely tuned to energise a layer of sodium atoms found in one of the upper layers of the atmosphere — one can recognise the familiar colour of sodium street lamps in the colour of the laser. This layer of sodium atoms is thought to be a leftover from meteorites entering the Earth’s atmosphere. When excited by the light from the laser, the atoms start glowing, forming a small bright spot that can be used as an artificial reference star for the adaptive optics. Using this technique, astronomers can obtain sharper observations. For example, when looking towards the centre of our Milky Way, researchers can better monitor the galactic core, where a central supermassive black hole, surrounded by closely orbiting stars, is swallowing gas and dust.
This image is available as a mounted image in the ESOshop.
About the Image
|Release date:||4 July 2011, 17:30|
|Size:||4000 x 3631 px|
About the Object
|Name:||Very Large Telescope, VLT Unit Telescopes|
|Type:||• Milky Way|
• Unspecified : Technology : Observatory : Facility | <urn:uuid:0e9009e2-e3f2-43b9-acd3-05457abfcf3a> | CC-MAIN-2015-27 | http://eso.org/public/images/potw1036a/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-27/segments/1435375097710.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20150627031817-00122-ip-10-179-60-89.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.813916 | 379 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Collective behavior based on self-organization has been observed in populations of animals from insects to vertebrates. These findings have motivated engineers to investigate approaches to control autonomous multi-robot systems able to reproduce collective animal behaviors, and even to collectively interact with groups of animals. In this article, we show collective decision making by a group of autonomous robots and a group of zebrafish, leading to a shared decision about swimming direction. The robots can also modulate the collective decision-making process in biased and non-biased experimental setups. These results demonstrate the possibility of creating mixed societies of vertebrates and robots in order to study or control animal behavior. | <urn:uuid:307ddd4e-657f-4863-91cf-2c4134cc2ccd> | CC-MAIN-2021-25 | https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/233686 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623488269939.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20210621085922-20210621115922-00523.warc.gz | en | 0.937096 | 131 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Newcastle is making a major contribution to Australia’s soil research efforts, with two soil-related Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) headquartered at the University of Newcastle.
The CRC for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC CARE) addresses environmental contamination of all kinds, with a strong focus on soil pollution, and the CRC for High Performance Soils (Soil CRC) aims to improve the productivity of Australia’s agricultural land.
This year’s World Soil Day (Wednesday 5 December), which is themed ‘Be the solution to soil pollution’, shines a light on the importance of the work being done in Newcastle and across the nation by some of Australia’s finest soil researchers.
Chief Executive Officer of the Soil CRC, Dr Michael Crawford is excited that there is a worldwide focus on soil. “On World Soil Day we recognise the importance of soil in sustaining our agricultural systems and food production,” he says. “Soil – which holds three times as much carbon as the atmosphere – is also a crucial element in our efforts to mitigate or adapt to a changing climate.”
CRC CARE Chief Executive Officer Professor Ravi Naidu notes the significance of World Soil Day 2018. “With one-third of our planet’s soil already degraded,” he says, “this year’s theme reflects the growing realisation that chemical contamination of our environment is one of humanity’s gravest challenges, which I truly believe is as great if not greater than climate change.
“Soil pollution is particularly insidious,” says Prof Naidu, who is delivering the opening keynote address on Clean Soils: Humanity’s next great challenge at a special World Soil Day event in Seoul, South Korea. “It harms us when we eat food grown in contaminated soil and people working with soil – or children playing in it – can be exposed directly. It also disrupts the ecosystem services – the benefits that humans freely gain from the natural environment, such as water supply, erosion control and food production – upon which we rely for our quality of life.”
Dr Crawford says the Soil CRC covers a broad range of areas of soil research but research in soil pollution is part of the solution for Australia’s agricultural industry.
“One of our research projects is looking at herbicide residue in soil and the effect it has on crop productivity. This information is invaluable to farmers who need evidence-backed guidance to improve their soil and crop health.”
Among its many soil-related projects, CRC CARE is using microbes (bioremediation) to clean up hydrocarbon-contaminated soils at mine sites and developing rapid, real-time on-site sensors for detecting and analysing soil contamination. A project to remediate acid sulfate soils dramatically restored the health of wetlands near Cairns and has been hailed as a model for similarly afflicted sites globally.
CRC CARE (Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment) brings together industry, government, science and engineering to prevent, assess and clean up environmental contamination.
The Soil CRC (Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils) brings together scientists, industry and farmers to find practical solutions for the nation’s underperforming agricultural soils.
For media enquiries contact
Communications Manager CRC CARE – 0429 779 228
Communications Manager Soil CRC – 0433 812 889 | <urn:uuid:91555429-70bd-45a7-a19e-9359db64906a> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://www.soilcrc.com.au/on-world-soil-day-newcastle-leads-the-way-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578641278.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20190424114453-20190424140453-00310.warc.gz | en | 0.924625 | 727 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
Related to cephalic vein: brachial vein, axillary vein, basilic vein
subcutaneous vein that arises at the radial border of the dorsal venous network of the hand, passes upward anterior to the elbow and along the lateral side of the arm; it empties into the upper part of the axillary vein.
Synonym(s): vena cephalica [TA]
ce·phal·ic vein(sĕ-fal'ik vān) [TA]
Arises at the radial border of the dorsal venous rete of the hand, passes upward in front of the elbow and along the lateral side of the arm; it empties into the upper part of the axillary vein.
pertaining to the head, or to the head end of the body.
the width of the skull divided by the length. Sometimes expressed as 100 times the breadth divided by the length.
the vein on the cranial aspect of the forearm of most domestic mammals; much favored for intravenous injection in dogs; see Table 15. | <urn:uuid:657f50b9-3e8c-4420-b019-0e1fa6c39f53> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/cephalic+vein | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891812584.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20180219111908-20180219131908-00203.warc.gz | en | 0.828723 | 236 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Obsolete Device Woes: What To Do?
It seems like a victimless crime. Toss out an old computer or post it for sale on the Internet for a few bucks. Not a big deal, right?
Not so fast.
The Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) recently released “Guidance on Disposing of Electronic Devices and Media” underscoring the risks inherent in disposing of electronic media. The guidance is aimed at organizations that store sensitive data, including personally identifiable information (“PII”) and protected health information (“PHI”) on computer equipment such as “desktops, laptops, tablets, copiers, servers, smart phones, hard drives, USB drives, or any electronic storage device.” OCR recommends that organizations consider the following ten questions when designing policies for disposing old computer equipment:
- What data is maintained by the organization and where is it stored?
- Is the organization’s data disposal plan up to date?
- Are all asset tags and corporate identifying marks removed?
- Have all asset recovery-controlled equipment and devices been identified and isolated?
- Is data destruction of the organization’s assets handled by a certified provider?
- Have the individuals handling the organization’s assets been subjected to workforce clearance processes and undergone appropriate training?
- Is onsite hard drive destruction required?
- What is the chain of custody?
- How is equipment staged/stored prior to transfer to external sources for disposal or destruction?
- What are the logistics and security controls in moving the equipment?
The HIPAA Security Rule requires that organizations “implement policies and procedures to address the final disposition” of either the PHI or the electronic hardware itself. See 45 C.F.R. §§ 164.310(d)(2)(i)-(ii). According to prior OCR guidance, electronic PHI can be disposed of such that it would no longer be subject to HIPAA breach notification requirements by clearing, purging, or destroying the computer equipment in accordance with National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) Special Publication 800-88, Guidelines for Media Sanitization.
The NIST Guidelines for Media Sanitation discuss techniques applicable to different types of equipment and for different types of data. Broadly, NIST defines “clearing” as overwriting sensitive data with nonsensitive data, not only in the logical storage location, but in all user-addressable locations. It defines “purging” to include overwriting, block erasing, and cryptographically erasing, as well as destructive techniques like “incineration, shredding, disintegrating, degaussing, and pulverizing,” with the common theme being that the PHI is rendered inaccessible even using state of the art laboratory techniques. And it defines “destroying” as rendering the equipment itself unable to be used for subsequent storage, including disintegrating, pulverizing, melting, incinerating, and certain forms of shredding, such that the data is rendered inaccessible even using state of the art laboratory techniques.
The Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) Disposal Rule applies more broadly to any person or organization under FTC jurisdiction that maintains or possesses consumer information for a business purpose. The FTC has specified that this rule applies to all organizations that use consumer reports, including in hiring, as landlords, or in providing loans or insurance. The rule requires persons or organizations to “properly dispose of such information by taking reasonable measures to protect against unauthorized access to or use of the information” when disposing it. See 16 C.F.R. § 682.3(a). For electronic records, among such reasonable measures are “the destruction or erasure of electronic media containing consumer information so that the information cannot practicably be read or reconstructed” and the hiring of a document destruction contractor after proper due diligence of that contractor’s compliance with this rule, qualifications and references, or information security policies and procedures. Id. §§ 682.3(b)(2)-(3).
Most states and Puerto Rico also have data disposal laws that apply to businesses. For example, under New York’s General Business Law § 399-h, an organization disposing of a record containing PII must first shred the record, destroy the PII in the record, make the PII unreadable, or follow commonly accepted industry practices.
One issue that is sometimes overlooked within data security policies is that many copiers and printers store documents on their hard drives. For example, in 2013, a health care company reached a settlement of more than $1.2 million with HHS for a data breach caused by returning leased copiers without properly erasing the information on their hard drives. The FTC provides more detailed guidance for businesses that use digital copiers.
The lesson to organizations should be clear: Without a workable data disposal plan, the millions of dollars spent on securing corporate networks and protecting data from hackers could be undermined by the loss or improper disposal of an old hard drive, smart phone or tablet. In fact, in 2016, a data erasure firm purchased 200 computer drives from eBay and Craigslist and found that 67% of the drives contained personally identifiable information and 11% contained sensitive corporate data. | <urn:uuid:106ac614-583c-4b8e-976b-7bafefbfa886> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | https://www.pbwt.com/data-security-law-blog/obsolete-device-woes-what-to-do | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986684425.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20191018181458-20191018204958-00518.warc.gz | en | 0.912633 | 1,129 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Wine has evolved as part of life, culture and diet since time immemorial. As an enduring cultural symbol of fine life, the role of wine has evolved over time, changing from an important source of nutrition to a cultural complement to food and conviviality compatible with a healthy lifestyle.
The art of viticulture and winemaking has also evolved. Nevertheless, in this long historical path, one thing remains unchanged and has never been neglected; the association of wine with gastronomy, history, tradition, origin, local quality products and dignified social settings.
Cultural appreciation of wine reflects the diversity of the wine regions, the savoir-vivre and culinary habits. Quality products incite moderate consumption patterns, as it is only by savouring wine moderately and slowly that its unique complex flavours and character can be fully appreciated and enjoyed.
The wine sector and its economic operators, make an invaluable economic, social, agricultural and environmental contribution. Wine regions across the world produce an endless variety of superb products. While wine remains a natural product, technological innovations have provided better hygiene and control of the production process, contributing to the production of wines suited to contemporary consumers' palate. Today, with the overall consumption of wine declining, consumers increasingly choose higher quality wines to be enjoyed in moderation as part of a modern, sustainable and healthy lifestyle.
However, in contrast to the inherent culture of wine, many countries are experiencing concerning trends in alcohol misuse, especially related to so-called binge drinking amongst a particular socio-economic and age group, with major health,legal, economic and social implications. Despite the differences in consumption witnessed worldwide, studies show moderate consumption remains the general norm; only a minority of people misuse the high-quality beverage that is wine.
Recognising the health dangers and the negative social and economic consequences that can be caused by the misuse of alcoholic beverages and the fact that responsible consumption patterns of wine can be compatible with a healthy lifestyle, today’s culture of wine must include a common stakeholder commitment to ensuring that responsible and moderate drinking remains the social norm.
"Responsible and moderate consumption of wine must be promoted: wine is only appreciated to its fullest in moderation."
The famous vineyards and cellars of Champagne and Burgundy were added to the famous Unesco World Heritage List last 4 July joining other wine regions already included on the list. | <urn:uuid:f31635b9-d800-4dbf-9d47-0ae5d4ece57a> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | https://www.wineinmoderation.eu/en/content/Culture-of-wine.28/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891814079.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20180222081525-20180222101525-00587.warc.gz | en | 0.954448 | 484 | 2.859375 | 3 |
At 4AM on September 14, 2015, a gravitational wave was detected for the first time in human history. Its source was two black holes, 1.3 billion light years away, whose violent collision created a release of gravitational-wave power ten times greater than the combined energy of all the stars in the universe. What was behind this ground-breaking event?
Precision engineering at LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory – and innovative technology from Analog Devices. Indeed, it took a precision instrument beyond measure to successfully achieve that goal; an instrument so precise that, metaphorically speaking, if you were to take all the sand from all the beaches on Earth, LIGO could detect the removal of a single grain. Analog Devices was proud to have its converters, temperature sensors, op amps, and more utilized by LIGO. | <urn:uuid:7c555ac1-43ae-470b-b1de-106e17e12ab0> | CC-MAIN-2018-22 | https://www.spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/astrophysics/the-chirp-heard-round-the-universe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-22/segments/1526794863923.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20180521023747-20180521043747-00084.warc.gz | en | 0.952325 | 175 | 3.546875 | 4 |
Biodiversity, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Plant Systems
by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho September 23, 2008
Sustainable farming across the world relies on cultivating a diversity of crops and livestock to maximise internal input, and this is in marked contrast to the high external input monoculture of industrial farming, which is proving unsustainable in many respects. Indirect support for the sustainability of agricultural diversity is coming from an unexpected quarter. Academic ecologists are discovering that biodiverse systems are more productive.
by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho: Geneticist, Biophysicist and Director of the not-for-profit Institute of Science in Society.
For over three decades, academic ecologists have debated whether complex, species-rich ecosystems are more stable than ones with fewer species. Unfortunately, there are many definitions of complexity, and even more of stability; and so the debate continues.
The question most relevant to agriculture, and also most easily answered, is whether biodiverse systems are more productive. There is growing evidence that biodiverse systems are indeed more productive, although ecologists still disagree as to how that could be explained, and on the number of species needed to sustain an ecosystem, which has large implications also for conservation.
One hypothesis is that there is “niche complementarity” among particular combinations of species, in other words, they have mutually complementary relationships so the more species there are, the greater the chance occurrence of such complementarity. This would be due to both differences in resource requirements over space and time, and positive, symbiotic interactions between the species.
Alternatively, the greater productivity associated with diversity may be due to short-lived or transient effects, caused solely by the presence of some species with high growth rate. Or the effects could simply be experimental artefacts. The species compared may happen to include some with very low-viability, or else with very high, competitive growth rates. These ‘sampling effects’ result from the greater chance of such species being present at higher diversity, and from dynamics that cause a single species to dominate and determine how the ecosystem evolves.
Fortunately, David Tilman and his colleagues in the University of Minnesota, St. Paul, and University of Nebraska, Lincoln, can now address these questions from the results of an experiment they started in May, 1994 and continued to this day .
What is biodiversity?
- Biodiversity is the variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems.
- Biodiversity forms the foundation of the vast array of ecosystem services that critically contribute to human well-being.
- Biodiversity is important in human-managed as well as natural ecosystems.
- Decisions humans make that influence biodiversity affect the well-being of themselves and others.
Biodiversity is the foundation of ecosystem services to which human well-being is intimately linked. No feature of Earth is more complex, dynamic, and varied than the layer of living organisms that occupy its surfaces and its seas, and no feature is experiencing more dramatic change at the hands of humans than this extraordinary, singularly unique feature of Earth. This layer of living organisms—the biosphere—through the collective metabolic activities of its innumerable plants, animals, and microbes physically and chemically unites the atmosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere into one environmental system within which millions of species, including humans, have thrived. Breathable air, potable water, fertile soils, productive lands, bountiful seas, the equitable climate of Earth’s recent history, and other ecosystem services (see Box 1.1 and Key Question 2) are manifestations of the workings of life. It follows that large-scale human influences over this biota have tremendous impacts on human well-being. It also follows that the nature of these impacts, good or bad, is within the power of humans to influence (CF2).
The first conference ‘Towards a European Learning Network on Functional Agrobiodiversity’, held in The Hague, the Netherlands on 23 and 24 June 2008, resulted in the decision to establish a European Learning Network on Functional AgroBiodiversity (ELN-FAB). ECNC in cooperation with DIVERSITAS agroBIODIVERSITY International Project Office (AB-IPO) took up the coordination of this network, and the Netherlands Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment provided funding. The first phase of the project started in January 2009 and will run until the end of 2009. Further support and financial participation is being sought in order to expand the Network in the longer term.Vision
By 2030 the use of agrobiodiversity to enhance ecosystem services in a way that promotes sustainable agricultural production and contributes to sustainable rural development (triple P) is fully integrated into European agricultural policies and practices.Mission
The European Learning Network on Functional Agrobiodiversity is founded to exchange knowledge and practical experience across country and language borders, between farmers and policy makers, scientists, businesses and NGOs, to enable fast and effective implementation of best practices. This will help to optimize agrobiodiversity benefits, promote sustainable agriculture and will encourage widespread uptake of biodiversity concepts, thereby also enhancing non-agronomic ecosystem services.Objectives
The specific objectives of the project are to:
- stimulate dialogue, influence policy making and support implementation of best practices;
- generate and exchange knowledge on best and worst practices as well as on mechanisms and practices underlying functional agrobiodiversity;
- undertake outreach activities;
- provide advice to farmers, policy makers and scientists and other stakeholders.
Biodiversity is the basis for agricultural production. On the one hand it is the origin of all crops and domestic livestock and the variety within them. On the other hand, components of wild biodiversity in agricultural and associated landscapes provide and maintain ecosystem services that are essential to agricultural production (e.g. pollination).
Since nearly half of the EU’s land territory is farmed, this form of land use is in no doubt the main component of much of the semi-natural environment and the multifunctional landscapes within the European Union. Farming and biodiversity are interdependent and this is increasingly recognized by European policy makers. It is recognized that much of the negative impacts of agricultural practices on the environment and biodiversity, as witnessed over the past century, can no longer be tolerated and that a transition towards a sustainable agriculture is required for the sector to survive.
The realization that agriculture has to become more sustainable is incorporated in policy instruments from national to global level. Knowledge is being increasingly accumulated on how biodiversity can be mobilized to make agriculture sustainable. Throughout Europe, farmers, researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders are implementing various forms of agrobiodiversity. At present, this practical experience is extremely fragmented and barely accessible. The ‘European Learning Network on Functional AgroBiodiversity’ aims to change this.
Despite the recent efforts for more pro-biodiversity measures in the agricultural sector, the notion of ‘functional agrobiodiversity’ is not widely adopted or implemented in Europe. In fact, published examples are few in numbers. The European Learning Network on Functional AgroBiodiversity defines functional agrobiodiversity as follows:
Biodiversity on the scale of agricultural fields or landscapes, which provides ecosystem services that support sustainable agricultural production and can also have a positive spin-off to the regional and global environment and society as a whole.
Functional AgroBiodiversity provides regulating, provisioning and cultural ecosystem services that are essential for human well-being. Positive synergies often exist among regulating, provisioning and cultural services and with biodiversity conservation as can be seen from this conceptual diagram. The green area in the diagram highlights the core focus of the European Learning Network. The red area highlights positive spin-off of Functional AgroBiodiversity to the local (e.g. water quality, recreation) and global environment (e.g climate change) and society as a whole. The graph is adapted from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005). Supporting services are not included as they are not directly used by the people.
What is Agricultural Biodiversity?
Agricultural biodiversity is a broad term that includes all components of biological diversity of relevance to food and agriculture, and all components of biological diversity that constitute the agricultural ecosystems, also named agro-ecosystems: the variety and variability of animals, plants and micro-organisms, at the genetic, species and ecosystem levels, which are necessary to sustain key functions of the agro-ecosystem, its structure and processes
(COP decision V/5, appendix).
Agricultural biodiversity is the outcome of the interactions among genetic resources, the environment and the management systems and practices used by farmers. This is the result of both natural selection and human inventive developed over millennia.
The following dimensions of agricultural biodiversity can be identified:
1) Genetic resources for food and agriculture:
- Plant genetic resources, including crops, wild plants harvested and managed for food, trees on farms, pasture and rangeland species,
- Animal genetic resources, including domesticated animals, wild animals hunted for food, wild and farmed fish and other aquatic organisms,
- Microbial and fungal genetic resources.
These constitute the main units of production in agriculture, and include cultivated and domesticated species, managed wild plants and animals, as well as wild relatives of cultivated and domesticated species.
2) Components of biodiversity that support ecosystem services upon which agriculture is based. These include a diverse range of organisms that contribute, at various scales to, inter alia, nutrient cycling, pest and disease regulation, pollination, pollution and sediment regulation, maintenance of the hydrological cycle, erosion control, and climate regulation and carbon sequestration.
3) Abiotic factors, such as local climatic and chemical factors and the physical structure and functioning of ecosystems, which have a determining effect on agricultural biodiversity.
4) Socio-economic and cultural dimensions. Agricultural biodiversity is largely shaped and maintained by human activities and management practices, and a large number of people depend on agricultural biodiversity for sustainable livelihoods. These dimensions include traditional and local knowledge of agricultural biodiversity, cultural factors and participatory processes, as well as tourism associated with agricultural landscapes.
Key Findings from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
- Scientists have no clear idea of how many species -- from algae to blue whales -- live on earth. Estimates are up to 100 million of which only about 1.8 million have been named so far. Humans are but one of those species.
- Though the exact number is impossible to determine, an unprecedented mass extinction of life on Earth is occurring. Scientists estimate that between 150 and 200 species of life become extinct every 24 hours.
- There have always been periods of extinction in the planet's history, but this episode of species extinction is greater than anything the world has experienced for the past 65 million years – the greatest rate of extinction since the vanishing of the dinosaurs.
- This mass extinction is due, in large measure, to humankind's unsustainable methods of production and consumption, including the destruction of habitats, expanding cities, pollution, deforestation, global warming and the introduction of "invasive species".
- "Climate change is forecast to become one of the biggest threats to biodiversity," the UN Convention on Biological Diversity said in a statement marking May 22.
- "Approximately 20-30 per cent of plant and animal species assessed so far are likely to be at greater risk of extinction if increases in global average temperature exceed 1.5 to 2.5 Celsius" (2.7 to 4.5 Fahrenheit), according to a report in April 2007 by the UN climate panel. Beyond that, it said ecosystems would face ever more wrenching changes.
- Biodiversity contributes directly or indirectly to many aspects of our well-being, for instance, by providing raw materials and contributing to health. More than 60 per cent of the world's people depend directly on plants for their medicines.
- Over the past century, many people have benefited from the conversion of natural ecosystems to agricultural land and from the exploitation of biodiversity. Although many individuals benefit from activities that lead to biodiversity loss and ecosystem change, the full costs borne by society often exceed the benefits.
- World leaders agreed at a 2002 UN Summit in Johannesburg to "achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on earth."
- To achieve greater progress towards biodiversity conservation, it will be necessary – but not sufficient – to urgently strengthen actions on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
What is biodiversity?
Biodiversity (biological diversity) reflects the number, variety and variability of living organisms and how these change from one location to another and over time. Biodiversity includes diversity within species (genetic diversity), between species (species diversity), and between ecosystems (ecosystem diversity).
Biodiversity is important in all ecosystems, not only in those that are "natural" such as national parks or natural preserves, but also in those that are managed by humans, such as farms and plantations, and even urban parks. It is the basis of the multiple benefits provided by ecosystems to humans.
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For all aspects of biodiversity, current pace of change and loss is hundreds of times faster than previously in recorded history and the pace shows no indication of slowing down.
Virtually all of Earth's ecosystems have been dramatically transformed through human actions, for example, 35% of mangrove and 20% of coral reef areas have been lost.
Land areas where the changes have been particularly quick over the past two decades include:
- the Amazon basin and Southeast Asia (deforestation and expansion of croplands);
- Asia (land degradation in drylands); and
- Bangladesh, Indus Valley, parts of Middle East and Central Asia, and the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa.
Across the world, ecosystems have continued to be converted for agricultural and other uses at a constant pace over at least the last century. Conversion has been slower in areas, such as Mediterranean forests, where most suitable land for agriculture had already been converted by 1950 and where the majority of native habitats had already been lost.
Species extinction is a natural part of Earth's history. However, over the past 100 years humans have increased the extinction rate by at least 100 times compared to the natural rate. The current extinction rate is much greater than the rate at which new species arise, resulting in a net loss of biodiversity.
Within well-studied groups (conifers, cycads, amphibians, birds, and mammals), between 12% and 52% of species are threatened with extinction, according to the IUCN Red List (see Red List Indices for birds). In general the most threatened species are those that are higher up the food chain, have a low population density, live long, reproduce slowly, and live within a limited geographical area. Within many species groups, such as amphibians, African mammals, and birds in agricultural lands, the majority of species have faced a decline in the size of their population, in their geographical spread, or both. Exceptions are almost always due to human interventions, such as protection in reserves, or to species that tend to thrive in human-dominated landscapes.
The Living Planet Index compiled by the WWF is an indicator of trends in the overall abundance of wild species. Between 1970 and 2000, it indicates declines in all environments.
Since 1960, intensification of agricultural systems coupled with specialization by plant breeders and the harmonizing effects of globalization have led to a substantial reduction in the genetic diversity of domesticated plants and animals. Today a third of the 6 500 breeds of domestic species are threatened with extinction.
Comparing different types of measurements of biodiversity loss is not simple. The rate of change in one aspect of biodiversity, such as loss of species richness, does not necessarily reflect the change in another, such as habitat loss.
Furthermore, the fact that the distribution of species on Earth is becoming more homogeneous as a result of human activities represents a loss of biodiversity that is often missed when only considering changes in terms of total numbers of species. More...
Why is biodiversity loss a concern?
- What are the main links between biodiversity and human well-being?
- What competing goals can affect biodiversity?
- What is the value of biodiversity for human well-being?
- How are the impacts of biodiversity loss distributed geographically?
Biodiversity is essential for the benefits the ecosystems can provide to humans and hence for human well-being. Its role goes beyond ensuring the availability of raw materials to include security, resiliency, social relations, health, and freedoms and choices. While many people have benefited over the last century from the conversion of natural ecosystems to human-dominated ecosystems, other people have suffered from the consequences of biodiversity losses.
What is biodiversity?
Biodiversity is a contraction of biological diversity. It reflects the number, variety and variability of living organisms and how these change from one location to another and over time. Biodiversity includes diversity within species (genetic diversity), between species (species diversity), and between ecosystems (ecosystem diversity).
Biodiversity is important in all ecosystems, not only in those that are "natural" such as national parks or natural preserves, but also in those that are managed by humans, such as farms and plantations, and even urban parks. Biodiversity is the basis of the multiple benefits provided by ecosystems to humans.
Biodiversity is difficult to quantify precisely even with the tools and data sources that are available. But precise answers are seldom needed to sufficiently understand biodiversity, how it is changing, and the causes and consequences of such change.
Various ecological indicators, such as the number of species in a given area, are used to measure different aspects of biodiversity. They form a critical component of monitoring, assessment, and decision-making and are designed to communicate information quickly and easily to policy-makers. However, no single indicator captures all the dimensions of biodiversity. More...
Linkages among Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services & Human Well-being
Measuring Biodiversity: More than Species Richness
Ecological Indicators & Biodiversity
Criteria for Effective Ecological Indicators
Where is biodiversity?
Life, and thus biodiversity, is essentially everywhere on Earth's surface and in every drop of its bodies of water. This is seldom appreciated because most organisms are small or invisible to the naked eye, and many are rare, short-lived or hidden.
Documenting biodiversity is difficult. The best known dimension of biodiversity is the classification of animals and plants into species, which mainly focuses on animals observable to the naked eye, temperate ecosystems, and aspects that are used by people. Only 1.7-2 million of the 5 to 30 million species that are thought to exist on Earth have been identified so far. More complete inventories are badly needed to correct for this deficiency.
* While available data is often insufficient to provide an accurate picture of the extent and distribution of all components of biodiversity, they allow useful approximations. For instance, useful species distribution data is available for some areas, such as the temperate regions of North America, Europe and Asia, for instance for some birds and mammals. Indicators can be used to build on these inventories. Biomes are ecological communities of organisms associated with particular climatic and geographic conditions, such as deserts, grasslands, and tropical rainforests. Studying them can provide a broad picture of the various different ecological functions within a community and of its biological diversity.
Earth can also be divided into eight biogeographic realms which share a broadly similar biological evolutionary history. Between realms there is a marked difference in species composition.
* Based on present knowledge of how biodiversity changes over time, rough estimates can be made of the rates at which species become extinct. The history of life is characterized by considerable change. Fossils allow to estimate the extinction rate of species that were abundant and large enough to have left a fossil trace. Current rates of extinction are discussed in Question 3.
The dynamics of changes in natural systems and of human responses are quite different. This is due to the fact that it takes some time for changes in an ecosystem to become apparent, that feedbacks between socioeconomic and ecological systems are complex, and that it is difficult to predict thresholds at which sudden or rapid changes will occur.
Crossing a threshold may cause rapid substantial changes in biodiversity and in the benefits the ecosystem can provide to humans. This has been observed in open aquatic ecosystems when a temperature threshold was crossed or when resources were overexploited. For example, an increased nutrient input can cause the shift of coral dominated reefs to an algal dominated ecosystem, which is less diverse and productive from a biological point of view. Invasive species can also act as triggers for dramatic changes in ecosystem structure. For example, the introduction of a carnivorous jellyfish-like animal in the Black Sea caused the loss of 26 major fisheries species and has contributed to the subsequent growth of the oxygen-deprived "dead" zone.
What is the link between biodiversity and ecosystem services?
Ecosystem services are the benefits obtained by people from ecosystems. These include:
- provisioning services such as food, clean water, timber, fiber, and genetic resources;
- regulating services such as the regulation of climate, floods, disease, water quality, and pollination;
- cultural services such as recreational, aesthetic, and spiritual benefits;
- supporting services such as soil formation, and nutrient cycling.
Biodiversity plays an important role in the way ecosystems function and in the services they provide. Species composition matters as much or more than species richness when it comes to ecosystem services, since the functioning of an ecosystem, and thus its ability to provide services to humans, is strongly influenced by the ecological characteristics of the most abundant species, not by the number of species.
The local loss of an essential species can disrupt ecosystem services for a long time. Changes in the interactions between species can also lead to negative impacts on ecosystem processes.
Table: Ecological Surprises Caused by Complex Interactions
On land, biodiversity affects key ecosystem processes such as the production of living matter, nutrient and water cycling, and soil formation and retention. All of these govern and ensure supporting services that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services. Differences between regions in terms of ecosystem processes are driven mostly by differences in climate, in resource availability, and in other external factors, and not by differences in species richness. Though losses of biodiversity may have only small impacts on an ecosystem in the short term, they may reduce its capacity to adjust to changing environments in the future.
Biodiversity also affects regulating services that regulate ecosystem processes, climate, floods, disease, and water quality:
- The preservation of the number, types, and relative abundance of resident species can enhance resistance of a wide range of natural and semi-natural ecosystems against invasive species.
- There have been worldwide declines in the diversity of pollinating insects that are essential for the reproduction of many plants.
- Biodiversity, in particular the diversity of plant forms and the distribution of landscape patches, influences climate at local, regional, and global scales. Thus changes in land use and land cover that affect biodiversity can in turn affect climate. Some components of biodiversity affect carbon sequestration and thus are important in fighting climate change.
- The ecosystem's ability to control pests is strongly dependent on biodiversity and benefits food security, rural households, and national incomes of many countries.
- The microbes living in the sea contribute to pollution control by removing toxic substances from the environment, but how species diversity influences this removal is not well understood. | <urn:uuid:dd9a38d3-9699-43e5-aa7e-dc6707c8f2e5> | CC-MAIN-2015-40 | http://environment-ecology.com/biodiversity.html?start=10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-40/segments/1443736682102.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20151001215802-00080-ip-10-137-6-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93732 | 4,900 | 3.0625 | 3 |
The Gorongosa Biodiversity Science Education Program is a recent initiative of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory at Gorongosa National Park. Our objective is to guide the next generation of Mozambican university students, biologists and conservation leaders in biodiversity research and wildlife preservation through hands on capacity building workshops, research fellowships and higher education opportunities.
The Gorongosa Biodiversity Science Education Program (BioEd) is a Gorongosa Restoration Project (GRP) initiative, supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for Science Education (HHMI Science Education). BioEd seeks to develop individual Mozambican students, researchers, university faculty and technicians in ecological research and monitoring, conservation biology, sustainable development, adaptive management, and related skills. Through outreach to university faculty, development of education materials and support for replication of conservation biology workshops, BioEd seeks to improve the capacity of educational institutions in Mozambique to train conservation biologists and have a long lasting impact on Mozambique’s protected areas.
The BioEd program actively seeks out creative ways to increase the capacity of higher learning institutions and create opportunities to promote Gorongosa’s restoration and conservation model throughout Mozambique. Through the expanded educational activities, BioEd is generating replicators: individuals or institutions, who can bring the BioEd methods and information to a wider audience. The long term impacts are greater understanding of conservation biology among Mozambican scientists and conservationists, ultimately helping protected areas throughout Mozambique make more informed management decisions based on sound scientific principles.
Workshops and Advanced training
Our workshops cover a range of topics. We teach methods for conservation science and provide hands on training in biological documentation with topics such as bioinformatics and statistics. Other advanced courses focus on individual groups of organisms such as mammology, ornithology, botany and entomology. At the Wilson lab we also explore topics in plant and animal interactions, phylogenetics and systematics and plant and animal interactions.
The workshop experience is unique in Mozambique because of an integrated approach linking theory and practical experience in the field. Lectures and lab work are conducted at the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory located at the heart of Gorongosa National Park. The facilities include a lecture hall, synoptic, zoological and botanical collections, laboratories allowing for DNA preservation, extraction and amplification, and a chemical laboratory.
Students have the opportunity to conduct field work in the natural and untouched environment in the interior of Gorongosa National Park. Workshop sizes are kept small to ensure students receive one-on-one mentoring from instructors. They are immersed in a practical research environment; leaving them ready to pursue independent research in biodiversity and advance in their careers in conservation.
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|Integrated Methods in Conservation Biology||June 17th|
|Ecology & Conservation of Birds||June 17th|
|Ecology & Conservation of Mammals||July 17th|
|Teaching Youth Conservation Biology||July 17th|
|Conservation Genetics||August 17th|
|Ecology & Conservation of Invertebrates||November 17th|
|Ecology & Conservation of Reptiles/Amphibians||November 17th|
|Biodiversity Survey Methods||December 17th| | <urn:uuid:d2e4bb0a-420d-406d-ac89-429daa94fda2> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | http://www.gorongosa.org/our-story/science/science-education-program | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891815318.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20180224033332-20180224053332-00334.warc.gz | en | 0.889948 | 699 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Time domain refers to the analysis of mathematical functions, physical signals or time series of economic or environmental data, with respect to time. In the time domain, the signal or function's value is known for all real numbers, for the case of continuous time, or at various separate instants in the case of discrete time. An oscilloscope is a tool commonly used to visualize real-world signals in the time domain. A time-domain graph shows how a signal changes with time, whereas a frequency-domain graph shows how much of the signal lies within each given frequency band over a range of frequencies.
The use of the contrasting terms time domain and frequency domain developed in U.S. communication engineering in the late 1940s, with the terms appearing together without definition by 1950. When an analysis uses the second or one of its multiples as a unit of measurement, then it is in the time domain. When analysis concerns the reciprocal units such as Hertz, then it is in the frequency domain.
Acoustic impedance and specific acoustic impedance are measures of the opposition that a system presents to the acoustic flow resulting from an acoustic pressure applied to the system. The SI unit of acoustic impedance is the pascal second per cubic metre (Pa·s/m3) or the rayl per square metre (rayl/m2), while that of specific acoustic impedance is the pascal second per metre (Pa·s/m) or the rayl. In this article the symbol rayl denotes the MKS rayl. There is a close analogy with electrical impedance, which measures the opposition that a system presents to the electrical flow resulting from an electrical voltage applied to the system.Autocorrelation
Autocorrelation, also known as serial correlation, is the correlation of a signal with a delayed copy of itself as a function of delay. Informally, it is the similarity between observations as a function of the time lag between them. The analysis of autocorrelation is a mathematical tool for finding repeating patterns, such as the presence of a periodic signal obscured by noise, or identifying the missing fundamental frequency in a signal implied by its harmonic frequencies. It is often used in signal processing for analyzing functions or series of values, such as time domain signals.
Different fields of study define autocorrelation differently, and not all of these definitions are equivalent. In some fields, the term is used interchangeably with autocovariance.
Unit root processes, trend stationary processes, autoregressive processes, and moving average processes are specific forms of processes with autocorrelation.Chipless RFID
Chipless RFID tags are RFID tags that do not require a microchip in the transponder.
RFIDs offer longer range and ability to be automated, unlike barcodes that require a human operator for interrogation. The main challenge to their adoption is the cost of RFIDs. The design and fabrication of ASICs needed for RFID are the major component of their cost, so removing ICs altogether can significantly reduce its cost. The major challenges in designing chipless RFID is data encoding and transmission.Computational electromagnetics
Computational electromagnetics, computational electrodynamics or electromagnetic modeling is the process of modeling the interaction of electromagnetic fields with physical objects and the environment.
It typically involves using computationally efficient approximations to Maxwell's equations and is used to calculate antenna performance, electromagnetic compatibility, radar cross section and electromagnetic wave propagation when not in free space.
A specific part of computational electromagnetics deals with electromagnetic radiation scattered and absorbed by small particles.Control theory
Control theory in control systems engineering is a subfield of mathematics that deals with the control of continuously operating dynamical systems in engineered processes and machines. The objective is to develop a control model for controlling such systems using a control action in an optimum manner without delay or overshoot and ensuring control stability.
To do this, a controller with the requisite corrective behaviour is required. This controller monitors the controlled process variable (PV), and compares it with the reference or set point (SP). The difference between actual and desired value of the process variable, called the error signal, or SP-PV error, is applied as feedback to generate a control action to bring the controlled process variable to the same value as the set point. Other aspects which are also studied are controllability and observability. On this is based the advanced type of automation that revolutionized manufacturing, aircraft, communications and other industries. This is feedback control, which is usually continuous and involves taking measurements using a sensor and making calculated adjustments to keep the measured variable within a set range by means of a "final control element", such as a control valve.Extensive use is usually made of a diagrammatic style known as the block diagram. In it the transfer function, also known as the system function or network function, is a mathematical model of the relation between the input and output based on the differential equations describing the system.
Control theory dates from the 19th century, when the theoretical basis for the operation of governors was first described by James Clerk Maxwell. Control theory was further advanced by Edward Routh in 1874, Charles Sturm and in 1895, Adolf Hurwitz, who all contributed to the establishment of control stability criteria; and from 1922 onwards, the development of PID control theory by Nicolas Minorsky.
Although a major application of control theory is in control systems engineering, which deals with the design of process control systems for industry, other applications range far beyond this. As the general theory of feedback systems, control theory is useful wherever feedback occurs.Cross-correlation
In signal processing, cross-correlation is a measure of similarity of two series as a function of the displacement of one relative to the other. This is also known as a sliding dot product or sliding inner-product. It is commonly used for searching a long signal for a shorter, known feature. It has applications in pattern recognition, single particle analysis, electron tomography, averaging, cryptanalysis, and neurophysiology.
The cross-correlation is similar in nature to the convolution of two functions. In an autocorrelation, which is the cross-correlation of a signal with itself, there will always be a peak at a lag of zero, and its size will be the signal energy.
In probability and statistics, the term cross-correlations is used for referring to the correlations between the entries of two random vectors and , while the correlations of a random vector are considered to be the correlations between the entries of itself, those forming the correlation matrix (matrix of correlations) of . If each of and is a scalar random variable which is realized repeatedly in temporal sequence (a time series), then the correlations of the various temporal instances of are known as autocorrelations of , and the cross-correlations of with across time are temporal cross-correlations.
Furthermore, in probability and statistics the definition of correlation always includes a standardising factor in such a way that correlations have values between −1 and +1.
If and are two independent random variables with probability density functions and , respectively, then the probability density of the difference is formally given by the cross-correlation (in the signal-processing sense) ; however this terminology is not used in probability and statistics. In contrast, the convolution (equivalent to the cross-correlation of and ) gives the probability density function of the sum .Finite-difference time-domain method
Finite-difference time-domain or Yee's method (named after the Chinese American applied mathematician Kane S. Yee, born 1934) is a numerical analysis technique used for modeling computational electrodynamics (finding approximate solutions to the associated system of differential equations). Since it is a time-domain method, FDTD solutions can cover a wide frequency range with a single simulation run, and treat nonlinear material properties in a natural way.
The FDTD method belongs in the general class of grid-based differential numerical modeling methods (finite difference methods). The time-dependent Maxwell's equations (in partial differential form) are discretized using central-difference approximations to the space and time partial derivatives. The resulting finite-difference equations are solved in either software or hardware in a leapfrog manner: the electric field vector components in a volume of space are solved at a given instant in time; then the magnetic field vector components in the same spatial volume are solved at the next instant in time; and the process is repeated over and over again until the desired transient or steady-state electromagnetic field behavior is fully evolved.Fourier transform
The Fourier transform (FT) decomposes (analyzes) a function of time (a signal) into its constituent frequencies. This is similar to the way a musical chord can be expressed in terms of the volumes and frequencies (or pitches) of its constituent notes. The term Fourier transform refers to both the frequency domain representation and the mathematical operation that associates the frequency domain representation to a function of time. The Fourier transform of a function of time is itself a complex-valued function of frequency, whose magnitude (modulus) represents the amount of that frequency present in the original function, and whose argument is the phase offset of the basic sinusoid in that frequency. The Fourier transform is not limited to functions of time, but the domain of the original function is commonly referred to as the time domain. There is also an inverse Fourier transform that mathematically synthesizes the original function (of time) from its frequency domain representation.
Linear operations performed in one domain (time or frequency) have corresponding operations in the other domain, which are sometimes easier to perform. The operation of differentiation in the time domain corresponds to multiplication by the frequency, so some differential equations are easier to analyze in the frequency domain. Also, convolution in the time domain corresponds to ordinary multiplication in the frequency domain (see Convolution theorem). After performing the desired operations, transformation of the result can be made back to the time domain. Harmonic analysis is the systematic study of the relationship between the frequency and time domains, including the kinds of functions or operations that are "simpler" in one or the other, and has deep connections to many areas of modern mathematics.
Functions that are localized in the time domain have Fourier transforms that are spread out across the frequency domain and vice versa, a phenomenon known as the uncertainty principle. The critical case for this principle is the Gaussian function, of substantial importance in probability theory and statistics as well as in the study of physical phenomena exhibiting normal distribution (e.g., diffusion). The Fourier transform of a Gaussian function is another Gaussian function. Joseph Fourier introduced the transform in his study of heat transfer, where Gaussian functions appear as solutions of the heat equation.
The Fourier transform can be formally defined as an improper Riemann integral, making it an integral transform, although this definition is not suitable for many applications requiring a more sophisticated integration theory. For example, many relatively simple applications use the Dirac delta function, which can be treated formally as if it were a function, but the justification requires a mathematically more sophisticated viewpoint. The Fourier transform can also be generalized to functions of several variables on Euclidean space, sending a function of 3-dimensional 'position space' to a function of 3-dimensional momentum (or a function of space and time to a function of 4-momentum). This idea makes the spatial Fourier transform very natural in the study of waves, as well as in quantum mechanics, where it is important to be able to represent wave solutions as functions of either position or momentum and sometimes both. In general, functions to which Fourier methods are applicable are complex-valued, and possibly vector-valued. Still further generalization is possible to functions on groups, which, besides the original Fourier transform on ℝ or ℝn (viewed as groups under addition), notably includes the discrete-time Fourier transform (DTFT, group = ℤ), the discrete Fourier transform (DFT, group = ℤ mod N) and the Fourier series or circular Fourier transform (group = S1, the unit circle ≈ closed finite interval with endpoints identified). The latter is routinely employed to handle periodic functions. The fast Fourier transform (FFT) is an algorithm for computing the DFT.Frequency domain
In electronics, control systems engineering, and statistics, the frequency domain refers to the analysis of mathematical functions or signals with respect to frequency, rather than time. Put simply, a time-domain graph shows how a signal changes over time, whereas a frequency-domain graph shows how much of the signal lies within each given frequency band over a range of frequencies. A frequency-domain representation can also include information on the phase shift that must be applied to each sinusoid in order to be able to recombine the frequency components to recover the original time signal.
A given function or signal can be converted between the time and frequency domains with a pair of mathematical operators called transforms. An example is the Fourier transform, which converts a time function into a sum or integral of sine waves of different frequencies, each of which represents a frequency component. The "spectrum" of frequency components is the frequency-domain representation of the signal. The inverse Fourier transform converts the frequency-domain function back to the time function. A spectrum analyzer is a tool commonly used to visualize electronic signals in the frequency domain.
Some specialized signal processing techniques use transforms that result in a joint time–frequency domain, with the instantaneous frequency being a key link between the time domain and the frequency domain.G.729.1
G.729.1 is an 8-32 kbit/s embedded speech and audio codec providing bitstream interoperability with G.729, G.729 Annex A and G.729 Annex B. Its official name is G.729-based embedded variable bit rate codec: An 8-32 kbit/s scalable wideband coder bitstream interoperable with G.729.
This codec has been designed to provide better quality and more flexibility than the existing ITU-T G.729 speech coding standard.
G.729.1 is scalable in bit rate, acoustic bandwidth and complexity.
In addition it offers various encoder and decoder modes, including the support of both 8 and 16 kHz input/output sampling frequency, compatibility with G.729B, and reduced algorithmic delay.
The bitstream of G.729.1 is structured into 12 hierarchical layers.
The first layer (or core layer) at 8 kbit/s follows the G.729 format.
The second layer (adds 4 kbit/s for a total of 12 kbit/s) is a narrowband enhancement layer. The third layer (2 kbit/s for a total of 14 kbit/s) is a bandwidth extension layer. Further layers (in 2 kbit/s steps) are wideband enhancement layers.
The G.729.1 output bandwidth is 50–4000 Hz at 8 and
12 kbit/s, and 50–7000 Hz from 14 to 32 kbit/s. G.729.1 is also known as G.729 Annex J and G.729EV where EV stands for Embedded Variable (bit rate).
The G.729.1 algorithm is based on a three-stage coding structure: embedded Code-excited linear prediction (CELP) coding of the lower band (50–4000 Hz), parametric coding of the higher band (4000–7000 Hz) by Time-Domain Bandwidth Extension (TDBWE), and enhancement of the full band (50–7000 Hz) by a predictive transform coding technique referred to as Time-Domain Aliasing Cancellation (TDAC).
As of January 1, 2017, the patent terms of most licensed patents under the G.729 Consortium have expired, the remaining unexpired patents are usable on a royalty-free basis.Impulse response
In signal processing, the impulse response, or impulse response function (IRF), of a dynamic system is its output when presented with a brief input signal, called an impulse. More generally, an impulse response is the reaction of any dynamic system in response to some external change. In both cases, the impulse response describes the reaction of the system as a function of time (or possibly as a function of some other independent variable that parameterizes the dynamic behavior of the system).
In all these cases, the dynamic system and its impulse response may be actual physical objects, or may be mathematical systems of equations describing such objects.
Since the impulse function contains all frequencies, the impulse response defines the response of a linear time-invariant system for all frequencies.Integral transform
In mathematics, an integral transform maps an equation from its original domain into another domain where it might be manipulated and solved much more easily than in the original domain. The solution is then mapped back to the original domain using the inverse of the integral transform.Ljung–Box test
The Ljung–Box test (named for Greta M. Ljung and George E. P. Box) is a type of statistical test of whether any of a group of autocorrelations of a time series are different from zero. Instead of testing randomness at each distinct lag, it tests the "overall" randomness based on a number of lags, and is therefore a portmanteau test.
This test is sometimes known as the Ljung–Box Q test, and it is closely connected to the Box–Pierce test (which is named after George E. P. Box and David A. Pierce). In fact, the Ljung–Box test statistic was described explicitly in the paper that led to the use of the Box-Pierce statistic, and from which that statistic takes its name. The Box-Pierce test statistic is a simplified version of the Ljung–Box statistic for which subsequent simulation studies have shown poor performance.
The Ljung–Box test is widely applied in econometrics and other applications of time series analysis. A similar assessment can be also carried out with the Breusch–Godfrey test and the Durbin–Watson test.Modified discrete cosine transform
The modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) is a lapped transform based on the type-IV discrete cosine transform (DCT-IV), with the additional property of being lapped: it is designed to be performed on consecutive blocks of a larger dataset,
where subsequent blocks are overlapped so that
the last half of one block coincides with the first half of the next block.
This overlapping, in addition to the energy-compaction qualities of the DCT, makes the MDCT especially attractive for signal compression applications, since it helps to avoid artifacts stemming from the block boundaries. As a result of these advantages, the MDCT is employed in most modern lossy audio formats, including MP3, AC-3, Vorbis, Windows Media Audio, ATRAC, Cook, AAC, Opus, and LDAC.
The MDCT was proposed by Princen, Johnson, and Bradley in 1987, following earlier (1986) work by Princen and Bradley to develop the MDCT's underlying principle of time-domain aliasing cancellation (TDAC), described below. (There also exists an analogous transform, the MDST, based on the discrete sine transform, as well as other, rarely used, forms of the MDCT based on different types of DCT or DCT/DST combinations.)
In MP3, the MDCT is not applied to the audio signal directly, but rather to the output of a 32-band polyphase quadrature filter (PQF) bank. The output of this MDCT is postprocessed by an alias reduction formula to reduce the typical aliasing of the PQF filter bank. Such a combination of a filter bank with an MDCT is called a hybrid filter bank or a subband MDCT. AAC, on the other hand, normally uses a pure MDCT; only the (rarely used) MPEG-4 AAC-SSR variant (by Sony) uses a four-band PQF bank followed by an MDCT. Similar to MP3, ATRAC uses stacked quadrature mirror filters (QMF) followed by an MDCT.Orthogonal frequency-division multiple access
Orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) is a multi-user version of the popular orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) digital modulation scheme. Multiple access is achieved in OFDMA by assigning subsets of subcarriers to individual users. This allows simultaneous low-data-rate transmission from several users.Partial autocorrelation function
In time series analysis, the partial autocorrelation function (PACF) gives the partial correlation of a stationary time series with its own lagged values, regressed the values of the time series at all shorter lags. It contrasts with the autocorrelation function, which does not control for other lags.
This function plays an important role in data analysis aimed at identifying the extent of the lag in an autoregressive model. The use of this function was introduced as part of the Box–Jenkins approach to time series modelling, whereby plotting the partial autocorrelative functions one could determine the appropriate lags p in an AR (p) model or in an extended ARIMA (p,d,q) model.State-space representation
In control engineering, a state-space representation is a mathematical model of a physical system as a set of input, output and state variables related by first-order differential equations or difference equations. State variables are variables whose values evolve through time in a way that depends on the values they have at any given time and also depends on the externally imposed values of input variables. Output variables’ values depend on the values of the state variables.
The "state space" is the Euclidean space in which the variables on the axes are the state variables. The state of the system can be represented as a vector within that space.
To abstract from the number of inputs, outputs and states, these variables are expressed as vectors. Additionally, if the dynamical system is linear, time-invariant, and finite-dimensional, then the differential and algebraic equations may be written in matrix form. The state-space method is characterized by significant algebraization of general system theory, which makes it possible to use Kronecker vector-matrix structures. The capacity of these structures can be efficiently applied to research systems with modulation or without it. The state-space representation (also known as the "time-domain approach") provides a convenient and compact way to model and analyze systems with multiple inputs and outputs. With inputs and outputs, we would otherwise have to write down Laplace transforms to encode all the information about a system. Unlike the frequency domain approach, the use of the state-space representation is not limited to systems with linear components and zero initial conditions. The state-space model is used in many different areas. In econometrics, the state-space model can be used for forecasting stock prices and numerous other variables.Time-domain reflectometer
A time-domain reflectometer (TDR) is an electronic instrument that uses time-domain reflectometry to characterize and locate faults in metallic cables (for example, twisted pair wire or coaxial cable). It can also be used to locate discontinuities in a connector, printed circuit board, or any other electrical path. The equivalent device for optical fiber is an optical time-domain reflectometer.Ultrasound
Ultrasound is sound waves with frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing. Ultrasound is not different from "normal" (audible) sound in its physical properties, except that humans cannot hear it. This limit varies from person to person and is approximately 20 kilohertz (20,000 hertz) in healthy young adults. Ultrasound devices operate with frequencies from 20 kHz up to several gigahertz.
Ultrasound is used in many different fields. Ultrasonic devices are used to detect objects and measure distances. Ultrasound imaging or sonography is often used in medicine. In the nondestructive testing of products and structures, ultrasound is used to detect invisible flaws. Industrially, ultrasound is used for cleaning, mixing, and accelerating chemical processes. Animals such as bats and porpoises use ultrasound for locating prey and obstacles. Scientists are also studying ultrasound using graphene diaphragms as a method of communication. | <urn:uuid:53499768-b6da-4ca2-b2b0-bb89547f82ee> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | https://howlingpixel.com/i-en/Time_domain | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232258621.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20190526025014-20190526051014-00336.warc.gz | en | 0.917741 | 5,084 | 3.671875 | 4 |
Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful World,
With the wonderful water round you curled,
And the wonderful grass upon your breast—
World, you are beautifully drest.
The wonderful air is over me,
And the wonderful wind is shaking the tree,
It walks on the water, and whirls the mills,
And talks to itself on the tops of the hills.
You friendly Earth! how far do you go,
With the wheat-fields that nod and the rivers that flow,
With cities and gardens, and cliffs, and isles,
And people upon you for thousands of miles?
Ah, you are so great, and I am so small,
I tremble to think of you, World, at all;
And yet, when I said my prayers to-day,
A whisper inside me seemed to say,
“You are more than the Earth, though you are such a dot:
You can love and think, and the Earth cannot!”
Lilliput Lyrics (1899) | William Brighty Rands (1823–1882)
- Read the poem out loud.
- Choose one of the stanzas to copy and illustrate.
- Older students can copy the entire poem into their copybook.
- What two things are being compared? Make a compare/contrast chart.
- Younger children may enjoy thinking of other things they can do that the earth cannot.
- Find examples of personification.
- Find examples of alliteration.
Great, Wide, Beautiful, Wonderful World
Free Nature Studies: A Story of the Rocks
Nicely fits this portion of our free nature studies.
Exploring Planet Earth by John Hudson Tiner
Explore the earth! Students can work through the book on their own, providing narrations for each chapter. The questions at the end can be used for discussions. The book will help the student create a planet earth notebook (copywork, diagrams, timeline, etc.). | <urn:uuid:a5f8e2ac-10ad-45cb-b345-19be1f832a88> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://diyhomeschooler.com/great-wide-beautiful-wonderful-world-by-william-brighty-rands/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703514046.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20210117235743-20210118025743-00427.warc.gz | en | 0.861143 | 416 | 3.625 | 4 |
It is not surprising the elderly often suffer from dementia or severe cognitive impairment. In fact, this is one of the most common mental health issues among the elderly with an estimated 5 million senior adults suffering from Alzheimer’s, which is approximately 11 percent of all senior citizens in America according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
Mood disorders and depression are also common among elderly adults according to srcarecenter.com . Unfortunately, mood disorders in seniors often go undiagnosed and untreated. Approximately 5 percent of senior citizens are currently experiencing depression according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Furthermore, only about 10.5 percent of senior citizens report having been diagnosed with depression at some point during their lives.
Another mood disorder that is prevalent in the elderly is anxiety. There are a number of anxiety disorders, including phobias, hoarding syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder (also known as PTSD) and obsessive compulsive disorder. Approximately 7.6 percent of Americans aged 65 or older have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder during one point of their life, according to the CDC.
What Risk Factors Are Associated with Mental Illness?
One of the ongoing issues with diagnosing and treating mental illnesses in senior citizens is that senior citizens will typically report physical symptoms before they will ever report a psychiatric complaint. In addition to this, physical and emotional stresses associated with aging can increase the risk of mental illnesses, including depression and anxiety.
The Geriatric Mental Health Foundation has listed a number of triggers of mental illness among the elderly, including:
* Substance abuse, including illicit drugs, alcohol and prescription medications
* A change in the senior citizen’s environment like needing to move into an assisted living facility
* Illnesses that can cause dementia like Alzheimer’s disease
* Long-term illnesses of the senior citizen or their loved one
* The death of a loved one
* Side Effects and/or interactions of medications
* Physical limitations or disabilities
* Illnesses that affect the elderly person’s memory, thoughts or emotions
What Are the Ten Symptoms of Mental Illness in the Elderly?
As your loved one begins to age, certain changes will naturally occur. Forgetfulness can occur; however, memory loss or cognitive decline can become serious.
Another issue is long-term depression or excess anxiety. Caregivers of the elderly should look for warning signs, including the following symptoms:
* Changes in the way the elderly dresses
* Difficulties in the elderly maintaining their lawn or home
* Issues with decision making, concentration, disorientation or confusion
* Weight changes or changes in the elderly’s appetite
* Periods of depression lasting more than two weeks
* Feelings of helplessness, guilt or worthlessness or any thoughts of suicide
* Recent or short-term memory problems or memory loss
* Unexplained physical problems like constipation, diarrhea and aches and pains
* Withdrawing socially or losing interest in things that the senior citizen once enjoyed
* Difficulty working with numbers or handling their finances
* Unexplained sleep changes, low energy levels or fatigue
If your loved one is experiencing any of the symptoms listed above, the Geriatric Mental Health Foundation urges the senior’s loved ones to seek out help.
There are numerous professionals that will work with you to help you get your loved one the assistance that they need. Start by speaking with their family doctor. Other options include mental health counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists. The most important thing to remember is your loved one does not have to suffer alone; there is assistance available to help. | <urn:uuid:ef41dd1e-dc41-468f-a57e-01625285959f> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | https://nighthelper.com/understand-mental-health-issues-senior-citizens/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540536855.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20191212023648-20191212051648-00484.warc.gz | en | 0.940731 | 738 | 3.125 | 3 |
Connecting to a Bluetooth device from the web
Just here for the code? Jump to GitHub.
Basic Bluetooth from your browser
A BLE device has a GATT server, this server has one or more services.
Each service has one or more characteristics. Depending on the device, some characteristic can be READ, some can be WRITTEN and some can NOTIFY you of a change. Or it can be a mix of the attributes.
From the browser it looks something like this:
To connect, both your operation system and your browser would have to support BLE, to get it to work.
Next, the user must have initiated an event before (Chrome) lets you scan for a device. So no smart code that connects automatically on page load, the user must have started with a pointerup, click or touchend event.
Windows 10 users: Currently (November 2017) you would have to install this polyfill into your browser (not just the page, but your browser): AND disable experimental features in Chrome.
There is a lot of Bluetooth devices around, and the list of possible devices is quite large in my office. To help the user select the intended device, you can filter on what kind of device you are looking for.
Basic with a button
Lets try to connect to the Thingy device and after that get a notification when the push button i pressed.
The button is a characteristic of the user interface service, so after connection to the device, we need to get the user interface service and then the button characteristic.
Assume that we are in a click handler, then check for Bluetooth support and start connecting to the Bluetooth device. We end up with the server:
Next up is finding the the user interface service that holds the characteristic we are looking for. In the Thingy 52 firmware overview, we can see the id of both the UI service and the button characteristic:
After you are connected to the service, you can get a characteristic:
Each characteristic have a type, the type describes if you can read, write or get notifications from the characteristic. Some even has a mix of the types.
It took me some time to find out where to lookup how the different sensors in the Thingy 52 works. The firmware architecture page gives a good hint.
Now we need to add an eventlistener to see if something changes and read the state.
Final example for the button can be found at GitHub.
Let there be LED light
Lets continue and try to write something to a characteristic of the Thingy device. We will jump directly to where we have connection to the user interface service and the LED characteristic. After that we can write to the LED characteristics and change what the LED does, this will turn it off (default is not the off mode):
According to the Thingy manual (look in the firmware architecture section) we can write to the LED characteristic. We use the writeValue function of the characteristic, it accepts an array of bytes. From the manual, we can find that the LED has 4 modes: Off, Constant color, Breathe and One Shot:
0: Off is pretty straight what it does.
1: Constant color lights the LED with the color code we write.
2: Breathe will cycle the LED on and off with one of a few prefixed colors, using the intensity and delay we write.
3: One Shot is like Breathe, but only once, so no delay.
The length of the byte array depends on the mode we want to activate. Setting a constant colour will need us to write the constant color mode and the color we would have to set it into mode 1 and then add the color:
Breathe mode is a little more tricky. The delay is an 16 bit unsigned integer, but we can only write to an array of 8 bit unsigned int’s. To write the delay value, it has to be split into two bytes, we can do that like this:
Final example of the LED can be found at GitHub.
Its getting hot in here
Inside the Thingy 52 is a weather station that can measure temperature, pressure, humidity, air quality and then it has a light sensor. I wanted just to use the thermometer, and then leave out the other sensors to keep my experiment simple.
But it turns out that in the Thingy, you have to configure the entire environment service to get just the temperature.
It turns out that understanding the device you are talking to, might be the most difficult part in combination with the format of the byte array the device delivers or accepts.
The configuration of the weather station service looks like this:
As you can see, the service for the environment sensor has a four 16 bit unsigned integers and four 8 bit unsigned integers that needs to be set in the correct span.
After setting up the service, we can attach an event listener to each of the sensors, and then read the temperature like this:
After putting the Thingy 52 in my fridge it took about 10 minutes to go below zero degrees Celsius. So the build in sensor is not one the I would use for cooking or some other application where you would like fast temperature readings. But for the example of communicating with a weather station, it is just fine.
Working with the weather station example is found here.
Working with Bluetooth on the web is coming, but might not be ready for production yet – unless you have a setup that only is accessed from supported devices.
If you are into playing with communication with a Bluetooth device, the Thingy 52 could be a good option, as you have access to many different sensors to play with. There is environment sensors, accelerometer, gyroscope and it even has a microphone and speaker. | <urn:uuid:a1f26765-8d63-455a-a038-e89a4bdafd79> | CC-MAIN-2018-30 | https://blog.vertica.dk/2017/11/28/connecting-to-a-bluetooth-device-from-the-web/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-30/segments/1531676589172.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20180716021858-20180716041858-00540.warc.gz | en | 0.926488 | 1,185 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Help! Everything is spinning around me!
….If this is you, you may be suffering from vertigo.
“Vertigo problems are one of the most common reasons older adults seek help from their doctors.” – Blair Schachterle, Physiotherapist.
What Causes Vertigo?
Many people are surprised to learn that the source of their dizziness may be because of an inner ear or vestibular condition. Within the inner ear lie collections of calcium crystals known as otoconia or otoliths. In patients with Vertigo the otoconia are dislodged from their usual position within the utricle. This displacement can result in a sensation of vertigo. The common precursors to vertigo that are seen in Physiotherapy clinics includes:
- Head injuries
- Hitting the head from a fall
- Degeneration of the vestibular system of the inner ear
- Post ear surgeries
- Post dental work and ear trauma
A common vertigo condition called Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) is often the cause. With BPPV there is generally feelings of nausea, dizziness and a sensation of spinning. This nerve wrecking condition can affect a person’s independence, ability to work and their quality of life. Also, BPPV is common in people who have been treated with ototoxic medications such as gentamicin and those with a history of migraines.
Facts about Dizziness and Balance Disorders:
- Dizziness/vertigo is prevalent. It is estimated to occur in 1.8% of young adults to more than 30% in the elderly.
- There are about 5 to 8 million Physician visits for dizziness in the United States each year.
- In Canada, about 1.5 million people suffer from chronic vestibular problems.
- One in three people will experience dizziness or imbalance during their lifetime.
- 23-30% of adults have experienced at least one episode of dizziness, and 3.5% of adults experience chronic recurrent episodes of more than one-year duration by age 65.
- BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo) is thought to be responsible for 50% of all dizziness in seniors.
- About 20% of all dizziness seen in medical offices is due to BPPV.
The Symptoms of Vertigo Include:
- Feeling unsteady
- Spinning that last for at least a few seconds
Vertigo may also lead to other problems such as fatigue, difficulty walking, depression or disinterest in everyday activities.
Vertigo may very often be precipitated by changes in position of the head with respect to gravity. Simple activities such as getting out of bed, turning in bed or turning the head to look up can trigger vertigo. If your vertigo is triggered by head motions or position changes, vestibular rehabilitation can help. If you have vertigo that is not motion sensitive it is advisable that you see a Physician.
Can Physiotherapy Help?
Yes. Motion sensitive vertigo can be treated with vestibular rehabilitation that is offered by vestibular trained Physiotherapists.
Vestibular rehabilitation is a proven treatment for vertigo, dizziness, balance problems and vestibular disorders. Treatments for vestibular disorder may include various procedures that can be offered as part of vestibular rehabilitation.
- Assessment to enable a diagnosis
- Repositioning exercises
- Balancing exercises
- Gaze stabilization exercises
- Visual dependency reduction exercises
- Physical conditioning exercises
- Somatosensory dependence training
Benefits of Vestibular Rehabilitation:
In cases of patients that have been on medications for days, weeks or months for displaced crystal in the inner ear, they can regain normal function again. Rehabilitation of the vestibular system offers our patients the chance to feel normal again and return to active life.
At Nose Creek Sports Physiotherapy clinic we can help.
Don’t suffer in silence; seek help today!
Desmond, Advance for Audiologists July/August 2000.
Sloan PD, et al. Dizziness: State of the science. Ann Intern Med. May 1, 2001; 134(9 pt 2):823-32
U.S national Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, March 1997.
University of Virginia Health System, Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, Vestibular & Balance Center. http://www.healthsystem.Virginia.edu/internet/otolaryngology/patient_vbc.cfm.
- TMJ Care: Learn how to Relax These Muscles and Joints, and Reduce the Jaw Pain You Are Experiencing - February 11, 2020
- Longevity and Quality of Life: - January 28, 2020
- How To Create The Perfect Night Of Sleep - December 19, 2019 | <urn:uuid:7e460f8a-b715-4766-8514-9f2d5efdb573> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://www.nosecreekphysiotherapy.com/how-to-tell-when-you-are-experiencing-vertigo/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046154805.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20210804111738-20210804141738-00607.warc.gz | en | 0.919108 | 1,032 | 2.828125 | 3 |
How did the early settlers do it? With a finite supply of rations, tools and able hands to help, they ventured where few had gone before. Enduring seemingly endless strings of obstacles and setbacks, many, nevertheless, survived. How did they react when the mule came up lame, their child fell ill, or yet another handle broke out of the felling axe or grubbing hoe?
With no villages to offer sanctuary and without public-funded safety nets to drop into, they learned in a jiffy to be more creative with the resources that Providence had left to their careful management. It was through the much-practiced habit of reaching down to tug at their own proverbial bootstraps that the hardy-in-spirit stepped over or around the stumbling blocks of each new day.
The pioneer struggled to raise his simple shelter in the forest, and prayed that furrows scratched into the new land would yield much-needed foods. Likewise, those who first envisioned a village where only rural farmland existed, were faced with a plethora of decisions that required wisdom and resources.
By the early decades of the 19th century, the rural land of Albemarle County west of the seat of government in Charlottesville had been under cultivation for nearly a century. Travel followed routes very similar to today’s byways, over road surfaces that were totally at the mercy of the day’s weather. Stagecoach routes stuck to main highway arteries like the old Three-Notch’d Road, where post houses or taverns offered various services. Trips across the Blue Ridge Mountains took many days at some expense and risk.
With the building of the Virginia Central and the Blue Ridge Railroad in western Albemarle County c.1850–1858, many saw opportunities at the stations established by the railway planners. Woodville (Ivy Depot), Mechum’s River, Greenwood and Afton, where the locomotives stopped to take on water and fuel, prospered and grew. Water tanks and freight platforms at these locations were soon augmented with passenger shelters and weather-proof depots with wired communication systems.
In 1869 former Batesville native Samuel Miller’s will provided the financial means to establish a boarding facility, Miller Manual Labor School, where the county’s orphans could learn the skills necessary to provide for themselves in an increasingly industrialized society. Design work on this gigantic project was begun in 1874. To facilitate the movement of construction materials and personnel to the remote worksite, school officials, in 1876, requested that the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company establish a rail stop at a point three miles west of Mechum’s River Depot.
That same year, hearing the unmistakable sound of opportunity rattling at their farm gates, a petition was signed by landowners in the immediate region requesting that a depot also be established at this place. At a meeting with these petitioners, C&O Vice-President Williams C. Wickham agreed, decreeing the name of the new stop to be “Crozet,” memorializing the Frenchman who had engineered the railroad through the Blue Ridge Mountains during the 1850s.
The new hamlet of Crozet began its life surrounded by farmers who were familiar with one another and accustomed to lending a willing and able hand whenever needed. They were soon joined by entrepreneurs attracted to the traffic being generated by the great project at Miller School.
Immediately, a livery stable and blacksmith were needed. Arriving rail passengers could rent a horse, with or without a buggy or wagon. Others leaving on the train for a day trip or overnight excursion could secure board for their steeds at the livery. The smith on hand could perform repair work on all sorts of equipment.
The locals took in boarders, providing, for a fee, lodging, meals, baths and laundry services. The host’s workload often necessitated the hiring of additional domestic help.
A growing demand for commercial and residential space encouraged the adjoining farms belonging to the Wayland, Ballard and White families to sell off lots from the corners of their properties near the depot.
In the mid-1880’s hoteliers and merchants such as James M. Ellison, who relocated from Augusta County, provided rooms for the business traveler as well as for the growing tourist trade. Ellison’s enterprises dominated the area of town that became known as The Square.
Churches soon located in town. The earliest, Crozet Methodist, received funds from individuals, businesses and the Miller School, and, in 1889, erected their new sanctuary along Main Street, which was known at that time as Miller School Avenue and is now called Crozet Avenue.
Tradesmen of every ilk soon found their place in the progressive town, leaving little to be required from outside the village that could not be brought in easily by rail.
The new opportunity to ship by rail encouraged farmers in the region to follow the lead of the prosperous orchardists in the Covesville area and to develop new orchards of apples and peaches, especially the highly profitable Albemarle Pippin. As these fruit trees matured, Crozet came into its own as a state leader in fruit production.
The Crozet Board of Trade was formed in the first decade of the 20th century. Comprised of local businessmen with a financial interest in fruit production, they marketed the Crozet area far and wide, including hosting orchard owners for seminars and exhibitions.
Civic and fraternal organizations established followings within the village. Volunteers established and manned a free lending library in 1907. The Crozet Volunteer Fire Department was formed in 1910. In addition to protecting the village’s inhabitants from fire catastrophes, it organized an annual community parade and carnival. The Modern Woodmen fraternal band presented outdoor concerts. Dr. E. D. Davis established a hospital downtown next to his office and pharmacy. The all-volunteer Western Albemarle Rescue Squad, located in the fire department’s former squad house, has served the region around the clock since 1978.
By the 1930s, hotels, restaurants, car dealerships, a movie theater, and retail establishments provided services that one would expect to find in much larger cities.
Several decades later, a new generation of business leaders enticed thousands of industrial jobs to Crozet, supplanting the dwindling agricultural jobs and refueling the area’s growth for another solid half-century.
As with any vital, successful community, the appeal of Crozet is determined by the collective assets of its individual citizens: always ready to meet a challenge by digging a little bit deeper, and, whenever necessary, reaching down in the manner of their forebears and pulling themselves upward and onward through their faith and the strength of their character. | <urn:uuid:347f67be-eb42-4b8b-8799-e8f639f62c54> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://www.crozetgazette.com/2012/03/crozets-bootstraps/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1413507442288.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20141017005722-00010-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973985 | 1,410 | 3.609375 | 4 |
Anatomyof the lungs
The lungs refer to two large organs located in the thorax (ATS,2015). Each lung is made of spongy tissue and positioned on one sideof the chest. The lungs function as the zone of gaseous exchangebetween air and blood. In this regard, they impart oxygen into theblood stream while eliminating carbon dioxide before it reaches toxiclevels (ATS, 2015). Inhaled air enters the lungs via the primary andsecondary trachea. The tubular branches of the bronchi split intosmaller branches called bronchioles (ATS, 2015). Further divisionleads to microscopic structures referred to as alveoli. The exchangeof oxygen and carbon dioxide occurs in the alveoli (ATS, 2015). Theinterstitium forms an intricate network of cells that support thefunction of the microscopic air sacs. The air-filled lungs are linedwith a layer of thin tissue referred to as the pleura (ATS, 2015).The smooth expansion and contraction of the lungs are aided by alayer of lubricating fluid.
Airwayand epithelial anatomy
The airways consist of nasal passages that clean, warm, and moisteninhaled air. Subsequently, the resultant mucus is transmitted to thepharynx. Notably, the tonsils are located in the pharynx. Duringswallowing, the epiglottis blocks the larynx (ATS, 2015). This occursbecause the larynx is stretched up and forward while the tongue ispushed backward (ATS, 2015). The trachea consists of primary andsecondary bronchi that extend into minor branchings. Submucosalglands and smooth muscles line the walls of the trachea (ATS, 2015).Respiratory and terminal bronchioles lack cartilage tissue. Ciliatedepithelium lines the airways. In the epithelium, basal cells causethe regeneration of other cells. Moreover, submucosal glands secretefluid and mucus while goblet cells release mucus (ATS, 2015).
Vascularand lymphatic anatomy
The vascular system comprises a network of vessels that carry lymphand blood in the body. In particular, veins and arteries transportnutrients and oxygen to body tissues while removing wastes fromorgans and tissues (Evans, 2015). Arteries transmit oxygenated bloodto the body while veins transport deoxygenated blood to the heart.Capillaries refer to tiny vessels that branch away from the veins andjoin to form veins (Evans, 2015). The exchange of nutrients, oxygen,and wastes occurs in the capillaries. Furthermore, the vascularsystem forms a significant component of the digestive and respiratorysystems. The lymphatic system comprises of vessels that transportclear liquid known as lymph (Johns Hopkins Medicine). Such a systemexists within the vascular network as it helps to maintain the body’sfluid environment.
The pulmonary nerve plexus has several branches that occur along theroots of both lungs (Ross, 2015). Pulmonary circulation consists ofthe transport of deoxygenated blood from the heart to the lungs. Italso includes the subsequent transmission of oxygenated blood fromthe lungs to the heart. Blood from the right atrium and ventricle ispumped to the pulmonary artery and into each lung. After an exchangeof oxygen and wastes occurs at the alveoli, oxygenated blood passesthrough the pulmonary veins back into the heart. Consequently, bloodfrom the left ventricle enters the systemic circulation. Thepulmonary nervous system works to regulate the function of thepulmonary nerves, arteries, and veins (Ross, 2015).
Immunestructure and function
The lungs have an adept immune system that offers protection againstmicrobes that enter the spongy tissue. Inertial forces carry largeparticles out of the airstream and into the pharyngeal wall.Particles in the major airways are collected at the surface bygravity (Parham & Janeway, 2015). Subsequently, the particles aremixed with soluble liquids present in the airways. In this manner,the soluble constituents contribute to the lungs` innate immunity.The immune system acts as the primary defense against pathogens suchas viruses, bacteria, foreign cells and tissues (Parham &Janeway, 2015).
Evans, J. D. W. (2015). Cardiovascular system (4thed.). Edinburgh, UK: Elsevier.
Johns Hopkins Medicine. Overview of the Vascular System.Hopskinsmedicine.org. Retrieved fromhttp://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/conditions/cardiovascular_diseases/overview_of_the_vascular_system_85,P08254/
Parham, P. & Janeway, C. (2015). The immune system. NewYork, NY: Taylor & Francis Group.
Ross, J. (2015). Nervous system. St. Louis, Miss.: Mosby.
The American Thoracic Society (ATS). (2015). Anatomy and Function ofthe Normal Lung. Thoracic.org. Retrieved fromhttps://www.thoracic.org/copd-guidelines/for-patients/anatomy-and-function-of-the-normal-lung.php | <urn:uuid:0a75c222-4617-4f84-92b8-e10e6fd7a088> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://greatlakeslightopera.com/pathophysiology/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600401624636.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20200929025239-20200929055239-00784.warc.gz | en | 0.847589 | 1,108 | 3.953125 | 4 |
In recent years, diabetes has reached epidemic proportions. Globally, it is estimated that 387 million people are living with diabetes and the number is expected to rapidly rise in the upcoming years. Diabetes is a chronic and dangerous disease, and it is becoming almost excepted that developing it is a part of growing older, just like going grey. However, it doesn’t have to be this way, as the latest research is clearly showing.
The role that diet and lifestyle play in the development of diabetes is no very clear. In fact, you can even go as far as saying that diet and lifestyle are the cause of type II diabetes. One of the key dietary components in avoiding and treating diabetes is the level of omega-3 in your diet.
Diabetes, by plain definition, is a condition where insulin production or efficiency is impaired. The way in which the insulin function is impaired depends on the type of diabetes and there are two types:
Type 1. Also known as Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus, this is normally found in children and is predominately caused by genetics. With this type of diabetes, the immune system has destroyed the beta cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. The body is then no longer able to break down glucose due to having an insulin deficiency. The main treatment for Type 1 diabetes is insulin injections.
Type 2. This type is, by far, the most common. It’s characterized by cells becoming less sensitive to insulin, a condition known as insulin resistance, which means the cells can’t interact with glucose to properly absorb it and break it down. In response, the pancreas will often increase insulin production, which leads to having both too much glucose and too much insulin in the body. The excess demand placed on the pancreas over time may cause metabolic damage, exhaustion and inflammation, which leads to a loss of function and a reduction in the amount of insulin the pancreas can produce. Then you have the very nasty and dangerous situation of too much blood glucose, too little insulin, and reduced sensitivity of the body’s cells to that insulin. Type 2 diabetes can be caused by genetics, but is more often caused by lifestyle and diet. The treatment is a mixture of medication, specialized diets, lifestyle changes, and possibly insulin injections.
Prevention is the best way to deal with diabetes. Type 2 diabetes can often be prevented by living a healthy lifestyle but Type 1 is harder to prevent because it’s less likely to be caused by diet or environmental factors. Children who are genetic predisposed to Type 1 diabetes develop a condition called islet autoimmunity. This is where the immune system creates antibodies that attack the beta cells in the pancreas and destroy the body’s ability to produce insulin, resulting in Type 1 diabetes. In a study, cod liver oil, which is abundant in omega-3 fatty acids, was given to children that had a family history of Type 1 diabetes and were at risk for developing islet autoimmunity. The results showed that the children who had received the cod liver oil had a reduced risk of forming the autoimmunity. This indicated that omega-3 supplements may help prevent Type 1 diabetes in young children who are genetically predisposed to developing the disease.
One of the main risk factors for developing Type 2 diabetes is obesity. Excess fat on the body leads to a higher chance of becoming insulin resistant. In those dealing with a diagnosis of diabetes, obesity can also hinder the treatment and lead to more complications. Anyone who has tried to lose weight can testify that is can be extremely difficult and often feels impossible to do so without help. Omega-3 fatty acids are becoming more popular as weight loss aids and there’s good reason for it. By regulating appetite, omega-3 makes it a little easier to maintain portion control and avoid overeating. This makes omega-3 an excellent supplement to add into a diet when trying to prevent or control diabetes by helping weight loss.
Omega-3 fish oil is not only useful for preventing diabetes but it has also shown effectiveness in helping control the disease and lessen the risk of complications. Diabetic neuropathy is one of the most common complications. Neuropathy is damage to the nerve fibers and with diabetes, this happens when high blood sugar levels cause the damage. There are a few types of neuropathy that can occur due to diabetes, but the most frequently developed are peripheral neuropathy and autonomic neuropathy. Peripheral neuropathy affects the hands and feet by creating weakness, numbness, tingling sensations, or pain. Muscles may appear to change shape and move differently than normal and any sores in the area are usually slow to heal. The majority of diabetic amputations performed are due to peripheral neuropathy. Due to not being able to feel any injuries on the feet, those with peripheral neuropathy can be unaware of open sores or injuries so the wounds are not taken care of properly. This can lead to infections and tissue death, which may require amputation in severe cases. Autonomic neuropathy affects the organ systems. The nerves that control these systems become damaged and they do not function as well as they are meant to.
Although there is no cure for diabetic neuropathy, omega-3 has been shown to have an effect on the progression of neuropathy. DHA is the omega-3 fatty acid that appears to have the most impact. In a 2013 study, it was shown to help regulate glucose metabolism. Regulating glucose metabolism keeps blood sugar levels from rising high enough to damage nerve fibers. This finding was further supported by a study in April of 2015 that suggested a possible reversal of neuropathy when omega-3 was added into a diet.
Kidney disease is also a common complication of diabetes and has two contributing factors: neuropathy and high blood sugar. Due to neuropathy, the nerves controlling the kidneys may be not able to send the signals to the kidneys to allow them to function correctly. Having high blood sugar furthers plays a role because the kidneys are responsible for filtering blood, and when there is a lot of glucose in the blood, it can lead to small blood vessels in the kidney becoming damaged over time. The combination of these two factors has the potential to lead to kidney failure if allowed to progress. The prevention of diabetic organ complications using omega-3 was examined in a 2009 study and the protective abilities with regard to the kidneys was significant. A similar study in 2001 also showed that omega-3 lowered the risks of developing kidney complications.
The biggest complications of diabetes are heart disease and vascular issues. Fortunately, when it comes to cardiac and vascular health, omega-3 has shown some promise. While heart disease is already a common disease, having diabetes greatly increases the risk. This is due both to damage to circulation and abnormal cholesterol.
Damage to the vascular system can lead to vasospams and thrombosis, both of which lead to blockage of blood circulation. Due to the anti-inflammatory qualities of omega-3 fish oil, it may help protect against blockage by preventing swelling and constriction that can hinder blood flow. A study conducted in 1989 indicated that this preventive quality was effective in both types of diabetes.
The role diabetes plays in raising the risk of heart disease can mainly be attributed to cholesterol. Those with diabetes tend to have high LDL and triglyceride levels. LDL is known as the ‘bad’ cholesterol and triglycerides are fats that circulate in the blood. When there is a high amount of both LDL and triglycerides, it can cause a build-up along the walls of arteries and eventually result in blockages and heart attacks. Omega-3 appears to have the ability to lower triglyceride levels and reduce the risk of blood flow obstruction to the heart. Preventing inflammation also lowers the risk of heart disease so omega-3 battles this complication on two fronts.
Overall, omega-3 fish oil is strong nutritional aid that can be used against diabetes. It has proven to be effective for not only the prevention of diabetes but also for controlling the disease and protecting against devastating complications. Since omega-3 is inexpensive and has a very low risk for side effects, and it should form a major part of the diet of everyone, and especially those that have been diagnosed with diabetes, or who are at risk of developing it. It offers a great deal of help when dealing with diabetes, prediabetes and metabolic syndrome.
Coste, T., Gerbi, A., Vague, P., Pieroni, G., & Raccah, D. (2003). Neuroprotective Effect of Docosahexaenoic Acid-Enriched Phospholipids in Experimental Diabetic Neuropathy. Diabetes, 52(10), 2578-2585. Retrieved July 25, 2015, from http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/52/10/2578.short
Diabetes: Facts and figures. (n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2015, from https://www.idf.org/worlddiabetesday/toolkit/gp/facts-figures
Garman, J., Mulroney, S., Manigrasso, M., Flynn, E., & Maric, C. (2009). Omega-3 fatty acid rich diet prevents diabetic renal disease. AJP: Renal Physiology, 296(2).
Landgraf-Leurs, M., Drummer, C., Froschl, H., Steinhuber, R., Schacky, C., & Landgraf, R. (1990). Pilot Study on -3 Fatty Acids in Type I Diabetes Mellitus. Diabetes, 39(3), 369-375. Retrieved July 25, 2015, from http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/39/3/369.short
Levine, A. (Photographer). (2012, September 18). Stop Diabetes [Web Photo]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/
Mcveigh, G., Brennan, G., Johnston, G., Mcdermott, B., Mcgrath, L., Henry, W., . . . Hayes, J. (1993). Dietary fish oil augments nitric oxide production or release in patients with Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus. Diabetologia, 36(1), 33-38. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
Mollsten, A., Dahlquist, G., Stattin, E., & Rudberg, S. (2001). Higher Intakes of Fish Protein Are Related to a Lower Risk of Microalbuminuria in Young Swedish Type 1 Diabetic Patients. Diabetes Care, 24(5), 805-810. Retrieved July 25, 2015, from http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/24/5/805.short
Montori, V., Farmer, A., Wollan, P., & Dinneen, S. (2000). Fish oil supplementation in type 2 diabetes: A quantitative systematic review. Diabetes Care, 23(9), 1407-1415. Retrieved July 25, 2015, from http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/23/9/1407.short
Norris, J., Yin, X., Lamb, M., Barriga, K., Seifert, J., Hoffman, M., . . . Rewers, M. (2007). Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Intake and Islet Autoimmunity in Children at Increased Risk for Type 1 Diabetes. The Journal of American Medical Association, 298(12), 1420-1420. Retrieved July 25, 2015, from http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=208963
Parra, D., Ramel, A., Bandarra, N., Kiely, M., Martínez, J., & Thorsdottir, I. (2008). A diet rich in long chain omega-3 fatty acids modulates satiety in overweight and obese volunteers during weight loss. Appetite, 51(3), 676-680. Retrieved July 25, 2015, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666308004972
Sarbolouki, S., Javanbakht, M., Derakhshanian, H., Hosseinzadeh, P., Zareei, M., Hashemi, S., . . . Djalali, M. (2013). Eicosapentaenoic acid improves insulin sensitivity and blood sugar in overweight type 2 diabetes mellitus patients: A double-blind randomised clinical trial. Singapore Medical Journal, 54(7), 387-390. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
Shevalye, H., Yorek, M., Coppey, L., Holmes, A., Harper, M., Kardon, R., & Yorek, M. (2015). Effect of enriching the diet with menhaden oil or daily treatment with resolvin D1 on neuropathy in a mouse model of type 2 diabetes. Journal of Neurophysiology J Neurophysiol, 199-208. Retrieved July 25, 2015, from http://jn.physiology.org/content/early/2015/04/24/jn.00224.2015
Yee, P., Weymouth, A., Fletcher, E., & Vingrys, A. (2010). A Role for Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Supplements in Diabetic Neuropathy. Investigative Opthalmology & Visual Science Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci., 51(3), 1755-1755. Retrieved July 25, 2015, from http://iovs.arvojournals.org/Article.aspx?articleid=2165464 | <urn:uuid:178b370b-1995-4f8f-8c03-89742912c1c5> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | https://www.intelligentlabs.org/treating-and-preventing-diabetes-with-omega-3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267863834.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20180620182802-20180620202802-00624.warc.gz | en | 0.917143 | 2,867 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Humor TherapySkip to the navigation
What is humor therapy?
Humor therapy (sometimes called therapeutic humor) uses the power of smiles and laughter to aid healing. Humor therapy helps you find ways to make yourself (or others) smile and laugh more. When you think of humor therapy, picture clowns in the children's ward of a hospital cheering up sick children. Some hospitals now have humor carts that provide funny materials for people of any age. Many nurses have learned the value of providing a good laugh to those they care for.
Scientists have been researching the relation between the mind and the body, especially in connection with the body's ability to heal (a field called psychoneuroimmunology). Laughter appears to change brain chemistry and may boost the immune system .
Humor may allow a person to feel in control of a situation and make it seem more manageable. It allows people to release fears, anger, and stress , all of which can harm the body over time. Humor improves the quality of life.
What is humor therapy used for?
Anyone can use humor therapy, either preventively or as part of treatment for any disease. People commonly use it in the treatment of long-term (chronic) diseases, especially those that are made worse by stress (such as heart disease and asthma ). Chronic diseases have a negative effect on mood and attitude, which can make the disease worse. Humor therapy helps reduce the negative effects of feeling unhealthy, out of control, afraid, or helpless, which are common problems for those with cancer or chronic diseases.
Humor therapy is also valuable as a preventive measure for the caregivers of people with chronic diseases. Caregivers are at high risk of becoming sick themselves, and humor therapy can help release the stress that comes from being a caregiver. Caregivers and those they care for can practice humor therapy together, and they both are likely to have better health as a result.
Is humor therapy safe?
Humor therapy is completely safe. Your doctor is likely to approve of any efforts you make to use humor therapy, even if he or she is not aware of specific medical benefits that may result. Because it is inexpensive, risk-free, and readily available, there is little reason not to try practicing humor therapy.
Always tell your doctor if you are using an alternative therapy or if you are thinking about combining an alternative therapy with your conventional medical treatment. It may not be safe to forgo your conventional medical treatment and rely only on an alternative therapy.
Health Tools help you make wise health decisions or take action to improve your health.
Primary Medical Reviewer Adam Husney, MD - Family Medicine
Specialist Medical Reviewer Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine
Current as ofNovember 20, 2015
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Status: Real device (whether it worked is undetermined)
Students of the history of meteorology may be aware of the Tempest Prognosticator of Dr. George Merryweather, but it was news to me. The Tempest Prognosticator was a device invented in the mid-nineteenth century that allowed the forecast of storms, via leeches. Apparently there's been some debate about whether this contraption actually existed, but author Paul Collins, on his blog
, confirms that it did. In fact, it was displayed at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Here's how it worked
The "Tempest Prognosticator" consisted of twelve pint bottles of white glass, round the base of a circular stand, at the top of which was a bell surrounded by twelve hammers. Each bottle was connected with one of the hammers through a metal tube in its neck, containing a piece of whalebone and a wire, to which was attached a small gilt chain. Here is the inventor’s description of how the Prognosticator works: "After having arranged this mouse trap contrivance, into each bottle was poured rain water, to the height of an inch and a half; and a leech placed in every bottle, which was to be its future residence; and when influenced by the electromagnetic state of the atmosphere a number of leeches ascended into the tubes; in doing which they dislodged the whalebone and caused the bell to ring."
Paul Collins also reports that some guy has built a working replica
of the Prognsticator, and has it on display at the Barometer World Museum in Devon, England. No word on whether it actually worked. | <urn:uuid:4eddb7b1-ed29-43e2-9e34-081586f837e7> | CC-MAIN-2016-07 | http://hoaxes.org/weblog/comments/tempest_prognosticator | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-07/segments/1454701156520.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160205193916-00099-ip-10-236-182-209.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969556 | 344 | 3.125 | 3 |
Japan’s Remarkable Renewable Energy Drive—After Fukushima
The looming shutdown of every single one of Japan’s nuclear plants—previously the providers of nearly one-third of the nation’s electricity—has accelerated the country’s initiatives on conservation, renewable energy sources, and decentralization of electricity supply. It has also injected considerable momentum into Japan’s “green cities” initiative.
These changes are being fought by those who insist that Japan cannot live without nuclear power. The opponents include not just the utilities, but the banks who lent so much to the utilities, Keidanren (the main business federation) and much of the national government.
However, the growing cost of energy and worries about power supply are pushing firms and local governments to find alternatives. Japan responded with surprisingly rapid success in conservation and efficiency after the oil crises of 1973 and 1979. It may do so again.
At present, only two of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors are operating. One of these will be shut down at the end of the March, and the last one will go off-line in late April or early May. Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) Edano Yukio says that Japan seems likely to spend this summer with no nuclear reactors in operation at all.
Japanese reactors have regular, 13-month maintenance schedules, and the approval of national and local authorities is required before they can be restarted. In order to reassure a newly resistant public of their safety, the nuclear reactors were subject to new “stress tests” as of last year. But in late February, the stress tests were publicly deemed inadequate by Madarame Haruki, Chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission and a long-time proponent of nuclear power. That criticism has only increased opposition to restarts by prefectural governors, who are in a position to veto them. Even supportive local leaders are now calling for a resolution of the waste-storage problem before any restarts are allowed.
Buying expensive carbon fuels
To make up for the shortfall, a lot of gas, oil and coal-fired power capacity is being ramped up, newly deployed or taken out of mothballs. Data from METI indicates that in December 2011 thermal power composed 86% of power generation, with 16% of that being oil-fired, 23% coal and 46% Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Nuclear reactors provided only 7.4% of total power. Compare that with April, when nuclear was 28.2% of power generation, and thermal power (5% oil, 20% coal, 38% LNG) was 63% of the remainder. Japan’s total fuel imports in 2010 were valued at ¥17.4 trillion ($217 bil.) but increased by 25% to ¥21.8 trillion in 2011. Some was due to an actual increase in volume and some to sharp price increases. In any case, the imports rose from 3.6% of GDP to 4.6%. The increased costs seem likely to continue for the foreseeable future. As a result, the much-loathed utility TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Corporation) is slated to raise electricity prices for large lot power consumers (those using more than 500 kilowatts) by an average of 17%.
Pushback by nuclear lobby
These threatened price increases have mobilized a significant push back by Keidanren-centered business interests that still view the nuclear reactors as a cheap source of safe, reliable, low-emissions power and want them restarted. Their desire dovetails with that of the three big financial institutions which hold trillions of yen in loans to TEPCO, the biggest slice in the corporate bond market, as well as financing for other utilities.
Their nightmare scenario surely envisions Japan making it through a nuclear-free summer with no major blackouts or supply-chain disruptions. Such a scenario would perhaps tip opinion toward seeing nuclear energy as dispensable even in the short term, and thus lead to trillion of yen in stranded assets.
The banks have tried to forestall this outcome by securing reactor restarts as a pre-condition for their advancing any additional finance to a nationalized TEPCO. The financial sector and many large-lot power consumers have put forward a tsunami of arguments that the electricity price increases, resulting from costly purchases in international markets, and uncertainty of supply will exacerbate Japan’s already grim problem of hollowing out. Japan’s rising yen, shrinking population, huge public-sector debt and other handicaps already pose significant disincentives to business investment, and the power issue clearly does not help.
Conservation: a different answer
While some push nuclear restarts as the answer to the problems of availability and cost, others are accelerating moves towards greater energy efficiency and conservation as well as creating big incentives for the rapid deployment of renewable power. There were startling advances in conservation and energy efficiency last year, driven by compulsory power reductions as well as subsidies and other encouragement.
For example, a recent study by market research firm GfK reported that less than 2.2% of household ceiling lights were LED (light-emitting diodes) in January of last year, but by the week of February 13 to 19 of this year had taken a 49.4% share of the market. Falling prices through this mass production also bode well for Japanese electronics makers hard-pressed in international markets by the strong yen.
The power-consumption data suggest policy support for efficiency had significant effects. The figures of the Federation of Electric Power Companies in Japan (FERC) for the summer months of 2011 show total nationwide electricity sales, relative to the previous year, down 5% in July, 11.3% in August and 11.4% in September. Data for January 2012 indicate that power generation was down 3.7% compared to January of 2011.
Conservation and efficiency were already a growth industry before the nuclear crisis. But the new, unforeseeable spurs to innovation and diffusion may see Japan overshoot “New Growth Strategy” targets for 2020. These were established in June 2010, and aim at a “green innovation” market totaling ¥50 trillion ($625 billion, or 10% of 2011 GDP) and 1.4 million new workers. One example of the growing scale of the conservation incentives is that 80% of 104 major Japanese firms surveyed in late February by the Yomiuri planned to reduce power purchases from TEPCO. More than half (54) of the firms declared that they would invest in conservation, and 14 of the 104 replied that they would deploy some form of in-house power-generation capacity. To respond to this increasing demand for conservation, firms are rushing energy-management systems to market. Toray Engineering for example announced February 29 that it was opening sales on its “Eco-Plant EMS,” an energy management system for use in factories. The system comes with a ¥40 million ($500,000) price tag, but in on-site tests apparently achieved a 30% power reduction of air conditioning and a 10-20% reduction in factory power use overall.
Moving to renewables
Moreover, Japan has increasingly robust policies in place for diffusing renewable alternatives. In particular, its feed-in tariff (FIT)—a long-term subsidy guaranteeing producers a certain rate on the supply of electricity—has been expanded from solar to include wind, biomass, small hydro and geothermal, and will take effect by July 1.
Price setting and periods of guarantee are being determined by a five-member consultative committee that held its first meeting on March 6. The pro-renewable majority on the committee suggests these crucial elements of the policy will be robust, perhaps driving rapid diffusion and concomitant price declines in this market as well. Marubeni, NTT, Mitsui, and a host of local governments and other organizations are already committed to large-scale mega-solar, wind and related projects. The most recent data indicate that the total of mega-solar projects announced over the past year is twice what the utilities were planning to install up to 2020. This is strong evidence of how much low-hanging fruit there was in Japan, on renewables. We seem likely to find a similar story in efficiency and conservation.
Local governments have been particularly aggressive in responding to the crises driven and exacerbated by the Fukushima shock. The effective collapse of national energy policy has seen many rethink their growth strategies and revamp their intergovernmental organizations, both among themselves as well as between them and the central government. The Fukushima shock was profound for most local governments due to the existential threat to power supplies as well as the central government’s abysmal crisis management in the weeks following the disaster.
Major local governments such as Metropolitan Tokyo and Osaka are especially concerned by their vulnerability to highly centralized power generation and transmission as well as its clearly incompetent governance by the national administration. One of their responses to this threat from centralized, overly complex energy institutions dominated by vested interests has been to increase local resilience and autonomy via decentralized power generation. Tokyo, for example, determined that it needed its own generation capacity in order to maintain subway transport and other critical functions in the event of an emergency. So it is installing gas-fired power and a small-scale smart grid separate from the TEPCO utility. Also, Osaka City and Osaka Prefecture have banded together to launch an energy commission, which met on February 27. They are explicitly committed to ramping up conservation and renewables in the face of the central government’s immobilism. Kobe and Kyoto have joined Osaka as partners in the effort.
Other prefectures, including Kanagawa and Saitama, are also explicitly aiming their policymaking at efficiency and fostering an energy shift to renewable power so as to enhance self-reliance, employment and business opportunities, as well as international competitiveness. As of late February, local governments’ Fiscal 2012 initial budget compilations have a combined ¥52 billion ($650 million) investment aimed at fostering renewable power projects. While not tallied yet, the locals’ investments in conservation and energy efficiency are many multiples of the budget for renewables. The central government’s feed-in-tariff adds to these kinds of generalized incentives to enhance local resilience.
National government divided
The central government seems deeply conflicted. On the one hand, it appears to be waiting for a crisis in power supply to drive restarts. On the other hand, it is using the ongoing crisis to act rapidly to reshape the power economy and thus leverage green growth prospects. So, Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko, partial to MOF and the banks, repeatedly calls for restarts while distracting himself with crafting visions for raising the consumption tax, though such fiscal austerity killed a recovery back in 1997. And his METI Minister, Edano Yukio, announced in a January 26 press conference that restarts might be unavoidable, yet failed to outline any serious initiatives for further incentivizing efficiency. Surely both understand that the longer they dawdle, allowing uncertainty free reign, the more damage is done to incentives to invest in Japan. As we have seen repeatedly over the past year, the nuclear lobby will say almost anything to keep their assets from becoming stranded. And that is what they are doing now, while the Noda Cabinet is preoccupied with papering over its divisions.
However, at the same time, central agencies are also rushing to keep up with events by deregulating so as to foster new industry as well as to open farmland, waterways and parks to renewable power projects. Among recent moves, the METI is indicating that it will exempt solar from the factory site regulations on green space as well as include solar in calculations of peak-power supply. Even the EU countries don't do the latter as their peak demand is at night. But Japan's peak is in daytime in the summer due to air-conditioning demand, and this coincides well with peak insolation and solar output. Also, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries recently announced 1000 regional sites for small hydro and other renewable projects. There is more than a little irony in seeing the political class that was elected on a promise to displace bureaucrats being outclassed by them in a crisis.
New deregulatory efforts
These new deregulatory efforts are worth watching. They carry on from the flagship comprehensive special zone law, which was passed on June 22, 2011. The zone initiative was billed as a means to “concentrate resources of central and local government in areas of high pioneering potential.” It is not simply a relaxation of rules but also an overall package of support that includes regulatory exemptions, tax breaks, financial aid and loans and other mechanisms aimed at innovation. The major types of comprehensive special zones are the international strategic zones and the regional revitalization zones. The strategic zones are aimed at clustering industry and related intellectual and other resources so as to increase growth opportunities in the environment, next-generation energy, bio life science, and other areas. These zones include a “Green Asia International Strategy comprehensive special zone,” which groups Fukuoka City and Prefecture with Kitakyushu City in an initiative to position their region in western Japan as the gateway to Asia.
Kitakyushu’s Dokai Bay, “Sea of Death” (1960s) (Kitakyushu home page)
There are seven special zones as of February 2012. In total, they comprise budgetary requests of ¥153.9 billion yen ($1.9 billion) which are expected to lead to ¥6.97 trillion ($85 billion) in new economic activity and 298,000 new jobs.
There are at present 26 regional revitalization zones. The ambit of this zone program includes disaster prevention and mitigation, environment and next-generation industry, tourism and culture, agriculture, biomass, finance and social business, healthcare and nursing. The total fiscal scale of the zones is ¥63 billion ($0.7 billion) that is expected to lead to ¥2.15 trillion ($26 billion) in new business activity and 67,000 new jobs.
The tax breaks in the international strategy zone are focused on lowering the corporate tax in order to foster competitiveness in international markets, while those in the regional revitalization zones centre on deductions for individual investment in enterprises that are part of the strategy.
Kitakyushu’s Dokai Bay (today)
Green cities initiative
This flurry of deregulation policies is increasingly being funneled into the larger environmental “future city” initiative. This latter policy regime carries on from the “eco-model city” program that was put in place in the summer of 2008, and has helped environmental award-winning cities like Kitakyushu in Fukuoka Prefecture deepen their green business and expand their overseas sales. Kitakyushu last year became the first Asian city for the OECD’s Green City Program. It is also exporting its expertise on recycling to such Chinese cities as Dalian and Qingdao. And it is expanding its reach in the global water business that in 2007 was assessed at ¥36.2 trillion ($440 billion) and is expected to reach ¥86.5 trillion ($1.05 trillion) in 2025. Kitakyushu’s water-management business is finding purchasers in Cambodia’s Phnom Penh as well as Vietnam’s Hai Phong. The future city policy that Kitakyushu is part of was adopted as one of the 21 national strategic projects of the “new growth strategy” passed on June 18, 2010.
This initiative is not simply for green growth; it also includes measures for dealing with rapidly aging societies and disseminating policy lessons learned from within the eco-model cities. The initiative seeks synergies among these categories as well as from among the recipient cities. On December 22, 11 cities were selected as eco-model cities. Five were outside of Tohoku, the area hit by the earthquake. These five include Kitakyushu and Yokohama among those previously designated as eco-model cities. But after March 11, 2011, the national authorities expanded the group to include six from the affected area. These six cities include hard-hit Minamisoma and Kamaishi.
The inclusion of these cities in the larger initiative indicates that the government is drawing on outstanding successes of the eco-model city initiative, and expanding it to devastated areas. These successes include the realization of targets for such aspects as recycling, international engagement, and the demonstration of energy management systems. The core devastated areas are being rebuilt as renewable-centered smart cities with funding from the ¥19 trillion ($237 billion) fund for reconstruction. Japanese policymakers clearly see including them in the overall green-city project as a way to encourage application of lessons learned from both the cities initially involved in the eco-city project as well as those that are trying to rebuild from the tsunami. It is a means of speeding the dissemination of policy learning among local governments in general as well as to overseas markets.
Japan seeks lead in new global market
Japan is seeking to use its policy tools and experience as a means to gain leadership in the export of green-city models. This is a new and rapidly growing market. The University of Westminster’s authoritative International Eco Cities Initiative reports that its most recent (September, 2011) international survey found “an unprecedented mushrooming of various kinds of eco-city initiatives and projects across the world,” with a total of 174 eco-cities projects catalogued. Japan’s initiative is not just a bureaucratic talking shop. The eco-city initiative was institutionalized on December 14, 2008 and included 130 organizations. Of these organizations 70 were “highly motivated municipalities,” along with 39 prefectures, 12 related government ministries and 19 related organs of government. As of November, 2011, these ranks had swelled to 89 cities, 46 prefectures, 12 governmental offices, 29 public organizations, and 28 organizations from the private sector for a total of 204 organizations. The private sector members include Japan IBM, Mitsubishi Automobiles, Pacific Consulting, and Nikkei BP. The latter is very strongly interested in a global “smart city” market that it expects to reach a cumulative ¥4,000 trillion ($49 trillion) by 2030.
The tug of war
To what extent will these nice-sounding initiatives actually bear fruit? That remains to be seen. But to make an assessment of the chances, we need to get back to the context for all these policy moves. The potential for a zero-nuclear summer certainly presents risks to Japan. But it also affords an opportunity to ramp up the diffusion of cutting edge conservation and renewable technologies as well as to accelerate other focused action in this existing set of policies for fostering sustainable growth in green cities.
With powerful pressure from subnational governments, the green cities policy regime may become the agency for driving the Japanese political economy onto a sustainable growth track. The more Japan is pressed to rapidly innovate models of green city growth, the greater its prospects of realizing the national strategy of expanding green-city exports.
The problem with implementing this national strategy hitherto has been the enormous weight of vested interests in the power and Keidanren-centered manufacturing sector. They seek to shape green growth to accord with their own institutional interests which have long been bound up with nuclear power and TEPCO. Among other unwise things, that meant maintaining power monopolies and suppressing the diffusion of renewables and smart grids. Such interests are incompatible with the most competitive and sustainable green city model. Rather, the weight of vested interests has threatened to produce something of a “Galapagos effect,” referring to an environment found nowhere else, giving Japan a hamstrung green city model unsuited to most of the potential green-city markets in rapidly growing Asia and other regions.
But with the FIT and local initiatives, some of Japan’s most innovative providers of capital, including Softbank, have increasingly robust incentives and opportunities to wreak creative destruction in power and other strategic markets. Through deploying the most advanced technology and business practices, they increase the pressure on others, including the central government, to move faster and smarter. Perhaps this conjunction of daunting incentives and capable players in Japan’s power sector can help make the country’s green-city policy regime truly world class.
This is a revised and expanded version of an article that appeared in The Oriental Economist, March 2012.
Andrew DeWit is Professor in the School of Policy Studies at Rikkyo University and an Asia-Pacific Journal coordinator. With Iida Tetsunari and Kaneko Masaru, he is coauthor of “Fukushima and the Political Economy of Power Policy in Japan,” in Jeff Kingston (ed.) Natural Disaster and Nuclear Crisis in Japan.
Recommended citation: Andrew DeWit, 'Japan's Remarkable Renewable Energy Drive- After Fukushima,' The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 10, Issue 11, No 10, March 11, 2012. | <urn:uuid:618a1a3c-6f55-414b-9889-b92b143532a2> | CC-MAIN-2015-06 | http://www.japanfocus.org/-Andrew-DeWit/3721 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-06/segments/1422122127848.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20150124175527-00117-ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957577 | 4,317 | 2.90625 | 3 |
The scientists theorize that “future framing” may contribute to conservative cynicism, especially “when year after year, we don’t seem to get that close to death,” Baldwin said. “Conservatives might become rather skeptical of the science that led us to the conclusion that we are in trouble. Perhaps focusing on the possible negative future doesn’t drive home the fact that our Earth really has changed a lot.”
This strategy might also counter the argument often invoked by conservatives that today’s global warming is just another example of natural climate variations that have occurred historically. …
In one of the study’s experiments, “We show people pictures of environmental change — for example, an image of a lake full of water, right next to an image of that same lake totally dried up,” he said. “Conservatives really respond to these images of drastic change from the more ‘perfect’ past. I can imagine doing something similar with extreme weather events as the focus. Following a large hurricane, for example, we could focus on how the planet in the past did not experience such events, and then create a contrast by saying something like, ‘Shouldn’t we work hard to return to a state of the planet where we don’t have to experience them anymore?’
The scientists found that, from 1975 up to 2011, solar panels were actually a source of greenhouse gases globally. The emissions avoided by existing solar panels were insufficient to offset the amount of emissions being produced by the rapid production of new solar panels.
But in 2011, this flipped. Instead of being a net source of emissions, the solar industry started avoiding more emissions than it emitted, providing a net climate benefit. Continue reading
In a paper in the journal Science Advances, they said the actual range could be between 4.78C to 7.36C by 2100, based on one set of calculations.
Some have dismissed the idea that the world would continue to burn fossil fuels despite obvious global warming, but emissions are still increasing despite a 1C rise in average thermometer readings since the 1880s.
And US President-elect Donald Trump has said he will rip up America’s commitments to the fight against climate change.
The United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) said that pledges put forward to cut emissions would see temperatures rise by 3C above pre-industrial levels, far above the the 2C of the Paris climate agreement, which comes into force on Friday.
At least a quarter must be cut from emissions by the end of the next decade, compared with current trends, the UN said.
This, on current trends, will be the hottest year ever measured. The previous record was set in 2015; the one before in 2014. Fifteen of the 16 warmest years have occurred in the 21st century. Each of the past 14 months has beaten the global monthly temperature record. But you can still hear people repeating the old claim, first proposed by fossil fuel lobbyists, that global warming stopped in 1998.
Lesson One. Physics Trumps Politics and Economics. Every Time.
The first lesson I learned from the planet is about the absurdity of our “real world” politics and economics.
Despite what many people claim, politics and economics are arbitrary systems of belief that people in power have invented over the years. And regardless of what we have been brought up to believe, the planet does not actually obey the rules of politics and economics. It never has.
Lesson Two. Thermodynamics and Systems Thinking are Powerful Tools.
The next lesson I’ve learned over the years is that thermodynamics and systems thinking are very powerful tools for understanding and describing the workings of our planet.
- Facts alone are not enough to win the argument
- Relying on expert opinion to build public engagement can sometimes backfire
- Tell a good story
- Identify messages of hope | <urn:uuid:55119a9e-9883-4cb1-b51c-9d961ec0df5d> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | https://tippingpointnorthsouth.org/tag/climate-change/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934806660.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20171122194844-20171122214844-00196.warc.gz | en | 0.947469 | 809 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Dental Implants are a dental treatment to replace missing, broken or loose teeth. Implants replace the original tooth root. Implants are small fixtures or posts made from titanium. Titanium is same biocompatible metal used for orthopaedic plates throughout the body.
Dental implants are permanently fixed in the bone to replace missing teeth. Removable dentures or dental bridges used to be the only options to replace a missing tooth or teeth. Removable dentures need daily removal and cleaning, which can be a hassle.
The modern dental implant procedure involves placing a titanium fixture on the jawbone. The purpose of this titanium fixture is to anchor and support a false tooth, or a false set of teeth. The titanium implants integrate within the jawbone and act as an artificial root. An artificial tooth or crown is mounted on the dental implant. Our dentists advocate for dental implants as they are a effective tooth replacement method. Implants rebuild proper:
chewing and speech ability.
What is the procedure for dental implants?
Dental implants involve a two-step procedure:
In the first step the dentist will take some x-rays and assess your mouth and the implant site. They also assess the quality, density, width and length of the bone where the implant is going to go.
After the assessment, the dental implant will go on the bone. The bone is then allowed to heal. The healing may take 3-6 months. In the meantime, the dentist will make a temporary tooth to cover the implant area. This is usually done for front teeth.
In the second step the dentist assesses the healing of implants.
Once the healing is complete, the dentist will remove the temporary dental implant cap.
A permanent porcelain dental crown is used to fill the space. This is permanently screwed on the implant.
What are the benefits of dental implants?
There are many benefits of using dental implants. Dental implants can prevent bone deterioration that occurs when teeth are missing. They can also preserve your natural facial structure.
Dental implants are a long-term solution. Whilst your implant may need adjustment from time to time, they can last a long time when maintained. We recommend good brushing and flossing of your teeth and proper care of your implants.
Cavities cannot develop in a replacement tooth. This is another key benefit of dental implants.
Our dentists can assist you with your implant needs. Please contact Cohuna Dental, Cohuna to find out more about our implant services. Our dentists will assess your mouth and inform you whether you would benefit from dental implants. | <urn:uuid:fbad44d2-54c6-4e78-80e2-2634af75658a> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://www.cohunadentist.com.au/dental-implants | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320300244.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20220116210734-20220117000734-00119.warc.gz | en | 0.883004 | 568 | 2.859375 | 3 |
On Death and Dying
How long can we live without water?
Searched this on the web. Most these answers don't seem very scientific, are all over the place, not thorougly researched. Still, using Nate Silver's method, we can add them all up and get a rough idea. - dc
Live Strong dot com - Generally speaking, people can only survive about a week without water.
Scientific American (introductory paragraph before you have to pay)
Life's Little Mysteries: (In the wilderness) After 3 days, you need water or you'll perish. Some people have survived 8 to 10 days without water.
Waterpage.com: A person can survive only three to five days without water, in some cases people have survived for an average of one week.
How Stuff Works - Survival: Assuming you're in reasonable shape and in ideal conditions -- that is, not in the heat or cold and not exerting, a human can probably live for about 3 to 5 days without any water. Healthier humans can live another day or so longer.
Answers.com: A human body can survive 8-14 days without water depending on the person and how fast sweat, urine, and tears are leaving the body
A 97 year old woman survived 8 days without drinking or eating anything under the rubble of her home after earthquake occurred in Iran in January 2004
Yahoo Answers has a discussion | <urn:uuid:0fdf6338-b158-4463-9b03-28585aae2d19> | CC-MAIN-2015-40 | http://www.cuke.com/deathanddying/livewithoutwater.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-40/segments/1443737961332.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20151001221921-00035-ip-10-137-6-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929035 | 290 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Best Lizard Control Services in Bangalore
Contact our pest management professional if you find lizards in your living space. Our pest management professional will conduct an inspection and create a comprehensive control plan that is based on the inspection findings
Lizards are the most species among extant reptiles, comprising about 60% of all living species. Lizards rely heavily on body language, using specific postures, gestures, and movements to define territory, resolve disputes, and entice mates.
Frequently asked questions
What attracts the Lizards to enter into Home?
Crawling Insects: The common house lizard is, of course, insectivorous, insects area unit one in all their favourite things to eat. They usually eat spiders, snails, caterpillars, and everyone forms of insect that they realize locomotion concerning. If your house encompasses a secondary pesterer infestation of those locomotion insects, they’re what attracts lizards in your home.
Flying insects: Aside from creep insects, lizards wish to target flying insects like flies, mosquitoes, winged termites, and crickets. Since lizards square measure capable of scaling walls because of their ability to stay and climb walls, they’ll catch flying prey, particularly people who fly on the brink of light-weight sources.
Fruits and Plants: Lizards are not limited to eating insects — they eat fruits and plants, too. Some lizards, like the bearded dragon, eats vegetables and other vegetation as a substitute for insects. Plant-eating lizards can become problematic for people who have gardens, especially when their population grows and begin eating your garden plants. Reducing the number of insects around the area is one way of deterring lizards from going to your garden.
Water: Like most reptiles, lizards need water to stay alive. Water comprises roughly two-thirds of the body weight of reptiles and amphibians, making it essential for their health and well-being. A house with water, food and shelter are what attracts lizards in your home.
What is the average lifespan of a lizard?
The lifespan depends on which species of lizards you’re talking about; a common house Gecko lives around 10-15 years, Chameleons live 5-7 years, Iguanas live to be around 20 years of age and the largest of the reptiles Komodo Dragons live for a whopping 40 years on average
Are house lizards harmful to humans?
These small geckos are non-venomous and not deadly to humans. Medium to large geckos may bite if distressed; however, their bite is gentle and will not pierce the skin. A tropical gecko, Hemidactylus frenatus thrives in warm, humid areas where it can crawl around on rotting wood in search of the insects it eats.
Can pest control get rid of lizards?
To get rid of lizards it is necessary to get rid of the insects. Sticky tapes are effective against lizards once their food sources have been deprived, sticky traps will easily catch lizards. Naphthalene balls are very effective for Lizard Control. They keep bugs and insects away and in turn drive away lizards.
HAVE ANY QUESTIONS RELATED TO PESTS ? CONTACT US IMMEDIATELY
SHASHI Pest Solutions is one of the leading Pest Control Service providers in Bangalore with a vision of providing cost effective, reliable and efficient pest control treatment services.
# 715/1, Hari Complex,
2nd Cross, KR Road, Banashankari 2nd Stage, Bangalore - 560 070.
+91 98804 11181
Executive Center - MFR-Greenheart, Level 7, Manyata Tech park, Hebbal
Outer Ring Road,
Bangalore - 560 045
+91 94488 38181
Executive Center - Ramaiah Soft Tech Park, 10th Floor, Wing C, kadubeesanahalli, Varthur Hobli,
Bangalore - 560 103
+91 94488 38181
SHASHI PEST SOLUTIONS © 2019 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. | <urn:uuid:77c8b32c-8800-4125-9314-a53182b5a9e0> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://www.shashipestcontrol.com/lizard-control-in-bangalore/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618039544239.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20210421130234-20210421160234-00021.warc.gz | en | 0.915758 | 855 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Those ears of sweet, crisp corn that are such a familiar part of summertime picnics haven't always looked or tasted that way. Rather, this staple veggieand its geneshave been tweaked over time by thousands of generations of humans hoping to harvest a better crop.
Now, an Agricultural Research Service geneticist and his colleagues from across the country have discovered what impact all those years of preferential planting have had on corn's genetic makeup.
In this week's issue of the journal Science, the scientists report their discoveries on which genes play a role in making corn the important food and animal feed source we know today. Michael McMullen, a geneticist in ARS' Plant Genetics Research Unit at Columbia, Mo., worked with lead author Brandon Gaut of the University of California, Irvine, and scientists from the University of Missouri and the University of Wisconsin.
It's generally believed that corn was domesticated from its wild relative, teosinte, some 6,000 to 9,000 years ago in Mexico. A wild grass, teosinte doesn't look much like corn; it even lacks the "ears" that make corn plants so recognizable.
The researchers discovered that humans, starting with ancient Americans to present-day growers, have impacted about 2 to 4 percent of corn's genes in their quest for a better-tasting and more cultivatable corn crop. The scientists believe the affected genes are most likely linked to qualities like growth and yield.
Their work has many implications, including establishing an approach for studying the genetics of domestication of other crops and animals.
The research also indicates that while a large amount of genetic diversity still remains for the vast majority of corn's genesenabling future corn improvement by plant breedersknowing the 2 to 4 percent currently lacking genetic variation will help plant geneticists use wild and exotic corn varieties to continually improve this important crop.
ARS is the chief scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. | <urn:uuid:f797f5ce-6b0a-4c78-81b5-4d05efa22742> | CC-MAIN-2015-11 | http://ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2005/050526.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-11/segments/1424936463658.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20150226074103-00068-ip-10-28-5-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948046 | 401 | 4.03125 | 4 |
At St Peter’s we believe that RE is fundamental in developing pupil’s knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and world views. Our Curriculum gives opportunities for the children to think rigorously, creatively, imaginatively and respectfully. Pupils can weigh up for themselves the value of wisdom from different communities and respond by expressing insight into others’ lives. The development of this dialogue enables them to participate positively in a society diverse in religion and world views. Fundamentally, RE also gives pupils time and space to reflect and explore their own beliefs, values and identity.
RE at St Peter’s helps pupils to know and understand Christianity as a living world faith. Christianity is the predominant religion in Nottinghamshire. We believe that providing the children with knowledge and understanding of the primary faith in their community (alongside other religions) is invaluable. Throughout the Curriculum we also consider the impact and connection that Christianity has on Britain’s cultural heritage and the lives of people worldwide.
Christianity is covered in every year group, always aiming to revisit and build on prior knowledge and understanding. In Year 3 this begins with investigating Jesus and the concept of prayer through examination of Bible passages. In Year 3 the pupils also visit St Peter's Church, in order to explore a place of local worship. This learning is built on in Year 4, with a unit on spiritual expression. In Year 4 pupils also consider what it means to be a Christian and inspirational people from the Bible. In Year 5 they not only look further at inspirational people - but what they can learn from great leaders in history. They also study the journey of life and death and the concept of a pilgrimage. In Year 6, pupils bring all of their prior learning together to reflect on what can be gained from the teachings and wisdom of Christianity. They also consider the importance of Christianity for the family, local community and when facing global issues such as human justice.
At St Peters, alongside a focus on Christianity, the teaching of a wide range of religions is instrumental in developing not only the pupils knowledge and understanding, but their tolerance and respect of others. Judaism, Islam and Hinduism are taught alongside Christianity, with similarities and differences between these religions always a predominant focus. In Year 3, Hinduism and its festivals are explored in conjunction with the History unit of work of India and in comparison to Christian festivals. In Year 4, they look at Islam and Christianity and how Muslim and Christian beliefs about God impact their lives. In Year 5, they consider the Journey of life and death for Judaism and Christianity. They also look at what a Pilgrimage means to different faiths. In Year 6 they study Judaism as part of their History unit on the Holocaust.
The teaching of RE is rich and diverse involving discussing, debating, creating and performing. Therefore at St Peters we aim to embed RE alongside other Curriculum areas such as History, English, Art and Music. We provide a learning climate of honesty, tolerance and openness in our classrooms where pupils are given the opportunity to explore, reflect and ask challenging questions about life in a safe space. | <urn:uuid:622308df-87a5-401a-bab4-44d6a0c261d8> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://www.stpetersjunior.org.uk/religious-education-curriculum/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400196999.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20200920062737-20200920092737-00580.warc.gz | en | 0.950869 | 630 | 3.453125 | 3 |
One of the significant challenges in current markets for medical technology is the evolving definitions that dictate the nature of the competitive landscape. The unrelenting economic forces underpinning medtech — to drive down the cost of healthcare — have forced manufacturers to respond to competition that is broader, more aggressive and centered considerably less on “features” than on “benefits”, with benefits under intense scrutiny. Healthcare systems have limited the number of contracted vendors and the lower prices have reduced manufacturers’ margins, which has shaken out those unable to compete on cost and resulted in a market increasingly characterized by a much smaller number of competitors who must compete against all therapeutic alternatives, regardless of the nature of the technology approach.
In a very real sense, medical technology has in fact enabled these forces as manufacturers have responded to the market forces by developing products that compete, cost effectively, on a broader therapeutic scale. Innovators have been steadily stretching the boundaries of possibility through advanced materials technologies development (polymers, hybrids and embedded drugs, nanomaterial and other coatings, etc.). Researchers in basic and applied sciences are combining understanding from multiple disciplines impacting medtech performance — the benefits of understanding in cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, chemistry, flow dynamics, computer science, statistics, physics, and others are increasing the performance in vivo of new medical technologies.
As a result, the nature of medical technology has changed, particularly relative to competition. Below is a THEN and NOW view of medical technology.
Source: MedMarket Diligence, LLC | <urn:uuid:2ccdee7b-6848-4f27-82f0-0f8db218a187> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://blog.mediligence.com/2013/05/07/medical-technology-being-redefined-by-forces-innovation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802769373.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075249-00175-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942673 | 308 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Gongs Unlimited is decidedly gymnastic about it - as we stretch to be on both sides of the issue: skeptical of the specific or extreme claims, but very open to the obvious idea and evidence that sound frequencies assist healing.
So without any more ado....
Before we discuss the surfeit of youtube videos brimming with binaural beats and the near-hyperbolic claims to miracle healing via the Solfeggio Frequencies, let us take a step back and listen to the big picture.
What are they, these Solfeggios?
Well, Solfeggio is an Italian word that comes from two of the syllables in the scale: sol and fa. Solfeggio has long been a very helpfulmethod of teaching music that uses pitch-singing and sight-singing.
Sight-singing is singing music on first sight of the written music, while pitch-singing is singing by ear. Before Solfeggio was Italian though, it was Greek. (It is definitely a Mediterranean diet of tones.)
It is commonly accepted that Pythagoras created what we know to be the Solfeggio Frequencies.
A Greek mathematician and philosopher, P-Thag (his hip-hop name) lived circa 570 to 495 BC.
One day while he was observing a blacksmith hammering, P-Thag became very aware of the musical notes emanating from the strikes. Being the smart fellow that he was, Pythagoras ran home and began experimenting on his lyre. He did some deducing that sound had a mathematical nature, and, thus, he believed that music could heal.
Pythagoras obviously had not seen the anguish that many students have with Math. They do not associate that subject with healing or feeling better.
Soon, a type of musical tuning system was developed that we now call Pythagorean Tuning. Widely purported to be the oldest method of tuning, there are some Babylonian texts however, that suggest even before Pythagoras, a similar style of tuning existed as far back as 1800 BC.
The Pythagoras tuning method uses a generator for mathematical ratios between notes that is a 3:2 ratio. It is a perfect fifth. A pretty sounding interval.
Because the ratio is simple and smooth, Pythagorean tuning is well suited for more simple music and more simple instruments. And why they stopped writing music in this tuning by about 1500AD. We were getting "complexerer" by then.
Hymn to John the Baptist
In the 8th century, Paulus Diaconus, a Benedictine Monk wrote Ut Queant Laxis, a hymn in honor of John the Baptist.
This piece is commonly accepted as the beginning of the six Solfeggio tones we know today. The Pope at the time wanted a way for his monks and others in the Church, to memorize the chants and hymns. However, most monks and priests were illiterate, they couldn't read music. So Paulus helped label the first six notes of the hymn, which correlate with the six main Solfeggio tones - with syllables.
These syllables eventually evolved into Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do....made famous in the 20th Century by a nun, well at least Julie Andrews playing a nun via The Sound of Music.
As of 2014, the claims are rampant on the Internet that the Solfeggio Frequencies can heal everything from AIDS to Allergies, OCD to dirty DNA, Impotence to Priapism and more! Luckily, because they are on the Internet, we can be assured that they are true. Just listening to a 5 minute YouTube video of 528 Hz should cure your warts and woes!!!
While us Malletheads at Gongs Unlimited love cutting edge healing, and are very spiritually inclined, and love us all the aura and chakra cleansing we can get, and know first-hand, second-hand, and even see it with our third-eye - the great healing power of sound, we are dubious of some of the extraordinary claims made by those who blast these frequencies.
We don't mean to anger proponents of the Solfeggio Frequencies, because we like them. And we will continue to research them and other frequencies. However, we have yet to find solid data out there. Just repurposing of a few people's thoughts over and over.
Yes, sound is a healing tool that can heal mind, soul and yes, of course, cells, but when you get dogmatic about exactly what a frequency or musical note does, you lose out. It may not be doing that; it might be doing something else. It may be healing, but it might depend on how and where you use it. Holding a bottle of cough medicine is different than taking a spoonful.
It is the same thing we see when people suggest a chakra is one certain color, or does one certain thing. Years of clairvoyant readings have shown the Head Mallethead that your chakras are filled with many colors, and those colors change a lot. And many of them are not yours, but other peoples' energies. Don't get stuck on a poster you saw in the bathroom of the yoga studio. And so, it's the same thing with being dogmatic about these frequencies and what they can do. Use them for healing, but watch what they do, study what you see and hear,, separate from the dogma. Maybe you will discover more and greater things that they heal besides what has been said.
Have great info on these frequencies?
Have links to scientific papers that have researched these frequencies? Healing work you personally performed or experienced with the Solfeggio that you can share? Let us know. We always like to learn more.
Comments must be approved before appearing. | <urn:uuid:1b5316a1-1483-4022-af8a-89b33344a257> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | https://gongs-unlimited.com/blogs/unlimited-blog/reverberations-7-solfeggio-frequencies | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948516843.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20171212114902-20171212134902-00409.warc.gz | en | 0.964269 | 1,213 | 2.671875 | 3 |
AtmosFEAR Regular (non space) Weather discussions
These graphs show the solar x-ray flux levels for the past three days, as well as the past six hours. A solar flare will produce a
dramatic spike in levels, these x-rays can ionize the D-layer of the ionosphere, causing HF radio blackouts.
Low frequencies are first affected, and higher ionization levels can affect the higher frequency bands.
The X-ray flux level is also affected by the overall solar activity level due to sunspots, which can be see in the baseline (non flare) levels. Higher values can result in better propagation on the higher frequency bands.
The K index is a measure of the stability of the Earth's geomagnetic field. The quietest level is zero, higher values indicate a
more unsettled geomagnetic field. Very high levels occur during geomagnetic storms. The index is log based, nine is the highest
value. Usually higher K index values suggest propagation will be poor, however sometimes you can pick up new stations.
Medium wave DXers call this "stirring the gumbo", when you hear a different than usual mix of stations.
A Index and Solar Wind
The daily A index is the average of eight, linear (not log) three-hourly "a" indices.
Each K back into a linear scale called the "equivalent three hourly range" a-index.
The A-index provides a daily average level for geomagnetic activity.
These two graphs show the foF2 frequency and height of the F2 layer.
The foF2 frequency is the highest frequency which will be reflected back to the Earth with a vertical incidence (straight up and
down). These values can be used with the Skip Zone calculator below.
This map shows the estimate aurora power level, and where it may be visible.
The Dst (disturbance storm time) index provides a measure of the Earth's geomagnetic activity.
It can be used to quantify the severity of magnetic storms.
Dst, expressed in nanoteslas, is based on the average value of the horizontal component of the Earth's magnetic field measured hourly at four near-equatorial geomagnetic observatories.
During a magnetic storm, the Dst shows a sudden rise, corresponding to the storm sudden commencement, and then decreases sharply as the ring current intensifies. Once the IMF turns northward again and the ring current begins to recover, the Dst begins a slow rise back to its quiet time level.
(Source: Hamilton, D. C., et al., Ring current development during the great geomagnetic storm of February 1986, J. Geophys. Res., 93, 14343, 1988.)
For longwave DXers, positive values, or at least those close to zero, are considered best.
The first graph shows Dst for the current month.
The second graph shows Dst for the last six hours.
The third graph shows Dst for the previous four days.
The fourth graph shows Dst for the last 30 days.
Notes on intepreting the magnetogram: http://dk0wcy.de/magnetogram/help_en.html
World Wide foF2 Map
The following will calculate the skip zone around a transmitter QTH.
Find the foF2 and hmF2 graph closest to your location, and enter in the current values,
(the end of the blue trace)
along with the transmitter frequency.
The estimated skip zone will be calculated.
The skip zone does not exist if the foF2 value is larger than the frequency.
Calculated Skip Zone: km miles
New and experimental from the NOAA SWPC:
The Geospace Timeline Plot displays real-time solar wind values ballistically propagated from L1 orbit to the upstream boundary of the Geospace model, located at 32 Re (top four plots). The propagated solar wind values are then used to drive the Geospace model (SWMF) which outputs 1-minute predicted Kp and Dst values (bottom two plots). In addition to the forecasted values for Kp (green line) and Dst (white line), the ground truth data for Kp (SWPC estimated 3-hour Kp; teal line) and Dst (Kyoto 1-hour quick look Dst; red line) are plotted for comparison.
The vertical blue line indicates the current time, and the data plotted to the right of the blue line show the forecast for what we might expect to see at Earth in the near future. The Geospace model can provide Kp and Dst forecasts with 30 to 60 minutes advanced warning. Global activity indices, such as the geomagnetic activity index Kp and the disturbance storm time index Dst, are useful for a wide customer base as well as for indicators of how well the model is performing. | <urn:uuid:eee48c2e-435d-4f84-beb6-c1a44082b532> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://www.hfunderground.com/propagation/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178381803.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20210308021603-20210308051603-00492.warc.gz | en | 0.870857 | 1,021 | 3.34375 | 3 |
The world is increasingly encroaching on indigenous peoples’ traditional lands. Around the globe, indigenous communities are forced to cede ground to state development, corporate land grabs, rising sea levels, environmental degradation, and population growth. The right to land provides the basis for access to food, housing, and development. But for indigenous peoples, traditional lands are more than this; they represent essential ties to their ancestors, their culture, and their languages. Losing their land means losing their way of life.
In recent years, indigenous groups have increasingly turned to the courts as nonlitigation tactics such as protests have failed to protect their lands from seizure and their communities from eviction. This comparative study, based on dozens of interviews in Kenya, Malaysia, and Paraguay, examines the ways indigenous communities and their advocates are using litigation in an effort to defend their rights and win compensation. In so doing, it finds a sobering reality: even when successful in court, indigenous groups rarely get their land back. They can also suffer financial loss, breakdown of community cohesion, and reprisal. But the study does find benefits of litigation, including gaining alternate lands and financial compensation, better informed courts and general populations, and community empowerment. It also reveals the importance of less quantifiable results of litigation, including official apologies, increased group cohesion, and cultural renewal.
This study―the third in a five-part series examining the impacts of strategic litigation―takes a clear-eyed view of the promises and limitations of using litigation to assert land rights. It suggests that while litigation is no panacea, it can still be a helpful tool for indigenous groups seeking to defend their culture, their livelihoods, and their traditional lands. | <urn:uuid:87695dbd-9cf1-4f70-a6e1-d5fc4f426b6f> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/reports/strategic-litigation-impacts-indigenous-peoples-land-rights | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934805977.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20171120090419-20171120110419-00202.warc.gz | en | 0.96505 | 343 | 3.328125 | 3 |
1 Answer | Add Yours
The 7th Amendment is not generally said to have any real connection to the right to privacy. The right to privacy is not actually explicitly mentioned in the Constitution. Instead, it is said to be implied by several of the amendments to the Constitution. Those amendments protect rights that have to do with keeping a person’s affairs private and unregulated by the government. The 7th Amendment is not one of these amendments.
The 7th Amendment only has to do with trial by jury. More specifically, it guarantees a trial by jury in any civil case where the amount of money at stake is more than $20. This does not really have to do with privacy.
The right to privacy comes more from amendments like the First, the Fourth, and the Fifth Amendments. These Amendments protect people from having the government interfere in their private lives. A jury trial does not prevent the government from doing this. Instead, it is meant to prevent the government from treating you unfairly once you have already been brought to trial.
Thus, the 7th Amendment really does not have to do with the right to privacy.
We’ve answered 317,758 questions. We can answer yours, too.Ask a question | <urn:uuid:4bb77beb-0797-440c-9c5b-31c7a3f865e9> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/please-explain-whether-seventh-amendment-u-s-436810 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988720941.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183840-00188-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980782 | 249 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Military medics are typically certified as basic EMTs, according to a September 2012 article on the Bloomberg website. They may practice skills that in civilian life would be within the province of the more highly-trained and often better-paid paramedic. Medical assistants, however, are trained differently, have a different scope of practice and need different skills, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Medical assistants are support personnel in clinics or physicians’ offices. They may be strictly clinical staff, strictly administrative staff, or perform both kinds of functions. In most states, medical assistants can be trained on the job, although training programs are also available from community colleges, technical-vocational schools and some universities. Many employers prefer to hire MAs who have completed an accredited training program. MAs are not licensed, although they may be certified. Certification is voluntary, but again, employers often prefer certified MAs.
Each state regulates the practice of health care professionals, including unlicensed support staff such as MAs. Many state regulatory agencies don’t account for armed forces training in allied health professions, which means the medic might need to start over from the beginning. Much of a military medic’s training or practice may be on the job and is unsubstantiated or undocumented, according to Bloomberg.com. Although a veteran might be able to use his benefits to pay for civilian training as an MA, he might end up obtaining skills he already mastered in the military.
Scope of Practice
The focus of a medic is often very different from that of an MA. Medics, according to the U.S. Army website, are trained primarily to administer emergency medical treatment to battlefield casualties. Their training in primary care -- the normal milieu of an MA -- is limited. A medic’s skills might not be transferable because medics often have a higher scope of practice than an MA. Medics, for example, might perform emergency procedures such as a tracheotomy, manage a chest wound or splint a broken leg, none of which are included in the MA scope of practice. Medics also start intravenous lines, which is another task not allowed for MAs.
Back to School
Some employers may be willing to train a former medic on the job. The only way to find out is to contact individual physicians and clinics. For many medics, however, it may be best to go back to school. Medical assistant programs usually take six months to two years, depending on the institution. A two-year program is usually an associate degree program and includes both administrative and clinical aspects of the job. A medic who wants to shorten the process and prefers the clinical side, however, could complete his education within a year or less, according to the BLS.
- Thinkstock Images/Comstock/Getty Images | <urn:uuid:761ab7a5-f563-4d35-bbaa-34d814142b84> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | http://work.chron.com/military-medic-civilian-medical-assistant-24382.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886110578.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20170822104509-20170822124509-00472.warc.gz | en | 0.969745 | 577 | 2.53125 | 3 |
whammy was our Word of the Day on 02/19/2015. Hear the podcast!
Theme music by Joshua Stamper ©2006 New Jerusalem Music/ASCAP
Examples of whammy in a Sentence
if you tell anyone about this, I swear I'll put the whammy on you
put the whammy on herself by publicly predicting that she would win the tennis tournament
Recent Examples of whammy from the Web
Tim Sagert has been enduring the pain of a double-whammy of identity theft.
Behold, then, the existential threat of a double-whammy.
Upper-middle-class taxpayers in particular could face a triple whammy.
But on one play in the fourth quarter, the Wolverines were hit with a double-whammy on the injury front.
Giving away points at the foul line is bad enough, but for the Magic, doing so is a double-whammy.
Such a double-whammy of fears has its own name: paraskevidekatriaphobia.
Hotels in Birmingham were also filling up, thanks to a double-whammy of having evacuees coming to the Magic City along with football teams from Florida and elsewhere playing relocated games at Legion Field.
Prosecco offers a triple whammy of carbonation, sweetness and alcohol, which can put your teeth at risk, leading to sensitivity and enamel erosion.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'whammy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
The origin of whammy is not entirely certain, but it is assumed to have been created by combining wham (a solid blow) with the whimsical -y ending. The first example of whammy in print occured in 1940, but the word was popularized in the 1950s by the cartoonist Al Capp in the comic strip Li'l Abner. The character Evil-Eye Fleegle could paralyze someone with the sheer power of his gaze. The single whammy was a look with one eye, and the fearsome double whammy used both eyes. As you may know, double whammy has also found a place in English as a general term. It means "a combination of two adverse forces, circumstances, or effects" - in other words, a one-two punch.
WHAMMY Defined for English Language Learners
Definition of whammy for English Language Learners
: something (such as a magical spell) that causes someone to have bad luck
Seen and Heard
What made you want to look up whammy? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible). | <urn:uuid:66c9030b-a7c2-4c45-8915-5ee1a66918c2> | CC-MAIN-2018-13 | https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whammy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257649627.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20180324015136-20180324035136-00209.warc.gz | en | 0.951056 | 577 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Friday, 25 September 2015
I have been learning about the New Zealand flag changing. I found this interesting because it helped me learn more about it. I think we should have a new flag because it looks too much like the Australian flag and it is too blue.
Friday, 4 September 2015
We have been learing to read loud using expression.We need to look at the punctuation to help use expression. I enjoyed this because it was actually really fun and I liked acting out the play. My next step is to keep working on my fluency and remembering the names of the girls.
I am learning to recognise and describe 3D shapes using mathematical language. I found this a little bit hard because I didn't know how to work out the features of the cone and I had trouble with the cube. My next step is to learn about nets of 3D shapes. | <urn:uuid:8e0814f5-83a0-4e7d-a540-f7b7638fac12> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | http://georgia17d5k.blogspot.com/2015/09/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583511173.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20181017111301-20181017132801-00330.warc.gz | en | 0.975815 | 177 | 3.453125 | 3 |
When it comes to medical practice, the cost of doing business can be vastly different than for other small businesses. While building revenue is important, so is effective customer service and high-quality patient care.
As the model for reimbursement changes, efficient cost management is becoming a key component of the survival and stability of the independent medical practice.
Here, the types of costs associated with medical practices will be discussed, as well as why the variable cost structure is important.
Medical Practice Cost Structure
There are two primary cost structures in medical practices: variable costs and fixed costs. Here, both types of costs will be described, as well as examples of how they fit into the medical marketplace.
Fixed costs are ones which do not change and are generally part of long term agreements. For instance, rent and malpractice premiums are common examples of fixed costs in medical practices. Other examples include capital expenditures, building maintenance, and utilities.
A second example of fixed cost is staffing. Indeed, staff salaries commonly comprise 25% of a medical practice’s revenue. These costs are generally reduced by cutting overtime or the number of employees, which is not always the best practice for long term growth. Many economists would argue that staffing is a variable cost, but if you have ever run a business you know that this is not the case. Changing staffing costs (in particular permeant full time staff costs) is very difficult and takes so long that it for all particle purposes it is a fixed cost.
Variable costs are ones such as labor or materials which change with sales volume. Generally, companies save money by reducing variable costs. Examples of variable costs in medical practices include hourly laborers, or the cost of supplies that vary based on the number of patients seen or procedures performed. In the medical world, variable costs are tied directly to the patients.
For example, if a medical test costs the practice $20 to perform, variable cost is dependent upon how many patients require that test. For one patient, the cost is $20, but for 10 patients the variable cost is $200.
Medical supplies are another example of variable costs, especially as their price commonly varies as a function of volume. For instance, the price per product will be lower in bulk, which makes this pricing structure appealing. However, medical practices must ensure that they are able to use the supplies before they expire, otherwise the savings is wasted. One strategy is to enter into a group buying agreement with another medical practice to reap the benefits of the variable cost of bulk products without the possibility of them going to waste.
Importance of Variable Cost Structures
A study conducted in a large hospital found that 84% of associated costs for the practice were fixed, while only 16% were variable1. While a large practice can generally cover the large percentage of fixed costs based on sheer volume of patients alone, smaller medical practices will struggle with this structure because a small change in patient volume can sink profitability.
In fact, small business and large ones alike now see fixed costs as a business liability. Medical practices can reduce the number of fixed costs by outsourcing diagnostic testing (i.e. eliminating the costs of purchasing equipment and training staff), partnering with other practices, and utilizing business infrastructure service companies. These changes all allow businesses to operate with primarily variable costs, which is better in the long run.
There are numerous advantages to the variable cost model. For instance, this structure significantly reduces the capital costs that are required to enter the medical marketplace. A lower capital cost directly reduces risk, especially for specialty medical providers.
Secondly, for small practices, a variable cost structure provides cost advantages relative to a larger competitor. Many small businesses are unable to compete with large practices, which requires greater attention to efficiency and throughput. However, when the majority of costs are variable, small practices are better able to control their revenues as the market fluctuates.
A variable pricing structure also provides an insurance policy of sorts when the market does change. For instance, if a small practice has a large percentage of fixed costs, even a minor change in the market can force doctors to close their doors permanently. Unfortunately, this situation can easily happen when a doctor employs numerous full time staff, has debt due to office space and medical equipment, and has fewer patients to be seen (or, decreased reimbursements).
Ultimately, it is important for medical practices2 to realize that the majority of costs are derived from buildings, equipment, labor, and overhead. Finding ways to reduce these costs to operate from a variable cost structure can provide stability and resiliency to the small medical practice owner in the future of medical uncertainty.
- Roberts RR, Frutos PW, Ciavarella GG, et al. Distribution of variable vs fixed costs of hospital care. JAMA. 1999;281(7):644-9.
- Landon BE, Normand S-LT, Frank R, McNeil BJ. Characteristics of Medical Practices in Three Developed Managed Care Markets. Health Services Research. 2005;40(3):675-696. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6773.2005.00380.x. | <urn:uuid:79b2cc03-40c3-4fd7-9014-98a88c0038c4> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | http://info.bhnco.com/blog/the-importance-of-variable-cost-structures-in-medical-practices | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400245109.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20200926200523-20200926230523-00387.warc.gz | en | 0.950191 | 1,043 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Erase A Chalkboard
Online Division I - Ages 11 - 14 (Middle School)
What we're studying:
The Black DeathOur Team Leader's favorite quote:
\"Don\'t cry because it\'s over, smile because it happened.\" -Dr. SuessWhy we think we should win:
We are kids who are doing this for fun.Suggestion for next year's challenge:
Ring a bellFavorite Rube Goldberg video:
Our Step List
1. Remote turns on.
2. Train moves down track.
3. Train hits baseball.
4. Baseball hits pool ball.
5. Pool ball goes down track.
6. Baseball hits remote.
7. Remote turns on fire truck.
8. Fire truck pulls string.
9. String pulls popsicle stick.
10. Popsicle stick pulls dominoes down.
11. Dominoes land in balance cup.
12. Balance cup going down pulls a string.
13. String pulls an eraser from a track.
14. Marble is released down track.
15. Marble hits golf ball.
16. Golf ball hits a book.
17. Book hits line up of books.
18. Last book hits bucket.
19. Bucket, with eraser on it, tips and slides down chalkboard, erasing chalkboard.
Our Close-ups: Photos
Our Close-ups: Favorite Step
Our Close-ups: Task Completion
Our Machine Explaination and Walkthrough
Our Machine Run Videos | <urn:uuid:d32b7b32-a301-43a8-9d41-52a3ef50e4f4> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | https://www.rubegoldberg.com/teams/santa-maine-2015/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583515352.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20181022155502-20181022181002-00332.warc.gz | en | 0.765343 | 322 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Embark on an adventure of personal creativity and invention with fan favorite Rosie Revere! This activity book features art from the picture book Rosie Revere, Engineer and will inspire young readers with activities of all kinds. Kids will have the chance to design a better bicycle, build a simple catapult, construct a solar oven, and more! This empowering activity book will teach problem-solving and creative-thinking skills crucial to STEM fields while also providing opportunities for its readers to try new things and, sometimes, to fail. As the picture book so brilliantly showed hundreds of thousands of young readers, flops are an inevitable part of success and something to be celebrated rather than feared. Created by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts, the same New York Times bestselling team who brought us Rosie Revere, Iggy Peck, and Ada Twist, this activity book will be perfect for old and new fans alike! | <urn:uuid:3acbda53-dce8-4fa5-ac0e-234b0f5653ba> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://www.paisleymonkey.com/Catalog/Detail/34959 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400192783.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20200919173334-20200919203334-00671.warc.gz | en | 0.915989 | 181 | 2.90625 | 3 |
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - View original article
David Brainerd (April 20, 1718–October 9, 1747) was an American missionary to the Native Americans who had a particularly fruitful ministry among the Delaware Indians of New Jersey. During his short life he was beset by many difficulties. As a result, his biography has become a source of inspiration and encouragement to many Christians, including missionaries such as William Carey and Jim Elliot, and Brainerd's cousin, the Second Great Awakening evangelist James Brainerd Taylor (1801–1829).
David Brainerd was born on April 20, 1718 in Haddam, Connecticut, the son of Hezekiah, a Connecticut legislator, and Dorothy. He had nine siblings, one of whom was Dorothy's from a previous marriage. He was orphaned at the age of fourteen, as his father died in 1727 at the age of forty-six and his mother died five years later.
After his mother's death, Brainerd moved to East Haddam to live with one of his older sisters, Jerusha. At the age of nineteen, he inherited a farm near Durham, but did not enjoy the experience of farming and so returned to East Haddam a year later to prepare to enter Yale. On 12 July 1739, he recorded having an experience of 'unspeakable glory' that prompted in him a 'hearty desire to exalt [God], to set him on the throne and to "seek first his Kingdom"'. This has been interpreted by evangelical scholars as a conversion experience.
Two months later, he enrolled at Yale. In his second year at Yale, he was sent home because he was suffering from a serious illness that caused him to spit blood. It is now believed that he was suffering from tuberculosis, the disease which would lead to his death seven years later. When he returned in November 1740, tensions were beginning to emerge at Yale between the faculty staff and the students as the staff considered the spiritual enthusiasm of the students, which had been prompted by visiting preachers such as George Whitefield, Gilbert Tennent, Ebenezer Pemberton and James Davenport, to be excessive. This led to the college trustees passing a decree in 1741 that 'if any student of this College shall directly or indirectly say, that the Rector, either of the Trustees or tutors are hypocrites, carnal or unconverted men, he shall for the first offense make a public confession in the hall, and for the second offense be expelled'. On the afternoon of the same day, the faculty had invited Jonathan Edwards to preach the commencement address, hoping that he would support their position, but instead he sided with the students. In the next term, Brainerd was expelled because he commented that one of his tutors, Chauncey Whittelsey, 'has no more grace than a chair' and that he wondered why the Rector 'did not drop down dead' for fining students perceived as over-zealous. He later apologized for the first comment, but denied making the second.
This episode grieved Brainerd, especially as a recent law forbade the appointment of ministers in Connecticut unless they had graduated from Harvard, Yale or a European institution, meaning that he had to reconsider his plans. In 1742, Brainerd was licensed to preach by a group of evangelicals known as 'New Lights'. As a result, he gained the attention of Jonathan Dickinson, the leading Presbyterian in New Jersey, who unsuccessfully attempted to reinstate Brainerd at Yale. Instead, it was therefore suggested that Brainerd devote himself to missionary work among the Native Americans, supported by the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge. He was approved for this missionary work on 25 November 1742.
On 1 April 1743, after a brief period serving a church on Long Island, Brainerd began working as a missionary to Native Americans, which he would continue until late 1746 when worsening illness prevented him from working. This illness, generally considered to be tuberculosis, had begun to affect him at Yale, but worsened when he entered the mission field. In his final years, he also suffered from a form of depression that was sometimes immobilizing and which, on at least twenty-two occasions, led him to wish for death. He was also affected by difficulties faced by other missionaries of the period, such as loneliness and lack of food.
His first missionary task was working at Kaunameek, a Housatonic Indian settlement near present day Nassau, New York, twenty or thirty miles from missionary John Sergeant who was working in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Brainerd remained there for one year. During this period he started a school for Native American children and began a translation of the Psalms.
Subsequently, he was reassigned to work among the Delaware Indians along the Delaware River northeast of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he remained for another year, during which he was ordained by the Newark Presbytery. After this, he moved to Crossweeksung in New Jersey, where he had his most fruitful ministry. Within a year, the Indian church at Crossweeksung had 130 members, who moved in 1746 to Cranbury where they established a Christian community.
In these years, he refused several offers of leaving the mission field to become a church minister, including one from the church at East Hampton on Long Island. He remained determined, however, to continue the work among Native Americans despite the difficulties, writing in his diary:
'[I] could have no freedom in the thought of any other circumstances or business in life: All my desire was the conversion of the heathen, and all my hope was in God: God does not suffer me to please or comfort myself with hopes of seeing friends, returning to my dear acquaintance, and enjoying worldly comforts'.
In November 1746, he became too ill to continue ministering, and so moved to Jonathan Dickinson's house in Elizabethtown. After a few months of rest, he travelled to Northampton, Massachusetts, where he stayed at the house of Jonathan Edwards. Apart from a trip to Boston in the summer of that year, he remained at Edwards's house until his death the following year. In May 1747, he was diagnosed with incurable consumption; in these final months, he suffered greatly. In his diary entry for 24 September, Brainerd wrote:
'In the greatest distress that ever I endured having an uncommon kind of hiccough; which either strangled me or threw me into a straining to vomit'.
During this time, he was nursed by Jerusha Edwards, Jonathan's seventeen-year-old daughter. The friendship that grew between them was of a kind that has led some to suggest they were romantically attached. He died from tuberculosis on 9 October 1747, at the age of 29. He is buried at Bridge Street Cemetery in Northampton, next to Jerusha, who died in February 1748 as a result of contracting tuberculosis from nursing Brainerd. His gravestone reads:
Sacred to the memory of the Rev. David Brainerd. A faithful and laborious missionary to the Stockbridge, Delaware and Sasquehanna TRIBES OF INDIANS WHO died in this town. October 10, 1747 AE 32.
He made a handful of converts, but became widely known in the 1800s due to books about him. His Journal was published in two parts in 1746 by the Scottish Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
Much of Brainerd's influence on future generations can be attributed to the biography compiled by Jonathan Edwards and first published in 1749 under the title of An Account of the Life of the Late Reverend Mr. David Brainerd. Edwards believed that a biography about Brainerd would have great value and set aside the anti-Arminian treatise he was writing (later published as Freedom of the Will) in order to create one. The result was an edited version of Brainerd's diary, with some passages documenting Brainerd's despair removed. It gained immediate recognition, with eighteenth-century theologian John Wesley urging: 'Let every preacher read carefully over the Life of David Brainerd'. The most reprinted of Edwards's books, it has never been out of print and has thus influenced subsequent generations, mainly because of Brainerd's single-minded perseverance in his work in the face of significant suffering. Clyde Kilby summarised Brainerd's influence as being based on the fact that, 'in our timidity and our shoddy opportunism we are always stirred when a man appears on the horizon willing to stake his all on a conviction'. From the eighteenth century, missionaries also found inspiration and encouragement from the biography. Gideon Hawley wrote in the midst of struggles:
'I need, greatly need, something more than humane [human or natural] to support me. I read my Bible and Mr. Brainerd's Life, the only books I brought with me, and from them have a little support'.
A new edition, with the Journal and Brainerd's letters embodied, was published by Sereno E. Dwight at New Haven in 1822; and in 1884 was published what is substantially another edition, The Memoirs of David Brainerd, edited by James M Sherwood. Brainerd's writings contain substantial meditation on the nature of the illness that eventually led to his death and its relation to his ties with God.
David Belden Lyman (1803–1868), missionary to Hawaii, was one of many in nineteenth-century America that named their son after David Brainerd (David Brainerd Lyman, 1833–36, and another David Brainerd Lyman, 1840–1914).
Brainerd's life also played a role in the establishment of Princeton College and Dartmouth College. The 'College of New Jersey' (later Princeton) was founded due to the dissatisfaction of the New York and New Jersey Presbyterian Synods with Yale; their expulsion of Brainerd and subsequent refusal to readmit him was an important factor in driving individuals such as Jonathan Dickinson and Aaron Burr to act on this dissatisfaction. Indeed, classes began in Dickinson's house in May 1747, while Brainerd was recovering there. Dartmouth College originated from a school founded by Eleazar Wheelock for Native Americans and colonists in 1748, and Wheelock had been inspired by Brainerd's example of Native American education.
Despite Brainerd's expulsion from Yale, the University later named a building after him (Brainerd Hall at Yale Divinity School), the only building on the campus to be named after a student who was expelled. David Brainerd Christian School was also named after him.
The Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has papers for David Brainerd that consist of a letter by Brainerd (c. 1743) to Rev. Joseph Bellamy and notes concerning Brainerd’s published works by Rev. Arthur Bennett, an Anglican clergyman.
|Wikisource has the text of an 1879 American Cyclopædia article about David Brainerd.| | <urn:uuid:5a44edb2-b2fe-4810-b450-f011d48a050a> | CC-MAIN-2014-15 | http://blekko.com/wiki/David_Brainerd?source=672620ff | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1397609539493.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20140416005219-00346-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982073 | 2,289 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Ofcourse while looking this up on Amazon I also found this….
Does anyone have any experienc with this? I would love to hear your thoughts.
I found these really neat printable at 100 day Activities. Lil Muallimah got the easier ones Lil Muallim # 2 got the harder ones. They both like there continent dot to dot sheets.
I put Lil Muallimah ones in protective sheets and in a file to keep them safe and reusable.
Today I took Lil Muallimah’s out of the file to see if she could recognize her continents without tracing them first. Mashallah she got them all right, as she named them ans explained her observation, why she thought it was that continent. She described how she knew, giving details of the shape and surrounding. I was very impressed. The nomenclature cards and her big map really helped Alhumdolillah
Here’s what I mean
You’ve got to like the subtle element of Math (counting beyoind ten) while tracing the continents. Just the perfect out of the box Math activity Math on the Level style. | <urn:uuid:5c556019-8ec7-4592-ab5c-d95b4845c513> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | https://umamahlearningacademy.wordpress.com/category/math-on-the-level/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891813109.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20180220204917-20180220224917-00131.warc.gz | en | 0.965684 | 237 | 2.84375 | 3 |
We have developed our computing curriculum to ensure that the STEM subjects have clear progression and that there are planned opportunities for embedding learning, using research from Cognitive Scientists around research into cognitive load theory, the benefits of forgetting, spacing, interleaving and retrieval practice. We are able to support this with resources that will foster ingenuity and creativity, build resilience, encourage experimentation, encourage teamwork, encourage knowledge application, encourage tech use, teach problem-solving and encourage adaption. These resources have been provided through a grant from Millennium Point Trust and include class sets of Lego WeDo 2.0, Lego Spike and Lego Coding Express.
Beaconside Primary School uses a computing curriculum that provides a rich, broad and balanced curriculum fully mapped to the National Curriculum for Computing at Key Stage 1 and 2, covering all 3 strands of the Computing Curriculum:
Digital Literacy (including eSafety)
Our curriculum is designed to enable all children to work towards achieving mastery in Computing. This means acquiring a deep, long term secure and adaptable understanding of the subject. This takes time. Our key curriculum drivers of resilience and inclusion aim to enhance pupils’ enjoyment, understanding and attainment of Computing.
Every child can enjoy and succeed in Computing with equity being offered and all pupils being given the time and opportunity to fully understand, explore and apply skills in different ways, in different situations and different subjects. This enables pupils to fully grasp a concept and understand their learning.
Unfortunately not the ones with chocolate chips.
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Notes adapted from Unesco Course on understanding open access :
In an open access (OA) world, much importance has been given to using open source tools, open access resources and open solutions to engage authors and researchers in collaborative research, peer-to-peer sharing of scholarly information and collaborative evaluation of scholars’ works. On the other hand, exponential growth of scientific literature also has led to rapid disappearance of nascent literature before it actually gets noticed by the scientific communities. No single database can capture this over-growing scientific literature. Several data mining tools are probably required to keep abreast with quantum of emerging literature. In this Unit, various tools and techniques have been discussed in details to help the library and information professionals in strengthening their efforts in enhancing scientific productivity, visibility, reputation, and impact of research works of their affiliated scientific researchers. This Unit briefly discusses various conventional citation-based indicators available for assessing scientific productivity of authors, journals and institutions. This Unit also identifies emerging indicators such as h-index, i10-index, Eigenfactor score, article influence score and source normalized impact per paper. The social webs, available to the researchers’ communities in addition to any other groups of citizens, help the researchers in disseminating their produced or contributed knowledge to global communities. Much you are active in social media, more you have chances to get noticed by fellow researchers and possible research collaborators. Many personalized web-based services are now increasingly made available targeting global researchers’ communities, helping them to enhance their social media presence and visibility. These factors influence the development of new metrics called article level metrics or altmetrics. Finally, this Unit also briefly discusses the emergence of the open citation databases for text mining and data mining of open access literature.
Commonly Used Terms for Assessing Research Impacts:
1.Bibliometrics is a set of methods to quantitatively analyse academic literature and scholarly communications.
2.Informetrics is the study of quantitative aspects of information. This includes the production, dissemination, and use of all forms of information, regardless of its form or origin.
3.Scientometrics is the study of quantitative features and characteristics of science, scientific research and scholarly communications.
4.Webometrics is the study of quantitative features, characteristics, structure and usage patterns of the worldwide web, its hyperlinks and internet resources.
5.Cybermetrics is an alternative term for Webometrics to measure the World Wide Web, cyber media, web resources and hyperlinks.
6.Librametrics is a set of methods to quantitatively analyse availability of documents in libraries, their usage and impact of library services to its user community.
6.Patentometrics is a set of methods to quantitatively analyse patent databases, patent citations and their usage patterns.
7.Altmetrics is a new metrics proposed as an alternative to the widely used journal impact factor and personal citation indices like the h-index. The term altmetrics was proposed in 2010, as a generalization of article level metrics, and has its roots in the twitter #altmetrics hashtag. Article Level Metrics (ALM) Article level metrics is an alternative term for Altmetrics.
Applications of Scientometrics and Bibliometrics in Research Assessment :
In the last sixty years, evaluation of public funded research has been carried out globally on a regular basis for performance measurement of different actors of scientific research. Most of the citation databases and citation analysis tools available in today’s world have functionalities to instantly generate reports and scientometric profile of a scientist, an institution, a collaborative research group, a country, or a journal. Some of the popular applications of scientometrics and bibliometrics listed below can use report generator tools available with citation-based products and services.
For Institution/ Collaborative Research Group: mapping of collaborations, top collaborating institutions, top collaborating countries, collaborating with public vs. private institutions, highly cited papers, highly cited authors, top contributing scientists, top publishing journals, scientists with top h-index, top subject categories or research domains, percentage of cited vs. uncited papers, percentage of self-citations, publishing in OA vs. subscription-based journals, comparative study of two or more institutions in a region/ country.
For a scientist: mapping of collaborations, collaborating institutions, collaborating countries, mapping of co-authors, highly cited papers, top publishing journals, percentage of cited vs. uncited papers, percentage of self-citations, author-level indicators such as h-index, i10-index, etc.
For a country: top contributing institutions, top contributing cities, top contributing states, top funding agencies supporting research, top affiliating apex bodies, mapping of collaborations, top collaborating countries, top collaborating institutions, top contributing scientists, top publishing journals, top subject categories or research domains, percentage of cited vs. uncited papers, percentage of self-citations, highly cited papers, highly cited authors, top scientists with h-index, publishing by public vs. private institutions, publishing in OA vs. subscription-based journals, comparative study of two or more countries in a region or globally.
For a journal: highly cited papers, highly cited authors, percentage of cited vs. uncited papers, percentage of self-citations, top research domains, cited half-life vs. citing half-life, top contributing institutions, top contributing cities, top contributing countries, most downloaded papers, most shared papers, and highly ranked journals based on citation-based indicators.
To read more on the indicators and understanding them better please follow the http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002319/231920E.pdf
Course of openaccess by Unesco chapter Introduction to open access @http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/resources/news-and-in-focus-articles/all-news/news/unescos_open_access_oa_curriculum_is_now_online. | <urn:uuid:6d6978e1-a66e-4b28-bb41-75ff3d46943f> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | http://openaccessindia.org/open-access-research-impacts/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627999783.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20190625011649-20190625033649-00093.warc.gz | en | 0.88268 | 1,239 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Whoever conjured up the image of scientists being geeky and nerdy is going to be proven wrong – finally! All thanks to the creative minds of a few scientists who are dispelling this myth with their wonderful approach to introducing and teaching science to kids.
Curiouscity aims at initiating an interest and curiosity in children about science, showing them that science is amazing and touches every aspect of life! What’s great about Curiouscity is that they convince children (and frankly even me!) of this fact overnight… and voila, anyone can be a scientist.
This fun bunch of scientists and teachers explain scientific concepts with creativity. Yes, creativity and science do go hand in hand. I attended a Sunday session where a group of 8-12 year olds were figuring out the Archimedes Principle all on their own with the help of silver foil, a tub of water and marbles. They were truly brilliant and they were having so much fun, I wanted to be a kid all over again.
Some of the cool questions the workshops investigate are:
Acids and bases, ever made green eggs and ham?
Pressure – how strong is the air around you?
Electricity – why a lemon battery won’t light a light bulb….
and many more!
These workshops are so different from the way we were taught – no boring definitions or formulas to mug. Here the kids are Newton, Darwin, and Einstein themselves. They use tools to conduct experiments that have been ingeniously designed to enable the kids to observe, infer and draw conclusions themselves. This lovely sense of discovery and understanding of concepts is what inspires and energises any human being. Apart from all this, I was amazed by the other life skills that the children inadvertently learn, like teamwork, patience and the ability to communicate effectively.
Curiouscity makes science fun! It’s one of the best things you could do for your child and if they took 4 year olds in their camps, I would stand overnight in a queue to get him a spot!
Curiouscity conducts workshops and camps all around Bangalore for 8-12 yr olds. The latest one is at ‘Claytopia’ in Indranagar and they may have a few spots left so….hurry up and call them!
To find out more go online at : http://www.curiouscity.org.
Contact: Phone: 9980103061; 080 412 67163 | <urn:uuid:0be6f8fe-4f7a-4549-a79b-8ccf32146876> | CC-MAIN-2016-18 | http://mummyknowsbest.com/2010/08/24/eureka-science-workshops-for-kids/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-18/segments/1461860123845.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20160428161523-00196-ip-10-239-7-51.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959652 | 500 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Did you ever have someone point out what was in front of your face all along and, metaphorically, kick yourself for being so stupid?
Or, is that just me?
Last week I was at the Best of Out of School Time (BOOST) conference and went to a session by Sam Gliksman – he wrote iPad in education for Dummies.
One myth about having a technology program in your school is that you need one device per student.
In one breath we say we need individual devices and in the second we talk about collaborative learning. It occurred to me that whenever I saw kids sharing a computer to play our games, I may have been thinking of it completely the wrong way.
I learned in graduate school that when students tutor classmates, the tutor benefits as much academically as the tutored student. To anyone who has ever taught anything, from math to judo, this makes sense. Why IS multicollinearity a problem? Why do you put your leg there? How DO you do long division? When you explain something, you need to think about how you came to a solution. Not only does that reinforce the knowledge you have, by making you go over it again, but it may make some things clearer to you as you think about your own reasoning.
When we pair up students on computers, one of them may be better at the math part of the games where another is better at the actual game play, jumping over pits, canoeing down rapids, shooting buffalo.
I’ve stood behind students as they played and heard them talk about the problems. One inputs the answer and casually says to his partner, 6 times 8 is 48. You take that away from 51 and you have 3 left over, that’s the remainder, so 3 of the hunters are left out. For the student who is watching, and probably not as good at math, this is both role modeling and direct teaching, all without the teacher’s involvement – and no teacher has the time to individually teach every student in her class.
It’s also a little bit of added prestige for the kid who is good at math, because people want to pair up with him or her, and adding cool to being smart is always a good thing, especially in middle school.
Only have 12 computers and 20 kids in your class? Go ahead and pair them up. See what happens. You may be pleasantly surprised. | <urn:uuid:51b7f6b6-da79-4f89-9185-05c880a792d4> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://www.7generationgames.com/games-as-a-tutoring-experience/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593657145436.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20200713131310-20200713161310-00276.warc.gz | en | 0.982222 | 501 | 2.53125 | 3 |
The many contributions of aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss receive top billing in an upstate New York museum.
One of aviation’s meccas is Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, site of the first successful powered, fixed-wing flights by the Wright brothers. And then there is Hammondsport, N.Y., where Glenn Curtiss, another of America’s aviation trailblazers, experimented. Interesting and well-kept museums are found at both locations. Increased public interest in Curtiss and his contributions to aviation have led to a new museum in Curtiss’ hometown that is growing rapidly in popularity.
The Wright brothers made bicycles. So did Glenn Hammond Curtiss, their chief competitor, who was born in Hammondsport, at the southern tip of Keuka Lake, on May 21, 1878. His first name is derived from “the Glen,” a picturesque cleft in the hills north of the village that his mother enjoyed very much; she added an n, probably to make the name more masculine. His middle name came from town founder Lazarus Hammond.
The Wrights continued in the bike business in Dayton, Ohio, while experimenting with their planes, but Curtiss started manufacturing motorcycles. The taciturn, unsmiling Curtiss was called “the fastest man on earth” when he was clocked at 136.6 mph during a motorcycle race at Ormond Beach, Fla., in 1904. Curtiss’ entrance into flying began that same year when Thomas Scott Baldwin, famous lighter-than-air devotee, asked Curtiss to make him a two-cylinder, air-cooled engine to power his airship. The first plane Curtiss had anything to do with was Red Wing, which Casey Baldwin lofted from the ice at Keuka Lake on March 12, 1908, before a small crowd. The flight was hailed by the local press as “the first public flight by an airplane in the United States.” The Wrights contended this was untrue, as they had been flying in plain view from a field beside the trolley line linking Dayton and Springfield, Ohio, since 1904. This statement was the beginning of a feud and eventual litigation between the Wrights and Curtiss.
That the Wrights made the first powered flights has generally been accepted, but the achievements of Curtiss spanned several decades and took the airplane from its wood, fabric and wire beginnings to the forerunners of modern transport aircraft. The new museum documents his life and unique accomplishments.
Curtiss made his first flight on his 30th birthday–May 21, 1908–in White Wing, a design of the Aerial Experiment Association, a group led by Alexander Graham Bell. White Wing was the first plane in America to be controlled by ailerons instead of the wing-warping used by the Wrights. It was also the first plane on wheels this side of the Atlantic.
The first plane Curtiss built and flew was June Bug. In 1908, Curtiss won the first leg of the three-legged Scientific American magazine competition for being first to fly in a straight line for more than a kilometer. He won the next leg of the competition in 1909, for establishing a distance record. He then won the Gordon Bennett Trophy, plus the $5,000 prize, in the world’s first international air meet at Reims, France, in 1909. When the New York World newspaper offered $10,000 for the first successful flight between Albany and New York City, Curtiss won the prize money and nationwide recognition. He also won the third leg of the competition and permanent possession of the Scientific American trophy in 1910.
One of the major contributions to flight progress during this period was the invention of ailerons, which was the basis for the litigious rift between the Wrights and Curtiss. But Curtiss had more significant “firsts.” He deserves credit for pioneering the design of the floatplane and the flying boat. It was a Curtiss plane flown by Eugene Ely, a company exhibition pilot, that made the first successful takeoff from a Navy ship in 1910. Another Curtiss plane, the NC-4, made the first crossing of the Atlantic in 1919. Curtiss built the first U.S. Navy aircraft, called the Triad, and also trained the first two naval pilots. He received the Collier Trophy and the Aero Club Gold Medal for the greatest accomplishment in aviation during 1911.
The success of the first flights of many new aircraft in those beginning days is also associated with the OX series of engines that Curtiss designed. About 12,600 of the series were built–most were installed in British, Canadian and American aircraft during World War I. It is the last of the series, the OX-5, that is best known. There was such a surplus of engines after World War I that they were sold at bargain prices by the government to many postwar aircraft manufacturers. Among those using OX-5 engines were the Laird Swallow, Travel Air 2000, Waco 9 and 10, the American Eagle, and some models of the ubiquitous Curtiss JN-4 Jenny.
In addition to a Jenny, other major aircraft on view in the Curtiss museum include precise replicas of the June Bug and Curtiss Pusher, plus an original 1919 Curtiss Oriole and 1927 Curtiss Robin. A 1907 glider is on display, as are OX engines. Also on hand is an Ohm Special, a racing plane built in 1949 by Dick Ohm and Jamie Kraph; a 1929 Mercury Chic; and a 1931 Mercury S-1 Racer.
One of the “firsts” by Curtiss that is relatively unknown was his invention of the travel trailer. An avid outdoorsman, he developed a folding tent-type trailer in 1917. A very streamlined fifth-wheel trailer was developed from this in 1919, called the Aerocar. The Curtiss four-wheeled Aerocar Motor Bungalow, or Land Yacht, evolved, which was 19 feet long, 12 feet wide and more than 7 feet high. One of these, in excellent condition, is on view and represents the forerunner of today’s house trailers.
Some of the museum space is devoted to early Hammondsport history as it relates to the inventive times in which Curtiss lived. There are collections of china dolls, cameras, radios, woodworking tools and many other antiques from the turn of the century. For restless children, there is a half-scale model of a Curtiss Pusher that they can “fly” and sit in to have their pictures taken.
The village of Hammondsport, which today still boasts a population of only about 1,000, is about five miles northeast of Bath, N.Y., and just west of the two largest Finger Lakes–Seneca and Cayuga. The town site is where Keuka Lake meets what the original settlers called Pleasant Valley. Helping to keep things pleasant today are a dozen wineries and the Greyton H. Taylor Wine Museum.
Curtiss made his last flight as a pilot in May 1930, when he flew a Curtiss Condor over the AlbanyNew York route. He died two months later and is buried in the Pleasant Valley Cemetery, near the scene of his first aviation triumphs.
It was not until 1928 that anyone suggested a museum be established to honor the area’s most famous resident. A local newspaper was first to suggest it; then, when Curtiss died in 1930, the idea again emerged, only to fade once more.
In 1958, local resident Otto Kohl began collecting Curtiss memorabilia. Kohl, who had been an employee of the Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Co. in Hammondsport, began to look for a place to house the collection and was instrumental in establishing a museum in an old school building downtown. Although financial support was slow in coming, Curtiss memorabilia began to accumulate.
The Glenn H. Curtiss Museum was formally dedicated on May 18, 1963. A library and archives were established, and a request for donations of authentic Curtiss artifacts led to the acquisition of additional items for display.
Before the national bicentennial celebration in 1976, the museum underwent many changes and improvements. Exhibits were cleaned and many items in the collection were restored. A replica of the 1908 June Bug was built by volunteers and flown. When the U.S. Navy celebrated the 75th anniversary of naval aviation in 1986, a half-scale model of the A-1 Triad was dedicated, and a full-size model of a Curtiss hydro-floatplane was flown from Keuka Lake. An original 1919 Curtiss Oriole and Curtiss motorcycles (manufactured under the name Hercules) were acquired, as well as many items of local history. It was clear that new quarters had to be found to house the growing collection.
Various plans were formulated for expansion of the museum between 1978 and 1991. In 1991, a former winery was purchased, and on July 4, 1992, the new Glenn H. Curtiss Museum was opened to the public. The new facility devotes 34,000 square feet to permanent exhibits, and 2,400 square feet to temporary exhibits. The building also contains a 100-seat theater, library, archives, photographic lab, catering kitchen, a restoration shop and gift shop–all on one floor.
A $1 million fund drive was launched and completed in 1993 to fund improvements and additional display space for the museum’s growing collection of memorabilia. The number of visitors continues to grow, and it can now be said that aviation buffs have a new mecca in Hammondsport that is certainly worth the trip. Elizabeth Dann, the museum’s director, says the ultimate goal is to create the finest possible repository of Curtiss artifacts and information, and to make that part of aviation history come alive. The museum staff is well on the way to achieving that goal.
The museum is open all year except Thanksgiving and Christmas. For museum hours, admission charges, and other information, telephone (607) 569-2160.
This article originally appeared in the May 1996 issue of Aviation History magazine. | <urn:uuid:8563a4d3-8b8c-4618-8a9f-9e3e678109d0> | CC-MAIN-2016-22 | http://www.historynet.com/aviation-pioneer-glenn-curtiss-may-96-aviation-history-feature.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-22/segments/1464049274324.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160524002114-00076-ip-10-185-217-139.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975461 | 2,096 | 2.96875 | 3 |
executive director of the National Environment Agency (NEA) has disclosed that
chemicals are important determinants for sustainable development, sound environmental
health and quality of life, as we use them in all human activities including
agriculture, health, energy production, manufacturing, services and residential
that contributes to improving the quality of life. But he also raises concern
about its harmful effects on workers, consumers, the environment and society at
large through exposure.
Momodou Jama Suwareh make these statements during a consultative meeting for National Assembly Select Committee on the Environment on Institutional Capacity Building for the Implementation of the Multi-lateral Environment Agreements (MEAs) such as the Stockholm, Rotterdam, Basel, Minamata Conventions and the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), recently held at a local hotel.
Further lamenting on, he noted that accidental releases from the distribution, consumption and disposal of chemicals may permanently damage soil, water and air.
According to the NEA’s executive director, the purpose of this cross learning convergence is to thoroughly scrutinise and discuss the project activities and the roles and responsibilities of National Assembly Members during implementation and to share relevant information with stakeholders to avoid misconception.
“The Stockholm Convention is a legally binding international instrument, designed to lead to gradual decrease of the presence of persistent organic pollutants in the environment,” he said. “The Gambia is a party to the Stockholm Convention. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are toxic chemicals that adversely affect human health and the environment around the world. Because they can be transported by wind and water, most POPs generated in one country can and do affect people and wildlife far from where they are used and released.” He added that they persist for long periods of time in the environment and can accumulate and pass from one species to the next through the food chain.
He said The Gambia has ratified all the several conventions with the ultimate aim to protect human health and the environment and has also recognised the need towards the development of an institutional framework for the sound management of chemicals and waste to enhance implementation at national level. To meet her obligations under these conventions, he said.
The Gambia had to prepare a project proposal and submitted it to the Special Programme Secretariat for funding, that led to today`s programme with the NAMs.
According to the NEA boss, the objective of the Special Programme is to support country-driven institutional strengthening at the national level in the context of an integrated approach to address the financing of the sound management of chemicals and wastes, taking into account the national development strategies, plans and priorities of each country, to increase sustainable public institutional capacity for the sound management of chemicals and wastes throughout their life cycle. In addition, he cited institutional strengthening under the Special Programme will facilitate and enable the implementation of the chemical convention to which The Gambia is a state party.
To enlighten the people living in The Gambia on sound chemical management, Suwareh induced that his institution in collaboration with relevant NAMs Select Committees is organising this meeting aimed at raising public awareness on the situation of chemicals and their related issues. | <urn:uuid:a7159a50-0836-4280-945b-cb958b17cc5f> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | http://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/nea-concerns-over-harmful-effects-of-chemicals-on-consumers-environment | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232256227.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20190521042221-20190521064221-00335.warc.gz | en | 0.94365 | 652 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Orthodontists are dental specialists who correct improper bites and straighten teeth, allowing patients to look and eat better. Orthodontics was the first dental specialty to be developed and is the largest, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If you want to improve the smiles of others by becoming an orthodontist, here are the steps involved.
1Go to college. You'll need at least 2 years of college level pre-dental education before you can be admitted to dental school. Most dentists (orthodontists included) obtain a bachelor's degree before going to dental school, and most of those who enter dental school without first getting a bachelor's degree get it while attending dental school.
- Recommended courses in both high school and college include biology, chemistry, health, physics and mathematics.
2Graduate from dental school. You'll have to take the Dental Admissions Test and score well to be admitted; once in, you'll spend 4 years doing classroom and laboratory work. Your last 2 years will include work treating patients in dental clinics.
3Complete a graduate program in orthodontics. Most graduate orthodontics programs take an additional 2 years, either for a master's or doctoral degree. You may also have a postgraduate residency of an additional 2 years.
4Get licensed to practice as an orthodontist. In most states of the United States, candidates for licensing must pass written and practical examinations after they get their degree. Passing a national board examination may or may not substitute for a state's written exam in some cases.
5Get board certified as an orthodontist. The American Board of Orthodontics (ABO) offers a voluntary examination program for orthodontists who have completed an orthodontic specialty program accredited by the American Dental Association (ADA). Candidates who pass the written exam may submit cases for review by the ABO's examiners. Orthodontists who are board certified are recognized as such by both the ADA and the American Association of Orthodontists and are listed on the ABO Web site.
- Orthodontists who have been certified by the ABO must renew their certification every 10 years.
6Search for a practice near you where you can work as an orthodontist. Or, if you have the resources and funds, open your own orthodontic practice.Ad
We could really use your help!
- Orthodontists should have good communication and interpersonal skills, as well as diagnostic ability, manual dexterity, good visual memory and the ability to manage their own business. | <urn:uuid:1bff890e-4f68-4443-8ad7-8ca2ba874759> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.wikihow.com/Become-an-Orthodontist | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246648209.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045728-00048-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962068 | 537 | 3.03125 | 3 |
'We can. I can.' this World Cancer Day
Contributed by Andrew Spiegel, Executive Director, Global Colon Cancer Association.
World Cancer Day unites the world’s population in the fight against cancer. It aims to save millions of preventable deaths each year by raising awareness and educating about the disease, pressing governments and individuals across the world to take action.
Each year, 8.2 million people die from cancer worldwide, out of which 4 million die prematurely (aged 30 to 69 years). Over 600,000 or about 8% of those deaths will be from colorectal (Bowel) cancer. More than 1.2 million people are diagnosed with colorectal cancer annually and while that makes it the third most common cancer, it remains arguably the most preventable major cancer through screening.
Despite the proven cost effectiveness of screening and the availability of proven screening tools, by 2020 the worldwide incidence rate of colorectal cancer is expected to increase by 33.5%. The economic burden of the disease is staggering, reported to be in excess of $33,000,000,000 annually.
Time to spread the word
World Cancer Day is the ideal opportunity to spread the word and raise the profile of cancer in people’s minds and in the world’s media. The Global Colon Cancer Association, and its passionate patient organization members, demand access to proven screening tools to help end the needless suffering of millions and their families. We want governments, payors, regulators, the healthcare community and all stakeholders to pay attention to this deadly but preventable disease. Awareness of the disease, its reach, its ability to be prevented and its treatability if diagnosed early are the keys to changing the global problem of colon cancer.
World Cancer Day 2016-2018 will explore how everyone – as a collective or as individuals – can do their part to reduce the global burden of cancer. Just as cancer affects everyone in different ways, all people have the power to take action to reduce the impact that cancer has on individuals, families and communities.
World Cancer Day is a chance to reflect on what you can do, make a pledge and take action. Whatever you choose to do, ‘We can. I can.’ make a difference in the fight against cancer. | <urn:uuid:b2c30801-b3a0-40b2-b609-c795577e1517> | CC-MAIN-2018-22 | https://www.iapo.org.uk/es/news/2016/feb/2/we-can-i-can-world-cancer-day | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-22/segments/1526794869732.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20180527170428-20180527190428-00428.warc.gz | en | 0.939363 | 465 | 2.71875 | 3 |
The Fermi Paradox is one of the major unanswered questions in astrobiology. It started with physicist Enrico Fermi, who in 1950 asked his co-workers over lunch: “Where are they?” What he meant was intelligent extraterrestrials. If there are billions and billions of stars and probably even more planets, why have we not already been in contact with extraterrestrial (ET) civilizations?
This is even more puzzling since our Sun and Earth are relatively young, meaning that life could have originated on other worlds long before it did here, and intelligent beings on those planets could easily be millions of years ahead of us.
There are two principle answers to the paradox: The alien civilizations are (1) present but for some reason we can’t detect them, or (2) they simply are not there, or at least not in our vicinity. In regard to the first option, Star Trek’s prime directive comes to mind, or perhaps a scientific variation of the Zoo hypothesis (aliens don’t interfere with us because we are an unstable emerging civilization).
There are in fact so many possible solutions to the Fermi Paradox that whole books are written about it. Nevertheless, assuming aliens are around us, shouldn’t there be some evidence? Well, not necessarily. Carl Sagan pointed out that if an ET civilization is far ahead of us, their actions would appear to us as magic. Just imagine us flying a spy drone over our Stone Age ancestors!
What about the so-called UFO sightings that we astrobiologists are sometimes asked about (see, for example, the top UFO cases of 2012 as judged by the Mutual UFO Network). On one hand, I believe that we scientists are sometimes too dismissive of eyewitness reports, and too quick to rationalize them away as natural phenomena or hallucinations. On the other hand, we rely on the scientific method, and reported sightings are not reproducible events that we can test in the laboratory.
What about the second answer—that aliens simply do not exist? The Drake equation, which is usually used to estimate the number of extraterrestrial civilizations in the universe, includes a term for the probability of life originating on a planet. If this term is near zero, the number of expected ET civilizations is near zero. Usually we assume that life on Earth was not a singular event, and that it would have happened elsewhere under similar conditions, but we don’t know for sure. We still don’t know how life occurred on Earth, and what ingredients were needed. It’s possible that the rise of intelligent civilizations is such a rare event that the next civilization with our kind of technology is thousands or even millions of light years away.
Or perhaps there’s another possibility, which I raised once at a SETI meeting when we were examining the question of why we haven’t had a positive detection yet. Imagine using a walkie-talkie in modern New York, and wondering why no one responds on your frequency. It’s because everyone is on Facebook or Twitter! So it might be with ET, who may be using technology well advanced of our own. | <urn:uuid:69527f6d-638f-4209-9ed4-449d56c10c4c> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://www.smithsonianmag.com:443/air-space-magazine/the-fermi-paradox-revisited-8765208/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100056.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20231129041834-20231129071834-00712.warc.gz | en | 0.962344 | 649 | 3.140625 | 3 |
The objective: Ghent climate-robust by 2030
Climate change makes Ghent vulnerable to more and more intense heat waves, more extreme showers and longer droughts. That is also felt today. We must prepare our city for these change: keep them pleasant, liveable, healthy and safe for our residents, institutions and businesses. We have set an ambitious goal from the City: by 2030 we want to be climate-robust. One of the objectives is to make the underground of Ghent work like a sponge. A rain shower that occurs once every 20 years may not cause damage to buildings, roads or other urban infrastructure in Ghent, now and in the future.
Water and greenery needs more space in the city
Source measures are the most effective and most beneficial in the long term to intervene proactive on the consequences of climate change. This means that we must limit paving to the functional minimum, provide space for greenery and retain rainwater on site in winter as much as possible. are asking for more space for water and greenery at plot level, street level and neighbourhood le These measures are very drastic in a city where the competition for space is very high and many different societal challenges have to be tackled simultaneously.
For example, we aim to pave the public domain by 15% less during the integral redevelopment. However, it is not easy for designers to balance the spatial questions linked to all kinds of societal challenges. We also set the bar high for new urban development projects. Keeping maximum precipitation in place requires at least 7% of the draining surface. Here too, this will require a creative design of the environment and the buildings in order to balance space for water and greenery.
Ghent is working on the implementation of the vision memorandum 'Water in the City', which was drawn up together with De Vlaamse Waterweg (a Flemish agency responsible for rivers and canals. A number of thematic projects from 'Water in the City' contribute to climate adaptation, such as drawing up an integrated plan for the public domain with a vision on the integration of green and water elements that contribute to the sponge effect of the city and the drawing up of a rainwater plan, with a clear, coherent and future-oriented vision on (rain)water in the city.
Ghent is also finalising a 'drought action plan' that will give guidance on how to act fast and effec1 in order to tackle drought issues related to climate change. | <urn:uuid:aac6ed90-cd65-4d47-a018-c6320d91563f> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.enlight-eu.org/for-cities-communities/community-challenges/item/65-how-can-we-turn-the-city-into-a-sponge | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224657720.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20230610131939-20230610161939-00095.warc.gz | en | 0.950389 | 503 | 2.75 | 3 |
If you have freckles it doesn’t mean you have a problem with your skin or there’s anything wrong with your health. Freckles are just skin cells that contain color (pigment). The sun causes the pigment (known as melanin) to brown (tan) unevenly, resulting in freckles. Freckles are usually light brown, flat, and smaller than the head of a pin. Sometimes they look bigger because they overlap and run together.
You can’t get rid of your freckles, but wearing sunscreen and a hat could cut down on how many you have. For some boys, freckles fade in the winter and return with the sun in the summer. For other boys, freckles don’t change much with or without the sun. As you get older, your freckles will probably fade more each year.
Make the most of your freckles! They give you a distinct look—something that makes you unique. Wear your freckles proudly!
More helpful information from The Boy's Body Guide, a health and hygiene book for young men ages 8 to 14.
Posted by Frank C. Hawkins | <urn:uuid:2feb94aa-3668-4e02-b7e1-84ebbbd2c0af> | CC-MAIN-2018-30 | http://boysguidebooks.blogspot.com/2009/07/freckles.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-30/segments/1531676591596.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20180720115631-20180720135631-00464.warc.gz | en | 0.930838 | 245 | 2.546875 | 3 |
It’s been a while since we’ve shared an update about our Native Cane Restoration Project! This multi-year project, initiated in 2012, is a collaborative effort with the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians, the Revitalization of Traditional Cherokee Artisan Resources, and the Andrew Pickens (AP) Ranger District to proactively manage and restore approximately 29 acres of native river cane habitat along the Chattooga River in South Carolina. Native canebrakes are one of the most endangered ecosystems in the Southeast. Restoration will enhance habitat for native species and provide a sustainable source of native river cane for use by Cherokee artisans. Success with this project would also restore the largest canebrake ecosystem in the Southeast.
The cane sites are located on public forest land near the Highway 28 bridge (map). Through a combination of historical research and field data collection, priority sites were identified within the project area that are prime candidates for advancing cane restoration. The project management plan calls for removing competing vegetation and creating favorable conditions for restoring canebrake ecosystem through various practices, implemented in a manner specific to each priority site. In March of 2018, the Forest Service’s Southern Research Station carried out a prescribed burn, and in November, they cut down a patch of white pines. This burn was not part of our management plan, but we gave provisional approval for a “cool burn.”
While burning may sound counterproductive, some studies have suggested that it actually helps cane grow, with new stalks sprouting and growing up to one meter per year after a burn. In some cases, it may even rejuvenate cane stalks that are dying out. However, allowing a fire to burn too hot could have adverse effects on the cane, burning stalks to the point that they are killed. Unfortunately, this is what happened in certain areas of the project site.
The white pines were cut in a patch just upstream of the bridge. Clearing space in the canopy allows more sunlight to reach the cane stalks, which is expected to promote growth.
To study the effectiveness of these management practices, we have established monitoring plots within the priority sites. We headed out to the cane sites in early December to set up the plots and begin collecting data. Each monitoring plot is a circle with a 24′ diameter, located in an area that appeared representative of the conditions of the site as a whole. We then counted all of the cane stalks, or culms, within each plot and recorded the number of these that were living and dead to determine a survival rate following implementation of management practices.
We’ll continue to regularly monitor the sites as the project progresses. If you’re interested in visiting the cane sites or would like to learn more, send us an email to [email protected]! | <urn:uuid:48281448-a067-4a59-a7e8-f49fea247ae3> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://chattoogariver.org/native-cane-restoration-project/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250624328.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20200124161014-20200124190014-00042.warc.gz | en | 0.954217 | 574 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Available in: Chinese
|Fiscal decentralization is widely recognized as an essential component in China’s remarkable transition to a market economy. However, the intergovernmental fiscal system is now hitting a few snags—increasing regional disparities, proliferation of off-budgetary funds, deficient and unequal public services delivery, farmers’ financial burden, and rural unrest. What happened? And what happens now?|
In his report to the Tenth National People's Congress in March 2006, Premier Wen Jiabao stressed the importance of hexie shehui (harmonious society). This shift toward fairness and equity among the poor and economically marginalized was the topic of a June 2006 forum organized by the government in partnership with the World Bank in Beijing on "Public Finance for a Harmonious Society." The conference, with its main focus on reshaping intergovernmental fiscal relations, reflects the commitment from China's leadership to revamp fiscal decentralization system as key policy areas in building a harmonious society.
A retrospective view
China has made substantial efforts to break down its highly centralized fiscal management system (1949-1978) using various forms of fiscal contracting systems (1979-1993) and later a tax-sharing system (1994-present). Reforms in the 1980s and early 1990s were aimed at promoting local economic local governments' responsibilities and their autonomy in carrying out fiscal functions. The strategy did boost local growth in many regions, but it also brought many unintended problems including declining general government revenues, waning fiscal position of the overall government, weakening macroeconomic management, and rising regional disparities.
The 1994 Tax Sharing Reform was initiated as the first attempt to fix the problems of the intergovernmental fiscal system through the introduction of the Tax Assignment System (fenshuizhi), which explicitly defined central taxes, shared taxes, and local taxes. The tax structure was also simplified, and tax administration was split into National Tax Services and Local Tax Services.
China is much less decentralized than it appears
The government of China is organized in a five-tier hierarchical structure (central, provincial, prefecture, county, and township) with each level of government reporting to the next highest level. Sub-national governments have been given considerable latitude in shaping local policies and managing fiscal resources. About 70 percent of the entire public expenditure was made at the sub-national levels and over 55 percent at sub-provincial levels in 2004.
However, China is much less decentralized than what appears on the surface. The center exerts substantial control over localities through an intergovernmental fiscal system, several binding expenditure laws, and numerous expenditure mandates, as well as its political control. After the 1994 reform, sub-national governments became largely dependent on their shares of central taxes and grants. In 2003, they financed 67 percent of provincial, 57 percent of prefecture, and 66 percent of county and lower-level government expenditures.
Fiscal dependence at the local level, combined with a hierarchical party structure and the absence of national elections, has emboldened predatory behavior by the upper-level governments. The resulting local fiscal stress and deficient, unequal public service delivery have attracted massive attention.
Financial pressures on local governments have intensified since the introduction of the tax-sharing system in 1994
The 1994 Tax Sharing Reform re-centralized revenues without cutting local expenditures. The centralizing of revenues upward and devolving of expenditures downward occur at each level at the expense of the subordinate governments.
The regressive outcome contributes to deteriorating fiscal vertical imbalances and leaves the lowest level of government—particularly those in the rural sector and poor regions—financially starved. The vertical fiscal gap by administrative levels in 2003 is shown in figure 1.
Local governments play an essential role in providing social services such as education, health care, social security, housing and urban/local services. In 2004, sub-national governments together financed 90 percent of public spending on education, 95 percent on health care, and 85 percent on social security. Many local governments, especially those in poor western regions, are providing fewer and lower quality public services and passing along a higher proportion of these costs to their constituents.
The current system of intergovernmental transfers is failing to address the financing of local public services and regional fiscal disparities
The composition of central to local transfers in 2004 is depicted in figure 2. The three largest transfers—revenue sharing transfers (469.5 billion yuan), tax rebate (404.97 billion yuan) and earmarked grants (322.33 billion) amounting to more than 80 percent of total central-provincial transfers—were largely designed to recognize the vested interests of localities.Meanwhile, the equalization grant (74.5 billion yuan), equal to about 5 percent of the total, was not sufficient to address public service delivery needs at the local level.
The distribution of per capita central transfers by province in 2004 (figure 3) shows that Shanghai, the richest province, was the highest recipient of central transfersper capita(5,079 yuan) and Henan was the lowest (646 yuan), with the national per capital averagein between at1,117 yuan.
Potential next steps in building a harmonious intergovernmental fiscal system
Given the objectives of easing local fiscal stress and promoting sufficient and equitable local public services, the way forward will require significant modification and reforms of the existing intergovernmental fiscal system.
A healthy and wide public debate on potential steps forward could include the following steps [ 3]:
Setting up formal and stable expenditure assignments to clarify the responsibilities of governments might include ensuring that local government expenditures focus on public services and social affairs while central government expenditures focus on national issues such as national defense, foreign affairs, economic development, and mitigating regional inequalities in public services and social affairs; and building broad and formal coordinating institutions to deal with concurrent and overlapping assignments.
Aligning the fiscal system to guarantee all citizens access to basic public services might include making it the central government's responsibility to guarantee all citizens access to basic public services by setting national service standards (Canada shows national minimal standards of public services can significantly improve national cohesiveness); and equalizing transfers to address regional disparities in the ability of lower-level of governments to provide services.
Providing sound local autonomy to improve local fiscal capacity might include building revenue autonomy around a balance between devolution of responsibilities according to economies of scale, the internalization of costs, and available administrative capacity; exploring an asymmetric approachthat allows major cities and other local governments with more developed capacity to introduce reforms; increasing the share rates of local government in major taxes such as the value added tax and income taxes; and continuing to reform the tax system such that each level of government has a stable tax base and main taxes, either exclusively or shared with other governments.
Formalizing the local borrowing system to support sustainable development might include decentralizing the authority of local borrowing to jurisdictions with reasonable fiscal capacity; and applying central control on local borrowing. Standardizing intergovernmental transfer to meet the goals of governments might include focusing central transfers on improving the quality of public services against national standards and focus provincial transfers on achieving equity of local service provision; and improving the transparency of transfers.
The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this brief are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the view of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent.
Heng-fu Zou is a Senior Economist in the Development Research Group (Human Development and Public Services Team). His current research interests include public economics, economic growth, savings, and income distribution in China, India, Nepal, Sudan, and African countries. Email c/o [email protected]
Chunli Shen is a World Bank consultant. She has written on budgeting and fiscal decentralization and co-edited Fiscal Federalism and Fiscal Management (CITIC China 2005), Local Public Finance and Governance (CITIC China 2005), and Regional Disparities in China (People's Publishing House China 2006).
1. This article is based on Chunli Shen, Jing Jin, and Heng-fu Zou, “Fiscal Decentralization in China: History, Impact, Challenges, and Next Steps,” processed, 2006. [draft]
2. Anwar Shah and Chunli Shen, "Fine Tuning the Intergovernmental Transfer System to Achieve a Harmonious Society and A Level Playing Field for Regional Development in China," processed, 2006.
3. Jorge Martinez, Baoyun Qiao, Shuilin Wang, and Heng-fu Zou, “China Decentralization Finance Issues: Lessons from International Experiences,” Development Research Group, World Bank, Washington, D.C., processed, 2006. | <urn:uuid:0b7c8c03-8ef1-4806-b096-c5a17dd9d2e0> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPUBSERV/Resources/fiscal_decentralization.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440645340161.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827031540-00129-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932375 | 1,766 | 2.65625 | 3 |
When you're making music, the arranging process is just as important as the compositional one. Get it right and you could have a hit song on your hands - get it wrong and you'll be left with a jumbled mess of ideas.
Here are 14 thing you can do to create better arrangements…
1. Learn from the experts
Listen to your favourite tracks and try to work out what it is in the arrangements that makes them work. The more you listen, the better you'll get at picking out the oh-so-important minor details.
2. Be critical of your own work
Every once in a while, try to take a step back and analyse your own arrangements. It's easy to get emotionally attached to a piece, but if a part isn't working, be ruthless and ditch it. It might set you back a bit in the short term, but your arrangement will be all the better for it in the long run.
3. Learn music theory
Even a tiny bit of knowledge can go a very long way. It's not dull or scientific, and learning music theory will mean you'll find it easier to analyse what is and what isn't working in your arrangement - often without even having to listen to it first.
4. Try using vocals on their own
In a song, vocals are king (or queen). They're the focal point of the entire piece, so why not capitalise on this and start or end a song with just the vocals? The effect can be very powerful indeed.
5. Use space wisely
Try leaving space in an arrangement, especially in a verse. You don't always have to have chordal instruments playing - dropping all the instruments except the drums, vocals/ melody and possibly the bass can be very striking, and you also get real impact when the chords come back in for the chorus.
6. Vary your choruses
If you've got a main hook or chorus that's repeated a lot, things can get boring. Try swapping instruments about, changing the dynamics or switching parts halfway through the section to add a bit of variety.
7. Avoid the clash
Be aware of clashing melodies and parts occupying too much space. If you have a vocal or a melody, you'll need to give it some space. Having a lead guitar or a synth with a similar tone to the melody playing something different might clutter things up.
8. Try unusual instruments
If you're bored of the same old sounds in your songs, try something a bit bizarre. You can even sample things that aren't instruments at all; in fact anything that makes a noise is fine. These needn't be novelty noises, either - see if you can make something musical out of them.
The easiest way to make your mix sound fatter is to have multiple instruments playing the same part, and sometimes even multiple instances of the same instrument playing the same part.
10. Use pad sounds
Pad sounds are soft, sustained background sounds that generally don't grab your attention but rather are used to add mood or a bit of depth to an arrangement. If your song is sounding a bit thin and you can't quite put your finger on why, a pad could be the solution.
11. Be aware of rhythm
You may want all the instruments to 'lock in' together and play the same rhythm; you may want them to play different rhythms. Whatever you choose to do, though, make sure this is a conscious decision, as not paying attention to rhythm will make your arrangement sound sloppy and disjointed.
12. Be aware of expectations
When arranging, It's sometimes best to do the obvious and kick in with the big chorus at the end - it's what people will expect and probably what they'll want to hear. Equally, though, defying expectations and going somewhere that isn't immediately obvious can be a really effective move.
13. Make your intro count
The cruel truth is that most listeners aren't patient and will often judge your track in the first few seconds. The intro isn't merely the bit before the melody or vocals come in - it's a very important section in its own right, so spend some time making it perfect.
14. Think about register
The register of a part is how high up it's played - for example, a piano part played in a high register would be played high up (to the right) on the keyboard. If every part is in the same register in your track, it'll likely sound either dull or too dense. Try spreading parts about a bit and changing register as the song goes on. | <urn:uuid:5d949219-1716-4e75-bc24-16be7bbf487d> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | https://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/14-ways-to-turn-your-song-ideas-into-a-great-arrangement-183143 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583510866.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20181016180631-20181016202131-00050.warc.gz | en | 0.963201 | 940 | 2.59375 | 3 |
When Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God, He knew it was something quite different from what those listening to Him might imagine—quite different also from what we might tend to imagine today. Hence, rather than giving a definition, He made use of parables: stories and images that invite us to enter more deeply into a mystery. For example, Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade (Mk 4:31-32). It is a small grain that disappears into the ground and is forgotten, but that never stops growing, while the world continues on its apparently separate course. It grows even at night, when no one is caring for it or paying attention.
In October 1928 God led Saint Josemaria to discover a seed in his soul that only He could have placed there: a small grain meant to grow in the great field of the Church. A note written down a few months later sketches the “genetic code” of this seed: “Ordinary Christians. Dough being leavened. Ours is to be ordinary, natural. The means: everyday work. All saints! Silent self-giving.” From the day God gave him the mission to care for this seed, Saint Josemaria’s only concern was to see it become a reality. And what was then simply a promise, a hope, today is a leafy tree that gives shelter to many souls and a rich savor to many lives.
The desire to be holy is what is normal
Pope Francis tells us: “Every saint is a message which the Holy Spirit takes from the riches of Jesus Christ and gives to his people.” Saint Josemaria received a message that he embodied in his own life. He himself became the message, and his life and words began to challenge many people: “Don’t let your life be barren. Be useful. Leave a mark. Shine forth with the torch of your faith and your love ... And set aflame all the ways of the earth with the fire of Christ that you bear in your heart.”
He carried this fire inside, as one of the first faithful of Opus Dei ordained to the priesthood, Jose Luis Muzquiz, quickly realized. The first time he spoke with Saint Josemaria, he heard something that perhaps he had never heard before: the possibility to be an apostle in his work. And right away Saint Josemaria added: “The only real love is God’s Love; the others are little loves.” These words deeply impressed him: “One could see that it came from the depths of his soul, from a soul in love with God. The mental circuits I had in place all melted down.”
In a Mass of thanksgiving for the beatification of this soul in love with God, the then Cardinal Ratzinger said, with his characteristic simplicity and depth: “The meaning of the word ‘holy’ has undergone a dangerous narrowing over the course of time, and this certainly still influences it today. It makes us think of the saints whose statues and paintings we see at the altars, of miracles and heroic virtues, and it suggests that holiness is for a chosen few, among whom we cannot be included. Then we leave holiness to the few, of an unknown number, and content ourselves with being just the way we are.
“Amidst this spiritual apathy, Josemaria Escriva issued a wake-up call, shouting: No! Holiness is not something extraordinary but rather ordinary; it is what is normal for every baptized person. Holiness does not mean the sort of heroism that it is impossible to imitate; rather it has a thousand different forms and can become a reality anywhere, in any job. It is what is normal.”
The natural thing, then, for a Christian is the desire to be holy. Saint Josemaria wrote, when still a young priest: “The saints were not abnormal beings: cases to be studied by a ‘modernistic’ doctor. They were, they are, normal: of flesh, like yours. And they conquered.” The call to Opus Dei entails an awareness of the “normality” of sanctity, with the desire to become an “interpreter” of this simple message, of this music. The “musical score” for this message already exists: the life and preaching of Saint Josemaria; the proclamation of the universal call to holiness by Vatican II; the magisterium of the recent Popes, who have all stressed this teaching, and above all the Gospels. But this music needs to be heard in every corner of the world, with the infinite variations that still need to become a reality: the individual lives of so many Christians.
So close that we live with Him
In inspiring Opus Dei, our Lord presented his Church with a path, a spirituality “designed” to be embodied in every type of daily setting, becoming part and parcel of the daily work and ordinary, normal life of people who are quite different. “Far away on the horizon heaven seems to meet the earth. Do not forget that where heaven and earth really meet is in your heart of a child of God.” Hence, although the vocation to Opus Dei spurs a person to have initiative in seeking to better the world, it doesn’t lead above all to doing things, or to doing more things than what one was already doing. Rather it leads above all to doing them in a different way, being with God in everything we do, striving to share everything with Him. “My children, our vocation is to follow Christ. And to follow Him so closelythat we live with Him, like the first Twelve, so close to Him that we identify with Him, that we live his Life, until a moment comes, if we haven’t hindered it, when we can say with Saint Paul: ‘It is now no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.’”
One of the first Supernumeraries recalls his surprise when the Founder of the Work told him: “God is calling you to the path of contemplation.” As a married person with children who had to work hard to support his family, this was “a true discovery.” Saint Josemaria advised another person: “Talk with our Lord; tell Him: ‘I’m tired, Lord. I’m at the end of my strength. Lord, this isn’t going well. How would you do it?’” This is what contemplation in the middle of the world involves: looking at the real world with love, while also looking at God, in an unbroken dialogue. Saint Josemaria summed up this beautiful challenge in a striking phrase: “the more within the world we are, the more we must be God’s.” And this closeness, this deep friendship with Him, gives rise to two features that, although not exclusive to the vocation to the Work, have a special importance for those God calls to this path: the call to be apostles, to make Christ known; and the mission to transform and reconcile the world with God through one’s work.
Before considering these features, however, a question naturally arises. If, as Saint Josemaria always insisted, and as the Pope recently reminded us, sanctity is meant for everyone; if our Lord gives all Christians the mandate to make the Gospel known, what is specific then to the vocation to Opus Dei as a response to the call to find God in the middle of the world?
This is fairly easy to explain if we keep in mind that the various vocations found in Christian life are specifications, modalities or channels of the life and vocation communicated by baptism. Specifically, “the vocation to Opus Dei ‘takes up, welcomes, channels’ the self-giving or dedication to God and to others that is required by the Christian vocation; the only special element ‘added’ is precisely the ‘channel’—that this dedication be carried out by forming part of a specific institution of the Church (Opus Dei), which has a specific spirituality and also specific means of formation and apostolate,” aimed specifically at serving God and other men and women through work and ordinary, daily realities. Or to put it another way: those who discover and welcome the call to Opus Dei decide to give their life for others (which is the essence of Christian life), along a specific path led by God’s hand, and with the help of a great family. And therefore they are ready to do all they can on their part to enable this charism to nourish their interior life, illumine their intellect, and enrich their personality, so that they can truly find God in their life and share this wonderful discovery with others.
The divine illumination received on the 2nd of October 1928, and others that followed, showed Saint Josemaria that he needed to dedicate his life to fostering among ordinary Christians—men and women who live in the middle of the world, carrying out a wide variety of different jobs—the awareness that all are called to holiness and apostolate. And to do this through an institution, Opus Dei, made up of ordinary Christians who, in accepting the divine call to make this ideal their own, give witness with their own life to the marvelous possibility, with the help of grace, to put it into practice, even amid their own limitations.
All who have a big heart
On the path from Bethany to Jerusalem, Jesus is hungry. He looks for something to eat and stops at a fig tree (Mt 21:18). “Jesus approaches the fig tree: he approaches you, he approaches me. Jesus hungers, he thirsts for souls. On the Cross he cried out Sitio!, ‘I thirst’ (Jn 19:29). He thirsts for us, for our love, for our souls and for all the souls we ought to be bringing to him, along the way of the Cross which is the way to immortality and heavenly glory.”
The vocation to the Work entails a strong “contagion” of this hunger and thirst of God. When Saint Josemaria was struggling to get the first residence of the Work underway, some people advised him not to be in such a hurry. While on retreat he wrote down: “Hurry. It’s not hurry. It’s that Jesus is urging us on.” He was urged on, like Saint Paul, by Christ’s love (cf. 2 Cor 5:14). And with this same serene urgency God wants us to call at the heart of each man and women: “Wake up to the fact that you are loved!” And to do so in a normal, natural way, loving and letting oneself be loved by everyone, helping and serving them, passing on what we know, learning from them, sharing challenges and projects, problems and worries, creating bonds of friendship. Right there where we work, rest, shop…, we can be leaven, salt, light for the world.
God doesn’t call “superheroes” to his Work. He calls normal people, people who have a big, magnanimous heart, in which all men and women find a place. In a document from the first years, Saint Josemaria wrote about those who could receive God’s call to the Work: “There is no room in the Work for those who are selfish, cowardly, indiscreet, pessimistic, tepid, foolish, lazy, timid, frivolous. There is room for the sick, God’s favorites, and for all those who have a big heart, even though their frailties may have been quite big.” Those who discover that God is calling them to Opus Dei can be people with defects and limitations; but they need to have big ideals, the eagerness to love, to enkindle in others God’s love.
Loving the world as God loves it
“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (Jn 3:16). God loves the world He has created “passionately.” Hence it isn’t an obstacle to holiness but rather its “native place.” The core of Opus Dei’s message is contained in this conviction: we can be holy not despite living in the world, but rather by taking advantage of it, being deeply immersed in it. Because the world, this mysterious amalgam of greatness and wretchedness, love and hate, rancor and forgiveness, war and peace, “waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God” (Rom 8:19).
When speaking about mankind’s relationship with the world, Genesis employs two verbs: “keep” and “cultivate” (cf. Gen 2:15). With the first, which is also used to express the fulfillment of the commandments, we are shown our responsibility for the world, and the fact that we can’t make use of it in a despotic way. While the second verb, “cultivate,” which means both “to work” (usually the earth) as well as “to offer cult” (cf. Num 8:11), unites work to worship. By working we not only attain self-fulfillment; we also offer a pleasing worship to God, because we love the world as He loves it. Therefore sanctifying our work means, in the end, making the world more beautiful, making room in it for God.
He Himself has wanted to keep and cultivate the world that came forth good from his hands as Creator, by working with the hands of a man, of a creature. For centuries our Lord’s years of hidden life in the workshop at Nazareth were viewed as years of obscurity, lacking in light. But in the light of the spirit of the Work they become “filled with bright sunlight that illumines our days and imbues them with meaning.” Therefore Saint Josemaria encouraged his sons and daughters to reflect often on these hidden years of work, which recall for us the “hidden and silent” growth of the grain of wheat. This is how Jesus grew up—later He will even compare Himself to the grain of wheat (cf. Jn 12:24)—in the workshop of Joseph and his Mother, in that workshop that was also a home.
The Holy Family’s humble life shows us that there are jobs which, although they may seem of little importance to earthly eyes, in God’s eyes have immense value, because of the love and care put into them, with the desire to be useful. Hence “sanctifying work does not mean doing something holy while working, but rather making the work itself holy.” Thus “work humanly well done has become a healing ‘salve’ for people’s eyes so that they can discover God in every circumstance and facet of life. Moreover, this has happened right in our times when materialism is bent on turning work into mud which blinds people and prevents them from looking at God.”
To bear fruit, the grain needs to hide in the ground, to disappear. This is how Saint Josemaria saw his own life: “my role is to hide and disappear, so that only Jesus shines forth.” And this is also how God wants all the men and women He calls to the Work to see their lives. Like the first Christians: normal, ordinary people who, if they raised their voices, it wasn’t to seek the applause of others, but rather to make God shine forth. People who, above all, “lived in union with Christ and who made him known to others … sowers of peace and joy, the peace and joy that Jesus has brought to us.”
Saint Josemaria, “Apuntes intimos,” no. 25. In Opus Dei in the Church, Pedro Rodriguez, Fernando Ocariz, Jose Luis Illanes, Four Courts Press 1994, p. 133.
Francis, Apost. Exhort. Gaudete et exsultate (19 March 2018), no. 21.
Saint Josemaria, The Way, no. 1.
The Way, Critical-Historical edition, comment on point no. 417.
Joseph Ratzinger, Homily, 19 May 1992.
The Way, no. 133.
Vatican II, Dogm. Const. Lumen gentium (21 October 1964), no. 40.
Cf. Saint John Paul II, Apost. Exhort. Christifideles laici (30 December 1988), nos. 16-17; Benedict XVI, Audience, 13 April 2011; and, more recently, the Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et exsultate (19 March 2018) of Pope Francis.
Saint Josemaria, Furrow, no. 309.
Saint Josemaria, In Dialogue with the Lord, Scepter 2018, p. 23.
Victor García Hoz, “Mi encuentro con Monseñor Escrivá de Balaguer”, in R. Serrano (ed.) Así le vieron, Rialp, Madrid, 1992, p. 83.
Saint Josemaria, Notes from a family get-together in Valladolid, 22 October 1972.
Saint Josemaria, The Forge, no. 740.
Fernando Ocáriz, “Vocation to Opus Dei as a Vocation in the Church,” in Opus Dei in the Church, p. 103.
Saint Josemaria, Friends of God, no. 202.
“Apuntes intimos,” no. 1753, cited in Andres Vazquez de Prada, The Founder of Opus Dei, Vol. I, p. 394.
Saint John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, p. 9 (introduction to Spanish edition).
Saint Josemaria, Instruction, 1 April 1934, no. 65.
Saint Josemaria, Christ is Passing By, no. 14.
Fernando Ocáriz, Naturaleza, gracia y gloria, Eunsa 2000, p. 263.
Blessed Alvaro del Portillo, Letter, 9 September 1975.
Saint Josemaria, Letter, 28 January 1975.
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Modes of Living in Reykjavík 1930-1940 (Reykjavík, 1985)
A translation of two chapters from the book: Introduction and Conclusions.
The details of this transition are too complex to be recounted here. In brief, production in Iceland underwent fundamental changes and increased tremendously around and after the turn of the century. In the place of subsistence farming came increasingly specialised production of goods and articles for both domestic and foreign markets.
Between 1910 and 1920, the range of goods offered for export narrowed steadily, so that fish products ultimately constituted more than 80% of total exports. The exports while fish products shows a corresponding decrease, so that in the years 1931-1935 they had shrunk to a mere 9.6% of total exports while fish products had grown to 89.3%. In a sense, these figures sum up the changes which Iceland experienced in the early decades of the 20th century.
Although fish products were occupying more and more of the export market, they were sorely lacking in diversity. In the year 1920, for example, salt fish constituted about 70% of the fish products exported. The disadvantages of such a lack of diversity should be obvious. Even small weaknesses in market conditions or in the annual catch could have baneful effects on the economic life of the nation.
A look at population figures for the 1930´s give us another slant on these developments. It suffices to compare the figures for 1940 with those for 1930.
A distinct movement from the countryside to more densely populated areas is reflected. It is of interest, incidentally, that the annual population increase in this period was only about 1.10% which is somewhat less than in the preceding decade or in the decades that followed. The birth rate declined during the 1930´s but the causes of this are uncertain. The difficult conditions and social instability of the depression years suggest themselves as explanations.
Of further interest are the changes which took place in the composition of the labour market in the years prior to 1930. The developments described in the paragraphs above were accompanied by a shift toward employment in the areas of manufacturing, industry, commerce, transport and communications, and in various types of non-physical labour. In 1860, only 6.3% of the total population was employed in these areas, while 70 years later, in 1930, over a third of the total population was so employed. These figures testify to the magnitude of the changes affecting Iceland in this period.
When the Great Depression hit the Western World in 1929, the winds turned quickly against the Icelandic economy, and it was not long before it threatened to founder. Exports were first seriously affected in 1930-1931 when their process were forced down as much as 50% below their 1929 prices. Increases in foreign duty together with demands for trade parity effectively closed foreign markets for Icelandic export products.
Sharp cutbacks in production naturally ensued, and many Icelandic firms were plunged into grave difficulties. The nation entered a dark period of unemployment and ever-sharpening class conflict.
In politics, extremism began to prevail. Two issues, especially, became foci for dissension: the organisation of voting districts on the one hand, and emergency measures for dealing with the economic crisis on the other. Progress was slowly made toward meeting the demand for more fairly-organises voting districts. Meanwhile, several parties favouring central planning found an increased following and formed a government in 1934 promising a "New Deal" in the economy, with substantially increased government participation a prescription for dealing with the crisis which had grown very popular among the nations of the West.
Great changes were introduced. Industry was bolstered up, both by lowering the duties levied on raw materials and machinery and by restricting the import of consumer goods and other foreign industrial products. These restrictions must have been quite effective. Large sums of money were poured into industry, but it is arguable that such advantages as accrued were dearly bought.
Agriculture received its share in 1935 with the passage -- over vehement opposition -- of legislation concerning the sale of farm products. An emergency loan fund had already been established in order to prevent farmers from losing their farms.
In the fishing industry, attempts were made to find more efficient fishing techniques, to exploit hitherto under-used fish varieties, and to take up new methods of processing. Directing these attempts was the Fisheries Commission. The Icelandic Fish Producers Union (S.Í.F.) was set up in 1932 with the aims of co-ordinating the efforts of the fish exporters and establishing new markets in their common interest. The Herring Fisheries Commission, whose function were similar to those of S.Í.F., was founded in 1934.
None of these measures, however, nor others which have been omitted from discussion here, were the Crisis Years. But how did the residents of Reykjavik really fare? How did they manage in supporting themselves and their families? Were living conditions really as desperate for ordinary folk as it would appear from what has been written about this period? What was life like in a Reykjavik household in the 1930´s? What sorts of homes could people make for themselves? How did they spend a typical day? Also: Is it possible to see in retrospect, by looking at such factors, how the problems of the economy might more successfully have been met? Were some of the decisions made in trying to meet the crisis fundamentally mistaken? Was the crisis, at least in part, home made?
In trying to answer these questions, two very different approaches are taken in this essay. The body of the work consists in two large chapters, chapters 2 and 3. In the first of these, quantitative factors bearing upon the standard of living are examined. These include the process of essential goods and services, wages, housing costs, and indicators of the overall condition of the economy. In chapter 3 a less traditional approach is employed. A look is taken into the homes, lives, and employment¹s of five individual families. We describe their houses and furnishings, follow family members through a typical day, and inquire about their leisure time. In this more personal way, we try to see what life was really like for people living in the Reykjavik of the 1930´s. In a brief final chapter, chapter 4, we reflect upon the extent to which the pictures emerging from the two different approaches are consistent.
Quantitative information concerning those factors which most affected the Icelandic standard of living in the 1930´s is very imperfect. It was not until large-scale governmental intervention in the economy came into fashion that economic data began to be compiled systematically, and this was not until the middle-to-late 1930´s.8 Especially imperfect are the figures on housing and employment. Rather than describing here the various sources used for the purposes of chapter 2, the reader is directed to the list of references.
The households examined in chapter 3 are: (1) the family of Ragnar Jónsson, unskilled and unemployed laborer, who did not enjoyed the luxury of home ownership, and had the most difficult time making ends meet in the 1930´s; (2) the family of Aðalsteinn Guðmundsson, unskilled laborer, and his wife Vilborg Jónsdóttir, which resided at Hofsvallagata 15; (3) the family of Guðmundur Gíslason, shipwright, and his wife Margrét Gísladóttir, which resided at Vesturgata 30; (4) the family of Helgi Magnússon merchant, and his wife Oddrún Sigurðardóttir, which resided at Bankastræti 7; and (5) the family of Ólafur Þorsteinsson, physician, and his wife Kristín Guðmundsdóttir, which resided at Skólabrú 2. Thus, the families represent four different occupational classes: unskilled workers, craftsmen, merchants, and professions, and two main sectors of the economy; the production sector and the service sector. In three cases, the families occupy the same dwellings now as in the 1930´s and were chosen partly for that reason (It helped greatly in reconstructing a picture of the home as it was during the Depression Years). An exception had to be made in choosing the merchant family, as it appears that there is no merchant family in Reykjavik fulfilling this condition, and the case of Ragnar Jónsson who moved from one place to another the whole decade.
The research for chapter 3 rests almost entirely upon oral reports. Obviously, the recollection of the events and situations of fifty years ago is no easy matter, especially as we are here concerned with matters of a kind which are normally considered unimportant, and thus quickly forgotten. Thus, this research depends very heavily upon the trustworthiness of the individuals consulted, and they were consequently selected with this fact very much in mind.
After the reports were collected, they were reviewed by other individuals from the same family in order to confirm them as far as possible. The recollections were then put into the form of written drafts, and were reviewed by the reporting individuals themselves before being accepted as final. Rewriting was done as necessary.
House plans and photographs owned by the families were used as supporting materials. On the basis of these and the reports, plans of each dwelling as it was in the 1930´s, including the main fixtures and furnishings, have been reconstructed and are included in the relevant sections of chapter 3. There was, unfortunately, no opportunity to take precise measurements of the dwellings or household articles, except in the home of Guðmundur Gíslason, shipwright (section 3.2).
Generally speaking, the research was carried out in the same way for all four families; but it will be seen that each case maintains its own air. For example, certain names and expressions that family members used have been preserved in the text, in order to recapture the spirit of the household.
In describing the 1930´s, scholars have generally painted a very black picture of the conditions of life. Unemployment, housing shortages, and economic difficulties are the subjects most talked about, and this in itself is right and natural. But it is often overlooked that many people managed to avoid serious hardship.
The families we have looked at here were among those who managed fairly well. None of them suffered grievous want. The family of Ragnar Jónsson was in a league of its own. Unemployment and poor housing was their destiny, but with hard work and desire to take on life, they managed to survive. The two families representing the production sector - those living at Hofsvallagata 15 and at Vesturgata 30 - achieved this by exercising great thrift and restraint in money matters. The two families living at Bankastræti 7 and at Skólabrú 2 were much better off financially. The differences are most easily seen in the municipal taxes paid by each family for the years 1931 - 1940:
The economic resources available to each family naturally had much to say about its style of life. As one might expect, this differed considerably from household to household.
The families living at Bankastræti 7 and at Skólabrú 2 enjoyed elegant, richly furnished homes. They had the means to outfit ostentatious living - rooms which served as the households face to the outer world. These rooms were centrally located and everything was done to see to it that they presented a splendid appearance. In such homes, it was sensible to locate the bedrooms on a different floor, for this made it easier to separate off the rooms in daily use from those which were chiefly for show.
Both of these families owned out - of - town summer houses to which family members could retire from the hustle and bustle of daily life.
Travel abroad was rather frequent, chiefly for recreational and educational purposes, despite the fact that such journeys were both expensive and difficult in those times of currency restrictions and inconvenient transportation.
It is clear that these two families lived rather grandly, and were able to avail themselves of most of the advantages that the 1930´s had to offer, at least by Icelandic standards.
Quite another story must be told of the families who lived at Hofsvallagata 15, Vesturgata 30, and the family of Ragnar Jónsson. Neither dwelling, of the two mentioned first, much exceeded 50 m2 in floor area, and the tightness of the quarters inevitably left its impression upon family life.
Household articles in these homes were generally simple and unadorned, and only that which was absolutely necessary was given a place in the house. Living - rooms doubled as bedrooms, there was no other choice, and each room had many occupants. Everyone¹s comfort was limited, especially in Vesturgata 30 which in common with many Reykjavík houses of the time had neither a water closet, nor a bathroom, nor a laundry room.
Briefly considered, it may appear that the wealthier families had little in common with the poorer ones. But a closer look reveals important common elements as well. All of the families were characterised, more or less equally, by energy, industry, and thrift. All of them had long working-days. But all were likewise able to find time for leisure activities and enjoyment, each after its own fashion. In these respects, the families living at Hofsvallagata 15 and Vesturgata 30 differed little from the other two.
All five of the families were given to reading to an extent which is quite remarkable; and all were whole - heatedly fond of Icelandic literature. The number of guests visiting these households is also worthy of remark. It was quite common for relatives and friends from out of town to stay with these families for several nights on end.
In short, the investigations of chapter 3 reveal many aspects in which the style and quality of live was similar for all four families, despite their differing economic circumstances.
On the other hand, these investigations do not provide much support for any very general conclusions; for our sample is much too small, and the picture that emerges is suspiciously positive. This picture does, however, provide what is likely to be a realistic view of the lives of a certain large group of people in the Reykjavik of the 1930´s: people who mostly owned their own homes and had steady employment. Home ownership, as we have seen, was not restricted to the rich. For this group, the picture derived from chapter 3 is quite consistent with that which emerged from our considerations in chapter 2.
The question remains whether the conditions of those who were afflicted with unemployment - that large group of people whose names do not appear on the tax rolls because of their extremely low incomes - might have been improved. The government chose the path of restricting imports, and increasing purchasing power by setting up new business concerns and fixing currency exchange rates. This policy arguably lengthened the crisis and did not improve the employment situation. For, by fixing the exchange rates, exports were reduced, which in turn reduced the national income and made the crisis even more overwhelming. The new businesses did not come close to recouping the losses sustained by the export concerns. In consequence, unemployment was rampant through the end of the decade. It is true, however, that sustaining the purchasing power of the króna worked to insure that the welfare of those who had steady employment was not undermined.
Devaluation of the króna would have produced a temporary cut in the buying-power of wages, but the positive effects on the export sector would in all likelihood have rectified this. Further, a foundation would thereby have been laid for increased employment, and thus a better standard of living for the ordinary person.
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The Old Jewish Cemetery of Prague
Part of the Jewish Museum in Prague
U Staré školy 1
110 00 Prague 1
Telephone: +420 222 749 211
Founded: in the first half of the 15th century
Oldest surviving monument: 1439
Size: Approximately 2.5 acres
Number of interments: Perhaps up to 100,000 lie beneath 12,000 tombstones
Open: Every day except Saturdays and Jewish holidays. Winter from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Summer from 9 a.m. until 6.
Admission: Adults – 200 CZK, under 15s and students – 140 CZK, children under 6 are free.
Jews first came to Prague as free traders in the 10th century. They settled along the trade routes below Vysehrad Castle, where they lived peacefully until Christian Crusaders destroyed their settlement in 1096-1098. Afraid to lose the money generated by the Jewish traders, Prague’s nobility invited them to shift their homes into the city’s Old Town. This area became the first ghetto, three centuries before the word was coined in Venice.
Medieval Christians believed that Jews had killed Christ and continued to use Christian blood in their rituals. The “Passover lamb” was considered a euphemism for Christ and it was widely imagined that unless Jews were locked behind ghetto walls at night, Christian infants would end up on Passover plates.
As the Middle Ages melted into the Renaissance, interest in the Kabbalah swelled amongst both Christians and Jews in Prague. In this atmosphere, Rabbi Loew (pronounced Lurve) became chief rabbi of the ghetto in 1597. History records that he was once summoned to the palace by Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, who funded research into the alchemical transformation of lead into gold. (This was the same period of time that Queen Elizabeth consulted astrologist John Dee about similar matters. Dee later came to study in Prague, purportedly with Loew.)
Legends sprang up around Rabbi Loew, said to be one of only four men, post-Adam, to see the Garden of Eden. While there, he was granted the shem, the secret name of God, which can create life.
This came in handy when the ghetto was once again menaced. (The menace varies according to the storyteller, though it’s always rooted in Christian bigotry.) The Rabbi and two apprentices created a champion out of the muddy banks of the Vltava River. This artificial man served faithfully, protecting the Jews from slander and worse, until something went wrong one night and Loew had to rip the shem — variously a clay tablet or a scrap of paper — from behind the golem’s teeth.
Founded in 1478, the Beth-Chaim (Hebrew for House of Life) served as the only Jewish graveyard in Prague for three centuries. Penned in by buildings on every side, the Old Jewish Cemetery could only increase in height. 12,000 surviving tombstones totter over the graves of an estimated 20,000-100,000 people. The ground consists of twelve layers of graves.
The most visited of these belongs to Rabbi Yehudah Loew ben Bezalel (1512-1609). Rather than a tablet marker, Loew has a tomb of pink stone, guarded by lions. When I visited, pebbles, coins, and folded scraps of white paper covered its every flat surface.
I’ve read several explanations of the custom of placing pebbles on graves. The simplest appeared in Mystical Stonescapes by Freema Gottlieb: “Vegetation fades, but stones are as close as matter gets to Eternity.” Old Bohemian and Moravian Jewish Cemeteries by Ehl, Parik, and Fiedler traces the ritual back to when the Hebrews wandered in the desert after Moses led them out of Egypt. Anyone who fell during that forty-year trek was buried along the wayside. Travelers who passed those graves added a rock as a way of keeping the burial mound inviolable.
While the Nazis demolished many Jewish graveyards, this one — and Loew’s tomb — was spared as part of a museum dedicated to the extinct race. The beauty of the place must have touched some Nazi soul. Now overseen by the Federation of Jewish Communities of the Czech Republic, the graveyard welcomes 10,000 visitors each year. Most bring pebbles in their pockets for Rabbi Loew.
The Jewish Museum of Prague visitor information
The Jewish Cemeteries of Prague
The New Jewish Cemetery of Prague
Books I’ve reviewed that reference Jewish gravestones:
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This is the second installment of a new feature in Plus: the teacher package. Every issue contains a package bringing together all Plus articles about a particular subject from the UK National Curriculum. Whether you're a student studying the subject, or a teacher teaching it, all relevant Plus articles are available to you at a glance.
Plus articles go far beyond the explicit maths taught at school, while still being accessible to someone doing A level maths. They put classroom maths in context by explaining the bigger picture — they explore applications in the real world, find maths in unusual places, and delve into mathematical history and philosophy. We therefore hope that our teacher packages provide an ideal resource for students working on projects and teachers wanting to offer their students a deeper insight in the world of maths.
Mathematics is often called "the language of the universe". With mathematics, we can describe and make predictions about the behaviour of things around us. The results are often better than ever expected — in fact, one mathematician even wrote an essay about what he called the "unreasonable effectiveness" of mathematics in solving physical problems! This power to describe a complicated system in a simple way is useful in many different branches of study, from analysing Rubik's cube to choosing a national defence strategy.
The Plus articles listed below all deal with mathematical modelling. We have divided them into three categories. Explicit maths articles contain explicit examples or proofs that can be worked directly into classroom activities and discussions. Articles in the middle ground category also contain explicit maths, but require the reader to fill in the details — possible material for student projects. The bigger picture category contains articles that focus on concepts and give an overview of an area, making for eye-opening background reading. In addition to the Plus articles, the try it yourself section provides links to related problems on our sister site NRICH.
- Explicit maths — get your hands dirty with some real maths.
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Mathematical modelling in medicine and nature
Classroom activity: Build your own disease — Explore how to model the spread of an infectious disease.
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Modelling, step by step — Why can't human beings walk as fast as they run? And why do we prefer to break into a run rather than walk above a certain speed? Using mathematical modelling, R. McNeill Alexander finds some answers.
Guilt counts — Guilt, so some people have suggested, is what makes us nice. When we do someone a favour or choose not to exploit someone vulnerable, we do it because we fear the guilt we'd feel otherwise. A team of scientists have recently month produced some new results in this area, using a model from psychological game theory.
Mathematical modelling in economics, politics and human interaction
Game theory and the Cuban missile crisis — Steven J. Brams uses the Cuban missile crisis to illustrate the Theory of Moves, which is not just an abstract mathematical model but one that mirrors the real-life choices, and underlying thinking, of flesh-and-blood decision makers.
A risky business: how to price derivatives — This article takes us on the road to the famous Black-Scholes equation of financial mathematics. There's an explicit derivation of the formula for a simplified case, and an appendix with more advanced material for the brave.
Kissing the frog: A mathematician's guide to mating — What's your strategy for love? Hold out for The Only One? Simply try and avoid the really bad ones? How long should you wait before cutting your losses and settling down with the next best who comes along? John Billingham models the problem and saves the national grid in the process.
Graphical methods I: Slug wars, Graphical Methods II: The return of the slime and Graphical methods III: the slugs bounce back — Phil Wilson models the fall and rise of slug world, looking at arms proliferation and slug economy.
The middle ground
Mathematical modelling in medicine and nature
Counting calories — Struggling with that new year's resolution to lose a few pounds? Weight not dropping off as fast as you'd expected? A new mathematical model has some good news and some bad news for you. Which would you like to hear first?
What can birds tell us about flying through ash clouds? — Why does a financial mathematician think about birds when trying to understand the grounding of aeroplanes after the Icelandic volcano eruption?
Baby robots feel the love — Researchers have unveiled the first prototypes of robots that can develop emotions and express them too. But how do you get emotions into machines that only understand the language of maths?
Modelling cell suicide — This article sheds light on suicidal cells and a mathematical model that could help fight cancer.
Uncoiling the Spiral: Maths and Hallucinations — Think drug-induced hallucinations, and the whirly, spirally, tunnel-vision-like patterns of psychedelic imagery immediately spring to mind. So what can these patterns tell us about the structure of our brains?
Eat, drink and be merry: making it go down well — This article takes a dive into the rather smelly business of digesting food, and how a crazy application of chaos theory shows the best way to digest a medicinal drug.
Shaping our bones — We know that applying a force to a bone during its development can influence its growth and shape. But can we use our understanding of how developing bone reacts to mechanical forces to help people suffering from diseases that lead to bone deformities?
The mathematics of diseases — Over the past one hundred years, mathematics has been used to understand and predict the spread of diseases, relating important public-health questions to basic infection parameters. Matthew Keeling describes some of the mathematical developments that have improved our understanding and predictive ability. See also this related activity on our sister website NRICH.
How the leopard got its spots — How does the uniform ball of cells that make up an embryo differentiate to create the dramatic patterns of a zebra or leopard? How come there are spotty animals with stripy tails, but no stripy animals with spotty tails? Lewis Dartnell solves these, and other, puzzles of animal patterning.
Mathematical modelling in games and sport
Harder, better, faster, stronger — Modelling Olympic success.
The Plus sports page: The curse of the duck — Why do the best cricketers in the world keep scoring zero?
The Plus sports page: Power trip — This article looks at the tenure length of football managers and fits a model to the data.
If you can't bend it, model it! — David Beckham and his fellow players may intuitively know how to bend a football's flight as they wish, but for the rest of us Ken Bray explains the aerodynamics of footballs and the secret to the perfect free kick. For a football-related modelling problem see our sister site NRICH.
Games people play — Combinatorial Game Theory is a powerful tool for analysing mathematical games. Lewis Dartnell explains how the technique can be used to analyse games such as Twentyone and Nim, and even some chess endgames.
The bigger picture
Model behaviour — A quick introduction to modelling, this article shows how mathematicians model complex systems by describing the most crucial elements in the simplest possible way.
Mathematical modelling in medicine and nature
Met Office in for another roasting? — How should the Met Office communicate the predictions of its meteorological models?
Creating a virtual cancer — A mathematical cancer model may lead to personalised treatment.
Protecting the nation — Vaccination is an emotive business. To make sure it works, we need to model how diseases spread.
The speed of climate change — Scientists model how fast temperature changes sweep the Earth.
Feeling tense about healing wounds? — Squeamish about cuts and scrapes? Mathematical modelling can help you feel better.
And now, the weather... — Met Office forecasters use giant numerical models of global climate to produce the weather forecasts each day - but the complexity of the simulation means that they can't always be right!
Modelling catastrophes — Hardly six months go by without a natural disaster striking some part of the globe. While it's next to impossible to predict these catastrophes, let alone prevent them, mathematical modelling gives a way to prepare for their impact.
Chaos on the brain — Saying that someone is a chaotic thinker might seem like an insult — but, according to Lewis Dartnell, it could be that the mathematical phenomenon of chaos is a crucial part of what makes our brains work.
When will they blow? — How mathematical models are used to predict volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, and issue volcano alerts that could save thousands of lives.
Quantum geometry — One of the many strange ideas from quantum mechanics is that space isn't continuous but consists of tiny chunks. Ordinary geometry is useless when it comes to dealing with such a space, but algebra makes it possible to come up with a model of spacetime that might do the trick. And it can all be tested by a satellite. Shahn Majid met up with Plus to explain.
Career Interview: biomechanical engineer — Jose Munoz explains how engineering can allow you to explore the unknown, from understanding how mechanical structures bend to investigating the way genes affect the shape of embryos.
Career Interview: fluid mechanics researcher — André Léger studies the fluid mechanics of food travelling through the intestines for consumer goods giant Unilever.
From restaurants to climate change — This article explains how linear models are used to explain diners' tipping behaviour, global warming and genes.
Mathematical modelling in games, sport and art
Making gold for 2012 — Recently leading researchers in sports technology met at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London to demonstrate just how far their field has come over recent years. The changes they make to athletes' equipment and clothes may only make a tiny difference to their performance, but once they're added up they can mean the difference between gold and silver.
Supersonic bloodhound — In 1997 Andy Green was the first to break the sound barrier in his car Thrust SSC, which reached speeds of over 760mph. Now he and his team want to push things even further with a car called Bloodhound, designed to reach the dizzy heights of 1,000mph, about 1.3 times the speed of sound. This article explains how modelling is used to build this car.
How to measure a million — You're sweating in the spotlights and squirming in your chair as the whole nation is watching you. One more question. Four possible answers. If you get it right, you're a millionaire. If not, you go home with a mere £32,000. Should you go for it? Or pack up and settle for what you've got?
Rubik success in twenty-six steps — A simple toy, but a fiendishly complicated mathematical model is needed to prove that any scrambled cube can be solved in a maximum of twenty-six steps.
Career Interview: games developer — In the real world, balls bounce and water splashes because of the laws of physics. In computer games, a physics engine ensures the virtual world behaves realistically. Mathematician and computer programmer Nick Gray tells us about playing God in a virtual world.
Career Interview: furniture design — Two designers tell us how they took the long way round to design, and how the maths and science they took in on the way helps them with their work today.
Find out how to use computers to solve a fiendishly difficult jigsaw puzzle on our sister site NRICH.
Mathematical modelling in technology, economics, politics and human interaction.
Is maths to blame? — Are mathematical models to blame for the financial crisis?
Trust me, I've evolved — Game theorists model the evolution of trust and trustworthiness.
Paying the price — Can a scientific approach to risk in finance avoid the next financial crisis?
Career Interview: defence analyst — Helen is a defence analyst with the MoD, using her maths skills to help defend the nation. Plus finds out about her career path.
Call routing in telephone networks — Find out how modern telephone networks use mathematics to make it possible for a person to dial a friend in another country just as easily as if they were in the same street, or to read web pages that are on a computer in another continent.
Model Trains — As customers will tell you, overcrowding is a problem on trains. Fortunately, mathematical modelling techniques can help to analyse the changing demands on services through the day. Tim Gent explains.
I'm not paying that! — It's not that long ago that all you needed to run an airline was a few planes and some competent pilots. But now, with more of us zipping around the globe every year and the advent of no frills airlines, keeping an airline competitive has become a complicated business. Christine Currie explains how your airfare is calculated. Our sister website NRICH has a problem involving another airline conundrum: overbooking.
The crystal ball — If you had a crystal ball that allowed you to see your future, what would you arrange differently about your finances? Plus talks to the Government Actuary, Chris Daykin about the pensions crisis, and how actuaries use statistical and modelling techniques to plan for all our futures.
Network news — Why do rich and popular people tend to get richer and more popular, and why do train companies choose to build more and more lines to the biggest cities? A new mathematical theory of networks can be used to simulate real-life social, biological, physical and technical connections.
Career Interview: financial modelling — David Spaughton and Anton Merlushkin work for Credit Suisse First Boston, where they provide traders in the hectic dealing room with software based on complicated mathematical models of the financial markets. Plus interviewed them at their offices in Canary Wharf in London.
Now try it yourself on our sister site NRICH!
Epidemic modelling — Join in this ongoing investigation. Use the computer to model an epidemic. Try out public health policies to control the spread of the epidemic, to minimise the number of sick days and deaths.
Over-booking — Airlines know that any given passenger has a probability of just not turning up at check-in, leaving an empty seat, but they want to maximise their profits by filling as many seats as possible. So they routinely overbook flights. But how should they do this, in order to make the most profit without incurring the wrath of too many disgruntled passengers who have to be turned away from a double-booked seat?
Escalator — At Holborn underground station there is a very long escalator. Two people are in a hurry. . . .
FA Cup — In the four years 2001 to 2004 Arsenal were drawn against Chelsea in the FA cup and beat Chelsea every time. What was the probability of this? Lots of fractions in the calculations!
Where to land? — Chris is enjoying a swim but needs to get back for lunch. If she can swim at 3 m/s and run at 7m/sec, how far along the bank should she land in order to get back as quickly as possible?
Impuzzable — One for enthusiastic computer programmers only! This is about a fiendishly difficult jigsaw and how to solve it using a computer program. (Uses BASIC). | <urn:uuid:a11e1771-ed0d-489b-b1a5-c539442abfc4> | CC-MAIN-2015-32 | https://plus.maths.org/content/comment/reply/4344 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042986022.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002306-00071-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934586 | 3,549 | 3.3125 | 3 |
How Much Sleep Do Teens Need?
Let me take a wild guess, you have already been in bed for hours before you are woken up by the sounds of your teenager heading up to bed. With school starting in a matter of hours, how can that be enough sleep?
With all of the modern day interruptions between social media and video games, do teenagers sleep enough? And do they suffer from sleep deprivation?
Teenagers and Sleep: The Facts
The National Sleep Foundation provides us with several important facts about bedtime that affect teens and adults alike.
- It is as important to the body as air, water, and food
- It can help manage the stress of being a teenager
- Biologically, the sleep patterns for teenagers shifts to later hours and later waking hours
- Teenagers need at least 8 hours each night to properly function
- The majority of teens do not get what is considered to be enough shuteye
- The irregular sleep patterns of teens, varying from weeknights to weekend nights, impacts their biological clock and damages their sleep hygiene
- A lot of teens suffer from sleep disorders that are treatable, such as sleep apnea and narcolepsy
It is common for teens to have a pattern of sleeping very little during the week, and then using the weekend to compensate for the lack of it by hibernating for the better half of the day. However, a lot of teens accumulate so much sleep debt that they are not able to fully recover on the weekend, so they still wake up tired on Monday morning. If your teen does not get adequate rest, it can harm their health in a few ways, such as:
- Limit concentration in school
- Damage memory
- Harm problem-solving abilities
- Hinder learning
- Lead to skin breakouts
- Lead to poor eating habits
- Cause aggressive behavior and depression
- Contribute to illness
Why do their preferred hours of sleep change once they are teenagers?
According to How Sleep Works, everyone’s sleep-wake cycle is regulated by two mechanisms in the body, the circadian rhythm and sleep-wake homeostasis. These two processes interact with each other to determine when someone sleeps.
These processes have several factors affecting them, including:
- Daily Schedule
- Teenage Hormones
- Brain Wave Activity
Our circadian rhythms dip and rise at various times of the day, with an average adult’s strongest urge to close their eyes occurring between 1-3 pm and 2-4 am. However, this is different for teenagers.
Changes to circadian rhythm happen during adolescence, resulting in a sleep phase delay. This delay in the circadian rhythm results in teens naturally feeling more alert late at night, which makes it hard for them to get any sleep before 11 pm.
Unlike adults, a teen’s circadian rhythm typically has them tired between 3-7 am and 2-5 pm. However, if the teen is deprived of sleep, their 3-7 dip is likely to last until well after 7 am.
This causes a problem when teens have to wake up early for school, sound familiar?
Stanford Medicine published an article saying that about 87% of high school students do not get the recommended amount of sleep, and the amount that teens are getting continues to decrease. This means that hardly anyone is performing at their best, be it in sports, in school, or while driving.
Aside from a shifting circadian rhythm, what else keeps teenagers from sleeping?
As you are well aware of, there are both social and cultural factors that can impede a teenager’s desire to go to bed. With the emergence of new technologies, teens often get wrapped up staring at a screen, participating in social media.
Not only can this make an adolescent lose track of time, it also exposes them to the sleep-altering blue light that decreases their production of melatonin. Studies done at Harvard University have revealed that exposure to blue light can suppress melatonin production double as much as exposure to other lights.
What does this mean? Anyone who wants to get a good night’s rest needs to stop watching television or interacting on their computer several hours prior to going to bed.
Clearly, teens are influenced by forms of social entertainment to stay up at night. However, the pressure on teenagers to succeed in school and sports is intense, and the competition for college slots is increasing.
The American Psychological Association reminds us that in our days of high-achieving teenagers, students are stressed with additional homework, Advanced Placement classes, extra-curricular activities, and often part-time jobs, in addition to community, peer, and parental pressures to be successful and get into college.
How can you help as a parent?
Teenagers are entering the period in their lives where they are craving independence and autonomy. Among other decisions that they want to be able to make on their own, doesn’t it make sense that their bedtime is one of them?
However, according to Stanford Medicine, studies show that adolescents are often in a better mood and their fatigue levels are lower if the parents set a bedtime that is realistic for their teen’s needs. So, while this may not be 8 pm, it is best to not make it past 11 pm either.
So, does the early bird get the worm? Not in the case of teens.
Many articles, including one published in the New York Times, speaks about the plethora of dangers and health risks that come along with teenage sleep deprivation.
However, the country is starting to accommodate. While still in its early stages of this movement, schools in Kentucky, Virginia, and Connecticut have all pushed back the start time of school to let their students get their much-needed rest.
And guess what? Their performance in school is increasing, as is their attendance.
Back to the question. Does your teenager sleep enough? Probably not.
This is an epidemic among American teens that is very difficult to have an umbrella fix for between schedules, sleep-wake cycles, and circadian rhythms. Set a reasonable structure in your household that everyone can agree upon so you can make sure that your teen is getting as much shut-eye as possible. That is the best you can do.
Could adequate sleep give your child a better chance at getting that college acceptance letter than submitting a sleep-deprived personal statement? Definitely.
Just remember, you are in good company if you feel your teenager is not getting enough rest. Keep yourself aware of the issue and monitor it as best as you can. That’s all you can do. | <urn:uuid:096b32e9-69a2-4c06-b92e-ea8add0a321f> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://www.parentingmonkey.com/sleep-deprivation-teens | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370505731.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20200401130837-20200401160837-00099.warc.gz | en | 0.964001 | 1,356 | 3.203125 | 3 |
The DoDEA K - grade 12 arts program has fully implemented the DoDEA College and Career Ready Standards for Art (CCRSA) in all fine arts programs for school year 2017-2018.
The central purposes of the DoDEA CCRSA are to identify the learning that we want for all of our students and to drive improvement in the education system that delivers that learning. Our Arts standards, therefore, embody the key concepts, processes and traditions of study in each subject area, and articulate the aspirations of those invested in our schools-students, teachers, administrators, and the military community at large. The College and Career Ready Standards for the Arts integrate the processes, skills and knowledge, sample assessments, and criteria for successful learning into a single organized system that spans K- grade 12; aligned to the philosophical foundations and lifelong goals of our students. Rooted in backward design, our outcomes-based approach to the arts curriculum and instruction emanates from four artistic processes; eleven anchor standards, and performance standards that encompass the Kindergarten through grade 12 instructional programs.
The standards are organized by discipline (Music, Theatre and Visual Arts) around four artistic processes:
Creating: Conceiving and developing new artistic ideas and work.
Responding: Understanding and evaluating how the arts convey meaning.
4. Connecting: Relating artistic ideas and work with personal meaning and external context.
As DoDEA students create and present their art, they learn that the arts are part of basic human communication and connect how to use the arts to respond to the world around them. Students learn to articulate specific meaning through their choices in the use of various arts elements, as they apply the principles of design. The four Artistic Processes are further defined by 11 Anchor Standards; and each Anchor Standard has numerous Performance Standards.
DoDEA schools provide three arts disciplines: Music, Theatre Arts, Visual Arts (includes Media Arts courses); and Humanities courses.
DoDEA provides 60 minutes of weekly instruction for Kindergarten - grade 5 students in both art and music as two separate content areas. In grades 6 - 12, instructional time is based on course enrollment.
DoDEA requires high school students to successfully complete 1 art credit to meet graduation requirements. High school fine arts classes give students opportunities to specialize in specific aspects of their elective arts discipline or explore general topics.
The DoDEA Artist Spotlight is a monthly artwork challenge open to current DoDEA students and is held on the DoDEA Facebook fan page. Students are encouraged to submit a work of art, including photographs, digital artwork, 2D artwork, or 3D artwork that relates to the monthly theme. The artwork is displayed in a Facebook album and Facebook members have the opportunity to vote on their favorite image by selecting the Facebook “Like” button. The image with the most Facebook likes is announced as the favorite at the end of the challenge and showcased on both the DoDEA website and the DoDEA Facebook fan page (www.facebook.com/dodea.edu). The themes for the monthly artwork challenge often highlight vocabulary that is relevant across College and Career content areas, or focus on DoDEA monthly themes, such as the Month of the Military Child (April), DoDEA’s Anniversary Celebration, and the 5210 Healthy Military Child Initiative.
DoDEA Fine Arts Instructional Systems Specialist
4800 Mark Center Drive
Alexandria VA 22350-1400 | <urn:uuid:cd3fe0e2-08ec-42aa-a558-25730cc61cc6> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | http://www.dodea.edu/Curriculum/FineArts/index.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187823153.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20171018214541-20171018234541-00039.warc.gz | en | 0.932862 | 709 | 2.609375 | 3 |
), a Greek rhetorician, was a native of Elaea in Aeolis, in Asia Minor. (Quint. Inst. 3.1.10
, with Spalding's note) He was a pupil of Gorgias, and resided at Athens between the years B. C. 432 and 411. Here he gave instructions in eloquence, according to Eudocia (p. 100), as the successor of his master, and was the last of that sophistical school, with which the only object of eloquencc was to please the hearers by the pomp and brilliancy of words.
That the works of Alcidamas bore the strongest marks of this character of his school is stated by Aristotle (Aristot. Rh. 3.3.8
), who censures his pompous diction and extravagant use of poetical epithets and phrases, and by Dionysius (De Isaeo,
19), who calls his style vulgar and inflated.
He is said to have been an opponent of Isocrates (Tzetz. Chil.
11.672), but whether this statement refers to real personal enmity, or whether it is merely an inference from the fact, that Alcidamas condemned the practice of writing orations for the purpose of delivering them, is uncertain.
The ancients mention several works of Alcidamas such as an Eulogy on Death, in which he enumerated the evils of human life, and of which Cicero seems to speak with great praise (Tusc.
1.48); a shew-speech, called λόγος Μεσσηνιακός
(Aristot. Rh. 1.13.5
); a work on music (Suidas, s. v. Ἀλκιδάμας
); and some scientific works, viz. one on rhetoric (τέχνη ῥητορική
, Plut. Dem. 5
), and another called λόγος φυσικός
(D. L. 8.56
); but all of them are now lost. Tzetzes (Chil.
11.752) had still before him several orations of Alcidamas.
We now possess only two declamations which go under his name.
, ἤ κατὰ Παλαμήδους προδοσίας
, in which Odysseus is made to accuse Palamedes of treachery to the cause of the Greeks during the siege of Troy.
2. περί σοφιστῶν
, in which the author sets forth the advantages of delivering extempore speeches over those which have previously been written out.
These two orations, the second of which is the better one, both in form and thought, bear scarcely any traces of the faults which Aristotle and Dionysius censure in the works of Alcidamas; their fault is rather being frigid and insipid.
It has therefore been maintained by several critics, that these orations are not the works of Alcidamas ; and with regard to the first of them, the supposition is supported by strong probability; the second may have been written by Alcidamas with a view to counteract the influence of Isocrates.
The first edition of them is that in the collection of Greek orators published by Aldus, Venice, 1513, fol. The best modern editions are those in Reiske's Oratores Graeci, vol. viii. p. 64, &c.
; and in Bekker's Oratores Attici, vol. vii. (Oxford.) | <urn:uuid:c101232c-f3ce-49e0-ad6e-dc9e163411f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:alphabetic%20letter=A:entry%20group=14:entry=alcidamas-bio-1&toc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DA%3Aentry+group%3D17 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703728865/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112848-00095-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957136 | 824 | 2.6875 | 3 |
The Montessori Centre of the University of Münster supports a commission of the Montessori Association including Dr. Reinhard Fischer (University of Münster), Ms Barbara Stein (Montessori Primary School Bonn) and Dr. Wilhelm Suffenplan (formerly University of Cologne). Using the results of the VERA studies of different federal states, this group has investigated the level of performance of Montessori primary schools compared to regular schools. The results for Montessori primary schools in North Rhine-Westphalia in comparison with regular schools have now been published by Dr. Wilhelm Suffenplan (Am Ludwigsacker 6d, 50374 Erftstadt, Tel/Fax: 02235/3340, [email protected]) in the double issue 1/2-2006 of the “Montessori” journal.
The analysis refers to the data collection as part of the “comparative tests (called VERA)” in 2004, where achievements of students from the fourth grade in mathematics (arithmetic, geometry, calculations concerning practical problems) and German (reading, writing — on a given topic — , orthography, contemplation of language) were examined. In this survey the involved classes were divided into four context groups with especially favourable as well as unfavourable learning conditions. The criteria for the allocation to the four groups were above all the class size as well as the boys and girls’ individual and socially caused learning difficulties. The comparability of the Montessori school classes and the regular classes was secured by careful analyses. 80 Montessori classes from 12 schools with 663 students from the fourth grade were involved.
All in all, in almost half of the 28 surveys (in the seven learning/study fields and four context groups) a significant superiority of the Montessori classes was found. The other surveys showed a trend towards superior achievements in five surveys, performances of equal value in eight surveys and in only two surveys weaker performances of the Montessori classes in relation to the corresponding groups of regular schools.
The superiority of Montessori schools was highly evident in the mathematical fields. One should also mention that advantages arose for the Montessori schools in German in both context groups with the more unfavourable learning conditions. Obviously, the Montessori Method also has a beneficial effect on boys and girls in difficult learning situations. The two weaker achievements have been made by the two groups with more favourable learning conditions in the field of writing and orthography. An important reason for these learning successes in Montessori schools probably is that the Montessori Method fosters students individually and gives them the possibility of learning by doing and comprehensive learning.
These learning conditions also offer special opportunities for the fostering of highly gifted children — as proven by a dissertation of the former colleague and now primary school teacher Esther Grindel, which was supported by the Montessori-Centre of the University, examining the learning processes of highly gifted children in the Free Work of the Montessori Method.
In order to classify these results, the findings of the international comparative survey IGLU/IGLU-E of 2002 can be consulted. This survey examined the mathematical (arithmetic, geometry and calculations concerning practical problems) and reading competence of students from the fourth grade. The students from Germany and from NRW performed averagely in this comparison. This leads to the conclusion that even from an international point of view a considerable level of achievement has been reached in Montessori schools in NRW.
These results concerning achievements of Montessori schools agree with older surveys in Germany and with current international empirical surveys. Accordingly, an empirical survey published in the USA at the end of September 2006 in the internationally renowned journal “Science” (“Evaluating Montessori Education”) shows that twelve-year-old Montessori students performed equally in mathematics as well as more diversely and more creatively in the language field (essays) and equally in the other learning/study fields. It is also important to mention that this survey shows a marked superiority of the twelve-year-old Montessori students as compared to regular students according to their social competence that has already been found with five-year-old Montessori children. Since the examined groups had been put together at random, other influencing factors like the parental home had been reduced to a large extent. This makes the results of this survey even more significant.
A different survey from the USA tested a group of about 200 students that had gone to Montessori primary schools in the fields of language and mathematics/science after a five years’ visit to a regular secondary school in comparison with a group of fellow students who had not visited Montessori primary schools. The research showed that the Montessori students achieved the same results in the language field, but better results in the field of mathematics/science than their fellow students. This refers to a long-term effect of the Montessori education that even remains when the students visit regular secondary schools. The particular findings of this American survey have been published in German in the issue 1/2-2006 of the “Montessori” journal.
In the view of the Montessori Method such positive results in the field of intellectual achievements with Montessori students are indeed welcome, but they are not an end in themselves. They are rather only the means — even if an important one — for the education of the whole personality on his way to an independently thinking, emotionally balanced and responsibly acting member of a democratic society. | <urn:uuid:3108bcc5-04fe-4cc3-8e1b-55f3912ba66a> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.montessorizentrum-muenster.de/english-pages/about-us/outstanding-achievements/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195526401.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20190720004131-20190720030131-00290.warc.gz | en | 0.962156 | 1,138 | 2.6875 | 3 |
2008 AAFP Feline Retrovirus Management
Download - Feline Retrovirus Guidelines
Download - Feline Retrovirus Summary Document
Feline leukemia virus (FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) are among the most common infectious diseases of cats. Although vaccines are available for both viruses, identification and segregation of infected cats form the cornerstone for preventing new infections. Currently, the majority of cats are never tested for FeLV or FIV during their lifetime, resulting in thousands of new cases each year.
Testing for FeLV and FIV
- All cats should be tested at appropriate intervals based on risk assessment.
- Test new cats entering a household or group housing as in shelter or cattery settings. Test again at least 60 days later, limiting exposure to other cats if possible during that time.
- Test if exposed to a retrovirus infected cat at least once, 60 days after exposure.
- Test all sick cats, regardless of previous test results.
- Test before initial vaccination for FeLV or FIV.
- Consider annual retesting of cats that remain at risk for infection, regardless of vaccination status.
- Always confirm an initial positive retrovirus test.
- Cats that donate blood or tissue should be tested for FeLV by real-time PCR to rule out regressive infection that may be transmissible via transfusion or transplantation.
- Testing healthy feral cats in trap?neuter?return programs is optional depending on resources and program goals.
When To Consider FeLV Vaccination
- Vaccination of all kittens is highly recommended.
- Vaccinate cats that have direct contact with cats of known positive or uncertain status, such as outdoor cats and group housing foster or shelter situations.
When To Consider FIV Vaccination
- Cats living with FIV-positive cats, particularly if there is fighting.
- Cats that go outside and fight.
Cats vaccinated with the current FIV vaccine will test positive for FIV antibodies. Visible (collar) and permanent (microchip) identification is recommended for all cats to facilitate reunification should cats become lost. This is especially important for cats vaccinated against FIV since a positive test in an animal shelter may result in euthanasia.
Isolation of infected cats using screen or chain link fence barriers is adequate to prevent the transmission of retroviruses. Detergents and common hospital disinfectants effectively inactivate retroviruses. Using sterile or single-use items will deter iatrogenic infections. All blood donors should be tested at least annually.
Retrovirus-positive cats may live many years without related illness. A decision about euthanasia should not be made based on a positive test alone.
- Retrovirus-positive cats should be evaluated by a veterinarian twice a year. In addition to a thorough physical exam, a minimum database including a complete blood count, chemistry panel and urinalysis should be performed at least yearly. Cats with FeLV may have complete blood counts performed twice yearly due to their increased risk of hematological diseases.
- Utilize aggressive diagnostic and treatment plans early in the course of any illness.
- Retrovirus positive cats should be spayed or neutered, housed indoors, and should avoid raw food diets.
- Few large controlled studies have been performed using antiviral or immunomodulating drugs for the treatment of naturally infected cats. More research is needed to identify best practices to improve long-term outcomes following retroviral infections in cats.
Recommendations specific to cattery, shelter and rescue situations may be found within the full text of the guidelines.
Dr. Jim Richards was leading the team of experts preparing this update on retroviral infections in cats when he suffered a fatal accident. His loss was felt around the world. These guidelines are dedicated in memory of Jim, one of the greatest advocates cats ever had. | <urn:uuid:95f76eab-1828-4443-b5f1-bd4e965ae54e> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.catvets.com/guidelines/practice-guidelines/retrovirus-management-guidelines | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281331.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00281-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901241 | 794 | 3.03125 | 3 |
World's Most Dangerous Foods
The Silver-Stripe Blaasop, Mediterranean Countries
Fishermen in the Indian Ocean have long loved this black-spotted, silvery fish, which can reach about three feet in length. The problem: if you don’t take out its liver and reproductive organs, you’ll be in trouble. Thanks to the Suez Canal, these little guys have migrated to the eastern Mediterranean, where unsavvy fishermen have eaten it and died (in early 2007, there were 10 deaths attributed to it in Egypt and Israel).
Prognosis: Grim. The toxins can case paralysis, breathing problems, and even death. | <urn:uuid:06687418-51df-4cc1-b4dc-f9579bf9e3b2> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/worlds-most-dangerous-foods/10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802768309.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075248-00160-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930155 | 138 | 2.578125 | 3 |
University of Leicester researchers lead Anthropocene study into planet’s biological production and consumption.
The impact humans have made on Earth in terms of how we produce and consume resources has formed a ‘striking new pattern’ in the planet’s global energy flow, according to researchers from the University of Leicester.
The research suggests that the Earth is now characterised by a geologically unprecedented pattern of global energy flow that is pervasively influenced by humans—and which is necessary for maintaining the complexity of modern human societies.
The new study, published in the journal Earth’s Future, is led by Professors Mark Williams and Jan Zalasiewicz of the University of Leicester’s Department of Geology working with an international team of scholars.
While analysing the Anthropocene phenomenon—an epoch where humans dominate the Earth’s surface geology—the team identified that human patterns of production and consumption are a key factor characterizing the epoch, and when measured against the billion-year old patterns of planet Earth, they form a striking new pattern.
Professor Zalasiewicz said: “Very big changes in our planet’s pattern of biological production and consumption do not happen very often. The appearance of photosynthesis was one, about two and a half billion years ago. Then, a little over half a billion years ago, animals like trilobites appeared, to add scavengers and predators into a food web of increasing complexity.
“Other major events have happened since, such as five major mass extinctions, but even measured against these events, human-driven changes to production and consumption are distinctly new.”
Dr Carys Bennett, co-author on the study from the University of Leicester’s Department of Geology, added: “It is without precedent to have a single species appropriating something like one quarter of the net primary biological production of the planet and to become effectively the top predator both on land and at sea.”
In addition, by digging phosphorus out of the ground and by fixing nitrogen out of the air to make fertilizers; and by exploiting hundreds of millions of years-worth of stored carbon-based energy in a still-accelerating trend, humans are increasing productivity well above natural levels—and directing much of it towards animals that have been re-engineered to suit our purposes.
Professor Zalasiewicz added: “This refashioning of the relationship between Earth’s production and consumption is leaving signals in strata now forming, and this helps characterize the Anthropocene as a geological time unit.
“It also has wider and more fundamental importance in signaling a new biological stage in this planet’s evolution”.
Archaeologist Dr Matthew Edgeworth, Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Leicester’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History, added: “Recent changes in the Earth’s biosphere, caused in part by human activity, are starting to become evident in rock and soil strata. Unprecedented stratigraphic signals are challenging disciplines like geology and archaeology to assess such changes and put them in temporal context, relative to other major transitions in Earth’s history.”
Dr Colin Waters of the British Geological Survey said: “Modern human society is structured around economic production and consumption and our recent perturbation of the balance between the two, notably since the mid-20th century, will leave a signal that will provide a lasting legacy of our existence on this planet.”
In 2016 the Anthropocene Working Group led by Professor Zalasiewicz will gather more evidence on the Anthropocene, which will help inform recommendations on whether this new time unit should be formalized and, if so, how it might be defined and characterized.
The study, ‘The Anthropocene: a conspicuous stratigraphical signal of anthropogenic changes in production and consumption across the biosphere’ published in the journal Earth’s Future is available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015EF000339/full | <urn:uuid:b3a56d6b-04d2-4311-9cab-245d3f51e9c9> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://www.archaeology.wiki/blog/2016/03/24/human-impact-forms-striking-new-pattern-earths-global-energy-flow/?print=92537 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764500126.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20230204110651-20230204140651-00826.warc.gz | en | 0.915465 | 850 | 3.53125 | 4 |
With the advancement in science and technology, sunglasses have evolved from a mere fashion accessory into a piece of essential eyewear. New and stylish frame designs, which ensure better eye protection along with a wide variety of lens coatings and tint gradients, offer people with the convenience of choosing sunglasses which answer their individual needs perfectly.
Along with frame designs, specially crafted lens are also available in the market which offer effective protection from glares and the ultra violet light of the sun. Polarized lenses are an example of specially constructed lenses which answer the needs of the users for clear and unhampered vision while engaged in outdoor activities.
What Are Polarized Lenses?
Polarized lenses are specially designed lenses which block certain light waves from passing through the lens material. By blocking lights of certain wavelength, individuals can protect their eyes from the penetration and prolonged exposure to the harmful ultra violet rays of the sun.
Light, when it falls on a certain surface like water or a metal, is reflected either horizontally or vertically in a direction. This reflection tends to present a glare, which hampers the vision of those who are outdoors. Polarized lenses are crafted with minute vertical stripes, which only permit the vertically angled light to penetrate through the lens and enter the eye.
Polarized lenses may be of either superior or low quality, with only one side of the lens having the polarized film, or the two sides of the lenses can have a polarized film sandwiched between them. These lenses are usually clear or might have some tint, but the tint does not specify the level of polarization that a lens has.
Sunglass lenses are ideally polarized for outdoor use by drivers, fishermen, sailors, and photographers etc. to ensure unhampered vision with no irritation caused due to any glares, and effective protection from the penetration of ultra violet light. But it is important to understand that polarization is not merely a coating like the gradient tints that are applied on sunglass lenses for style and color vision. In fact, polarization is a complete technological process which involves the etching and crafting of tiny vertical lines on the surface of the sunglass lens, which prevent the horizontally reflected light from penetrating and passing through the lens.
In order to acquire a pair of sunglasses with polarized lenses, it is important to specify the type of lenses one requires to their eyewear provider. If an individual opts for a dark tinted sunglass lens, but later desires to have it polarized, it is not possible. The original lens cannot be converted into a polarized lens, as the technique for creating the protective lenses entails a certain specific manufacturing method which cannot be applied like a coat on a lens.
If an individual wants polarized lenses in their sunglasses, then they should employ the services of a good quality eyewear provider who offers superior value polarized sunglass lenses for effective protection. Polarized lenses are even available with prescription lenses in the market, which provides unobstructed and clear vision for the convenience of individuals. | <urn:uuid:0d00c094-0428-49f6-b09f-ad2a9df11acb> | CC-MAIN-2016-50 | http://www.shadesdaddyblog.com/can-polarize-sunglasses/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-50/segments/1480698542414.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20161202170902-00131-ip-10-31-129-80.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926577 | 605 | 2.515625 | 3 |
The town of Kastro has a great set of narrow steep streets. Kastro is an open museum with 4000 years of history. The exterior walls of the medieval houses adjoined and formed the defensive wall with only exits and entries through five vaulted porches. Typical features of the settlement are the closeness and the lack of communal spaces and courtyards, which along with the need for defence led to the construction of houses with two and three floors. Small houses of one room and narrow façade are built in the exterior ring, while big mansions in the interior. | <urn:uuid:b47bce2f-0116-4a2a-acf5-791988769f08> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | https://www.routeyou.com/en-gr/location/view/47226113/kastro | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084886792.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20180117003801-20180117023801-00724.warc.gz | en | 0.967357 | 118 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Challenges for Individuals
Just as nations and communities struggle to cope with the many challenges that pandemics create, individuals likewise must bear a large burden. Employees are asked to stay home 24 hours after a fever subsides, even if they don’t have sick days to spare. Parents have to find alternative care when schools are closed, even though their children are not ill. And health care workers are asked to go to work, even though that means being among the infected.
Additionally, final decisions on vaccinations, voluntary isolation, stockpiling of supplies and what is now called “cough etiquette
” are all made in the home. Naturally, people have a lot of questions about what they should and shouldn’t do during a pandemic and they look to trusted news sources for answers.
There are a number of reliable online sources providing answers to basic questions people have about pandemic disease, ranging from “Do I have it?” to “Should I stockpile?” We have aggregated some useful links on this page to guide you through the ocean of information now available on the subject.
Prevention for specific groups/situations
A story idea on vaccines
The need for swine flu vaccination varies according to each person’s unique circumstances. For example, surveillance data show that pregnant women are at substantially higher risk of severe illness or death from 2009 H1N1 influenza. Children are more susceptible than adults, and are more likely to spread the infection. People born before 1957 appear to have some natural immunity to the virus because of prior exposure to swine flu strains. Health care workers face greater exposure to sick patients and their absence from the workforce due to their own illnesses hampers efforts to deal with a pandemic.
What are the main demographic groups that live in your community and what is their risk profile? How can your reporting help individuals understand that risks are different from fears, and assist them in making more educated decisions about vaccinations?
What to do if you get sick
Preventing the spread of the disease
Information for specific groups/situations: | <urn:uuid:703c86c8-6474-4a39-be39-34da073e18df> | CC-MAIN-2014-23 | http://nieman.harvard.edu/Microsites/NiemanGuideToCoveringPandemicFlu/PandemicPreparedness/ChallengesForIndividuals.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1405997877693.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20140722025757-00075-ip-10-33-131-23.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96393 | 430 | 3.296875 | 3 |
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Learn the Basics of C Programming Language
Get started with C programming language with this short and sweet course covering all the important aspects of the C development. This course does not presume any prior programming knowledge and is great for beginners. The course starts with general introduction to the development environment. We have used Linux as the primary OS for the course as it more suited to the C ecosystem.
You will learn concepts such as
Methods and Functions - Get to know about C programming using functions both system defined and user defined ones.
Pointers - Master the concepts behind pointers and learn their use in C programming
Input/Output - Learn to take user input and display output for your programs
Control Flow - Learn all about concepts such as iteration and conditional statements
Data Structures - Get to know the important data structures required for C programming.
Dynamic Memory allocation - Memory handling is one of the exotic C attributes and you will get to learn all about in this course
Socket programming - Learn to open ports and send and receive data through sockets
The course covers all this and much more and follows a program oriented approach for teaching software development. If you want to learn the C language start here and be the expert in just few hours.. | <urn:uuid:31b1c64d-933e-48fb-a034-c28650ac60c9> | CC-MAIN-2019-47 | https://www.eduonix.tv/learn-the-basics-of-c-programming-language | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-47/segments/1573496670036.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20191119070311-20191119094311-00517.warc.gz | en | 0.918834 | 269 | 3.53125 | 4 |
|2015 Submarine Cable Map created by TeleGeography.
"This year’s map pays tribute to the pioneering mapmakers of the Age of Discovery, incorporating elements of medieval and renaissance cartography. In addition to serving as navigational aids, maps from this era were highly sought-after works of art, often adorned with fanciful illustrations of real and imagined dangers at sea. Such embellishments largely disappeared in the early 1600s, pushing modern map design into a purely functional direction.
To bring back the lost aesthetic that vanished along with these whimsical details, TeleGeography referenced a variety of resources in the design process. One of the most invaluable was Chet Van Duzer’s Sea Monsters in Medieval and Renaissance Maps book, which provides arguably the most complete history of the evolution of sea monsters and map design from this period. Our final product is a view of the global submarine cable network seen through the lens of a bygone era."
+ More >> | <urn:uuid:738a838e-e239-4609-8268-8f42518e6211> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.likecool.com/brand-Gear-Pic-3.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246657041.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045737-00108-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935954 | 198 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Whether you're editing a video for another device or just want to see what your Mac's screen is capable of, it's helpful to know how to change your display resolution. In OS X, the resolution of your display screen is configured using the Displays dialog in the computer's System Preferences.
Change Display Resolution
Click the "Apple" icon located in the top left corner of your screen and select "System Preferences" to load the System Preferences panel. Click "Displays" to load the Displays dialog and then click the "Display" tab, if it is not already selected. Click the "Scaled" radio button on the right of the Displays dialog and select the resolution you want to use. Your computer will have automatically loaded a list of compatible resolutions. Wait approximately 15 seconds for the screen to recalibrate itself to the new resolution.
Video of the Day
Additional Information and Tips
If your screen does not switch to the new resolution within 15 seconds, press the "Esc" key on your keyboard to revert to your prior resolution.
If the computer does not respond to the "Esc" key, press "Control-Command-Eject" to restart the computer and try again.
Which display resolutions are available depends on the size and capabilities of your screen. By default, most Macs will automatically be set to use the highest possible resolution they support.
The same procedure applies to both the built-in screen on your Mac and any external screens you connect to it. However, if you're trying to change the resolution on an external screen, you must press the "Option" key when you click the "Scaled" radio button in order to show a list of available resolutions for your external display.
Information in this article applies to computers running the Mac OS X Mavericks operating system. Procedures may vary with other versions or products. | <urn:uuid:c440bcaa-d7ce-42ec-bf63-3296e9e424be> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-change-display-resolution-in-mac-osx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572174.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20220815115129-20220815145129-00268.warc.gz | en | 0.876278 | 381 | 2.515625 | 3 |
A key principle when thinking about a product is to understand, deeply, the needs of the user of the product. What job are they hiring it to do? Why – What are they trying to accomplish?
But this is difficult – and not just because it takes long hours and many cycles of iterative improvement. It’s not just that the things people tell us about what they want are wrong, or at best incomplete. It’s not just that it’s difficult to simultaneously have deep belief in your insight and also question every assumption.
It’s difficult because we get in our own way.
We have difficulty sorting out our own motivations, dealing with our own emotional responses, and knowing our own mind. So how can we really understand someone else? At the same time, we also tend to attribute motivations and meaning to the actions of other people —as if we know what they are thinking.
Look at your personal life. Have you ever been accused of some transgression that all turned out to be a misunderstanding? Now, be honest, have you ever made that sort of assumption about someone else, later to find out that you were wrong?
These emotional examples just highlight a more pervasive problem. Our minds tend to make a leap of meaning, a shortcut of sorts, to help us understand the world around us. We tell ourselves stories about things that happen around us that build our concept of how things work. This skill is useful. But we also tend to stick to stories that reinforce our ideas about the world. We resist, and explain away, anything new or different —especially if it challenges our core ideas.
“If you can identify a delusional popular belief, you can find what lies behind it: the contrarian truth.”
– Peter Thiel, Zero to One
We can never perfectly understand the motivations, aspirations, emotions and thoughts of other people. We can probably never perfectly understand our own. But by working at it, we can grow and become better at it. We can see our own thoughts as just thoughts. We can turn them over, examine them, think about alternatives, and decide what to think.
This is the beginning. It’s not about having a formula for success, but rather a skill of being present and self-aware so that we can make better use of any idea, method, formula, or framework. It’s not about being perfect. Just notice that you are making assumptions or assigning motivation, and come back to self-awareness.
Be Present. Be Self-Aware. Innovate. | <urn:uuid:2e6b267d-4aa5-4716-b748-ba745d51ab0e> | CC-MAIN-2021-49 | https://darius.dunlaps.net/category/life/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-49/segments/1637964358153.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20211127073536-20211127103536-00249.warc.gz | en | 0.968299 | 528 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Subsets and Splits