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Land alone is not enough
If municipalities fail to supply services, communities cannot properly use their land
The land and property debate is deeply tied to dignity, a sense of place and security. Land lies at the heart of poverty and inequality. But land alone will not address these issues.
Land ownership has an impact on access to basic services such as housing, water, sanitation, electricity, health and safety. Having land does not necessarily mean all these needs will be met; many people living own land, but are unable to live on it or use it.
In the Zondi area, Soweto, a group of people bought property between 2009 and 2014 through the City of Johannesburg Land Regularisation Programme. But when they tried to build on the land, they found their stands had not been connected to any services. Without water and sanitation they are unable to live on the land they own. They have instead been forced to rent accommodation further away from their workplaces and their children’s schools.
On top of this, the City has started charging them rates and taxes despite them not being connected to basic services and not occupying the land. Worse still, their unpaid accounts appear to have been handed over to debt collectors. This may affect their future credit worthiness.
They have tried many times to negotiate with the City through their lawyers at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS). But the City is adamant that it wants to buy the stands back to use for a community project. The owners don’t want to lose the land. They want to use it and leave it to their children and future generations.
In October 2018, the courts agreed with the owners: the City was ordered to reverse the billing of rates and taxes and to start installing services within 60 days. But the City of Johannesburg has so far failed to comply with the court order. The Zondi community will now have to start contempt of court proceedings.
Households without water
Another example comes from five villages in the Sekhukhune district of Limpopo. About 5,000 households around Elandskraal have not had proper access to water since 2009. Before that they had a working water supply. But when the old water plant infrastructure broke down, it was never replaced by the municipality. Children and the elderly, who make up the majority of the community, are forced to walk long distances to collect water from rivers and springs, which they have to share with animals.
The communities have done what they can to hold the municipality accountable, reaching a settlement that ensures water is trucked into the villages every week and occasionally supplied through the pipes. But despite being back and forth to court, reaching agreement after agreement, they still have no certainty for a long-term solution.
They may have the land, but they haven’t been able to access the basic services to which they are entitled for the last nine years.
Having access to land, owning land, is only the first step. Without basic services tenure remains insecure and people will not have the necessary resources to make the land useful and productive. This goes to the heart of government’s obligations and constitutional mandate.
Views expressed are not necessarily GroundUp’s.
© 2019 GroundUp.
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
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My daughter loves sticker activities, particularly the crazy animal ‘Make-a-Face’ sticker pads from Melissa & Doug. These sticker pads feature blank animal faces and a variety of stickers letting children add an animal’s features. Not only are these sticker pads engaging, but they’re just plain funny. The blank animal faces are quite humorous and the stickers of noses, eyes, snouts, and ears are oversized, colorful, and animated.
Using this sticker pad is a great way to incorporate conversations about life science, or the study of living things. As children recall the specific physical characteristics of each animal, they are actually comparing, contrasting, and categorizing these features. For example, as my daughter thought about what features were needed to make a pig, she made comments like “He needs pointy pink ears and a pink snout.” Her ability to recall these features shows that she’s been observant of pigs and can now apply this information to her creation.
The stickers within this activity are actually the technology that help kids complete the pictures. Children develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination by searching for, peeling off, and placing the stickers in the appropriate spots on the page. Engineering helps kids understand how things are constructed, so children are effectively designing, testing, and engineering their animals as they play and experiment with different stickers.
As they create their animals, kids use math skills to count out two ears, two eyes, one nose, one mouth, and so on. If children are making silly pretend animals, they may decide on four ears and two noses, but they will still have to count out each of these features. Children may also notice the different shapes that signify different features: eyes are circles or ovals and ears are triangles or semi-circles.
As my daughter made her pig, I let her focus on remembering the appropriate features, but I still interposed these questions to get her thinking more about how her picture was supposed to look:
• What do you know about pigs? When have you seen them before?
• How can you tell that this is a pig’s body without its ears, eyes, or nose?
• What color is this pig? Are all pigs this color?
• You found two ears. What other features come in sets of two?
These questions motivated her to find just the right stickers and place them in appropriate spaces on her picture. Here’s the finished product:
The fun part about this activity is that you can create an animal, or a combination of many animals. This is a fun way to challenge your child to remember the features of multiple animals and combine them into a crazy creation. For example, I asked my daughter to take the body of a horse and add cat ears, a bunny nose and mouth, and frog eyes. Here’s the hilarious result from these instructions…pretty spot on!
It was so fun for us to find STEM learning opportunities within an activity that we’ve loved for a long time. It just goes to show that STEM learning experiences are everywhere…it just takes asking the right questions and discussing the details in order to insert concepts of science, technology, engineering, and math into your child’s play.
For more information on this product and others from Melissa & Doug, visit their website at www.melissaanddoug.com.
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The green-morph Pine Siskin (top, right), normal Pine Siskin (bottom, right), American Goldfinches (on left.)
Note the big, yellow, greater coverts on the wing and yellow at the base of the primary feathers on the green-morph Pine Siskin at the top.
Here you can see that the undertail coverts of the green-morph Pine Siskin on the right are yellow, not white.
A very rare Pine Siskin has shown up at our bird feeder, one that is considerably more yellow than the other Pine Siskins. A small percentage of male siskins can show an abnormal amount of yellow in their plumage and appear greenish on the back. Scientists examining museum specimens found that only 1% had this coloring. These are called "green morphs" of the Pine Siskin. They have more yellow on wing, side of nape, flank and often undertail coverts and the backs may appear greenish. Not much is known about the green-morph, but it is not considered a subspecies difference.
In Pine Siskins in general, males have more yellow on them than females, but this varies by subspecies. The sexes cannot always be accurately identified in the field.
The Eurasian Siskin, quite a rarity in the U.S., can be confused with the green-morph Pine Siskin, especially the female Eurasian Siskin. You can see a photo of the female Eurasian Siskin Here. The male Eurasian Siskin has a black crown and bib and is not as easily confused. The Eurasian Siskin is an Eurasian species, and is accidental in spring in the outher Aleutians. There are records from northeastern N.A. from ME, MA, NJ, NF, etc. but there are questions as to whether these were wild or escaped birds.
There is a very informative paper on "Eurasian Siskins in North America—distinguishing females from green-morph Pine Siskins," in American Birds, 1989, which spells out the differences and says,
"The large yellow tail and wing patches that may first draw attention to a green-morph Pine Sickin at the same time eliminates the possibility of female Eurasian Siskin. In contrast, real female Eurasian Siskins are not so brightly marked and could easily be overlooked among Pine Siskins....Yellow undertail coverts, if present, eliminate female Eurasian Siskin.
Since our bird had yellow undertail coverts, that would make it a green-morph Pine Siskin.
You can downolad a PDF of the article by googling this -
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The good points:
- Repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 - this act prevented non-contiguous mergers, so a utility could not merge with another utility whose geographical area was not adjacent. With its repeal, the barriers to merging with a distant company will be from the market rather than an arbitrary ruling from 1935. (Editor's note: PUHCA not only prohibits the non-contiguous mergers, but also prohibits non-utility companies from owning utilities, or utility companies from owning other unrelated businesses. For example, a large coal company would not have been allowed to own an electric utility, although that would allow the benefits that might come from such vertical integration.)
- Elimination of some minor regulations that have caused an artificial increase in the price of certain sources of energy.
The bad points:
- Subsidies, subsidies, and more subsidies! It was easy to hide a lot of taxpayer dollars in those 1,724 pages with enough going to varying special interests to ensure its passage. The things the subsidies encourage are generally good; however, if they were economically feasible on their own, you wouldn't need a government subsidy to make them happen. If we truly are facing an "energy shortage," the market price would rise sufficiently high to warrant finding alternate sources of power. Where are the subsidies going? Some will go to support exploration, some to encourage nuclear power, and some to cleaner burning coal technology. A better thing to do would have been to remove some of the government-created barriers to nuclear power development. The permitting process for a nuclear plant represents the greatest risk (cost) to nuclear power, not to mention the cost the entrepreneur might face as a result of future legislation. Again, reduced emissions resulting from clean coal and nuclear power sounds like a great idea, but it has to be considered in light of the costs and by those who bear them. To alter this cost structure reduces the accuracy of the price signals that indicate scarcity in the energy market.
- The bill is estimated to cost $12.3 billion, conservatively. The estimate does not take into account the regulatory costs or the costs of the heightened demand for subsidies that will ensue. Additionally, tax breaks are purported to amount to $14.5 billion.
- Provisions in the bill allow for the federal government to approve sites and to override opposition by local governments. Presumably, if the federal government has the ability to override local opposition, it has the ability to voice opposition of its own to local approval.
What was left out:
- The provision for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was taken out of the bill prior to its approval. It would have allowed for exploration affecting approximately 2,000 acres of an area the size of South Carolina (approx. 19 million acres). More than 90% would remain intact and would yield billions of barrels of oil. If the goal of the energy bill is to find alternate sources of energy, reduce dependency on foreign oil, and reduce prices, this was the way to go. The removal of this provision is a big disappointment.
My overall analysis: the energy bill is expensive and unnecessary, although off to a good start with the repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act. It increases government interference in some regards and decreases it in others. But, like the politicians we vote for, it's a bundled deal and unfortunately we couldn't pick the good points and filter out the bad.
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NASA just successfully launched a solar-sail pico-satellite from an experimental micro-satellite. That’s the first time NASA has launched one satellite from another, and it also hints at a positive future for space debris clean-up.
The Fast, Affordable Science and Technology (FASTSAT) satellite launched on November 19 with a clutch of scientific experiments aboard. One of these was the NanoSail-D spacecraft–a tiny cube about the size of a loaf of bread. This was lodged in something called a P-Pod (Poly Pico-Satellite Orbital Deployer) which is more usually mounted on the final stage of a launch rocket. By installing NanoSail-D in another satellite instead, NASA has done something new.
After sailing free, NanoSail-D began a three-day countdown. When it reaches zero, on Thursday, it will deploy a gossamer-thin solar sail that stretches out to 100 square feet. This is designed to test solar propulsion, similar to the Japanese effort earlier this year. It’ll use that weak push from the sun’s light to bring about an early demise, burning up in the atmosphere long before it would otherwise have done.
That may sound morbid, but NanoSail-D is actually proving it can be part of a major clean-up operation. By removing itself from the pool of space debris, it is demonstrating a tech that some have suggested should be included on all satellites so that they can be swiftly brought back to Earth–and not spend decades floating uselessly in orbit, potentially smashing into other satellites.
The launch of FASTSAT was a joint effort between NASA and the Department of Defense Space Test Program. That means the Pentagon will be watching the results with interest. A satellite that can unleash a smaller one could have all sorts of defensive, offensive and surveillance uses.
To read more news on this, and similar stuff, keep up with my updates by following me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter.
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This report summarizes inheritance law in the 19th and 20th centuries in France, Germany, and the United States. French law of the period reflected the egalitarian system of inheritance brought about by the French Revolution, even after reforms instituted by the Napoleonic Code. Nineteenth-century German law was splintered into territorial regimes characterized by differentiated succession rules for the nobility versus the peasantry—a distinction that continued to some extent even after the unified German Civil Code became effective in 1900. Early inheritance law in the United States, premised on English law, was a matter of state law (as it is today) and thus varied, but during the period in question became much more egalitarian with regard to the inheritance rights of women.
Full Report (PDF, 140KB)
Inheritance Laws in the 19th and 20th Centuries
Inheritance law in 19th- and 20th-century France was largely a product of the French Revolution. Succession laws before the Revolution were extremely diverse, complicated, and inequitable. The revolutionaries created a greatly simplified and very egalitarian inheritance system. The Napoleonic Code brought reforms to the revolutionary laws, but largely respected the same basic principles. Beyond that point, French inheritance laws remained fundamentally the same, with only a few reforms aimed principally at improving the situations of surviving spouses and illegitimate children.
During the nineteenth century, German inheritance law was splintered into many territorial regimes that combined Germanic principles with the Roman law, as it was received in Germany from the 16th century onward. Throughout 19th century, special succession regimes for the nobility and for the peasantry were in effect. Of these, some German state laws on the succession of farms by the entirety are still in effect today. Current German inheritance law was enacted in the Civil Code of 1896. It is based on classical Roman law while also containing some institutions of Germanic origin.
Inheritance in the United States is generally a matter of state law. During the colonial period, the colonies adopted English inheritance law. Following independence, most states enacted statutes that codified common law with some modifications to English law and procedure. In the 19th century, with westward expansion, some territories entered the union as community-property states, adopting aspects of civil law. Most states adopted legislation giving married women control over and power to devise property they had inherited. Over the course of the 20th century, widows came to be treated more equally in inheritance compared to widowers, and spouses came to be treated more favorably in intestacy compared to children.
English Inheritance Laws in the 19th and 20th Centuries: A Bibliography
This bibliography contains a list of the resources available at the Library of Congress on inheritance laws in England during the 19th and 20th centuries. Links are provided to the Library of Congress catalog record.
Last Updated: 06/09/2015
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And now, a whole new way for your privacy to be invaded. Computer scientists at the EPFL in Switzerland have developed a way to eavesdrop on what you type by detecting the electromagnetic radiation emitted with every keystroke, Engadget reports.
The group developed four techniques for listening in on keystrokes, and tested them on 11 keyboards, produced from 2001 to 2008 and including USB, PS/2 and laptop keyboards. Every one of the devices was vulnerable to at least one of the methods. Some of the techniques are effective from as far away as 65 feet, and through walls.
Martin Vuagnoux, one of the scientists responsible, has posted twovideos demonstrating the vulnerability on Vimeo. The first of the two videos shows a meter-long wire being used as an antenna to detect the emissions of a keyboard several feet away. A program successfully decodes the message “trust no one” from these emissions. The second video shows an antenna that looks a bit like a pair of gigantic egg beaters eavesdropping on a keyboard from one room over.
The technique is pretty cool to see in motion (if a bit scary) so check out those videos and hit the jump to give us your thoughts.
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Self-rising flour is a combination of salt, flour and a leavening agent. While not traditionally used in conjunction with bread machines, self-rising flour can be used as a substitute for bread flour. The process of making bread in a bread machine using self-rising flour slightly differs, as self-rising flour contains baking soda and salt. It also does not withstand the rigorous kneading produced by a bread machine as well as bread flour. If you must use self-rising flour in a bread machine, there are several changes you will need to make to the standard bread-making process.
Put all of the liquids into the bread machine pan first. The order of the ingredients is important to keep them inert before the mixing begins. The liquids should be room temperature to combine efficiently with the yeast.
Add the self-rising flour to the bread machine. Gradually add small amounts of self-rising flour to create a layer of powder on top of the liquid. Continue adding the self-rising flour until the amount called for in the recipe is complete.
Add the remaining dry ingredients and seasonings. The specific ingredients added to the mixture depend on the bread recipe chosen. Cut the salt intake of your recipe in half; this is due to the already high content found in self-rising flour.
Create a well or indentation in the middle of the self-rising flour. Sprinkle the yeast into the center of the well. This prevents the yeast from coming in contact with the liquids. When the liquids and yeast combine before the mixing begins, the yeast becomes active and creates a mess in the machine.
Snap the bread machine pan into its proper place in the bread machine. Select the bread cycle you would like to use for your recipe. Set the timer on your bread machine according to the bread recipe. Press the start button to begin the bread-making process.
Bread texture is dependent on the type of flour used in the bread machine. This is due to the varying amount of protein found in each bread type. Bread flour is best used with a bread machine as it contains a high amount of protein which makes the bread rise better and gives a good texture.
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The Moon Jellyfish is transparent and grows up to 40cm wide. It is shaped like an umbrella and has short hair-like tentacles around the edges, and four rings towards centre. They are mostly harmless to humans, though may sting sensitive skin.
Moon jellyfish are very common all around the UK, especially in sheltered waters in the west of Scotland. You can sometimes see large numbers of these jellies when our chilly seas begin to warm up, or cool down. When this happens, it is known as a jellyfish bloom.
https://letsgowild.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/favourites-didyouknow.jpg355350Kathyhttps://letsgowild.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/lgw-header.pngKathy2017-08-01 19:03:182018-05-01 13:05:53Did you know?
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In terms of money spent to control it, corn rootworm is the costliest insect in the cornfield. Growers spend more on chemicals to fight the $1 billion bug than all other corn insects combined.
Until recent years, crop rotations were a first-line defense against the rootworm. But the insect wised up to what growers were doing and set up a rotation of its own, making sure offspring hatched in cornfields.
Adult rootworm beetles began laying eggs in soybean fields destined to rotate into cornfields the next season. A northern strain of corn rootworm has even begun laying eggs that don't hatch until the second year.
Enter biotechnology. Monsanto's YieldGard Rootworm corn is genetically modified (GM) to produce its own rootworm toxin. Monsanto scientists incorporated a Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) gene that emits a protein lethal to rootworms when they feed on corn roots. The GM corn provides better rootworm control than most conventional insecticides.
“The function is similar to Bt corn that's toxic to corn borer,” says Monsanto's Bryan Hurley. “But there are some differences. For one, rootworms spend most of their life in the soil, so the development of refuges (to delay rootworm resistance to Bt) is different. A half-mile separation doesn't work very well with rootworms.”
Wade French, USDA-ARS research entomologist at Brookings, SD, is studying a novel approach to establishing a refuge of conventional corn to delay rootworm resistance.
Rather than plant a refuge of 20% of the corn acreage in a block half a mile away, French believes an “in-row refuge” works just as well.
By blending 20% conventional seed of the same hybrid with 80% YieldGard Rootworm seed, researchers observed rootworm control as good as that achieved with 100% GM seed. They believe this seed-mix approach may be more effective in slowing down the evolution of resistance to Bt.
“In the field, plants from conventional seeds in the mix serve as a refuge for some rootworms,” says Hurley. “This makes sure there will be rootworm beetles not exposed to Bt that will mate with any rootworms that survive Bt.”
Hurley believes the offspring of these matings will probably not be resistant to Bt.
Monsanto will have a limited supply of YieldGard Rootworm corn for this planting season. Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approval was given in late February. At press time, it had received state registrations in 12 major Corn Belt states.
“Seed production will be limited for 2003,” Hurley warns. “We'll start with areas where rootworm is worst — in the western Corn Belt, for instance. We will have enough Bt seed to plant about a million acres this year.”
Monsanto will license hybrid companies to produce the seed on a royalty basis. And for the next few years, researchers will study the effectiveness of the “in-row refuge” concept.More from Bryan Hurley of Monsanto:
The USDA research program investigating seed mixes as a potential IRM strategy for YieldGard Rootworm is basic research only. YieldGard Rootworm recently received commercial registration from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), allowing for the commercial planting this year. The EPA registration specifically requires the planting of a 20 percent block refuge, similar to other Bt corn products for corn borer control already on the market. The EPA registration does not allow for the use of seed mix as an appropriate refuge strategy.
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At Five Oaks Academy, children in all classrooms are educated in the Spanish language. Spanish instruction begins in the Toddler Program and follows the child through our Middle School experience. Children are taught basic vocabulary as a cornerstone, and as their breadth of understanding develops, children are introduced to the multiple dimensions, cultures, geography, and people that together make the Spanish speaking world. Spanish language instruction is taught in small and large group lessons and is integrated into the classroom materials. In some areas of the classrooms there are two sets of materials: one in English and one in Spanish. There are also materials that are expressly for Spanish work. Children also learn to play familiar games using Spanish language. Additionally, the children in the Elementary and Middle School Programs begin to go out to local restaurants that boast Spanish fare. While at the restaurant, they order in Spanish and conduct their entire visit in Spanish, including payment for their meal and survival communication. International studies continue at every age level at Five Oaks Academy.
Our study of foreign cultures integrates art, music, dance, cooking, geography, literature, lifestyle, and science. The children also experience the study of cultures, traditions, and history of Spanish speaking countries. Children learn to prepare dishes from all around the world as well as learn traditional folk songs, ceremonial dances, and art. This depth of education offers the children a real world impression of the Spanish speaking cultures worldwide and sets our program apart as a rigorous, integrated, and advanced academic experience for the children, academically, and culturally.
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The holistic health movement of Earthing has caused a lot of people to get outside, while also sparking debate about the science behind the practice. It consists of walking barefoot on the earth to theoretically neutralize your body’s electrons and lower free radical damage. Interestingly, there have been a handful of studies that support these theories.
Reconnecting with the Earth can help improve mental health through hiking or spending time relaxing outdoors. The big question is whether or not direct contact with the ground can impact your physical health. It’s thought that exposure to electrons can lead to health problems, and receiving positive protons from the Earth’s surface can mitigate those problems.
It’s possible that Earthing helped subjects in a few studies achieve better sleep, less pain, reduced stress, and healthier immune systems. Earthing may even help slow aging as free radicals in modern daily life can cause inflammation that can lead to premature aging. Though more scientific studies must be done before you ditch your shoes forever, it’s always a good idea to spend some more time in nature.
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Fewer and fewer Kansans’ holiday travel will take them past fields where the wheat was grown to make their Thanksgiving meal complete.
Flour for the bread, the pie crust and the stuffing (or dressing if you prefer) comes to you from wheat farmers. But knowledge of farming and appreciation for what it provides us daily are fading as Americans’ direct connections with agriculture disappear.
As more people move into suburbs and urban areas, fewer people live in rural America. And as our nation’s farms grow more efficient and more productive, it takes fewer people to produce ever-more food.
For example, corn fields that produced 40 bushels an acre in 1950 now often produce 170 bushels an acre. Such gains are seen throughout farming and are possible because of advances in technology and science.
They also defy the much ballyhooed political divide that exists between urban and rural America. Few other achievements exemplify the mutually beneficial relationship between rural and urban communities.
For more than a century, scientists — often at universities in urban areas — have been working collaboratively with farmers and ag-related businesses. Together they have developed more drought-resistant varieties of crops; improved the diets of farm animals, and as a result the nutrition they offer to those who consume them; and made numerous other advances.
Those advances are what allow about 450 farmers in Minnesota to produce more than 44 million turkeys every year. If you are having turkey this Thanksgiving, it’s likely from Minnesota, which leads the nation in producing and processing turkeys.
True, some Americans don’t think such advances are a good thing. For decades, Americans have argued about food. Some decry what they call industrialized farming, for example, while others argue that larger farms are often the better environmental choice, providing efficient and affordable means to feed billions of people. Debates about organic food, vegan diets and genetically modified products can be had daily if you’re looking for a food fight.
What such discussions show us is just how good we have it.
Americans have an embarrassment of choices for our food. Grocery stores, health food stores, food cooperatives, online clubs and stores, membership super-centers, discount groceries, farmers markets – the list grows continually.
And it’s all relatively cheap. Americans spend less on their groceries than in most countries.
The numbers have been getting harder to calculate because of our changing lifestyles. Since 2010, Americans have been spending more for food from restaurants than from grocery stores. That’s something of an oversimplification of the figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but it gets at the essence of the change.
We eat out, or we bring home food from a restaurant. At the same time many grocery stores are offering lots of ready-to-eat options, from salad bars to fried chicken. That preparation, handling and processing add to our food costs.
The USDA tracks a number of prices and trends to calculate the cost of food and how it’s changing. Here’s an excerpt from a USDA website:
“Over the last two decades, motor fuel and household energy prices have experienced double-digit annual price swings, while food prices have posted annual increases of between 0 and 6 percent, for an average annual increase of 2.4 percent.”
How much families spend on groceries, represented as a percent of their disposable income, correlates to their wealth. The less you make, the bigger the percentage. But on average, according to the USDA, Americans spent about 10 percent of their disposable income on food in 2016, split about evenly between food eaten at home and food eaten outside the home.
About a hundred years ago, the nation’s urban population surpassed its rural population. The demographic split took longer to occur in farming states such as Kansas. But here and elsewhere, the trend has meant that fewer of us have direct ties to the land. As an agriculture professor once explained, with each passing generation, fewer people have direct knowledge about farming and the source of their food.
Even as our individual ties to farming disappear, Americans would be wise to remember just how good their farmers are at growing food.
Julie Doll formerly worked at newspapers in Kansas, California, New York and Indiana. She grew up on a farm in Finney County, and her brothers continue to farm there.
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Why Germany is digging up its nuclear waste
By Peter Teffer
It seemed such a good idea at the time. At least, to the German politicians in charge.
But in hindsight, the Asse II salt mine should never have been used in the 1960s and 1970s as a site to dump nuclear waste, said Ingo Bautz of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection.
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“Today, nobody would choose this mine to place radioactive waste,” Bautz told journalists during a recent tour of the mine, in the north-western state of Lower Saxony.
“People were thinking in different terms in those times. The plan was to increase the use of nuclear power.”
To anti-nuclear activists, Asse is a prime example of government not listening to citizens' concerns. "Incidents were predicted," said Wolfgang Ehmke, activist in the Gorleben region.
But the waste had to be stored somewhere, so the voices that warned against selecting Asse II were ignored.
“The potential risks for the future were accepted,” Bautz said, during a recent press visit to the mine organised by Clean Energy Wire, a non-profit group supported by the Mercator and European Climate foundations.
Road signs, deep underground
Until 1978, low and intermediate-level radioactive waste was stored in Asse II, the only such site in Germany.
Ten years later, the operator of the mine discovered leaks of radioactive brine. But it was not until 2008, when media reported about it, that the leaks became public knowledge.
The German government took control of the mine and tasked the Federal Office for Radiation Protection with its decommissioning.
The office concluded that the risk of groundwater contamination was too big, and the only truly safe option was to retrieve all the waste from the mine and store it elsewhere. In all, 126,000 containers filled with contaminated clothes, paper and equipment were stored in Asse, the office said.
“This task is very difficult,” said Bautz, who joined journalists to travel into the mine, 658m below the surface.
The lift plunged to the bottom at 36km/h. Inside the mine, the temperature was about 30C even though it was freezing above ground.
The mine is so large that workers have to use cars to get around. In one tunnel an LED road sign typically found in residential areas tells drivers to watch their speed.
The car this website was driven in hit speeds of 22km/h, which is apparently within the limit, judging by the smiley face displayed on the LED.
The cars had to be cut in half, transported in the elevator vertically, and put back together underground.
They can operate for decades, but once the vehicles are returned to the service they would become useless. While underground, the air is dry enough for the car not to be harmed by the high saturation of salt. But once back on the Autobahn, erosion would allow holes to be poked through the bodywork within a few weeks.
During the 1906 construction of the mine, it could not have been foreseen that cars would be used to get around, let alone that it would be used to store radioactive waste.
"We have to retrofit the mine," said Bautz, noting that everything had to be invented for what is a unique task.
Since the mine is over a century old, it needs to be protected against a collapse or flooding. It will also need another lift to use for retrieving the waste.
And because of safety regulations regarding evacuation, only 120 people can be down in the mine at the same time. Workers are monitored for any exposure to radiation.
“We have to guarantee the safety of the workforce and the population,” noted Bautz.
The Federal Office is spending €140 million a year for the Asse clean-up.
In the European Union, each member state is responsible for its own nuclear waste. There are some common rules though.
In 2011, the EU adopted a rule obliging each country that has produced nuclear waste to have policies on how to manage their waste. Last August, all member states were due to report about their national programmes for the first time.
Germany told the commission it planned to put "all types of radioactive waste in deep geological disposal facilities with the aim to guarantee isolation from the biosphere in the long term, thus ensuring the safety of man and the environment without any need for maintenance".
Environment state secretary Jochen Flasbarth, who described the situation in Asse II as “disastrous”, told journalists in Berlin that the current plan was to store the Asse waste, once retrieved, with the high-level radioactive waste for which the government is still searching a site.
'This is not Chernobyl'
A special committee set up to determine criteria, based on which a final storage site will be selected, is due to present its findings in July 2016. But its chair, Michael Mueller, has raised doubts whether this deadline can be met.
His committee is also debating whether the site for highly radioactive waste should be accessible after 100 or 200 years, or if they should just to lock it up and throw away the key.
“We discuss for example: should there be retrievability [of the waste], because there might be a point in time when we have more knowledge and we come up with another solution,” said Mueller of the criteria committee.
The Asse case shows how difficult it can be to undo a decision related to nuclear waste storage. It will take longer to retrieve the waste than it did to dump it.
At the same time, the Asse issue is not as daunting as the challenge to find a final repository. And while there are considerable risks involved, those should “not be exaggerated”, said Bautz.
“This is not Chernobyl or Fukushima,” he added.
Still, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection does not expect to begin retrieval before 2033.
That means the Asse clean-up will be a legacy that lasts well beyond 2022, the year in which Germany's last nuclear power plant is due to be shut down.
This is second part in a two-part series about Germany's nuclear waste. Part one was about how Gorleben refused to be the country's permanent waste repository.
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Welcome to Willow class. We are a year 6 class. Mrs McLoughlin is our class teacher and we are supported by Mrs Critchley.
This term our topic is WW2. The children are learning lots of interesting facts and are finding out what it was like to be a child during those times. We will be bringing History to life in our classroom when we will have a visit from the 'History Alive' educational team. They will explore life during WW2 and have the opportunity to handle artifacts from that period.
Next term, our topic is 'Heroes and Villains.'The children will be exploring how to keep healthy and look after their bodies through diet and exercise. Further into the term the children will be working towards SATs week. Please use the link below to provide your child with revision:
We will add learning activities for children to access at home on https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk. Your child has their own individual username, the password is Highfield1 and the school code is 6ttm.
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General Fitness>>Maintaining a Healthy Knee - 1/6/2007
v The knee joint is really two joints- the patello-femoral
v The knee bones are held together passively by ligaments and dynamically by muscles. Cartilage on the joint surface and menisci provide cushion and protection from weight-bearing stresses. When the knee is over-stressed in sports or repetitive everyday activities, these structures can breakdown and cause injury.
v With increasing age and loss of conditioning, repetitive daily stress can contribute to knee pain.
v If your knee clicks, occasionally locks, or hurts with stair climbing, you most likely torn or worn down your meniscus, the cartilage pad that assists with shock absorption. Small tears can sometimes repair themselves with 4-6 weeks of physical therapy and more severe tears may require surgery.
v Pain and tenderness below your knee cap that is especially aggravated with stair climbing and getting up from a chair is most likely patellar tendonitis or “jumper’s knee” caused by overuse. Rest, strengthening and flexibility exercises aid recovery. An infrapatellar knee strap (worn below the knee cap) is sometimes helpful.
v Tight muscles and tendons (iliotibial band, hamstrings) can cause the knee cap to slip off track and grind against the thigh bone. This condition is called “Patellofemoral
v If you hear a pop and knee swells within two hours you possibly torn your anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Other symptoms of this include intense pain, and a feeling of instability in the knee. A complete tear means surgery and months of rehabilitation.
v Keys to maintaining a healthy knee/prevention
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There are millions of people in Sub-Saharan that have never seen a dentist in all their lives and don’t even own a toothbrush. Poor oral hygiene has been shown to increase the risk of cancer, stroke, diabetes, and heart disease. In many cases, providing the simplest items, such as a toothbrush and toothpaste can prevent the more serious conditions later in life.
We are currently raising funds to introduce modern hygienic practices. In some areas we can upgrade the basic clinical equipment and train healthcare workers to treat basic dental issues. For a relatively low cost, we can distribute thousands of toothbrushes and teach the children in these communities on how to properly use them. The result is not only a great smile but better health overall.
We would also be very grateful for the donation of used dental equipment.
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Summer in Chicago is finally here. But with the increased sunshine and longer days comes a greater risk of skin damage due to harmful UV rays.
To raise awareness of sun safety, July is nationally recognized as UV Safety Awareness Month, says Dr. Elizabeth Fahrenbach, dermatologist with Presence Resurrection Medical Center.
According to Dr. Fahrenbach, there are three tips you should always follow to keep your skin safe in the summer sun.
3 tips for summer sun safety
1. Cover up-Wear sun-protective clothing, such as long-sleeve shirts, pants and wide-brimmed hats to help shield your skin from UV ray exposure. And don't forget to protect your eyes with UV-rated sunglasses.
2. Make for the shade-The sun is most intense at midday. Sticking to the shade between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. will help protect your skin. And the sun doesn't' have to be visible to damage your skin. UV rays can still cause damage when it's cloudy or cold. So stay protected all year round.
3. Choose your the sunscreen wisely-The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) recommends your sunscreen have a sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 30, protecting against both Ultraviolet A (UV-A) and Ultraviolet B (UV-B) rays. And make sure you apply liberally and often. According to the National Council on Skin Cancer Prevention, most people apply only 25 to 50 percent of the recommended amount. Apply at least one ounce-about the amount that fills a shot glass or the palm of your hand-every two hours. Apply it more often if you're sweating or swimming, even if the sunscreen is waterproof.
If you spot it, stop it
According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, skin cancer is the most common of all cancers, with more than 5.4 million non-melanoma cases diagnosed in the U.S. each year. But it's also the easiest to cure, if diagnosed and treated early, Dr. Fahrenbach says.
The key, she says, is spotting the issue and getting to a doctor right away. Some of the warning signs that you should be checked by a physician include:
• A skin growth that increases in size and appears pearly, translucent, tan, brown, black or multicolored
• A mole, birthmark, beauty mark or any brown spot that:
- changes color
- increases in size or thickness
- changes in texture
- is irregular in outline
- is bigger than 0.25 in., about the size of a pencil eraser
- appears after age 21
• A spot or sore that continues to itch, hurt, crust, scab, erode or bleed
• An open sore that does not heal within three weeks
This item was posted by a community contributor. To read more about community contributors, click here.
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Cesare Pavese, (born Sept. 9, 1908, Santo Stefano Belbo, Italy—died Aug. 27, 1950, Turin), Italian poet, critic, novelist, and translator, who introduced many modern U.S. and English writers to Italy.
Born in a small town in which his father, an official, owned property, he moved with his family to Turin, where he attended high school and the university. Denied an outlet for his creative powers by Fascist control of literature, Pavese translated many 20th-century U.S. writers in the 1930s and ’40s: Sherwood Anderson, Gertrude Stein, John Steinbeck, John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner; a 19th-century writer who influenced him profoundly, Herman Melville (one of his first translations was of Moby Dick); and the Irish novelist James Joyce. He also published criticism, posthumously collected in La letteratura americana e altri saggi (1951; American Literature, Essays and Opinions, 1970). His work probably did more to foster the reading and appreciation of U.S. writers in Italy than that of any other single man.
A founder and, until his death, an editor of the publishing house of Einaudi, Pavese also edited the anti-Fascist review La Cultura. His work led to his arrest and imprisonment by the government in 1935, an experience later recalled in “Il carcere” (published in Prima che il gallo canti, 1949; in The Political Prisoner, 1955) and the novella Il compagno (1947; The Comrade, 1959). His first volume of lyric poetry, Lavorare stanca (1936; Hard Labor, 1976), followed his release from prison. An initial novella, Paesi tuoi (1941; The Harvesters, 1961), recalled, as many of his works do, the sacred places of childhood. Between 1943 and 1945 he lived with partisans of the anti-Fascist Resistance in the hills of Piedmont.
The bulk of Pavese’s work, mostly short stories and novellas, appeared between the end of the war and his death. Partly through the influence of Melville, Pavese became preoccupied with myth, symbol, and archetype. One of his most striking books is Dialoghi con Leucò (1947; Dialogues with Leucò, 1965), poetically written conversations about the human condition. The novel considered his best, La luna e i falò (1950; The Moon and the Bonfires, 1950), is a bleak, yet compassionate story of a hero who tries to find himself by visiting the place in which he grew up. Several other works are notable, especially La bella estate (1949; in The Political Prisoner, 1955). Shortly after receiving the Strega Prize for it, Pavese committed suicide in a hotel room.
A Pavese Prize for literature was established in 1957, and some of Pavese’s most significant work was published after his death, notably a volume of love lyrics that is thought to contain his best poetry, Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi (1951; “Death Will Stare at Me out of Your Eyes”); the story collection Notte di festa (1953; Festival Night and Other Stories, 1964); and the striking chronicle of his inner life, Il mestiere di vivere, diario 1935–1950 (1952; London, This Business of Living, New York, The Burning Brand: Diaries 1935–1950, both 1961).
Many collections of Pavese’s work have appeared, including Racconti (1960; Told in Confidence and Other Stories, 1971), a collection of much of his best fiction; Poesie edite e inedite (1962), edited by Italo Calvino; and Lettere (1966), which covers the period from 1924 to 1950. A poetry collection in English, A Mania for Solitude, Selected Poems 1930–1950, was published in 1969.
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Michael Lugo wrote a great post, following an idea of Andrew Gelman, about what would have happened if Pythagoras had known linear regresson. Punchline: he would have found a linear formula for the hypotenuse with an R^2 of 0.9995, and would surely not have seen any need to pursue the matter any further!
I thought this was mostly just a joke, until the mail brought me a copy of the very interesting A Wealth of Numbers from Princeton University Press, an anthology of popular writing about math stretching from the 16th century to the present.
From Hugh Worthington’s 1780 textbook, The Resolution of Triangles:
THE THIRD CASE is, the sides being given, to find the angles, and the rule is as follows. “Half the longer of the two legs added to the hypotenuse, is always in proportion to 86, as the shorter leg is to its opposite angle.”
In modern language: given a right triangle with legs a and b, and hypotenuse 1, how do you find the angle x adjacent to a? Nowadays we would just say “x = arctan b/a.” But this kind of computation was presumably not so easy in 1780. Instead, Worthington offers the approximation
b/x = (a/2 + 1) / 86
which (after converting to radians, as good manners requires) gives
x = (86*pi/180) b / (a/2 + 1)
Of course, when the hypotenuse is set to 1, we have b = sin x and a = cos x. So the approximation is
x = (86*pi/180) (sin x) / (cos x / 2 + 1).
This turns out to be a pretty awesome approximation!
How do you think they came up with this?
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| 0.95657 | 393 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Hey everyone, Bridget from Money After Graduation here to explain cryptocurrency in three minutes. Before you get started investing in cryptocurrency, there are a few things that you need to know. The first is that cryptocurrency is entirely a digital money. There are no coins, there are no paper, there is no underlying asset backing it up.
When talking cryptocurrency you’ve probably also heard the word blockchain and are maybe wondering what that means. Blockchain is at the heart of what
cryptocurrency is. Essentially it is blocks of information that are attached to each other along a chain and that’s what makes up this digital money itself. If
this sounds confusing it’s important to understand that this is where it really gets its power.
When you go to a bank or you buy something from a store they have to record that transaction in a ledger. Most of these ledgers are digital now but they used to be like pen and paper and that’s how they kept track of the transfer and exchange of money. With cryptocurrency, that ledger is actually part of the currency. That’s what the blockchain is.
Every time a transaction happens the information of that transaction gets linked as a block of information in the chain. To understand why this is so valuable it’s because it makes cryptocurrency super safe. There’s no possible way to commit fraud because all the information is part of the actual coin. Cryptocurrency is totally unregulated. It’s not governed by any bank, government, country or governing body.
In North America we enjoy a lot of currency and political stability but other countries around the world facing large political and monetary upheavals can’t rely on their local currency to protect their wealth.
Cryptocurrency is a great way for them to protect their assets by storing it outside their country’s money. Finally the major benefit of this technology is anonymity. Because all the information of each transaction is held within cryptocurrency itself, it’s not like using a credit card that leaves a record and a paper trail of your information. For a lot of cryptocurrency transactions this meant that it’s been used for some morally questionable things, including the illegal weapons trade or the drug trade.
But for many other people it’s just a way of protecting their privacy. One of the major risks of cryptocurrency is that it’s super volatile. Something can’t behave like a currency if it can’t be reliably exchanged for things of value. If you’re cool with watching your investment go up and down by 20% or more in a single day then you can probably handle investing in cryptocurrency. But if watching your dollars disappear on your dashboard ever makes you a little nervous you might want to stay out until things calm down. Because cryptocurrency is not insured by any bank or governing body, if it’s ever stolen or lost it’s gone forever.
The last thing is we don’t know which coin if any of the current ones are going to be the ones most useful in the future. Bitcoin is getting all press but it’s definitely not the only one and when compared to others it might not even be the best one.
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Whether you heard about it from discussions on Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market or from tech buffs who deem it as “the future of the Internet”, the term “blockchain technology” has gotten around. But what exactly is it?
Terms to Remember
It’s easy to build up enough understanding of cryptocurrency to know how to buy and sell it. After the initial confusion of “Is there a physical bitcoin?” (to which the prompt answer is “no”), then you’ll find that it’s just like trading stocks.
The strategies are a little different in the sense that holding your investment might not be the best way to go about it (according to some experts). Depending on how you usually deal with your stocks, cryptocurrency could be a little or a lot riskier than what you’re used to. You’ll certainly need sturdier willpower to keep yourself from selling out once the market takes another one of its dips.
But all those aside, it’s practically the same. You own a wallet where you can store your new currency — and, yes, there is a physical bitcoin wallet. Then, you buy your stocks (BTC, ETH, etc.) with your real cash and you sell them at the right time to exchange them for fiat money.
The difference comes when you check under the hood. Of course, you wouldn’t want to spend cash on something that has no good chance of being profitable. So, you’ll need to know if blockchain technology — the system all those cryptocurrencies are based upon — have a future. To know that, you would first need to know the terminology involved. Some key terms to remember would be:
Cryptocurrency. Let’s start with an already familiar one. Cryptocurrency is digital currency with no intrinsic value, but with an extra layer of protection using cryptography. Think of it as similar to paying with your card and needing to input your PIN. The PIN — or in this case, the private key specific to you — is used to verify the transactions you make. Cryptocurrency isn’t the only use of blockchain technology, but since Bitcoin was the first instance of the blockchain, it’s the most popular one.
Nodes. A node refers to a computer that’s connected to the network of a blockchain. They’re required to verify the transactions made. When you make a transaction or edit your data, the changes are recorded and distributed among the nodes. It does not mean that nodes have access to your personal data, however. They can’t make changes on your behalf.
Blocks. When new data is verified by the parties involved and recorded to the “public ledger” that is the blockchain, then it becomes a “block”, hence, the name.
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network. P2P is a different way to call the network of nodes. It’s a network wherein the users or computers connected to it share resources and data.
Hash. This comes up a lot in blockchain discussions. To “hash” is to take data of any size, put it through an algorithm, and then have it come out in a much smaller, arbitrary size. For example, the blockchain size in its entirety — due to its very nature of storing shared data — could be rather heavy. The number could reach gigabytes. However, if you process it through an algorithm, you can have a “state” of it that’s only 256 bytes.
Key pairs. When you join a blockchain, you’ll get a pair of keys: one is the public key and one is the private key. The public is the one used by others to send you data, like cryptocurrencies. The private key, on the other hand, is one you keep to yourself. It’s what you can use to verify transactions and ensure that no one else can change the data you sent.
Now that we have that out of the way, explaining the blockchain might be a little easier.
What is a Blockchain?
The first blockchain accompanied the release of Bitcoin. So, the invention of the technology is usually attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin. However, the idea of a block chain that’s secured through cryptography was first presented by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta in 1991.
A blockchain is usually described as a public ledger. However, since its technology has evolved beyond cryptocurrencies, that description feels less apt.
Instead, imagine an online workspace. Google Documents (and the whole of the Google suite including Drive and Sheets), Trello, Slack — all of these tools have one thing in common: they all support real-time collaboration of different users. That means that even if another user is currently editing the workspace, you still have access to edit it yourself. The edits are downloaded automatically, so you’ll be able to see the changes once they’re verified.
In line with this, a blockchain is usually:
decentralized, meaning it is not controlled by one entity or organization
transparent, as every successful transaction is recorded and copied to every node
private, as while your transactions may be public, you only need a private key to verify them and no further personal information needs to be shared over the network
secure, as a blockchain’s system of consensus and validation ensure that the transactions you make are as safe as they can be (read: scam-free!)
durable, because there’s not just one entity involved, so it would be much harder to hack a blockchain
direct, because a blockchain is generally seen as a disruptor to client-server relationships by essentially eliminating the middleman and replacing them with the network itself
fault tolerant, as the data shared doesn’t rest on a single server, so it has fewer chances of suddenly failing or shutting down as the other nodes in the system will compensate for any failures
This is why blockchain is considered as the revolutionary future of the internet. It empowers its users by giving them the freedom to both change their data as desired and reveal as much or as little information as desired. And it does this while also eliminating the rather slow and inefficient systems of middlemen that we’ve become familiar with, such as having to wait for the bank to process our transactions.
How Blockchain Works
The method of transmitting and recording data has been briefly touched upon in parts of this article. However, to give you a clearer idea of the process:
Blockchain is a system of confirmation and consensus. To be precise, the nodes confirm ownership status, rather than the trade of files, data, or cryptocurrency themselves.
When you make a request for a transaction, this goes to the network of nodes or the P2P network. The network then validates whether the parties involved in the transaction are trustworthy by checking if each party owns what they’re claiming to own. For example, if you want to buy a product from a store, the network is the diligent salesperson that checks the back storage to make sure they have it in stock.
In order to prove that you have ownership of the file requested for, you need to timestamp or ‘hash’ it. This means that you need to run your file through an algorithm to come up with a bite-sized and unique hash file of it. You then embed or list this hash file onto the blockchain to prove your ownership of an item. It’s the salesperson finally coming out of the stock room with the item you want in hand, in just the right size and colour you asked for.
Validation is when you, your exasperated partner, the other employees, and the store manager looks in the box and nods, confirming that it’s what you wanted. The manager assures that the item is correct and that the salesperson is qualified to sell it to you. In the blockchain, the nodes confirm this transaction using some blockchain algorithm or another.
After verifying the transaction, a block is added to the chain. This is equivalent to a salesperson running the item’s barcode over an electronic cash register. An electronic cash register and a blockchain both automatically keep track of inventories (i.e. who owns what) and of all the transactions made. The only difference is that recorded transactions on a blockchain are permanent. Cash registers only keep track of transactions over a given period of time.
And then, afterward, the transaction is complete. You can then walk out of the store without alerting the security system because the item is officially yours now.
Cryptocurrencies are only an example of what your blockchain transaction can involve. Property rights, shares, and anything else that has value may be part of the transaction. With the help of “smart contracts”, this process becomes more secure than originally thought.
A smart contract is a system that relies on the If-Then premise. Conditions regarding the exchange of ownership rights are set and encoded into the blockchain. When the parties involved meet or fail the set conditions, the smart contract will automatically execute the set consequence. Not only that, the happenings regarding the contract can be regulated by other members of the blockchain as well.
The Potential of Blockchain Technology
Cryptocurrency isn’t the only thing this technology is capable of; numerous blockchain companies currently in existence prove that. One such example of a different usage is how the National Research Council of Canada — a government institution — is using the Ethereum blockchain to publish an updated list of grants and contribution data.
This is wonderful precisely because governance is one of the institutions that could benefit from transparency. In addition, it could improve the process of poll-taking such as during elections or referendums.
The potential uses of this technology are vast, and among the industries that could find it beneficial are:
Shipping. Early in 2017, Maersk and IBM announced a team-up to create a digitized supply chain based on blockchain technology. The end game is to create a system that would help decrease the processing time of shippers as well as increase the information customs authorities have on shipments to ease risk concerns.
Selling/shopping. OpenBazaar is still in its beta stages, but it is a notable example of how this technology can be used. The goal of OpenBazaar is to create a trading platform (like eBay, but with rentals like Airbnb) that removes the middleman so that shoppers and sellers alike could enjoy the privilege of fee-free trading.
Fintech. Certain actions, like cross-border payment, takes weeks to settle due to the number of parties involved. Banks like J.P. Morgan — who has recently unveiled its Interbank Information Network (IIN) — hope to utilize blockchain technology to decrease processing time and cost of payments.
Intellectual property. Mycelia is a blockchain-based music distribution platform founded by Imogen Heap. Due to the automation of smart contracts, selling music directly to customers and then distributing the proceedings to relevant parties becomes a breeze. Mycelia is specifically for music, but the idea behind it can benefit other creative pursuits too.
Prediction markets. Augur relies on the “wisdom of the crowd” to determine accuracy in predictions. It’s based on Ethereum’s blockchain. The idea is that participants can buy into a prediction (like a stock) and, when that prediction comes true in real life, they receive a payout depending on how much they bought. Augur is still in beta, but it’s already one of the top ten blockchain companies with a market capitalisation of $1 billion.
Computation. Computing large and complex data requires a powerful machine. Golem, with a market cap of $500 million, is an open-source and decentralised supercomputer. Rather than relying on one great machine, through Golem, the network powers the service and that enables it to process difficult computations.
There are likely more uses for blockchain technology that were not mentioned on this list, and more still that haven’t been thought of. There are notable blockchain companies that didn’t make the list too.
What’s important to remember as you read all of this is that blockchain technology is still relatively new. Don’t let that dishearten you though. Think about it this way: despite its nascent stage, we’re already coming up with these new, amazing ways to use it. What more once the technology has had time to develop?
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Pinker’s The Sense of Style is a unique writing guide in the sense of its foundation in psychology, its acknowledgement of the nonsense of a strict prescriptive–descriptive dichotomy, and its reference and discussion of other well known guides and popular texts on writing. I like that. It unfortunately also contains a chapter with a very common list of good and wrong usage of terms that could be found on any blog on writing as well. I did not like that.
Hence, the first five chapters are easy to recommend. They instruct, explain, and entertain. It was interesting and enlightening to learn that many “rules”, that need to be broken, are based on the misconception that English is Latin. It is not. Latin grammar does not apply to the English language.
There are a couple of other things I noticed and learned.
Pinker’s Sense of Style is political. Pinker takes clear positions. (On, for instance, feminism and the gender neutral singular)
Every sentence requires a writer to grapple with tradeoffs between clarity, concision, tone, cadence, accuracy, and other values. Why should the value of not excluding women be the only one whose weight is set to zero?
Typographical conventions that support the reader, the ease of reading, and hence facilitate the understanding of a text may be at odds with grammatical structure that also clarifies the meaning and facilitates the understanding of a text.
No discussion of the illogic of punctuation would be complete without the infamous case of the ordering of a quotation mark with respect to a comma or period. The rule in American publications (the British are more sensible about this) is that when quoted material appears at the end of a phrase or sentence, the closing quotation mark goes outside the comma or period, “like this,” rather than inside, “like this”. The practice is patently illogical: the quotation marks enclose a part of the phrase or sentence, and the comma or period signals the end of that entire phrase or sentence, so putting the comma or period inside the quotation marks is like Superman’s famous wardrobe malfunction of wearing his underwear outside his pants. But long ago some American printer decided that the page looks prettier without all that unsightly white space above and to the left of a naked period or comma, and we have been living with the consequences ever since.
I would usually prefer the typographers’ approach. Though Pinker (and Pullum) makes a valid point when it comes to the discussion of the structure of a text, its sentences.
The American punctuation rule sticks in the craw of every computer scientist, logician, and linguist, because any ordering of typographical delimiters that fails to reflect the logical nesting of the content makes a shambles of their work. On top of its galling irrationality, the American rule prevents a writer from expressing certain thoughts. In his semi-serious 1984 essay “Punctuation and Human Freedom,” Geoffrey Pullum discusses the commonly misquoted first two lines of Shakespeare’s King Richard III: “Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun of York.”68 Many people misremember it as “Now is the winter of our discontent”, full stop. Now suppose one wanted to comment on the error by writing:
Shakespeare’s King Richard III contains the line “Now is the winter of our discontent”.
This is a true sentence. But an American copy editor would change it to:
Shakespeare’s King Richard III contains the line “Now is the winter of our discontent.”
But this is a false sentence, or at least there’s no way for the writer to make it unambiguously true or false.
Hence, yes, the typographer’s rule needs to be broken if necessary.
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As the saying goes- blondes have more fun, but in the world of insects it may actually be the rare 'redheads' that have the last laugh….at least in terms of evolution.
A new study at the University of Melbourne has discovered that genetic variation in an asexual insect – insects that reproduce by cloning themselves – is maintained by rare clones being chosen for the next generation, a phenomenon known as frequency-dependent selection.
In the study conducted by Dr Andrew Weeks and Prof Ary Hoffmann from the University of Melbourne, the reproduction of a major agricultural pest, the blue oat mite (Penthaleus major) was examined.
"We found that although the mites reproduce asexually, essentially by cloning themselves, some genetic differences were occurring via mutation. These new variants or clones, which start off rare, become common because they are favoured by natural selection" says Dr Weeks, from the Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research (CESAR) in the Department of Genetics at the University of Melbourne.
"Essentially, the rarer you are, the more offspring you will leave in the next generation".
To determine how clones were being selected, they set up a series of enclosed plots in several pasture sites in Victoria. They then introduced unique clones of the mites in varying frequencies into the enclosures. The clones that were initially rare became common in the next generation, while the common clones produced fewer offspring.
"This can be a cycling process, where the common clones become rare and then they are at an advantage and become common again" says Dr Weeks.
"Our study has revealed new insights into the ability for asexual organisms to maintain genetic variation" says Prof Hoffmann from CESAR, based at the Bio21 institute. "These mites are problematic for farmers to control and this mechanism means that the species can evolve to counter control measures like the application of chemicals or the introduction of predators."
"Controlling pests is like an arms race between us and the pests – normally we don't expect asexuals to do well in this race, but in this case the asexuals might even win out".
The study is published in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).
Cite This Page:
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Your Camera Basics | SettingsJanuary 29, 2017
Cameras are a complex piece of technology if you don’t have much experience, so it’s all down to trial and error. I receive comments on my photography often and realised I hadn’t written a guide to help you lovelies out. Photography can be a little overwhelming, and if you try to search for help, you’re just swarmed in jargon that doesn’t make any sense to a beginner. So here is your guide to camera basics and getting those pesky settings right!
Aperture is able to control the amount of blur or sharpness around an object. This means that it is able to monitor the size of the lens opening that allows light in. It’s expressed as a number which is known as the f/stop (the f stands for focus or focal). So for example, if you had a high aperture then the lens will widen which means more light is let into the camera. This leads to a low f/stop which means your image isn’t in focus and the background will become blurry. On the other hand, a low aperture means the lens closes more and less light is allowed into the camera which means the f/stop is much higher and the image is a lot more in focused.
The shutter speed controls how long the shutter opens to expose the image sensor to the light that has come from the aperture. The shutter speed setting control is able to process how long the shutter should open to expose the image sensor to the light. If the shutter is open for a very short time, then it is able to capture a fast moving object which is ideal for situations such as taking images of animals and sports events. On the other hand, you can show the movement of a fast-moving object by changing the setting of the shutter speed and allowing it to stay open for longer which would be a slower shutter speed.
ISO has always sounded the most confusing to me, but it is so much easier than you think. The ISO can detect the light that is needed for proper exposure. So it’s very bright where you are then you’re likely to have an overexposed image, so it’s important to have a low ISO number. On the other hand, if the conditions are too dark then the ISO needs to become higher. One problem with high ISO is that images can become grainy which is why you should try and have the lowest ISO as possible.
Manual mode is my go to when taking high-quality close-ups. It can be more time-consuming, but you will get the best out of your images. Manual mode makes it so much easier to get the exposure and brightness you need. I find it’s better to focus on the right thing rather than automatic mode which can take a few attempts. (Not cool when your camera card is full, and you have to sit deleted images while being heartbroken because that outfit pic was just too cute!) When you’re new to photography then manual mode can be very confusing, but trust me, practice makes perfect, and it’s 100% worth it!
Have any questions? Then feel free to ask below!
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What are the three classes of Lipids?
Triglycerides, Phospholipids, Sterols
Can lipids harm health?
While Lipids are necessary and valuable they are a source of energy, they can harm health
What are some uses of fats in the body?
Insulation, shock absorbers, cell membranes. It is the chief storage form of energy. Secretes Hormones. Helps dissolve fat soluble substances
Why do people like high-fat foods?
It smells good (Aromas), it tastes good (Flavor), its tender (Tenderness), its satiable (Satiety)
What are the differences b/w fatty acids?
fatty acid chains lack double bonds; therefore, the chains pack tightly, solid at room temp and bad fats, major source is meat. "Saturated fats equals death"
plant products such as vegetable oil, nuts,m and seeds, and in fish. Unsaturated fats tend to lower blood cholesterol levels
How hard should healthier fat be?
Softer is generally (Key word, Generally) healthier
How are fats Digested?
Bile from the pancreas emulsifies (Breaks it up) the fat in the small intestine.
How are the fats broken down?
Fatty acids split from glycerol (fatty acids, phopholipids, and monos). Bile shuttles lipids across mucus layer. Glycerol and shorter chain fatty acids are sent to the blood stream. Larger lipids
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2. To awaken dislike in; to displease. Disliking countenance. . It dislikes me.
3. A feeling of positive and usually permanent aversion to something unpleasant, uncongenial, or offensive; disapprobation; repugnance; displeasure; disfavor; the opposite of liking or fondness. God's grace . . . Gives him continual dislike to sin. (Hammond) The hint malevolent, the look oblique, The obvious satire, or implied dislike. (Hannah More) We have spoken of the dislike of these excellent women for Sheridan and fox. (j. Morley) His dislike of a particular kind of sensational stories. (a. W. Ward)
4. Discord; dissension.
Synonym: Distaste, disinclination, disapprobation, disfavor, disaffection, displeasure, disrelish, aversion, reluctance, repugnance, disgust, antipathy.
dislike, Aversion, Reluctance, Repugnance, disgust, Antipathy. Dislike is the more general term, applicable to both persons and things and arising either from feeling or judgment. It may mean little more than want of positive liking, but antipathy, repugnance, disgust, and aversion are more intense phases of dislike. Aversion denotes a fixed and habitual dislike, as, an aversion to or for business. Reluctance and repugnance denote a mental strife or hostility something proposed (repugnance being the stronger), as, a reluctance to make the necessary sacrifices, and a repugnance to the submission required. Disgust is repugnance either of taste or moral feeling, as, a disgust at gross exhibitions of selfishness. Antipa 6d1 thy is primarily an instinctive feeling of dislike of a thing, such as most persons feel for a snake. When used figuratively, it denotes a correspondent dislike for certain persons, modes of acting, etc. Men have an aversion to what breaks in upon their habits, a reluctance and repugnance to what crosses their will, a disgust at what offends their sensibilities, and are often governed by antipathies for which they can give no good reason.
Origin: Disliked; Disliking.
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The National Informatics Centre (NIC) is a premier science and technology organization in India that provides e-governance support to the Indian government at various levels. The NIC was established in 1976 and is headquartered in New Delhi.
The NIC is responsible for providing technology support and solutions to government departments and agencies at the national, state, and district levels. It plays a key role in developing and implementing national policies, programs, and initiatives related to e-governance and digital India.
The NIC has a wide range of services, including data center hosting, network management, software development, website design and development, and consulting services. It has developed several important software applications for the Indian government, including the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the National Portal of India, and the Online Treasury Accounting System (OLTAS).
Overall, the NIC plays a critical role in the development and implementation of e-governance initiatives in India, helping to improve transparency, efficiency, and effectiveness in government operations.
The National Informatics Centre (NIC) is involved in a wide range of activities related to e-governance and technology support for government departments and agencies at various levels in India. Some of its major activities include:
- Providing e-governance services: The NIC provides a range of e-governance services to central and state government departments, including website development, software development, and data center services.
- Development and maintenance of National Information Infrastructure: The NIC is responsible for developing and maintaining the National Information Infrastructure, which includes the National Knowledge Network (NKN) and the State Wide Area Network (SWAN). These networks facilitate the exchange of information and data among government departments and agencies.
- Implementation of National and State-level e-Governance Projects: The NIC plays a critical role in the implementation of various national and state-level e-governance projects, such as the Digital India program, the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) project.
- Development and deployment of e-Government Applications: The NIC develops and deploys various e-government applications such as land records management systems, tax information systems, and e-procurement systems to improve the efficiency and transparency of government services.
- Consultancy and technical support: The NIC provide technical support and consultancy services to government departments and agencies in areas such as software development, network management, and website design.
Overall, the NIC plays a crucial role in the development and implementation of e-governance initiatives in India, helping to improve transparency, efficiency, and effectiveness in government operations.
The National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) is an autonomous scientific society under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. It was established in 1990 to train and develop skilled professionals in the field of electronics and information technology.
NIELIT has a network of centers across India that provide various training and certification programs in the areas of electronics, information technology, and entrepreneurship development. It offers courses in areas such as networking, software development, cyber security, mobile application development, and digital literacy.
NIELIT is also involved in research and development activities in the field of electronics and information technology. It undertakes projects in areas such as embedded systems, wireless communication, cyber security, and artificial intelligence.
One of the key programs of NIELIT is the Digital Literacy Program, which aims to provide basic computer education and digital literacy to a large number of people in India, especially in rural areas. The program provides training in areas such as computer basics, internet usage, and digital financial transactions.
Overall, NIELIT plays an important role in developing skilled professionals in the field of electronics and information technology in India, as well as in promoting digital literacy and entrepreneurship development.
National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) is responsible for conducting recruitment for various technical and scientific positions on behalf of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
The NIC is responsible for providing e-governance support to the Indian government at various levels. The technical and scientific positions in the NIC include roles such as scientists, scientific assistants, and technical assistants.
The recruitment process for these positions usually involves a written exam, followed by an interview. The eligibility criteria and other details regarding the recruitment process are usually provided in the official notification released by NIELIT.
Interested and eligible candidates can apply for these positions through the official website of NIELIT, and they are advised to regularly check the website for updates regarding the recruitment process.
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Here’s a concept that is probably utterly foreign to bird trappers and hunters: Wildlife management. As illustrated by the Cyprus Hunters Association, they’re utterly clueless as to what to do when bird populations decrease substantially. That linked article is nothing new, but it shows that the hunters recognize that wintering thrush populations have dropped by some 60-80% in the past 20 years or so. It also shows that they haven’t even began to wonder what might be causing this drop, only that they are thinking how to manage to continue shooting as many birds as they could when populations were higher.
The hunters have not a hint of understanding of the concept of “Population management.” Instead, they are focused solely on maximizing their hunting success.
Unfortunately there isn’t a lot of information readily available on the web for wildlife management and hunting. The best I’ve been able to find is the Division of Migratory Bird Management within the US Department of Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS).
Within that USFWS website, for instance, are:
- Important Information for Waterfowl and Sandhill Crane Hunters – which provides waterfowl and sandhill crane hunters with information that will reduce the likelihood of shooting illegally at migratory birds that may look like sandhill cranes, but for which there is no open season and are protected by Federal law.
- Adaptive Harvest Management – The annual process of setting duck-hunting regulations in the United States is based on a system of population monitoring.
- And a link to the Flyways Project, a constantly-updated resource created by waterfowl hunting managers across North America.
This is the sort of thing that conservationists across Europe want hunters in the Mediterranean to consider. No, we’re not trying to criminalize hunting completely. We just want hunters to manage their game populations, thereby preserving wildlife for future generations.
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A wrist fracture is a break in one or more bones of the wrist.
What causes a wrist fracture?
A wrist fracture is usually caused by a fall on an outstretched hand. Wrist bones may also be broken when hit directly by a hard object. Medical conditions, such as osteoporosis (brittle bones), may increase your chances of having wrist fractures.
What are the signs and symptoms of a wrist fracture?
- Pain, swelling, and bruising of your injured wrist
- Wrist pain that is worse when you hold or squeeze something
- Weakness, numbness, or tingling in your injured hand or wrist
- Trouble moving your wrist, hand, or fingers
- Change in the shape of your wrist
How is a wrist fracture diagnosed?
- X-rays: You may need x-rays of your wrist, hand, and forearm to check for broken bones. X-rays of both your injured and uninjured wrists may be taken.
- CT scan: This test is also called a CAT scan. An x-ray machine uses a computer to take pictures of your forearm, wrist, and hand. The pictures may show if you have broken a bone. You may be given a dye before the pictures are taken to help caregivers see the pictures better. Tell the caregiver if you have ever had an allergic reaction to contrast dye.
- MRI: This scan uses powerful magnets and a computer to take pictures of your forearm, wrist, and hand. An MRI may show if you have broken a bone. You may be given a dye to help the pictures show up better. Tell the caregiver if you have ever had an allergic reaction to contrast dye. Do not enter the MRI room with anything metal. Metal can cause serious injury. Tell the caregiver if you have any metal in or on your body.
How is a wrist fracture treated?
Treatment will depend on which wrist bone was broken and the kind of fracture you have. You may need the following:
- Cast or splint: A cast or splint keeps your wrist from moving to allow it to heal. They may also help decrease pain and prevent further damage to your broken bones.
- Medicine: Medicine may be given to ease your pain. You may need antibiotic medicine or a tetanus shot if there is a break in the skin.
- Surgery: If a bone has moved out of place, you may need surgery to put it back in its normal position.
What are the risks of a wrist fracture?
Surgery or an open wound may cause you to bleed or get an infection. You may get a blood clot in your arm. The clot may travel to your heart or brain and cause life-threatening problems, such as a heart attack or stroke. If not treated, the bones may not heal properly. This may also cause blood supply problems to the wrist and hand. You may have problems with hand movement or decreased grip strength.
How can I manage my symptoms?
- Ice: Ice helps decrease swelling and pain. Use an ice pack or put crushed ice in a plastic bag. Cover it with a towel and place it on your fractured wrist for 15 to 20 minutes every hour as directed.
- Physical therapy: You may need physical therapy after your wrist heals and the cast is removed. A physical therapist can teach you exercises to help improve movement and strength and to decrease pain.
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Morning Circle (AM 9:00-9:30..PM 12:30-1:00)
1. Song Can
3. We'll sing the song "If You're Happy and you Know it" and discuss different feeling we can feel. We'll also sing the song with, "If You're sad and you Know it, Angry, sleepy, etc".
4. Each child will get a plate to hold with a smiley face on one side and frowny face on the other. The teacher will make a series of statements and ask the children to respond by showing the side of the plate that shows how they feel about the statement. If they feel neither happy nor sad about the statement, they keep the plate on their laps.
*CREATIVE ART: Painting - Using Tempera paints, the children will be able to explore and express their different feelings through paint.
*MESSY TABLE: Colored Rice - We'll continue with colored rice in the Messy Table today. Rice for some reason, is always a class favorite. It's a great sensory, feeling, and exploring experience.
*CUT AND COLOR: Me Puppets - We'll be making puppets out of paper bags today with either photographs of the children (taken earlier in the month) or by using googly eyes and different materials to make their very own "self" puppet or other family member puppet.
*DRAMATIC PLAY: Home - The children will continue trying to connect their experiences from home, into the classroom by roll playing home roles. From cleaning, to mom, dad, brother, sister, cooking, etc. Whatever the situation at home, kids have usually experienced it and can roll play in their choice time!
Snack (small groups come at different times to eat during Self-Selected Activities. Unless we are making our snack, then we will eat it during small group.)
*SNACK: Pizza Faces - Today we'll be making our very own Pizza Faces during Closing Circle. We'll talk about different feelings as we make them and discuss how we can give our Pizza Face a different feeling just by changing how the face looks! Check out the recipe on our Recipe links to make these fun pizza's at home!!
Outside Play (AM 10:20-10:30..PM 1:50-2:00)
Closing Circle (AM 10:30-11:00..PM 2:00-2:30)
*Make "Pizza Faces" (check out the recipe on the recipe page links to make these at home!).
*Music and Movement - Learn the sign language and actions to the song, "What Are You Feeling" from the Signing Time CD, volume 4-6.
*Enjoy eating our Pizza Faces and discuss our favorite feelings!
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Liberty Memorial officials are offering an appropriately solemn way to begin commemorating the 100th anniversary of the War to End All Wars.
At sunset Sunday, a lone bugler performed a playing of taps on the deck of the memorial for the war that started in 1914 and drew the United States into the battle in 1917. The evening taps will continue through Saturday.
The National World War I Museum at the memorial is a fitting location. It will remain open until 8:30 p.m. each day so visitors can enjoy the Kansas City treasure.
The ceremonies are designed to draw area residents together on the memorial grounds. A formal observance will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the memorial, with speakers and a performance by a string quartet from the Kansas City Symphony.
Never miss a local story.
The fighting during World War I took millions of lives and forever changed warfare, adding mechanized equipment that expanded the range and power of weapons. Some famous Kansas Citians emerged from that war, including Harry S. Truman, who became a commander of an artillery regiment in the 35th Division in France and later the 33rd president of the United States.
Humanity should have learned from World War I to avoid bloodshed and to resolve differences diplomatically. But nations haven’t progressed that far despite the loss of life and wars’ cost in trillions of dollars.
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The Human Immunodeficiency Virus may be transmitted during sexual intercourse, and persons may be held criminally responsible for transmission of the virus, or for exposing others to the risk of transmission of the virus, in this context.
From the perspective of human rights law explore the implications of the criminalisation process for those living with HIV.
Nations in many parts of the world are making laws that criminalise people living with HIV/AIDS. Criminalising People Living with HIV/AIDS is a matter of concern. Some of the affected parties to the criminalisation process are those who fail to disclose their status and those who deliberately transmit the virus to other people. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, there have been a number of legislations meant to criminalize these people. Consequently, there is growing concern among key groups like human rights advocates, people living with HIV/AIDS, lawyers and researchers over the reliance on criminal law to addressing the perceived transmission risks.
There are a number of reasons why the legislators are coming up with these laws. One of the reasons given is that the laws will serve as deterrent so as to check the HIV transmission rates in the country (Lehman et al., 2014).The lawmakers argue that these people must be stopped 67from infecting others. But from a human rights perspective, are these laws justified? We have witnessed cases of long jail sentences for those convicted using these laws. In some of these cases, the victims have been made to declare that they are sexual offenders before their release (HPA, 2010). The implication of this approach can only be evaluated and ascertained by looking at how positive or negative this approach has on people living with HIV/AIDS.
It is possible that rather than preventing transmission through the threat and reality of criminal prosecution, these laws may hinder public health efforts towards HIV/AIDS awareness and therefore cause more harm than good. People may decline to go for testing due to fear of prosecution. The use of criminal law to address complex public health problems like HIV/AIDS may not be effective as proved by many research studies. Proponents must understand that people living with HIV/AIDS need to be free to enjoy their lives. Focus should be placed on creating awareness and not criminal laws in addressing this health problem.
These laws are meant to deter HIV-positive individuals from intentionally or unintentionally spreading the disease to a person who is unaware of the risky they are being exposed to. The implication here is that deterrence will made these people lose confidence as many may be skeptical people living with HIV/AIDS make advances. It will make them shy away from active participation in health efforts like mobilizing people to donate blood. Again, the laws miss the point. For instance, biting cannot cause transmission of HIV. It means that these people will fear that a simple accident will lead to prosecution.
When we criminalise people living with HIV/AIDS, we are essentially locking out a huge young adult’s population who need transition yet they are positive. This denies them the opportunity to actualize their dreams in life. Most of the young people living with HIV/AIDS in United Kingdom and Ireland benefit from ART treatment and need to continue so as to avoid and prevent transmission.
A number of studies in the UK, caution strongly about the use of criminal law in the fight against HIV/AIDS as criminal law cannot be used to address a health problem even if the intent is good. They indicate that there is negative relationship between the laws and behavior change. In fact they show that both HIV/AIDS positive and those who are not positive or who do not know their status will not be willing to go for testing under such legal regimes. Consider the case of a HIV/AIDS positive man in Michigan who was charged using the state’s anti-terrorism law for being in possession of “a biological weapon” after biting his neighbor (Galletly et al., 2010. Medical evidence has proved beyond reasonable doubt that there can be no transmission of the HIV through biting, therefore it is a human rights violation and governments and human rights advocates cannot allow such kind of prosecutions that are targeted at an already stigmatized group.
Many state lawmakers consider this transmission a public health risk that needs deterrent measures. They argue that that the number of new infections is growing and efforts to reverse the situation are inevitable. There is a concern from the proponents of these laws who say that the cost of HIV is putting a strain to the public health budget. The lifetime cost of one HIV infection is estimated at $379,668) (CDC, 2010). It is the government through health care system that absorbs this cost. Thirdly, public opinion has been overwhelming in the support of these laws. The good public support for the laws has been seen in the 33 states and 2 territories in the US (Galletly et al., 2012).
Fourthly, the laws have been hailed as good deterrent to sexual violence, not only in United Kingdom context but also in other parts of the world, for instance in Africa. It is a good deterrent measure in some parts of the world where there is widespread violence due to armed conflicts. In these countries vulnerable women and young girls are victims of gory sexual acts (Croucher, 2011). One striking observation about these laws and statutes is that they do not consider that People living HIV/AIDS need protection through the same law. Criminalizing laws have overtaken the need to fight these new infections and the measures that can be put in place to address this situation.
HIV/AIDS criminalization laws have the potential to increase jail term for most offenders who, for instance, commit rape. Perhaps the most ironical part of the criminalizing laws is that they may cause greater rate of transmission as opposed to reducing and deterring it (HPA, 2010).
These laws have driven HIV transmission underground as few people are ready to be tested and be put on treatment. This has the potential to cause even higher risk than what it is now. It will be prudent for the UK and Ireland governments, to have more on education, testing and treatment expansion program as a way of reducing the rate of transmission rather than pushing people living with HIV/AIDS to the periphery and ignoring their situation, a move that has the potential to further stigmatise them (HPA, 2010).
Many people find it difficult to know their status because of the stigma that comes with the disclosure (Mykhalovskiy, 2014). They shy away simply because their world will come crumbling on them the moment they know that their status as they have to deal with the justice criminal system. The fact that people do not want to be tested exposes them to legal prosecution. There should be concerted efforts to educate people on the legal importance of testing as this also reduces transmission. It will be prudent to prosecute those who know their status and have failed to take deterrent measures or deliberately decline to disclose this to the public where necessary.
However, these laws make it so difficult for people living with HIV/AIDS to live fully their lives. Consider convictions under similar kind of laws in Norway where 5 in every 1000 people living with HIV/AIDS have been convicted, Sweden where 6 in every 1000 people living with HIV/AIDS faced convictions and New Zealand that indicates 5 in every 1000 faced convictions in the period under investigation. In other words, these laws are legalizing stigmatization and at the same time offering no solace for those infected and ultimately living with HIV/AIDS (Gagnon et al., 2014). Under the current medical regime in HIV drug development, new drugs have significantly reduced a HIV-negative person’s risk of getting transmission. These laws are slowly condemning people living with HIV/AIDS with no options to enjoy equal opportunities. Clinical researches conducted by international HIV prevention trials have shown that Antiretroviral (ART) drugs’ treatment reduces transmission risk of a HIV –positive person to a sexual partner by a staggering 96% (CDC, 2010).
Another school of thought is about the effectiveness of these numerous criminalizing laws in the fight against new transmissions. The threat to prosecution has no effect on encouraging HIV/AIDS positive status disclosure or as deterrent to risky sexual behavior. In this regard, it simply implies that HIV/AIDS. A case in point is a study in England that made its finding to the effect that there are possible negative effects of criminalization laws associated with stigmatization and unwillingness to cooperate with health officials. From this perspective, the study notes that deploying laws as a behavior change deterrent measure may be ineffective. These laws are a real risk as they give a false sense of security to those infected that the person they may have sexual relations may disclose their status. From this, it risks those with negative status or who do not know their status as they fear the legal implication of disclosure.
People living with HIV/AIDS are increasingly being stigmatised leading to the erosion of gains made over the years in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Many of these people both young and old are on lifelong ART treatment (Galletly et al., 2014). People living with HIV/AIDS are increasingly feeling shunned, being avoided and more hurting they are branded as terrorists. The lengthy jail terms for the offenders are meant to curtail their freedom for no reason. These people have simply been turned into a viral underclass that seems to be the most risky group around.
This is unacceptable in a world that has fought so hard and resources channeled in the war against HIV/AIDS (CDC, 2010). These people need to be embraced and educated on the need to minimize transmission rates and achieve a HIV free society. Consistent stigmatisation, through these criminalizing laws, will lead to greater transmission rates and pose serious public health risk. This risk is bound to create a restless population that views these people as unwanted in the world.
However, people living with HIV/AIDS have families, partners, workmates and therefore cannot be wished away. According to a report, “Give stigma the Index Finger”, many participants who are HIV/AIDS positive, say that they have encountered an incident of stigmatisation when seeking treatment (Frize, 2010). A majority, around 60%, say that they are not sure about the confidentiality of their medical records and information. Most of them strongly acknowledge that there is support among them as they interact freely with other HIV/AIDS positive persons.
People living with HIV/AIDS feel like they are not wanted in the society and their ultimate place is jail. Criminal laws should be used where there is deliberate and real HIV transmission. There should be overboard consultative forums before the lawmakers make such laws. Public health professionals, legal academics and HIV/AIDS advocates should be consulted so as to come up with laws (Gagnon et al., 2014). These laws may serve as deterrent to transmission but are they enough to eliminate new infections and fair to those living with HIV/AIDS? There is absolutely a need to relook at these laws and their implications on HIV/AIDS measure in general and people living with HIV/AIDS in specific. The best way will be to have educational, testing and treatment programs so as to create awareness and change behavior as the most effective way of eliminating HIV/AIDS infections.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention., 2010, HIV Transmission Risk. Available at:
Retrieved on 20th April, 2015.
Croucher, A., 2011, Sexual and reproductive health in adults perinatally infected with HIV: audit
of a single centre cohort: 5th annual Children’s HIV Association conference, Cardiff,
abstract P6 Available from:
1/posters.html. Retrieved on 20th April, 2015.
Finitsis, D. J., Stall, R. D., & Friedman, S. R., 2014, Theory, Analysis, Social Justice, and
Criminalizing HIV Transmission: A Commentary on Lehman and Colleagues.
AIDS and Behavior, Vol.18, No.6, pp.1007-1010
Frize, G., 2011, ‘Psychology service evaluation in a clinic for young people (over 16
years) living with HIV and transitioning to adult care’: 17th annual British HIV
Association conference, Bournemouth, abstract P168, British HIV Association, HIV
Medicine, 12 (Suppl. 1):70–1 [online], Retrieved on 20th April, 2015, from
Gagnon, M., Phillips, J. C., & O’Byrne, P., 2014, Building Consensus: The Role of Clinicians
and Researchers in Challenging HIV Criminalization. Journal of the Association of
Nurses in AIDS Care, Vol.25, No.6, pp. 473-475
Galletly CL, Pinkerton SD, & DiFranceisco W., 2010, A quantitative study of Michigan’s
Criminal HIV exposure law. AIDS Care. 2012; Pub Med, Vol.24, No.2, pp.174–179.
Galletly CL, Glasman LR, Pinkerton SD, & Difranceisco W., 2012, New Jersey’s HIV exposure
law and the HIV-related attitudes, beliefs, and sexual and seropositive status disclosure
behaviors of persons living with HIV. Am J Public Health. 2012; Vol.102, No.11,
Galletly, C., Lazzarini, Z., Sanders, C., & Pinkerton, S. D., 2014, Criminal HIV Exposure Laws:
Moving Forward. AIDS and Behavior, Vol.18, No.6, pp.1011-1013.
Health Protection Agency, 2010, HIV in the United Kingdom: 2010 Report. Health Protection
Report 2010 Vol.4, No.47, HPA, p. 6
Lehman, J. S., Carr, M. H., Nichol, A. J., Ruisanchez, A., Knight, D. W., Langford, A. E., &
Mermin, J. H., 2014, Prevalence and public health implications of state laws that
criminalize potential HIV exposure in the United States. AIDS and Behavior, Vol.18,
No.6, pp. 997-1006.
Mykhalovskiy, E., Betteridge, J. G., Sanders, C., & Jones, M., 2014, The Public Health
Implications of Criminalizing HIV Non-Disclosure, Exposure and Transmission: Report
of an International Workshop. In Exposure and Transmission: Report of an International
Workshop (January 1, 2014).
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The benefit structure of pension systems is weird. The benefit an educator gets out of a pension fund is actually not a function of how much they contributed and the state contributed on their behalf. Instead, it is based on a number of factors, including: the age they enter and exit the system, their years of service, and their salary. That’s not how other retirement plans work. A defined contribution plan such as a 401k, produces benefits that are based on employee and employer contributions, plus whatever interest is earned on those contributions. Money out is a product of money in.
As we’ve written on this blog previously, pension benefits are decoupled from contribution rates. As such, they can hide large cross-subsidies that typically transfer retirement wealth to the most veteran educators. In a new study of the Massachusetts Teachers’ Retirement System (MTRS), Robert Costrell and Dillon Fuchsman from the University of Arkansas find that 74 percent of educators are pension “losers.”
In addition to the heavy back-loading of state pension systems, cross-subsidization is a big reason for so many educators earning benefits that are less valuable than their own contributions. What happens is that states’ report a uniform contribution rate, say 15 percent, with 5 percent coming from employees and 10 from employers. But no individual gets that 15 percent. Instead, the money is pooled together and awarded out via formula, and actual distributions can vary widely vary from individual to individual. And that variation tends to follow a few patterns that disadvantage newer entrants into the education profession and which favor long-term veterans.
Costrell and Fuchsman find that, in contrast to the statewide uniform rate, some individuals will qualify for benefits worth 5 percent of their salary, while others will qualify for benefits worth 20 percent of their salary. They estimate that roughly one in four Massachusetts educators will be pension winners and receive benefits of greater value than the uniform statewide rate; the rest do not.
In fact, a large group of Massachusetts teachers will receive pension benefits worth less than even their own contributions. How long that is the case depends on their age when they entered the profession. As shown in the graph below*, a 25-year-old entrant won’t qualify for benefits worth more than her own contributions unless she stays more than 30 years (the black line in the graph). Older entrants (purple line) become pension winners much more quickly and are more likely to receive retirement subsidies from younger and newer teachers.
There are a number of reforms – ranging from relatively low-effort to completely reforming their teacher retirement systems – that states should consider. For one, they should increase transparency around contribution rates and the actual cost of benefits for individual educators. It is a problem that some teachers think they’re getting 15 percent of their salary toward retirement when in fact it is closer to 5 percent. But even that change won’t address the problem of massive unfunded liabilities that drive up the cost of pensions for educators and states. To tackle that, states should consider giving new educators the option of a cash-balance plan, or a defined-contribution plan that would, for the majority of new educators, actually provide a more valuable retirement benefit.
*Source on the graph: Robert Costrell and Dillon Fuchsman, “Distribution of Teacher Pension Benefits in Massachusetts: An Idiosyncratic System of Cross-Subsidies,” University of Arkansas, Draft, February 2018, available at: http://www.uaedreform.org/downloads/2018/02/distribution-of-teacher-pension-benefits-in-massachusetts-an-idiosyncratic-system-of-cross-subsidies.pdf.
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Swamp Scene demonstrates the ideal for representations in tombs in two-dimensional painted reliefs. Originally located in a tomb, this scene in a swamp magically supplied the products of the marsh, such as fish, to the deceased in the afterlife.
- Medium: Limestone, painted
- Place Collected: Giza, Egypt
- Dates: ca. 2500-2170 B.C.E.
- Dynasty: V Dynasty-VI Dynasty
- Period: Old Kingdom
- Dimensions: 15 x 35 x 2 in. (38.1 x 88.9 x 5.1 cm) (show scale)
- Collections:Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art
- Museum Location: This item is not on view
- Accession Number: 69.115.2a-b
- Credit Line: Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
- Rights Statement: Creative Commons-BY
- Caption: Swamp Scene, ca. 2500-2170 B.C.E. Limestone, painted, 15 x 35 x 2 in. (38.1 x 88.9 x 5.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 69.115.2a-b. Creative Commons-BY
- Catalogue Description: Two adjoining portions of a brightly painted relief representation of a scene in a swamp. Represented on both blocks are two bands of water: near the bottom a narrow band painted green and above this, filling the field, blue water. On the block to the left, which is the smaller of the two, the green band serves as a field for representations of a hippo giving birth (only partially preserved) and a fish (also only partially preserved). In the blue field is preserved part of a representation of the forward part of a papyrus skiff, part of the leg and foot of a person in the skiff (the leg and part of the foot of a person have been erased) and a fish. On the piece to the right are represented fish and a small half-boat in which a figure sits fishing. The half-boat, figure in it, and the fish he is catching, lie below the surface of the stone and are later, but ancient, additions. The blue paint is either less well preserved or was never complete at the right end of the right block. Below the band of painted green water is, on both fragments, a line of hieroglyphs which refer to a scene which once appeared below them. Condition: (see also under description) Paint only partially preserved; numerous chips and scratches; rear surface cut away unevenly.
- Record Completeness: Best (92%)
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This event takes place on unceded Coast Salish Territory.
Kathy Heise, a Research Associate at the Vancouver Aquarium, has an extensive background in marine research and conservation, and has been involved in research on whales and dolphins since the mid-1980’s. Using underwater microphones (hydrophones) Kathy has spent countless hours listening to sounds ranging from the haunting calls of killer whales to the popping sounds of snapping shrimp.
Kathy will highlight some of the different ways that marine animals use sound, as well as some of the ‘unwanted’ sources of sound that humans introduce into the marine environment. Over the years, she has worked to highlight anthropogenic noise as a critically important component of water quality, and one that we have a responsibility to manage. As development of ocean-based industries move forward, their acoustic footprint in the underwater soundscape must be incorporated into management and planning decisions.
Eoin Finn, Bowyer Island resident, PhD (Physical Chemistry) and MBA (International Business), will complement Kathy's talk with a look at LNG carriers, increased tanker traffic and impacts on the Salish Sea and Howe Sound.
We hope you can join us!
This event is by donation.
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| 0.945783 | 250 | 2.828125 | 3 |
The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine
2012 09 19
By Deborah Blum | Amazon.com
These days, as I travel the country talking about The Poisoner’s Handbook, I’m frequently asked that question or variations on it. What’s your favorite poison? What’s the perfect poison? The answer to the latter is that it doesn’t exist--except in the plots of crime novels.
But in reality, poisons really are fascinatingly wicked chemical compounds and many of them have fascinating histories as well. Just between us, then, here’s a list of my personal favorites.
1. Carbon Monoxide (really)--It’s so beautifully simple (just two atoms--one of carbon, one of oxygen) and so amazingly efficient a killer. There’s a story I tell in the book about a murder syndicate trying to kill an amazingly resilient victim. They try everything from serving him poison alcohol to running over him with a car. But in the end, it’s carbon monoxide that does him in.
2. Arsenic--This used to be the murderer’s poison of poisons, so commonly used in the early 19th century that it was nicknamed “the inheritance powder”. It’s also the first poison that forensic scientists really figured out how to detect in a corpse. And it stays in the body for centuries, which is why we keep digging up historic figures like Napoleon or U.S. President Zachary Taylor to check their remains for poison.
3. Radium--I love the fact that this rare radioactive element used to be considered good for your health. It was mixed into medicines, face creams, health drinks in the 1920s. People thought of it like a tiny glowing sun that would give them its power. Boy, were they wrong. The two scientists in my book, Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler, proved in 1928 that the bones of people exposed to radium became radioactive--and stayed that way for years.
4. Nicotine--This was the first plant poison that scientists learned to detect in a human body. Just an incredible case in which a French aristocrat and her husband decided to kill her brother for money. They actually stewed up tobacco leaves in a barn to brew a nicotine potion. And their amateur chemical experiments inspired a very determined professional chemist to hunt them down.
5. Chloroform--Developed for surgical anesthesia in the 19th century, this rapidly became a favorite tool of home invasion robbers. If you read newspapers around the turn of the 20th century, they’re full of accounts of people who answered a knock on the door, only to be knocked out by a chloroform soaked rag. One woman woke up to find her hair shaved off--undoubtedly sold for the lucrative wig trade.
6. Mercury--In its pure state, mercury appears as a bright silver liquid, which scatters into shiny droplets when touched. No wonder it’s nicknamed quicksilver. People used to drink it as a medicine more than 100 years ago. No, they didn’t drop dead. Those silvery balls just slid right through them. Mercury is much more poisonous if it’s mixed with other chemicals and can be absorbed by the body directly. That’s why methylmercury in fish turns out to be so risky a contaminant.
7. Cyanide--One of the most famous of the homicidal poisons and--in my opinion--not a particularly good choice. Yes, it’s amazingly lethal--a teaspoon of the pure stuff can kill in a few minutes. But it’s a violent and obvious death. In early March, in fact, an Ohio doctor was convicted of murder for putting cyanide in his wife’s vitamin supplements.
8. Aconite--A heart-stoppingly deadly natural poison. It forms in ornamental plants that include the blue-flowering monkshood. The ancient Greeks called it “the queen of poisons” and considered it so evil that they believed that it derived from the saliva of Cerberus, the three-headed dog guarding the gates of hell.
9. Silver--Swallowing silver nitrate probably won’t kill you but if you do it long enough it will turn you blue. One of my favorite stories (involving a silver bullet) concerns the Famous Blue Man of Barnum and Bailey’s Circus who was analyzed by one of the heroes of my book, Alexander Gettler.
10. Thallium--Agatha Christie put this poison at the heart of one of her creepiest mysteries, The Pale Horse, and I looked at it terms of a murdered family in real life. An element discovered in the 19th century, it’s a perfect homicidal poison--tasteless and odorless--except for one obvious giveaway--the victim’s hair falls out as a result of the poisoning!
Now that I’ve written this list, I realize I could probably name ten more. But I don’t want to scare you.
Article from: amazon.com
Deborah Blum is a Pulitzer-Prize winning science writer and the author of five books, most recently the best-seller, The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York. She writes for a range of publications including Time, Scientific American, Slate, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times (and even the literary journal, Tin House). She is currently working on a sixth book about poisonous food.
Ten Clues to the Modern Poisoner
By Deborah Blum | Wired.com
[...]Contrary to what many people think, except in political killings, poisoners don’t make much use of exotic new compounds. They use – as they always have -what’s at hand. They kill for the same old reasons - for anger, jealousy possessiveness, greed. They are rare, as this analysis shows, far more rare than other forms of killing. And that’s probably the most important change. Poison homicides don’t occur as often as they did a hundred years ago, mostly because scientists are better at solving these mysteries.
But if you’re the kind of person who likes to be prepared against all possible harm, then I’ve put together this short list of warning signs based on a scatter of recent cases. Don’t take them too seriously, as I said, this kind of thing is rare. But still, there’s a few reasonable assumptions here. For instance, you should probably pay attention if:
1. Your bowl of Rice Krispies tastes like solvent.
In January, a southern California man poured the paint remover, Goof Off, into his wife’s evening cereal snack. After swallowing a spoonful, she turned to her daughter saying “Something’s in it. Something’s in it.” Her daughter called 911. When police came to the hospital, the husband fled the building (he was arrested later at a nearby convenience store). He pleaded guilty in March and was sentenced to eight years in prison.
2. The coffee in your morning cup turns green.
In March a Kentucky man was charged with poisoning his estranged wife’s coffee. She called the police after she noticed the dark liquid in her cup had an oily greenish tint. A lab analysis found a sludge of rat poison in the bottom of the pot. He told the police that he was merely trying to make her a little sick. But she said friends had warned her that he planned to kill her after she started divorce proceedings.
3. Your coffee is, maybe, a little too bitter.
In 2010, a Long Island man pleaded guilty to killing his wife by putting cyanide in her coffee. The couple, who had two sons, had separated after he told her that he’d realized that he was gay. But he later told police he’d also realized that he didn’t want her to be with anyone else.
4. Your iced tea is, maybe, a little too sweet.
In July, police brought murder charges against a Cleveland, Ohio woman, accusing her of poisoning her fiance with antifreeze in 2006. Although evidence of ethylene glycol – the key ingredient in antifreeze – was found early in the investigation, it took police years longer to build a conclusive case for the poisoning itself. Detectives said ethylene glycol, which is known both for its strong, sweet taste and ability to destroy the kidneys, was mixed into the victim’s iced tea. She was ready, they said, for the relationship to be over.
5. Your mother mixes you up a cocktail when she has never done so before.
One of the more notorious recent poison killers, Stacy Castor of Clay, New York, was convicted of murder in 2007 for killing her husband with antifreeze. She then tried to frame her daughter for the crime, writing a fake suicidal confession, and serving the girlan unexpected cocktail of orange juice, soda, and crushed painkillers. The girl told police that the drink tasted “nasty” but she swallowed at her mother’s urging. Her survival led to a break in the case.
Read the full article at: wired.com
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Aristotle’s Poetics is famous for formulating and organizing the six elements which lay the foundation for drama, specifically tragedy. However, by no means is this hierarchal structure the only method utilized when creating theatre. Like everything, theatre is subjective and although there is no one concrete way to construct theatre, it is fundamentally important that everyone attempting to do so first possess a strong understanding of what theatre is.
It is my personal philosophy that theatre is simply the connection and communication between an actor and an audience. These are the only two necessary ingredients to formulate theatre. All of the other elements serve to strengthen this connection by 1.) luring the audience into the theatre and 2.) maintaining audience attention. It is therefore crucial, when preparing to make theatre, that one asks the essential question–– what does today’s audience want? While Aristotle’s formula for making drama may have sufficiently addressed the desires and needs of the people of his time, we cannot truthfully aver that these elements best suit modern audiences. Change accompanies time and audiences today lead a life drastically different than those of ancient Greece and consequentially have disparate wants and needs.
One consistent desire of all humans is the yearning for social interaction. Relationship connections with friends and family are essential to mankind in that they allow man to temporarily forget the disturbing fact that he is utterly alone; we are all born into solitary existence and we all live and die in isolation. Man’s inherent longing for sacred connections prompts him to sympathize with his fellow human being. Theatre’s essential duty is to satisfy this desperate need with complex, vulnerable characters; this blasts character to the top of my list of importance. Characters in theatre, and in all forms of literature and some might even argue art, allow the audiences to relate, connect, and feel for the people on stage. This connection and sympathy allows for catharsis, a feeling that ultimately replaces the empty void of loneliness we all inherit. The sense of completion that accompanies catharsis is potentially addicting and keeps audiences needing more.
Characters also mirror audiences’ lives on stage, allowing viewers the opportunity to self reflect and enhance their own sense of self. A common idea theorizes that all works of literature and art are their creator’s attempt to answer the question––who am I? We all seek the solution to this mystery and the enlightenment that accompanies it. By paralleling the audiences’ lives with the characters on stage and by assisting viewers with recognizing personal identity, spectators leave the theatre with an elevated, enlightened state of being which will again keep them coming back for more.
I declare plot to be the second most important element on my list. Plot can also provide catharsis through the story’s struggle, resolution, message, and theme. A successful plot maintains the audience’s attention throughout the production and encourages them to think critically and explore human nature, along with informing, teaching, and inspiring audiences to change. Plot allows for communication among characters that often share similar struggles and overcome them together. Witnessing such collaboration and triumph sparks onlookers’ alliance with their intimate relations while subtracting from their impending desolation. Plot can also be utilized as a clever tool to entertain which brings us to our third element, spectacle.
Humans love entertainment, however, with vast improvements in technology, entertainment is readily available in many forms and at cheap costs. Theatre must compete with these forms of amusement. Since most professional theatre productions cost more than most forms of entertainment, such as seeing a movie at the cinema, it is vital that performing arts compensate by executing extraordinary spectacle and ensuring the audience that their money is well spent. Productions should incorporate modern technology or the audiences will bore of traditional, banal spectacle. Audiences yearn to leave their boring routine lives by being shocked, amazed, and invigorated. Spiderman on Broadway is one example of how modern theatre can utilize technology to its advantage. Even the Broadway production of Ghost incorporated actors walking through walls on stage. An underlying motive for creating theatre today is simply to make bank; incorporating fancy spectacle and heightening overall theatrical experience allows producers to raise ticket prices.
Fourth on my list is music. Although I originally despised musicals for their unnecessary and distracting musical numbers, I have since realized the importance of music and have gained a greater appreciation for lyrical verse. Music generates an emotionally charged atmosphere, leaving audiences feeling enlivened and energized, while allowing them to be more receptive to the struggles on stage. Through song, characters bear their heart and soul while expressing their greatest concerns and sentiments; music makes characters vulnerable and elevates the audience’s level of sympathy, association, and emotional investment in that character, once again leading to catharsis.
Like music, thought and speech aids characters in announcing their deepest fascinations. However, such thoughts are not as deep or complex as they are in musical numbers. Speech tends to imitate natural conversation and people do not normally engage in openly announcing and publicizing their everyday feelings to the world. Speech requires effort from the audience who must listen and attempt to understand the meaning hidden within conversations. It is essential playgoers to actively participate in interpreting conversations, however, to do so they must first be energized and affected by the previous elements. Without character, plot, spectacle, and music, followers lack energy, concern, and desire to interpret what is evidently being said.
Lastly, dialogue and language is of some importance when bringing to life a theatrical story. The diction chosen, and the method in which characters express themselves through language, affect aspects of character, plot, music, and thought. However, language alone cannot provide catharsis nor create meaning or experience. Language merely enhances previous imperative elements. Still, one might argue that lyrical dialogue, so often found in Shakespeare, may substitute for music in that it too captivates and charges atmosphere.
Aristotle’s Poetics has served as a stable blueprint, aiding creators of tragedy for centuries. Although I disagree with Aristotle on the levels of importance of each element, I do credit each element with having enough importance to contribute to a quality work of theatre. Aristotle has absolutely helped me shape my own definition of good storytelling and has guided me in stringing together my own formula for creating meaningful theatre today.
© Copyright – All rights reserved – Melindafoshat.wordpress.com – February 4, 2013
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See top boating safety tips and resources, including what equipment,
behaviors and attitudes to help you enjoy your trips in water with less
risk. The information you are about to read could literally save your
In 2014, the US Coast Guard reported
4,064 accidents involving recreational boat use in America alone,
resulting in 610 deaths and 2,678 injuries with approximately $39
million dollars of damage to property. 1
number is very representative of the average number of accidents,
deaths, injuries and dollar loss annually, from boating mishaps in the
United States for many years now.
Boating, whether for recreational
purposes or commercial gain remains very enjoyable and largely safe, if
safety precautions are observed.
Yes. Boating safety is critical for anyone operating or riding in a
watercraft. A few safety precautions can prevent unfortunate
circumstances from dampening your fun.
When you are enjoying yourself on the water, it’s imperative that boating safety practices are always top priority.
The water can change from looking like a tranquil sheet of glass to a
nightmare of waves in an instant. Even the strongest swimmer can succumb
to the water and drown or be injured, so safety precautions need to be
taken at all times.
Top Boating Safety Tips To Observe
Boating Safety should be given a number one priority by anyone who operates or goes into a boat - whether commercial or for pleasure.
Safety precautions and actions should start way before you set inside your boat or before the boat hits the water.
Here are top boating safety tips to keep you safe and help you enjoy your water craft.
1. Know What The Law Says.
- Yes. Your boating or marine safety action should start with familiarizing yourself with what your local or national regulation requires of boat users, particularly as it applies to the type of boat you are using.
- In places like the USA, UK and Canada, you may be required to meet certain minimum compliance certification or awareness before going on a motorized boat beyond certain dimensions. Check with your local water way transport department. 2 , 3.
2. Have The Right Boating And Water Safety Equipment On Board.
Never set out on a boat without having at least above the minimum boating safety equipment for your boat type on board. These should include:
- Life Jacket or Personal Flotation Device (PFD) For Everyone On-board Your Boat. Over 78% of fatalities from boating accidents occur due to drowning from the non-use of personal flotation devices. Always wear a personal flotation device or life jacket when boating,
wind surfing, water skiing, rafting, or enjoying any other water sport. Life jackets used to be large, bulky, and inconvenient, but today’s new personal-flotation devices (PFD) are thin and fairly unobtrusive and, most importantly, can save your life.
- Vessel Safety Equipment. Having a boat safety equipment like a bilge pump on deck may be necessary of you are in a boat that can quickly be filled up by water in turbulent conditions. Actually, must savvy boaters would have this really useful device on board just in case.
- Emergency Signaling Devices. These would include radios, satellite connectable cell phones if available, Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs), Epirbs, Uscg Visual Distress Signals, whistles, flags and safety lights. If you would be going some distant away from shore, having a visual signaling device is a wise investment.
- Fire Fighting Equipment. Fire can break out anywhere there is fuel, heat and oxygen. That includes inside most boats. If you have a motorized boat, have a fixed or portable fire extinguisher on board and learning how to operate it.
- Electronic Communication And Navigation Equipment. Getting loss in sea is a real possibility, and it does happen. Having navigation charts and GPS, cruising guide, compass, and satellite enabled electronic communication devices would help reduce lost time and get rescued.
If you are looking for where to get top quality and reliable boating and water sports safety equipment, you can shop online from reputable suppliers like West Marine Inc., or Amazon.com. They ship to most countries.
3. Attend A Boat Safety Course.
- Boat and water safety courses are mandatory in some areas and are
recommended for anyone who wants to know how to react in an emergency
and how to properly operate a motorized boat.
- Consider taking a water safety course.
You might never need the skills you learn in a boat safety course or
CPR and first-aid course but these are life skills that you can save and
be thankful if you never have to use them.
- It’s better to have
something you’ll never need than to need something you just don’t have.
4. Prepare And Undertake A Safety Check Before You Set Out.
Always endeavor to run through a boating safety check before embarking on a boating trip.
- Always check what the weather forecast is long before you set out. If there is a bad weather forecast, it may be wisest to cancel your trip. This is especially so if a storm is predicted.
- Always inspect your boat before departing dock or shore to ensure everything is in good working order and check your supplies. This should include first-aid kit and emergency supplies, including food, water, blankets, and flares.
- Ensure you have enough fuel. Always check how much fuel you have in your boat. Many boating mishaps follow the running out of fuel in sea. You can avoid that with proper planning. Do not take unnecessary risks. Fill up you tank as often as you can. As a rule of thumb, always use the rule of thirds when estimating how much fuel you will need. Plan to use a third of your fuel for your outbound journey, a third back and the balance third must be "budgeted" and left in case of emergency.
5. Never Drive Impaired Or Bring An Impaired Passenger On Your Boat.
According to the United States Coastal Guide 2014 report published in May 2015, "Alcohol use is the leading known contributing factor in fatal boating accidents; where the primary cause was known, it was listed as the leading factor in 21% of deaths". 1
- Whether on a commercial or recreational boat, having alcohol consumption to the barest minimum, if you must drink is a legal requirement in most countries
- Never allow an impaired passenger or driver in your boat.
Properly maintaining your boat, knowing basic safety skills, checking weather and condition reports before leaving shore
and using common sense when out on the water will reduce the chance of
problems and allow you to have fun and be safe while out on the water.
Many countries now require a person who wants to operate a boat to be
licensed.3 This is becoming more common as boat accidents are on the
Common sense and basic boating safety practices, behaviors and attitudes will go a long way in reducing accidents and ensuring you enjoy your boating experience.
You May Also Like:
- Boating Safety Resources
- US Coast Guard Boating Safety Advice
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- ਸਾਡੇ ਬਾਰੇ
- ਐਨਏਸੀਪੀ -IV
- ਸਾਡੇ ਨਾਲ ਸੰਪਰਕ ਕਰੋ
The HIV epidemic in India is concentrated among high risk groups (sex workers, men-having-sex-with-men, injecting drug users and clients of sex workers), though there is evidence of the infection spreading to the general population. About one-third of districts in the country have high HIV prevalence.
To contain the infection, NACP-III consolidates efforts in prevention, care, support and treatment of HIV/AIDS. Under the plan all HIV/AIDS linked services are integrated and scaled up to sub-district and community level. However, the services available in any area are based on the prevalence there. This is made necessary as HIV/AIDS in India presents heterogeneous epidemiology with high rate of prevalence, more than one percent in general population in some districts and low prevalence in others.
Core Services at District level
In packaging of services, care is taken for the special needs of the region and availability of complementary healthcare system. In high prevalence districts, the full spectrum of preventive, supportive and curative services are available in medical colleges or district hospitals. These hospitals provide HIV/AIDS prevention services including treatment and cure for sexually transmitted infections, psycho-social counselling and support for people infected or affected by HIV, management of opportunistic infections and anti-retroviral therapy for people living with HIV/AIDS, counselling and testing facility for prevention of parent to child transmission of HIV infection, specialised paediatric HIV care and treatment as well as referral for specialist needs such as surgery, ENT and ophthalmology etc.
CHCs give Basic Services
Community Health Centres and Primary Health Centres are integrated in the programme and facilitate prevention through promotion of condoms, counselling and testing for HIV (ICT Centres), prevention of parent to child transmission (PPTCT), treatment and cure for sexually transmitted diseases and management of opportunistic infections.
CBOs for better Service Outreach
Hospitals providing HIV services are linked to NGOs/CBOs which play a significant role in providing peer support services and home-based care for people living with HIV/AIDS. CBOs also facilitate follow-up with children born to HIV positive women, support at the community level and outreach to services at the district level.
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Last edited: August 10, 2004
The Post-Revolution Period, 1776-1873
A new law adopted in 179617 created a statutory sodomy law, abolished the death penalty for it and replaced death with an unspecified fine and solitary imprisonment at hard labor for a period of up to 21 years. This became the first sodomy law in the nation to adopt the term "crime against nature."18
Another law revision in 184621 limited the fine for sodomy to $1,000 and eliminated the solitary confinement provision. The hard labor and 21-year maximum sentence remained.22 A new provision also permitted a death sentence for anyone who, in the course of committing or attempting to commit sodomy, killed another person.23
Period Summary: Although clinging to English law during the pre-federal era, New Jersey was one of the earlier states to rid itself of them afterward. Its sodomy law of 1796 made New Jersey one of the first states to eliminate the death penalty and, three years later, all English laws were abrogated.
The Victorian Morality Period, 1873-1948
In 1884, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled, in Van Houten v. State,24 that indecent exposure could be prosecuted in the state, even if no one saw the act. Thus, any kind of erotic activity could be prosecuted even without a complaint lodged by a viewing third person.
The next change to the New Jersey law occurred in 1898.25 This was one of the most sweeping anti-sodomy laws ever enacted in the United States. The sodomy provision itself was not changed. However, additional sections showed how it was treated at this time. A defendant in a sodomy prosecution was permitted up to 20 peremptory jury challenges,26 but could not be bailed.27 An assault to commit sodomy could lead to a fine of up to $3,000 (three times higher than for the completed act) and/or imprisonment for up to 12 years.28 Compounding sodomy29 and concealing it30 both were made misdemeanors. A "conspiracy" to commit sodomy was exempted from the provision that said conspirators could not be prosecuted unless one or more of the parties committed "some act...to effect the object thereof[.]"31 The 1846 law that permitted a murder charge against someone committing or attempting sodomy that led to a death was retained.32 Murder committed in perpetration of sodomy was automatically murder in the first degree.33 Perhaps the most chilling provision was that any person who killed someone "attempting to commit" sodomy was "guiltless, and shall be totally acquitted and discharged."34 This law made no reference to a necessity that the attempt be made on the person doing the killing. Presumably, it was broad enough to allow the killing of consenting adults, if they were "attempting" sodomy and someone saw them.
In 1906, a supplemental statute was enacted35 that
This law obviously was broad enough to outlaw any form of erotic activity between consenting adults in private.
The first reported sodomy case in the state was State v. Pitman,37 decided in 1923. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that evidence as to the condition of the victim’s rectum three days after an alleged assault was admissible, as was evidence of the rectum’s condition four months later. The Court felt that this evidence could be used by a jury to decide if the condition was "abnormal and significant."38
Just a few months later, the same court was faced with a case under the private lewdness statute. In State v. Michalis,39 the New Jersey Supreme Court rejected what may have been an early privacy claim. William Michalis and James Drake had been arrested and Michalis argued that their actions did not fall under the 1906 law since they were committed in private, and therefore did not "debauch the morals and manners of the people."40 The Court felt that the test to see if an act violated the law was whether the act would debauch morals if the act were committed in public and, if so, it was "immaterial" if the act were committed in public or private.41 With this logic, marital intercourse in private was illegal also since, if it occurred in public, it would debauch morals.
The sodomy law42 was amended in 1926 to provide a 5-30-year penalty for sodomy if "any person" engaged in sodomy with anyone under 16. This would permit such a severe penalty for a 16-year-old in a relationship with a 15-year-old.
In 1930, another supplemental law43 was enacted that prohibited solicitation for "unlawful sexual intercourse, or any other unlawful, indecent, lewd or lascivious act."44 This wording did not require the solicited activity to be unlawful.
In 1911, New Jersey enacted a sterilization law.45 The law, signed by Governor and future President Woodrow Wilson, authorized the sterilization of insane, epileptic, and retarded persons, as well as certain criminals, including those convicted
Two years later, in 1913, New Jersey made history by being the first state to have its sterilization law ruled unconstitutional. In Smith v. Board of Examiners of Feeble-Minded,47 a unanimous New Jersey Supreme Court found the law lacking. The opinion by Justice Charles Garrison questioned how far the law could go. If
Amazingly anticipating the Nazis, Garrison noted a possible abuse of the law.
Addressing the argument that sterilizing such people today will save the taxpayers lots of money in the future, Garrison believed that the argument
The Kinsey Period, 1948-1986
New Jersey also was interested in the issue of psychopathic offenders, but, unlike most states, believed that a careful study was necessary before enacting legislation. In 1949, a joint resolution was adopted51 that authorized a broad-based committee to look into whether
The committee also was charged with establishing "a concise definition of the sex deviate and sex psychopath."53
The result of this study was a law enacted in 195054 that was much narrower in focus than most. Sodomy and an attempt to commit it both were triggering offenses, but only if the acts occurred with violence or with an adolescent under age 15.55 This law turned out to be, unwittingly, the model law of the nation and later was praised by officials as being the nation’s only psychopathic offender law that actually worked.56
A comprehensive revision of state law in 195157 raised the maximum fine for sodomy to $5,000, but generously lowered the maximum prison term from 21 to 20 years. The hard labor provision also was repealed.58
An appellate court decided State v. Johnson59 in 1952. It decided that the date on which an act of sodomy occurred was irrelevant to a conviction, saying that "sodomy is a crime whenever committed."60
The Court then noted that the defendant could have been prosecuted for "his revolting acts" under the lewdness act, but lamented that the penalty for it was less severe than for sodomy.64
In the 1957 case of State v. Sinnott,65 the New Jersey Supreme Court divided 6-1 to uphold the conviction of a school janitor for sodomy with several teenage males. The Court decided that the defendant had a "right" to state his marital and parental status, but found that Sinnott’s "right" had been recognized in the trial.66 The Court also found that the prosecutor’s summation, including Biblical references, was "within the bounds of fairness[.]"67 The Court also sustained the trial court’s exclusion of the expert testimony of a psychiatrist who had interviewed Sinnott while he was under the effects of sodium pentothal. The psychiatrist’s conclusions were that Sinnott was "not a sex deviate" and that he "did not have the capacity to commit sodomy."68 Because the interview occurred on the defendant’s own, it was labeled as "hearsay" and, therefore, as excludable.69
A fascinating case was the next sodomy case to be reported in New Jersey. In 1960, an appellate court decided State v. Fleckenstein,70 in which the conviction of an attorney was upheld. Edward Fleckenstein was accused of picking up "young boys" on highways (presumably they were teenagers, old enough to hitchhike)71 and committing acts of "lewdness and carnal indecency" with them.72 Fleckenstein raised the issue of a political frame-up in his appeal, asserting that
Thus, a right-winger who supported Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Gay crusade himself was charged with sexual acts with young males. The Court could find no reversible error, and affirmed Fleckenstein’s conviction.74
The New Jersey Supreme Court decided State v. Taylor75 in 1966. Nine prisoners had been convicted of committing sodomy upon a tenth one under forcible circumstances. At trial, one prisoner said that he had seen one defendant "on top of" the victim "in an act of sodomy" the night before, presumably in a consensual act. In addition, he said that he "often" saw them with their arms around each other. In rebuttal, both alleged lovers denied having a relationship. Because one prisoner’s confession was admitted into the joint trial, the convictions of the only other two who appealed were reversed unanimously. Six of the nine never appealed, but their convictions would have been overturned had they done so.
In 1970, in State v. Still,76 an appellate court rejected the defendant’s contention that acquittal on a charge of attempting sodomy should acquit him automatically on a charge of making an assault with intent to commit sodomy.77
A new criminal code was proposed in 1971.78 Unlike most state revision commissions, New Jersey’s was charged, in part, with increasing "individual liberties" in suggesting a new code.79 Also unlike other states, New Jersey never had a comprehensive criminal code to revise, so the commission had to "start virtually from scratch."80 Provisions to abolish common-law crimes81 and to prohibit local governments from enacting criminal statutes in conflict with the state code82 were recommended. The sodomy provision would have legalized consensual sodomy and set the age of consent at the amazingly low age of 12.83 Although all sexual relations with a partner under 12 would be illegal, it would be a lesser crime if the victim was "a voluntary social companion" of the offender and "previously permitted the actor sexual liberties."84 Sexual contact, however, (touching) would be illegal with anyone under 16.85 A separate volume gave commentary that explained the reasoning of the commission. Common-law offenses should be abolished, the commission said, because modern law gives "rise to doubts about the constitutionality of some of the common law crime standards and definitions."86 The rationale for repealing the sodomy law was
The extant law permitted "capricious selection of a very few cases for prosecution and serve primarily the interest of blackmailers."88 After such a thorough work product was produced, it would take seven years for the New Jersey legislature to act.
The New Jersey Supreme Court decided the case of State v. Lair89 in 1973. The Court unanimously held that the sodomy statute was not unconstitutionally vague90 and applied both to same-sex and opposite-sex activity,91 but could not constitutionally be applied to married couples.92 In a concurring opinion, Chief Justice Weintraub added that he doubted
In 1976, just three years later, after a major turnover in membership of the Court, a far more liberal result was reached in the case of State v. J.O. and F.C.94 Two men had been arrested for engaging in consensual sex with each other in a car parked in a dark area in a rest area along a state highway. They were arrested by highway patrolmen specifically looking for such activity. In a surprising, unanimous vote, the Court ruled that the state could not prosecute the men because the actions did not occur in a public place. The Court noted that it was nearly impossible for anyone to have seen them.95
The last pre-repeal reported case in New Jersey was an odd one. In 1977, in State v. Cherry,96 an appellate court upheld the conviction of Tony Cherry for an act of forcible sodomy committed while a female friend held a knife to the neck of the victim.97 Cherry contended that imprisonment would constitute cruel and unusual punishment because it
One State Senator, Joseph Maressa, got himself caught up in the anti-Gay mood of the nation during this year and introduced a bill102 to keep criminal consensual sodomy between people of the same sex. Maressa withdrew the bill early in 1979 after opposition from the public.103
An appellate court decided the case of State v. Ciuffini104 in 1978 after the repeal of the sodomy law, but before its effective date. The Court overturned the conviction of Ciuffini for a consensual act of sodomy with a male who was two months past his 16th birthday on the ground that the state established an age of consent for females at 16 and could not, without violating the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, prohibit males from consenting at the same age.105 The Court then went on to rule that the sodomy law was unconstitutional as it applied to consenting adults.106
Period Summary: After the Second World War, New Jersey showed a degree of liberalism on the sodomy issue unusual for the McCarthy era. Although it was one of the states to enact a psychopathic offender law, New Jersey studied the issue very carefully before adopting a law. The one adopted limited its applicability to sexual activity with minors, making it clear that consenting adults could not be processed under it. The penalty for sodomy also received a minor reduction, an act unusual for the McCarthy era. The state showed equal care in studying and proposing a revised criminal law in 1971. There were few reported sodomy cases during the period, but the state showed a growing support for privacy rights. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that married couples could not be prosecuted under the law, and later ruled that two men having consensual sex in a parked car could not be prosecuted under the "private lewdness" law, since their conduct was unlikely to be seen by others. The sodomy law was repealed and a legislative effort to reinstate sodomy as a crime failed after massive public opposition.
The Post-Hardwick Period, 1986-Present
A bizarre case decided by an appellate court in 2001 was State v. Cooke.107 Joseph Cooke was convicted of a sexual assault by fellating a man he knew while the man slept. The trial judge, disagreeing with the jury verdict, believed the sexual activity was consensual, so sentenced the defendant to probation and a fine. The appellate court found that the judge had no authority to overrule the jury’s finding and reinstated the sexual assault conviction. No explanation was given as to why any penalty would be assessed against consensual sexual activity, which has been legal in New Jersey for more than two decades.
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Attendance and Punctuality
Why are good attendance and punctuality important?
A good education gives a child the best possible start in life. We must ensure that all our pupils have an equal chance to make good use of the education that the school offers by providing a positive and encouraging atmosphere. To achieve this it is important that each child attends school regularly and punctually. When a child does not attend school regularly and on time they will have difficulty keeping up with their work and will therefore underachieve.
The school recognises that parents have a vital role to play in supporting and encouraging good attendance and punctuality. By accepting responsibility in partnership with the school, we can work together to ensure the children’s right to a full education, as well as enabling parents to fulfil their legal responsibility.
It is very important for all children to attend school every day and to arrive on time. School starts promptly and they should arrive in good time for when the bell goes.This is essential to ensure that children benefit fully from classroom learning and that other children’s learning is not disrupted. We therefore have a strict punctuality procedure.
Not only does lateness make a bad start to the day, all lateness/attendance is recorded and monitored by the school and the Education Welfare Officer.
Usually, the only acceptable reason for a pupil to miss a day of school is if they are too ill to attend. Authorisation for absence will not be given for outings, shopping trips or family visits. Holidays should be taken during the school breaks and not during term time. In exceptional circumstances permission may be sought from the headteacher and every case will be treated individually.
Medical appointments should be made out of school hours if at all possible. If your child has to see a doctor or dentist in school time they should attend school for as much of the day as possible. It is not permitted to take a whole day off school for a medical appointment unless the appointment lasts all day.
Notice from Knowsley Council about Education Penalty Notices.
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PADEREWSKI – A CO-CREATOR OF INDEPENDENCE
In the year of the 100th anniversary of independence gained by Poland in 1918, we present the most prominent people of that time. One of the key people of this group is Ignacy Jan Paderewski – a piano virtuoso. As the ambassador of the national matter in the world, he contributed to returning Polish statehood after 123 years of partitions.
Our hero came from a patriotic family settled on the Eastern Borderlines of Poland, where he was born in 1860. A few months after his birth, his mother died. His father – Jan Paderewski fought in the January Uprising 1863/64. Ignaś, as a four-year-old child experienced dramatic moments in his family court, when his father was arrested with shackles. The Cossacks beat the child begging for freeing his dad. After a year Jan Paderewski was released from prison. There was no evidence against him about his participation in the uprising. He got remarried and home began to be full of family life again. However, Ignaś was a loner, revealing his oversensitivity of his artistic soul.
The birth of talent
It was noticed in the boy very early that he had a talent to play the piano. Although he did not get the basic music education, he coped with music very well – his music compositions aroused amazement of his family and neighbours. His father decided to provide his 12-year-old son with education at the Warsaw Music Institute. It turned out there that Ignacy had to get down to a hard work on techniques to play the piano and….. on character – get rid of his belief about his being perfect. He won the fight, but after a lot of difficulties. His consistence and persistence in those efforts opened him a way to fame and wealth.
A virtuoso and a celebrity
What helped Paderewski in his career as a pianist, was also his personal grace and presenting himself – a cape of his golden hair and gentle face features impressed crowds, especially of women who were his devoted fans. It was so both in Paris and in Cracow. He was supported there by Helena Modrzejewska, performing with declamations during his concert. Being delighted with the 19-year-old genius, aristocrat women paved him the way to salons in Paris and London. His romantic style of performing music and his lion-like fringe were particularly impressive.
A real success of the pianist was in the United States where he arrived in 1891. He made the Americans love his music. But not only – maybe he impressed even more with his personality, dynamism and determination to aim at a purpose, and also with his life, which began in a provincial wilderness in the east of the Old Land. In his private life the way of the master was not strewn with roses – he got married at a very early age; soon after the birth of his son Alfred, suffering from inertia of legs, he became a widower. The second wife of Paderewski, gently speaking, was not liked in salons.
For Poles Ignacy Jan Paderewski was somebody more than a piano virtuoso and a person of the entertainment world, giving hundreds of concerts in Europe and both Americas. During concerts he used to remind about the idea of liberating the country being partitioned. He shared his millions earned in the USA with his compatriots suffering from poverty.
The outbreak of the great war between the partitions of Poland in August 1914, brought a revival of hope for regaining the country. Paderewski joined charity actions, for example, in Switzerland in 1915 he and Henryk Sienkiewicz set up a General Committee of Help to War Victims in Poland. He sympathized with a democratic-national camp of Roman Dmowski, related to the anti-German coalition. After some time he decided to use his concession in the world of western elites for the sake of Poland. When in 1917 the political camp of Dmowski managed to negotiate acknowledgment from powerful countries of the West for the National Committee of Poland in Paris as an official representation of Poland among them, Paderewski became the representative of the Committee in the USA. it was due to him that the president of the United States Thomas Woodrow Wilson claimed for Poland. In January 1918 he represented a 14-point peace program – a suggestion of ‘arranging’ the world after the end of the war. The 13th point of the presidential message proclaimed that ‘it is necessary to create an independent Polish country, which should comprise territories inhabited by Polish people and which should be provided with a free and safe access to the sea and whose political, economic independence and territorial integrality should be guaranteed with the international pact’.
Everything for Poland
The defeat of partitioning powerful countries in the First World War became a key for gaining independence of Poland. in autumn 1918 when the war ended, Poles liberated the area of the Austrian partition first, and then a part of the Polish Kingdom occupied by German armies. Four generations had been waiting for that moment, the fifth one had managed to live till that moment. The authority in independent Poland was taken over by Józef Piłsudski. Whereas Paderewski arrived in Poland at Christmas 1918 by a British War Ship HMS ‘Concord’. He decided to enter the land in Gdańsk. Soon after that he went to Poznań, being under the German authority. His arrival and fire-like speech became the beginning of the uprising in Greater Poland. In Warsaw Paderewski was welcomed as enthusiastically as before. On 16 January 1919 he was appointed the prime minister of the government of Republic of Poland. His person authenticated the revived country – his Prime Minister’s Office was the first government of Poland acknowledged on the international arena. He also united his compatriots – the authority represented by Paderewski was acknowledged by the regional Polish government for Galicia, Śląsk Cieszyński, Orawa and Spisz, as well as the National Committee of Poland in Paris. At a peace conference in Paris in 1919, Paderewski and Dmowski in agreement with Pilsudski, were fighting well for Polish interests. They were united by their great love to Homeland. Paderewski had to feel great joy and satisfaction with the purpose he had achieved. He did a lot for the renewal of Poland. In independent Second Republic of Poland he always devoted a lot of time and strength to the matters of Poland, joining various patriotic initiatives. He used to give concerts in the USA and Switzerland where he had his headquarter.
During the Second World War, being at his elderly age, Ignacy Jan Paderewski became the chairman of the National Council of Republic of Poland in London – an emigration parliament. In the United States he achieved loans for weapon for Polish Military Forces in the West. He had been fighting for Poland till his last breath. He died in the USA on 29 June 1941 at the age of 81.
Translation: Aneta Amrozik
„Niedziela” 3/2018 (21 I 2018)
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Write a story about his place. Who lives there? Why are your characters there?
English: A picture of Sandö Bridge in Sweden taken in February together with ice floes on the river. Français : Le pont de Sandö, en Suède. Photo prise en février quand la rivière charrie des glaces. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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Send the link below via email or IMCopy
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Transcript of Food Electricity!
One raw potato has 407 milligrams of potassium which acts as a conduct for electrical power.
Pickled foods such as pickles and pickled watermelon rinds conduct electricity due to their salt content. Pickled foods are food soaked in brine or vinegar.
What food makes electricity?
The foods that usually produce electricity are the ones that are high in acidity and potassium. Lemons are a good example.
Citrus fruits include oranges, grapefruits, limes, and lemons. Their acidity acts as an electrolyte.
What can you do with this electricity?
People will sometimes make a potato clock which is powered by the potassium in the potato.
Other vegetables such as carrots, sweet potatoes, and cucumbers can also conduct electricity.
One lemon can produce at least 7/10 of one volt of electricity.
By Megan A and Madeleine M
What do you need to make food electricity?
If you have fruit or vegetables and pickled food, some nails and a wire then you can conduct enough electricity to power a light bulb.
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Addiction can already be a complex problem to resolve but addicts often suffer from issues of mental health which can compound the situation, making it harder for them to reach a full recovery. Mental health problems and addiction are commonly found in the same individual and the two can interact in a way that complicates substance abuse behavior.
In many cases, mental illness can precede an addiction and be a major factor in the development of addictive habits when using substances. The opposite can also be the case as severe substance abuse can lead to issues of depression and anxiety which become indistinguishable from a mental illness. The relationship between mental health and addiction can make treatment especially difficult as both problems must be addressed in recovery.
Disorders Related to Addiction
There are a few specific mental illnesses that are most often associated with addiction. Issues like depression and anxiety are extremely common among people suffering from drug or alcohol problems. Depression can be a major cause of an individual beginning to drink excessively or seek refuge from their illness with the euphoria of a particular drug.
People with anxiety or panic attacks may try to find relaxation in abusing alcohol which can temporarily ease their stress levels. Other more severe mental illnesses can also be associated with addiction like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. People with bipolar disorder can have very intense mood swings that can either be extreme lows or highs.
They may turn to drugs or alcohol to even out their mood and soften the blow of their mood disorder. Schizophrenia can involve symptoms like hallucinations and delusions that create a lot of distress and may lead a person to use drugs to alleviate their fear and anxiety.
Drug Use and Mental Illness Symptoms
The problem with so many people suffering from mental illness turning to drugs as a solution is that addiction can actually make their situation much worse. The relationship between addiction and mental health problems works both ways so that people often develop illnesses as a result of their drug use.
This indicates that drug or alcohol use can actually create the symptoms of things like depression, anxiety or even bipolar disorder. When a person already has an illness, their drug use can exacerbate their symptoms and their addiction becomes strongly connected to their mental health.
Alcohol and drugs cause changes in the brain that can lead to personality and mental disorder symptoms or more severe symptoms. The longer a person uses drugs and alcohol while they have a mental illness, the harder it will be for them to quit their abuse.
Mental Illness And Addiction
The reality about mental illness and addiction is that as much as fifty percent of those with an addictive disorder also have a psychiatric disorder. Since the problem is so common in addiction recovery, there are options for people to treat both issues simultaneously so that they stand a better chance of eliminating their substance abuse problem.
The symptoms of their mental disorder need to be treated effectively so that they are not constantly seeking drugs or alcohol to alleviate their stress and anxiety. With proper treatment, it is possible for addicts to resolve both issues and make a complete recovery.
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You’re not alone if you have patches of darker pigmentation on your face! You’ve also come to the right place if you’re wondering what causes hyperpigmentation and how to get rid of it. Although completely removing the signs of hyperpigmentation is extremely difficult, there are steps you can take to reduce or prevent brown spots, blotchy skin, and rough skin texture, which will help your skin look younger for longer.
Continue reading to learn about hyperpigmentation, what causes it, and how to treat it.
What is skin hyperpigmentation?
Hyperpigmentation, also known as skin pigmentation, occurs when certain areas of your skin appear darker than others. It’s a relatively common skin problem that affects people of all skin types. It can appear in small patches, cover larger areas, or even cover the entire body in rare cases.
When your skin produces more melanin than usual, this is referred to as hyperpigmentation. Melanin is the pigment that gives your skin its colour. Excess pigment is deposited deep within the skin, giving it a darker appearance than the surrounding skin.
What causes hyperpigmentation?
Some of the most common causes of hyperpigmentation are as follows:
Sun rays cause damage.
It’s no secret that ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun are bad for your skin. In fact, they are to blame for up to 80% of the signs of premature skin ageing. Hyperpigmentation in the form of age spots can be one of these signs as a result of lifelong sun exposure.
Patches of dark pigmentation, most commonly found on the face, can indicate hormonal changes. It is mostly, but not entirely, linked to pregnancy hormones. During pregnancy, chloasma is referred to as the “mask of pregnancy.”
Hyperpigmentation caused by an inflammatory process.
When your skin is inflamed, such as with acne or eczema, it may go into overdrive and produce these darker spots after it heals.
Hyperpigmentation can be a symptom of an underlying medical condition, such as Addison’s disease, in some cases. If you are unsure about the cause of the hyperpigmentation, it is always best to seek professional assistance from your doctor or dermatologist.
How to prevent skin pigmentation?
Although not all causes of hyperpigmentation can be avoided, there are some steps you can take to reduce your chances of developing hyperpigmentation:
Keep out of direct sunlight.
Avoid being out in the sun between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. When you’re outside, sit under a sun umbrella or in the shade to reduce your sun exposure.
Wear a hat.
A wide-brimmed hat will keep the sun off your face and scalp.
Make Vitamin C a part of your beauty routine.
Vitamin C is a nutrient-rich antioxidant known for its powerful skin-brightening and anti-aging properties, as well as its ability to neutralise free radicals and limit the damage caused by excessive sun exposure. Pick a revolutionary formula that contains Vitamin C, Lactic Acid, and Niacinamide, which hydrates, brightens, and evens out skin tone.
Use a sunscreen.
To protect your skin from harmful UV rays, choose sun protection with an SPF of at least 15 and apply it daily, even during the cooler months. Try Olay Regenerist Whip SPF 30 for a 2-in-1 benefit: moisturise and protect your skin from the sun with this ultra-lightweight cream.
Touching your skin should be limited.
Scratching or picking a mosquito bite or a spot can cause inflammation and darker pigmentation on your face, so avoid touching your skin. When you do touch your skin, such as when applying skin care or makeup, wash your hands first.
Pigmentation treatment options that work
Certain ingredients and products can help fade the appearance of dark spots, as well as reduce the appearance of brownish patches of hyperpigmentation on your face. Here are some ideas to get you started:
This potent skincare ingredient, also known as vitamin B3, has been clinically proven to reduce the appearance of hyperpigmentation and even skin tone. Choose Olay Luminous Whip SPF 30 with Niacinamide to brighten your complexion. This product also contains SPF to protect your skin from the sun, which is one of the causes of hyperpigmentation.
This is one of the decade’s most talked-about ingredients, and retinol can help reduce the appearance of dark pigmentation spots by increasing natural skin cell turnover. Apply it at night and notice a reduction in the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, and dark spots in the morning.
These kits provide a safe treatment that can be performed in the privacy of your own home. They are, however, only effective when hyperpigmentation occurs in the epidermis, the top layer of the skin. A microdermabrasion kit removes the top layer of dead skin gently for a truly radiant appearance.
CC creams help even out skin tone and conceal hyperpigmented areas when worn under makeup or as a lightweight moisturiser.
Applying a Vitamin C-containing product to your skin can help fade hyperpigmentation marks for a more even-toned complexion.
Summing It Up
Sun damage is the leading cause of hyperpigmented patches, and you can do a lot to prevent it by using SPF and staying out of direct sunlight. Using products containing ingredients like retinol or Niacinamide can help treat darker skin pigmentation.
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An experienced home inspector knows that this older Pleasant Hill house chimney was constructed without the use of reinforcing steel and that brick mortar is deteriorating.
Brick and mortar chimneys have three common failings – The first is that with age, the acids in the air (pollution) react with the concrete mortar joists to produce Calcium Sulfate, which deteriorates brick mortar joints.
The second is that with rain, the degraded mortar may dissolve somewhat, leaving a more porous crumbly sandy mortar.
Third is the freeze-thaw damage to concrete or mortar. Water is absorbed into porous materials and if the temperature drops below freezing, the water may freeze into ice. The volume of water increases when it freezes and can crack bricks and mortar.
Add the fact that chimneys built prior to 1959 probably don’t have reinforcing steel making this chimney susceptible to toppling during an earthquake. This is a safety concern, a home owner’s liability and doesn’t meeting building requirements.
We’d recommend to a home buyer that a licensed chimney specialist review the old chimney prior to buying the house.
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27 May 2010
The Registered Designs Act 1949 (as amended) provides for registration of new designs having individual character with the Intellectual Property Office. Registration confers upon the registered proprietor the exclusive right to the design and any design which does not produce on an informed user a different impression for up to 25 years.
Sources of Law
The basic statute is the Registered Designs Act 1949 as amended by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, Registered Designs Regulations 2001, the Registered Designs Regulations 2003 and the Regulatory Reform Order 2006. This statute has to be read with the Designs Directive (Directive 98/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 1998 on the legal protection of designs) and construed so as to give effect to that legislation. S.36 of the 1949 Act enables the Secretary of State to make rules for various purposes set out in that section. The basic rules for design registration are The Registered Designs Rules 2006.
S.17 (1) of the 1949 Act requires the Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (“the registrar“) to maintain a register of designs recording the names and addresses of proprietors of registered designs (“registered proprietors”), notices of assignments and transmissions of registered designs and such other matters as may be prescribed from time to time or as the registrar may think fit.
Definition of Design
S.1 (2) defines “design” for the purposes of the Act as the appearance of the whole or a part of a product resulting from the features of, in particular, the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture or materials of the product or its ornamentation. A “product” is defined by s.1 (3) as any industrial or handicraft item other than a computer program. It includes, in particular, packaging, get-up, graphic symbols, typographic type-faces and parts intended to be assembled into a “complex product”. Special provisions apply to such products.
S.1B (2) provides that for the purposes of sub-section (1), a design is new if no identical design or no design whose features differ only in immaterial details has been made available to the public before the relevant date. The “relevant date” means the date on which an application for the registration of the design was made or is treated as having been made. “Making available to the public” includes publication (whether following registration or otherwise), exhibition, use in trade or some other disclosure (other than one that has to be disregarded) (s.1B (5) (a)). It should be noted that s.1A (2) provides for a design to be refused registration on the ground that it is not new or does not have individual character when compared with a design which was been made available to the public on or after the relevant date if it is protected as from an earlier date by virtue of registration under the Act or an application for such registration.
S.1B (3) provides that a design has individual character if the overall impression it produces on the informed user differs from the overall impression produced on such a user by any design which has been made available to the public before the relevant date. In determining the extent to which a design has individual character, s.1B (4) requires the degree of freedom of the author in creating the design to be taken into consideration.
Title to the Design
Unless a design is created pursuant to a commission for money or money’s worth or by an employee in the course of his or her employment, the person who creates the design (“the author”) is treated as its original proprietor (s.2 (1)). If the design was commissioned the person commissioning it is the proprietor and if it was created by an employee in the course of his or her employment the employer is the proprietor. In the case of a computer generated design the author is the person who made the arrangements for the creation of the design.
Right conferred by Registration
S.7 (1) provides that registration of a design gives the registered proprietor the exclusive right to use the design and any design which does not produce on the informed user a different overall impression. “Use” in this context includes making, offering, putting on the market, importing, exporting or using of a product in which the design is incorporated or to which it is applied, or stocking such a product for those purposes (s.7 (2)). S.7 (3) provides that in determining whether a design produces a different overall impression on an informed user, the degree of freedom of the author in creating his design shall be taken into consideration. It will be noted that the same criterion is to be taken into account when determining whether a design has individual character upon an application for registration.
Assignments and Licences
S.20 (4) of the Registered Designs Act 1949 provides that the person or persons registered as proprietor of a registered design has or have power to assign, grant licences under, or otherwise deal with the design, and to give effectual receipts for any consideration for any such assignment, licence or dealing. Such power if, of course, subject to the rights of any other person noted on the register and, while no trusts are noted on the register, any equities in respect of the registered design may be enforced in the same manner as they would in respect of any other personal property.
S.7A provides that the right in a registered design is infringed by a person who, without the consent of the registered proprietor, does anything which by virtue of s.7 is the exclusive right of the registered proprietor.
S.7A (2) provides that the Right in a Registered Design is not infringed by:
- anything done privately and for purposes which are not commercial;
- anything done for experimental purposes;
- reproduction for teaching purposes or making citations provided the conditions mentioned below are satisfied;
- using equipment on ships or aircraft which are registered in another country but are temporarily in the United Kingdom;
- importing spare parts or accessories into the United Kingdom for the purpose of repairing such ships or aircraft; or
- carrying out of repairs on such ships or aircraft.
The conditions mentioned in paragraph c above are that the act of reproduction is compatible with fair trade practice and does not unduly prejudice the normal exploitation of the design and mention is made of the source.
Exhaustion of Rights
S.7A (4) provides that the right in a registered design is not infringed by an act which relates to a product in which any design protected by the registration is incorporated or to which it is applied if that product has been put on the market in the European Economic Area by the registered proprietor or with his consent.
Claims for infringement of the right in a registered design must be brought in the Patents Court or the Patents County Court. CPR Part 63 and the Patents Court Guide apply to registered design proceedings as well as the Chancery Guide.
S.26 provides that any person who is aggrieved by circulars, advertisements or other threats of proceedings for infringement of the right in a registered design may bring an action (known as a “threats action“) against anyone making such threat claiming a declaration that the threats are unjustifiable, an injunction against continuance of those threats and any damages that may be sustained.
S.8 of the 1949 Act provides for a 5-year initial registration term renewable for successive periods to up to a total of 25 years.
Compulsory Licensing and Licences of Right
Compulsory licensing has been abolished by the 2001 Regulations. However, the registrar’s retains the right to cancel or vary conditions in a patent licence that in his or her opinion operate, or could well be expected to operate, against the public interest. The right of a defendant to undertake to take a licence of right that formerly existed under s.11B has also been abolished.
The only party who can now request cancellation of a registration is the registered proprietor provided he does so in the prescribed manner. A cancellation of registration under s. 11 of this Act takes effect from the date of the registrar’s decision or from such other date as he or she may direct (s.11ZE (1)).
Declarations of Invalidity
The same regulation inserts new ss.11ZA, 11ZB, 11ZC, 11ZD, 11ZE (2) and 11ZF which establish a new procedure by which a registration may be declared invalid in place of the former cancellation procedure. These provisions set out certain grounds upon which an application can be declared invalid some of which are restricted to persons having a specified interest. S.11ZF provides a right of appeal from the registrar’s decision.
Rectification of the Register by the Court
S.20 as amended enables the court to order the registrar to rectify the register. The grounds upon which rectification may be ordered are the same as for a declaration of invalidity. Just as certain specified persons can rely on some of those grounds in an application to the registrar. S.20 (1A) and (1B) restrict applications for rectification on specified grounds to specified applicants. A s.20 (6) permits the court to make a declaration of partial invalidity.
S.12 and Schedule 1 provide for Crown use of registered designs.
Proceedings before the Registrar
The registrar is required to notify any person likely to be affected adversely by the exercise of her discretion and giving him or her an opportunity to be heard (s.29).
It is an offence under s.33 of the Registered Designs Act 1949 to fail to comply with a direction relating to an application that is relevant for defence purposes or to apply to register such a design, to make or cause a false entry to appear on the register under s.34 or to claim falsely that a design has been registered when it has not under s.35.
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West Nile virus is an illness that spreads from mosquitoes to humans. A mosquito becomes infected when it feeds on the blood of a bird that is carrying West Nile virus. About 2 weeks later, the mosquito is capable of spreading the virus to people and animals while biting for a blood meal. The virus is not spread from person to person, and cannot be spread directly from infected animals, such as birds, horses, or pets to people.
West Nile virus originated in the West Nile region of Uganda in 1937, and for decades it was confined to Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and parts of the Middle East and Europe. In 1999, it was detected in New York City, where 7 people died from it. Canada had its first confirmed infection in a bird in 2001. In September 2002, the first confirmed human cases of West Nile virus were reported in parts of Quebec and Ontario.
By 2003, West Nile virus had spread to 8 Canadian provinces and 1 territory: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon Territory. More than 1,400 Canadians became ill after being infected that year. Since then, there have been West Nile cases every year - the virus's continuing spread indicates that it is probably here to stay. Every year, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) publishes weekly reports during West Nile virus season on West Nile virus activity in Canada.
West Nile virus affects the central nervous system, and infection usually results in mild flu-like symptoms or no symptoms at all. However, in severe cases, infection with West Nile virus can be fatal. Affected provinces have developed aggressive strategies to tackle the problem, including surveillance programs to track the location and numbers of infected mosquitoes and birds.
Mosquitoes become infected with the virus and spread the disease by biting birds or humans. Sometimes the virus spreads from mosquitoes to horses and other animals. The virus is stored in the mosquito's salivary glands, and infected mosquitoes transmit West Nile virus to humans and animals while biting to take blood. The peak infection rates occur during July and August.
There is evidence that the virus can also be transmitted through blood transfusions and during organ transplants. However, the risk of transmission through these procedures is quite low. Health Canada works closely with Canadian Blood Services and Héma-Québec, the only blood operators in Canada, to screen the blood supply for West Nile and other infectious diseases. Evidence also suggests that West Nile can be transmitted from a pregnant woman to her unborn child as well as through breast milk.
West Nile virus belongs to a group of similar viruses, including others that are less severe, such as the viruses that cause dengue fever and St. Louis encephalitis. This means that several other viruses can cause similar symptoms, and they must be ruled out before a diagnosis of West Nile virus can be confirmed.
Symptoms and Complications
Overall, most doctors believe that the risk of people becoming seriously ill with West Nile is extremely small. About 80% of those who contract the virus may not show symptoms at all. When infection does cause illness, symptoms vary from person to person and will usually appear within 2 days to 15 days.
Up to 20% of those infected may develop West Nile fever, which features mild flu-like symptoms. It is characterized by fever, headache, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting, and sometimes swollen lymph glands or a skin rash on the chest, stomach, and back.
Health Canada and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that fewer than 1% of those infected – about one out of every 150 infected people – will develop severe symptoms, and fewer than that will experience life-threatening complications. People over 50, people with chronic health conditions (such as cancer, diabetes, alcoholism, or heart disease), and those with weakened immune systems are more likely to have serious health effects from West Nile virus.
Severe symptoms include high fever, headache, neck stiffness, confusion, tremors (shaking), and convulsions (seizures). Infection with West Nile Virus can result in encephalitis (an inflammation of the brain) or meningitis (an inflammation of the linings that cover the brain). West Nile virus can cause the brain or spinal cord to swell and block the flow of blood to the brain. This could lead to a coma, paralysis, or even death. The neurological effects may be permanent in some people.
Scientists do not know why some people recover quickly while others face long-term health problems. These problems may include:
- physical effects such as long-term muscle weakness and paralysis, fatigue, and headache
- confusion, depression, and problems with concentration and memory
- difficulties in performing daily tasks such as preparing meals and shopping
Even though the majority of people with mild flu-like symptoms may not need blood tests for West Nile, consult your doctor if you have the following symptoms:
- convulsions or seizures
- extreme swelling or infection at the site of a mosquito bite
- muscle weakness
- severe headache
- stiff neck
- sudden sensitivity to light or an inability to perform routine tasks
Making the Diagnosis
Your doctor can take a blood sample and send it to a laboratory to determine if you have been infected with the West Nile virus. Your blood will be tested for antibodies to the virus, a sign that you have been infected. Before the blood test, your doctor will probably ask you questions to determine if you could have been exposed to mosquitoes carrying the virus in the first place. People who live in or travel to areas where the virus has been found are at risk of getting infected.
There are two categories of antibody blood tests for West Nile virus:
Front-line testing: Front-line testing is done to determine if a person has recently been exposed to the West Nile virus. The ELISA IgM test is most commonly used, although there are two types of ELISA tests (IgM and IgG) that can be used. The IgM test does not always require a second test to be performed when the first sample is positive. This can speed up the reporting of positive results. If there are confirmed West Nile cases in an area and antibodies are detected in the first blood sample, doctors may consider this to be a case of West Nile and modify patient treatment accordingly.
Confirmatory testing: These tests are done to confirm the diagnosis of West Nile in people whose positive results may have been due to a cross-reaction with related members of the West Nile family of flaviviruses, such as the St. Louis encephalitis virus or the dengue virus. Confirmatory testing also provides researchers and public health officials with important information about West Nile virus such as:
- the geographical distribution of the virus as it spreads to new areas
- new ways the virus can be spread
- who may be at greater risk for health problems
- whether the virus is turning up again in an area with previous human cases
Treatment and Prevention
There is presently no vaccine available to protect against West Nile virus. Severe cases of West Nile virus are treated with supportive care in a hospital. This involves helping the body fight illness on its own, rather than treating the cause of illness directly. People infected with West Nile virus may receive intravenous (into a vein) fluids and breathing support (by ventilator). Scientists are working on developing a vaccine for West Nile virus.
In the absence of an available vaccine, experts are advising people to protect themselves against the virus by avoiding bites from mosquitoes. The risk of becoming infected with West Nile is greatest during mosquito season. In Canada, the higher-risk season is from mid-April to late September or October.
The following suggestions can help you avoid mosquitoes:
Use insect repellent
- Adults: Apply a bug repellent that contains no more than 30% DEET (chemical name N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide) to clothes and exposed skin. In general, the duration of protection for different strengths
- 6 hours for 30%
- 3 hours for 10%
- Children 2 to 12 years of age: Use DEET in concentrations of 10% or less and do not apply more than 3 times daily. Do not apply repellent to the face and hands. Avoid prolonged use.
- Children aged 6 months to 2 years: Apply DEET repellent once daily in situations where there is a high risk of complications due to insect bites. In these situations, sparingly use concentrations of less than 10% DEET and do not apply to the face and hands. Avoid prolonged use.
- Children under 6 months of age: Do not apply DEET to clothes or skin.
- Pregnant women: There are no data to suggest that DEET is harmful for pregnant or breast-feeding women. However, these women may want to use non-chemical methods (such as protective clothing and avoiding times and places where mosquitoes are likely to be present).
- Minimize time outdoors, or remain indoors from dusk to dawn when mosquitoes are most active.
- Eliminate stagnant water (including bird baths) or standing water on your lawn. Regularly (twice a week) drain rain barrels and/or cover with screens, drain swimming-pool covers, clean eavestroughs regularly, and drain flowerpots and planters. Keep wheelbarrows and wading pools overturned when not in use.
- Around your yard and lawn, immediately throw away lawn cuttings, raked leaves, and fruit or berries that fall from trees. Place them in sealed garbage bags. Turn over compost piles regularly, and remove dense shrubbery, where mosquitoes are liable to breed and rest.
- Ensure that door and window screens are secure and free of holes.
Wear protective clothing
- Wear light-coloured clothes, including long-sleeved shirts and pants.
- Use a mosquito net over a baby's crib, stroller or playpen when the child is outdoors if there is a risk of being bitten by mosquitoes. Otherwise, dress the infant in long sleeve shirts and long pants when in an area where mosquitoes are present.
Other prevention strategies
Insecticides that destroy mosquitoes at various stages of their development can also be used to control the mosquito population. Provincial and local health authorities are the only people qualified and responsible for determining whether pesticides should be used to prevent the spread of West Nile virus in a particular area. When such a decision is made, the public is warned in advance so they can take precautions and minimize exposure. The workers who carry out mosquito control programs are licensed by provincial authorities.
Mosquito development consists of 4 stages: eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults. Adult females deposit eggs in or around standing water. The eggs hatch into larvae, which continue to develop in the area they were deposited and eventually develop into adult mosquitoes.
Insecticides can either destroy mosquito larvae (larvicides) or kill adult mosquitoes (adulticides).
Larvicides have greatest effect early in the mosquito season (from May to July in Canada) and less effect after mid-August. They are sprayed on areas where mosquitoes typically deposit their eggs. Adulticides are sprayed on plants where adult mosquitoes are commonly found. In general, larvicides are preferred to adulticides because they have less of an impact on human health, other animals, and the environment. They also disrupt the mosquito life cycle before they become adults and move to other areas. Adulticides are usually used as a last resort in situations where a high risk of human infection with West Nile virus exists. Because adult mosquitoes are mobile, adulticides may need to be sprayed repeatedly to control the mosquito population.
Provincial health authorities take West Nile seriously. They are monitoring the spread of the virus and are developing methods to manage outbreaks effectively.
All material copyright MediResource Inc. 1996 – 2019. Terms and conditions of use. The contents herein are for informational purposes only. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Source: www.medbroadcast.com/condition/getcondition/West-Nile-Virus
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en
| 0.947615 | 2,503 | 4.40625 | 4 |
The British neuroscientist Adrian Owen has developed a way to connect with patients in a vegetative state. It’s amazing work with complicated implications.
Neuroscientist David Eagleman explains his latest invention, the “versatile extra-sensory transducer,” a vest installed with tiny motors that can convert sound and noise into vibrations on the back, allowing deaf people to hear the world through vibrations.
Ok, not exactly. But the possibility has been floated by some scientists investigating neurogenesis, the idea that new neurons are generated in the human brain throughout life. Daniel Reisel explores the impact this new understanding might have on things like our criminal justice system in a new book, “Rewiring Our Reality.”
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| 0.941072 | 154 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Urological cancers are an important cause of cancers. In men, prostate cancer is the commonest cancer. Other urological cancers are bladder cancer, kidney cancer, testicular cancer and adrenal tumors. Prostate cancer can be diagnosed early by a combination of a physical examination and blood test (the PSA or prostate specific antigen). Kidney cancers are often identified early on imaging of the abdomen done for reasons such as a health screening. Bladder tumors present themselves by bleeding in the urine. Most of these conditions can be treated effectively with excellent long term cure provided they are diagnosed in time.
Adrenal tumors may present because of the hormones that they produce, or more commonly, they get identified incidentally on imaging done for some other reason (the so-called incidentallomas). There is no secure method of distinguishing a benign (non-cancerous) tumor from a cancer and the most widely accepted indication for surgery is an incidental mass that is more than 5cm in size. Functioning tumors (tumors that produce abnormal amounts of hormones) may require removal even if they are smaller. Adrenal tumors can be removed by conventional open surgery. More recently, adrenal tumors are being operated laparoscopically with much less morbidity and with rapid recovery and discharge from hospital.
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Respond to this post with a positive response :
Ask questions to help clarify the scenario and application of data, or offering additional/alternative ideas for the application of nursing informatics principles.
Nurses rely on gathered information, statistics, and trends to help them in their day to day operations. Nurse managers rely on what is trending when it comes to Performance Improvement. The trending information helps the nurse manager pinpoint where the trouble lies and able to go to the source of the problem and educate the staff and fix the problem. For example, during chart audits, it has come to the attention of the auditor that the smoking cessation education check box has been missed in about 50% of the charts that were checked. This data that was collected was entered into a computer program to break down and pinpoint what area of the hospital it was coming from or from whom. This information was given to the nurse manager to share with the staff from which this trend had occurred. Education was able to be given to correct this problem. Information and information processing are central to the healthcare worker. A healthcare professional is also known as a knowledge worker because he or she deals with and processes information on a daily basis to make it meaningful and inform his or her practice (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2018, p. 21). Nurses have to have a knowledge base in order to do the basics of nursing. Most of the knowledge that a nurse will further acquire is on the job. Such as the scenario given above, nurses have to be trained in the policy and procedures of their facility. Gathering information to be able to educate nurses on what is missing in there charting or other paperwork that is required of them is helpful to create proficient nurses.
Healthcare informatics is defined as “the integration of healthcare sciences, computer sciences, information science, and cognitive science to assist management of healthcare information (Sweeney, 2017). By gathering the data, we were able to break it down and create a bar graph of each unit and how many unchecked boxes for the smoking education that did not get done correctly. We could see if any one nurse was trending and gave direction on how to proceed with the educating of the staff. This information came from our PI department to the nurse managers then down to the staff for correcting. According to N. L. Nagle et al., knowledge innovation and generation provides guidance and support to others (nurses, patients) in the application and use of emerging knowledge… (Nagle, Junger, & Bloomberg, 2017, p. 219).
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2018). Nursing Informatics and the Foundation of Knowledge (4 ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.
Nagle, L. M., Junger, A., & Bloomberg, L. S. (2017). Evolving Role of the Nursing Informatics Specialist. Forecasting Informatics for Nurses in the Future of Connected Health, 212-221.
Sweeney, BSN, RN, J. (2017, Feb 2017). Healthcare Informatics. OJNI, 21.
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Beyond BLS briefly summarizes articles, reports, working papers, and other works published outside BLS on broad topics of interest to MLR readers.
People generally understand that low-income households spend more, proportionately, on basic needs than high-income households. But few are wholly acquainted with how spending composition has changed over time. People often believe that, regardless of year-to-year changes to income, spending patterns tend to remain relatively stable. A new report from the Hamilton Project puts this notion to rest.
In “Where does all the money go: shifts in household spending over the past 30 years,” Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, Ryan Nunn, Lauren Bauer, and Megan Mumford analyze 30 years (1994–2014) of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey and find that spending on basic household needs has increased for those at the lowest end of the economic spectrum. Most notably, this shift has been driven by the rising costs of housing and health care.
Compared with 30 years ago, low-income households are applying a greater share of their spending to basic needs. The analysis focused on three groups: low-income households (defined as the lowest quintile of the income distribution), middle-income households (the middle quintile of the income distribution), and high-income households (the highest quintile of the income distribution). For middle- and high-income households, total spending has increased (by about 2 percent and 9 percent, respectively), but spending on basic needs has decreased slightly for middle-income households and by about 3 percentage points for high-income households. For low-income households, total spending has declined by more than 4.5 percent, but spending on basic needs has increased by nearly 2 percentage points.
When the basic-needs components are broken out, it becomes clear that housing and health care are the dominant drivers of rising costs. The share of spending on these two components combined increased by more than 7 percentage points for both low- and middle-income households. The proportion of spending on the other components (food, clothing, and transportation) declined for both low-and middle-income households. While the relative prices of clothing and transportation have fallen over the years, food prices have actually increased. That food spending has declined in the face of rising prices seems to suggest that rising costs in housing and healthcare may be forcing low- and middle-income households to cut back spending on food. This idea is bolstered by evidence showing “adults in low-income households tend to decrease food consumption to offset rising utilities expenditures during the winter.”
For low-income households, housing costs constitute nearly 41 percent of the budget—a share increase of 5.5 percentage points over 30 years. Putting more pressure on low-income households is the fact that “expenditures on rented dwellings have increased faster than those for owned dwellings.” For both low- and middle-income households, the cost of health care (health insurance, medical services, drugs, and medical supplies) has skyrocketed. The authors point out that in 1984, households devoted a relatively small portion of the budget to health care. By 2014, expenditures had increased by 60 percent for middle-income households and 28 percent for low-income households, although these expenditures still are lower than those on housing, transportation, or food.
The composition of spending has changed over time, particularly for low-income households. Total expenditures for low-income households has fallen over the past 30 years, while the percentage spent on basic needs has increased. Conversely, for middle- and high-income households, total expenditures have increased while the percentage devoted to basic needs has decreased. Housing and health care spending have gone up dramatically, with all three income groups spending more today on these two basic needs components than in years past. The authors suggest that social safety net programs like SNAP and Medicaid have a role in decreasing the effect of rising basic needs costs on low-income households.
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Who doesn’t love a kid’s smile? Children/babies often express their happiness through a lively smile. Oral health plays a key role in shaping the overall health and growth of the chidlren. It is the responsibility of parents to make their children adopt hygiene and healthy Oral habits. But certain habits, which are beyond the reach of parents, could pose a problem to children in the future. Here comes the role of Paediatric Dentists.
Paediatric Dentists also called as Periodontists, deal with Oral health, and Tooth related ailments among children. Paediatric dentistry focusses on the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of oral health problems among children.
Common Dental problems among the children include:
Nursing Bottle Caries
Abnormal Jaw growth
Cleft lip and Cleft palate
Paediatric dentists at aRdent Dental Care have wonderful and workable solutions for all the aforementioned problems.
Specialities we serve
Generally, Dental caries is attributed to bacteria and other things. When food, which is rich in Carbohydrates/Starch, is left or struck on the Teeth, the bacteria inside the mouth feed on it.
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en
| 0.947842 | 252 | 2.875 | 3 |
According to the synoptic gospels
The synoptic gospels are Mark, Matthew, and Luke.
They teach two main paths to salvation:
In the early Church, there were 40 or 50 gospels in circulation which were
regarded as accurate portrayals of the life of Jesus. Of the four of these which
were accepted into the official canon of the Christian Scriptures (New
Testament), most Biblical theologians regard Mark as the oldest. Most
theologians agree from
an analysis of Matthew and Luke that those two authors copied major portions of Mark into their own
gospels. Thus, Mark, Matthew and Luke, the Synoptic Gospels, show a great internal
Jesus talked extensively about individuals being saved and inheriting the Kingdom of
Heaven. The main path to salvation that he described is based on good works and attitudes.
Salvation is dependent on what people do and how they behave towards others - particularly
the poor. Repentance, belief in Jesus or the act of baptism are irrelevant. Actions and
attitudes only matter. This path is described very clearly in two passages:
||Matthew 25:31-46: This is an important passage, because it describes the exact
criteria which Matthew believed will be used at the Final Judgment when Jesus
separates all the people of the world into two groups: those who will enter heaven and
those who will spend eternity in hell. Addressing those on his right, Jesus says that
they will "inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world." He orders those on his left hand to "depart from me, you cursed,
into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his [fallen] angels." where they
will go away into eternal punishment." The sole criteria for routing
individuals to heaven or hell is whether the person gave food, drink or clothing to the
destitute, and welcomed strangers and visited the sick or persons in prison. That is,
salvation is totally dependent upon one's treatment of one's fellow humans while on earth.
The ancient creeds of the Christian church appear to
agree with this concept.|
||Luke 10:25-27: This is another important passage, because it gives Mark's
recollection of Jesus' precise response to a lawyer who asked what one must do to inherit
eternal life; i.e. to attain salvation and spend eternity in heaven. Jesus had him
recite "The Law" from the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) which requires a
||Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. This is a slight
misquotation from Deuteronomy 6:5: "You shall love the LORD your God with
all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."
||Love their neighbor as they love themselves. This is derived from Leviticus 19:18:
"You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your
people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself..." (NKJ)
The lawyer then asked the obvious question: who is my neighbor? The Leviticus passage
implied that one's neighbors are restricted to one's own nation or tribe. Jesus disagreed
with the passage in Deuteronomy, and responded with the well-known Parable of the Good
Samaritan, which indicates that all humans are one's neighbors.
The parable describes a man who had been attacked by robbers and left half dead. Two
Jewish religious leaders come upon the man: a priest and a Levite. The Jewish law forbids
holy men from touching a dead person; it would be an act of ritual impurity, a serious
defilement. They walk on the other side of the road to avoid any contact with the victim.
A Samaritan comes by, bandages the man's wounds and helps him to a place where he can
recover. The Jews of the day despised the Samaritans, regarding them as semi-pagan,
inferior and persons of little worth. Jesus told the lawyer to be more like the Samaritan
than like the Levite and Priest. That is, to make compassion for others the highest
priority in life, and to downgrade religious rules and regulations to a lower level of
Jesus makes clear in this passage that one attains eternal life in heaven by loving God
and loving all humans, particularly the poor, needy and broken.
||Other supporting passages are:
||Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven." . The Amplified Bible defines "poor in spirit"
as being humble and rating themselves as insignificant.
||Matthew 5:10: "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of
righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The Amplified Bible
defines "righteousness" as being and doing right.
||Matthew 5:20: "...unless your righteousness surpasses that of the
Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of
heaven" The Rheims New Testament translates the Greek as "unless your
justice abound more...".
||Matthew 7:12: "...do onto others what you would have them do to
you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." One might assume that by
following this "Golden rule", one meets all of the requirements of the Hebrew
scriptures, and thus might be saved.
||Matthew 16:27: "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with
His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works."
||Matthew 19:16-17 "Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, 'Teacher, what
good thing must I do to get eternal life?'...Jesus replied...If you want to enter life, obey
the commandments." Jesus then repeated 5 as being of particular importance
(Commandments 5 to 9 inclusive from Exodus 20:12-16) and added a new commandment to "love
your neighbor as yourself" 4 of the 6 involve actions to avoid; the remaining two
list who one is to love. Jesus then goes further and urges the man to sell his
possessions, and give the money to the poor, so that he would have "treasure in
||Matthew 24:45-51: In this passage, Jesus tells a parable about an evil overseer
who beats his fellow slaves. His master comes back at an unexpected time and "and
shall cut him asunder, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be the
weeping and the gnashing of teeth." (ASV) This implies that when Christ returns,
individuals who treat others with consideration will be rewarded (presumably with access
to the Kingdom of God). An evil person who treats others poorly or is a drunk will be
punished (presumably by denying them access).
||Mark 9:42-48: Jesus recommends that if one's hand or foot or eye cause them to
commit a sinful act, then they should cut off the offending member. Verse 47 says: "...It
is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be
thrown into hell..."
||Mark 10:17-25: This is essentially identical to Luke 18, which is described below
||Mark 12:32-34: A man said that to love God and one's neighbor is more important
than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. Jesus replied in Verse 34 "...You are not
far from the kingdom of God." This implies that if one loves God and
then they are close to salvation.
||Luke 7:44-50: Jesus described to Simon Peter how a woman who had lived a sinful
life had treated him with loving care. She washed his feet with her tears, and wiped them
with her hair; she continually kissed his feet and she anointed them with oil. Jesus said
in verse 47-48: "Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are
forgiven; for she loved much; but to whom little is forgiven, (the same) loveth little.
And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven." The implication is that because of
her kind acts, her sins are forgiven; she will attain the Kingdom of God. But then an
obvious addition was made to the story in Luke 7:50: "And he said unto the woman,
Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace." This verse appears to be an
afterthought, added after the original gospel was written. It contradicts the previous
verses that based her treatment on her kind acts, not her faith. Perhaps the intent was to
bring the story into line with the developing Christian theology, which had begun to
emphasize faith over works.
||Luke 13:27 "Away from me, all you evildoers" The
Amplified Bible renders this word as wrongdoers. The verse describes how people
will be turned away from the Kingdom of God, because of their evil behavior and
||Luke 18:18-22 This is similar to Matthew 19, except that the advice to sell
everything and give the proceeds to the poor is not an optional add-on but a
||Luke 19:8-9: "And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord,
the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have wrongfully exacted aught
of any man, I restore fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, To-day is salvation come to
this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham." (ASV) Zacchaeus cares
about others, giving half of his possession to the poor. And he is honest: if he
shortchanges anyone, he returns the shortage four times over. Jesus indicates that because
of these two acts of kindness and generosity, he has been saved.
Jesus seems to have recognized that his strict instructions for living a life of
justice and caring for others is very difficult for most people; few will attain
||Matthew 7:14 "...small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to
life, and only a few find it."
||Matthew 19:24 "...it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God"
||Luke 13:23-30 "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?...many I
tell you will try to enter and will not be able to."
The disciples were distressed at Jesus' statement in Matthew 19:24.
They asked who can be saved. He replied that an individual trying on their own to do
good and attain salvation will always fail. But with God's help, they will be able to
achieve salvation through this route.
The second, minor, path to salvation in the synoptic Gospels involves poverty and
following Jesus. This requires one to abandon their family, give away their possessions,
accept a life of poverty, and follow Jesus. There are major anti-family aspects involved.
This path is mentioned in the following passages:
||Matthew 19:27-30: Peter had said that he and the rest of the disciples had left
everything to follow Jesus. He asked what would happen to them. Jesus replied that his
followers would sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Verse 29
continues: "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or
mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will
inherit eternal life." (Some ancient manuscripts of Luke said "everyone
who has left...mother or wife")
||Mark 10:28-30: This is similar to Matthew 19:27-30
||Luke 9:59-62: "Then He said to another, 'Follow Me.' But he said, 'Lord,
let me first go and bury my father.' Jesus said to him, 'Let the dead bury their own dead,
but you go and preach the kingdom of God.' And another also said, 'Lord, I will follow
You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.' But Jesus said to
him, 'No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of
God.'" (NKJ) Jesus seems to be implying that to attain the kingdom of God, one is
expected to drop everything and follow Jesus. This was so important that a person should
violate a Jewish laws by not giving priority to burying their father.
Copyright © 1997 to 2002 incl. by
Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2002-DEC-29
Author: B.A. Robinson
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<urn:uuid:9d6c033b-54de-4021-9019-ac745ed8016c>
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CC-MAIN-2020-05
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http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_savj1.htm
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en
| 0.951549 | 2,719 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Dr. Antony Young of the University of King’s College London described how sunscreens, even when used optimally to prevent sunburns, do not prevent the formation of vitamin D in the skin. The study he described in his lecture was remarkable for the stringency of its design. He and his colleagues recruited lightly pigmented volunteers from Poland to enjoy a week’s winter holiday on the sunny island of Tenerife.
They divided the volunteers into three groups: one (the ‘control group) was advised to enjoy their holiday and to continue to use their sunscreen products as they usually do. The other two groups were given tubes of sunscreen to use 3 times during the day, and instructed to cover all their sun-exposed skin with it 3 times each day. The tubes were weighed after applications to measure compliance. One of the treated groups used a product that primarily screened UV-B (SPF ~15), while the other applied a product that also screened UV-A, with an SPF >30. Hours in the sun were clocked for all Tenerife participants using wristband solar chronometers; exposure times did not differ between the 3 groups; all clocked many hours in the sun. A fourth group remained behind in Poland.
Virtually all members of the control group in Tenerife experienced sunburns, indicating that if they did use sunscreens, their practices were ineffective. In contrast, no one in the two treatment groups developed a sunburn. But here is the key point: their sunscreen consumption averaged over 3 oz/day (or ~100g/day). In other words, each day they used the equivalent of a commonly-sized tube of commercial sun screen! It is safe to say that few people probably use this quantity of sunscreen in their sun protection routines, yet this approximates the quantity that is employed when testing laboratories generate the products’ SPF ratings.
Indeed, numerous earlier clinical studies have shown that, ordinarily, most people apply much less sunscreen than recommended. In one study, it was estimated that the average quantity of an SPF 15 applied on a sun holiday resulted in a SPF of no more 3(!), affording little protection against sunburn. Moreover, sunscreen usage was correlated with more time spent in the sun, suggesting little net benefit to the way sunscreens are typically used.
As expected, blood levels of vitamin D in the Tenerife control group – all of whom experienced sunburns – rose dramatically, while those in the control group that stayed behind in the Polish winter, declined. Both sunscreen-treated groups in Tenerife also experienced a generous bump in the levels of vitamin D in their blood, albeit not quite as high as in the control group. Yet, this study also demonstrated that even when highly effective sunscreens are used correctly – with quantities that protected these light skinned person from burns even in intense tropical sunlight – vitamin D levels still increased substantially.
Bottom Line: This study demonstrates that sunscreens can be used to protect the skin from solar toxicity without risking vitamin D deficiency as a side effect. Moreover, since very few individuals use these quantities of sunscreen in actual practice, it is highly likely that most peoples’ sunscreen usage does not interfere with the skin’s ability to produce vitamin D in other settings. On the other hand, the way most people use sunscreens is ineffective for sun protection.
Kathryn Mazierski says
This doesn’t sound like good news for a rosacea patient?
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CC-MAIN-2023-23
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https://eliasandwilliams.com/sunscreens-and-vitamin-d/
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en
| 0.962457 | 725 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Narrator: This is Science Today. Historically, prostate cancer was thought to be a disease which could not be stimulated or enhanced by the body's immune system. But Dr. Robert Figlin of UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center says an new experimental gene therapy treatment now underway may change that.
Figlin: It's really been through out laboratory work over the last five years that we and others have started to show that a cancer that is historically thought to be not immunogenic, can become immunogenic with the proper manipulations.
Narrator: In this case, doctors are injecting into the prostate gland a product called Leuvectin. This is a mixture of fatty molecules and genes which produce interleukin-2, a potent tumor fighting substance.
Figlin: This is early clinical trials, but what we've shown is one, you can administer cytokines inside the prostate gland safely. Nobody even believed that you could do that. Secondly, we've been able to demonstrate that in fact, an immune reaction does occur.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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<urn:uuid:28e17249-7641-48a3-be70-68218e848484>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.ucop.edu/sciencetoday/article/747
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| 0.963116 | 225 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Absenteeism and beyond : instructional time loss and consequences
Studies have shown that learning outcomes are related to the amount of time students engage in learning tasks. However, visits to schools have revealed that students are often taught for only a fraction of the intended time, particularly in lower-income countries. Losses are due to informal school closures, teacherabsenteeism, delays, early departures, and sub-optimal use of time in the classroom. A study was undertaken to develop an efficient methodology for measuring instructional time loss. Thus, instructional time use was measured in sampled schools in Tunisia, Morocco, Ghana, and the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. The percentage of time that students were engaged in learning vis-à-vis government expectations was approximately 39 percent in Ghana, 63 percent in Pernambuco, 71 percent in Morocco, and 78 percent in Tunisia. Instructional time use is a mediator variable that is challenging to measure, so it often escapes scrutiny. Research suggests that merely financing the ingredients of instruction is not enough to produce learning outcomes; students must also get sufficient time to process the information. The quantity-quality tradeoff that often accompanies large-scale enrollments may be partly due to instructional time restrictions. Time wastage also distorts budgetary outlays and teacher salary rates. To achieve the Millennium Development Goals students must get more of the time that governments, donors, and parents pay for.
|Date of creation:||01 Oct 2007|
|Date of revision:|
|Contact details of provider:|| Postal: |
Phone: (202) 477-1234
Web page: http://www.worldbank.org/
More information through EDIRC
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4376. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Roula I. Yazigi)
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
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CC-MAIN-2015-32
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https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/4376.html
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en
| 0.931905 | 439 | 2.953125 | 3 |
A Northwestern University economist who has closely followed strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide has a new recommendation for frustrated climate activists: Buy coal.
In a paper published in the current Journal of Political Economy, Bård Harstad, an associate professor of managerial economics and decision sciences at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, argues that the most effective strategies to combat climate change do not focus on demand-side solutions such as carbon taxes or emission caps.
Rather, he argues, climate-concerned governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) should pool their resources and buy up the extraction rights to coal and other fossil fuels from so-called "third countries" that choose not to participate in greenhouse gas-reducing collectives.
The study's title -- "Buy Coal! A Case for Supply-Side Environmental Policy" -- captures the radical essence of Harstad's argument, which he acknowledged will be a tough sell to governments and NGOs that have locked on "demand-side" policies. It may not warm the hearts of those who aim to curb emissions by compelling users of fossil fuels to consume less, or invest billions of dollars in carbon-capture technologies.
But unlike diplomatic efforts thus far, he says, it will have a well-defined and immediate impact:
"By letting coalition countries buy extraction rights in third countries -- and preserve rather than exploit the fuel deposits -- climate coalitions can circumvent the traditional problems of a demand-side policy," said Harstad, who earned a Ph.D. from Stockholm University in Sweden and is a native of Norway.
In a telephone and email interview from Norway, Harstad said he knows of no specific cases in which such approaches are being used by governments or NGOs. But, he noted, "there is already a market for extraction rights, and countries all over the world are already selling or leasing the right to extract their fields to international companies.
"My paper suggests that a climate coalition could benefit vastly by being active in the very same market," he added.
Finding a plug for 'leakage'
Harstad's theory builds upon the concept of "carbon leakage," which holds that countries opting out of climate agreements will produce more greenhouse gases as their neighbors take steps to ratchet down greenhouse gas emissions and regulate the sources of such emissions, like coal-burning industrial plants or motor vehicle fleets.
This pattern is already taking shape around the globe with U.S. and Australian coal companies coping with shrinking domestic markets by planning to export huge amounts of coal to India and China. In the Harstad approach, an international coalition could outbid Asian buyers and remove the coal from the marketplace.
Harstad acknowledged that such an approach would be a "radical departure" from the more popular view, embodied in such agreements as the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, which places much of its focus on end-of-stack emissions. "After purchasing their marginal deposits," he said, "it will no longer be the case that third countries will extract more if the multinational coalition reduces its own supplies of fossil fuel."
"With a better grip on supplies, the coalition would not have to use demand-side policies that invite leakage in the first place," Harstad argues in the paper.
But exactly how such coalitions would look and function remains uncertain. Harstad suggested that governments would have deeper pockets and more political leverage to negotiate with owners of mineral leases, especially in developing countries where natural resources are publicly owned by governments or through tightly held national corporations.
Imaginative, but 'utterly impractical'
But NGOs could also initiate such agreements if frameworks were established to allow for such transactions and willing sellers materialized. There is precedent, he noted, pointing to largely successful efforts by NGOs to preserve South American rainforests by purchasing their development rights and allowing the native trees to stand.
In the United States, he said, land trusts and nonprofits like the Nature Conservancy have purchased millions of acres of land or bought easements that amount to legal barriers that keep the land out of the hands of developers.
To be sure, the buy-coal solution would require a lot of money, but there could be a lot of money on the table. Proponents of demand-side climate action are already talking about a $100 billion climate fund to help poorer nations adapt to the results of global warming.
Still, critics of the supply-side alternative say it is wholly unrealistic to believe the fossil fuel sector -- which drives so much of the global economy -- could be reined in by attempts to "lock up" coal in perpetuity.
Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the National Mining Association, while crediting the paper for its "imaginative approach" to controlling carbon emissions, said the concept was "a thoroughly preposterous and utterly impractical idea."
He noted that it follows a string of unsuccessful attempts by the United Nations and other bodies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the global industrial and transportation sectors to little effect.
"There's just no way of getting around the fact that when you attempt to change the behaviors of industrialized economies that rely heavily on fossil energy, what you're essentially saying is you're going to raise the cost of living for a benefit that you may not see, but that exists in a real way to hundreds of millions of people," Popovich added.
"That's just an extremely difficult hill to climb."
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<urn:uuid:1e61c24a-51cd-448b-956a-9c3a6ae1d716>
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CC-MAIN-2018-09
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https://www.eenews.net/stories/1059962816
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en
| 0.954512 | 1,117 | 2.578125 | 3 |
How can you avoid falling into this tedious and time consuming trap? The solution to this audible irritant is to use a spelling system in your phone calls.
Even in the twenty-first century, the quality of telephone calls can often be very poor. It is very easy for you to be misheard by the person answering the phone. If you have a name that is difficult to spell or a complicated address, it is easy for the other person to make a mistake. This could result in a document being sent to you with the name and address incorrect. You do not want to receive a legal or financial document which is invalid due to being stamped with the wrong name. The use of a spelling alphabet will prevent these problems from happening.
Many letters in the alphabet can be easily confused. The letters N and M are the most easily confused even during phone calls between English native speakers. For Japanese speakers of English the letters F and L are quite difficult to pronounce. London is widely pronounced “Rondon” in Japan and coffee is given a softer sound with the word “Koohii.” It is in situations such as these that a spelling alphabet is of most use.
The need for a system to make English words clearer in phone conversations is military in origin. People working in aviation such as pilots needed to be sure they were flying into the correct territory, and landing on the right map coordinates. With letters and words being easily confused over the radio, the military came up with an alphabet to resolve the confusion. Before World War II, a system of using city names to indicate letters of the alphabet was in common usage. As an example, the word “dog” would be spelt out as “Denmark,” “Oslo,” “Gallipoli.”
Over the years this system was revised and improved. It was soon realised that a global system was needed that could be used amongst other countries. The use of city names was later dropped, and words commonly used in foreign countries were put into use. During the latter part of 1951, an alphabet came into use which was for the sole purpose of civil aviation. In this new system, the word for “dog” would be spelt out as “Delta,” “Oscar,” “Golf.”
The use of a spelling alphabet has now spread to many other areas of life. It is essential for services such as the police or ambulance driver dispatches. British police officers spend a great deal of time learning what is known in England as the phonetic alphabet. This is because they need to use it very quickly. If a car flees the scene of an accident or a robbery, the police need to circulate the car’s licence plate as soon as possible.
For this article I will be using the British police’s phonetic alphabet. We will take a closer look at it, and demonstrate some examples where this spelling alphabet comes in very handy. The list below shows the current system used by police officers across the United Kingdom:
What’s your name?
If you suspect that the person answering your call is having trouble spelling your name, then be sure to spell your name. Some native English speakers may not have much experience with foreign names that are difficult to spell or even pronounce. Below is an example conversation using an African name that is tricky to understand over the phone.
Gina: Hello, AGI corporate finance. Gina speaking, how may I help?
Adewale: Hello. I would like to apply for one of your gold credit cards, please.
Gina: I can certainly help you with that. May I take the full name that will be placed on the card?
Adewale: Yes, of course. It will be in my name which is Adewale Azikiwe.
Gina: I see, was that Adrian Azeeki?
Adewale: No, not quite. May I spell it for you?
Gina: That would be great. Please do.
Adewale: My first name is Adewale. That is spelt A for Alpha, D for Delta, E for Echo, W for Whiskey, A for Alpha, L for Lima, and E for Echo.
Gina: Thank you. Can I take your surname as well please?
Adewale: Yes, it is spelt A for Alpha, Z for Zulu, I for India, K for Kilo, I for India, W for Whiskey, and E for Echo.
Gina: Thank you very much.
What’s your address?
If ordering packages or more paperwork in England, you will need to know your unique address postcode. As with the zip code in America, the postcode ensures your letter or package reaches you sooner and decreases the chance of it being delivered to the wrong address.
When asking for paperwork to be posted to you, make sure you spell out your postcode. The following postcode “WA3 2LH” is made up of two component parts. The “WA3” gives the district in England where you live, and the “2LH” part gives your location in the local area of the district.
So, to give your postcode over the telephone, you would advise the other person it is: W for Whiskey, A for Alpha, Three, Two, L for Lima, and H for Hotel.
You do not have to use the British phonetic alphabet, as there are many other systems widely available on the internet. Also feel free to use your own system. You could make your own spelling alphabet using fruits, drinks, or even your favourite movie characters. The person on the other end of the phone will still understand the letters you are spelling out. Practice using a system which will help you make yourself understood.
As an example, if you find yourself going home in a taxi at midnight, then being able to spell out your hotel name to the driver will make your journey far easier.
I began to use the British phonetic alphabet in customer services, and now I use it everywhere I go. When my mother is doing a crossword, it is easy and fun to spell out a word for her.
Unless it is the word “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, of course...
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CC-MAIN-2021-21
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en
| 0.96209 | 1,326 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Sometimes you don’t know your household brands as well as you think.
From the oil fields of Texas and the Social Security Act to experimental aircraft and even a Disney movie, here are some of the unusual circumstances that brought about five of the largest tech companies in America.
General Electric traces its origin back to one of America’s greatest inventors and the foundation of America’s electrical infrastructure.
Thomas Edison established the Edison General Electric Company in 1890 to bring all of his various electrical interests under one name. He and his team at Menlo Park invented the first incandescent lamp and the first electric dynamos capable of powering lighting systems for entire neighborhoods during the 1870s. Edison went on to establish the first power company and construct America’s first power station in New York City in 1882, laying the groundwork for the electrical grids that our society now relies on.
Almost 125 years later, GE is developing the next generation of advanced steam turbine systems. GE Healthcare is also researching a new class of nanoparticle-based imaging agents that may enable medical imaging systems to see diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancerous cells earlier than ever before.
A merger of three of the largest American companies of the 19th century — the Tabulating Machine Company, the International Time Recording Company, and the Computing Scale Company — created IBM.
Early on, IBM produced and sold a wide variety of machinery, including industrial time recorders, commercial scales, and even meat and cheese slicers. It was renamed the International Business Machines Corporation in 1924 to better represent its focus on creating tabulating solutions for businesses.
In 1935, IBM secured a major government contract to maintain the employment records of 26 million people — part of President Roosevelt’s Social Security Act. It was called “the biggest accounting operation of all time,” and its successful completion brought IBM a steady stream of government contracts. During World War II, IBM placed all of its facilities at the disposal of the U.S. government. The company added bombsights, rifles, and military engine parts to its product line in support of the war effort. IBM employees would go on to invent the automated teller machine (ATM), the floppy disk, the magnetic stripe card, and the Watson artificial intelligence computer system, named for the company’s former president.
Today, IBM researchers are working on solutions for everything from cloud computing and data analysis to smart cities and nanotechnology.
Texas Instruments, in spite of the name, didn’t actually start in Texas.
In 1930, in a rented hotel room in Newark, New Jersey, John Karcher and Eugene McDermott began drafting designs for a new type of geophysical instrument to search for oil reserves. They formed Geophysical Services, Inc. in May of that year and became the first independent firm that specialized in reflection seismography. The process involved setting off small dynamite explosions and then recording the reflected shock waves to determine the depth of potential oil and gas reserves. During the 1940s, the company used their signal processing technology to develop submarine detection and airborne radar systems for the U.S. military.
The Laboratory and Manufacturing wing of GSI opened in 1946, with a focus on building military and civilian electronics. The company officially changed its name to Texas Instruments in 1951. TI played an important role in the growth and development of a variety of industries, producing semiconductors, the first integrated circuit, missile-guidance technology, and the even the first handheld calculator.
Texas Instruments now works on an immense variety of products, ranging from driver assistance systems in vehicles to telecom infrastructure and, of course, graphing calculators.
DirecTV & HughesNet
One of America’s most famous aviators and his passion for developing faster aircraft led to the creation of satellite television and Internet.
In 1932, Howard Hughes, a wealthy entrepreneur and aerospace engineer, founded the Hughes Aircraft Company. As an aerospace and defense contractor, the company built numerous prototype aircraft including the famous H-4 Hercules “Spruce Goose.” Hughes flew many of the test flights himself, setting multiple world air-speed records and surviving several crashes.
Hughes Aircraft designed everything from helicopters and spy planes to air-to-air missiles systems. A subsidiary known as the Hughes Space and Communications Company launched the world’s first geosynchronous communications satellite in 1963 and later built a NASA lunar lander. GM purchased Hughes Aircraft in 1985 and merged it with several other companies to create Hughes Electronics.
Throughout the 1980s and 90s, Hughes became a leading manufacturer of satellites. Seeking to expand upon this success, Hughes launched DirecTV in 1994, the world’s first high-powered direct broadcast satellite service. By the early 2000s, Hughes Electronics decided to focus its efforts on the satellite businesses, and in 2003 its remaining components were renamed The DirecTV Group.
Today DirecTV provides television service to over 20 million customers in the United States. The Hughes name itself lives on with Hughes Network Systems and its HughesNet satellite Internet service, which was purchased by EchoStar in 2011.
Two Stanford graduates, a garage, and Mickey Mouse all played a role in the formation of what would become one of the world’s leading computer companies.
Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, friends and electrical engineering students in college, rented a house in Palo Alto, California in 1938 to start their own company. While Packard and his wife lived in the house and Hewlett slept in a backyard shed, the two used the one car garage as a workshop and even used the kitchen oven as a paint-baking station for their prototypes.
Some of their early inventions included a device to help astronomers set their telescopes, a harmonica tuner, a foul-line indicator for a local bowling alley, and an electric eye for automatically flushing toilets. The Model 200A resistance-tuned audio oscillator proved to be their first big breakthrough, providing a practical, low-cost method of generating high-quality frequencies. A sound engineer at Walt Disney Studios was so impressed that Disney purchased eight of their slightly modified 200B audio oscillators to use in producing the 1940 landmark film Fantasia.
After deciding on the name of their company with a coin-flip, the two formalized their partnership on January 1, 1939 and Hewlett-Packard was born. Recognized as the producer of the world’s first personal computer, HP remains one of the largest producers of PCs in the world. In addition to laptops, tablets, and printers, HP also produces software, servers, and cloud-based solutions for a range of industries and businesses.
1876 was also the year that Thomas Alva Edison opened a laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, where he could explore the possibilities of the dynamo and other electrical devices that he had ... All General Electric Co. news »
HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to cons... All HP news »
International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM and nicknamed Big Blue (for its official corporate color), is a global technology and innovation company headquartered in the Nor... All IBM news »
television-cable & catv... All Hughes Communications, Inc. news »
Texas Instruments (TI) is a global analog and digital semiconductor IC design and manufacturing company. In addition to analog technologies, digital signal processing (DSP) and microcontroll... All Texas Instruments Incorporated news »
DIRECTV (DTV) is the world's leading provider of digital television entertainment services. Through its subsidiaries & affiliated companies in the United States, Brazil, Mexico & other count... All DIRECTV news »
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CC-MAIN-2016-30
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en
| 0.94486 | 1,590 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Jan Flísek & Kamil Pásek
H. F. Link described the Portuguese Sundew (Drosophyllum lusitanicum Link.) in 1806, but the first references have been dated back to the 17th century. The genus name, Drosophyllum, is derived from the Greek DROSOS (meaning dew) and PHYLLON (meaning tribe or leaf). The species name is derived from Lusitania (from Latin), the ancient name for Portugal. In its native habitat, Drosophyllum is relatively rare, with plants growing in narrow coastal or maritime regions (maximum of a few tens of kilometers from the coast) with regular morning fogs during summer. Besides Portugal, Drosophyllum has been found in Andalusia (southwestern Spain) and in northern Morocco. Drosophyllum lusitanicum is the only extant species classed in the new monotypic genus of the family Drosophyllaceae Chrtek et al., 1989, 1996). The listed number of chromosomes is 2n = 12 (Heubl et al., 1997).
Drosophyllum lusitanicum is shrub-like carnivorous plant that can grow to be 1.5 m in height, but is usually shorter (about 40 cm). The stem is 5-15 mm thick and creeps along the ground when it becomes longer. The narrow, triangular leaves typically reach lengths of 10-25 cm with a width of 2.5 mm. The leaves can be longer in cultivation. Ten or more needle-like leaves are generally found per apical rosette. Older plants may develop side branches (or stems) during seed production, when suppressed buds in the leaf axils start to grow. These new side branches develop on both the long, ligneous and very sturdy stems of mature plants as well as on young plants. The rosette of leaves are typically 20 - 40 cm in diameter and consist of the apical “crest” of living leaves and dead leaves drooping down to the ground forming a dense tangle. With a little imagination, we see why the English common name “dewy pine” is used for this plant, as it looks very much like a small pine. The Portuguese call this plant “Pinheiro baboso”, which, translated means “slobbering” pine (Porto, personal communication). Native people of southern Spain in the Alcala de los Gazules region call it “La Gazul” (Schmidt, 1997). Drosophyllum is a perennial in nature and cultivation, but precise information about the maximum lifespan of this plant has not yet been published.
The Portuguese Sundew is a very interesting and curious plant for several reasons. Compared with other carnivorous plants, it is one of the most successful “hunters” in terms of quantity of captured prey, and all with absolutely passive primitive adhesive traps (stalked clammy glands) only. Also, there are certain morphological and anatomical curiosities particular to Drosophyllum. Some observations indicate that Drosophyllum is more archaic than previously assumed, an unusual fact considering its classification within advanced flowering plants (Magnoliophyta). Morphological features (missing specific dividing coir - cambium an endodermis in the stem, characteristic surface of stem, shape of leaves, spirally twisted ends of leaves, etc.) indicate that Drosophyllum may be closely related to ferns (Studnička, 1984b).
Drosophyllum is interesting in that it has two types of glands on the leaves; the huge stalked glands that attract and trap prey and the sessile, digestive glands (Juniper et al., 1989). Production of the mucilage for trapping prey is so intense that slime often drips from the leaves. Digestion of prey is very rapid, being complete within several days. Luring is accomplished by the sweet, honey-like odor of the mucilage, detectable even by the human nose.
In its native habitat, flowering occurs between February and May, sometimes later. The bright yellow, regular, quinate flowers can be up to 4 cm in diameter and are borne in groups of 3 - 15. Rarely do the flowers grow separately. The self-fertile flowers open gradually for several hours during the day. Seed matures in approximately one month in the cone-shaped translucent seedpod. This splits open at the top, revealing opaque black, grooved pear-shaped seeds, about 2.5 mm in diameter. One seedpod contains about 3-10 seeds. Wind slowly shakes out seed for many months. Seed germinates during the first autumn rains. Seedlings grow quickly, and, in their native habitat, flower in the second year. A high germination rate is observed for seed that has been stored for several years.
Drosophyllum lusitanicum grows in the sun under loose overgrowth. The underbrush consists of dry shrubs of various sizes, e.g. Cistus, Cytisus, Lavandula, Sarothamnus and Ulex (Studnička, 1984). Drosophyllum is also found growing alongside plants from the following genera; Bellis, Calluna, Carex, Festuca, Halimium, Chamaespartium, Polygala, Quercus, Tuberaria etc. (Schmidt, 1997). Soil on the south coast of Spain is sandy or loamy, slightly acid to neutral, lime-less and poor in nutrients. The geologic underlay consists of sandstone. Drosophyllum also grows directly in sandstone crevices. The natural lack of nutrients in the soil is overcome in Drosophyllum by the digestion of a prey trapped by the leaves and active secretion of digestive mucilage.
We acquired information on two Portuguese localities nearby Lisbon from Miguel Porto (personal communication, 2000) who was able to observe Drosophyllum in its native habitat. The plants grew in mixture of red sandstone and loam. Soil tended to be loamier than sandy and was mixed with organic material (pine needles). The second population grew in pure solid loam with no organic ingredients. Plants grew amongst cork oak (Quercus suber) scrub. Surprisingly, plants at the second location were growing about 200 km inland near Portalegre. The reason for the colonization of Drosophyllum here appears to be human intervention. People regularly harvest the cork oak and, in the process, clear the soil of vegetation. This removal appears to have allowed Drosophyllum to successfully establish itself there (Miguel Porto, personal communication). Further, regular cleaning of the soil has led to this area being dominated by young plants, as opposed to the first location which contained many older plants (Miguel Porto, personal communication).
The literature often indicates that Drosophyllum prefers to grow in alkaline substrates (Slack, 1988; Lecoufle, 1990; D’Amato, 1998). We are not sure whether this data is based on observations in nature or logical deductions and speculations only. More field research is needed to support or discredit this data. During our observations in its native habitat, we have never seen Drosophyllum growing in alkaline soils, despite several intensive searches at suitable places. Juniper et al. (1989) also cites that Drosophyllum keeps away from limestone areas. Miguel Porto (personal communication, 2000) in Portugal reaffirmed this in a subsequent survey. Another widely perpetuated myth is that Drosophyllum plants do not grow close to each other in its native habitat due to the production of inhibitors which suppress the growth of surrounding plants (Pietropaolo et al., 1986; D’Amato, 1998). According to our observations in nature and cultivation and also investigations by Miguel Porto (personal communication, 2000), the plants can grow side by side (several centimeters distance) without any negative influence on their growth. The fact that at some localities Drosophyllum is dispersed over large distances is likely the result of very harsh conditions and high mortality of the small seedlings rather than inhibitor production.
Summer climate at locations where Drosophyllum grows is characterized by a lack of rainfall. The proximity to the sea becomes very advantageous as the ocean provides a source of sufficient air humidity during rainless periods. Drosophyllum has an interesting life strategy developed to catch condensed moisture from air humidity. The stem, which consists of a rosette of long thin leaves, keeps close to the ground where there is always greater quanitites of morning dew for a longer period of time as compared to areas further above the soil level. Undeveloped leaves can absorb water too. Thus, Drosophyllum acquires necessary moisture even during the summer period, when there is no rainfall.
We had the fortune of observing Drosophyllum in its native habitat at three localities during our August 1999 visit to Andalusia, Cádiz in southern Spain. Our friends Christian Breckpot (Belgium), Alexander Schmidt and Jan Schlauer (Germany) made looking for these plants easier by providing precise range maps of the plants. They have our thanks, as the maps saved a lot of time! A visit of the Drosophyllum localities was one part of our great expedition of looking for European carnivorous plants, especially Pinguicula. We had driven 10,500 km in 21 days, saw 41 localities and discovered 33 species, subspecies and hybrids of carnivorous plants. However, to stick with the theme of this article, we will write about our observations on the other carnivorous plants and on the preparations made for this expedition another time. A surprise for the future!
Some notes about the Drosophyllum localities from our itinerary are provided below, including our field observations of the plants.
August 4, 1999 Wednesday
…Under the cover of dusk, we were looking for car parking at 3100m a.s.l. (above sea level) on the way to the top of Pico de Veleta (3392 m.n.m) in the Sierra Nevada mountains of southern Spain. The nearby Mulhacen (3481 m.n.m.), the highest mountain of the Pyrenean peninsula, was bathed in the setting sun. We had gone through a long tiresome march and successfully found the alpine butterwort Pinguicula nevadensis. During our return trip we passed within twenty metres of an ibex (mountain goat)! We found our car with great difficulties, given the relative darkness. At half past eleven, travelling down a zigzagging road from the mountain Pico de Veleta, we said good bye to the luminous town of Granada, beautifully spread out in the valley deep below the road. The weather was cold, about 5°C. While we were weary with our days visit of the Pinguicula vallisneriifolia locality in the Sierra de Segura mountains and the two highland localities of P. nevadensis, we were still looking forward to observing our first Drosophyllum. We decided to overnight about 300 km along the southwestern road leading to Malaga and Gibraltar.
August 5,1999 Thursday
About one thirty in the morning we made a pit stop in front of the illuminated theatre in Malaga to brew the necessary coffee. There was a nighttime hustle and bustle in this place and the temperature was warm at around thirty degrees. Within two hours we had descended from 3100 m a.s.l. to 0 m a.s.l.. The change of 25°C between elevations in so short a time was really felt by us.
At four in the morning we finally found a suitable campsite near an abandoned dusty road winding its way to the low coastal hills between the cities of San Roque and Estepona. These hills are covered by dozens of wind power stations, which use the energy of all available wind from the sea to the land. At 4:30 we lay down in our tents near one of the wind power stations and fell asleep listening to the never-ending and not so silent sound made by the rotating vanes. At 8:30 we awoke and admired our beautiful view of the sea! During the 4 hours we spent camping, about 20 cars had come along for the nice view. Overall, our sleep was not a quiet one! We woke up to find we had camped along newly burnt cork woods, something we missed at four thirty in the morning. A decision was made to visit the most southern point of the European continent - the town of Tarifa - and then bathe along the border between the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.
At 9:30 we were on a beach representing the most southern point of our expedition. A sprinkling of drunk Austrians and Frenchmen sleeping away their late night binges was all that existed for human life. Otherwise, there was no one anywhere. The bath in the sea was refreshing but cold (12°C). Early-morning clouds hid the sky covering nearby Africa. The ocean was turbulent and dark. We refuelled energy really needed for the upcoming day. We didn’t know it then, but we would fondly remember the cool maritime morning and cold refreshing bath over the next few days!
A photo of our “group of four” was taken and, with a last glance towards Africa, said good bye to this beautiful place. Following the rocky Gibraltar shore, we turn off on to a road leading inland towards a Drosophyllum locality near the town of Algeciras. Shortly before lunch, the clouds disappeared and the sun began to beat down. People who love the sun and heat would really enjoy it here in the south. We decided to have lunch under the shadow of domesticated blue gums. A Drosophyllum locality was subsequently found without any problems.
The site consisted primarily of a sharp, uncovered, eroded slope arising from a landslide or mining. We had already seen the magnificent tall Drosophyllum plants from a distance, but up close found that the slope was covered with plants. The plants were generally widely dispersed but were also found growing nearby in clumps. We also found a few young plants, this year’s seedlings. We were in rapture and started to fully exploring this locality.
There were several hundreds of plants of various ages in an area approximately 30 m long by 15 m wide. The plants grew in an absolutely dry area on a south slope at an altitude of 100 m.n.m about 20 km from seashore and were exposed to the sun all day. Nonetheless, drops of dew glittered brightly in the southerly sun. A deep root system likely provided a lot of the necessary water in this streamless landscape.
Uncovered slopes revealed the geologic profile at this location. The upper layer (about 1 m) consisted of yellow loam and conglomerate loamy soil, while the lower layer consisted of a sprinkling of sandstone rocks, stones and gravel mixed with sandy-loamy soils. The soil was dry, dusty and very cumbly. The light slope and plain beneath the landslide were overgrown with impenetrable small prickly shrubs and other vegetation. The recently disturbed slope had little vegetation, covered primarily by Drosophyllum. It is clear that Drosophyllum did so well here because the plants had minimal competition with other plants and had suitable conditions for germination and growth. It is possible that ongoing erosion and landslides limit the growth of the other plants. Some Drosophyllum grew in a short bushy zone of surrounding vegetation but were nowhere near as beautiful and robust as the ones on the slope. It is clear that intermittent fire would liekly help Drosophyllum seedlings by removing other competitive plants. Carnivorous plants benefitting from fire is not unusual and has been described before. For example, North American Pitcher Plants (Sarracenia) and the Venus Fly Trap (Dionaea muscipula) or Australian sundews (Drosera), Rainbow Plants (Byblis) and Australian Pitcher Plant (Cephalotus follicularis), all benefit from regular fires which ensure plenty of suitable biotopes, where the plants do not have to compete with other species. The question remains as to how much fire the single mature plants are able to withstand. It is clear that the plants and seed can survive short-term, high temperature fires as indicated by their large numbers and the age of some specimens at this site. Nearby burnt trunks indicated recent passage of fire.
There were old plants on the slope, whose age we were unable to estimate, and small seedlings from the past season’s seed. These plants are the most beautiful looking in their native habitat. They were huge and well branched with stems up 10-20 cm, and rosettes of leaves up to 15-30 cm in diameter. We even found two plants with 50 cm diameter rosettes!!! Every plant had several leaves. Seed had matured long ago, leaving only empty seedpods. Nonetheless, we did find one late flowering plant. A midday temperature measured near the stem of one plant (1 cm under the surface of soil) was 42°C!!!
After an hour and a half in full noon-hour sunshine, we left this beautiful place and headed towards the multiple larger localities on a part of a slope near Alcalá de Los Gazules. We were dying to see them!!!
After about 40 km of driving, we parked our car along the dusty road and started to explore. The area appeared identical to the information provided to us on the maps, and all was going according to plan. However, after 5 hours of walking through underbrush (akin to walking through barbed wire) over shaggy hills and affirmations of highland goat shepherds that we are on the right route, we gave up. Fifteen kilometers on foot and scorching sun in excess of 45°C had made ruins of us. Torn trousers, legs and arms beaten-up, burnt and bloody, and nipping sweat in fresh wounds reflected our tortured travels on this terrain. We got in our steaming car. The coolest water to drink was about 60°C! After driving 7 km, we stumbled across an area that seemed suitable for exploration. We parked our car again and, although we were sick and tired of it, we decided to climb a mountain. The first problem lay in the rapidly approaching nighttime, so we had to hurry up to allow us to return before dusk. The second problem was with incorrect Spanish tourist markers. Tens of unmarked and peculiarly marked pathways made it difficult to discern the correct course to the top. But in the end, it turned out that all the ways led to the top! We came to understand the Spanish markings during our return trip. Most of the tourist markers were chalked in a crossform and placed at the backside of stones and so were seen during the trip down! This marking is probably updated yearly, quite likely in spring, when rains wash out the old markers. Gold Czech marking!!!
We tried to quickly climb to the top, but found it rather difficult. Despite the advancing dusk, our exhaustion after the afternoon adventure and the never-ending climbing on the mountain, we found the first Drosophyllum. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to fully explore this locality, only a few minutes. The plants were at 750 to 800m a.s.l., in a zone some several hundreds meters above the zone containing cork oak (Quercus suber). And so, we only saw a tiny proportion of this interesting locality divided into specific vegetation zones like something from a textbook.
The plants were brown without any glittering drops of mucilage. They looked very miserable, most being dead. Although the plants grew approximately 650-700 m a. s. l.. higher than those at the first location, most of their seedpods were empty. Surrounding, almost unpenetrable vegetation, was composed of junipers, prickly ilex oaks, small grasses and bushy shrubs. Drosophyllum fought for every free place. The soil consisted of sandstone, exposed in many areas. There were frequent fires at this location, however surrounding vegetation indicated that the last fire was some time ago. Photographs of this place from 1996 showed quite a different scene than what we had seen three years later. In these photos, sporadic underbrush and burnt shrub made-up the surrounding vegetation. There were magnificent unhindered Drosophyllum growing among these.
Our view of the plants was during the hot, dry season only. Drosophyllum is at its prime from autumn to spring, generally around May (Miguel Porto, personal communication). The plants can restrict their growth under poor conditions during the summer, with some appearing to die off. But, it is very likely that the plants will restore their growth with the first autumn rains. When we saw the withering and drying plants in summer, it did not mean that they would not rise once again with coming rainfalls!
We had to run back downhill, as dusk was upon us. After a few kilometers of driving, we found a beautiful campsite at the pastures near the town of Ubrique. Despite the persistent pain and blisters we fell asleep immediately.
August 6, 1999 Friday
We woke up at 8:00 in the morning. The grey-white clouds gathered along the nearby hills. The clouds covered the tops of hills, gently sliding and falling along the slopes. An interesting view to wake up to. It looked as if it would begin to rain at any time. We packed our tents and sleeping bags and moved to the locality between the towns of Ubrique and Alcalá de los Gazules. We had received a tip about a zone a few kilometers long where Drosophyllum grew directly alongside the road. At 9:30 our car climbed the adjoining hills and was encompassed in a dense white-grey fog. We could barely see ten meters ahead! A light drizzle fell on the slopes of the hills, covering everything in a thin film of water. Gentle breezes shifted the drizzle around the hillside. It was cold, about 12-15°C. There were condensed drops of dew on the soil and surrounding vegetation. Everything was completely wet!!! Now we could see how Drosophyllum acquires the necessary moisture in the dry summer season, especially when this event is a regular occurrence. We believe that this climate is very similar to the climate at other Drosophyllum localities. The previous day we had seen the same early-morning clouds over the tops of the Moroccan part of the Atlas Mountains, where Drosophyllum grows. The close vicinity of the Atlantic Ocean plays a very important role in such a dry period and may be a reason why the plants do not grow farther inland. At 10:30-11:00 the fog and clouds disappeared allowing the sun to begin to beat down again. Vegetation dried quickly and the temperature increased briskly. It would be another hot day.
The location we were looking for was found at about 700 a.s.l., a few kilometers from Ubrique. There was a marked road, about 20 km long, on the map without any further details. We very slowly drove this road in its entirety, watching the surrounding slopes carefully. Tired from the previous days adventures, we relied solely on finding plants from the car. We called this method “car herbarizing”, useful for searching for populations of pitcher plants in the U.S. or butterworts in Pyrenean. Unfortunately, it turned out that this method was not useful in searching for Drosophyllum which proved to be quite “invisible”. After 15 km we turned around and drove back along the way we came. This time, we applied a new strategy. We stopped at suitable places and got out to explore. By the sixth attempt, we were successful! It was shocking to find several plants growing on an eroded slope only a few centimeters away from the asphalt road. It meant that we had already driven by them once before!!! Interestingly, the plants were among the most beautiful Drosophyllum plants we had seen. The soil consisted of pulped sandstone and loam. The plants had almost empty seedpods.
A few hundreds meters further along the road, we found more plants, heavily covered in dew, on a very mild sandstone rocky slope. There were only a few dozen of the mature plants and seedlings at this locality and they were not as beautiful and old as compared to the ones near Algeciras. These plants were approximately one year old and had not reached flowering size. The rosette of leaves averaged about 20-25 cm in diameter. The plants had almost no stem, looking as though they had grown directly from the soil surface. It appeared that the plants grew directly in the rocky clefts and rifts in the horizontal sandstone rock. Dry soil was very sandy, consisting of pulped sandstone and sandstone gravel without loam. It was very similar to the mild pure white sand arising from the erosion of sandstone. There was not much other vegetation at this place. Needless to say, this location was exposed to full sun. It appeared as though this may have previously been a sandstone pit, now colonized by the classical Mediterranean vegetation. Drosophyllum were the first colonizers at this site. Surrounding slopes were overgrown with bushy vegetation and did not contain any Drosophyllum plants. One interesting observation was that of several pasturing cows nearby, which trampled and ate not only the surrounding vegetation, but most of the Drosophyllum!!! We found many broken stems of these rare plants with several of the plants resprouting again!
At 13:10 we said goodbye to this location and to the Drosophyllum. We started the almost 700-km long journey through streamless, but magnificent Spanish lands from the town of Cordoba to Madrid, and eventually to the locality of Pinguicula dertosensis. The sight of Drosophyllum lusitanicum in its native habitat was imprinted so firmly in our minds, that we would certainly have to return here again…
Common comments from our observations at Drosophyllum localities
Previously described localities are likely the most eastern ones in regions where Drosophyllum occurs. Drosophyllum grows in acid sand-loamy soil, in the sandstone clefts and cracks, in sandstone-loamy gravel and in pure sand. A sample of the more loamy than sandy soil from the superficial layer at the locality near Ubrique had a pH of 5.3. The plants prefer full sunlight and eroded places without any cover. Growth of the plants in the underbrush of shrubs and grasses is poor. Plants never grow in the shade of the oak woods. The plants can survive high temperatures for a long time (even 45°C) or light frosts (down to –7°C in cultivation) without any damage. Literature differs in what are the typical altitudes of incidence for Drosophyllum. Although some authors cites that the plants grow from sea level to 400m a.s.l. or lower, we observed Drosophyllum growing at altitudes up to 750-800m a.s.l..
Dewy plants always had a lot of prey. The rosette of leaves reached 15-25 cm in diameter. One rosette typically had 1-5 flower stems and 5-7 flowers per stem. One follicle contains 7 – 10 seeds. There were many young seedlings and old plants at the localities. The older plants branched approximately 4-5 times.
The growing range of Drosophyllum is limited to maritime regions with characteristic regular morning fogs bringing essential moisture in the summer periods, when no rain falls for several weeks. The surface of the soil was absolutely dry during our visit. When we had returned back via the inland region of Spain, we drove through the nearest adjoining mountains, Sierra de Grazalema, comprised primarily of limestone. There were no Drosophyllum there at all, although clouds from the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean gathered in this area- in a few ridges high above 1000 a.s.l. of the mountains Sierra de Grazalema with the highest top Torreone (1654 m a.s.l.). Despite a lot of rain falls in these limestone mountains, the incidence of Drosophyllum has not been recorded there. May be the reason is that the plants do not grow in alkaline soils.
And why does Drosophyllum not grow further inland? As discussed above, Drosophyllum gathers moisture from regular morning fogs typical for the maritime regions. These morning fogs usually dissipate near the coast, generally between the first mountain ridges (as in the case of Sierra de Grazalema) and the coast. Hence, areas further inland from these mountain ranges are essentially fog-less. This lack of a regular source of water in summer is the reason why Drosophyllum does not grow in the dry central regions of Spain.
And one last interesting observation of Drosophyllum in its natural habitat. Our plants are grown in open outdoors-garden cultivation from spring to autumn. It is interesting to note that plants in the garden capture more insects than do the ones in nature. It was estimated that there was only 20-50% of the quantity of prey caught by plants in their natural habitat as compared to cultivated plants. All the plants were comparable in their size. How can this be explained? Could the lower quantity of insects at sunburned localities or a different generic composition of prey be the cause? Or is there an animal- "thief" at the localities which steals captured prey?
If you dip into current or even previous literature and articles about Drosophyllum cultivation, you will probably find information stating how artificial cultivation is difficult and almost impossible (Lecoufle, 1990). But some authors cite the opposite (Slack, 1988; Cheers, 1992). Over several years of cultivating these plants, we found that growing Drosophyllum is really very easy if you follow several basic principles of cultivation.
Despite some unaccounted-for data about asexual propagation in the literature (Lecoufle, 1990), Drosophyllum can be propagated by sowing seed only. One of the morpholgic peculiarties of Drosophyllum is that it does not produce adventitious roots and so stem cuttings cannot root (Studnička, 1984b; D’Amato, 1998). The fibrous root system is very susceptible to any damage and that is why the plant can not be repotted. The best time to sow the seed is in early spring.
We sow seed and subsequently grow plants on a medium consisting of acidic, fibrous peat moss and mild, nonalkaline sand (1:3). We sometimes add cut dry Sphagnum, perlite, vermiculite or milled charcoal, but this is not necessary. The plants tolerate loamy-sandy planting medium too. Plants grew very well in a sample of this soil we imported from the locality near Ubrique. We always use unglazed ceramic pots 12 cm or more in diameter. Some stems of sphagnum are put through the drainage hole to act as a wick. We fill a pot with the planting medium to 2 cm below the edge and press the substrate down. The filled pot is placed in a tray of water to moisten the substrate. Now we are ready to sow the seed.
The minute black seeds have a hard seed coat. For successful and quick germination, scarification is necessary – you must scratch the seed coat. We recommend the following methods:
A) Before sowing you can soak the seed in water or 0.1% solution of giberellic acid (GA3, stimulator of germination) for 24 hours. Then you carefully cut very thin slices of the soft seed coat using a knife blade. We cut at the peak of the seed, while other authors recommend cutting the side or a wider part of the seed.
B) Dry seeds can be abraded using sandpaper or a rasp. This procedure crushes up the hard seed coat. It is better to use method A).
C) You can sow the seeds without scarification and place them in a heated greenhouse. Seed will naturally germinate in the spring. While method A) allows a more precise timing of germination, method C) unfortunately does not.
Prepared seeds are sown on the moist planting medium in 3 – 5 pits about 1 cm deep (dug by a finger). We put one seed into every pit. The previous recommendation of placing the pot in darkness (Studnička, 1984a) has been found to be unnecessary. In our experience the seeds germinate at the same rate when exposed to light. The statement that only one plant should be left in a pot after germination is also untrue. We always grow several plants (1 – 5) in a single pot without any problems. Their growth is comparable with the plants potted up individually.
Seeds germinate in ambient or slightly higher air humidity conditions within one or several weeks. Too high air humidity leads to death of the germinating seedlings. If seed is treated with giberellic acid (GA3) they will start to germinate after one week. Otherwise, seed germinates within 2 – 3 weeks. As soon as the seed germinates you must decrease air humidity and increase air circulation. Also we add substrate to the germinating plants so that we cover the sowing pits with the substrate and replenish the surface of the pot. High air humidity will certainly kill all the young seedlings. Drosophyllum requires maximum light. About 40% of the germinated plants die during the first 2 – 3 months.
When the plants have grown a few centimeters, we have several possibilities on how to proceed. The first possibility is for growers who have the time to care for their plants. The pot is kept standing in a tray, adding water only when the plants require it. The planting medium on the surface is kept dry or very slightly moist. Watering ensures a moist lower layer of the planting medium in a pot. You must closely watch for signs of wilting of the plant, especially on hot summer days. This is an indication to add water. Intermittent overwatering of the planting medium or temporarily reduced lighting is not a problem for mature plants. Drosophyllum can be grown very easily in trays on windowsills, where the plants are watered from below as needed. The planting medium must be kept moist not water-logged. The construction of so called “double pots” is not necessary. In comparison to the fragility of the young plants, mature ones tolerate waterlogging and dry spells better and seldomnly die from this.
If you have an outdoor peat bog, dig a spot into the substrate 5 – 10 cm deep for Drosophyllum. The lower part of the pot can be set into the holer, while the upper part of the pot will stick out of the surface. The upper layer of the substrate will dry up completely during hot summer days. The emergent part of the pot can be masked with some aerial or porous material such as large stones to give it a better look. Drosophyllum should be placed outdoors at the beginning of spring and brought indoors with the first frosts. The plants do not need protection against a few days worth of rain, as excess water flows through the substrate in the pot very quickly.
The second possibile method for growing Drosophyllum requires the construction of a so-called “double pot”. This is suitable for growers who do not have the time to observe their plants every day and quickly respond to the need of water. This method is described well in Adrian Slack’s book (Slack, 1988). The pot with germinated seedlings is placed on substrate or sphagnum which has been placed in a second ceramic or plastic pot with larger diameter filled so that two-thirds of the inner pot will be in the larger outer pot. A third of the pot with the plant juts above the edge of the first pot (vide picture). This “double pot” should be placed in a tray, always kept full of water. Watering should be higher in summer and lower in winter. The needed amount of water will penetrate through the bottom of the upper pot. The upper surface of the planting medium may dry up completely. It is necessary to keep the bottom of the inner pot rather high (vide picture) so that it does not sit in the water. If it is too low, the planting medium and roots would be waterlogged permanently.
Drosophyllum lusitanicum loves full sunlight all year round. The plants like high temperatures during the summer and fall and a range of 5-15°C in winter. Permanent high air humidity is bad. This plant may be grown successfully in pots on the windowsill receiving full sunlight (south exposure is ideal). Of course, the greenhouse is an excellent location, especially in winter. We recommend outdoor cultivation of Drosophyllum during the summer, e.g. balconies, gardens or peat bogs. Using these methods, we have been able to grow the plants for several years without any problems or loss. Outdoor plants are brought inside with the first frosts, but will survive temperature falls to 0°C and even light frosts without damage (-7°C). The plants spend their dormant period in a cold and bright room. During the dormant period the planting medium must be drier. Before Drosophyllum are winterized, it beneficial to remove all old dry leaves, which could become a source of rot and rust infection.
For the first time we tried burning the old leaves in December ’00 in place of laborious and long mechanical removal performed previously. Drosophyllum produces dozens of leaves during the growing season. When they die, they droop down to the ground forming a dense tangle of dead leaves that cover the plant stem. The combustion of the leaves was very quick and intensive, literally like a bolt of lightening. Several dozen of the old leaves incinerated in a few seconds. The flames were so intense that they burned the lower, living leaves, but left most other leaves, including the ones in the central rosette, undamaged. The old leaves were burnt away, leaving a charred stem. This experiment was performed on plants in two pots (I.: 7 plants / 7 tips / 2 young seedlings; II.: 3 older plants / 15 tips). After 14 days it was apparent that the fire did not damage the plants. All the plants survived including young seedlings! What do these results indicate? Fire that passes through the natural habitat of Drosophyllum where it grows sparsely with a few other shrubs and grasses, likely passes very quickly. It is clear the small amount of high heat (few seconds) does minimal damage to the plants and that they can survive fire without any problems.
In cultivation, Drosophyllum can flower all year round, mostly at the end of winter and during early spring. In exceptional cases, the plant starts to flower when it is only two months old. It is usually best to remove this flower in its early stage. The plants usually start to flower from 6 – 9 months when they are 40-55 cm in diameter.
It is interesting to note that rain does not wash away freshly captured or partially digested prey, but light rain washes away completely digested insects. The plants remain "dewy" with clammy mucilage in the rain and water does not wash away the digestive secretions on the tentacles. Contrary to sundews (Drosera), these plants can capture large flies without any problems. In our experience the plants that capture plenty of prey grow more quickly than starving plants.
What can be said at the conclusion of this article? We believe this article presented important information about this beautiful carnivorous plant. Perhaps we have instilled a yearning in you to cultivate this rarity! You can see for yourself that cultivation is not overly difficult. Good luck!!!
If somebody knows of another locality of this plant, please write us with more information about it. We are interested in your experiences with growing Drosophyllum, especially if using methods of cultivations different from the ones described above. Thank you.
We thank Christian Breckpot (Belgium) and Alexander Schmidt (Germany) for exact information about the incidence of the plants in nature. Lubomír Adamec (CZ), Jan Schlauer (Germany) and Miloslav Studnička (CZ) for scientific input. Our thanks belong to our travel-companions Martin Spousta (CZ) and Michal Parvanov (Slovakia) for precious commentaries on observations in native habitats and Miguel Porto (Portugal) for his findings from native localities in Portugal. We also thank Marek Svítek (CZ) for English translation and Chris Teichreb (Canada) and Phill Wilson (GB) for language corrections. Our thanks are also due to Vladimír Sedláček (CZ) for valuable financial support, without it, our journey would not have been realized.
Carow T., Fuerst R., 2000. Fleischfressende Pflanzen. Verlag Thomas Carow, Nuedlingen, Germany.
D'Amato P., 1998. The Savage Garden: Cultivating Carnivorous Plants. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, California.
Heubl, Wistuba A., 1997. A cytological study of the genus Nepenthes L. (Nepenthaceae). Sendtnera 4: 169-174.
Cheers G., 1992. Letts Guide to Carnivorous Plants of the World. Letts of London.
Chrtek J., Slavíkova Z., 1996. Comments on the families Drosophyllaceae and Droseracee. Časopis národního muzea, Řada přírodověd. 165 (1-4): 139-141.
Chrtek J., Slavíkova Z., Studnička M., 1989. Beitrag zur Leitbündelanordnung in der Kronblättern von ausgewählten Arten der fleischfressenden Pflanzen. Preslia (Praha) 61: 107-124.
Juniper B. E., Robins R. J., Joel D. M., 1989. The Carnivorous Plants. Academic Press, London and San Diego.
Lecoufle M., 1990. Carnivorous Plants - Care and Cultivation. Blanford, London.
Pietropaolo J., Pietropaolo P. A., 1986. Carnivorous Plants of the World. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon.
Poppinga S., 1997. Drosophyllum lusitanicum (L.) Link (1806) Portugiesisches Taublatt, Taublatt 30: 4-5.
Schmidt A., 1997. Drosophyllum lusitanicum an zwei Fundorten in der Provinz Cádiz, Südspanien, Taublatt 30: 5-14.
Slack A., 1988. Carnivorous Plants. Rev.ed. Alpha Books, London.
Studnička M., 1984a. Masožravé rostliny. Academia, nakl. ČSAV, Praha.
Studnička M., 1984b. Masožravá rostlina rosnolist lusitánský. Živa 32 (5): 8-10.
Copyright (c) Kamil Pásek & Jan Flísek, 2001
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You are here
Asian American/Pacific Islander Communities and Mental Health
Mental Health America works nationally and locally to raise awareness about mental health and ensures that those at-risk for mental illnesses and related disorders receive proper, timely and effective treatment. MHA incorporates culturally competent strategies to ensure that it is effectively addressing the treatment and psychosocial needs of consumers and families with diverse values, beliefs, sexual orientations, and backgrounds that vary by race, ethnicity and/or language.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2014 :
- There are 19 million people in the United States who identify as Asian/Pacific Islander, up from 11 million people just fifteen years earlier. 6 million live in California, followed by 1.7 million who live in New York.
- Among Asian Americans, 6.2 million are of Chinese descent, 3.9 million of Filipino descent, and 3.3 million of Indian descent, followed by 1.9 million of Vietnamese descent, 1.8 million of Korean descent, and 1.3 million of Japanese descent.
- In 2012, 13 percent of Asian Americans lived below poverty level, and 15 percent were without health insurance. 21 percent of Pacific Islanders lived below poverty level, and 18 percent were uninsured.
- 51 percent of Asian Americans have at least a Bachelor’s Degree, compared to 29 percent of all Americans, and 15 percent of Pacific Islanders.
- 270,000 Asians are veterans, one-third of them over the age of 65. More than 32,000 Pacific Islanders (including Hawaiians) are also veterans.
- The AA/PI category is extremely diverse, with about 43 different ethnic subgroups who speak more than 100 languages and dialects.
- Knowledge of the mental health needs and attitudes of Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders regarding mental illness is limited. Few epidemiological studies have included Asian Americans or people whose English is limited.
- The National Asian Women’s Health Organization (NAWHO) sponsored a study, Breaking the Silence: A Study of Depression Among Asian American Women, that found:
- Conflicting cultural values are impacting Asian-American women's sense of control over their life decisions
- Feeling responsible, yet unable to meet biased and unrealistic standards set by families and society, contributes to low self-esteem among Asian-American women
- Asian-American women witness depression in their families, but have learned from their Asian cultures to maintain silence on the subject
- Asian-American women fear stigma for themselves, but more so for their families
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , in general Asian Americans report fewer mental health concerns than do whites. However:
- 18.9 percent of Asian American high school students report considering suicide, versus 15.5 percent of whites.
- 10.8 percent of Asian American high school students report having attempted suicide, versus 6.2 percent of whites.
- Asian American high school females are twice as likely (15 percent) to have attempted suicide than males (7 percent).
- Suicide death rates are 30 percent higher for 15-24 year old Asian American females than they are for white females (5.3 versus 4.0).
- Suicide death rates for 65+ year old Asian American females are higher than they are for white females (4.8 to 4.5).
- Language barriers make it difficult for Asian Americans to access mental health services. Discussing mental health concerns is considered taboo in many Asian cultures. Because of this, Asian Americans tend to dismiss, deny, or neglect their symptoms.
- Lack of awareness of the resources and services that are available, as well as the stigma surrounding mental health issues, are the biggest deterrents in seeking professional help.
- Most young Asian Americans tend to seek out support from personal networks such as close friends, family members, and religious community members rather than seek professional help for their mental health concerns.
Historically, AA/PIs have had challenges in accessing health care and insurance.
- Nearly 1 out of 2 Asian Americans will have difficulty accessing mental health treatment because they do not speak English or cannot find services that meet their language needs.
- Prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, 15 percent of Asian Americans, and 18 percent of Pacific Islanders lacked health insurance.
- Relative to other U.S. populations, Asian Americans are 3 times less likely to seek mental health services.
Partnerships and Resources
- Mental Health Screening Resources: http://www.MHAscreening.org
- National Asian Women’s Health Organization http://www.nawho.org/
- National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association: http://www.naapimha.org/
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In macroeconomics, aggregate demand (AD) is the total demand for final goods and services in the economy at a given time and price level. It specifies the amounts of goods and services that will be purchased at all possible price levels. This is the demand for the gross domestic product of a country. It is often called effective demand, though at other times this term is distinguished.
It is often cited that the aggregate demand curve is downward sloping because at lower price levels a greater quantity is demanded. While this is correct at the microeconomic, single good level, at the aggregate level this is incorrect. The aggregate demand curve is in fact downward sloping as a result of three distinct effects: Pigou's wealth effect, the Keynes' interest rate effect and the Mundell-Fleming exchange-rate effect. Additionally, the higher the price level is to be, the less demanded and thus it is downward sloping.
The aggregate demand curve illustrates the relationship between two factors - the quantity of output that is demanded and the aggregated price level. The value of the money supply is fixed. There are many factors that can shift the AD curve. If the Bank were to reduce the amount of money in circulation (reducing money supply), the AD curve shifts. Nominal output is lower than before and decreases by the same amount as the decrease in the money supply. The price level decreases and thus the AD curve shifts rightward. Since the price level decreased, the real balances level (M/P) will decrease - demand decreases. If the money supply was increased and thus aggregate demand increased, there would be a movement up along the Long run aggregate supply curve. The cost of this is a permanently higher level of prices. As a result of increase in aggregate demand, the economy will gravitate toward the natural level more quickly.
John Maynard Keynes in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money argued during the Great Depression that the loss of output by the private sector as a result of a systemic shock (the Wall Street Crash of 1929) ought to be filled by government spending. First, he argued that with a lower ‘effective aggregate demand’, or the total amount of spending in the economy (lowered in the Crash), the private sector could subsist on a permanently reduced level of activity and involuntary unemployment, unless there was active intervention. Business lost access to capital, so it had dismissed workers. This meant workers had less to spend as consumers, consumers bought less from business, which because of additionally reduced demand, had found the need to dismiss workers. The downward spiral could only be halted, and rectified by external action. Second, people with higher incomes have a lower marginal propensity to consume their incomes. People with lower incomes are inclined to spend their earnings immediately to buy housing, food, transport and so forth, while people with much higher incomes cannot consume everything. They save instead, which means that the ‘velocity of money’ or the circulation of income through different hands in the economy is decreased. This lowered the rate of growth. Spending should therefore target public works programmes on a large enough scale to speed up growth to its previous levels.
An aggregate demand curve is the sum of individual demand curves for different sectors of the economy. The aggregate demand is usually described as a linear sum of four separable demand sources:
- is consumption (may also be known as consumer spending) = , where is consumers' income and is taxes paid by consumers,
- is Investment,
- is Government spending,
- is Net export,
- is total exports, and
- is total imports = .
These four major parts, which can be stated in either 'nominal' or 'real' terms, are:
- personal consumption expenditures (C) or "consumption," demand by households and unattached individuals; its determination is described by the consumption function. The consumption function is C= a + (mpc)(Y-T)
- gross private domestic investment (I), such as spending by business firms on factory construction. This includes all private sector spending aimed at the production of some future consumable.
- In Keynesian economics, not all of gross private domestic investment counts as part of aggregate demand. Much or most of the investment in inventories can be due to a short-fall in demand (unplanned inventory accumulation or "general over-production"). The Keynesian model forecasts a decrease in national output and income when there is unplanned investment. (Inventory accumulation would correspond to an excess supply of products; in the National Income and Product Accounts, it is treated as a purchase by its producer.) Thus, only the planned or intended or desired part of investment (Ip) is counted as part of aggregate demand. (So, I does not include the 'investment' in running up or depleting inventory levels.)
- Investment is affected by the output and the interest rate (i). Consequently, we can write it as I(Y,i). Investment has positive relationship with the output and negative relationship with the interest rate. For example, an increase in the interest rate will cause aggregate demand to decline. Interest costs are part of the cost of borrowing and as they rise, both firms and households will cut back on spending. This shifts the aggregate demand curve to the left. This lowers equilibrium GDP below potential GDP. As production falls for many firms, they begin to lay off workers, and unemployment rises. The declining demand also lowers the price level. The economy is in recession.
- gross government investment and consumption expenditures (G).
- net exports (NX and sometimes (X-M)), i.e., net demand by the rest of the world for the country's output.
In sum, for a single country at a given time, aggregate demand (D or AD) = C + Ip + G + (X-M).
These macroeconomic variables are constructed from varying types of microeconomic variables from the price of each, so these variables are denominated in (real or nominal) currency terms.
Aggregate demand curves
Understanding of the aggregate demand curve depends on whether it is examined based on changes in demand as income changes, or as price change.
Aggregate demand-aggregate supply model
Thus, that we could refer to an "aggregate quantity demanded" (Yd = C + Ip + G + NX in real or inflation-corrected terms) at any given aggregate average price level (such as the GDP deflator), P.
In these diagrams, typically the Yd rises as the average price level (P) falls, as with the AD line in the diagram. The main theoretical reason for this is that if the nominal money supply (Ms) is constant, a falling P implies that the real money supply (Ms/P)rises, encouraging lower interest rates and higher spending. This is often called the "Keynes effect."
Carefully using ideas from the theory of supply and demand, aggregate supply can help determine the extent to which increases in aggregate demand lead to increases in real output or instead to increases in prices (inflation). In the diagram, an increase in any of the components of AD (at any given P) shifts the AD curve to the right. This increases both the level of real production (Y) and the average price level (P).
But different levels of economic activity imply different mixtures of output and price increases. As shown, with very low levels of real gross domestic product and thus large amounts of unemployed resources, most economists of the Keynesian school suggest that most of the change would be in the form of output and employment increases. As the economy gets close to potential output (Y*), we would see more and more price increases rather than output increases as AD increases.
Beyond Y*, this gets more intense, so that price increases dominate. Worse, output levels greater than Y* cannot be sustained for long. The AS is a short-term relationship here. If the economy persists in operating above potential, the AS curve will shift to the left, making the increases in real output transitory.
At low levels of Y, the world is more complicated. First, most modern industrial economies experience few if any falls in prices. So the AS curve is unlikely to shift down or to the right. Second, when they do suffer price cuts (as in Japan), it can lead to disastrous deflation.
A Post-Keynesian theory of aggregate demand emphasizes the role of debt, which it considers a fundamental component of aggregate demand; the contribution of change in debt to aggregate demand is referred to by some as the credit impulse. Aggregate demand is spending, be it on consumption, investment, or other categories. Spending is related to income via:
- Income – Spending = Net Savings
Rearranging this yields:
- Spending = Income – Net Savings = Income + Net Increase in Debt
In words: what you spend is what you earn, plus what you borrow: if you spend $110 and earned $100, then you must have net borrowed $10; conversely if you spend $90 and earn $100, then you have net savings of $10, or have reduced debt by $10, for net change in debt of –$10.
If debt grows or shrinks slowly as a percentage of GDP, its impact on aggregate demand is small; conversely, if debt is significant, then changes in the dynamics of debt growth can have significant impact on aggregate demand. Change in debt is tied to the level of debt: if the overall debt level is 10% of GDP and 1% of loans are not repaid, this impacts GDP by 1% of 10% = 0.1% of GDP, which is statistical noise. Conversely, if the debt level is 300% of GDP and 1% of loans are not repaid, this impacts GDP by 1% of 300% = 3% of GDP, which is significant: a change of this magnitude will generally cause a recession. Similarly, changes in the repayment rate (debtors paying down their debts) impact aggregate demand in proportion to the level of debt. Thus, as the level of debt in an economy grows, the economy becomes more sensitive to debt dynamics, and credit bubbles are of macroeconomic concern. Since write-offs and savings rates both spike in recessions, both of which result in shrinkage of credit, the resulting drop in aggregate demand can worsen and perpetuate the recession in a vicious cycle.
This perspective originates in, and is intimately tied to, the debt-deflation theory of Irving Fisher, and the notion of a credit bubble (credit being the flip side of debt), and has been elaborated in the Post-Keynesian school. If the overall level of debt is rising each year, then aggregate demand exceeds Income by that amount. However, if the level of debt stops rising and instead starts falling (if "the bubble bursts"), then aggregate demand falls short of income, by the amount of net savings (largely in the form of debt repayment or debt writing off, such as in bankruptcy). This causes a sudden and sustained drop in aggregate demand, and this shock is argued to be the proximate cause of a class of economic crises, properly financial crises. Indeed, a fall in the level of debt is not necessary – even a slowing in the rate of debt growth causes a drop in aggregate demand (relative to the higher borrowing year). These crises then end when credit starts growing again, either because most or all debts have been repaid or written off, or for other reasons as below.
From the perspective of debt, the Keynesian prescription of government deficit spending in the face of an economic crisis consists of the government net dis-saving (increasing its debt) to compensate for the shortfall in private debt: it replaces private debt with public debt. Other alternatives include seeking to restart the growth of private debt ("reflate the bubble"), or slow or stop its fall; and debt relief, which by lowering or eliminating debt stops credit from contracting (as it cannot fall below zero) and allows debt to either stabilize or grow – this has the further effect of redistributing wealth from creditors (who write off debts) to debtors (whose debts are relieved).
Austrian theorist Henry Hazlitt argued that aggregate demand is a meaningless concept in economic analysis. Friedrich Hayek, another Austrian, argued that Keynes' study of the aggregate relations in an economy is fallacious, as recessions are caused by micro-economic factors.
- Sexton, Robert; Fortura, Peter (2005). Exploring Economics. ISBN 0-17-641482-7. "This is the sum of the demand for all final goods and services in the economy. It can also be seen as the quantity of real GDP demanded at different price levels."
- O'Sullivan, Arthur; Steven M. Sheffrin (2003). [http://www.pearsonschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PSZ3R9&PMDbSiteId=2781&PMDbSolutionId=6724&PMDbCategoryId=&PMDbProgramId=12881&level=4 oi = Economics: Principles in action]. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458: Pearson Prentice Hall. p. 307. ISBN 0-13-063085-3.
- Mankiw, N. Gregory, and William M. Scarth. Macroeconomics. Canadian ed., 4th ed. New York: Worth Publishers, 2011. Print.
- "aggregate demand (AD)". Archived from the original on 9 November 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
- Debtwatch No 41, December 2009: 4 Years of Calling the GFC, Steve Keen, December 1, 2009
- Credit and Economic Recovery: Demystifying Phoenix Miracles, Michael Biggs, Thomas Mayer, Andreas Pick, March 15, 2010
- "However much you borrow and spend this year, if it is less than last year, it means your spending will go into recession." Dhaval Joshi, RAB Capital, quoted in Noughty boys on trading floor led us into debt-laden fantasy
- Hazlitt, Henry (1959). The Failure of the 'New Economics': An Analysis of the Keynesian Fallacies. D. Van Nostrand.[page needed]
- Hayek, Friedrich (1989). The Collected Works of F.A. Hayek. University of Chicago Press. p. 202. ISBN 978-0-226-32097-7.
- Elmer G. Wiens: Classical & Keynesian AD-AS Model - An on-line, interactive model of the Canadian Economy.
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In the realm of healthcare, the Privacy Rule stands as a stalwart guardian of personal health information, ensuring its protection and confidentiality. However, an intriguing exception exists within this rule – the de-identified health information. While seemingly contradictory, this concept holds a deeper meaning. This article explores the nuances of de-identified health information and its relationship with the Privacy Rule, shedding light on the exceptions and limitations that govern this unique aspect of healthcare data. Join us on this journey of understanding and compliance within the realm of privacy and healthcare.
- De-identified health information allows for analysis and sharing without violating privacy.
- Methods like data masking, aggregation, and generalization are used to de-identify health information.
- Compliance with privacy regulations like HIPAA is essential when working with de-identified health information.
- De-identification of health information removes personally identifiable information from data sets while preserving data utility for research and analysis.
What Is the Privacy Rule
These guidelines include obtaining patient consent before disclosing their health information, providing patients with the right to access and amend their health records, and implementing safeguards to protect the privacy and security of health information. The Privacy Rule also requires covered entities to provide individuals with notice of their privacy practices and to appoint a privacy officer responsible for ensuring compliance with the rule.
By adhering to the Privacy Rule guidelines, covered entities can maintain trust and confidence among their patients, while also avoiding potential legal and financial consequences.
Understanding De-Identified Health Information
De-identified health information plays a crucial role in maintaining patient privacy and security, as it allows for the use and disclosure of health data while protecting individuals’ identities. Understanding de-identified health information is vital for both healthcare providers and researchers. Here are some key points to consider:
- De-identified health information refers to health data that has been stripped of any identifying information, such as names, addresses, and social security numbers.
- It allows for the analysis and sharing of health data without violating patient privacy.
- Challenges in de-identifying health data include the risk of re-identification, where seemingly anonymous data can be linked back to an individual, and the need to balance data utility with privacy protection.
- Various methods, such as data masking, aggregation, and generalization, are used to de-identify health information.
- Compliance with privacy regulations, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), is essential when handling de-identified health information.
Understanding and effectively implementing de-identified health information processes are crucial for safeguarding patient privacy and facilitating secure data sharing within the healthcare industry.
Privacy Rule and the Protection of Personal Health Information
Compliance with the Privacy Rule is essential for protecting personal health information. The Privacy Rule, established under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations, sets the standards for safeguarding individuals’ medical data. By adhering to the Privacy Rule, healthcare providers ensure that patients’ sensitive information remains confidential and secure.
To comply with the Privacy Rule, healthcare organizations must implement various measures, including administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. These safeguards are designed to protect the privacy and security of personal health information. Administrative safeguards involve policies and procedures that govern the use and disclosure of protected health information. Physical safeguards encompass physical controls, such as locked cabinets and restricted access areas. Technical safeguards involve the use of technology to secure electronic health information, such as encryption and access controls.
In order to demonstrate privacy rule compliance, organizations can conduct regular risk assessments, implement workforce training programs, and establish procedures for responding to breaches or unauthorized disclosures of personal health information.
The table below summarizes key components of privacy rule compliance:
|Administrative Safeguards||Policies and procedures that govern the use and disclosure of protected health information|
|Physical Safeguards||Physical controls, such as locked cabinets and restricted access areas|
|Technical Safeguards||Use of technology to secure electronic health information|
|Risk Assessments||Regular assessments to identify and address potential risks to personal health information|
Exceptions and Limitations Under the Privacy Rule
Exceptions under the Privacy Rule include:
- Disclosure without authorization for treatment, payment, and healthcare operations.
- Disclosure for public health activities, such as reporting communicable diseases or child abuse.
- Disclosure for law enforcement purposes, including reporting crimes or identifying suspects.
- Disclosure for research purposes, with certain safeguards in place.
Limitations under the Privacy Rule include:
- Minimum necessary standard, which requires covered entities to limit the use or disclosure of protected health information to the minimum necessary to accomplish the intended purpose.
- Prohibition on the sale of protected health information without individual authorization.
These exceptions and limitations help strike a balance between protecting individuals’ privacy and allowing necessary disclosures for various purposes.
Ensuring Compliance With the Privacy Rule
To ensure adherence to the Privacy Rule, covered entities must implement measures that guarantee the protection of personal health information while allowing for necessary disclosures in accordance with the exceptions and limitations outlined. Compliance with the Privacy Rule can be achieved through various strategies that focus on privacy rule enforcement. These strategies include:
|Employee Training||Providing regular training sessions to employees on the importance of privacy and the proper handling of data.||Enhances awareness and knowledge, reducing the risk of accidental or intentional privacy breaches.|
|Access Controls||Implementing access controls and authentication mechanisms to restrict access to personal health information.||Ensures that only authorized individuals can access and view personal health information.|
|Data Encryption||Encrypting personal health information to protect it from unauthorized access or disclosure.||Safeguards data in transit and at rest, providing an additional layer of protection against breaches.|
|Incident Response Plan||Developing and implementing an incident response plan to address and mitigate privacy breaches if they occur.||Enables swift and effective response to privacy breaches, minimizing potential harm to individuals.|
How Can Individuals Access Their Own De-Identified Health Information?
Individuals can access their own de-identified health information by exercising their access rights under the Privacy Rule. However, privacy concerns must be considered to ensure the protection of sensitive data.
Can De-Identified Health Information Be Used for Research Purposes Without Obtaining Consent From Patients?
Research ethics require obtaining patient consent for the use of de-identified health information. Without consent, using de-identified health information for research purposes would be a violation of privacy and ethical guidelines.
Are There Any Specific Guidelines or Standards for De-Identifying Health Information?
Guidelines and standards exist for de-identifying health information. These provide instructions on how to remove personally identifiable information from data to ensure privacy. Compliance with these guidelines is important for protecting patient confidentiality in research and other uses.
Can De-Identified Health Information Be Re-Identified by Combining It With Other Data Sources?
Re-identification risks arise when de-identified health information is combined with other data sources through data linkage techniques. This can compromise the privacy of individuals and is a concern for those seeking secure and protected health information.
What Are the Potential Consequences or Penalties for Non-Compliance With the Privacy Rule?
Potential consequences and penalties for non-compliance with the privacy rule can include civil monetary penalties, criminal charges, and reputational damage. Organizations must ensure they adhere to the privacy rule to avoid these potential ramifications.
In conclusion, the Privacy Rule plays a crucial role in protecting personal health information by establishing standards for de-identified health information. This ensures that individuals’ privacy is maintained and their sensitive data is safeguarded. Exceptions and limitations under the Privacy Rule further enhance its effectiveness. To ensure compliance with the Privacy Rule, organizations must adhere to the established guidelines and implement necessary measures. By doing so, they can uphold the privacy and security of individuals’ health information.
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Navigating Google Drawings
Google Drawings is a creative drawing and editing tool that allows students to create visual items, such as comic strips, virtual posters, flyers, eBooks, and more. Learn more about accessing and using Google Drawings by selecting the topics listed below.
Finding the menu bar & tool bar in Drawings
Menu bar - This is the bar along the top of the window, with File, Edit, View, Insert, Format,, Arrange, Tools, and Help submenus.
Tool bar - This is the bar under the menu bar that has buttons with pictures on them. Sometimes some of the buttons are hidden if they don't fit on your screen. You can find hidden buttons by clicking on the button with three horizontal dots. This bar changes in Drawings depending on what you've clicked on to edit. If you're editing a textbox, for example, you'll see buttons that allow you to change the text's font, size, and style.
Helpful buttons & tools in Drawings
These are some commonly used buttons and built-in tools within Google Drawings.
Canvas resizer - You'll find this in the bottom right corner of the canvas space, and you can drag it to resize your canvas.
More button - This button shows any buttons in the tool bar that are hidden from view, usually because your screen is too small to display them all at the same time.
Insert menu - The insert menu is in the menu bar, and you use to insert various items, such as images, textboxes, and tables, into your drawing.
Tools menu - The tools menu offers different tools you can use, such as spellcheck, the dictionary, and the Explore button.
Explore button - This button opens a side menu that suggests things to add to your drawing, such as pictures, formatting, sources of information, and more.
Turning in a Drawing to Google Classroom
To turn your Google Drawings file into Google Classroom, follow these steps:
- Open the class in Google Classroom, and go to the Classwork tab.
- Find the assignment, and click on it to expand it to show the directions. Then click "View assignment".
- On the right side, find the spaced titled "Your work". Your Google Drawing may already be listed there. If so, skip to step 4. If your Google Drawing is not already listed there, use the "Add or create" button to search for it in Google Drive and attach it.
- Click the"Turn in" button to submit your work to your teacher.
Have questions about the assignment? Use the "Private comments" section under "Your work" to send a private message to your teacher.
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World Suicide Prevention Day is on each and every September 10. It’s organized by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) and is co-sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO). It’s purpose is to raise awareness around the world that suicide can be prevented. According to the IASP:
• more than 800,000 people every year die by suicide
• up to 25 times as many make the attempt
• it is the 15th leading cause of death globally
• it is the 2nd leading cause of death among 15-29 year olds
• 60 people are affected by each suicide death, equating to 48 million people bereaved by suicide worldwide every year
• relatives and close friends of people who die by suicide are also a high risk group, due to the trauma and burden of the loss, and shared risks
Suicide is not the result of a single path, but of a convergence of risk factors. These can include genetic, psychological, social, and cultural risk factors, combined with experiences of trauma or loss. Depression is the most common psychiatric disorder in people who die by suicide, and half of individuals in high income countries who die by suicide have major depressive disorder at the time of their death. Other risk factors include chronic pain or illness, alcohol abuse, and sudden traumatic losses or events.
WHO, stating that there are more deaths from suicide than from war and homicide combined, recognizes suicide as a public health priority and aims to increase awareness and make prevention a high priority, as well as promote mental health and well-being.
This year’s theme for World Suicide Prevention Day is ‘Take a minute, change a life.’ The theme is meant to encourage us to take a minute to reach out to someone, ask them if they are okay, ask them if they need anything, or ask them if they want to talk. Almost all of those who have survived a suicide attempt have stated that if someone had taken a minute, they would have allowed them to intervene and change the drastic course of their life.
“People who have lived through a suicide attempt have much to teach us about how the words and actions of others are important. They often talk movingly about reaching the point where they could see no alternative but to take their own life, and about the days, hours and minutes leading up to this. They often describe realizing that they did not want to die but instead wanted someone to intervene and stop them. Many say that they actively sought someone who would sense their despair and ask them whether they were okay,” the IASP says.
To show your support for suicide prevention, to remember a lost loved one, and for the survivors of suicide, light a candle near a window at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 10. And if there is anyone you are concerned about, take a minute and reach out. You could change—or save—their life.
Research is critical to improving the prevention, treatment and eventual cure of mental health issues and chronic pain and illness. Meridien Research is conducting studies surrounding both at several of our locations. For more information or to see if you or someone you know may qualify to participate, please contact us today at 1-888-777-8839.
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Tandy, James Napper
Tandy, James Napper, 1740–1803, Irish revolutionary. Originally a small tradesman in Dublin, he gained attention by his attacks on municipal corruption and his proposal to boycott English goods as a reprisal for the restrictions placed on Irish commerce. He joined the Irish volunteer army (see Ireland), and he aided Theobald Wolfe Tone in founding (1791) the Dublin branch of the United Irish Society (see United Irishmen). When faced with a sedition charge in 1793, Tandy fled to the United States and then to France (1798), where he was given the title of general. He landed (1798) in Ireland, but when he discovered that the French expedition of General J. J. A. Humbert to aid the Irish rebellion had failed, he fled to Hamburg, where he was arrested. He was returned to Ireland (1800), sentenced to execution, but reprieved through French influence. He died in France. His fame is perpetuated in the Irish ballad
The Wearing of the Green.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: British and Irish History: Biographies
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A document consists of some text (a character string) and some annotations on that text. In processing the document, we normally do not alter the text; rather, we add annotations to it.
An annotator is a procedure (method) which analyzes a document, including the annotations already on it, and adds new annotations to the document. (It can also delete annotations, although that is less common.) The processing of a document is organized as a series of annotation steps, each performed by one annotator. For example, processing may begin with a text zoner (which finds the portion of the document containing the text to be further analyzed), a sentence splitter (which divides that portion into sentences), and a part-of-speech tagger.
An external document is a document which exists outside of a Jet system, typically as a file or a Web page. When an external document is opened (converted to an (internal) document), some of the information from the external document may be converted to annotations. Several different formats of external documents are recognized. The most common uses XML-like tags, such as "<constit cat="np"> ... </constit>" to indicate that some words form an NP constituent. Another format, for part-of-speech information only, represents data as token/POStag (for example, "The/DT cat/NN chases/VBZ mice/NNS").
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25 great articles and essays about language and linguistics the best articles about language and linguistics. Online download essays on time based linguistic analysis essays on time based linguistic analysis introducing a new hobby for other people may inspire them to join. Unlike most editing & proofreading services, we edit for everything: grammar, spelling, punctuation, idea flow, sentence structure, & more get started now. Analyze two newspaper articles with respect to the tools of linguistics this work includes two newspaper articles article one is called “pakistan’s alternative. Linguistic text analysis analyse and compare texts using the tools of theme and register the text analysis should involve two stages 1 identification of.
Free essay: in hamlet's first soliloquy the majority of the words used are very comprehensible for today's modern reader some prime examples of recognizable. The piece titled ‘getting our future back on the rails – slowly’ is written by a member of the grow slow organisation who believes that the most convenient. Demonstrate the linguistic analysis skills and yourtheoretical understanding of anthropological approaches to gender and sexuality through the analysis of a piece of. Journal of kerbala university , vol6 no4 humainies 2008 1 structural and linguistic analysis of sms text messages muayyad omran chiad department of english.
Title: eliot claimed to have made up the title, the hollow men from combining the hollow land, the title of a romance by william morris with kipling's t. Understand the methodology of a language analysis to prepare yourself to write a language analysis essay, it is crucial for you to fully immerse yourself in the. Literary linguistics use of a corpus linguistic methodology in the study of literary linguistics analysis this site in essays or other written work. 2 the introduction the introduction to your literary analysis essay should try to capture your reader‟s interest to bring immediate focus to your subject, you may.
This essay aims to provide a linguistic analysis of classroom talk, highlighting the key areas of language that manifest themselves in the transcription. A guide to writing the literary analysis essay i introduction: the first paragraph in your essay it begins creatively in order to catch your reader’s interest. Related essays: linguistic analysis of word order in zulu applied linguistics linguistic analysis of word order in zulu language linguistics in most cases deals. Database of free linguistics essays - we have thousands of free essays across a wide range of subject areas sample linguistics essays.
Centre for english language studies postgraduate programmes, open distance learning essay cover sheet and declaration important: please complete all sections of this. Linguistics and the analysis of poetry name: tutor: course: date: abstract in contemporary poetry, linguistic methods employed by artists play a significant rol. Term papers and essays on linguistics, language, english reviews hart's linguistic analysis of the elements which define a legal system. Download and read essays on time based linguistic analysis essays on time based linguistic analysis read more and get great that's what the book enpdfd essays on.
Free essay: verbal languages vary in pronunciations since, languages are described as being smooth and light, while on the other hand, languages known to. How to write a language analysis- the model introduction 1 outline what the issue is, giving background information 2 outline the ways the media has. Best help on how to write an analysis essay: analysis essay examples, topics for analysis essay and analysis essay outline can be found on this page. Free essay: in hamlet's first soliloquy the majority of the words used are very comprehensible for today's modern reader some prime examples of.
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Although “elven” is given in OED as
Comb. (referring to a kind of imaginary being in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien).
of the examples provided, this is not one.
- 15.033 of elven-harps
“ˈelven, n.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2017, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/60661. Accessed 13 September 2017.
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Presentation on theme: "Chapter 8 biblestudyresourcecenter.com. Daniel Introduction 1.Deported as a teenager 2.Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream 3.Bow or Burn; The Furnace 4.Nebuchadnezzar's."— Presentation transcript:
Chapter 8 biblestudyresourcecenter.com
Daniel Introduction 1.Deported as a teenager 2.Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream 3.Bow or Burn; The Furnace 4.Nebuchadnezzar's Pride Aramaic 5.The Fall of Babylon 6.The Lions Den 7.Four Beasts – The little horn 8.The Ram and the He Goat 9.The Seventy Weeks 10.A Glimpse of the Dark Side 11.The “Silent Years” (in advance) 12.The Consummation of All Things
First Beast a Lion
Second Beast a Bear
Third Beast a Leopard
Fourth - The Terrible Beast
The Little Horn
Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream Iron Iron + Cay Rome I 68 BC ? “Rome II” Gold Silver Brass Babylon BC Persia BC Greece BC Daniel 2Daniel 7 Winged Lion Bear on side Leopard Terrible Beast 10 Heads...
Chronological Order Historical Prophecies 1.Babylonian Captivity 2.Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream 3.Nebuchadnezzar’s Image 4.Nebuchadnezzar’s Pride 7. The Times of Gentiles 8. Ram and He-goat vision 5.Babylon falls to Persians 9. Vision of Seventy weeks 6. Lions Den 10 The Dark Side Conclusion
Daniel 8:1 In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first.
Daniel 8:2 And I saw in a vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai.
Shushan Palace Susa, 230 miles east of Babylon; 150 miles north of head of Persian Gulf, midway between Ecbatana and Persepolis Susa capital of Elamites in antiquity; later main residence of Persian kings; Famous palace begun by Darius 1 and later enlarged by Xerxes Home of Esther(Esther 1:2,5; 2:3,5) City of Nehemiah(Neh 1:1) Code of Hammurabi found there in 1901
Elam Tomb of Daniel the prophet in the city of Elam
Daniel 8:3 Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.
Daniel 8:3 The ram with two horns is the Medo-Persian empire. The Medes were the first to arise in power, but the Persians later rose to preeminence. The empire is commonly known as the Persian empire. The symbol on coins and artwork of the Persian empire was a ram.
The Ram Ram with clean feet, sharp-pointed horns Guardian spirit of Persian kingdom (Keil) The Persian king, at the head of his army, wore the head of ram instead of the diadem (Ammianus Marcellinus, 4 th century) Zodiac: - Aries is the Ram: Persia
Xerxes The last great ruler of Persia; - The king during the days of Esther Made a foray against Europe, against Greece. - Army of 300,000 men & families - Defeated at Thermopylae Fleet of 300 vessels destroyed by storm at Salamis
Daniel 8:4 I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great.
Daniel 8:5 And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.
Alexander the Great At the age of 20 he assumed the mantle of his father, Philip of Macedon 6 years later he had conquered the mighty Persian Empire At the age of 30 his empire stretched from the Mediterranean to the Hindu Kush At the age of 32 he died Legacy: a new Achilles & new world order - Visionary conqueror, Ruthless tyrant - Brilliant Military strategist & court politician
Daniel 8:6 And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power.
He-Goat / Alexander Behold, a he-goat This was Alexander the Great; and a goat was a very proper symbol of the Grecian or Macedonian people.
The Goat One-horned goat was a symbol for the ancient Macedonians Zodiac: - Persia Aries, the Ram: - Greece Capricorn, the goat (caper, goat; cornu, horn) May 334 BC: Alexander crossed the Hellespont with 35,000 troops, first met and defeated the Persians at the Granicus River Nov 333 BC: 1 and 1/2 years later, the famous Battle at Issus near the NE tip of Mediterranean Sea Oct 331 BC: Finally broken at Gaugamela (Arbella) near Nineveh
Daniel 8:7 And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.
Daniel 8:8 Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.
Daniel 8:8 / Daniel 7:6 (Daniel 8:8) Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. (Daniel 7:6) After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.
4 “Notable Ones” Cassander: - Macedonia and Greece Lysimacus: - Thrace, Bithynia, most of Asia Minor Seleucus: - Syria, lands to the east, to India Ptolemy: - Egypt, Cyrene, Arabia Petraea, parts of Asia Minor
The Empire Divided
Daniel 8:9 And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.
Daniel 8:9 The Little Horns of Chapters 7 and 8 Compared It is important to note that the little horns of chapters 7 and 8 are two distinct persons. Several factors make this distinction clear: Little Horn of Chapter 7Little Horn of Chapter 8 Would come from Rome (fourth kingdom) Would be an eleventh horn, rooting up three of ten horns Would persecute God’s people for 42 months or 3 1/2 years Would come from Greece (third kingdom) Would be a fifth horn, coming out of one of four horns Would persecute God’s people for 2,300 days or over 6 years
Daniel 8:10 And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them.
Near & Far Fulfillment
Antiochus IV 8 th King of the Syrian dynasty, BC 1 Macc 1:10; 6:16 Infamous brother of Cleopatra Ascended the throne following the murder of his brother, the former king, Seleucus Philopator - Not even rightful heir - Demetrius, the son of Seleucus, the rightful heir to the throne still lived but was held as hostage in Rome Antiochus succeeded in obtaining the throne largely through flattery and bribery
Antiochus IV Came to power 175 BC Invaded Egypt, defeated Ptolemy VI Recalled from Egypt by Rome, he made Jerusalem a buffer state - Plundered & desecrated the Temple He called himself - Epiphanes, “the Illustrious One” - The Jews called him Epimanes, “the Madman”
Daniel 8:11 Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.
Daniel 8:12 And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practiced, and prospered.
1 Maccabees 1:44-49 “And the king sent letters by messengers to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah; he directed them - to follow customs strange to the land - to forbid burnt offerings and sacrifices and drimk offerings in the sanctuary - to profane Sabbaths and feasts - to build altars in sacred precincts and shrines for idols - to sacrifice swine and unclean animals, and - to leave their sons uncircumcised
1 Maccabees 1:44-49 They were to make themselves abominable by everything unclean and profane, so that they should forget the law and change all the ordinances And whoever does not obey the command of the king shall die.”
Daniel 8:13 Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?
Daniel 8:14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
2300 Days? Seventh-Day Adventism grew out of the “great second advent awakening” in which this verse was given the day-year interpretation - William Miller and his followers, among whom was Ellen G. White, understood “the sanctuary” to be the earth which would be cleansed at His coming - The date for christ’s Second Coming was set for the year 1843
2300 Days? If the 2300 days are taken as being literal 24- hour days, the period would be between 6 and 7 years, which approximates the time of Antiochus began to perpetrate his atrocities in about 170 BC. - 6 years were from Antiochus’ first incursion into Jerusalem in 170 BC to the restoring of the temple by Judas Maccabeus in late 164 BC. - The Jewish priest, Judas Maccabeus (“the hammer”), drove out the syrian army, at which time the temple was cleansed and rededicated after its pollution. This cleansing is still celebrated in the Feast of Lights, Hannukah.
2300 Days? “Evening-Mornings” (‘erev boker) = 1150 days - The way they timed their offerings days short of 3 ½ years…
Daniel 8:15 And it came to pass, when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man.
Daniel 8:16 And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.
Daniel 8:17 So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision.
Daniel 8:18 Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground: but he touched me, and set me upright.
Daniel 8:19 And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be.
Daniel 8:20 The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.
Daniel 8:21 And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.
Daniel 8:22 Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power.
Daniel 8:23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.
Daniel 8:24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
Revelation 13:7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was gien him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. (Parallel verse)
Daniel 8:25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.
A Type of the Antichrist 1.“He shall cause craft to prosper in his hand.” - No man will be able to buy or sell except the one who has the mark of the beast Rev 13:7 2.“He shall magnify himself in his heart.” - He is given a mouth speaking blasphemies, with power to continue 42 months Rev 13:5 3.“By peace shall destroy many.” - The rider on the white horse; then comes the red house of war – thus a false peace Rev 6 4.“He shall stand up against the Prince of princes.” - The 1 st beast of Rev 13 is against christ: Rev 13
Summary He will achieve great power by subduing others V.24 He will rise to power by promising false security V.25 He will be intelligent and persuasive V.23 He will be controlled by another, Satan V.24 He will be an adversary of Israel and subjugate Israel to his authority V He will rise up in opposition to the Prince of princes, the Lord Jesus Christ V.25 His rule will be terminated by divine judgment V.25
Daniel 8:26 And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days.
Daniel 8:27 And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king’s business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.
Daniel 2:2 Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to show the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.
Correlation of Dreams and Visions in Daniel Image— Chapter 2 Beasts— Chapter 7 Beasts— Chapter 8 Kingdoms Represented Head of fine goldLike a lion with eagle’s wings Babylon Chest and arms of silver Like a bearRam with two horns Medo-Persia The Times of the Gentiles Belly and thighs of bronze Like a leopard with four wings and four heads Male goat with one great horn, four horns and little horn Greece Legs of iron, feet of iron and clay Incomparable beast with ten horns and little horn Rome Stone that becomes a great mountain Messiah and saints receive the kingdom Kingdom of God
Dreams and Visions in Daniel Daniel’s God-given ability to interpret “visions and dreams” (1:17) served him well in his role as advisor to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, a man noted for his mysterious and troubling dreams. The following brief comparison of a dream of Nebuchadnezzar and a dream and vision of Daniel reveals a common theme in the Book of Daniel—the successive rise and fall of four kingdoms. Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream Daniel’s DreamDaniel’s VisionInterpretation An image with a head of fine gold (2:32) A beast like a lion with eagle’s wings (7:4) Babylon would establish itself as the first world empire (2:38; 7:17). An image with a chest and arms of silver (2:32) A beast like a bear with three ribs in its mouth (7:5) A ram with two horns, one of which was higher than the other (8:3) Medo-Persia would defeat Babylon and establish itself as the second world empire (2:39; 7:17; 8:20). An image with a belly and thighs of bronze (2:32) A beast like a leopard with four wings (7:6) A male goat with a large horn, later replaced by four horns and a little horn (8:5–9) Greece would defeat Medo-Persia and establish itself as the third world empire (2:39; 7:17; 8:21). An image with legs of iron and feet of iron and clay (2:32) A beast with iron teeth and ten horns (7:7) Rome would defeat Greece and establish itself as the fourth world empire (2:40–43; 7:17).
End of Daniel Chapter 8 biblestudyresourcecenter.com
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This course began with the assumption that many of the problems facing our modern world can be attributed to an “innovation crisis,” and that these problems are on such a large scale that it is “mass creativity,” and not the creativity of the individual (or the entrepreneur) that holds the key to solving them. As scholars of literature we naturally look to literature to provide a means of generating this necessary burst of innovation, and following the need for creativity en masse our attention seems to be pointed to the reader of fiction rather than the writer, as, published, a novel has the potential to expand its reach far beyond those few involved in its production. Therefore, I believe what should interest us is the ways creativity is evoke in our response to fiction, and, utilizing Wolfgang Iser’s "The Reading Process: A Phenomenological Approach" I would like to investigate how literature classified as Science Fiction in particular creates the potential for mass creativity, here viewed via a passage from Vladimir Sorokin’s Day of the Oprichnik.
Iser sets up reading as a constant interplay between expectations and the text’s subversion of those expectations, stating “each intentional sentence correlative opens up a particular horizon, which is modified, if not completely changed, by succeeding sentences" (53). In this scenario, the reader engages with a text through the interplay of anticipation and expectation, therefore creativity is central to the reading process: the reader creates expectations that the text breaks. In the definition of Science Fiction commonly referenced by scholars of the genre, critic Darko Suvin defines it as “a literary genre whose necessary and sufficient conditions are the presence and interaction of estrangement and cognition, and whose main formal device is an imaginative framework alternative to the author’s empirical environment” (pg 7-8, Metamorphoses of Science Fiction). As Iser asserts that “defamiliarization of what the reader thought he recognized is bound to create a tension that will intensify his expectations as well as his distrust of those expectations" (63), the Science Fiction world, full of technological innovations and elements unfamiliar to us from our “empirical environment” offers increased opportunities to challenge our expectations through the presentation of previously unknown innovations and the text’s subversion of expectations can be seen to assume a heightened form in Science Fiction texts.
Day of the Oprichnik offers many examples of the cognitive estrangement Suvin discusses. Fairly early in the book the narrator, Komiaga, sets a price with the ballerina who’s bribing him, “Well…for you…two and a half. And an aquarium” (pg 62). It is the word “aquarium” that carries this burden of estrangement by challenging our expectations. We know what an aquarium is in our empirical world, and this reference does not fit with our expectations of its use and value. In attempting to discern what Komiaga means by “aquarium,” Iser’s statement that "the reader uses the various perspectives offered him by the text in order to relate the patterns and the "schematised views" to one another" (51) implies our answers to this question must be informed by the content of the novel itself. Had the novel so far implied that the world in which it is set is the world we know, we would have had no doubts what an aquarium is, and we would have assumed that its use as a valuable item of barter has to do with cultural differences rather than technological ones. But the fact that the world of the novel includes “ray guns” (15), and phones that show the caller’s “red-bearded face…to the right of the steering wheel” (13) we are given the possibility that this use of “aquarium” is not synonymous with the fish tanks of our reality.
It is here in the Science Fiction text where innovations not possible in a realist work can emerge. While in realism we grasp for the empirical solution which best fills this gap (for example, a man glimpsed on the moon must be an astronaut brought by a space shuttle, not a member of a new lunar colony), in Science Fiction the creative mind is able to provide answers not yet technologically available to us, and these mental innovations have the possibility to inspire real world inventions, as has been shown repeatedly across history, where real-world discoveries are predated by their fictional counterparts. In Day of the Oprichnik we must imagine what objects might carry non-monetary value in the culture Sorokin has created, for Komiaga demands the aquarium in addition to money, not instead of. Thus far, those things which we’ve seen bring Komiaga pleasure are violence and sex, so we might assume (wrongly it turns out) that the aquarium is some new innovation linked to one or the other of those themes.
Iser considers these gaps in the text that the reader tries to fill as a key element of the reading process, stating "It is only through the inevitable omissions that a story gains its dynamism. Thus, whenever the flow is interrupted and we are fed off in unexpected directions, the opportunity is given to us to bring into play our own faculty for establishing connections--for filling in the gaps left by the text itself" (55). These gaps create an opening for the creativity we are seeking from the reader. In the moment between the text giving us the effects of an unknown innovation and providing us with its answer for how the effect was achieved, there is limitless space for the reader to create new possibilities. Science Fiction contains more than its share of these gaps, and an increased opportunity for imaginative creativity over realism. Iser states that "the written part of the text gives us the knowledge, but it is the unwritten part that gives us the opportunity to picture things " (58). Since the world of Science Fiction is almost entirely made up of gaps of information the text doesn’t supply us with we as readers must work extra hard to fill in these openings. Unlike in realism where we can assume we know the prevailing cultural customs or technological capabilities, in SF these things are all missing pieces, and, where not specified by the text, fall to us to supply completely. Therefore, we are given a realm of possibilities for supplying these answers that requires greater creativity on the part of the reader than realism requires, and opens up the possibility that the innovations the reader supplies while reading the novel could one day move from the realm of the imaginary to that of the real.
“But as the planet was cooling, all of it happened more and more slowly, in a long ritard like a clock winding down. The planet settled into the shape we see. But change never stops: the ceaseless winds carved the land, with dust that grew finer and finer; and the eccentricities of Mars’s orbit meant that the southern and northern hemispheres traded the cold and warm winters in a cycle of 51,000 years, so that the dry ice cap and the water ice cap reversed poles. Each swing of this pendulum laid down a new stratum of sand, and the troughs of new dunes cut through older layers at an angle, until the sand around the poles lay in a stippled cross-hatching, in geometrical patterns like Navajo sand paintings, banding the whole top of the world. … The visible language of nature’s mineral existence.
Mineral; not animal, nor vegetable, nor viral. It could have happened but it didn’t…. whatever starts life (for we do not know), it did not happen on Mars. Mars rolled, proof of the otherness of the world, of its stony vitality.” - Red Mars, Prologue to “Part 3: The Crucible,” 96
Much of what has been written about Red Mars – and, by extension, Robinson’s Mars trilogy as a whole – centers on utopianism and the competing social and political structures examined in the trilogy, especially “eco-economics.” Eco-economics, developed by Vlad Taneev and Marina Tokareva, is a system designed as a way to integrate ecology and economics, qualitative and quantitative measures of value, to attempt to measure everyone’s “real contribution to the human ecology” by recognizing the integration of the large-scale development of resources on Mars and terraforming (Robinson 298). It promotes restricting consumption rather than increasing production as a way to add value to the system – “Everyone can increase their ecological efficiency by efforts to reduce how many kilocalories they use” (298) – and critiques the exploitation of nature as a way to generate value. This is clearly a system of development and innovation to which we are supposed to subscribe throughout the novel; indeed, the novel ends with the reuniting of the remnants of the First One Hundred with Hiroko’s lost colony, a kind of linking of the structure of eco-economics and the moral force of Hiroko’s mystical life energy, “viriditas,” a holistic biocentrism.
But such holistic thinking can be extended to the physical facts of the planet as well. The passage above, for example, directs our attention to the planet of Mars itself: the passage is part of the longer description that opens Part 3 about the formation of Mars and the cosmic, meteorological, and geological forces that have shaped it throughout its history as a planet. What such forces have in common is that they occur on non-human spatial and temporal scales. What I find interesting, here and throughout the trilogy, are the ways in which the planet itself pushes back or makes itself known as a planet, as a physical but not necessarily as a human fact. Even in landscapes eventually terraformed or at least made habitable by humans, the novels pay constant attention to the “thisness,” as Sax would say, of Mars as a planet. Terraforming, then, becomes the site not only of many of the important political and social debates in the novel, but also of sustained interactions between human and nonhuman, living and nonliving systems. The Mars trilogy offers us not only the large-scale integration of human social and political systems with other biological systems, but also the integration of these larger systems with non-biological cosmic, atmospheric, and planetary systems. This emphasis on complex systemic thinking at scales and sites far removed from the human, oddly enough, transforms a planet that is resolutely unhuman – not for us and perhaps even “against” us – into, by the end of the trilogy and at least briefly, a kind of ectopia, a perfectly balanced ecosystem that includes and depends on humans.
What I would like to explore, then, is how Red Mars – or perhaps the trilogy as a whole – thinks through this kind of systemic interaction in relation to innovation. One of the many things Robinson’s trilogy emphasizes is the emergence of complex phenomena from the interactions of different, seemingly discrete systems, whether socio-political (eco-economics) or physical (terraforming). How complex phenomena emerge – how, to use the example most often cited, life emerged from seemingly random collections of molecules in a prebiotic soup – has long been an ontological and an epistemological problem for both philosophy and science. Complex phenomena, appearing greater than the sum of their parts, seemingly come out of nowhere at the same time as they also clearly arise from within systems. However, in the Mars trilogy, emergence and the conditions of its possibility are staged again and again; in this way, Robinson’s novels show us how various kinds of emergence happen, what their conditions of possibility are. Can we think of innovation as structurally similar to emergence? And if so, what do Robinson’s novels tell us about the conditions of possibility for various kinds of innovation/emergence on Mars? What do they tell us about understanding innovation as the product of interactions between human and nonhuman systems? Using the Mars trilogy, can we think holism rigorously, and if so, how?
Nissa I'll think more about this really interesting post before class tomorrow. I really like its intensity and the making of the interruption in the example of the aquarium. I'm not sure that it's so different for SF but the general principle via Iser is right, and it's central to how innovation and creativity work through narrative. more tomorrow and thanks - Chris
Lindsay - also excellent and gets me thinking about how the eco is much more than a limit function or drain on innovation. The environment often gets constructed that way - we'd just keep piling up wealth except that there's a limit because the earth can't take it - it is old and unimproved. But this is obviously wrong about "nature" and its generativity, and if it isn't a limit but what you're calling emergence - a perpertual version - it could help move definitions of innovation away from the technological and from technology-as-second-nature. It also upgrades Nancy - very interesting. will try again tomorrow - Chris
I will be exploring non-linear dynamics in relation to creativity and innovation. The question for me is, on one hand, about making things, and on the other, about scale. Ultimately, I want to take a hard look at this seminar’s most basic question/problem/form: Mass Creativity. Is such a thing possible? What does it look like in practice? Does its material instantiation necessarily alter one of its two terms? It seems that any model of the masses collectively making something (or indeed any individual or group making something on a mass scale) is implicitly a model of emergence. What does it mean to think emergence as creativity? Are the two terms commensurable? What does this theoretical yoking accomplish in the realm of idea-making?
Richard Sennett provides one starting point. His basic claim, that craftmanship is a form of cognition, invites us to consider that making on a mass scale involves, ipso facto, thinking on a mass scale, and we may then ask what sort of physical objects lead to what sort of social and conceptual structures. We are here already approaching Latour’s Actor Network Theory. I’ll argue that we can, by thinking of such conceptual-social-physical networks as non-dynamic systems (along the lines of De Landa’s nonlinear history), re-think material creation as engagement with dis-equilibrium and complexity, and thus creativity as a transcalar activity or movement. Sennett is, however, explicitly uninterested in “creativity” because it is an individual act or novel creation that implies exceptionalism. His entire project is one of Enlightenment liberalism; he sees craftmanship as a universal activity based upon universal abilities (play, labor, pride in a job well done). Thus when we engage in these activities we implicitely engage each other. This is how he achieves his scaling effects: it is a linear system of affinity of parts to whole. By contrast, we can take Hardt and Negri’s conception of the “multitude” as nonlinear, as a substance always in the process of becoming, as a mass subject from the beginning. The question here is inverted: what does a mass subject create? Really, answering this question involves conceptually capturing the mass subject, modeling it somehow. Is this what Hardt and Negri do? Is this what literature does? Perhaps ironically, this is what capitalism seeks to do: extract profit from the mass subject. I would like to investigate whether this is a linear or nonlinear process by considering the commons and how it functions vis-a-vis innovation. Where does the individual (either Schumpeter’s creative entrepreneur or the artist) fit into this system? Do they model the system itself and thus generate a second-order tool, or do they play a special role in the makeup of the system, perhaps as environmental perturbations that push systems into phase changes?
One literary text I’d like to consider is Bolaño’s 2666. Three questions jump out at me with regard to this text. First, how does scholarly knowledge production (in the first section) interact with the larger simulated system that the novel generates? Bolaño has here created a feedback loop that scales the novel in a nonlinear way. Each narrative thread produces knowledge and models knowledge production. Ultimately, though, missing knowledge is at the heart of each of these narratives. What is produced, then, is not what is promised or signified by the fictional modeling that constitutes the novel form. Bolaño seems to give us an analogue of the world, of reality, but ultimately produces endless threads that deviate from the object(s) that the novel is apparently attempting to grasp. Thus we don’t come to understand Archimbaldi’s knowledge production in the first part (the process or personhood behind his literature), Amalfitano’s in the second, Fate’s quest in the third, or the logic or perpetrators of the crimes in the fourth. And yet the characters and narratives begin to accrue and form their own systems along the way and to the side. Particularly in the fourth part, “the part about the crimes,” victims begin to pile up in what seems like an analogue of the real-life Ciudad Juárez femicide plague. But any such analogue or simulation is problematized by what it leaves out, especially when the missing link is one of primary causality. It may be profitable, however, to see this as an example of nonlinear modeling, which seeks to produce effects rather than causes. That is, instead of analytically starting from a phenomenon and attempting to discretize it into its component parts, it begins with components and attempts to replicate, through simulation, the higher-order effects (or outputs) of the system in question. This, then, is one model of “mass creativity,” not in virtue of its simulated subjects (outputs), but rather its internal process or procedure of systematic knowledge creation.
“Writing is a question of becoming, always incomplete, always in the midst of being formed, and goes beyond the matter of any livable or lived experience". Central to the legitimization of writing is linear time, which seeks to define the spatial boundaries of the “shadows” of human reality. In rejecting linear time, the tangled narratives of Roberto Bolano’s 2666 condemns reality to hover in the contradiction, somewhere between the dream world and the real, between fact and fiction, the newspaper and the obscure novels of a former Nazi, resisting resolution. The “realities” of 2666 are constantly in a state of “becoming,” slipping and sliding between semantic and spatial boundaries:
Sometimes reality, the same little reality that served to anchor reality, seemed to fade around the edges, as if the passage of time had a porous effect on things, and blurred and made more insubstantial what was itself already, by its nature, insubstantial and satisfactory and real (Bolano,582).
Just as the perpetual motion of characters, drugs, murders, multinational corporations, and stories render spatial borders representational at best, so too does reality become an allusion to something else. What is left are sprawling stories, analogous characters, a cyclical time that repeats itself in past and present, converging upon the hopeless border town of Santa Theresa.Yet within this excess of narrative lies one story that cannot be told -the unsolved murders and rapes of hundreds of female maquiladora workers. In a border city where narrative, like the murdered women “disappears into the desert,” the divulging of this story through a web of disparate branches rather than a single causal thread becomes the focal point of the novel. These narratives, divorced spatially and temporally, articulate in a constant process of “becoming.” At the chaos of the border, narrative ceases to be the causal “semblance” but rather a simultaneous presence, the analogous and associative relationships of one story to the next, embracing the chaos without seeking to explain.
In this paper, I will be exploring the various causal, "mythic" modes in 2666. The myth of economic progress in Santa Maria alongside the "Nazi mythology" of Book Five; the legend of the serial killer in Santa Theresa as well as the cycles of retaliation against former Nazi figures in post war Europe. Ultimately these myths seek to explain what cannot be said in words, and the true perpetrators of these two tragedies remain abstracted and unnamed. These linear, causal ways of knowing create a reality of "semblance," which is evoked somewhat obsessionally throughout the book. A network of "vanished writers" challenges this system of semblance and I would like to examine the various ways they tell their stories from the margins of society. These seemingly disconnected stories come into contact in 2666 and it is through their articulation that the reader experiences the closest thing to a meaning. These vanished writers must content themselves with anonymity, as the mass acceptance of their work requires a certain flirtation with the realm of semblance, seen in the cult of Archimboldi, the desire for quantifiable knowledge of his whereabouts and life. Ultimately, in succumbing to "fame and literature...irreconcilable enemies" the public conflates the writer and his work into a sort of myth that endures (like the pyramids of the Aztecs, Archimboldi says)? The best the storyteller can do is thwart this tendency, to combine words into something "that leads nowhere...a nature that dissolved little by little in a boiling cauldron until it vanishes completely." In articulating the chaos and shadows of our reality, the writer purges us of the destructive tendency to a quantifiably explain.
Giulia- I really like your approach to the sprawling, quasi-narrative nature of the book and the logic that might lay behind it; can't wait to hear more about it tomorrow.
About my own sample- it's worth noting that in my paper I also intend to explore the city as a whole unit, in addition to looking at the minds of individual characters such as this one.
“When did it all begin? he thought. When did I go under? A dark, vaguely familiar Aztec lake. The nightmare. How do I get away? How do I take control? And the questions kept coming: Was getting away what he really wanted? Did he really want to leave it all behind? And he also thought: the pain doesn’t matter anymore. And also: maybe it all began with my mother’s death. And also: the pain doesn’t matter, as long as it doesn’t get any worse, as long as it isn’t unbearable. And also: fuck, it hurts, fuck, it hurts. Pay it no mind, pay it no mind. And all around him, ghosts.” (p 231)
This passage depicts the manic-depressive, isolated mindset that becomes prominent in those who come to Santa Teresa. The relentless flow of questions forces the reader to feel the manic rush that Fate feels, the rapidity of thought that may aid him as a journalist but at the moment keeps him from being able to hold onto anything long enough to make sense of it. Re-reading this passage with the rest of the book in mind clarifies some things: we know who is speaking, what he may be doing, what he may be reacting to. However, the writing style insists on uncertainty: the fragmented sentences, “vaguely familiar” visions that are not grounded in reality, and a string of questions that go unanswered even by the book’s end keep Fate and the reader from feeling as if they have a strong grip on reality. Jamison posits that a manic rush of thoughts can be helpful in sparking the creative process, claiming that “the sheer volume of thought can produce unique ideas and associations” (p 105). Here, however, thoughts become overwhelming, demonstrating how a quick but unanchored mind can quickly make one feel he has lost control.
Fate holds in mind two opposing instincts at once: the need to gain control by getting away (from Santa Teresa, we assume), and the thought that he might not want to leave the town or the state of mind that comes with it. As an American journalist who has never set foot in Santa Teresa, Fate has arguably no connection to the town. Something about it resonates with him though; after spending only a few days on the periphery of the city, he fights with his editor for the chance to dig deeper into the horrific aspects of the town, to write about the murders. The only people Fate mentions are his dead mother and the ghosts that surround him; his preoccupation with the dead is an isolating yet potentially fruitful example of what Jamison calls “the relationship between imagination, divine inspiration, and ‘madness.’” He is haunted by the fruits of his active imagination, so preoccupied with them that he has a hard time keeping his grip on the world of the living; but this mindset holds the potential for Fate to intervene on behalf of the dead through creation (namely, journalism).
Although Fate’s soliloquy speaks to an extreme sense of isolation, Bolano also weaves in a sly connection between Fate and Amalfitano. Book 2 concludes with a description of Amalfitano’s dream, which he himself calls “nonsensical” and takes as a sign of his own lunacy, but from which “he had no choice but to wake.” Immediately after, the reader enters Fate’s mind that is occupied with “the nightmare.” Throughout the novel, Bolano uses dreams and dream states for two very different purposes. Sometimes dreams isolate. When a character dreams, he retreats into his own mind, leaving the world behind; and when he sees the landscape or the people around him as dream-like, he often means that they no longer seem real. This time, however, dreams serve to connect: Amalfitano’s dream is juxtaposed with Fate’s nightmare, and the lack of clarity about who is speaking at the opening of Book 3 blurs the lines between their narratives even more. Amalfitano may be waking from a dream, but he is not the only one who is struggling with one; and as the book progresses, it seems their nightmares have similar origins. When the two meet, in fact, Fate senses an instant and strange connection between them, which he feels in terms of dreaming: “For a moment the two of them looked at each other, wordless, as if they were asleep and their dreams had converged on common ground, a place where sound was alien” (Bolano 342). Their brief meeting ends with the decision that Fate will transport Rosa across the border to safety; their sense of a shared dream space establishes trust despite language and culture barriers, to say nothing of the fact that Fate is a complete stranger. The brief but fruitful interaction between Amalfitano and Fate illustrates how two people who feel alone and powerless can come together to act not just in spite of, but as a result of, what they feel makes them separate.
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There are a variety of concerns among leading experts in waste and recycling, as many believe we are reaching an important time when clear decisions and decisive action is required more than ever before. Here are some of the thoughts of the future of recycling in the UK, from people who work in or around the industry.
UK Recycling – What Are The Issues?
One of the major topics which have been debated over recent years is the reliance on targets and how effective these are at achieving the desired outcome. Some believe that they take the focus away from what really matters, changing the way people think and act.
“There is a danger that we could end up recycling simply because there is a target to recycle,” says Paul Taylor, from the Waste Recycling Group (WRG). “That becomes very expensive and the cost is passed on to consumers, the public and to business. Have we got that balance right?”
This was countered by Liz Goodwin, Chief Executive of WRAP, who believes that over time the balance would always shift. “If you look back 10 years, you would have drawn a different line as to what was best to recover energy from and what was best to recycle. That has certainly moved in the past 10 years and it will probably move again.”
Another issue which was discussed is how to encourage those who still refuse to recycle to their bit. Margaret Bates, Professor of Sustainable Wastes Management at Northampton University, wondered what could be done to get to those people who ‘couldn’t be bothered’ to recycle. Colin Church, Director of Resource, Atmosphere & Sustainability at Defra, argued that 100% participations weren’t required to meet targets, but widespread collections for plastics and food are urgently required.
“Having said that, yes, there is the question about how you get people to do it. It is a big factor and there are social, economic and political considerations about whether that is the right thing to do - and at what cost and how.”
One area which is seen as the best possible way to help encourage this and educate consumers is with better education, particular through packaging. Many people do buy into the ideals of recycling and do it regularly. Although it has been found that only 25% of people put the right thing in the right bin every time.
One of the causes for people not recycling properly is not only a lack of understanding on certain aspects, but also a lack of trust over what is happening with the recycling and whether it is managed effectively. “When food waste started being an issue, all the messaging was around ‘wow - that’s a lot of food waste’ and then, when the economic downturn came, the thing that people really responded to was ‘you are wasting £60 a month’.” Says Goodwin.
Recycling in the UK is set to continue to struggle reaching the required targets unless clearer messages are put across which reach the people who are still not engaged with recycling and helping the environment. But with a lot of time, money and resources being used, new technologies and better understanding will help us to reach our sustainability goals.
Total Waste Management From Recycling Services
At Recycling Services we provide total waste management solutions for both large and small companies. Our service includes all aspects of waste collection and delivery so you will always be on the right side of the regulations.
If you would like to find out more about total waste management or any of our other services, then please get in touch with the Recycling Services team who will happy to answer any questions you may have. Please call us today on 01952 204471.
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Recent excitement over the development of an initiative to generate DNA sequences for all named species on the planet has in our opinion generated two major areas of contention as to how this ‘DNA barcoding’ initiative should proceed. It is critical that these two issues are clarified and resolved, before the use of DNA as a tool for taxonomy and species delimitation can be universalized. The first issue concerns how DNA data are to be used in the context of this initiative; this is the DNA barcode reader problem (or barcoder problem). Currently, many of the published studies under this initiative have used tree building methods and more precisely distance approaches to the construction of the trees that are used to place certain DNA sequences into a taxonomic context. The second problem involves the reaction of the taxonomic community to the directives of the ‘DNA barcoding’ initiative. This issue is extremely important in that the classical taxonomic approach and the DNA approach will need to be reconciled in order for the ‘DNA barcoding’ initiative to proceed with any kind of community acceptance. In fact, we feel that DNA barcoding is a misnomer. Our preference is for the title of the London meetings—Barcoding Life. In this paper we discuss these two concerns generated around the DNA barcoding initiative and attempt to present a phylogenetic systematic framework for an improved barcoder as well as a taxonomic framework for interweaving classical taxonomy with the goals of ‘DNA barcoding’.
One of the major issues concerning the inclusion of molecular information into taxonomic aspects of biology that has yet to be discussed in detail in the commentaries on this subject is concerning the best way to read the barcodes. There are two separate tasks to which DNA barcodes are currently being applied. The first is the use of DNA data to distinguish between species (equivalent to species identification or species diagnosis) and the second is the use of DNA data to discover new species (equivalent to species delimitation, species description). These two activities differ in the types and amount of data required. Below we highlight some of the issues that may limit the utility of current DNA barcoding endeavours (especially those used for species discovery) and suggest a framework for the development of a barcoder that addresses these issues.
A major issue that needs to be resolved is how to read the organismal barcode once it is generated. Most recently published approaches to DNA barcoding have utilized distance measures to make the inference as to species designation (Hebert et al. 2003a,b, 2004a,b). Distances are used in two major approaches; the first is a simple BLAST (Altschul et al. 1990) approach where a raw similarity score is used to determine the nearest neighbour to the query sequence. The second approach utilizes distances in tree building (Hebert et al. 2003a,b). We point out the following shortcomings with these approaches and further suggest that character based approaches are more appropriate for DNA barcoding both for theoretical and for practical reasons.
A major shortcoming of using distances in DNA barcoding is that all classical studies and taxonomic schemes that accomplish the same thing that barcodes are meant to accomplish are character based, making the union of classical and DNA barcoding a difficult process if the use of distances is continued in barcoding studies (see below). This shortcoming also is related to the need for diagnostic characters that classical studies use to validate the existence of a species. A second shortcoming is that similarity scores often do not give the nearest neighbour as the closest relative (Koski & Golding 2001). Nevertheless, similarity scores will always give a nearest neighbour. Character based methods have the logical advantage that when diagnostic character data are lacking, they will fail to diagnose, allowing for a degree of hypothesis testing not available when using distances. A third shortcoming involves the lack of an objective set of criteria to delineate taxa when using distances. For example, a universal similarity cut-off to determine species status will simply not exist, because of the broad overlap of inter- and intra-specific distances (Goldstein et al. 2000). Researchers will have to constantly revise their similarity cut-offs from group to group. We suspect that distance-based criteria for different species groups within genera often will have different parameters, making the delineation of species using distances fairly subjective.
We suggest that an alternative approach including character based phylogenetic analysis is more appropriate for establishing or ‘printing’ barcodes. The character based approach is compatible with classical approaches allowing the combination of classical morphological and behavioural information. Character based approaches sidestep the nearest neighbour problems of distances because they can reconstruct hierarchical relationships where common ancestry is inferred when two entities share derived characters. Neither BLAST (Altschul et al. 1990) nor neighbour joining (NJ; Saitou & Nei 1987) tree building approaches allow for character-by-character diagnoses on branches of trees. Any such diagnosis would need to be Parsimony or Maximum Likelihood based. Furthermore, the diagnosis of two separate entities in nature can be accomplished by the existence of a single character shared by a group of organisms to the exclusion of others, whether it be a DNA character or a morphological character.
Given that character based information is a viable alternative to the distance-based approaches already implemented in barcoding studies, the question arises which approach to analysis of characters is more appropriate for barcoding—the non-tree based population aggregation analysis approach (PAA; Davis & Nixon 1992) or a tree based approach. There are several drawbacks to the use of tree-building approaches to species identification. The first relates to the use of distances (described above) to construct trees. But problems with tree building are not limited to trees constructed with distance data. Rather, the second drawback is in the use of single gene trees as evidence of phylogenetic relationships. Several studies have demonstrated both theoretically (Kluge 1989) and empirically (Rokas et al. 2003; Gatesy et al. 2004) that combined analyses of multiple data partitions yield better representations of evolutionary history than single gene trees. The combined analysis approach has the additional advantage that it allows for the exploration of the character contribution of data partitions to the combined tree and can reveal character support for the combined tree that was not evident in separate analyses of individual gene partitions (Baker & DeSalle 1997; Baker et al. 1998; Gatesy et al. 1999, 2002, 2003). From these advantages it could be argued that a corroborated total evidence tree could be used as a guide tree for identifying the phylogenetic affinities of an unknown individual's sequence, assuming that the query sequence is one of the gene regions used to construct the total evidence tree. There are bioinformatics tools to aid in the placement of a query sequence based on the presence of shared characters that are diagnostic for nodes on the tree (Sarkar et al. 2002). However, there is a third drawback to the use of a tree building approach to species identification. This relates to the use of hierarchical methods (tree building) and terminology (monophyly as a criterion for species delimitation) when the underlying system (of individuals and populations) is not a hierarchical system of ancestor–descendant relations, redefinitions of monophyly as reciprocal monophyly (Avise et al. 1987; Avise 1989; Avise & Ball 1990) or exclusivity (Baum 1992; Baum & Donoghue 1995; Baum & Shaw 1995) notwithstanding (reviewed in Goldstein & DeSalle 2000). A more practical alternative is the exploration of character diagnostics in the sequences themselves without reference to trees. This mirrors the two-step procedure of traditional taxonomic studies in which relationships among species are assessed only after the terminals in the analysis (in this case, species) are first identified by diagnostic characters. In this approach as formulated by Davis & Nixon (1992), sequences are examined using PAA (Davis & Nixon 1992). Diagnostics are accepted if they are fixed and different from aggregate to aggregate of organisms—such diagnostics are termed ‘pure’ (Sarkar et al. 2002). This approach and its relevance to species delimitation has been discussed at length (Davis & Nixon 1992; Goldstein & DeSalle 2000; Goldstein & DeSalle 2003; Goldstein et al. 2000; Nixon & Wheeler 1990) and its relevance to diagnosing entities in nature has been discussed both from the technical and theoretical standpoints (Cracraft 1983, 1989; Frost & Kluge 1994; McKitrick & Zink 1988). Some tree based methods attempt to aggregate terminals on the basis of character distribution (Brower 1999) or on tree topology (Wiens & Penkrot 2002) and these are an improvement over distance based tree methods; however, for the DNA barcoding with multiple individuals within a species we feel it inappropriate to use a tree based approach (Davis & Nixon 1992; Goldstein & DeSalle 2000).
A controversial aspect of the DNA barcoding initiative has been which molecular tool to use to generate the DNA barcodes (Prendini 2005). The published efforts so far in animal systems have used the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (cox1) of the animal mitochondrion. One of the major criticisms of this approach is that a single molecular probe such as cox1 will not necessarily provide sufficient information to deliver the resolution needed to diagnose the large number of species targeted by the initiative. In arguing for the sufficiency of cox1 (or any other single molecular marker), Hebert et al. (2003b) pointed out that just 15 variable sites in the cox1 gene offers 1 billion different combinations of bases giving more than enough possible barcode ‘patterns’ at the DNA level. Missing from that assertion is a recognition that relatively few of those combinations could ever result in a viable translated protein observable in an extant species. Based on a study of birds (Hebert et al. 2004b) it was suggested that cox1 might have broader utility across the animal kingdom and that a universal distance cut-off of 10 times the distance within species could be used to distinguish between species. However, even among the birds surveyed for cox1, there were anomalous taxa that showed greater than expected within species divergences. In addition, studies of copepods (Edmands 2001; Goetze 2003) have found high levels of cox1 variation (up to 20%) even among conspecifics. Having to leave aside these outliers argues against the sufficiency or the universality of the gene region. While the fact that these taxa showed great divergence in genetic distance is suggestive that there may be unrecognized taxonomic diversity present, to test that hypothesis would require more than one line of evidence.
So we examine here the character based approach to diagnosis and the power of character-based approaches. Sarkar et al. (2002) recognized that combinations of attributes that are not ‘pure’ diagnostics could indeed be used to develop compound ‘pure’ diagnostics. The simplest compound diagnostic is when two attributes that are ‘private’ for aggregates (found only in one aggregate but not fixed; e.g. if aggregate 1 is fixed for all individuals at position 1 of a sequence with a G and aggregate 2 has 5 individuals with a G in position 1 and 5 individuals with an A in position 1, the A in aggregate 2 is a private diagnostic for aggregate 2) are combined to produce a ‘pure’ diagnostic. Even more complex combinations can be found if two or more aggregates are defined. For instance, figure 1 shows four positions in a hypothetical sequence that are polymorphic (i.e. neither fixed nor private for the alternative character states), which when combined together create a pure diagnostic. This approach has been used to evaluate character diagnostics in sturgeon species. The system examined was generated from comparisons of over 150 Acipenseridae individuals in two species, Acipenser gueldenstaedti and A. baerii (Doukakis et al. 1999). While the molecular probe used was 700 base pairs (bp) of cytochrome B gene (cytB) of the mitochondrion, this example will suffice to demonstrate the power of finding diagnostics using this approach. Between these two species for the 700bp region of cytB, we observed 36 variable sites, of which three were ‘pure’ diagnostics for the two species. Nearly half of the sites were ‘private’ to one species and over 1000 combinations of two sites produced compound ‘private’ sites (i.e. the two sites together were ‘private’ to one of the species. More interestingly, there were seven combinations of these 15 singly ‘private’ sites and the 1000 two position compounds that produced ‘pure’ diagnostics.
The answer to ‘Is cox1 enough?’ is then yes and no. Cox1 is certainly not enough to delineate phylogenetic relationships of organisms. However, it may be enough to generate suites of characters that can and will diagnose aggregates of organisms as entities in nature.
Another controversial aspect of the DNA barcoding initiative relates to the number of individuals of each putative species to include in the analysis. Classical taxonomic endeavours screen numerous individuals from multiple localities across the range of a given species to distinguish variation within a species from variation between species in order to identify those characters that are uniquely shared among all members of a species. One or only a few individuals may not be representative of the species as a whole, especially for taxa with widespread distributions (Davis & Nixon 1992; Goldstein et al. 2000; Walsh 2000). The necessity for adequate numbers of individuals applies to both distance and character based methods and it is not likely that there will be a universal sample size that will be appropriate for all species. Neither is a universal geographic distance likely to provide a reasonable proxy for determining the appropriate sampling strategy. As with gene region choice, sampling sufficient numbers of individuals to capture representative within-species variation will require pilot studies and the use of background information on life history, dispersal ability and mating patterns, among other information.
Recent work and commentary on the barcoding initiative in the literature has stimulated concern and excitement both from taxonomists and from those who are based in molecular approaches. Concerns range from the philosophical to the technical. These commentaries could loosely be separated into the taxonomy perspective (Agosti 2003; Dunn 2003; Lipscomb et al. 2003; Proudlove & Wood 2003; Seberg et al. 2003), the molecular perspective (Baker et al. 2003; Blaxter & Floyd 2003; Ronquist & Gardenfors 2003; Tautz et al. 2003) and commentaries sympathetic to both (Mallet & Willmott 2003; Wilson 2003). The pro-taxonomy commentaries strongly deride the lack of consideration of the intellectual content of classical taxonomy and can be summarized as in the following quote from Lipscomb et al. (2003) p. 65: ‘advocates of DNA taxonomy seem not to understand the peerless intellectual content of taxonomy based on all available information, or the hypothesis-driven basis of modern revisionary work.’
It is clear to us that genomic information should be an active component of modern taxonomy, but DNA should not be the sole source of information retrieval. ‘Fashionable DNA bar-coding methods are a breakthrough for identification, but they will not supplant the need to formulate and rigorously test species hypotheses.’ (Wheeler et al. 2004, p. 285). A barcode should incorporate diagnostic characters both from the classical morphological approach and from the newer molecular approaches; one without the other misses the synergy that an integrated taxonomy is capable of attaining (Godfray 2002). We see a major strength to an integrated approach in that descriptive taxonomy and phylogenetic taxonomy together produce a synergy of resolution that neither can attain in the current fragmented ‘tower of babel’ (Mallet & Willmott 2003). It should also be clear that integration of the ‘fashionable’ molecular approaches with the classical taxonomic approach is a critical component of reconciling both camps and to move towards the use of barcodes in modern biology. Consequently we present an operational, integrative approach to taxonomy that attempts to reconcile molecular information with other sources of characters.
We offer figure 2 as a heuristic for how modern taxonomy can be viewed. While any diagram describing the workings of taxonomy would suffer from over-simplification of the intellectual process that taxonomists use in plying their trade, we feel figure 2 captures many elements of modern taxonomy—hypothesis testing, corroboration, reciprocal illumination and revision. The main problem that needs to be addressed in any attempt to determine the boundary of a species and hence raise the entity to species status is to avoid circular or tautological reasoning. Breaking out of the circle of inference (figure 2, central diagram) in species delineation work is one descriptive way to describe the job of the taxonomist and hence the role of DNA sequence information (and barcoding) in taxonomy.
Figure 2 shows a highly simplified version of several taxonomic problems that have faced systematists and DNA barcoders. The classical process of using morphology in taxonomy is shown first (figure 2, panel A). In this diagram the data points on the ‘taxonomy’ circle consist of geographical, morphological, ecological, reproductive and behavioural information. In most morphological taxonomic studies an initial hypothesis based on geography is made. The taxonomist then crosses over the interior of the circle to either ecological characters or to morphological characters to test the geographical hypothesis. If morphological, behavioural, reproductive or ecological information relevant to the geographical hypothesis assist in rejecting the null hypothesis that there is no differentiation of the two geographical entities, then the taxonomist can ‘break out’ of the circle.
Cryptic species detected by DNA approaches is shown next (figure 2, panel B). In this case we add DNA sequence information to the circle. Initially a geographical hypothesis is formulated, a null hypothesis established and tested with the classical tools of the taxonomist. In this case, none of the classical tools—reproductive biology, morphological, behavioural or ecological characters—can reject the null hypothesis. The taxonomist can turn to DNA sequences where the null hypothesis based on geography is rejected because of fixed DNA differences among the aggregates hypothesized by geography. In essence, the aggregates contain morphologically cryptic species that are only detected at the DNA sequence level, which allows the taxonomist to break out of the circle.
The third panel in figure 2 (panel C) shows the case of lack of ability by all methods to lead to rejection of a geographical null hypothesis. In this case, the putative species entities suggested by geography cannot be corroborated and hence the taxonomist is constrained to remain in the circle. The conclusion by the taxonomist should be that there is a single taxonomic entity. The fourth panel (figure 2, panel D) represents the power of integrating novel methods into this operational scheme. In this case, several individuals within a single geographic area show morphological differences. Because these individuals are considered to reside in the same geographic region, a geographical hypothesis cannot be made. But in this case the morphologically different entities can be aggregated and tested for fixed differences with other sources of data. In the case in the diagram, we imply that DNA sequence information can be used and if fixed DNA differences corroborate the morphological hypothesis then the conclusion of the analysis is that two species exist in sympatry and can be delineated by morphological differences.
The converse situation is also possible—a researcher could examine a ‘population’ of organisms with morphology and see no morphological differences. When the genomes of the organism are examined, the researcher might discover a DNA sequence polymorphism that clearly separates the single population into individuals with one haplotype and individuals with a distinct second haplotype. The only way to break out of the circle here would be to re-examine morphology or to move on to some other source of information. If no corroboration of the molecular aggregation can be found then the conclusion should be that a single population with two clearly distinct haplotypes exist. If corroboration is attained, then two distinct entities should be concluded to exist.
We feel that a formalized method for inclusion of molecular information into taxonomy will clarify the intellectual content of taxomony from a molecular perspective, but it will also clarify how DNA sequence information can most efficiently be used in the DNA barcoding initiative. The following section uses a mammalian case study (the genus Muntiacus or barking deer), a fish case study (the Acipenseridae or sturgeons—the source of caviar) and invertebrate examples (leeches)—that have manageable numbers of taxa and unique taxonomic problems to examine the incorporation of molecular data into taxonomical issues. Specifically, we first examine the use of type specimens in barcoding of muntjac and the impact such type specimens will have on future DNA taxonomic efforts. Second we examine the use of DNA barcoding in the leech genus Hirudo to demonstrate the importance of broad scale sampling of groups in taxonomic surveys. Hirudo also serves as a strong example of the effect of hybridization on how taxonomy is done. Finally, we use the commercially important fish family Acipenseridae to examine a cryptic species problem. Each of these examples will demonstrate that while DNA is an important factor in all three, the interaction of DNA sequence data with other kinds of characters produces a more precise taxonomical framework.
The muntjac study (Amato et al. 1999) used DNA barcoding for species discovery in a framework that is compatible with classical taxonomy. The study highlights some of the issues related to barcoding such as the use of independently identified vouchers, sample size and gene region choice.
It began with field reports of what may have been representatives of a new species of muntjac in Laos for which the only material available at the time consisted of dried tissue samples. In order to devise a method to explore the question of the species status of these muntjac using DNA, the study looked to established practices in taxonomy for guidelines. Sample size and gene region choice are factors that can affect the ability to discern true diagnostic data. In order for DNA data to have the potential to be used in a species discovery process, all species in the group must be included in the analysis. In addition, the numbers of individuals sampled for each species must be large enough to be representative of the variation in a given gene region for the species as a whole and the gene region must be variable enough to detect true differences between species. Given a large enough and representative sample size, the problem of a too variable gene region leading to incorrectly rejecting the null can be minimized.
The number of available samples for the putative new species was low (n=10). Given the low number of individuals, a pilot study was undertaken that explored several gene regions for representatives of each species in the group and chose a gene region (in this case 16S mt rDNA) to balance the potential for two types of errors: (1) mistaking individual variation for species level variation by using too few individuals and a highly variable gene region; or (2) failing to identify true species differences, by using a conserved gene region sequenced for too few individuals to recover sufficient variation.
A diagnosis matrix of 114 individuals representing all species in the genus plus outgroup taxa was constructed. For the more widespread species, this included larger sample sizes from several localities across the range of those species as in the case of Muntiacus muntjak (n=49). In addition, in order to be able to associate newly collected material with species names, for each species DNA sequence was obtained from named, morphologically examined specimens from museum collections and included in the diagnostic matrix. The sequences of the putative new species compared to other species in the group were unique. However, the inclusion of sequence data from museum specimens proved critical to an accurate assessment of the species status. In the literature there had been a description of a species (M. rooseveltorum Osgood 1932) based on a single individual collected in Laos ~70 years ago and never collected again. The DNA from the Type specimen of M. rooseveltorum was shown to share diagnostic sites with all the newly collected specimens of the putative new species (figure 3). This led to the conclusion that the newly collected specimens represented a re-discovery of M. rooseveltorum. The use of DNA alone, without the inclusion of all species in the group (and the type specimen in this case), would have led to the incorrect conclusion that the M. rooseveltorum specimens represented a new species. This highlights the importance of complete taxonomic sampling, literature review and corroboration with a second line of evidence. It also highlights the need to obtain voucher specimens that would provide not only DNA but also provide the means to examine a second line of evidence such as morphology.
For a variety of reasons, leeches provide a unique framework for examination of the utility of DNA barcoding methods. The group (Hirudinida) is well circumscribed with approximately 750 known species. There is, nonetheless, a diversity of habitat preferences and life-history strategies represented across the clade including some extremes of parental care, various trophic modes ranging from blood feeding to predation as well as life in marine, freshwater or terrestrial environments. Furthermore, leeches already are well characterized for the cox1 locus (e.g. Siddall & Burreson 1998; Siddall et al. 2001; Borda & Siddall 2004) that is typically advocated for barcoding studies (Hebert et al. 2003a,b, 2004a,b). However, the use of cox1 alone for barcoding leech diversity may warrant some caution in that this locus has a highly biased base composition. Among the New World medicinal leeches, for example, adenosine and thymidine represent up to 72% of the nucleotide composition in cox1 (and up to 96% at third positions; Siddall & Burreson 1998). As a result, approximately 24% of the variable sites in cox1 are rendered binary among leeches as opposed to having all four nucleotides available.
One of the best-represented families of leeches in freshwater environments is Glossiphoniidae. The clade comprises taxa that are dorsoventrally flattened freshwater species normally found feeding on anuran or chelonian hosts, though a few are fish parasites and one (Placobdelloides jaegerskioeldi) is even specific to the rectal tissues of hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius). However, many species in the family, in particular those in the unrelated genera Glossiphonia and Helobdella have abandoned sanquivory in favour of a predatory lifestyle on mollusks and oligochaetes, respectively. Species in the genus Helobdella have their greatest diversity in South America and less so in North America. Since being described by Linnaeus, Helobdella stagnalis was the only species known from Europe, and none were known to occur either in Africa or Australia. As such, recent descriptions of new species like Helobdella europaea from an urban pond in Berlin (Kutschera 1985, 1987) and Helobdella papillornata from streams in Australia (Govedich & Davies 1998) were entirely unexpected, as was the surreptitious discovery of undescribed representatives of Helobdella in each of South Africa, Hawaii and New Zealand, all in a span of three years. Siddall and Budinoff (2005) employed DNA barcoding to assess this distribution of leeches, which at first presented a historical biogeographic conundrum. Their results (reproduced here in figure 4) clarified the fact that in each case the leeches were genetically indistinguishable both at the cox1 and ND1 mitochondrial loci and represented a single species of Helobdella nestled in a South American group known as the triserialis complex (Ringuelet 1943). Accidental introductions to each locality could easily have been coincident with introductions of common aquatic invasive plant species like Pistia stratiotes and Salvinia molesta, known to have happened in each of Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii. The genetic determination alone, however, was not accomplished in isolation from taxonomic considerations. Rather, through dissections and comparison to described taxa, Siddall & Budinoff (2005) asserted that this leech species corresponds exactly to Ringuelet's (1943) Helobdella triserialis var lineata; an unfortunate result since Verrill's (1872) North American Helobdella lineata preoccupied that appropriate specific epithet. The globally invasive leech species, thus, is now known as Helobdella europaea notwithstanding its suspected South American origin. Significant to the successful barcoding result in the foregoing was a broad geographic coverage of the species of Helobdella from the known range of the genus. Without that global coverage, and by, for example, only focusing collections on a restricted geographic area in which the suspect leech was found (e.g. Hebert et al. 2004a) probably would have abrogated discovery of its true identity and ultimate origin.
The European medicinal leech remains a valuable tool available to the biomedical sciences notwithstanding its having historically been used for some rather dubious purposes like the treatment of obesity and Stalin's fatal strokes. In fact, just this past year the US Food and Drug Administration formally approved the European medicinal leech (Hirudo medicinalis) as a ‘medical device’ and several companies like LeechesUSA, BioPharm and Ricarimpex specialize in the global distribution of leeches for use in microsurgery and related procedures. One would think that a species of annelid that is so broadly used in medicine, neurobiology, developmental biology and genomics, and for which various genomic libraries are being developed would have been better characterized in terms of its species limits. The first phylogenetic analyses to incorporate the European medicinal leech as a taxon using cox1 were Black et al. (1997) and Siddall & Burreson (1998), though neither of those analyses considered multiple representatives of the species. More recently, Trontelj & Utevsky (2005) demonstrated several unusual findings on the basis of cox1: specifically, that so-called European medicinal leeches group into four distinct lineages and that what Black et al. (1997) and Siddall & Burreson (1998) each sequenced bears little resemblance to the cox1 gene found in wild-caught European medicinal leech populations. Revisiting their analysis here, we have reanalysed the available data with some wild-caught and commercially available material in a broader taxonomic scope for the Hirudinidae (figure 5). Notably, the results corroborate the findings of Trontelj & Utevsky (2005) in that the European medicinal leech species complex seems to include at least four species, three of which previously had been synonymized with Hirudo medicinalis. If DNA barcoding results are accepted as is, then we would need to resurrect each of Hirudo verbana Carena 1820, Hirudo troctina Johnson 1816, and establish a new species for the Persian medicinal leech denoted ‘Hirudo sp.’ in figure 5. Conveniently, each of these species may not be as ‘cryptic’ as previously (Sawyer 1986) thought insofar as they appear to be readily distinguishable on the basis of external colour patterns. More alarmingly, though, is the status of those leeches that previously have been called ‘Hirudo medicinalis’. For example, a leech obtained from Ward's Biological for this study and shipped under the name of ‘Hirudo medicinalis’ unequivocally groups with Hirudo verbana (figure 5). Also, both Black et al. (1997) and Siddall & Burreson (1998) obtained their representatives of Hirudo medicinalis from Carolina Biological supply, and both of those sequences group with the Asian Hirudinaria manillensis notwithstanding the fact that the specimen used by Siddall & Burreson (1998) is morphologically indistinguishable from H. verbana. The latter suggests a remarkable ability for introgression that is as yet not well understood for these leeches, and yet which should cause some concern for the overall utility of DNA barcoding methods based on a single locus.
There are three species of fish in the family Acipenseridae—Husu huso, Acipenser gueldenstadtii and A. stellatus, all of them listed as endangered by CITES—that are the source for the grand majority of the world's commercial caviar trade. One of these species, A. gueldenstadtii, has been an enigma with respect to the surveillance of imported caviar since DNA sequence methods were introduced to monitor importation of caviar from the three highly endangered fish (DeSalle & Birstein 1996; Birstein et al. 2000). One of the major problems with the diagnosis of A. gueldenstadti caviar has been the occurrence at high frequency of caviar purportedly from A. baerii (a close relative to A. gueldenstadti), or the Siberian sturgeon (Birstein et al. 2000).
More detailed examination of the problem using larger numbers of individuals from both the A. gueldenstadti and A. baerii clades of sturgeons now indicates the presence of a cryptic species identical to A. gueldenstadti in morphology, but also similar (but not identical to) A. baerii. In fact, several DNA sequence changes exist that diagnose this aggregate of fish that are morphologically identical to A. gueldenstadti, as distinct from A. baerii. In this case the DNA diagnostics indicate that this second confused form of A. gueldenstadti is a separate entity (Birstein et al. 2005). This case is an excellent example of cryptic species and how DNA sequence information can reveal the crypticism. More importantly, this case exemplifies two important technical aspects of DNA barcoding. First, the need for large sample sizes and continual revision using larger sample sizes is highlighted by this example. When small sample sizes are used, the second cryptic A. gueldenstadti-like species is improperly diagnosed as A. baerii. Second, the case emphasizes the importance of precision in species delimitation in the practical application of any DNA barcoding system. Since animal forensics is a major positive outcome of DNA barcoding, this example reinforces the notion that large sample sizes and comprehensive databases coupled with classical techniques (as in this case meristics) be incorporated to implement the barcoding approach.
We conclude for the following reasons that the non-tree based approaches are more appropriate for the construction of a barcode reader. First, tree based approaches will produce phylogenies based on a single poorly chosen (for phylogenetics) molecule. While the trees will often times make sense, the support for hypotheses from such trees is almost always low, limiting the robustness of any phylogenetic hypothesis from such trees. Related to this issue is the well known widely accepted approach in phylogenetics that uses concatenated data matrices to produce phylogenies (Kluge 1989; Gatesy et al. 2003; Rokas et al. 2003). To base any inferences of relationship of species on a phylogenetic tree generated from a single molecular marker would be in conflict with the current approaches to modern systematics. Second, current taxonomic approaches use diagnostics discovery independent of trees to establish taxonomic systems. Using DNA characters in a diagnostic context would be entirely compatible with the process of current taxonomic research. Third, our proposed framework, requiring corroboration from more than one line of evidence, is also consistent with current taxonomic practices, would serve as a bridge between morphological and molecular approaches and provides sufficient rigor for species identification and discovery. We readily admit that certain barcoding problems such as environmental microbial species identification will be problematic due to the lack of geographical and morphological information for corroboration. However, we suggest that in these problematic cases additional gene regions and ecological information might also be used to support or refute hypotheses of species cohesion.
Finally, when thinking about the possible formats for an actual field usable DNA barcoder, having a diagnostic system would be most appropriate for a small device. The coding of the diagnostics can be included in the design of a microarray format or in a rapid single nucleotide polymorphism detection format. These highly technical molecular approaches utilize character based detection methods, and would bring the development of a small field usable DNA barcoder closer to reality.
One contribution of 18 to a Theme Issue ‘DNA barcoding of life’.
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April 2, 2009
Birth defects linked to seasons
U.S. birth defect rates are highest for women conceiving in the spring and summer, researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine have found.
Dr. Paul Winchester, the lead author, said the researchers also found that this period of increased risk correlated with higher levels of pesticides found in surface water across the United States.Studying all 30.1 million births in the United States between 1996 and 2002, the researchers found a strong association between the increased number of birth defects in children of women whose last menstrual period occurred in April, May, June or July and elevated levels of nitrates, atrazine and other pesticides in surface water during the same months.
Many of these chemicals -- including the herbicide atrazine, which is banned in European countries but permitted in the United States -- are suspected to be harmful to the developing embryo. This is the first study to link their increased seasonal concentration in surface water with the peak in birth defects in infants conceived in the same months, Winchester said.
The correlation between the month of last menstrual period and higher rates of birth defects was statistically significant for half of the 22 categories of birth defects reported in a Centers for Disease Control database from 1996-2002, including spina bifida, cleft lip, clubfoot and Down's syndrome.
The findings are published in the medical journal Acta Paediatrica.
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In March of this year, Russian scientists began to develop the novel coronavirus vaccine, almost at the same time as the novel Coronavirus spread in Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin issued an official directive on April 2, days after the country announced home quarantine measures.
The Russian Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology has played a leading role in the development of vaccines.
A vaccine was developed there to prevent ebola hemorrhagic fever.
Russia developed an adenovirus vector vaccine that delivers particles that induce the immune system’s response to the virus.
Alexander Ginzburg, director of the Russian Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, likens the mechanism to a taxi: adenovirus vectors transport biological materials from one place to another.
In the case of the coVID-19 vaccine, the biomaterial is the nucleic acid, which contains the S protein gene.
The protein gives the virus its characteristic crown shape.
“The protein triggers the body’s immune mechanisms with corresponding antigens within 10 to 12 days,” says Ginzburg.
Subjects produce antibodies
Human trials of the vaccine developed by the Kamala Institute began on 17 June.
Two groups of 38 volunteers were selected.
The first group was admitted to the General Military Clinical Hospital in Brdenko, while the second group was in the charge of doctors from the First National Medical University in Sechenov.
There were two kinds of vaccine, solution and powder, which were inoculated by intramuscular injection.
Subject will be isolated in hospital for 28 days to avoid the possibility of novel Coronavirus infection under natural conditions.
“Subjects with a novel Coronavirus during an epidemic will have a high rate of novel coronavirus infection if they are living in a daily environment after vaccination, which will make it impossible to tell whether the virus or vaccine induced immunity,” said Tarasov, dean of the School of Translational Medicine and Biotechnology Research at Secenov National First Medical University.
The results were positive after 28 days.
“The first group received twice the dose of the vaccine, and the second group received twice the dose,” said Smolyarchuk, director of the Medical Clinical Research Center at Sechenov University.
Some have redness and scleroma at the injection site, some have elevated body temperature, scratchy throat and painful joints.
In about two or three days all of these symptoms resolve themselves.
The volunteers felt absolutely fine for the next few days.”
The results of the tests at The Military Clinical General Hospital in Burkinje were the same. The subjects’ immunity played a role and antibodies were generated in their bodies.
A number of Russian experts to test the vaccine
The Russian Direct Investment Fund is funding the project.
Dmitriev, President of the foundation, said the Russian-made vaccine showed encouraging results, as did vaccines developed by Britain’s Oxford University in collaboration with Astrazeneca and China’s Comsino Bio.
The Gamalia vaccine “will novel Coronavirus completely immune,” he said.
“I was so confident in the Gamalia vaccine that I even gave myself a dose,” he wrote in a newsweek column.
Dr. Ginzburg and several of his colleagues also tested the vaccine on themselves, drawing criticism from some drug companies.
The Association of clinical research groups, whose members include Pfizer, Astrazeneca and Bayer, said the injecting of experimental drugs by Gamalia staff was a serious violation of Russian law and generally accepted international norms.
“It is considered immoral because people who get unapproved drugs can get worse diseases and even die,” epidemiologist Andrei Favolov told the BBC’s Russian.com.
The third phase of the trial will be conducted overseas
Who Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebrev announced on July 1 that 141 coVID-19 vaccines are under development worldwide.
Previously, WHO chief scientist Swaminathan said the most likely winners were a vaccine from US-BASED Moderna and a vaccine developed by Oxford University in collaboration with Astrazeneca.
She also says the WORLD Health Organization is interested in a vaccine from Russia.
Russian scientists and officials have provided information that gives reason to believe that gamaliya’s vaccine has a chance of being the first in the world to hit the market.
Dmitriev said the second phase of clinical trials of the vaccine will end on August 3 and is expected to be approved by national regulators in August and September.
He said the third phase will be conducted outside the country, especially in the Middle East.
Ginzburg would not rule out mass production of the vaccine as early as this fall.
Up to 70 million doses of vaccine will be needed to fully vaccinate Russian residents.
Mr. Tarasov of Sechenov University is less optimistic, predicting mass production will begin by the end of 2020.
Dmitriev, chairman of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, estimates that Russia could produce 30 million doses of vaccine by the end of the year.
That number could be expanded to 200 million doses if licensing agreements are reached with manufacturers around the world.
He also said Russia was negotiating to produce Russian vaccines in Saudi Arabia.
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Historical Marker #2147 in Millersburg commemorates the many accomplishments of Minnie Mae Jones, who was born February 8, 1904, to a racially mixed mother and white father.
As a child Mae Street Kidd was discriminated against by both white and black individuals. However, she never let her humble beginnings keep her from a life of achievement. While growing up, Mae lived with her mother, Anna Bell Leer Taylor, and her stepfather, James William Taylor, in the Shippville neighborhood of Millersburg. She never met her biological father, Charles Robert Jones, who also lived in Millersburg.
Mae grew up with her siblings in a happy family atmosphere and attended local segregated schools into her high school years. Her education provided a good foundation for her later successful careers in business and politics. Following high school, Mae attended Lincoln Institute, a black boarding academy near Shelbyville, to continue her education.
It was during the time that she worked for Mammoth Life and Accident Insurance Company in Louisville that she met and married her first husband, Horace Leon Street. Mr. Street suffered a heart attack and died in 1942 after 12 years of marriage. In England, during the war, Mae Street served with the Red Cross. There she met her second husband, James Meredith Kidd III. They were married in 1947, later divorced and remarried.
In addition to Mae Street Kidd's work at Mammoth Life, and her years with the Red Cross in England, she is perhaps best known for her political life where she represented the Louisville 41st District for 17 years (1968-1984) in the Kentucky General Assembly. Of her work in the legislature she is best remembered for the sponsorship of Kentucky's ratification of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution in 1976. These Reconstruction Era amendments, which abolished slavery, provided equal rights, and suffrage, had not been passed by Kentucky when they were originally proposed in the late 1860s. She also sponsored a bill which created the Kentucky Housing Corporation to provide open and low-income housing in the state.
Minnie Mae Jones Street Kidd's remarkable life came to an end on October 20, 1999, in Louisville. She was buried in the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery beside her second husband.
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|This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Symbiosis article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.
|A summary of this article appears in biological interaction.|
|Symbiosis has been listed as a level-4 vital article in Science. If you can improve it, please do. This article has been rated as C-Class.|
|WikiProject Ecology||(Rated C-class, Top-importance)|
|WikiProject Biology||(Rated C-class, Top-importance)|
- 1 Symbiosis is not altruistic
- 2 Artificial Symbiosis
- 3 there's a surprisingly high amount of vandalism here
- 4 Neutralism
- 5 I have to challenge the neutrality of this article on a minor scale...
- 6 Incorrect Description?
- 7 hi guys, i rewrote the intro to emphasise the use of the word symbiosis, and
- 8 Varieties Of Symbioses
- 9 Punctuation
- 10 Objection?
- 11 Definitions Revisited
- 12 Symbiote / Symbiont
- 13 Commensalism vs. Parasitism
- 14 Holobiont
- 15 Mistletoes are endoparasites
- 16 chemoautotrophic symbionts
- 17 References
- 18 Humans and various animal species
- 19 Inaccurate Header
Symbiosis is not altruistic
I think it should be noted somewhere that symbiosis is not altruistic. The organisms in symbiosis may benefit from each other but it is purely out of a need to survive and not from a desire to help the other. Cleaner fish consume parasites off of sharks but do not do this to benefit the shark but simply as a source of food. And likewise, a shark doesn't allow a cleaner fish to get close enough simply so the fish can have a meal. It allows the fish to do this so that the shark itself can be free of parasites. There are many other examples that can be given.
Also, I think in the amensalism section of the article, it should be stated that there are two types of amensalism: competition and antibiosis. In competition, one organism excludes another from a resource. In antibiosis, one organism secretes a chemical killing the other while the one that secreted the chemical is unaffected.
Lastly, the examples for commensalism could be better. For example, epiphytes growing on a woody plant. The epiphyte uses the woody plant as support and for access to sunlight. The woody plant is unaffected by this. Sumner.44 (talk) 21:42, 30 September 2014 (UTC)
How can artificial symbiosis be mutually beneficial? Can the artifact benefit? This doesn't make sense to me. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 22.214.171.124 (talk) 19:03, 23 March 2007 (UTC).
- An example would be a conservatory. In this case, the human organizer of symbiotic and competitive relationships gets money, excercise, and if they're any good, recognition and sex. Brewhaha@edmc.net 05:34, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
-->Sorry I had to write , could not find how to open up a new topic. I am writing a essay about bacteria symbiosis and are currently reading through some articles concerning symbiosis. On this page it says that the therm symbiosis was first used by Anton de Bary in 1879, but the term symbiotismus was first introduced in 1877 by A. B. Frank. If someone want to change this or investigate, use this article and look in the references:
Rai, A. N., E. Soderback, et al. (2000). "Tansley Review No. 116. Cyanobacterium-Plant Symbioses." New Phytologist 147(3): 449-481.
there's a surprisingly high amount of vandalism here
despite them being all very quickly reverted edits, the frequency here is oddly high, or at least i think so. Perhaps an admin should block it from being edited by new/unregistered users? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Pfzngn (talk • contribs) 01:28, 30 March 2007 (UTC). Agreed! I took
The definition given at the top of the article doesn't really incorporate neutralism. It says something like, at least one organism must benefit or suffer; in neutralism neither organism does.
- I was just wondering about that one myself. I think the definition requires more than proximity. Brewhaha@edmc.net 05:47, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
"There is no single universally agreed upon definition of symbiosis. Some define symbiosis in the sense that De Bary intended, describing a close relationship between organisms in which the outcome for each is highly dependent upon the other. The relationship may be categorized as mutualism, parasitism, commensalism, or any biological interaction in which at least one organism benefits. Others define it more narrowly, as only those relationships from which both organisms benefit, in which case it would be synonymous with mutualism."
^that is definately not neutral Drrake 16:32, 22 October 2007 (UTC)
- The discussion you're replying to, apart from being months old and in reference to a long gone version of the article, refers to neutralism not neutrality. Even were that not the case, your comment still wouldn't make any sense. There are no neutrality problems with the lead; in the context of describing the differing definitions of a technical term, narrow is a perfectly neutral antonym of broad. Neither term implies a value judgement on the correctness of either definition. – ornis⚙ 04:42, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
I have to challenge the neutrality of this article on a minor scale...
Right at the end of the entire article it states that ""Life did not take over the globe by combat, but by networking." As in humans, organisms that cooperate with others of their own or different species often out-compete those that do not." This is not necessarily true, take Emily Dickinson for example. She lived a very secluded and introverted life, yet she is regarded as one of America's greatest poets of the 19th century. Sure, that's a while back, but it doesn't change the fact that she 'didn't co-operate with others' and was still very successful.
Thankyou, that is all.
126.96.36.199 11:45, 13 May 2007 (UTC)
That bit added at the end about Margulis's work is a bit dubious-- that is, her work may be important, but the explanation of it sets up Darwin's theory as a straw man which Margulis benefits by demolishing. Darwin proposed that evolution progressed by natural selection, and organisms best adapted to their environments are those that thrive. There's no absolute requirement that an adaptation translate DIRECTLY into a competitive advantage. (But, of course, a parasite/symbiont that chooses a successful partner is more likely to succeed than one that doesn't.) In any case, there's been more than a hundred years of research into evolution since Darwin, so it's not surprising that thousands of scientists working together (or in competition?) have managed to refine his theory.188.8.131.52 14:21, 19 June 2007 (UTC)
"The living together in permanent or prolonged close association of members of usually two different species, with beneficial or deleterious consequences for at least one of the parties." Surely a Symbiotic relationship is beneficial to both parties, not just one, or its parasitic?
hi guys, i rewrote the intro to emphasise the use of the word symbiosis, and
point out its importance in the living world. Added a good general reference, and cleaned some stuff up.
i removed that artificial symbiosis thing. the sentence didn't make sense, and i've never heard of it. a reference would be useful.
what do you think?
the examples seem rather arbitrary, that's why i added my 4 in the intro. these seemed the most important and pervasive ones. the examples in th body are fun. perhaps we can have specific examples of each VARIETY of symbiosis described in the varieties section.
perhaps i'll consider adding more. Wikiskimmer 10:10, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
- Not bad, just needs a quick run-through of the various types of commensalism (amensalism etc). Richard001 07:27, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
Varieties Of Symbioses
First, thanks ConfuciousO for all the work on this article.
Do we need the Symbiosis#Varieties of Symbiosis section. There's not much detail there that isn't in the article in other places. Mutualism and such have their own sections and are also mentioned in the intro. Maybe create little sections about endo/ecto-symbiosis that summarize and link to those articles and drop this section? Jmeppley 14:04, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
- Well yeah, I was planning on nuking that section once I'd finished filling out the subsections. I just left it there so I wasn't leaving the reader with nothing. I think ther should be a section on ecto-endo symbiosis, maybe another on obligate and facultative relationships, and perhaps a subsection to evo on endosymbiotic theory. Once that's done, it's just a matter of providing a few more examples and making sure everything is properly cited. – ornis⚙ 14:10, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
"Endosymbiosis, is any symbiotic relationship in which the symbiont lives within the tissues of the host."
"The term Mutualism, describes any relationship between individuals of different species where both individuals derive a fitness benefit."
English isn't my native speech, so I would like to ask, if commas after words "endosimbiosis" and "mutualism" are really needed (in my language they wouldn't be needed). I'm going to work with this text, so I'd like to fix it before printing if it's a mistake.
Vikte 15:20, 14 November 2007 (UTC)
- The commas are not needed and are incorrect. Hardyplants 20:44, 14 November 2007 (UTC)
I've read through all the articles cited under the objection section which state that symbiosis is used as an arguement against evolution. Could someone link the correct articles or remove this section?
If "Mutualism is a biological interaction between individuals of two different species, where both individuals derive a fitness benefit", and "symbiotic" is a sub-classification within "mutualism", how can "parasitic" be a sub-classification within symbiosis, as written on the Wikipedia "Symbiosis" page? Commensalism is also listed as a type of symbiosis on the "Symbiosis" page, being defined as "a kind of relationship between two organisms where one benefits and the other is not significantly harmed or helped". If these other definitions are correct, then the definition of "mutualism" must be incorrect.
Are there, in fact, no universally accepted definitions? Is this a matter of different schools of biology having their own definitions? Can a coherent set of working definitions not be formulated?
Response: "Symbiosis" as originally defined in the 19th Century by Anton de Bary refers to any close association by two or more species, regardless of the outcome of the association for those species. Therefore symbiosis can be mutualistic (for example lichens, anemonefish-anemone interactions, fig pollination, etc.), commensalistic, parasitic (most parasitic relationships are symbiotic in the sense that the parasite can only exist in or on the host)or wholly neutral. However, in the 20th century, "symbiosis" came to be used exclusively for what should really be termed "mutualistic symbiosis". Biologists are now divided on the issue; some (myself included) believe that we should refer to symbiotic relationships using the original definition (symbiosis simply refers to "living with" and says nothing about the outcome of that living together). Other biologists happily go along with the change in definition. I think they're wrong, but hey ho, there's no pleasing everyone all of the time! In that sense, therefore, there's not a "universally accepted definition". Hope that's clarified the issue? Speakingofcities (talk) 10:04, 25 May 2008 (UTC)
Symbiote / Symbiont
The article still uses the word "symbiote". The "Hard SF" author Hal Clement, in the foreword to "Through the Eye of the Needle" (ISBN 0-345-25850-9), apologises for using the word "symbiote" in the previous book "Needle" and promises to use the correct word "symbiont" in future. Interestingly, he also comments that his mistake seems to have propagated, and the effect of his correction, if any, will possibly be of interest to those who study social phenomena. That would be about us, I guess. 184.108.40.206 (talk) 20:37, 1 February 2009 (UTC)
- Thanks for pointing that out, I've changed the only use of symbiote to symbiont. Smartse (talk) 02:03, 17 August 2009 (UTC)
Commensalism vs. Parasitism
There seems to be an error under parasitism. The definition states that a parasite benefits at the expense of the host, but the example of the remora and the shark is commensalism, the remora benefits but the shark is unharmed.220.127.116.11 (talk) 04:26, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
- Would that be a species that evolved as a result of symbiosis, or would it as you say be the 'sum' which I would take to mean something along the lines of 'fusion' which sounds more like endosymbiosis <- this is already covered.1812ahill (talk) 17:43, 28 May 2010 (UTC)
Mistletoes are endoparasites
in the intro, mistletoes are used as an example for ectosymbiosis. This is incorrect. Mistletoes are generally considered parasites or hemiparasites by those who work with them. Certain genera (Arceuthobium in particular) are known to cause serious growth reductions and mortality in their hosts. Other genera derive their water and mineral requirements from their hosts, in some cases causing severe growth reductions and mortality- particularly in drought stressed hosts. Hundreds of peer reviewed publications support these statements. See articles in forestry journals by Hawksworth, Wiens, Mathiasen, Geils among many others. An alternative good example of ectosymbiosis in the plant world would be epiphites. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Patho11 (talk • contribs) 02:25, 21 June 2010 (UTC)
Usually found in the gills of snails on the ocean floor near black smokers, chemoautotrophic symbionts oxidize minerals, allowing animals to survive in oxygen poor waters. True or false? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 18.104.22.168 (talk) 21:03, 4 October 2010 (UTC)
The references are quite poor - just the author's name and year. I would like to see some titles in there. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nelsnelson (talk • contribs) 11:15, 9 August 2011 (UTC)
Humans and various animal species
I'm somewhat surprised that this article lacks mention of the symbiotic relationship between humans and various animal species. We should work to include at least a small section on this aspect. — C M B J 05:07, 5 November 2011 (UTC)
The header/subtitle of the article defines mutualism, not symbiosis. As noted in the article, by consensus symbiosis now refers to parasitic or commensalistic or mutualistic relationships- not just the latter. Schissel | Sound the Note! 01:54, 12 February 2017 (UTC)
- or commensal
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Due to contaminated equipment and unsafe injection of drugs, along with other risk factors such as unsafe tattooing and skin piercing, a 2016 global review indicated that, of the estimated 10.4 million people incarcerated worldwide, 15.1 per cent have hepatitis C and 4.8 per cent have chronic hepatitis B. World Hepatitis Day was launched in 2008 in response to the concern that chronic viral hepatitis did not have the level of awareness, nor the political momentum, seen with other communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria.
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New Delhi, Jul 28 A National Viral Hepatitis control programme aimed at eliminating the deadly condition by 2030 was launched today by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in collaboration with the World Health Organisation.
State officials say more than 200,000 New Yorkers are affected by the infection that causes liver inflammation and can lead to serious liver damage.
The WHA is the apex decision-making body of the World Health Organization, which in 2018 focuses on the theme "Test. Treat. Hepatitis". These strains generally spread through infected blood. Flanigan said the most important thing local health workers can do is "help people who use drugs gradually improve their situations in a realistic way".
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Nebraska is located in the United States of America. Nebraska can be found in the western part of the Midwest region of the U. S.
In this article, you will learn about where in the United States Nebraska is located, some fun facts about the state, and great places to visit while staying in Nebraska.
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Lifehack. Before Hillary Clinton, there was Shirley Chisholm. Image copyright Getty Images Decades before Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, there was Shirley Chisholm.
As the first black woman to run for president for a major political party she was years ahead of her time. Women Candidates for President of the United States. Who were the early women candidates for president?
Hillary Clinton locked up the Democratic nomination in June 2016 (after losing the nomination in June 2008 to Barack Obama). On June 7, as she achieved the pledged delegate threshold to win that nomination, she said to her supporters: “Thanks to you, we’ve reached a milestone, the first time in our nation’s history that a woman will be a major party’s nominee. Tonight’s victory is not about one person — it belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible.” But Clinton was not the first woman to run for United States President, and not even the first to run for a major party's nomination.
Here's a list of the female presidential candidates, arranged chronologically by each woman's first campaign for the office. The Strange Tale of the First Woman to Run for President. As Hillary Clinton’s official campaign announcement nears, expect much more talk about the historical importance of a woman becoming president—it was, after all, a precedent-shattering approach that helped deliver Barack Obama to the White House in 2008.
Despite two women appearing on national tickets—Sarah Palin in 2008 and Geraldine Ferraro in 1984—the nation’s highest office remains elusive to the female sex. In fact, with the exception of Clinton, there’s not another woman in either party well positioned to win the nomination (face it, progressives, Elizabeth Warren is a pipedream, not a possibility).
Clinton owns the glass-ceiling territory, and that’s pretty compelling for women voters who happen to constitute a majority of the electorate yet have spent their entire voting age lives choosing between candidates of the other gender. Story Continued Below Clinton, as she dropped out of the 2008 presidential race, celebrated the groundbreaking success in her race. From Coffee Grounds to Couture, Food Waste Transforms Into Fashion. The bride wore fungi.
Erin Smith announced plans to forgo a pricey wedding gown by growing one of her own out of bacteria, fungi, and other biodegradable resources back in 2014. Turns out, Smith is not alone. There Are So Many Great Books Here, And Yet So Many You Won’t Read In School. I think it’s really weird that in school you always have to read books that are decades if not centuries old.
Don’t get me wrong: They’re great books, and they should be read. But it irks me that there’s a derisive attitude toward books written more recently, especially if they're popular (What, we can't teach "Harry Potter" or "Eleanor & Park" in school?) But Seriously, Let’s Talk About Millennial Poverty. Hot Dogs And Economics: How Great Teachers Guarantee Learning. “When I go to a baseball game, I can eat six, maybe seven hot dogs.
I love hot dogs more than anything on Earth.” This is the opening line from Mr. Hourigan, my high school Economics teacher. We’re learning the law of diminishing returns. He goes on to explain how, though his love for brats runs deeper than human understanding, he starts to get tired of them after a while. We're nothing but human. - Album on Imgur. Christopher Columbus was awful (but this other guy was not) Sources: All of the information in this essay came from A People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn, and Lies My Teacher Told Me, by James W.
Loewen, both of which uses primary sources such as eyewitness accounts, journal entries, and letters from Christopher Columbus himself. A very important note about Bartolomé de las Casas and the African slave trade This issue keeps coming up and, despite my footnotes, I keep seeing commentary about it so I'm going to address it here. Initially, Bartolomé de las Casas advocated the use of African slaves instead of native labor. I soon repented and judged myself guilty of ignorance. Changing the World, One Word at a Time! 5 Not-So-Secret Powers of Extroverts. NoHomophobes.com. The Real Reason We Need to Stop Trying to Protect Everyone’s Feelings. Instagram's Envy Effect. I keep having the same conversation over and over.
It starts like this: “I gave up Facebook for Lent, and I realized I’m a lot happier without it.” Or like this, “Pinterest makes me hate my house.” I never noticed how sexist so many children’s books are until I started reading to my kids. What happened to Little Black Sambo?
As a white girl growing up in West Virginia in the 1970s, I remember it on my childhood bookshelf. It was on my friends' shelves too. It may also have been in the dentist's office, along with Highlights for Children and Joseph and His Coat of Many Colors. We're Overweight for the Same Reason We're in Debt - Books. "The meal is not over when I'm full, the meal is over when I hate myself," jokes Louis CK in his stand-up special Chewed Up.
He then compares himself to "normal people," who eat only until they're full, whereas he eats until he's doubled over, feeling like he has maple syrup for blood, asking himself why he'd ever eat so much. Not true that he's not normal. The bit illustrates the hilarious self-deprecation that pervades CK's persona, but it also nicely condenses the psychological realities of contemporary American eating life that existential psychologist Kima Cargill describes in her academic crossover book The Psychology of Overeating. Neurologically and nutritionally, Louis CK probably finds it difficult to stop eating because his food contains enough refined sugar to throw off his brain's ability to determine when his body is full (see Cargill's chapters on sugar and "hyperpalatable" and "ultraprocessed" foods).
If you’re 30% through your life, you’re likely 90% through your best relationships. In a post last year, we laid out the human lifespan visually. By years: By months: Wit and wisdom from some of the greatest wordsmiths to live. A Story of a Fuck Off Fund — The Billfold. You’re telling your own story: You graduated college and you’re a grown-ass woman now. Talks to inspire smart conversation. Women wear High Heels because we are Idiots, says History. High heels were not originally intended to be worn by women. In fact, the coveted red-soled Christian Louboutin shoes were famously inspired by a French royal and notable trendsetter of the high heel, King Louis XIV of France.
He passed a law ensuring only members of his court could wear the red-soled heels he sported, making it easier for 17th century society people to recognise who was privileged and in favour with the King, and who was not– (doesn’t sound too far off from the Louboutin ethos today). But as the fashion trend spread amongst the male aristocracy in 17th century Europe, society shoemakers were faced with the challenge of re-engineering a design that had never actually been intended for walking.
How Your Insecurity Is Bought and Sold. In the 1920s, women didn’t smoke. Your comfortable lifestyle is made possible by creating tons of waste, says study. Two Ways To Think About Nothing : Krulwich Wonders... How Social Media Is Ruining Your Relationships. Cockblocking Rapists Is A Moral Obligation; or, How To Stop Rape Right Now.
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違章建築現象分類與其對外部環境衝擊之研究- 以台南市為例A Study on the Classification and Environmental Impact of Building Violations - Using Tainan City as an Example
Building violations are one of the most important issues for the building authorities of all local governments. These authorities must cope with such building management violations. Based on reported building violations in Tainan City, we classified the cases using time and space dimensions for the analysis and comparison of the features and the impact for each kind of building violation. Externality theory was employed to investigate the gap between legal building usage as defined by related laws and practical building usage as per the users’ view. A questionnaire survey was conducted to understand residents’ needs for space usage. Based on the survey results, we analyzed the reasonability of the current laws and regulations governing building and space management. We then proposed building management strategies based on this analysis. Finally, a hedonic price model for illegal buildings was established using this method that examined the substantial effects of different building management strategies to find future directions for handling building violations.
Key words: building violations, environmental externality, hedonic price, Tainan city
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This dairy farm was owned by one of the more recognizable families in Pico Rivera, the Kruse Family, and they operated the Kruse Dairy.
Today it is nothing like what it used to be over 100 years ago. The land has drastically changed and in fact has been reshaped due to the construction of the Whittier Narrows Dam. Imagine the San Gabriel River easily accessible to swim in with free flowing clean water, a flat land un-interrupted by hills and with endless possibilities. That’s what the land at the far north side of the town of Pico looked like when two immigrants from Germany, Henry and Anna Kruse, came to this relatively unknown part of California in 1907.
The Town of Pico wasn’t the first stop for the Kruses. Their long journey started from Ellis Island in New York, soon after they traveled to Emporia, Kansas where they settled there for about a year and then made the trek to California. They arrived to the state in 1904 and settled in a town called Whittier. They worked on the Leffingwell Ranch for three years before moving to the small town of Pico.
The year was 1907, and the Kruse Dairy Farm was established. It started off small, with just a small herd of cows being milked with the product being shipped to local creameries. As time passed, the size and operation of the Dairy grew and by the 1930s Henry’s son Walter joined in and went into the dairy business with his father. By 1945, Walter had taken over following Henry Kruse’s passing.
The dairy farm as one might imagine, was run like any other dairy farm. Cows had to be milked twice a day, from 1:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m., and then again from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. In between that, the cows were fed, given water, and manure was removed. To feed the cows, alfalfa was grown and hay was purchased. It was a daily task that was critical to the operation of the Dairy.
Walter Kruse would expand the Dairy by having a milk processing plant built between the years of 1957 and 1958.Due to the local housing boom, Walter saw opportunity to sell the Kruse Dairy product and a Drive-Thru Convenience Store to sell the products to the local community was built as well. Through the years of operation, the Dairy produced and sold several products including different types of milk under the Kruse name such as non-fat milk, low-fat milk, and half and half at the convenience store recalled Walter’s son Wesley Kruse. In later years, the Kruse’s would purchase other dairy products to sell such as cottage cheese, ice cream and bread.
The Dairy operation grew with the evolving economy and at its peak the dairy had 15 employees living near or on the Dairy Farm and nearly 500 cows. When Henry and Anna Kruse first started the dairy, it was over 40 acres, through expansions and lease properties with the Army Corp of Engineers, the Dairy peaked at nearly 300 acres.
By 1965, according to Wesley Kruse, Walter Kruse essentially woke up one morning and decided he no longer wanted to operate the dairy anymore. By that time, the land that once held the cows and all the Dairy buildings had all but disappeared. Walter Kruse sold the last parcel of land and all that remained is the Kruse Dairy Drive-Thru Convenience Store and processing plant. The Drive Thru and processing plant was eventually taken over by Dean and Ethel Doty. Most of the land the Dairy Farm occupied was claimed by the Army Corp of Engineers to build what is now the Whittier Narrows Dam.
Taking a drive around the north end of the City, on Kruse Road, one can only get a sense of the size of the Dairy Farm that once occupied the vast amounts of land that was available over 100 years ago. According to Kruse, most of the corrals were located where the Pico Rivera Golf Course stands today. The houses that housed some of the employees are all but gone as well. Of the eight houses that once stood on the Kruse Dairy Farm, only two remain including the original Kruse Home.
The Kruse Home is a story in itself. According to Wesley Kruse who lived in that house from the time he was seven years old until he was about 20, the house was going to be torn down by the Government due to the construction of the Whittier Narrows Dam. Wesley’s father made a “wild bid” on the house and paid $400 for it. In 1952, he had to move the Kruse home to its current location, just south of the Kruse Dairy Drive-Thru. Soon after, the property necessary for the construction was claimed and the US Army Corp of Engineers began construction of the Whittier Narrows Dam.
Through all this, one thing has remained and never changed - the name of the street, Kruse Road. There’s a unique distinction when one has a road named after their family. However, as described by Wesley Kruse, it occurred in the 1920s for more of a practical reason rather than ceremonial. As rural electrification was being rolled out, a way to identify the area was to name the road by which the family lived on and it so happened to be the Kruse family. Ever since, it has been Kruse Road. “We can thank rural electrification for having the street named after my family,” said Kruse. “At that time, it was just a dirt road, nothing like it is today.”
As stated previously, the last remnants of the Kruse Dairy operation is the Drive-Thru Convenience Store that was built nearly 60 years ago. It is the only operational component left from Kruse Dairy. All the original Kruse Dairy buildings that remain are now leased to third parties including the Drive-Thru Dairy. The Drive-Thru, as it was intended, continues to serve the local community seven days a week from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. offering of course dairy products and other small grocery items. The Kruse Dairy operation as it was over 100 years ago, no longer exists with the last Kruse branded products sold over 40 years ago.
When the last parcels of land were sold, Kruse Dairy became the Kruse Properties Company, a family partnership that includes Walter Kruse’s son Wesley Kruse. Through the company, the partnership owns several properties in the Pico Rivera and Whittier areas.
As Walter Kruse was able to direct the Dairy business around the evolving local economy and trends, Wesley Kruse continues to do the same with the Kruse Properties Company that was created from the Kruse Dairy. “We have what we have, we might try to expand a little in the future, maybe acquiring more property” said Kruse. “Basically, it’s probably what it’s going to be - a legacy for my children.”
The current Kruse Dairy is located at 9621 Kruse Rd on the north side of the City.
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The Peasant Cotton Revolution in West Africa: Côte d'Ivoire, 1880-1995 (2001)
By Thomas J. Bassett
Cambridge University Press
The book tells an unusual story of the growth of the cotton economy of West Africa. One of the few long-running success stories in African development, change was brought about by tens of thousands of small-scale peasant farmers. While the introduction of new strains of cotton in French West Africa was in part a result of agronomic research by French scientists, supported by an unusually efficient marketing structure, this is not a case of triumphant top-down ‘planification’. Employing the case of Côte d’Ivoire, Professor Bassett shows agricultural intensification to result from the cumulative effect of decades of incremental changes in farming techniques and social organization. A significant contribution to the literature, the book demonstrates the need to consider the local and temporal dimensions of agricultural innovations. It brings into question many key assumptions that have influenced development policies during the twentieth century.
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A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America
CALIFORNIA: Over 7,500 years, the skulls of the Chumash people and those of their ancestors gradually shrank. Scientists think that these people, who inhabited coastal California for over 10,000 years, might have suffered a long-term health decline and growth impairment from exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), common pollutants found in oil and coal. The Chumash had extensive and increasing exposure to PAHs through tar, which they used to seal baskets and canoes, applied to the body as medicine, and even chewed like gum.
(Courtesy Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History)
NEW YORK: During demolition at what was once Bellevue Hospital Medical College, a 15-pound metal box, sealed on November 14, 1897, was discovered. Among student registries and notebooks found in the time capsule was a vial containing spores of Clostridium perfringens, bacteria that live in the intestine. Bacteriologist Edward Dunham included them so future generations could check if they were still viable. They weren't, but doctors today might be able to observe how bacteria have changed since the introduction of antibiotics in the late 1920s.
(Courtesy New York University Langone Medical Center)
LOUISIANA: In the time before bridges made the bayou more accessible, small rafts and cable ferries were the only path into the swamps and between plantations. Now, in a few tarred wooden platforms and some rusted gearwork, a river guide might have located the remains of Vester's Crossing, one of the last cable ferries—a boat pulled back and forth via cable—in the area. The site may become part of a heritage paddle trail.
(Courtesy Web Helbling, Bastrop Daily Enterprise)
NORWAY: As glaciers recede, hundreds of artifacts are discovered each year. One of the latest finds was a men's tunic or coat that emerged from a glacier in Breheimen National Park. Dating to the 4th century A.D., the wool garment—made with an advanced technique called diamond twill—is one of very few known from this period in Europe. Without close attention, many of the artifacts that emerge from melting ice will be lost—decomposed or washed away—before they can be studied.
(Vivian Wangen, Museum of Cultural History, UiO)
SPACE: One of the next frontiers for archaeology is out of this world. Scientists in England are attempting to contact Prospero, a satellite launched in 1971, to see how its circuits have held up. First, they have had to rummage for the satellite's communications codes and build custom equipment, and now they are attempting to make contact by sending a simple signal. NASA has also begun drafting guidelines to protect three dozen lunar sites, including the Apollo 11 and 17 landing sites. The guidelines could include ground-level boundaries and no-fly zones—for when private spaceships (and even tourists) start arriving.
AUSTRALIA: Hanged for the murder of three policemen 131 years ago, Ned Kelly—the country's most notorious bushranger and outlaw—is considered both folk hero and killer. He robbed banks, wore homemade armor to his final confrontation with police, and reflected the tension between poor Irish settlers and the wealthy Anglo elite. Following his execution, Kelly was buried in a mass grave. Forensic scientists, ending decades of speculation, have identified his bones by comparing DNA with a descendant's. But his skull, perhaps separated as a souvenir, remains at large.
(Damien Plemming, The Age, Courtesy Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine)
TURKEY: On the Gallipoli battlefield of World War I, where Allied armies, including soldiers from Australia and New Zealand called Anzacs, were defeated by Ottoman forces, archaeological surveys have revealed some of the battlefield conditions, which historical sources state were quite dreadful. In particular, it appears the Anzacs were eating canned or stale food, while the Turkish forces had frontline kitchens, suggesting they had access to hot meals. Other artifacts found include water bottles with bullet holes in them, fragments of barbed wire, and expended ammunition.
(Courtesy Antonio Sagona, University of Melbourne)
KENYA: From the banks of Lake Turkana archaeologists have excavated what they believe are the oldest "advanced" stone tools yet discovered. At 1.78 million years old, the handaxes are the oldest known examples of Acheulean tools, probably made by Homo erectus, and predate other examples by 300,000 years. Compared with older, cruder stone tools, the handaxes are heavier and have sharp edges for butchering, scraping, and smashing. The find raises interesting questions about which early humans first left Africa and what tool technologies they took with them.
(Courtesy Pierre-Jean Texier, National Center of Scientific Research, France)
EGYPT: An analysis of 15 mummy hair samples shows just how important styling was more than 2,000 years ago. To understand how the complex hairdos were achieved and maintained after death, scientists studied coatings on the hair with electron microscopy and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. They found that the ancient Egyptians used a kind of fatty hair gel to keep their hair coiffed in both life and the afterlife. The absence of embalming materials in the hair suggests that it was covered during mummification.
(A. Aufderheide, Courtesy Natalie McCreesh, University of Manchester)
EL SALVADOR: Under 17 feet of volcanic ash at the ancient Maya city of Ceren, archaeologists have discovered a raised road called a sacbe. Usually these roads, connecting temples, plazas, or towns, were lined with stone, but this one, which probably led to two ceremonial buildings nearby, was not. In the absence of the stones, the rapid burial by the eruption of the Loma Caldera volcano helped keep it intact for identification.
(Courtesy Payson Sheets, University of Colorado)
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9 Reasons why an XSD is a better bet than an ECD
If you own and use electron capture detectors, you will be well aware that despite some useful attributes, they suffer some serious disadvantages.
The electron capture detector contains a weak radioactive source that, in practical terms, offers no risk to anyone or the environment, but is, nevertheless, subject to regulations that have a habit of changing at random intervals and often catch people out in the process.
The ECD is unique among GC detectors, in that it brings with it significant paperwork and administrative issues.
In the chromatography lab, the ECD can be incredibly sensitive for many halogen containing compounds, but, rather annoyingly, has a very low (or no) response to some others.
The ECD is a fussy beast too. Unless it is in constant use, the detector will take many hours (or sometimes days) to stabilize. It has a weak response to oxygen, but there is a lot of oxygen around in the air and that means that you have to maintain ECD systems in a highly leak tight condition and also pay careful attention to the purity of the carrier gas you are using. An oxygen trap is essential. Keeping the detector clean and oxygen free is vital to reduce chemical noise if you are using the ECD for trace analysis.
Experienced users of ECDs will often keep a separately labeled stock of syringes for ECD use. This is to avoid the possibility of using a syringe that has been used previously with chlorinated solvents. Make the mistake of using the wrong syringe and you will send your ECD response off the top of scale, where it will stay for a very long time – you may well end up having to replace the detector with a new one.
The good news is that there is an alternative to the ECD that is altogether easier to live with – the Halogen Selective Detector (XSD) from OI Analytical.
Comparing the XSD with the Electron Capture Detector.
It is useful to compare the two detectors, because for many applications that currently call for the ECD, the XSD is a better alternative:
- The XSD has no radioactive source and requires no license, no special administration procedures and no wipe testing – unlike the ECD.
- There are no special regulations concerning ownership, maintenance, transportation or disposal of an XSD – unlike the ECD.
- The XSD is insensitive to oxygen and water – unlike the ECD.
- The XSD has a wider linear range than the ECD.
- The XSD’s response to chlorine is not compound specific – unlike the ECD.
- The XSD has a much shorter stabilization time – 30 minutes compared with a day or so for the ECD.
- The XSD has better selectivity towards halogen compounds compared with the ECD, so samples typically will need a less rigorous clean-up.
- The XSD is simple to use and easy to maintain; it is much more suitable for use by inexperienced operators than the ECD.
- The XSD is self-contained and may be installed on just about any make or model of GC.
The one remaining issue to address is that of sensitivity. This will vary of course, from compound to compound, but if we take Lindane as an example, 8.2 pg Cl on column will give a 16:1 signal to noise ratio and a detectivity of <1pg Cl/sec. For Lindane this gives a sensitivity of 1 pg/sec.
In round figures, this means that the XSD is 10-20 times less sensitive than an ECD, however, in the real World, what really matters is signal to noise when working with sample extracts (rather than standards) and it is here that the XSD can have a decisive advantage due to its much better selectivity.
In practical terms, for most applications, the XSD represents a perfectly feasible (and very attractive) alternative to the ECD.
A great example of this can be seen in this application note, that compares the results obtained from spiked garlic extracts. Garlic extracts contain a lot of sulphur compounds which give a huge background signal with an ECD (even after a florasil clean-up). With the XSD, running the same extract, the sulphur background is dramatically lower, due to the XSD’s greater selectivity.
If this sounds like something you ought to investigate, please get in touch. We have an XSD in our Cambridge laboratory and would be happy to show you what it can do for you.
Please call us now on +44 (0) 1223 279210, or email email@example.com.
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Background to Scleritex
In recent years there has been an increasing interest by medical researchers, practitioners and also the general public in natural plants and herbs as sources of medicine. All pharmaceutical companies are now finally admitting the fact that plants and herbs are by nature endowed with substances that have incredibly powerful healing powers. Many recent discoveries have shocked the medical community opening their eyes to the fact that our previous generations had gathered immense knowledge about plants, their properties and effects on human health. Consider for example the following quotes:
"About half the anti-cancer drugs developed since the 1960s, and approximately a hundred other drugs, come from plants." (ACF News; Click here for original article)
"The latest thing in pharmaceutical medicine may one day be found in ancient plant guides hundreds of years old." (Neuroscientist Eric Buenz and his research team at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester quoted on The Osgood File (CBS Radio Network): 10/10/05)
"Natural products are invaluable sources of healing agents -- consider, for example, that aspirin derived originally from willow bark, and the molecular basis of the anti-cancer chemotherapeutic agent TaxolTM was derived from the bark of the Pacific yew tree. So it's not so far-fetched to think that the contributions of an ancient text and insights from traditional medicine really may impact modern public health," (Brent Bauer, M.D., director of the Mayo Clinic Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program as quoted by Science Daily; Click here for complete article)
A herbal researcher Georg Eberhard Rumpf documented his knowledge of various plants in the year 1657 (more than 350 years back) in his book Ambonese Herbal. It contains detailed knowledge of 1300 plants known by local healers of the time, and was one of the first dealing with medicinal plants of Southeast Asia.
Like Ambonese Herbal, there are thousands of texts, which catalogue the medicinal value of plants used by local healers of times past. It has long been known that many of the cures found in these texts are valid and even used today, but until now, no one had mined these texts for the nuggets of information we have lost or forgotten as modern medicine replaced local lore.
Good news for Scleroderma sufferers
Fortunately for Scleroderma sufferers studies of the main and established traditional texts consistently highlight a number of plants and herbs for their ability to heal Scleroderma. Researchers at Botanical Sources having mined these texts finalized a list of the most effective plants and herbs for Scleroderma. A list of these plants and herbs with their specific properties can be found here (Please click). The most effective parts of the plants (e.g. stem, seed, leaves, roots etc) and the manner of extracting their inner content were established. As a result, we are now able to form a calculated mixture of these pure natural extracts in the form of an oral pill highly efficacious for Scleroderma. Where modern science has helped is firstly in establishing proper therapeutic dosage and secondly in testing the product for safety and side effects.
Following FDA and DSHEA guidelines at all stages of development we are now able to present what we believe is the most proven, effective, safe and easy to use product for healing Scleroderma and titled it Scleritex.
Instructions for using Scleritex
Take one pill per day consistently at the same time every day at any convenient time of your choice. The dose has been therapeutically established for Scleroderma sufferers and taking more than the stated dose does not further enhance effectiveness.
Please store at normal room temperature keeping the bottle tightly closed.
There are no harmful side effects of Scleritex and the product is safe for consumption. Please follow the given dose guidelines.
Made with 100% pure plant sources
Scleritex harnesses the power of nature using only those herbs regarded highly for their ability to heal Scleroderma. All herbs used in Scleritex can be found in well established ancient and recent texts as being highly effective for Scleroderma. Made from 100% pure plant sources, Scleritex only contains the herbs listed below.
Indian barberry 23.01 mg
Indian barberry's most active ingredient is Berberine. Berberine is used to help support a healthy liver as well as a healthy immune system.
Neem Seed 23.01 mg
Neem seed is used in Ayurvedic, Unani and folklore traditional medicine in the treatment of a wide range of afflictions. The most frequently reported indications in ancient Ayurvedic writings are skin diseases, inflammations and fevers, and more recently rheumatic disorders, insect repellent and insecticide effects. Traditional Ayurvedic uses of neem seed include the treatment of fever, leprosy, malaria, ophthalmia and tuberculosis. Various folk remedies for neem seed include use as an anthelmintic, antifeedant, antiseptic, diuretic, emmenagogue, contraceptive, febrifuge, parasiticide, pediculocide and insecticide. It has been used in traditional medicine for the treatment of tetanus, urticaria, eczema, scrofula and erysipelas. Neem seed has an extensive history of human use in India and surrounding regions for a variety of therapeutic purposes.
Indian Radish 23.01 mg
Indian Radishes have long been grown as a food crop, but they also have various medicinal actions. The roots stimulate the appetite and digestion, having a tonic and laxative effect upon the intestines and indirectly stimulating the flow of bile. Consuming radish generally results in improved digestion. The plant is used in the treatment of intestinal parasites, though the part of the plant used is not specified. The leaves, seeds and old roots are used in the treatment of asthma and other chest complaints. The juice of the fresh leaves is diuretic and laxative. The seed is carminative, diuretic, expectorant, laxative and stomachic. It is taken internally in the treatment of indigestion, abdominal bloating, wind, acid regurgitation, diarrhea and bronchitis. The root is antiscorbutic, antispasmodic, astringent, cholagogue, digestive and diuretic. It is crushed and used as a poultice for burns, bruises and smelly feet. Radishes are also an excellent food remedy for stone, gravel and scorbutic conditions. The root is best harvested before the plant flowers. Its use is not recommended if the stomach or intestines are inflamed. The plant contains raphanin, which is antibacterial and antifungal. It inhibits the growth of Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli, streptococci, Pneumococci etc. The plant also shows anti-tumor activity.
Neem Bark 23.01 mg
Neem bark has historically been used in several herbal cosmetic, health, and hygiene products, and it's anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties have been well researched. Neem bark has been reported to be effective against cuts, bruises, skin disorders, acne, as a cosmetic to remove skin blemishes, earache, headache, as an analgesic, and effective in controlling diabetes. It protects pets from fleas and ticks and soothes irritation.
Sulphur (purified) 23.01 mg
Since the dawn of time, Beelzebub has been showering fire and brimstone (sulphur) on tortured souls, but the cutaneous effects of this have been poorly described. Sulphur has also been used for centuries as a treatment for many skin conditions, such as fungal infections, scabies, psoriasis, eczema and acne. It has also been used extensively in cosmetic preparations and by cosmetic dermatologists treating conditions such as seborrhoeic eczema. Many natural bathing spas have high levels of sulphur; such balneology has been advocated by medical and cosmetic dermatologists as an effective treatment for cutaneous disorders for more than 500 years. Sulphur was often the active agent in many of the so-called ?patent medicines? that became popular in the mid-nineteenth century.
Wild Onion Seed 23.01 mg
The plant is a perennial that seldom produces seeds and therefore must be increased by division of its compound bulbs, which is made up of several bulblets or cloves held together at the base. A sheath as in garlic does not encase the bulbs. The bulblets are planted in the same manner and at the same season, as are onion sets, each set developing into a compound set. The flavor of wild onion is somewhat milder than that of onion. The herb has a number of medicinal virtues. It is applied to cure fever, for relieving earache, and as aphrodisiac. They are also used as antidote for snake bite and poisoning. The herb has a number of virtues. If applied appropriately it can be used for growth of rural industries.
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CC-MAIN-2018-43
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| 0.949193 | 1,895 | 2.625 | 3 |
In finance, trade is typically an exchange of a financial security (share, bond, etc.) with cash. (To understand more around how financial securities are created by discounting cash-flows, please read more on securitisation at the following link www.kunalonfintech.com/securitisation-1-o-1/) Trading financial securities has been a genuine profession for at least a few centuries.
Broadly , trading can be classified into:
One may buy a security in speculation that in future its prices will go up and then the person can make money by selling it at a higher price. Most of the trading in the financial markets is driven by speculators. This can be further classified into 2 categories,
You may chose to buy or sell a financial security if you know that fundamentally its price will go up or down in the future. For example, you may buy the shares of a telecom company in an emerging country where the use of telecoms is expected to grow rapidly. The analysis maybe based on some technical indicators (fancy term for mathematical calculations)
In this kind of speculative trading, the trader may buy a financial security for a shorter duration when it’s cheaper and sell it when its value goes higher. Irrespective of the fundamental valuation change of the financial security. (Example illustration below)
But timing is also very important. You may end up buying and selling at wrong times as illustrated below and end up losing money.
In arbitrage trading, you try to generate profits by selling a financial security in one place and buying it (or a similar financial security) at another place where its price maybe lower.
You may want to hedge your position in the market by buying or selling a financial security. For example, if you are an airline company, you may chose to hedge your exposure to oil price rise (as you will need oil to fuel the airplanes for the future flights) by buying an oil future contract.
When you are trading in the financial markets, there are several factors that play an important role in your profits and losses, including,
– access to information: having the information around certain markets, companies, financial securities is important in making trading decisions
– speed of information and trading access: whoever gets access to the information and ability to trade faster can make more profits if the trading decisions are right
– experience: with experience you improve your judgement calls and make better trading decisions.
– discipline: its paramount to be disciplined in your trading and do not let emotions interfere with your trading decisions. For example, if you buy a financial security and you are sure you will sell it at x% profit or y% loss, you must try and follow that plan.
– psychology: trading is like playing poker with millions of people. financial markets are not easy to predict and are not always rational either. Same piece of news and information may lead some traders to make a buying decision, and some others to make a selling decision of the same financial security. Hence, its important to consider what’s rational, as well as what others may be thinking, while trading a financial security. It’s easier said than done.
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https://kunalnandwani.com/basics-of-financial-trading/
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| 0.948488 | 669 | 2.875 | 3 |
Depressed? Worry Not! 8 Tips to Make You Happy Again
Feeling miserable and blue, and the prospect of going to the doctor or taking anti-depressants do not appeal? Worry not! There is help at hand, and here are some mental tricks, one can practice sitting right at home. Mental tricks? Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) to be precise is what one is talking about.
What is Cognitive Behavior Therapy? As per Psychology.com, CBT is a type of psychotherapeutic treatment that helps patients understand the thoughts and feelings that influence behaviors. In other words, our feelings and how we think, plays a very important role in how we behave.
Simon Rego, PsyD, director of psychology training at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City sharing his views with Health said,
Cognitive Behavior Therapy is much more focused on what you seem to be doing and thinking that is keeping you depressed.
8 tips to break away from the cycle of depression:
- Do not make a single bad occurrence, a source for negativity. For eg. If a work colleague has been mean and irrational, do not catastrophize it and all the people at work suck. Try and think of those persons at work, with whom you share good vibes.
- Stop thinking of an unpleasant incident over and over again. Rumination is what this process is known as. There is no doubt that reflecting over an incident is good for greater understanding, but rumination does exactly the opposite; it just keeps the cycle of negativity to keep spinning. Distract yourself, as soon as you realize that you are ruminating.
- Live and enjoy the present. Do not try and predict your gloomy future. It is a negative exercise; for none of us, can really predict the future.
- Be kind to yourself. Do not berate yourself endlessly for errors and missteps. All if us make mistakes, but it is the ones, who can get up after a fall, are happier.
- Try and re-connect back with people you enjoy spending time with. Loneliness and seclusion are the trademarks of depression. So even if you don’t feel like it, go out, and spend some time out with others. That little bit of outing can be very uplifting.
- Stick to a routine. Try and have your meals on time, even if not hungry. Rego says,
Even if you’re unemployed or feeling down, it’s really important to set and establish a daily routine as best you can. This gives you a sense of regularity that can help with a depressed mood.
- Think in shades of grey! Life is not black and white. So if one friend has hurt you, try not to think that all friends are bad. So instead of saying, no one loves you, say yes, I do have a few friends who love me.
- Last but not the least; do not deny your feelings of depression. Acceptance actually helps to relive depression. It is half the battle won.
So incase you are feeling the blues, go ahead and try any of the above-mentioned tips. Rest assured, you will end up feeling much better. And if none of the above work, then you must seek medical help.
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CC-MAIN-2017-22
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http://trialx.com/curetalk/2012/11/24/depressed-worry-not-8-tips-to-make-you-happy-again/
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en
| 0.949212 | 681 | 2.75 | 3 |
Mary Phillips peers into the brains of people with bipolar disorder, and what she has found there gives a whole new meaning to the term "bipolar."
Dr. Phillips, a University of Pittsburgh psychiatrist, has discovered that each half of a bipolar patient's brain may be responsible for a different extreme of the illness.
Bipolar patients often cycle between periods of paralyzing depression and hyperactive mania.
Using a brain imaging technique that shows the connections between different parts of the brain, Dr. Phillips' group has shown that wiring problems in the left half of the brain may cause patients' manic phases, while a different kind of wiring problem on the right half may create the episodes of depression.
Her study focused on a bundle of fibers known as the uncinate fasciculus, which connects an emotion-processing area known as the amygdala, at the bottom of the brain, with a regulatory area known as the orbital prefrontal cortex, at the front of the brain.
Simply put, she said, the amygdala "allows us to perceive the emotional salience" of things we experience, while the orbital prefrontal cortex areas on either side of the brain "act like brakes on the amygdala."
Her study found that on the left side of the brain, which is associated with more positive feelings, the uncinate fasciculus was much thinner than normal, which could mean the front of the brain was less able to control those feelings in bipolar patients, sending them into hyperactive, sometimes grandiose episodes of mania.
On the right side, which is more linked to negative feelings, the wiring was thicker and had more cross-connections, which she said "can lead to sort of getting off the point and thinking too much, getting off into this reverberative, ruminative loop" of anxious, melancholy ideas.
In mentally healthy people, that right-side cabling is smoother and more unidirectional, she said, which may allow the front of the brain to short-circuit any excessive negative thoughts.
To measure patients' feelings while they were in the brain scanner, Dr. Phillips' team showed them images of happy and fearful faces. Previous research has shown that people with bipolar disorder react much more strongly to fearful faces than typical people do.
Finding out what is wrong in the brains of people with bipolar disorder is an important first step, Dr. Phillips said, but the more exciting potential is to use that information to improve diagnosis and treatment.
The studies hold out the potential that "we can use neuroimaging to choose the right medication and dose" for patients.
It may also help doctors differentiate those who have bipolar disease from those who just have depression, since they are separate disorders with distinct treatments.
And someday, it could help researchers predict who is likely to develop bipolar disease, which could be crucial to offering early treatment.
Dr. Barbara Sahakian, a neuropsychology professor at Cambridge University, said at an international bipolar conference held in Pittsburgh last week that "many of the neuropsychiatric disorders that exist become chronic, and the more episodes a person has, the more difficult it is to treat them effectively, so prevention or early detection is an extremely important issue."
Dr. Phillips' work could also help resolve a controversy that has sprung up over diagnosing bipolar disease in children.
While research at Pitt has shown that children can get bipolar disorder and often suffer the most severe form of the disease, there also have been reports that some psychiatrists have been diagnosing children as bipolar without strong evidence for it.
Brain imaging "biomarkers" could help resolve those questions, she said.
Dr. Phillips, who grew up near Nottingham in Great Britain and has both an M.D. and Ph.D. from Cambridge University, spends a lot of time flying over the Atlantic.
While she lives most of the year in Pittsburgh, she flies to the United Kingdom every month to six weeks to fulfill parallel duties as a neuroscience professor at Cardiff University, and she conducts her research in both places.
She entered medical school at the age of 18 and soon knew what she wanted to focus on. "I was fascinated by psychiatric illnesses because they were so un-understandable at the time."
She also knew she wanted to work with the fast-growing field of brain imaging, which uses everything from X-rays to radioactive isotopes to magnetic fields to view what parts of the brain are active.
As a psychiatrist, she has always wanted to use the results of her imaging work to find new ways to help patients, and she believes there is the real potential of doing that with bipolar disorder, which affects an estimated 1 percent of the population, or more than 3 million people in the United States.
Her discoveries also have strengthened her belief that mental illness is centered in a dysfunctional brain. People may be born with their problems, or their illnesses may alter their brains, but either way, there are concrete changes in the structure and functioning of the brain that scientists will be able to unravel.
"People suffering from these illnesses want to know what's going on in their brains. Just like with a broken leg, you want to know where the break is -- you want to know where the break is in your brain."
With the progress being made in neuroscience, "we will be able to say, 'This is where the problem is, it's not all in your mind,' and that's going to destigmatize psychiatric illnesses more than anything."
Mark Roth can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org or 412-263-1130. First Published June 29, 2009 4:00 AM
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http://www.post-gazette.com/neighborhoods-city/2009/06/29/The-Thinkers-She-peers-into-the-brain-for-cause-of-bipolar-disorder/stories/200906290179
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| 0.968968 | 1,150 | 3.328125 | 3 |
How Agriculture is Affected by Global Warming
You might picture remarkable scenes like cyclones and melting glaciers when you believe in international warming. The truth is that something as commonplace as agriculture is currently showing indicators of the results of international warming.
Some research studies reveal that the information about global warming is not all bad for farming, at least not in the short run. While people have actually altered several environmental variables by their activities, the short-term impacts of these modifications usually lead to much better plants.
READ ALSO: Advantages of Organic Hydroponic Greenhouses
Temperatures obviously boost due to the fact that of global warming. This has some short-lived benefits. For some time, it will just suggest even more time for plants to grow due to a longer growing season. As soon as fairly amazing, this is particularly true of areas where the springtime, as well as a loss, were.
In areas that are currently cosy, international warming will create the plants to languish in the heat. Add to that, dry spells that will certainly make both the soil and the air dry as well as might also lead to the burning of some crops.
Worldwide warming is sure to cause modifications in precipitation. This will certainly result in changes in the dirt wetness. Especially with the extreme weather anticipated with international warming, rainfall will come down hard when it does come. This will certainly lead to greater than usual soil disintegration. These elements greatly influence agriculture.
Oddly enough, all the additional carbon dioxide in the air that causes international warming also has a feeding effect on crops. This type of fertilization is most helpful for crops such as wheat, soybeans, and rice. CARBON DIOXIDE fertilization is a beneficial by-product of worldwide warming.
Nonetheless, this benefit might all fail. When international warming presses ground degree ozone to greater phases, the co2 fertilizing is nullified out by tropospheric ozone. These ozone degrees are affected by both emissions and also temperature. The result is that when the climate adjustments, the ground ozone levels will rise too.
Global warming just makes them more intense. Currently, it is also a lot more likely that a farmer will face dry spells, floods, heatwaves, as well as storms, to call a few.
The general predictions for the US are neither all negative nor all excellent. Crops are expected to benefit from the impacts of worldwide warming in numerous regions for some time. In some locations, though, crops will experience as a result of local variations.
The Great Plains are currently much more vulnerable to drought, thanks to global warming. Canada will most likely profit from the added heat as farming will take a Northward shift.
Today, as well as in the near future, worldwide warming does not appear to be an extremely hazardous circumstance for North American farmers. There might also be some positive impacts. In the long run, nothing will be able to mitigate the damage that will be triggered by worldwide warming if it is not stopped.
In regions that are currently warm, international warming will create the plants to waste away in the heat. International warming is sure to bring around changes in rainfall. Oddly enough, all the extra carbon dioxide in the air that brings concerning global warming additionally has a fertilizing effect on plants. When global warming presses ground degree ozone to higher phases, the carbon dioxide fertilizing is invalidated out by tropospheric ozone. Plants are expected to benefit from the results of global warming in lots of regions for some time.
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en
| 0.958821 | 718 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Jenny worked with the children to learn how to play as a group, listen to the sounds they were making and think about what instruments would make the right sounds for the soundscape.
Here they are making music that tells the same story as the poem.
The poem is called "Night Countdown" by Peggy Dunstan.
There are millions of stars
in the sky tonight
and thousands of lights
on the hill.
There are hundreds of moths
round the thousands of lights
while the air is shining and still.
There are scores of noises
that music the night
and dozens of waves on the sea.
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CC-MAIN-2017-17
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http://quintrm5.blogspot.com/2014/09/our-poem-soundscape.html
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|
en
| 0.975982 | 129 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Locate Definition - MilitaryDictionary.org
1.) In personnel recovery, the task where actions are taken to precisely find and authenticate the identity of isolated personnel.
In the United States, military vocabulary is standardized by the Department of Defence. These terms are used by the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps.
Term Classification: operations
Random Military Term
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CC-MAIN-2019-47
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https://www.militarydictionary.org/term/locate
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|
en
| 0.905414 | 78 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Introduction to MATLAB - zyBook
Written for undergraduate students, this web-based book presents a comprehensive introduction to MATLAB through interactive questions, animations, and automated MATLAB assessment. Topics include variables, scripts, functions, and strings, with an emphasis on arrays and their applications.
Introduction to MATLAB zyBook also includes an integrated MATLAB homework system that allows students to complete exercises by writing MATLAB code directly in their browser. They’ll receive hints and feedback as they work through each prompt and their answers will be automatically graded.
- Access the textbook, homework, and practice from one location
- Put theory into action through an engaging, learn-by-doing approach
- Improve student learning with instant, contextual feedback
- Save time grading with automated MATLAB assessment using MATLAB Grader
- See real-time analysis of class and student performance
- Create custom MATLAB assignments using zyLabs
- Use proven, prebuilt interactive questions and animations
zyBooks vs. Traditional Format
- Overall student performance improved by 16% after one lesson, and lower-performing students improved by 64%
- Students reported significantly higher levels of engagement, spending twice as long with the zyBook than a traditional textbook
- 96% of instructors saw a boost in their students' confidence with the subject matter
About the Publisher
Founded in 2012 by Smita Bakshi and Frank Vahid, zyBooks is a web-based platform that provides content for the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) college market worldwide. zyBooks are authored by collaborative teams of professors, content developers, and software engineers, and have been used by over 500,000 students.
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CC-MAIN-2021-10
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https://ch.mathworks.com/de/academia/books/matlab-grader/introduction-to-matlab-zybook-amirtharajah.html
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en
| 0.925063 | 349 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Annually for three years, The Lemelson Foundation will give $100 awards to outstanding inventors in up to 270 Society Affiliate Fairs with middle school participants around the country. The prize was specially created to reward young inventors whose projects exemplify the ideals of inventive thinking by identifying a challenge in their community and creating a solution that will improve lives.
Seventh-grader, Jordan Prawira (BCM 2018, 2019) attends Altamont Elementary School in Mountain House, California. In 2019, he was named to a list of top 300 innovators in the country in the Broadcom MASTERS, the nation’s premier middle school STEM competition. Earlier this year, he was awarded the Lemelson Early Inventor Prize for his take on the Archimedes wind turbine, which is aimed to be more compact and efficient than other converters of wind power.
Jordan was elated to receive the prize from the Lemelson Foundation: “When I received the prize, I felt that people believed my turbine had the potential for real-world applications,” said Jordan. “This recognition gave me the inspiration to work harder on inventing a better turbine for urban and residential areas, especially to cut emissions produced by the use of fossil fuels.”
Jordan’s project is a passion project that he’s been working on for a couple years. “My sister Jacqueline (BCM 2018) and I built a wind turbine for a Science Olympiad event. We were confident about our design, but we ultimately did not win the event,” said Jordan. “From then on, I pursued various wind turbine projects, including horizontal and vertical axis turbines, and an Archimedes wind turbine, with the overall goal to increase efficiency and power.”
Jordan’s inspiration came from observing hurricanes. He noticed that the winds during the progression of a hurricane become more powerful over time. For his Broadcom project, Jordan went with a spiral design for the rotors, similar to a corkscrew, instead of the three or four thin blades on a traditional turbine. With his corkscrew design, there is more surface area to catch the wind, therefore it takes less wind than a traditional turbine to rotate the same distance and generate the same amount of energy.
Jordan tested his turbine at home with the help of a box fan. He designed four different wind turbines and tested them at three different wind speeds and 26 different geographic coordinates and wind directions. The winds were simulated using a box fan placed a foot away from the turbine. To test how efficient the turbine was at converting wind power to energy, he connected it to a multimeter, a device used to measure voltage. He then analyzed the data.
Of the different wind turbines Jordan has designed, he thinks the Archimedes turbine has come the closest to real-world applications. Through rigorous testing he found that it has an efficiency of up to 44%, compared to smaller-scale commercial turbines on the market. Jordan’s prototype is much smaller, about one-fifth the size of most commercial turbines, and can still produce a high efficiency, even at a third of the wind speed (five to eight meters per second).
Jordan’s hope is that his project will help accelerate society’s transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. Thus far, Jordan has worked on his project independently and with the support of his family, but has not yet had the opportunity to work with a mentor in an academic lab. In the future, Jordan hopes to pursue engineering or software development.
“My vision is to make alternative energy no longer an alternative,” Jordan said.
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<urn:uuid:fce2affe-529d-4da3-b972-976b472f7ed1>
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CC-MAIN-2021-31
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https://www.societyforscience.org/blog/this-invention-will-blow-fossil-fuels-away/
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| 0.966396 | 754 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Portland State University. Department of Applied Linguistics
Term of Graduation
Date of Publication
Master of Arts (M.A.) in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
English language -- Study and teaching -- Foreign speakers, Adult education
1 online resource (v, 82 pages)
The development ofliteracy in English is facilitated by second language students' ability to read in their first language, particularly if that language employs a Roman alphabet. These students' literacy abilities may also influence their development of oral proficiency when their primary instructional environment is the classroom. Yet there have been few successful studies of non-literate students' progress, behaviors and learning preferences in classrooms with literate students. This is primarily because the transient nature of non-literate students' attendance in formal learning environments results in sample sizes too small for experimental research with reliable generalizations. The purpose of the present study was to determine if, in the classroom environment, differences existed between literate and non-literate students not only in terms of gains in oral proficiency skills, but also in their short-term memory capability of newly learned material presented orally, the behaviors they exhibit in the classroom, and their preferences for particular classroom activities. Six non-literate and eight literate students from a community college adult beginning ESL classroom participated in the study. All had little or no previous exposure to English and came from various cultural backgrounds. The students were given the BEST Oral Interview Short Form as a pre- and post-test, and an aural vocabulary quiz of newly learned material. Their behaviors in the classroom were observed at four different times, and they completed a questionnaire of their activity preferences. The BEST scores indicate that the literate students made greater gains in oral proficiency than the non-literate students, which is consistent with previous research using that instrument. The results of the aural vocabulary test reveal no differences in the oral short-term memory capabilities of the students, indicating that both literate and non-literate students respond well to teacher-directed, controlled oral activities. This is consistent with the results of the activities preferences questionnaire, where non-literate students preferred controlled activities, while the literate students' responses showed no preference for any particular activity.
In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Banke, Sandra Lynn, "Non-Literate Students in Adult Beginning English as a Second Language Classrooms - A Case Study" (1997). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 5833.
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https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/5833/
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|
en
| 0.921987 | 684 | 2.53125 | 3 |
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