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Last week, Los Angeles became the largest city in the nation to enact a ban against one of the most widely polluted items in history – the plastic bag.
Over the next 12 months, the use of plastic bags in the city will be phased out gradually. Larger stores will have sixmonths to phase them out, while smaller stores will have a year. The ban will affect paper bag usage too: in a year, retailers will be required to charge 10 cents per bag.
In addition to reducing waste in landfills and on streets, the ban will help decongest the city’s waterways, rivers, and ocean, which have become clogged with the bags in recent years.
The ban is also expected to help conserve fossil fuels. It’s estimated that the 380 billion plastic bags consumed annually in the U.S. eat up 12 million barrels of oil. The City of Los Angeles reportedly uses 2.7 billion plastic bags a year, making the recent ban no small drop in the barrel when it comes to scaling back our fossil fuel use.
To get a better idea of its wide-ranging effects, here’s a quick rundown of the potential economic and environmental impacts of the plastic bag ban in Los Angeles.
The plastic bag ban is estimated to save the city, and the taxpayer, a significant amount of money each year in cleanup fees. The County of Los Angeles Flood Control district spent over $24 million (PDF) in 2008-2009 (the most recent year for which data are available) on litter prevention, cleanup, and disposal. And that’s not counting the $12 million (PDF) the State’s Department of Transportation (Caltrans) District 7 spent on cleaning up the 50,000 cubic yards of litter and debris along the city’s highways. With plastic bags being a major contributor to litter on the streets, the ban will save the city a lot of money in cleanup fees alone.
However, there is an economic con to this decision, and it falls on plastic bag manufacturers. Many employees from manufacturing plants protested the City Council’s decision, citing fears of unemployment. According to an industry group, the decision to ban the bags threatens the jobs of over 2,000 workers.
Although the trend of banning plastic bags has had an effect on large retailers across the United States, many are taking adaptive measures and are joining the fight against plastic bags. In addition, the ban is not expected to put any stores out of business.
Marine pollution is one of the most pressing environmental concerns facing the world today, and plastics amount to 90% of the trash on the ocean’s surface. It harms marine life and breaks down into microscopic plastic dust, which attracts more debris and compounds the problem. A ban on plastic bags, especially in a place like Los Angeles with vital rivers, waterways and access to the ocean, is a critical effort to tempering the pollution problem in the world’s oceans.
Banning plastic bags also helps conserve non-renewable fossil fuels. Plastic production is responsible for roughly 8% of the world’s oil production. Any reduction in plastic use will help decrease greenhouse gas emissions and overall energy consumption.
Finally, plastic bags take up room in landfills. Although nobody likes the idea of a landfill, waste in a landfill is cut off from air and water, which prevents contamination. Another one to three percent of the hundreds of billions bags produced each year end up as “strays,” which can be found around the globe.
The plastic bag ban in Los Angeles is part of a growing trend of cities, states, and even countries banning or taxing their use. With a wide array of positive economic and environmental effects, this ban and similar initiatives are leading the way to cleaner and healthier communities and ecosystems.
Top image: Courtesy Flickr user frankservayge
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Engineer your first step to a four-year degree at Edmonds Community College
Engineers Make a Difference
Engineering is the art of applying scientific and mathematical principles, experience, judgment, and common sense to make things that benefit people. Engineers solve problems. They improve and develop products to meet consumer and societal needs. They find ways for existing products to work better, last longer, operate more safely and cost less.
They also look for innovative solutions to global problems. Engineers design bridges and important medical equipment as well as processes for cleaning up toxic spills and systems for mass transit.
It's a Fact
Engineering professions requiring a four-year degree are among the highest paying jobs in Washington State according to the office of Labor Market and Economic Analysis. Source: www.workforceexplorer.com
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Consumption and Saving Review for AP Economics
Review questions for this study guide can be found at:
Main Topics: Consumption and Saving Functions, Marginal Propensity to Consume and Save, Changes in Consumption Functions
The circular flow model illustrates the importance of consumption in the production of goods and the employment of resources. A better understanding of consumption allows us to build a model of the macroeconomy and see the role of policy in affecting macroeconomic indicators like GDP, employment, and inflation.
Consumption and Saving Functions
Though not the only factor, the most important element affecting consumption (and savings) is disposable income. Disposable income (DI)is what consumers have left over to spend or save once they have paid out their net taxes.
With no government transfers or taxation, DI = C+ S. Though not all consumers save part of their income, typical consumers spend the majority of their disposable income and save whatever is left over. To see the relationship between disposable income and consumption we create a consumption function.
Consumption and Saving Schedules
The consumption and saving schedulesare the direct relationships between disposable income and consumption and savings. As DI increases for a typical household, Cand Sboth increase. Table 13.1 provides an example.
Even with zero disposable income, households still consume as they liquidate wealth (sell assets), spend some savings, or borrow (dissavings). For every additional $100 of disposable income, consumers increase their spending by $80 and increase saving by $20. We can convert the above consumption schedule to a linear equation or consumption function:
C= 40 + .80(DI)
The constant $40 is referred to as autonomous consumptionbecause it does not change as DI changes. The slope of the consumption function is .80. This function is plotted in Figure 13.1.
At every level of DI, the consumption function tells us how much is consumed. Both Table 13.1 and Figure.13.1 tell us that at incomes below $200, the consumer is consuming more than his income; as a result saving is negative and this is referred to as dissaving. But at incomes above $200, the consumer is spending less than his income; and so saving is positive.
The saving schedule above can also be converted into a linear equation, or saving function:
S= – 40 + .20(DI)
The constant $ – 40 is referred to as autonomous savingbecause it does not change as DI changes. With zero disposable income, the household would need to borrow $40 to consume $40 worth of goods. The slope of the saving function is .20. This function is plotted in Figure 13.2
Marginal Propensity to Consume and Save
An important lesson from the study of microeconomics is the marginal concept. You can think of it in two equivalent ways. Marginal always means an incremental change caused by an external force, or it is always the slope of a "total" function. The same is true here.
The marginal propensity to consume (MPC)is the change in consumption caused by a change in disposable income. Another way to think about it is the slope of the consumption function.
MPC = ΔC/ΔDI = slope of consumption function
Using Table 13.1, we see that for every additional $100 of DI, Cincreases by $80 so the MPC = .80.
The marginal propensity to save (MPS)is the change in saving caused by a change in disposable income. Another way to think about it is the slope of the saving function.
MPS = ΔS/ΔDI = slope of saving function
Using Table 13.1, we can see that for every additional $100 of DI, Sincreases by $20 so the MPS = .20.
There is a nice relationship between the MPC and the MPS. For every additional dollar not consumed, it is saved. So if the consumer gains $100 in disposable income, he increases his consumption by $80 and increases saving by $20. In other words, MPC + MPS = 1. If you know one, you can find the other.
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A thyroid scan uses a radioactive tracer and a special camera to measure how much tracer the thyroid gland absorbs from the blood. The tracer can be swallowed or can be injected into a vein. It travels through your body, giving off radiation signals. The camera "sees" the signals and can measure how much tracer the thyroid absorbs from the blood.
A thyroid scan can show the size, shape, and location of the thyroid gland. It can also find areas of the thyroid gland that are overactive or underactive. The camera takes pictures of the thyroid gland from three different angles. The radioactive tracer used in this test is either iodine or technetium.
A radioactive iodine uptake (RAIU) test may also be done to find problems with how the thyroid gland works, such as hyperthyroidism. For more information, see the medical test Radioactive Iodine Uptake Test.
Another type of thyroid scan, a whole-body thyroid scan, may be done for people who have had thyroid cancer that has been treated. The whole-body scan can check to see if cancer has spread to other areas of the body.
Why It Is Done
A thyroid scan is done to:
How To Prepare
Tell your doctor if you:
Before a thyroid scan, blood tests may be done to measure the amount of thyroid hormones (TSH, T3, and T4) in your blood.
To prepare for a thyroid scan:
Your doctor may ask you to eat a low-iodine diet for several days if this test is being done to check for thyroid cancer.
For a thyroid scan, you will either swallow a dose of radioactive iodine or be given technetium in a vein (intravenously) in your arm. When and how you take the radioactive tracer depends on which tracer is used.
Just before the test, you will remove your dentures (if you wear them) and all jewelry or metal objects from around your neck and upper body.
Before a thyroid scan, you need to sign a consent form that says you understand the risks of the thyroid scan and agree to have it done. Talk to your doctor about any concerns you have regarding the need for the test, its risks, how it will be done, or what the results will mean. To help you understand the importance of this test, fill out the medical test information form(What is a PDF document?).
How It Is Done
A thyroid scan is done in the nuclear medicine section of a hospital's radiology department by a person trained in nuclear medicine (nuclear medicine technologist).
The tracer used in this test is either radioactive iodine or technetium. You will either swallow a dose of iodine 4 to 24 hours before the scan or be given technetium in a vein (intravenously) in your arm 15 to 30 minutes before the scan.
For this test, you will lie on your back with your head tipped backward and your neck extended. It is important to lie still during this test. A special camera (called a gamma scintillation camera) takes pictures of your thyroid gland from three different angles. The test takes about 30 minutes.
For a whole body thyroid cancer scan, the camera will scan your body from head to toes.
After a thyroid scan, you can do your regular activities. But you will be asked to take special precautions when you urinate. This is because your body gets rid of the radioactive tracer through your urine. This takes about 24 hours. It is important to flush the toilet and wash your hands thoroughly after each time you urinate.
How It Feels
You may find it uncomfortable to lie still with your head tipped backward.
There is always a slight chance of damage to cells or tissue from radiation, including the low levels of radiation used for this test. But the chance of damage from the radiation is usually very low compared with the benefits of the test.
This test is not done for pregnant women because of the chance of exposing the baby (fetus) to radiation. This test is also not recommended for breast-feeding women or young children.
A thyroid scan uses a radioactive tracer and a special camera to make a picture of the thyroid gland. The radioactive tracer used in this test is usually iodine or technetium. A thyroid scan is done to help find problems with the thyroid gland.
A whole-body scan will show whether iodine is in bone or other tissue (iodine uptake) after the thyroid gland has been removed for cancer. The whole-body scan can check to see if cancer has spread to other areas of the body.
What Affects the Test
Reasons you may not be able to have the test or why the results may not be helpful include:
What To Think About
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The Anatomy of Anxiety
THE ANATOMY OF ANXIETY
Buried deep in the brain is an area known as the limbic system. The limbic system connects to key parts of the brain such as the amydala and the hippocampus, where all memories begin and are stored for later playback. The limbic system is the emotional storehouse of the brain where anxiety is born. When you are under stress, the limbic system acts like an alarm, sending message of anxiety, fear and panic. As a storehouse of emotional memories, it also plays back painful traumas or stressful episodes of the past. If the stress is chronic, the unceasing signals can break down the master controller of the brain's reasoning and decision making centers, resulting in anxiety, panic, insomnia, chronic fatigue and phobias.
One out of five children and adults suffer from anxiety in the United States alone. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, some twenty-four million Americans will suffer from an anxiety disorder at some time in their life. In children, constant anxiety, can contribute to Attention Deficit Disorder and hyperactivity. Thousands of children are given this diagnosis and Ritalin is prescribed, yet the problem is anxiety related.
Major Symptoms Of Anxiety:
Pounding heart, skipping, racing heart
Unable to relax, constant tension, nervousness
Feeling of loss of control, uncertainty
Mental confusion, memory problems
Restless sleep, restlessness
Neck and shoulder pain, muscle spasms
Difficulty breathing, cannot take a deep breath.
Rush of panic and fear, adrenaline rush
Bottomless stomach, diarrhea, constipation
Loss of sex drive
Knots in the stomach
There are medical disorders that may provoke anxiety symptoms. They include:
Cardiovascular - cardiac arrythmias, congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, heart attack.
Respiratory - asthma, emphysema, hyperventilation, hypoxia
Endocrine Cushing's syndrome, carcinoid syndrome, hypoglycemia, hyperthyroidism.
Neurological - Epilepsy, Huntington's disease, migraine headaches, multiple headaches, Wilson's disease, vertigo, chronic pain.
Many times the drugs that are given for the medical problems can cause rebound anxiety, some of these are stimulants, sedatives, tranquilizers, MAO's (monoamine oxidase inhibitors), tricyclics and antidepressants. There are numerous anxiety symptoms, those related to panic are physical. Those with anxiety disorders often see a long list of physicians before finally realizing that the problem is anxiety, find a therapist to help them. Fear of impending surgery or a health crisis can cause the limbic system to send constant messages of anxiety, fear and panic. When physicians and hospitals are involved, there is always uncertainty which gives birth to anxiety. This anxiety represents a fear of loss of control and can cause hospital phobias.
Caring for a loved one after surgery, especially if cancer is involved causes the caregiver to take on the symptoms and display anxiety and pain. A study sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health found 30% of the caregivers suffer from clinical depression or anxiety while the loved one is alive. A quarter suffer symptoms four years later; 10% of non-caregiving relatives were depressed and had anxiety attacks for four years after death. Grief of a loved one can cause anxiety that produces a constant adrenaline rush, which in turn, can cause muscle contraction headaches. Physical pain frequently comes from chronic anxiety. There are millions of people in the U.S. who suffer from stress and anxiety, induced pain. Until the cause is addressed, they will never improve.
If you or your children suffer from anxiety, drugs are not the answer. Drugs do not create the needed neurotransmitters for the limbic system. An in-depth study done by Consumer Reports, January, 1993, cited studies that demonstrated Xanax, Prozac, Halcion and others were not effective. Drugs only treat symptoms. Stop the drugs and the symptoms return. Peter Breggin, M.D., in his book, Toxic Psychiatry, addresses all the negative side effects of psychiatric drugs. If you are taking antidepressants or tranquilizers I encourage you to read this excellent book.
Those who have anxiety need neurotransmitters. Amino acids create neurotransmitters and restore the balance of the brain chemistry. The specific amino acids for anxiety are used in combination formula including GABA, glutamine and glycine. If you have depression, tyrosine is very helpful. All amino acids must be taken with B6, an important cofactor. If your problem is test anxiety, use Super Glutamine one to three times daily.
Mag Link, a magnesium chloride is very helpful with anxiety and chronic pain. Every anxious person I have seen is magnesium deficient. Magnesium is the number one stress mineral. Under prolonged situations of stress and anxiety, magnesium stores are burned rapidly. The optimal intake of magnesium is 600-1,000 mg. per day. Most people only get 100 mg. of magnesium from their daily diet. The R.D.A. is 400 mg. per day. This means that you are deficient in magnesium, and this deficiency can lead to increased anxiety, facial tics, palpitations, back pain, heart disease and hypertension.
For chronic pain, use DLPA 750 mg twice daily, Boswella 300 mg twice daily or Pain Control 24.
For sleep, use Liquid Serotonin, Sedaplus, Melatonin or 5-HTP
If you are on the proper supplement program, you can control your anxiety by feeding your brain the nutrients it needs. Amino acids and brain function go hand and hand. The brain is the most undernourished organ in the body. Your brain needs nourishment daily. The proper nourishment comes from vitamins, amino acids, minerals, proteins and carbohydrates. Learn to relax by using relation tapes that teach you how to meditate using deep breathing and a release of negative or fearful feelings. For complete information on amino acids for pain, stress, anxiety and depression, read Healing With Amino Acids of the Anxiety Epidemic available at your local health food store or call 1-800-669-2256.
Other helpful resources:
Control of Anxiety audio cassette tape by Billie J. Sahley, Ph.D.
Anxiety/Panic Attacks audio cassette tape by Billie J. Sahley, Ph.D.
Healing Images audio cassette tape by Bernie Seigal, M.D.
Toxic Psychiatry by Peter Breggin, M.D.
Tired or Toxic by Sherry Rogers, M.D.
The Great Anxiety Escape by Max Ricketts
Beyond Prozac by Michael Norden, M.D.
Mind as Healer, Mind as Slayer by Kenneth Pelletier, M.D., Ph.D.
Pain & Stress Publications.
By Billie J. Sahley
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1536 Act of UnionThe 1536 Act of Union combined England and Wales into a single state. It was passed during the reign of King Henry VIII of England. His father, Henry VII was Welsh-born and very conscious of it, and Henry VIII declared himself proud of his Welsh blood. His motive in merging the two countries was not mere domination; Wales benefited in many ways from the legislation.
Although the native Welsh rulers had long since been subdued, the English king remained concerned about the power of the Marcher lords and his government's general lack of control over the principality. He therefore instructed his chief administrator, Thomas Cromwell, to seek a solution. The effect of the act was to make Wales as an integral part of England:
The country of Wales justly and righteously is … incorporated, annexed, united and subject to and under the imperial Crown of the Realm, as a very member and joint of the same.
It was not unpopular with the Welsh, who recognised that it would help give them equality with their neighbours in law. Under the act, the Marcher lordships were abolished and replaced by counties. For the first time, Wales was entitled to send members to the parliament at Westminster. Justices of the Peace were created to administer the law and justice at a local level, in line with the English practice.
Another effect of the act was to outlaw the Welsh language from official use, replacing it with English. This did not trouble the landed gentry, who were already largely anglicised, but it made life difficult for the common people, who were no longer able, for example, to understand court proceedings.
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Think green, act green. This message is not limited to governments alone any more. It has become everyone’s concern to take measures to save the environment as much as we can before it is too late. Each one of us can contribute to make the planet eco-friendly by doing small things on an everyday basis – for example, turning off the computer when it is not in use, switching lights off when no one is in the room, or using recycled paper. Read on to find more measures you can take. These steps will also save you money.
5. Using recycled paper
Using recycled paper is a big way to save trees. Business cards can be printed on recycled paper. You can also print using a green printer. And you should print only when required and use two-sided printouts. Though these are small steps, if everyone were to follow them across the globe, think how many trees could be saved.
Turn off your computer when it's not in use for a long time. The monitor uses around 90% percent of the power used to run the machine. If nothing else, turn off the monitor and put the computer in sleep mode. When you turn off the machine, switch off the main plug as well because it also uses energy. Also, use LCD monitors if you want to save energy. The initial cost may be high but they use a fraction of the energy guzzled by CRT screens.
Only use a monitor, UPS and CPU that are standardized by the government in your country. There is much software available that can be used to save the battery and to better manage power. Software like Granola and BatteryCare, for example. help in saving your battery.
3. Car pooling
Car pooling is practiced by people who are environmentally friendly. You too can join the team. When going to the office, a party or anywhere for that matter, accommodate more people who have the same route in a single vehicle. This way, many can save fuel. Take turns when car pooling. This way you not only spread less CO2 into the air but you can also save a few bucks.
2. Virtual vs. paper
Use less paper. This is among the best ways to be eco-friendly. In our modern times, make use of your computer to take notes instead of writing them down on paper. Using word processing software will make your task even simpler as you can use the spell check option. Also, avoid relying on paper bills; instead, make all your payments online.
1. Recycling e-waste
All you ladies out there won’t feel good after hearing this, but your make-up
contributes to polluting the environment. Cosmetics contain harmful
chemicals that poison the environment. Even electronics that are dumped in the waste are harmful to the environment. Hence, try to avoid throwing these items into the trash. Instead, give them to someone who can recycle them.
These initiatives, if taken consciously, could soon become a part of your routine, and you will not feel a burden in practicing them. This way you are playing an important role in saving the environment and treasuring it for future generations.
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The Future of Toxicity Testing is Here
EPA Tox21 partnership taps high-tech robots to advance toxicity testing.
Today there are around 80,000 chemicals that exist in food and consumer products, and 1,500 new synthetic chemicals are introduced into the marketplace every year. Most of these chemicals, both new and old, have not been tested for toxicological information, presenting a serious challenge to those tasked with protecting human health from potentially harmful chemical exposures.
EPA researchers are working to change that. They and their partners are advancing the scientific basis for hazard identification and risk assessment by helping usher in innovative new fields of study and by tapping powerful modern technologies such as super computers and other emerging technologies—including robots.
As part of the Agency’s Computational Toxicology Research Program (CompTox), EPA has partnered with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) National Toxicology Program, the National Institute of Health (NIH) Chemical Genomics Center, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a collaboration known as Tox21. By combining their collective expertise and pooling existing resources—including research results, funding, and testing tools—Tox21 aims to revolutionize chemical toxicity test methods by advancing high throughput, mechanism-based test methods. The partnership is ushering in the future of toxicity testing.
That’s where the robots come in.
The collaboration recently unveiled a high speed screening system that tests chemicals for harmful human health effects. The mechanized system greatly reduces the need for lab animals in toxicity testing, working instead with 3-by-5-inch test plates that are moved precisely through a series of steps by giant yellow, constantly moving robot arms. Each plate contains 1536 small wells that can hold various living animal cells—typically skin, liver, or brain cells of rats or humans—and a sample of a particular chemical.
“Each one of those wells is filled with a single chemical sample that we use to expose the cells to, so in essence we have 1536 chemical toxicity tests on a single plate,” explains Dr. Robert Kavlock, Director of EPA’s National Center for Computational Toxicology. The robot uses a pin tool, which has corresponding pins for each well, in order to dispense a drop or two of the chemical being tested. The robot’s arm then puts the tray in a digital imaging device that scans the sample for changes in the cell that could mean biological activity.
The robot receives software instructions on what types of biological activity to “look for” in the exposed cells. Positive results are flagged, triggering an alert that the computer sends to project scientists’ computers outside the 20-by-20 foot robot lab.
Scientists interpret the results so they can then identify chemicals that warrant further screening or study. Just because a chemical shows a reaction with an isolated cell (skin, liver, etc.) does not necessarily mean that it will have the same effect when interacting with a living person. To address this, Dr. Kavlock’s team at EPA is developing algorithms that predict whether a person’s organs and body as a whole will react to chemical exposure the same way their individual cells did in the preliminary tests.
Tox21 is revolutionizing the way chemical testing is done. Traditional toxicity testing is built on animal-based studies that require relatively large investments in time and resources, including money. In the past, EPA has had to test one chemical at a time, completing only a couple dozen assessments a year: “A single human researcher may work on ten chemicals a year, or 20," says Kavlock. "We are doing 10,000 in a week.”
Tox21’s new robot system significantly reduces the cost and duration of chemical testing, which will allow EPA to better identify potentially harmful chemicals and serve its core mission to safeguard human health and the environment. It also allows the FDA to better analyze unexpected toxicity, opening the door for better drug development.
The partnership built around Tox21 and the high-tech robot testing is also an exemplary government partnership. "You read a lot in the papers about the duplications of government," Kavlock explained in a recent New York Times article about the project. "This is the case where there's un-duplication. We are really bringing—between NIEHS, NIH Genomics Center and EPA—a really significant complementary expertise."
Tox21’s robot system is now testing chemicals found in industrial and consumer products, food additives and drugs, for evidence they might lead to adverse health effects. The end goal is to create a comprehensive database detailing tested chemicals with particular emphasis on toxic and harmful ones. Thanks to the Tox21 collaboration and its new robot technology, the future of toxicity testing—and the protection of human health—is now.
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The Lecture Series is presented by the Environmental
Science Institute and the Jackson School of Geosciences
UT Campus, Welch Hall 2.224
5:45-7 - Pre-lecture Fun
7-8 - Lecture
8-8:30 - Q & A Session
The Live Webcast will start at 7pm. Please log on at least 15 minutes before 7pm to download the necessary plug-ins to view our webcast.
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In the News:
BBC News - Whales' recovery 'vastly overestimated'
Whale populations are too low to resume commercial hunting, geneticists find
Science News for Kids
ABC Science Online - Gene study blows whaling out of the water
Discover - Extent of Great Whale Slaughter Worse Than Previously Thought
Thursday, November 16, 2006 - 7 PM CT
Archived Lecture Available Soon
The History and Future of Whales
by Dr. Stephen R. Palumbi
Professor of Biological Sciences, Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station
What is the Lecture About?
Stephen R. Palumbi is a professor of Biological Sciences at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station. He and other research scientists in the Palumbi Lab study genetics, evolution, conservation, population biology, and systematics of a diverse array of marine organisms. He uses molecular genetic techniques in conservation-related research, including the identification of whale and dolphin products available in commercial markets and the genetics of marine reserves designed for conservation and fisheries enhancement. His 2003 publication in the journal Science on Whales before Whaling in the North Atlantic suggests that whale populations were 10 times larger than historical records indicate, which has critical implications for the future of whaling and whale conservation.
Dr. Palumbi received his Ph.D. from University of Washington in marine ecology in 1984. In 1996, he received a Pew Fellowship for Marine Conservation Research. He has published on the genetics and evolution of butterflyfishes, bryozoans, cone snails, corals, sea urchins, sharks, spiders, shrimps, and whales. His recent books include The Evolution Explosion: How humans cause rapid evolutionary change and Marine Reserves: An Ecosystem Tool for Marine Management and Conservation.
Lecture materials are for educational purposes ONLY. We request that the use of any of these materials include an acknowledgement of the presenter and the Hot Science - Cool Talks of the Environmental Science Institute. Also include the disclaimer: May not be duplicated or commercially distributed as they are intended for education and private/classroom audiences.
The Hot Science - Cool Talks Outreah Lecture Series is sponsored by the AT&T Foundation and ConocoPhilips.
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A venous skin ulcer is a shallow wound caused by venous
insufficiency, a condition in which the valves in the blood vessels are damaged
and allow some blood to back up in the veins. The slowed circulation causes
fluid to seep out of the overfilled veins into surrounding tissues, causing
tissue breakdown and ulcers.
Venous skin ulcers, also called stasis leg ulcers, typically
develop on either side of the lower leg, above the ankle and below the
The first sign of a skin ulcer is an affected area of skin that
turns dark red or purple. It may also become thickened and dry and itchy.
Without treatment, an open wound (ulcer) may form. Venous skin ulcers often
weep clear fluid and are covered with yellowish film.
The most effective treatment for venous skin ulcers is frequent
elevation of the legs above the level of the heart and use of compression
stockings during waking hours.
August 31, 2011
E. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine & Margaret Doucette, DO - Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Wound Care, Hyperbaric Medicine
How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions
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Strength Training After Breast Surgery
by Margaret Snow, MD
“…weightlifters had fewer swelling flare-ups, and on average, reported their symptoms as somewhat less bothersome…”
Lymphedema is fluid buildup and swelling that develops in a limb or other part of the body when the lymphatic system that ordinarily carries fluid back to the heart is disrupted. This disruption may be congenital or caused by surgery, trauma, or radiation. A common byproduct of breast cancer treatment, lymphedema may affect the arm on the same side of the breast that is treated with surgery or radiation. The swelling and impaired lymph function can cause pain, infection, and loss of arm mobility. Overuse or injury can cause lymphedema to flare up, and arm swelling may worsen over time.
Patients with lymphedema have traditionally been advised to avoid heavy exertion and weightlifting in the arm or on the side affected by lymphedema. However, experts know that weightlifting is an effective strategy to use muscle and build strength so the arm or affected limb will be less prone to injury. Previously, small studies suggested weightlifting as a safe strength-building regimen in these patients. Kathryn H Schmitz, PhD, from Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, conducted the Physical Activity and Lymphedema (PAL) Study to definitively answer the question of weightlifting safety in lymphedema patients.
The study recruited women who developed lymphedema after treatment for unilateral breast cancer. Each patient was carefully measured by specially-trained physical therapists before the study and throughout. The researchers also collected surveys of patient symptoms. The 141 patients were divided into two groups: an exercise group and a control group that did no exercise. The exercise group worked out at local YMCAs with fitness trainers who had undergone three days of training with Dr. Schmitz to learn how to work with breast cancer survivors with lymphedema. Both groups of patients were fitted with custom lymphedema sleeves; the exercise group was asked to use the sleeves whenever they performed the recommended armstrengthening, trunk and leg exercises. The weight was gradually increased with a focus on building strength.
The PAL study found that patients who participated in the weightlifting program increased their strength when compared to the control patients. Women who lifted weights did not have any more swelling than the control patients who did not exercise. In fact, they had fewer swelling flare-ups, and on average, reported their symptoms as somewhat less bothersome after a year compared to the control patients.
Because none of the measures of lymphedema severity were worse in the exercise group than in the control group, the authors concluded that the study “reduced the concerns that weightlifting would worsen arm and hand swelling…and supports the potential benefits” of a weightlifting program for breast cancer survivors with lymphedema.
As a result of the study, Dr. Schmitz and her colleagues developed the Physical Activity and Lymphedema (PAL) Weight Training Program. The program should not be undertaken unless you have completed supervised sessions with a physical therapist to learn how to do the upper body exercises properly. You can learn more about the program at lymphnet.org.
Dr. Margaret Snow is a previvor and a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation physician who enjoys golfing and photographing birds. She serves as FORCE’s West Michigan Outreach Coordinator.
Disclaimer: Health links are made available for educational purposes only. This information should not be interpreted as medical advice. All health information should be discussed with your health care provider. Please read our full disclaimer for more information.
This site has been made possible by a generous grant from Morphotek.
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New Granada (grənäˈdə) [key], former Spanish colony, N South America. It included at its greatest extent present Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela. Between 1499 and 1510 a host of conquerors explored the Caribbean coast of Panama and South America. After 1514, Pedro Arias de Ávila was successful in assuring permanent colonization of the isthmus of Panama. At Santa Marta (1525) and Cartagena (1533), Spanish control of the Colombian coast was firmly established, and in the next few years the northern hinterland was explored. German adventurers, notably Nikolaus Federmann, penetrated the Venezuelan and Colombian llanos between 1530 and 1546. By far the greatest of the conquerors was Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, who in 1536 ascended the Magdalena River, climbed the mighty Andean cordillera, where he subdued the powerful Chibcha (an advanced native civilization), and by 1538 had founded Santa Fé de Bogotá, later known simply as Bogotá. He named the region El Nuevo Reino de Granada [the new kingdom of Granada]. During the next 10 years the conquest was virtually completed. No civil government was established in New Granada until 1549, when an audiencia court, a body with both executive and judicial authority, was set up in Bogotá. To further stabilize colonial government, New Granada was made a presidency (an administrative and political division headed by a governor) in 1564, and the audiencia was relegated to its proper judicial functions. Loosely attached to the viceroyalty of Peru, the presidency came to include Panama, Venezuela, and most of Colombia. Disputes with—and the great distance from—Lima led to the creation (1717) of the viceroyalty of New Granada, comprising Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela. Later the captaincy general of Venezuela and the presidency of Quito were detached, creating a political division that was to survive the revolution against Spain and the efforts of Simón Bolívar to establish a republic of Greater Colombia. The struggle for independence began in 1810, and by 1830 Venezuela and Ecuador had seceded, and the remnant (Colombia and Panama) was renamed the Republic of New Granada. This became the Republic of Colombia in 1886, from which the present Panama seceded in 1903.
See A. J. Kuethe, Military Reform and Society in New Granada (1978).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
More on New Granada from Fact Monster:
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Latin American History
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René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur
Réaumur, René Antoine Ferchault de (rāˈəmyŏr, Fr. rənāˈ äNtwänˈ fĕrshōˈ də rāōmürˈ) [key], 1683–1757, French physicist and naturalist. He invented an alcohol thermometer (1731) and the Réaumur temperature scale, in which the freezing point of water is 0° and the boiling point 80°. In 1710 he directed the official description of arts and trades in France. He investigated gold-bearing rivers, turquoise mines, and forests. He did research on the composition of Chinese porcelain, which led him to develop an opaque glass, and on the composition and manufacture of iron and steel, including a means of tinning iron. As a naturalist he is best known for his exhaustive study of insects (6 vol., 1734–42; a 7th vol., part of the original manuscript, appeared in 1928); he also studied regeneration in crayfish and showed corals to be animals, not plants.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Physics: Biographies
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Chavín de Huántar
Chavín de Huántar (chävēnˈ dā wänˈtär) [key], archaeological site in the northeastern highlands of Peru, near the headwaters of the Marañon River. It flourished between c.900 B.C. and 200 B.C. The site features two monumental temples and intricate stone carvings depicting snarling human deities and a variety of animals, including caimans, jaguars, snakes, birds of prey, and mythical beasts. The site also features residential architecture covering c.18.5 acres (7.5 hectares). The term "Chavín" (or "Chavinoid"), used as an adjective, refers to the intricate art style present at this site, which eventually spread throughout much of central and N Peru. Once considered one of the earliest large-scale ceremonial centers of the central Andes, archaeologists now realize that monumental architecture actually emerged considerably earlier in other parts of Peru. The spread of the Chavín style in media such as metallurgy, textiles, and ceramics dates to the last phase at the site (c.400–200 B.C.), when Chavín de Huántar was undoubtedly the most prestigious religious and urban center in Peru.
See J. A. Mason, Ancient Civilizations of Peru (1961); J. H. Rowe, Chavín Art: An Inquiry into Its Form and Meaning (1962); E. P. Benson, ed., Dumbarton Oaks Conference on Chavín, 1968 (1971); C. Kano, Origins of the Chavín Culture (1979); R. L. Burger, Chavín and the Origins of Andean Civilization (1992).
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Archaeology: General
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Follow our four-point plan of attack to trace your roots in Spain, Portugal and the Basque region.
Since ancient times, the Iberian peninsula—encompassing Spain, Portugal, and the long-contested Basque country—has been coveted and conquered by the Romans, Germanic tribes, Arabs, Holy Roman Empire and Napoleon. For genealogists today, tracing your ancestry in the Iberian region is a conquest with its own challenges: language barriers, decentralized records, lagging digitization and state takeovers of church registers, among others.
But those obstacles aren’t insurmountable—technological weapons can help you break down language barriers, records access is gradually improving, and the reward for tackling Spanish, Portuguese or Basque records likely will be well worth the struggle: The area’s church and notarial records in particular are some of the world’s richest genealogical treasures. Follow these four steps for your own successful assault on the formidable peninsula.
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Going, Going, Gone: The impact of land fragmentation
on Texas agriculture and wildlife
A New Breed of Landowner
For generations, land in Texas was a legacy. It was passed down from one generation of farmers or ranchers to the next. In today's world, however, traditional farming and ranching have become questionable propositions. Fewer and fewer people are willing to take on the challenges of a life on the land.
A new breed of landowners, excited about staking their claim to a bit of Texas, is eager to step in. Younger, more educated and more affluent, the newcomers are quite different from their predecessors. For them a "farm" or "ranch" is not a place to raise crops or cattle, but rather a weekend retreat from the city or a place to raise a family in the country.
Unlike previous owners, they don't need the large acreages of land required to make farming or ranching profitable. Instead, they merely want a place where they can hunt, fish and find a little solitude. Huge expanses of land aren't required for such things.
As a result, prices aren't driven by what the land can produce, but rather by its scenic and recreational value. Those natural amenities have become precious commodities. In many counties across Texas they have pushed prices for land to record levels.
The fragmentation study found that while the average agricultural value of farm and ranchland grew only 4 percent between 1992 and 2001, there were 25 counties where the development and recreational value of land increased between 86 percent and 292 percent. (Look at a map of this disparity between land values) The study found that such increases in "non-agricultural" values were a good early indicator that large farms and ranches would likely be divided into smaller ownerships. The study also revealed that this land fragmentation is often accompanied by changes in land use and fragmentation of wildlife habitats.
The researchers found that "mid-sized" family ranches of 500 to 2,000 acres were particularly susceptible to fragmentation. During the 1990s, these properties disappeared at a rate of a quarter-million acres a year because families who had lived and worked on those lands for generations sold them and moved on. (More information on the decline of mid-sized ranches)
The decision to sell is often a matter of simple, heartbreaking economics. With developers offering far more money than they can make from the land by farming or ranching, landowners accept the offers, often reluctantly, and move on. As they depart, a major piece of Texas' rural heritage disappears. Rural economies are often left in shambles as stockyards, grain elevators, farm implement dealers and other ranch-related enterprises close their doors.
Managing Director, Field Programs
1 Short Street, Suite 2
Northampton, MA 01060
(p) 800-370-4879 (f) 413-586-9332
Texas Regional home page
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Edge Of Chaos 1.1
Interesting things happen at the boundary between order and chaos, where the qualities of both states are evident. There is enough order to retain information, and enough chaos to provide variety. A good way to explore this interesting phenomenon is to study a famous cellular automaton called "Conway's Game of Life" which inhabits the edge of chaos region. This screensaver allows you to explore the edge of chaos through the Game of Life.
conway, game of life, cellular automaton, edge of chaos, emergent complexity, ca,
Five Cellular Automata 6.22
Software for exploring five cellular automata: q-state Life (a generalization of Conway's Game of Life), the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction, Togetherness, Viral Replication and Diffusion-Limited Aggregation. The documentation provides a complete description of the algorithms used.
cellular automaton, cellular automata, life, automation, conway, belousov, zhabotinsky, bz, belousov-zhabotinsky, simulation,
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FDR and Housing Legislation
75th Anniversary of the Wagner-Steagall Housing Act of 1937
September 1, 2012 is the 75th anniversary of the Wagner-Steagall Housing Act, a piece of late-New Deal legislation that reflected the government’s recognition of adequate housing as an important societal need.
Franklin Roosevelt had been interested in housing issues as Governor of New York, and he brought his support for housing reforms to the federal level when he became President in 1932. The Home Owner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC) was created in 1933 to provide mortgage relief to home owners at risk of losing their homes through foreclosure. The HOLC also developed a comprehensive housing plan that served as the basis for the National Housing Act of 1934. This law created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) that insured banks, mortgage companies, and other lenders, thereby encouraging the construction of new homes and the repair of existing structures.
It was FDR’s hope that the law would also spur employment in the construction industry. Although the 1934 National Housing Act and the FHA met the needs of existing home owners and those Americans financially able to purchase homes, it did little to address the housing needs of the poor, including many African-Americans living in slums.
But there was fierce political opposition to low-cost public housing for low-income Americans. Landlords and the real estate industry believed that rental and sales markets would be undercut by cheaper public housing. Fiscal conservatives in Congress were afraid of the budgetary impact of a costly public housing program. And many Congressman from more rural parts of the country feared that such a program would help cities instead of smaller communities.
Senator Robert Wagner of New York thought differently, and he became the driving force behind the Wagner-Steagall Housing Act of 1937. Wagner introduced public housing bills in three successive Congresses, 1934, 1935, and 1936. The latter two bills were never even reported out of the House banking committee because its chairman, Rep. Henry Steagall of Alabama, believed public housing initiatives were socialistic and favored big cities.
President Roosevelt lent his full support to Wagner’s efforts and made adequate and affordable housing a priority in his second term. In his State of the Union Message of January 6, 1937, President Roosevelt spoke of the urgent need for the new Congress to address the housing situation:
“There are far-reaching problems still with us for which democracy must find solutions if it is to consider itself successful. For example, many millions of Americans still live in habitations which not only fail to provide the physical benefits of modern civilization but breed disease and impair the health of future generations. The menace exists not only in the slum areas of the very large cities, but in many smaller cities as well. It exists on tens of thousands of farms, in varying degrees, in every part of the country.”
Two weeks later, Roosevelt made the point more succinctly in his Second Inaugural Address:
"I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished. . . . The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
FDR then worked behind the scenes with lawmakers and administration officials on the housing bill. Issues such as financing of projects, caps on costs per unit, and the staffing and governance of the proposed housing authority were sorted out in conferences held at the White House. With the major concerns of various Congressmen—including Rep. Steagall—resolved, the bill finally went to a vote. President Roosevelt signed the Wagner-Steagall Housing Act into law on September 1, 1937.
The new law established the United States Housing Authority (USHA) that provided $500 million in loans for low-cost housing projects across the country. Under the new law, the USHA acted as a loan granting agency to state and local housing authorities to build low-cost housing in both small and large urban areas. The USHA was empowered to advance loans amounting to 90% of project costs, at low-interest and on 60-year terms. By the end of 1940, over 500 USHA projects were in progress or had been completed, with loan contracts of $691 million. The goal was to make the program self-sustainable through the collection of rents: one-half of rent from the tenants themselves, one-third paid by contributions from the Federal government; and one-sixth paid by annual contributions made by the localities themselves. During World War II, the USHA was instrumental in planning and constructing housing for defense workers.
To Franklin Roosevelt, adequate housing was not just a need, but a right. The Wagner-Steagall Housing Act of 1937, along with other New Deal housing and mortgage initiatives, brought greater economic security to hundreds of thousands of Americans. In his January 11, 1944 State of the Union address, FDR declared a “second Bill of Rights” that included “the right of every family to a decent home.”
Silent footage (right) of FDR's campaign trip to Pittsburgh, PA, during which he dedicated the Terrace Village housing project on October 11, 1940. MP07-1
Photographs (below) of the same dedication event in Pittsburgh, October 11, 1940.
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Last Updated: 4/12/12
Setup and Water Preferences
Links and Pictures
For information on my betta's tank, visit my aquarium page.
Common names: Betta, Siamese fighting fish
Scientific/Latin names: Betta splendens
Maximum length: 2 to 3 inches
Colors: Bright reds, yellows, blues, purples, oranges, and greens as well as peach, white, and black
Temperature preference: 75 to 90 degrees F
pH preference: 6 to 8
Hardness preference: Soft
Salinity preference: Low to medium
Compatibility: Two males will fight; male may pester females; females generally get along; compatibility with other species varies (see below)
Life span: 3 to 5 years
Ease of keeping: Easy
Ease of breeding: Moderate
The betta or Siamese fighting fish is very well known. Along with goldfish and guppies, they are commonly kept and usually it less-than-ideal homes. The betta, Betta splendens, is a small labyrinth fish from Thailand, Cambodia, and nearby areas. It is able to use oxygen in air to survive. Thus, it can live in small and/or polluted waters. Males do not tolerate other males. It is for this reason that males are kept in tiny containers of water by themselves. Females are rarely even sold. They are a little smaller or seem so because their fins are much shorter. They have less flashy coloration and are more tolerant of other bettas.
Males grow to about three inches and are brightly colored. Colors may include green, red, yellow, orange, purple, blue, white, black, and more! Most bettas are mostly red or blue/green. Females contain these same colors but more in a pastel shade. They have more apricot colored areas too (non-colored). Females grow to about two inches.
Setup and Water Preferences
Bettas like soft, slightly acidic water. A pH from about 6 to 8 will do. They need warm temperatures of at least 75 degrees F but can take short periods (less than a day) in the 60's. Low temperature is one of the most frequent causes of death for bettas. They do not do well at "room temperature" if that temperature is below 75 degrees F for long periods of time. One disadvantage of keeping them in cups and bowls is this lack of temperature control. For a fish that can take down to about 50 degrees F in a bowl, a paradise fish is a better choice (although it is a bit larger and more active and would prefer a tank).
Bettas prefer to eat small, live foods but will eat most small, meat-based foods. Live brine shrimp are a favorite food. My betta ate brine shrimp on his first day with me but strangely on the second day, he took every live brine shrimp he could find into his mouth and then spat them out! Then, he switched to flakes! Many bettas like the small pelleted foods. Bettas spend most of their time at the water's surface so they find it easiest to eat floating foods. My betta also explored other levels in the tank but slept at the top.
Male bettas are sold to be kept in tiny containers of water all by themselves. Because they can gulp and use atmospheric oxygen, they can survive in small puddles of water or small cups. But, just because they can does not mean they have to do so or even should. I put one in my 20 gallon community tank (see below for precautions). He was a bit confused at first, never having seen other fish, plants, and room to move! But, then he loved it! Bettas kept in less than a gallon of water should have the water changed at least a few times a week or as it gets dirty. Because males fight with one another, breeders with lots of fish have no choice but to keep the fish individually in small containers, like bowls, vases, or pickle jars. Bettas are often sold with a "betta vase" which is just a small container usually with a plant stuck in it. While a few microbes or algae might be on the roots short term, the betta will quickly eat those. He may pick at the roots to gather oxygen as well. But, the betta cannot live off the plant alone and must be fed at least a few times a week. Small containers can also foul quickly so frequent 50% water changes are good. The water should never be cloudy or stinky. If you would not drink it based on how it looks (not knowing a fish had been in it), it is not fit for your betta. Please do not keep bettas in tiny containers. See this site for more information.
Compatibility of Bettas with Other Fish:
A male betta attacks other males, females when he sees fit, and fish that HE thinks look like a betta too. He will "fight" with his reflection. Fighting males spread out their gills like wings, lunge, and bite off pieces of fin. Fish with flowing fins may find them nipped by a male betta. These include fancy goldfish (who do not like the heat that a betta likes anyway), fancy guppies, and other longfinned fish. Female bettas are more tolerant. They generally can tolerate other females but there are tales of females who think they are male and nip other fish. Fast moving and nippy fish like many barbs and danios will often nip at slow bettas' fins. If a male betta is put in a warm community tank with no other fish that looks like a betta (no flowing fins) and no fish that may nip or eat him, then he will get along fine. Goldfish and bettas are not a good mix. This is for a number of reasons: the betta may nip the goldfish, the goldfish may pester the betta to death or rip his fins, the goldfish likes it cool while the betta likes it warm, and the piggy goldfish will eat any food added for the betta. Single-finned goldfish grow over a foot long while bettas stay at an inch or two. Goldfish like to move around at a good pace making a mess while bettas like to take their time to move around. I love both goldfish and bettas but just not together.
On 7/31/06, Jennifer pointed out the following:
"...Although females can get along with each other and sometimes with males, the tank setup makes a huge difference in whether or not the attempt is successful. Having plenty of hiding places and room to get away from each other will go a long way in keeping the bettas from hassling each other to death. I mention this because a number of customers in my store commonly misunderstand the idea that females are relatively peaceful to mean that they can toss two or three bettas into a small bowl without a problem as long as only one is male..."
A male betta has bright colors and long fins. An average female has more subdued colors and shorter fins than a male. Some females are more colorful and can be mistaken for males but are generally smaller. When ready to spawn, her abdomen will enlarge with eggs. Because females are rarely sold, most bettas encountered (usually in cups) are male.
Males will build a bubble nest in water less than six inches deep that has floating plants and no water movement. A breeding setup should not have running filters or aeration, or the nest may be destroyed. Floating plants will anchor it in place. Usually, a male and female are conditioned separately but in sight of one another (in two half-filled five gallon tanks for example). They are fed live foods. The male should build a nest as the female's eggs develop. When the nest looks done, and the female is fat, they can be put together. He may bully her. If he gets violent, they need to be separated. Otherwise, they will spawn, and he will put eggs in the floating nest. After her eggs are all out, she should be removed as he will then attack her to protect the nest. Fry hatch in about 24 hours at 80 degrees. Newborns can eat infusuria, egg yolk, and maybe even crushed flakes. Breeding is reported to be easy but it is vital to remove the young males into separated quarters as soon as their sex is apparent.
I redid my aquariums in 2001. I had room for another fish and decided to finally get my first betta. I had always wanted to rescue one from life in a cup. I bought a multi-colored male on 7/29/01 and put him in my twenty gallon tank. He was pretty slow and seemed almost confused by all the stimulation of plants, animals, and room to swim. He flared his gills once that I saw at a little honey gourami who dashed off. It was funny to watch another honey gourami follow the betta with his feelers out, trying to make contact! Fifi got along well with the other fish. I named him Fifi which is sort of short for fighting fish (the first two letters of each word). Fifi was gorgeous! My only concerns were the water movement which may be too much for the betta who has never had to deal with that and also that he may get his fins sucked into the filter intake if he rests near there. Really though, the filter was mild especially once the surface was nearly 100% covered in floating fern which broke up the water movement. By his second day with us, Fifi was swimming more vigorously (making up for lost exercise!) and eating flake food.
On 8/3/01, I discovered that Fifi had ick. Since I did not quarantine (bad me!), I had to treat the entire tank with increased temperature, salt, and ick medication. He recovered easily but nine other fish in the tank died (out of 18) within the few weeks after they were cured of ick. Fifi's photo on 8/4/01 is at the top of the page.
Unfortunately, Fifi died on 12/19/01 for unknown reasons. He had not been himself for a few days and not coming to eat. There were no signs of external parasites, funguses, or infections of any sort. I am not sure if he died from non-visible parasites or from old age. Bettas are known for only living a few years. I only had him five months but have no idea what his age was when I got him. Since they take about 6 months to be large enough to be sold and then often sit in the store for months, he could already have been a year or two old when I got him. I miss Fifi because he was always eager to be fed, would seem to look at me, and moved around the tank with real purpose making funny movements as he eyed in on something and would nip at it.
Homer and Marge:
On 10/19/07, I finally got another betta after almost six years. I wanted some fish in my basement pond and decided on a betta. My 2.5 year old niece
wanted a purple one so I got one that is kind of white/pink in the body with blue and purple fins.
I named him Homer. I added a little aquarium salt, Stress Coat, Stress Zyme, MelaFix, and
Aquarisol (for ick prevention) to the tub pond. Here are some photos. The first three were taken
while he was in the cup I got him in.:
Homer - right side
Homer - left side
Homer - top view
The basement pond with Homer in it
Homer started making a lot of bubble nests. I felt bad that he was destined to be alone. I decided to buy him a female friend. I obviously cannot house a lot of bettas so I will not try to raise any resulting fry apart from their parents. If any survive, I will certainly take care of them (I have three aquariums that can take some if needed). I added Marge on 11/16/07. She is half his size and definitely was not egg laden (yet). She was kind of naturally colored with light blue fins (initially). I will let you know if Bart, Lisa, and Maggie show up. I had always read that male bettas are so mean, especially to female bettas. Well, when I put her in, he saw her. Instead of attacking, he swam away from her! It has only been a day now that she has been in there but I have not seen her again as she is hiding. There is plenty of room in there to hide. He, on the other hand, comes right up when he sees me and shows off. He is really getting pretty now that he is out of the horrid cup he was in. Homer is not bothering Marge but she is also still in hiding.
Here are two not so good photos taken on 11/16/07 before I put Marge into the pond. I am sorry
that my camera would not focus on her.
Marge - top view
Marge - top view
Aha! On 11/24/07, I finally spotted Marge after 8 days. She is fine. She has gone from light in color to almost black with really blue fins, almost like that female betta shown above (photo someone sent me). I think she may be trying to show him who is boss. Her fins might be a little tattered (hard to tell from above), and she seems to have already grown (although she is still tiny). I could see both of them at the same time (they could see each other), and they were not bothering each other. When I fed them, I saw both of them eat.
I noticed that Homer was guarding about a dozen eggs on 12/24/07. They were gone a few days later, and he stopped guarding that spot under the big white fake floating plant. I do not know if any hatched but I do not think that any survived. There were pond snails (that came in with the plants from my pond) who were driving around the eggs but Marge may have also eaten some. Sometimes Homer chases her to nip at her but she is faster. Other times they will both be close when I put in food, and he does not go after her. I think the aggression of bettas is overrated (except for males with males which I have not done or suggest!).
On 1/17/08, I noticed that Homer was guarding a nice batch of eggs. There was a little pond snail there too though. I feel bad not rescuing the eggs but also know it is hard to raise fry, especially with bettas where the males have to live separately as adults.
Marge on 1/13/08. You can see the intense blue on the edges of her dorsal and caudal fins. The rest of her is pretty much black. The red thing is the adjustment dial on the submerged heater. Behind her is the black intake of the Penguin Mini filter.
I noticed in early March that I had not seen Marge in a while. I realized the morning of 3/11/08 that something was stuck to the filter intake. I feared it was her. I confirmed that when I got home from work and took it off. I do not know if Homer contributed to her demise but it is certainly possible. When I had seen them interact the last few months, it was never overly aggressive, just mild chasing. She had not been damaged by him before. I guess all it would have taken was for him to have one attack mode. Her body was too degraded to tell if she had been bitten. I do not plan to get another betta so do not worry.
On 3/14/08, I bought seven rosy red minnows in an attempt to get my turtle to eat. He killed two but ate none so I had to find a place for the five minnows. I moved Homer from the basement pond and put him in to the 20 gallon aquarium on 3/18/08. The minnows then went in the pond. Homer really seems to like the 20 gallon tank! He is getting along with the fish, frogs, and shrimp. I was worried he might bother the shrimp but Homer is a slow mover with a tiny mouth. He is enjoying the added food variety.
Here is a photo of Homer in the 20 gallon tank right after I put him in there. It was the best betta
photo I have ever taken so I also put it at the top of the page!
Homer on 3/18/08.
Homer on 4/5/08.
On 11/7/08, I realized that Homer was developing what so many bettas get. His tummy is starting to bulge. Whether it is dropsy, fish tuberculosis, or some kind of tumors, it seems to be what afflicts the bettas of most of the people who contact me. I hope Homer hangs on and does as best as he can. I have had him a year. Most bettas are almost a year old when bought at the store and only live a few years.
Here is a photo of Homer from 12/13/08 when he was moderately bloated up (filled with fluid).
As I type this on 12/26/08, he is huge and probably will not live much longer.
Homer continues to get larger. I can see through his body to the other side. It is just full of water
inside. This photo is from 1/8/09:
Homer died on 2/14/09. My niece and I will miss him. She always would ask, "Where's Homer?" or say "I see Homer!" with such zest.
I impulsively bought another betta for my 20 gallon tank on 6/19/09. This time, I got a female. She was powder blue. I named her Pretty because she was.
These photos of Pretty are from 6/19/09:
Pretty - two adult panda cories are in the photo; you can see how small Pretty is.
Pretty has done well but already a problem has appeared. Sometime in early September of 2009, she started to develop a small growth, cyst, or infected tumor on her right gill plate. I hope it does not get any larger.
I was saddened to find Pretty dead on 10/31/09. I did not think she would die so soon and suddenly. I will not get another betta anytime soon.
I got a new betta on 3/9/12 for the 20 gallon tank. I wanted him to be strong so his name is Rambo. He is a double tail male betta. He is still small with a dark body and white fins. He is having fun exploring after a life of tiny containers.
I took these photos of Rambo on 3/9/12 on the day that I got him.
Rambo - in the cup they had him in
Rambo - in the cup
Rambo - from above, in a bowl during acclimation
I saw Rambo on 3/15/12, and his fins were red as from septicemia. I do not know what is wrong or why. He is mostly hiding. I hope he can hang in there. I have not seen Rambo since. No body was found. He is presumed dead. I will update if he shows up. I will make a note to never get a betta again. I thought his life would be better in a 20 gallon tank than a bowl but I was wrong.
Links and Pictures
Betta FAQ - This is an archived version as the site is now gone. The last archive says they did not pay their bill so this is the archive before that.
California Betta Society and Betta FAQ
Betta Talk - a great site, especially for beginners
Tera's Bettas - information, breeder lists, breeding, etc.
The Betta FAQ
bcbetta - a betta breeder with lots of gorgeous photos of fancy bettas and some information on breeding, etc.
Fish Profile on Betta
Healthy Betta - "Your source to keep your betta happy and healthy."
Not Trash Pets - a site dedicated to spreading the word that small animals are not trash pets.
Ultimate Bettas - a betta forum
Photos are listed from oldest to newest.
Here is a photo of a male betta that Sascha sent to me on 6/9/05. The betta has a kinked spine and scales sticking out. He most likely had dropsy. The poor guy died about a week later.
Deb sent me this photo on 8/14/05 of her female betta.
Gina sent me these photos of her betta on 3/6/06. His name is UB.
UB right side
UB right side
UB left side
UB front view
Gina later sent these four photos on 6/29/06 of another male betta, a real beauty named Pinky.
When she first got him, he was all white and sick but look at how gorgeous he turned out!
Pinky - right side
Pinky - right side
Pinky - right side
Pinky - left side
Go to this page to see photos of a betta with a tumor that Diana treated with surgery.
Xochitl sent photos of his sick male betta on 9/10/06. The betta has some sort of swelling on the
right side. It is hard to tell from the photos what it is but it may contain fluid.
Betta - top view.
Betta - side view.
Meg sent this photo of her male betta, Pinot Griso on 10/2/06.
Melissa sent these photos of her sick betta with dropsy on 7/24/07. His name was Guido and
he died shortly after the photos were taken.
Paul sent this photo of his male betta UMB on 10/21/07. He is a multicolored crowntail.:
Paul sent another photo of UMB on 12/14/07. UMB died of dropsy in the fall of 2008.
Wind & Weather sells neat things for your garden!
The World's Largest Pet Store is your source for discount aquarium, pond, and pet supplies!
There have been 27,174,652 visitors (file views since 2006) to Fishpondinfo from October 1, 2003 through May 18, 2013.
Copyright © 1997-2013 Robyn Rhudy
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What this all does is it makes the ball move... it makes it switch directions when it hits the walls, speed up a little bit with each hit, and switch angles when it hits the paddle. The paddle part is the main part, what it does is it finds the distance the ball is from the middle of the paddle when it hits and makes that distance divided by 2 the new angle. Now this depends on the size of the paddle, if the paddle is very big, then it will make the ball go crazy when it hits near the edge and you may want it to be divided by a larger number.
|» Level Intermediate|
Rating: 5.79 Votes: 24
|Use this tutorial to make a game like breakout or pong, i have a version of pong on my cheap as free website, check it out|
|Download the files used in this tutorial.|
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|More help? Search our boards for quick answers!|
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Information for Students
Welcome to the Flint Regional Science Fair! We look forward to seeing you at the Fair in March.
Taking part in a science fair is fun, educational, and rewarding. This part of our web site provides information and links that can help you get started, conduct your research and enter the Flint Regional Science Fair.
The FASF is held every Spring. This means you should begin planning in the Fall and Winter prior to the Fair to ensure you pick a good research topic, and have plenty of time to do a good job and present a quality project.
Parents, teachers, and mentors are important helpers to identify projects, collect the resources required for your project, and track your progress. Ask your parents and your teachers for assistance. They are your best bet for one-on-one direction and support in your Science Fair experience.
Elementary Division and Junior Division projects follow simpler rules than Senior Division projects.
More Web Student Science Resources
Questions? Email firstname.lastname@example.org.
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Distribution Map: Based on vouchered plant specimens only. View county names by placing the mouse cursor over a particular county.
** Not applicable or data not available.
– Denotes synonyms that are applicable to the state. Show these synonyms only
Wetland Assessment Procedure (WAP): Source - Southwest Florida Water Management District, Wetland Assessment Procedure Instruction Manual for Isolated Wetlands (March 2005).
Source - Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council's 2007 List of Florida's Most Invasive Species
Category I - Species that are invading and disrupting native plant communities in Florida. This definition does not rely on the economic severity or geographic range of the problem, but on the documented ecological damage caused.
Category II - Species that have shown a potential to disrupt native plant communities. These species may become ranked as Category I, but have not yet demonstrated disruption of natural Florida communities.
Wetland Status, Department of Environmental Regulation (DEP): Source - Delineation of the Landward Extent of Wetlands and Surface Waters, Chapter 62-340, Florida Administrative Code. 1994.
Wetland Status (NWI): Source - National list of vascular plant species that occur in wetlands. US Fish & Wildlife Service Biological Report 88(24). National Wetlands Inventory, US Fish & Wildlife Service. 1988.
A positive (+) or negative (-) sign is used with the Facultative indicator category to more specifically define the regional frequency of occurrence in wetlands. The positive sign indicates a frequency toward the higher end of the category (more frequently found in wetlands), and a negative sign indicates a frequency toward the lower end of the category (less frequently found in wetlands).
Identifying species that appear as waifs or only periodically appear in the flora for a few seasons.
(Definitions from: American Heritage Science Dictionary)
Intro paragraph to be provided by New York.
This numeric rank provides the relative rarity for each species based on a scale from 1 (very rare) to 5 (common). These ranks carry no legal status.
Each species' global rank is determined by NatureServe. These ranks carry no legal weight. The global rank reflects the species worldwide rarity.
View a List of All Ecological Communities
For more information, contact: Dr. Richard Wunderlin or Dr. Bruce Hansen
© 2013 Institute for Systematic Botany | Data last modified: 5/23/2013
Web Development: | The Florida Center for Community Design + Research
A member of the University of South Florida family of PlantAtlas.org websites
Wunderlin, R. P., and B. F. Hansen. 2008. Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants (http://www.plantatlas.usf.edu/).[S. M. Landry and K. N. Campbell (application development), Florida Center for Community Design and Research.] Institute for Systematic Botany, University of South Florida, Tampa.
Select the criterion by which you wish to search (Scientific name, Genus, Family, etc.) and enter that information into the provided field.
Hint: Correct spelling is necessary for desired results, but because this function is a string search the full name need not be entered. Any correct part of a taxon name can be entered and a choice of the correct one made from the small list of resulting matches.
For example, matching the full name exactly in a Scientific Name search for Piptochaetium avenacioides may be difficult, but strings of either tium aven or avenaci or m avenac or pipto will all result in very small lists of matches. The intended name can then be chosen from any of those lists. Usually, the last letter (or two) of a given genus, a space, and the first few correct letters of the specific epithet will provide a sufficiently short list containing the desired taxon.
A similar example in a Common Name search is Virginia snakeroot. Searching using "snake root" will yield no results due to the extra space, but searching "snake" will generate a short list of plants with the word "snake" in the common name. Furthermore, a search of "Virginia snake" or even "nia snak" yields one result: Virginia snakeroot.
If, after following the above advice, then difficulties are still encountered please use the "browse" feature.
A voucher specimen is a pressed and thoroughly dried plant sample deposited in a herbarium, and is intended to be a permanent record supporting research purposes. A voucher may be a record of a plant's occurrence in a particular area, or a specific example of a plant used in a scientific investigation.
Proper vouchers display all the necessary attributes for complete identification of the plant, and are to be accompanied by accurate locality, habitat, collection time, and collector data.
Only plant populations vouchered by specimens deposited in Index Herbariorum http://sciweb.nybg.org/science2/IndexHerbariorum.asp recognized herbaria are represented on this map.
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Mrs. Dixon's Home Page » Treasure Key
In Dixon Den we have special keys that allow students to bring in a "treasure" to share with the class. Much like show and tell, the first grader with the key stands up in front of the class to tell all about the treasure he/she has brought to share. The holder of the key should be able to tell why the item is a treasure to him/her and be able to tell important information about the treasure. If your child brings home the key, please help him/her to choose something interesting to share with our class. Some good ideas include: a few pictures or a souvenir from a recent trip, part of a collection, pictures of a pet, a favorite book, a special or unusual gift, or something from nature. Help your first grader put the key and the treasure in his/her backpack that evening so nothing will be forgotten the next morning. In order to share, a child must bring both the treasure and the key. Dixon Den first graders look forward to their turn with the key! It gives them an opportunity to practice speaking in front of a group and it makes them feels special!
Amy Dixon's Site
Mott Road Elementary School
7173 Mott Road
Fayetteville, NY 13066
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Nanobiosensors hold considerable potential as future areas of development for nanotechnology, according to a recent study.
However, ‘Nanobiotechnology perspectives. Role of nanotechnology in the food industry: a review’, which is to be published in the Journal of Food Science and Technology, claims case-by-case toxicity studies are needed.
“Advances in microfluid and inorganic nanoparticle production have enabled the preparation of efficient sensors to rapidly detect pathogens or pesticides in food or on the farm or in the product on the market,” the authors conclude.
“The nanobiosensor can also be applied in environmental pollution control in the food industry. Functionalised food with nanoparticles as flavours and nutrients carriers can enhance food quality and safety.
“The important issue in the immediate future will be the toxicity of these nanomaterials in plants, animals and humans and then it must be studied case to case.”
Electronic noses and tongues, which use arrays of nanosensors, have considerable potential in assessing beer quality, especially at the fermentation stage, the research claims. Recently developed electronic noses have also been applied to the detection of fungal contamination of cereal grain samples.
In particular, the researchers state: “Electrochemical nanosensors, especially amperometric ones, are of great interest nowadays, because of their high sensitivity for the detection of important components or pollutants in agriculture and in foods.”
Pathogen and mycotoxin detection
Studies suggest nanobiosensors can be used in pathogen and mycotoxin detection in foods, they add, with Salmonella, E.Coli and Listeria being most studied.
For example, an antibody-functionalised carbon nanotube nanosensor has been used for detecting Salmonella in a nutrient broth solution. And a cholesterol biosensor containing multiwall carbon nanotubes and cholesterol oxidase has been constructed on glassy carbon electrodes with excellent performance.
There is evidence to suggest that nanoparticles of poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) could combat Salmonella and Listeria, the researchers state.
Shelf life could be improved through encapsulation of nitric oxide in nanostructures that improve its stability, they note, citing one example in which its incorporation into packaging had enhanced the preservation of button mushrooms.
Use of edible nanofilm could also help preserve food such as fresh produce, meat, confectionery, baked goods and French fries for longer, acting as active packaging, increasing barrier protection, the authors claim.
“The edible thin film can be prepared from edible nanolaminates that might protect the food from moisture, lipids, gases, off-flavours and odours.”
Nanotechnology applications in non-edible packaging include enhancing plastic barrier properties; incorporation of bioactive sensing and signalling regarding food quality and improving heat resistance, states the review.
Duran and Marcato state that prolamin, or Zein, offers opportunities as a carrier for flavour compounds or nutraceuticals, either as nanobeads or nanoparticles.
Source: International Journal of Food Science and Technology
‘Nanobiotechnology perspectives. Role of nanotechnology in the food industry: a review’
Authors: Durán, N. and Marcato, P. D.
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The price of energy has a very strong influence on the energy choices governments and individuals make. I sometimes hear people ask "Why are we still building coal-fired power plants?" or "Why don’t we replace more petroleum with biomass?" One reason is that biomass is generally more difficult to use from a logistical point of view. Another is that there just isn’t enough biomass to meet present energy demands. But a major factor comes down to price.
The price and convenience of energy sources are ultimately the keys to customer acceptance. Homes can be heated with wood, heating oil, natural gas, or electricity. Automobiles can be fueled with gasoline, ethanol, natural gas, diesel, electricity, and a wide variety of more unconventional fuels. If consumers have a choice and the supply is convenient, they will tend toward the cheapest energy source they can get.
Below I have compiled a list of current prices for some of the more common energy options on an energy equivalent basis – the British Thermal Unit (BTU). A BTU is simply the amount of heat energy it takes to raise the temperature of one pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit. Everything has been converted into U.S. dollars per million BTU (MMBTU). The sources for the data are listed below.
I have included the cost of electricity, although it is important to note that the efficiency of electric motors is higher than for internal combustion engines. For comparison, I have also included the cost of the federal ethanol tax credit (Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit), which is $0.45 per gallon of ethanol for 2010.
Energy Prices per Million BTU
The list above illustrates why wood pellets for home heating are flowing out of Canada and the U.S. and into Europe. Wood pellets are much more expensive and generally less convenient to use than natural gas in North America. It isn’t difficult then to see why wood pellets have a difficult market in North America. For people with access to natural gas, the lower price and convenience of natural gas is compelling. In Europe, natural gas supplies aren’t as secure, so they have more incentive to consider wood pellets as an option.
The cost of the ethanol subsidy is interesting. Taxpayers presently pay more for the subsidy than natural gas costs. However, if you consider that the subsidy is on a per gallon basis – and a large fraction of that gallon of ethanol is fossil fuel-derived, the subsidy for the renewable component is higher.
For instance, consider an energy output of 1.5 BTUs of ethanol (and by-products) per BTU of fossil fuel input (this is approximately where today’s corn ethanol plants operate). In this case the renewable component per gallon is only 1/3rd of a gallon; the rest of the subsidy is essentially subsidizing the fossil fuel inputs. (An energy return of 1.5 indicates that it took 1 BTU of fossil fuel to produce 1.5 BTUs of ethanol; hence the renewable component of the ethanol in that case is 1/3rd). That means that the subsidy on simply the renewable component is actually three times as high – $17.76/MMBTU. Also bear in mind that this is only the subsidy; the consumer then has to pay $23.46/MMBTU for the ethanol itself.
Of course there are many other considerations, and government subsidies can tilt the playing field toward or away from different options. But if you ever wonder why those long railroad cars filled with coal are headed east from Wyoming, or why we tend to heat homes in North America with natural gas or heating oil, now you know.
Sources for Data
1. U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Coal News and Markets Report for the Week Ending 1/15/2010. (Link).
2. EIA, Natural Gas Futures Prices for 1/15/2010. (Link).
3. U.S. Department of Energy, Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC). (Link).
4. EIA, Spot Prices for 1/15/2010. (Link).
5. EIA, World Crude Oil Prices, U.S. average price for 1/15/2010. (Link).
6. WoodPelletPrice.com, typical premium wood pellet prices for 1/15/2010. (Link).
7. CME Group, Chicago Board of Trade Ethanol Futures for February 2010 Contract. (Link).
8. EIA, Wholesale Day Ahead Prices at Selected Hubs for New England 12/31/09. (Link).
9. POET, POET Announces Cost Reductions in Cellulosic Ethanol. (Link).
Petroleum – 138,000 BTU/gal
Gasoline – 115,000 BTU/gal
Diesel – 131,000 BTU/gal
Ethanol – 76,000 BTU/gal
Heating oil 138,000 BTU/gal
Jet fuel – 135,000 BTU/gal
Propane – 91,500 BTU/gal
Northern Appalachia Coal – 13,000 BTU/lb
Powder River Basin Coal – 8,800 BTU/lb
Wood pellets – 7,000 BTU/lb
Electricity – 3,412 BTU/kWh
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The blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) is an antelope species native to the Indian Subcontinent that has been classified as near threatened by IUCN since 2003, as the blackbuck range has decreased sharply during the 20th century.
The blackbuck is the only living species of the genus Antilope. Its generic name stems from the Latin word antalopus, a horned animal. The species cervicapra is composed of the Latin words capra, she-goat and cervus, deer.
Antelope is a term referring to many even-toed ungulate species indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelopes comprise a miscellaneous group within the family Bovidae, encompassing those old world species that are neither cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison, nor goats. A group of antelope is called a herd.
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Dirk van Borne (16th century)
Dirk van Borne, a printer of Deventer, Dutch province of Overijssel, had printed and published the Groot Wonderboek by David Joris. He was seized July 1544; in January 1545 he was placed under house arrest until August 1545, and even then he was not allowed to leave the town. Dirk was not a follower of David Joris; he was a Catholic and defended himself by saying that he had not known that the book of David Joris, which Jurriaen Ketel had given him for printing, was a heretical book.
Doopsgezinde Bijdragen (1919): 22-23.
Hoop Scheffer, Jacob Gijsbert de. Inventaris der Archiefstukken berustende bij de Vereenigde Doopsgezinde Gemeente to Amsterdam. 2 v. Amsterdam: Uitgegeven en ten geschenke aangeboden door den Kerkeraad dier Gemeente, 1883-1884: I, No. 309.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, pp. 64-65. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.
©1996-2013 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.
MLA style: van der Zijpp, Nanne. "Dirk van Borne (16th century)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1956. Web. 23 May 2013. http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/dirk_van_borne_16th_century.
APA style: van der Zijpp, Nanne. (1956). Dirk van Borne (16th century). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 23 May 2013, from http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/dirk_van_borne_16th_century.
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The release of the 5200 Supersystem in 1982 represented Atari's attempt to replace their outdated 2600 model and pull ahead of rival, high-quality platforms like Intellivison. By 1982, Atari game programmers realized that they were severely limited by the capabilities of the 2600 system.
The designers incorporated technology into the 5200 (called "Pam" in developmental stages) which they had just developed for their own 8-bit 400 and 800 series personal computer systems. The 5200 is basically a game console version of their home computer, substituting a controller in place of a keyboard.
The Intellivision system had raised the stakes in the gaming industry with its 16-position controller. Atari's own 2600 offered only 8 positions. In hopes of obliterating the competition, Atari designer, Craig Asher helped engineer the "analog" controller. It gives players full, 360° control of the action on-screen.
The 5200 controller contains two other features which made Atari's unique to any other system built by 1982: First, It offers speed variability. When a joystick is held in a single direction long enough, a player can increase his or her rate of on-screen movement. Second, it contains an easy-access PAUSE button, enabling players to easily freeze their games indefinitely. This immediately became a normal feature on most every subsequent system controller.
Unfortunately there turned out to be a major drawback to this groundbreaking technology. The analog controllers never caught on with consumers because they are "non-centering," meaning they do not feature a neutral position. There is no way to come to an immediate stop. This factor will tend to inflict a high level of frustration on any 5200 player who tackles a game which requires precision stopping and starting movements like Frogger or Pac-Man. The controllers were also apparently not made with durability in mind and are quite easily broken.
When Atari released the 5200 it was incompatible with 2600 cartridges. Consumers who had loaded up on games for the 2600 were understandably reluctant to invest in an entirely new platform. Its initial retail price of $330 didn't cause units to fly off of the shelves either.
The 5200 also improved on the 2600 in its switch box. The 2600 system requires players to walk behind the television and change the setting on the box setting from TV to GAME. The 5200 automatically switches to GAME after the power is turned on. Also, when changing cartridges, the 5200 shifts to a black screen instead of the annoying, white noisy static players get between games with the 2600.
When the platform was launched in 1982, Atari chose not to support it with any "must have" new titles. Instead they decided to re-release improved versions of former best seller for the 2600 like Space Invaders or Galaxian. Later, they did offer more sought-after titles like Joust, Space Dungeon and Ms. Pac-Man, but by that time the gaming market was on the verge of collapse.
In 1983, between: Atari (with the 5200 and 2600), ColecoVision and Intellivision, the VCS (Video Computer System) market was stuck in a glut due to an oversaturation of product. Consumers were also demanding that their computers perform more functions than just play games. At that point the Commodore 64 and Atari 800XL home computers had just been released.
Even after a slow start, 1983 sales for the 5200 plummeted. Warner Communications (Atari's former parent company) reported second quarter losses of $283.4 million. By the end of the year, Atari had posted losses of $536 million. They ended production of the 5200 in 1984.
The best game titles for the 5200: Berzerk, Missile Command, Centipede, Qix, Pengo, Wizard of Wor, Space Dungeon, Rescue on Fractalas! and Montazuma's Revenge. ~ Dave Beuscher, All Game Guide
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Born within 40 years of Martin Luther's death, Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) conferred musical greatness on Protestant church music in the German language. He left behind around 500 works – almost exclusively settings of texts from the Luther Bible.
Schütz was born in Köstritz and is remembered there with events and exhibitions at the Heinrich Schütz House – his birthplace, a former inn.
Schütz was a choirboy aged 13 when he was discovered by the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, who paid for his tuition including under Gabrieli in Venice. It was later with reluctance that he allowed his protégé to move to Dresden.
In Dresden, Schütz held the post of court kapellmeister to the Elector of Saxony for 55 years. They were difficult times because the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) was raging in Germany. Schütz's legacy is commemorated in Dresden's Church of Our Lady, by a stele near the Zwinger Palace and at the Heinrich Schütz House on Frauengasse.
In 1651 Schütz purchased a house to which to retire in Weissenfels, where he had spent his youth. It was there that he wrote his Swan Song, an eleven motet setting of Psalm 119 for two choirs. The Heinrich Schütz House in Weissenfels is largely preserved in its original state.
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An abbrev is a word that has been defined to expand into a specified expansion. When you insert a word-separator character following the abbrev, that expands the abbrev—replacing the abbrev with its expansion. For example, if ‘foo’ is defined as an abbrev expanding to ‘find outer otter’, then typing f o o . will insert ‘find outer otter.’.
Abbrevs expand only when Abbrev mode, a buffer-local minor mode, is enabled. Disabling Abbrev mode does not cause abbrev definitions to be forgotten, but they do not expand until Abbrev mode is enabled again. The command M-x abbrev-mode toggles Abbrev mode; with a numeric argument, it turns Abbrev mode on if the argument is positive, off otherwise. See Minor Modes.
Abbrevs can have mode-specific definitions, active only in one major mode. Abbrevs can also have global definitions that are active in all major modes. The same abbrev can have a global definition and various mode-specific definitions for different major modes. A mode-specific definition for the current major mode overrides a global definition.
You can define abbrevs interactively during the editing session, irrespective of whether Abbrev mode is enabled. You can also save lists of abbrev definitions in files, which you can the reload for use in later sessions.
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Archaeological Places in Lima
From immemorial times different pre-Inca cultures that appeared in the history inhabited the Rímac valley and territories around Lima. In its origins an old fishermen town was located here, with great religious tradition. In later period the pre-Inca cultures of Maranga and Aramburú were developed, then followed the Collas, Huachos and the Huallas cultures, and finally they were conquered by the Incas.
The Incas respected the religions of the conquered people and they added their gods, reason for which many pre-Inca religious centers stayed until the arrival of the Spaniards.
All these towns and cultures left archaeological remains, some of them, at the moment well conserved and others restored, outstanding among those:
(UNESCO World Heritage Site) The Sacred City of Caral 5000-year-old and 626-hectare is an archaeological site situated on a dry desert terrace overlooking the green valley of the Supe river, 184 Km. north of Lima city. It dates back to the Late Archaic Period of the Central Andes and is the oldest centre of civilization in the Americas.
Located 31 Km (19 miles) from Lima on the Pan-American Highway South (45 minutes by car), in the valley of Lurín. It was the most important pre-Inca ceremonial center on the Peruvian coast. Main pre-Inca adoration and ceremonial center of the inhabitants' of the valley of Rímac in which the God Pachacámac was venerated. The investigations presume that this place was inhabited since the year 200 up to 1533.
Pre-Inca and Inca archaeological construction. From the pre-Inca constructions stand out the "Templo Pintado" (colored temple) and the "Templo Viejo" (old temple), built with small adobes and pyramids with ramps. After the Inca conquest (1440-1533) they built next to them the "Templo del Inti" (Temple of sun) and an "acllahuasi" (house prepared for the chosen girls). The Temple of Inti has a flight of stairs made of stones and passages that go along the edge of the main structure, built with adobes. On him a great terrace exists with view to the sea, and is related with the islands in front of this group with an old legend.
Pachacámac was the God creator of life and of the universe and it was not personified. The state of conservation of this location and its restoration offer a great show of cultural historical interest.
Site Museum: Daily attention from 09:00 to 17:00, exhibition of archaeological remains found in this complex, ceramic, textile, idols, etc.
Located in the intersection of Avenida El Rosario and Avenida Nicolás de Rivera, San Isidro district. Visiting hours: Tue. – Sun. 9:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.. Pre-Inca adoration place, pyramidal huaca built with adobes (bricks made with mud), it is restored. Site museum houses pieces found during the excavations of the area.
Located in General Borgoño street, block 8 (Near Avenida Angamos Oeste, block 4 and Avenida Arequipa, block 45) in Miraflores. Visiting hours: Wed. – Mon. 9:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M. A ceremonial center dating from earliest stages of the Lima culture. Huaca with a pyramidal shape, pre-Inca adoration site dedicated to the God Pachacámac. Sometimes, events or musical shows take place there. You can also find a site museum that exhibits pieces found in the excavations.
Puruchuco (Quechua voice: Hat of feathers)
Located Kilometer marker 4,5. Carretera Central east of Lima. Visiting hours: Mon. – Sun. and holidays – 8:30 A.M. – 4:30 P.M. Inca archaeological site, the Inca buildings (1440 A.D. – 1533 A.D.) are made of mud and adobe. Palace in which "caciques" (political chief of the city) or important people exercised domain over the valley of Rímac. The space is distributed along geometric lines and divided into three sectors, the most interesting being the area of patios and lookouts. During the excavation process, several mummies were recovered, characterized by being placed in a fetal position and accompanied by everyday objects. You will find an interesting site Museum.
Located at Kilometer Marker 10 Carretera Central, take the turnoff on the right hand side of the Rimac River and drive 5 Km (3 miles) lower part of the Jicamarca gorge, east of Lima, in the denominated place Huachipa. Inca archaeological complex, citadel with walled square, numerous barns or food deposits. It was built during the sixth and seventh centuries A.D., the period corresponding to the Lima culture. Its 167 hectares of mud buildings are considered the second largest among the pre-Hispanic Andean mud cities (after Chan Chan in La Libertad).
San Juan de Pariache
Located at 9.94 miles (16 Km) to the east of Lima. Inca archaeological location, of very similar construction to the archaeological center of Puruchuco.
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Our 5 favorite fifth grade writing worksheets
These handy worksheets will help your fifth grader perfect her prose.
By GreatSchools Staff
W.A. Spooner invented this type of mixed-up phrase, now called a "spoonerism." In this writing worksheet, your child gets practice decoding and editing spoonerisms and then writing the phrases correctly.
Skills your fifth grader will work on: letter sounds (phonemes), fluency, building vocabulary, recognizing common phrases, editing, and writing practice.
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Laconian Kylix (Vase/Cup) - 560 BC
Hand-made ceramic copy of a Greek Corinthian Kylix from the Black Figure period of ancient Greek ceramic art, depicting a mythological scene. The original was made around 560 B.C. and features an unusual contemporary scene— King Arkesilas of Cyrene overseeing a group of workmen. The weighing motif suggests an Egyptian model, but the lively details and crisp decorative friezes make it a fine example of Laconian pottery.Approx. 20 cm in diameter (7.9").
*This is a hand-painted reproduction, individually signed by the artist.
Due to special handling requirements, product may require 2-4 weeks for delivery depending on availability. Express delivery available upon request.
GREEK BLACK FIGURE POTTERY
The black-figure pottery ( 'μελανόμορφα, melanomorpha ) technique is a style of ancient Greek pottery painting in which the decoration appears as black silhouettes on a red background. The pale, iron-rich clay turned a reddish-orange color when fired, and then the design was sketched in outline and filled in using refined clay as paint. Details would be added with an engraving tool, scratching through the paint layer to the clay below. Originating in Corinth during the early 7th century BC, it was introduced into Attica about a generation later. Other notable black-figure potteries existed at Sparta, Athens, and in eastern Greece. The technique flourished until being practically replaced by the more advanced red-figure pottery technique in 530 BC, although later examples do exist.
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Two researchers from the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves at Southeast University from Nanjing, China, have discovered and prototyped a device that acts like a black hole for electromagnetic waves in the microwave spectrum. It consists of 60 concentric rings of metamaterials, a class or ordered composites that can distort light and other waves.
Qiang Cheng and Tie Jun Cui called their device “omnidirectional electromagnetic absorber”. The 60 rings of circuit board are arranged in concentric layers and coated in copper. Each of the layers is printed with alternating patterns, which resonate or don’t resonate in electromagnetic waves.
What is indeed very amazing is that their device can spiral 99% of the radiations coming from all directions inside it and convert them into heat, acting like an “electromagnetic black body” (or “hole”).
The omnidirectional electromagnetic absorber could be used in harvesting the energy that exists in form of electromagnetic waves and turn them into usable heat. Of course, turning the heat back into electricity isn’t a 100% efficient process (far from it), but directly harvesting electromagnetic waves in the classic antenna-fashion is way too inefficient compared to this black hole.
“Since the lossy core can transfer electromagnetic energies into heat energies, we expect that the proposed device could find important applications in thermal emitting and electromagnetic-wave harvesting.”
Possible uses can vary from powering your phone with the existing electromagnetic energy that surrounds it, to wireless power transmission and even powering space ships – it all depends on the wavelength that the device is tuned to.
The question that arises is: would this kind of devices have other uses than these constructive ones mentioned above?
More like this article
Not what you were looking for? Search The Green Optimistic!
Join the Discussion4046 total comments so far. What's your opinion ?
Electromagnetic wave harvesting? Extremely fascinating. When one thinks about it, it makes sense. Electromagnetism is one of the more powerful forms of the universe (next to gravity and strong/weak nuclear forces). The inner sci-fi geek in me loves the idea and can only imagine what an EM device could do for humanity in the future. But of course the part of me stuck in reality is still skeptical of such technologies and what their applicable use would be. Very very cool science though!-Consumer Energy Alliance "A balanced approach towards America's energy future"
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The big mover in the first two years is wind. Small amounts of photovoltaic solar, geothermal and biomass are also added, helping to back-up the new wind power.
The combination of wind's massive growth, assisted by other technologies and immediate efficiency gains allows the first polluting coal plants to be retired. The capacity of other coal plants, including Hazelwood and Munmorah, is halved.
Several new technologies pick up pace, including concentrating solar power (CSP).
Australia's dirtiest power station, Hazelwood, closes in early 2013 after 42 years' operation. In NSW, wind and CSP combine to replace coal plants at Liddell and Munmorah. Other plants close down or reduce output in Queensland and WA.
Renewables are now making major headway in Australia's power sector. Ocean energy makes its first appearance supplying electricity to Victoria, while geothermal and solar continue to expand faster.
South Australia becomes the first state to phase out coal-fired electricity, as geothermal and wind power combine to replace Northern power station.
Ocean energy expands in Victoria, and begins supplying significant power needs for Tasmania, WA and SA.
Large-scale solar projects in SA and north-western Victoria help build the region's energy hub that geothermal power initiated.
Continued closures and phase-outs of coal plants, including Eraring in NSW.
The widespread deployment of CSP is the main source of around-the-clock electricity that replaces the remaining 10 coal plants.
By the end of 2020, Australia has replaced all of its coal-fired power stations with renewable energy.
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No more Chernobyls
Time heals everything, doesn't it? It has been 25 years since the name Chernobyl became the infamous nuclear accident that devastated the lives of millions of people in Western Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine. 25 years on, and the nightmare for thousands of people is still frightening.
View of the destroyed no. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power station. Following the explosion the fire and radiation leaks was not brought under control till 9 days after the accident.
The Chernobyl catastrophe released one hundred times more radiation than the atom bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet many seem to just dismiss the accident as a part of history and forget what large doses of radiation actually do to human lives. Sadly, focussing solely on the disputed statistics of Chernobyl has dehumanised what happened. The effects of Chernobyl touched millions of people and thousand still endure very visible and painful effects.
We are telling the stories of just a few of those thousands, to bring to light the reality of nuclear energy. Independent scientists and economists know that nuclear energy is the most expensive electricity source available, counting the cost of building, running and decommissioning the power stations. But an economic analysis alone cannot calculate the costs due to the damage done to our genes, the very foundation of life.
There are many other costs to take into consideration - the insurance and the cost of potential accidents, the long-term disposal of waste when no reliable solution has yet been found. Nuclear power is not a solution for climate change. The massive subsidies needed to keep the nuclear industry alive are slowing and undermine the renewable energy revolution that is the real solution to climate change.
All the above are facts about nuclear energy, however, no scientist or economist can tell you a life story of misplacement, diseases, trauma and fear. . . Only the victims can.
Take action for clean and safe renewable energy - select your country below:
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Does this test have other names?
What is this test?
This test measures the level of iron in your blood.
Iron is an essential trace element in your blood. It helps your body make healthy red blood cells. Red blood cells carry oxygen throughout your bloodstream.
Having too little or too much iron can lead to health problems. Too little iron in your body can cause a condition called anemia. When this happens, your blood doesn't have enough iron to make the number of red blood cells needed to provide the amount of oxygen your body needs.
Iron-deficiency anemia is most often caused by blood loss, such as after an injury or surgery, or because of heavy menstrual bleeding.
Too much iron can be caused by hemochromatosis. This is a genetic condition that causes your blood to absorb too much iron.
Why do I need this test?
You may need this test if your doctor suspects that you have too much or too little iron in your blood. Common symptoms of anemia include:
Less common symptoms of anemia are brittle nails, restless leg syndrome, and a sore tongue.
Signs and symptoms of too much iron include liver problems, weakness, fatigue, darkening of the skin, and joint pain.
What other tests might I have along with this test?
Your doctor may also order a total iron binding capacity test to measure the level of transferrin in your blood. Transferrin is a protein that carries iron from your digestive system to the cells in your body that need it.
Your doctor may also measure your level of ferritin, another protein that helps store iron in your body. He or she may also order a complete blood count, or CBC, to get the full picture of the parts of your blood.
What do my test results mean?
Many things may affect your lab test results. These include the method each lab uses to do the test. Even if your test results are different from the normal value, you may not have a problem. To learn what the results mean for you, talk with your health care provider.
Results are given in micrograms per deciliter (mcg/dL). Normal ranges of iron in the blood are 60 to 170 mcg/dL.
If your results are lower, it means you may have iron-deficiency anemia. Your doctor will confirm this with other tests.
If your results are higher, it means you may have hemochromatosis.
Too much iron in the blood can also be from taking too many iron supplements or iron-enriched multivitamins.
How is this test done?
The test requires a blood sample, which is drawn through a needle from a vein in your arm.
Does this test pose any risks?
Taking a blood sample with a needle carries risks that include bleeding, infection, bruising, or feeling dizzy. When the needle pricks your arm, you may feel a slight stinging sensation or pain. Afterward, the site may be slightly sore.
What might affect my test results?
Other factors aren't likely to affect your results.
How do I get ready for this test?
You don't need to prepare for this test.
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Flora & Fauna Areas
Fr. Polynesia Flora
|Want to travel to French Polynesia?
Most travelers enter French Polynesia via the international airport in Tahiti, from which they can fly east to the Marquesas or the Tuamotus, or west to the other Society Islands such as Moorea and Bora Bora. Sailboats can be charted in the major islands (Tahiti and Raiatea) allowing access to smaller islands without airports. Cars can be rented on most of the Society Islands (Tahiti to Bora Bora). Bicycles are a good option on all but the largest islands. Hiking is a great way to get into the forests of the Marquesas.
This section highlights some of the interesting flora and fauna -- plants, animals and birds -- of the islands of French Polynesia. This includes the island groups of the Marquesas, the Tuamotus, and the Society Islands which include Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora.
Located approximately 3,500 miles from the South American continent, and about the same distance from the Australian continent, the French Polynesian islands almost define the word "isolation." After the astounding wildlife of the Galapagos, French Polynesia seemed somewhat sterile in terms of birds and land animals. The plants, however, are as varied and magnificent as those of the Eastern Caribbean, and the underwater life is bountiful and exciting.
Binoculars and camera in hand, we spend many hours exploring our environment. On board, we use several valuable reference books to terrestrial flora and fauna:
A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific by Pratt, Burner, and Berrett, 520 pages.
Seabirds: An Identification Guide by Peter Harrison is a superb guide to seabirds of the world that should be in every serious bird-watchers library.
A Naturalist's Guide to the Tropics by Marco Lambertini, 338 pages.
Collins Guide to Tropical Plants by Lotschert and Beese - A Descriptive Guide to 323 Ornamental and Economic Plants.
And, less technical, but easy reading and full of anecdotes is the Lonely Planet guide to Tahiti & French Polynesia which helps put each country into perspective geologically, environmentally, and culturally.
The largest land animals are the small yellow geckos that inhabit the trees and eaves of the island homes. Large, nocturnal coconut crabs leave evidence of their existence by their 8‑12" (20‑30 cm) holes in the sand. More obvious are the hermit crabs which scuttle about on the sandy shores scavenging for food and new and better shells to inhabit. There are no dangerous land animals and no snakes in French Polynesia.
|While hiking over the top of Moorea with friends Karen and Jon, we suddenly heard Jon yelp. A 3" brown spider had launched itself onto his collar from one of the Tahitian chestnut trees. He didn't let it sit on his shoulder long enough to prove that "there are no poisonous spiders in French Polynesia."|
|While driving around Huahine (in the Society Islands) we came upon a stream in which live the islander's sacred blue‑eyed eels. We thought we would be lucky to find an eel. To our surprise, about a dozen of the 2‑3 foot brown eels emerged from behind a retaining wall to check out the bread crumbs we tossed on the water. Fresh water eels (and crabs) can be found in most of the Society Islands streams.|
BIRDS of French Polynesia
The tiny, blue-faced Zebra Dove
The bird life in French Polynesia is scant compared to the Americas, or Australia, with introduced species slowly pushing out the endemic land birds. In 1903 the aggressive Indian myna was imported to help wipe out a beetle. It has also wiped out several endemic birds by robbing their nests. The island of Maupiti (the western-most inhabited island in the Society Islands) brags more native birds than elsewhere due to the lack of mynas. In addition to the mynas a few song birds can be seen flitting from branch to branch such as the red-vented bulbul, common waxbill, chestnut-breasted mannikin, and silvereye. A very common companion along trails and roadsides was the tiny blue faced zebra dove, not endemic, but introduced from Australia to Tahiti in 1950. It is also known as the barred or peaceful dove.
More than 27 species of sea birds migrate to and from the islands, though a few do nest here. Commonly seen over the anchorages are magnificent frigate birds, the all-white fairy terns, great terns, and black and brown noddies with a distinctive white patch on the head. Other avian friends of ours from the Galapagos are the red-footed boobies and masked boobies.
For bird identification in French Polynesia we generally used two books:
Seabirds: An Identification Guide by Peter Harrison (a superb guide), and
A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific by Pratt, Burner, and Berrett.
|The wandering tattler is a commonly seen migratory shorebird, arriving in the northern winter from Alaska and NW Canada. It feeds on rocky shores by running and probing, while characteristically bobbing its tail. One took a long break from feeding to rest on the bow rail of Ocelot one afternoon in Raiatea.||The Pacific reef heron is occasionally seen standing very still on the water's edge. Similar to the Little blue heron, the Pacific reef heron has a more crouched stance and yellow-greenish legs. It is often solitary, but nests ashore in small groups on rocky ledges or trees. It occurs throughout French Polynesia.|
|Boobies and frigate birds soar and circle above the
sea in the late afternoon. This shot was taken on the day we left Maupiti
to sail to the Kingdom of Tonga.
We occasionally saw sea birds hundreds of miles from land. Most were petrels or shearwaters. They are very difficult to positively identify while on the wing, at sea.
|A red-footed boobie rests on the ocean between acrobatic flights and dives to capture a meal just outside the reef in Bora Bora. Despite their name which implies a clown-like appearance and demeanor, we find the boobies to be graceful and strikingly beautiful with their blue faces, clearly delineated feather colors, and bright red feet. Also common in the islands are the brown boobies with their brown heads, back and wings, and white breast. They, too, have light blue on their bills, but less than the red-footed boobies.|
Top Level: Home | Destinations | Cruising Info | Underwater | Boat Guests | Ocelot | Sue | Jon | Amanda | Chris | Site Map | Make a Comment
|This site is
Copyright © 2000‑2013 Jon and Sue Hacking -- HackingFamily.com, svOcelot.com. All rights reserved.
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Niagara Falls Events Schedule
Niagara Falls Illumination Schedule
Each night, 365 days a year Niagara Falls are bathed in a rainbow of colours. During summer months the Falls are lit up from 9pm to midnight. Start time varies throughout the year, but begin at nightfall.
Fireworks over the Falls
Witness as spectacular firework displays light up the night sky over Niagara Falls! Enjoy the show every Friday, and Sunday from May 15 to October 9 at 10pm!
Special Holiday displays:
- May 18, 25
- July 1, 4
- August 3
New this summer, experience the excitement three times a week! Fridays, Sundays and Wednesdays in July and August at 10pm!
- July 1, 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 15, 17, 19, 22, 24, 26, 29, 31
- August 2, 5, 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, 19, 21, 23, 28, 30
All Firework display times and dates are subject to change and dependent on weather and wind conditions.
Niagara Falls Facts
- The word "Niagara" was derived from the Iroquois Indian word "Onguiaahra" meaning "the strait"
- Niagara Falls is 12, 000 years old
- Niagara Falls are the second largest falls in the world next to Victoria Falls in South Africa. What makes Niagara Falls spectacular is the combination of volume and height.
- 2800 cubic meters of water flows over the edge of the Falls per second during the summer peak, and falls at a speed of 65 km/hr.
- The sound of the Falls has been described as thunder, and is caused by air bubbles breaking as they are slammed up and out of the water.
- The plunge pool beneath the falls is 35m(100 feet) deep.
- It is estimated that Niagara Falls erodes at the rate of 1foot per year.
- The Niagara generating stations supply one quarter of all power used in New York State and Ontario.
- All the water flows from 4 Great Lakes (Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie) north through the Niagara River into Lake Ontario and through the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean.
- As one of the seven natural wonders of the world, Niagara Falls attracts more than 12 million visitors a year.
Effective June 1, 2009 all citizens of Canada, United States and Mexico will require a passport or approved document including an enhanced driver's licence or enhanced Identification Card to travel through North America by land or air. Children 15 years of age and under must present a valid passport for air travel however are only required to present proof of citizenship when entering the country by land or water.
This change in the required documents is the result of the 9/11 commission recommendations under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI).
For more information, please visit www.travel.state.gov, http://www.getyouhome.gov/ or cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/media/release-communique/2007/0212toronto-eng.html.
The Government of Canada has announced the intention of eliminating the Goods and Service Tax Rebate, and announced the introduction of the Foreign Convention and Tour Incentive program.
As of March 31, 2007 visitors to Canada who purchase goods and export them, will no longer be entitled to a rebate of the GST paid.
The Foreign Convention and Tour Incentive program offers rebate to certain property and services used in the course of holding a foreign convention in Canada.
For more information on the Visitor Rebate Program or Foreign Convention/Tour, visit www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/nonresidents/visitors/menu-e.html.
You can also phone:
- From within Canada, call toll-free at 1 800 668-4748
- From outside Canada, call (902) 432-5608 (long distance charges will apply).
While the hotels will accept both Canadian and American currency, the best method of payment when using US dollars is by credit card as the exchange is handled by the credit card company and based on the exchange rate of the day.
Please be aware that exchange rates may vary within the Tourist district when paying by cash with American currency.
The Legal age for gambling and drinking in Ontario is 19 years old.
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Health Services: Gardasil for Men
Gardisil is the vaccination that prevents infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) types 6, 11, 16, and 18 which cause approximately 70% of cervical cancer in women and 90% of genital warts.
Why should men consider Gardasil?
Boys and young men age 11-26 should be vaccinated against human papillomavirus, or HPV, to protect against anal and throat cancers that can result from sexual activity The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and American Academy of Pediatrics recommended young men receive the series of 3 Gardisil vaccines. Men who are protected against HPV are less likely to pass the infection to their sex partner(s). Men who have receptive anal sex could benefit from Gardasil because the vaccine is shown to be 78% effective in preventing anal intraepithelial neoplasia, a precursor to anal cancer.
Why should men be concerned about HPV?
HPV is the most common sexually transmitted virus in the U.S. and is spread by skin-to-skin contact and with vaginal or anal sex. Researchers believe that most sexually active people have HPV at some point in their lives. There is no treatment for HPV infection and most infections don’t cause any symptoms, but the conditions it causes can be treated. In men and women, HPV can cause genital warts that look like painless, fleshy skin growths. They may be small and hard to see. Women who are infected with some types of HPV are at increased risk for cervical cancer. Men and women who have receptive anal sex may be at increased risk for anal cancer associated with HPV.
Some facts for men and women about the Gardasil vaccine:
- Gardasil vaccine is given in three doses 2 and 6 months after the first dose and three doses are required for protection.
- Gardasil is not a substitute for regular exams by your health care provider.
- Gardasil helps prevent genital warts but will not treat them.
- Gardasil will not prevent the transmission of other sexually transmitted infections.
- Gardasil does not protect against HPV types not included in the vaccine.
- Gardasil will not protect against HPV types which you may have been exposed to previously.
- You may benefit from Gardasil if you already have HPV. This is because most people are not infected with all four types of HPV in the vaccine.
- The most common side effects of Gardasil are: pain, swelling, itching, and redness at the injection site, and fever.
How much does the vaccine cost?
The vaccine is available at Student Health Services at our cost of $150/dose. Many insurance companies cover the cost of the vaccination, including the Haverford College Student Health Insurance. You may want to call your insurance company to find if this vaccine is covered. If you are interested in getting the vaccine please call Student Health Services to schedule an appointment.
You should always speak with your healthcare provider before trying the vaccine or any other drug. The staff at Student Health Services can answer your questions and make you aware of all the potential side effects before you make a decision to get the vaccine. You can also be screened and treated for other common sexually transmitted infections at Student Health Services. More information about HPV and other sexually transmitted infections is available from the CDC.
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Ирвинг против Липштадт
Holocaust Denial on Trial, Trial Judgment: Electronic Edition, by Charles GrayTable of Contents
6.60 Whilst it would not be right to say that there is no issue between the parties in relation to the existence of a policy of deporting Jews eastwards, the differences in the parties' respective case appear to me to be comparatively unimportant. The topic can therefore be taken quite shortly.
6.61 According to Longerich, the Nazi policy towards the Jews evolved over the years. In the 1920s and 30s various legal and economic sanctions were applied to Jews in Germany with a view to compelling them to emigrate. Longerich draws attention to various statements made by Hilter at this time which foreshadow a more radical solution to the Jewish question. Towards the end of the 1930s pressure for the emigration and even expulsion of the Jews intensified. The term Endlosung (final solution) came into use, carrying with it the implication that all Jews would be removed from Nazi Germany.
6.62 Hitler's attitude at this time is reflected in an entry in Goebbels's diary for 24 August 1938:
"We discuss the Jewish question. The Fuhrer approves my procedures in Berlin. What the foreign press writes is insignificant. The main thing is that the Jews be pushed out. In 10 years they must be removed from Germany. But in the interim we still want to keep the Jews here as pawns".
6.63 From the outbreak of war in September 1939 the policy towards the European Jews in those countries invaded by the Nazis was to find for them a "territorial solution", that is, to find an area at the periphery of the Nazi empire to which the Jews might be deported and where they might very well perish. At this stage, Longerich agrees, the policy was not a homicidal one, although he adds the rider that there already existed what he called the "perspective" of mass murder. His argument is that this is discernible from the comments made at the time which suggest that it was recognised that it was unlikely that the Jews would survive for long after their deportastion. They would perish through disease or starvation.
6.64 It is the Defendants' case, largely although not entirely accepted by Irving, that the hard-line policy towards the Jews manifested itself when the Nazis invaded and conquered Poland in September 1939. There were two aspects: the first was the establishment of a reservation in Poland between the Vistula and the Bug into which all Jews under Nazi domination would be deported. The second was a programme to execute selected Jews in Poland as a means among others of rendering the country leaderless and destroying it a nation. According to Longerich, the first aspect commenced with the deportation from about the autumn of 1941 of Jews from the Central Europe into the ghettoes in Eastern Europe. The intention was to deport them further east later, probably in the spring of 1942, when they would perish.
6.65 On 18 September Himmler wrote to the Gauleiter in Warthegau, Greiser, informing him:Himmler forewarned Greiser of the arrival of Jewish transports from the Reich. Hitler appears therefore to have initiated the programme of deportation some time before mid-September 1941.
"The Fuhrer wishes that the Old Reich and the Protectorate be emptied and freed of Jews from west to east as quickly as possible. I am therefore striving to transport the Jews of the Altreich and the Protektorat in the Eastern territories that became part of the Reich two years ago. It is desirable that this be accomplished by the end of this year, as a first and initial step in deporting them even further to the East next spring.
I intend to remove a full 60,000 Jews of the Altreich and the Protektorat to the Litzmannstadt ghetto for the winter. This has, I have heard, the space to accommodate them".
6.66 The deportations, which were initially to ghettoes in Lodz, Rikga and Misk, began in early to mid-October 1941. Although six trainloads of Jews were summarily executed on their arrival at Kovno and in Riga, Longerich agreed that the policy at this time in relation to European Jews was to deport them and not to kill them or at least not to kill them on the spot. The Defendants say that vast numbers of Jews were deported from the Altreich, the Protektorat, Austria, France, Slovakia, Croatia and Romania to the East. Many of these European Jews may have been led to believe that they were going to a new life in the East. That explains why they travelled with food and in some cases with the tools of their trade (although Longerich points out that the food was provided by the Jewish Commission and not by the Nazis). Irving put it to Browning (and Browning accepted) that the extant records relating to deportations, consisting mainly of transport documents, are incomplete. In consequence, suggested Irving, the estimates of the numbers deported vary enormously. Irving maintains that the scale of the intended deportation was nowhere near as comprehensive as the Defendants maintain. In France for example estimates of the number of deportees range from 25,000 to 200,000. (Browning asserted that the consensus now is 75,000 French Jews were deported).
6.67 Irving recognised the emergence of a policy of wholesale deportation of European Jews. He accepted that Hitler was an advocate of this policy. Indeed Irving's case is that the deportation of the Jews continued to be Hitler's preferred solution to the Jewish question until 1942. The so-called "Magagascar plan", whereby the Jews were to be deported from the Reich to the island off the east coast of Africa, was not abandoned until then. Thereafter it is Irving's case that Hitler wanted the entire Jewish question put off until after the end of the war (see section V(ix) above under the heading "The Schlegelberger note"). Whether or not Irving is right about that, he firmly rejected the contention for the Defendants that the evidence shows that there was to the knowledge of Hitler a genocidal implication underlying the policy of deportation.
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Charter of Rights for people who experience mental health issues
The Charter of Rights is for all people who experience mental illness or mental health problems, no matter who they are, regardless of their age, their gender identity, their sexual orientation, their religion, their culture, what language they speak, what their diagnosis is, what their level of ability is and whether they are rich or poor.
ACT Charter of Rights
This Charter of Rights states how people who experience mental illness or mental health problems can expect to be treated by people who care for and work with them.
It sets out those rights that explicitly support people to be free from discrimination and to access high quality health and social care services.
This Charter will help everyone better understand their rights and safeguard them in the ACT.
People who experience mental illness or mental health problems have the same rights as everyone.
|Download:||ACT Charter of Rights for people who experience mental health issues (PDF File - 290k)|
Charter of Rights Community feedback report (PDF File - 538k)
Charter of Rights Pamphlet (PDF File - 540k)
Charter of Rights poster (PDF File - 1267k)
People who can help me (PDF File - 381k)
Related Legislation,Charters,Standards and Rights Based documents (PDF File - 216k)
In this section:
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Gastroenterology Specialist, Dr. Sidney Smith explains the difference between GERD (Gastroesophageal reflux disease) and heartburn.
Read the full transcript »
What is the difference between GERD and heartburn? Dr. Sidney Smith: It really is it varies depending upon the person, I think GERD is the medical terminology that we used to describe gastro reflux disease and I have of folks coming in complaining of GERD and I think it’s always important to test how exactly what they mean by GERD. Some folks have reflux which they feel of sensation of liquid coming back up in the esophagus, other folks have classic heartburn which is usually describe as a burning sensation behind the breast bone. So, it varies from person to person but again GERD is the blanket term that we use to describe reflux disease but again there is a quite a bit of variation within that condition.
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PROGRAM PRIORITY: WOMEN'S HEALTH
In many parts of the world, women’s health is neglected in research, budget, and policy priorities. Among the most critical areas is maternal mortality. The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 500,000 women die in pregnancy and childbirth each year. Millions more suffer lasting injuries or disability. Maternal mortality is the leading cause of early death and disability among women of reproductive age in many developing countries; often, women die because technology that has been available for decades is not present when they are pregnant and when they give birth. The World Bank reports that there is no single cause of death for men that comes close to the scale of maternal mortality.
A myriad of reasons exist for this, one of which is the failure to fulfill women’s right to health information, education, and services. Women are often unable to exert control over their own reproductive health in part because they are uninformed about available services as well as the health risks and benefits of procedures or practices. In other cases, the infrastructure and training to deliver essential maternal care have not been developed, and few mechanisms exist to make it easier for women in rural or poor areas to access essential care. Often, the lack of community-based data means that the number of maternal deaths and disabilities is not accurately measured.
HEALTHRIGHT INTERNATIONAL’S RESPONSE:
Saving lives through education, information, and health system capacity
HealthRight International is committed to lowering maternal and infant mortality rates, expanding access to health care for women, providing education and services addressing reproductive health, and empowering women to advocate for appropriate health services for themselves and their communities. HealthRight programs work to build lasting access to health for women through a comprehensive set of approaches, including:
- Building and improving health system infrastructure, such as maternity wards and systems for gathering data
- Building provider capacity – at facilities and in the community – to provide quality maternal and reproductive health care
- Disseminating accurate and comprehensive information on healthy practices as well as services available for women’s health, and empowering women to make decisions to promote their and their family’s health
- Raising community awareness about women’s health needs and challenges, engaging women, men, and community leaders ranging from government officials to village chief
SUCCESSES AND RECENT INITIATIVES
In Kosovo, HealthRight developed a model for and constructed Women’s Wellness Centers, providing women with access to a continuum of reproductive health services and counseling under one roof. Since 2005, the Centers – now owned and operated by the Kosovo Ministry of Health – have provided services to tens of thousands of women in Kosovo.
In the Northern Rift Valley of Kenya, HealthRight’s Partnership for Maternal and Neonatal Health, working in collaboration with the local Ministry of Health staff, has taken a multi-pronged approach to improving women’s access to maternal health care, including renovating facilities for delivery and emergency obstetric care, developing mobile clinics to reach isolated communities, and training hundreds of health providers and community members.
In Russia, Ukraine, and most recently in Viet Nam, HealthRight’s MAMA+ Project is a comprehensive model for ensuring access to information, services, and support for HIV-positive pregnant women and mothers, and empowering them to care for their children in the family environment. The model takes a client-centered approach to treating and caring for those living with HIV. Since 2005, the MAMA+ Project has provided a continuum of services to hundreds of women, their children, and other family members.
In Nepal, HealthRight has partnered with local organizations serving women and girls who are survivors of trafficking and gender-based violence. HealthRight established health clinics at six locally-run shelters across Nepal, providing access to quality on-site health services and counseling to thousands of shelter residents and community members.
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Is World War II Bringing the Same Result?
On the night of September 1, 1939, Hitler sent his legions thundering over the Polish border. Two years later, with virtually all of Europe engulfed, the war spread to the Pacific as well. As before, our allies found increasing need for the products of our farms, forests, and factories, our mills and mines. As a result, the United States entered upon the greatest era of prosperity it has ever known. And farmers shared fully in it as agricultural prices soared to record levels and production rose by leaps and bounds. Let us see exactly what the war has done.
Great Britain, cut off from the food resources of Continental Europe, turned to us as in 1914–18 for more and more of her food imports. The Soviet Union, some of its fertile cropland, such as the Ukraine, occupied by the Nazis for almost three years, sought food from us to help sustain the Red armies and to eke out the scanty diet of its civilian population. We shipped huge amounts under lend-lease-2,144 million dollars’ worth of food to Great Britain and 915 million dollars’ worth to the Soviets in the period from March 11, 1941, to June 30, 1944. There is a basic distinction, however, between the foods sought by our Allies in 1914–18 and in the present war. In the last war, there was a demand for bulky foods. In this war; there has been emphasis on prepared foods (dehydrated eggs, canned fish, and the like) and on processed meats.
The slogan in this war has been “Food Is a Weapon of War—As Important as Guns and Ammunition!” In response American farmers have planted more acreage, especially to high-nutrient crops like soybeans and peanuts, raised more livestock, particularly hogs, and produced more dairy products—cheese, butter, and eggs needed by our allies. Despite a shortage of labor and machinery, but with the help of very favorable weather, 1942 agricultural production, including crops, livestock, and livestock products, rose 24 per cent and 1943 production 29 per cent above that of the average years 1935–39.
What Will Follow This War —Boom or Depression?
Will the present high prices and extraordinary demands for farm products continue after the war or will the balloon burst swiftly, as it did in 1920?
What do the experts think?
It is generally agreed that the two main requirements for a. healthy agriculture in the United States are: (1) full employment and high national income to provide people with the money to buy the bulk of our farm output at prices profitable to the producer and (2) a large volume of foreign trade—both imports and exports—which would take care of agricultural surpluses. The first without the second will not bring farm prosperity.
Thus, a United States Department of Agriculture report on “The Farmer and War,” issued in January 1944, says that “if improved farm returns are to continue after the war, ways will have to be found to keep industry producing for our needs in times of peace somewhat comparable to the way we produce ... in time of war, so that consumers of farm products retain their employment and can earn enough to buy the food and other things they need and want.”. This report urges a freer international trade and suggests that the United States buy enough foreign goods to permit other countries to obtain the exchange—the dollars—needed to purchase our agricultural products.
Marion Clawson, an economist of the United States Department of Agriculture, writing in the Antioch Review in the summer of 1944, says that after the war our capacity to produce farm commodities will be greatly increased. Farms will be more mechanized. Land now used to grow feed for work horses and mules will be released for the production of human food. Better methods of cultivation and plant breeding will increase the yields from the same acreage and often from the same amount of labor.
Will Acreage in Cultivation Decline?
After every war plans have been made for settling veterans on the land. Frequently, and especially after World War I, these plans fell short of success. This time, it is urged, we ought not to make the same mistakes. As Dr. Raphael Zon, an eminent student of land-use problems, says, “There should be no helter-skelter settlement in remote regions away from existing social and recreational facilities. New land settlement should not be developed simply as a haven of refuge for the unemployed. . . Such settlements should be located on good land that has not been inflated in value, and the individual farms should be of sufficient size to provide a reasonably good income.”
It may be, as some students of the land problem declare, that farm acreage will have to be reduced after the war in order not to flood the market with surplus farm products. In the crop year 1944, some 354 million acres were in crops. Dr. Bushrod Allin of the United States Department of Agriculture estimates that after the war, if the national income stays at 150 billion dollars per year, overseas demand for American produce is sharply curtailed from wartime levels, and better farming methods and increased mechanization bring greater yields, 327 million crop acres will be sufficient to supply our own population.
Such a reduction would be difficult and painful. It would mean that thousands of farmers, especially those on poor land, would have to seek other ways of making a living, and some acreage now in crops would have to be put in pasture or allowed to revert to forest.
On the other hand, some students believe that, in order to meet the nutritional needs of all our people, considerable areas must be added to our present cropland, and that such acreage is still available. An expansion can be justified, however, only if the demand for agricultural products increases, and if people who cannot now afford proper diets have enough, income to buy more adequate food.
Whatever happens, it is clear that opportunities for new farmers after the war will depend in some measure on expansion of acreage in cultivation. If there is an actual over-all reduction, not many new farmers will be needed.
Regardless of the general situation, a certain number of developed farms will be offered for sale or rent each year. There are a good many over-age farmers on the farms of the United States at the present time. Many of them have done pretty well financially during the past few years and probably will want to retire soon after the war. If they do, they will make room for a good many young farmers. Judging by the record of the last five prewar years and other factors, it is estimated that from 250,000 to 350,000 good family-size farms may come on the market in the first five years after the war.
Also, desirable farms of various sizes will become available if and when new lands are developed. Their volume and location will depend on what kind of public work programs are undertaken, on the general condition of agriculture, and on the demand for additional farms. Some private capital, of course, will be forthcoming for these land developments.
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On this day in 1944, French General Jacques Leclerc enters the free French capital triumphantly. Pockets of German intransigence remained, but Paris was free from German control.
Two days earlier, a French armored division had begun advancing on the capital. Members of the Resistance, now called the French Forces of the Interior, proceeded to free all French civilian prisoners in Paris. The Germans were still counterattacking, setting fire to the Grand Palais, which had been taken over by the Resistance, and killing small groups of Resistance fighters as they encountered them in the city. On August 24, another French armored division entered Paris from the south, receiving an effusion of gratitude from French civilians who poured into the streets to greet their heroes—but still, the Germans continued to fire on French fighters from behind barricades, often catching civilians in the crossfire.
But on August 25, after Gen. Dwight Eisenhower was assured by Gen. Charles de Gaulle, leader of the French Resistant forces, that Allied troops could now virtually sweep into Paris unopposed, Ike ordered Gen. Jacques Philippe Leclerc (a pseudonym he assumed to protect his family while under German occupation; his given name was Philippe-Marie, Vicomte De Hauteclocque) to enter the capital with his 2nd Armored Division. The remnants of German snipers were rendered impotent, and many German soldiers were led off as captives. In fact, the animus toward the Germans was so great that even those who had surrendered were attacked, some even machine-gunned, as they were being led off to captivity.
More than 500 Resistance fighters died in the struggle for Paris, as well as 127 civilians. Once the city was free from German rule, French collaborators were often killed upon capture, without trial.
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Editorial: Home Non-Energy - Preparing Homes for Future Blackouts
We all have stories about losing power in our home for several hours—or days—and many people suspect that power interruptions are becoming more frequent. They may be right; unfortunately, the utility data are so sketchy that nobody can say for certain. But declining investment in maintenance on the part of utilities, plus the increased frequency of extreme weather caused by climate change, are almost certain to keep the blackouts coming.
One response is to buy a home generator. That’s understandable, and it’s justified for homes with critical needs. After Hurricane Sandy, generator sales are booming. But on-site generators are expensive, dangerous, and dirty. They are also unreliable, which consumers discover only when they actually need one. That’s the supply-side solution; but it’s also worth considering how greater energy efficiency might play a role in dealing with the problem of blackouts.
Insulating a home beyond code makes it more blackout survivable. Power outages have an unfortunate habit of happening when it’s hot, cold, or unpleasant outside; indeed, extreme weather is often the cause of the outage. So a reasonable precaution is to enable the home to maintain habitable conditions for as long as possible without heating or cooling. That is best accomplished with more insulation and tighter construction. Installing windows that ensure natural ventilation (without compromising the home’s security) also makes the home more livable during both extreme and normal conditions. Building codes typically require insulation levels suitable for average weather, not for the exceptional cold snap or heat storm. Also, building codes assume that the heating and cooling systems are functioning. That’s not the case when the power is out.
Modest thermal upgrades may be all that is needed to carry a home through a second night without power (and avoid spending a night in a motel or shelter). These upgrades may also prevent the pipes from freezing for a few critical hours. A superefficient refrigerator will prevent food from spoiling for a few more hours, too. Unlike generators, these measures provide benefits all the time, not just during emergencies.
Maintaining operation of sump pumps is key to preventing irreversible damage in low-lying homes during a wet power outage. Many people buy generators first and foremost to power their sump pumps. An especially efficient sump pump makes sense, because it can run longer off a battery, perhaps avoiding the need for a generator altogether. Adding a DC power option—and linking that to a PV unit—would make a home even more self-reliant.
It’s also essential to maintain emergency lighting and communications during a power outage. Rapid progress in LED lighting technologies now allows a superefficient primary lighting system to also function as a backup, possibly with an alternative DC supply. Communications are more challenging. During Hurricane Sandy, subscribers to Verizon’s FiOS network found that their Internet and telephone systems quickly died because the backup batteries failed before the promised eight hours. Network equipment could be designed to switch into more energy-saving modes (mostly by operating at lower rates of data transfer) during blackouts to extend battery life. These modes could also save energy during normal conditions.
Can these upgrades be sold? Yes, if they are packaged as a new category of home performance based on resistance to extreme weather events and extended power interruptions. The package would include both supply- and demand-side measures. It would be selling peace of mind and security rather than payback time. (People use different parts of their brain for those kinds of decisions.) And even if there is no emergency, these homes will be saving more energy 99.9% of the time.
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January 09, 2008
Global warming is a hot topic in today’s news. People are seeking ways to save energy and protect the environment. Reducing household energy consumption is one effective way to slow the trend toward global warming. Utilities have successfully implemented demand response programs for commercial and industrial consumers. Now more and more energy companies, such as San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) and Burbank Power and Water (BPW), are switching residential consumers’ old mechanical meters to new smart digital meters, in order to implement demand response programs in the residential sector (see “Developing Affordable Smart Thermostats,” p. 16). These smart meters connect the utility to the home over a network. They can help consumers monitor and control their energy consumption, and help utilities decrease peak demand, reducing the need to use or build more inefficient and dirty power plants that come online only to meet peak loads.
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The previous post discussed why Kalawao County, Hawaii may not really be the smallest county in the United States because it is not actually a county except in name only. The next two smallest by area, New York County in New York and Bristol County in Rhode Island are similarly problematic.
If you are to believe no less of an authority than the beverage company Snapple and their Real Fact #146, you might consider what they’ve published on the inside of countless ice tea lids: “The smallest county in America is New York County, better known as Manhattan.” This is flat-out wrong. If New York County is to be considered a functional entity then so does Kalawao County, which is clearly smaller. At 22.96 square miles, New York County is indeed small. But it’s not the smallest.
View Larger Map
New York County is roughly analogous to Manhattan along with Roosevelt Island plus some outlying spots. It is part of a 1898 city-county consolidation that created a unified New York City with its five famous boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island. It is sometimes described as a sui generis arrangement (“one that is of its own kind”) as it is truly a unique creation. New York County is governed by the New York City Charter. The 1898 consolidation did create the office of Borough President which until recently had a meaningful influence on city budgets and land use. However this was declared unconstitutional by a 1989 United States Supreme Court case, Board of Estimate of City of New York v. Morris
. Basically it was held to violated the “one man, one vote” doctrine due to population differences between the boroughs. Today the Borough President serves in a largely powerless advocacy position. Therefore it can be logically concluded that New York County is a non-governing entity within greater New York City. Manhattan is no doubt one of the most meaningful and influential places on the planet but New York County has been transformed into a county without stature.
View Larger Map
So now we’re forced to move on to the next larger county in an attempt to determine whether it might be the right candidate or whether it’s just another plot of land masquerading as a county. This is Bristol County, Rhode Island
with a landmass of 24.68 miles. It is a pretty clear-cut case. Rhode Island disestablished its county structure as confirmed both by the Office of the Secretary of State of Rhode Island
and the National Association of Counties
. Rather it has 39 self-governing municipalities. The county structure still exists for purposes of the census, which recorded about 50,000 residents for Bristol County in the most recent count, but otherwise it’s a historical artifact and simply a geographic designation. Three self-governing towns fill the borders of what was once Bristol County: Barrington
; and the Town of Bristol
. By definition it is a meaningless county.The three smallest and most likely possibilities have been examined and yet there still isn’t a definitive choice for what might actually be the “smallest county in the United States.”
Other Posts in this Series:
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By Imraan Baccus
(HN, November 29, 2011) - As Durban welcomes the world for the COP 17 meeting, the air is filled with some of the excitement that we all felt during the World Cup last year.
But the debates around environmentalism and the need to take serious action against climate change are often tending to the superficial. There is a lot of self-righteousness and Hallmark style sentimentality around, when what we need is a clear look at the realities of the situation.
Climate change is a reality and for a low-lying country like Bangladesh, it could be a very serious problem. There is no doubt that serious action needs to be taken and that it needs to be taken quickly. But when the debate slips, as it often does, into a sort of 'We are the World' sentimentality it forgets some essential facts. One of these facts is that it is North America and Western Europe that have caused this problem. They industrialised first and they became rich countries.
Here in Durban this morning, a debate around the North, civil society and who should be paying for clean energy alternatives emerged in a civil society discussion. What is clear is that the current crisis was caused by the North's industrialisation over the last two hundred years and they are therefore the ones with the moral responsibility to sort it out. They are also the ones with the resources to be able to afford clean alternatives to fossil fuels. When it is suggested that we must all sacrifice in the fight against climate change there is a slippage into the assumption that we are all equally responsible when that is clearly not the case. We are not all equally responsible and the industrialised North needs to pay climate reparations along with reparations for colonialism and slavery.
When green technologies and energy sources are more expensive, countries in the global South must not be forced to use them. Venezuela has a right to use its oil to meet the needs of its people. The rich countries in the North can afford to shift to clean energy and if it is necessary for the global South to follow suit, then this must be subsidised by the North. Some governments in Latin America have made this point very strongly and the logic of their argument is clear. But countries in the South cannot allow themselves to be bullied into shifting towards technologies that they cannot afford when the masses of their people remain in poverty.
There is also a longstanding colonial tendency to assume that modern civilisation rightly belongs in the white West but should not corrupt the rest of the world. This romantic nonsense is just a ploy to keep the people in the global South in their place, and their countries attractive playgrounds for the global elite. All countries have the same right to modernise and to meet their people's needs.
When environmentalists in the global South echo this colonial language that says that the natives are best left to their traditional ways they are often feted in the North. The Indian environmentalist Vandana Shiva is a good example of this. But we should not forget that many progressive Indian academics and activists are extremely critical of her romantic anti-modernism, which they see as being deeply complicit with colonial ideas about the noble savage. Marxists, who are committed to modern forms of economic development, are often appalled by her ideas.
The fact that China and India are now rapidly industrialising is sending all kinds of shock waves through the West, which is rapidly losing its position of dominance over the rest of the world. When the language of environmentalism is used in the North to question the rapid advance of India and China it often masks a desire to reserve industrialisation, and the economic power it brings, to the West.
But the discomfort that many of us feel with the green agenda on the global scale is also replicated at home.
Many black South Africans are deeply suspicious of the green agenda and there is good reason for this. Conservation was historically used to evict Africans from their land and the practise of evicting people in the name of 'eco-tourism' has continued after apartheid. So called 'eco-estates', in rural areas and in cities', are very often nothing other than zones in which the more extreme edge of white privilege uses a green language to make its exclusionary privilege seem like some sort of ethical commitment.
It's not unusual for middle class environmentalists that want to get rid of unsightly pollution, rubbish dumps or industrialisation in their areas to also want to get rid of poor African people from these areas. There is often a clear connection between environmentalism and racism in South Africa and its quite unusual for the green agenda to take questions of social justice seriously. In fact its quite clear that for many white people, and some wealthy black people too, the language of environmentalism is attractive because its gives its users the appearance of holding the ethical high ground without them having to question their own privilege with regard to other South Africans – most of whom are black and poor.
Of course there are some real attempts to link environmental questions to social questions. Here in Durban the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance and the work of people like Des D'sa and Bobby Peek is deservedly famous. The struggle against pollution in South Durban is a struggle lead by working class black people and it demands a clean environment for the people of Wentworth, Merebank and the Bluff. It does not see poor or working class black people as 'pollution', which is often a key assumption in much white environmentalism and much middle class black environmentalism.
If the green agenda is to have a future in South Africa it must face up to the historical responsibility of the North when it comes to climate change and it must find ways to, as has been done in South Durban, link environmental questions to social questions. In Latin America mass movements have been built that successfully link environmental questions to social questions but there in South Africa it remains a field that is dominated by white and middle class interests and often carries a deep hostility to poor black people.
Buccus is Research Fellow in the School of Politics and at the Democracy Development Programme. The views expressed are his own and should not be attributed to any of his institutional affiliations. This commentary first appeared on the website of the South African Civil Society Information Service (SACSIS).
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Hydroponics is the method of growing plants sans soil under controlled environment. Starting a hydroponic garden is not hard, as long as you plan and prepare for the task. A few weeks before planting, you need to decide what you want to grow with your system and accordingly you have to prepare seedlings for your hydroponic growing. Moreover, you have to decide how many plants you want to grow and estimate the size of the area according to your needs. To set your own garden, you need pump, garden watering system, and 100 to 150 liter drum to house the nutrient solution.
To start your garden, you need to take out the seedlings from their respective pots and wash them carefully to remove the soil from roots. Next, place your clean seedlings in the growing medium such as perlite, rockwool, coir clay balls, or NFT channeling. Prepare a hydroponic solution of nutrients and water by maintaining pH level between 5.5 and 6. Maintain the grow room temperature between 75 to 80 degree F. Always try to place your plants somewhere they can get sufficient amount of light and air, otherwise it is essential to supply plenty of artificial lights.
You need to create an ideal environment for your hydroponic plants by maintaining the humidity level properly. The ideal humidity for a normal hydroponic plant should be around 50 percent. You need to keep the pests away from your hydroponic plants with the help of hydroponic gardening supplies to get a healthy garden. Hydroponic gardening supplies are mostly pest free and therefore there is no need to use any chemical pesticides. The growth rate on a hydroponic plant is 30 to 50 percent faster than a soil plant, grown under the same conditions. Hydroponic crops are fed with all essential nutrients required for growth without exposing them to harmful toxins, pesticides, and pathogens.
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'Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.' The prophetic words of Galadriel, addressed to Frodo as he prepared to travel from Lothlorien to Mordor to destroy the One Ring, are just as pertinent to J R R Tolkien's own fiction. For decades, hobbits and the other fantastical creatures of Middle-earth have captured the imaginations of a fiercely loyal tribe of readers, all enhanced by the immense success of Peter Jackson's films: first "The Lord of the Rings", and now his new "The Hobbit". But for all Tolkien's global fame and the familiarity of modern culture with Gandalf, Bilbo, Frodo and Sam, the sources of the great mythmaker's own myth-making have been neglected. Mark Atherton here explores the chief influences on Tolkien's work: his boyhood in the West Midlands; the landscapes and seascapes which shaped his mythologies; his experiences in World War I; his interest in Scandinavian myth; his friendships, especially with the other Oxford-based Inklings; and the relevance of his themes, especially ecological themes, to the present-day.
"There and Back Again" offers a unique guide to the varied inspirations behind Tolkien's life and work, and sheds new light on how a legend is born.
‘Generations of readers have responded to the power, precision, and delicacy of J R R Tolkien’s linguistic imagination. This absorbing new study of The Hobbit brings a philologist’s eye to that work’s creation, structure, and expression, positioning it within the broader development of Tolkien’s professional thinking about the evolving mythography of his creative writings.’
– Vincent Gillespie, J R R Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language, University of Oxford
‘Mark Atherton is that ideal combination: a reader and critic deeply appreciative of Tolkien’s literary artistry, his imaginative scope and his linguistic invention, who is also, like Tolkien himself, a distinguished scholar of medieval language and literature. In this highly readable and accessible study, Atherton brings his own scholarship to bear on Tolkien’s sources for The Hobbit, and in the process illuminates the whole of Tolkien’s remarkable oeuvre. Essential reading for all Tolkien fans.’
– Heather O’Donoghue, Vigfusson Rausing Reader in Ancient Icelandic Literature and Antiquities, University of Oxford
‘Mark Atherton’s treatment of one of the most famous books of the twentieth century is timely and welcome. In this detailed exploration, he provides the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the many origins, influences and inspirations – biographical, historical, geographical and literary – that, combined with a unique imagination, resulted in the crafting of a new mythology.’
– Brian Sibley, author of The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy and of Peter Jackson: A Film-maker’s Journey
We caught up with Mark Atherton to talk about his new book. Read the interview here.
To read more about Mark Atherton's work on JRR Tolkien, visit his blog.
Publisher: I.B.Tauris & Co LtdHardback
Publication Date: 01 Sep 2012
Number of Pages: 288
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Book Authors: Warren G. Bennis, Robert J. Thomas
Book Review by : Anil Kumar Kartham
Faculty Associate, ICMR (IBS Center for Management Research)
DLeadership, cross-generational leadership, wisdom, skill, Era, Changing the world, organization, how people become leaders, Crucible, Individual factors, IQ, self-grooming, Adaptive capacity, leadership competencies
The theory of leadership attempts to describe the process of leadership making. Era is an important aspect of their theory of leadership. Thus, it is relevant to ask how is "Era" different in case of geeks and geezers? At the age of 25-30,
geeks are more ambitious and have larger goals compared to geezers at the same age. They dream of "Changing the world" and "making history." The Geezers on the other hand, were concerned more about making a living. The Geeks seek to balance their lives by giving enough importance to both work and family. The Geezers hardly bothered about balance at this age. The Geezers worshiped heros. They chiseled their image of successful leader based on these heroes. The Geeks had none of that sort. Their parents or teachers or even their friends were their heroes. The authors point to "Era" as the creator of these differences.
This doesn't mean they had no commitment to their jobs. They were dedicated as long as they were with the company. And they were ready to leave whenever they found greener pastures. The loyalty described by Whyte in Organization Man lost favor in 1980s. The geeks valued "Balanced life" more than the geezers did. They were persistent in maintaining the balance. The following quote of a geek makes it clear: If I can't do it with balance, then I don't want to do it. Or I'm not buying into your model of success. They were not shy in acquiring wealth, unlike the geezers. They did not see money as evil. Rather the love of it as evil.
The geeks and the geezers are not as dissimilar as they appear on the surface. They are made of the same stuff and in the same process. They are similar in their learning. Both groups of leaders are highly enthusiastic about learning. And they yearn and struggle to go beyond limits: individual limits such as strength or learning ability or institutional limits such as racial and/or sexual discrimination. More important similarity, the authors say they uncovered, is a sort of common experience that transformed both groups of leaders. This common experience is the basis on which the authors have built their story on "how people become leaders."
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National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 1998 (ICPSR 2934)
Alternate Title: NHSDA 1998
Principal Investigator(s): United States Department of Health and Human Services. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Office of Applied Studies
Summary: The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) series measures the prevalence and correlates of drug use in the United States. The surveys are designed to provide quarterly, as well as annual, estimates. Information is provided on the use of illicit drugs, alcohol, and tobacco among members of United States households aged 12 and older. Questions include age at first use as well as lifetime, annual, and past-month usage for the following drug classes: marijuana, cocaine (and crack), halluci... (more info)
This data is freely available.
WARNING: This study is over 150MB in size and may take several minutes to download on a typical internet connection.
United States Department of Health and Human Services. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Office of Applied Studies. National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 1998. ICPSR02934-v4. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2013-05-06. doi:10.3886/ICPSR02934.v4
Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02934.v4
This survey was funded by:
- United States Department of Health and Human Services. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Office of Applied Studies (283-97-9007)
Scope of Study
Summary: The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) series measures the prevalence and correlates of drug use in the United States. The surveys are designed to provide quarterly, as well as annual, estimates. Information is provided on the use of illicit drugs, alcohol, and tobacco among members of United States households aged 12 and older. Questions include age at first use as well as lifetime, annual, and past-month usage for the following drug classes: marijuana, cocaine (and crack), hallucinogens, heroin, inhalants, alcohol, tobacco, and nonmedical use of prescription drugs, including psychotherapeutics. Respondents were also asked about personal and family income sources and amounts, substance abuse treatment history, illegal activities, problems resulting from the use of drugs, need for treatment for drug or alcohol use, criminal record, and needle-sharing. Questions on mental health and access to care, which were introduced in the 1994-B questionnaire (see NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD SURVEY ON DRUG ABUSE, 1994 [ICPSR 6949]), were retained in this administration of the survey. Also retained was the section on risk/availability of drugs that was reintroduced in 1996, and sections on driving behavior and personal behavior were added (see NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD SURVEY ON DRUG ABUSE, 1996 [ICPSR 2391]). The 1997 questionnaire (NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD SURVEY ON DRUG ABUSE, 1997 [ICPSR 2755]) introduced new items that the 1998 NHSDA continued on cigar smoking, people who were present when respondents used marijuana or cocaine for the first time (if applicable), reasons for using these two drugs the first time, reasons for using these two drugs in the past year, reasons for discontinuing use of these two drugs (for lifetime but not past-year users), and reasons respondents never used these two drugs. Both the 1997 and 1998 NHSDAs had a series of questions that were asked only of respondents aged 12 to 17. These items covered a variety of topics that may be associated with substance use and related behaviors, such as exposure to substance abuse prevention and education programs, gang involvement, relationship with parents, and substance use by friends. Demographic data include gender, race, age, ethnicity, marital status, educational level, job status, income level, veteran status, and current household composition.
Subject Terms: alcohol, alcohol abuse, alcohol consumption, amphetamines, barbiturates, cocaine, demographic characteristics, drug abuse, drug use, drugs, hallucinogens, health care, health insurance, heroin, households, inhalants, marijuana, mental health, mental health services, methamphetamine, prescription drugs, sedatives, smoking, stimulants, substance abuse, substance abuse treatment, tobacco use, tranquilizers, youths
Geographic Coverage: United States
Date of Collection:
Unit of Observation: individual
Universe: The civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States aged 12 and older, including residents of noninstitutional group quarters such as college dormitories, group homes, shelters, rooming houses, and civilians dwelling on military installations.
Data Types: survey data
Data Collection Notes:
Data were collected and prepared for release by Research Triangle Institute, Research Triangle Park, NC.
The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse questionnaire and estimation methodology changed with the implementation of the 1994-B survey. Therefore, estimates produced from the 1998 survey are not comparable to those produced from the 1994-A and earlier surveys.
This version of the 1998 NHSDA public release file does not contain data collected on the Parenting Experiences answer sheet (#21) or the questionnaire roster (QD-47) contained in the "Non-Core" Demographics section, nor does this file include various recoded variables that are typically created from the roster data and have been included in past public release files. All the necessary processing of these data and weight calculations for use of these data had not been completed by the data producers at the time of the data deposit. The data producers anticipate release at a later date of an updated version of the 1998 NHSDA public use file, containing additional questionnaire data, variables derived using these data, and additional weights.
For selected variables, statistical imputation was performed following logical imputation to replace missing responses. These variables are identified in the codebook as "...LOGICALLY IMPUTED" and "...imputed" for the logical procedure or by the designation "IMPUTATION-REVISED" in the variable label when the statistical procedure was also performed. The names of statistically imputed variables begin with the letters "IR". For each imputation-revised variable there is a corresponding imputation indicator variable that indicates whether a case's value on the variable resulted from an interview response or was imputed by the hot-deck technique. Hot-deck imputation is described in the codebook.
The "basic sampling weights" are equal to the inverse of the probabilities of selection of sample respondents. To obtain "final NHSDA weights," the basic weights were adjusted to take into account dwelling unit-level and individual-level nonresponse and then further adjusted to ensure consistency with intercensal population projections from the United States Bureau of the Census.
To protect the privacy of respondents, all variables that could be used to identify individuals have been encrypted or collapsed in the public use file. These modifications should not affect analytic uses of the public use file.
Users who wish to replicate results published in the NHSDA Main Findings Report or other SAMHSA reports should use the 1998 NHSDA imputed data for prevalence estimates rather than raw data from the questionnaire or drug answer sheets.
For some drugs that have multiple names, questions regarding the use of that drug may be asked for each distinct name. For example, even though methamphetamine, methedrine and desoxyn are the same drug, their use was measured in three separate variables.
Sample: Multistage area probability sample design involving five selection stages: (1) primary sampling unit (PSU) areas (e.g., counties), (2) subareas within primary areas (e.g., blocks or block groups), (3) listing units within subareas, (4) age domains within sampled listing units, and (5) eligible individuals within sampled age domains. The 1998 NHSDA used the same 115 PSUs selected for the 1995 through 1997 NHSDAs, 6 supplemental PSUs from Arizona and California, and an additional 16 noncertainty PSUs from 13 purposely selected states. The 115 PSUs were selected to represent the nation's total eligible population, including areas of high Hispanic concentration. These PSUs were defined as metropolitan areas, counties, groups of counties, and independent cities. Of the 115 PSUs, 43 were selected with certainty and 72 were randomly selected with probability proportional to size (PPS). The national sample was supplemented by a PPS selection of 14 noncertainty PSUs from Arizona plus 4 noncertainty PSUs from California. Because the national sample provided representation for certainty PSUs in each state, no additional certainty PSUs were added to either sample. The 1998 NHSDA used all available segments that had adequate listing units from the 1997 NHSDA. Only 24 percent of the 1998 sample, or 640 segments, consisted of a new segment sample selected for the 1998 NHSDA. The remaining 76 percent, or 2,030 segments, overlapped with the 1997 survey year. The five age groups were: ages 12-17, 18-25, 26-34, 35-49, and 50 and older. The three race/ethnic groups were: whites/others, non-Hispanic Blacks, and Hispanics. Blacks and Hispanics were oversampled in the 115 PSUs that comprised the national study component. There was no oversampling of Hispanics in the Arizona/California supplement because each state's Hispanic allocation in the national study component was large enough to satisfy state-level precision requirements. Consequently, the three racial/ethnic groups were sampled in the supplement so that the combined national study and supplemental samples would result in a proportionally allocated sample.
Mode of Data Collection: personal interviews and self-enumerated answer sheets (drug use)
Response Rates: The study yielded an 85.4 percent completion rate for screening sample households and 93.0 percent for screening eligible households. The interview response rates for the three racial/ethnic groups were: 74.1 percent for whites/others, 79.7 percent for Blacks, and 80.5 percent for Hispanics. The overall interview response rate was 77 percent. A completed interview had to contain, at a minimum, data on the recency of use of marijuana, cocaine, and alcohol.
Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Performed consistency checks.
- Created online analysis version with question text.
- Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Original ICPSR Release: 2000-06-21
- 2013-05-06 Data collection instrument released.
- 2008-04-25 New files were added. These files included one or more of the following: Stata setup, SAS transport (CPORT), SPSS system, Stata system, SAS supplemental syntax, and Stata supplemental syntax files, and tab-delimited ASCII data file.
- 2000-08-04 Erroneous codes for missing values were deleted for the variable IRAGE2 in the SAS and SPSS setup files.
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A new kind of computer interface, combining advantages of a computer mouse, a touchpad and a touch screen.Introduction - current state and proposed solutionThe advantages of touch screens are commonly known and include, inter alia, simplicity and comfort of use. However, such screens are at the same time not free from defects. These include above all provoking painful fatigue of the operator’s hand, especially when the display is situated in the position close to vertical, which is common while working on a notebook PC for instance (so-called gorilla arm). Another drawback is the very limited precision of pointing caused by relatively big sizes of human fingers. Also, this type of interface results in fingering the screen of the computer device and making it opaque.The possibility of working with a hand resting on a basis / mouse and greater precision are the main merits of a computer mouse. But yet, the necessity to move the whole device as well as the pointing system’s incompatibility with the spreading prevalence of the touch technique (e.g. Windows 8) are on the minus side.By contrast, although a touchpad eliminates the necessity to move the whole device, its week point is - like in a mouse - the limited compatibility with the touch technology.Generally speaking, the touch technique is being widely implemented as the most intuitive and comfortable. On the other hand it is not fully functional in certain situations.The proposed device is supposed to eliminate these shortcomings. It introduces a new quality in non-keyboard computer handling. The interface combines the feature of a computer mouse, that makes it possible to work with a hand supported by a basis, with the feature of a touch screen, which is the possibility to point with fingers; it also brings additional benefits such as no need to move the whole hand (just the fingers) and the more accurate - than in touch display - pointing. The system of precise pointing has been named the “virtual finger”.Device description and principle of operationThe device is a kind of a “sensor” in the shape of a flat plate with applicable software. It is used for “scanning” the movements of the operator’s fingers, wireless “transmitting” of the movements to the computer system, their visualization on the screen, and for activating the right action after touching the surface of the device (called “sensory surface” hereinafter). The device recognizes and follows the movement of the fingers above the “sensory surface” starting with certain boundary distance and transmits it to the computer display in the form called “shadow” hereinafter.While bringing one or a few fingers at the sufficient distance to the device (shorter than 3 cm), a “shadow” / “shadows” of the finger / fingers appear on the screen.Bringing the fingers closer to the sensory surface diminishes the circumferences of the “shadows” and increases their intensity (concurrently the “shadows” remain translucent, so that the icons under them are still visible).At the last stage of pointing an even more distinct pointer emerges (e.g. index finger icon).When the operator finally touches the “sensory surface” of the device, it reacts as if there was a click on the mouse.The proposed name of the device: “shad-pad” (from shadow pad).
It would be nice if Alienware offered higher-gamut or IPS matte screens. Many potential customers require the GPU power of an Alienware and use their laptops outside or for professional work. Alienware's competitors offer high-quality matte screens, and such screens are already available for Dell's XPS and Precision models. Good anti-glare screens would remove the need for customers to create costly, risky modifications to replace the glossy LCD or remove the plexiglass above. Even if Alienware offered matte screens as optional upgrades to the glossy panels now available, the option would provide much additional value for Alienware laptops.
The flip design is an awesome idea. However, I would like a bigger screen. Why does a tablet have to be so small? Please make one of these with a 15" or bigger screen with more power and memory - and I will buy 3 of them: 1 for each of my student children and one for my wife and I. Beef it up! Please, please, please!
The "dot" key on all keyboards is one of the most used. Make the "dot" key white, so it will stand out, with a black dot on it for easier identification.... I do this on my keyboards with a small piece of adhesive white tape.
In past we have seen OS which runs all kind of softwares, then comes OS for mobile which limits to selected and lightwait software.Current market and products: Market is fragmented between OS that run everything (locally e.g. Windows or cloud e.g. Google book) and OS that runs on mobile.Cost and Size of machine and OS depends upon where they are for everything or for mobile. New market and product:Idea here is to have an OS which run only browser i.e. machine which run only browser. So we need to have OS and machine which is trimmed to run only browser.Benefit: Its a new market and product lineIt will bring down costLarge community which need gadget only for internetMore use cases, I will be providing based on further request.
I hope if we can share other the cinima from our laptop just by switch the screen from work resolution into cinma resolution by include the projector beside the whole of camera and it could be reflected on the wall from the laptop
A website where home gardners and small farmers can put up their crops that they are planning, planting, growing, harvesting - and see, by "locality," what others are planting in their neighbourhood. The idea is that they can then perhaps change their minds and plant something no-one else is growing, leading to greater diversity of foods available in their region. People can then either opt to buy these direct from the grower, or trade them for something that they grow themselves, and the idea is to make every region able to grow good local food. The "locality" should be an area that makes sense for local food, i.e. not much more than 20 - 50 miles, to encourage people to use less fuel transporting food around.People should be able to "pledge" either a certain percentage of a planted or harvested crop, or pledge some labour on the grower's property (sort of like community gardening) or tools and materials (wire netting, compost scraps, etc) in exchange for some of the crop. Additionally, users should be encouraged to share their experiences of what grows well locally, what needs special techniques, and so forth. Within a few years, a site such as this should be able to even out local food production, provide detailed, locality-based advice on what can be grown and how to grow it, and (if advertisers are chosen carefully and with relevance, i.e. home handyman, gardening, nursery, and so forth) be able to produce an income by presenting locally-targeted advertising to users, who can use these ads to find the best local services and materials.It would be a crowdsourced agricultural and GIS dataBASE, as well. This can be stripped of identifying data, and sold/donated to research foundations and government departments to provide detailed knowledge of soil and weather and local plants etc on an ongoing basis. The information provided would give valuable knowledge to such organisations about the health of the ecosphere and the weather systems.On the purely humane side, it would allow a much wider audience to have access to local food, thus strengthening local economies and reducing food miles and handling costs. I think an idea such as this is one of theose things where a large company has nothing to lose by devoting a few resources to it and advertising / publicising it, and then if the site doesn't take off, it's a relatively small loss. If it does take of though, it would establish the green credentials of the company and give them some very good publicity!
In any type education, it is essential the use of interactive notebooks, it would be helpful that electronic notebooks were invented or manufactured, allowing manual writing and connection with books related to the level of education without letting use different programs or applications. With the fulfilment of these conditions it would be avoided the situation of carrying both notebooks and books in a backpack
Use the same account login and password for IdeasStorm as the store.dell.com. Why have two accounts?
I have a chair and a desk combination in mind that is adjustable and ergonomic so folks using laptops can be more comfortable and we can prevent carpel tunnel syndrome. Dell can add this to their product line up.
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Saint Thomas Aquinas was a Catholic Priest in the Dominican Order and one of the most important Medieval philosophers and theologians. He was immensely influenced by scholasticism and Aristotle and known for his synthesis of the two aforementioned traditions. Although he wrote many works of philosophy and theology throughout his life, his most influential work is the Summa Theologica which consists of three parts.
The first part is on God. In it, he gives five proofs for God’s existence as well as an explication of His attributes. He argues for the actuality and incorporeality of God as the unmoved mover and describes how God moves through His thinking and willing.
The second part is on Ethics. Thomas argues for a variation of the Aristotelian Virtue Ethics. However, unlike Aristotle, he argues for a connection between the virtuous man and God by explaining how the virtuous act is one towards the blessedness of the Beatific Vision (beata visio).
The last part of the Summa is on Christ and was unfinished when Thomas died. In it, he shows how Christ not only offers salvation, but represents and protects humanity on Earth and in Heaven. This part also briefly discusses the sacraments and eschatology. The Summa remains the most influential of Thomas’s works and is mostly what will be discussed in this overview of his philosophy.
The birth-year of Thomas Aquinas is commonly given as 1227, but he was probably born early in 1225 at his father’s castle of Roccasecea (75 m. e.s.e. of Rome) in Neapolitan territory. He died at the monastery of Fossanova, one mile from Sonnino (64 m. s.e. of Rome), Mar. 7, 1274. His father was Count Landulf of an old high-born south Italian family, and his mother was Countess Theodora of Theate, of noble Norman descent. In his fifth year he was sent for his early education to the monastery of Monte Cassino, where his father’s brother Sinibald was abbot. Later he studied in Naples. By about 1243 he determined to enter the Dominican order; but on the way to Rome he was seized by his brothers and brought back to his parents at the castle of S. Giovanni, where he was held a captive for a year or two and besieged with prayers, threats, and even sensual temptation to make him relinquish his purpose. Finally the family yielded and the order sent Thomas to Cologne to study under Albertus Magnus, where he arrived probably toward the end of 1244. He accompanied Albertus to Paris in 1245, remained there with his teacher, continuing his studies for three years, and followed Albertus at the latter’s return to Cologne in 1248. For several years longer he remained with the famous philosopher of scholasticism, presumably teaching. This long association of Thomas with the great polyhistor was the most important influence in his development; it made him a comprehensive scholar and won him permanently for the Aristotelian method. Around 1252 Thomas went to Paris for the master’s degree, which he found some difficulty in attaining owing to attacks, at that time on the mendicant orders. Ultimately, however, he received the degree and entered ceremoniously upon his office of teaching in 1257; he taught in Paris for several years and there wrote certain of his works and began others. In 1259 he was present at an important chapter of his order at Valenciennes at the solicitation of Pope Urban IV. Therefore not before the latter part of 1261, he took up residence in Rome. In 1269-71 he was again active in Paris. In 1272 the provincial chapter at Florence empowered him to found a new studium generale at any place he should choose, and he selected Naples. Early in 1274 the pope directed him to attend the Council of Lyons and he undertook the journey, although he was far from well. On the way he stopped at the castle of a niece and became seriously ill. He wished to end his days in a monastery and not being able to reach a house of the Dominicans he was carried to the Cistercian Fossanova. There he died and his remains were preserved.
The writings of Thomas may be classified as: (1) exegetical, homiletical, and liturgical; (2) dogmatic, apologetic, and ethical; and (3) philosophical. Among the genuine works of the first class were: Commentaries on Job (1261-65); on Psalms, according to some a reportatum, or report of speeches furnished by his companion Raynaldus; on Isaiah; the Catena aurea, which is a running commentary on the four Gospels, constructed on numerous citations from the Fathers; probably a Commentary on Canticles, and on Jeremiah; and wholly or partly reportata, on John, on Matthew, and on the epistles of Paul; including, according to one authority, Hebrews i.-x. Thomas prepared for Urban IV: Officium de corpore Christi (1264); and the following works may be either genuine or reportata: Expositio angelicce salutationis; Tractatus de decem praeceptis; Orationis dominico expositio; Sermones pro dominicis diebus et pro sanctorum solemnitatibus; Sermones de angelis, and Sermones de quadragesima. Of his sermons only manipulated copies are extant. In the second division were: In quatitor sententiarum libros, of his first Paris sojourn; Questiones disputatce, written at Paris and Rome; Questiones quodlibetales duodecini; Summa catholicce fidei contra gentiles (1261-C,4); andthe Summa theologica. To the dogmatic works belong also certain commentaries, as follows: Expositio in librum beati Dionysii de divinis nominibits; Expositiones primoe et secundce; In Boethii libros de hebdomadibus; and Proeclare quoestiones super librum Boethii de trinitate. A large number ofopuscitla also belonged to this group. Of philosophical writings there are cataloged thirteen commentaries on Aristotle, besides numerous philosophical opuscula of which fourteen are classed as genuine.
The greatest work of Thomas was the Summa, and it is the fullest presentation of his views. He worked on it from the time of Clement IV (after 1265) until the end of his life. When he died he had reached question ninety of part III, on the subject of penance. What was lacking was afterward added from the fourth book of his commentary on the “Sentences” of Peter Lombard as a supplementum, which is not found in manuscripts of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The Summa consists of three parts. Part I treats of God, who is the “first cause, himself uncaused” (primum movens immobile) and as such existent only in act (actu), that is pure actuality without potentiality and, therefore, without corporeality. His essence is actus purus et perfectus. This follows from the fivefold proof for the existence of God; namely, there must be a first mover himself unmoved, a first cause in the chain of causes, an absolutely necessary being, an absolutely perfect being, and a rational designer. In this connection the thoughts of the unity, infinity, unchangeableness, and goodness of the highest being are deduced. The spiritual being of God is further defined as thinking and willing. His knowledge is absolutely perfect since he knows himself and all things as appointed by him. Since every knowing being strives after the thing known as end, will is implied in knowing. Inasmuch as God knows himself as the perfect good, he wills himself as end. But in that everything is willed by God, everything is brought by the divine will to himself in the relation of means to end. Therein God wills good to every being which exists, that is he loves it; and, therefore, love is the fundamental relation of God to the world. If the divine love be thought of simply as act of will, it exists for every creature in like measure: but if the good assured by love to the individual be thought of, it exists for different beings in various degrees. In so far as the loving God gives to every being what it needs in relation practical reason, affording the idea of the moral law of nature, so important in medieval ethics.
The first part of the Summa is summed up in the thought that God governs the world as the universal first cause. God sways the intellect in that he gives the power to know aid impresses the species intelligibileson the mind; and he ways the will in that he holds the good before it as aim, and creates the virtus volendi. To will is nothing else than a certain inclination toward the object of the volition which is the universal good. God works all in all, but so that things also themselves exert their proper efficiency. Here the Areopagitic ideas of the graduated effects of created things play their part in Thomas’s thought. The second part of the Summa (consisting of two parts, namely, prima secundae and secundae, secunda) follows this complex of ideas. Its theme is man’s striving after the highest end, which is the blessedness of the visio beata. Here Thomas develops his system of ethics, which has its root in Aristotle. In a chain of acts of will man strives for the highest end. They are free acts in so far as man has in himself the knowledge of their end and therein the principle of action. In that the will wills the end, it wills also the appropriate means, chooses freely and completes the consensus. Whether the act be good or evil depends on the end. The “human reason” pronounces judgment concerning the character of the end, it is, therefore, the law for action. Human acts, however, are meritorious in so far as they promote the purpose of God and his honor. By repeating a good action man acquires a moral habit or a quality which enables him to do the good gladly and easily. This is true, however, only of the intellectual and moral virtues, which Thomas treats after the mariner of Aristotle; the theological virtues are imparted by God to man as a “disposition” from which the acts here proceed, but while they strengthen, they do not form it. The “disposition” of evil is the opposite alternative. An act becomes evil through deviation from the reason and the divine moral law. Therefore, sin involves two factors: its substance or matter is lust; in form, however, it is deviation from the divine law. Sin has its origin in the will, which decides, against the reason, for a changeable good. Since, however, the will also moves the other powers of man, sin has its seat in these too. By choosing such a lower good as end, the will is misled by self-love, so that this works as cause in every sin. God is not the cause of sin, since, on the contrary, he draws all things to himself. But from another side God is the cause of all things, so he is efficacious also in sin as *-ctio but not as ens. The devil is not directly the cause of sin, but he incites by working on the imagination and the sensuous impulse of man, as men or things may also do. Sin is original. Adam’s first sin passes upon himself and all the succeeding race; because he is the head of the human race and “by virtue of procreation human nature is transmitted and along with nature its infection.” The powers of generation are, therefore, designated especially as “infected.”
In every work of God both justice and mercy are united, and his justice always presupposes his mercy since he owes no one anything and gives more bountifully than is due. As God rules in the world, the “plan of the order of things” preexists in him; i.e., his providence and the exercise of it in his government are what condition as cause everything which comes to pass in the world. Hence follows predestination: from eternity, some are destined to eternal life; while others “he permits some to fall short of that end.” Reprobation, however, is more than mere foreknowledge; it is the “will of permitting anyone to fall into sin and incur the penalty of condemnation for sin.” The effect of predestination is grace. Since God is the first cause of everything, he is the cause of even the free acts of men through predestination. Determinism is deeply grounded in the system of Thomas; things with their source of becoming in God are ordered from eternity as means for the realization of his end in himself. On moral grounds Thomas advocates freedom energetically; but, with his premises, he can have in mind only the psychological form of self-motivation. Nothing in the world is accidental or free, although it may appear so in reference to the proximate cause. From this point of view miracles become necessary in themselves and are to be considered merely as inexplicable to man. From the point of view of the first cause all is unchangeable; although from the limited point of view of the secondary cause miracles may be spoken of. In his doctrine of the Trinity, Thomas starts from the Augustinian system. Since God has only the functions of thinking and willing, only twoprocessiones can be asserted from the Father. However, these establish definite relations of the persons of the Trinity to each other. The relations must be conceived as real and not as merely ideal; for, as with creatures relations arise through certain accidents, since in God there is no accident but all is substance, it follows that “the relation really existing in God is the same as the essence according to the thing.” From another side, however, the relations as real must be really distinguished one from another. Therefore, three persons are to be affirmed in God. Man stands opposite to God; he consists of soul and body. The “intellectual soul” consists of intellect and will. Furthermore the soul is the absolutely indivisible form of man; it is immaterial substance, but not one and the same in all men (as the Averrhoists assumed). The soul’s power of knowing has two sides; a passive (the intellectus possibilis) and an active (theintellectus agens). It is the capacity to form concepts and to abstract the mind’s images (species) from the objects perceived by sense. However, since the abstractions of the intellect from individual things is a universal, the mind knows the universal primarily and directly, and knows the singular only indirectly by virtue of a certain reflection. As certain principles are immanent in the mind for its speculative activity, so also a “special disposition of works,” or the synderesis (rudiment of conscience), is inborn in the scholastics. Held to creationism, they therefore taught that the souls are created by God. Two things according to Thomas constituted man’s righteousness in paradise-the justitia originalis or the harmony of all man’s powers before they were blighted by desire, and the possession of the gratia gratum faciens(the continuous indwelling power of good). Both are lost through original sin, which in form is the “loss of original righteousness.” The consequence of this loss is the disorder and maiming of man’s nature, which shows itself in “ignorance, malice, moral weakness, and especially in concupiscentia, which is the material principle of original sin.” The course of thought here is as follows: when the first man transgressed the order of his nature appointed by nature and grace, he, and with him the human race, lost this order. This negative state is the essence of original sin. From it follow an impairment and perversion of human nature in which thenceforth lower aims rule contrary to nature and release the lower element in man. Since sin is contrary to the divine order, it is guilt, and subject to punishment. Guilt and punishment correspond to each other; and since the “apostasy from the invariable good which is infinite,” fulfilled by man, is unending, it merits everlasting punishment.
The way which leads to God is Christ: and Christ is the theme of part III. It can not be asserted that the incarnation was absolutely necessary, “since God in his omnipotent power could have repaired human nature in many other ways”: but it was the most suitable way both for the purpose of instruction and of satisfaction. The unio between the logos and the human nature is a “relation” between the divine and the human nature which comes about by both natures being brought together in the one person of the logos. An incarnation can be spoken of only in the sense that the human nature began to be in the eternal hypostasis of the divine nature. So Christ is unum since his human nature lacks the hypostasis. The person of the logos, accordingly, has assumed the impersonal human nature, and in such way that the assumption of the soul became the means for the assumption of the body. This union with the human soul is the gratia unionis which leads to the impartation of the gratia habitualis from the logos to the human nature. Thereby all human potentialities are made perfect in Jesus. Besides the perfections given by the vision of God, which Jesus enjoyed from the beginning, he receives all others by the gratia habitualis. In so far, however, as it is the limited human nature which receives these perfections, they are finite. This holds both of the knowledge and the will of Christ. The logos impresses the species intelligibiles of all created things on the soul, but the intellectus agens transforms them gradually into the impressions of sense. On another side, the soul of Christ works miracles only as instrument of the logos, since omnipotence in no way appertains to this human soul in itself. Furthermore, Christ’s human nature partook of imperfections, on the one side to make his true humanity evident, on another side because he would bear the general consequences of sin for humanity. Christ experienced suffering, but blessedness reigned in his soul, which, however, did not extend to his body. Concerning redemption, Thomas teaches that Christ is to be regarded as redeemer after his human nature but in such way that the human nature produces divine effects as organ of divinity. The one side of the work of redemption consists herein, that Christ as head of humanity imparts perfection and virtue to his members. He is the teacher and example of humanity; his whole life and suffering as well as his work after he is exalted serve this end.
This is the first course of thought. Then follows a second complex of thoughts which has the idea of satisfaction as its center. To be sure, God as the highest being could forgive sins without satisfaction; but because his justice and mercy could be best revealed through satisfaction he chose this way. As little, however, as satisfaction is necessary in itself, so little does it offer an equivalent, in a correct sense, for guilt; it is rather a “super-abundant satisfaction,” since on account of the divine subject in Christ in a certain sense his suffering and activity are infinite. With this thought the strict logical deduction of Anselm’s theory is given up. Christ’s suffering bore personal character in that it proceeded out of love and obedience. It was an offering brought to God, which as personal act had the character of merit. Thereby Christ “merited” salvation for men. As Christ still influences men, so does he still work in their behalf continually in heaven through the intercession (interpellatio). In this way Christ as head of humanity effects the forgiveness of their sins, their reconciliation with God, their immunity from punishment, deliverance from the devil, and the opening of heaven’s gate. But inasmuch as all these benefits are already offered through the inner operation of the love of Christ, Thomas has combined the theories of Anselm and Abelard by joining the one to the other.
The doctrine of the sacraments follows the Christology; for the sacraments “have efficacy from the incarnate Word himself.” The sacraments are signs which not only signify sanctification, but also effect it. That they bring spiritual gifts in sensuous form, moreover, is inevitable because of the sensuous nature of man. The res sensibles are the matter, the words of institution are the form of the sacranieits. Contrary to the Franciscan view that the sacraments are mere symbol, whose efficacy God accompanies with a directly following creative act in the soul, Thomas holds it not unfit to say with Hugo of St. Victor that “a sacrament contains grace,” or to teach of the sacraments that they “cause grace.” Thomas attempts to remove the difficulty of a sensuous thing producing a creative effect by a distinction between the causa principalis et instrumentalism. God as the principal cause works through the sensuous thing as the means ordained by him for his end. “Just as instrumental power is acquired by the instrument from this, that it is moved by the principal agent, so also the sacrament obtains spiritual power from the benediction of Christ and the application of the minister to the use of the sacrament. There is spiritual power in the sacraments in so far as they have been ordained by God for a spiritual effect.” This spiritual power remains in the sensuous thing until it has attained its purpose. Thomas distinguished the gratia sacramentalis from the gratia virtutum et donorum in that the former in general perfects the essence and the powers of the soul, and the latter in particular brings to pass necessary spiritual effects for the Christian life. Although, later this distinction was ignored.
In a single statement the effect of the sacraments is to infuse justifying grace into men. Christ’s humanity was the instrument for the operation of his divinity; the sacraments are the instruments through which this operation of Christ’s humanity passes over to men. Christ’s humanity served his divinity as instrumentum conjuncture, like the hand; the sacraments are instruments separate, like a staff; the former can use the latter, as the hand can use a staff.
Of Thomas’ eschatology, according to the commentary on the “Sentences,” only a brief account can here be given. Everlasting blessedness consists for Thomas in the vision of God; and this vision consists not in an abstraction or in a mental image supernaturally produced, but the divine substance itself is beheld. In such a manner, God himself becomes immediately the form of the beholding intellect; that is, God is the object of the vision and at the same time causes the vision. The perfection of the blessed also demands that the body be restored to the soul as something to be made perfect by it. Since blessedness consist in operation, it is made more perfect in that the soul has a definite opcralio with the body. Although, the peculiar act of blessedness (that is, the vision of God) has nothing to do with the body.
The author of this article is anonymous. The IEP is actively seeking an author who will write a replacement article
Last updated: May 6, 2009 | Originally published: May/6/2009
Article printed from Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://www.iep.utm.edu/aquinas/
Copyright © The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. All rights reserved.
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Unlike drugs, which are used to treat sick people, vaccines are used in healthy people to prevent certain illnesses. Before a vaccine can be used in the United States, it must be shown to be safe and effective. To make these determinations, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducts a rigorous review of data regarding the vaccine’s safety and efficacy. Because healthy children are typically the recipients of vaccines, safety requirements are especially stringent.
Many federal agencies and private organizations are involved in ensuring the safety of vaccines and for promoting the health of the population:
The FDA regulates vaccines that are used in the United States, ensuring that they are shown to be safe and effective before they are approved for use. The vaccine first undergoes laboratory studies, then studies with animals, and then with humans. The results of the studies at every step in the process must show that the vaccine does what it is supposed to do, and that it does not harm people who receive it. The FDA also inspects the manufacturing plant and makes sure the vaccine is made in a safe and consistent manner.
Vaccine licensure is a lengthy process that may last up to 10 years. Vaccines must go through three phases of clinical trials in human beings before they are licensed for public use. To establish basic safety, Phase One trials are small, involving only 20-100 volunteers and lasting only a few months. To continue to gather information on efficacy and safety of each vaccine, Phase Two trials are larger (with several hundred volunteers), and last anywhere from a few months to a few years. Phase Three trials have several hundred to several thousand participants and typically last many years.
If the FDA approves the vaccine for use in humans, the manufacturer can market the vaccine. Each batch of vaccine made by the manufacturer must be tested for safety, potency, and purity before being put on the market. A sample from each lot must be sent to the FDA.
In addition, the FDA requires that doctors report reactions that occur after vaccination. More on this program may be found in the “Monitoring Vaccine Safety” section below.
After a new vaccine is approved by the FDA, committees of experts decide whether it should be recommended for use in the general population. These committees evaluate the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. They also determine how the vaccine should be used, estimate how new recommendations would affect other health care issues, and consider cost-effectiveness issues.
In addition to making recommendations on new vaccines, the committees of experts also review and update recommendations on existing vaccines. The policies for vaccines change along with the changes in the threat of disease.
The committees of experts include:
ACIP is a scientific advisory committee with 10 to 15 members. Although ACIP is federally chartered, the experts are chosen from outside of government. For each vaccine, the ACIP reviews a broad range of materials:
The ACIP considers how the use of the new vaccine might fit into existing child and adult immunization programs. The committee also considers how the vaccine is stored and administered, cost-effectiveness, how the vaccine might affect other health care delivery systems, and other factors.
Members of the COID are selected on the basis of their knowledge of infectious disease and their expertise in vaccines. In addition to the 12 core committee members, liaisons represent the FDA, CDC, and other organizations. COID works closely with these federal agencies and private organizations in an effort to avoid conflicting recommendations.
Committees of experts make recommendations on the use of vaccines in the United States, but it is the responsibility of the individual states to determine which vaccines are required by law. It is up to states to pass and enforce compulsory immunization statutes.
School immunization laws are established to prevent epidemics of certain contagious diseases, such as measles. Currently, all 50 states have school immunization laws.
All 50 states allow children to be exempted from mandated immunizations for medical reasons. Nearly all (48) states allow religious exemptions and 20 allow philosophical exemptions. If an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease occurs, those children who are not vaccinated may be prohibited from going to school until the outbreak is resolved.
For further information, read Indications, Recommendations and Immunization Mandates.
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A spice commonly used in Indian foods could also double as a powerful weapon to fight against cancer, diabetes, and inflammation. If recent studies on the spice’s effect to continue producing promising results are any indication, Dr. Saraswati Sukumar of Johns Hopkins University hopes curcumin, which gives turmeric its yellow color, will help people fight off or prevent diseases such as diabetes and cancer.
In an interview with India-West, Sukumar explained how she and a colleague, Dr. Anirban Maitra, are paying close attention to promising clinical trials of curcumin.
Curcumin is the extract of turmeric and may soon be used in pill form. The spice is commonly integrated into many Indian dishes. Sukumar will be giving a presentation Jan. 24 in West Palm Beach, Florida, about the positive health benefits of curcumin. While more clinical trials are still needed to further understand how the common spice is beneficial to the human body, Sukumar believes a curcumin pill currently in experimental format could have a dramatic impact in fighting certain diet-induced diseases that are becoming more commonplace.
“The talk I am going to be giving in Palm Beach, Florida, really covers the field to let people know what’s involved with this, what does curcumin do, what are the positive effects, so on and so forth,” Sukumar told India-West in a telephone interview earlier this week.
In addition to being a strong weapon against diabetes and inflammation, steady consumption of curcumin can also counteract skin damage that result from cancer-based radiation treatment.
“It has very strong anti-inflammatory activity,” Sukumar told India-West of curcumin’s health benefits. “Is that the only activity that’s really causing it to be this effective? We don’t think so. We think it has effects on multiple other pathways that are just beginning to be understood.”
With an estimated 26 million people diagnosed with diabetes, Sukumar said curcumin can also be a great benefit in fighting the metabolic disease.
Sukumar explained how an experiment where mice with obesity-induced diabetes were given doses of curcumin and experienced glucose levels returning to near normal levels within 20 days, thanks to an increased production of “good fat” hormones.
When a follow-up clinical trial was performed in a double-blind study with pre-diabetic patients, Sukumar cited that none of the 119 subjects who were given curcumin developed the disease. However, 19 out 116 pre-diabetic patients in that same trial who were given a placebo did develop the disease.
“It has an effect, indirectly, on the fat content as well as … diabetes,” the Indian American researcher told India-West, adding that the clinical trial tested patients over a nine-month period, and another follow-up study with more time passed would be needed to further validate the promising results.
Both Sukumar and Maitra hope to eventually have a water-soluble curcumin pill available on the market sometime soon. However, early clinical trials of the experimental pill have not yet yielded the desired results. In current trials, Sukumar pointed out several grams of curcumin need to be consumed in order to be effective. Whether small doses of the spices can be consumed in pill format in order to have the desired effect on the body remains to be seen.
Nevertheless, Sukumar expressed her excitement about further discovering the health benefits of turmeric and curcumin.
“I really feel extremely positive about setting out, spending energy, and telling the world about what curcumin can do. And it’s just a spice off your rack,” Sukumar said.
She added that the spice can still be used in its natural state, similar to how it is mixed into many Indian food dishes.
To incorporate curcumin into one’s lifestyle, Sukumar simply suggests obtaining large portions of turmeric.
“Get a bag of turmeric and use it lavishly in your food,” Sukumar told India-West. “It adds some flavor but it’s not going to hurt you.”
She also suggested adding turmeric to the grilling of foods such as garlic, mushrooms, and onions. It is also best combined with warm oil.
Sukumar will be speaking at an annual women’s health symposium, “A Woman’s Journey,” next week at the Palm Beach County Convention Center.
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IntroductionTrentino–Alto Adige (trāntēˈnō-älˈtō äˈdējā) [key], region (1991 est. pop. 890,360), 5,256 sq mi (13,613 sq km), N Italy, bordering on Switzerland in the northwest and on Austria in the north. From 1919 to 1947 it was called Venezia Tridentina. Trent (Ital. Trento ) is the capital of the region.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Italian Political Geography
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It's the 40th anniversary of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits discrimination in educational settings on the basis of sex, and while the landmark legislation has done much to level the playing field in academics and athletics, there remains work to be done. That's what the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education, an alliance of more than three dozen national organizations including the American Association of University Women and the American Civil Liberties Union, says in a lengthy new report analyzing the state of Title IX at 40. There's still room for improvement in how universities and the government apply and enforce Title IX in athletics, sexual harassment, the STEM fields and other areas, the report says. But it also identifies a handful of recommendations that span all the areas covered by Title IX. In short, they are: improved public awareness of Title IX with active education efforts on the part of all stakeholders, including advocacy groups and the federal government; continued and enhanced enforcement by the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, including compliance reviews in areas not currently monitored, such as the treatment of pregnant and parenting students; a requirement by Congress for schools and colleges to provide "enhanced" education data collection and reporting, including more detailed cross-tabulation by campus sub-groups; better identification, training, communication and transparency regarding Title IX coordinators; and restored federal funding to state education agencies for gender equity work, including funding state Title IX coordinators and programs and for technical assistance with compliance.
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Step 1: In the garden
Spent coffee grounds can be mixed with lye to make a great composting agent, you can even throw in the coffee filter, too!
Worms in compost like to eat the bacterium that grows on the facets of coffee grounds, though the grounds themselves are a a food source it also adds grit to the worms' digestive system allowing them to digest better.
Small amounts of coffee grounds can be added directly to top soil, especially on plants that like high acidity in the soil like azaleas or roses. Coffee is high in nitrogen, calcium, magnesium, potassium and other trace minerals, spreading around a thin layer of coffee grounds on your soil will allow a slow release of these minerals into your plants.
Be aware of which plants like acidic soil (roses), and which plants don't (tomatoes).
Coffee has a very strong odour which many insects and animals do not like. In addition, it's been suggested that mosquitoes, ants, slugs and maggots all dislike the acidity of coffee and will stay away from areas where there is high concentration of acidic soil.
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What Is It?
A friction blister is a soft pocket of raised skin filled with clear fluid caused by irritation from continuous rubbing or pressure. Friction blisters usually occur on the feet, where tight or poor-fitting shoes can rub and irritate delicate toes and heels for long periods. This type of irritation causes minor damage to the skin and the tissue just beneath the skin, then fluid accumulates just beneath the outermost layer of skin. If the irritation is enough to damage small blood vessels, the blister also may contain blood, and is then called a blood blister.
A friction blister is a small pocket of puffy, raised skin containing clear fluid. It is usually painful when touched. A blister can appear anywhere.
Blisters can be diagnosed by looking at them. In short, if it looks like a blister and feels like a blister, and if it's in a place that could have been irritated by pressure or rubbing, it likely is a blister.
Friction blisters typically drain on their own within days. A new layer of skin forms beneath the blister, and eventually the blistered skin peels away.
If pressure or friction continues in the same area, the blister may last two weeks or longer. Continued friction may rub away the delicate top skin layer, and the blister may break open, ooze fluid and run the risk of becoming infected or developing into a deeper wound. If the irritation is mild, the blister may heal despite continued irritation, and eventually a callus will form.
The best way to prevent friction blisters is to wear shoes that fit your feet well, so that the shoe is not tight anywhere and does not slide up and down your heel when you walk. Wear socks with shoes to protect your feet and prevent irritation, and try to keep your feet dry. If another activity is causing blisters -- for example, if learning to play golf is causing blisters on your hands -- ask an instructor to point out other ways to perform the same activity in a nonirritating way, and take advantage of protective devices, such as gloves.
Because blisters typically get better on their own in just a few days, generally no special treatment is required other than to keep the blisters clean and dry. Because the skin provides a natural protection against infection, a blister should be left intact if possible. Do not try to drain the blister or pierce or cut away the overlying skin. Try to avoid further irritation, or protect the blister with a sterile bandage if continued irritation is unavoidable. If the blister breaks on its own, wash the area with soap and water, gently pat dry, use an antibacterial ointment and cover it with a bandage.
People with diabetes and people who cannot reach blisters easily (because of a physical disability or other ailment) may need to have their blisters evaluated by a foot specialist (podiatrist) or other health care professional. People with diabetes often have nerve or circulation problems that make it more difficult to recognize wounds, and that cause wounds to heal more slowly. In these people, a simple foot blister might go unrecognized and could become infected. People with diabetes need to care for their feet daily and examine them for sores or blisters.
When To Call a Professional
Widespread blistering, itchy blisters or blistering in a place that has not been exposed to rubbing or pressure should be evaluated by a physician. These are signs of an illness, not friction blisters.
For typical blisters, medical care is needed only if an infection develops. This is more likely to occur if the skin over the blister has been pierced, broken or popped. These types of blisters need to be watched for a few days to make sure they heal properly. See your doctor immediately if you think you have an infection, see significant redness, notice drainage that is not clear fluid or develop a fever. Also, seek professional help if the blister is so large or painful that walking or other activities become difficult.
People with diabetes who get blisters frequently or have blisters that don't seem to heal should see a health care professional.
Most blisters heal on their own in a few days. If there is continued pressure or friction to the area, it may take two weeks or longer for the blister to go away.
American Diabetes Association
ATTN: Customer Service
1701 N. Beauregard St.
Alexandria, VA 22311
American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine
4414 Ives St.
Rockville, MD 20853
American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA)
9312 Old Georgetown Road
Bethesda, MD 20814
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| ||Minding Your Mind || |
Autism and Older Fathers
Last reviewed and revised on June 17, 2011
By Michael Craig Miller, M.D.
Harvard Medical School
A study published in the September, 2006 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry may give older prospective fathers pause before plunging into biological parenthood. The authors found a significant increase in the risk of autism and similar disorders as fathers got older.
| What Is Autism? |
Autism is a profoundly disabling disorder that starts in early childhood. The key features are:
- Abnormal social development little or no eye contact, prefers to be alone
- Difficulty communicating impaired language ability, uses gestures or pointing rather than words
- Unusual behavior spins objects, doesn't like being cuddled
- Evidence of strong abilities sometimes in non-verbal areas, such as math or music
- Older people with autism may have some ability to interact with people, but about two-thirds are mentally retarded and most cannot live on their own
Unfortunately, the incidence of this illness appears to be on the rise. Some experts think autism is diagnosed more often simply because more people are aware of it. But that's probably not the whole explanation.
Genetic factors almost certainly play a big role in understanding what causes autism. So researchers are eager to discover anything that might be responsible for increasing a person's genetic vulnerability for the illness, such as having parents who are 40 or older.
The risk was smallest for children of fathers younger than 20 and greatest for children of fathers older than 50. A man in his 40s, for example, was almost 6 times as likely to have an autistic child as a man age 20. This relationship held even after researchers adjusted the results for the year of the person's birth, their socioeconomic status, or the mother's age.
This is not the first discovery of its type. Health care professionals have long known that as parents age, the risk of giving birth to a child with certain illnesses goes up. Older mothers, for example, are more likely to have a child with Down syndrome. In recent years, studies have revealed a link between aging fathers and schizophrenia.
The Archives study took advantage of the extraordinarily complete health records of over 300,000 Israeli men and women. They underwent a complete health assessment when they were 17-year olds, prior to entering military service. Using this database, researchers were able to determine the incidence of autism in the population. The researchers had access to intellectual, medical and psychiatric evaluations of almost all Israeli boys and three-quarters of girls. (Their identities were kept secret, however.) For most individuals, the father's age at birth was known.
Although boys were more likely to develop autism than girls, the risk for girls also increased as fathers got older. When fathers were young, about 1 in 6 children with autism were girls. After fathers passed the 40 year-old mark, the proportion of girls with autism rose to about 1 in 3. This suggests that the genetic factors in play for offspring of older fathers are different from those for offspring of younger fathers.
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What Causes These Genetic Errors?
All children inherit genetic material in equal amounts from both parents. In the case of autism, scientists think that the genetic material in the sperm of these older fathers has somehow become altered in harmful ways. These flaws make the child more vulnerable to developing the disease.
According to one theory, mutations (changes) are more likely to develop as men get older. Germ cells give rise to sperm throughout a man's life. These cells make copies of themselves and after several decades, the germ cells are copies of copies of copies. A second theory suggests that the offending genes passed down by older men are not properly marked or "imprinted." Accurate marking which establishes whether a gene is from the father or the mother determines if it will be active or not. If there is an error, the gene may function abnormally.
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Should Older Men Stop Fathering Babies?
It's true that medical technology and general improvements in health have made life much more enjoyable for people in middle to late life. Maybe 50 is the new 30 when it comes to some aspects of aging. But a healthy and active lifestyle does not make 50-year-old sperm the new 30-year-old sperm.
The increased risk of passing on any genetic vulnerability to a child is significant when you are older. When it comes to autism, however, the numbers are sobering. A man younger than 30 has no more than a 1 in 1,000 chance of fathering a child with autism. But the risk bumps up to approximately 3 in 1,000 for a man in his 40s and 5 in 1,000 above age 50. If a father in his fifties has a son, the risk of autism may approach 1 in 100.
This study has important implications for what causes autism, but it also has limitations:
- The researchers did not have specific information about the severity of mental retardation or language ability.
- It's possible that the autistic traits arose as the father aged, but were passed on because they were part of the fathers' genetic make-up all along.
- Maybe people with autistic traits are more likely to become fathers later in life, slanting the data.
- Older fathers could have passed along genes for other psychiatric disorders that have traits that look like autism.
- The researchers did not have access to information about the child's birth environment or development.
Until recently, health care professionals have focused almost exclusively on the mother's age as a risk factor for health problems in the child. But we now know that the father's age also adds to the risk of potentially devastating diseases. And there is no practical way to detect these illnesses during pregnancy. For those weighing the risks, the decision can be wrenching. Adoption and in some instances a sperm donation may be acceptable alternatives to older fathers wanting to build a healthy family.
Michael Craig Miller, M.D. is Editor in Chief of the Harvard Mental Health Letter. He is also associate physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. He has been practicing psychiatry for more than 25 years and teaches in the Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency Program.
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Physician William H. Welch
Noted physician and bacteriologist William H. Welch died on this date in 1934. He gained fame during his lifetime for discovering the bacterium that causes gas gangrene, since named Bacillus welchii. Welch also studied other diseases; these included pneumonia, diphtheria, and problems with immunity and infection. Born in Connecticut in 1850, Welch graduated first from Yale University and then from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Welch later was pathologist-in-chief of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Eventually, he also held senior administrative posts at the Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, the Hopkins hospital and the Institute of the History of Medicine. In 1910, Welch served as president of the American Medical Association.
Copyright Aetna InteliHealth, Inc., 2012. All rights reserved.
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Healthy Eating in Wintertime
Last reviewed and revised by Faculty of Harvard Medical School
on January 16, 2013
By Caitlin Hosmer, M.S., R.D., L.D.N.
and Heather Hawkes
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Winter ushers in a time of the year when we choose heavier foods and are typically less active. Does this winter shift sound familiar to you? While the temperatures drop outside, it is easy for us to drop good eating and exercise habits.
We are most vulnerable to weight gain in the six-week interval between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. A study conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) suggested that a typical one-pound gain during the holiday season for Americans may be small, but can accumulate through the years and contribute to obesity later in life. Once we put on that extra pound or more, we often don't get back to our baseline weight later in January.
How does it happen? Volunteers in the NIH study were asked about factors that might influence weight change, including stress, hunger, activity level, changes in smoking habits, and number of holiday parties they attended. Two factors stood out: Those who were much less hungry or much more active were the least likely to gain weight over the holidays. Conversely, those who were less active and hungrier had the most holiday weight gain.
There are lots of food choices during the holidays. Pick ones that satisfy without adding to the bulge:
The gardens may be done for the year, but there are still many fresh foods available. Fresh produce satisfies us with fiber, and provides additional vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients to boot.
- Greens and oranges are the colors for winter produce. These are packed with vitamins and minerals to help ward off winter illnesses.
- Kale and mustard greens are great additions to soups and stews or they can be sautéed.
- Squash, sweet potatoes and pumpkin make great baked dishes that are high in fiber. Do keep in mind that these root vegetables are dense and filling, so keep portions moderate.
- An easy way to get your fruit this time of year is to make a winter fruit salad. Cut up in-season and readily available pineapples, citrus and apples; mix together and keep the bowl handy in your fridge for snacking.
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As the days get shorter and the temperatures fall, we tend to reach for our favorite comfort foods to lift our moods. Here are some helpful tips for making healthier choices, while keeping comfort foods comforting and hunger at bay with moderate portions:
- When it's cold outside, it feels good to warm our insides. When eating for warmth, try broth-based soups, such as minestrone, and add some of those winter vegetables! In the morning, start your day off right with a bowl of oatmeal. This high-fiber cereal will stick with you all morning, especially with a small handful of nuts added for protein.
- There are also many simple substitutions you can make when cooking to decrease fat and calories. For a lower-fat macaroni and cheese, use low-fat dairy products: skim or reduced-fat milk and cheese. Add tomatoes and onions for flavor.
- Reading labels can give you a lot of information about what you're eating. Look at the serving size. How does your portion compare to the serving on the package? Package servings are often smaller than what we actually consume.
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Maintaining Your Pre-Holiday Weight
If you are trying to maintain or lose weight, the holidays can be a scary time. We surround ourselves with family and friends and an abundance of food.
- The day of a party, don't skip meals. Maintain a regular eating schedule so you won't be starving and overeat when you arrive at the party.
- Go for the nut bowl. Having a small handful of nuts will satisfy you more than the chips and dip, and you'll eat less throughout the course of the evening.
- Help yourself to the fruit and veggie platters. The fiber is filling and balances out heavier, starchy foods.
- Scan the spread of food and then make your choices. Have small amounts of your favorite foods and desserts. Try leaving space on the plate between food items to limit how much gets piled on. Eat slowly to enjoy holiday foods longer. And remember that holiday gatherings are also about people talking slows down eating.
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Don't Succumb to the Inactivity Blues
Typically it requires greater effort to be physically active in the winter the time when we most need this antidote to eating more and feeling more stress. Not only are we more sedentary because of the weather, but indoor behaviors, such as watching TV, lend themselves to snacking when we're not hungry.
- Build your winter wardrobe for outdoor exercise. You don't have to spend a fortune at a sports store. Discount department stores offer lower-budget gear. Layering is the key. This allows you to stay at the right temperature. As you get moving you can shed layers, and then add them back as you cool down. Make sure you have good footwear for traction, water-resistance and warmth.
- If venturing outdoors doesn't appeal, try an exercise video that you can do from the comfort of your home, or join a local gym. This may be the perfect time to try an exercise class, such as yoga, step or Pilates. It's important to remember you can't just exercise eight or nine months out of the year. Physical activity needs to be done on a regular basis to maintain the benefits.
- Activity is stimulating to our body and mind. Our moods are already prone to being "down" in the winter. Physical activity can help to give you that boost in energy and attitude. For those who experience seasonal affective disorder (SAD), one study found that an hour's walk in winter sunlight was as effective as 2½ hours under bright artificial light, an alternate therapy.
No matter what time of year, staying healthy is a balance of good eating and physical activity. With winter come barriers that require us to be more diligent about food choices and exercise. Keep in mind these tips and you'll be looking and feeling better this winter!
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Roberts SB, Mayer J. "Holiday weight gain: fact or fiction?" Nutrition Reviews. 2000; 58(12):378-9.
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Caitlin Hosmer, M.S., R.D., L.D.N., is the manager of the Nutrition Consultation Service at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree with honors from Cornell University. She completed her dietetic internship at Frances Stern Nutrition Center and New England Medical Center, and received a master's degree in nutrition at Tufts University.
Heather Hawkes is a dietetic intern at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She graduated from the University of Vermont in December 2002 and in the spring of 2003 spent nine weeks in Haiti as a public health nutritionist.
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Linn, Amy. Illuminating News: What You Don't Know About Lightning Might
Come As Shock. Providence Sunday Journal. August 21, 1988.
Abstract: This article explains some common misconceptions about
lightning. For example, one misconception is that lightning never strikes
the same place twice. This is untrue. Once lightning discovers an easy target
it will likely strike again. The article also provides important safety
precautions. The safest place during a thunderstorm is inside a house away
from windows or inside a closed car.
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IDEA Award Winner 2008
Geography-independent Cancer Research Tools
- George Thoma, Chief, Communications Engineering Branch, National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health
- Sameer Antani, Staff Scientist, National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health
- Rodney Long, Electronics Engineer, National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health
- Mark Schiffman, Senior Investigator, National Cancer Institute
Oncologists, gynecologists, and healthcare workers are increasingly relying on network-based tools developed by the National Library of Medicine. These tools include databases with images that range from 20 megabytes to tens of gigabytes, real-time collaboration tools, as well as professional education and development tools.
These tools have changed the way geographically distant cancer researchers are able to collaborate. Over 40 researchers across 6 countries have conducted over 10 studies in just 2 years. Prior to these tools, collaboration relied on the physical exchange of photographic and glass histology slides via postal mail, with considerable logistical challenges and delays. Moreover, the convenient and accurate correlation of patient records and physical slides posed further challenges. Taking advantage of high speed networks the NLM-developed tools have made it possible to implement simultaneous views, searches, and exchange of large volume data.
These and other tools being developed aid current cancer research, and are being extended to other areas of biomedical research. For example, one tool module now enables shape-based retrieval for a collection of 17,000 digitized X-ray images of cervical and lumbar spine x-ray images and related text information. Furthermore, by extending accessibility to images and information, these tools help meet the urgent need to apply the results of biomedical research to clinical medicine
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The Arrow of Time
We are all aware of an intuitive "flow" of time from past to future. Not only do we feel this flow of time, but we also see it manifested in the behaviour of objects which change over time. Many objects seem to behave differently in the forward time direction when compared to the backward time direction. For example, we don't see a spilt glass of water jumping up and going back into the glass, we don't see a broken egg reforming itself. These effects all add to the impression that there is some sort of "forward direction" in the time dimension. This directionality is called the Arrow of Time.
However, this "arrow of time" is something of a mystery to physicists because, at the microscopic level, all fundamental physical processes appear to be time-reversible (we'll consider this later). Also, as shown on the Time and the Block Universe page, our universe appears to have a spacetime structure in which all of time is laid-out in a "block universe", i.e., there is no actual "flow" of time, no movement of a "now" point.
So on this page we will investigate the cause of this mysterious "Arrow of Time".
Entropy can be considered the amount of disorder in a system. For example, a car that has rusted could be said to have a greater entropy value than a new car: bits of the car may have fallen off, the paint may be flaking. Basically, the molecules of the car have become more disordered over time: entropy has increased.
As has just been just discussed, all microscopic processes appear to be time-reversible. The question of why we see an "arrow of time" in macroscopic processes has therefore presented physics with a long-standing conundrum. For this reason, much attention has focussed on the fact that the entropy of a closed system increases with time, i.e., a system will gradually become more disordered with time. Eventually the system (gas in a closed container, for example) will reach a state when all its molecules are completely randomly orientated. This state is called thermal equilibrium. The rule that entropy increases with time is called the second law of thermodynamics.
The reason for this increase in entropy can be seen from a purely probabilistic argument: a system will have many more possible disordered states than ordered states, so a system which changes state randomly will most likely move to a more disordered state. It's really just a matter of likelihood. For this reason, the second "law" of thermodynamics is not really a "law" at all, certainly not an unbreakable law on the same basis as other physical laws - it is a statistical principle. In fact, it might be possible for a room full of randomly-distributed particles to re-order itself quite by chance so that all the particles end up in one corner of the room - it would just be incredibly unlikely!
While the second "law" of thermodynamics is "just" a statistical principle, it is a mightily powerful statistical principle! This is because the basis of the second law - that "disorder will increase" - seems so obvious, and seems to appeal to a fundamental, platonic principle of mathematics. For this reason, the second law manages to appear even more fundamental and unbreakable than the other physical laws, some of which (for example, the amount of electric charge on an electron) seem rather arbitrary in comparison. This fundamental strength of the second law is described well by the astrophysicist Sir Arthur Eddington:
"If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell's equations - then so much the worse for Maxwell's equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation - well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can offer you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation."
- Sir Arthur Eddington
One of the most inexplicable features of the early universe is that it had an incredibly low value of entropy. This value of entropy was so low that even now - 13 billion years later - we still find ourselves living in a world of relatively low entropy. As a result, many of the objects we surround ourselves with have low entropy: new cars, and perfect unbroken eggs in egg cups. And these objects are basically falling apart around us as they inevitably move to higher entropy states: cars rust, eggs fall on the floor and break. Hence, the increase in entropy in our ordered world is one reason why we detect an apparent "arrow of time".
But change of entropy is fundamentally time-symmetrical!!
However, this is a good time to clear-up a very widely-held misconception about the change of entropy: that change of entropy is in some way fundamentally time-asymmetric, that entropy change behaves fundamentally differently in the forward time direction to the backward time direction. This is absolutely not the case. In the general case, entropy increases in the backward time direction in just the same way as it increases in the forward time direction: change of entropy is symmetrical with time. (However, a very small minority of physicists might still believe change of entropy is time-asymmetric - see my comments at the bottom of this discussion with the notoriously tetchy physicist Luboš Motl here).
The probabilistic basis of the second law of thermodynamics simply says that a system will have many more possible disordered states than ordered states, so a system which changes state randomly will most likely move to a more disordered state. This seems very clear and obvious - such a simple statement is never going to be the cause of something so mysterious as fundamental time-asymmetry. Indeed, this change to a more disordered state is just as applicable in the reverse time direction as in the forward time direction: it's just a change of state, independent of time.
But what about the second law of thermodynamics which states that "entropy increases with time"? This seems to imply a fundamental time-asymmetry to entropy. But we have to realise that the second law only applies to special-case systems: objects with low entropy, the sort of objects we generally encounter in everyday life (rusting cars, etc.). In fact, if we consider general-case objects (i.e., objects in thermal equilibrium), objects which have never been arranged into any sort of order, then their entropy is at a maximum already so their entropy can only decrease with time - completely at odds with the second law!
This generally-held misconception that change of entropy is fundamentally time-asymmetrical is revealed by the Loschmidt paradox. The Loschmidt paradox considers the apparently fundamental time-asymmetry of entropy implied by the second law and states that this is at odds with the known time symmetry of fundamental processes. It is only when we realise that the second law is frequently badly stated and hence contains unstated assumptions (which have been just considered) that the Loschmidt paradox is resolved. (Wikipedia describes this resolution of the paradox, showing how one of the key assumptions of Boltzmann's version of the second law of thermodynamics was flawed - see here).
But if change of entropy is time-symmetric, why do we see the entropy of the universe as only increasing? Roger Penrose considers this question in his book The Road to Reality. Penrose considers what we might expect to happen if we trace the entropy of the universe back in time from the state it is in now. If change of entropy is really time-symmetrical, then we should expect to see entropy increasing as we trace the universe into the past, just as we will see entropy increasing into the future. But we know, in fact, that the universe had a lower entropy in the past: i.e., the entropy of the universe actually reduces in the past. So where does this asymmetry come from?
As Roger Penrose goes on to reveal, the time-asymmetry of change of entropy within the universe is explained by the extraordinarily low entropy of the universe at its origin:
Basically, the low-entropy past of the universe "fixes" the experiment. If we want to get a symmetrical answer then we have to be careful to conduct a symmetrical experiment. Rather than starting with a special-case low entropy universe, we have to imagine a universe which started in thermal equilibrium and has reached its current state unaided, purely by chance:
After that low-entropy point is reached, we then see entropy starting to increase according to the second law. But the key thing is that if we trace the entropy of the universe back in time past the low-entropy point we now see that symmetry that Roger Penrose sought. Hence, change of entropy is fundamentally symmetrical.
In fact, throughout this discussion on the arrow of time we will find that the arrow of time is caused by the time-symmetric second law of thermodynamics, together with the very special, low-entropy initial conditions of the universe.
(This discussion on time-symmetric entropy change is based on an example by J. Richard Gott in his book Time Travel in Einstein's Universe in which the role of the universe is played by an ice cube - see here. The ice cube example is considered in detail in Chapter 6 of Brian Greene's book The Fabric of the Cosmos.)
We all have a very strong feeling of a directionality of time, which has a flow in a forwards direction. As Michael Lockwood says in his book The Labyrinth of Time: "We regard the forward direction in time, in stark contrast to the backward direction, as the direction in which causality is permitted to operate. Causes, we assume, can precede their effects, but cannot follow them."
But we have just seen how physical processes appear to be time-symmetrical, with no distinction between the forward and backward directions. So where does that leave causality? As Michael Lockwood again says about the passage of time: "We find no hint of this in the formalism of Newtonian physics. Not only is there no explicit reference to a passage or flow of time; there is not even any reference to cause and effect. Indeed, there is not even any directionality".
"But", you might protest, "surely causality works in only one direction: forwards in time? I kick a football - the football doesn't kick me." Well, let's consider the example immediately below of forward causality. We see a snooker cue coming in from the left, hitting the white ball, which then causes the white ball to hit the red ball:
However, if you shoot a movie of that sequence, and then play it backwards, it still makes perfect physical sense. As you can see below, we then have the red ball coming in from the right, hitting the white ball, which then causes the white ball to hit the cue backwards. So, because of the symmetry of the laws of physics, this process of causality - which we thought only applied to the forward direction of time - in fact applies equally to the backward direction of time as well:
The reason why we don't see causality happening in the backward direction is purely because of a bias in our psychological systems: something about the complexity of our psychological system (our brains!) causes our thought processes to work only in the forward direction of time (this will be considered below). The great advantage of recording the sequence on a movie and then playing the movie backwards (to reveal the time symmetry of causality) is that a movie camera works in a much more simple fashion than our brains and thus has no such psychological bias in the forward direction: it works in exactly the same way forward as backward.
So if causality is time-symmetrical, we could in fact think of our current situations are being caused by time-reversed future events as much as by past events! For example, as I sit here by my desk in work this morning, I could consider my position as being caused by me being in my apartment this evening, and driving my car from there backward in time, backward down the road the work, to put me in work this morning! It's a bit brain-bending, but it's equally valid as saying "I got up this morning, and drove forwards to work". It seems strange, but that's only because of our psychological bias. The movie of my complete day at work would tell the correct (time-reversible) story.
The Quantum Mechanical Arrow of Time
As has just been explained, almost all known physical principles (from Newtonian mechanics through to Einstein's relativity) have a completely symmetric treatment of past and future. Nowhere in any of these equations is there anything which distinguishes a forward direction of time from a backward direction of time. The exception to this rule appears to be quantum mechanics. On the page on The Quantum Casino it was explained how, when we make a measurement of a quantum observable, there is a "collapse of the wavefunction" in which a probability wave collapses to generate a single observed value from a range of possible values. This process appears to work in the forward time direction only, i.e., it is irreversible.
An explanation for this apparent "collapse of the wavefunction" is presented in detail on the page on Quantum Decoherence, so I don't want to repeat it here. Suffice to say that the coherent phase relationships of the interference terms are destroyed when a particle interacts with the environment. The dissipation of these terms into the wider environment can be interpreted in terms of increasing entropy (again, see the section on "Decoherence and Entropy" on the Quantum Decoherence page for full details). Quantum decoherence can then be understood as a thermodynamic process: after decoherence, the process is said to be thermodynamically irreversible.
So once again the underlying physical principles appear to be time symmetric, with no fundamental preference for either the forward or backward time direction. The apparent arrow of time produced by the "collapse of the wavefunction" is once again shown to be a result of increasing entropy. As Andreas Albrecht explains in his paper Cosmic Inflation and the Arrow of Time (when considering decoherence in the double-slit experiment): "A double-slit electron striking a photographic plate is only a good quantum measurement to the extent that the photographic plate is well constructed, and has a very low probability of re-emitting the electron in the coherent 'double slit' state. Good photographic plates are possible because of the thermodynamic arrow of time: the electron striking the plate puts the internal degrees of freedom of the plate into a higher entropy state, which is essentially impossible to reverse. Furthermore, different electron positions on the plate become entangled with different states of the internal degrees of freedom, so there is essentially no interference between positions of the electron. From this point of view, the quantum mechanical arrow of time is none other than the thermodynamic arrow of time."
Why can't we remember the future?
If physical processes all appear to be time-reversible at a fundamental level, we might ask the question "Why can't we remember the future?" After all, we can remember the past, and physics seems to make no distinction between past, present, and future. So why don't we already have prior knowledge of what is going to happen in the future?
In order to answer this question, we shall consider the reasoning of James Hartle which is based around the radiative arrow of time:
The Radiative Arrow of Time
In his paper The Physics of "Now", James Hartle makes the point that the reason we can't remember the future is because we have not yet received any information about future events. This thinking is based on the idea of a "light cone", the shape of which is defined by the speed of light:
At first glance, this might seem a very straightforward explanation of why we are unable to remember the future: it takes time for a light ray (photons) carrying information to reach us from a distant event. Basically, in the future we will have more information about distant events than we have at present. It is hard to imagine a situation in which light behaves differently - it would appear that light will always take time to travel from a point A to a point B:
This principle - that light will always take time, travelling forwards in time between two points - is called the radiative arrow of time (also known as the electromagnetic arrow of time). But this apparently clear-cut principle is not as clear-cut as it first appears. It turns out that the "world line" of the photon is the same for a photon travelling forwards in time from point A to B as it is for a photon travelling backward in time from point B to point A:
In fact, if we temporarily forget about the little arrows on the world lines (which indicate "cause" and "effect") then we see that the world lines of both the forward and backward photons are precisely identical:
This principle is clearly illustrated by a Feynman diagram of particle interactions which can be rotated at will, showing particle interactions work exactly the same backward in time as forward in time:
It makes no sense to talk about the entropy of a single photon (entropy is a statistical property of a large group of particles), so a single photon has no arrow of time. However, we do not receive our information about distant events in the form of single photons. Rather, it appears we receive information in the form of light rays which are composed of billions of photons (bosons are quite happy to congregate in the same state, and gather together in a cooperative fashion to create light rays). For this reason, studies of the radiative arrow of time have concentrated on studying the Maxwell electromagnetic field equations which treats light as a field with a wave nature (rather than considering the path of individual particles).
It is often quoted that Maxwell's electromagnetic field equations are time-reversible and so allow for advanced (backward-in-time) waves as well as retarded (forward-in-time) waves. However, in practice it is much easier to produce a retarded wave than an advanced wave, and this reveals the limitations of Maxwell's equations as a full description of the behaviour of light. We need to combine Maxwell's equations with something else in order to derive a radiative arrow of time.
James Hartle attempts to use Maxwell's equations to deduce the radiative arrow of time in Appendix A of his aforementioned paper The Physics of "Now" which is called The Cosmological Origin of Time's Arrow. His approach (based on principles described in H. Dieter Zeh's book The Physical Basis for the Direction of Time) combines the time-symmetric Maxwell's equations with the time-asymmetric boundary conditions of the universe as a whole (he considers the asymmetrical total amount of electromagnetic radiation). The approach suggests that because there were no free electromagnetic fields at the start of the universe, but there are fields in the future, those fields must all be caused by retarded waves that have their sources in the past. However, I don't see how the radiative arrow of time can depend on the total of electromagnetic fields in the universe in this way. There's no equivalent of the second law of thermodynamics (increasing entropy) for electromagnetic fields. The total of electromagnetic field in an isolated system does not tend to increase (as is the case with entropy). The radiative arrow of time must surely depend on the increasing sum total of entropy in the universe, not the total of electromagnetic field. Surely the radiative arrow of time must have the same cause as the thermodynamic arrow of time.
At the beginning of the last century, Walter Ritz proposed that only retarded (forward-in-time) waves were physically possible (i.e., the process was fundamentally time-asymmetric). In 1908 and 1909 he had a famous argument with Einstein over this matter, as Einstein believed the process was fundamentally symmetric and could be explained by thermodynamic arguments (see here). It turns out that it is easier to create a light ray in the forward time direction as the behaviour of the billions of photons as they are produced (by an ordered source such as a light bulb) and scattered (when they reach a target) can be understood in turns of increasing entropy: "This arrow has been reversed in carefully-worked experiments which have created convergent waves, so this arrow probably follows from the thermodynamic arrow in that meeting the conditions to produce a convergent wave requires more order than the conditions for a radiative wave. Put differently, the probability for initial conditions that produce a convergent wave is much lower than the probability for initial conditions that produce a radiative wave. In fact, normally a radiative wave increases entropy, while a convergent wave decreases it." (see the Wikipedia article on the Arrow of Time). Hence, the reason we do not see convergent, advanced waves can be explained in terms of entropy.
When I turn on an electric light, for example, the photons leave the bulb in a relatively ordered form. The photons then radiate away from the bulb, redistributing themselves around the room (i.e., a radiative wave), creating a state of greater disorder - increased entropy. As Andreas Albrecht explains in his paper Cosmic Inflation and the Arrow of Time: "The complete absence of the time-reverse of radiation absorption is understood to be one feature of the thermodynamic arrow of time in our world. A hillside absorbing an evening news broadcast is entering a higher entropy state, and the entropy would have to decrease for any of the troublesome time-reversed cases to take place. So in the end, the radiation arrow of time is none other than the thermodynamic arrow of time."
Could it be possible to remember the future?
If we consider the hypothetical situation in which we have found a way to circumvent the limitations imposed by the radiative arrow of time, it is interesting to ask if it could ever be possible to remember the future. And, if so, what would our "memories" by like?
In this respect, the Scottish philosopher Donald Mackay suggested an interesting "thought experiment". Mackay wondered if it could ever be possible to predict how someone will behave in the future, and, if so, what would be the consequences for human free will. If we had complete knowledge of the current state of a person's brain, would we be able to accurately predict a person's actions in the short-term future? Basically, if we are able to predict how a person will behave - and the decisions they will make - in the future then human free will is shown to be a fallacy, an illusion.
However, Mackay suggested that it would be impossible to predict a person's future decisions if that predicted future was made known to the person. This is because the person could then choose to act in a different way from how you have told him he will behave. This is described by John D. Barrow in his book Impossibility: "Consider a person who is asked to choose between soup or salad for lunch. If we introduce a brain scientist who not only knows the complete state of this person's brain, but that of the entire universe as well at present, we could ask whether this scientist can infallibly announce what the choice of lunch will be. The answer is 'No'. The subject can always be stubborn, and adopt a strategy that says 'If you say that I will choose soup, then I will choose salad, and vice versa'. Under these conditions it is logically impossible for the scientist to predict infallibly what the person will choose if the scientist makes his prediction known."
So if a person gains access to knowledge about his future behaviour, it would appear that it becomes impossible to predict that future. But this knowledge about future behaviour is precisely what a person will gain if he is able to remember the future. So if a person is able to remember the future, he could then choose to act in a different way to how his memory of the future tells him he will act! There would appear to be a logical inconsistency here: if a person is able to remember the future, then those memories of the future instantly become unreliable. Therefore, it would appear to be impossible to "remember the future".
As an example, here's how Dilbert might behave if he could remember the future:
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Preparing for urban disasters - challenges and recommendations
Some 360,000 people remain displaced after Haiti’s 2010 earthquake (file photo March 2010)
BANGKOK, 10 January 2013 (IRIN) - Electrical engineers and hazardous waste experts join emergency rosters. Power mapping becomes as important as hazard mapping in emergency prevention and response. #fragilecities shows up as often as #fragilestates in Twitter searches. Humanitarian science fiction? No, welcome to what demographers call the new urban millennium and the challenges, as well as changes, aid groups face responding to emergencies in urban areas.
“People are using the same recipe from a rural camp situation in cities. Aid tools and strategies have been cut and paste. This does not work,” said the director of the France-based research, training and evaluation NGO, Urgence, Réhabilitation et Développement (URD), François Grünewald, who has researched urban risks and responses for more than a decade.
It is not enough to ask “Did we do it right?” by meeting basic humanitarian aid standards known as SPHERE
, but also, “Did we do the right thing?” said Grünewald.
More often than not, the answer has been no, he concluded.
IRIN analysed evaluations
to highlight some lessons emerging from recent urban disasters. What follows are challenges and recommendations reported by groups from Manila to Mogadishu; insights from experts consulted over the past year; and an “urban” aid toolbox organizations have begun assembling but which they admit is far from complete.
Experts generally agree: Humanitarians are still ill-prepared for urban emergencies, whether it be civil conflict in Syria
or a “complex” disaster like Japan’s 2011 earthquake followed by a tsunami, resulting in fires, chemical spills and nuclear power accidents.
Some 3.3 billion people live in urban areas, with one billion of them in slums, a number that is growing by 25 million annually, according to the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT). Such growth threatens to “become the tipping point for humanitarian crises,” noted the journal, Forced Migration Review (FMR
) in February 2010, which went to press soon after Haiti’s capital was hit by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 220,000 people, injured more than 300,000 and has left some 360,000 others still displaced
almost three years later.
Photo: Phuong Tran/IRIN
|Post-quake there were 19 million cubic metres of rubble and debris in Port-au Prince, enough to fill a line of shipping containers stretching end-to-end from London to Beirut
“Urban DRR [disaster risk reduction] and preparedness, mitigation, response and reconstruction will come to dominate humanitarian policies and programmes in the coming decades,” noted the review.
and mea culpas
from the aid response in Haiti are still piling up: Not consulting local groups; no exit strategy; importing foreign vehicles and goods without checking locally; coordination between the military and humanitarians
based on personality rather than protocol; focusing on transitional, rather than permanent, shelters.
Agencies need to learn the “new rules of the game” of urban disaster response, as the UK-based Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), an umbrella group of some 15 humanitarian aid groups, wrote in 2011 in its compilation of lessons from Haiti
But what exactly are those rules? What sets apart acute vulnerabilities from chronic poverty? How do you rebuild communities when there is scarce land? What are humanitarians’ responsibilities to host communities and the urban poor? And just when is a humanitarian’s job done in a chronic emergency?
Urban interventions present humanitarians with similar challenges to other chronic emergencies (Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, the Sahel
) not tied to a specific geographic area that often lacked clear “triggers” of engagement.
Lessons aid workers have compiled from urban disasters - including Philippines’ 2009 Typhoon Ketsana
, Haiti’s 2010 earthquake
, and Japan’s 2011 twin disasters
- still leave a “huge gap”, said George Deikun, director of UN-HABITAT’s Humanitarian Affairs Office in Geneva and one of the authors in FMR’s February 2010 special urban issue.
“There is a lot of literature, but… it doesn’t bring together the critical and necessary elements in the whole cycle of humanitarian assistance to development,” he told IRIN recently. Humanitarians’ work typically has had a “shelf life [intervention period] of 90 days while governments in urban areas are looking to leverage assistance to move on beyond saving lives to re-establishing sustainable communities.”
Experts calculate that urban areas’ population growth - including residents and refugees fleeing conflict - plus unenforced or non-existing building codes can be fatal for urban residents already cut off from city services due to lack of income, security or identification
Photo: Sophia Paris/UN PHOTO
|Food distribution point at stadium in Léogâne, Haiti
While experts differ
on how fast the countryside is emptying into urban areas, most agree urban areas in sub-Saharan Africa are growing more quickly than elsewhere, and that the Asia-Pacific region has the largest number of urban residents, 1.8 billion as of 2011
(43 percent of region’s population).
How the displaced manage in cities, how their needs compare to the urban poor and just what humanitarians’ responsibilities are to address chronic (rather than acute) needs is still debated, according to research on urban displacement and vulnerability
by the UK-based Overseas Development Institute’s Humanitarian Practice Group, which noted that the best ways to support the urban displaced are “poorly understood”.
Cities, the crossroads of so many legal and illegal transactions, are also becoming battlegrounds for a “`new’ kind of armed conflict
… a variation of warfare, often in densely populated slums and shanty towns [featuring] pitched battles between the state and non-state armed groups,” wrote
Kevin Savage from World Vision International and Robert Muggah, research director at Igarapé Institute, a Brazilian think tank focusing on violence prevention and reduction.
At a meeting focused on “adapting humanitarian efforts to an urban world” convened last January by the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance (ALNAP
), a UK-headquartered network of humanitarian experts and organizations, participants concluded that even with their experience from urban disasters, “collective understanding is patchy, informal and still largely undocumented. It is still too early to say how best to respond to the challenge of urban disasters: the rules have yet to be written.”
In 2009 the Inter-agency Standing Committee (IASC) - an umbrella group of humanitarian groups that sets policy for the aid community - formed a reference group
on “meeting humanitarian challenges in urban areas”, setting a two-year action plan in 2010.
The group pledged to prepare the industry better to respond to crises in urban areas, by, among other things, launching a database of urban-specific aid tools
that aimed to be the clearinghouse for all information on aid in urban emergencies (done); strengthening technical surge capacity for urban emergency response (partially done); developing or adapting humanitarian tools for urban areas (partially done); promoting protection of vulnerable urban populations (done). Developing guidance on supporting food security in post-crisis areas and building preparedness and community resilience into humanitarian policymaking are still incomplete as of early January 2013.
Photo: Jodi Hilton/IRIN
|Children at a camp in Atma (northern Syria) for the conflict-displaced. Fighting has uprooted two to three million people
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN-HABITAT, the Kenyan government and NGOs are trying to pilot a “Multi-Hazard Response Plan” created in Kenya that brought together local and national governments and almost 100 groups working in urban areas to prepare for future urban emergencies. Kenya’s election violence in December 2007 killed an estimated 1,200 persons and displaced more than 660,000
, many of whom sought refuge in cities and have yet to return home.
But even bringing together urban actors can be complicated, if not impossible, noted URD.
According to a report
the group published in December 2011, new “players” in urban settings include: gangs controlling the population, churches exploiting their distress, social networks linked to the diaspora, community-based organizations trying to attract aid for their constituency, and private companies looking for clients in the aid industry.
The group is finalizing a “concept note” to call attention to the impact on urban areas of Syria’s ongoing fighting, which the UN estimates has killed 60,000 people since protests turned violent in 2010. According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, in 2012 some 8,200 people died in areas surrounding the country’s capital, Damascus.
On the housing front, Shelter Project
, led by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and the Geneva-based NGO Shelter Centre, working with other humanitarian groups and agencies, is developing guidelines for moving people out of emergency shelters into permanent housing. A draft is expected by mid-2013.
The World Food Programme (WFP) is reviewing food-targeting practices and with Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is developing global guidelines to strengthen urban food security and nutrition in emergencies.
For all the recommendations proffered following recent urban disasters (see sidebar), five key challenges remain:
“International agencies are king in rural areas versus cities where they play a supporting role,” said one aid worker. The challenge of working with leaders from neighbourhoods and communities (which researchers note are not necessarily the same), as well as civil society staff and officials from multiple levels of government - all necessary partners - becomes more complicated when the government is a combatant in conflict, as in Syria
According to URD, “multi-sector geographical coordination” makes more sense in urban areas - where all aid is delivered by a single level of authority - rather than the current
“cluster” model of crisis coordination in place since mid-2006, which divides aid by issues, such as food, shelter or education.
, leadership posts of many sectors were vacant. Once in place, the system was “too heavily bureaucratic” and not able to carry out quick needs assessments; the health sector alone had more than 400 groups participating at one point. Theme-specific groupings were unable to meet multi-sector challenges. Cluster meetings were primarily conducted in English to accommodate the large number of Anglophone emergency responders, which was often too fast-past paced for local Francophone or Creole-speaking groups.
Targeting vulnerable communities.
Photo: Jason Gutierrez/IRIN
|Flooded slum in Manila, Philippines, August 2012
In cities the most vulnerable tend to be highly mobile, untraceable and scattered. Refugees and internally displaced persons may seek out sprawling urban areas for anonymity due to fears of harassment, detention or eviction, making it difficult to track, profile, register or document them. In turn, the task of measuring the impact of satisfying humanitarian versus economic needs is hard because conventional needs assessments do not distinguish acute needs (such as war-inflicted health trauma) from chronic ones (cholera borne of slum living and urban poverty).
Identifying and targeting assistance in cities is a “huge challenge” said UN-HABITAT’s Deikun. “The problem with emergency response is that it has to be done quickly and be done by yesterday. It relies on existing data that is not always correct, and may be politically distorted. Mapping vulnerable urban populations in high-risk environments before the emergency strikes is rarely done.”
Seeking urban experts.
Emergencies in urban areas require expertise often in short supply: adapting water and sanitation projects
to complex, dense and underserviced urban environments; conducting urban vulnerability and community resilience analyses and plans; developing land use management plans and tenure guidelines; removing debris
; reconstruction of urban housing; resettlement of affected populations from emergency shelter and trauma surgery - to name a few.
Following Haiti’s earthquake, the lack of trauma specialists and surgeons led to inappropriate treatment, excessive unnecessary amputations and health complications, according to multiple evaluations. The IASC reference group on humanitarian challenges in urban areas has created and is disseminating generic terms of reference for a number of these specialists capable of responding to urban disasters.
Humanitarians are the “last ones” to develop an exit strategy, said URD’s Grünewald. “The humanitarian is focused on saving lives. We only think of it at the end.” The problem is when there is no strong governance to take over and “the principal activities of many agencies seem to be stuck in an extended relief mode,” DEC noted
. Bring along an urban adviser or development specialist as early as the damage assessment, Grünewald counselled, to decide when to exit.
He concluded humanitarians can only do so much.
“[Humanitarian] NGOs want to become engaged in slums. But all the money from all the donors would only be a drop in the bucket - and there would still not be an exit strategy… The Band-Aid system is messy and can only be a Band-Aid.”
||Work with and through municipalities wherever possible
||Find and use neighbourhood networks and capacities, such as home-owner associations, while recognizing that community and neighbourhood is not the same
||Work with the local private sector; do not compete unfairly
||Focus on long-term homes, rather than short-term shelter
||Keep people in or close to their neighbourhoods, if safe
||Assume skills and resources can be found locally
||Use cash to stimulate markets
||Prepare now for the next big urban disaster
||Health providers: use a common format for medical records
||Avoid mass burials/cremations
||Build violence-prevention into agency activities
||Use community radio
||Employ urban-oriented minimum standards
||Track populations - and health epidemics - through mobile phones
||Consider alternatives such as mobile medical clinics to avoid large-scale relief distributions, which can invite violence
||Be aware that agency logos on relief items can, in urban markets with consumers more attuned to image and branding, stigmatize recipients
||Crowdsourcing - information gathered from the public through SMS text messages or the Internet - can be a valuable source of information to assess locations and needs, though it is still problematic in terms of accuracy and ease-of-use
||Conduct “one-hit” assessments instead of subjecting a community to multiple visits
||Build resilience during recovery operations
||Consider renters and squatters in resettlement plans
||Avoid relocation camps on a city’s periphery as they can increase displacement by drawing surrounding populations to camp services. Rather, construct camps as close to neighbourhoods of origin as possible
||Establish strict admission criteria for emergency care: it may be the only free health care available and could quickly become overwhelmed
||Focus on psychosocial support, often overlooked in an emergency response
|Sources: DEC 2011, UNISDR 2012, ALNAP November 2012, UN-HABITAT 2011, December 2012 interview with George Deikun, UN-HABITAT/Chair of IASC reference group on meeting humanitarian challenges
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An animal detection system with the warning lights activated resulted in 1.52 mi/h lower vehicle speeds (compared to warning lights off) for passenger cars and pick-ups.
Alerting drivers to the presence of large animals in the road at Yellowstone National Park.
The study area was on US Highway 191 inside of the Yellowstone National Park, with a posted speed limit of 55 mi/hour. The data collection period occurred over two weeks in which there was mostly no precipitation. Researchers installed three traffic counters and road tubes outside and inside of the detection area. The counters recorded the date, time, vehicle type, vehicle speed and gap (in seconds) between vehicles. When vehicles moved in platoons, only the speed of the first vehicle in a platoon was used as a data point when the signs were activated (since the following vehicles may be influenced by the speed of the first one). A sample size of 2,428 vehicles per 24 hour period was used.
The deployment of an animal detection system at Yellowstone National Park found that passenger cars, pick-ups, vans, and trucks with two units or more had lower vehicle speeds by 1.52 mi/hour with warning signs activated compared to warning signs off. Although the difference is small, it is important to note that small reductions when vehicles are traveling at high speeds have a disproportionate decrease in the probability of severe accidents.
The data also showed that the number of collisions with large animals was 58 to 67 percent lower than was expected (but could not be tested for significance due to the variability in the number of collisions and just one year of post installation collision data). Driver opinion of the system documented in interviews revealed that a majority (59 percent) would have liked to see the system stay in place. The system was removed in the fall of 2008 due to high maintenance and a lack of spare parts.
Author: M.P. Huijser, T.D. Holland, A.V. Kociolek, A.M. Barkdoll and J.D. Schwalm
Published By: Oregon Department of Transportation Research Unit and the Federal Highway Administration
Source Date: March 2009URL: http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/31000/31600/31698/Animal-Vehicle_Crash_Mitigation_Phase_2.pdf
Average User Rating
Typical Deployment Locations
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Mussar is a thousand-year-old Jewish system for personal growth, specifically in the realm of character improvement. Mussar provides a distinctively Jewish answer to the sorts of questions any thinking person asks about life:
This 20-part course gives an overview of the basic concepts and practices of Mussar. The course examines a variety of character traits -- truth, anger, kindness, gratitude and others -- that are the stepping stones on the journey toward spiritual greatness. Students will be guided in a practical system for how to track and measure their spiritual progress.
This course also features 8 dynamic video segments.
Are there areas of your character you want to improve? Mussar is a great way to get there.
Each class features a dynamic essay that includes stories, insights, thought questions, and spiritual exercises. These essays can be read online, or printed in a beautiful PDF format. The course also includes 8 video presentations.
Part One: Foundations
Part Two: Character Traits
Part Three: Conclusion
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use exponent rules to simplify. Write as a single power, dont need to find the value. [ (11/20)^4 x (11/20)^-8]^5 and (11/20)^-6 you cant leave an number to the power of a negative exponent. You have to change it like this ex : 2^-3 = 1/2^3 = 1/8
-A store sells 28 ounces of peanut butter for $2.24. The store also sells 32 ounces of teh same peanut butter for $2.40. Which is a better buy?
12. The Delhi Sultanate ruler Radiyya first took power chiefly because A. she proved herself in battle. B. she wore men's clothes. C. she killed her brother. D. her father chose her as his successor. I chose c
Ok can u Atleast check if it makes sense? I wanna pass
I found it can i send a recording??
R these correct??plz help En la 11. ___________ te llamé. De la oscuridad me llamaste. Reconocí tu 12. ___________. Reconociste la mia. Vente para acá, 13. ___________. Respondiste: ¿Dónde estás, papá? No te 14...
😭 Thanks anyway:(
No I listen to the cd and fill in the blanks
For Further Reading
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Kom Ombo is an agricultural town in Egypt famous for its temple. It was originally an Egyptian city called Nubt, meaning City of Gold (not to be confused with the city north of Naqada that was also called Nubt/Ombos). It became a Greek settlement during the Greco-Roman Period. The town's location on the Nile 50 km north of Aswan (Syene) gave it some control over trade routes from Nubia to the Nile Valley, but its main rise to prominence came with the erection of the temple in the 2nd century BC.
In antiquity the city was in the Thebaid, the capital of the Nomos Ombites, upon the east bank of the Nile. Ombos was a garrison town under every dynasty of Egypt, Pharaonic, Macedonian, and Roman, and was celebrated for the magnificence of its temples and its hereditary feud with the people of Tentyra.
Ombos was the first city below Syene at which any remarkable remains of antiquity occur. The Nile, indeed, at this portion of its course, was ill-suited to a dense population in antiquity. It runs between steep and narrow banks of sandstone, and deposits but little of its fertilizing slime upon the dreary and barren shores. There are two temples at Ombos, constructed of the stone obtained from the neighboring quarries of Hadjar-selseleh. The more magnificent of two stands upon the top of a sandy hill, and appears to have been a species of Pantheon, since, according to extant inscriptions, it was dedicated to Aroeres (Apollo) and the other deities of the Ombite nome by the soldiers quartered there. The smaller temple to the northwest was sacred to Isis. Both, indeed, are of an imposing architecture, and still retain the brilliant colors with which their builders adorned them. They are, however, of the Ptolemaic age, with the exception of a doorway of sandstone, built into a wall of brick. This was part of a temple built by Tuthmosis III in honor of the crocodile-headed god Sobek. The monarch is represented on tress, the door-jambs, holding the measuring reed and chisel, the emblems of construction, and in the act of dedicating the temple. The Ptolemaic portions of the larger temple present an exception to an almost universal rule in Egyptian architecture. It has no propylon or dromos in front of it, and the portico has an uneven number of columns, in all fifteen, arranged in a triple row. Of these columns thirteen are still erect. As there are two principal entrances, the temple would seem to be two united in one, strengthening the supposition that it was the Pantheon of the Ombite nome. On a cornice above the doorway of one of the adyta is a Greek inscription, recording the erection, or perhaps the restoration of the sekos by Ptolemy VI Philometor and his sister-wife Cleopatra II, 180-145 BC. The hill on which the Ombite temples stand has been considerably excavated at its base by the river, which here strongly inclines to the Arabian bank.
The crocodile was held in special honor by the people of Ombos, and in the adjacent catacombs are occasionally found mummies of the sacred animal. Juvenal, in his 15th satire, has given a lively description of a fight, of which he was an eye-witness, between the Ombitae and the inhabitants of Tentyra, who were hunters of the crocodile. On this occasion the men of Ombos had the worst of it, and one of their number, having stumbled in his flight, was caught and eaten by the Tentyrites. The satirist, however, has represented Ombos as nearer to Tentyra than it actually is, these towns, in fact, being nearly 100 miles from each other. The Roman coins of the Ombite nome exhibit the crocodile and the effigy of the crocodile-headed god Sobek.
In Kom Ombo there is a rare engraved image of Cleopatra VII in the walls of the main temple and also the engraving of what is though to be the first representation of medical instruments for performing surgery, including scalpels, curettes, forceps, dilator, scissors, and medicine bottles dating from the days of the Roman Egypt.
The city was a bishopric before the Muslim conquest, and Ombos was a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church, Ombi, which has been vacant since 1966. Karol Wojtyła (the future Pope John Paul II) was titular bishop of Ombi from 1958 until 1963, when he was appointed Archbishop of Kraków.
JOURNEYS trips that include Kom Ombo:
Ancient Wonders of Egypt
Egypt Desert Oases & the Nile Valley
Information based on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kom_Ombo
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Definition of a Crime Victim
The Attorney General's Guidelines for Victim and Witness Assistance define a victim as a person that has suffered direct physical, emotional, or pecuniary harm as a result of the commission of a federal crime. If the victim is a non governmental institution, such as a bank or corporation, this definition includes a representative of that institution. Government agencies are not considered victims for the purpose of victim services but federal government employees who are harmed in the performance of their duties are considered victims. If the victim is deceased, under 18 years of age, incompetent or incapacitated, this definition includes one of the following persons (in order of preference): a spouse, a legal guardian, a parent, a child, a sibling, another family member; or another person designated by the court.
Definition of a Witness
The Attorney General's Guidelines for Victim and Witness Assistance define a witness as a person who has information or evidence concerning a crime, and provides information regarding his or her knowledge to a law enforcement agency. Where the witness is a minor, the term witness includes an appropriate family member or legal guardian. The term witness does not include a person who is solely a defense witness.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office will make its best efforts to ensure your rights are protected. You may seek the advice of an attorney with respect to these rights. If you believe that an employee of the United States Attorney’s Office failed to provide you with one or more of these rights, you may file an administrative complaint, as provided under 28 CFR §45.10. Please contact the United States Attorney’s Office to obtain information about these procedures.
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New GREEN UP Program Helps Buildings to Save Money While Reducing Emissions
By: Meirav Even-Har, Toronto
Regular readers of this blog may have noticed I cover the subject of buildings quite often. Responsible for as much as 40% of global GHGs, buildings remain, for the most part, under the public awareness radar. However, for the companies that own and manage commercial, institutional and residential buildings, the story is a little different. Progress has been made. There are greater numbers of new and existing green buildings. Many Canadian property managers have engaged in a variety of energy, water and waste reduction campaigns. Less energy and water used means a lower carbon footprint.
To continue driving further reduction in energy and water use in existing buildings, the Canada Green Buildings Council (CaGBC) has launched a new program called GREEN UP®. The program includes "a national database and information system designed to improve the energy and environmental performance of buildings in Canada."
How does GREEN UP work?
The following is a brief overview using the steps outlined on the GREEN UP program website:
Step 1: Measure real estate portfolio's energy and water use.
First, GREEN UP users provide program staff with available energy billing data for each registered building. Once inputted, participants are able to track monthly energy use and associated carbon footprint. The program offers access to performance data in office, multi-family, long-term healthcare, hotel, retail, K-12 school, and government buildings.
Step 2: Compare buildings to those of peers and within portfolio.
Building performance can be measured for both individual buildings, as well as portfolios. It can then be compared building to building, or as a group (portfolio) against industry best practices. The peer comparison numbers are based on ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager (ENERGY STAR) metrics, for energy [thermal (heating/cooling and electricity), and water use.
Step 3: Set building performance targets and implement projects.
Measuring and tracking performance is important. However, it's what you do with the information that really counts. Setting building performance targets is a component of the GREEN UP program that caught my attention, because it includes tools to help owners and managers develop actionable plans to drive improvements. For example, the Investment Decision Guide Dashboard helps "identify where to target funds for certification, operational and renewal projects." It also enables users to conduct "what-if" scenario analysis, by shifting investment criteria, as well as buildings, regions or types.
While GREEN UP is not a certification program, it is a tool that can be beneficial for those working on certification projects such as: LEED® Canada EB: O&M (LEED for existing buildings).
Step 4: Track savings from retrofit, operational, and occupant improvement
Connecting to the business case, this final step allows participants to link dollars to realised and/or potential energy savings for an entire portfolio, as well as individual buildings.
In a press release for the program's launch, CaGBC President and CEO Thomas Mueller remarks, "By giving those involved in managing buildings this comprehensive and accessible tool we are helping them identify where they can improve building performance and reduce greenhouse gas emissions." Understanding the big picture while helping integrate sustainability into operations is key to move the industry forward.
To learn more about GREEN UP click HERE
CaGBC: GREEN UP program webpage http://www.cagbc.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Programs/GREENUP/default.htm
CaGBC: GREEN UP Information Sheet http://www.cagbc.org/AM/PDF/greenup/CaGBC_GU-06-2012-En.pdf
CaGBC: Press release June 2012, Canada Green Building Council launches GREEN UP Building Performance Program
Image: GREEN UP Logo courtesy of Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC)
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People in the mountains celebrated festivities with the harvest yielded in the fields on the holy territory within the house of worship. Part of the harvested crops was used in ritual bread baking and beer brewing. The first spring works in Khevsureti started by plowing cornfield. On a Friday, the chief of the community would stand on the flat deck roof of one of the houses and announce the beginning of plowing. It was an obligatory work for all, and once the people finished plowing the area, then they would start working on their own patches of land.
It is interesting to note, that as the process of harvest served the divine deeds, it acquired a ritual character. When it was the time to reap the fields, the chief of clan would announce so and appoint the day of reaping. By this time the beer would have been brewed, the parish would get together, select the sacrificial animals and would sacrifice to the deity. The chief would open the beer cask and fill the silver chalices, light the candles nearby the offerings, and chief say prayers. Everybody would toast with beer to the glory of the house of worship. Then the chief would go out into the field with the sickle, cut some barley, and then hand the sickle to the reapers. The latter were offered the drink by people carrying the tuns with beer. Reaping was accompanied with songs. After the process was finished, one of the reapers would start chanting, "God bless the Iakhsar and the Iakhsar bless your people" (Iakhsar is one of the pagan deities of the people of Tusheti, Khevsureti, Pshavi) and the people around would start echoing and this meant that the reaping was over.
The crop harvested in the holy field was considered sacred. If the house of worship had its own barn, the harvest would be stored there. If not, then it would be taken to the cleanest attic of one of the houses, which was strictly guarded. It was such a sacred product that its theft, appropriation or wasting in any way was strictly precluded. The most of the wheat crop was used in beer brewery, which was the main ritual drink and no blessings and toasting would be possible without this drink at the feasts.
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England could spice up its food production by growing more herbs and spices, says a report looking at the nation's future food security.
It said it could become possible if the UK's climate changes, as could growing chickpeas "for roti-bread flour".
Experts involved in the government-convened Green Food Project also called for improvements in yields, resource efficiency and wildlife protection.
The findings will be unveiled by Farming Minster Jim Paice.
Continue reading the main story
Throughout history, the impact of plant pests and diseases, such as potato blight, can devastate lives
Plant pests: The biggest threats
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs set up the project in order to bring together representatives in farming, manufacturing, science and conservation to look at measures to ensure the UK's food system can cope with future pressures.
Among the issues facing the sector are climate change, a growing population, changes in diet and eating habits.
"With our increasingly hungry world, every country must place its part to produce more food and improve the environment," Mr Paice said.
"We're not talking about Soviet-style targets but an overall approach in which the whole food chain pulls together."
Food for thought
The project consisted of five subgroups to look at particular areas within the food system - wheat, dairy, bread, curry and geographical areas - with the goal of consider ways to "reconcile how we will achieve our goals of improving the environment and increasing good production".
The project's steering group identified a number of "strategic steps" that could be taken to strengthen the food chain, including:
Research and technology - improve knowledge base and science capability; also improve forecasting potential scenarios the sector will face in the future
Knowledge exchange - improve the way in which research and advice is shared between food, farming and environmental sectors
Investment - giving farmers and businesses confidence that investments will improve future performance
Ecosystem services - develop a clear understanding of the economic costs and environmental risks of allowing such services to deteriorate
Consumption and waste - initiate further work on how to tackle problems within the food system surrounding consumption, demand and waste
Among the organisations represented were the National Farmers' Union, the British Retail Consortium, the Food and Drink Federation, WWF and the RSPB.
Commenting on the report, RSPB conservation director and member of the steering group Martin Harper said: "It is clear that food production and consumption urgently need to change.
"The project is an important first step towards working out what England's contribution should be to help food production to become more sustainable and shared more equitably."
Another member of the steering group, WWF-UK's head of food programme Mark Driscoll, also described the report as a first step, but said more needed to be done.
"The establishment of a consumption forum, but this has to be much more than just a talking shop," he said.
"It must report back with clear recommendations and a timetable for action from government, business and civil society."
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A new strain of flu is affecting man's best friend. Health officials say a strain of flu virus, called Dog Flu, is affecting dogs in kennels in Texas and six other states. Researchers say the dog flu strain jumped from horses to dogs. Scientists say dogs have no immunity to the virus and a large number show no symptoms at all. Though few, some infected dogs die. Other canines experience only a fever and cough.
Dog Flu can spread from dog to dog through coughing and sneezing. Vets say it mimics a common illness called Kennel Cough. Dr. Schwede, owner of Acres North Veterinary Hospital tells us it's only a matter of time before the Dog Flu infects dogs in Lubbock. Though there is no vaccine for the illness, he says to keep dogs away from other dogs who have respiratory infections.
Health officials anticipate a vaccine for Dog Flu will be developed soon.
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Waste is defined as something that is unwanted or unusable. According to the Office of National Statistics, a staggering 342m tonnes of waste is produced in the UK each year. Instead of going to landfill sites to be buried or burnt, a vast proportion of this waste could be cut using the following steps:
Reduce – change manufacturing processes so that less materials are used or change consumer habits so that less wasted material is bought
Reuse – choose goods and products that can be used again and reuse rubbish for other purposes
Recycle – make sure that waste is processed and made into another product wherever possible. Composting is also recycling: the nutrients in organic waste are processed and returned to the soil to help more plants to grow
Reducing your waste
Any building or environment where people live or work will produce a certain amount of waste, and children’s centres are no exception. Reducing waste may involve taking an in-depth look at the types of resources your centre buys and considering ways of cutting down. There are numerous ways a children’s centre can reduce the amount of waste produced and handle waste in a more environmentally friendly way. Does the centre recycle and, if so, what types of waste do you recycle? Could you recycle more or re-use materials such as paper and yoghurt pots? Instead of paying companies to remove your waste, by recycling it you will save money in the long-term as you won’t need to pay contractors to take it away. You may also be able to sell some of your metal and glass to companies who can recycle it.
Ensure that paper recycling bins are placed in every classroom and discuss with the children what they are and why they are needed. Encourage children to use both sides of paper and when they’re finished to use the recycling bins.
Composting is a great way of disposing of food waste in an environmentally friendly way. Place compost bins around the centre grounds and ask the children to help empty the food into the bins. Children could then draw pictures of the different foods which are composted. Ask children to look into their lunch box and identify what waste can be composted and what can’t. Explain how certain items such as yoghurt pots can be re-used to make paint pots etc.
Visit our Resources & Links to download a Rupert Bear themed waste dot to dot activity. This section also provides details of organisations that will be able to help your centre tackle the waste topic.
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According to Miguel Angel Ortiz, a professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, Benedict wasn’t so much addressing the specific issue of remarried divorcees but addressing the relation between the spouses’ personal faith and the validity of marriage, including its commitment to fidelity.
In a 2005 question-and-answer session with priests, the pope said he once believed that lack of faith was enough to declare a marriage invalid. But, after tasking theologians to look into the issue, he had “understood that the problem was very difficult” and required further study.
At the time, Benedict said it was “particularly sad” to see people marry in the church out of tradition instead of a faith commitment only to subsequently find faith and remarry.
For Ortiz, the pope’s reflection could “speed up the process of declaring a marriage invalid” without changing the substance of the process itself.
Read it all.
Filed under: * Culture-Watch History Marriage & Family Religion & Culture * Religion News & Commentary Other Churches Roman Catholic Pope Benedict XVI * Theology Ethics / Moral Theology Pastoral Theology
Posted January 30, 2013 at 8:00 am
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Kenya - the Useful Plants Project
In Kenya, the Useful Plants Project aims to enhance the ex-situ conservation of plants that are beneficial to human wellbeing. Ex-situ conservation involves conserving seeds outside their native habitat and helps to protect plant life for our future.
The project is working closely with local communities to increase their capacity to propagate useful species.
The main objectives of the project in Kenya are to:
- identify the most useful plant species for conservation
- conserve these important plants ex-situ
- carry out research in order to support the conservation and sustainable use of selected useful species
- enhance the capacity of Government of Kenya (GoK) agencies and local growers to cultivate target species
Activities in Kenya
Through literature review and ethnobotanical surveys, investigating the use of plants within community groups, the project team have identified the most useful plant species.
Four nurseries have been selected for enhancement. They have been surveyed to discover which useful species were already propagated by the local people, identify those with propagation problems and highlight plants of particular interest.
The UPP team is running workshops in the communities to educate local people about the importance of conserving useful species and preserving local knowledge. Training is provided and teaches techniques for seed collecting, conservation and propagation, enhancing the ability of the local community to cultivate useful plants.
Outside Tharaka, the team collects nationwide; germination tests are carried out at the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) with assistance from the Genebank of Kenya, at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), where seeds are conserved. The seeds are duplicated at Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank to ensure their long term conservation.
The Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology (JKUAT) is assisting with the propagation of difficult plants, while Kew scientists from the Jodrell Laboratory are collaborating with Kenyatta University to study the phytochemestry of the African satinwood (Zanthoxylum gilletii) in different geographical areas.
24-26 February 2010
Collaborators in Kenya
Institutes involved in the Project in Kenya are:
- The National Museums of Kenya (NMK)
- The Genebank of Kenya at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI)
- Kenyatta University
- Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology (JKUAT)
People in Kenya
- Dr Helida Oyieke, Useful Plants Project Manager in Kenya
- Alice Wagura, Useful Plants Project Project Co-ordinator in Kenya
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A Question of Honour?
Wellington's memorandum on the insult Crucially, all concerned realised that this was no mere private dispute but that the political circumstances lent it particular gravity and wider import. It was, in Wellington's own words:
'Scarcely…a private quarrel'
Instead, Wellington chose to interpret the event as a test of the right of any minister to change his opinion on an issue - on this occasion Catholic emancipation - without being branded a 'traitor'.
Wellington made the most of the opportunity by exploiting the duel to silence his most vocal critics and rally moderate opinion, recognising in this piece of theatre the possibility of outmanoeuvring them as comprehensively in the political arena as he had once done his enemies on the battlefield.
Indeed, the duel shows that he was often a subtler and more ingenious politician than some historians have allowed. In this one moment, then, scheduled for 21 March 1829 on Battersea Fields, the cause of reform, the direction of public policy and the history of the new King's College became inextricably linked.
In this exhibition
- Military career
- Political Career
- Wellington and King's
- The Duel
- Acknowledgements & Related Sites
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How Reflective Listening Can Help You Communicate More Effectively
Reflective listening is a communication style that can be employed to steer a conversation toward being healthy and productive. It originates from the idea of “client-centered therapy,” the favored method of psychologist Carl Rogers.
This technique is a valuable tool in de-escalating arguments and clearing up confusion. When properly employed, reflective listening will enable you to have a conversation free from emotional triggers and regretful words. It can help you to create a situation where a reasonable understanding can be reached.
We’ve all been part of a conversation that has gone off track and strayed in to unfriendly territory. Once emotions start to flair, it seems that the risk of misunderstanding is high. If things continue to escalate without resolution, abusive language – and even violence – can ensue.
How It’s Done
In effect, reflective listening consists of respectfully listening to someone, thoughtfully considering what they are saying, and confirming with them that you understand what they have said. When a conversation turns volatile, this style of communication can be a saving grace. Follow these guidelines when practicing this method.
- Listen closely to what is being said – be present in the moment and allow the person to fully state their case.
- Observe the person’s body language as well as other cues that can clue you in to how they are feeling.
- Empathize – put yourself in the other person’s place as well as you can to try and understand where they are coming from.
- Restate what has been said and ask if your interpretation is accurate. Paraphrase, using your own words, to show that you are not just parroting what they’ve said, but that you understand.
- Focus on the issue at hand. If the conversation starts to divert from the main point of discussion, steer it back right away. Don’t banter or get sidetracked.
- Be specific. Say exactly what you mean.
- Reduce distractions. Reflective listening is optimally effective when the conversation can take place in a calm quiet environment. Minimize the presence of others, especially those who would interfere in your discussion.
- Acknowledge the other person’s feelings and treat them as valid.
- Stay calm and rational at all times.
How Not to Do It
- Don’t use criticism or judgmental statements. Your goal is to solve the problem at hand, not to assess the person’s character or morality.
- Don’t argue or engage in a debate-style conversation. This idea isn’t to find right or wrong, simply to cut through confusion and achieve true understanding.
- Don’t support them or agree with them if they are complaining. This is a way of enabling them to continue dwelling in the problem instead of working to solve it.
- Don’t feel sorry for the person. You want to empathize, not sympathize.
When you effectively use reflective listening, you avoid the usual pitfalls of communication and take control of the situation. By commandeering the conversation in a positive way, you create a safe place where constructive problem solving can happen.
By engaging someone in this way, you will encourage them to communicate openly in the future – you are setting a new mood for the way your interactions with this person will go.
You will become enlightened as to how they people are really feeling because and emotional behavior usually masks the real problem and conversations blow up into arguments or are ended without resolution because neither party wants to truly empathize or understand.
Successfully employing this method will likely get you noticed in a good way at work. Bosses will see you as a valuable leader if you are able to effectively manage disagreements.
Perhaps most rewardingly, people will want to confide in you because they trust that you will use your reflective listening skills to make them feel comfortable and understood.
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Click here for an introduction to some basic
concepts and design principles of secret key cryptography.
3-Way is a simple and fast cipher designed by Joan Daemen. 3-Way features
a 96-bit key length and a 96-bit block length. 3-Way is an iterated
block cipher that repeats some relatively simple operations a specified
number of rounds. David Wagner,
John Kelsey, and Bruce
Schneier of Counterpane Systems
have discovered a related key attack on 3-Way that requires one related
key query and about 222 chosen plaintexts, described in this
paper. 3-Way is unpatented.
Blowfish is a block cipher designed by Bruce
Schneier, author of Applied
Cryptography. Blowfish combines a Feistel network, key-dependent
S-Boxes, and a non-invertible F function to create what is perhaps one
of the most secure algorithms available. Schneier's paper is available
is also described in the Concepts of Cryptography
page. The only known attacks against Blowfish are based on its weak
Blowfish is implemented in Kremlin.
CAST, designed by Carlisle Adams and Stafford Taveres, is shaping
up to be a solid algorithm. Its design is very similar to Blowfish's,
with key-dependent S-Boxes, a non-invertible f function, and a Feistel
network-like structure (called a substitution-permutation network).
David Wagner, John Kelsey,
and Bruce Schneier
have discovered a related-key attack on the 64-bit version of CAST that
requires approximately 217 chosen plaintexts, one related
query, and 248 offline computations (described in this
paper). The attack is infeasible at best. CAST is patented by Entrust
Technologies, which has generously released
it for free use. The CAST cipher design process is described in
this paper and the
128-bit version is described in this
addendum. Carlisle Adams has submitted a version of CAST (CAST-256)
as an AES candidate.
CAST-128 is implemented in Kremlin.
CMEA is the encryption algorithm developed by the Telecommunications
Industry Association to encrypt digital cellular phone data. It uses
a 64-bit key and features a variable block length. CMEA is used to encrypt
the control channel of cellular phones. It is distinct from ORYX, an
also insecure stream cipher that is used to encrypt data transmitted
over digital cellular phones. It has been broken by David
Wagner, John Kelsey, and Bruce
Schneier of Counterpane Systems.
Their paper, which also provides an excellent description of the CMEA
algorithm, is available here.
Designed at IBM during the 1970s and officially adopted as the NIST
standard encryption algorithm for unclassified data in 1976, DES has
become the bastion of the cryptography market. However, DES has since
become outdated, its long reign as official NIST algorithm ending in
1997. Though DES accepts a 64-bit key, the key setup routines effectively
discard 8 bits, giving DES a 56-bit effective keylength. DES remains
widely in use. During the design of DES, the NSA
provided secret S-Boxes. After differential cryptanalysis had been discovered
outside the closed fortress of the NSA, it was revealed that the DES
S-boxes were designed to be resistant against differential cryptanalysis.
DES is becoming weaker and weaker over time; modern computing power
is fast approaching the computational horsepower needed to easily crack
DES was designed to be implemented only in hardware, and is therefore
extremely slow in software. A recent
successful effort to crack DES took several thousand computers several
months. The EFF has sponsored the development
of a crypto chip named "Deep Crack" that can process 88 billion
DES keys per second and has
successfully cracked 56 bit DES in less than 3 days.
DES is implemented in Kremlin (accessible
through Kremlin SDK API).
A variant of DES, Triple-DES
(also 3DES) is based on using DES three times. This means that the input
data is encrypted three times. The Triple-DES is considered much stronger
than DES, however, it is rather slow compared to some new block ciphers.
DEAL is an interesting AES submission and, like all AES submissions,
it uses a 128 bit block and accepts 128 bit, 192 bit, and 256 bit keylengths.
It uses DES as its inner round function and its authors suggest at least
6, preferably 8 rounds (there are some attacks against DEAL). There
is a paper available here
that describes some attacks, all of which can be cured by using at least
Developed by the Nippon Telephone & Telegraph as an improvement
to DES, the Fast Data Encipherment Algorithm (FEAL) is very insecure.
FEAL-4, FEAL-8, and FEAL-N are all susceptible to a variety of cryptanalytic
attacks, some requiring as little as 12 chosen plaintexts. FEAL is patented.
GOST is a cryptographic algorithm from Russia that appears to be the
Russian analog to DES both politically and technologically. Its designers
took no chances, iterating the GOST algorithm for 32 rounds and using
a 256 bit key. Although GOST's conservative design inspires confidence,
John Kelsey has discovered a key-relation attack on GOST, described
in a post to sci.crypt on 10 February 1996. There are also weak
keys in GOST, but there are too few to be a problem when GOST is
used with its standard set of S-boxes. You can read the official GOST
algorithm description (translated from Russian) here.
There is also a description of the GOST algorithm here.
IDEA, developed in Zurich, Switzerland by Xuejia Lai and James Massey,
is generally regarded to be one of the best and most secure block algorithm
available to the public today. It utilizes a 128-bit key and is designed
to be resistant to differential cryptanalysis. Some
attacks have been made against reduced round IDEA. Unfortunately,
IDEA is patented; licensing information can be obtained from Ascom.
LOKI was designed as a possible replacement for DES. It operates on
a 64-bit block and a 64-bit key. The first version of LOKI to be released
was broken by differential cryptanalysis and was shown to have an 8-bit
complementation property (this means that the number of keys that need
to be searched in a brute force attack is reduced by 256). LOKI was
revised and re-released as LOKI91. LOKI91 is secure against differential
cryptanalysis, but LOKI easily falls to a chosen-key attack. The designers
of LOKI have proposed LOKI97
as an AES candidate, but linear
and differential attacks on LOKI97 have already been proposed.
Lucifer was one of the first modern cryptographic algorithms. It was
designed at IBM in the 1960s by Horst Feistel, of Feistel network fame.
Lucifer is often considered to be a precursor to DES. There are several
incarnations of Lucifer, each with the same name, which creates a good
deal of confusion. No version is secure. A paper on the differential
cryptanlysis of Lucifer was written by Ishai Ben-Aroya & Eli
MacGuffin is a cipher developed by Matt Blaze and Bruce Schneier as
an experiment in cipher design. It uses a Feistel network (see the cryptography
overview for details), but does not split the input evenly, instead
dividing the 64 bit block into one 16 bit part and another 48 bit part.
This is called a generalized unbalanced Feistel network (GUFN). Details
are available here.
A differential attack on MacGuffin has
been found that requires approximately 251.5 chosen plaintexts.
MARS is IBM's AES submission. There
is a MARS web
page with a link to the MARS
paper. MARS uses 128 bit blocks and supports variable key sizes
(from 128 to 1248 bits). MARS is unique in that it combines virtually
every design technique known to cryptographers in one algorithm. It
uses addition and subtractions, S-boxes, fixed and data dependent rotations,
Misty is a cryptographic algorithm developed by Mitsubishi Electric
after they broke DES in 1994. It is designed to withstand linear and
differential cryptanalysis, but has not yet been cryptanalysed. As it
has not undergone intensive peer review, the usual caution is recommended.
It is being considered for inclusion into the SET 2.0 standard. Visit
web page or read the author's paper
MMB was designed as an alternative to IDEA that uses a 128-bit block
instead of IDEA's 64-bit block. It was designed using the same principles
as IDEA. Unfortunately, it is not as secure as IDEA and several attacks
exist against it. Its author, Joan Daemen, abandoned it and designed
Although NewDES was developed by Robert Scott to possibly replace
DES, NewDES has fallen short of expectations. NewDES has been proven
to be weaker than DES, requiring 24 related-key probes and 530 chosen
plaintext/ciphertext queries, as described in this
NewDES is implemented in Kremlin
RC2, like RC4, was formerly a trade secret, but code purporting to
be RC2 was posted to sci.crypt. It is archived here.
David Wagner, John Kelsey,
and Bruce Schneier
discovered a related-key attack on RC2 that requires one related-key
query and approximately 234 chosen plaintexts. RC2 is not
patented by RSA Data Security, Inc;
it is just protected as a trade secret.
RC5 is a group of algorithms designed by Ron Rivest of RSA Data Security
that can take on a variable block size, key size, and number of rounds.
The block size is generally dependent on the word size of the machine
the particular version of RC5 was designed to run on; on 32-bit processors
(with 32-bit words), RC5 generally has a 64-bit block size. David
Wagner, John Kelsey, and Bruce
Schneier have found
weak keys in RC5, with the probability of selecting a weak key to
be 2-10r, where r is the number of rounds. For sufficiently
large r values (greater than 10), this is not a problem as long as you
are not trying to build a hash function based on RC5. Kundsen has also
found a differential attack
on RC5. RC5 is described in this
RSA document. RC5 is patented by RSA
RC6 is Ronald Rivest's AES submission. Like all AES ciphers, RC6 works
on 128 bit blocks. It can accept variable length keys. It is very similar
to RC5, incorporating the results of various studies on RC5 to improve
the algorithm. The studies of RC5 found that not all bits of data are
used to determine the rotation amount (rotation is used extensively
in RC5); RC6 uses multiplication to determine the rotation amount and
uses all bits of input data to determine the rotation amount, strengthening
the avalanche effect.
There are two versions of the REDOC algorithm, REDOC II, and REDOC
III. REDOC II is considered to be secure; an attack has been made against
one round of REDOC II, but could not be extended to all 10 recommended
rounds. REDOC II is interesting in that it uses data masks to select
the values in the S-boxes. REDOC II uses a 160-bit key and works on
an 80-bit block. REDOC III was an attempt to make the painfully slow
REDOC II faster. REDOC III, like REDOC III, operates on an 80-bit block,
but can accept keys up to 20480 bits. However, REDOC III falls to differential
cryptanalysis, as described in this
Rijndael is an AES
winner by Joan Daemen and Vincent
Rijmen. The cipher has a variable block and key length, and the
authors have demonstrated how to extend the block length and key length
by multiples of 32 bits. The design of Rijndael was influenced by the
SQUARE algorithm. The authors provide a Rijndael
specification and a more theoretical paper on their design
principles. The authors have vowed to never patent Rijndael.
Safer was developed by Robert Massey at the request of Cylink Corporation.
There are several different versions of Safer, with 40, 64, and 128-bit
keys. A weakness in the key schedule was corrected, with an S being
added to the original Safer K designation to create Safer SK. There
are some attacks
against reduced round variants of Safer. Safer is secure against differential
and linear cryptanalysis. However, Bruce
Schneier, author of Applied
Cryptography, recommends against using Safer because, "Safer
was designed for Cylink, and Cylink is tainted by the NSA."
Safer SK-128 is implemented in Kremlin.
Serpent is an AES submission by Ross Anderson, Eli Biham, and Lars
Knudsen. Its authors combined the design principles of DES with the
recent development of bitslicing techniques to create a very secure
and very fast algorithm. While bitslicing is generally used to encrypt
multiple blocks in parallel, the designers of Serpent have embraced
the technique of bitslicing and incorporated it into the design of the
algorithm itself. Serpent uses 128 bit blocks and 256 bit keys. Like
DES, Serpent includes an initial and final permutation of no cryptographic
significance; these permutations are used to optimize the data before
encryption. Serpent was released at the 5th International Workshop on
Fast Software Encryption. This iteration of Serpent was called Serpent
0 and used the original DES S-boxes. After comments, the key schedule
of Sperpent was changed slightly and the S-boxes were changed; this
new iteration of Serpent is called Serpent 1. Serpent 1 resists both
linear and differential attacks. The Serpent paper is available here.
SQUARE is an iterated block cipher that uses a 128-bit key length
and a 128-bit block length. The round function of SQUARE is composed
of four transformations: a linear transformation, a nonlinear transformation,
a byte permutation, and a bitwise round-key addition. SQUARE was designed
to be resistant to linear and differential cryptanalysis, and succeeds
in this respect. The designers of SQUARE have developed an attack on
SQUARE, but it cannot be extended past 6 rounds. A paper on SQUARE is
and there are links to the paper and source code on the designers' web
In what surely signals the end of the Clipper chip project, the NSA
released Skipjack, its formerly secret encryption algorithm, to
the public. Skipjack uses an 80 bit key. A fuzzy scan of the official
NSA paper is available here
at the NIST web site, but it has been
transcribed by the folks
over at jya.com. A reference implementation
(in C) is available here,
and an optimized version is available here.
Eli Biham and Adi Shamir have published some
initial cryptanalytic results (which are growing more and more interesting
as time progresses).
Tiny Encryption Algorithm (TEA)
TEA is a cryptographic algorithm designed to minimize memory footprint,
and maximize speed. However, the cryptographers from Counterpane
Systems have discovered
three related-key attacks on TEA, the best of which requires only
223 chosen plaintexts and one related key query. The problems
arise from the overly simple key schedule. Each TEA key can be found
to have three other equivalent keys, as described in a
paper by David Wagner,
John Kelsey, and Bruce
Schneier. This precludes the possibility of using TEA as a hash
function. Roger Needham and David Wheeler have proposed
extensions to TEA that counter the above attacks.
Twofish is Counterpane Systems'
AES submission. Designed by the Counterpane Team (Bruce
Schneier, John Kelsey, Doug Whiting, David
Wagner, Chris Hall, and Niels Ferguson), Twofish has undergone extensive
analysis by the Counterpane Team. There is a paper
available from the Twofish
web page and source
is provided in optimized C and assembly.
ORYX is the algorithm used to encrypt data sent over digital cellular
phones. It is a stream cipher based on three 32-bit Galois LFSRs. It
is distinct from CMEA, which is a block cipher used to encrypt the cellular
data control channel. The cryptographic tag-team from Counterpane
Systems (David Wagner,
John Kelsey, and Bruce
Schneier) have developed
an attack on ORYX that requires approximately 24 bytes of known
plaintext and about 216 initial guesses.
The RC4 algorithm is a stream cipher from RSA
Data Security, Inc. Though RC4 was originally a trade secret, the
alleged source code was published
anonymously in 1994. The published algorithm performs identically
to RC4 implementations in official RSA products. RC4 is widely used
in many applications and is generally regarded to be secure. There are
no known attacks against RC4. RC4 is not patented by RSA
Data Security, Inc; it is just protected as a trade secret.
The 40-bit exportable version of RC4 has been
broken by brute force!
RC4 is implemented in Kremlin.
SEAL, designed by Don Coppersmith of IBM Corp, is probably the fastest
secure encryption algorithm available. The key setup process of SEAL
requires several kilobytes of space and rather intensive computation
involving SHA1, but only five operations per byte are required to generate
the keystream. SEAL is particularly appropriate for disk encryption
and similar applications where data must be read from the middle of
a ciphertext stream. A paper is available here.
SEAL is patented, and can be licensed from IBM.
MD2 is generally considered to be a dead algorithm. It was designed
to work on 8-bit processors and, in today's 32-bit world, is rarely
used. It produces a 128-bit digest. MD2 is different in design from
MD4 and MD5, in that it first pads the message so that its length in
bits is divisible by 256. It then adds a 256-bit checksum. If this checksum
is not added, the MD2 function has been found to have collisions. There
are no known attacks on the full version of MD2. MD2 is described in
Although MD4 is now considered insecure, its design is the basis for
the design of most other cryptographic hashes and therefore merits description.
First, the message to be operated on is padded so that its length in
bits plus 448 is divisible by 512. Then, in what is called a Damgård/Merkle
iterative structure, the message is processed with a compression function
in 512-bit blocks to generate a digest value. In MD4 this digest is
128 bits long. Hans Dobbertin developed an attack on the full MD4 that
will generate collisions in about a minute on most PCs. An overview
of the design and a description of the security of MD2, MD4, and MD5,
are described in this
While MD4 was designed for speed, a more conservative approach was
taken in the design of MD5. However, applying the same techniques he
used to attack MD4, Hans Dobbertin has shown that collisions
can be found for the MD5 compression function in about 10 hours
on a PC. While these attacks have not been extended to the full MD5
algorithm, they still do not inspire confidence in the algorithm. RSA
is quick to point out that these collision attacks do not compromise
the integrity of MD5 when used with existing digital signatures. MD5,
like MD4, produces a 128-bit digest. An RFC describing MD5 in detail
is available here.
The use of MD5, as well as MD4, is not recommended in new applications.
RIPEMD and its successors were developed by the European RIPE project.
Its authors found
collisions for a version of RIPEMD restricted to two rounds. This
attack can also be applied to MD4 and MD5. The original RIPEMD algorithm
was then strengthened and renamed to RIPEMD-160. As implied by the name,
RIPEMD-160 produces a 160-bit digest. A comprehensive description of
RIPEMD-160 can be found here.
SHA1 was developed by the NSA for
NIST as part of the Secure Hash Standard (SHS). SHA1 is similar in design
to MD4. The original published algorithm, known as SHA, was modified
by NSA to protect against an unspecified attack; the updated algorithm
is named SHA1. It produces a 160-bit digest -- large enough to protect
against "birthday" attacks, where two different messages are
selected to produce the same signature, for the next decade. The official
FIPS description of SHA1 can be found
SHA1 is implemented in Kremlin.
Snefru is a hash function designed by Ralph Merkle, the designer of
the Khufu and Khafre encryption algorithms. 2-round Snefru has been
broken by Eli Biham. Snefru 2.5, the latest edition of the hash algorithm,
can generate either a 128-bit or a 256-bit digest.
Tiger is a new hash algorithm by Ross Anderson and Eli Biham. It is
designed to work with 64-bit processors such as the Digital Alpha and,
unlike MD4, does not rely on rotations (the Alpha has no such rotate
instruction). In order to provide drop-in compatibility with other hashes,
Tiger can generate a 128-bit, a 160-bit or a 192-bit digest. The Tiger
home page contains more information.
Want to add to the list of algorithms (or found a mistake)? Please
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ATP hydrolysis in F1-ATPase
Why is F1Fo-ATP synthase so important?
F1Fo-ATP synthase, or ATP synthase for short, is one of the most abundant proteins in every organism. It is responsible for synthesizing the molecule adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP), the cells’ energy currency. ATP is depicted in Fig. 1 and used to power and sustain virtually all cellular processes needed to survive and reproduce. Even when at rest, the human body metabolizes more than half its body weight in ATP per day, this figure rising to many times the body weight under conditions of physical activity.
What do we know about F1Fo-ATP synthase?
Researchers have been trying to uncover the "secret" behind ATP synthase’s very efficient mode of operation for quite some time. Unfortunately, even after more than 30 years of study, we still don’t fully understand how F1Fo-ATPase really works. The protein consists of two coupled rotary molecular motors, called Fo and F1, respectively, the first one being membrane embedded and the latter one being solvent exposed.
One of the most important breakthroughs in the field was the determination of an atomic resolution X-ray crystal structure for the F1 part of ATP synthase. This allowed researchers, for the first time, to connect biochemical data to the three dimensional structure of the protein (Abrahams et al., Nature 370:621-628, 1994). The X-ray structure beautifully supported Paul Boyer’s "binding change mechanism" (Boyer, Bioch. Bioph. Acta 215-250, 1993) as the modus operandi for ATP synthase’s rotational catalytic cycle and lead to the 1997 Nobel Prize in chemistry for Boyer and Walker.
F1-ATPase in its simplest prokaryotic form (shown schematically in Fig. 2) consists of a hexameric assembly of alternating α and β subunits arranged in the shape of an orange. The central cavity of the hexamer is occupied by the central stalk formed by subunits γ, δ and ε. Due to a lack of high resolution structures for the Fo part of ATP synthase, much less is known about this subunit. It is currently thought that a transmembrane proton gradient drives rotation of the c-subunit ring of Fo which is then coupled to movement of the central stalk. The rotation of the latter eventually causes conformational changes in the catalytic sites located in F1 leading to the synthesis of ATP.
What are some of the missing pieces in our understanding of F1?
ATP synthase can be separated into its two constituent subunits F1 and Fo, which can then be studied individually. Solvated F1 is able to hydrolyze ATP and experiments pioneered by Noji et al. (Nature 386:299-302, 1997) have shown that ATP hydrolysis in F1 drives rotation of the central stalk. However, we don’t know if ATP hydrolysis itself or rather binding of ATP to the catalytic sites induces rotation. We would also like to know how the binding pockets cooperate during steady-state ATP hydrolysis to achieve their physiological catalysis rates. It has been suggested that ATP binding and product unbinding provide the main "power stroke" and that the actual catalytic step inside the binding pockets is equi-energetic, but, unfortunately, there is currently no consensus regarding this issue. In any case, since ATP in solution is a very stable molecule, the catalytic sites have to be able to lower the reaction barrier toward product formation considerably in order to cause efficient hydrolysis.
Computational Study of ATP hydrolysis in F1-ATPase
Our research focuses on investigating the ATP hydrolysis reaction and its interaction with the protein environment in the catalytic sites of F1-ATPase using computer simulations. To be able to study a chemical reaction inside the extended protein environment provided by the catalytic sites we employ combined quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) simulations to investigate both the βTP and βDP catalytic sites. Fig. 3 depicts the quantum mechanically treated region of the former. Quite surprisingly, our simulations show that there is a dramatic change in the reaction energetics in going from βTP (strongly endothermic) to βDP (approximately equi-energetic), despite the fact that the overall protein conformation is quite similar. In both βTP and βDP, the actual chemical reaction proceeds via a multi-center proton relay mechanism involving two water molecules. A careful study of the electrostatic interactions between the protein environment and the catalytic core region as well as several computational mutation studies identified the "arginine finger" residue αR373 as the most significant element involved in this change in energetics.
Several important conclusions can be drawn from our simulations: Efficient catalysis proceeds via a multi-center proton pathway and a major factor for ATPase’s efficiency is, therefore, the ability to provide the proper solvent environment by means of its catalytic binding pocket. Furthermore, the sidechain of the arginine finger residue αR373 is found to be a major element in signaling between catalytic sites to enforce cooperation since it controls the reaction barrier height as well as the reaction equilibrium of the ATP hydrolysis/synthesis reaction.
Zooming in on ATP hydrolysis in F1. Markus Dittrich and Klaus Schulten. Journal of Bioenergetics and Biomembranes, 37:441-444, 2005.
ATP hydrolysis in the bTP and bDP catalytic sites of F1-ATPase. Markus Dittrich, Shigehiko Hayashi, and Klaus Schulten. Biophysical Journal, 87:2954-2967, 2004.
On the mechanism of ATP hydrolysis in F1-ATPase. Markus Dittrich, Shigehiko Hayashi, and Klaus Schulten. Biophysical Journal, 85:2253-2266, 2003.
Other QM/MM projects
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0234938. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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Whats in the box:Pocket Mask, O2 Adapter, Case
The Pocket Mask is a small, easily storable device that is designed for mouth to mask ventilation of adults and children, and is a must for your diving first aid kit.
Air is administered to the patient when the emergency responder exhales through a one-way filter valve. Pocket Mask has a built in one-way valve filter to protect the emergency responder from the patient's potentially infectious bodily substances. The Pocket Mask has a built-in oxygen intake tube, allowing for administration of 50-60% oxygen. However, even without being hooked up to an external line, exhaled air from the provider can still provide sufficient oxygen to live, up to 16%.
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What It Means for You
If you follow discussions about the rising costs of serials or the “crisis” in scholarly communication, you may have heard the term “open access” applied to either journals or publishing in general. And if you are like many people, you can barely keep up with developments in your field, let alone those that may be considered tangential. This article will explain the open access publishing model, and help you understand why it matters to you and how you can participate.
Open access refers to a publication that meets two conditions according to the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing. The first condition is that the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s) of an article grants all readers “free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access” to the article as well as the right to “distribute, transmit and display” the work with proper attribution of authorship. The second condition is that a complete version of the article be included in a stable online repository set up for the purpose of enabling open access. Open access can be the property of an individual article or it can be the policy of a specific journal.
In plain language, this means that the authors retain copyrights to their work, so that no second or third party may profit from it, and the work immediately goes into a publicly accessible archive. The goal of the open access movement is to decrease the obstacles between the discovery of scientific information and the application of it to our lives. Under the traditional model of publishing, scientific discoveries were published in journals owned and operated by outside parties, who then assumed all copyrights to the articles, and could turn around and profit from them.
Based on the traditional model, publishers were able to profit from the research of the scientific community by essentially charging scientists for access to their own work via library subscriptions. During the 1980’s and 1990’s, the publishing industry experienced significant consolidation through a flurry of corporate mergers. The result of this was not only diminished diversity in the marketplace, but inflation in journal prices. For example, in 1991 Reed-Elsevier acquired Pergamon, which resulted in a 10 percent price increase for Reed-Elsevier journals. Similar increases have been documented in relation to other mergers. Most striking, however, is the fact that between 1986 and 2000 inflation rates for journal subscriptions surpassed that of both college tuition and medical care!
Inflation in journal prices ultimately sucked money away from other areas of the library budget; students and faculty suffered as librarians made excruciating decisions to cancel journal subscriptions. Finally, scientists, consumers, librarians, and other interested parties banded together to figure out how to leverage the flexibility of the Internet to their advantage. Thus the open access movement was born.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Library of Medicine have led the movement to make quality information available over the Internet. PubMed, the publicly accessible interface for searching Medline, became freely available to users worldwide in 1997. This was followed in 1998 by the creation of MedlinePlus, a consumer oriented website that aims to take the science of PubMed and arrange it in a way that consumers can understand. The use of the Internet to provide quality information was taken to a new level in 2003 when the National Library of Medicine partnered with the American College of Physicians- American Society of Internal Medicine Foundation to provide clinicians with information prescription pads they could give their patients. The pads contained Internet resources culled from MedlinePlus that patients could use to get more information on their condition.
To further the cause of open access, the NIH recently introduced proposed rules stating that the results of the research they fund must be disseminated through open access journals and included in PubMed Central, the archive they maintain. But the NIH initiative is not the only one out there. Currently there are many projects underway to help expand access to scholarly research. Examples include the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Biomed Central, HighWire Press (partial open access), and the Public Library of Science (PLoS). Many open access sources include an “embargo” period for some journals; typically a three to six month delay before the articles are available for free. This provision is designed to help publishers retain their competitiveness, as the most recent editions still require payment for use.
Each of these initiatives includes many journals on a variety of topics. PubMed Central alone contains 161 full text open access biomedical journals, all of which meet the criteria for scholarly journals. The embargo period for PubMed Central ranges from 0 to 24 months. The DOAJ archive currently has 60,090 articles from 1266 journals covering topics from agriculture to zoology. Some open access archives, like BioMed Central, require that authors pay the fees associated with publishing. If author pay plans become the predominant model for open access journals, it is likely that the cost of publishing will be included in the grant funds.
The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) is an organization of academic libraries and others who are working together to address and correct publishing “market dysfunction”. SPARC has helped academic librarians to formulate strategies for dealing with skyrocketing journal prices and the challenge of communicating with faculty about the crisis in publishing.
JMU Libraries is supporting open access by making a number of open access journal collections available to our students and faculty alongside the rest of the scholarly literature. Users can use our Periodical Locator to search for these titles by choosing the option to “browse by online collection” and choosing an open access provider.
Faculty at JMU can support open access by publishing in, editing for, and peer reviewing for open access journals. While this may be impractical in some cases, we encourage scholars to help support publishers who are making a transition to open access. When evaluating your colleagues’ tenure and promotion materials, consider inclusion in open access journals as a criterion. Preliminary research has shown that articles published in open access journals are cited more often than those published in traditional journals. Scholars who intentionally choose open access journals as a means of disseminating their findings are making a significant contribution to society as a whole. Additionally, SPARC has written an “author’s addendum” that can be attached to a publisher’s copyright form, to assure that authors retain copyright to their own work.
If you do research that is funded by the National Institutes of Health it is likely that you will be hearing a lot about open access in the coming months. And if the NIH rule requiring that sponsored research be published in open access journals goes into effect, it is possible that other agencies will follow suit. Open access publishing benefits scholars by making research findings more widely available, libraries by making journal subscription prices more reasonable and the public by making research findings more accessible.
Illustration source: Open Access Now website at http://www.biomedcentral.com/openaccess/.
Copyright © 2002. JMU Libraries.
All rights reserved.
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What is chiropractic treatment?
is an alternative medicine to treat back pain through manipulation of the spine. Chiropractic technique involves use of the practitioners’ hands to press, pull and otherwise adjust the spine, neck, joints and surrounding soft tissues.
Spinal manipulation is thought to correct misaligned vertebrae, helping lessen back pain and reduce muscle spasms. Insurance companies typically cover visits to the chiropractor.
The hypothesis behind how chiropractic treatment works maintains that disorders of the spine adversely affect overall health and that chiropractic can help improve overall health. However, no evidence has conclusively proven this hypothesis.
Chiropractors believe the vertebra becomes out of normal alignment, which interferes with the nervous system. This misalignment is called “subluxation.”
The U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research recognizes chiropractic treatment as being effective for lower back pain.Who are chiropractors and what do they do?
Chiropractors are health professionals who diagnose, treat and seek to prevent spine disorders or back pain. Chiropractors are considered part of the alternative health care field and focus on improving patients’ health and well-being without resorting to drugs or surgery.
Chiropractic treatment typically includes not only spinal manipulation, but also a regimen of exercise and counseling about health and lifestyle.
Chiropractors typically attend college for a bachelor’s degree – or obtain a two-year degree – and attend four postgraduate years in a Doctor of Chiropractic school. The last year of school, students practice chiropractic techniques while being supervised. Students graduate as Doctors of Chiropractic (D.C.). Some states require additional exams to practice.
Some chiropractors focus on musculoskeletal adjustments, while others are also trained in physical therapy, electrical stimulation, soft-tissue therapy and ultrasound.What should I expect during an initial chiropractor appointment?
A first visit to a chiropractor takes an hour or longer. The chiropractor will compile a complete medical history and may perform tests, such as X-rays, MRIs or neurological tests. Once a problem is detected, subsequent visits to a chiropractor typically take a few minutes to complete the spinal manipulations and adjustments.
From appointment to appointment, a chiropractor will monitor changes in a patient’s spine and level of back pain using tests, observation, measurements and possibly X-rays. These tests help gauge improvement, if any.What are the most common conditions chiropractors diagnose and treat?
Healing With Chiropractic Treatments
10 Back Pain Remedies
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Journal of scientists, physicists, mathematicians, engineers, inventors, nature, biology, technology, animal kingdoms, and science projects.
Kids to 12
If you have questions concerning this website, contact firstname.lastname@example.org
Make a Gas Balloon
by Jeanette Cain
2. Baking soda
3. Soft drink bottle
When a volcano erupts, it gives off gases. This experiment shows how the buildup of gas pressure can inflate a balloon. CAUTION: You will need an adult to help. There is also the possibility that putting too much gas-making mixture in the bottle can cause the balloon to explode!
This is what happens inside a volcano: gas pressure builds up causing an ernormous explosion to take place. This explosion often releases a deadly, hot gas cloud.
Place the funnel in the top of the bottle. Add some baking soda. (The funnel needs to be dry or the baking soda will stick to it.) Using the funnel, pour vinegar into the bottle.
This part requires steady, but quick hands: remove the funnel and quickly slip the balloon over the bottle's top. By now, the soda and vinegar are fizzing because they are giving off gas bubbles.
Your balloon begins to inflate due to the pressure (force) of the gas in the bottle; the more gas, the more the balloon inflates. CAUTION: Don't pop the balloon!
Please visit our
affiliate partners that
keeps our site up.
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|VII. Why is the Progress of Evolution Cyclic?
question is one which necessarily appalls us and makes us wonder.
Let us, therefore, deal with it as follows: Certain ideas are involved in the thought
of cyclic progression, and these ideas it might pay us well to contemplate.
1. The Idea of Repetition
This repetition involves the following factors:
- Repetition in time: The thought of cyclic activity necessitates periods of time
of differing length - greater or lesser cycles - but (according to their length) of
uniform degree. A manvantara, or Day of Brahma, is always of a certain length, and so is a
mahamanvantara. The cycles wherein an atom of any plane revolves upon its axis are uniform
on its own plane.
- Repetition in fact: This involves the idea of a key measure, or sound of any
particular group of atoms that go to the composition of any particular form. This grouping
of atoms will tend to the makeup of a particular series of circumstances and will repeat
the measure or sound when an animating factor is brought to bear upon them. When the
vitalizing force is contacting at stated periods a certain set of atoms, it will call
forth from them a specific sound which will demonstrate objectively as environing
circumstances. In other words, the interplay of the Self and the not-self is
invariably of a cyclic nature. The same quality in tone will be called forth by the Self
as it indwells the form, but the key will ascend by gradual degrees. It is similar to the
effect produced in striking the same note in different octaves, beginning at the base.
- Repetition in space: This concept is involved deep in the greater concept of
karma, which is really the law that governs the matter of the solar system, and which
commenced its work in earlier solar systems. We have, therefore, cycles in order, and
repetition in an ever-ascending spiral, under definite law.
The thoughts thus conveyed might be expressed likewise as follows:
chain repeating its activity - Repetition in Time.
consecutive reverberation of a plane note, of a subplane note, and of all that is called
into objectivity by that note - Plane Repetition.
of atoms to perpetuate their activity, and thus produce similarity of circumstance, of
environment, and of vehicle - Form Repetition.
- The solar system repeating its activity - Repetition in Space.
carry these ideas on to every plane in the solar system, and from thence to the cosmic
planes, we have opened up for ourselves infinitude.
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In this day and age, keeping a low carbon footprint has grown in popularity at a rapid pace. Everything from water conservation to renewable energy has become a hot topic among the public. While some of the ways to live a greener life are fairly obvious, there are some that people may not think about on a regular basis.
According to the Chicago Tribune, one of the best ways to live an environmentally-friendly lifestyle is to switch an exercise routine from inside to outdoors. Treadmills and other high-powered machines require a decent amount of electricity to function. The source recommends those who prefer to work indoors to try to enjoy the summer weather and hit the streets for their workouts.
Another way to get greener is by cutting down on using plastic bottles for water. There are a variety of options available such as using portable, reusable containers, or, for those who prefer filtered water, to purchasing an at-home water-filtering system.
A Chicago-based company recently started making environmentally friendly water bottles. The bottles are 100 percent plant-based and were created after the owner discovered that 40 million water bottles were being tossed into landfills on a daily basis, according to the source.
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Cancer Cells in Bloodstream Show Great Diversity: Study
TUESDAY, May 8 (HealthDay News) -- There is a great deal of genetic diversity in cells shed by cancerous tumors into the bloodstream, a new study has found.
Some cells have genes that enable them to lodge themselves in new locations, helping the cancer spread between organs, while other cells have different patterns of gene expression that might make them more benign or less likely to survive in other locations in the body.
Some circulating tumor cells even express genes that could predict their response to a specific cancer treatment, the researchers said.
"Within a single blood draw from a single patient, we're seeing [varied] populations of circulating tumor cells," senior study author Dr. Stefanie Jeffrey, chief of surgical oncology research at the Stanford University School of Medicine, said in a university news release.
The researchers said their findings highlight how multiple types of treatment may be needed to cure what appears to be a single kind of cancer and suggest that the current cell-line models of human cancers need to be improved upon.
The study, which used blood samples from breast cancer patients, is the first to look at circulating tumor cells one by one instead of taking the average of many of the cells. It also is the first to show the extent of genetic differences between circulating tumor cells, the researchers said.
Scientists have long known that circulating tumor cells move through the bloodstreams of cancer patients. Over the past five years, though, many cancer researchers have begun to think the cells could be the key to tracking tumors noninvasively.
The study appears online Tuesday in the journal PLoS One.
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about cancer.
SOURCE: Stanford University, news release, May 7, 2012
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Full Pantry Plus Too Little Sleep Is Recipe for Weight Gain
MONDAY, March 11 (HealthDay News) -- Too little sleep with unlimited food availability leads to too much eating and weight gain, according to a small new study.
"I don't think extra sleep by itself is going to lead to weight loss," Kenneth Wright, director of the Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said in a university news release. "Problems with weight gain and obesity are much more complex than that. But I think it could help."
Wright and colleagues monitored 16 young, lean, healthy male and female adults who lived for about two weeks at the University of Colorado Hospital, which has a sleep suite. For the first three days, all the participants had the opportunity to sleep nine hours a night and were given meals that contained only enough calories to maintain their weight.
For the next five-day period, the participants were split into two groups. One group's sleep was limited to five hours a night, while the other group could sleep for nine hours. Both groups were offered larger meals and had access to healthy and unhealthy snacks throughout the day. After those five days, the groups switched.
On average, participants whose sleep was limited to five hours burned 5 percent more energy than those who could sleep for nine hours, but they consumed 6 percent more calories.
Participants who got less sleep also tended to eat smaller breakfasts but binged on after-dinner snacks. The total number of calories they consumed in evening snacks was larger than the calories in any single meal, according to the study, which is scheduled for March publication in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
That finding adds to growing evidence that overeating at night may contribute to weight gain, the researchers said.
Men and women responded differently to having as much food as they wanted, the study found. Men gained some weight even with sufficient sleep, while women maintained their weight. Both men and women gained weight when their sleep was limited to five hours.
"If we can incorporate healthy sleep into weight-loss and weight-maintenance programs, our findings suggest that it may assist people to obtain a healthier weight," Wright said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains how to prevent weight gain.
SOURCE: University of Colorado, Boulder, news release, March 11, 2013
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Kids and Obesity: A Growing Problem
By Kenneth Cooper
Obesity rates in children continue to climb. Eating more and exercising less are the two most commonly mentioned culprits, but what are the best ways to reverse this trend? On May 25 at 4 p.m. ET (1 p.m. PT), come discuss managing your child's weight, when to be concerned about health problems, and who to turn to for help with our guest, Kenneth Cooper, MD, founder of the Cooper Clinic.
If you have questions about your health, you should consult your personal physician. This event is meant for informational purposes onlyMODERATOR:
Welcome back to WebMD Live, Dr. Cooper. Please give us an overview of the growing obesity problem in our younger population.
It's estimated that 10% of children, or at least 155 million youngsters, are overweight or obese. It is most severe in the United States, where the prevalence of obese children aged 5 to 17 is about 10% and more than 30% are overweight. Ten percent to 20% of children in Northern Europe have prevalence to being overweight, and once a health problem for the industrialized world, is now spreading to developing countries.
Along with the increase in childhood obesity we're beginning to see an epidemic of adult onset, or type 2, diabetes in children 9 to 12. If that child develops diabetes before they're 14 years of age they are shortening their life span by 17 to 27 years. This has reached such a state that this may be the first generation in which the parents outlive the children.
I believe the reasons for obesity are as follows:
So the question is, is my child obese? For adults, we use the body mass index, which is your weight in pounds multiplied by 703, divided by the height and inches squared. In adults, a body mass index of 18 to 25 is normal weight, 25 to 30 is overweight, and above 30 is obese. We now have an estimated 64.5% of adults who are overweight, of which some 31% are obese. Projections are by the year 2010 more than 50% American adults will be considered obese.
Two hours is a safe limit for TV; greater than two hours increases the risk for weight gain."
Unfortunately, most adults don't consider their child obese. Studies released from London said that parents are so accustomed to seeing overweight youngsters that many fail to realize when their own children are obese. A third of the mothers and 57% of dads actually saw their obese child as being normal weight. Three-hundred 7-year-old children and their parents were asked about their perception of body size. In one-third of mothers and half of fathers who were either overweight or obese rated themselves "about right." When the child was a normal weight according to the BMI, most of their parents, regardless of their own size, knew there was no problem, but when the child was overweight, only a quarter of the parents knew it, and when the children were obese, 40% of the parents were not concerned about their child's weight.
Tell us more about the background for these recommendations, and what we can do to implement them. For example, it's easy to say cut back on juice and high-sugar drinks, but kids seem to get a taste for them so early in life! What's a parent to do?
Kids naturally like sweet and salty foods. They reject the unknown, the unfamiliar. "It may be good for me, but if the taste doesn't taste good, I'm not going to eat it," is the attitude of most children. Use a low-key approach. Children want what mom and dad are eating. Don't eat junk food yourself. Set a good example. Put balanced meals on the table, and offer foods 15 times, not just two or three. Control food in the house; pack the refrigerator and pantry with healthy options. Keep undesirable foods out of the house; restricting foods leads to thinking "I better eat it now, it's my only chance."
Those are just some things that have been suggested by Dr. Berenson, from the Tulane University Bogalusa Heart Study. In this longitudinal study following 14,000 children for more than 30 years, he made this comment: Grownup problems begin in childhood. Fatty streaks are seen in the aorta as early as 3 years of age. Damaged coronary arteries are seen by 10 years of age. So obesity in children is a major health problem that is getting worse, not better.
As recently as May 4, 2004, in the Journal of the American Medical Association , two different studies pointed out that U.S. kids suffer blood pressure rises (showing an increase in blood pressure). These were more than 5,000 children 8 to 17 years of age, followed from 1988 to 1994 and again from 1999 to 2000. They found that the systolic, or upper, pressure increased 1.4 millimeters, and the diastolic, or lower, pressure increased 3.3 millimeters. Increases occurred in both readings among black, Mexican-American, and white boys and girls of all ages, but the Mexican-American and black children recorded average levels two to three points higher compared with the whites.
Another study showed that caffeinated soft drinks and other beverages might play a role in pushing up blood pressure levels among black youths, but for Mexican Americans the higher readings were due largely to a sharper increase in the numbers who were overweight. So diet and exercise are both extremely important if we're going to be solving the problem of obesity in children.
So obesity in children is a major health problem that is getting worse, not better."
Let's talk about TV viewing, since it's a major problem with obesity. What about other problems, such as attention deficit in children? This comes from the April 4, 2004, issue of the Journal of Pediatrics . They point out very young children who watch television face an increased risk of attention deficit problems by school age, suggesting that TV might overstimulate and permanently "rewire" the developing brain. For every hour of television watched daily, two groups of children, aged 1 and 3, faced a 10% increased risk of having attention problems at age 7.
The American Academy of Pediatrics says that children younger than 2 should not watch television. Not only is it related to attention deficit problems, but it's also associated with obesity and aggressiveness. In this one study, 36% of 1-year-olds watched no TV, while 37% watched one to two hours daily and had a 10% to 20% increased risk of attention problems. These are 1-year-olds! Fourteen percent watched three to four hours daily and had a 30% to 40% increased risk of attention problems. Among 3-year-olds, only 7% watched no TV, 44% watched one to two hours daily, 27% three to four hours daily, 11% five to six hours daily, and 10% watched seven hours or more of TV daily.
The average child sees 10,000 food commercials each year, mostly for candy, fast foods, soft drinks, and sugary cereals. Spending on drugs to treat children and adolescents for behavior disorders, including depression and attention deficit disorders, rose 77% from 2000 to the end of 2003. Doesn't sound like a pretty picture, does it? But that's exactly what's happening in America today.
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The previous discussion of entertainment as a world paradigm only hinted at the origin of that paradigm. More to the point, it dabbled in connections between music as art and entertainment, and suggested that such a duality could be relatively recent in origin. In some sense, this distinction is about upper- and lower-class activity, and the simplest historical narrative involves a flip-flop of power between the two. In the current economic climate, the lower classes, by virtue of number (i.e. democracy), have achieved "artistic" control. One can construct a basic linear progression of this type, from the utter dominance of ancient tyrants to the mass-market politics of today. A progression of that sort can be rather illuminating with regard to the balancing act which established the classical style. However, such a naïve progression makes a basic underlying assumption, namely that popular music of earlier centuries was rather distinct from — even contemptuous of, as it is today — elite music. In fact, many people take very strong views on this point, related especially to what they retrospectively view as religious & other oppression. They are certain, often on whim alone, that a lively & distinct popular culture existed in the medieval era, and might even (paradoxically) associate some surviving songs with it. They reconstruct today's divisions in their minds.
Fundamentally, the survival of sources is about writing, an elite activity, so that associations with a distinct popular culture can only be considered fanciful — at least insofar as one presumes a distinct or even hostile relation. What sort of historical relation can we find between "popular" & elite music? Moreover, can we trace art- or entertainment-based musical priorities? Any answers must be fairly tentative, given the relative lack of information. Working backward in time somewhat to the fringe of the modern era, we know that sacred & secular music intermingled closely. Themes — even forms themselves — were freely borrowed in the Franco-Flemish era. I have immediately side-stepped some important terminological concerns, by introducing a sacred-secular juxtaposition. We have no real reason to believe that the polyphonic courtly chanson was related to what we would recognize as popular music today. However, this era also presents us with the survival of manuscripts (Bayeux, say) which we conclude to have represented the popular music of the time. These themes then intermingle directly in courtly secular and sacred music. As near as we can believe, and by the 1500s the survival of narrative writing becomes fairly substantial, there was no real barrier between popular & elite music at that time. The same composers were certainly involved in both sacred & secular music, and we have at least some reason to believe that prominent composers were behind some popular tunes. Of course, the hardcore democrat might continue to assert that such composers were leaching the basic tunefulness of the general populace, which remained oppressed and unable to articulate its resentment of elite culture.
More extreme views of that sort aside, the close intermingling of elite & popular in the early Renaissance does not necessarily mean that such a situation existed earlier. One might speculate wildly that the great creativity of the era was facilitated by the breaking of such barriers, just as the classical era was facilitated by the rise of the middle class. Perhaps to some degree, but what we know of earlier eras also suggests intermingling: Juxtaposition of sacred & secular themes (and even texts) in the early motet, and work in all forms by individual composers such as Machaut. The earliest secular music we know arose directly from the aristocracy, but the class distinction between troubadour & jongleur is not believed to have been reflected in a significant distinction in repertory or activity. Note, in fact, that this little historical survey directly conflates the distinction originally sought. Indeed, as far as we know, the aristocracy invented "music for entertainment." After all, they had the leisure time — the need — to be filled. In these terms, the "classical flip-flop" becomes about which class(es) could demand entertainment. In turn, it becomes about the sophistication of that entertainment. Returning to the previous fifteenth century context, it is very clear that music for art was music for entertainment and vice versa, at least for the most part. It is essentially impossible to make a distinction.
The significant component of musical life removed from the foregoing equation is sacred music, i.e. music for ritual. Before that era, however, all indications are that there was less distinction between music for entertainment and music for ritual. Speculating about prehistory, the mere act of creating a song must have been cathartic, as vocal ritual helped to tame the psychological traumas of nature. The courtly love song was created as a sort of ritual, albeit a non- or even anti-religious one. From there, we find some evidence of intellectual divergence in the Church's protestations regarding increasingly elaborate Ars Nova liturgical music. Presumably there were conservative theologians at several points in medieval history who frowned upon a new artistic license entering the domain of sacred music. Nonetheless, if nothing else, surviving protestations prove that these concerns were frequently combined, even as their differing goals were prescribed. Again returning to a fifteenth century orientation, sacred works made heavy use of secular (art) material. Ritual mixed closely with art. To return to our underlying question, given uncertainties regarding earlier eras, we cannot necessarily know if there was a divergence between art & entertainment, but nonetheless I will accept that there was not, and look for such a bifurcation in the modern era. At the very least, one can reasonably suppose that there was a bifurcation after the 1500s. The more unsteady distinction in those earlier eras was between sacred & secular music. One might even hypothesize that ritual music was the basic stuff of lower-class music-making before the arrival of secular literature, seeing as it was intended to provide protection from the hazards of the world. Communion was a real need. From this point of extreme historical uncertainty on our part, there are various points at which sacred & secular music-making seem more or less close — a cyclical pattern which maintained after the 1500s as well, with differing religious or artistic movements sometimes increasing or decreasing that distance.
Today we cannot necessarily separate art and religious music. For the most part, though, we can separate them from entertainment, at least as I have contrasted aesthetic & entertainment paradigms. Jumping ahead from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, we can again observe clearly that music for art & music for entertainment operated in the same space, indeed were basically interchangeable. So the bifurcation we seek did not occur until the establishment of the composer as supreme alongside the distinct popular markets of the nineteenth century, and was not consummated until the unprecedented technological revolution of the twentieth. With it, we see bifurcations of complexity, masterpieces, and then the dissolution of a mainstream reference. In some circles, it would be easy to state that any bifurcation was the self-indulgent fantasy of self-proclaimed artists. Note, however, that popular culture also became overtly hostile toward not only contemporary classical artists, but classical art per se. The bifurcation was mutual. Rhetoric of "entertainment" became associated with the mass market, and we came to have music created for completely different audiences.
Administrivia: Next column in three weeks.
To TMM Editorial index.Todd M. McComb
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BOSTON, Dec. 19 -- An experimental lab-on-a-chip can accurately detect cancer cells circulating in the blood, researchers here said.
The chip -- slightly more than 1.5 square inches in area -- detected circulating cancer cells in 115 of 116 blood samples from patients with metastatic cancer for a sensitivity of 99.1%, according to Daniel Haber, M.D., director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and colleagues.
And it found no cancer cells in the blood of healthy volunteers, for a specificity of 100%, the researchers reported in the Dec. 20 issue of Nature.
"Clearly this has tremendous potential for early diagnosis," Dr. Haber said, but it also has the potential to allow physicians to monitor the success or failure of treatment more closely and to begin to solve some of the puzzles that surround metastasis.
Circulating tumor cells are found in patients even before a cancer has begun to spread, but they are rare -- as few as one in a billion hematologic cells even in the metastatic case -- and hard to isolate, the researchers said.
Current approaches use complicated analytic techniques -- including centrifuging and washing samples -- that generate very low yield and purity, they said.
In contrast, their "microfluidics" approach is highly sensitive, has a 99% yield, and a purity approaching 50%, compared with less than 1% for other methods, the researchers said.
The development of the chip "bring[s] us closer to having a fully automated instrument that can detect circulating tumor cells with exquisite sensitivity," said Jonathan Uhr, M.D., of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, writing in an accompanying comment.
Dr. Uhr said such a device "would allow routine monitoring of blood for tumor cells as part of a medical examination, and could result in early detection and treatment."
The researchers said that a number of engineering challenges remain before the system can be used for clinical applications, although it could be used now for research.
Microchips have been used for a range of analytic chores, such as flow cytometry, but have not been applied to tasks where milliliter-sized samples of whole blood must be analyzed, he and colleagues noted.
On theoretical grounds, they concluded that a microchip array of 78,000 tiny silicon posts -- coated with an antibody to a molecule specific to tumor cells -- would overcome that barrier.
The posts were coated with an antibody to anti-epithelial-cell adhesion-molecule, or EpCAM, which is found on tumor cells, but not on blood cells.
Tests showed that when the researchers processed blood samples spiked with tumor cells, the EpCAM-coated posts captured them easily, although the posts also captured some white blood cells.
To test the chip in the real world, the researchers tested 116 blood samples from 68 patients with metastatic epithelial cancers including non-small-cell lung, prostate, pancreatic, breast, and colon, as well as 20 samples from healthy volunteers.
Except for one sample that was smaller than average -- 0.9 milliliters compared with 2.7 milliliters -- the system found circulating tumor cells in all samples from patients, but none in the samples from healthy volunteers.
In addition, circulating tumor cells were isolated in seven out of seven patients with early-stage prostate cancer.
In a separate analysis, Dr. Haber and colleagues tested sequential samples from nine patients undergoing treatment and found that the percentage change in the number of tumor cells they captured correlated well with percentage change in tumor size. (The Pearson's correlation coefficient was 0.68, which was significant at P=0.03.)
"Much of cancer [drug] treatment now is trial and error," Dr. Haber said. The chip might potentially allow doctors to find the correct treatment more quickly.
One advantage of the system, Dr. Haber said, is that captured cells remain alive, opening the door to more detailed understanding of how they function and perhaps what causes some to become the root of new cancers while the majority commit cell suicide.
"We'd like to study exactly what they are," he said.
|The study was supported by the NIH and a Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist award. Dr. Haber reported no conflicts.|
Primary source: Nature
Nagrath S, et al "Isolation of rare circulating tumour cells in cancer patients by microchip technology" Nature 2007; 450: 1235-41.
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Definition of Aging
Aging: The process of becoming older, a process that is genetically determined and environmentally modulated.
Research into aging: To sum up the state of research into aging is well beyond the confines of this space (and this writer's talents). However, here is one type of research into the genetics of aging.
A gene has been discovered that helps determine the life-span of the fruit fly Drosophila. When the gene is mutated (altered), it can extend the life-span of fruit flies. It doubles their life-span. The gene has been named Indy (for I'm not dead yet). It appears that the protein encoded by this gene transports and recycles metabolic byproducts. Defects in the gene may lead to production of a protein that renders metabolism less efficient so that its body functions as if the fruit fly were dieting, even though its eating habits are unchanged. Mutations in Indy thus appear to create a metabolic state that mimics caloric restriction, which has been shown to extend life-span.
Reference: Rogina B, Reenan RA, Nilsen SP, and Helfand SL. Extended life-span conferred by cotransporter gene mutations in Drosophila. Science Dec 15 2000: 2137-2140.
Some useful suggestions for extending life: No known substance can halt aging or extend life, but here are some useful tips for improving the chances of living a long time and staying healthy:
Last Editorial Review: 6/14/2012
Back to MedTerms online medical dictionary A-Z List
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Fasting girls is a Victorian term for young females, usually preadolescent, who, it was claimed, were capable of surviving over indefinitely long periods of time without consuming any food or other nourishment. Fasting girls were not only girls who refused food but who also drew attention to their fast by claiming to have special religious and/or magical powers. The ability to survive without nourishment was attributed to some saints during the Middle Ages, including Catherine of Siena and Lidwina of Schiedam, and regarded as a miracle and a sign of sanctity. Numerous cases of fasting girls were reported in the late 19th century. Believers regarded such cases as miraculous. In some cases, the fasting girls also exhibited the appearance of stigmata. Doctors, however, ascribed the phenomenon to fraud and to hysteria on the part of the girl. Joan Jacobs Brumberg believes it to be an earlier incarnation of anorexia nervosa.
Mollie Fancher, otherwise known as the "Brooklyn Enigma," was extremely well known for her claim of not eating, or eating very little for extended periods of time. She attended a reputable school and by all reports was an excellent student. At age 16, she was diagnosed with dyspepsia. At around the age of 19, reports came out that she had abstained from eating for seven weeks. It was after two accidents in 1864 and 1865 that she became famous for her ability to abstain from food. As a result of the accidents Mollie Fancher lost her ability to see, touch, taste, and smell. She claimed to have powers that involved her being able to predict events as well as to read without the ability of sight. By the late 1870s she was claiming to eat little or nothing at all for many months. Her claim to abstinence from food lasted for 14 years. Doctors and people in the public began to question her abilities and wished to perform tests to determine the truthfullness of her claims. The claims to abstinence were never verified, and she died in February 1916.
A tragic case was that of Sarah Jacob (May 12, 1857-December 17, 1869), the "Welsh fasting girl," who claimed not to be eating any food at all after the age of twelve. A local vicar, initially skeptical, became convinced that the case was authentic. She enjoyed a long period of publicity, during which she received numerous gifts and donations from people who believed she was miraculous; but doctors were becoming increasingly skeptical about her claims. Doctors eventually proposed that she be monitored in a hospital environment to see whether her claims about fasting were true. In 1869, her parents agreed for a test to be conducted under strict supervision by nurses from Guy's Hospital. The nurses were instructed not to deny Sarah Jacob food if she asked for it, but to see that any she got was observed and recorded. After two weeks, she was showing clear signs of starvation. The vicar told the parents that she was failing and that the nurses ought to be sent away so that she could get food. The parents refused. They continued to refuse even when informed that the girl was dying, insisting that they had frequently seen her like this before and that lack of food had nothing to do with her symptoms. Sarah Jacob died of starvation a few days later because she had actually been consuming very little amounts of food, which she could no longer do under medical supervision.
Another tragic case was that of New Jersey's Lenora Eaton in 1881. Reputable citizens in Eaton's town promoted her as someone who had "lived without eating". During these times, Eaton was marked as a "special person and symbol of faith in the miraculous". When these claims were investigated and doctors were sent to help her, Eaton continued to refuse to eat and died after forty-five days.
In 1889, the Boston Globe ran a story, "Who Took the Cold Potato? Dr. Mary Walker Says the Fasting Girl Bit a Doughnut." Dr. Walker reported that Josephine Marie Bedard, known as the Tingwick girl, was a fraud. The evidence was circumstantial: "At the hotel I searched her clothing and found in one of her pockets a doughnut with a bite taken out of it.... On Fast day I had a lunch served to me... I left a platter with three pieces of fried potato on it. I went there and one of the pieces was gone... when I returned, Josephine had her handkerchief to her mouth." Asked whether that was all the evidence, she said "after I accused her of it she broke down and cried."
Writing in 1954, Bergen Evans called Therese Neumann (1898-1962) "the most famous of contemporary non-eaters. The number of ecclesiastical and medical dignitaries who have vouched for the truth of her claims is impressive.... millions of sober, sensible people believe beyond doubt that this woman does not eat or drink." She claimed that after 1927, nothing but the Eucharist had passed her lips. She was also a stigmatic. Evans said "The Roman Catholic church has never, officially, recognized her claims as true."
Because fasting girls were such a curiosity in the Victorian era, many companies and individuals rushed to put them on display. In the case of Josephine Marie Bedard, two different Boston-based enterprises, the Nickelodeon and Stone and Shaw's museum, competed in court for the right to "exhibit the girl" publicly. Still, even as she was used for blatant commercial gain, there was also an element of scientific inquiry in regarding Bedard as a medical phenomenon. This shows the general shift throughout the Victorian era from seeing the fasting girls as pious figures to seeing them as diseased ones, and from regarding religion as the ultimate authority to putting that faith in science and medicine.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Wasting Away -
Posted by M. Christian
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A group of individuals agreeing in common attributes, and designated by a common name; a conception subordinated to another conception, called a genus, or generic conception, from which it differs in containing or comprehending more attributes, and extending to fewer individuals. Thus, man is a species, under animal as a genus; and man, in its turn, may be regarded as a genus with respect to European, American, or the like, as species.
In science, a more or less permanent group of existing things or beings, associated according to attributes, or properties determined by scientific observation.
A sort; a kind; a variety; as, a species of low cunning; a species of generosity; a species of cloth.
An officinal mixture or compound powder of any kind; esp., one used for making an aromatic tea or tisane; a tea mixture.
A group of living things that appear to have common ancestry so closely related that their characteristics definitely separate them all from any other group; a further division of a genus.
n. (L. species, particular kind) a group of interbreeding individuals, not interbreeding with another such group, being a taxonomic unit including two names in binomial nomenclature, the generic name and specific epithet, similar and related species being grouped into a genus.
A group of organisms that differ from all other groups of organisms and that are capable of breeding and producing fertile offspring. This is the smallest unit of classification for plants and animals.
A group of closely related plants under the same Genus.
The lowest group of creatures in the tree of life. The hierarchy is as follows: Kingdom; Phylum; Class; Order; Family; Genus; Species. The species is the group of creatures which share a great number of similarities and share a common name with other groups.
a group of animals or plants of the same kind ....... back
A group of organisms (individuals) that can interbreed and reproduce with each other. Used to distinguish sexually reproducing organisms into groups. Individuals from two different species cannot have offspring. They are said to be reproductively isolated. The biologist Ernst Mayr formulated this definition of a species advancing our understanding of the mechanism of evolution of higher organisms. For microbes, the species definition does not properly apply, because they do not reproduce sexually, but have an efficient mechanism to exchange genetic material even between evolutionarily distant forms. This exchange of genes is known as horizontal gene transfer. Unlike sexual reproduction, it usually involves only a fraction of an organisms genome that is being transferred and is a mechanisms of increasing genetic variability among microorganisms that does not depend on cellular reproduction (cell division).
The scientific name of a plant; the genus name and the specific epithet together; also equal to the latin name or binomial
A reproductively isolated aggregate of interbreeding organisms.
In chemistry, a distinct kind of molecule, ion, or other structure.
Groups of actually (or potentially) interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups. Reproductive isolation implies that interbreeding between individuals of two species normally is prevented by intrinsic factors.
In biological systematics, group of organisms of common ancestry that are able to reproduce only among themselves and that are usually geographically distinct. See NT chemical species.
group of living things that share many common traits. Each species is different from every other species in one or more ways.
Term used to describe the group of like individuals. Classically species were defined as organisms that share certain characteristics.
kind or sort
a group of animals or plants that have one or more characteristics in common .............. back
A certain type of plant or animal
The division of animal classification below Genus. A group of animals having common attributes, designated by a common name, that has the same structure, and that can breed together.
a group of organisms that are very much alike and reproduce in their natural environment. We belong to the human species.
A cohesive historical lineage of ancestral-descendant populations of organisms that maintains its identity from other such lineages. A species comes into being at a branching event (when one lineage becomes one or more lineages), and ceases to exist either at a branching event (when it gives rise to new species) or when the lineage is terminated through extinction.
A group of animals or plants, whose members breed naturally only with each other.
a single kind of organism; white-tail and mule are different species of deer
more information for scientifically naming a plant. The species name follows the genus. Caesalpinia (genus) pulcherrima (species). Red bird-of-paradise (common name).
Level of taxonomy below Genus. The second part of a bird's scientific name is the species name. The species name is never capitalized.
a group of similar individuals that can breed among themselves. A biological category used to classify organisms.
A group of plants or animals that are uniquely distinguished from others, sharing various characteristics, and usually that are able to reproduce. Species are often broken down into additional subcategories, such as sub-species or varieties.
One of the major classifying categories of taxonomy, representing divisions of a genus, and sometimes further classified into subspecies.
Used when naming plants. Designates a specific species of the 'Genus' and is best described as the plant worlds equivalent to our Christian names (or first names). Will follow the Genus name and is usually in Latin. Note: Once a plants full name is used, i.e. Hedera helix, future listings will abbreviate the Genus name and follow it with the species name. An example would be, H. helix, as the next plant in a listing.
group of organisms which interbreed and are reproductively isolated from all other such groups.
The basic unit of taxonomic classification, designating a group of closely related individuals that are capable of interbreeding.
A group of organisms defined by their ability to interbreed with only each other.
A segment of a population-level lineage that is evolving separately from other such lineage segments as indicated by one or more lines of evidence (e.g., distinguishability, reproductive isolation, monophyly, etc.).
the most specific taxonomic classification; an interbreeding population of individual organisms; often abbreviated as 'sp.' in reference to a single species or 'spp.' when referencing several species
The fundamental biological classification consisting of very similar plants or animals.
genetically distinct population(s) that interbreed but are reproductively isolated from other such groups.
a group of individuals that share features and are able to interbreed under natural conditions to yield fertile offspring.
a group of populations capable of successfully interbreeding and reproductively isolated from other such populations (The White-tailed Deer is a common species of mammal found in the Pinelands.)
A biological type; on MSDSs, species refers to the test animals -- usually rats, mice, or rabbits -- which were used to obtain the toxicity test data reported.
A class of individuals having common attributes and designated by a common name; a category of biological classification ranking immediately below the genus or subgenus; comprising related organisms or populations potentially capable of interbreeding.
1. Freely interbreeding population of organisms. The organisms in a species usually share a large number of characters. Their offspring are fertile. (Some species can interbreed, but their offspring are infertile.) 2. Generally the lowest level in a taxonomy. A category of animals or plants below a genus. Sometimes breed is specified below it, such as for cultivated plants.
A group of organisms that are closely related
a taxonomic category of individuals or populations capable of breeding among themselves, but not usually with other individual or populations
A group of organisms with many common characteristics; a collection of closely related strains sufficiently different from all other strains to be recognized as a distinct unit.
Animals, plants or micro-organisms that are so similar that they are able to have offspring.
Group of similar individuals having a number of correlated characteristics and sharing a common gene pool. The species is the basic unit of taxonomy on which the binomial system has been established. The scientific name of a plant or animal gives the genus first and then the species as in Abies (genus) grandis (species). Species is both the singular and plural form of the word.
groups or individuals of closely connected plants within a genus.
a natural population that can breed and produce fertile offspring.
A distinct population that tends, in nature, not to mix reproductively with other populations.
a group of organisms that can breed or produce offspring
Taxonomic designation for the unique name of a living organism.
A group of individuals of common ancestry that closely resemble each other structurally and physiologically and that can interbreed, producing fertile offspring.
Part of the plant classification system. This is used to describe closely related plants. See also genus and family.
A class of individuals having some common characteristics or qualities.
The taxonomic unit (the most specific taxonomic category). It designates individuals with similar morphologic structures, who can reproduce with each other.
a particular kind of plant or animal; all members of a species share certain characteristics and are known by a specific name. A subspecies is a division of a species.
It is hard to define a species absolutely because the process of one species becoming two or changing into another species is so slow that there is no point at which one can say 'Now! It's a different species from yesterday!'. The most simple definition is a group of organisms that can breed together to produce fertile offspring. Species are the smallest unit of biological taxonomy, and are grouped together with similar species to form a genus.
The name given to a single kind of organism. Species can be divided into sub-species.
a group of interbreeding organisms that can produce offspring with the capacity for viable reproduction.
the smallest unit in biological classification. Members of the same species are able to breed among themselves successfully. Similar species are grouped within one genus.
A group of individuals with certain common characteristics
A group of individuals or populations that are similar in structure and physiology and are capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. Separate species typically are different in structure and/or physiology from each other and normally do not interbreed. A species name is the second word of a scientific name and is not capitalized.
Living things such as plants and animals.
a genetic subdivision whose numbers are capable of mating and producing fertile progeny
Group of animals or plants subordinate in classification to genus that can interbreed and differ only in minor details.
A population of individuals that are more or less alike and that are able to breed and produce fertile offspring. A category of biological grouping just below the genus or subgenus level.
a group of biologically distinct organisms that are self-perpetuating
A naturally occurring population or group of potentially interbreeding populations that is reproductively isolated (i.e., cannot exchange genetic material) from such other groups. This definition does not apply to asexually reproducing forms such as many types of Monera or Protista, etc.
individuals of the same type which are able to interbreed to produce fertile offspring under natural conditions contributing to a common gene pool.
Living things that are grouped by their common attributes and can reproduce only among themselves. Human beings are one species; dogs are another.
distinct kinds of individual plants or animals that have common traits and share a common name.
Population of organisms that can interbreed and produce offspring that can also reproduce with one another. A closed gene pool.
Taxon for biological species based on binomial nomenclature, italicized and using genus and trivial name; e.g., Triceratops horridus, Tyrannosaurus rex.
a group of related plants or animals that can interbreed to produce offspring.
(SPE· cies). A population of interbreeding organisms that are capable of, and do under natural conditions, reproduce fertile offspring.
A group of organisms that are similar and can interbreed.
a group of animals that can have young who can also have young (this word should really be in a science glossary)
A group of animals and plants that have many things in common, and are different in at least one other way from all others.
a group of similar creatures that produce viable young when breeding.
A population or group of populations that are in reproductive contact but are reproductively isolated from all other populations.
A group of interbreeding plants or animals. Subspecies and races are subgroups of individuals of the same species in the process (called speciation) of becoming a separate species.
A distinct kind of wood.
Plants or animals that are the same as each other and breed only with one another.
A population of plants whose members are potentially able to breed with each other and which is reproductively isolated from other populations.
Living things of the same kind that are potentially able to breed together and produce fertile offspring (i.e., offspring that themselves can reproduce). Usually, different species cannot interbreed but this rule is not absolute (for example, a horse and donkey can interbreed to produce a mule, although this animal cannot reproduce, see hybrid). Even within one species, interbreeding may not always occur because of natural barriers. Among some plants and many micro-organisms, the concept of a species does not always work. In these groups, species that appear different may be able to successfully create offspring under certain circumstances.
a group of similar organisms that have a shared origin and the ability to breed freely with one another.
The basic category in the Linnaean sequence. A species may best be defined as a group of inter-breeding individuals with so many features in common that they form a distinct, and generally recognisable, group. In practice, the interbreeding criterion cannot always be used, for example with fossils, so species can often only be defined subjectively. One or more species are included in a genus. more on the species concept
a group of individuals taxonomically ordered according to common attributes and designated by a common name.
A single type of plant or animal, not a group like genus or family. Each species has a two-word scientific name that includes the name of the genus it belongs to and then the name of the species. Another way to think of this is the Genus is the "Generic" name and the Species is the "Specific" name.
a specific kind of something; "a species of molecule"; "a species of villainy"
a breeding population that can produce fertile offspring among its members, but not outside its group
a classification of life forms that share enough genetic traits that they can interbreed to produce offspring that are still able to breed
a collection of genetically similar individuals
a collection of organisms that evolved according to Darwin's Five Laws
a collection of populations, all genetically related
a constant succession of similar individuals that can reproduce together
a diagnosable cluster of individuals within which there is a parental pattern of ancestry and descent, beyond which there is not, and which exhibits a pattern of phylogenetic ancestry and descent among units of like kind
a distinct, qualitatively definite state of living matter
a freely interbreeding population whose members do not interbreed with those of other populations
a grouping of individuals that interbreed successfully
a group of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations reproductively isolated from other such populations
a group of animals or plants all of which are similar enough in form to be considered as minor variations of the same organism
a group of animals which can breed together, but who can't breed with others
a group of animals which have a number of features in common and which are not shared by any other group of animals
a group of animals with similar physical characteristics that can and do interbreed and share the same gene pool
a group of freely interbreeding individuals that will not interbreed with other members of the same genus in its natural environment
a group of individuals that can reproduce together
a group of insects having many characteristics in common which differ from all other forms in one or more ways
a group of living organisms (plants, animals, or microbes) that breed under natural and to which many human cultures have become adapted
a group of living organisms (plants, animals, or microbes) that breed under natural conditions and are reproductively isolated from other populations
a group of morphologically similar organisms that can and do interbreed, thus sharing the same gene pool
a group of morphologically similar organisms which can and do reproduce with one another
a group of organisms - plant, animal, or microbe - of a single kind
a group of organisms sharing a closely related common gene pool because of frequent interbreeding
a group of organisms so similar to one another that they can INTERBREED
a group of organisms that a) have the same evolutionary ancestor
a group of organisms that are so genetically similar that they can interbreed and produce fertile offspring
a group of organisms that can interbreed and create viable offspring
a group of organisms that can interbreed in nature to
a group of organisms that can willingly and successfully interbreed, creating reproductively capable offspring of a similar type
a group of organisms that have structural, functional, and developmental similarities and that are able to interbreed and produce fertile offspring
a group of organisms that interbreed naturally among themselves but not with individuals from other groups
a group of organisms that look alike and can breed among themselves and a genus is a broader division of classification
a group of organisms that normally interbreed in nature to produce fertile offspring
a group of organisms that recognize each other for the purpose of mating and fertilization
a group of organisms whose members can interbreed in nature and produce viable, offspring, though this concept cannot apply to organisms or to fossils
a group of organisms with a unique set of characteristics (body shape and behavior, for example) that distinguishes them from other organisms
a group of plants or animals that are genetically similar and so are able to reproduce with each other
a group of plants or animals that breed together but do not breed outside the group
a group of plants or animals whose genes are so similar that they can breed together and produce fertile offspring
a group of populations through which genes can flow and whose offspring have a fitness equal to the parents
a group of population s whose individual members would, if given the opportunity, interbreed
a group of populations whose individual members would, if given the opportunity, interbreed with individuals of other populations of that group
a group of related individuals or populations which are potentially capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring
a group of sexually-reproducing, interbreeding individuals that under normal conditions are unable to interbreed with another group
a group of similar organisms that can mate to produce fertile, viable offspring
a group or population of similar organisms that reproduce among themselves but do not naturally reproduce with any other kinds of organisms
a life form that cannot breed successfully other than with its own kind
a lineage (an ancestor descendant sequence) of populations or organisms that maintains its identity from other such lineages and which has its own evolutionary tendencies
a more finely tuned group whose members share the same general characteristics
an actually or potentially interbreeding population that does not interbreed with other such populations when there is opportunity to do so
an arbitrary class or cluster of organisms given a name as a handle
an array of populations which are actually or potentially interbreeding, and which are reproductively isolated from other such arrays under natural conditions'
an article from the Business (International) category
an assemblage of individuals agreeing with each other in all essential characters of vegetation and fructification, capable of reproducing perfect seed from which progeny can be reared
an evolved or evolving, genetically distinctive, reproductively isolated, natural population
an excellent diagnostic characteristic for S
an important biological grouping of organisms whose members have similar structures, normally interbreed, and produce fertile offspring
an intrabreeding population, which rarely breeds with a different breeding population
an isolated group of individuals whose sum of characters tends to keep constant by natural inbreeding
an organic form which, for periods of great and indefinite length as compared with the duration of human life, fluctuates only within narrow limits
a particular kind of organism
a pool of organisms that can exchange their genetic information
a population of beings that can reproduce sexually and produce fertile offspring
a population of individual organisms that can interbreed in nature, mating and producing fertile offspring in a natural setting
a population of indiviuals who interbreed, as opposed to a population of organisms who merely share the same environment
a population of organisms that can interbreed with eachother, not not other populations
a population of organisms which are capable, under natural conditions, of interbreeding and producing viable offspring, and which are reproductively isolated from other similar groups
a population that interbreeds and is reproductively isolated from other populations
a set of individuals who can interbreed and have fertile progeny
a set of populations capable of combining with each other but not with other similar sets of populations on the basis of affinity and co-direction in ecological speciation
a single lineage of ancestral descendant populations of organisms which maintains its identity from other such lineages and which has its own evolutionary tendencies and historical fate
a single organism, not a group
a single type of organism
a special group
a specific name given to a plant or animal
a subjective unit insofar as it is based on only a sample of the population and insofar as the point of separation where there is some overlap must be arbitrary
a group of related living things that have characteristics in common
a group of animals that mate together successfully; a naming classification
A unique group of animals, different from other groups.
A class of individuals or objects grouped by virtue of their common attributes and assigned a common name.
Populations of organisms that may interbreed and produce fertile offspring having similar structure, habits, and functions.
A group of related animals or plants that differ only in minor attributes; able to interbreed among themselves
A group of individuals that are capable of breeding and producing fertile offspring under natural conditions.
A basic taxonomic group consisting of individuals of common ancestry who strongly resemble each other physiologically and who interbreed, producing fertile offspring.
The sub-genus classification of salmonids being sampled.
a kind of organism; organisms that are very similar to one another; they usually reproduce only among themselves
One of the lowest principal biological classification units, which recognizes distinct (non-interbreeding) groups of similar organisms.
A particular group of plant or animal that can only reproduce with others of the same kind.
Usually, the smallest unit of classification; includes individuals which can breed with each other, produce viable offspring, have the same chromosome number, and share a common gene pool.
group of similar plants which can freely interbreed.
a group of similar plants or animals which will interbreed
A group of living things that is very closely related and can interbreed.
A gem with distinctive characteristics that are well defined.
A group of very similar plants that can freely interbreed and are signified by the second word of the botanical name. See Genus.
the smallest taxonomic unit defining a group of animals or plants that are unable to breed to produce fertile offspring.
the smallest taxonomic unit defining a group of animals that are unable to breed to produce fertile offspring. (see classification)
a certain kind of animals within a closely related group
subordinate classification to a genus; reproductively isolated organisms that have common characteristics, such as eastern white pine or white-tailed deer.
Generally regarded as a group or organisms that resemble each other to a greater degree than members of other groups and that form a reproductively isolated group that will not normally breed with members of another group.
The lowest-ranking common taxonomic rank. These names are not capitalized.
The lowest major level of classification.
a group of organisms that form an interbreeding population that is reproductively isolated from other populations
All the individuals in a population that can breed and produce fertile young.
A group of organisms different from all others in that they do not interbreed with any others.
a group of individuals or populations that are similar and are able to mate and have offspring.
A group of plants (or animals) showing intergradation among its individuals and having in common one or more characteristics which definitely separate it from any other group; a kind of plant distinct from other plants.
A group of similiar animals, reproductively isolated from all other such groups and able to breed and produce viable offspring.
a group of plants or animals that share common characteristics
A classification ranking just below the genus and made up of closely related plants that possibly can cross with one another.
organisms that can reproduce their own kind (see also Genus) (A distinct animal or plant group that shares similar characteristics and can produce offspring within its group.)
A population of organisms which are able to interbreed freely under natural conditions.
(singular or plural): A group of plants or animals whose members breed naturally only with each other and resemble each other more closely than they resemble members of any similar group.
A class of individuals having common attributes and designated by a common name; a logical division of a genus or more comprehensive class (Merriam-Webster 1996).
Most specific level of scientific classification; below Genus
the basic unit of classification which usually refers to one or several groups of plants or other living organisms that interbreed and maintain their distinctive identity through successive generations
A class of individual plants or animals having some common characteristics or qualities which makes them distinct from other classes of plants or animals.
the basic category of biological classification, ranking below the genus; a species consists of related organisms or populations potentially capable of interbreeding; a species is designated by a two part name consisting of its genus and a specific epithet; see also subspecies
a group of organisms (living things) capable of reproducing to give fertile off-spring.
momo Organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring.
A group of individuals biologically capable of interbreeding and which have a common ancestor.
Organisms that are genetically related, similar physically, and can reproduce viable offspring. This is the most useful taxonomical name because every living creature is assigned a unique species name, which is composed of two parts.
A class of plants or animals having common attributes and designated by a common name. Theoretically, plants or animals of different species cannot interbreed. However, occasionally this does not hold true.
Espèce Familienbezeichnung, f Especie A population or series of populations whose individuals have the potential to freely breed with one another and that is discontinuous in variation from other populations or series of populations; a fundamental category of taxonomic classification, ranking
A kind of plant that is distinct from other plants.
A group of organisms that are biologically capable of breeding and producing fertile offspring. It is the lowest normal taxonomic unit in use. Meagher, 1991
A population of morphologically similar organisms that can reproduce sexually among themselves but that cannot produce fertile offspring when mated with other organisms.
A group of organisms that have similar characteristics and can interbreed to produce fertile offspring.
This is the defining identification of a living organism. Based upon taxonomy it is usually a latinised adjective or noun and is never capitalised and is usually italicised. Species may only have varieties after it, although the specific name may also be double-barreled.
the basic unit of biological classification. Generally defined as an aggregation of individuals similar in appearance and structure, mating freely and producing young that themselves mate freely and bear fertile offspring. Abbreviated to sp. for one species and spp. for two or more species.
A group of organisms with a unique set of characteristics (like beak shape and behaviour) that distinguishes them from other organisms. If they reproduce, individuals within the same species can produce offspring that can make more offspring.
Groups of plant or animal organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring. In the taxonomic hierarchy, 'species' joins with the higher level 'genus' to give the binomial term 'Genus species'.
A taxonomic category ranking which is beneath genus. Individuals of the same species are genetically, morphologically, and physiologically differentiated from any other population. The specific name is designated by an uncapitalized Latin noun or adjective, and it constitutes the second term in a scientific name.
group of related organisms or populations capable of interbreeding.
A group of organisms capable of interbreeding freely with each other but not with members of other species (this is a simplified definition; species concept is much more complex). - A taxonomic rank below a genus, consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes( gene) or interbreeding.
Creatures that are extremely similar to one another belong to the same species.
A group of organisms which are biologically capable of breeding and producing fertile offspring with each other but not with members of other species
The fundamental category of biological classification, ranking below the genus and in some species composed of subspecies or varieties; of various definitions, the most common is the "Biological Species Concept" "Species are actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations which are reproductively isolated from other such groups."
Numbers of domains present in a variety of selected taxa ( animal, archaea, bacteria, fungi, plants and protozoa) are shown in annotation pages.
All plants and animals are divided into groups with similar characteristics. The basic building block for this division is the species. Organisms of the same species can interbreed. Species with common characteristics are grouped into a genus (plural genera). Genera with similar characteristics are grouped into a family. Each species is given a scientific name of two words, the genus and species. These names are latin so they can be recognized worldwide. Common names, on the other hand, vary from nation to nation, and even within a nation. Examples: Species: Mallard Scientific Name: Anus platyrhynchos Species: Northern Pintail Scientific Name: Anus acuta Both the Mallard and Pintail are in the same genus Anus and are also grouped into the family of ducks, geese, and swans.
individual plants bearing certain characters in common.
the fundamental and unique category in the classification of all living things, for example, the song sparrow, the bluebird, the monarch butterfly, the azure butterfly, the lion, the tiger, etc.
A taxonomic level above genotype. All creatures in a species are similar on a functional and structural level, but not necessarily in all instruction positions on their genome. Species can be used to study clouds around an archetype ( quasispecies) in genome space.
A biological classification that combines organisms sharing common characteristics and are able to mate and produce fertile offspring.
a subdivision of a genus—second word in a plant's botanical name such as Rosa moschata—musk rose
a population of individuals that are more or less alike, and that breed and produce fertile offspring under natural conditions.
One or more animals which closely resemble one another. A group of them together forms a genus.
The category of taxonomic classification, ranking below a genus consisting of related organisms capable of interbreeding.
Organisms that are capable of interbreeding and is designated by a binomial term in Latin. The species designation of timber wolf or gray wolf is Canis lupus.
A group of organisms which resemble each other to a greater degree than members of other groups and which form a reproductively isolated group that will not normally breed with member of another group. Similar species are grouped into genera, genera are grouped into families, families into orders, orders into classes, classes into phyla (for animals) and divisions (for plants), these are grouped into Kingdoms.
a group of individuals that share certain physical characteristics and are capable of producing fertile offspring.
A group of living organisms that can interbreed to produce viable offspring.
A category of biological classification; a class of individuals having common attributes and designated by a common name. "Species" is always properly used with the "s" when referring to trees or other biological classifications.
a biological species is a group of individuals that can actually or theoretically interbreed successfully with one another but not with members of other groups or species.
a class of individual organisms having some common characteristics or qualities; usually similar or alike in appearance; always able to breed among themselves; by some defintions unable to breed with members of other species. The following papers by Kenneth Cumming provide more information: On the Changing Definition of the Term "Species" | Patterns of Speciation | Reticulate Evolution
A group of organisms that is formally recognized as distinct from other groups; also a taxon of the rank of species, i.e., a category below genus.
Species is a group of living things that can mate to produce fertile offspring.
groups of animals with shared characteristics that can reproduce and produce fertile offspring Red-headed and red-bellied woodpeckers are two different species of woodpeckers.
One or more populations of interbreeding or potentially interbreeding organisms that are reproductively isolated in nature from all other organisms. Populations of individuals capable of interbreeding and producing viable, fertile offspring. The least inclusive taxonomic category commonly used. PICTURE
One kind of organism. Of sexually reproducing organisms, one or more natural populations in which individuals are interbreeding and are reproductively isolated from other such groups.
A population or series of populations whose individuals have the potential to freely breed with one another and that is discontinuous in variation from other populations or series of populations; a fundamental category of taxonomic classification that ranks below genus.
A group containing all the individulas of a particular kind of plant.
the basic lower unit of classification. Biological species refers to individuals capable of interbreeding.
a "kind" of bird, usually referring to a group of interbreeding natural populations which are reproductively isolated from other such groups; a species represents a unique evolutionary lineage
A distinction for a specific type of animals. For example, geese are a species and ducks are a species. There may be many breeds of each species. Typically species cannot interbreed successfully, for example a duck and a goose can not produce offspring together. If species can cross the offspring are typically sterile like a mule (horse x donkey).
The “global family†of a organism, that can breed or reproduce with one another (“global family†refers to all of the human, rabbits, cats, dogs; etc; they all are the same, no matter the color of fur or eyes; etc.)
(both singular and plural) a natural population or group of populations that are reproductively isolated and transmit specific characteristics from parent to offspring.
a group of individuals that has similar characteristics and breeds only with another member of the same group
Group of organisms with common or similar characteristics and capable of inter breeding.
A reproductively isolated group of interbreeding organisms.
The main category of taxonomic classification into which living organisms are subdivided, comprising a group of similar individuals having a number of correlated characteristics.
a group of closely related organisms capable of mating and producing fertile offspring.
A group of natural relations that can interbreed.
Difficult to define rigorously in two or three lines. Defined very simply in a phylogenetic context, species are the smallest lineages that are mutually exclusive of other lineages. The internal branches of a phylogeny may be viewed as ancestral species. Note, however, that the unit lineages of a gene phylogeny are not species (see also terminal).
a singular or plural term for a population or series of populations of organisms that are capable of interbreeding freely with each other but not with members of other species. Includes a number of cases: endemic species: a species originating in, or belonging to, a particular region. Both "endemic" and "indigenous" are preferred over "native." exotic species: a species introduced accidentally or intentionally to a region beyond its natural range. "Exotic" is preferred over "alien," "foreign" and "non-native.' subspecies: a subdivision of a species. A population or series of populations occupying a discrete range and differing genetically from other subspecies of the same species.
Taxa) Richness: A biological index of river health, species ( taxa) richness is the number of species or taxa present in a biological sample.
A group of similar animals that are isolated reproductively and produce viable offspring. They may include on or more subspecies.
All of the organisms that are capable of interbreeding with each other under natural conditions to produce fertile offsprings (bisexual organisms) or all of the morphologically and genetically similar descendants of some inferred ancestral individual (asexual organisms).
The species is the primary or fundamental concept in the understanding of the forms of life. It is the basic unit in classification. Species are combined into genera and variations or subordinate forms of these may be distinguished as subspecies, variety and form in descending order of the botanical hierarchy.
A basic taxonomic category.
members of a species of plants or animals can breed with another member and produce fertile (capable of reproducing) offspring. In this way, a species maintains its ‘separateness' from other species; for example, yellowfin tuna and bigeye tuna are two distinct tuna species, whereas the general term ‘tuna' includes all tuna species.
a type of animal or plant.
The species designations of animals under study.
The taxanomic category subordinate to a genus. A group of like individuals. The second part of a scientific name identifies a particular species. (See Genus)
Species: Organisms with similar phenetic and genetic characteristics that can mate and produce viable offspring that can also mate and produce viable offspring.
Biological _ A small group of organisms formally recognized by the scientific community as distinct from other groups. legal _ refers to joint policy of the USFWS and NMFS that considers a species as defined by the ESA to include biological species, subspecies, and DPSs.
(spee´ shees) [L.: kind] • The basic lower unit of classification, consisting of a population or series of populations of closely related and similar organisms. The more narrowly defined "biological species" consists of individuals capable of interbreeding freely with each other but not with members of other species.
Taxonomic groups, usually defined by inability to interbreed and produce viable offspring. Species are reproductively isolated from each other. Genes in one species cannot combine with genes from another species and produce a successfully reproducing vehicle (individual).
A group of individuals, usually identifiable by a set of distinctive features, with a unique evolutionary history. Classically, the members of a species can interbreed only with each other to produce fertile offspring.
a class or specific type of organism; a group of individuals related by descent, and able to breed among themselves but not with other animals
(sp' sh z) The category of organization for taxonomy below genus, representing animals capable of interbreeding with each other. The scientific name for a species is generally written with the genus in binomial form. Example: Homo sapiens.
the basic unit of Linnaean classification; a taxonomic subdivision of genus represented by plants that can freely interbreed but rarely with other species. In the scientific name Sambucus nigra, the genus is Sambucus and the species epithet is nigra ; together Sambucus nigra constitutes the species
A group of animals or plants having common characteristics and able to breed together to produce fertile (capable of reproducing) offspring, so that they maintain their ‘separateness' from other groups. For example, yellowfin tuna and bigeye tuna are two distinct tuna species, whereas general terms like ‘tuna' and ‘trout' each represent groups of species.
a taxon comprising one or more populations of individuals capable of interbreeding to produce fertile offspring.
seeing, appearance, shape, kind or quality
the smallest classification group of organisms. organisms of the same species mate and produce healthy young
subdivision of biological classification composed of related organisms that share common characteristics and can interbreed.
Group within a genus, the members of which share similar characteristics and can breed successfully together.
The basic unit of biological classification. This definition is open to very wide interpretation and what one person regards as just another species, may be seen by someone else, to be a totally separate genus or only a form.
A group of plants or animals that have certain common features which set them apart from others.
The species, an adjective, often refers to a place, the plant's characteristics/appearance, or the name of the person credited with discovering it. Species is abbreviated sp. or spp.
Different definitions are available dependent upon the characters being used to define a species. See also biological species concept, morphospecies concept and phylogenetic species concept.... More
A group of animals that have the same characteristics
a group of organisms capable of interbreeding to produce fertile offspring
A group of plants, animals, or microorganisms that have a high degree of similarity and generally can interbreed only among themselves.
a group of similar organisms whose members can breed with one another to produce fertile offspring.
the second or specific part of the scientific name of a plant
Organisms in the same genus that have similar characteristics.
The subdivision of Genus; the second name in Latin nomenclature i.e. Acer PALMATUM.
A group of organisms that can interbreed with each other and produce fertile offspring. It is the fundamental unit of biological evolution.
A population or series of populations of closely related and similar organisms. The individuals within a species are able to interbreed freely with each other, producing healthy, fertile offspring. Members of a species are not able to interbreed successfully with members of other species.
(1) a group of organisms that have a unique set of characteristics (like body shape and behavior) that distinguishes them from other organisms. If they reproduce, individuals within the same species can produce fertile offspring. (2) the basic unit of biological classification. Scientists refer to species using both their genus and species name. The house cat, for example, is called Felis catus.
the taxonomic division of freely interbreeding population of wild or naturally occurring individuals below genus.
Living things of the same kind that are potentially capable of breeding and producing fertile offspring. Theoretically, plants or animals of different species cannot interbreed. However, occasionally this does not hold true.
Database entry containing a sequence and associated information. Not necessarily consistent with a taxonomic species
Any subspecies of fish, wildlife, or plants, and any distinct population segment of any species or vertebrate fish or wildlife that interbreeds when mature.
A group of animals that under normal conditions can have offspring together.
in the same or like form or kind. There are many species of finches available today, and many look a lot a like. Always know what species of finch you have before attempting to locate a mate. Society Finches and Zebra Finches are examples of two different species.
pl. A category of classification, ranking below a genus, consisting of closely related organisms capable of interbreeding. An organism belonging to a species is represented by an uncapitalized Latin name and a capitalized genus name, as in Hyacinthoides non-scripta, the Bluebell.
all the populations of organisms that are capable of breeding under natural conditions and that are reproductively isolated from other organisms; the basic lower unit of biological classification.
the basic unit of taxonomy. A species is defined as a group of individuals that are genetically related and can interbreed to produce fertile young of the same kind.
the basic category of biological classif ication, designating a single kind of animal or plant. Abbreviation: sp. &endash; plural: spp.
The most basic level by which plants and animals may be grouped. Scientists have an ongoing friendly debate about how to define a species. One commonly held view is that the group is the lowest level of organisms that can breed with one another and that cannot breed freely with other groups of plants and animals. As technology allows researchers to peer ever more deeply into the genetic makeup of organisms, the definition comes under increasing challenge. Perhaps the most valuable characteristic of a species is the fact that it’s the basic unit of classification.
a group of very similar plants. Species are grouped together into Genera.
A gem with distinct characteristics that are well defined.
a group of organisms that breed with each other to produce fertile offspring.
A distinct group of organisms that interbreed to produce organisms substatively the same as the parents. Species roses are roses that appear naturally in the wild - at least most of them are.
As usually used within this article, a species is a reproductively isolated group of organisms capable of interbreeding in the wild and producing viable, fertile offspring. This is known as the Biological Species Concept (BSC). An alternative statement of the BSC defines a species as the most inclusive group of sexual and cross-fertilizing individuals which share a common gene pool. However, this concept breaks down for asexual species, fossil species, and even sexual species in many cases. In reality there are only degrees of reproductive and genetic isolation, so species are not absolute entities. Joseph Boxhorn has given a more detailed analysis of the species concept in the "Observed Instances of Speciation" FAQ. Note, the BSC has interesting implications for the nature of the last universal common ancestor of all life, especially if horizontal genetic transfer was extensive then (as it is today between the different unicellular "species" of bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes).
a subdivision of a genus, almost identifcal organisms, a clone
A group of interbreeding populations that are more or less reproductively isolated from all other kinds of organisms.
division of plants or herbs which contain individuals capable of reproducing with each other.
A classification of related organisms that can freely interbreed.
A group of similar organisms within the same genus which are usually capable of interbreeding, and are distinctly different from other members of the genus.
a group of organisms which normally can interbreed
organisms that successfully reproduce among themselves and cannot reproduce successfully with other organisms.
A group of similar fish that can freely interbreed.
A group of animals or plants that are the same and breed together, eg. the New Zealand robin.
a single kind of plant or animal; about 34,000 species of spiders known so far worldwide in a little over 100 families; presumably many more species are undiscovered
The smallest unit of classification. Individuals in a species are assumed to have emanated from a single original genetic source and are sexually compatible with each other.
A group of generally related tree species for which similar management practices have been developed.
Depending on how they were listed under the ESA, species is defined as species, subspecies, distinct population segment (DPS), or Evolutionarily Significant Unit (ESU).
A set of creatures which, in their natural setting, breed among themselves.
Different types of plants e.g. cocksfoot and ryegrass are different species
Species generally grouped for marketing convenience and identified with a single commercial name. (See ASTM D 1165, Standard Nomenclature of Domestic Hardwoods and Softwoods, for commercial practice in the United States and Canada.)
a group of organisms that are similar in structure and can mate and produce fertile offspring
species is a group of living things that breed with each other in nature and produce offspring that can also breed. Coyotes can breed together, and the pups can breed when they grow up, so all coyotes are one species. Bobcats can't breed with coyotes, so they're a different species. In nature, living things in the same species usually look pretty much alike.
A taxon of the rank of species; in the hierarchy of biological classification the category below genus; the basic unit of biological classification; the lowest principal category of zoological classification.
Organism classification that includes individuals that share the same heredity, are similar in morphology and behaviour, and can produce similar offspring.
A subdivion of a genus in the classification of plants. Species of plants are distinguished by the characteristics of fruits,flowers, leaves, bark and wood.
The basic unit of classification in biology. Examples are the bald eagle, the polar bear, the monarch butterfly, and the tawny mole cricket. The word is both singular (a species) and plural (two species). Species are grouped into genera, and genera are grouped into family. The words kind, sort, type, strain, and variety are not part of this classification even though newspaper reporters often use them as if they were.
A group of related organisms with common characteristics that are capable of interbreeding. Loblolly and Virginia pine are examples of two different tree species.
A group of biological organisms that interbreed to produce fertile offspring or possess common characteristics derived from a common gene pool.
groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations which are reporductively isolated from other such groups
The unit of classification for a plant having particular characteristics. In the botanical name of the plant, the species is identified by the second word of the name: for example Acer palmatum.
One or more populations of freely interbreeding organisms which are reproductively isolated (for reasons other than geography) from other closely related populations. A more modern definition might be a chronologically continuous genome which is isolated from other genomes by non-geographical factors. See also subspecies and species complex.
the basic unit of Linnaean classification; a taxonomic subdivision of genus represented by plants that can freely interbreed but rarely with other species. In the Latin name Ulmus americana, the genus is Ulmus and the species epithet is americana; together Ulmus americana constitutes the species
taxonomic group whose members can interbreed
Group of animals or plants with common characteristics
A taxonomic category subordinate to a genus (or subgenus) and superior to a subspecies or variety, composed of individuals possessing common characters distinguishing them from other categories of individuals of the same taxonomic level. In taxonomic nomenclature, species are designated by the genus name followed by a Latin or Latinised adjective or noun.
In the same or like form or kind. For the purposes of the CWCP, we refer to scientific animal groupings of genus and then a subgroup called "species."
A group of living things that can interact to produce offspring like themselves. Tigers do not have lion cubs, and an eagle and owl cannot interact to produce offspring like themselves.
Is a group of similar organisms with the ability to interbreed and produce fertile offspring.
distinct populations of plants or animals that can and do interbreed and produce fertile offspring
A species is a fundamental category of taxonomic classification ranking after genus and consisting of organisms capable of interbreeding.
A category of closely related and similar organisms. More narrowly defined, a population of individuals capable of interbreeding but not of breeding with members of another species.
A group of individuals that interbreed with each other but not with other such groups. There are however many definitions of species.
a natural group of plants composed of similar individuals that can produce similar offspring.
The basic unit of living things, consisting of a group of individuals which all look more or less alike and which can all breed with each other to produce another generation of similar creatures. Many species are subdivided into sub-species. These normally inhabit different areas and they may differ in appearance, but they can still all interbreed.
a group of living things that share common biological characteristics
Plant species are usually variable in the wild and may be split into three botanically recognized but occasionally overlapping subdivisions; the subspecies (subsp.), the variety (var.) and the form (forma, f.).
Biological classification comprising related organisms that share common characteristics and are capable of interbreeding.
Type of plant genetically different from others.
taxonomic division that generally refers to a group of animals which are similar in structure and descent and are able to breed among themselves.
A population or group of potentially interbreeding populations that is reproductively isolated from other such populations or groups.
A separate and integral reproductive community. (Eldrege)
A group of plants with very similar characteristics; and, a plant originally found in the wild and not the result of hybridisation or plant breeding by horticulturalists
A group of related organisms having common characteristics and capable of interbreeding. Loblolly and Virginia pine are common tree species that can interbreed.
a group of grasses with similar form and/or reproductive mechanisms; the basic unit of biological classification.
A distinct kind of plant.
A fundamental biological classification, comprising a subdivision of a genus and consisting of a number of plants or animals all of which have a high degree of similarity, can generally interbreed only among themselves, and show persistent differences from members of allied species.
An established classification into which similar individuals in the plant or animal kingdom are placed. A species is described as a morphologically distinctive and genetically isolated natural population.
A particular type of plant, animal, or other organism. Species differ from one another in at least one characteristic, and generally do not interbreed. In biology, species is a category that's part of the scientific system for grouping together related plants, animals and other organisms (kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species).
Used to refer to individual gems that have distinct characteristics which may be defined and verified.
A group of animals or plants that share similiar characteristics such as can reproduce.
individuals that are grouped together by having common characteristics and that are capable of interbreeding
A group of organisms different fro...
Basic classification unit of plants comprised of individuals that are recognized as distinct from other species, and which can freely interbreed among themselves.
A set of individuals sharing distinctive characteristics likely to produce common, fertile descendents. The notion of species is used in its broadest sense here and refers not only to species proper but also to subspecies, isolated geographic populations, strains and varieties, whether plant or animal.
a genetically distinctive group of natural populations that share a common gene pool that are reproductively isolated from all other such groups.
a group of closely related individuals that have the potential to reproduce with each other; a unit of classification.
A "species" is generally accepted as a group of individuals that look the same and can breed with each other but not usually with individuals of another species. "Species" is the the lowest level of plant classification. This is part of the science called " taxonomy". Scientists refer to living things by a combined "genus" and "species" name, using Latin terms. For example, people are called " Homo sapiens". A white pine would be called " Pinus strobus". A scientist anywhere in the world can look up information about any living organism by knowing the Latin or scientific name. The genus name is always capitalized. The species name is usually not capitalized. Incidentally, the word " specie" is incorrect. " Species" is the correct singular and plural form of the word. [To return to previous page, click your browser's BACK button then scroll through the page to your last location
In biology a species generally taken to be either the lowest level of taxonomic classification or a group of interbreeding individuals that are reproductively isolated from other organisms. A species in biology is not a "kind" in Plato's sense of the word.
This is the scientific, taxonomic name of a living thing.
In plant classification, a group of plants with common characteristics that can cross-breed with one another.
a group of organisms that mate freely in nature and can produce viable offspring
Populations whose individuals freely breed with one another and vary only slightly from one another.
The basic category of biological classification consisting of similar organisms that are capable of mating and reproduction
is one of the most specific of several levels of classification for a plant. They are ranked in levels from largest to smallest groupings first by kingdom, then by phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species.
The name of a category that is part of the scientific classification of all organisms. The category species is located in the classification system after kingdom, phylum, class, order, family and genus. Humans, for example, belong to the species sapiens and are identified by the scientific name Homo (genus) sapiens (species).
A group of closely related organisms that are capable of interbreeding and are reproductively isolated from other groups of organisms (in other words, they can breed among themselves and not with others); the basic unit of biological classification.
Major subdivision of a genus of plants. A biological classification composed of related plant individuals.
The type of wood, such as spruce or fir. Each species has different characteristics as well as strengths and weaknesses.
A group of organisms that can interbreed under natural conditions to produce fertile offspring
A group of organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding. See also "classification."
(n) A group of animals or plants within a genus differing only in minor details form the others, and able to breed with each other but not with other groups
An internationally established botanical classification of trees.
a genetically distinct group, consisting of related individuals that resemble each other in appearance and behavior, and can breed among themselves but not, with some exceptions, with other species
1. In biological classifications, it is the lowest and most basic unit of the Linnaean taxonomic hierarchy (although it is also divisible into subspecies), and one of the two required titles of a binomial name. In nature, a species is a group of organisms that breed only amongst themselves and produce offspring that are also capable of reproducing. 2. In chemistry, a group of constituents or molecules, that share major chemical similarities. For example, Hg0 and Hg+2, or CO and CO2.
Abbreviated to spp. (singular = sp.). A group of individuals which interbreed with each other, but generally not with other species.
A fundamental category of taxonomic classification, ranking below a genus.
A group of related organisms which are capable of interbreeding.
In classification, a species is a group of closely related organisms that can reproduce. A group of similar species forms a genus. In the scientific name of an organism, the second name is its species (for example, people are Homo sapiens - our species is sapiens).
The biological species concept is the most widely accepted method for categorizing living species, especially for vertebrates. It defines a species as members of populations that actually or potentially interbreed in nature, not according to similarity of appearance. Although appearance is helpful in identifying species, it does not define a biological species.
A single, distinct class of living creature with features that distinguish it from others.
a group of plants or animals that are of the same type or origin
A group of interbreeding individuals, not interbreeding with another such group, being a taxonomic unit including two names in binomial nomenclature, the generic name and specific epithet, similar and related species being grouped into a genus. From the Latin, species, "particular kind."
Related strains of a plant that occur naturally.
A group of organisms that are biologically capable of exchanging genes with each other but are incapable of exchanging genes with other such groups.
n: The boundaries of this taxonomic level (the most precise in the hierarchical system of binomial nomenclature ) are hotly debated among scientists and there is little real consensus about where to draw the lines between species, subspecies, morphs, races, variants, etc. In general, a species is a group of organisms that resemble one another in appearance, general behavior, ecological niche, chemical makeup and processes, and genetic structure. Organisms that reproduce sexually are classified as members of the same species only if they can actually or potentially interbreed with one another and produce fertile offspring. It should be noted that some (though quite few) taxonomists believe the species level of classification is frequently invalid and these scientists only recognize classifications down to the level of genus (again, these taxonomists represent a very small minority view).
Fundamental unit of biological taxonomy. Generally spoken, two individuals belong to the same species if they can produce fertile offspring
The basic category of biological classification, displaying a high degree of mutual similarity determined by a consensus of informed opinion; a subcategory of genus. ( 16)
Group of closely related individuals, resembling one another in certain inherited characteristics.
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biodiversity. Species is the smallest group of classification. A species generally consists of all the individual organisms of a natural population which are able to interbreed, generally sharing similar appearance, characteristics and genetics due to having relatively recent common ancestors.
Species (used as a noun) in metaphysics are defined by their genus (genos) and differentia (diaphora).
The Species film series is the group of films that take place in the Species universe.
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This armor can be identified by its decoration as having belonged to Pedro II (reigned 1683–1706). The decoration includes the crowned monogram PR for Pedro Rex (Pedro the King) and the cross of the commander of the Order of Christ, a hereditary office held by the kings of Portugal.Harquebusiers were armored cavalrymen generally equipped with a carbine (known as a harquebus) carried at the right side on a shoulder belt, a pair of pistols holstered at the front of the saddle, and a sword. This form of armor, consisting of a triple-barred helmet, a cuirass with a bulletproof reinforcing breastplate, and an elbow gaunlet, was commonplace in England up to about 1645. The armor of King Pedro is significant not only as a very late example of this type but also as the probable work of the London armorer Richard Holden. A very similar armor made by Holden in 1686 for James II of England (reigned 1685–88) is in the Royal Armouries in the Tower of London. The armor is shown with an associated buff coat. This sturdy leather defense, which provided effective protection against sword cuts, was worn throughout the seventeenth century, first in conjunction with armor and later alone.
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