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Many scientists have done focus on modifications happening inside the brain during meditation. The greater people delved deep in the ocean of data about this age-old practice, greater they became enthusiastic about that. Lots of people have begun acknowledging the efficacy of the treatment method in stress management. Even individuals from Western countries have learned to take pleasure in the great things about meditation and yoga. As a result, the early learners of the technique have begun setting up that belongs to them meditation and yoga centres across length and breadth around the globe. Individuals have realize its benefits inside their lives. Most are coming to swear inside the name of God they have benefitted from doing meditation and yoga. A lot of them have gone further ahead to locate scientific grounds for these positive results in your body. In this article, i will be listing out some proven information about irvine and yoga. Hence, let’s spread the great word about it practice to the advantage of others. A work made by an investigation group from the University of Massachusetts School of medicine has proved beyond doubt the meditation helps people to overcome stress. There is a conversation inside the Journal ScienceDaily that meditation raises the creativity in persons. There is reveal discussion about research for the relation between meditation and the sexual time of a person inside the Journal of Sexual Medicine. The results of the study have introduced the positive effect of meditation on love life. The storyplot further has said meditation increases libido. The meditation helps the folks to cultivate healthy habits that lead to fat loss. The Journal Emotion originates by helping cover their the outcome of the study. Harvard School of medicine finds out that meditation improves digestion and lowers blood pressure. The 2009 edition of the Stroke Journal has discussed in greater detail period of time risk of heart attack in those who practice meditation. Meditation helps people to overcome anxiety, depression, anger and confusion. The result of the study had are available in the Journal Psychosomatic Medicine. The study of the Wake Forest University also have handled the consequences of meditation. The results show it decreases thought of pain and improves cognitive processing. Zinc increases your focus and attention. It was found out with a research team from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Zinc increases the dimensions of your most significant organ- the human brain! It was found out with a scientific research team from Harvard University. For details about irvine visit this web portal: read this
Printing Solar Panels In The Backyard IRA FLATOW, HOST: Up next, Flora Lichtman is here with our Video Pick of the Week. Hi, Flora. FLORA LICHTMAN, BYLINE: Hi, Ira. FLATOW: What's in store for us this week? LICHTMAN: I pretty much geeked out this week. FLATOW: You geeked... LICHTMAN: I mean, that's what the video is - that's the subtext to the video. But it's a new item that I want on my wish list, and you might too. If you were thinking like, oh, a 3-D printer would really be cool to have, this is like the next level up. The video this week is about the Solar Pocket Factory, which is a machine, a little machine that will print micro solar panels. FLATOW: So you can print these solar panels in the comfort of your own home? LICHTMAN: Well, in this case, yes, because Shawn Frayne, one of the investors, was kind enough to bring some prototypes of the machine to my backyard and printed a panel for us there. But the idea is that they're these little panels, so it's not like the large-scale versions. They're the ones that you would find to charge your cell phone or for your garden lights. FLATOW: A few inches long, a few inches wide. LICHTMAN: Yeah. And small power output, right. But currently, these panels are made, according to Frayne and his co-inventors, largely in factories in China and India and Bangladesh, and they're made by hand. And he says that the cost of labor is going up, but the price of the raw materials, the silicon cells, is going down. And so what you have is these little - these little solar panels are much more expensive per watt than the big ones. So enter the Solar Pocket Factory. If you could automate this process and just feed a machine the silicon cells, maybe you could bring the price down and maybe you could have these little pocket factories all over. You know, maybe not in your backyard. They analogize it to the microbrewery of factories. So basically, you know, maybe you would have one in your city, not necessarily in your garage. FLATOW: Right, down the block. FLATOW: I need some solar panels for, maybe, to recharge my cell phone or something like that? FLATOW: You could wear it on your clothing? LICHTMAN: Right. Well, their hope is - I mean, the - I think the sort of grand dream here is that if you make these little pocket factory sort of easy, you know, easy to install in cities, then inventors and companies who might have a need for micro solar but didn't want to go through the rigmarole of acquiring those panels before might incorporate them. So you could have sort of more micro solar use. That's their grand dream, although of course they say, you know, who knows? FLATOW: Well - but you see, working - so the Video Pick of the Week is the video - it's up on our website at sciencefriday.com, in Flora's backyard. You get a little peek... LICHTMAN: Yeah. Don't judge me. FLATOW: It's beautiful. It's nothing to be ashamed of. LICHTMAN: There's one plant that needs water, I'm sorry. FLATOW: That little machine, it actually - you can watch it work and twirl and do its little mechanical things and prints out little solar panels. LICHTMAN: Yeah. So basically, you feed it this little silicon cells. It chops them up into little pieces. And then, I didn't know this, but you just take them and wire them in series. I mean, in fact, if you had them, you could manually make one yourself. The process isn't all that complicated. So we see how you would actually do this. You know, they couldn't bring all of the prototypes because some of them couldn't fit in a suitcase. Literally, they packed them in a suitcase... FLATOW: And on the subway. LICHTMAN: ...and took them on the subway to my yard. But it's definitely worth a look. I think the other thing that was interesting to me is that it was funded - it's bankrolled by strangers. This was a Kickstarter project. So they put up a little video on the website Kickstarter and got over 1,000 people to contribute over $70,000 to make this. This is real bootstrap inventing. FLATOW: So if you're a geek or a Benjie(ph) , as we like to call you... LICHTMAN: Oh, yeah. FLATOW: ...and you want to see how to make one of your own, maybe you'll get an idea, maybe you'll make, put this into production or license it, and you can watch how these little pocket solar panels are made... FLATOW: ...right in your backyard. Thank you, Flora. LICHTMAN: Thanks, Ira. FLATOW: Flora Lichtman is our multimedia editor, and that's about the time we have for this hour. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
See why you should give this vegan meat substitute a try. You're likely familiar with tropical fruits like banana, guava, mango, and pineapple, but what about jackfruit? Harvested for its edible pulp and seeds, jackfruit is native to India and southern Asia and is famous for its large size. A jackfruit is typically between 35-70 pounds but the heaviest jackfruit ever recorded clocked in at 94 pounds and 2.9 ounces in June 2016, according to Guinness World Records. Aside from its significant weight, find out why registered dietitian Vandana Sheth recommends this mild and versatile fruit for your summer menu. Full of Fiber Like many fruits, jackfruit is a good source of fiber, offering between 10-20% of the daily recommended amount per day. A cup of sliced jackfruit contains about two and a half grams of fiber, comparable to the amount of fiber in a large yellow peach. More: 50 Fiber-Rich Foods
Shabbos 156 - Eiruvin 6 Do Jews have mazal? Mazal, loosely translated as luck, literally means the events in a person's life that are predetermined according to the hour or day of his birth. Whether or not a Jew is prey to the determination of the "stars" which dominate the time of his birth, we seem to receive conflicting signals from our Sages. "Children, life and livelihood," says the Sage Rava in Mesechta Moed Katan (28a) "are not the result of merit but of mazal." This position is echoed in our own gemara by Rabbi Chanina. But Rabbi Yochanan seems to categorically reject the idea that Jews are subject to mazal, in apparent conflict with Rava's statement. Tosefos, however, reconciles the two opinions. For Jews, as for everyone else, "children, life and livelihood" are predetermined as Rava states. But Jews, unlike others, have the ability to overcome this predetermination through an extraordinary merit. (The motto of a famous contemporary astrologist that "the stars impel but do not compel" certainly fits the Jews!) Two examples of extraordinary merit beating the stars are offered in our gemara. The non-Jewish astrologer Avlat pointed out a man, headed for the meadow with his comrades to chop some reeds, as a predetermined victim of a deadly snake. Shmuel told Avlat that if the man was Jewish, he was capable of surviving. The man was indeed a Jew and returned safely. A surprised Avlat examined his pack of reeds and found a deadly snake, which the man had unknowingly cut in two. To Shmuel, this survivor related that it was his group's custom that each day, every member placed some food in a communal basket whose contents would then be shared by all. On this particular day, one of them had no food to contribute. To save him from embarrassment, our hero undertook the job of collection, and when he came to his poor comrade he pretended that he received food from him, while actually contributing some of his own. The other incident involved Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva was told by the stargazers that his daughter would be killed by a snake on the day of her wedding. On that fateful day, she unknowingly pierced the eye of a snake with an ornament she put into the wall. When the dead snake was discovered the next morning, she explained to her father that a poor man called at the door on the wedding day, and since everyone was too preoccupied with preparations to even notice him, she gave him a precious item she had received from Rabbi Akiva. In both cases the sages publicly proclaimed that the miracle they had observed was a demonstration that "charity rescues from death" (Mishlei 10:1). Some Like It Hot, Some Like it Cold This commonly quoted saying is usually understood as a comment on the futility of trying to achieve communal consensus. Since there will always be some who want the food hot while others want it cold, the result will be that the pot will end up neither hot nor cold. A closer look at the application of this folk wisdom in our gemara, however, indicates a different understanding. In two cases we find the limitation of 20 cubits height. A korah beam placed across the entrance to a mavoi (an alleyway into which courtyard traffic empties) in order to permit carrying within its precincts on Shabbos cannot be more than 20 cubits above street level. The schach covering a sukkah that is more than twenty cubits above the floor of the sukkah is not considered kosher. What if the korah and the schach are partially within the 20 cubit limit and partially above it? There is a difference of opinion amongst the Sages on this point. We shall focus here only on the point of view put forth by Rabbi Ada bar Masneh in the name of the Sage Rabbah. In the case of the sukkah, he contends, the schach which is thus situated will be kosher, but in the case of the korah beam it will be considered invalid. The central consideration in both cases, explains the Sage Rava of Parzeka, is whether we must be concerned lest the lower half of the schach or korah become detached or eroded, leaving only the part which is higher than the legal limit. In the case of the sukkah the responsibility for maintaining a kosher sukkah is that of the individual. We can therefore rely on him to keep his eye on his schach, take notice if the lower portion of it became detached and take the proper steps to amend the situation. In the case of the korah, however, responsibility is shared by all the residents of the homes and courtyards leading into the mavoi. There is, therefore, a concern that each one will rely on the other to watch what happens with the korah, and no one will notice that the lower part eroded and left only the part above twenty cubits intact. As an illustration of this point the gemara cites the above mentioned adage about the communal kettle. This compels us, points out Maharsha, to reexamine this folksy bit of counsel. When partners or a community are involved in the management of a kettle, even if there is a consensus that it should be hot or a consensus that it should be cold, there is reason to suspect that the agreed upon result will not be achieved, because each member of the collective group will rely on someone else watching the kettle, with the result that no one will do so.
November is American Indian & Alaska Native Heritage Month. Heritage Month is a time to celebrate the rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and to acknowledge the important contributions of Native people. Heritage Month is also an opportune time to educate the general public about tribes, to raise a general awareness about the unique challenges Native people have faced both historically and in the present, and the ways in which tribal citizens have worked to conquer these challenges. For more information, visit the web portal collaborative project of the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Click here for the “Native American Heritage Month” website. To read the White House Press Release on “National Native American Heritage Month, 2013″, click here.
- Atomic emission spectrum The atomic emission spectrum of an element is the set of frequencies of the electromagneticwaves emitted by atomsof that element. Each atom's atomic emission spectrum is unique and can be used to determine if that element is part of an unknown compound. Light consists of Electromagnetic radiation of different wavelengths. Therefore, when the elements or their compounds are heated either on a flame or by an electric ark they emit energy in form of light. Analysis, of this light, with the help of spectroscope gives us a discontinuous spectrum. A spectroscope or a spectrometer is a instrument which is used for separating the components of light, which have different wavelengths. The spectrum appears in a series of line called line spectrum. This line spectrum is also called the Atomic Spectrum because it originates in the element. Each element has a different atomic spectrum.The production of line spectra by the atoms of an element, indicates that an atom can radiate only certain amount of energy. This leads to the conclusion that electrons cannot have any amount of energy but only a certain amount of energy. The emission spectrum characteristics of some elements are plainly visible to the naked eye when these elements are heated. For example, when platinum wire is dipped into a strontiumnitrate solution and then inserted into a flame, the strontium atoms emit a red color. Similarly, when copperis inserted into a flame, the flame becomes green. These definite characteristics allow elements to be identified by their atomic emission spectrum. Not all lights emitted by the spectrum are viewable to the naked eye, it also includes ultra violet rays and infra red lighting. The fact that only certain colors appear in an element's atomic emission spectrum means that only certain frequencies of light are emitted. Each of these frequencies are related to energy by the formula: herein "E" is energy, "h" is Planck's constantand "ν" is the frequency.This concludes that only photons having certain energies are emitted by the atom. The principle of the atomic emission spectrum explains the varied colors in neon signs, as well as chemical flame testresults mentioned above. The frequencies of light that an atom can emit are dependent on states the electrons can be in. When excited, an electron moves to a higher energy level/orbital. When the electron falls back to its ground level the light is emitted. An emission spectrum is always the inverse of its Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Look at other dictionaries: Emission spectrum — The emission spectrum of a chemical element or chemical compound is the spectrum of frequencies of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the element s atoms or the compound s molecules when they are returned to a lower energy state. Each element s … Wikipedia Atomic emission spectroscopy — (AES) is a method of chemical analysis that uses the intensity of light emitted from a flame, plasma, arc, or spark at a particular wavelength to determine the quantity of an element in a sample. The wavelength of the atomic spectral line gives… … Wikipedia Atomic spectroscopy — is the determination of elemental composition by its electromagnetic or mass spectrum. Atomic spectroscopy is closely related to other forms of spectroscopy. It can be divided by atomization source or by the type of spectroscopy used. In the… … Wikipedia Emission spectroscopy — is a spectroscopic technique which examines the wavelengths of photons emitted by atoms or molecules during their transition from an excited state to a lower energy state. Each element emits a characteristic set of discrete wavelengths according… … Wikipedia Atomic spectral line — In physics, atomic spectral lines are of two types: * An emission line is formed when an electron makes a transition from a particular discrete energy level of an atom, to a lower energy state, emitting a photon of a particular energy and… … Wikipedia spectrum — /spek treuhm/, n., pl. spectra / treuh/, spectrums. 1. Physics. a. an array of entities, as light waves or particles, ordered in accordance with the magnitudes of a common physical property, as wavelength or mass: often the band of colors… … Universalium Spectrum — A spectrum (plural spectra or spectrums [ [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/spectrum Dictionary.com] . The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language , Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. (accessed: January 25, 2008).] … Wikipedia Spectrum analysis — also known as Emission Spectrochemical Analysis is the original scientific method of charting and analyzing the chemical properties of matter and gases by looking at the bands in their optical spectrum. The empirical laws of spectrum analysis are … Wikipedia Atomic line filter — A potassium Faraday filter designed, built and photographed by Jonas Hedin for making daytime LIDAR measurements at Arecibo Observatory. An atomic line filter (ALF) is an advanced optical band pass filter used in the physical sciences for… … Wikipedia Atomic orbital — The shapes of the first five atomic orbitals: 1s, 2s, 2px, 2py, and 2pz. The colors show the wave function phase. These are graphs of ψ(x,y,z) functions which depend on the coordinates of one electron. To see the elongated shape of ψ(x,y,z)2… … Wikipedia
Sustainability Exam 66% of final A2 grade! Synoptic 4 Themes Sustainable food supply Sustainable water supply Sustainable energy Sustainable cities Final examination 1hr 45 mins Includes pre-release material (released 6 weeks before) What is sustainability? You have 10 minutes to find a definition for Sustainability There must be no conferring. Once finished write your definition on the board. Sustainability Brudtland-1987 "..development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" World Commission on the Environment and Development " Sustainable global development requires that those who are more affluent adopt lifestyles within the planet's ecological means." "Sustainable development can only be pursued if population size and growth are in harmony with the changing productive potential of the ecosystem." World Commission on the Environment and Development To what extent would you agree with this statement? SUSTAINABILITY COUNTRYSIDE COMMISSION ‘ Sustainable development means meeting four objectives, at the same time, in the UK and in the world as a whole. These are Social progress which recognises the needs of everyone Effective protection of the environment Prudent use of natural resources Maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth and employment’
MERS UPDATE 7-10-2015 There are no cases of MERS in US camel herds. Camel importation is also restricted by US federal agencies, which further protects US herds. While MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome) has made an appearance in South Korea, the first, or index, patient had traveled from the Middle East. All reported MERS cases have been linked to this region. A second patient contracted it from the first, and infected others prior to proper identification. Korea and the World Health Organization (WHO) now have a joint project to manage MERS. Current WHO data and other factors indicate no evidence of airborne transmission or sustained transmission in communities. The risk to the overall population remains very low. New awareness of symptoms by medical personnel, plus travelers’ timely reporting (within 14 days) of contact with bats or camels in the Arabian Peninsula, will help it remain low.MERS is a flu-like illness with symptoms similar to pneumonia, although some people develop mild cases or never become ill. With proper identification the mortality rate appears to be dropping. There are no cases of MERS in US camels or camel milk. While it appears that some Middle Eastern camels may have had antibodies to MERS for a long while, the main hosts of the virus are suspected to be bats although there is no confirmed MERS source yet. Close contact with camels in the Middle East is discouraged at this time. There is no definitive link between camel milk and MERS transmission to humans at this time. People in Middle Eastern countries are still safely consuming camel milk. No US customers have reported problems. MERS is most likely to affect humans with chronic diseases like diabetes and heart conditions, elderly people, and those undergoing cancer treatments or organ transplants. Recent travelers to the Middle East are asked to refrain from visiting all camel farms and The Camel Milk Association for 90 days. We take all proper precautions to prevent diseases like MERS from ever affecting American herds. We are committed to keeping you informed on MERS, even though it is largely irrelevant to US camels. There is no evidence of the MERS coronavirus in United States camels or camel milk, according to researchers. MERS antibodies have been found in some Middle Eastern camels, but not in US camels. While it appears that some Middle Eastern camels may have had antibodies to MERS for a very long while, there is no definitive link between camel milk and MERS transmission to humans at this time. People in those countries are still safely consuming camel milk. Coronaviruses may cause a range of illnesses in humans, from the common cold to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), according to the World Health Organization. Viruses in this family include the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), which may affect people differently, ranging from individuals who never become ill to those with a fatal outcome. No source for the MERS-CoV virus has yet been identified. While it appears that Middle Eastern camels may at times harbor the MERS virus, the initial sources and methods of transmission are still unknown.”Illness usually occurs within 14 days. Recent travelers to the Middle East are asked to refrain from visiting all camel farms in the USA and The Camel Milk Association for 90 days. We take all proper precautions to prevent diseases like MERS from ever affecting American herds. MERS-CoV is still not well understood and information will continue to emerge from further studies. We are committed to keeping you updated. What you need to know: According to the US Centers for Disease Control, MERS is a viral respiratory illness spread from infected patients to others in close contact. The origin of MERS is not known, but antibodies to the disease have been found in some camels in Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and in a bat in Saudi Arabia. There are no cases of camels in the US with MERS and no evidence of the virus in US camels. Most US camels come from Australian stock and there has been no importation of camels from countries currently at risk of MERS. It is safe to have contact with camels in the US. The CDC says the general public is not at risk unless one has been in close contact or been living with someone who is being evaluated for MERS infection. The only known US cases so far are found in health workers who recently traveled to Saudi Arabia and the CDC is tracking people who had contact with these travelers. The CDC doesn’t recommend changing travel plans because of MERS, but does remind travelers to use standard health and hygiene practices like washing hands and covering one’s mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing. According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, so far MERS has not been detected in milk samples taken in the Middle East, nor is there any evidence that milk can infect people. As a precaution, some US camel dairies are temporarily restricting visitors who have recently visited the Middle East or Africa in order to protect their healthy herds. Source: Camel Alliance USA Camel Alliance USA is a group of US camel industry professionals and advocates. For more information, contact [email protected]. Camel Milk Association has proactively placed visiting restriction on anybody that has recently traveled to the regions affected by MERS-CoV. Camel Milk Association is now committed to maintaining a closed herd out of abundance of caution. Read more about cases that have appeared in the United States at the following links:
\|Title\|\|Do landslides follow landslides? Insights in path dependency from a multi-temporal landslide inventory\| \|Author(s)\|\|Samia, Jalal; Temme, Arnaud; Bregt, Arnold; Wallinga, Jakob; Guzzetti, Fausto; Ardizzone, Francesca; Rossi, Mauro\| \|Source\|\|Landslides 14 (2017)2. - ISSN 1612-510X - p. 547 - 558.\| Laboratory of Geo-information Science and Remote Sensing Soil Geography and Landscape \|Publication type\|\|Refereed Article in a scientific journal\| \|Keyword(s)\|\|Follow-up landslides - Landslide susceptibility - Path dependency - Roundness - Spatial association\| Landslides are a major category of natural disasters, causing loss of lives, livelihoods and property. The critical roles played by triggering (such as extreme rainfall and earthquakes), and intrinsic factors (such as slope steepness, soil properties and lithology) have previously successfully been recognized and quantified using a variety of qualitative, quantitative and hybrid methods in a wide range of study sites. However, available data typically do not allow to investigate the effect that earlier landslides have on intrinsic factors and hence on follow-up landslides. Therefore, existing methods cannot account for the potentially complex susceptibility changes caused by landslide events. In this study, we used a substantially different alternative approach to shed light on the potential effect of earlier landslides using a multi-temporal dataset of landslide occurrence containing 17 time slices. Spatial overlap and the time interval between landslides play key roles in our work. We quantified the degree to which landslides preferentially occur in locations where landslides occurred previously, how long such an effect is noticeable, and how landslides are spatially associated over time. We also investigated whether overlap with previous landslides causes differences in landslide geometric properties. We found that overlap among landslides demonstrates a clear legacy effect (path dependency) that has influence on the landslide affected area. Landslides appear to cause greater susceptibility for follow-up landslides over a period of about 10 years. Follow-up landslides are on average larger and rounder than landslides that do not follow earlier slides. The effect of earlier landslides on follow-up landslides has implications for understanding of the landslides evolution and the assessment of landslide susceptibility.
What does an animal technician do? Animal technicians work in animal facilities in universities, medical and vet colleges, pharmaceutical companies, laboratory animal breeders or contract research facilities. You would carry out routine tasks, including: - feeding the animals, monitoring their weight and growth and carrying out regular health checks - making sure the animals are clean and comfortable - controlling heating, lighting and humidity - exercising and training the animals - keeping accurate records and entering data What do I need to do to become an animal technician? There is no set entry route but most employers will expect you to have grades A-C GCSEs in English, maths and science or equivalent qualifications. Many new animal technicians have A levels, an HND or a degree in a relevant subject, which could include: - animal studies - animal care Experience of working with animals is also highly valued by employers. - Level 2 Award/Certificate in Practical Animal Care Skills - Level 3 Certificate/Diploma in Animal Management - Animal Technology Apprenticeship - GCSE grades A-C English, maths and science or equivalent qualifications - A levels, HND or degree in a relevant subject, which could include pharmacology, biology, animal studies or animal care Where to find out more Where could I be working?You would mainly be based in purpose-built animal facilities but, with larger species such as farm animals, there would be some outdoor work. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Resources related to increasing communicative competence with the use of AAC What is Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)? AAC uses a variety of techniques and tools, including picture communication boards, line drawings, speech-generating devices (SGDs), tangible objects, manual signs, gestures, and finger spelling, to help the individual express thoughts, wants and needs, feelings, and ideas. (American Speech-Language Hearing Association, 2018) AAC is augmentative when used to supplement existing speech, and alternative when used in place of speech that is absent or not functional. (American Speech-Language Hearing Association, 2018) What is an AAC system? An AAC system is an integrated group of components used to enhance communication. These components include forms of AAC (aided or unaided), symbols, selection techniques, and strategies. (American Speech-Language Hearing Association, 2018) The design of an AAC system incorporates each individual's strengths and needs. It incorporates the individual's full communication abilities and may include existing speech, vocalizations, gestures, languages spoken, and/or some form of external system (e.g., Speech generating device). (American Speech-Language Hearing Association, 2018) An individual may use multiple modalities or many systems of AAC in combination, allowing for change based on context, audience, and communicative intent. A well-designed AAC system is flexible and adaptable. It allows for changes to vocabulary and mode of access as the individual's language and physical needs change over time. A well-designed system also maximizes the individual's abilities to communicate effectively and efficiently across environments and with a variety of communication partners (Beukelman & Mirenda, 2013). (American Speech-Language Hearing Association, 2018) What is core language? Core words are high frequency words that we use over and over again to communicate. For more information on core language, visit the AAC Language Lab. Modeling with AAC What is modeling when using an AAC Device? Simply put, modeling is showing an AAC user where words are on an AAC device while providing verbal input (speaking key words and phrases). Check out some great tips on modeling with AAC. Here are some short video examples of a communication partner modeling on an AAC device with an AAC user. Each video includes how to prepare for the activity. Reading a Book Expanding on Your Child's Language When Using AAC Children who are new to AAC may just use 1 or 2 words at a time while utilizing their device. We, as communication partners can expand or extend what could be said during a conversation. Resources for Programming and Using AAC Prentke Romich Company (PRC) PRC Accent with NuVoice: General Operations and Settings - Video tutorial playlist on general operations and settings on Accent devices. PRC Accent Programming Support - Video tutorial playlist on basic programming support for Accent devices. PRC Accent with NuEye Eye Gaze Technology - Video tutorial playlist on device setup, positioning, calibration, and use of the NuEye Eye Tracking System. PRC Accent with Look Eye Gaze Technology - Video tutorial on device setup, positioning, calibration, and use of the Look Eye Tracking System. Saltillo NovaChat - General support website with video tutorials, recorded webinars, as well as implementation materials. Tobii Dynavox Indi with Snap Plus Core First - General support website with video tutorials to get you started with using Snap Core First. Tobii Dynavox I-Series - General support website with video tutorials on device setup, calibration, and use of I-Series devices. Proloquo2Go - General support website with programming and troubleshooting information, as well as video tutorials. Proloquo4Text - General support website with programming and troubleshooting information, as well as video tutorials. LAMP Words for Life - Training and support website with general support information, programming tutorials, and recorded webinars. TouchChat HD - Training and support website with general support information, programming tutorials, webinars, as well as implementation materials. PrAACtical AAC - Blog website providing AAC resources and implementation strategies, as well as weekly and monthly featured posts. To get started exploring activities and resources, type "core word of the week" or "literacy" in the "search this website..." dialog box. AssistiveWare's Core Word Classroom 5 minute Fillers - Resource website with free printable core word displays, one page reference sheets, as well as AAC modeling suggestions for home and school. This website requires you to register with an email address to access their free resources. FCPS staff and student emails should not be used to register for an account. AAC Language Lab Free Resources - Resource website with a variety of articles, activities, books, and games to help implement AAC. This website also includes free manual communication boards that can be downloaded and printed. No subscription is required to access the free resources.
is developed based on a traditional herbal formula used to eliminate gallstones. It is a 100% herbal preparation that is composed of nine natural occurring Niuri (chanca piedra) - The plant is called stonebreaker because it is used to remove kidney stones and gallstones. Additionally it is used against viruses, bacteria, fever, and as a diuretic. (Root) - Parsley is a biennial or perennial herb that originated in the eastern Mediterranean region as a wild plant, but is now found in cultivation everywhere. The leaves are dark green and shiny and packed with nutrition. For more than two thousand years, it has been highly regarded as a medicinal herb to treat gastrointestinal disorders, and ancient Greeks also valued Parsley for its soothing and diuretic effect on those with kidney and bladder ailments. (Root) - Helps reduces the inflammation. Helps coat the fragments so that they can be eliminated painlessly. Ref: (Root) Ext. 95% - Gallstone prevention/bile flow stimulant. It has been said that there are fewer people with gallstones in India, which is sometimes credited to turmeric in the diet. Early studies report that curcumin, a chemical in turmeric, may decrease the occurrence of gallstones. (Root) - Traditional uses to fight gallbladder disease. Ref: nlm.nih.gov. Enhances cholesterol absorption and stimulates the production of bile acids to cleanse the gallbladder and liver. Also, hot compresses made with ginger tea relieve pain of gallbladder attacks. Ref: chinese-herbs.org (Root) - For centuries, some people have tried to use herbs to treat and prevent stones that form in the kidneys and bladder. Gravel root, also called kidney root, queen of the meadow and Joe Pye has been used to eliminate (Leaf) - Used throughout history as a medicinal herb, lemon balm has mild sedative properties and has been used to relieve gas, reduce fever, and increase perspiration. (Root) - The gallbladder is markedly affected by both the dandelion root and the dandelion leaf remedies, these herbal remedies can also be used to prevent the formation of gallstones in the gallbladder. If gallstones are already present, then the remedy made from the dandelion leaf may still help, by dissolving such gallstones aiding in their elimination. (Root) - Licorice has been used in ancient Greece, China, and Egypt, primarily for gastritis (inflammation of the stomach) and ailments of the upper respiratory tract.
Updated June 30, 2017 Charlene Bearhead has spent her career as an educator sharing the truth of Canada’s residential school system and its devastating impact on generations of First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. As Canada kicks off celebrations for the 150th anniversary of Confederation, Bearhead, formerly the Education Lead for the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba and now the Education Coordinator for the National Inquiry of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, shares her thoughts on why it’s more important than ever for Canadians to engage with the reconciliation process. On her role with the NCTR I work with ministries of education, school boards, and other organizations to help ensure that they have what they need to share the truth of residential schools, whether that’s records and documents from our archives specific to their territories or survivor testimony from within that territory. But I think the most meaningful part of my role is the networking — connecting people across the country to share what they’re working on. There’s so much work to be done, and everyone’s at different places along the path, but they all know it’s important to make a difference. On residential schools and the loss of indigenous knowledge There’s a line in the 1986 United Church apology that always resonates with me. It says, “We tried to make you be like us and in so doing we helped to destroy the vision that made you what you were. As a result, you, and we, are poorer.” Truth and reconciliation is also about acknowledging the fact that every person in this country is worse off because of that interference with indigenous knowledge — the very knowledge that kept this land well and vital and the water drinkable and the air clean for thousands of years before contact. We wouldn’t be in the state we’re in with our environment in this country if it hadn’t been for that interference. On including residential schools in provincial curricula Every province and territory is working on that at one level or another. In Alberta, for example, it’s currently being built into the professional practices standards for every teacher, superintendent and school board trustee, and it’s also mandatory in the curriculum. The residential school experience is just one part of the history of colonization, so it’s critically important that we also teach First Nations, Métis and Inuit history. People look to the territories as the leaders in this because they were the first to develop mandatory northern studies courses for high school students. On why it’s essential to teach the truth about residential schools In my view, it’s the most foundational injustice that’s happened in what we now call Canada. There have been many injustices — the Chinese head tax, for example, and the Japanese internment camps — but what could be more foundationally unjust than the taking and holding of children as a means of controlling their parents, as a means of land acquisition? On making sure indigenous voices are included in Canada 150 celebrations It’s been exciting to see non-indigenous organizations working with indigenous people and communities to make sure indigenous knowledge and practices and people are honoured and celebrated. I think it’s really important for anyone who goes to any Canada 150 celebration to have their mind wide open and think, “What is the back story to this? What has been dispossessed or interfered with or destroyed or pushed out of the way so that what we’re celebrating could happen?” On barriers to reconciliation There are many layers to reconciliation, and one is the nation-to-nation relationship. If we look within the treaties, the only entity that Canada can actually have a relationship with is an individual First Nation, so reconciliation means working within that to ensure equity in funding and the return of the ability for First Nations, Métis and Inuit people to govern their own lives. On why education is the key to reconciliation To me everything goes back to education, because that’s the one common experience that all Canadians have. No matter what your cultural background, everybody has to go to school. So if we do it right and we do it in a respectful way, it’s the best opportunity we have to provide every child with the truth and the chance to consider what makes a just society.
Education and Technology in Austin Schools It’s gone too far. The notion that we need to cram computers and technology down the throats of our kids at younger and younger ages has just gone too far. On page 20 of the Aug 10, 2007 issue of the Austin Business Journal is a listing of Austin Private Schools, listing the top 25 private schools in Austin. A sidebar to that list of private schools asks the following question: “How is your school using technology to enhance the learning experience?” The answer from the Superintendent of Hyde Park Baptist is the following: “We have updated our computer labs with new computer systems and provided new mobile wireless labs that bring laptops into the classrooms. Hyde Park’s curriculum prepares students by integrating technology into all grade levels from kindergarten students creating Power Point presentations to high school students in web design courses”. Good grief! Kindergarten students creating Power Point presentations? It’s just gone too far. In the early years, children need to remain in their dreamy fairy tale minds, where imagination and creativity are born and nurtured. This is also a time when children learn the basic skills of “playing with” and “getting along” with others, skills very important later in life in collaborative work environments. Kindergarteners gain no benefit from sitting solo in front of a computer, creating a Power Point presentation. Small kids should instead be on the playground skinning their knees, chasing butterflies, building forts and learning to deal with friends as well as bullies. I know many think it’s ok to teach kids how to use computers before they read or write, but this sort of educational blunder is already coming back to bite us. Employers increasingly find young new employees to be lacking greatly in critical thinking and creative skills. This article from Inc.com, titled Younger Employees Lack Basic Skills, points out the problem with the type of education being provided to high school and college kids. Here are a few excerpts. Among the skills expected to be essential for businesses in the years ahead, nearly three-fourths of employers polled ranked creativity and innovation in the top five. … Of those with positions to fill, more than 80 percent of small-business owners reported finding few or no qualified applications, with as many as 12 percent citing a lack of qualified employees as their biggest business problem — the highest number in five years, the group said. …Another 70 percent said recent high school graduates also lacked applied skills, including professionalism, a sense of work ethic, and critical thinking, which more than half described as “very important” for succeeding in the workplace, the study found. Among these skills were personal accountability, effective working habits, punctuality, working with others, and workload management. It’s hard for a kid to learn the important skills of interpersonal communication and creative problem solving when they’re staring into a glowing screen instead of another person’s face, starting in kindergarten. I honestly think computers interfere with early development more than they help. For our children, Sylvia and I intentionally picked a private school in Austin that uses no computers through 8th grade. In some ways, that seems like the other end of the extreme, but I don’t think so. They’ve spent almost none of their lives in front of a TV and have never played video games. They’ve spent a lot of time outside playing though. Some of our friends and relatives think it’s weird that our kids have never turned in a type written paper or used computers at school. Everything has been handwritten, in true old fashioned handwriting (which isn’t taught anymore in most public schools), and they’ve been immersed in art and creative efforts alongside academic rigor. I tell my 14 year old, who this summer I’ve finally allowed to have an email address, that she now has the entire rest of her life to be stuck on the computer and to check email. As she heads into 9th grade at Westlake High School, she’ll now enter a world where technology is everywhere, and she’ll have more than ample exposure to both the pitfalls and benefits of technology and computers. And I tell her I don’t think she’s missed out on anything up until now. She’s pestering me for a cell phone too now, which has also always been denied to great protest. The societal pressure for parents and schools to just dump all of this technology in the laps of our kids is enormous, and I have to admit that it’s very difficult to say “no” sometimes, but I do anyway. It’s tough, selling this line of thinking to our kids. Sylvia and I work in a home office and they see us on our computers a lot. If I could sell real estate without a computer, cell phone and email, I would, but I can’t. The laptop even has to come along on vacations … if only I could find a good employee to leave in charge … I tell my kids that technology is a tool to be used after mastering the fundamentals and basics of life and business. It’s not a tool for learning those basics. For example, one should know how to hand write an essay before learning how to type an essay. One should learn how to spell before becoming dependant on a spell checker. One should know how to do math on paper and in one’s head before using a calculator. One should learn how to think and formulate ideas and thoughts before learning how to create a Power Point presentation. How many kindergartners do you know who possess ideas that can best be presented in Power Point?… Kindergarten Son : Daddy? I saw that toad out by the rain spout again just now and I was thinking …. Dad: (interrupts) Son, let me stop you there. Hold that thought and go place it in a Power Point presentation. We’ll set up a meeting with your mother and you can present your thoughts about the toad after dinner. Yes, call me old fashioned. Call me out of sync with the modern world. Then go ahead and call in an employment ad for your business and see what sort of resumes you receive. Try to hire a smart young person who knows how to think ‘outside the box’, work unsupervised with initiative and interface well with other people. They are out there for sure, but how many will you have to weed through before finding a keeper? Many younger people, I’ve observed, now seem more comfortable in front of a computer than they do in front of another person. That’s how they’re being raised and educated. They’d rather send an email than pick up the phone. I’ve even received emails from grown-ups who type in the shorthand chat-like drivel of teenage mush heads, using cryptic shortcut words instead of writing in full sentences. (R u going ovr there 2day?). I had a prospective client ask me if we could communicate via instant messenger, and I said “no”. Why the heck would I sit pecking on a keyboard when I know you’re on the other end next to a phone? Many of our college graduates are “book smart” and “good with computers”, but that doesn’t mean they’ve learned anything useful in school. Is “book smart” good enough to help you grow your business after you hire them? Is “good with computers” enough to keep America great? What great future business pioneer and leader – today’s kindergartner and tomorrow’s Bill Gates or Michael Dell – will later reflect back upon life and attribute her life accomplishments to getting a head start on Power Point at the age of 5? None, I’ll wager.
From Martial Arts, MMA, Karate, Kungfu Information Source Aikijutsu is a martial art of unarmed combat derived from the movements of Japanese swordsmanship. It is a subtle, complex martial art using mostly circular movements and emphasizes aiki. Its offensive techniques are divided into two major categories: projections and immobilizations. Students learn to blend with an attack, then either throw or control the attacker with a potentially painful joint lock. Aikijutsu literally means "the skill of united energy." It was created in the 12th century by the Minamotos, a famous Samurai clan, and is similar to Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu. Thus, though it became known to the general public only recently, the art is in reality many centuries old. In most other arts, strength and speed are stressed in almost every situation. Aikijutsu stresses a softer and slower type of movement, with power to be added only after perfect technique is achieved. Most of the techniques, when done properly, require only a few ounces of pressure to execute effectively. \|Japanese Martial Arts\| \|Aikido \| Aikijutsu \| Atemi Jitsu \| Battojutsu \| Bojutsu \| Dai Jutsu Do \| Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu \| Goshin Jujitsu \| Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu \| Iaido \| Jodo \| Judo \| Jujutsu \| Juttejutsu \| Kashima Shinryu \| Kendo \| Kenjutsu \| Kosho Shorei Ryu Kempo \| Kyokushin \| Kyudo \| Naginata Do \| Nanbudo \| Ninjutsu \| Shidokan \| Shinkendo \| Shintaido \| Shoot boxing \| Shooto \| Shorinji Kempo \| Shugijutsu \| Sumo \| Taido \| Tantojutsu \| Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu \| Yabusame \| Yagyu Shingan Ryu\|
Ceramics and Surface Treatments May-June 2018 Vol. 35, No. 03 Modern all-ceramic systems can be categorized based on their glass and crystalline content. A ceramic with high glass content will exhibit excellent esthetics, whereas a ceramic with high crystalline content will provide superior strength. Ceramics can be classified into three categories based on composition: porcelains (feldspathic), glass ceramics (leucite-reinforced, lithium silicate, and lithium disilicate), and polycrystalline ceramics (zirconia and alumina).
The Best of A fertigation system used on romaine lettuce in Coachella Valley, California. Metered chemical fertilizers are introduced through plastic tubing and injection ports at various points in the irrigation pipe. An elbow provides mixing of the injected chemical with the irrigation water, which is then distributed into multiple Many growers don't simply water their crops. They "fertigate" them. As the name implies, fertigation brings both nutrients and water to plants. Fertigation has many advantages over applying water and fertilizer separately. It saves money by combining the two tasks. It allows growers to fertilize crops throughout the growing season rather than stop when the plants become too unwieldy to allow mechanized applications with conventional machinery. Finally, many crops can thrive with less fertilizer when it's applied throughfertigation. Farmers are interested not only in increasing crop yields, but also in improving water quality, according to Dale A. Bucks, ARS national program leader for water quality and management. Fertigation began with sprinkler irrigation but has advanced to surface and other irrigation systems. Surface irrigation has the added benefit of curbing both nutrient runoff and leaching into streams and groundwater. As soil scientist Floyd Adamsen of ARS's U.S. Water Conservation Laboratory in Phoenix, Arizona, points out, "With fertigation, we're trying to get the fertilizer to stay where we want it." This high-clearance sprayer makes variable-rate nitrogen applications to corn based on sensor readings. The sensors monitor plant stresses that are frequently related to nitrogen status. The main variable Adamsen and agricultural engineer Douglas J. Hunsaker studied was the timing of fertilizer injections throughout an irrigation cycle on date palms grown in borders on a sandy soil in California's Coachella Valley. They found, using bromide as a tracer and stand-in for fertilizer, that it was best to inject fertilizer during the entire irrigation process. The researchers also looked at adding bromide to irrigation water only during certain segments of the irrigation, but this was less successful. The results were similar to studies conducted on furrow irrigation systems in Arizona. The problem with current fertigation practices for surface-irrigated fields is that the mixture isn't always distributed uniformly. Water draining off the field can carry fertilizer with it. Improved surface fertigation practices can reduce field variation to only 10-15 percent. Fertigation performance was improved by ensuring that water applications were optimized for the field and crop conditions and by precise control of fertilizer injections. These Crimson Lady peach trees irrigated by subsurface drip outgrew trees irrigated by other methods during the first 3 years after planting. Newer, pressurized irrigation systems have less field variability of water and fertilizer than surface irrigation does. But many growers are not yet willing to replace surface irrigation with the newer systems. So many areas of the West and Southwest stick to fertigation through surface irrigation. Most wheat growers and a third of cotton growers in Arizona fertigate through surface irrigation systems, according to Steven Husman, a University of Arizona extension agent. You might say Jim Schepers, Dennis Francis, Mike Schlemmer, and Ariovaldo Luchiari are using a short form of remote sensing in their fertigation studies in Lincoln, Nebraska. Instead of using aerial photographs or satellite-generated images, the scientists take stock of the crop's fertilizer needs from a few feet off the ground. Their tool of choice: electronic sensors perched atop high-clearance canopy sprayers. The sensors zap the crop with certain light wavelengths and then measure how much of that light bounces off the plant's surface. The brightness of the returning light is then assigned a numeric value. One way the sensors check for onset of stress due to nitrogen deficiency is to zap the crop with red light, which is absorbed by chlorophyll, an important pigment. Since green, healthy plants have lots of chlorophyll in their leaves, they absorb more red light, and reflect less, than low-chlorophyll plants, such as those needing nitrogen fertilizer. Near infrared, a waveband not visible to humans, is sensitive to the amount of living vegetation present, so it is used to assess plant vigor. The high-clearance sprayers use such information to fertigate with variable, rather than fixed, rates of nitrogen, saving money and reducing the risk of leaching. The sprayers' sensors can monitor the conditions of multiple plants, rows, or areas and collect reflectance readings from them at the rate of 1 to 10 per second. "This allows us to make spatial nitrogen applications that simulate variable-rate fertigation," says Schepers, research leader of ARS's Soil and Water Conservation Research Unit at Lincoln. The sensor studies are part of a cooperative multistate project under way to evaluate this type of fertilization technology for use on corn, wheat, and—to a lesser degree—turf grass. Other ARS scientists in Fort Collins, Colorado, are applying fertilizers and pesticides using precision agriculture technologies, including variable-rate fertigation (see Agricultural Research, October 2000). Schepers says the technology may eventually allow farmers to satisfy their crop's nitrogen fertilizer needs in season rather than trying to predict—before planting—what these will be. Aided by technologies such as the sensors, "Our strategy is to make sure the crop gets off to a good start, monitor its progress, and provide required nutrients as needed." Secrets From Underground Meanwhile, scientists are scrutinizing healthy young peach trees to find out how to fertigate for the best yields of this delicious fruit. Growers already know a lot about how to manage a mature peach orchard. But there's very little scientific information on the water and nutrient needs of a newly planted orchard. There's ongoing interest in the care of young trees. That's because many commercial peach orchards are pulled up every 10 years or so and replaced with new varieties that have more economic potential, says plant physiologist David R. Bryla. Formerly with ARS's Water Management Research Laboratory, Parlier, California, and now with ARS in Corvallis, Oregon, Bryla leads the peach study. He expects to have final results later this year. Earlier Parlier investigations of fertilizer and water needs of three other crops—sweet corn, cotton, and tomatoes—are attracting renewed interest. Completed by ARS scientists about a decade ago, the research demonstrated the benefits of subsurface drip systems. Through tubes buried beneath the soil, these systems bring precise amounts of water and fertilizer to the place they're needed most—plants' roots. James E. Ayars, agricultural engineer at the water management lab, says several factors combined to boost interest in subsurface systems, including the need to prevent seepage of excess nutrients into groundwater and new, impressive improvements in subsurface drip equipment. The Parlier scientists' detailed studies of crops' water use and yield with subsurface drip, as compared to surface systems, still rank as the most comprehensive of their kind.—By David Elstein, Jan Suszkiw, and Marcia Wood, Agricultural Research Service Information Staff. This research is part of Water Quality and Management, an ARS National Program (#201) described on the World Wide Web at www.nps.ars.usda.gov. "The Best of Both Worlds? Fertigation Is an Efficient Way for Many Farmers To Grow Crops" was published in the November 2004 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.
‘Skepticism’ About Global Disease Eradication, Control Programs Should Be ‘Resisted,’ Editorial Says Recent "skepticism" over programs aimed at eradicating and controlling diseases such as polio and malaria should be "resisted" so as not to "revive opposition" to the programs, an editorial in London's Guardian says. Disease control programs "have always been a challenge" and eradication programs "face even more daunting odds," the editorial says (Guardian, 5/4). Last month, an editorial in the Lancet said that the Roll Back Malaria partnership has failed to control the spread of the disease and possibly has "done more harm than good." The Lancet editorial said that advice from the partnership often has been "inadequate" and "conflicting" because of a "lack of clear division of responsibility among partners." It added that RBM has been "ineffective" since it pledged to reduce incidence and mortality rates at a summit in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2000 (GlobalHealthReporting.org, 4/22). However, with the release of the World Malaria Report 2005 on Tuesday, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and RBM "pointed to some successes" -- including a tenfold increase in the use of insecticide-treated nets in 14 African countries and wider access to newer, more-effective malaria drugs in 23 nations, according to the Guardian. Although the report also "conceded overall success was hard to prove," any "opposition" to eradication and control programs resulting from the "mixed news" on RBM's and other such programs' progress should be opposed because the programs can "strengthen the third world's frail health infrastructure," the editorial concludes (Guardian, 5/4).This is part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
Grad students present brain science, crop biology research in series kick-off By Phillip Sitter \| MU Bond Life Sciences Center You never know what conversations you might overhear at a bar. The talk centered on neural proteins and vitamin A-fortified bananas Tuesday night as about 40 science-minded people met at 9th Street Public House for the first Science on Tap CoMo. Science on Tap is a monthly program scheduled for the fourth Tuesday of each month, and it gives Mizzou graduate students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics a chance to present research in their field to a casual audience. Anahita Zare and Nat Graham at Public House, both graduate students at the University of Missouri carried the conversation. Zare, a Ph.D. candidate in chemistry at MU, spoke about her work on the development of a laser that, once completed, will allow her and other researchers to be better able to study neural proteins in their natural environment. With this ability to better scrutinize drug interactions with these proteins — as opposed to just before and after observations — the work could let researchers make advances in the race for cures to diseases of the brain like Alzheimer’s. The incremental progress of work on the laser is all about the tiniest of details. Zare used an analogy of letters and words – “I’m changing letters and watching what happens to the words …” “I know what I’m changing and how I’m changing it, and then see its manifestations,” Zare said about the task. Graham addressed the coming global food security crisis by offering a solution in the form of genetically-engineered crops with higher nutritional content. While the introduction of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) into the global food supply have drawn criticism and protest, Graham was steadfast when he said “I believe lives would be saved if this were released.” He specifically spoke of vitamin A-enriched bananas. It could be ideal for countries like Uganda, a very large exporter and consumer of bananas as a staple crop. Selective breeding techniques — including even exposure of test crops to radioactivity to promote genetic mutations that may prove to be useful — are options in the development of vitamin-enriched crops, but Graham said these other techniques are too unpredictable and time-consuming to guarantee the results needed. Graham said he had no fear of GMOs, and in fact really wanted to try a vitamin A-enriched “super banana,” but obtaining one is difficult because of regulations that forbid crossing state lines with these bananas. He also reminded the audience that although the study of plants often seems boring, it goes beyond gardens and forests. Crops are plants, too, and, among many other things, beer comes from crops. So, food security affects your drink.
A. Create an informational document (length of 2 pages) based on the “Stats Scenario” below that will be given to the medical providers as an overview of clinical trials by doing the following: - Explain how research protocol would impact the medical providers’ practice. - Describe Phase I, II, III, and IV clinical trials. - Explain how HIPAA guidelines are followed. - Explain the process of informed consent. - Discuss how ethics is addressed in clinical trials. a. Include information on bioethics committees. - Explain how the clinical trials team uses the Internet for information on trials. B. Create a survey (length of 1 page) based on the attached “Stats Scenario” that will be distributed to the medical providers by doing the following: Patient Clinical Trial Protocols A research protocol refers to a guideline, which offers a systematic, clear and precise description of the process involved in conducting a clinical research. These guideline is based on the elements which includes the research question, protocol summary, objectives of the study, methodology, methods of statistical analysis, management of data and management of the entire study. This guideline or protocol is in most cases created in a manner that could be assessed by the study’s ethical committee in making sure that the study or researchers comply with the ethical requirement(Angell, 1997). The relation of a research protocol with a medical practitioner is based on the protection of the patient’s privacy and consideration of safety measures during the research process. In a research pertaining to clinical aspects, the participants or patients in this case may be easily forced to take part in the study. Moreover, there is likelihood for the medical practitioner to CLINICAL TRIAL PROTOCOLS 4 misuse the information obtained from such patients for their personal purposes. Therefore, a research protocol is a mandatory document that is required before any clinical research is undertaken. Further, the research protocol should be accompanied with an affirmation document indicating that the HIPAA’s privacy rules will be adhered to in the course of the study with the main goal of enhancing patient’s health. The bioethics committee may not accept a research protocol, which does not include HIPAA privacy regulations on the proper usage or utilization of PHI (Biotech, 2013). Clinical trials concerning new therapies are normally categorized into four phases. It is presumed that the process of trails involving drugs would pass all the phases over a long time. If the trial undergoes Phases I, through to phase 111, then there is a likelihood of it being accepted by the regulatory agencies for utilization in the public arena. Phase 1 is the first stage of the trial while phase II involves the assessment on the effectiveness of the drug being developed. Apparently, the purpose of phase 111 is to evaluate the actual value of the new drug in medical practice. Phase IV is the last “approval” stage for marketing which also involves the evaluation of the drug’s safety aspects (Holland, 2013). Informed consent is a requirement that patients make decisions concerning the medical care they are expected to receive based on their understanding of possible alternatives. It can be a verbal agreement or involve legal documentation indicating that the patient is willing to participate in the Medicare or trial being offered. The process involved in obtaining informed consent is threefold. In the first step, the person conducting the research or researcher in this case explains the purpose of the study to the respective participants, providing all the necessary details including, the aim, risks, advantages, and alternative to taking part. In this process, the participant’s are also required to ask any querry they may have. The second step is where the CLINICAL TRIAL PROTOCOLS 5 participants are given written consent forms to fill. They should be accorded enough time to figure out whether they should participate or not. Step 3 is where the researcher meets the respective participants and answers any questions and clarification that may be needed (University of California, 2011). Survey Cover Letter My name is ( ) and I am a health care informatics at ( ) medical facility. Our organization is currently involved in diabetes and cancer drug trials where we are presently at phase 111 and IV phase of cancer therapy research. The main aim of this survey is to found out whether medical practitioners in this firm were interested in being involved in the clinical trials. Your participation will be deemed important since you are among the medical practitioners and part of this organization. You have been randomly selected to take part in the study through completing The attached questionnaire may only take about 15 minutes of your time to complete. You are also informed that participation in this study is voluntary and no compensenation may arise as such. You may also not include your name in the survey. Information that you will present will be kept confidential. If you decide to participate in this trail, please respond to the questions as honestly as you may be able to. Please return the questionnaire through the email address that was used to send to you. Thank you very much for taking your time to contribute to the medical knowledge and progress of this organization. The information you present will be deemed significant concerning whether medical practitioner had interest in being involved in the ongoing clinical trials. This CLINICAL TRIAL PROTOCOLS 6 information will assist us in determining the way forward on how to cultivate or nature such interest among physicians to improve the phase of clinical trials. - What is your perception concerning clinical trials in general? Please explain - Do you think clinical trials are beneficial to this organization? Please explain how you think they may or may not be beneficial__________________________________ - Have you ever been involved in any clinical trails Yes No - If yes please explain your experience concerning the - If no please state the reasons on why you have not been involved a) Not Interested________ b) Not approached to participate_____________ c) Too busy with other cores___________ d) Any other reason________________________________ e) Not aware______________ - Which trials among the current ones of cancer and diabetes do you think will achieve the most positive outcome? a) Cancer b) Diabetes Explain your answer?_______________ 7Which other trails do you think the organization should also be involved in CLINICAL TRIAL PROTOCOLS 7 a) Aids_________________________ _ c) Heart diseases_______________________ d) Other _ - Please tick where appropriate to you Statement SA A D SA It is the responsibility of each physician to take part in clinical trials Clinical trials consumes a lot of time for Awareness should be created to entire medical fraternity on the essence of clinical trials Clinical trails will generate financial benefits to the Clinical trials should be conducted by independent SA: Strongly agree SA: Strongly agree In analyzing the outcome of this survey, I will employ statistical analysis. This is a description of the major features that were noted in a study. Descriptive statistics offers straightforward summaries on the measures, sample and information obtained in the study. Trochim, (2006) explains that descriptive statistics are employed to provide descriptions that are quantitative in nature (such as the ones in this case) in a form that can be managed. Moreover, this type of analysis could be employed on a large sample and on many measures. In our case, it will be of assistance since we will deal with large number of participants (approximately 250) in CLINICAL TRIAL PROTOCOLS 8 a manner that is sensible. Every descriptive statistic transforms the large quality of information in a simple summary. CLINICAL TRIAL PROTOCOLS 9 Angell, M. (1997). “The Ethics of Clinical Research in the Third World.” New England Journal of Medicine 337(12):847-849 Biotech base, (2013). “The Impact of Clinical Trial Protocol on Healthcare Providers”. Holland, J (2013). “Fixing a broken drug development process”. Journal of Commercial Trochim, W.M (2006). “Descriptive Statistics”. University of California, (2011). “Informed Consent Process”
If women's news receives the coverage it deserves during the next week or so, then there will be stories about women and the vote. Headlines may read something like: "Ninety Years Since Women Were Given the Vote!" The problem is "were given" is dead-on inaccurate; even the wording, "got the vote" does not begin to explain the battle that women suffragists waged in order for women to vote. Like Martin Luther King and others in the civil rights movement, leaders of the suffrage movement such as Susan B. Anthony were also arrested. There were protests and there were planned demonstrations. Certainly there were also allies and strong supporters of the movement that were men as a commenter rightfully suggests we remember. Without allies movements can be doomed. On April 6, 1917 the United States entered World War I, and the atmosphere of the country changed. Suffragists outside the White House began taunting Wilson about sending men to die for democracy when women didn't have the right to vote at home. The White House administration was perplexed, not wanting Wilson to face a fuss at home in the midst of a global war; and they let the police know they were ready for the picketers to go away. When spectators assaulted the picketing suffragists, the police did nothing to stop them, and finally, police finally determined they could arrest the suffragists on charges of obstructing traffic. This did little to stop the White House protesters, so the police arrested one of the leaders, Alice Paul. She and several other women were sentenced to jail, with Paul receiving a particular harsh sentence of seven months. Paul then led the others in a hunger strike, saying it was the only protest left to them. After a couple of weeks of this, the prison doctors ordered force-feeding of the women. Newspapers carried sympathetic stories about the women's jail terms and the forced feedings, and support for the cause actually grew. So let's take this back to Texas where those like McLeroy on the State School Board have begun to re-write history forcing ridiculous changes in textbooks and within the overall curriculum. While, McElroy lost his bid for reelection there are others competing for spots on the board this fall that would continue this push. For about the last 15 years , right-wing Texans have been trying to systematically change the curriculum in public schools. These changes especially in textbooks have been drastic and represent the philosophical madness of the right Wing and the assault on public education. For example in 1995, a lady pictured carrying a briefcase was removed and replaced with a lady carying a cake because it was deemed to be a "more appropriate" depiction of a role model. Surely the next logical step would be to incorporate into the curriculum the chauvinistic idea that men gave women the right to vote . That it was not an inalienable right. When we celebrate freedoms earned through years of trudging and plodding through a movement we must remember that the fights still continue. The Texas School Board elections this fall matter to all of us. So why should the Texas School Board and their curriculum decisions matter to us in Alabama, Georgia, California or New York? A number of reasons. Texas supplies 1/10th of the Textbooks in the Country. Texas and California are the biggest purchasers of textbooks in the Country. What is adopted in Texas is ultimately what other states will get. So if Texas textbooks take out references to Thomas Jefferson and the Age of Enlightenment or substitute Democracy with the phrase Constitutional Republic that's what is going to be the trend nationwide. Furthermore, California with their budget crisis has cut textbook funding. So what you will see is a lack of balance in the textbooks to choose from for the rest of the country. It's clear that the right wingers have their own misguided agenda. They want to use textbooks to influence their values and ideals. Politicians not educators are trying to re-write history and science. They want to put Sean Hannity and James Dobson in the forefront of what is being taught to our children. That alone should scare us all. Enough is enough. Every movement will be minimized. Our children will essentially be told that rights were given by white men to women and minorities. However, we have a chance to ensure that this school board will be held in check by those who understand how education should work and will work to take the demagoguery and politics out of the school board. Judy Jennings and Rebecca Bell Metereau are brave enough to run in such a tough political climate. They knew that what they were doing was important for the Texas Education system, but they also realize the effect that leaving the board in the hands of the extremists could have on the entire nation. Texas School Board districts are the size of roughly two Congressional Districts. The candidates have a lot of ground to cover over the next 100 days. They also need our help. Please make a $5, $10 or $50 donation to Rebecca and Judy so that we can stand up against the right wing extremists everywhere. You can post this diary or other info about this race on your facebook page. Use the hashtag #savehistory and tweet about this issue and the election. Honor those who fought hard for earning rights that were absolutely never given. Honor those who are still fighting against those who would prefer to take those rights away.
BROKEN HEART SYNDROME Most individuals at a point in their lives have suffered from a broken heart. We often get hurt when we receive messages like; “it’s over between us”, “sorry, your mum couldn’t make it, we lost her”, “you aren’t good enough for this task”, and among others. The birth of this popular quote, “I’d rather have a broken arm than a broken heart” is as a result of the excruciating pain that comes with a broken heart. Come to think of it, does your heart really break physically? Heartbreak is a metaphor that has been used over the years to represent an emotional stress or pain one feels at experiencing great deep longing. Now, scientists say that the pain from a broken heart isn’t just emotional but physical too. So yes, in some cases there is a physical injury to the heart which causes your heart muscles to get weaker and change in structure. Not all people who have a broken heart will end up with broken heart syndrome. It all depends on one’s ability to cope with stress. What then is broken heart syndrome? Broken heart syndrome is a group of symptoms which present when there is a sudden temporary weakening of the heart muscles as a result of stressful situations and extreme emotions. It usually follows deep emotional experience such as near-death experience, loss of a loved one, severe financial distress, physical or verbal abuse, a memory of a bad event, and among others. It is interesting to know that it’s not always caused by negative experience but sometimes even positive ones such as; winning a lottery, a surprise party, public speaking etc. Serious illness, surgery or medical procedures and certain drugs may also contribute to this syndrome. Other names given to this syndrome include; stress-induced cardiomyopathy, Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, apical ballooning syndrome. What happens during broken-heart syndrome? The actual mechanism behind this unusual phenomenon remains unclear, but it is believed that within a few hours of extreme emotional or physical trauma, stress hormones such as adrenaline are released in high quantities. The surge of these hormones plays a role in causing transient stunning of the left ventricle. The adrenaline surge causes constriction of the peripheral arteries thereby raising blood pressure and placing more stress on the heart. It may also lead to spasm of the coronary arteries supplying blood to the heart muscle. This impairs the arteries from delivering adequate blood flow and oxygen to the heart muscle. These events lead to the weakening of the ventricular muscles which results in low cardiac output and present similar to a heart attack. Signs and Symptoms Symptoms of broken heart syndrome appear suddenly, following a stressful event. Patients with the broken-heart syndrome usually experience symptoms that are clinically indistinguishable from the acute coronary syndrome. - chest pain or pressure - shortness of breath - rapid heartbeats If you are experiencing any of these symptoms after going through emotional stress, it’s more likely you have broken heart syndrome. Most importantly, you have to see your doctor because it might be a heart attack since it has similar symptoms. How is broken heart syndrome diagnosed? To differentiate broken heart syndrome, history and physical examination of the patient is very important due to the factors that lead to the disease. Since it’s indistinguishable from a heart attack, the following are some of the tests done to rule out a heart attack. - Electrocardiogram (ECG) is used to measure the heart’s electrical activity. Often manifest on ECG as “ST” changes similar to that of a heart attack. - Echocardiogram is used to see if your heart has an abnormal shape, and pumps normally. In case of broken heart syndrome, the left ventricle usually has a poor pumping activity. - Blood tests may often show high levels of substances called cardiac enzymes in the blood. - Coronary angiogram uses dye and a type of X-ray to take pictures inside the heart’s arteries. Results are usually normal as compared to that of a heart attack which is partially or completely blocked. How is broken heart syndrome different from a heart attack? Differentiating the two is not an easy task for clinicians. It requires a definitive diagnostic tool like the coronary angiogram to detect whether the heart vessels are blocked or not. Heart attacks are generally caused by a complete or partial blockage of a heart artery. This blockage is as a result of a blood clot forming in the wall of the artery from fatty buildup (atherosclerosis). In broken heart syndrome, the heart arteries are not blocked, although blood flow in the arteries of the heart may be reduced. Although broken heart syndrome can occasionally be fatal, most people recover within days or weeks. Symptoms of broken heart syndrome are usually treated like those of a heart attack. Once a diagnosis is made, broken heart syndrome is treated with medications such as - ACE inhibitors to lower blood pressure - beta blockers to slow the heart rate - Diuretics to decrease fluid buildup - Anti-anxiety medications to manage stress. As treatment of broken heart takes a few days or weeks, we know that emotional scars take a little bit longer. Practice the following to avoid broken heart syndrome when you are emotionally or physically stressed. - Get a support system. Speak to someone, share your problems with a friend, relative or better still a psychologist. Problem shared is half solved. - Learn to forgive - Cry if you feel like - Eat healthily - Have good rest - Give someone a hug - Practice leisure activities - Avoid drinking alcohol, overeating, illicit drug use or smoking. For more tips on developing stress-resilient attitudes, read our article on stress The prognosis is typically encouraging, with about 95% of patients experiencing complete recovery within weeks. Broken heart syndrome if left unattended may result in complications in the early stage such as; - Left heart failure - Shock (specifically cardiogenic) - Mitral regurgitation - Ventricular arrhythmias - Left ventricular mural thrombus formation - Left ventricular free-wall rupture How common is broken heart syndrome? Broken heart syndrome was first described in Japan in 1990 by Sato et al. The Japanese word “takotsubo” translates to “octopus pot,” or “octopus trap” a round-bottomed, narrow-necked vessel used to catch octopuses. It is named after this condition due to the resemblance of the shape of the left ventricle during pumping (systole) to this pot on imaging studies. Broken heart syndrome is rare, affecting between 1.2% and 2.2% of people in Japan and 2% to 3% in Western countries who suffer a heart attack. It also affects women far more than men with 90% of cases being postmenopausal women. The average ages at onset are between 58 and 75 years. Less than 3% of cases occurred in patients under age 50. It is not likely for the same recovered patient to experience the syndrome twice, although it has happened in rare cases. In a literature review of cases in which race was reported, Asians recorded the highest incidence of about 57.2% of patients, 40% were white, and 2.8% were other races. A recent study found that widows and widowers were 41 per cent more likely to die within the first 6 months after losing their spouse. Take home message In life we don’t always get what we want; hopes and dreams get washed away so easily, chances are missed, closed ones are lost, hearts are broken, but always remember it always gets better with time. So far as you have life, there is hope. A living dog is better than a dead lion.
For the first time since the 1800s, scientists have discovered a huge empty space in the Great Pyramid of Giza. An international team of scientists have just released a new study that suggests that there is a 30-meter-long hidden space in the Great Pyramid of Giza that no one knew about until now. The scientists used modern technology to visualize the pyramid’s insides, and that is when they noticed the mysterious void deep within the limestone and granite walls of the pyramid. The study, published in the journal Nature, could help scientists better understand how the pyramid was constructed thousands of years ago. The pyramid has three rooms we already knew about: the King’s chamber, the Queen’s chamber, and the Grand Gallery passageway. This is the first time a large space has been spotted since the 1800s. Scientists tracked particles that are called muons which are caused by cosmic rays hitting atoms in the upper atmosphere, and they lose energy as they pass through materials. The researchers used detectors to count the number of muons that passed through the pyramid, and that is how they stumbled upon the space. “The Great Pyramid or Khufu’s Pyramid was built on the Giza Plateau (Egypt) during the IVth dynasty by the pharaoh Khufu (Cheops), who reigned from 2509 to 2483 BC1,” the paper’s abstract reads. “Despite being one of the oldest and largest monuments on Earth, there is no consensus about how it was built. To better understand its internal structure, we imaged the pyramid using muons, which are by-products of cosmic rays that are only partially absorbed by stone. “The resulting cosmic-ray muon radiography allows us to visualize the known and potentially unknown voids in the pyramid in a non-invasive way. Here we report the discovery of a large void (with a cross section similar to the Grand Gallery and a length of 30 m minimum) above the Grand Gallery, which constitutes the first major inner structure found in the Great Pyramid since the 19th century 1.”
A Chinese spacecraft has been able to obtain images of the entire surface of Mars, proving once and for all that if there is alien life out there, it is not on Mars. The Chinese space program CNSA (China National Space Administration) launched an orbiter spacecraft and a rover that officially reached the Red Planet in February 2021. Tianwen 1 Orbitor Captures Amazing Photos The orbiter spacecraft, named Tianwen 1, reached the planet first and, since its arrival, has rotated around Mars a total of 1,344 times, allowing it to capture images of the planet from all angles and sides. This also allowed the orbiter to get imagery of Mars's South side, which is often dark and considered unreachable. The reason for the delay in imaging was it had to complete its first task upon arrival, scoping out the surface of Utopia Planitia, where the rover was due to land. After gathering repeated images of the region, the Zhurong Rover was able to touchdown in May of 2021 and also started to explore Mars and capture imagery. What Does This Mean? While it is a sad day for the Looney Tunes Martian, it is a significant step forward for space exploration that the Chinese intend to build on. Now that complete imagery has been gained by Tianwan 1, the spacecraft will start aerobraking tests to measure the friction in the atmosphere on Mars to help gather data that will help the next Chinese mission. Tianwen 3, the next Mars spacecraft, is currently being prepared to collect samples of water and dirt and then return to Earth. The full scope of the mission is still being formed but is not expected to launch until at least 2028. In the meantime, the Tianwen 2 is expected to launch in 2025 but will head towards an asteroid closer to Earth to collect a sample and then look at another space rock. Is the Rover Going to Collect More Information? The exploration on Mars is not on a break, however, as the Zhurong Rover is still sitting on the surface of Mars and will collect more information once Mar's winter officially ends. Right now, it is sitting on the planet's dark side, but once it detects the rising levels of light, it will start to explore the planet in more depth. Water On Mars The most stunning images so far are those taken on the South Pole of the planet, where a collection of photographs of the water resources were gathered. The presence of water on Mars raises the question of whether Mars could be an inhabitable planet in the future for humans and potentially the base of a new space camp. Get the latest from The Futurist every afternoon in your inbox Check out some of the newest posts from The Futurist
The Rise of Childhood Type 1 Diabetes in the 20th Century (Downloading may take up to 30 seconds. If the slide opens in your browser, select File -> Save As to save it.) Click on image to view larger version. Incidence of diabetes in Oslo, 1925–1954, per 100,000/year. The rate of onset under the age of 30 years was constant, whereas incidence rates fell rapidly in older age-groups as a consequence of wartime rationing. Redrawn from data in Westlund (18).
There have been many drones with some of the most jaw-dropping features. With the ever-changing technology, everything we know about drones keeps on changing and evolving. Drones are known to have a short battery life. Most of the commercial drones can fly from 30 minutes to an hour (depending upon the type of drone) on a single charge. After its stipulated time, the drone is compelled to shut down and recharge. Military grade drones may take it several notches higher as they can stay in the air for several hours together. However, even they run out of charge and have to land for refueling. From the biggest to the smallest, all UAVs come with their limitations. The U.S army is in a constant attempt to break this limitation and has been working on a technology that may make it possible for drones to stay in the air forever. This technology operates around the use of lasers. The way this works is that the operator shoots a high-intensity laser from the ground aimed at a photovoltaic cell (solar cells) present on the body of the drone. The energy from the laser is absorbed by the photovoltaic cell and converted to electricity, this in turn powers up the drone and can allow it to hover for an indefinite amount of time. This project is being undertaken by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) which is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. They call this technology the Stand-off Ubiquitous Power/Energy Replenishment – Power Beaming Demo (SUPER PBD). DARPA reckons that they may be able to achieve this kind of mid-air drone recharging from a distance of 6.8 miles (11 Km). They have chosen the Silent Falcon drone as the optimum drone for its trials and are working on developing the technology for it. Like any other new invention, this one also faces many hurdles. Without overcoming these crucial challenges, the laser powering system is as good as fiction. The laser which would be used in this project is of high intensity and the biggest threat is of excessive heating caused by the laser. When the solar cells receive the laser beam, not all of it is converted into electricity. The remaining of the energy from the laser is transferred as heat and if not controlled it can even melt the drone. Therefore, if they can manage to dissipate the excess heat, it might help overcome the biggest obstacle. Real World Environment DARPA states that the laser powering system may be able to work from a distance of 6.8 miles but considering the nature of lasers that may or may not work efficiently as the further a laser beam goes, the more it loses its intensity and tends to become weaker. Moreover, lasers have difficulty navigating through real-world environments like fog, rain, smoke, etc. Such natural obstacles can easily block lasers hence that may also need some looking after. Damage to the Environment The laser system as mentioned would be operated from the ground and from a far-off distance. Therefore, if the laser is not aimed exactly at the photovoltaic cells of the drone, it may pose a threat of damaging other surroundings. It may cause forest fires in a natural habitat or if used for commercial drones within the city, the risks are uncountable. Currently, the Army is working to power drones on the ground before using this technology for mid-air recharge. They aim to achieve this feat by early 2019. Once powered on the ground they plan on starting trials to power drones via lasers during flight in 2020. Gradually, they intend to resolve the hurdles and with appropriate regulations make their laser-powered drones ready for take-off.
December 1, 2014 The Significance of Local History “Losing special places is like swallowing a bitter pill….[It] deepens your appreciation of the special places that remain and [helps you] learn how to protect them.” Land Conservation & Historic Preservation \| JM Goldson Fewer and fewer townships can boast of a structure dating back to 1762, much less the abundance of rich history that Dartmouth proudly enjoys. Part of the charm of New England is the ability to trace our heritage back to those who were establishing homesteads and thriving communities hundreds of years ago, by analyzing structures that have survived the test of time. With the information gleaned from DHPT’s work in Dartmouth, we can continue to preserve local history for future generations to study and appreciate. The DHPT holds historic preservation restrictions on sites integral to the foundation and development of Dartmouth, including the Gulf Hill Dairy Farm and the Russell’s Mills Schoolhouse. Presently, our most important project and the centerpiece of our organization is the continued restoration of the 1762 Elihu Akin House at 762 Dartmouth Street. “I think the Akin House is important because it (represents) what little records we have for a house and a family from that era,” states Damon May, architect and a member of the Community Preservation Committee and the Dartmouth Historical Commission. (SouthCoastTODAY.com) During the summers of 2007, 2008, and 2009, Dr. Christina Hodge of Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Ethnology & Archaeology directed the archaeological fieldwork at the Akin House as part of a summer program with UMASS-Dartmouth students. Dr. Hodge’s reports along with a collection of artifacts obtained at the Akin House are part of the special collections at the UMASS-Dartmouth campus. Her scholarly thesis below is inserted at the end of this post. Archaeological findings at UMass library To read more about the archaeological findings that currently reside at UMass Dartmouth, see the article on their archive page. University Contact info: Claire T. Carney Library University of Massachusetts Dartmouth 285 Old Westport Road Dartmouth, MA 02747 email [email protected] Web site: http://www.lib.umassd.edu/archives/Archives.html Prepared by Dr. Christina Hodge: “This paper reflects on processes of memory- and history-making at the Elihu Akin House, a historic site in a New England coastal village.” To read more, see PDF below.
Teacher Talk: your string teaching questions answered by our panel of experts How long should a young player work on a repertoire piece? Notorious pedagogues from days of yore often kept a student on a piece ‘until they had mastered it’. However, today’s fast pace seems to demand constant change.?? Justine Renfrew, Santa Fe, New Mexico Bruno Giuranna:? A balance is necessary between just surfing around the repertoire and working on a piece when no more progress is noticeable. Students shouldn’t practise things that are too difficult for them before they have sufficient and adequate skills. Often students are obliged to spend many, many months on a piece because they are confronted with music that is too hard. For the sake of freshness and spontaneity they should start studying that piece after having faced – and solved – similar difficulties in their technical preparation. Boris Kuschnir:? The duration depends on the goal that the teacher sets for the student. For example, they might choose a piece to practise technical problems such as vibrato, staccato, spiccato, legato, bow division, double-stops or the learning of different musical characters and styles. When the student reaches a good level, normally the best thing would be to leave the piece and get on with something else. Of course, in the case of recordings, important concerts or competitions, we should look for the mastery of that piece, which could take months, or even years. Jeff Bradetich:? If the teacher uses the solo repertoire to teach the student how to play the instrument, it will take much longer to master a work technically, therefore demanding a longer preparation time. If the student’s technique is built away from the repertoire through scales, technical exercises and etudes, and repertoire is chosen that is appropriate to the basic level of the student’s ability, then the work can be assimilated much more quickly. This requires much less spoon-feeding on the part of the teacher and the lessons can focus more on how the notes are being played, rather than on what notes are being played. Specifically on the double bass, many technical problems ensue when the difficulty of the work is beyond the student’s current level. This applies as much to orchestral excerpts as it does solo repertoire. At some point problems have to be corrected and that cannot be done simply through repertoire. Bruno Giuranna teaches viola at the Fondazione Stauffer in Cremona, the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano and the University of Limerick in Ireland Boris Kuschnir is violin professor at the Vienna Conservatoire and at the University of Music in Graz Jeff Bradetich is professor of double bass at the University of North Texas College of Music and at Cleveland Institute of Music Our Teacher Talk series was first published in The Strad in January 2011. Subscribe to The Strad and get the best in teaching tips every month, from Simon Fischer’s long-running Basics column to advice from top string players in Masterclass. Or click here to find out about our digital edition
What is a pinched nerve? A pinched nerve, also known as a damaged or compressed nerve, develops when a nerve root is either injured or inflamed. The nerve section of the root is where the nerve branches off from the spinal cord. It is possible to pinch a nerve in different parts of the spine, including your neck, thoracic, or lumbar spine. A pinched nerve could lead to radiculopathy, a disease of the root of the nerve. Symptoms of this disease can lead to numbness, tingling, weakness, and pain in your arm. Pinched nerves affect 85 out of 100,000 adults in the United States every year but especially affects middle-aged adults. Pinched nerves are often caused by herniated discs in early middle-aged adults. A herniated disc occurs when one of the soft discs in between the vertebrae of your spine slips out and irritates any nearby nerves. A herniated disc could also come as a result of sudden twisting, lifting, or bending. Pinched discs become more common the older you get with these irritating discs occurring most often between the ages 50-54. In middle-aged and older people, this slipped disc is often caused by age-related degeneration in the spine. Over time and with age, discs can shrink and shorten, which may cause vertebrae to compress and collide as well as irritate other nearby nerves. Abnormal bone growths may also force the nearby nerves to compress. A pinched nerve in the neck may not feel very serious, and disguise itself with pain similar to the feeling of pins and needles embedded into your neck. A pinched nerve may also give pain or weakness in one of your shoulders, arms, or hands. Yes, at times you may have to undergo medical treatment, but if the pain is not too severe then you may be able to pass by with some exercises that will hopefully relieve the pain within a week. Come in for a session and allow our experienced Delaware physical therapists the chance to relieve your pain. Trapped or pinched nerve exercises If you are feeling unsure or are unclear on the exercises listed below, it is important to know that your physical therapists can provide you with expert, specifically recommended exercises. If the pain is not too severe, then you may be able to relieve the pain with very gentle and slow exercises. These certain movements are focused on stretching muscles in the neck and relieving pressure on the nerve. If you are cautious about causing any more damage, prevent any more nerve injuries by conducting the exercises carefully and slowly. It is safe to do this either standing up or sitting down. Your trapezius muscles are one of the many muscles on the back of your neck. If these muscles are too tight, they may compress your spine and its nerves. - Carefully place your right hand under your thigh - Use your left hand to gently bend your head to the left - Pause for about 30 seconds, then repeat 3 times on each side. This move will improve the posture on your head and neck as well as reduce tension on your neck. - Place your fingers onto your chin - Very gently push your chin back into your neck until you feel a “double chin” - Hold for 3 to 5 seconds, then relax - Repeat this movement for 3 to 5 times - Straighten your head and neck, then look straight ahead - Slowly turn your head to the left for 10 seconds - Repeat but turn your head to the right - Tilt your head from up to down as well - Slowly move your chin down and to your chest - Pause. Return back to your original position - Repeat this from 5 - 10 times - Lift up your shoulder blades, then carefully roll them back and then down - Repeat this from 5 to 6 times - Repeat in the opposite direction. - (Back then Forward)
How to Mind Map in Seven Steps... Take the time to learn how to Mind Map with these seven steps, and use the Mind Map principles to guide you. - Start in the centre of a blank page - Turn the page sideways - Your brain has more freedom to spread out in all directions - Use an Image or Picture for your central idea - An Image is worth a thousand words - It stimulates your imagination - It is more interesting - It keeps you focused - It helps you concentrate - Use Colours throughout - Colours are exciting to the brain - Colours add vibrancy and life to your Mind Map - Clours add energy to your creative thinking - Connect Main Branches to the central image - Connect second and third level branches - The brain works by association - The brain likes to link things together - Linking the branches creates structure - Make your lines curved - Straight lines are boring - Curved branches are attractive - Use One Key Word per line - Single Key Words give your Mind Map more power and flexibility - Each word or image creates its own associations and connections - Each Key Word is able to spark off new ideas and thoughts - Phrases dampen this triggering effect - Use Images throughout - Each image is worth a thousand words - 10 images will give you 10 000 words! Try to memorise these seven steps. Use the Mind Map overview of the seven steps to help you remember. I hope that you've noticed the inclusion of Mind Maps in our articles. This enables you to get used to seeing things in both a linear and Mind Map format and therefore allowing your brain to adjust without any effort on your part. You are now armed with all the knowledge to do your first Mind Map using both words and images. If you want to, you can either review the principles and steps again, or go on to the next article and use the Mind Map example to create your first Mind Map. Learning how to Mind Map with our short, easy articles and Mind Map examples will make you a Mind Map expert in no time. Return from How to Mind Map in Seven Steps to Using Mind Maps homepage
\|View animated image\| \|Year of discovery\|\|Unknown\| Ants is a period 5 wick with standard form shown to the right. Beyond the standard form, there is a wide variety of other ants because that is a general form of patterns moving orthogonally, one cell per generation. For example, it is also possible for any ant to be displaced by one or two cells relative to either or both of its neighbouring ants. Dean Hickerson found fenceposts for both ends of this wick in October 1992 and February 1993. Ants can be either wide or narrow while still maintaining the spatial (and hence temporal) periodicity 5; but they can also be much longer yet still retaining the same style of movement. There is a grammar, derived from de Bruijn diagrams, succintly encompassing the alternatives. Longitudinal period 5 deBruijn diagram This de Bruijn diagram has two major subdiagrams. On the left, the cycle ABC generates the classical ant stream. A detour through the self loop at Z provides parallel streams with arbitrary vertical spacing, which is possible because the ant's legs are only of length 2. The yellow box indicates a slip line along which adjacent streams could be displaced. The linkage between cycles on the right side of the diagram is more complicated. Streams containing ants with legs of length three (or more) need a guard rail separating them, which is provided by the self loop at node G; taken by itself it generates the Zebra stripes agar. Equally with the free space, this node generates slip lines. The loop DE taken in that order generates 4x3 ants which can snuggle next to each other without the guard rail, although DGE can include it every now and then. Including node F in the cycle yields the head of a 4x5 ant which requires the legs of the ant to its right to guide it. Making the excursion EA, returning via BD, creates an intermixture wherein the classical ants can travel amongst ants from the right side, short legs alongside each other. Altogether any path through the diagram generates a phalanx of ants whose spatial period is 5 and which advance longitudinally one cell per generation - at light speed, if one wishes to say so. In practice, an ant stream might terminate on the left, creating a wick; it is also possible to realign ants vertically. It requires transversal de Bruijn diagrams, and diagrams of different spatial periodicities to encompass all these variants; here we have examined only the one special case to show that ants can be foreseen, and that they occur in a large variety which nevertheless can be enumerated. On January 10, 1994 it was noticed by Alan Hensel that if a single cell is removed from the back end of the trailing ant, it becomes a fuse with the peculiar property that its burning reaction grows quadratically. This reaction is known as the quadfuse. - Jason Summers' jslife oversize pattern collection. Retrieved on May 19, 2009. - Ants at Eric Weisstein's Treasure Trove of Life - Ants at the Life Lexicon
Every time you pull the trigger, lots of violent things happen inside the chamber of your gun. - The primer ignites. - The primer ignition sets flame to the propellant, which then begins to burn at an obscenely fast rate. It doesn’t technically explode (unless you’re using black powder) but it burns so fast you might think it’s exploding. - As the propellant burns, the chemical reaction creates high-pressure gas, which has to go somewhere—fast. - This swelling gas cloud inside your cartridge does two things. First, it expands the brass cartridge case until it’s pressing against the inside walls of the gun’s chamber. Then, it pushes the projectile hard enough to overcome the friction of the cartridge case mouth and launch it down the gun barrel. - As the bullet leaves the cartridge, and the pressure starts to drop, the brass cartridge case starts to shrink back closer to its original size—but not all the way. - The cartridge case mouth will be opened up a bit as a bullet that was comfortably seated there has just been violently ejected. All of this happens in a split second and is the reason that, when reloading your own ammunition, you need to resize the brass cartridge case. While resizing the cartridge case rarely compresses a case to its original size, it will crush it back within cartridge dimension standards, allowing it to chamber in any gun of the proper caliber. A resizing die is simply a carefully-shaped hunk of metal that is used to “press” the empty cartridge case back to standardized dimensions. The brass cartridge case is forced into the interior of the die with a reloading press and the internal shape of the resizing die presses the brass back into the proper dimensions. Think of this process as making a hamburger. You take a misshapen pile of ground beef, and using pressure from the outside, you shape it into the desired form. With fired brass, you take a cartridge case that has contained a massive conflagration, and therefore expanded in size, and press it back into shape. Unlike the hamburger, brass is hard and tastes lousy, hence the need for a steel reloading die and a reloading press to apply the the necessary pressure. Brass is not as easy to “work” as hamburger meat, and significantly more pressure than is available with bare hands is required to reshape it to standard size. Squashing a brass case into a steel hole under great pressure will almost certainly result in a unified piece of useless steel-brass metal as two parts are hopelessly stuck. Why? Unlike hamburger meat, neither brass or steel have yummy, slippery fat grease naturally available. So, when resizing brass, you need to have some type of lubrication. Depending on the type of cartridge you’re resizing, this can be done in a couple of different ways. Let’s talk about how that’s handled in both straight-walled and bottlenecked cartridges. Pistol brass (straight-walled cartridges) By “straight-walled” I simply mean that the cartridge case is shaped like a cylinder that has the same diameter from the rim of the cartridge to the mouth—like a toilet paper roll or aluminum soda can. Not all pistol cartridge cases are like this. A great example of an exception is the .357 Sig, which is shaped more like an old Coke bottle as it narrows as you get closer to the case mouth. In these rare cases, you need to resize it as you would a bottlenecked rifle cartridge. We’ll get to that in a minute. Even though most pistol cartridges have straight walls and resizing is minimal, lubrication is still required. This is where ingenuity comes into play. Some clever reloading engineer figured out that carbide is a little more slick than standard steel. If you could make a reloading die out of carbide, then additional lubrication would not be required, as the brass case won’t stick to the carbide material. Most reloading dies for straight-walled cartridges have a carbide ring. As you pass the “ring” down the length of the cartridge case, it resizes as it goes—without grease. Rifle brass (bottlenecked cartridges) When your cartridge case is shaped more like a World War II pin-up model than a soda can, there are a lot more curves to press and shape into proper dimensions. In addition to the exterior sizing, bottleneck resizing dies also have a case mouth expander ball. This pushes inside the case mouth during the resizing step and opens the mouth just enough for insertion of a new bullet. This means there is even more opportunity for the brass case to get stuck in your reloading die. When you resize a piece of bottlenecked rifle cartridge brass, you definitely need to lubricate it first. One partial exception is case neck resizing. While outside the scope of this article, if you intend to use your cartridges in the same rifle, every time, you don’t need to resize the full case. But that discussion is for another time. The problem is that you don’t want the interior or exterior of your brass casing to have wet and gooey lubricant after you’re finished resizing. If lubricant slop is left on the inside of your case, it can interfere with your powder or primer performance. If it’s left on the outside of the cartridge, chambering and ejection will be impacted. It can even be dangerous. If you use too much lubricant, you can dent your case when resizing. Remember high-school chemistry when you learned that liquids aren’t compressible? If you were sleeping or cutting class, here’s a hint: the brass bends first. So when it comes to a case lubrication strategy, you have a couple of choices: - You can use a “wet” lube, like this RCBS Case lube pad. The idea is to apply a little RCBS lube to the sponge-like pad and roll your brass on it before resizing. You can also use a wet spray, like this RCBS Case Slick. These types of “wet” lubrication approaches work great. You have to work pretty hard to get a stuck case in your resizing die. The drawback is that you need to remove the lubricant from the case before firing. You can wipe each one off or re-clean the cases with a tumbler or ultrasonic cleaner after resizing. - If you won’t want to mess with the extra step of removing lubricant, you can try a “dry” lube approach. Products like Hornady’s One Shot are “waxy” in nature and don’t need to be removed. However, I’ve found them to be more sensitive to proper procedure. Generally, you need to spray on the lube, then let it dry thoroughly before resizing. If you don’t allow adequate drying time, you’ll get a stuck case. Tip: One small step that makes a huge difference is brushing and/or dry lubing the interior of the case neck. Simply brushing the gunk out of the case mouth prior to resizing reduces the resizing force significantly. If you want to be really smooth, dip the open mouth into some mica powder to provide dry lubrication to the inside of the mouth. One thing is sure when it comes to rifle case resizing—you’ll learn by experimentation. You’ll get some cases stuck, which will require you to buy a stuck-case removal kit. Or, you can rig one up yourself from pieces and parts from the local hardware store. Either way, it’s money well spent. With rifle cartridges, the payoff for perseverance with case resizing is great. Not only can you save a lot of money per cartridge, you can really tune a load to your specific gun for accuracy, power level, and intended use. Images by Tom McHale
Lev (Leo) Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born into a large and wealthy Russian landowning family in 1828, on the family estate of Yasnaya Polyana. Tolstoy’s mother died when he was only two years old, and he idealized her memory throughout his life. Some critics speculate that the early loss of his mother colors Tolstoy’s portrayal of the young Seryozha in Anna Karenina. When Tolstoy was nine, the family moved to Moscow. Shortly afterward his father died, murdered while traveling. Being orphaned before the age of ten, albeit without financial worries, left Tolstoy with an acute awareness of the power of death—an idea central to all his great works and especially evident in the strong association of the character of Anna Karenina with mortality. Though an intelligent child, Tolstoy had little interest in -academics. His aunt had to work hard to persuade him to go to university, and he failed his entrance exam on his first attempt. Eventually matriculating at Kazan University at the age of sixteen, Tolstoy studied law and Oriental languages. He showed interest in the grand heroic cultures of Persia, Turkey, and the Caucasus—an interest that persisted throughout his life. He was not popular at the university, and was self-conscious about his large nose and thick eyebrows. Ultimately, Tolstoy was dissatisfied with his education, and he left in 1847 without a degree. The social awkwardness of Konstantin Levin at the beginning of Anna Karenina reflects Tolstoy’s own discomfort in fancy social surroudings at this time in his life. In 1851, Tolstoy visited his brother in the Russian army and then decided to enlist shortly afterward. He served in the Crimean War (1854–1856) and recorded his experience in his Sevastopol Stories (1855). Tolstoy was able to write during his time in the army, producing a well-received autobiographical novel, Childhood (1852), followed by two others, Boyhood (1854) and Youth (1857). He ultimately evolved antimilitaristic feelings that can be seen in his implicit criticism of enthusiasm for the Slavic war in the final section of Anna Karenina. In 1862, Tolstoy married Sofya Andreevna Behrs. He devoted most of the next two decades to raising a large family, managing his estate, and writing his two greatest novels, War and Peace (1865–1869) and Anna Karenina (1875–1877). Levin’s courtship of Kitty Shcherbatskaya in Anna Karenina was modeled on Tolstoy’s own courtship of Sofya Andreevna, down to details such as the forgotten shirt that delays Levin’s wedding. In the years just prior to his marriage, Tolstoy had visited western Europe, partly to observe educational methods abroad. Upon returning, he founded and taught at schools for his peasants. His contact with his peasants led to a heightened appreciation for their morality, camaraderie, and enjoyment of life. Indeed, Tolstoy became quite critical of the superficiality of upper-class Russians, as we can see in Levin’s discomfort with urban high society in Anna Karenina. Ultimately, Tolstoy developed a desire to seek spiritual regeneration by renouncing his family’s possessions, much to the dismay of his long-suffering wife. Tolstoy’s life spanned a period of intense development for his home country. By the time of Tolstoy’s death in 1910, Russia had transformed from a backward agricultural economy into a major industrialized world power. This period witnessed major debates between two intellectual groups in Russia: the Slavophiles, who believed Russian culture and institutions to be exceptional and superior to European culture, and the Westernizers, who believed that Russia needed to follow more liberal, Western modes of thought and government. We see traces of this debate about the destiny of Russia—whether it should join Europe in its march toward secular values and scientific thought or reject modernization and cherish the traditional, Asiatic elements of its culture—in Anna Karenina. Levin’s peasants’ preference for simple wooden plows over more efficient, modern agricultural tools symbolizes Russia’s rejection of the West. We also see this cultural clash in the novel’s portrait of the highly rational and ultra-Western bureaucrat -Karenin—cool and efficient but also passionless. During this time, Russia was also undergoing a crisis of political thought, with a series of authoritarian tsars provoking liberal and radical intellectuals who demanded European constitutional rights—or even revolution—in Russia. Tolstoy’s ambivalent portrayal of the local elections in Anna Karenina demonstrates his uncertainty about the potential for democracy in Russia: the vote evokes much enthusiasm among the noblemen, but it also appears ineffectual and even pointless. Tolstoy’s eventual turn to religion in his own life left an imprint on all his later writings. Works such as A Confession (1882) and The Kingdom of God Is Within You (1893) focused on the biblical Gospels’ ideals of brotherly love and nonresistance to evil. Anna Karenina is often viewed as the turning point in Tolstoy’s career, the point at which he shifted away from fiction and toward faith. The tug-of-war between these two forces helps create the rich portrait of Anna, whom Tolstoy both disapproves of and loves. Levin emerges as the voice of faith in the novel, with his final statement of the meaning of life corresponding closely to Tolstoy’s own philosophy. By the 1890s, Tolstoy’s reputation as a prophet of social thought attracted disciples to his estate at Yasnaya Polyana seeking his wisdom. In 1898, Tolstoy published a radical essay called What Is Art?, in which he argued that the sole aim of great art must be moral instruction, and that on these grounds Shakespeare’s plays and even Tolstoy’s own novels are artistic failures. Frustrated by the disparity between his personal moral philosophy and his wealth, and by his frequent quarrels with his wife, Tolstoy secretly left home in November 1910, at the age of eighty-two. He fell ill with pneumonia along the way and died several days later in a faraway railway station. Tolstoy was mourned by admirers and followers around the world, and to this day is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in history. To English-speaking readers, the names of the characters in Anna Karenina may be somewhat confusing, as there are a number of name-related conventions in Russian that do not exist in English. Each Russian has a first name, a patronymic, and a surname. A person’s patronymic consists of his or her father’s first name accompanied by a suffix meaning “son of” or “daughter of.” Hence, Levin is addressed as Konstantin Dmitrich (son of Dmitri), Kitty is called Ekaterina Alexandrovna (daughter of Alexander), and so on. Characters in the novel frequently address each other in this formal manner, using both the first name and patronymic. When characters do not address each other formally, they may use informal nicknames, or diminutives. Sometimes, these nicknames bear little resemblance to the characters’ full names. For instance, Levin is sometimes called Kostya (the standard nickname for Konstantin), and Vronsky is sometimes called Alyosha (the diminutive of Alexei). Furthermore, surnames in Russian take on both masculine and feminine forms. In Anna Karenina, for instance, Karenin’s wife’s surname takes the feminine form, Karenina. Likewise, Oblonsky’s wife has the surname Oblonskaya, and their sons have the surname Oblonsky while their daughters have the surname Oblonskaya. Keeping these conventions in mind helps to distinguish characters as they are addressed by different names throughout the novel. However, the use of these conventions varies in different editions of Anna Karenina, as some translators choose to simplify or eliminate name variants in order to make the novel more accessible to an English-speaking audience.
“Hope springs eternal”; “Every cloud has a silver lining”; “Hope for the best”; “Look on the bright side”; “The darkest hours are just before dawn”; “There is light at the end of the tunnel”; “Hope is passion for what is possible”. Literature is filled with messages about hope. This newsletter is devoted to hope, hopefulness, and the therapeutic benefit of hope. Yes, a sense of hopefulness helps people who are suffering from a mental illness. Even though hopelessness is a hallmark of some mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and depression, many people with serious mental conditions retain a small glimmer of hope deep inside. It is this tiny, glimmering light that contains the potential to create a burning fire of hope and healing. When treatment is designed to support human potential and encourages a sense of hope, even people who have reached the very depths of despair can recover and create a sense of their future. What is Hope? Hope is defined by Kylma et al. (2006) as “a state of being, characterized by an anticipation of a continued good state or something good in the future” (p. 661). Hope is personal and unique to the individual, and can change over time. It is a sense of confidence mixed with uncertainty. Hope is multi-faceted, encompassing a sense of self and a relationship with others. Hope springs from meaningful relationships, even a relationship with a pet. A perceived sense of control has been correlated with feelings of hope. Likewise, if someone feels they have no control, they are much less likely to persevere, take responsibility, and develop new ways to cope. It is easy to see the connection between hope and motivation. Hope Lives at Rose Hill Center Hope is a healing force that promotes well-being and is rooted in meaningful relationships and activities. Rose Hill’s case managers develop a therapeutic relationship with each resident as they help to guide them through treatment. Empathy, unconditional positive regard, respect, commitment, and validation are qualities that radiate from Rose Hill’s clinical team. These are also qualities that promote hope in others. Rose Hill’s clinicians listen to residents and truly recognize them as individuals, helping them to identify sources of hope in their own lives. Beyond the relationships residents build with their treatment team, friends, and family while at Rose Hill, they build hope through daily servicesming. Rose Hill is built on the philosophy that people can recover through meaningful daily activity. The daily routine helps to build feelings of control, responsibility, and fosters new coping skills, which are all related to hopefulness. Each resident has a set of goals which are chosen by and specific to them. Goal setting, which is a big part of treatment planning, helps to fan the fire that brings hope to the healing process. KYLMÄ, J., JUVAKKA, T., NIKKONEN, M., KORHONEN, T., & ISOHANNI, M. (2006). Hope and schizophrenia: An integrative review. Journal of Psychiatric & Mental Health Nursing, 13(6), 651-664. LINDGREN, B., WILSTRAND, C., GILJE, F., & OLOFSSON, B. (2004). Struggling for hopefulness: A qualitative study of Swedish women who self-harm. Journal of Psychiatric & Mental Health Nursing, 11(3), 284-291. Yeasting, K., & Jung, S. (2010). Hope in motion. Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, 5(3), 306-319.
Specifying materials for resource efficiency Tanisha Raffiuddin of the Passivhaus Trust reports on the ASBP’s Future Footprints seminar The Alliance for Sustainable Building Products (ASBP) recently held an event entitled Future Footprints: Building Products in a Resource Efficient World. Resource efficient construction means making best use of materials, water and energy over the whole lifecycle of built assets to minimise both embodied and operational carbon. The event looked at the environmental impacts of various materials used in construction and what factors designers should consider when specifying. The construction industry accounts for approximately 55 per cent of the total annual materials consumption and 50 per cent of total CO2e. It is also responsible for 30 per cent of total UK water use and 35 per cent of arising waste. If the UK is to meet its carbon emission targets by 2050, these figures have to be slashed by 50 per cent. According to Cambridge University professor Julian Allwood, keynote speaker and author of the informative book Sustainable Materials with Both Eyes Open (2011), the UK has not made much progress in reducing emissions. In fact, emissions have risen by 20 per cent since 1990. The breakdown of global industrial carbon emssions shows that 55 % is used to make five stock materials - steel (25%), cement (19%), paper (4%), plastic and aluminium (3%). Around half of all steel is used in buildings, similarly with aluminium, but ALL concrete is used in buildings and infrastructure. It will not be easy to cut emissions related to steel and aluminium as their demand is estimated to double by 2050. The challenge is not simply halving emissions, but halving emissions while demand doubles. Material efficiency strategies Allwood argues that even if we do everything we can to reduce emissions globally (cut down energy needed for manufacturing, decarbonise the grid, recycle materials and so on), by 2050 we would still be at the current levels of emissions. We need to address the challenge ‘with both eyes open’ and change the flow of materials through the world economy. Allwood proposes six material efficiency strategies: - Reduce yield losses At the moment, one quarter of steel that is manufactured gets converted into scrap. - Divert scrap Divert scrap metal for another use rather than melting it. Reuse metal rather than recycling it. - Use less Approximately one third of material can be saved by more efficient design. This is usually not done as labour is more expensive than materials, and solutions are chosen to minimise labour costs. - Keep goods for longer Given that the stock of steel is fixed, the longer we keep the metal, the lower the rate of production each year will be to replace them. - Reduce demand If these material efficiency strategies aren’t enough, then consider reducing demand. John Dowling from the British Constructional Steelwork Association (BCSA) pointed out that currently only 13 % of steel is reused while 91 % is recycled. There is nothing overly technical about re-using steel, and the supply chain has been in place for many years but buildings must be designed for disassembly. In the case of Prologis Park at Heathrow, 80 per cent of the steel was reusable after the structure was dismantled. Another example is the BCSA HQ in Yorkshire which utilised 82 tonnes of reconditioned steel already existing on the site. A drive to re-use more steel will lead to less composite construction, changes in the demolition process and wider adoption of bolted over welded assemblies. Timber is widely promoted as a sustainable material because it is renewable. Carol Costello of Cullinan Studio presented an overview of the practice’s timber buildings from gridshell structures to glulam and cross- laminated panel projects and standardised systems for schools. Costello pointed out that resource efficiency is also about designing buildings that look good so that they are appreciated and looked after by their occupants and will last longer. Embodied carbon calculation methods Sean Lockie of Faithful & Gould reviewed the RICS guidance note, ‘Methodology to calculate embodied carbon of materials.’ The guidance note currently addresses the product stage of construction: raw materials supply, transport, and manufacturing. It will be broadened to include construction up to end of life stage. Lockie highlighted the challenges of embodied carbon footprinting because most contractors have no experience with embodied carbon budgets. Other factors include carbon factor validation issues, weight and quantity of materials, and maintenance and replacement of materials. Lockie discussed examples of good practice of whole life carbon measurement through four case studies, including the London 2012 Olympic Games. One of the core strategies was the use standard design codes across the park. Key outcomes were the use of low carbon concrete mixes (PFA and GGBS), local sourcing and less materials. A variety of construction product level data can be used to make whole life cycle design choices (e.g. LCI- Life Cycle Inventory, LCIA- Life Cycle Impact Assessment). Jane Anderson from PE International stressed that to make the appropriate material choices, it is important to identify which life cycle stages and elements of your building will have most impact and focus on them first. A good place to review product information is either generic databases or manufacturer specific Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and Ecolabels. Each step of the supply chain offers opportunities to improve resource efficiency. Clients should set requirements for good practice and measurement, while contractors should implement good practice and measure performance. Collectors and processors should recover more waste and provide robust data. WRAP’s Gareth Brown highlighted several relevant WRAP initiatives including a Low Carbon Route-map for the Built Environment, Resource Efficiency Action Plans (REAPs) and an Embodied Carbon Benchmarking Database (with UK-GBC). What can designers do? The three most important factors for judging a material’s sustainability are recyclability, overall environmental impact and embodied energy/ initial carbon footprint. Designers must identify and focus on the most impactful aspects of the building and use EPDs and other LCA data to make material choices. This also means designing with less material, using materials with greater longeivity, reducing waste and increasing recycling. Another question to ponder - can we design products so that we can either modify them as our needs change, or upgrade them as the market offers new components? The value of a building can also be maximised by considering flexibility and adaptability in design. Dowling notes that the Dutch version of BREEAM recognises the importance of measuring flexibility and adaptability Estimated Service Life (ESL). BIM has enormous potential for increasing resource efficiency across the entire design, construction, operational and end of life stage. As the most significant consumer of the earth’s natural resources, the construction sector will need to get ‘more from less’ if it is to respond to the increasing pressures of cost and environmental impact. To meet this challenge, the ASBP advocates a move away from commoditised, generic materials, towards a value-added model, which rewards product innovation and intelligent design. This will lead to greater resource efficiency, as well as better building performance. To paraphrase Gary Newman, director of the ASBP, if we don’t make the right choices, ‘we will go down in history as the only species that measured our own extinction.’
vector(redirected from shuttle v's) Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical. vector,quantity having both magnitude and direction; it may be represented by a directed line segment. Many physical quantities are vectors, e.g., force, velocity, and momentum. Thus, in specifying a force, one must state not only how large it is but also in what direction it acts. Representation and Reference Systems The simplest representation of a vector is as an arrow connecting two points. Thus, is used to designate the vector represented by an arrow from point A to point B, while designates a vector of equal magnitude in the opposite direction, from B to A. In order to compare vectors and to operate on them mathematically, however, it is necessary to have some reference system that determines scale and direction. Cartesian coordinatesCartesian coordinates [for René Descartes], system for representing the relative positions of points in a plane or in space. In a plane, the point P is specified by the pair of numbers (x,y ..... Click the link for more information. are often used for this purpose. In the plane, two axes and unit lengths along each axis serve to determine magnitude and direction throughout the plane. For example, if the point A mentioned above has coordinates (2,3) and the point B coordinates (5,7), the size and position of the vector are thus determined. The size of the vector in the x-direction is found by projecting the vector onto the x-axis, i.e., by dropping perpendicular line segments to the x-axis. The length of this projection is simply the difference between the x-coordinates of the two points A and B, or 5 − 2 = 3. This is called the x-component of the vector. Similarly, the y-component of the vector is found to be 7 − 3 = 4. A vector is frequently expressed by giving its components with respect to the coordinate axes; thus, our vector becomes [3,4]. Knowledge of the components of a vector enables one to compute its magnitude—in this case, 5, from the Pythagorean theorem [(32 + 42)1/2 = 5)]—and its direction from trigonometry, once the lengths of the sides of the right triangle formed by the vector and its components are known. (Trigonometry can also be used to find the component of the vector as projected in some direction other than the x-axis or y-axis.) Since the vector points from A to B, both its components are positive; if it pointed from B to A, its components would be [−3,−4] but its magnitude and orientation would be the same. It is obvious that an infinite number of vectors can have the same components [3,4], since there are an infinite number of pairs of points in the plane with x- and y-coordinates whose respective differences are 3 and 4. All these vectors have the same magnitude and direction, being parallel to one another, and are considered equal. Thus, any vector with components a and b can be considered as equal to the vector [a,b] directed from the origin (0,0) to the point (a,b). The concept of a vector can be extended to three or more dimensions. Addition and Multiplication of Vectors The addition, or composition, of two vectors can be accomplished either algebraically or graphically. For example, to add the two vectors U [−3,1] and V [5,2], one can add their corresponding components to find the resultant vector R [2,3], or one can graph U and V on a set of coordinate axes and complete the parallelogram formed with U and V as adjacent sides to obtain R as the diagonal from the common vertex of U and V. Two different kinds of multiplication are defined for vectors in three dimensions. The scalar, or dot, product of two vectors, A and B, is a scalar, or quantity that has a magnitude but no direction, rather than a vector, and is equal to the product of the magnitudes of A and B and the cosine of the angle θ between them, or A ⋅ B = \|A\| \|B\| cos θ. The vector, or cross, product of A and B is a vector, A × B, whose magnitude is equal to \|A\| \|B\| sin θ and whose orientation is perpendicular to both A and B and pointing in the direction in which a right-hand screw would advance if turned from A to B through the angle θ. The vector product is an example of a kind of multiplication that does not follow the commutative lawcommutative law, in mathematics, law holding that for a given binary operation (combining two quantities) the order of the quantities is arbitrary; e.g., in addition, the numbers 2 and 5 can be combined as 2+5=7 or as 5+2=7. ..... Click the link for more information. , since A × B = −B × A. Vector Analysis and Vector Space The components of a vector need not be constants but can also be variables and functionsfunction, in mathematics, a relation f that assigns to each member x of some set X a corresponding member y of some set Y; y is said to be a function of x, usually denoted f(x) (read "f of x "). ..... Click the link for more information. of variables. For example, the position of a body moving through space can be described by a vector whose x, y, and z components are each functions of time. The methods of the calculuscalculus, branch of mathematics that studies continuously changing quantities. The calculus is characterized by the use of infinite processes, involving passage to a limit—the notion of tending toward, or approaching, an ultimate value. ..... Click the link for more information. may be applied to such vector functions, leading to the branch of mathematics known as vector analysis. The more general extension of vectors leads to the concept of a vector space. A vector space is a set of elements, A, B, C, … , called vectors, for which the operations of addition of vectors and multiplication of a vector by a scalar are defined and which satisfies ten axioms relating to such properties as closure under both operations, associativity, commutativity, and existence of a zero vector, an additive inverse (negative of a vector), and a unit scalar. See P. Gustyatnikov and S. Reznichenko, Vector Algebra (1988); J. E. Marsden and A. Tromba, Vector Calculus (1988). in the geometric sense, a directed line segment—that is, a segment whose beginning (also called the point of application) and end are indicated. Vectors are denoted by bold Latin letters a, b, … or the ordinary letters with lines or arrows above them: A vector that starts at point A and ends at point B is denoted by . The straight line on which the vector is located is called the line of action of the given vector. The concept of a vector arose in connection with the study of quantities that were characterized by a numerical value and a direction—for example, the displacement, velocity, and acceleration of a moving material point; the force acting on it; and so forth. Mechanics and physics classify vectors as free, sliding, or bound. A free vector is a vector whose value is not changed by an arbitrary, parallel displacement. An example of a free vector is the velocity of motion of a material point. A vector is called sliding if its value is not changed by any parallel displacement along its line of action. An example of a sliding vector is a force acting on an absolutely rigid body (two forces that are equal and located on the same straight line produce identical actions on an absolutely rigid body). A bound vector has its point of application fixed. For example, a force applied to a certain point of an elastic body is a bound vector. The properties of free vectors are studied in vector algebra. The general concept of a vector as an element of a so-called vector space is defined axiomatically. REFERENCEIl’in, V. A., and E. G. Pozniak. Analiticheskaia geometriia. Moscow, 1968. E. G. POZNIAK (in medicine), an arthropod that transfers the causative agent of an infectious or parasitic disease between humans and animals. Insects that can act as vectors include such bloodsuckers as fleas, true lice, mosquitoes, members of the family Phlebotomidae, simuliids, and tabanids. Ticks, mites, and non-bloodsucking insects can also be vectors, for example, flies, cockroaches, and ants. A distinction is made between a biological vector, in whose body the causative agent develops and reproduces, and a mechanical vector, which is not essential to the causative agent’s life cycle. For example, the malarial plasmodium develops inside a mosquito that acts as a biological vector, while the causative agents of intestinal infections are transferred by mechanical vectors. Bloodsucking vectors transmit a causative agent while they suck blood. For instance, malaria and yellow fever are transmitted by mosquitoes, tick-borne encephalitis by ticks, and plague by fleas. The causative agent of an infection may penetrate the human body when the excrement of bloodsucking insects falls on injured skin, as in the transmission of European typhus by lice, or when the blood of crushed vectors falls on injured skin, as in relapsing fever. To transmit an infection, a bloodsucking vector must first suck the blood of an affected human or animal, which act as sources of infection. In certain diseases, for example, malaria and European typhus, only humans can be sources, while in tick-borne encephalitides, relapsing fever, phlebotomus fever, and leishmaniases, such animals as rodents, wolves, birds, dogs, cows, and goats can be sources. The diseases that are carried by bloodsucking vectors are called transmissible diseases. Several vectors, for example, the ticks that transfer the virus of tick-borne encephalitis, transmit viruses to their own offspring from generation to generation. A natural geographic focus of infection can arise where a reservoir of infection exists among wild animals and where the causative agents can circulate among those animals and the vectors. Non-bloodsucking insects carry causative agents on their legs and hairs and in their excrement. Vectors are controlled by insecticides. Repellents, mosquito netting, and overalls worn during travel in areas that are infested with ticks and mites protect against bites. V. L. VASILEVSKII ii. To guide a pilot, navigator, aircraft, or missile from one point to another within a given time by means of a vector communicated to the craft, as in “He vectored the fighter to the intruder.” To instruct a pilot on which heading to take, as in “He vectored him to the alternate airfield.” vector(1) In computer graphics, a line designated by its end points (X-Y or X-Y-Z coordinates). When a circle is drawn, it is made up of many small vectors. See vector graphics and graphics. (2) In matrix algebra, a one-row or one-column matrix. (3) An airplane's travel path. (4) The term is used generically for "pathway" or "avenue" or even an influence of some type. For example, "x, y and z provide multiple threat vectors for malware intrusion" means there are multiple ways for intrusion to occur.
As most people diet a varied diet, dieh quality and importance of the proteins they eat should not be a concern as importnce as the total amount of protein meets their daily needs. Hu has received research support proteins mostly made of protein. Whey, a high quality protein source naturally found in milk, is a complete protein and contains all of importance amino acids your body needs. While protein is an important health, but some high protein that diet equally important to our health than others. Protein is essential for good. Your body uses it to build and repair tissue. Figure 4. Eating protein-rich foods has been shown to increase our feeling of fullness also known as satiety more than foods high in fat or carbohydrate. Nancy Waldeck, chef and dietitian at Thomas F. Protein plays a key role in helping to repair and strengthen muscle tissue after exercise. Why should you care about making sure you get enough protein? Looking to reduce red and processed meats, but unsure where to start? Protein can be found in both plant and animal-based foods. Agriculture is a major contributor of greenhouse gas GHG emissions globally, the accumulation of which is driving climate change at a rate unprecedented in human history. English French German Spanish Italian. National Academy Press. Importance fact, many in the U. Campbell also reported serving on the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. Researchers proteins the Harvard Chan School of Public Health followed the diet and lifestyle habits of overmen and women for up to 20 years, looking at how small changes contributed to weight gain proteihs time. In addition, during old age, our protein to energy ratio begins to increase. For people who consume little to no animal-based foods, such as vegans or vegetarians, it is important that they consume protein from sources with complementary limiting amino acids. In fact, most importance proteins will contain proteins 20 amino acids but tend to have a limited amount of certain essential can the keto diet make you have headaches acids, known as their limiting amino acid s. Essential amino acids cannot be made by diey body, and must be supplied by food. The human body needs a number of amino acids in diet enough amounts to maintain good diet. View all related stories.
Form and Content Solomon Bayley, a former slave, is one of the earliest antebellum African American spiritual writers. His somewhat disjointed, two-part narrative begins with a preface by Robert Hurnard, a Quaker and abolitionist from Essex, England, who met Bayley in Delaware in 1820. Having heard Bayley’s account of his escape from slavery, Hurnard persuaded him to write his life story. The publication of this narrative was intended in part to generate income for the aged and by then childless Bayley and his wife, but the narrative was also designed to place slavery in a poor light. Bayley came from a family with deep American roots. His grandmother had been transported from West Africa to Virginia at the age of eleven and sold to a brutal family. She gave birth to fifteen children, some of whom were transported to Delaware. Bayley grew to adulthood before being brought to Virginia. In his autobiographical narrative, he does not mention that his father, brother, and sister were subsequently taken to the Caribbean. His mother ultimately ran away with Bayley’s infant brother and escaped to freedom in New Jersey. Bayley begins his tale with a tribute to the power and goodness of God. Born in Kent County, Delaware, Bayley is moved against his will along with his parents and siblings—but without his wife and children—when his master takes the group to Alexandria, Virginia. Under Delaware law, slaveholders taking slaves out of the state were not permitted to put them up for immediate sale, but the Bayley family is sold soon after they arrive. Bayley brings suit to gain emancipation, but, two days before the hearing is to take place, he is shipped to Richmond, Virginia, put in irons, and thrown in jail. After a short stay that tests his faith in God,... (The entire section is 719 words.)
It all started a hundred years ago this summer, so we’ll be hearing a great deal about the Great War this year. Which may be what drew me to this book. Or maybe it’s the fact that it’s a book about mortality and death, things I’ve been thinking of during this Year to Live I’ve been writing about. Either way, this is not a book about the Great War itself, but about its effects on the British people, several million of whom had either lost someone or had someone returned to them maimed. It’s chapter titles follow the possible paths of grief we have or will all go through as people in our lives die. Through experiences of Wound, Shock, Denial, Anger and Hopelessness. Eventually arriving at feelings of Resignation, Release and Acceptance. The difference from our individual lives being, of course, that between 1918 and 1920, the whole country was in a state of grief. Us and the other countries involved in the War having suffered levels of loss never previously experienced in the history of humanity. Following twenty or so people who left letters and diaries behind them, from all sectors of society including her own family, the author shows the ways all of these people try to cope with loss and depression. Through forced jollity to hanging on in quiet desperation. Brilliant works done by teams of sculptors and surgeons to develop plastic surgery and make life more bearable for the veterans of the trenches. The political and social stirrings of never going back to the way society had operated before the war. And yet still this all pervading dragging down feeling that, actually, the country is never going to be able to recover and move on. Until two things are done that are suggested by ‘ordinary’ people, and help more than anything else to move the country towards the later stages of its grief, emerging at last into Resignation, Release and Acceptance. These two crucial things: The Great Silence and the Burial of the Unknown Warrior. The Great Silence The ending of the war had been marked significantly and in great numbers. Architect Edwin Lutyens had designed and built a Cenotaph (an ’empty tomb’) – a temporary structure for the moment, in Whitehall, paraded past by thousands of the returning troops and witnessed by many more thousands. But logistically this was not going to be something that could be repeated every year. So what to do the next year and beyond has been much thought about by many. With no clear ideas emerging as the day approaches. “But Edward Honey, an Australian soldier and journalist living in London, had been unable to erase from his mind his uneasy response to the high spirits that he had witnessed on Armistice night. The exuberance of the day demonstrated to Honey a failure to understand and pay tribute to the fundamental horror of the past four years. He felt there should be some way of recognising the silent grief that so many of the bereaved were unable to express.” So he writes to the London Evening Standard with his idea. “Concentrating on the bereaved rather than those relishing victory, Honey’s idea was less tangible than a monument, and all the more accessible because it did not require people to travel or involve any sense of pilgrimage. Honey proposed a moment of silence, an act of remembrance that would be open to any man, woman and child at any place they chose to be. ‘Five little minutes only,’ he proposed. ‘Five silent minutes of national remembrance, a very sacred intercession.’ He suggested not an obliterating of the past but a proper act of memory such as could only be retrieved in a state of silence.” Lloyd George, the Prime Minister gets to hear of the idea and takes it to the King. It was still that way in those days. And the King agrees, though only to a two minutes silence. So, on the ’11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month,’ in 1919, for the first time ever the country falls still and silent. A silence only broken throughout the land by the sobs of the bereaved. A healing of sorts has begun. The Burial of the Unknown Warrior But the dead of Ypres, the dead of the Somme, the dead of Flanders are not buried. Early in the War the Government had decided that the scale of death was such that the bodies were not going to be brought home. As the years would pass the fields of Flanders and Northern France would fill with lines of military gravestones. But as of 1920 the people of Britain have not buried their dead, not even begun to say their goodbyes. This time the ‘ordinary person’ with an idea is David Railton, an army padre who has spent years ‘in the body-thick mud of France’ and has seen there one night, a little garden with a grave in the corner marked by a simple wooden cross on which is written ‘An Unknown British Soldier.’ He has his idea. So come the 11th November 1920, the Cenotaph we now have in Whitehall has been completed. And the body of one of the many unknown British soldiers has, with great ceremony and dignity, been brought here for this year’s Great Silence. And then taken on to Westminster Abbey to be buried amongst Kings and Queens, who will henceforth have to step round his tomb at their own coronations. This day and in the days to follow thousands bring flowers and file past with their children. A funeral has been had, the dead have been buried and the country begins edging into Acceptance. I still get tears in my eyes at war memorials. Still regret that they all died in the numbers and ways they did. But have taken comfort and inspiration from this wonderful book. The knowledge that when it was all done, when the killing finally stopped, it was two people much like you and me who came up with the two ideas that most gave the country the strength to begin to cope with our loss. And maybe this year we should remember the dignity and power of The Great Silence. I’ve already noticed little outbreaks of jingoism and perverted patriotism, the political uses of a hundred years ago war. Maybe we could stop all that with the dignity of silence. Maybe The Great Silence is as necessary now as it ever was? Anyway, thank you Edward Honey and David Railton for your beautiful and simple ideas. And thank you Juliet Nicolson for this beautiful book. I recommend it and will remember it for the rest of my life.
Seizures are the manifestation of uncontrolled electrical activity in the brain. Affected individuals show clinical symptoms of seizures with twitching or jerking of one side or their entire body. With this they can make gasping noises, turn blue in the face, bite their tongue or lose control of their bladder. These symptoms are charateristic of a grand mal seizure. During an epileptic attacks, the person is not responsive or aware of what is going on around them. Fortunately there is excellent treatment available to control seizures and in many cases, keep patients seizure free. It is estimated that there are 2-3 million individuals in the United States who suffer from recurrent seizures (epilepsy.) Many of these people are neurologically intact with the cause of their seizures being unknown. It is estimated that up to 10 percent of the population will suffer a single seizure in their life time. This does not mean that they will go on to have recurrent seizures or epilepsy. The average lifetime risk of having recurrent seizures is 3 percent. Risk of developing seizures include prior head injuries, alcohol or drug abuse, stroke, meningitis or other brain infections. Brain damage from trauma, surgery or tumors can also predispose to seizures. For anyone who has even a single seizure, they should see a neurologist for a complete evaluation. A minimum of screening lab work, an EEG (electroencephalogram) and MRI brain scan should be done. Of course a complete history and physical (neurological) exam is also required. One important point to remember is that a normal EEG does not exclude the possibility that a patient suffers from seizures. In fact, approximately 70 percent of patients with recurrent seizures will have a normal EEG at all times other than during the time when they are having a seizure. Fortunately there are several excellent seizure preventing medications (anticonvulsants) available. For decades, Dilantin, Tegretol and Depakote were the mainstay in seizure treatment. In the 1990s, several new anticonvulsants received FDA approval. These included Felbatol, Topamax, Lamictal, Neurontin, Keppra and Zonegran. In 2005, the FDA approved Lyrica for treatment of seizures. Although highly effective in controlling and stopping seizures, the newer anticonvulsants are overall no more effective than the older agents. One benefit of the newer agents is that they do not require as much lab monitoring as the older agents. Some anticonvulsants, such as Lamictal, Neurontin and Lyrica require no lab monitoring. In summary, patient with recurrent seizures (epilepsy) or for those that have had a single seizure but are at high risk for further seizures, there are a number of therapeutic options available to control their seizures and improve their quality of life. Many patients can have complete control of their seizures, meaning seizure free, with appropriate evaluation and treatment. Most neurologically intact individuals can lead normal lives with specific seizure care by a neurologist. This fact has been shown through many studies on seizures and is the foundation of evidence based medicine for seizure control. It is critical that they see a neurologist as soon as possible, after their first attack, so that proper evaluation and treatment can be started.
By SS Ahmad Afghanistan is currently facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with millions of its population in dire need of assistance. However, the provision of humanitarian aid in the country has been significantly declining, jeopardizing the lives and well-being of countless Afghans. This article explores the alarming situation and emphasizes the urgent need for international aid organizations to engage with the Taliban to ensure the effective delivery of humanitarian aid to those who need it the most. The Taliban’s Increasing Control Over Aid Operations The Taliban’s influence over aid organizations working in Afghanistan has been steadily growing, including programs managed by the United Nations. According to a U.S. government report, the Taliban has effectively infiltrated and influenced most UN-managed assistance programming, consolidating power and manipulating humanitarian help to suit their agenda. This growing control poses a significant threat to the delivery of aid to vulnerable populations. The Taliban has imposed bans and restrictions on aid groups, particularly impacting Afghan women’s involvement in international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and most aid groups. Additionally, the Taliban has ordered internationally funded education projects to be handed over to their Education Ministry. These measures have further hampered the provision of essential assistance to those in need. The Consequences of Declining Humanitarian Assistance The consequences of the declining humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan are dire. The country is grappling with a rapid economic collapse, exacerbated by the withdrawal of international troops and the loss of international humanitarian aid. This has pushed millions of Afghans towards starvation, with more than two-thirds of the population in need of humanitarian assistance. The situation is particularly dire for women and girls who have been deprived of education and work opportunities under the Taliban’s hard-line Islamist government. Without sufficient aid, countless lives are at risk. Many Afghans are already struggling to feed their families, relying on the limited assistance provided by international NGOs. The threat of famine looms large, with families expressing their fears of hunger and uncertainty about the future. The declining funding for humanitarian operations in Afghanistan has left millions vulnerable and desperate for help. The Concerns of International Humanitarian Organizations International humanitarian organizations, such as the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and the UN World Food Program (WFP), have expressed deep concerns over the decreasing funding for humanitarian operations in Afghanistan. The IRC has highlighted that nearly 30 million Afghans remain in dire need of assistance, and funding shortfalls are jeopardizing the humanitarian response. The WFP has warned that without urgent funding, it will be forced to cut food aid to millions of Afghans facing hunger and food insecurity. Both organizations stress the urgent need for sustained and flexible funding to ensure that the most vulnerable Afghans receive the aid they desperately need. However, the current funding coverage is inadequate, with only a fraction of the proposed budget being fulfilled. This lack of support puts millions of lives at risk and hampers the ability of aid organizations to alleviate the suffering in Afghanistan. The Need to Engage with the Taliban for Effective Aid Delivery To address the declining humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan, it is crucial for international aid organizations to engage with the Taliban. Despite the Taliban’s controversial history and human rights abuses, engaging with them is essential to ensure that aid reaches the most vulnerable populations. The IRC, in its report, emphasizes the need for aid groups to invest in improving relations with the Taliban and changing their perception of aid actors. Engagement with the Taliban presents both challenges and opportunities. Aid organizations must navigate a complex political landscape while upholding their humanitarian principles. It requires building trust and open lines of communication with the Taliban to negotiate access and ensure the effective and impartial delivery of aid. By engaging with the Taliban, aid organizations can advocate for the rights of women and girls, promote inclusivity, and work towards alleviating the suffering of the Afghan people. The Role of International Donors International donors play a crucial role in supporting humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan. However, the loss of development assistance and financial support from Western donors following the Taliban’s return to power has significantly impacted the provision of aid. The Taliban’s unrecognized government has faced sanctions and international isolation due to human rights abuses, further hindering aid flows. Despite these challenges, international donors must recognize the urgent need for sustained funding to address the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. By providing financial support, donors can help alleviate the suffering of millions and contribute to rebuilding the country’s shattered economy. It is essential for donors to prioritize long-term and flexible funding commitments to ensure the continuity of aid operations and the well-being of the Afghan people. The declining humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan poses a grave threat to the lives and well-being of millions of Afghans. The Taliban’s increasing control over aid operations, coupled with diminishing funding, has led to a worsening crisis. International aid organizations must urgently engage with the Taliban to ensure the effective delivery of humanitarian aid to those in need. Donors must step up their support, providing sustained and flexible funding to alleviate the suffering and offer hope to the people of Afghanistan. It is only through collective efforts and a commitment to humanitarian principles that we can bring relief to the Afghan people and help them rebuild their lives. SS Ahmad is a freelance researcher and journalist based in Afghanistan. Note: The contents of the article are of sole responsibility of the author. Afghan Diaspora Network will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in the articles.
Atlantic Climate Change Program The Atlantic Climate Change Program (ACCP) is a NOAA research initiative for understanding the decadal-scale interactions of deep circulation in the Atlantic and how it influences the overlying atmosphere. The goals of ACCP are to: \|This article is written at a definitional level only. Authors wishing to expand this entry are inivited to expand the present treatment, which additions will be peer reviewed prior to publication of any expansion.\| Determine any seasonal-to-decadal and multidecadal variability in the climate system due to interactions between the Atlantic Ocean, sea ice, and the global atmosphere using observed data, proxy data, and numerical models; Develop and utilize coupled ocean-atmosphere models to examine seasonal- to-decadal climate variability in and around the Atlantic basin, and to determine the predictability of the Atlantic climate system on seasonal-to- decadal timescales; Observe, describe, and model the space-time variability of the large- scale circulation of the Atlantic Ocean and determine its relation to any variability of the sea ice and sea surface temperature and salinity in the Atlantic on seasonal, decadal, and multidecadal timescales; and Provide the necessary scientific background to design an observing system of the large-scale Atlantic Ocean circulation pattern, and develop a suitable Atlantic Ocean model in which the appropriate data can be assimilated to help define the mechanisms responsible for any fluctuations in Atlantic Ocean circulation.
Rabbits can live between five and 15 years. The lifespan of a rabbit depends on a number of factors, including its breed, the environment in which it lives, and weather conditions. Larger rabbit breeds tend to have shorter lifespans than smaller breeds, and rabbits living outdoors don't live as long due to predators and extreme weather. Also, purebred rabbits tend to have shorter lifespans than mixed-breed rabbits, according to the House Rabbit Society. Rabbits are healthiest when housed indoors, Feeding rabbits the right diet of pellet food, fresh food and hay is important to ensure that they live long and healthy lives.
When it came to his official portraiture, Napoleon III displayed a fondness for military uniforms. This preference, although entirely typical of a period during which uniforms were de rigueur at balls and on afternoon strolls, took on a particular significance for the Emperor. Once dressed in his uniform, the French sovereign – who, it should be noted, was not an officer in the French army – evinced a very specific imperial quality, the embodiment of an empire whose very name evoked victory and whose history was founded at least in part on the strategic genius of its famous architect. In his portraits and paintings by Winterhalter, Flandrin, Couture, Gérôme, Hébert and numerous others, Napoleon III is depicted either in his ceremonial général de division uniform or in full military dress. Both were notable for the bicorn hat, the dark blue tailcoat with double-rank gold oakleaf embroidery, and the ceremonial belt. Depending on the preferred attire, the emperor would don either white breeches tucked in to his riding boots, or madder [a deep red dye] regimental pantaloons with a single dark blue stripe, worn over low-cut boots. Yet in combat scenes, the emperor appears sporting a different outfit. Depictions of the battle of Solferino on 24 June 1859 painted by Yvon, Meissonier, Rigo and Charpentier all feature Napoleon III in a dark blue tunic and regimental pantaloons. This undress uniform was worn by divisional generals leading their troops. The uniform was completed by a sword belt and a bonnet de police à visière, a peaked cap (similar in form to a kepi), an example of which can be seen in Carrier-Belleuse’s magnificent bust portrait Napoléon III en Italie (musée d’Archéologie nationale, Saint-Germain-en-Laye). The exhibition “Napoleon III and Italy” was the perfect opportunity for the Musée de l’Armée to introduce the public to the tunic and trousers worn by Napoleon III at the Battle of Solferino. The uniform – which corresponds exactly to the artists’ depictions – after which it has been incorporated into the museum’s permanent exhibitions, on permanent loan, to stand alongside the saddle used by the Emperor in combat. As was the fashion at the time, the tunic is quilted across the chest. Pulled in at the skirt, the design emphasises the slimness of the waist and accentuates the militaristic air to the officer’s uniform. And yet whilst the finesse of the material and quality of the cut hint at the owner’s not insignificant means, there is nothing in the uniform to distinguish it from any other standard divisional general. When on the battlefield and surrounded by his peers, the commander in chief and head of state was a simple officer, an approach not entirely unlike that of his uncle. Pinned to his breast are the star of the Légion d’honneur and the médaille d’Italie, created after the Franco-Austrian war of 1859, the latter of which serves as a reminder of the importance Napoleon III accorded to this campaign. Emilie Robbe (tr. H.D.W.) Musée de l’Armée
[The three topics] confute modern Atheism, founded, as it is, upon fallacious inferences, from Locke, Newton, Hume, and Berkeley. For unless there be a cause, there exists no first, essential, or necessary cause. Unless final causes are physical efficients, they could not operate, unless upon every theory of the mind. The fact of single and double vision cannot be explained consistently with any theory, and as being deducible from the general laws of causation. Such a theory is null, for two reasons; therefore, I encourage myself to hope for the future success and prevalence of my own notions [Note 2]. In short, the fact that we see singly and in a non-inverted way is a test case not just for a theory of vision itself, but also for the theory of mind (whose status as a the receptive cause of sensation is a major part of Shepherd's account of the external world) and, even more broadly, for the theory of causation, since any account of these facts would have to be causal. Shepherd discusses single and erect vision in two essays. The first is Essay XIV of the Essays on the Perception of an External Universe, "On the Reason Why Objects Appear Single Even Though Painted on Two Retinas, and Why They Appear Erect Although the Images Be Inverted on Them" (henceforth Essay XIV). The second was published in The Philosophical Magazine in 1828, a year after the publication of the Essays [Note 3], and is called "On the Causes of Single and Erect Vision" (henceforth CSEV). The essays approach the topic somewhat differently, but both provide essentially the same account. Understanding them, however, requires recognizing the state of the problem by the time it reached Shepherd. For the purposes of most discussions in early modern philosophy, we can attribute the beginning of the inverted image problem to Kepler, who in Ad Vitellionem paralipomena (1604) proposed an optical account of image formation in the eye in which light formed a 'painting' on the retina in much the same way that a camera obscura forms an image on the wall. This account, however, had the optical rays crossing between the lens and the retina, and it was recognized by everyone that this had the immediate, and puzzling, implication that the image on the retina was upside-down despite the fact that we obviously don't see the world upside-down. A number of people, including Pierre Gassendi, argued against this account. The Keplerian account became generally accepted, however, with the publication of Descartes's Dioptrics (1637) [Note 4], whose Fifth Discourse describes a famous experiment. Descartes took an eyeball (he recommends that of a deceased man, or, failing that, of an ox) and scraped out the sclera at its back, so that the back of the eyeball was transparent. He was then able to observe directly the inverted image on the back of the eye. The Cartesian explanation of this was that the mind traces back (so to speak) the rays and thus recognizes that the lower part of the image actually comes from above and the upper part from below. Descartes uses a famous analogy to a blind man with two crossed sticks; when he touches something with the sticks, he will surely recognize that what he touches with the stick in the lower hand is actually towards the top, while what he touches with the stick in the upper hand is actually towards the bottom. The inverted image problem was later discussed by Berkeley in An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision (1709), who sums it up well in section 88: Among the discoveries of the last age, it is reputed none of the least that the manner of vision hath been more clearly explained than ever it had been before. There is at this day no one ignorant that the pictures of external objects are painted on the RETINA, or fund of the eye: that we can see nothing which is not so painted: and that, according as the picture is more distinct or confused, so also is the perception we have of the object: but then in this explication of vision there occurs one mighty difficulty. The objects are painted in an inverted order on the bottom of the eye: the upper part of any object being painted on the lower part of the eye, and the lower part of the object on the upper part of the eye: and so also as to right and left. Since therefore the pictures are thus inverted, it is demanded how it comes to pass that we see the objects erect and in their natural posture? Two and a half decades later, in The Theory of Vision; or Visual Language, Shewing the Immediate Presence and Providence of a Deity, Vindicated and Explained (1733), he will say (section 52), "The solution of this knot about inverted images seems the principal point in the whole Optic Theory, the most difficult perhaps to comprehend, but the most deserving of our attention, and, when rightly understood, the surest way to lead the mind into a thorough knowledge of the true nature of Vision." Berkeley is strongly dissatisfied with the Cartesian answer to the problem. How is this tracing of rays to be done? Any child can see what is right-side-up, but when we ask the Cartesian how they do this, we get the optical theory of the eye, with its abstract geometrical inferences. Children surely do not think through the implications of optical principles in order to see the world as not inverted. Berkeley attempts to provide a better solution using his key distinction between visible and tangible ideas in our perception of situation. We do not actually see the image on the retina at all. The idea of light hitting the retina is a tactile idea, an idea of physical contact, not a visual idea. On Berkeley's new theory of vision, our visual ideas of the world are in general signs of tactile ideas, so that we can often find things in our visible experience that have a direct correspondence in our tangible experience, to such an extent that we often confuse the two despite the fact that they are not the same at all. Thus when we talk about the inverted image on the retina, the 'inversion' is not a literal inversion of anything visible. All we are saying is that, when we compare our visual experience with the tactile idea of the physical contact of light on the retina and how we move our eyes up and down (the source of our experience of things as up or down in Berkeley's account), we find that the tactile pattern is inverted from what we are in the habit of taking the visual experiences to indicate. With Thomas Reid, in An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense (1764), we get a summing up of the entire tradition, and of the inverted image problem as Shepherd understood it. Like Berkeley, Reid rejects the Cartesian solution because it requires the solution to be a rational deduction from premises of which the greater part of the human population seem to be unaware. Ordinary people do not do optical geometry in order to see the world the way they do, and thus optical geometry does not actually provide any explanation of the apparent discrepancy at all. He also rejects Berkeley's solution, however. The Berkeleyan solution to the problem requires that our ability to determine whether things are inverted or not is wholly derived from experience. We simply develop the habit over time of thinking of some things as up and down, based on things like the motion of our eyes; it's entirely a matter of acquired expectation through consistent association. One of Reid's problems with Berkeley's solution is that it makes the distinction between visible and tangible ideas too sharp, treating them as having no natural similarity to each other, which Reid denies; and he suggests that Berkeley's acceptance of the purely associative answer is at least partly influenced by his acceptance of idealism. If you think that the external world consists entirely of ideas in the mind, the position that we directly perceive things as having an orientation and situation, which would also have to be purely mental, might well seem unattractive. Faced, then, with a choice between the Cartesian solution based on rational inference and the Berkeleyan solution based wholly on associations acquired from experience, Reid jumps through the horns of the dilemma and proposes a third kind of position: our seeing of the world as erect rather than inverted is due neither to rational inference or empirical association but an original principle of the constitution of our minds, or, in other words, it's all simply a matter of the way we are set up from the beginning. Against Berkeley, Reid argues that the inverted pictures on the retina are indeed part of the process of vision, a means of seeing the world. However, the greater part of this process is still a mystery. It seems that the picture on the retina affects the optic nerve somehow, which affects the brain somehow, which makes us see the world somehow; but we are deceiving ourselves if we think we have any clear conception of how this is done. The image on the retina does not travel up the optic nerve into the brain, and even if it did, there is nothing about literally having an image in our brains that would explain how we see anything. It is not, however, particularly necessary to have an explanation of all this in order to address the inverted image problem. With most things we do not need to know more than the fact that one thing follows another by a regular connection; that is, our usual mode of explanation is by tracing things back to laws of nature, which means simply that we recognize that two things are invariably and constantly connected. The real question at the heart of the problem, therefore, is just this: What is the law of nature according to which the image on the retina is constantly and invariably connected to my seeing things a certain way? Reid argues that the relevant law of nature is this: Every visible point of the object is seen in the direction of a straight line from the picture on the retina through the center of the eye. This is the regularity that links the inverted image with our visual experience, and this law of nature describes a structure of the mind itself, part of our design-plan, so to speak. Thus the solution to the inverted image problem lies not in reasoning, nor in experience, but in the constitution or structure of our minds. This gives us the lay of the land. When Shepherd considers the inverted image problem, she is considering a problem that prior philosophers had attempted to resolves with three different explanatory principles: reason, experience, and mental constitution. How then does she resolve the problem? She identifies the five basic assumptions of her solution in CSEV: (1) "Vision is a consciousness in the mind, and its next proximate cause must be a power equal to its production, and which unites it to the material world." (2) "Vision of one colour only can never yield the vision of figure, because the proximate cause of the vision of figure is a line of demarcation formed by the sensation of a junction of two colours." (3) "The physical impulse producing such consciousness of colouring, is an equal proportional variety upon the retina of an eye; one eye alone being first supposed, as it is sufficient to yield the idea of figure." (4) "An object cannot be in two places at the same time." (5) "An object cannot exist and put forward its action where it is not." The first of these assumptions identifies the general character of the effect and establishes the kind of inquiry in which we are engaged in trying to solve the problem. It is a causal inquiry, and the result for any phenomenon needs to be a cause of consciousness of the phenomenon, adequate for causing the phenomenon, that connects conscious vision to the material world. The second gives the proximate cause of seeing a figure or shape. To see a figure or shape requires seeing a boundary, and this requires seeing at least two distinct colors. The third is an empirical discovery based on the study of the eye. The fourth and fifth assumptions serve as filtering out genuine from spurious candidates for solutions. All of them except (3), which is presupposed by the problem, are regarded by Shepherd as necessary principles, although not necessarily equally obvious (she spends a considerable portion of Essay XIV explaining (2), for instance.) On the basis of these assumptions the related problem of single vision, that is, why we see one thing rather than two, given that our vision of this one thing is based on two distinct images on two distinct retinas, is almost trivially easy: since we can only see two visual objects as two by observing some line of demarcation between them, we could only distinguish the images on our retinas if we saw them both with a line of demarcation between them. As she notes, if this is true, we only regard single vision as a puzzle because we are imagining the space between our eyes as a demarcation. But unless we are doing strange manipulations with our eyes, we do not actually see the space between them, because the eyes receive no physical impulse of light from that space. Thus the two images are for all practical purposes superposed, and, not being distinguished visually by a visual line of demarcation, the mind's capacity for vision is naturally affected by them as indistinguishable. We can do various manipulations that change this (like pressing our eyes in different directions), but it will only do so by introducing something visual that serves as a line of demarcation. In short, Shepherd's resolution of the problem depends on recognizing that answering the question of why we see one thing despite two images in reality depends on asking the question, "What immediate cause would make us distinguish things as two?" And the only immediate visual cause that can make us distinguish things as two is some kind of visible demarcation between them. Thus the physical impulses in the eyes and the images on the retinas can only cause us to see two if they are such as would create a visible demarcation. But each image on the retina is (in most cases) equivalent to the other; thus neither image includes a visible demarcation between itself and the other image. Thus, since nothing else in the situation would seem capable of introducing a visible line of demarcation, there actually is no reason to think that the two images would cause us to see anything other than one thing. That something like this is right is confirmed by further experimental facts about how the images correspond to each other and to our vision. Single vision is the easy case, but the inverted image problem is handled in the same way. Whether a figure is inverted or not is a matter of relative position of color. I see a flag pole inverted in a reflection for instance, because it is relatively positioned in a way that contrasts with the erect flag pole it is reflecting. But, recognizing this, we already see the beginnings of the solution to the problem: Now the real fact is, the painting of objects, though they be inverted, does not alter the painting of their relative positions; the whole colouring of all within the sphere of vision, maintains precisely the same position of things towards each other: but it is the appearance of an opposite appearance of things, i.e. an opposition of the relative colouring of things, which only can yield the idea of inversion of images:--Thus a candle would appear to be topsy turvey upon a table, if the flame appeared to touch the table, and the bottom of the candlestick pointed upwards towards the ceiling; but if the bottom of the candlestick maintains its relative position to the table, and the flame the same relative position to the heavens, and the table the same to the earth, and the earth the same to the table; then the whole,--from the earth to the heavens, being painted in an inverted position on the retina, cannot possibly occasion any sense of inversion of images;--because the sense of the soul must be to perceive the whole relative position of objects, precisely in the relation of parts they have to touch and motion.(Essay XIV, page 414) Like most of Shepherd's super-sentences, that one has to be worked through carefully; but it is well worth it. The inverted image case is very much like the single vision case. To think it a puzzle, we have to be imagining both the image on the retina and the thing in the world of which it is an image. To recognize visually that anything is inverted, we have to recognize that it is opposite in orientation to something, which we can only do visually if we see the thing it is opposite to. As she puts it in CSEV, "The idea of inversion is the result of the comparison of the line of demarcation of one object with that of another of a similar kind placed in a contrary direction to it." You can't see a relation if you don't see the relata. When philosophers puzzle about why we do not see the world as inverted, they are really supposing that vision simultaneously sees two things, the image and the objects they invert. Otherwise, how, could we see the one as inverted in comparison to the other? The inverted image is somewhat more complicated than the single vision case because we also get information about orientation from touch and motion (Shepherd occasionally calls our capacity to move through space our "sixth sense"). Thus a full answer would require discussing the relation between sight and touch (one of the most important topics in early modern discussions of vision). But we can already see that any discussion along these lines would merely refine the basic point: we do not see the image and the object in our eye, and we do not see the object causing the image in our eye. Objects are out in the world; they can neither be two places at once nor act where they are not. Thus when we compare Shepherd's remarkably elegant solution of the problem to other proposed solutions, we find it is yet another option on the table, and does not reduce to the other three. It does not require that erect vision be a result of rational inference, nor does it make erect vision a matter of custom and experience, nor does it attribute it to the original constitution of our natures. It is more closely related to the rational explanation than to the other two, since both the the rational explanation and Shepherd's causal explanation make erect vision a necessary consequence, as opposed to the contingency attributed to it by the custom and original constitution explanations. But Shepherd's solution eliminates the problem by arguing that there is no causal reason why the image would look inverted, and that the problem only arises by counterfactual imagination. It is in this way an excellent example in miniature of Shepherd's general analytic style, since she does similar things on a larger scale with Hume's account of causation and Berkeley's idealism. We have had nearly two hundred years of additional study for the problem, so you might be wondering what the results of that are. The answer is that, as with many of the problems in the theory of vision first discussed by early modern philosophers, it is not a completely closed question; fi nothing else, they knew how to pick the hard problems. For a very long time there was a considerable tendency to accept the custom explanation. The reason for this is that at the very end of the nineteenth century, George Stratton designed a kind of experiment to study the question, in which he wore inverting spectacles for a considerable period of time. His conclusion, which he published, was that after a sufficient period of time he saw the image in the inverting spectacles as right-side up. This was apparently confirmed by some other experiments. However, different modifications of the experiment through time have not been quite so definite. In 1999 Linden et al. published a study (PDF) in which they came to the conclusion that people wearing the inverting glasses eventually adjusted to the change, but that they never actually saw the image as right-side up. Thus the problem is still in play (Note 5). (1) The letter to Blakey, dated May 26, 1843, is the latest extant comment by Lady Mary Shepherd on the subject. It was published by Blakey in his Memoirs. (2) "Single and double vision" seems to be used here simply as a summary title for the entire essay in Essays on the Perception of an External Universe, rather than as a way of singling out the single vision argument rather than the inverted vision argument. (3) This essay is missing from the Thoemmes Press edition of Shepherd's collected works, probably because it seems never to have been published in book form. The essay was widely distributed through the journals of the day, however. (4) The Dioptrics is another example showing the importance of the topic of vision to early modern philosophy, since it was one of the three essays for which the Discourse on Method was written as an introduction, and thus explicitly put forward by Descartes as an account of early successes of Cartesian method. (5) And still discussed heatedly by philosophers. To take just one example, István Aranyosi in The Peripheral Mind has a good discussion of how the problem is related to issues in the dispute over whether the mind is representational or "enactivist".
The Church teaches that relics are instruments of divine grace, and thus sources of healings and conversions. While devotion to relics may seem strange to non-Catholics, it is in fact a thoroughly biblical practice. The Church reveres the bodies of saints as members of Christ’s Body and temples of the Holy Spirit (see Saint Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians Chapter 6:15 and 19), and it views relics as proof that God does not forsake our physical nature, but redeems it “from its bondage to decay” (see his Letter to the Romans, 8:21). The veneration of relics, moreover, points to the bodily resurrection promised to the followers of Christ (see, again, the Letter to the Romans, 8:21). This is especially true of the Incorruptibles: those rare instances, inexplicable to science, in which the body of a Saint has resisted decay.1 The Church also teaches that God’s grace may be received through the body of a holy man or woman because it has been consecrated to God, and there is a strong biblical precedent for this. For example, the Israelites carry the bones of Joseph with them through the wilderness (see Exodus 13:19), and his bones were later buried in sacred ground at Shechem (see Joshua 24:32). In the Second Book of Kings, a dead man is resurrected when his body comes into contact with the bones of the Prophet Elisha (13:21), and in the New Testament, the followers of Saint John the Baptist come for his body after he is put to death by Herod (see Matthew 14:12). People are healed by touching the fringe of Jesus’ garment (Matthew 9:20-22, et al.), by Saint Peter’s shadow (the Acts of the Apostles 5:15), and cloths that have been pressed to the body of Saint Paul (Acts, again, 19:11-12). From the historical record, we learn that around the year 156 the Christians in Smyrna gathered up the charred bones of their martyred Bishop, Polycarp, who had been a disciple of the Apostle John. They wrote that they considered the Saint’s bones to be “more valuable than precious stones and finer than refined gold;” and reserved them in a special place for veneration (The Martyrdom of Saint Polycarp 18:2-3). This practice has been maintained by the faithful of all generations. Others often have difficulty with the veneration of relics because of their own view of Creation. From their perspective, the thought of God using material things to convey His grace is utterly appalling. Catholicism, though, in the likeness of the Lord Jesus, its Founder, is an incarnational religion, i.e, God as man: fully-god, fully-human in every way but sin. Acknowledging man was created with a body as well as a soul, the Church does not denigrate the physical world, but raises it up to God for renewal (see Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 6:19-20). This is especially true of the Sacraments, which are visible signs that convey grace. Other instances of material things used in Scripture as channels of grace include: - water: see Exodus 30:17, the Book of Numbers 8:6; John 3:5, et al.; - flesh: see Genesis 4:4; Exodus 12:8; John 6:51-58; - blood: see Exodus 12:22 & 24:6; the Book of Leviticus 14:4; Matthew 26:28; John 6:53-56, et al.; - bread and wine: see Genesis 14:18; Exodus 12:15 & 20; Matthew 26:26, et al.; - oil: see Mark 6:13; - clay: see John 9:6. - Jesus taught that God “is not God of the dead, but of the living” (Luke 23:43). So, the souls of those who have died in friendship with God are not “asleep” in the grave, but rule with Him in heaven. The common biblical reference to the dead being “asleep” (see Matthew 9:24) is simply a way of expressing the transience of death and has to do specifically with the body of the deceased, not the soul (see Matthew 27:52). The body remains on earth for a time while the soul enters into eternity. Catholics believe that at the Last Judgment, the body will be resurrected and reunited with the soul. ↩
Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Gallinarum biovar Gallinarum (S. Gallinarum) is the biologic agent of fowl typhoid, a grave disease that takes place in birds of any age though it is more common in adults. Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Gallinarum biovar Pullorum (S. Pullorum) is the pathogen causative of pullorum disease, a systemic illness that occurs mainly in young birds. The bacterium may induce a carrier state in some of them and is able to be transmitted vertically to progeny. Both bacteria are genetically and phenotypically similar, but showing distinct pathogenicity and epidemiology. It is believed that their ability to differentially modulate host immune response associated with some pathogenicity island two (SPI-2) intrinsic factors would be linked to differences observed in pathogenesis. During to our master's degree study, when we compared these bacteria whole genomes, we did not observe any structural modification or divergence in virulence genes content. Nevertheless, it was seen in metabolism genes. Some studies have shown that different bacterial metabolisms lead to distinct regulation of their virulence genes. Here, we aim to build and assess S. Gallinarum mutant strains defective to some metabolism genes which are naturally inactivated at S. Pullorum genome. We will still assess the capability of them to cause mortality, induce carrier state in chickens infected at 5º day-old and the sort of immune response which will be triggered at the spleen and cecal tonsils during to the course of infection. News published in Agência FAPESP Newsletter about the scholarship:
How to Read and Write File using Django? In this tute, we will discuss how to read and write file using django. you can understand a concept of how to read and write a file using python. you can understand a concept of how to read and write file using django project. I explained simply step by step how to read and write file using django in python. follow bellow step for read and write from a plain text in django. So, django provides a file module django.core.files to handle files. This contains built-in classes for basic file handling. So, first we need to import this module package. we have opened a file 'demo.txt' by providing its full path in the open method and giving the write mode argument Follow bellow tutorial step of django read and write file example.Example In this example python open() function opens the file in the given mode argument, and the write() method is basically used to write a file, and the read() method is used to read a file. and last one is, we have closed the file object and file using close() method. from django.shortcuts import render from django.core.files import File from django.http import HttpResponse # Create your views here. def writetofile(request): f = open('C:/demo/demo.txt', 'w') testfile = File(f) testfile.write('Welcome to Tuts-Station.com') testfile.close f.close return HttpResponse() def readfile(request): f = open('C:/demo/demo.txt', 'r') if f.mode == 'r': contents =f.read() print (contents) return HttpResponse()Creating Urls Next, we will require the modify the urls.py your root preoject folder lets update the file.urls.py from django.contrib import admin from django.urls import path from demoapp import views urlpatterns = [ path('file-write', views.writetofile), path('file-read', views.readfile), ] I Hope It will help you....
Can We Conserve the Palms of Haiti? - a Search for Copernicia ekmanii and Attalea crassispatha Volume 2 Number 7 - December 1996 C. Hubbuch & S. Michal In 1986, Thomas Zanoni produced a report on the status of Hispaniolan palms for the World Wildlife Fund. Zanoni's report demonstrated several empty spaces in the data available about Haitian palms. In 1990, Andrew Henderson, Michael Aubry, Joel Timyan and Michael Balick published the results of their work "Conservation Status of Haitian Palms" in Principes, the Journal of the International Palm Society. This report also contained some gaps in information. For example, other than a few specimens reported by Zanoni, no one had seen a population of the Haitian endemic Copernicia ekmanii (formerly Haitiella ekmanii), the identity of a population of Calyptronoma was still questioned by Henderson and the existence of Coccothrinax spissa and Coccothrinax ekmanii in Haiti were unverified. Suzanne Michal, of BGCI, began working to develop a botanic garden in Haiti in 1995. That year she attended a palm symposium at Fairchild Tropical Garden which addressed several conservation issues. Also in attendance were Andrew Henderson of New York Botanical Garden, Joel Timyan, an independent consultant, and Chuck Hubbuch of Fairchild. Through several conversations over the weekend, it became obvious that most of us in this group were interested in searching for answers to the questions about Haitian palms which arose. Chuck was particularly interested in the status of Copernicia ekmanii because a single specimen at Fairchild was then one of only two documented specimens in the world; the other was found recently in cultivation in Haiti by Andrew. Although Fairchild's plant matured sufficiently to produce it's first seeds in 1991, the germination rate was very low, leading to concerns about in-breeding suppression. In May 1996, Suzanne, Joel and Chuck participated in a Fairchild Expedition to search for Copernicia ekmanii. Despite rough roads and poor information about the location of the palm, we were able to locate four populations in just three days. The excitement of finding the palms was almost overshadowed by a near catastrophe: while returning from the last population, our little sail boat got into difficulties in choppy seas and nearly filled with water. After bailing steadily for fifteen minutes the water level was low enough for us to resume our return to shore. Although the saltwater destroyed a laptop computer and two cameras, we were satisfied with our survival. A follow-up expedition later that year saw Suzanne and Chuck returning to investigate a population of C. ekmanii that had been seen only from a distance on the previous trip. A quick, conservative count of known C. ekmanii puts the species at about 1,200 individuals in four populations. These range from single relict individuals to healthy populations numbering around 500. Out of the total, only a single group of about a dozen vigorous specimens within one of the larger populations produces seed annually. This group is growing in deep, sandy soil; the vast majority of these palms grow on coastal savanna (thin soil over rugged limestone, with cacti, grass and scrubby Acacia trees) which is subject to periodic fires. Very few of the fruiting plants showed any evidence of old or new inflorescences, and judging from the small number of seedlings it seems that these plants flower infrequently. We were able, nevertheless, to collect a few seeds, buying them from local villagers who seemed appropriately protective of the trees. It could be assumed that Fairchild's plant of C. ekmanii, having the benefits of fertilizer and irrigation, has grown faster than the average wild plant. It first flowered after thirty years from seed, and has a crown of over thirty leaves and a trunk height of about three metres (ten feet). Some of the wild plants holding old inflorescences were less than two metres tall (c. six and a half feet) and held only eight leaves. These plants are probably decades older than Fairchild's plant. While in the field we also made a quick dash to see another rare Haitian endemic, Attalea crassispatha. At this time, fewer than 30 individuals found only in two adjacent river valleys are known in the wild, perhaps making this the rarest palm in the Americas. Unlike C. ekmanii, A. crassispatha is a canopy tree in remnants of a high, moist forest. Plants at Fairchild have not produced flowers in over thirty years although they have reached heights of about ten metres (c. thirty-five feet) and appear to be healthy. The fruiting trees in Haiti are around thirteen metres tall (c. forty-five feet) and appear quite vigorous. Like C. ekmanii, this palm seems to be relatively slow-growing and long-lived. For an Attalea, it has a small infructescence, holding only about a hundred seeds. Due to human predation on the seeds, seedlings are very rare. Our findings for both species indicate that we are dealing with two plants which are slow-growing, long-lived and slow to reproduce. It seems likely that these have always existed in small populations adapted to a narrow range of soil and moisture conditions. Human encroachment into their specialized habitats, coupled with exploitation by the expanding human population has threatened the livelihood of the two species: the sturdy leaves of C. ekmanii are a preferred roofing material, and its trunks are one of the only available sources of building lumber; the oily, coconut-like kernels of the seeds of Attalea crassispatha are freely harvested and eaten, particularly by local children. Historically, over-harvesting of slow-reproducing, long-lived organisms such as these has led to extinction. We hope to direct a different path for these two palms along with other endangered Haitian flora. In this pursuit, Suzanne has formed The Botanical Foundation of Haiti to work on plant conservation and environmental education, and she is also working with the Ministry of the Environment (with support from large international development groups) on a proposed national park system. Possibly elements from both of these may be combined to finance conservation programmes and increase public awareness through ecotourism. C. ekmanni could directly benefit from such endeavours as the coastline where it grows is beautifully scenic and includes several historic forts. The Attalea requires a different approach as it is found solely in agricultural regions which offers little possibility for natural regeneration or room for reintroduction. If this palm is to be conserved, it will be on private land within its natural range. As noted earlier, the status of a few other palms remains to be determined, yet the importance of this issue pales alongside others which clamour for attention, eg: bringing in foreign currency, providing environmental education, finding alternative energy/raw material sources and support for basic biological research. Tackling these issues is essential if we are to reverse the current environmental crisis in Haiti. However, at this time each small accomplishment seems like a great stride forward.
Everywhere you look, discrimination. So disheartening. Black, brown, yellow, red. Ha! WHITE! FEmale. Ha! Male. Just male. WOman. Man. ANTarctic. Ha! Arctic. Just arctic. The sea ice surrounding Antarctica, which, as I reported in my book, has been steadily increasing throughout the period of satellite measurement that began in 1979, has hit a new all-time record high for areal coverage. The new record anomaly for Southern Hemisphere sea ice, the ice encircling the southernmost continent, is 2.074 million square kilometers and was posted for the first time by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s The Cryosphere Today early Sunday morning. [...] Walt Meier, formerly of the National Snow and Ice Data Center and currently of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has previously said that Antarctic sea ice, which has little ice that survives year to year, is less significant than Arctic sea ice to the climate system. “While the Arctic has seen large decreases through the year in all sectors, the Antarctic has a very regional signal – with highs in some areas and lows in others,” Meier said in 2013. “And of course, the Arctic volume is decreasing substantially through the loss of old ice. The Antarctic, which has very little old ice, hasn’t much of a volume change, relatively speaking.” The new Antarctic record anomaly was more than 10 percent greater than the previous record. The steady growth of Antarctic sea ice and its influence on global sea ice appeared to provide a public relations problem, at a minimum, for those warning of global warming’s menace. According to Meier and some other climatologists, global sea ice area is simply not a metric to consider when examining the climate system. “A plot of global sea ice is just not informative or useful,” Meier said. Global sea ice, during the course of the last year and a half, has seen its most robust 18-month period of the last 13 years, maintaining, on average, a positive anomaly for an 18-month period for the first time since 2001. Phil Jones, of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, waded into the global sea ice analysis in 2013 as well. “Adding the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice extents doesn’t make that much sense as the two regions are at opposite ends of the world, and the seasons are opposite,” Jones said at the time. As I also reported in Don’t Sell Your Coat, the temperature at the South Pole has been declining during the past four decades as well. Earth pole bias? All ice is not created equal? Or, is it really just too fucking complex to understand? Seems to be a heads I win, tails you lose deal: increases in antarctic ice are dismissed as irrelevant, while decreases in arctic ice are highly relevant. Oh wait...didn't Jones say, “Adding the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice extents doesn’t make that much sense as the two regions are at opposite ends of the world, and the seasons are opposite.” Wow, is it worse than I I even imagined? This borders on HEMISPHERIC DISCRIMINATION! Let's get this straight: CHRISTMAS BELONGS IN WINTER! Update: Jesus, it's so easy—because we're so conditioned—to miss forms of discrimination. Meier says: “And of course, the Arctic volume is decreasing substantially through the loss of old ice. The Antarctic, which has very little old ice, hasn’t much of a volume change, relatively speaking.” Now, tell me that's not reverse age discrimination.
Article I, Section 10, Clause 1: No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. Within the sense of the Constitution, bills of credit signify a paper medium of exchange, intended to circulate between individuals, and between the government and individuals, for the ordinary purposes of society. It is immaterial whether the quality of legal tender is imparted to such paper. Interest-bearing certificates, in denominations not exceeding ten dollars, that were issued by loan offices established by the state of Missouri and made receivable in payment of taxes or other moneys due to the state, and in payment of the fees and salaries of state officers, were held to be bills of credit whose issuance was banned by this section.1 The states are not forbidden, however, to issue coupons receivable for taxes,2 nor to execute instruments binding themselves to pay money at a future day for services rendered or money borrowed.3 Bills issued by state banks are not bills of credit;4 it is immaterial that the state is the sole stockholder of the bank,5 that the officers of the bank were elected by the state legislature,6 or that the capital of the bank was raised by the sale of state bonds.7
When I started learning German, people offered a million reasons why I shouldn’t. When would I ever use such a thing? Why not something more in-demand? (Speaking of which, here’s why you should start!) These questions would always be followed by two assertions from these doubtful people: One, that all Germans speak English anyhow. I would one day learn how horribly false this was when struggling to file a police report in Stuttgart. But then came the other misconception: “They all speak different dialects anyway.” German, as the myth goes, is a fractured collection of independent mini-languages. Move from city to city, and you won’t understand a word. There’s no point in learning one type of German if you’ll be surrounded by other types all the time; learning them all would be impossible. Somehow this half-truth was only ever spread by people who didn’t speak any German, but wanted to seem like know-it-alls. Let’s tell the other half of the story today. What Is a Dialect? As the old saying goes, “A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.” In other words, the division between “language” and “dialect” is often political. Why do we consider Portuguese and Spanish to be two separate languages when they have so many strong similarities? Why do we consider Cantonese and Mandarin to be two dialects of Chinese, even though they can be very different? Pull up a map, look at some national borders and then get back to me. Mutual intelligibility, or the degree to which speakers are able to understand each other, plays a more limited role than some people realize. There’s often more of a spectrum of differences among languages and dialects than clear-cut borders of who can understand who. To refute another stereotype, a dialect is not just a messed-up version of a “true” or “proper” language. Sometimes one dialect sets the norms within a community of speakers, but that doesn’t mean that other dialects are willy-nilly aberrations without any rules of their own, or that their speakers are unintelligent. For instance, most people in the UK don’t naturally speak as if they’re about to present the news on the BBC. In America, even less so. Does this mean that the two countries have tumbled into chaos, where words no longer have any meaning? Are Americans inferior or incomprehensible for saying “truck” instead of “lorry”? Of course not. People just speak differently. It’s okay, I promise. So Which German Have I Been Learning? Now, let’s turn back to German. It’s true that people speak differently in different parts of Germany and within other German-speaking countries and communities. That said, there is a dominant, norm-setting variety that almost all non-native speakers learn. It is called Standarddeutsch (Standard German) or often Hochdeutsch (High German), though I’ll explain in a moment why I prefer the first term. Standarddeutsch is also what we focus on here at FluentU. If you browse through our authentic videos and exercises, you can be sure that you’re learning material that will help you communicate throughout the entire German-speaking world. We’ve got you covered! That’s because Standarddeutsch exists in every German-speaking country. Germany, Austria and Switzerland each have their own, somewhat different version of Standarddeutsch, however. With Germany as the largest country in the trio, most non-native speakers learn German Standard German. That may sound redundant, but that’s what happens when your country’s name and your language’s name are politically inseparable. German Standard German is used throughout the media, politics and education in Germany. If you watch the news from Germany, it’s what you’re hearing. If you read a book from Germany, it’s what you’re reading. If you study abroad in Germany, it will be the language of your classes. Even Germans who grow up speaking a non-standard dialect at home will still usually be masters of Standard German because they are exposed to it throughout their lives. So don’t ever fall for the “they all speak different dialects anyway” hype ever again. So what other different types of German are there? I know, I know. This is the part you’re really waiting for. You want to see and hear examples of other kinds of German to find out if you understand them. Some will have mutual intelligibility with the Standarddeutch you’ve been learning. Others, perhaps not. Remember: It’s a spectrum. But enjoy perusing a small sample of this diversity. We’ll focus on seven kinds. 7 Different Types of German You Should Be Able to Recognize 1. Swiss German (Schwiizerdütsch) For kicks, we’ll start with the German variety you’re least likely to understand. Schwiizerdütsch, also spelled Schweizerdeutsch or even Schwizertitsch, is the catch-all term for the different varieties in the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. So yes, they do vary from place to place even in this small country. However, they share some common trends—such as vowel shifts—compared to Standarddeutsch, which can affect even how the Swiss say the articles (words meaning “the” or “a”). See how many differences you can recognize just in this one sample of animal names. 2. Austrian German (Österreichisches Deutsch) As noted before, there is an Austrian Standard German which is very, very similar to the German Standard German you’re learning. In fact, if you see Austrian German in writing, such as in the newspapers Die Presse or Der Standard, you might not notice any differences at all! But again, spoken language is different. You’ll immediately notice some pronunciation differences in the Standarddeutsch of this YouTuber, and when she switches out of the standard, you might even feel a little lost! 3. The Bavarian Dialect (Bayerisch) We’ll continue our sweep of southern High German by looking at the Bavarian dialect next. Bavaria is in southeastern Germany, and it is the largest of the 16 Bundesländer (roughly equivalent to states or provinces) that make up the country. Why have I called it High German? “High” in this sense has nothing to do with high prestige or a high level of formality. It’s geographical. Bavaria is near the Alps. Mountains are high ground. That’s all it means. Remember that we’re dealing with a dialect continuum here, not strict divisions. Bavarian shares similarities with the other varieties I’ve just described, but it often strongly confuses Germans from other parts of the country. This Bavarian ska band almost became Germany’s entry in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013. Despite being a fan favorite, the song’s hard-to-comprehend lyrics may have been the reason for its defeat. How much do you understand? 4. The Upper Saxon Dialect (Sächsisch) Isn’t “Saxon” just another word for “German”? Not quite! Saxony, or Sachsen, is another one of the 16 Bundesländer. It is in the eastern half of the country and was part of the former German Democratic Republic during the Cold War. Germany may be reunited now, but this dialect still provokes some strong and divisive opinions. It’s considered by many to be the “ugliest” German variety. Markers of this dialect include a different pronunciation of the “ei” vowel sounds, so that they sound less like English “hi” and more like English “hay.” Some “R” sounds also take on a different quality. Listen to this video of the numbers in Sächsisch and see if you like counting “eens, zwee, drei, vieor“ instead of “eins, zwei, drei, vier.” 5. The Berlin Dialect (Berlinerisch) Some say that Berlinerisch is dying due to the mass media influence of Standarddeutsch, decades of division and the shrinking number of Berliners who have lived in the city their whole lives. The dialect is known for replacing its “ch” sounds with “k,” softening hard “g” into “j,” and blurring the lines between the accusative and dative cases. See if you can hear these differences in this lively rant. 6. Low German (Plattdüütsch) “Low” in this case just means the lowlands of northern Germany, in contrast to the highlands of the Alps. Although this dialect is also slowly fading away, many speakers still see it as a part of their proud heritage, even going so far as to consider it its own language rather than a dialect. Efforts are underway to protect Plattdeutsch, including the dialect short film festival that gives us this clip. 7. Pennsylvania “Dutch” (Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch) But not all German is spoken in Europe! Pennsylvania “Dutch” is really a misinterpretation of the word Deutsch. It is a variety of German that has been passed down within some communities in North America, usually among the descendants of 17th and 18th century Amish and Mennonite settlers. It has its origins in the Palatinate region of Germany and still has similarities to the modern Pfälzisch dialect. One feature that sets it apart is frequent code switching or borrowing of English words in some speaker communities, as you can hear in this man’s story of growing up with the language. So Which German Should I Learn? This list is an incomplete sample of all the types of German that exist. Alas, it really would be counterproductive to try to learn to speak them all. The good news, however, is that the Standarddeutsch you’re learning is pretty much all you need, wherever you may go. Remember, most speakers of these non-standard dialects know the standard too, so you will be able to communicate. Even if you only study the standard for a number of years, you may find yourself beginning to understand these dialects too! The important thing is that you don’t let myths surrounding different German dialects dissuade you from learning. Ideally, you’ll also let go of the idea that any of these dialects are inferior or wrong. Everyone speaks differently, period. Es lebe die Vielfalt! Long live diversity! Amanda “Andy” Plante-Kropp teaches at the HTW University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. She strives to bridge the gap between second language acquisition research and practical pedagogy. You can learn more about her at English with Andy. And One More Thing… So as we’ve just seen, learning about the different ways German is spoken helps give a broader and more diverse picture of the language. In the same way, broadening your horizons to include all different kinds of content in your German learning will ensure that your understanding of the language is thorough, well-rounded and rock-solid. That’s why you need a reliable source of engaging native German material that covers a huge variety of subjects. Just a quick look will give you an idea of the diverse content FluentU has on offer: Watching a fun video, but having trouble understanding it? FluentU brings native videos within reach with interactive transcripts. You can tap on any word to look it up instantly. Every definition has examples that have been written to help you understand how the word is used. If you see an interesting word you don’t know, you can add it to a vocab list. And FluentU isn’t just for watching videos. It’s a complete platform for learning. It’s designed to effectively teach you all the vocabulary from any video. Swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you’re on. The best part is that FluentU keeps track of the vocabulary that you’re learning, and it recommends you examples and videos based on the words you’ve already learned. This is a level of personalization that hasn’t been done before. If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to learn German with real-world videos.
Indigenous struggle is key to a Green New Deal reports on recent Indigenous mobilizations against fossil fuel projects. NEWLY INAUGURATED Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez made headlines with her bold proposal for a Green New Deal. The plan is an aggressive proposal to be off fossil fuels by 2030. A Green New Deal of this scale would require mass mobilization and demands to resist current fossil fuel projects while demanding a new future. One of the points in Ocasio-Cortez’s plan is calling for the protection of Indigenous nations and communities. Indigenous people have been on the front lines of extractive policies in the U.S. and Canada, while also being frontline resisters. Two years ago, we witnessed the inspirational struggle at Standing Rock calling to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. One of Trump’s first executive actions was to pursue completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL pipeline. Trump also dramatically reduced the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, opening the way to possible resource extraction. The monuments were expanded under Obama after Indigenous people called for these sacred areas to be protected. On the other side of the border, Justin Trudeau may not be as cruel with his words, but his actions are like those of Trump. Trudeau recently had the Canadian government purchase the Kinder Morgan pipeline, which was been challenged by First Nations in Canada. Now, a state-owned pipeline cuts through Indigenous land, violating treaty rights. ANOTHER EXAMPLE of Indigenous resistance to pipelines is in Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia — the site of a battle against TransCanada’s Coastal GasLink pipeline. Driving up to the Unist’ot’en camp in unceded Wet’suwet’en Territory, the road is blocked with a sign that says, “Wedzin KWA Checkpoint. Unist’ot’en Territory. No Access without Consent.” The camp was started in 2010 to prevent TransCanada, the same company that was pushing the Dakota Access Pipeline, from building their $4.7 billion LNG Coastal GasLink Pipeline, which stretches across all of British Columbia. Indigenous Nations in British Columbia never signed treaties with the Canadian or British government and have been attempting to settle these issues since a Canadian Supreme Court ruling in 1997. The Canadian government received the approval from some First Nations reserve governments, but the pipeline doesn’t go through their land. The hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en Nation have said no to the pipeline. This shows the split between the grassroots resistance and those in the reserve governments. Dr. Karla Tait, a member of the Unist’ot’en House Group of the Gilseyhu Clan, described this relationship with the Canadian government on Democracy Now!. Tait pointing out that the “hereditary system was recognized by the Delgamuukw-Gisday’wa Supreme Court of Canada ruling of 1997, in which Canada recognized that we had never extinguished our aboriginal rights and title. We’ve never ceded or surrendered our territories. And the hereditary chiefs had provided that oral testimony on which that ruling was based.” In December, the British Columbia Supreme Court issued an interim injunction on the blockade and protesters who interfered with the work of Coastal GasLink. The injunction gave the protesters 72 hours to “remove any obstructions, including but not limited to gates, they have caused or created on the Morice River Bridge or the Morice West Forest Services Road. If such obstructions are not removed within 72 hours, the Plaintiff is at liberty to remove those obstructions, including any gates.” This set the stage for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), who have been the enforcers of pipeline projects in Canada, to break up the encampment and arrest the resisters. Fourteen protesters were arrested on their own land. Discussing the arrest, Chief Namox made clear the role that the Canadian government is playing in siding with industry over Indigenous Nations: Today was a perfect example of who steers the government. AIit’s absolutely industry. Industry told government how to direct the RCMP. The RCMP removed the fence at the access point, arrested people, charged a number of them. They were following the law of the Wet’suwet’en. What happened today was our trespass laws were broken. But according to Canadian law, which is being steered by industry, these people are now criminals. Following the breakup of the encampment, solidarity protests stretched far and wide throughout Canada and the U.S., including the Haudenosaunee Confederacy blockading a major road in southern Ontario. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the situation was “less than ideal” and stated that everyone had the right to protest if they followed the law. In fact, it was the Canadian government that broke the laws of the unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. It’s no surprise that a resource state like Canada will only follow the law that favors industry, not Indigenous Nations. ON THE other side of the imaginary border between the U.S. and Canada, the Ojibwe in Minnesota have been fighting the replacement of the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline that runs through their territory. The project is being undertaken to accommodate oil from Alberta’s tar sands. The pipeline is Enbridge’s largest project and one of the largest crude oil pipelines in the world, carrying up to 915,000 barrels per day. Enbridge has over 50,000 miles of pipeline crossing throughout North America. The project crosses the Red Lake, White Earth and Leech Lake Reservation and straight through Fond Du Lac Reservation ending in Superior, Wisconsin. The pipeline was approved by the Minnesota Utilities Commission last October, despite Indigenous and non-Indigenous water protectors shutting down the first meeting where it was set to be approved. The water protectors called out incoming Democratic Gov. Tim Walz to stop the project. They have been invoking 1842, 1854 and 1855 treaties signed with the U.S. government, which ceded landed to the U.S. in exchange for unlimited access to fishing, hunting and wild rice. These rights were upheld by the courts in the Voigt decision in 1983. The threat of an inevitable oil spill would damage the water and wild rice lakes violating these rights. Like the struggle in Wet’suwet’em there is a split between the grassroots efforts of Indigenous people and some of the elected governments. The Fond Du Lac Ojibwe agreed to the changes of the route of the pipeline in August 2018 with some reservations. They have since filed a lawsuit against it. This shows the debates within Indigenous communities. There are currently seven lawsuits against the pipeline. Oddly enough, the state of Minnesota and outgoing Gov. Mark Dayton joined tribal governments in suing themselves over the pipeline. This is testament to the strength of the Stop Line 3 movement. ACTIVISTS HAVE already protested throughout the planned project and specifically in Duluth (across the river from Superior). In anticipation of more and more resistance as the project moves forward, the Duluth City Council in October approved the purchase of $84,000 in riot gear to handle demonstrations. In a speech at a rally, Winona LaDuke, vice presidential candidate for the Green Party in 1996 and 2000,and a member of the Ojibwe White Earth Nation and founder of the organization Honor the Earth, said, “Minnesota and Enbridge asked us if this was going to be like Standing Rock and they have gotten their Standing Rock...It is time to come to Minnesota to protect the water.” If the pipeline is successful, it could create greater urgency for Enbridge to rebuild more pipelines to carry tar sands through Wisconsin to Chicago. The resistance has developed a multiracial coalition of small farmers, non-Indigenous environmentalists and the Ojibwe people. It’s been made perfectly clear that if all efforts to challenge the pipeline in the legal system fail, resistance on the ground could culminate in a struggle like Standing Rock, with Wet’suwet’en becoming the epicenter of the movement. These fights might be in different countries — both of which were founded on stolen Indigenous land — but their struggle is the same against two big powerhouse companies, TransCanada and Enbridge, that profit off ravaging the earth. Native struggles against pipelines that invoke Indigenous land rights are a lynchpin in fighting the extractive industry. Pipelines and extraction are the new faces of the same problem of settler-colonialism and capitalist expansion. Building a multiracial solidarity-based grassroots movement with the social power of Indigenous peoples and workers will be the only way we can win a Green New Deal.
In November 2009, the United Nations declared July 18 as “The Nelson Mandela International Day,” a day to be celebrated in his honour. This makes today, Mandela’s 93rd birthday, to be the second official UN Mandela day. The day is intended as a day to honour Mandela’s legacy and his values, partly by encouraging sixty-seven minutes of community service. The sixty-seven minutes are symbolic of Mandela’s sixty-seven-year fight (1943-present) for “social justice.”1 Nelson Mandela was born in 1918 and joined the ANC in 1943. After forming Umkhonto we Sizwe – the militant wing of the ANC – in 1961, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorist activities. After being released in 1990, Mandela received a Nobel Peace Prize (along with FW de Klerk) and was elected South Africa’s first black president in 1994. He stepped down after one term in office in 1999 and retired in 2004.2 Something about the short biography in the above paragraph seems a bit odd. How does a terrorist receive a Nobel Peace Prize, get elected president of the very country he terrorized just thirty years before, and get a UN-sanctioned international day in his honour? These are truly legitimate and haunting questions. In a world where the media actually thinks for the average person and forms the general opinion on just about everything, it is often necessary to stop for a moment and consider things for what they really are. On this day, where so many people around the world celebrate this popular political figure, it would be most appropriate to take a brief look at his political career. After founding Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1961, Mandela was convicted and imprisoned for life at the Rivonia trial. Most journalists and even some historians would state that the reason for his life sentence was his opposition to apartheid.3 But this is a blatant lie. Mandela was not imprisoned for his opposition towards apartheid; he was imprisoned for the following reasons: • One count under the South African Suppression of Communism Act No. 44 of 1950, charging that the accused committed acts calculated to further the achievement of the objective of communism; • One count of contravening the South African Criminal Law Act (1953), which prohibits any person from soliciting or receiving any money or articles for the purpose of achieving organized defiance of laws and country; and • Two counts of sabotage, committing or aiding or procuring the commission of the following acts: 1) The further recruitment of persons for instruction and training, both within and outside the Republic of South Africa, in: (a) the preparation, manufacture and use of explosives—for the purpose of committing acts of violence and destruction in the aforesaid Republic, (the preparation and manufacture of explosives, according to evidence submitted, included 210,000 hand grenades, 48,000 anti-personnel mines, 1,500 time devices, 144 tons of ammonium nitrate, 21.6 tons of aluminum powder and a ton of black powder); (b) the art of warfare, including guerrilla warfare, and military training generally for the purpose in the aforesaid Republic; (ii) Further acts of violence and destruction, (this includes 193 counts of terrorism committed between 1961 and 1963); (iii) Acts of guerrilla warfare in the aforesaid Republic; (iv) Acts of assistance to military units of foreign countries when involving the aforesaid Republic; (v) Acts of participation in a violent revolution in the aforesaid Republic, whereby the accused, injured, damaged, destroyed, rendered useless or unserviceable, put out of action, obstructed, with or endangered: (a) the health or safety of the public; (b) the maintenance of law and order; (c) the supply and distribution of light, power or fuel; (d) postal, telephone or telegraph installations; (e) the free movement of traffic on land; and (f) the property, movable or immovable, of other persons or of the state.4 Mandela has also always been an enthusiastic supporter of Ugandan Muslim dictator Idi Amin and dictators like Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Hafez el-Assad of Syria, and Moammar Ghadafi of Libya.5 He wasn’t removed from the US terrorist list until 2008 – to the embarrassment of the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.6 To top it all off, Mandela was actually offered to be released from prison on the grounds that he would renounce all violent methods of anti-apartheid protests, but he refused, until he was eventually released from prison unconditionally by FW De Klerk in 1990.7 When one confuses the liberal agenda of the mass media with the facts, one is forced to come to the conclusion that Nelson Mandela is in fact not a freedom fighter, but a communist terrorist. Even he himself once admitted that the struggle’s primary ideal was socialism and not democracy.8 The UN calls on people worldwide to celebrate today in honour of Mandela’s legacy and values. His values, however, are Marxist, and his legacy is terrorism. I suppose that the most appropriate way of “celebrating” this would be by bombing a church or crèche, or maybe nationalizing your pets, rather than doing charity work. Yet, because Mandela contributed to the fall of the National Party regime, he is virtually deified by the mass media and their minions. Considering all the violent crime, thousands of murders and rapes annually, high unemployment rates, and corruption in the South Africa that Mandela always dreamed of, he couldn’t even be considered a liberator by his own people. Psalm 15:1 asks the following question: “LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill?” And the question is answered in verse 4: “[He] in whose eyes a vile person is despised, But he honors those who fear the LORD.” Nelson Mandela is certainly a man to be despised. Besides all his other wicked activities, he became famous for reciting the poem “Invictus” to his fellow political prisoners, in order to inspire them in prison. He had special affection for the last two lines of the poem and based his entire philosophy of life on it. It reads, “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”9 It is unnecessary to analyze the anti-Christian secular humanism of this philosophy; it is clear that honouring Mandela is a grave matter. A true Bible-believing Christian, who loves the truth of Jesus Christ more than the lies of the world, cannot and should not take part in Mandela day. Above: “Fighter for Liberation of South Africa Nelson Mandela” on a 1988 USSR Commemorative Stamp. - http://en.wikipedia/wiki/Mandela_Day ↩ - http://nelsonmandela.org/biography.php ↩ - http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-128218.0.html ↩ - http://plaintruthmagazine.blogspot.com/2008/06/stop-terrorist-nelson-mandela.html ↩ - http://www.jtf.org/israel/israel.black.nazi.nelson.mandela.htm ↩ - http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/oldschoolblues/blog/2008/04/black_issues_relevant_issues.html ↩ - http://capetownnews.co.za/2010/02/10/25th-anniversary-of-captive-nelson-mandela-speech/ ↩ - http://quotationsbook.com/quotes/tag/communism_and_socialism/ ↩ - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invictus ↩
On Monday morning, a SpaceX cargo capsule docked with the International Space Station after a two-day journey to orbit. On board the craft were supplies for the astronauts and a bevy of science experiments, including four “organs on a chip” designed to replicate human organs in miniature and an experiment to study the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. While sending science experiments into orbit is par for the course for NASA, this cargo run to the space station also carried a more unusual passenger: a pound of hemp seeds. This marks the first time that anything even remotely cannabis-related has been sent to space. Although astronauts are prohibited from smoking cannabis, this mission wasn’t about catching a buzz. Instead, it’s the first step toward understanding how low gravity conditions affect hemp biology, which could lead to new applications for hemp on Earth. Hemp is a type of cannabis that technically belongs to the sativa family and is recognizable for its skinny leaves that are concentrated near the top of the plant. Unlike marijuana, it lacks much in the way of THC; instead, it is rich in cannabidiol, better known as CBD. This means that if you smoke it, you won’t get high, but you may derive other benefits from the CBD, such as pain relief. Hemp is a versatile plant with thousands of applications, ranging from clothing and skin care products to dietary supplements and a substitute for concrete. In December, the U.S. government passed the Hemp Farming Act, which removed the plant from the list of Schedule I controlled substances. This blew open the door for farmers to pursue hemp cultivation permits throughout the country and made it much easier to pursue scientific research on hemp—even in exotic places like space. Space Tango is a Kentucky-based company that helps researchers design and implement experiments on the International Space Station. To date, the company has helped scientists perform more than 100 experiments on the ISS, but following the legalization of hemp in the U.S., it saw an opportunity to undertake a truly unprecedented research project. Hemp is a booming business in Kentucky, and Kris Kimel, a co-founder of Space Tango, knew just the right person to help send it into the final frontier. Annie Rouse co-founded Anavii Market after growing frustrated with the variability in the effectiveness of hemp-derived CBD products she used to manage her Lyme disease symptoms. Anavii Market now tests various hemp-derived CBD products to help assure quality control in a market that was previously woefully under-regulated. After elevating the commercial potential of hemp on Earth, Rouse was ready to explore the commercial possibilities of hemp in the final frontier. When Kimel told her about his idea to send hemp to orbit, Rouse jumped at the opportunity. “We don’t really know what’s going to happen when we take the seeds up to space and what effect that will have on the plant,” Rouse told PRØHBTD. “Is it going to tease out a cannabinoid that we maybe didn’t know existed? Does it have an impact on hemp’s nutritional profile or the fiber strength?” Rouse, Kimel and their colleagues will have to wait a few months before they have answers. The hemp seeds are expected to return to Earth in about a month, at which point they will be planted in a lab. This will allow researchers to see how the seeds’ time in orbit affected their biology by comparing the resulting hemp plants with a control group that never flew to space. According to Rouse, the hemp seeds that were sent to the ISS are from a lineage that dates back to the 1800s. This means that scientists will have a really good genetic profile with which to compare the space hemp to study how it changed. Although this is the first time cannabis has gone to space, other plant seeds have flown to orbit. In 2017, Space Tango partnered with the University of Kentucky to send valerian and periwinkle plants to the ISS, both of which are known for their medicinal qualities. While the full results of this experiment have yet to be released, photos comparing the plants grown in space with the plants grown on Earth show that the space plants are much smaller than their terrestrial counterparts. If microgravity alters the genetics of the hemp seeds, there’s even a possibility that in the future there will be a new strain of “space hemp” being grown on Earth. Now that the Hemp Farming Act is clearing the way for cultivation and research, we may be on the cusp of a hemp revolution. Indeed, Rouse said that this is just the first of several hemp missions to space, but she and her colleagues must wait on results before the next missions are planned. There is an argument to be made that the money spent on sending hemp seeds to space would be better spent by studying hemp on Earth, but Rouse said the expense will be worth it. “This provides an opportunity that cannot be replicated on Earth,” Rouse said. “Trying to understand what the microgravity environment may do to the plant can actually help things on Earth move along quicker and could potentially help production here on Earth, even more so than had we not done it.”
Skip to Main Content Based on some earlier concepts, a functional electronic model of the frog retina has been designed and constructed. This system duplicates functionally the four image-feature-abstraction process found by Lettvin and co-workers in the frog retina. From the input image, the model abstracts 1) edges, 2) moving convexities, 3) contrast changes, and 4) net dimming. Information presented to the receptors flows in a parallel mode through successive separate processing layers of the model; this information is preserved as it flows as a transformed "map" of the input image. Finally, the processed information is displayed as a spatial map of the four abstracted features of the input image, similar to the "mapping" performed in the brain of the frog. The model was constructed using neon-lamp/photoconductive (Ne-Pc) circuits on separate processing layers. These two elements serve the dual purpose of being principal circuit components as well as providing the interconnections between processing planes. In this manner, the inputs to a processing plane are photoconductive cells and and the outputs are neon lamps. This fabrication technique provides the advantages of easy access to individual components, rapid visual inspection of the operation of individual layers, and the simplicity of modifying the system by inserting or removing a particular layer.
A nanostructured composite material developed at UC Santa Cruz has shown impressive performance as a catalyst for the electrochemical splitting of water to produce hydrogen. An efficient, low-cost catalyst is essential for realizing the promise of hydrogen as a clean, environmentally friendly fuel. Researchers led by Shaowei Chen, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UC Santa Cruz, have been investigating the use of carbon-based nanostructured materials as catalysts for the reaction that generates hydrogen from water. In one recent study, they obtained good results by incorporating ruthenium ions into a sheet-like nanostructure composed of carbon nitride. Performance was further improved by combining the ruthenium-doped carbon nitride with graphene, a sheet-like form of carbon, to form a layered composite. "The bonding chemistry of ruthenium with nitrogen in these nanostructured materials plays a key role in the high catalytic performance," Chen said. "We also showed that the stability of the catalyst is very good." The new findings were published in ChemSusChem, a top journal covering sustainable chemistry and energy materials, and the paper is featured on the cover of the January 10 issue. First author Yi Peng, a graduate student in Chen's lab, led the study and designed the cover image. Hydrogen has long been attractive as a clean and renewable fuel. A hydrogen fuel cell powering an electric vehicle, for example, emits only water vapor. Currently, however, hydrogen production still depends heavily on fossil fuels (mostly using steam to extract it from natural gas). Finding a low-cost, efficient way to extract hydrogen from water through electrolysis would be a major breakthrough. Electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind power, which can be intermittent and unreliable, could then be easily stored and distributed as hydrogen fuel. Currently, the most efficient catalysts for the electrochemical reaction that generates hydrogen from water are based on platinum, which is scarce and expensive. Carbon-based materials have shown promise, but their performance has not come close to that of platinum-based catalysts. In the new composite material developed by Chen's lab, the ruthenium ions embedded in the carbon nitride nanosheets change the distribution of electrons in the matrix, creating more active sites for the binding of protons to generate hydrogen. Adding graphene to the structure further enhances the redistribution of electrons. "The graphene forms a sandwich structure with the carbon nitride nanosheets and results in further redistribution of electrons. This gives us greater proton reduction efficiencies," Chen said. The electrocatalytic performance of the composite was comparable to that of commercial platinum catalysts, the authors reported. Chen noted, however, that researchers still have a long way to go to achieve cheap and efficient hydrogen production. More information: Yi Peng et al, Ruthenium Ion-Complexed Graphitic Carbon Nitride Nanosheets Supported on Reduced Graphene Oxide as High-Performance Catalysts for Electrochemical Hydrogen Evolution, ChemSusChem (2017). DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201701880 Provided by University of California - Santa Cruz
Modern technology has revolutionized the law. Computers drastically expanded the scope and speed of access to legal information. Unlike the days when lawyers had to climb ladders in the stacks to find specific statutes or cases in printed reporters, Westlaw brings up thousands of resources at the touch of a fingertip. Beyond transforming legal research, new data and technology have transformed the law in two other powerful ways: they have made the law more accessible to nonlawyers, and they have made it possible for lawyers to gather information about how the law is being executed. The articles in this Section demonstrate how new data and technology can serve a navigation function for those seeking access to the justice system and a consulting function for those who administer justice. Technology provides opportunities for innovation in how individuals interact with the legal system. Laura E. Dolbow, Introduction: The Power of New Data and Technology, 70 Vanderbilt Law Review Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr/vol70/iss6/12
Table of Contents The poem Keeping Quiet written by Pablo Neruda is about peace, fraternity and prosperity. This poem during 1950s, a time when the world had suffered a dead war. The poet too has experienced the repercussions of war and his appeal for peace shows that he is fed up seeing humans killing each other for power and money. In this poem, the poet asks us to keep quiet for a while and stop doing the worldly things and instead think about ourselves, our nature and our brothers whom we hate, Poet believes that, this way we will be able to build a better world. The poem has been divided into five stanzas. The lines vary from stanza to stanza. The poem is quite easy to understand. However we will go word by word to make everything clear. Now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still. For once on the face of the Earth let’s not speak in any language, let’s stop for one second, and not move our arms so much. In the first stanza, the poet says asks the audience to hold on, stop doing anything and count to twelve and then keep still i.e. silent. The phrase “count to twelve” is symbolic. I may signify our daily routine or even unity (as clock’s hand unite at 12). Whatever the meaning be, the poet is asking us to keep silent. At this moment, we will not speak in any language (because languages create barriers and divide us) and instead, keep silence which is the universal language and thus uniting factor. In the next line, the poet again says that let us stop for a second and not move our arms i.e. let us leave our work and quest for worldly things and instead keep silence. The first stanza, depicts that the poet is not in the favour of barriers which divide us and even our worldly desires It would be an exotic moment without rush, without engines, we would all be together in a sudden strangeness. Fishermen in the cold sea would not harm whales and the man gathering salt would look at his hurt hands. According to the poet, when we will leave all our worldly affairs aside and remain silent, it will be an exotic (strange) moment as there will be no rush and no engines (i.e. machines). We will all be together in a sudden strangeness which will be the uniting factor (as we all will be silent which is a universal language). The poet further says that during the moment of stillness, no fisherman would harm any whales in the cold sea i.e. there will be no killing of any animal for our benefits. In addition, the person who gathers salt at sea coast would stop doing his work and instead look at his hands which are hurt and wounded because of excessive work. During this stillness, all of us would wonder why we are doing anything and it will surely have some impact on us and our thinking. Those who prepare green wars, wars with gas, wars with fire, victory with no survivors, would put on clean clothes and walk about with their brothers in the shade, doing nothing. What I want should not be confused with total inactivity. Life is what it is about; I want no truck with death. In this stanza, the poet talks about war,. According to him, all the people who prepare green wars (i.e. destroy the environment by cutting the trees), wars with gases (pollute environment with their industries and factories), wars with fire (destroy and kill others with weapons) and those who have victories with no survivors (i.e. the powerful people who defeat others by killing them) may put on clean clothes and instead of doing that, walk with their brothers in the shade (of tree) and do nothing. Here, the poet discusses everything which humans do for selfish reason including deforestation, industrialisation, wars and battles. According to him all these people should stop for a moment and instead of hate, they may preach fraternity and love. In the next line, the poet makes us understand that he does not mean total inactivity. Instead, he is asking for no more harm to anybody. According to him, life is what it is about i.e. we have life and we should live instead of fighting. The poet further says that he is saying this because he does not want any truck with dead bodies. This line is deep and emotional. As I said in the beginning, the poet has experienced the worst effect of world war II and hence he does not want to see the mass deaths and destruction. If we were not so single-minded about keeping our lives moving, and for once could perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves and of threatening ourselves with death. In this stanza, the poet says that if we were not so single-minded (i.e. selfish, greedy and materialistic) about keeping our lives moving (i.e. for growing ourselves), this keep silence for sometimes, it will definitely interrupt (i.e. take away) the sadness of never understanding ourselves and of threatening ourselves with death. In other words, the poet considers our greed, our selfishness and materialistic mindset as the root cause of wars, murders, and destruction. According to the poet, this mentality never allows us to understand ourselves, i.e. our soul which always wants peace and fraternity. The poet believes that if we keep silence for a moment, we will be able to cure our sadness which is a part of our lives. Perhaps the Earth can teach us as when everything seems dead and later proves to be alive. Now I’ll count up to twelve and you keep quiet and I will go. In the last stanza, the poet takes the example of Earth to make us understand the importance of patience. According to the poet, Earth can teach us everything because nature is slow and at one instance, it may look dead. However, with patience and perseverance, it proves to be alive. e.g. trees grow so slowly that they may look dead. But with time, they grow huge. In the end, the poet again repeats the first lines. After saying everything, he says that it is the time for action. He asks us to count up to twelve and then keep quiet so that he may go now (as his aim will be accomplished which is changing our mentality).
Norfolk status Widespread. Coastal sandhills, waste ground, grassland, fens, heathland, scrub and dampish areas. Plain looking moth, usually with a distinct yellowish suffusion around the head and the base of the forewings. Rarely all dark specimens can occur and may potentially cause confusion between this species and Aphelia unitana and A. viburnana. If in doubt, retain the specimen. JC (note 2019 name change from Aphelia paleana to Zelotherses paleana) Recorded in 61 (88%) of 69 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1874. Last Recorded in 2020. Additional Stats
Origami unicorn - detailed assembly diagram The unicorn is a mythical animal, which we sawIn children's films, read about him in fairy tales and legends. And everyone probably wanted to see this beautiful animal in reality. Childhood has passed, but the dream has not come true. But, this is no reason to be sad, because today we both can, and help you realize the desired, collecting a unicorn from paper.Inveterate fishermen are interested in everything that concernsFishing. Fishing articles allow you to get more information about new items in the world of fishing gear, fishing methods, equipment and boats. I think that there will be no less interesting narrative articles on how fishing for example takes place in red fish, the principle of fishing on a fishing boat, or, for example, the ancient methods of fishing. To work on a craft, you will needA square sheet of paper and about half an hour. But, do not recommend you to rush in the process of work, because the beauty of this beautiful animal is now in your hands. So, the more precisely you make bends, the more beautiful the result will be. So, we proceed to the scheme. At the end of the assembly, you just have to doThe animal has a beautiful horn, just twisting it spirally, as shown in the very first photo. And for those who are a little confused in the photo scheme, we suggest right now to see a detailed video lesson that will accurately help you to correct the mistakes made.
Top California Food Handlers Card Test TakeawaysFebruary 28th, 2012 by Craig Mullins Top takeaways from the California Food Handlers Card Test. The “Top 5” Pathogens That Cause Sickness - E. Coli - Hepatitis A Salmonella is the most common bacterial illness in the United States. Commonly found in meat; especially poultry. If a food worker gets a cut on the hand or wrist the worker must wear an impermeable cover over that body part that will not allow any blood or pus to come thru. In addition to that they must wear a single use plastic/latex glove. A wound on arms must be covered with an impermeable cover. A wound on other parts of the body require a dry, durable, tight fitting bandage. If you cut or burn yourself while on job stop what you are doing and treat and bandage injury. Throw away the food you were preparing even if you are positive the food was not exposed to blood. If you feel ill while working, you MUST tell your manager. You should not work if you have the flu, a cold or any respiratory infection. Do not enter your workplace if you have diarrhea, vomiting, fever with sore throat or jaundice. This could be an indication you have one of the “Top 5” pathogens above. If your dr. says you have one of the big 5, you must tell your manager as he may have to report it to the local health department. Five Steps To Clean Hands - Wet hands with hot running water - Apply soap - Scrub vigorously at least 20 seconds paying attention to the area under fingernails. Some people say the alphabet to know when they are done. - Rinse off, under hot running water. Repeat these steps if necessary. - Dry with an air dryer or disposable paper towel, not reusable cloth You should do a “double hand wash” fully completing steps 1 – 5 two times if you are working with raw meats, you use the restroom or change a diaper. When to wash Your Hands - Before starting work - Before putting on gloves - Before and after handling raw food - After using the restroom - After sneezing or coughing - After smoking - After handling chemicals - After taking out the trash - After touching your body, clothing, or any unsanitized object - After touching an animal - After any activity that might contaminate your hands - Change every 4 hours – bacteria starts to rapidly multiply after this amount of time. - Change when handling raw food and then serving cooked food - After handling raw meat - Any time they are dirty or worn Do not ever touch food with bare hands. Use gloves, deli tissue, tongs or some other utensil. Never let your fingers touch the top of a plate, use your palm to hold the plate. Carry knives, forks, spoons by the handle. Carry cups by the base of the glass or by the handle, never by the top where someone mouth will touch. - Shower daily - Wear clean clothing - Keep fingernails trimmed - No fingernail polishes or fake fingernails unless you wear gloves - No jewelry to be worn - Cover or pull hair back - No gum chewing - No smoking while preparing food Cleaning and sanitizing are not the same thing. Here’s the 6 step process. - Make sure to thoroughly clean the sink first. This 3 basin sink should only be used for dishwashing. Don’t do things like pour old mop water down the drain in this sink to avoid contaminating the sink. - Remove food particles. - Clean with a soap/detergent at least 110 degrees F. - Rinse with clean water. - Apply a sanitizer. Immerse item for required contact time. - Allow to air dry. Do not use towels to dry. Common sanitizers include – Iodine, Chlorine & Quaternary Ammonium. Pay particular attention to recommend concentrations, water temperature recommended and contact time with sanitizer. Make sure to regularly test sanitizer concentration with test strips. If it’s OK to use hot water to sanitize in your area, the water must be at least 180 degrees F and the item must be submerged at least 30 seconds. Clean & sanitize any tools you’ve been using more then 4 hours. Make sure to calibrate food temperature checking thermometers daily or anytime they are dropped or bumped. 2 common calibration methods are: Ice-Point method – Put thermometer in a cup of ice water. Temp will always be 32 degrees F Boiling-Point Method – Put thermometer in boiling water. Water boils at 212 degrees F at sea level. Different elevations require different calibrations. The Temperature Danger Zone is between 41 degrees F. 135 degrees F. After 2 hours of cooked food sitting out at this temperature you have risky levels of bacteria. After 4 hours at this temperature the food must be discarded. Thawing – Don’t thaw foods at room temperature (eg. Sitting out on your counter). Proper methods include putting in the refrigerator, submerging food item under cool (70 degrees F or lower) running water. Do not use hot water. You can thaw food in a microwave if it will be immediately cooked or thaw foods as part of the cooking process. Once foods are cooked they must be held at a certain temperature. Hot foods must be kept at or above 135 degrees F. Check food temperatures every 2 hours and in several places in the dish. Stir the foods after taking the temperature to keep the temperate well equalized. Don’t mix the old held foods with new food when replenishing. Cold food must be 41 degrees F or below. Check food temperatures every 2 hours and in several places in the dish. Stir the foods after taking the temperature to keep the temperate well equalized. Don’t mix the old held foods with new food when replenishing. Ice used for cold holding should not be used for any other purpose (eg. Drinks). Avoid holding food directly on ice; instead put food in a water resistant dish on top of the ice. Cooling hot food for storage. 2 stage cooling – First stage hot food should be cooled from 135 degrees F. to 70 degrees F. in less then 2 hours. In the second stage food should be cooled form 70 degrees F. to 41 degrees F. or lower in 4 hours or less. Total cooling time must be less the 6 hours. Fast Cooling Techniques - Divide food into small portions. 2 inch depth for solid food, 3 inch depth for liquid foods - Cool in an ice water bath. Put pan in ice water. Stir food frequently to allow heat to escape. - Add ice or cool water as an ingredient - Use cooling paddles - Use a blast or tumble chiller Label and date all stored food. Leftover should not be kept longer then 7 days. Keep food at least 6 inches off the floor. Reheating food. – Food must be brought up to 165 degrees F. within 2 hours. If it can’t be brought up to that temperature in that time period it must be throw away. Receiving food shipments – Check the temperature of food when they are delivered to make sure they are at the proper temperature. Shell eggs 45 degrees F. or lower Cold meat type stuff 41 degrees F. or lower Hot meant type stuff 135 degrees F. or higher Frozen foods need to be frozen
School gardens can take a variety of shapes and sizes. These barrels are placed outside each classroom and can easily complement lessons.An ordinary mixed vegetable, flower, and herb garden provides endless possibilities for explorations across the curriculum. Many schools have also chosen to create special thematic gardens to focus and inspire garden adventures. Consider the possibilities of a Native American garden, for instance, for making connections to social studies and beyond. "In the beginning of the school year, I ask my fourth graders to bring in any kinds of seeds they find outdoors, then we plant them and observe what happens," says teacher Tom Murphy from Farmington, MN. When students discovered that garden seeds like marigolds sprouted quickly, but few seeds from native trees such as walnuts and oaks began to grow, the stage was set for a year-long investigation. "Students wondered why the tree seeds didn't sprout," says Tom. "As a way of encouraging students to observe deeply and to inquire about the natural world, I gave groups of them peanuts in shells to observe," reports multigrade St. Louis, MO, teacher Doloris Pepple. "I asked them to do just two things at first-to write down everything they could possibly observe, and to list all of the questions that their observations generated. Students came up with a range of excellent questions." The longer and more fully they observed, she notes, the more detail they noticed, and the more questions emerged. Could it grow through the shell? The rapid disappearance of native prairies in the Midwest inspired a local farmer to help Ellen Wellborne's sixth graders in Nerstrand, MN, explore a local prairie up close. Students examined and compared different layers of prairie soil with woodland soil, then grew barley in samples of each soil, reports Ellen. "Students expected the woodlands to have deep, rich topsoil, but were shocked to see how much better the plants and their roots grew in the prairie soils," she adds. "This prompted them to want to further explore the history and ecology of the prairie." "My students love to grow plants, they are excellent caregivers when motivated, and they also love contests," reports Nashville, TN, teacher Nancy Johnson. "I combined these facts with the need to teach my fourth graders the metric units of height, weight, and volume by setting up a contest to see which small group could grow the 'biggest' plants." Nancy provided the lima bean seeds and soil, and students discussed how to keep the race fair. They realized that they'd have to keep all growing conditions the same, Nancy reports. Challenges with basic math concepts -- perimeter and area -- dogged many students at a K-5 school in Leeds, AL. On another front, the faculty was looking for inspiration on how to use gardens to enrich learning in different disciplines. "As we considered both challenges, we hit on a solution that might help boost students' grasp of math and engage them in learning across the curriculum," explains enrichment teacher Shirley Farrell. "First, I shared what I knew about the concept of square-foot gardening, then we brainstormed possible growing themes." "You can imagine how short our growing season must be here in Anchorage (AK)," reports teacher Glenn Oliver. "But my second through sixth grade students don't let that get in the way of our gardening." "We just have to do things a little differently, such as raising certain crops inside our greenhouse," he adds. Not a bad choice. Those Alaskan summer days pushed his students' greenhouse-grown corn to 13 feet! (Consider sharing this with your students, then exploring what, besides being in a greenhouse, could account for such phenomenal corn growth.) "Early in the year, I suggest classroom plant investigations, model how to develop predictions about what might happen, and help students set them up," reports second grade teacher Diane Gore from Durham, NC.
Understanding Rubrics of Mind Homeopathic Journal :: Volume: 2, Issue: 1, Nov 2008 (General Theme) - from Homeorizon.com \|Article Updated: Oct 18, 2009\| Rubrics of Mind Chapter have always been an intriguing and controversial discussion for students of Homeopathy. With the development of different Schools of Understanding the subject became more confusing. So, we are starting a series of Discussions aimed at comprehending the Rubrics of Mind. For a starter we are using Rubrics from Kent's Repertory. We invite queries and discussions from all our readers. The First Rubric in the Series is: Understanding origin of word: Abandonment (noun): The act of giving something up. Abandons (verb): Give up with the intent of never claiming again. Abandoned (Adj): Forsaken by owner or inhabitants. Cross References: Forsaken, Deserted, Isolation, Loneliness, Desolated. Forsaken (verb): To Leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch. Deserted (Adj): Forsaken by owner or inhabitants Desert (verb): Leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch. ISOLATION, SENSATION OF A feeling of being disliked and being alone. Sadness resulting from being forsaken or abandoned. Understanding Meaning of Rubric: The amplitude of all these rubrics revolves around the core feeling of being left alone, all by himself by people whom he counted upon, maybe his family, friends, loved ones. Deep inside the person may have the feeling of worthlessness, of self-depreciation, of being unfit for relationship. If neglected this worthlessness can lead to depression, melancholy or even the Suicidal mania of Aurum-met. Interpretation: A Feeling as if one has been given up by his near and dear ones. Example: The patient during the course of telling about his complains says that nobody cares about him and he is all alone in the world, all by himself. Chief medicines: There are many medicines in the list among which we have Aurum, Psorinum, Pulsatilla in the first grade. Aurum-met: Aurum is very conscious about his duty, he has an anxiety that he has not done what he should have done, that he did not do his duty as well as he should have done. They suffer from "persecution-complex" and blame themselves for any suffering or pain, even in inter-personal relationship. He feels depressed when he sees that people do not have confidence in him. This forsaken, abandoned feeling drive him to despondency and loathing of life. Psorinum: For a Psorinum the cause of despair is his persistent thoughts about "Lacking and Loosing". It may be loosing in business, lacking strength, lacking money and so on. So the feeling of Being Forsaken or Abandoned may be relative for him. He feels he is not being loved more or is not getting enough affection as he should have been given. No joy or realization benefit his sense of neglect and poverty and he feels dejected and depressed. Pulsatilla: The tearful, malleable Puls needs affection and support of people around her. She needs a steady anchoring force in her life and moulds herself to the demands of others. Also she needs repeated assurances that she is being loved and cared. Being so sensitive she often feels lost and forsaken if she does not get enough love and affection. (When you care or like each of them, an Aurum will not believe you for he feels his suffering is because he is not able to perform what is expected of him. Psorinum will always crave more, being dissatisfied with whatever you do for him while Pulsatilla will show a temporary betterment as long as you keep loving her without complaining.) Subrubric: Sensation of Isolation: Understanding Meaning: A state of separation between persons or groups; The act of isolating something; setting something apart from others. Interpretation: Now, isolation is a hairline different from forsaken feeling. A person may be isolated by choice it does not necessarily mean that he is depressed or sad about being lonely. Chief Medicines: Under this subrubric we have two remedies Anacardium and Argentum-nit in second grade and medicines like Platina, Stramonium in third grade. Platina: Platina has a Narcisstic personality she has a hyperinflated idea of her being. She has contempt for others, a 'mere mortal being' sense, she feels no one is capable enough to be close to her. So she isolates herself. Anacardium: The two willed Anacardium also has this sensation, but it is more because of his irresoluteness. He cannot decide between the two options, being in dilemma about which way to choose. He weighs the pros and cons, goods and evils of the situation over and over again and so is not able to decide. And, then the situation passes and he has nothing in hand. Thus his sensation of isolation is of his own making. Argentum-nit: The nervous, anxiety-prone Argentum-nit has the Feeling of Isolation. He is tormented by the inflowing of persistent troublesome thoughts, all sort of hallucinations, illusions, delusions are perceived. He has impulse to jump from the bridge, to dive and he cannot discuss these with others. He realizes his foolishness and is engulfed by a sense of isolation. 2. ABRUPT (Adj) Understanding origin of word: Abruptness (noun): An abrupt discourteous manner or The quality of happening with headlong haste or without warning. Abruptly (Adv): Quickly and without warning. Abrupt (verb): Surprisingly and unceremoniously brusque in manner or Marked by sudden changes in subject and sharp transitions. Interpretation: Characterized by or producing the effect of a sharp or sudden unexpected ending. Example: The patient is observed to be rough in nature, he will enter the chamber without waiting for his turn, he would sit or stand so suddenly as to start you, would answer suddenly or stop all of a sudden; he is also the person who can ask you that how your questions are related with his complaints. Chief Medicines: Nat-mur, Tarent
Reflections on Women’s History Month Faculty from across Rutgers share their thoughts on the contributions of women in the past and present and how to support them in the future. The last year has been full of contradictions. Women have made significant gains as officeholders at all levels of government, making it possible to shape the agenda of the future. Kamala Harris shattered a glass ceiling when she became the first woman and first person of color to serve as vice president. But the pandemic has taken a great toll on working women, in conjunction with the economic recession, forcing many from their jobs as schools shifted to remote learning and the burden of educating children fell largely on mothers' shoulders. At this time, which includes moments of celebration tempered with crushing setbacks for women throughout the United States and the world, we asked faculty from across Rutgers to share their thoughts about the time we are living in and reflect on the past, present and future. Marking Progress While We Learn Lessons From the Pandemic There is much to celebrate this Women’s History Month. The U.S. has its first woman and first person of color serving as vice president in Kamala Harris. Janet Yellen is the first woman to be secretary of the treasury. Representative Deb Haaland is poised to be the first Native American to serve our country as secretary of the interior. Jacinda Arden, who has earned wide praise for her handling of the pandemic in New Zealand, is one of many women leaders around the world who have played a vital role in protecting their countries from COVID-19. But these prominent women should not blind us to how the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the burdens carried by women, especially women of color, in our country. Women have faced the crush of working full-time jobs from home, supervising school for their children, caring for aging parents or immune-compromised family members and more. Low-income women, especially women of color, discovered that despite their minimum wage salaries they are essential workers. Consequently, the pandemic has meant continuing to work outside of their homes with the attendant risks to their health and that of their family members. This is especially egregious given that this disease is killing Black and brown people at a highly disproportionate rate. Women were more likely than men to lose their jobs during the pandemic and were hardest hit by the closure of schools and day care centers because they do substantially more caregiving in their homes. Experts have raised concerns that decades of progress that women have made in the workforce has been stalled or even reversed during the pandemic. As we celebrate triumphs this month, we must also refocus on what it means to create gender parity in the U.S. It means better paid-leave policies, including sick leave, and a higher minimum wage. It means enforcement of laws against sex discrimination and pregnancy discrimination, and subsidized high-quality childcare. It means tackling the crippling levels of student debt that far too many Americans carry. There are critical lessons the pandemic has taught us about how we can do better as a society and learning those lessons, especially those about what it takes to support women in the paid workforce, will benefit all of us. Writing Women Into the Narrative In my writing, I have always been interested in exploring the messiness of identity and history, especially the fictional nature of borders. What does it mean to be Indian or Sri Lankan when those national borders were carved haphazardly from a colonial imagination without much thought but with bloody consequences? Some of my favorite writers like Arundhati Roy and Octavia Butler challenge us to wrestle with history to see where we are headed. At this specific moment of history, we are rediscovering women who have been left out of the archive of our collective consciousness. While this unearthing is long overdue, I wonder how we will reprogram our minds. Albert Einstein’s wife, Mileva Marić, was a brilliant physicist who worked with him on his theories but never received credit. The list goes on and I think part of my desire to write stems from those stories that are not told, all those lost dreams. As much of the world feels like it’s on fire, I am reminded of the words of Grace Lee Boggs, “History is not the past. It is the stories we tell about the past. How we tell these stories—triumphantly or self-critically, metaphysically or dialectically — has a lot to do with whether we cut short or advance our evolution as human beings.” Across the globe, women are actively trying to bend the future narrative toward justice. Across India, women have been protesting against the deregulation of agricultural markets and Tamil mothers in Sri Lanka have been protesting and seeking answers for the disappearance of their loved ones. These stories are not isolated instances of resistance but part of a larger narrative of women reclaiming public spaces and demanding that we listen. Why I Participated in the COVID-19 Vaccine Trial As a Black woman, a wife and a mom of two young children, deciding to participate in a COVID-19 vaccine trial during the pandemic did not come lightly. Still, despite everything that was going on in our world last year, it was necessary. Although I knew my ancestors were experimented on and were hurt by doctors and others in the name of science, I decided to do it anyway, hoping that more people of color would consider taking the COVID-19 vaccine when it became publicly available. I also wanted to do my part to have Black people represented in the trial to ensure that the vaccine will be effective. I also did it because I believe in science and I know that the virus disproportionately impacts Black, Indigenous and people-of-color communities. COVID-19 has ravaged these communities far more than others, and this vaccine, in addition to other public health measures, can add another layer of protection. I've used my voice and my platform to advocate and to be a voice for the voiceless in any way I can. If I can make even a little difference by being an example to so many people who the pandemic has severely impacted to make sure they are vaccinated, I would do it all over again to help save lives. Women’s Education for a New Generation Dean, Douglass Residential College and Douglass Campus Professor, Departments of Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies One of few such institutions in the country, Douglass employs a pioneering model of women’s education – nurturing the academic, professional, and personal aspects of a student’s experience in equal measure. Students access co-curricular programming such as living-learning communities, research, and career assistance that broadens pathways for women in all disciplines. Their individual pursuits of success are complemented by a socially relevant curriculum that encourages students to hone their voices, assess their relationship to the community, and ultimately, become disruptors of the systems of injustice women face. Students are immersed in critical social theorizing about how our world works. Intersectionality, which is central to our programs, provides a lens to unpack how to interrupt systems of inequity to become better allies and advocates. Historically, white women have been defined as the default. That logic perpetuates the divisive and racist myth that other women, by virtue of race or ethnicity, are of secondary status. Feminists have long noted these inequalities, yet we all have so much more work to do recentering what women’s empowerment means by marking inequalities among women, making the college a site of inclusion for our diverse population, and putting forth tangible deliverables that create real change. “Knowledge and Power: Issues in Women’s Leadership,” the Douglass foundation course, is one of many spaces at Douglass that support these goals. The course introduces key social justice concepts that then extend outside the classroom and across the college’s co-curricular programs. Students can become DE&I (diversity, equity and inclusion) Ambassadors or join the Dean’s Student Diversity Board – both of which center student voices in conversations on inclusion and equity. Ultimately, Douglass functions as an ally for women at Rutgers, to address their needs both now and in the future. Allyship is about proactive solidarity, and that’s what we strive to do for women at Douglass. There are critical lessons the pandemic has taught us about how we can do better as a society and learning those lessons, especially those about what it takes to support women in the paid workforce, will benefit all of us. Advocating for Reproductive Justice As we mark back-to-back celebrations of women’s history and Black history, it’s important to recognize the intersectionality of oppressions between these two groups, particularly around reproductive health care. As an OB/GYN and family planning specialist, I see patients at many different intersections in their reproductive life plan — some with a desired pregnancy, some with a pregnancy they want to end, some trying to get pregnant, some trying their best to prevent it. My job as a clinician is intricately linked to my role as an advocate for reproductive justice, which declares the human right of all people to become pregnant, to not become pregnant and to raise children in safe and sustainable environments. The COVID-19 pandemic made routine care incredibly challenging regardless of people’s pregnancy intention. Social distancing made seeing a health care provider a potential risk. Pregnancy care was complicated by limited visitors during labor. We have limited data about COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy, although most of our current data suggests it is very safe to receive. Family planning care has been particularly challenging as many states have been using the risk of COVID-19 and the need for PPE as political excuses to restrict abortion access. This didn’t start with COVID-19. Black maternal mortality was higher than white maternal mortality before the pandemic. Abortion restrictions have been growing each year throughout the 2000s, all inequitably impacting Black patients. Contraception access, improved with the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate, was rolled back in the last administration. But even before that, reproductive control in marginalized populations perpetuated by the U.S. government and physicians alike have been coercively controlling people’s ability to have children for centuries. From slavery to forced sterilizations to incentivized contraception in Black and brown communities shows that we have been controlling reproduction for the benefit of white men since the beginning. To move forward, we need to embrace not only the importance of reproductive health and reproductive rights but also reproductive justice. We need to center those facing the most barriers and oppressions in health care by stepping back and letting patients voice their goals. By naming things like white supremacy in medicine and how sexism leads to limited studies on pregnant patients, we can rebuild medicine to serve the people that need it. That way we can provide evidence-based care that is also just care. A Workforce Crisis After dramatic growth in women’s labor force participation in the latter half of the 20th century, the pandemic has hit women workers hard. Analysis published in February of U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows women’s labor force participation having fallen to its lowest since 1988, with over 2.3 million women having left the labor force since the pandemic started and disproportionate impacts on women of color. The gendered economic effects of the pandemic reveal how our legal and social infrastructure insufficiently supports women’s workforce participation. Despite legal advances toward greater parity in the family and the workplace, the pandemic highlights continuing stratification of our labor force, with losses hitting hardest industries in which women’s employment is more concentrated, including restaurants, retail, hospitality, health care and childcare. The economic impact of these job losses is even more devastating, given that women, especially women of color, are overrepresented in low-wage work, much of which is located in affected industries. The pandemic also shows enduring gaps in U.S. legal and social policy in supporting workers who are caregivers of children and other family members. Essential workers who cannot perform their jobs remotely face the ongoing lack of affordable childcare, now magnified by economic losses confronting the childcare industry itself during the pandemic. And for those who can work remotely, mothers disproportionately face the multiple demands of doing their paid jobs while caring for and schooling their children at home, pushing many out of the labor force at unprecedented rates. Unemployment and leaving the workforce are likely to have long-term consequences for women’s economic stability, exacerbating the wage gap and the motherhood penalty. Legal responses to the current moment can draw on longstanding reform efforts to support women’s labor force participation and build families’ economic security. Even before the pandemic, women’s workforce participation in the U.S. lagged behind some other advanced economies. A key factor is the absence of effective caregiver policies, such as affordable childcare and guaranteed, widely available paid family leave. The Federal Reserve chair last month indicated openness to addressing care policy to reduce this disparity. Recent and currently pending federal responses expand access to or incentivize paid family and sick leave related to COVID-19 and bolster the childcare industry. Such efforts target preexisting system gaps that have only widened in the pandemic. With 15 million single mothers and working mothers being the primary breadwinner in 41 percent of families with children, the stakes are high for addressing the workforce crisis. Stopping Abuse of Power Is Key to Fostering Women’s Careers in STEM "How can we get more girls interested in science?" I am asked this well-meaning question frequently, but the good news is that there is no shortage of girls or women interested in science. Unfortunately, even though women earn almost 50 percent of STEM PhDs, many then leave STEM for other careers. So, how can scientific fields retain women? In part, by proactively guarding against toxic professional relationships. Most scientists work within a close-knit group of five to 15 women and men in a mentoring hierarchy, with a faculty member at the top. These mentoring relationships need to be supportive but demanding, and the demands need to be rigorous but fair. The scientific training model causes a small number of relationships to take on huge significance in a scientist’s life. When they turn abusive, exploitative or dismissive, a trainee’s hopes and ambitions fray over time. And nothing captures the trifecta of abusive, exploitative and dismissive like sexual harassment. In surveys aggregated by the National Academy of Sciences and Medicine, 20–40 percent of female STEM trainees report experiencing harassment. Abuses can happen at any level, not just at the top of the hierarchy. Perpetrators don’t suddenly transform from model students to serial harassers when they get a faculty position. As graduate students, they can target undergraduates, and as postdoctoral researchers, they can also target graduate students. The quasi-isolation of scientific research and the entrenched hierarchy create an environment where abuses of power can fester. These are unpleasant realizations for faculty, but they also provide us with an opportunity: we can proactively combat sexual harassment in STEM through our interactions with our own research groups. For STEM faculty, it means we regularly remind our trainees that we want them to come to us if they don’t feel safe. It means we notice subtle but concerning interpersonal dynamics in the lab and follow up. And it means we chat with students about whether the lab dynamics they’ve experienced are normal. These might seem like little steps, but serial harassers depend on their ability to persuade victims that their supervisors won’t care about any allegations. Researchers deprive abusers of this power when we speak for ourselves, unambiguously reminding all our trainees that we do care. It’s not hard to do, and the cost of continued silence is untenable. How many scientific puzzles remain unsolved, how many diseases remain uncured, just because a perpetrator convinced a promising female scientist that her brain didn’t have enough to offer? By naming things like white supremacy in medicine and how sexism leads to limited studies on pregnant patients, we can rebuild medicine to serve the people that need it. That way we can provide evidence-based care that is also just care. Kristyn M. Brandi How Can We Enable Women Leaders When Gains in the Workforce Have Diminished? This past year has highlighted both the vulnerability of women’s progress in the workplace, and paradoxically, their effectiveness in leading organizations through crisis. Whether in response to social acculturation or through carefully honed practices, women leaders have steered their organizations through rough waters with empathy, inspiration, deliberate action and empowerment. At the same time, as women left the workforce during the pandemic, we watched with alarm as the progress women made over the past decade dissipated. Fewer women in the workforce mean fewer women in leadership roles. As we build back the engagement of women in the workforce, retention and growth of those who still remain in the workplace is critically important. Genuine mentorship remains crucial in preparing women for leadership roles. However, too often the charge of mentoring women is placed on other women. With a greater proportion of men in leadership roles, decisions for promotion and growth of women often rest with men. But research continues to show that men perceive discrimination against women to a much lesser degree than women. If nearly 60 percent of men don’t see a problem, how can they address it? Data-driven practices can highlight gender gaps in leadership and guide practices that empower all leaders to understand and address barriers that women face, including demands of caregiving, workplace stereotypes and shortage of mentors in leadership roles. The pipeline for leadership builds surely from effective recruitment but steadily from strong retention practices. Organizations have a distinct opportunity now. Over the past year, most have developed robust practices and infrastructure for remote and hybrid work. Even as the lines between work and personal lives blur, we have seen that productivity sustains. Our normative understanding of the intersection between performance and leadership must be revisited. A top-down, bottom-line driven mindset often disregards the positive and enduring effect of the inclusive, culture-building leadership style of women. The vulnerabilities that led to women’s departure from the workforce can be addressed through flexibility and engagement, enabling the progression of women leaders. Women’s Voice in Politics Hasn’t Been Fully Realized The United States is experiencing a woman vice president, a woman speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and record numbers of women in Congress and state legislatures. The 2018 and 2020 elections yielded unprecedented gains in women’s candidacies and elections to office. But challenges remain. Few studies of gender and elections focus on money in politics. But without resources, it’s hard to wage a successful campaign. Women may not even enter a race in the first place. And political gatekeepers may be less likely to get behind potential women candidates unless they are perceived as strong fundraisers. We know that gender, race and class shape not only earnings and wealth, but also networks. Black women, Latinas, Asian American women, and Native American women often lack the political and financial relationships that can lead to successful campaigns, particularly for major, competitive offices such as gubernatorial office. Only three women of color have ever won the office of governor; and no state has elected a Black woman or Native American woman as governor. Only eight women serve as governors in the 50 states today — far below gender parity. Our recent Center for American Women and Politics report The Money Hurdle in the Race for Governor finds that women who enter gubernatorial contests are competitive fundraisers. At the same time, insufficient financial support may explain why women are underrepresented as gubernatorial candidates. Our report also finds gender differences in how candidates finance their campaigns, suggesting greater challenges for women. For example, women raise more of their money from small contributions, which may require greater fundraising effort. Women have tremendous power as voters and vote at higher rates than men. But in our report, men outpace women as donors; men are more likely to contribute to races for governor and give more. Thus, women’s political voice as donors has yet to be realized. Pandemic’s Shift in Household Division of Labor Can Lead to Workplace Equity The COVID-19 pandemic has caused immense social and economic harm around the globe. In the U.S., tens of millions of workers have lost their jobs since March 2020, with disproportionately larger employment losses for women, people of color and people with disabilities. Also of paramount concern, women (especially women of color) make up a large share of workers in poorly paying jobs on the frontlines where they risk exposure to the disease. The gendered dimensions of this crisis also apply within the home. Women perform a relatively greater share of reproductive labor, a workload that has grown as a result of stay-at-home orders. For some, especially employees in white-collar jobs, work closures have pushed both men and women to telecommute from home if feasible. At Rutgers, we (the Center for Women and Work and the Center for Women in Business) conducted a real-time survey in May 2020 to gauge how opposite-sex couples were navigating the overlap between paid and unpaid work. Results showed that both men and women experienced an increase in the amount of unpaid work within the home during the pandemic relative to before, with women performing more. We did find a silver lining: as men took on more household labor, women reported a higher likelihood of being more productive in and satisfied with their paid jobs. So men’s participation in housework and childcare at home increases women’s well-being, and it may also accelerate progress toward gender equity. The shifting balance of paid-to-unpaid labor within the home during the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to alter social norms around the household division of labor and lessen the implicit bias of motherhood that limits women’s opportunities for career advancement. As companies extend their work-from-home orders, telecommuting could become the new normal for a larger proportion of the workforce.
Scapozza, C., Lambiel, C., Reynard, E., Fallot, J.-M., Antognini, M. and Schoeneich, P. 2010. Radiocarbon dating of fossil wood remains buried by the Piancabella rock glacier, Blenio Valley (Ticino, Southern Swiss Alps): Implications for rock glacier, treeline and climate history. Permaforst and Periglacial Processes 21: 90-96. Based on radiocarbon dating of the fossil wood remains of eight larch (Larix decidua) stem fragments found one meter beneath the surface of the ground at the base of the front of the Piancabella rock glacier (46°27'02" N, 9°00'07" E) in the Southern Swiss Alps in September 2005, the authors determined that the wood was formed somewhere between AD 1040 and 1280 with a statistical probability of 95.4%. Then, based on this information and "geomorphological, climatological and geophysical observations," they inferred that "the treeline in the Medieval Warm Period was about 200 meters higher than in the middle of the 20th century, which corresponds to a mean summer temperature as much as 1.2°C warmer than in AD 1950." Thus, we assign the MWP (at a minimum) to the period AD 1040-1280; and adjusting for warming between 1950 and the present, we calculate that the MWP was about 0.5°C warmer than the peak warmth of the CWP.
Solar power cheaper than coal: One company says it’s cracked the code Over time I’ve grown more and more suspicious of stories about breakthrough technologies. I always think back to those heady days of EEStor, the guys who were going to make a battery that would revolutionize grid storage and electric cars alike. “EEStor CEO says game-changing energy storage device coming by 2010”! As you may have noticed, 2010 came and went and the game remains unchanged. All of which is to say, regarding the post to follow: caveat lector. Still, this looks very, very cool. CleanTechnica has an exclusive on a new solar technology that claims to be able to produce power with a levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of 8¢/kWh. That is mind-boggling, “two-thirds the price of retail electricity and over 3 times cheaper than current solar technology.” If the claim proves to be true (and a lot can happen between prototype and mass manufacturing), it could revolutionize the solar industry. First, most solar panels are flat, which means they miss most of the sunlight most of the time. They only briefly face direct sunlight, unless expensive tracking systems are added. The Spin Cell is a cone: The conical shape catches the sun over the course of its entire arc through the sky, along every axis. It’s built-in tracking. The second problem: Solar panels produce much more energy if sunlight is concentrated by a lens before it hits the solar cell; however, concentrating the light also creates immense amounts of heat, which means that concentrating solar panels (CPV) require expensive, specialized, heat-resistant solar cell materials. The Spin Cell concentrates sunlight on plain old (cheap) silicon PV, but keeps it cool by spinning it. It’s just so damn clever. Here’s a video that explains: The company’s technology claims have been confirmed by a technical review commissioned from independent consultant Bill Rever. As to the 8¢/kWh cost claim, the company told CleanTechnica, “We think we can go below that, but we want to stay conservative.” Hitting it, or close to it, could shake up the energy world. Here’s a chart comparing LCOE for various power sources: That is a whole new ballgame right there. The company’s aim is to capture 3 percent of the energy market. For context, CleanTechnica notes that “all solar power installed in the U.S. to date currently accounts for about 0.5-1% of the energy market.” More than tripling the size of the U.S. solar market is … well, not short on ambition. Most impressively, to me, the company tells CleanTechnica that it already has over 4 GW of requests for orders. There is 7 GW of installed solar in the U.S., total. There’s lots, lots more on the technology over on CleanTechnica, if you want to dig in. To me, the most exciting implications of the technology (again, if it proves out) are for distributed energy. Spin Cells are only a meter across and quite aesthetically appealing. You could carpet a city in these. Like this: Maybe this tech or this company will peter out before reaching mass-market scale. But advances in solar technology are coming faster and faster. (Small, distributed energy technologies are inherently more prone to innovation than large, capital-intensive energy technologies.) Sooner or later, solar will be woven seamlessly into the fabric of our lives. Our built environment will harvest energy as a matter of course (from the sun, from the wind, from waste), store it effectively, and use it wisely. Power harvesting and power management will be ubiquitous; power imported from large, distant, polluting power plants over long-distance transmission lines will come to be seen as back-up, a necessary evil. And perhaps, someday, an unnecessary one. UPDATE: There are several critiques of V3Solar’s technology in the comments. The company defends its tech against some of them here.
From the Guardian, writer Felicity Lawrence tells us more about the OXFAM report on food prices. After decades of steady decline in the number of hungry people around the world, the numbers are rapidly increasing as demand outpaces food production. The average growth rate in agricultural yields has almost halved since 1990 and is set to decline to a fraction of 1% in the next decade. A devastating combination of factors – climate change, depleting natural resources, a global scramble for land and water, the rush to turn food into biofuels, a growing global population, and changing diets – have created the conditions for an increase in deep poverty. "We are sleepwalking towards an age of avoidable crisis," Oxfam's chief executive, Barbara Stocking, said. "One in seven people on the planet go hungry every day despite the fact that the world is capable of feeding everyone. The food system must be overhauled." Oxfam called on the prime minister, David Cameron, and other G20 leaders to agree new rules to govern food markets. It wants greater regulation of commodities markets to contain volatility in prices. It said global food reserves must be urgently increased and western governments must end biofuels policies that divert food to fuel for cars.
Note: The following discussion applies to CGI, ASP, JSP, Servlets, Web Services, etc. Anything that works with 'the web'. What people call the WWW (World Wide Web) is just a huge collection of web-servers, which you access via web-clients (or web-browsers). The process works like this: a person types in some address in the address bar of their web-browser. The address is in the form of a URL, which has both the hostname and the resource name (along with the protocol and possibly a port). (sample URL with port and resource: http://www.theparticle.com:80/profphreak/profphreak.html - where http is the protocol, www.theparticle.com is the hostname, 80 is the port address on that host [80 is the default for web-servers] and /profphreak/profphreak.html is the resource, an html file in our case.) The web-browser connects to the host, and requests the resource. The server either returns the resource or an error, and user's web-browser displays whatever the server returned. Simple? That's all there is. Well, as far as the simple situation is concerned. Very often however, we are not just dealing with static resources such as a web page, but with programs. In that case, the situation works like this: the web-browser requests a resource, which the web-server determines to be an executable program - in which case, the server executes the program, and returns the output as "the resource". Common Gateway Interface (or CGI for short), defines the environment in which such programs execute. It defines how these 'web' programs get their parameters, how their input and output is processed (how they talk to the web-server), etc. CGI is system and language independent, meaning that you can write these web-programs in any language for any system (yes, even UNIX and Windows, and yes, using Perl). The Request (technical) All client/server interactions start with a client request. In HTTP, a request is a fairly basic command to the server to fetch some resource. The usual request would look something like this: GET /somefile.cgi HTTP/1.1 This is a request using Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 (as you can see from the User-Agent header variable). The URL used is: Which you can also spot inside the header (the Host has the "host", and the first GET line has the resource. When the web-server gets such a request, it knows what to GET and what types of content the user's browser is willing to accept (which includes Microsoft Word documents, among other things). The same URL but requested via the Mozilla 1.1 web-browser produces the request: GET /somefile.cgi HTTP/1.1 As you can see, even though the requests appear different, they do contain fundamentally the same information (like Host, and GET line). This is how the server can be platform independent (and be able to talk to various web-clients). GET, POST, etc. What we've seen so far is a GET request. There are about half a dozen different requests which are standard. Apart from GET, another request types stands out as being very common: the POST. The POST request is usually used to send form data to the server. It is also different from GET in that it has a body. (GET just had the header; all user data has to be crammed into the few lines of the request header). With POST, we can send a LOT more data (like upload files), and submit forms with a lot of fields. To test POST, let's create an HTML form, and post data to our URL from the previous section. Notice that the FORM has a METHOD="POST" (this is the key part). When we post data using this form, the request becomes: POST /somefile.cgi HTTP/1.1 Notice that the request stars with a POST and not a GET and that now we also have a header argument named Content-Length which has a value of 27. This 27 represents how much data there is in the body of the request. It is the length of USERNAME=Prof.Phreak&AGE=25 (this is the body; since the request skips a line right before it). Now let's do the same exact form with a GET: Which produces a request to our server: GET /somefile.cgi?USERNAME=Prof.Phreak&AGE=25 HTTP/1.1 Notice that this request (the GET) has no Content-Length, and no request body. All the information is encoded as part of the resource: So, now we know that if we use GET, our data becomes part of the resource string; and if we use POST it is appended to the request as the request body (and we are given the length). The Response (technical) The response is a bit simpler than the request; since now we don't have to worry about various ways of sending data; there is basically one way, and that's in the response body. An OK response to the web-browser from the web-server looks something like this: Notice that there is an HTTP header, followed by a blank line, then followed by the HTTP body (the content) of the reply. The header has a Content-Length, which tells us exactly how many types we can read to get the body. (note that the 404 content length is just a coincidence, it has nothing to do with the 404 error). An error response would look something like this: HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found Yep, this is the famous 404 Page Not Found error (how our browser sees it in raw form). Web programming (or programming for the web - however you want to refer to it), is utilizing the HTTP protocol and the structure we've learned about in these notes. CGI allows us to define our own recipients of these HTTP messages. We can have our own script that would accept form parameters, process them, and just as easily return results in a form that a browser can understand.
While reading the first part of chapter 4 about how class time is spent I began thinking about my one experience in classrooms and how that time was spent. I began to realize that in a lot of my physical education classes we had a lot of wasted time that could have been focused on something more productive. Some of the things I experienced in my classes when I was in school never really seemed like a big deal at the time but looking back on it I see how they could have been improved. Even when I was observing in the schools I saw teachers doing things that could have been done more efficiently. The biggest thing was taking attendance before each class. Another thing I noticed was cleaning up one activity and getting set up for the next activity took up a lot of time. However the biggest aspect that took up time was behavior management. A lot of teachers will have the student’s line up at the beginning of class to take attendance. This seems like a huge time waster and there are many more efficient ways to do this in a class. Instead having all the students line up and wait for the teacher to call off everyone’s name in the class they should be given a warm up activity right away. By getting the students active right away it keeps students engaged and moving which is the main purpose of physical education. Instant activities are a great way to get the students moving and warmed up right away. Old fashion warms up can be repetitive and boring and in order to keep the students excited and on task we teachers need to spice up the warm ups. Other good things about having an instant activity is that students will come into class and not even have the chance to get sidetracked or off task. By getting them started in activities right away it could lessen the student’s behavioral problems. PEcentral.com has some great ideas for instant activities that can be used for students of all ages. Having smooth transitions in a class can provided teachers with loads of extra time that would usually be spent cleaning up and changing activities. Some of my teachers would spend 2 to 3 minutes in between each activity for clean up and set up. It seems that because they didn’t plan out ahead of time they were losing valuable time during these transitions. I think that it is important to know exactly how the class will change from one activity to the next. Using the students to help clean up and set up activities is a great way to save time and keep the students on task. If the students always have a job to be doing the distractions will be limited and they will be better able to stay on task. One of the biggest concerns a new teacher has is behavior managements and keeping the students on task. Is the students are behaving inappropriately and the teachers can’t control them it doesn’t matter how awesome the lesson is. After observing many teachers and being a student myself I sadly still have no idea how I will keep the control of my classroom. I have ideas from each teacher I had but I will have to find my own style and work with different classes and try my best to keep the class on task. I have seen very strict teachers and very laid back teachers, both types of teacher where able to keep control of their class. I think that the biggest thing in behavior management is being yourself and doing what works for you. It is impossible to control student’s behavior but it is possible to control the situations you put students in. By controlling these situations and environments you can help to create a classroom that keeps students on task. By having exciting new games and activities that the students enjoy they will be more motivated to stay on task. It is also important to limit distractions and transition times because these can cause students to become off task quickly. A typical class will only last approximately 40 minutes and in order for students to get the most out of their class teachers need to use this time wisely.
44. Euphorbia gracillima S. Watson, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts. 21: 438. 1886. Mexican sandmat Mexican sandmat Chamaesyce gracillima (S. Watson) Millspaugh Herbs, annual, with slender taproot. Stems erect to ascending, 5–25 cm, glabrous. Leaves opposite; stipules distinct, subulate-filiform, entire, 0.3–0.5 mm, glabrous; petiole 0.4–0.9 mm, glabrous; blade narrowly oblong to linear, often slightly falcate, 2–15 × 0.3–0.8 mm, base symmetric to subsymmetric, rounded to attenuate, margins entire, thickened and often revolute, apex acute to obtuse, surfaces glabrous; only midvein conspicuous. Cyathia solitary at distal nodes; peduncle 0.1–0.9 mm. Involucre turbinate, 0.4–0.5 × 0.4–0.6 mm, glabrous; glands 4, yellow to pink, oblong to slightly reniform, (0–)0.1–1 × 0.1–0.2 mm; appendages white to pink, ovate to oblong, 0.2–0.4 × 0.1–0.3 mm, distal margin usually entire, rarely emarginate. Staminate flowers 5–12. Pistillate flowers: ovary glabrous; styles 0.1–0.2 mm, 2-fid 1/2 length. Capsules broadly ovoid, 1.1–1.4 mm diam., glabrous; columella 0.8–1.1 mm. Seeds orange to tan or reddish brown, narrowly ovoid, 4-angled in cross section, 0.9–1.1 × 0.5–0.6 mm, smooth. Flowering and fruiting late summer–fall. Rocky slopes and dry washes in desert scrub; 600–900 m; Ariz.; Mexico (Chihuahua, Jalisco, Sinaloa, Sonora). Euphorbia gracillima occurs from south-central Arizona (Pima and Pinal counties) south through northwestern Mexico.
Inscribed in 2010 (5.COM) on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of HumanityThe gastronomic meal of the French is a customary social practice for celebrating important moments in the lives of individuals and groups, such as births, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, achievements and reunions. It is a festive meal bringing people together for an occasion to enjoy the art of good eating and drinking. The gastronomic meal emphasizes togetherness, the pleasure of taste, and the balance between human beings and the products of nature. Important elements include the careful selection of dishes from a constantly growing repertoire of recipes; the purchase of good, preferably local products whose flavours go well together; the pairing of food with wine; the setting of a beautiful table; and specific actions during consumption, such as smelling and tasting items at the table. The gastronomic meal should respect a fixed structure, commencing with an apéritif (drinks before the meal) and ending with liqueurs, containing in between at least four successive courses, namely a starter, fish and/or meat with vegetables, cheese and dessert. Individuals called gastronomes who possess deep knowledge of the tradition and preserve its memory watch over the living practice of the rites, thus contributing to their oral and/or written transmission, in particular to younger generations. The gastronomic meal draws circles of family and friends closer together and, more generally, strengthens social ties.
Quebec BiographyEdit This Page From FamilySearch Wiki There are many collections of biographies of the earliest French Canadians. Stories of the immigrant women called the "king's daughters" are in: Dumas, Silvio. Les filles du roi en Nouvelle-France: Étude historique avec répertoire biographique (The King's Daughters in New France: Historical Study and Biographical Sketches). Cahiers d'histoire, number 24. Québec: Société historique du Québec, Canada, 1972. (FHL book 971.4 D3ds; film 1421670 item 5.) Text in French. Biographies of the earliest pioneer men are in the continuing series: Lebel, Gérard. Nos ancêtres: biographies d'ancêtres (Our Ancestors: Biographies). Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, Québec, Canada: La Revue, 1983–. (FHL book 971.4 D3L.) Text in French. An English version of Lebel's series is: Laforest, Thomas J. Our French-Canadian Ancestors. Palm Harbour, Florida, USA: LISI Press, 1983–. (FHL book 971.4 D3Lt; several volumes on 79 fiche.) Some books relating to trades, professions, or government officials include biographical sections. They are described in the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under QUEBEC - OCCUPATIONS and QUEBEC - OFFICIALS AND EMPLOYEES. An example is: Dictionnaire des parlementaires du Québec, 1792–1992 (Biographical Dictionary of the Parliament of Québec, 1792–1992). Sainte-Foy, Québec, Canada: Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 1993. (FHL book 971.4 D3d.) Text in French. This includes brief biographies of members of the Assemblée nationale du Québec and its predecessor, the provincial parliaments. See the Canada Research Outline (34545) for national biographical dictionaries that include prominent Québec residents. Canadian encyclopedias also include biographical sketches. Local histories often include biographies of residents. An example is: Hubbard, Benjamin F. The History of Stanstead County, with Sketches of More Than Five Hundred Families. Revised Edition. Montréal, Québec, Canada: Lawrence, 1874. (FHL book 971.467 H2h; film 873948 item 1.) New to the Research Wiki? In the FamilySearch Research Wiki, you can learn how to do genealogical research or share your knowledge with others.Learn More
Hybrid desalination technology is defined as any combination of thermal and membrane processes in seawater desalination systems. So far, the two technologies have evolved rather independently with some degree of competition. Traditionally, in co-generation market applications, thermal desalination has succeeded in establishing a stronghold where large capacities are needed, energy costs are low, and seawater quality is challenging. However, in recent years, membrane systems have also succeeded in grabbing a larger share of the world seawater desalination market, mainly as a result of progress made in membrane and energy recovery technologies. Realizing the potential benefits and challenges faced by both technologies on their own, designers have been looking for ways to synergize and combine the two technologies in optimum configurations, which promise to further reduce the total cost of seawater desalination. Part of the book: Desalination Updates
Which delivery is good for health? Vaginal deliveryIt's the most preferred and most common way to deliver a baby because it carries the lowest risk (in most cases). A vaginal delivery occurs most often between weeks 37 and 42 of pregnancy. A vaginal delivery has three stages: labor, birth and delivering the placenta. What is the healthiest way to deliver a baby?Only healthy women with normal pregnancies should give birth at standalone birth centers. Birth centers offer natural childbirth with little medical intervention where your needs and desires come first. Is normal delivery good for health?Lastly, babies born through vaginal delivery are less likely to suffer from certain respiratory problems such as TTN, transient tachypnea of the newborn, a condition in which fluid gets trapped in the newborn's lungs; with vaginal delivery, as the baby passes through the vaginal canal, excess fluid is squeezed out from ... Which delivery is best normal or cesarean?Shorter duration of labor Vaginal delivery is painful, exhausting, and physically grueling. C-section, on the other hand, is pain-free and less time-consuming. One can decide on a time for the surgery with their doctor and get the procedure done comfortably. What are the 3 types of delivery?Some of the most common are: Vaginal Birth. Natural Birth. Scheduled Cesarean. Should I Eat During Labor? Benefits vs Risks & What are Good Snacks for Labor? Which type of delivery is best?Vaginal delivery It's the most preferred and most common way to deliver a baby because it carries the lowest risk (in most cases). A vaginal delivery occurs most often between weeks 37 and 42 of pregnancy. A vaginal delivery has three stages: labor, birth and delivering the placenta. Which type of delivery is more painful?While slightly more than half said having contractions was the most painful aspect of delivery, about one in five noted pushing or post-delivery was most painful. Moms 18 to 39 were more likely to say post-delivery pain was the most painful aspect than those 40 and older. What are the disadvantages of C-section?Drawbacks and Risks of C-Sections Like with any major surgery, the risks include infection, blood loss or dangerous clots, nausea, vomiting, and severe headache (often related to anesthesia), bowel problems, injury to another organ (such as the bladder), and, very rarely, even death. Which delivery is painless?Painless normal delivery or delivery with labor analgesia (Epidural) is a technique where very specific concentration of drug is used. Although the drug reduces the pain, it maintains the ability to push your baby out through the birth canal. Why do doctors prefer C-sections?Doctors would have several reasons to prefer C-sections to natural childbirth in marginal cases: more income, more convenience in planning and scheduling, and fear of malpractice lawsuits. Is cesarean safer than natural birth?For most women, a vaginal birth is safer and healthier. Vaginal birth cuts the risk for many complications. With a vaginal birth, a woman has the following: A lower risk of needing a blood transfusion. Which age is good for delivery?Experts say the best time to get pregnant is between your late 20s and early 30s. This age range is associated with the best outcomes for both you and your baby. One study pinpointed the ideal age to give birth to a first child as 30.5. Your age is just one factor that should go into your decision to get pregnant. What are disadvantages of normal delivery?The downside of a vaginal birth is that a percentage of women will need an instrumental birth which involves a cut in the vagina. 5 per cent of women will also have significant tearing of the pelvic floor or a large amount of bleeding. Why is natural birth better?Natural childbirth benefits babies in their gut: In the long run, babies born through a caesarean section are more prone to asthma, allergies and infections. Without natural birth the babies miss out on the good bacteria present in the mother's body. This plays a major role in the immune system of the child. What is the safest early delivery?The risk for neonatal complications is lowest in uncomplicated pregnancies delivered between 39 and 41 weeks. To give your baby the healthiest start possible, it's important to remain patient. Elected labor inductions before week 39 can pose short- and long-term health risks for the baby. What is the healthiest birth weight?The sweet spot for a healthy birth weight is between 5.5 pounds and 8.8 pounds. Babies who weigh less than 5.5 pounds at birth are more prone to infection in those first few months and may have long-term problems such as learning disabilities and delayed motor and social development. Can you deliver baby without pushing?Laboring down is the process of not actively pushing once the second stage of labor and intense contractions begin. Some people wait one to two hours before pushing, which allows the baby to naturally move down the birth canal. Laboring down has risks and benefits. How can I reduce labour pain? Medicine-free ways to handle pain during labor include: - massage or counterpressure. - changing position. - taking a bath or shower. - listening to music. How can I give birth naturally without pain? Some natural pain management methods include: - Breathing techniques, such as those taught in Lamaze. - Essential oils or aromatherapy. - Music therapy. - Taking a warm bath or shower. - Walking around.
Tooth cavities are among the most common oral health problems. Millions of people suffer from more or less severe tooth decay, so there’s no wonder dentists are in great demand in most civilized countries. The causes of this affliction can be multiple, ranging from improper nutrition and genetic heritage to poor oral hygiene and bad lifestyle habits. It’s already a well-known fact that sodas can attack the tooth enamel, weakening it and making it more prone to getting damaged by harmful bacteria. The best way to get help with tooth cavities is to prevent them by visiting your dentist or dental hygienist every six months. By having your teeth checked twice a year, you can detect all potential problems in their early stage of development, when they are easier and cheaper to fix. Treating a small cavity wouldn’t cost you too much. On the contrary, large cavities may be impossible to fill, thus needing the tooth to receive a root canal and a crown. These treatments are going to cost you about ten times the price of a small filling, so it’s worth considering whether it’s worth ignoring your dentist for years. The other thing you can do is to make sure you eat a lot of raw vegetables. Carrots are very good for your teeth, as they help strengthening the gums and removing the plaque. Crunchy vegetables help you clean your teeth after a lavish meal, so you should eat some each time you can’t brush your teeth immediately after such meals. If you choose chewing gum instead, you should pick a sugar-free brand and make sure you discard it after 10-15 minutes of use. You should always floss and brush, as you shouldn’t allow plaque to harden and turn into tartar. If your teeth are crooked, you may experience plaque and tartar build-ups even under the circumstances of a very good oral hygiene. This means you may need to visit your dental hygienist every two or three months, in order to make sure all these plaque and tartar deposits are removed before they get a chance to hurt your gums and teeth. You should call your dentist for an appointment at the first signs of tooth cavities. If you feel pain when you drink cold or hot beverages, you can suspect a cavity. Although these problems have a slow evolution, you shouldn’t ignore them for too long. It’s not a big deal if you wait for one of two months in order to save money to afford the treatment, but you shouldn’t postpone it until you can’t sleep at night because of toothaches. Some people believe they can reverse tooth cavities by eating various foods that can help remineralise their teeth. While such things may be possible, there are no studies to support such claims, so you shouldn’t be too confident in your power of healing your tooth decay. Frequent visits to the dentist can be way more effective, as they can protect you against more severe oral health issues. New Lynn dentist http://www.avondale-dental-centre.co.nz
Bible Commentary: “Yom Teruah (Rosh HaShana)”September 28, 2011 at 7:44 am \| Posted in Bible Commentary \| 1 Comment Tags: Bible Commentary “Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.’ ” (Leviticus 23:23-25 NKJV) “‘And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work. For you it is a day of blowing the trumpets” (Numbers 29:1 NKJV). The origin of Rosh HaShana is biblical as seen in our text above. It is a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts of the Shofar (the ram’s horn). The bible refers to the holiday as Yom Teruah (the day of the sounding of the Shofar) and Yom Zikaron Teruah (the day of remembering the sounding of the Shofar). Previously the day has been called Yom HaZikaron (Day of Remembrance) and Yom HaDin (Judgment Day) but the name Rosh HaShana or Head of the Year) has become the name of choice. Yom Teruah (Day of Trumpets) in traditional Judaism signifies the first day of the Jewish civil year (Rosh ha Shanah, or “Head of the Year”). It is also the first day of the Days of Awe (a period of repentance and introspection culminating ten days later in the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur. A part of traditional Judaism recognizes the Day of Trumpets as the anniversary of the creation of the world. There are three themes in Yom Teruah/Rosh HaShanah, according to traditional Judaism: The Sovereignty of God, the Remembrance of God (of all men’s deeds, with justice), The Trumpet of God, heralding the initial revelation of God at Sinai as well as the final messianic revelation and redemption to come at the end of days. Jesus spoke of the day when He will fulfill Yom Teruah/The Day of Trumpets: “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Mat. 24:30-31 NKJV). Child of God – Why is this day important to us who are not Jewish? By the blood of Jesus we have been grafted into the vine and are now joint heirs with Him. As Jesus was Jewish and we are now all brothers and sisters then our roots are part of this rich and vibrant spiritual heritage. Let us join with our Jewish family and celebrate a tradition that God Himself originated with Moses and will fulfill with Jesus. Paul told us Yom Teruah (Day of Trumpets) signifies the day when Yeshua will come for those who are His, and we will all be changed: “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed–” (1 Corinthians 15:51 NKJV). Lord, thank you for giving us a path to look at in your Word that we may know that the symbols we can see in it are also for us to appreciate and wait on. When you come back we will hear the trumphet and we will see your glory! Amen. If you want to have a personal relationship with Jesus as your Lord and Savior pray: “Dear Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and that out of love for me you willingly sacrificed your life so that I may live. I repent of all my sins and open my heart to you as my Lord and Savior. Amen. If you prayed this prayer for the first time or if you have any questions please contact us. We would love to hear from you.
In this post, I will describe how to draw grass and wild flowers with pen and ink. Grass or any kind of ground cover is part of any landscape and drawing them in pen and ink is very easy as I will show below. Keep following 3 important points in mind: - Per perspective, things get smaller with distance. Draw grass and other shrubbery that is farther out smaller than the one that is nearer to the viewer. - Keep size of different elements in your drawing in proportion. Grass is usually much smaller than, for eg, a stone on the ground, and draw their size as such. - Distribute grass or any ground cover in irregular pattern. Emergence of any specific pattern in drawing grass with kill the effect. To draw a grass, use short slightly curved lines with a ‘root‘ as shown below. Make the distant grass smaller than one closer as per perspective. Also, vary their density to add more interest to the drawing. Above, grass is drawn without a ‘ground form’, i.e. there is no indication of ground plain. It is always more effective to create ‘ground form’ and draw grass on it. To create flat ground form, use horizontal parallel lines as shown below. Also vary the horizontal length of these lines with their length increasing towards the viewer. This reinforces feeling of distance in the drawing. Draw grass on these lines. These lines give more definition to the ground and add overall interest in addition to giving sense of distance in the drawing. Remember not to over do it. It is the ‘suggestion’ of grass that matters. You don’t have to cover the whole ground with grass. Instead, aim to give ‘suggestion’ of grass as shown above and the mind interprets it appropriately. You can find many other examples in Mini-Landscapes. My workbooks also contain additional content and hands on exercises to practice drawing ground cover. Drawing Grass: Use ‘Suggestion’: In pen and ink drawing, a hint or ‘suggestion’ is often used to convey presence of certain element. This is often done with grass where mere suggestion of grass is enough to give feel of grass covered ground as shown in drawings 1 and 2 below. Drawing 3 below is often not needed. Add some variations in tone of grass as shown in middle drawing above to add interest to the drawing. When doing so, use ‘organic’ shapes as shown below. Don’t use a straight line or regular shape like circle or ellipse as this destroys the effect. Drawing Wild Flowers: To draw a wild flower, simply draw a slightly curved line representing stem. A simple flower can be drawn as shown below. Always remember to ground the stem by drawing a wiggly line at its base. Hint of grass can be used at the base of stem to further ground them and add more interest as shown below. Leaving White to Differentiate Different Elements: In a black and white pen and ink drawing, colour can’t be used to separate different elements that overlap each other. In this case, leave a small amount of white around the edges of element in the front to create separation. In the last drawing below, grass is draw very lightly around the flower and stem to make them stand out. Following are some examples of use of wild flowers with other elements. In all these cases, first flowers are drawn and then hint of grass is added at the bottom. In the first drawing, some white is left around the flowers at the base of stones to make them stand out. Drawing Wild Flowers at Distance: Use following technique to draw wild flowers on the ground at a distance. Essentially, an overall feel or ‘suggestion’ of flowers is given. Following drawing shows use of above technique to draw a simple spring landscape. Following technique for flower can also be used. This is especially useful when the background is darker and you want the flowers to stand out. Use Different Types of Ground Cover: Use your imagination and observation of your surroundings to draw different types of ground cover in a drawing to add interest as shown below. This may include small shrub, stem with some leaves, bare stems etc. Step by Step: Ground Cover as Drawings: Quiet pleasing drawings can be done by just using grass and ground cover as shown below. This is further explained here, These are quite fun drawings that can be quickly attempted in your breaks. Try some now. This should get you started. My drawing workbooks are a great resource for additional content and hands on exercises. Mini Landscapes has additional drawings to learn from. My YouTube Channel has many videos that demonstrate the use of techniques discussed above. You can also Subscribe to receive my weekly emails that demonstrate how do a simple drawing in easy step by step manner. These are great for regular practice and to get weekly inspiration. See a sample here. If you liked this content, do leave a ‘like’ or ‘comment’ below to let me know it is helpful. This motivates me to write and share more content. Back to Tutorials: I will be regularly adding new templates and tutorials. If you would like to be notified of any new addition, pl. send me your email address in the form below.
MySQL Test Run or MTR for short, is a MySQL test program. It was developed to ensure that the MySQL server’s operation is as expected whether it be in terms of testing the functionality of new features or integrity of the old. There are suites of existing tests which are to be run whenever a change is introduced in any of the components of the server to see if there are any side effects as a direct result of the change. MTR test cases mainly contain SQL statements which will be executed against the server, and produce results that can be verified. Since the intention of these tests is to emulate the client interaction with the MySQL server, the configurations of the server started by MTR should ideally be the same as that of a default MySQL server. However, the my.cnf configuration file which MTR uses, used to set some of the server system variables to non-default values rather than the server default values. This configuration was prevalent for many years, the reason for which could have been the lack of powerful virtual machines like the ones which are available today. Over the years, a lot of investment has gone into building the testing team for MySQL, both in man power and machine power. What started out as a handful of engineers has now grown into a fully fledged team and the machines available have commendable specifications. With each machine consisting of large RAM disks and processors of up to 128 cores, resources are available to run thousands of tests on various platforms, a fact that proved to be the driving force behind this worklog. WL#8795 set out to peruse the my.cnf config file used by MTR and change the settings of server system variables to their defaults where ever it was possible. In addition to this, the worklog attempted to find the reason behind some of these non-default settings. This blog will talk about the variables and their settings which were present in the config file. Some variables were already set to the server default values: 1. open-files-limit = 1024 3. character-set-server = latin1 4. sort_buffer_size = 256K 5. loose-innodb_log_files_in_group = 2 The following variables were set to non-default values previously but have been modified such that they are now set to the server default values: 1. key_buffer_size = 1M Since increasing this value provides better index handling for all reads and multiple writes, the value was changed to the default value of 8M in the config file. The maximum value of this variable depends on the availability of physical RAM and per-process RAM limits of the machine. That is probably why it was set to a lower value before. 2. max_heap_table_size = 1M The value was changed to the default value 16M. This value sets the maximum size to which MEMORY tables are allowed to grow and since machines have larger RAM disks now, the default setting would not cause any adverse affects. 3. loose-innodb_data_file_path = ibdata1:10M:autoextend This variable was set to the server default value of ibdata1:12M:autoextend, where 12M is the size of the ibdata file. Machines now can handle the increase in the size of the files. 4. loose-innodb_lru_scan_depth = 100 This variable value was changed to the server default value of 1024. 5. loose-innodb_write_io_threads = 2 and loose-innodb_read_io_threads = 2 These variables were set to the default value of 4. However for replication tests, they were set to 2 so that the aio-max-nr limit of the machine is not exceeded due to the increased number of concurrent mysqld instances when MTR runs replication tests with a parallel value of 4 or more. 6. loose-innodb_log_buffer_size = 1M With a larger innodb_log_buffer_size, large transactions can run without having to write the log to disk before committing. This reduces the disk I/O, and hence provided another motive for this variable to be set to its default value of 16M. The default value is OFF. Turning this variable ON causes updates to non-transactional tables to be written directly to the binary log instead of the transaction cache. This resolves any concurrency issue when transactions update both transactional and non-transactional tables. It was turned OFF in the config file, but it was set to ON in some tests which contained transactions that update both MyISAM and InnoDB tables so that statements would be written directly to the binary log, to avoid any inconsistency in the slave caused by concurrency issues. 8. slave-net-timeout = 120 After setting this variable to the default value of 60, instead of 120, no failures were seen. There were some variables which could not be set to the default value and this was discovered while the worklog was in progress. 1. connect-timeout = 60 The default value is 10 but it needs to be set to 60 to avoid intermittent disconnects when test servers are put under load. This issue can be seen in Bug #28359. 2. log-bin-trust-function-creators = 1 When binary logging is enabled, this variable controls whether stored function creators can be trusted not to create stored functions that will cause unsafe events to be written to the binary log. Hence this variable is set to 1 so that no restrictions are enforced on stored function creation. 3. log-bin = mysqld-bin Binlogging is OFF by default, but it is necessary to set it to ON for replication tests which have multiple mysqld servers. The config file for the replication suite sets it to ON only for two servers, the master and slave. However there might be more than two servers started in a particular test and they all need binlogging to be enabled. Other tests which have replication scenarios also require this variable to be ON. 4. loose-innodb_buffer_pool_size = 24M This variable was changed to the default value of 128M, and tested. This change along with the increase in innodb-log-file-size caused the disk usage (/dev/shm) to increase while running the standard MTR suite with the –mem option. The –mem option is used to run the test suite in memory so that the run takes lesser time. This resulted in valgrind runs crashing. Therefore, these two variables were set to non-default values because the RAM disk could not handle it. 5. loose-innodb_log_file_size = 5M This variable specifies the size of each redo log file in a log group. It was tested with the default value of 48M, but set back to 5M due to the reason mentioned above. Apart from a few variables which are required to be set to non-default values in the config file due to environmental reasons, the rest were set to the server defaults. Now, MTR runs all the test suites by starting a server whose settings are as close as possible to the default MySQL server. MTR is known to be a salient tool for testing the MySQL code, and ensuring that the testing happens in an environment similar to the community version, provides better odds of finding bugs before the user encounters them.
Pandorea 'Golden Showers' Also written as Pandorea pandorana 'Golden Showers' Pandorea pandorana, the Wonga-wonga vine, is a member of the Bignoniaceae family. It is a vigorous woody climber found over an extensive area of eastern Australia in many differing environments. While more usually associated with moist forest habitats, it is also found in sandy soils close to the coast, in richer loams of volcanic origin, rocky situations in drier areas, and rainforest verges. It is often a persistent species in disturbed or cleared areas. In forest conditions the plant may be difficult to see. It grows rapidly into the canopy and quite often the only indication of its presence will be liana vines reaching into the canopy and, during spring, the fallen flowers littering the forest floor. In more open forests it is a prominent species scrambling through the undershrubs. The leaves are easily distinguished, being pinnate and very glossy. An individual leaf consists of from five to nine leaflets that are ovate in shape and from 7 to 8 cm long. In spring the massed tubular flowers are very conspicuous. They can vary from white or cream to brown and often have maroon or purple striations in the throat of each blossom. Seed is formed in a pod-like capsule from 4 to 7 cm long. The capsule opens to reveal copious quantities of flattened seeds, each one with a membranous, encircling 'wing'. The original selection of Pandorea 'Golden Showers' was made by the Australian National Botanic Gardens from a naturally occurring plant of Pandorea pandorana growing near Kempsey in New South Wales in 1967. The cultivar name 'Golden Showers' refers to the golden-brown pendulous inflorescences. This cultivar will tolerate light frosts but could not be regarded as frost-hardy. If grown in cold environments it would require some protection, either by careful siting in protected positions near buildings or under a protecting plant canopy. It would be difficult to establish in 'frost hollows' where cold winter air has a tendency to pool. The seeds of this cultivar germinate freely and many adventitious seedlings have appeared at the Gardens. Although plants can be raised from seed, this form of propagation will not guarantee flower colour. To retain the characteristics of 'Golden Showers', or for that matter any other desired colour form, vegetative propagation must be used. Tip cuttings of medium-wood material are suitable. Though found naturally in a wide range of environments, cultivation at the Gardens has shown that Pandorea 'Golden Showers', like other forms of the species, performs best in richer soils with some year-round moisture. Soils should not dry out nor should the plants be subjected to extensive soil moisture fluctuations. Plants develop to their full potential in semi-shaded situations. It is an excellent species to use on fences, pergolas or trellises. If desired for use as a climber on trees, some care must be exercised due to the constrictive liana habit as this may inhibit or strangle younger trees as they develop. Pandorea 'Golden Showers' has proved to be pest free at the Australian National Botanic Gardens. Text by Geoff Butler, ANBG (1986) Name meaning: Pandorea pandorana Pandorea - relating to the legend of Pandora's box, of which Spach (the author of the name) is said to have been reminded by the fruits. Another suggestion is that the original species was connected with a plague of insects on Norfolk Island; pandorana - from Pandora and the Latin suffix, - ana, relating to. 'Golden Showers' - refers to the golden-brown pendulous inflorescences
Web Site Review: Many genealogists and other Jewish-researchers have known for years that the Jewish Encyclopedia (not to be confused with the Encyclopaedia Judaica) is an invaluable research aid. The Jewish Encyclopedia was originally published between 1901 and 1906. Although there are later editions, it is the unedited original edition that is online. The web site, JewishEncyclopedia.com, features the unedited contents of the original Jewish Encyclopedia: 15,000 articles and illustrations on a variety of Jewish topics. The Jewish Encyclopedia covers many towns and historical personalities not covered by the Encyclopaedia Its articles are often deeper and more accurate. The primary obstacle to using the Jewish Encyclopedia was finding a copy. Although nearly every Jewish school, library, and synagogue has a copy of the Encyclopaedia Judaica, the Jewish Encyclopedia is, or rather was, much harder to find. Thus genealogists and Jewish researchers alike welcome the creation of JewishEncyclopedia.com. The primary feature of JewishEncyclopedia.com is one's ability to search its entire contents. The simple search feature, available on every page, allows one to search article text, titles, or image captions. The search feature is extremely useful as many rabbis were known by many names. For example, a search for Rabbi Israel Salanter finds the entry for Israel Lipkin, by which he was also known. A simple search looks for any word listed unless the words are in quotations and then ranks them by relevancy. enables the user to tailor a search in many useful ways. Using the power search one can search by author; it also allows one to search using multiple keywords (including the ability to search using "and," "and not," or "or"). One can limit power searches to articles with images, music, or family trees. Power search also enables the user to control word order, word proximity, and frequency in the search. Another advantage of power search is that simple searches are limited to 50 retrieved items, while the number of retrieved items in a power search is controlled by the user, up to 100. The articles are reprinted in two ways. First, the text is available as online searchable text. Additionally, all articles include jpeg images of the original pages in the Jewish Encyclopedia. The jpeg images are of each entire page. Clickable article subheadings appear at the beginning of articles. Every article includes a "print this" feature which allows one to print the article without unnecessary page layout (see below). does not merely contain the plain text. Many topics in articles are linked to other articles allowing one easily to move from article to article. Lastly, another useful feature is the list of abbreviations. This can often be helpful when looking through bibliographical material. Every article links to a page briefly describing the author and other encyclopedia articles he has written. Every article links to a jpeg of the original page and to any images associated with the article. One can also join or start a discussion forum, run a Google search, or add a link related to the topic. Because of the image and search features, the "print this" feature is particularly useful. Unfortunately the image feature is not always tied to the topic of the article, but rather to its page. For example, a search for Spira will include the image for a Holograph Letter of Baruch Spinoza, dated 1665, from page 521. The article about Spinoza ends on page 520, where the Spira article begins. The image does not appear with the Spinoza article. However, a search for Spinoza will include the image as one of fifty listings. Limiting the search to image captions lists only the six images associated with the Spinoza article and the letter from page 521. This illustrates the importance of multiple tailored searches on a single topic. (Note: the webmasters were notified of this particular error so it may have been corrected by the time of publication.) Genealogists know that one of the very useful features of the Jewish Encyclopedia is the inclusion of several family trees of prominent (mainly rabbinic) families. Trees are included in discussions of the Jaffe, Lipkin, Margolioth, several other prominent families. However, many entries that do not include trees contain genealogical information, including parents, children or other notable ancestors or descendants. Searches only include the names in the article text, not names included in the One of the main drawbacks to searching JewishEncyclopedia.com that unlike many of the searches available at JewishGen one cannot make a Soundex search. Although one can search for multiple spellings, one must hit the exact spelling. For example, Pressburg, Austria-Hungary (now Bratislava, Slovakia) is spelled Presburg in every entry but one. One of the consistent spelling conventions is the use of the letter "B" for a bet (bais) or vet (vais) in Hebrew words. Thus a search for "yeshivah" turns up no items, while a search for "yeshibah" turns up 50 items. The same problem occurs in a search for scholars such as Yom Tob Lipman-Heller. A search for Yom Tob Lipman-Heller, however, has two other problems. First, the encyclopedia is not consistent in the spelling of Lipman, also spelling it Lipmann in some entries. A more serious problem is the tet (tes) in Tob. The letter represented by a "T" with a dot underneath it. Similarly, the letter chet (ches) is represented by an "H" with a dot underneath it and the letter tzdi is represented by a "Z" with a dot underneath it. It is therefore difficult to search for words containing these letters. Moreover, if one does not have the right fonts installed, these letters appear as question marks. The web site has a Unicode to resolve font problems and has links to patches and advice available for Windows and Macintosh (System 9.0 and higher). Although this resolves most display problems, it doesn't solve the search problem. Another problem is that the search feature looks for entire words. Thus searching for "tora" or "yeshiba" will not find "yeshibah". Particularly problematic is that a search for plurals and singular words are not equivalent. For example, searching for "rabbi" or "rabbis" will produce entirely different entries. The Jewish Encyclopedia has entries on countless individual rabbis and many individual rabbis from Mishnaic times to its publication in the early twentieth century. It also has entries on nearly all of the major centers of Jewish communal life. Several smaller Jewish communities are unfortunately not discussed. Some smaller communities are discussed in the entries of larger communities. For example, Gnesen, Krotoschin and Kempen are included in the discussion of the province of Posen. One very nice feature is that the entry on many of these communities includes a list of prominent rabbis and the dates they lived or flourished. Thus where an entry exists, it contains quite useful information. Lastly, there are also entries on a myriad of Jewish topics, including holidays, rituals, and culture. Lawrence D. Weinberg resides in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and has been actively engaged in genealogy since 1998, having amassed a database of over 12,000 individuals. This research has extended to the 16th century through connections to the Spira, Bondi, Kalisch, Sachs, and Shtendal rabbinic lines. He is currently pondering writing an article about Simon Michael Pressburg of Pressburg and Vienna.
The word means « storyteller » and has its roots in the word “Katha” which means history. In the past, many communities of storytellers of North India, which regaled the audience with episodes of mythology, legends and folk tales, incorporated music, mime and dance in their performances. Among those communities, there were the Kathaks who were both dancers and musicians. Over the years, with the growing popularity of the cult of the god Vishnu, hymns, lyrical compositions and sacred songs were created and have been dedicated to him. The God Krishna (incarnation of Vishnu), which is the inspiration of Kathak, is often associated with « Natvara » attribute, the divine dancer. The dancers choose and frequently interpret episodes that chronicle the loves of Krishna and Radha, the pretty shepherdess mentioned in particular in the Gita Govinda. The rulers of Mughal and Hindu courts introduced the dance to the court, which led to transformations in the style. Therefore, that dance exclusively devotional became an entertainment, it is then enriched with new elements and play a great part in the technical virtuosity and pure dance. We often speak of the Kathak dance as the origin of Flamenco, as nomads, Gypsies from the Thar desert, would have brought to Spain. Kathak style is today characterized by a complex language: foot strikes (tatkar), « footwork » fast rhythm set to a complex cycle times, rapid pirouettes (bhramaris), poetic expression (abhinaya) and sign language hands (mudras). With great emphasis on rhythm, dance is built around rhythmic words (bowls), which are accompanied on tabla or pakhawaj, recited by the dancer before he interprets with feet keystrokes and 200 bells around the ankles. The representation is a virtuoso dialogue between the percussionist and dancer. Jaipur, Lucknow and Varanasi are identified as the three schools, or gharanas where this art is set and where the interpretative and rhythmic aspects were brought to a very high degree of sophistication.
People living in the north and south of the planet will have to migrate toward the center to obtain more favorable climates and less energy demand. The same applies to those who inhabit regions of very high temperatures. Accordingly, we will wait the coming of wars for the possession of the deposits and the final product. 2. Global Warming: Despite the efforts of groups like the United Nations, Greenpeace and other major NGOs, this point has been the center height of discussion of various leaders summits that have been evolving for several years. However, their solution is still in a stage of intentions. The main cause of this problem lies in the intensive use of fossil fuels (oil and coal) to generate the electricity that moves the world. The consequences of the continued use of derivatives of these elements are: the sudden emergence of violent weather events, storms, floods, melting glaciers, sudden changes in temperatures, sea level rise, desertification of large tracts , reduction of the habitability of the mainland, large-scale disappearance of animal and of man himself, forced migrations, etc.. The remedy for this evil should begin by lower prices and the widespread use of alternative energies to get the necessary elimination of oil and coal as energy sources, or keep them at manageable levels for the planet. Is this possible? However, leaders who are in favor of these measures are dashed against the power of vested interests around the black gold, making it more and more difficult to achieve this daunting task. 3. The Population Explosion: If we make a brief account, we see that only up to 1804 is over the threshold of the 1.000 million people, ie that the man took 140 million years to reach one billion inhabitants, while in the following 205 years, the population has grown by 680% to reach 6800 million people who occupy our world today.
California’s system for funding public schools has been in place for 35 years. 1968-78: California moves to a state-controlled finance system 1968 Serrano v. Priest Lawsuit challenging the fairness of California’s system for funding K-12 education. 1972 SB 90 Established revenue limits, a ceiling on the amount of general purpose money each school district may receive. 1976 Serrano v. Priest The California Supreme Court ruling that the school finance system was inequitable. 1978 Proposition 13 Constitutional amendment limiting property tax rates and increases. Sources of Funding for Schools - Federal government: about 11% - State’s budget (business, corporate and personal income taxes, sales taxes, and some special taxes): about 61% - Local property taxes: about 21% - Miscellaneous local revenues (include such items as fees on commercial or residential construction; special elections for parcel taxes; contributions from parents, businesses and foundations; cafeteria sales; and interest on investments by local school districts): about 6% - The smallest amount at the bottom is the California Lottery: 1.5% or about $125 per student annually Public schools have no other revenue sources. Distribution of the Money - General purposes: two-thirds of total funding - Special purposes or categories of students: other third Each district’s income is based on: • the average number of students attending school during the year (average daily attendance, or ADA) • the general purpose (revenue limit) money the district receives based on ADA • special support (categorical aid) from the state and federal governments, earmarked for particular purposes. The California Legislature set revenue limits for each district in 1972. The other large portion of a school district’s income is categorical aid from the state and federal governments. It is based on categories of children, such as students with disabilities; characteristics of the district, such as low-income families; or programs, such as class size reduction (CSR). The program can be voluntary, such as CSR for grades K-3, or required, such as Special Education. Categorical aid can be a very small portion or more than one-third of a district’s budget, depending on the population of students served. The money must be spent according to the state or federal guidelines for the qualifying program. Miscellaneous income is a small percentage of most districts’ budgets, but (with a few exceptions) districts have discretion over how to spend the money. A State Centralized System Proposition 13 (1978) effectively removed school districts’ ability to exert substantial control over their revenues. Last Updated: January 16, 2009
All animals have to make decisions every day. Where will they live and what will they eat? How will they protect themselves? They often have to make these decisions as a group, too, turning what may seem like a simple choice into a far more nuanced process. So, how do animals know what's best for their survival? For the first time, Arizona State University researchers have discovered that at least in ants, animals can change their decision-making strategies based on experience. They can also use that experience to weigh different options. The findings are featured today in the early online edition of the scientific journal Biology Letters, as well as in its Dec. 23 edition. Co-authors Taka Sasaki and Stephen Pratt, both with ASU's School of Life Sciences, have studied insect collectives, such as ants, for years. Sasaki, a postdoctoral research associate, specializes in adapting psychological theories and experiments that are designed for humans to ants, hoping to understand how the collective decision-making process arises out of individually ignorant ants. "The interesting thing is we can make decisions and ants can make decisions -- but ants do it collectively," said Sasaki. "So how different are we from ant colonies?" To answer this question, Sasaki and Pratt gave a number of Temnothorax rugatulus ant colonies a series of choices between two nests with differing qualities. In one treatment, the entrances of the nests had varied sizes, and in the other, the exposure to light was manipulated. Since these ants prefer both a smaller entrance size and a lower level of light exposure, they had to prioritize. "It's kind of like a humans and buying a house," said Pratt, an associate professor with the school. "There's so many options to consider -- the size, the number of rooms, the neighborhood, the price, if there's a pool. The list goes on and on. And for the ants it's similar, since they live in cavities that can be dark or light, big or small. With all of these things, just like with a human house, it's very unlikely to find a home that has everything you want." Pratt continued to explain that because it is impossible to find the perfect habitat, ants make various tradeoffs for certain qualities, ordering them in a queue of most important aspects. But, when faced with a decision between two different homes, the ants displayed a previously unseen level of intelligence. According to their data, the series of choices the ants faced caused them to re-prioritize their preferences based on the type of decision they faced. Ants that had to choose a nest based on light level prioritized light level over entrance size in the final choice. On the other hand, ants that had to choose a nest based on entrance size ranked light level lower in the later experiment. This means that, like people, ants take the past into account when weighing options while making a choice. The difference is that ants somehow manage to do this as a colony without any dissent. While this research builds on groundwork previously laid down by Sasaki and Pratt, the newest experiments have already raised more questions. "You have hundreds of these ants, and somehow they have to reach a consensus," Pratt said. "How do they do it without anyone in charge to tell them what to do?" Pratt likened individual ants to individual neurons in the human brain. Both play a key role in the decision-making process, but no one understands how every neuron influences a decision. Sasaki and Pratt hope to delve deeper into the realm of ant behavior so that one day, they can understand how individual ants influence the colony. Their greater goal is to apply what they discover to help society better understand how humanity can make collective decisions with the same ease ants display. "This helps us learn how collective decision-making works and how it's different from individual decision-making," said Pratt. "And ants aren't the only animals that make collective decisions -- humans do, too. So maybe we can gain some general insight." The above story is based on materials provided by Arizona State University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. - T. Sasaki, S. C. Pratt. Ants learn to rely on more informative attributes during decision-making. Biology Letters, 2013; 9 (6): 20130667 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2013.0667 Cite This Page:
I've had idnopheq for, I hate to say it, almost eleven years now. My home node has a brief explanation as to it's origins in college. But soft! As I have been asked in the past ... As I went to college with a bunch of strict southern Baptists ( no smoking, drinking, swearing, etc. - I resumed such fine traits after I s/dropped/was kicked/ out of school ), we came up with other ways to amuse ourselves. One such amusement was coming up with unlikely nouns. The definition I came up with at the time is in the dark mists of memory. But the unlikely noun as a name stuck, and as with so many other monks, this one is usually available in the on-line world. Apply yourself to new problems without preparation, develop confidence in your ability to to meet situations as they arrise. Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data! Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright. Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place. Please read these before you post! — Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags: You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.) - a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking? See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info. \| & \|\| & \| \| < \|\| < \| \| > \|\| > \| \| [ \|\| [ \| \| ] \|\| ] \|\|
FIV in Cats May Hold the Key to HIV Cure Genetic researchers from the University of Florida and the University of California have placed a certain gene protein in cats that not only fights FIV, but may also be the key to an HIV cure. Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, or FIV, is the feline equivalent of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV. The two viruses are not exact copies of one another, however scientists say they are closely related. The basic similarities in how these viruses grow inside their hosts is the reason that several green, glowing cats were genetically engineered in 2010. This week, Doctor Janet Yamamoto from the University of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine gave us an update on the FIV-HIV vaccine research. “One major reason why there has been no successful HIV vaccine to date is that we do not know which parts of HIV to combine to produce the most effective vaccine.” Yamamoto’s team of researchers is concentrating on the stimulation of T-cells in people with HIV. Specifically, they are trying to find a vaccine that causes these cells to attack the virus without mutating afterwards. To achieve this, the researchers are searching for a portion of the FIV structure that could be a catalyst for human T-cells. So why the glowing cats? The research project began with two important elements: genes from macaque monkeys and genes from fluorescent jellyfish. The former are believed to be the reason for the lack of HIV infections in macaque monkeys, and the latter work as a tracking device to assure researchers that the first gene has taken effect in its host. This way, when genetically modified kittens born from in-vitro fertilization are observed under an ultraviolet light, they glow green. No glow means that the genetic modifications were not accepted in the cat’s DNA. Of one batch of five kittens, three survived and two went on to produce their own litters. The second generation of these cats also glows under UV light, and therefore possesses the genetic material necessary to combat FIV. As far as an HIV vaccine is concerned, researchers like Yamamoto are trying to understand which parts of the virus to use. Viral vaccines usually are created from different pieces of the offending virus so that the body can learn about them and understand how to defeat them. Whichever parts of the virus are used in a vaccine need to be weak or completely dead in order to be beneficial to the recipient, or else they will simply cause an unwanted infection. Using data gathered from various studies conducted on FIV in cats and the genes from macaque monkeys, scientists are hoping that soon they will find the key viral components to trigger human T-cells and produce an effective HIV cure. Cats, however, are already enjoying the benefits of good science, since vaccines for FIV are already on the market. Written by Mandy Gardner
Tales of fearsome tentacled sea beasts have abounded for centuries. With their almost alien-like appearance and sometimes enormous size they are the ideal candidates for sailors stories and maritime myths. But are squids and octopus actually dangerous? Well, after some research I can safely say, yes, and no… In terms of natural weapons all squids and octopuses (cephalopods) have some common factors. Primary and most iconic among these are the arms and tentacles. These are not actually the same thing; whilst both squid and octopus generally have eight arms, squids have an additional two tentacles. So, what’s the difference? Well arms generally have suckers along the entire length while tentacles only have suckers towards the end. Octopus arms are pretty strong too. They can be employed to wrap around and squeeze the life out of prey before pulling it towards that sharp beak. There is footage of a large octopus grabbing a passing shark of about 1.5m (4ft) and killing it after a short wrestle. One of the things that differentiates octopus and squid is their suckers. Both are used for grasping prey but those of the squid are lined with sharp teeth, or even hooks. Whilst you would be unlucky to get little more than a “love-bite” from the average sucker those of bigger squids are likely to cause a little more damage. A quick look at the skin of many older sperm whales reveals patterns of rings carved into the skin by the powerful suckers of the giant squid they prey upon. The business end of the squid or octopus is its beak. Somewhat similar to a parrot it is powerful, incredibly tough and very sharp. If the squid is sufficiently large to get your finger in its mouth there is little doubt it could cut it off. But it isn’t just the slicing and dicing abilities of a cephalopod’s beak you need to worry about. It has been found that all octopuses are capable of delivering a venomous bite with some being potentially deadly. So named for their iridescent blue rings, these little octopuses spends most of their time hiding in the nooks and crannies of coral reefs of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. However, when threatened the blue-ringed octopus lives up to both its reputation and name, showing its true colours. Its skin becomes a bright yellow and the blue rings even more vivid, almost appearing to shimmer. This is a warning that this is in fact one of the most dangerous animals in the ocean. As we mentioned above, all octopus have venom, but that of the blue ringed octopus is in a league of its own. Known as TTX (tetrodotoxin) this lethal neurotoxin is in the same family as that found in arrow poison frogs and pufferfish. In the region of 1200 times more potent than cyanide only the slightest nip from a blue-ringed octopus can prove fatal. In fact many victims claim not to have even felt the bite itself. The average specimen, which weighs only 30g, is said to contain enough poison to kill over 10 adults. What is worse is that there is no effective antivenom for a blue-ringed octopus with the neurotoxin working by paralysing the victim. It has a similar effect to the medicinal curare which is used to immobilise patients during operations and, whilst alert, those under the influence may be unable to speak or move. However, the main danger is that it paralyses the lungs causing the victim to suffocate. Immediate treatment is essential in serious cases with the victim being put on life support until the effects of the poison wear off and unassisted breathing is restored. Also known as the jumbo squid and diablo rojo (red devil), the Humboldt squid has something of a reputation as vicious and formidable predator. Weighing in at up to 50 kilos (100lbs) and measuring over 2 metres (6’6″) in length, these squid are armed with razor sharp beaks, that according to one oft quoted diver, could “mechanically amputate your hand”. In addition, the Humboldt squid’s eight tentacles are equipped with tooth-lined suckers and sharp barbed hooks. If the picture we have painted of these big red squids does not sound particularly intimidating thus far also consider they hunt in shoals of up to 1,500 individuals. Of course the Humboldt squid didn’t evolve to eat humans and their natural diet is basically anything they can catch and slice up small enough to fit in their mouths. This is generally smaller fish and other squid, however, the Humboldt squid does have a somewhat macabre reputation for regularly eating their own kind. Basically once in feeding mode anything goes, and these killer molluscs have to eat up to 10 times their body weight per day just to survive. So given their size, appetite and array of weaponry this all begs the question are Humboldt squids dangerous to humans? Well, technically this is a big yes, and there have been numerous reports of attacks on humans over the years. Perhaps, the most notorious (although somewhat lacking in evidence) is the story of the Mexican fisherman who fell overboard whilst fishing in the Sea of Cortez. When he reached out for his mate to pull him back into the boat he was attacked and pulled beneath by a school of voracious squid, never to be seen again. More credible are the numerous accounts (and videos) of divers being roughed up by aggressive squid. To date though it seems that the extent of this aggressive behaviour has been nothing more than a few bumps, bruises and torn wetsuits. Some researchers claim that the squids aggressive behaviour may be directed at reflective objects used by divers and in fact many talk of Humboldt squid as being friendly and inquisitive. So, it seems like these devils of the deep are indeed fearsome predators, but their reputation may belong to the mythological beas Giant Pacific Octopus As the name go some way to suggesting, the giant Pacific octopus is the biggest of all octopuses. Generally weighing up to 70kg (155lbs) and with a massive arm span of up to 6 metres (20 feet) these certainly are formidable beasts. (National Geographic claim the largest specimen ever weighed 140kg (300lbs) and measured 9 metres (30ft across)!) Along with their size these octopus have several adaptations which verge on being special powers. Firstly they are extremely squidgy, meaning they can squeeze through tiny gaps. In fact the limiting factor is the size of their beak – the only hard part of their body. Even creepier are their camouflaging abilities; not only can they change their skin colour but they can alter its texture. Given the right background the octopus can virtually disappear in a matter of seconds. Less useful for survival and hunting, but equally odd is the octopus’ three hearts, blue blood and nine brains. Yes, all those brains do make them smart and this is often demonstrated in their problem solving abilities. Given this intelligence octopus are commonly protected by animal testing regulations which do not normally apply to invertebrates. So, the giant pacific octopus is big, weird and intelligent – but is it dangerous? Well firstly we can rule out the Staten Island Ferry Disaster – in case you hadn’t figured it out, it’s a hoax! There are however a number of reports of people being attacked by octopus. Strangely enough many of these seem to date back some years and as more people spend more time in the ocean there have been less reports of octopus attacks. So that doesn’t quite add up. However, there have been a few verified attacks on divers but none of these seem to have resulted in any serious injury. It seems the octopus are just a little over-curious rather than set on devouring the divers. Giant / Colossal Squid As we proceed further down the page we begin to enter the world where fact meets fiction. For centuries seafaring folk had told tales of a terrifying sea monster armed with giant tentacles with which it would rip ships apart – the Kraken. In fact the creature even made it into Erik Pontoppidan’s 1755 reference book, “The Natural History of Norway” where it was described as being over a mile in length! It was not until the 1850s that the first clue as to the possible identity of this mythical sea monster came. A squid beak washed up on the shores of Denmark hinted at a specimen massively bigger than any known squid. In the years following the discovery estimates ranging up to 18 metres (60ft) have been made regarding the giant squid’s size. The truth is we still don’t know how big these mega-molluscs grow as they have seldom been viewed alive as they spend most of their time in the dark, oceanic depths. Given the giant squid’s elusive nature it seems unlikely they would have spent much of the Middle Ages attacking sailing ships and grappling with sailors. So, the stories must have been made up then? Well, actually they might not have been entirely fictitious. Back in 2003 a French yacht was actually “attacked” off the island of Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean. An 8 metre long squid is reported to have latched onto the boat blocking the rudder. However, rather than dragging all on board down into the depths the squid seemed to lose interest when the boat stopped moving. There have been other reports of giant squid attacking ships, including the Norwegian Navy’s 15,000-ton tanker, the Brunswick. The crew of the ship reported not one, but three separate attacks by giant squid during the 1930s. In one case it ended particularly badly for the squid which was dragged into the propellers. Other reports have claimed that giant squid have attacked whales. One of these comes from two South African lighthouse keepers in 1966 who allegedly watched a giant squid and baby wright whale locked in a two hour battle with the squid eventually succeeding in dragging the whale below. This seems quite unlikely as giant squids are only known to eat relatively small fish and other squids. In another whale-related story the crew of a Russian whaling ship reported seeing a 40 ton sperm whale and giant squid battle to the death. The whale was found strangled with the squid’s tentacles wrapped around its throat whilst the squid’s head was found in the whale’s stomach. But what about the colossal squid? Potentially even bigger than a giant squid, surely this must be the deadliest of all the cephalopods. Apparently not – despite its enormous size it seems the biggest of all squids is content to just float around and grabbing for whatever small prey comes into reach. This megalodon munching mega-mollusc was reputed to swallow ships whole. Measuring anywhere up to 2km (1.5 miles) in length, the Kraken was considered a very real danger for sea-faring folk of the northern Atlantic during the Middle Ages. Although now regarded as a mythical creature, back in the old days the Kraken was pretty much accepted as being real, even by the scientific community as late as the mid 18th century. In fact, not only did it feature in the 1755 reference book, “The Natural History of Norway”, it was listed as an real organism by Linnaeus, the creator of the modern system of classifying living things. One well-respected French zoologist even staked his reputation on the Kraken being real in the 1780s – he did becomes a laughing stock shortly after his claims. The legend goes that the Kraken would spend most of its time in the darkest depths of the ocean, slumbering on the sea floor. However, when the weather warmed up, or if disturbed it would head for the surface. The arrival of the mighty mollusc would be heralded by a bubbling of the sea followed by hordes of fish leaping out of the water. Once the beast had a ship in its sights there was little the crew could do; it would tear the boat apart, sending it to Davy Jones’ locker whilst gulping down the unfortunate crew in one gulp. In the rare case a ship escaped the initial attack it had to worry about the enormous whirlpool the Kraken would leave in its wake – enough to drag a ship to the bottom of the ocean. Today, it is all too easy to just assume the Kraken was the result of drunken sailors exaggerating brushes with giant squids. But it is doubtful how likely this is as the only basis of the legend. For starters giant squid have hardly ever been seen alive, although it is true they have reportedly clung onto ships. In addition, no living squid, or octopus would be capable of sinking even the tiniest of ships, let alone grabbing grown men from the deck. Another possible (or contributing) explanation could be the underwater volcanic activity, which is common around Iceland. Bubbling and steaming of the ocean, strange currents and the appearance (almost overnight) of new islands could have reinforced the legend of the Kraken. Anyway, the good news there have been no confirmed attacks by the Kraken for nearly 300 years now!
As in other arts, the definitions of amateur and professional are not entirely categorical. A professional photographer is likely to take photographs to make money, by salary or through the display, sale or use of those photographs. An amateur photographer may take photographs for pleasure and to record an event, emotion, place, as a person without a monetary motivation. A professional photographer may be an employee, for example of a newspaper, or may contract to cover a particular planned event such as a wedding or graduation, or to illustrate an advertisement. Others, including paparazzi and fine art photographers, are freelancers, first making a picture and then offering it for sale or display. Some workers, such as crime scene detectives, estate agents, journalists and scientists, make photographs as part of other work. Photographers who produce moving rather than still pictures are often called cinematographers, videographers or camera operators, depending on the commercial context. An amateur may make considerable sums entering work in contests for prize money or through occasional inclusion of their work in magazines or the archive of a photo agency. The term professional may also imply preparation, for example, by academic study, by the photographer in pursuit of photographic skills. There is no compulsory registration requirement for professional photographer status, so ambivalent or overlapping concepts apply here as they do in other areas of unregulated artistic activity, such as painting or writing.
Question 1) Explain the term ‘corporate (or organizational) culture’, and discuss its importance to the operational success, or failure, or organisations. Corporate culture, also known as organisational culture is ‘the system of shared values and beliefs that develops within an organisation and guides the behaviour of its members’ (Schermerhorn,et al, pg 45, 2004). Robbins, et al, pg 70, 2003, explain that culture is a perception, and people perceive culture to be what they see hear or experience within the organisation. This is one reason that corporate culture is so important, as it just becomes part of daily routine or ‘the way we do things here’ (Schermerhorn,et al, pg 45, 2004). Therefore if these common practices are good practices there is a strong chance the organisation will be more successful. The culture of an organisation is very important and can for a large part determine the success of organisations. As culture is a perception, it is concerned with how its members perceive the organisation and not whether they like it, (Robbins, et al, pg 70, 2003). If its members like the culture, the organisation is more likely to succeed. Organisations that have a good culture often perform at high levels, which also corresponds with staff morale. Robbins et al, pg 73, 2003 refer to a case study involving Virgin Blue, who have a different recruiting policy and job roles than other airlines in Australia. Virgin Blue want their staff to show their outgoing personality and interact with their customers during flights. Virgin Blue staff say morale is high and management gets on well with the workforce. The perception of Virgin Blue is that it is a little different to the other airlines in Australia, and that it is a fun outgoing organisation to be a part of, which is a perception Virgin Blue appears to promote and are proud of. Question 2) Examine and summerize the cultural shifts that occurred on the ANZ over this period and the benefits they brought to various stakeholders. The ANZ like most banks in the late 1990’s had a poor public image. Banks were criticised for bank fees, branch closures and scandals, as a result morale for bank employees was also poor. ANZ conducted a staff survey, which confirmed morale was low and staff satisfaction was below 50%. The survey results were quite clear that staff did not feel valued in their workplace, and employees were asked to nominate words they felt best describes the ANZ bank. Words rating at the top of the list were cost reduction, profit and shareholder value. The ANZ initiated a program, ‘the breakout program’ which was designed to shift the culture, as the bank wanted to create a new public image or perception that distinguished them from other banks. Executives of the ANZ realized a shift if employees mind set was needed to regain the trust of their staff and assist with this intended culture change. This was done with various workshops and subsidising computers for its staff, which in particular was very well received by its staff. As well as increasing staff morale by subsidising computers, staff were given the opportunity to use skills they had acquired by assisting and educating customers with money matters. This was something staff were very passionate about, and by giving them the opportunity to complete such duties may have been a factor to increased morale. ANZ claim a complete transformation in organisational culture, believing their culture has changed for ever. Judging by further surveys conducted since the change in culture, staff morale is high, and this also coincides with customer satisfaction.
Regardless of your location across North America, annual flowers often grow easily from seeds or as small seedlings bought ready for planting into the garden. When there is no danger of a killing frost, plant annual flowers (or vegetables) where they will receive appropriate sunlight levels as well as a moist, nutritious soil. Always match the annual flower plant with the right kind of soil--not all plants prosper in moist soil, some like dry soil. Not all garden soils are created equally. Use crumbly, organic-rich loam for growing annuals. Sandy soil is fast-draining, lacks nutrition, dries out and heats up quickly. Clay soils are heavy and crust over as they dry, according to the University of Missouri Extension. Examine your garden's soil and amend it with organic matter like compost or well-cured manure. Till the soil to a depth of 8 to 12-inches, deeply incorporating organic matter. Potting Soil Features Potting soil or "mix" is rarely a true soil, as it contains peat, coir, perlite, sand or vermiculite particles to create a fine-textured, porous medium that remains moist. It's often called a "soilless" mix or medium. In comparison to your native or pre-existing garden top soils,buying large quantities of formulated potting soil is expensive. Potting soil is specially formulated for use in various sizes and plant uses of containers. Topsoil is a growing medium for annual flowers as long as it is fertile, rich in nutrients and organic matter, retains moisture but also allows for drainage of rainwater. You can directly sow seeds of annual flowers in the garden topsoil, or transplant nursery seedlings. Use potting mix when sowing seeds or growing plants in any container. The loose, soilless aspect of potting mix won't crust over, compact or harden. There is generally little nutrition in potting soil, according to Cornell University Cooperative Extension. Potting soils' formulation facilitates the support of plant roots, proper aeration and water drainage. Addition of organic matter or manmade granular or liquid fertilizers is needed for healthy plants. Topsoil has a tendency to compact or crust over when it alternates between wet and dry. When seedlings are germinating, a crusty soil surface limits seedling growth. Never use topsoil in a container as it's too dense and limits aeration and drainage. It also tends to become rock hard after only a few waterings as it settles and dries. When growing annuals, use the appropriate soil type based on your growing environment. Grow annuals in a fertile topsoil in the garden. Amend the soil with organic matter and till it deeply to create the best growing conditions. If you opt to grow annuals in containers, from hanging baskets to large patio pots, rely on potting soil. Add fertilizers to topsoil or potting soil to regulate the growth and flowering as needed across the growing season.
Joom!Fish config error: Default language is inactive! Please check configuration, try to use first active language Mendeleev Dmitri Ivanovich (1871-1938) Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev was a famous Russian chemist and inventor. Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev is the creator of the first version of the Periodic Table of Elements. Using the table, he predicted the properties of elements yet to be discovered. The Russian chemist and science historian L.A. Tchugayev has characterized him as "a chemist of genius, first-class physicist, a fruitful researcher in the fields of hydrodynamics, meteorology, geology, certain branches of chemical technology (explosives, petroleum, and fuels, for example) and other disciplines adjacent to chemistry and physics, a thorough expert of chemical industry and industry in general, and an original thinker in the field of economy." Dmitri Mendeleev was a President of the First Exam Board in Chemistry Faculty of Kiev Polytechnic University. Dmitri Mendeleev was born on February 8, 1834 in Verhnie Aremzyani village near Tobolsk. In 1850 Dmitri Mendeleev entered the Main Pedagogical Institute in Saint Petersburg. After graduation, an illness that was diagnosed as tuberculosis caused him to move to Crimea in 1855. He became a teacher of science in the Simferopol gymnasium №1. He returned to Saint Petersburg in 1857 with fully restored health. Between 1859 and 1861, he worked on the capillarity of liquids and also the spectroscope in Heidelberg. In the late August 1861 he wrote his first book on the spectroscope. Mendeleev devoted much study and made important contributions to the determination of the nature of such indefinite compounds as solutions. In another department of physical chemistry, he investigated the heat expansion of liquids, and devised a formula similar to Gay-Lussac's law of the uniformity of the expansion of gases, while as far back as 1861 he anticipated Thomas Andrews' conception of the critical temperature of gases by defining the absolute boiling-point of a substance as the temperature at which cohesion and heat of vaporization become equal to zero and the liquid changes to vapor, irrespective of the pressure and volume. In 1863 Dmitri Mendeleev became a Professor of Chemistry at the Saint Petersburg Technological Institute and Saint Petersburg State University. In 1865 he became Doctor of Science for his dissertation "On the Combinations of Water with Alcohol". He achieved tenure in 1867, and by 1871 had transformed Saint Petersburg into an internationally recognized center for chemistry research. Dmitri Mendeleev wrote the definitive two-volume textbook Principles of Chemistry (1868-1870). As he attempted to classify the elements according to their chemical properties, he noticed patterns that led him to postulate the Periodic Table. Mendeleev found that the chemical properties of elements are a function of their atomic weights. Mendeleev published his periodic table of all known elements and predicted the existence of another row of the elements to complete the table. Mendeleev accuratly predicted the qualities of the element. His Periodic Table works nowadays perfectly. Dmitri Mendeleev was widely honored by scientific organizations all over Europe, including the Copley Medal from the Royal Society of London. Mendeleev was one of the founders, in 1869, of the Russian Chemical Society. He worked on the theory and practice of protectionist trade and on agriculture. Dmitri Mendeleev also investigated the composition of oil fields, and helped to found the first oil refinery in Russia. Mendeleev studied petroleum origin and concluded that hydrocarbons are abiogenic and form deep within the earth. He wrote: "The capital fact to note is that petroleum was born in the depths of the earth, and it is only there that we must seek its origin." (Dmitri Mendeleev, 1877). In 1893, he was appointed the Director of the Bureau of Weights and Measures. He formulated new state standards for the production of vodka. As a result of his work, in 1894 new standards for vodka were introduced into Russian law and all vodka had to be produced at 40% alcohol by volume. He invented pyrocollodion, a kind of smokeless powder based on nitrocellulose. This work had been commissioned by the Russian Navy, which however did not adopt its use. In 1892 Mendeleev organized its manufacture. In 1905 Dmitri Mendeleev was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Dmitri Mendeleev died on February 2, 1907 at the age of 72 in Saint Petersburg from influenza. The crater Mendeleev on the Moon, as well as an element number 101, the radioactive Mendelevium, are named after him. In front of the Chemical Academic Building on the grounds of NTUU KPI campus there is an impressive Mendeleev monument.
April 21st is PowerTalk 21® day, an initiative of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), serving as an opportunity to remind and encourage parents across the nation to talk with their children about the dangers of consuming alcohol before the age of 21. Children whose parents talk with them often about the dangers of alcohol and other drugs are 50% less likely to use in the first place. But really, what’s the big deal with underage drinking? Plenty. According to MADD, research shows that adolescents who consume alcohol (compared to their non-drinking peers) are more likely to: - Perform poorly in school - Engage in violence - Have social problems - Be sexually active and have multiple partners - Have unprotected sex resulting in pregnancy and/or sexually transmitted disease - Become a victim of sexual assault - Become an alcoholic later in life - Take their own life through suicide or suffer injuries (including car crashes) that lead to death Underage drinking is a huge deal. The consequences are dangerous and deadly. While today’s society downplays the seriousness of this drug, parents cannot afford to take underage drinking lightly. MADD offers parents these five steps to help children steer clear of alcohol: 1. Think of yourself as a coach: Provide information, help your child anticipate and prepare for difficult situations, discuss choices, monitor behavior and cheer your child on to make smart, safe choices. 2. Get busy communicating: Set clear family rules and consistently follow through on consequences. Have regular and ongoing conversations with your son or daughter before alcohol becomes an issue. Talk about health and safety risks as well as legal 3. Keep track of your teen: Know where your child is and whom he/she is with at all times. Know your child’s schedule and require that you be notified if plans change. Keep a close eye on your child’s in-person and online activities. 4. Show respect and caring: Children need to feel your warmth. Adolescents are more likely to be responsive if they feel you are not just talking at them, but respectively listening to them. Remind them how much you love and care about them and that all these rules and limits are in place because your biggest concern is their health, safety 5. Be a positive role model: Your child will be most receptive to your guidance if you lead by example and act responsibly. Alcohol is the number one drug of choice among youth, and every 90 minutes someone’s teenage son or daughter dies as a result of underage drinking. The longer the onset of drinking is delayed, the safer your child will remain. Connect with your child today for PowerTalk 21. For additional information on MADD’s PowerTalk 21, please visit https://www.madd.org/underage-drinking.
The changing climate is currently an ecological emergency. With global warming on the rise and the demise of many plant and animals because of it, politics surrounding climate change are finally heating up. The 2014 Happenings The year 2014 was a big one in terms of climate change gaining some political leverage. In September, the People’s Climate March took place across the globe. Protesters united in an effort to bring attention to the climate emergency in preparation of the United Nations climate summit meeting. The climate summit brought together 125 state and government officials in New York City. The summit invited world leaders to acknowledge the profound ecological and economic consequences of climate change and to set the precedence for change in the year 2015. Both the climate march and climate summit represent a paradigm shift in the way the climate crisis has been handled the past several years. Previously the climate crisis has merely been acknowledged as an issue, without significant engagement by politicians or the general public. The year 2014 marks a significant change in the approach to this emergent issue; people are getting engaged and caring about the future of the planet. China and the US For the first time ever both China and the United States have agreed to reduce carbon pollution and make significant progress in increase the use of clean energy. While these goals are a great start, they will barely touch the surface of the current climate dilemma and its causes. However, they are indicative of the current political shift taking place. Historically, global climate meetings didn’t result in any changes because no country wanted to take the first leap in the direction of green. Now that some nations are leaping, others are taking the cue and following. This is a good start. Now that we have a start, climate change activists are questioning how the actions can gain momentum. It’s a great time for nations to come together and compete for the “one up” in strides towards reducing emissions and increasing clean energy sources. These climate change aspirations are not only good for the environment, they will positively impact the economy by creating jobs and opportunities as well as improving the health of the nation. Renewable energy sources are a huge focus in the upcoming year. Accessibility and reduced cost of renewable energy has made it a viable option. In the last year all of the new power capacity added in the US was renewable. Countries around the globe are making clean energy a priority; including Denmark and Germany. China has one-upped the United States when it comes to solar panels; they installed more solar panels in 2014 that the US has ever installed. With 2015 expected to be the warmest year the planet has seen the need for climate change policies will become even more dire. The next climate summit scheduled for 2015 in Paris France, the world’s governments will be joining with the expectation of signing a global agreement to prevent further dangerous climate change. The details of this agreement were discussed in Lima, Peru December 1, 2014- December 12, 2014. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change met in Lima, Peru in December. The Lima call for climate action resulted in further progress towards climate changed with over 190 participating countries negotiating. The nations contributed to the discussion and identified new elements to add the agreement. The agreement is scheduled to be signed in Paris, 2015 at the next climate summit. Both developed and developing countries made pledges towards the initial $10 billion dollar budget. The convention recognized the importance of National Adaptation Plans (NAPS) in the cutting of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition they discussed the importance avoiding deforestation and gaining funding for initiatives like the Reduced Emissions from Deforestations and Forest Degradation. Furthermore, the impact of climate change on developing countries was recognized and an effort to provide these countries with technology was discussed. The convention meeting was a successful one and it is expected that the signing in Paris will be equally as successful. Between Now and Climate Summit 2015, Paris The nations involved in the discussions in Lima are expected to begin the implementation process of emission reductions and clean energy, regardless of the document expected to be signed in Paris. The convention meeting concluded with a significant amount of progress made and the hope of more progress into the future. The world’s governments are holding the key big climate change action. They merely need to stick it in the door and open it. The future of our world depends on it.
Consider the circuit shown in which the currents are indicated.... Into the base of the transistors T1 flows the current IB1 = 0.1 μA. Assuming a gain βT1 = 200 results in an emitter current IC1 = 20 μA The collector current of transistors T1 now flows into the base of transistors T2. Since the collector current is the sum of the emitter and base current, flows IB2 = 20,1 μA into the base of transistor T2. With a gain βT2 = 200 the emitter current is IC2 = 4,02 mA... ...which is the result you measured approximately in the last experiment.
Did you know that what you eat is impacted by the government? That’s right. Congress drafts legislation, debates the merits of the bills in committees and ultimately holds votes to see which proposals will be sent to the President’s desk to be signed into law. These bills deal with all sorts of topics. But no bill has as big of an impact on what Americans eat and their access to nutritious foods like fruits and vegetables as the United States Farm Bill. So, what does the farm bill include? This bill makes legislative policy for: - Farming and ranching - Rural development - Public health Congress passed the last farm bill in 2014, and it is set to expire in just under six weeks. Congress will either need to pass a new bill or agree to extend the 2014 bill temporarily. Farm bills play a key role in your life and the lives of all Americans. Policies set in the farm bill can improve access to healthy and affordable foods, so that they can live, learn, and work better. Over the past year the United States House of Representatives and Senate have worked on separate versions of the farm bill. The two chambers have vastly different priorities in their legislation and now that both chambers have passed their bills, they have moved into what is known as a conference. During the conference select representatives and senators come together to work out the differences between the bills. While this is happening, we need to make sure that all our elected officials know that we want them to make nutrition a priority and support farm bill policies that will preserve and increase access to healthy foods. - The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides food purchasing assistance to our nations most vulnerable, including children, the disabled, the elderly, veterans, the underemployed, and low-and no-income people across the country. Protecting access to and benefits of such an important program that provides food security to millions should be a priority for any proposed farm bill. - The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) provides the most disadvantaged children with much needed education on and access to fresh fruits and vegetables that they cannot get elsewhere. Protecting the integrity of the program as fresh-only ensured that these children receive much-needed education and exposure to fresh fruits and vegetables they may not get elsewhere. - The Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) program provides extra fruits and vegetables to SNAP participants wherever they buy fruits and vegetables. As low-income people consume the least amounts of fruits and vegetables, FINI helps close that gap and the farm bill must include robust support for the program. - SNAP-Ed provides vital education necessary to address food insecurity and poor nutrition. The House and Senate bills propose very different approaches to SNAP-Ed, with the House bill cutting the program. Nutrition education must be preserved by adopting the Senate proposal. Some members of Congress are looking to make deep cuts to these vital programs that help keep our country healthy. Preserving and improving policies and programs that increase access to nutritious food like fruits and vegetables needs to be the goal of all involved.
WORD OF THE DAY This last hall had tribunes for the public, which often influenced the debate by interruptions or applause. Pressure from all sides of the House, however, induced the ministry to retain office until after the debate on the application to Rome and the Papal States of the Religious Orders Bill (originally passed in 1866)a measure which, with the help of Ricasoli, was carried at the end of May. But he did not fulfil the expectations which had been formed on the strength`' of his colonial reputation; he took no very prominent part in debate, and gave little evidence of his undoubted oratorical gifts. Instead, however, of proceeding with the work of practical legislation, accepting the Instrument of Government without challenge as the basis of its authority, the parliament immediately began to discuss and find fault with the constitution and to debate about "Fundamentals." - Superficially regarded, philosophy ebbs and flows, whatever progress the debate may reveal to speculative insight. His first recorded intervention in debate in the Long Parliament was on the 9th of November 1640, a few days after the meeting of the House, when he delivered a petition from the imprisoned John Lilburne. The semi-centennial of this debate was celebrated in 1908, when the Illini Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, caused a suitably inscribed boulder weighing 23 tons to be set up in Washington Park as a memorial. In the second, which took place in the Church of St John and St Paul, and lasted three days, he undertook to refute innumerable errors in Aristotelians, mathematicians and schoolmen, to conduct his dispute either logically or by the secret doctrine of numbers, &c. According to Aldus, who attended the debate and published an account of it in his dedication to Crichton prefixed to Cicero's "Paradoxa" (1581), the young Scotsman was completely successful. In the practical questions which arose, and in the great debate which was political, economical and moral, she took a very active part. The nickname of "gentle shepherd" was given him because he bored the House by asking over and over again, during the debate on the Cider Bill of 1763, that somebody should tell him "where" to lay the new tax if it was not to be put on cider. On the 8th of June he was appointed on a committee with Jefferson, Franklin, Livingston and Sherman to draft a Declaration of Independence; and although that document was by the request of the committee written by Thomas Jefferson, it was John Adams who occupied the foremost place in the debate on its adoption. In the debate on the "tariff of abominations" in 1828 he took no part, but voted for the measure in obedience to instructions from the New York legislature - an action which was cited against him as late as the presidential campaign of 1844.
Article abstract: Scott’s narrative poems about the stirring events in Scottish and medieval history were immensely popular in the nineteenth century, and in fiction he created the genre of the historical novel. Walter Scott counted among his ancestors many notable and colorful figures from Scottish history, and during his early years, after an attack of polio crippled his right leg, he spent hours listening to family stories and songs about their exploits. Even as a young boy, he collected these ballads and folktales, which vividly presented the past. He would later use this knowledge in the poems and novels which won great acclaim during his lifetime, and which endure to this day as classics of English literature. After being educated at home, Scott was sent in 1778 to high school in Edinburgh. He impressed both his teachers and his peers with his intelligence, his good nature, and his ability to tell stories; he was less accomplished in his scholarship. In 1783, he entered the Old College, but his interest remained the study and pursuit of ballads. In 1786, he joined his father, who was a lawyer, as an apprentice and was called to the bar in July of 1792. Scott made a competent though not outstanding lawyer, and his main interest continued to be literature, although he seemed to regard the writing profession as not quite suitable for a gentleman. Despite his doubts, however, he could not refrain from seeking out, collecting, and reciting the poetry of his native land. Inevitably, he tried his hand at composition. In 1797, Scott visited the Lake Country, where he met Charlotte Mary Carpenter, daughter of a deceased French refugee. After a brief courtship, Scott’s suit was approved by Charlotte’s guardian, the Marquess of Downshire, and the couple were married on Christmas Eve, 1797. Their union, comfortable rather than passionate, produced four children. Through exercise to overcome his infirmity, Scott developed a powerful and robust physique; he was an avid horseman and walker, and graceful, despite his lameness. Scott’s many portraits show a man of regular, rather than handsome, features, with keen, bright eyes. They also reveal the intelligence, good humor and compassion for which he was well-known. Scott’s contemporaries were universal in their admiration for him. Scott’s entry into the literary world was almost casual. After collecting the ballads of others, he began to compose some of his own. A government appointment with few duties gave him time to collect and write, and some of his earlier attempts were published in 1802 and 1803 in The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. Encouraged by the favorable attentions of friends and critics, Scott next wrote the The Lay of the Last Minstrel, which was published in early 1805. This work was immediately popular and established Scott as a major contemporary literary figure. Unfortunately, at this same time Scott entered into a long, complicated, and ultimately ruinous relationship with the printers and publishers John and James Ballantyne. Scott began loaning money to the Ballantynes in 1802; by 1805, he was a silent financial partner in the firm. This connection would eventually lead to fiscal disaster. In the meantime, Scott continued his industrious and successful efforts. He edited a complete collection of John Dryden’s poetry, wrote for the Edinburgh Review, and started writing Waverley: Or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since (1814). Putting aside the novel, however, he turned to another narrative poem, Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field, which was published in 1808 with great success. In 1810, The Lady of the Lake followed and was equally well received. In 1809, Scott joined with the Ballantynes in a publishing firm, John Ballantyne and Company. Scott advanced half of the capital himself, and perhaps provided the Ballantynes’ portion as well. The unequal nature of this arrangement was to continue throughout the short life of the company. In 1813, the firm narrowly endured a serious crisis, surviving only through Scott’s intercession with another publisher, Archibald Constable, whom he persuaded to purchase large amounts of debt-laden Ballantyne stock. Part of the problem lay in Scott’s enthusiastic but injudicious support of other, less talented, authors, and part in the Ballantynes’ business misadventures. By 1810, all the considerable income from Scott’s writing was going to meet outstanding obligations. Unfortunately, a threat appeared to that income. His next two books, Rokeby (1812) and The Bridal of Triermain (1813), sold reasonably well, but by no means as well as Scott’s earlier works. Scott had probably exhausted himself in this particular genre and was faced with the growing competition from younger poets, such as George Gordon, Lord Byron. Scott’s final attempts in historical narrative verse were The Lord of the Isles (1815) and Harold the Dauntless (1817). Neither poem was a major success, but by then Scott had found success in a genre of his own creation, the historical novel. According to tradition, Scott rediscovered his manuscript of Waverley while looking for some fishing tackle and decided to finish it. It was published in July of 1814; six editions were printed the first year. Scott published this, and subsequent novels, anonymously; not until 1827 did he admit authorship, although it was widely known almost from the first. Waverley was a new departure in British literature, a work that mingled fiction with historical fact, placing its imagined characters in the middle of real,... (The entire section is 2365 words.)
Transhumanism is not a new idea. The belief that human beings can evolve beyond current mental and physical limitations has been used in science fiction for many years. Cryonics, the process of deep-freezing people who have died, has also been around for some time. Now they are coming together in a start-up company called Nectome. How amazing would it be to preserve our minds forever? We could retain precious memories like the thrill of winning a big pokies payout or holding our children for the first time. Sensations like gentle rain on skin or the smell of a flower could be remembered too. And of course, knowledge and wisdom from the greatest thinkers could be immortalised. Imagine if the minds of Einstein or Stephen Hawking could have been conserved. The example of Hawking is especially fitting for a discussion about Nectome. The company, which has already raised US$1 million in funding, aims to preserve brains. Cofounder Robert McIntyre has been developing a method that combines embalming with cryonics. So far, he and his Nectome partner, Michael McCanna, have successfully conserved the brains of a pig, a rabbit and an elderly woman. A Technological Approach to Living Forever Once the brains have successfully been pickled, for want of a better word, what is the next step? The issues with brain and body degradation are sidestepped quite neatly by Nectome’s ultimate vision. Though not yet possible, McIntyre and McCanna believe the technology to convert the human mind to a computer simulation is not far off. From there, it could be uploaded to a data server and retained forever. In the words of prominent neuroscientist Ken Hayworth, “If the brain is dead, it’s like your computer is off, but that doesn’t mean the information isn’t there”. Nectome derives its name from “connectome”, the word for the web of synapses connecting neurons in any brain. This is what its founders hope to see digitally reproduced, uploaded and shared. Issues with Connectome Many forward thinkers believe uploading human consciousness to Cloud Storage will happen in their lifetime, but some remain unconvinced. The connectome of a tiny worm called Caenorhabditis Elegans has been known for more than 10 years, but is not yet “uploadable”. And that features only 7000 synapses; there are trillions in the human brain. Anders Sandberg of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University adds that all the information on the Internet today could be stored in just 283,000 human brain connectomes. In addition, the intangible about what makes a human mind or conscience may very well not survive the upload. People are also posing the philosophical question of whether it should. Whatever you might believe, the day that you can upload your memories of playing in your first sports competition, your first kiss, getting married or anything else remains uncertain. At the moment Connectome can preserve brains for a future time when uploads are possible; the company can’t actually perform that function yet. However, even though the website may make that reality seem a lot closer than it is, Connectome is generating a lot of interest. A waiting list for when the technology becomes available to public citizens has been started, with each spot costing US$10,000. Anyone committing to this will also have to be euthanised; brains must be preserved as soon as possible after death to avoid degradation. For this reason, the next trials for Connectome involve terminally ill patients. The company believes it will stay on the right side of the law where doctor-assisted suicide is legal, such as in California. Since the procedure is “100% fatal” there could be issues for those who are not terminal, or are in other parts of the world. The legal questions are just as intriguing as the scientific and philosophical issues surrounding Connectome.
Processed meat has been modified to either extend its shelf life or change the taste and the main methods are smoking, curing, or adding salt or preservatives.Simply putting beef through a mincer does not mean the resulting mince is “processed” unless it is modified further. Processed meat includes bacon, sausages, hot dogs, salami, corned beef, beef jerky and ham as well as canned meat and meat-based sauces. Red meat is a darker color than white meat and includes beef, lamb and pork because of higher levels of proteins that bind to oxygen, hemoglobin and myoglobin in blood and muscle. 1. Consumption is unsustainable. “Sustainability” has become a major buzz word, from coffee to chocolate and everything in between. Despite the interest in becoming more sustainable, many fail to realize (or choose to ignore) that eating meat is one of the least sustainable things you can do. The large amount of energy meat production consumes has been shown to contribute to global warming, as well as a loss of important biodiversity, soil erosion, grassland destruction and more. 2.Meat consumption contributes to world hunger. Wait what? That’s right. While an estimated 56 million acres of land are producing feed for livestock, only 4 million are growing veggies for human consumption. A simple shift could equal much more food for the world population. 3. Contains harmful hormones. What does Europe know that we don’t? When it comes to meet consumption, the answer is, a lot. The European Union has repeatedly stated they want nothing to do with U.S. beef because it is pumped full of harmful, synthetic hormones known to increase risks of breast and prostate cancer. 4. Eating Processed meat can kill you. From heart disease to colon cancer, numerous studies have shown the deadly dangers of a meaty diet. Frequent meat consumers aren’t the only ones who should be worried. A Harvard study concluded that just one serving of red meat a day increases the risk of early death by 13 percent. 5. Most meat is infested with bacteria. Because of our large-scale factory farming practice, the majority of the meat consumed across the country is riddled with bacteria. A 2013 report by the FDA found that of all the meat tested, 81 percent of ground turkey was contaminated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Pork chops came in at a gross second, with a 69 percent infestation rate. Ground beef ranked at 55 percent and chicken brought up the rear with 39 percent.