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Scholars are largely agreed that Daniel’s “prophecies” are actually prophecies after the event. This happens so often that it has its own scholarly name: vaticinia ex eventu.
The book was written in about 165 BCE (as discussed in Part 1 of this topic), not during Daniel’s sixth-century captivity. Though there may be debate on the issue, this late dating is not atheists’ flagrant attempt at avoiding compelling evidence for a miraculous prophecy in the Bible.
Dating of Daniel
More than just the “prophecies” failing after around 165 BCE point to this date. Daniel wasn’t included in the Hebrew Bible’s canon, which was closed around 200 BCE; it wasn’t referenced in the Wisdom of Sirach (c. 180 BCE), which referenced almost every other book of the Old Testament; and it makes errors in the oldest historical claims (for example, it claims that Darius the Mede conquered Babylon, though this king is unknown to history).
Daniel looks very much like other apocalyptic writings of the period such as Baruch, Esdras, and the books of Enoch. These works are not anonymous but are pseudonymous—falsely attributed to a respected figure of antiquity. A “rediscovered” old book from an ancient authority would carry much weight. Many of these books used Daniel’s trick of listing “predictions” from known history so that whatever had yet to occur would seem credible. Finally, these apocalyptic books all predict that our painful age will soon end.
Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy
Daniel 9:24–7 gives the famous prophecy that many think predicts the crucifixion of Jesus. I’ll summarize the claims that it makes, sometimes with a paraphrase, but feel free to check this against the actual text.
I. “Seventy weeks [“week” is used here to mean seven years, not seven days] are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.”
Equating a week with 7 years, like we call 10 years a “decade,” is seen in Greek literature, so this is a reasonable interpretation. The use of 70 comes from Jeremiah’s prophecy that the Judean captives taken to Babylon would return after 70 years.
So we’ve got a long and sinful period of time (seventy weeks of years is 70×7 = 490 years), but things will be great at the end.
II. “From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.”
When does the clock start? From the command to rebuild Jerusalem. When does it end? When the Anointed One comes. This isn’t a messianic reference, however, because “anointed one” can be applied to many people, including the high priest.
Pulling out the 7 weeks is confusing. Is it concurrent with the 62 weeks? If so, why even mention it (except to find a way to get to 70)? Or does the 62 weeks follow the 7-week period? If so, why not just add them together (except as an excuse to use the number 7, the number of completion)? No commentator has a great answer.
IV. “The ruler who will come” will destroy (or corrupt) the city and the sanctuary.
V. War will be continuous, and then the end will be swift.
VI. This ruler will make a covenant with many for one final week.
VII. In the middle of this 7-year period, the ruler will prevent Temple offerings. “And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”
Christian interpretation #1
Start the clock with the Decree of Artaxerxes to rebuild the temple, given to Ezra in 458 BCE (Ezra 7:11–26). From this date, count ahead 7 weeks and then 62 weeks (69×7 = 483 years). Remembering that there was no year 0, the math is: –458 + 483 + 1 = 26 CE. This is the beginning of the final week, starting when Jesus was baptized.
Halfway through this final week, Jesus (the Anointed One) is put to death, which finishes the “transgression” and brings in “everlasting righteousness.”
The final week ends in 33 CE, with the conversion of Paul and Cornelius and inaugurating the mission to the Gentiles.
Problem 1: There are loads of problems. First, the weeks are off. Even if you infer that the Anointed One will be killed after the 62 weeks which begins after the 7 weeks (which isn’t really what it says), that makes his death in 26 CE, too early. And the first point makes clear that the atonement happens at the end of the 70 weeks, not halfway through the final week. The Anointed One’s death can’t be the atonement, since they’re separated by that final week.
Problem 2: It has no explanation for the destroying “ruler who will come” and the “abomination that causes desolation.”
Problem 3: It makes no sense of the 7 week/62 week distinction. Why not just say 69 weeks?
Problem 4: The decree from Ezra 7 is just one of at least four plausible starting dates. Why this one?
Problem 5: It ignores the overwhelming evidence that the final week was roughly 171–164 BCE (see previous post).
Problem 6: Remember the last time we saw the phrase “abomination that causes desolation”? It was the sacrifice of pigs to Zeus in the Jewish Temple, as ordered by Antiochus Epiphanes. Bringing Antiochus in would address more than this—“the ruler who will come” to destroy, continuous war (the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt), the covenant (Antiochus made agreements with Hellenistic Jewish leaders, splitting them away from the traditionalists), and so on.
Part 2: a different Christian interpretation of this prophecy that claims consequences in our own day here.
Faith isn’t a virtue;
it is the glorification of voluntary ignorance.
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Grazer Philosophische Studien 71 (1):227-249 (2006)
First of all, this paper aims at a clarification of Wittgenstein's conception of grammatical propositions. Their essential characteristics will be developed and some of the central questions concerning their status will be discussed: Should grammatical propositions be seen as arbitrary conventions? How do they work in practices? And how do they relate to natural facts? Later on, the two propositions "Every rod has a length" and "Sensations are private" will be discussed in more detail, for both fulfil three important features of grammatical propositions: They are not empirical descriptions, they are rules of a practice, and they are not knowledge-claims but express insights. Focussing on the grammar of pain language, it will be shown what kind of interdependency exists between grammar and natural facts. It will also turn out that some grammatical propositions are closely connected to our understanding of living a human form of life.
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1 August 2013 - 100 years ago today physicist, mathematician and meteorologist Lewis Fry Richardson took up the post of Superintendent at Eskdalemuir Observatory.
In the years following his appointment, he pioneered mathematical methods for weather prediction laying the foundation for modern computerised weather forecasting.
Eskdalemuir is the most remote and climatologically extreme manned Met Office on mainland Britain. Met Office staff monitor the weather and climate as well as a taking readings from a variety of instruments, including seismic and geomagnetic, on behalf of the British Geological Survey.
To mark the centenary, the Met Office, in partnership with the Institute of Physics, will be unveiling a blue plaque.
Ian Dawson, Met Office Manager of Eskdalemuir said: "Although not a name familiar to the general public, Richardson is widely recognised by the scientific community as the father of present day weather forecasting, so this recognition is long overdue".
Alison McLure, Institute of Physics National Officer for Scotland said: "We're delighted to celebrate the work of Lewis Fry Richardson and the hundredth anniversary of his arrival at Eskdalemuir Observatory with this blue plaque. This centenary is also a great opportunity to highlight the important work done by physicists at the Met Office today."
Eskdalemuir is just one of a number of manned Met Office stations in Scotland. The Met Office has had a base in Aberdeen for more than 70 years. From here, we provide forecast services for a wide range of areas including public weather, marine and the renewable industry.
The Met Office also works closely with civil contingency networks across the country and has a group of dedicated advisors based in Scotland who help the emergency response community co-ordinate a rapid response to a wide range of severe weather.
Met Office Press Office: +44 (0)1392 886655
E-mail: Press Office
Met Office Customer Centre: 01392 885680
If you're outside the UK: +44 1392 885680
Last updated: 1 August 2013
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THE purpose of the experiment reported here was to examine the function of hesitation pauses in speech. Pauses were conceived of as serving the selection processes which direct the course of verbal sequences, and as involving acts of choice. They were expected to occur where linguistic solutions fitting the speech intentions are not readily available, or where automatic verbalization is rejected in favour of ‘newer’, more specifically selected verbal expression.
Hughlings, Jackson, “Affections of Speech from Disease of the Brain”, Selected Writings, 2 (London, 1932).
Shannon, C. E., Bell System Tech. J., 30 (1951).
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GOLDMAN-EISLER, F. Speech Production and Language Statistics. Nature 180, 1497 (1957). https://doi.org/10.1038/1801497a0
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When you set up a Microsoft Excel workbook to build an employee roster, calculate profit margins or track sales by region, the application creates a document with three individual worksheets. Each worksheet constitutes an individual page, with its own title, matrix of cells in rows and columns, and settings for the display of cell data. You can add or remove worksheets and change the application's default behavior when it opens new files so it sets up new workbooks with more or fewer worksheets than the default of three.
Change Microsoft Excel's default behavior so it opens more or fewer than three worksheets in each new document. Click the "File" tab on the Excel ribbon and choose "Options." When the Options screen opens, choose "General" from the list of categories. In the "When Creating New Workbooks" section, change the setting for "Include This Many" by entering the number of worksheets you want Excel to create in new files. Click on the "OK" button to complete the process.
Customize an existing file so it includes only the number of worksheets you need. Right-click the tab that displays the title of an existing worksheet and choose "Delete Sheet." If you prefer to use the controls in the Excel ribbon to delete extra worksheets, switch to the sheet you want to delete and navigate to the ribbon's "Home" tab. Locate its Cells group and click "Delete" to open its drop-down list. Select "Delete Sheet" to remove the current worksheet.
Hide a worksheet that you're not sure you want to delete. Switch to the "Home" tab of the Excel ribbon and locate its Cells group. Click the arrow next to the "Format" option to open its drop-down list. In the Visibility section, click "Hide & Unhide" and choose "Hide Sheet." To make the sheet visible again, repeat this process and choose "Unhide Sheet" from the Hide & Unhide list.
- Changing the default number of worksheets that Microsoft Excel includes in new workbooks doesn't affect the number of worksheets in files you've already created.
- If you delete a worksheet and save your workbook, you can't recover the sheet you deleted. Unless you're sure you don't want the worksheet in the file, either save the file under a new name or hide the worksheet until you're sure it's unnecessary.
- Hiding a worksheet doesn't reduce the size of your Excel file or the amount of system memory it requires.
- If you delete a worksheet that you used in calculations involving cells in another worksheet, your formulas no longer will perform correctly.
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You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Paul Halmo’ tag.
We are now ready to discuss a couple of familiar set theoretic operations: unions and intersections. Given two sets and , it would be “nice” to have a set that contains all the elements that belong to at least one of or . In fact, it would be nicer to generalize this to a collection of sets instead of just two, though we must be careful about using words like “two”, “three” and so on, since we haven’t really defined what numbers are so far. We don’t want to run the risk of inadvertently introducing circularity in our arguments! Anyway, this brings us to the following axiom.
Axiom of unions: For every collection of sets, there exists a set that contains all the elements that belong to at least one set of the given collection.
In other words, for every collection , there exists a set such that if for some in , then . Now, the set may contain “extra” elements that may not belong to any in . This can be easily fixed by invoking the axiom of specification to form the set . This set is called the union of the collection of set. Its uniqueness is guaranteed by the axiom of extension.
Generally, if is a collection of sets, then the union is denoted by , or .
A quick look at a couple of simple facts.
1) , and
We finally arrive at the definition of the union of two sets, and . .
Below is a list of a few facts about unions of pairs:
- if and only if .
Now, we define the intersection of two sets, and as follows.
Once again, a few facts about intersections of pairs (analogous to the ones involving unions):
- if and only if .
Also, if , then the sets and are called disjoint sets.
Two useful distributive laws involving unions and intersections:
We prove the first one of the above. The proof of the second one is left as an exercise to the reader. The proof relies on the idea that we show each side is a subset of the other. So, suppose belongs to the left hand side; then and , which implies and or , which implies or , which implies ; hence belongs to the right hand side. This proves that the left hand side is a subset of the right hand side. A similar argument shows that the right hand side is a subset of the left hand side. And, we are done.
The operation of the intersection of sets from a collection, , is similar to that of the union of sets from . However, the definition will require that we prohibit from being empty, and we will see why in the next section. So, for each collection, , there exists a set such that if and only if for every in . To construct such a set , we choose any set in – this is possible because – and write .
Note that the above construction is only used to prove that exists. The existence of doesn’t depend on any arbitrary set in the collection . We can, in fact, write
The set is called the intersection of the collection of sets. The axiom of extension, once again, guarantees its uniqueness. The usual notation for such a set is or .
EXERCISE: if and only if .
SOLUTION: We first prove the “if” part. So, suppose . Now, if , then either or . In the first case, and , which implies and . In the second case, we again have (since ), which implies and . In either case, we have . Hence, is a subset of .
Similarly, if , then and . Now, if , then , which implies . And, if , then once again . Thus, in either case, . Hence, is a subset of . We, thus, proved . This concludes the proof of the “if” part.
Now, we prove the “only if” part. So, suppose . If , then belongs to the left hand side of the equality, which implies belongs to the right hand side. This implies (and .) Hence, . And, we are done.
We encounter sets, or if we prefer, collections of objects, everyday in our lives. A herd of cattle, a group of women, or a bunch of yahoos are all instances of sets of living beings. “The mathematical concept of a set can be used as the foundation for all known mathematics.” The purpose here is to develop the basic properties of sets. As a slight digression, I wouldn’t consider myself a Platonist; hence, I don’t believe there are some abstract properties of sets “out there” and that the chief purpose of mathematics is to discover those abstract things, so to speak. Even though the idea of a set is ubiquitous and it seems like the very concept of a set is “external” to us, I still think that we must build, or rather postulate, the existence of the fundamental properties of sets. (I think I am more of a quasi-empiricist.)
Now, we won’t define what a set is, just as we don’t define what points or lines are in the familiar axiomatic approach to elementary geometry. So, we somewhat rely on our intuition to develop a definition of sets. Of course, our intuition may go wrong once in a while, but one of the very purposes of our exposition is to reason very clearly about our intuitive ideas, so that we can correct them any time if we discover they are wrong.
Now, a very reasonable thing to “expect” from a set is it should have elements or members. So, for example, Einstein was a member of the set of all the people who lived in the past. In mathematics, a line has points as its members, and a plane has lines as its members. The last example is a particularly important one for it underscores the idea that sets can be members of other sets!
So, a way to formalize the above notion is by developing the concept of belonging. This is a primitive (undefined) concept in axiomatic set theory. If is a member of ( is contained in , or is an element of ), we write . ( is a derivation of the Greek letter epsilon, , introduced by Peano in 1888.) If is not an element of , we write . Note that we generally reserve lowercase letters (, etc) for members or elements of a set, and we use uppercase letters to denote sets.
A possible relation between sets, more elementary than belonging, is equality. If two sets and are equal, we write If two sets and are not equal, we write
Now, the most basic property of belonging is its relation to equality, which brings us to the following formulation of our first axiom of set theory.
Axiom of extension: Two sets are equal if and only if they have the same elements.
Let us examine the relation between equality and belonging a little more deeply. Suppose we consider human beings instead of sets, and change our definition of belonging a little. If and are human beings, we write whenever is an ancestor of . Then our new (or analogous) axiom of extension would say if two human beings and are equal then they have the same ancestors (this is the “only if” part, and it is certainly true), and also that if and have the same ancestors, then they are equal (this is the “if” part, and it certainly is false.) and could be two sisters, in which case they have the same ancestors but they are certainly not the same person.
Conclusion: The axiom of extension is not just a logically necessary property of equality but a non-trivial statement about belonging.
Also, note that the two sets and have the same elements, and hence, by the axiom of extension, , even though it seems like has just two elements while has five! It is due to this that we drop duplicates while writing down the elements of a set. So, in the above example, it is customary to simply write .
Now, we come to the definition of a subset. Suppose and are sets. If every member of is a member of , then we say is a subset of , or includes , and write or . This definition, clearly, implies that every set is a subset of itself, i.e. , which demonstrates the reflexive property of set inclusion. (Of course, equality also satisfies the reflexive property, i.e. .) We say is a proper subset of whenever but . Now, if and , then , which demonstrates the transitive property of set inclusion. (Once again, equality also satisfies this property, i.e. if and , then .) However, we note that set inclusion doesn’t satisfy the symmetric property. This means, if, then it doesn’t necessarily imply . (On the other hand, equality satisfies the symmetric property, i.e. if , then .)
But, set inclusion does satisfy one very important property: the antisymmetric one. If we have and , then and have the same elements, and therefore, by the axiom of extension, . In fact, we can reformulate the axiom of extension as follows:
Axiom of extension(another version): Two sets and are equal if and only if and .
In mathematics, the above is almost always used whenever we are required to prove that two sets and are equal. All we do is show that and , and invoke the (above version of) axiom of extension to conclude that .
Before we conclude, we note that conceptually belonging () and set inclusion () are two different things. always holds, but is “false”; at least, it isn’t true of any reasonable set that anyone has ever constructed! This means, unlike set inclusion, belonging does not satisfy the reflexive property. Again, unlike set inclusion, belonging does not satisfy the transitive property. For example, a person could be considered a member of a country and a country could be considered a member of the United Nations Organizations (UNO); however, a person is not a member of the UNO.
I have just started reading Paul R. Halmos’ classic text Naive Set Theory, and I intend to blog on each section of the book. The purpose is mainly to internalize all the material presented in the book and at the same time provide the gist of each section, so that I can always come back and read whenever I feel like doing so. The actual text, divided into 25 sections (or chapters, if you will), comprises 102 pages. Halmos’ original intention was “to tell the beginning student of advanced mathematics the basic set theoretic facts of life, and to do so with the minimum of philosophical discourse and logical formalism… The style is usually informal to the point of being conversational.“
The reader is warned that “the expert specialist will find nothing new here.” Halmos recommends Hausdorff’s Set Theory and Axiomatic Set Theory by Suppes for a more extensive treatment of the subject. Nevertheless, the treatment by Halmos is not trivial at all. I personally feel his exposition is impeccable!
Almost all the ideas presented in the following posts belong to the author of the book, and I make absolutely no claims to originality in the exposition.
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With growing alarm regarding climate change in the new millenium, the United States has energized efforts to utilize clean energy sources. Over the past decade, the United States has invested $25 billion dollars in the wind industry. However, while US interest in wind energy has increased, the nation has not capitalized on a segment of the wind energy industry that the rest of the world, specifically Europe, has made significant efforts in developing: offshore wind farms. The United States is not taking advantage of this source of wind energy, but we should be. It has the potential to revolutionize our energy dependency and greater economy.
The wind energy industry can be divided into two categories: onshore and offshore wind farms. Over the past decade the United States wind industry has increased 24-fold. However, the entirety of the US wind industry consists of onshore wind farms, while a substantial amount of Europe’s wind industry consists of offshore wind farms. In only the past two years, Europe’s offshore wind industry increased by 34 percent to 69 offshore farms. In addition, the offshore wind farm industry has been a boon to the European economy. A European Wind Energy Association report projects that by 2030, over 200,000 individuals will be employed by the offshore industry in Europe. While overall the United States is the leading wind energy producer in the world, partisan polarization and conflicting governmental interests prevent the United States from catching up in this potentially revolutionary renewable energy industry.
Political actors are the main obstacle to the establishment of US offshore wind farm production. The Cape Wind offshore wind project, which has been in production for over ten years and was thought to be the first completed offshore farm, has ceased to make essential strides towards completion due to the cost of production and constant battles from wealthy opponents. William Koch, one of the billionaire Koch brothers, established a nongovernmental organization dedicated to fighting the Cape Wind project. The organization, Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, focuses on cultural concerns, particularly worries from local Native American tribes who fear that the project will interfere with ceremonial and burial sites. The project has divided environmentalists as well, as the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound claims that the wind farm could harm the marine life and biological diversity of the Nantucket area. Koch spent over $5 million to lead a lobbying effort against the farm and as a Cape Cod landowner clearly has a personal investment in the aesthetic appeal of Nantucket. He once said he “loves the area” and feels that the wind farm would prevent him from having a property where he can “create a family compound for my children.”
As Koch prevents the Cape Wind project from reaching development, there lies an offshore wind farm with a more hopeful future just fifty miles away from College Hill. The Block Island Wind Farm (BIWF), which is part of the Deepwater ONE Offshore Wind Project, is in the running to be the first offshore wind farm in the United States. BIWF aims to create 30 MW of energy and generate “over $100 million in economic activity in Rhode Island.” Further benefiting the Rhode Island economy, the project will foster job growth in nearby ports with resulting employment of surveyors, biologists, and engineers. The wind farm will put the United States back in the running to compete with European progress in the industry. To the dismay of people like Koch who claim that offshore wind farms will negatively impact surrounding natural life, Deepwater Wind has taken steps to diminish environmental threats offshore wind farms could pose. The Conservation Law Foundation published that it – along with the National Resources Defense Council, the National Wildlife Federation and Deepwater Wind – have formed an agreement to take measures that ensure there are minimal impacts to marine life.
While overall the United States is the leading wind energy producer in the world, partisan polarization and conflicting governmental interests have prevented the United States from catching up in this potentially revolutionary renewable energy industry.
There are many benefits of offshore wind turbines that onshore wind turbines lack. Offshore winds are stronger and produce energy faster. Since offshore wind turbines are subject to consistently higher wind levels, an offshore wind turbine could produce more energy than an onshore turbine with the same speed. Furthermore, 53 percent of the US population lives in coastal areas where onshore energy production is distant, thus pushing up energy costs. Offshore wind farms allow for a less costly and more reliable energy source for US coastal cities.
The American wind energy market is growing. As the Department of Energy reports, “in 2012, wind energy became the number one source of new U.S. electricity…representing 43 percent of all new electric additions….” President Obama’s Climate Action Plan has emphasized the importance of the expansion of this sector. The leading states with the most wind energy capacity are Texas, California and Iowa. Ultimately, the future for the wind industry relies on the discouragement of political opponents, the education of the public about the potential benefits of offshore wind farms and policy initiatives that will encourage investment in the industry.
So is there hope for the United States to catch up with other world powers for offshore wind energy? In the past year China was the highest contributor to renewable energy sources, and Europe has plans to further expand its offshore wind farm capacity in the next 15 years to 150GW, which will satisfy 14 percent of Europe’s electricity consumption. If the US government reestablishes the tax credits for the wind industry, there will be more investment at a lower cost for consumers. For the Block Island Wind Farm, the future looks positive; CEO Jeffrey Grybowski announced that “Deepwater Wind now expects its five-turbine offshore wind farm planned near Block Island to produce more power than originally projected,” which would cut electricity costs further for consumers, especially Rhode Island residents who are arranged to get a 50 percent discount in energy rates. Rhode Island may just be the pioneer for the next big energy revolution.
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In an industry often marked by challenging labor conditions and stringent deadlines, the welfare of construction workers can sometimes be overlooked. These workers are the backbone of our cities, yet their well-being often falls by the wayside. Taking a step to address this pressing issue, a recent initiative has been launched to distribute essential supplies to construction workers as a part of a broader welfare program. This blog delves into the intricate details of this supply distribution event and how it aims to improve the lives of these indispensable workers.
Why Supplies Matter
Construction sites are inherently hazardous environments where the risk of accidents is considerably high. Proper gear and supplies can not only make the daily lives of construction workers easier but can also significantly mitigate health risks.
With an aim to bring some relief to the lives of construction workers, a coalition of non-profit organizations, corporate sponsors, and community volunteers has come together. The objective is simple: to distribute essential supplies that would contribute to the safety, well-being, and overall quality of life for these workers.
The Supply List
A comprehensive list of supplies was curated after consulting with various stakeholders in the construction industry, including the workers themselves.
The distribution event was a well-orchestrated affair, taking into account the busy schedules of construction workers. Stations were set up in multiple construction sites across the city where workers could pick up their supplies. Health professionals were also present to provide quick health check-ups and to instruct on the proper use of the safety gear.
Initial feedback from the recipients has been overwhelmingly positive. Having access to quality safety gear has improved working conditions and has had a tangible impact on morale. Most importantly, preliminary data suggests a decline in worksite accidents and health issues among those who received the supplies.
What Lies Ahead
Given the success of this initiative, plans are in place to make it a recurring event. Future iterations aim to include more supplies, such as advanced tool kits and perhaps even educational materials on workers’ rights and safety protocols.
While distributing supplies is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to addressing the holistic well-being of construction workers, it’s undoubtedly a step in the right direction. Initiatives like these bring attention to the often overlooked yet critical issue of worker welfare in the construction industry. As we continue to build towering skyscrapers and sprawling communities, let’s also commit to building a better, safer, and more dignified life for the people who make it all possible.
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Paediatric Sleep Medicine Clinical Network
Purpose of the Network
The purpose of the New Zealand Paediatric Sleep Medicine Clinical Network is to establish a multi-disciplinary network that will support New Zealand health care professionals working across community, primary, secondary and tertiary services to deliver an equitable, high quality, cost effective and integrated sleep medicine service for children, young people and their families/whanau.
The New Zealand Paediatric Sleep Medicine Clinical Network will provide clinical leadership in the development and maintenance of the nation-wide clinical service for children and young people up to 15 and when appropriate, 18 years of age, aiming to meet basic international benchmark standards.
Over the last 15-20 years there has been increased recognition of the importance of sleep for children's health. Sleep problems and disorders are common. It is estimated that 1 in 4 children and young people have a problem with sleep that warrants a doctor's attention. There are over 60 different diagnosable paediatric sleep disorders ranging from behavioural or non-respiratory conditions (e.g. night terrors or parasomnias) to respiratory disorders of sleep, the commonest being obstructuctive sleep apnoea.
Guideline for the assessment of sleep-disordered breathing in children
About one third of children snore; about 10% snore most nights. As a symptom, snoring is often not considered unusual or to have health consequences. The impact is underappreciated by parents and families and often not mentioned or raised as a health issue with General Practitioners.
The way children present is often different than adults. An awareness of the potential significance of poor quality sleep in children is very important. Even in mild cases of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) and in young children, untreated OSA may result in significant adverse consequences including impacts on cardiovascular health (e.g. hypertension) and poor sleep quality, leading to impaired daytime functioning affecting development, behaviour and learning.
Symptoms of sleep disordered breathing should be sought in any child with enlarged tonsils and/or disturbed or unrefreshing sleep, particularly if they have underlying comorbidities such as Down syndrome, obesity, previous cleft, craniofacial abnormalities or neuromuscular weakness, as the prevalence of underlying OSA and its subsequent consequences may be greater. OSA can often be diagnosed without the need for elaborate tests and treated effectively with adenotonsillectomy. However where the diagnosis is in doubt, there are underlying comorbidities, anaesthetic risk or ENT intervention fails to resolve symptoms, formal evaluation using sleep studies and consideration to other treatments (e.g. respiratory support) may be required.
The New Zealand Guidelines for the Assessment of Sleep-Disordered Breathing in Childhood 2014 was produced by the National Paediatric Sleep Medicine Clinical Network as an evidence-based summary for the assessment of children with sleep disordered breathing. It aims to address the following clinical management issues for paediatric health care professionals in New Zealand:
How should general practitioners and paediatricians approach the investigation of a child who snores?
Which children should be referred from around New Zealand to a sleep disorders centre for further evaluation?
What treatments are available for disorders of breathing during sleep in childhood and what are the known benefits of these treatments?
The full guideline can be downloaded here. A shorter guideline is available in the guidelines index on the Starship website.
Information for parents and family
Information on sleep from Kidshealth.org.nz
Does your child have a sleep disorder? Tune in here for the Radio NZ Morning Report featuring Drs Liz Edwards, Alex Bartle and Angela Campbell.
Conferences and events in 2018/2019
Sleep in Aotearoa 11 May 2018, Wellington https://www.sleep.org.au/nz-branch/sleep-in-aotearoa
British Sleep Society Hands-on Sleep 2018 17-18 May 2018, Dundee https://www.sleepsociety.org.uk/bss-hands-on-2018/ and other upcoming events https://www.sleepsociety.org.uk/events/
32nd Annual Meeting of APSS Sleep 2019. APSS (Associated Professional Sleep Societiies, a joint partnership of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society) June 2-6 2018, Baltimore Convention Centre, Baltimore, United States http://www.sleepmeeting.org/
9th Annual South GP CME South Meeting 16-19 August 2018, Horncastle Arena, Christchurch, NZ. http://www.gpcme.co.nz/south/
Sleep Training for Professionals
University Hospital Southampton, NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton, Hampshire
One Day Sleep Training Course
11th of September 2018
Managing Children's Sleep Disorders in Clinical Practice
30th - 2nd November 2018 - 4 day course
Sleep Update & Case Study Day
30 November 2018
Mercure Wessex Hotel, Paternoster Row, Winchester
24th Congress of the European Sleep Research Society, 25 - 28 September 2018, Basel, Switzerland https://www.esrs-congress.eu/2018.html
30th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australasian Sleep Association (ASA) and Australasian Sleep Technologists Association (ASTA) 17-20 October 2018, Brisbane Convention and Exhibiton Centre, Brisbane, Australia. For more information click here
Annual Dental Sleep Medicine Course, 17-19 October 2018, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Brisbane, Australia. http://www.dentalsleepmedicine2018.com.au/
Association for respiratory technology and physiology (ARTP) 2019 Conference, January 31-February 1 2019, Doubletree by Hilton, Glasgow https://mailchi.mp/ce2299022e0f/artp-conference-2019-registration-now-live
World Sleep Day 2019, Friday March 15th 2019 http://worldsleepsociety.org/programs/world-sleep-day/
Sleep in Aotearoa, May 2nd to 3rd, 2019, Christchurch, NZ https://www.sleep.org.au/nz-branch/sleep-in-aotearoa
33rd Annual Meeting Sleep 2019 APSS (Associated Professional Sleep Societies, a joint partnership of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society), June 8-12 2019, Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio, Texas, United States http://www.sleepmeeting.org/future-meetings https://aasm.org/nominate-speakers-for-sleep-2019-annual-meeting/
Rotorua GP CME 2019, 12-16 June 2019, Rotorua Energy Events Centre, Rotorua, NZ http://www.gpcme.co.nz/login.php
World Sleep 2019 Congress on Sleep Medicine, September 20-25 2019, Vancouver, Canada https://worldsleepcongress.com/worldsleep2019
Sleep DownUnder 2019. 17-19 October 2019, Sydney, Australia https://www.sleep.org.au/conferences/external-events/sleep-downunder-future-dates
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In 1922, the McKee-Sexton Land Company was established in Vero Beach, Florida. This partnership purchased an 80-acre tropical hammock along the Indian River in 1929 and McKee Jungle Gardens was born.
With the help of landscape architect William Lyman Phillips, now known as the pioneer of tropical landscape architecture, the basic infrastructure of streams, ponds and trails was designed. Native vegetation was augmented with ornamental plants and seeds from around the world as Arthur G. McKee and Waldo E. Sexton set about assembling one of the most outstanding collections of water lilies and orchids.
By the 1940's more than 100,000 tourists were visiting McKee Jungle Gardens each year, making it one of Florida's most popular attractions. In the early 1970's, attendance dwindled due to competition from new large-scale attractions and the garden was forced to close its doors in 1976.
The land was sold and all but 18 acres were developed. The remaining acreage, zoned for additional development, sat vacant for twenty years. In 1994, the Indian River Land Trust launched a fund-raising campaign and successfully purchased the property on December 1, 1995 for $1.7 million.
Close to $9.1 million was raised to purchase, stabilize and restore the Garden. The Garden held its formal Dedication November, 2001.
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Training Ontarians for eLearning opportunities
Durham College and Collège La Cité help educators take their skills online for exciting new jobs and careers.
Image 1: A group of students talks at a table
New skills & opportunities for educators
Michelle Mouton, Durham College: Here in Ontario we have a large population of graduates with degrees in Education, and a lot of people in part-time teaching and training roles.
We’ve got all these people that already know how to teach — but they don’t necessarily know how to translate those skills into online teaching and learning. There’s a barrier to get into eLearning, because it requires some additional skills as well.
“We need to train people to get into this exciting career.”
We’re always looking to give people job-ready skills. Our students want to learn things they can directly apply in the workplace and update their skills. So we thought: let’s create curriculum that helps bridge that gap. So they can move into new spaces and open up new career opportunities — all through a short, concise certificate.
The eLearning Opportunity
In a sense this is not cutting edge, because eLearning has been around for a while. But it is cutting edge in terms of how colleges are now looking at learning. They’re realizing it’s increasingly headed toward online learning, and that we need to train people to get into this exciting new career.
“We’re always looking to give people job-ready skills.”
People — especially young people — need to understand what a great opportunity the eLearning space is. There’s great jobs, it’s forward thinking, and it’s only going to increase from here.
Image 2: Two students work together on a laptop
Lowering barriers for learners
Olivier Chartrand, Collège La Cité: We always have the adult learner in mind, the non-traditional learners that form some of our clientele. Sometimes they may already have work experience in the field, so having useful learning content, building transferable professional skills, and using experiential learning is very important. Having them build their experience right away.
Curating open resources
Brandon Carson, Durham College: We created the courses using open educational resources. That gave me a lot of pride, because it meant students wouldn’t have to pay anything for textbooks.
Many of the learning materials were created by industry leaders at Mozilla. There were formative assessments and coding challenges built in, which I was able to copy and paste directly over. So in terms of the content, it was more about curating than creating, which was wonderful.
Image 3: A professor instructs a student using a computer in a lab
Collaborating across colleges
Michelle: The eCampus projects have really been about connecting people. It’s allowed us to get to know colleagues at other institutions, to share ideas and learn. It really has become a roadmap of relationships.
“In terms of productivity and improvement, sharing is a very powerful tool.” — Pascale Bellier
Pascale Bellier: There’s definitely potential in this kind of collaboration across colleges. Sometimes we end up working in silos, and you realize you’re doing exactly the same thing as others have done and it’s ridiculous to reinvent the wheel. In terms of productivity and improvement, sharing is a very powerful tool.
We’ve learned a lot during this process of adapting to a competency-based approach, a modular approach. So we can now share that with other colleges and other colleagues.
Olivier: As a new employee here at College La Cité, one of the first things I heard about and discovered was eCampus. It had a kind of “wow” effect for me. It’s a great initiative that moves a lot of people, and a lot of ideas. It was helpful for me to understand the eCampus strategy within my work responsibilities.
Image 4: Students work on computers in a school lab
- Brandon Carson, Learning Technology Specialist, Durham College
- Michelle Mouton, Director of Program Quality & Development, Durham College
- Tanya Wakelin, eLearning Manager, Durham College
- Pascale Bellier, Learning Development Coordinator, Collège La Cité
- Olivier Chartrand, eLearning development manager, Collège La Cité
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The best writing prompts for high school
Ah, high school. The birthplace of future geniuses, the setting of a million Young Adult books — and the cutting ground of many a brilliant young author. Writing in the classroom is often the best outlet of creativity for kids, and what better way to get your students excited about it than through creative writing prompts for high school students?
Whether you use journal prompts or story ideas to kickstart your high school student’s imagination, writing prompts are sure to help broaden their thinking, sharpen their writing skills, record their thoughts, and get them to engage with the world around them.
If you're looking to cut to the chase, here's a top ten list of writing prompts for high school students:
- In the form of diary/ journal entries, write about someone who's just experienced a big "first."
- Just then, your phone rings. It's your friend and they have some interesting news...
- Write a short story where the protagonist has a doppelgänger.
- Write a story about a misunderstanding.
- Write a story about a strange family tradition, with at least two characters from the family narrating in the course of the story.
- Write a story about someone who would be described, above all else, as: kind.
- Write a story that centers on an Instagram post.
- Write a story that spans a month during which everything changes.
- Write about a group of people determined to win an award for making the biggest cookie ever.
- Write about someone going to extreme lengths to return an overdue library book.
If you have a high school student who’s interested in becoming an author, check out our free resources on the topic:
Develop a Writing Routine (free course) — Any high schooler who’s serious about becoming a published author should know that writing a book doesn’t just take talent. 90% of the process is sitting in front of a blank piece of paper, and having the drive and commitment to put words to paper. That’s why we created this free course, which shows people of any age how to develop a writing routine that works for you. It’s never too early to start the process today!
Want to encourage your high school students to start writing? Check out Reedsy’s weekly short story contest, for the chance of winning $250! You can also check out our list of writing contests or our directory of literary magazines for more opportunities to submit your story.
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In North America, containers are often shipped by rail in container well cars. These cars resemble flatcars but the newer ones have a container-sized depression, or well, in the middle (between the bogies or "trucks") of the car. This depression allows for sufficient clearance to allow two containers to be loaded in the car in a "double stack" arrangement. The newer container cars also are specifically built as a small articulated "unit", most commonly in components of three or five, whereby two components are connected by a single bogie as opposed to two bogies, one on each car (The photo above under "Equipment" shows an example of the new setup.) Double stacking is also used in parts of Australia. On some older railways, particularly in the United Kingdom, the use of well cars is necessary to carry single stacked large containers within the loading gauge.
It is also common in North America to transport semi-trailers on railway flatcars or spine cars, an arrangement called "piggyback" or TOFC (trailer on flatcar) to distinguish it from container on flatcar (COFC). Some flatcars are designed with collapsable trailer hitches so they can be used for trailer or container service. Such designs allow trailers to be rolled on from one end, though lifting trailers on and off flatcars by specialized loaders is more common. TOFC terminals typically have large areas for storing trailers pending loading or pickup.
A newer method of transporting trailers, the roadrailer, has been developed by RoadRailer Corporation, which is owned by the Norfolk Southern Railway. When the trailers are transported on rail, railway wheel assemblies are placed between the trailers, in effect turning the trailers into one large articulated railway car. This method is faster than carrying trailers on flatcars and requires no extra railway cars, but the trailers need to be specially designed (strengthened)
This information has been compiled thanks to: wikipedia.org
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| 0.961526 | 399 | 2.640625 | 3 |
|Native to||Austria, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia|
|19,000 (in Burgenland)|
50,000–60,000 (all speakers) (2001 census)
|South Slavic languages and dialects|
Burgenland Croatian (Gradišćanskohrvatski jezik; German: Burgenlandkroatische Sprache, Hungarian: Gradišćei horvát nyelv) is a regional variety of the Chakavian dialect of Croatian spoken in Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia. Burgenland Croatian is recognized as a minority language in the Austrian state of Burgenland, where it is spoken by 19,412 people according to official reports (2001). Many of the Burgenland Croatian speakers in Austria also live in Vienna and Graz, due to the process of urbanization, which is mostly driven by the poor economic situation of large parts of Burgenland.
Smaller Croatian minorities in western Hungary, southwestern Slovakia, southern Poland and southern Czech Republic are often also called Burgenland Croats. They use the Burgenland Croatian written language and are historically and culturally closely connected to the Austrian Croats. The representatives of the Burgenland Croats estimate their total number in all three countries and emigration at around 70,000.
- 1 Dialects
- 2 History
- 3 Written language
- 4 Spoken language
- 5 Differences between Standard and Burgenland Croatian
- 6 Newspapers written in Burgenland Croatian
- 7 First books written in Burgenland Croatian
- 8 Writers writing in Burgenland Croatian
- 9 See also
- 10 References
- 11 External links
- Štoj dialect: dialect of the Croatian folklore group Štoji (Güttenbach, Stinatz, Neuberg), is a Shtokavian–(south)Chakavian mixed dialect
- Vlah dialect: dialect of the Vlahi, is a Shtokavian dialect in Weiden bei Rechnitz, Zuberbach, Althodis, Schandorf, Dürnbach, Allersdorf, etc., is Shtokavian (schacavian) ikavian dialect similar to Slavonian
- Dolinci dialect: dialect of the Dolinci in Unterpullendorf, Frankenau, Kleinmutschen, etc. is a (middle)Chakavian dialect
- Poljan dialect: dialect of the Poljanci near Lake Neusiedl, is a (middle)Chakavian dialect
- Hac dialect: Chakavian dialect of Haci near Neusiedl
- some Croats speak a Kajkavian dialect near Neusiedl
- Grob dialect: a Kajkavian dialect, spoken in Chorvátsky Grob in Slovakia
Burgenland Croatian was the language of Croatian refugees who fled Croatia during the Turkish Wars and settled in the western part of what was then Hungary, the area where they still live. Burgenland Croats included speakers of all three dialects of the Serbo-Croatian language (Shtokavian, Chakavian and Kajkavian), with the majority being the Chakavians. They originally came from the river Una valley.
Burgenland Croats did not take part in the shaping of the present standard Croatian in the 19th century. Instead, they constructed their own written standard based mainly on the local Chakavian speech and adopted the Croatian alphabet, a modified Latin alphabet, as their script.
It is still a matter of debate whether Burgenland Croatian should be classified as a Slavic micro-language of its own. Burgenland Croatian dialects are mostly viewed as isolated dialects of the Croatian.
Burgenland Croatian and the Prekmurje dialect of Slovene (in Prekmurje and Hungary) have influenced each other. The first Prekmurje Slovene works (for example, the Old Hymnal of Martjanci) was applied to the Burgenland Croatian books. A few of those that wrote in Prekmurje Slovene were of Burgenland Croatian descent (for example Jakab Szabár) and also Burgenland Croatian (József Ficzkó).
After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in 1918 the areas in which Burgenland Croats lived were divided between Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. After 1921 most of these areas became part of Austria, which established a new province of Burgenland, after which the Croatian minority was named. In 1922 Austria founded the Apostolic administration of Burgenland and began to abolish bilingual schools through the introduction of the teaching of German in all primary schools. This process was temporarily stopped after The National Education Act, that allowed the work of the Croatian elementary schools, was adopted. After Hitler Annexed Austria in 1938 this law was abolished. In 1955 the Austrian State Treaty was signed. It gave permission to the Burgenland Croats to use Croatian in education, judiciary and public administration. With the adoption of the Law on National Minorities in 1976 use of Croatian in public life became limited. After constitutional complaint was accepted in 1987 parts of the law were changed and Croatian was introduced as an official in 6 out of 7 districts of Burgenland.
Burgenland Croatian written language is based mainly on the local Chakavian dialect with some influences from the other Croatian dialects spoken in Burgenland. It uses the Latin alphabet with the same diacritical modifiers as the Croatian alphabet. In the course of language development it acquired some of its own specialised vocabulary, sometimes different from that used in standard Croatian.
Croats living in the south of Burgenland speak mainly the Shtokavian-Chakavian dialect, those in the central part the Chakavian dialect with a hard Kajkavian influence, and in the north (close to Vienna) the Chakavian dialect.
Differences between Standard and Burgenland Croatian
|English||Standard Croatian||Burgenland Croatian|
|Jesus Christ||Isus Krist||Jezuš Kristuš|
Newspapers written in Burgenland Croatian
Newspapers of the Burgenland Croats are: Crikveni glasnik (Church Gazett), 1946; Naše selo (Our village), 1947; Naš tjednik (Our weekly), 1947; Naša domovina (Our homeland), 1952; Glas (Voice), 1957; Novi glas (New Voice), 1969; Put (Way), 1981).
First books written in Burgenland Croatian
The beginnings of literacy are linked to: Klimpuški misal (Klimpuški Missal) (1501), S. Consul Histrianus and Antun Dalmatin's Postila (Fasting) (1568), Duševne pesne (Spiritual songs) (1609) and Grgur Mekinić Pythiraeus's Druge knjige duševnih pesan (Other books of the Spiritual songs) (1611). Until the mid-19th century, the literature in Burgenland Croatian had religious character and was intended mostly for peasants. Main writers were priests and nuns. In the second half of the 19th century teachers began to write. Thanks to that, many school textbooks and calendars were written.
Writers writing in Burgenland Croatian
Most popular Burgenland Croat writers are: J. Mulih (1694–1754), Godefrid Palković (1714–78), L. Bogović (1719–89), E. M. Kragel (1725–88), M. Laáb (cca. 1746–1823), J. Ficko (1772–1843), M. Drobilić (1808–91), T. Jordan (1815–93), G. Glavanić (1833–72), M. Naković (1840–1900), I. Mušković (1848–1930), M. Borenić (1850–1939), Ivan Čuković (1865–1944), P. Jandrišević (1879–1938), I. Blažević (1888–1946), Mate Meršić Miloradić (1850–1928), Ignac Horvat (1895–1973), Martin Meršić, A. Blazović (1921–2004), Franz Probst (1919–93), N. Benčić (b. 1938), Ivan (Lav) Sučić (b. 1938), Mathilda Bölcs (b. 1949), J. Čenar (b. 1956), P. Tyran (b. 1955) and H. Gassner (b. 1955).
The Lord's prayer in Slovene, Burgenland Croatian and Standard Croatian
|Oče naš, ki si v nebesih,
posvečeno bodi tvoje ime,
|Oče naš, ki si na nebesi,
sveti se ime tvoje,
|Oče naš, koji jesi na nebesima,|
sveti se ime tvoje,
- "Geschichte der kroatischen Volksgruppe in Österreich". www.hrvatskicentar.at.
- Bevölkerung 2001 nach Umgangssprache, Staatsangehörigkeit und Geburtsland
- Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Burgenland Croatian". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- "gradišćanski Hrvati - Hrvatska enciklopedija". www.enciklopedija.hr.
- AngieWebDesign, Angie Sandoz. "Antoine de St Exupery - The Little Prince / Croatian Burgenland dialect / 1998, Hrvatsko Stamparsko Drustvo, Eisenstadt". www.petit-prince-collection.com.
- Burgenland Croatian Center in Vienna (in English, Croatian, and German)
- Scientific Institute of the Burgenland Croats (in Croatian and German)
- Croatian Cultural and Documentation Center in Eisenstadt (in German)
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Did you know Thanksgiving has some very interesting history & fun facts?
Gobble Gobble is ONLY the sound from a male turkey. Females, called hens, will cackle! And did you know that turkeys cannot see at night?
TV Dinners evolved in 1953 because too much turkey was left over from the holiday. An employee at Swanson Foods misjudged how many frozen turkeys would sell that year by 26 TONS! So the idea of TV dinners with some fixings was conceived and the idea flourished.
The 1st Thanksgiving was almost a FAST and not a FEAST! The early settlers gave thanks with prayer and abstaining from food. This was the original plan for Thanksgiving until the Wampanoag Indians joined the settlers and the fast turned into a feast!
The 1st Thanksgiving feast did NOT have mashed potatoes, pumpkin pies or cranberries. Rather they feasted on lobster, rabbit, chicken, fish, squashes, beans, nuts, onions, dried fruits, syrup, honey, radishes, cabbage, carrots, eggs, and goat cheese.
The 1st Thanksgiving had NO forks. At that time only knives, spoons and fingers were used for eating. Can you imagine using your fingers at Thanksgiving?
The annual Macy’s Day Parade started in the 1920’s.
In the United States, about 280 MILLION turkeys are sold for Thanksgiving. In a year’s time, the average American eats between 16-18 pounds of turkey! And people in California consume the most turkey.
There are four towns in the United States named “Turkey”. They can be found in Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, and North Carolina.
The tradition of football on Thanksgiving began in 1876 with a game Yale vs Princeton.
The average weight of a turkey is 15 pounds and turkey has more protein than chicken or beef. And last but not least, on Thanksgiving day turkey is the preferred menu item with 91% of Americans eating turkey and eating an average of 4,500 calories.
So give us a call now before your guests arrive or when all your guests leave you with spots on the carpet or wine spilled, give Chem-Dry of Michiana a call to clean-up before the next holiday rolls around!
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
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"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
- Albert Einstein
Highly intuitive kids are intuitive learners and thinkers. Their dominant trait of high intuition shapes how they think, learn, and perceive the world.
Having an educational experience that supports this style is key to these kids thriving in healthy ways, staying connected to and grounded in their intuitive intelligence, and becoming the successful future innovators and creative thinkers of their times.
All learners have unique strengths and weaknesses, and a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching doesn't cater to a student's individualism.
Highly Intuitive Kids are
Intuitive Learners and Thinkers
Highly intuitive kids are intuitive learners and intuitive-style thinkers.
Most classroom curricula do not take into account intuitive learning styles.
This might lead to boredom in the classroom or engaging in typical intuitive-style thinking, including pondering his own big-picture ideas and making intuitive leaps in thinking to the end of the lesson (or even think they can).
They sometimes find instructive details boring and tedious.
Perhaps this boredom looks like attention deficit disorder (ADD) because the child isn't following the same linear, sequential learning steps as the majority of their classmates and is "off-point" on the given task.
Thoughtful consideration of the child's intuitive learning style can often help sift through this distinction.
If you adjust the environment or challenge the child in ways that are a better fit, the behavioral characteristics of the ADD dissolve.
This could help to separate out the boredom and poor fit issues from authentic neurotransmitter level problems.
In addition, requiring tweens and teens to take a personality assessment test like Myers-Briggs would help educators and school counselors determine each child's primary learner style so they can better meet each child's learning needs.
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What is an N-gon?
Date: 06/01/98 at 18:17:23 From: Missy Subject: I'm confused! Dear Dr. Math, I can't figure out the answer to this question. Consider the following pattern: In an N-gon, n-3 diagonals can be drawn from one vertex. When N = 4, to what kind of polygon does the pattern refer? I don't get the part of "n-3 diagonals." Does that mean that to find the answer, I have to subract 4 from 3? Missy
Date: 06/01/98 at 19:00:04 From: Doctor Barrus Subject: Re: I'm confused! Hi, Missy! I'm going to split the statement up and try to explain each part. First: "In an N-gon, n-3 diagonals can be drawn from one vertex." I think that "N" and "n" mean the same number. What this means, then, is this: Say you have a polygon with n sides (this is called an n-gon). Now pick any vertex (corner). We're going to count how many diagonals (lines connecting two vertices that don't touch the sides of the n-gon) we can draw from that vertex. For example, let's look at a hexagon: 1_______2 / \ Now pick one of the corners (Let's suppose I / \ choose corner number 1). Draw lines connecting / \ that corner with the other corners that aren't 6\ /3 already connected to corner 1. These corners are \ / 3, 4, and 5. The lines that you've drawn are the \_______/ diagonals drawn from vertex 1. 5 4 What the statement is saying is that from any vertex, or corner, of an n-gon, you can draw n-3 diagonals (in our example, we could draw n-3 = 6-3 = 3 diagonals to corners 3, 4, and 5). To see why this is, look at this: - We have n points as the vertices. - We can't draw a line connecting a point with itself. - A point is already connected to two other points by the sides of the n-gon. So we have n - 1 - 2 = n - 3 points to connect to. Therefore, there are n - 3 diagonals. Second: "When N = 4, to what kind of polygon does the pattern refer?" This is just asking what kind of polygon has 4 sides. You'll also want to look at how many diagonals the formula says you can draw from one vertex, and check that by actually drawing the diagonals. Well, I hope this helps. Good luck! -Doctor Barrus, The Math Forum Check out our web site! http://mathforum.org/dr.math/
Search the Dr. Math Library:
Ask Dr. MathTM
© 1994-2013 The Math Forum
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noun 1. Rocky Mountain juniper. Rocky Mountain juniper noun 1. a juniper, Juniperus scopulorum, of western North America, that yields a soft, reddish wood used for making fences, pencils, etc., and that is also grown as an ornamental.
plural noun 1. the chief mountain system in North America, extending from central New Mexico to N Alaska. Highest peak, Mount McKinley, 20,300 feet (6187 meters). Rocky Mountains plural noun 1. the chief mountain system of W North America, extending from British Columbia to New Mexico: forms the Continental Divide. Highest peak: Mount Elbert, 4399 […]
noun 1. bighorn.
noun, Pathology. 1. an infectious disease characterized by high fever, pains in joints, bones, and muscles, and a cutaneous eruption, caused by rickettsii and transmitted by ticks: first reported in the Rocky Mountain area, but now more widely distributed. Rocky Mountain spotted fever noun 1. an acute rickettsial disease characterized by high fever, chills, pain […]
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Perhaps you remember hearing that fish is brain food. What this means is that fish contains nutrients called omega-3 fatty acids that have been shown to enhance or improve brain function and help it to stay young.
But omega-3s are not the only good brain nutrients; there are numerous others that can help your brain stay young, and a wide variety of foods in which to find them. In fact, the brain needs a constant supply of nutrients to support optimal function—from energy metabolism for its billions of neurons, to the synthesis of neurotransmitters, to the propagation of nerve impulses and other brain activities.
The following list includes seven key nutrients that your brain needs to stay young and function at an optimal level. These nutrients, along with a healthy diet, regular exercise, avoidance of smoking, stress management, and sufficient sleep all have a role in maintaining a healthy brain.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
According to researchers, omega-3 fatty acids have demonstrated an ability to improve cognitive function. A 2017 Brazilian systematic review, for example, found that omega-3 fatty acid supplements may be helpful in treating mild Alzheimer’s disease when there is slight brain function impairment. A mouse study reported that animals given omega-3 supplements demonstrated an improvement in cognitive function (object recognition memory, localized memory, and spatial memory) as they got older.
In addition to cold water fish, sources of omega-3 fatty acids include walnuts, chia seeds, flax seeds, hemp seeds, and sea vegetables. Omega-3 supplements are available as fish oil, krill oil, and algae-based.
Dark chocolate is the source of brain-friendly phytonutrients called cocoa flavanols. In a three-month study, researchers discovered that individuals who consumed a high cocoa flavanol diet showed a boost in the area of the brain associated with memory loss and aging.
Cocoa powder is made by fermenting, drying, and roasting cacao beans. The flavanols have been shown to lower blood pressure, fight cell damage, prevent blood clots, and improve blood flow to the brain.
To reap the brain-boosting benefits of cocoa flavanols, choose dark chocolate (70 percent or higher) and enjoy a small amount (about one ounce) several times a week, or even daily. A 2012 study of adults with mild cognitive impairment showed that those who consumed cocoa flavanols daily benefited from improved thinking skills as well as lower blood pressure and improved insulin resistance.
Magnesium is associated with more than 300 biochemical activities in the human body and plays a key role in cognitive health. It’s been suggested that low levels of magnesium may play a role in in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, but further research is needed. We know from mouse research that an increase in magnesium in the brain provides substantial protection of the synapses in models of Alzheimer’s disease and therefore may have therapeutic potential for treating Alzheimer’s disease.
Be sure to include lots of foods rich in magnesium in your diet, including green leafy vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, nuts, and whole grains.
You may recognize these antioxidants as being especially plentiful in blueberries, but other berries harbor them as well. Anthocyanins are associated with enhanced signaling of neurons in the brain’s memory regions. In one study, adults who consumed wild blueberry juice daily showed improvements in memory—namely, word list recall and paired associate learning. They also showed reduced depressive symptoms and glucose levels, both of which can have a negative impact on cognitive function.
In a 2017 study, experts showed that daily blueberry consumption for 16 weeks by adults with cognitive decline was associated with an improvement in neural response. In addition to blueberries, you can include other foods that provide a good amount of anthocyanins, such as cranberries, black raspberries, blackberries, cherries, eggplant, black rice, red cabbage, and muscadine grapes.
EGCG and Theanine
The one food that nearly exclusively contains epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and L-theanine is green tea. Although there are more than 700 compounds in green tea, EGCG and theanine are the ones responsible for improving brain health. Traces of EGCG are also found in apples, carob powder, hazelnuts, onions, pecans, and plums.
EGCG is a potent antioxidant that can pass through the blood-brain barrier and address the free radicals that can destroy brain cells. This polyphenol also has anti-inflammatory powers, which are critical since free radicals trigger brain inflammation, which in turn speeds up brain aging and contributes to memory loss, depression, and anxiety.
The impact of the amino acid L-theanine on cognition also has been shown in various studies. A review of 49 human intervention studies showed that L-theanine has “clear beneficial effects on sustained attention, memory, and suppression of distraction.” The only food sources of L-theanine are black and green teas.
This mouthful of a compound is a source of the dietary nutrient choline, which is a member of the B-complex family. Recent research involving phosphatidylcholine explored its impact on brain structure in 72 healthy older adults. The researchers found that higher blood levels of phosphatidylcholine were linked to improved cognitive flexibility.
Although the exact ways phosphatidylcholine benefits the brain and cognitive function are not fully understood, experts suggest it may be that the nutrient supports brain membranes, contributes to the production of neurotransmitters that promote and support cognition, or reduce inflammation in the brain. Dietary sources of phosphatidylcholine include egg yolks, raw organic dairy, wheat germ, cruciferous vegetables, and meat.
Be sure to add plenty of these foods to your diet every day to keep your brain young.
Andrea Donsky is an author, registered holistic nutritionist, editor-in-chief of NaturallySavvy.com, and cofounder of The Healthy Shopper Inc. and Naturally Savvy Media.
This article was originally published on NaturallySavvy.com
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It has been pointed out numerous times on this blog (here, here and here) that you can’t have a true comparison of fuels if you account for the direct effects of all fuels and the indirect effects of only one. But that is what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resource Board (ARB) have proposed. Both the EPA in their proposed RFS II rules and ARB in their Low-Carbon-Fuel-Standard have calculated the direct effects of all fuels and then only looked at indirect land effects and applied them only to biofuels.
Is it reasonable to claim that there are NO indirect effects from petroleum? One study, published in the academic journal Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining, suggested that accounting for the military protection of pipelines alone would double the greenhouse gas emissions of Persian Gulf oil. But if you don’t want to read through the study, just watch this video from the Renewable Fuels Association. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and in this case I think they’re right.
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Battle of Liegnitz (1760)
||This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2011)|
|Battle of Liegnitz|
|Part of the Seven Years' War|
Battle of Liegnitz
|Commanders and leaders|
|Frederick the Great||Ernst von Laudon|
|30,000||25,000 (80,000 reinforcements under von Daun never engaged)|
|Casualties and losses|
The armies collided around the Prussian Silesian city of Liegnitz (Legnica). Frederick split his army in two, one part commanded by Field Marshal Zieten. Frederick heard the sound of skirmishing and thought Zieten was already fighting. He sent ten grenadiers' battalions out of the woods to assist an attack that wasn't happening. 5,000 were cut down in 30 minutes.
Laudon's Austrian cavalry attacked the Prussian position in the early morning but were beaten back by General Zieten's Hussars. An artillery duel emerged which was eventually won for the Prussians when a grenade hit an Austrian powder wagon. The Austrian infantry then proceeded to attack the Prussian line, but was met with concentrated artillery fire. A Prussian infantry counter-attack led by the Regiment Anhalt-Bernburg on the left forced the Austrians into retreat.
Shortly after dawn the major action was over but Prussian artillery fire continued to harass the Austrians. General Leopold von Daun arrived and, learning of Laudon's defeat, decided not to attack despite his soldiers being fresh.
- Geoffrey Regan, Military Blunders, page 108
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Environmentalists are expressing concern as the population of skunks continue to rise. Factors contributing to the increase include urbanization, which has led to the destruction of natural habitats and easier access to food, as well as the decline in certain predators. This increase can lead to environmental impacts, including the potential spread of diseases and property damage. To address the rise, waste management practices can be improved to reduce food sources, natural predators can be encouraged, and homeowners can prevent skunks from invading their properties. While skunks are not typically aggressive towards humans or pets, they can carry diseases such as rabies and distemper.
Skunk Population on the Rise: Environmentalists Express Concern
Skunks are known for their distinctive black-and-white stripes and their pungent spray, which they use to defend themselves against predators. But in recent years, skunk populations have been on the rise, leading to concerns among environmentalists about the impact of these animals on the ecosystem.
Reasons for the Increase in Skunk Population
There are several reasons why skunk populations are on the rise. One of the main factors is the increase in urbanization, which has led to the destruction of natural habitats for skunks and other wildlife. As skunks adapt to living in urban areas, they are able to find food and shelter more easily, which has allowed them to reproduce more successfully.
Another factor contributing to the rise in skunk populations is the decline in certain predator populations, such as foxes and coyotes. These predators are natural enemies of skunks, and their decline has resulted in less predation of skunks and their offspring.
While skunks may seem harmless, their increase in population can have significant environmental impacts. One of the main concerns is the potential spread of diseases such as rabies and distemper, which can be transmitted to other wildlife and even pets.
Skunks are also known to cause damage to property, particularly by digging burrows under foundations and decks. This can lead to costly repairs and structural damage to homes and other buildings.
What Can Be Done
There are several steps that can be taken to address the rise in skunk populations. One approach is to improve waste management practices in urban areas to reduce the availability of food sources for skunks.
Another approach is to encourage the reintroduction of natural predators such as foxes and coyotes, which can help to control skunk populations and prevent their spread of disease.
Finally, homeowners can take steps to prevent skunks from invading their properties, such as sealing up any potential entry points and removing sources of food such as pet food and garbage.
Q: Are skunks dangerous?
A: While skunks are not typically aggressive towards humans, they can spray a pungent odor that can be difficult to remove. Skunks can also carry diseases such as rabies and distemper, which can be transmitted to other animals and even humans.
Q: Can skunks be kept as pets?
A: In some states, it is legal to keep skunks as pets with a permit. However, skunks are not domesticated animals and can be difficult to care for. It is important to do thorough research and consult with experts before considering keeping a skunk as a pet.
Q: Will skunks attack my pets?
A: Skunks are not typically aggressive towards pets, but they can defend themselves if threatened. It is important to keep pets away from skunks and to keep them on a leash when outside to prevent them from accidentally encountering a skunk.
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- PT ThorCon Power Indonesia is moving closer toward building an experimental nuclear reactor on a remote island in a strait bisecting the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.
- The company says the electricity generated by a thorium-powered reactor could generate electricity at 3 cents per kilowatt hour while emitting close to zero greenhouse gases.
- Some worry the project could threaten delicate marine ecosystems on an island that was, until recently, protected as a conservation area.
PALEMBANG, Indonesia — In February 1965, President Sukarno, flanked by aides and a photographer, unlocked the door to Indonesia’s first experimental nuclear reactor, the TRIGA Mark II, in the city of Bandung. Six decades later, the world’s fourth-largest country has yet to open a nuclear power station.
However, on a remote island of Indonesia in a challenging strait, a little-known company is hoping to spark change using a frontier nuclear technology.
In March this year, PT Thorcon Power Indonesia announced it had signed an agreement with Indonesia’s nuclear regulator to begin “safety, security, and safeguards consultation in preparation for licensing the 500 MW demonstration nuclear power plant” on Gelasa Island in Bangka-Belitung province.
The Indonesia entity is a subsidiary of the Singapore-based power firm ThorCon International, Pte. Ltd. The company’s reactor design is a scaled version of a molten-salt reactor, the subject of an experiment at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the U.S. state of Tennessee during the 1960s. ThorCon claims the electricity generated by a realized project would cost 3 cents per kilowatt hour (in 2021 coal generation in Indonesia cost more than 4 cents per kilowatt hour).
If the Gelasa Island facility is built, ThorCon’s power plant could diversify Indonesia’s grid with a new energy technology generating no direct carbon emissions — in 2022, Indonesia hiked its commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 31.8% by 2030, with most of the reduction to come from land use.
“This consultation agreement is a major milestone that indicates that the Indonesian Government is serious about providing the efficient regulation required to allow for the licensing of nuclear power in a timely and economic manner,” ThorCon said in a statement.
However, environmental activists and researchers in Bangka-Belitung worry that the development could spur new environmental challenges in a region of Indonesia devastated by tin mining for more than two decades.
“My guess is the release of carbon from the sea,” said M. Rizza Muftiadi, who researches marine biology at Bangka Belitung University.
Thorium has been advanced as a potential power source since the early days of civil nuclear engineering in the 1950s. While nuclear fuels like plutonium and uranium are scarce, thorium is an element found in the Earth’s crust — and is a common byproduct of Indonesia’s messy mining operations.
“Thorium is three times more abundant in nature compared to uranium,” according to the International Atomic Energy Agency in a 2005 report on thorium.
Advocates of thorium-derived power cite an array of benefits, from less-hazardous waste to reduced potential of thorium in nuclear weaponry.
Nuclear development in Indonesia began in 1954 after Sukarno, the country’s first post-independence president, enacted a State Committee for Investigation of Radioactivity.
A series of incremental developments took place over the following decades, including Sukarno’s 1965 unveiling of the TRIGA Mark II and construction of a research reactor in Serpong, Banten province, in 1987.
Arguments in favor of nuclear power for Indonesia included diversification of the grid and opportunities for research and development.
The scientist who oversaw development of the TRIGA Mark II, National Nuclear Energy Agency head Djali Ahimsa, wrote a business-case paper in the late 1980s saying “economic studies to date indicate that nuclear energy could be part of Indonesia’s energy mix before the end of the century.”
More than two decades into the new century, nuclear power remains absent on Indonesia’s coal-heavy electricity grid, but ThorCon’s engineers remain hopeful.
In 2021, ThorCon appointed an engineering contractor to build the 500 MW plant in Indonesia, and in February 2022, the company inked a memorandum of understanding with Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency to develop the reactor technology.
However, some in Indonesia doubt the project can be realized as a going concern .
“Around the world, thorium power plants have never operated on a commercial scale,” said Eko Bagus Sholihin, a researcher at Raden Fatah State Islamic University and author of a book on Bangka-Belitung’s environment.
The island of Gelasa sits in the Gaspar Strait, a treacherous stretch of water named after a Spanish captain who sailed through the strait on the way to the Philippines in 1724. Today the tiny island of Gelasa, measuring less than 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) across, is known to few, except that it may one day be the site of Indonesia’s nuclear power station.
Gradual progress toward realizing Indonesia’s first nuclear power plant on Gelasa is worrying some researchers and environmentalists, who say the island’s conservation value is at stake.
Environmental activists and researchers in Bangka-Belitung caution that the plant could cause environmental harms that are poorly understood at present.
Rizza, the marine biologist, said that while the energy generated by a thorium-powered molten-salt reactor will generate fewer carbon emissions, the development required around the plant poses risks to turtles, dolphins, stingrays and other marine species around the island.
Research and a survey of Gelasa Island conducted by the University of Bangka Belitung together with Mongabay Indonesia and the Indonesian Forum for For the Environment, a civil society group, found mangrove forests covering around 2.5 hectares (6.1 acres) as well as 126 hectares (311 acres) of coral reefs around the island. Vast Anacropora spinosa coral — measuring between 5 and 11 meters (16 and 36 feet) in diameter — were found near the shore.
“This is most likely an ancient coral reef,” Rizza said.
A wide diversity of other marine life exists in this habitat, from dugongs and sea cucumbers to manta rays and octopi.
“This means that Gelasa Island and its waters have high conservation value,” Rizza said. “Gelasa Island and its waters should be designated as a conservation area.
Despite the apparent conservation value around Gelasa, the island’s protection status has changed in recent years.
A spatial plan published by the district government showed in 2014 that Gelasa Island held conservation area status, preventing any development. A separate spatial plan in 2019 showed the island classified as a nature reserve. In 2020, the waters off Gelasa were classed as a tourism zone. Then in 2023, the Island was officially designated as the location for a thorium power plant.
Shortly after that decision was announced, the director of PT ThorCon Power Indonesia, Bob S. Effendi, said the company would conduct environmental impact assessments and spatial plans. The company had studied the environment around Gelasa for the last year, Effendi said, adding that he was encouraged by the early results.
“This is a first and concrete step,” Effendi said.
Banner image: Nautilus pompilius shell found around Teluk Pisang, Gelasa Island. Image by Nopri Ismi for Mongabay Indonesia.
Thorium fuel cycle — Potential benefits and challenges. (2005). Retrieved from International Atomic Energy Agency website: https://www-pub.iaea.org/mtcd/publications/pdf/te_1450_web.pdf
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A spacecraft's close encounter with a comet went off without a hitch on Thursday, and the data it's beaming down is already surprising scientists.
NASA's Deep Impact probe zipped to within 435 miles (700 kilometers) of Comet Hartley 2 at 10:01 a.m. ET, and it sent the first five close-up photos of the peanut-shaped comet to Earth about an hour later.
Space news from NBCNews.com
Teen's space mission fueled by social media
Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: "Astronaut Abby" is at the controls of a social-media machine that is launching the 15-year-old from Minnesota to Kazakhstan this month for the liftoff of the International Space Station's next crew.
- Buzz Aldrin's vision for journey to Mars
- Giant black hole may be cooking up meals
- Watch a 'ring of fire' solar eclipse online
- Teen's space mission fueled by social media
Scientists are already poring over these images, as well as thousands of others that Deep Impact has taken of the comet since early September. The spacecraft's observations paint a picture of a strange comet that's tremendously active for its small size, with jets fueled by carbon dioxide spouting voluminously from a rough, textured surface. [ First close-up photos of Comet Hartley 2]
Researchers hope the flyby — one of just five missions that have photographed a comet's nucleus up-close — will help them gain a better understanding of comet structure and behavior. Since comets are leftovers from the solar system's early days, such knowledge could reveal a great deal about how our cosmic neighborhood came to be.
But researchers stressed that there's still a great deal of work to be done, as Deep Impact has already delivered a mountain of data and will keep pouring it on through late November.
"The engineers did a fantastic job of getting us data," said Mike A'Hearn of the University of Maryland, principal investigator of Deep Impact's comet flyby mission, which NASA calls EPOXI. "The scientific work is just beginning now."
Early scientific returns
Researchers have only just begun studying the first few images from the close flyby, and they've got a lot of work ahead of them. By the time Deep Impact takes its eyes off Hartley 2 around Thanksgiving, the probe will have delivered about 120,000 comet images to researchers' computers, NASA officials said.
An intriguing picture of Hartley 2 is already emerging.
Hartley 2 is smaller than the other four comets that were previously imaged up-close — measuring just 1.25 miles (2 kilometers) across — but it is incredibly active, with many jets spouting gas and dust.
The comet was discovered in 1986 by Australian astronomer Malcolm Hartley and orbits the sun once every six and a half years.
Comets, cyanide and CO2 jets
Deep Impact observations have revealed that Hartley 2's jets are fueled primarily by carbon dioxide — a surprise, since most comet outgassing is thought to be driven by water, A'Hearn said.
While jets had been observed on other comets before, the close flyby pinpointed Hartley 2's jets to an unprecedented degree, revealing that many of them are coming from areas with rough terrain.
"This the first time that we can track these jets to individual topographical features on the nucleus," A'Hearn said.
The close encounter further revealed that the jets erupt from many different parts of Hartley 2, not just the areas heated most by sunlight — another surprise, and one that has researchers scratching their heads.
"There are jets in the nighttime, jets along the edge and jets in the sun," said Jessica Sunshine, an EPOXI scientist from the University of Maryland. "We have a lot of work to do to figure out what's going on."
In September, Deep Impact also observed huge jets of cyanide gas from Hartley 2. The comet coughed up a few million tons of the stuff over the course of two weeks. And it puffed out the poisonous gas without dragging out any dust, A'Hearn said — yet another surprise, since such exhalations usually bring with them grainy materials from the interior.
"That's a phenomenon we haven't seen before," A'Hearn said. "We don't understand that yet."
Scientists aren't drawing many conclusions yet about what Hartley 2 is made of; they need to wait for more data to come home from Deep Impact's infrared spectrometer instrument, according to Sunshine. But researchers are ready for the unexpected.
"I think some surprises are yet to come on the compositional side," Sunshine said.
Going off without a hitch
Cheers erupted in the mission control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory when the five close-encounter images of Hartley 2 flashed up on the big screen Thursday morning. Scientists clapped, whooped and wandered about, shaking hands to celebrate a job well done.
"We couldn't have asked for a better performance from our spacecraft and our navigation team," EPOXI project manager Tim Larson of JPL told reporters. "It was a huge moment for our team."
Deep Impact was on the ball, Larson said, making its rendezvous with Hartley 2 within 2 seconds of the planned time. When the probe began beaming images back to Earth just about on schedule, the team knew the mission was a success.
"That was hugely gratifying," Larson said.
Cracking the comet code
Scientists will continue digging into the data as it pours in. The ultimate goal of Deep Impact's mission, A'Hearn said, is to try to learn how comets have been shaped over the eons since the solar system's birth.
If they can learn which aspects of the structure and behavior of comets date back to 4.5 billion years ago, researchers can draw more conclusions about the solar system's birth and about planet formation, according to A'Hearn.
While scientists ponder such big questions, Comet Hartley 2 will continue to zoom around the sun — for a while. The sun appears to be cooking 3 to 5 feet (1 to 1.5 meters) of material off the comet's surface on each orbit, A'Hearn said. Hartley 2's smallest side measures just 1,650 feet (500 meters), so the comet's days are numbered.
"It won't be around very long," A'Hearn said.
Deep Impact's future foretold
Deep Impact, for its part, is in limbo after its comet observations end around Thanksgiving.
The $252 million spacecraft went the extra mile — 2.9 billion extra miles, actually — to chase down Hartley 2.
Deep Impact was originally designed to serve as mothership and observer on a 2005 mission to crash an 820-pound (371-kilogram) probe into Comet Tempel 1.
After Deep Impact completed this mission successfully, NASA scientists repurposed it to hunt down Hartley 2. The extended mission cost about $45 million.
Now, Deep Impact is almost out of fuel. It doesn't have enough left to make another comet close encounter, but researchers could possibly use it as more of a stationary observing platform, according to Larson. Whether that will happen, or whether NASA will just decommission the probe — that's all up in the air.
"NASA's looking at future uses, but that won't be decided for a little while," Larson said.
Even if Deep Impact's days are numbered, it can go out with its head held high, according to NASA officials. The extended mission was relatively affordable compared to other missions, said Ed Weiler, associate administrator at NASA's Science Mission Directorate. That $45 million price tag is about 10 percent of what it would have cost to launch a whole new mission.
"In these hard economic times, that's a really good deal," Weiler said.
NASA's broad EPOXI mission has been using the Deep Impact spacecraft to track and study various celestial objects. The name "EPOXI" is derived from the mission's dual science investigations — the Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization (EPOCh) and Deep Impact Extended Investigations (DIXI).
- First Close-up Photos of Comet Hartley 2 Reveal a Space Peanut
- Video — Comet Hartley 2's Jets of Poisonous Cyanide
- The Best Comet Photos of All Time
© 2013 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.
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Despite the economic growth that followed the Industrial Revolution, the world of labor has resulted in various consequences, intensifying global inequality. Across the world, 152 million children are working in full-time jobs, 170 million people are unemployed, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO), and many of those who are employed do not earn a living wage. Women are more likely to be working in the informal economy and in jobs that lack the qualifications to be decent work, as defined in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8. Increased economic inequality has negative impacts on the environment, society, and cultures.
This course covers the past, present, and future of labor and gives solutions to the vast inequality caused by it. The instruction focuses on multiple elements of labor: policy, history, and economics. This course delves into the challenges to achieving SDG 8, including child labor, gender discrimination, poverty, slavery, trafficking, and informality and future issues that may threaten SDG 8, including artificial intelligence and automation.
Transcript available in: EnglishDownload Syllabus
Undergraduate and graduate students in economics, finance, and development, policymakers, and development practitioners.
To understand the relationship between employment, work, income, and wealth and the issues that gender discrimination, informal work, and child labor pose to accomplishing the SDGs and to provide models for the future of work regarding both ethics and artificial intelligence.
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Why We Should Be Eating Native Grains
There’s thousands of types of grains out there, and we all know the staples like wheat and rice. But have you ever tasted a native Australian grain? Did you even know that we have them? Indigenous Australians have been harvesting native grains for thousands of years and were the first culture in the world to bake bread. So why is so little known about our native grains? And why aren’t they a part of our diet? Angela Pattison is a research scientist at the Plant Breeding Institute at the University of Sydney. She joined The Thursday Daily’s Willy Russo to tell us all about native grains, and the benefits they can provide.
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Early Onset Scoliosis
Early Onset Scoliosis (EOS) is a form of spinal deformity in which a child’s spine (below 10 years of age) curves sideways. Over 100,000 children in the United States are found with this condition every year. EOS is a rare form of scoliosis that occurs in children younger than 10 years old. It is a serious condition that can cause severe spinal deformities and respiratory problems if left untreated.
EOS can be caused by a variety of factors, including congenital spine malformations, neuromuscular disorders, and genetic conditions. The treatment for EOS depends on the underlying cause, severity of the curvature, and the child’s age.
Early intervention is crucial in managing EOS to prevent severe spinal deformities and other complications. Treatment options for EOS may include bracing, casting, traction, or surgery, depending on the specific case. It is important to work closely with a medical team that specializes in pediatric orthopedics to ensure the best possible outcome for the child.
Here at the Southwest Scoliosis and Spine Institute, we have a team of experts and specialists that focuses on diagnosing and treating scoliosis and other spinal deformities. We routinely conduct spinal surgery and revision surgery for children and adults.
Types of Early Onset Scoliosis (EOS)
Medical experts have identified different types of EOS. Most of the types of EOS have a specific cause that relates to different health issues. A subset of the cases of EOS are idiopathic; which means they don’t have any known cause, and are thus, identified based on the child’s age when it was diagnosed. Below are the types of early-onset scoliosis:
This occurs when the bones of the spine are not formed properly during pregnancy.
This form of EOS can link to disorders in the brain, spinal cord, or muscular system (for instance muscular dystrophy). These disorders hinder the back muscles from holding the spine in a straight position.
This condition develops from an underlying disorder that affects many parts of the body.
Infantile scoliosis is a rare form of scoliosis that occurs in infants under the age of 3 years old. It is also sometimes referred to as early-onset scoliosis (EOS), although this term is more commonly used for scoliosis that occurs before the age of 10. There is no known cause for this type of EOS, and therefore, it is labeled as Infantile Idiopathic Scoliosis.
Juvenile Idiopathic Scoliosis
Juvenile scoliosis is a type of scoliosis that occurs in children between the ages of 4 and 10 years old, typically before the onset of puberty. This type of scoliosis is different from infantile scoliosis, which occurs in children younger than 3 years old, and adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, which occurs during the adolescent growth spurt.
Pediatric scoliosis refers to any type of scoliosis that occurs in children and adolescents, typically up to the age of 18. This age group includes infants, toddlers, preschoolers, school-age children, and teenagers. Pediatric scoliosis can be further divided into different categories based on the age of onset and the cause of the spinal curvature. Early-onset scoliosis (EOS) refers to cases of scoliosis that occur before the age of 10, while adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) refers to cases that develop during the adolescent growth spurt.
Causes of EOS
Early Onset Scoliosis becomes noticeable in young children when a child has any of the following:
- Pigeon breast (a condition whereby the breastbone appears exaggerated in an outward position at birth).
- Fused ribs (a condition in which the ribs are connected).
- Syndromes like neurofibromatosis (NF).
- Spinal muscular atrophy, cerebral palsy, and other neuromuscular conditions.
Signs and Symptoms of Early Onset Scoliosis
Doctors may find it difficult to identify EOS because some children do not have severe spine curvature and may not feel the pain that hinders them from their activities. Doctors can detect early signs of this condition by examining the child’s ‘symmetry’.
Here are the commonest signs of EOS:
- The body leans to one side
- Uneven waistline
- Uneven shoulders (one shoulder blade sticks out more)
- Off-balance hip height
- Ribs appear to protrude more on one side
We’re here to help STOP THE PAIN
Call 214-556-0555 or Email Us to make an appointment with our expert scoliosis doctors.
Why Does Early Onset Scoliosis Matter?
The changes in shape can make your child feel bad about themselves as they grow older. Some people feel very embarrassed about their body shape. As your child grows, the shape can change (especially during a period of sudden growth).
If the conditions get more serious, it can tamper with the mechanisms of the child’s spine thereby leading to pain or aching. In some cases, EOS can affect how the lungs develop and function (especially if the condition affects an individual in early life). If the condition does not get monitored and treated at the appropriate time, it can lead to serious lung-related issues in adulthood. This can affect the person’s daily life and can also affect the heart.
EOS that becomes detected early in life can get more severe due to the growth that the spine will undergo. Bigger spinal curves can cause most of the problems described earlier. Thus, parents should want our spine experts and specialists at the Southwest Scoliosis and Spine Institute to treat their child’s scoliosis.
How Do The Experts At Southwest Scoliosis and Spine Institute Detect Early Onset Scoliosis?
Your doctor will first ask questions about your child’s health, and how certain activities affect your child. The doctors will try to understand the amount of growth and development that remains. Our scoliosis experts and specialists will also examine the spine to see your child’s back and understand its flexibility. Our Doctors will look at the child’s back while bent forwards (Adam’s position) because this enables the doctors to visually inspect the spine and easily detect scoliosis. The doctors will also examine your child’s arms and legs to ensure that they can move normally. A low-dose x-ray will get taken to see exactly how your child’s bones are progressing. This x-ray will help your doctor understand your child’s current bone growth condition coupled with a physical exam will help him/her devise a diagnosis and treatment plan.
If our doctors believe there is Scoliosis, they will send your child for a CT scan to verify the condition. The doctor will measure the angle of the curve as contained in the CT scan. The CT scans will also help our specialists understand the cause of scoliosis (if there are any). In some cases, the CT scan can also help us determine if the condition can get worse.
Our scoliosis specialists may ask your child to go for an MRI scan for a further diagnosis. If we need to monitor your child’s scoliosis, you will need to return in a few months for another set of examinations and a CT scan.
Some children with EOS do not need treatment because their condition may not get worse or may correct itself as they grow. Others with progressive spine curvatures may require immediate treatment to prevent the chest wall from deforming while providing room for the lungs to develop normally. Children with early-onset scoliosis need medical monitoring to determine the type of treatment needed for each child.
At the Southwest Scoliosis and Spine Institute, our collaborative, family-centered treatment will give your child the care he or she needs. A team of scoliosis experts and specialists will work with you to take care of your child. While planning your child’s treatment, our experts will consider the condition of the curve, its position in the spine, your child’s stage of growth and age, and other health conditions your child has.
The following processes are involved in the treatment plan:
The doctor’s first step is to monitor your child through 6 to 9 monthly appointments. The appointment will involve examining scoliosis again and having a CT scan to measure the curve of the spine. If scoliosis remains the same whenever your child goes for an appointment, the doctor will keep monitoring the condition until your child becomes fully grown.
Children with EOS can actively take part in sports or exercise. The child needs to remain active so that he or she can have good core muscles. Although exercise by itself does not stop scoliosis from progressing. Lots of studies are currently ongoing to prove the role exercise plays in this condition.
Bracing or Body Casting
The initial treatment that is often used for young children and babies is a plaster jacket. This is done after applying an anesthetic and it gets changed every month. We will give you all the support you need for this. Plaster jackets are a proven method of stopping a spinal curve from getting worse in children with EOS.
Doctors will suggest wearing a brace if the brace can fit the child. Braces are usually rigid and the child must wear them for 23 hours every day. Your child can wear them under his or her clothes. Their positive effect can be seen if they are used constantly. You can take the brace off your child for bathing, sports, and at other times when it’s not proper.
Early Onset Scoliosis Surgery
Your child may need surgery if the curve in the spine gets worse. The surgery’s goal is to prevent the curve from getting worse and to ensure that the spine grows and increases in length with time. To get these results, rods are used together with implants to connect the rods to the bones of the spines.
More than one surgery may become necessary as the length of the rods will need changing to allow the spine to grow. Since the spine bones are usually small during the initial surgery, the screws and hooks that support the spine may need replacing as well. Once the surgeon notices that the amount of growth left in the spine is minimal, a final surgery may be performed.
Let’s Give Your Child A Bright Future
With today’s technology and medical advancements, treating your child with early-onset scoliosis can lead to a very successful life for the child. Fortunately, new treatments can help to manage and correct the curve in the spine. Through your encouragement and support, coupled with the dedication of our scoliosis experts and specialists, we will help your child lead a happy life.
Finally, your scoliosis treatment team at the Southwest Scoliosis and Spine Institute with offices in Dallas, Plano, and Frisco, Texas is available to ensure your child’s continued health. You can be assured that there is hope. Our specialists are always ready to speak with you. So, call us today at 214-556-0555 to schedule an appointment with our team.
If you or your loved one suffers from degenerative disc disease, a herniated disc, or another complex spine condition. We can help. Call Southwest Scoliosis and Spine Institute at 214-556-0555 to make an appointment today.
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DHCP Autoconfiguration/Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA)
The IP address of a TCP/IP host is, in many ways, its identity. Every TCP/IP network requires that all hosts have unique addresses to facilitate communication. When a network is manually configured with a distinct IP address for each host, the hosts permanently know who they are. When hosts are made DHCP clients, they no longer have a permanent identity; they rely on a DHCP server to tell them who they are.
This dependency is not a problem as long as DHCP is functioning normally and a host can get a lease, and, in fact, has many benefits that we have explored. Unfortunately, a number of circumstances can arise that result in a client failing to get a lease. The client may not be able ...
Get TCP/IP Guide now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
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CGIAR just launched a new tool that is aimed at helping farmers adapt to the challenges of climate change by providing predictions on the future stresses faced: http://gismap.ciat.cgiar.org/Analogues/. For the research paper “Finding Tomorrow’s Agriculture Today”, see here.
While I was struggling to run a model (it just was released today and the server might be overloaded) and the usability interface could be improved, their approach is very laudable, especially as extension officers can take advantages in for example African countries of this ‘climate analogues’ tool. Based on a prediction of agro-climatic changes for an area over multiple years, the basic idea is to offer similar sites across the globe to show how farmers have coped in that climate. Granted that there are limitations in transferring methods and technologies from divergent geographic regions, it nevertheless allows a powerful, open-source tool in the hands of both national policy makers and local extension officers. If applied properly, a true achievement.
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Extends from the diaphragm to the top edge of the pelvic girdle (bones). Organs found are: Stomach, small intestines, most of the large intestines, the liver, spleen, pancreas, and gallbladder.
Surrounded by the pelvic girdle which provide protection for the urinary bladder, the last portion of the large intestines, and the internal reproductive organs. Since organs of the digestive system are found in both the abdominal and pelvic cavitys the word is combined to make abdominopelvic cavity.
Right and left iliac
often refered to as the ilium portion of the pelvic bone, or the inguinal, meaning groin
The abdomen is such a large area of the body that it is necessary to divide it into quadrants or regions for purposes of identification or reference. One method of reference creates four quadrants know as the right and left upper quadrants and the right and left lower quadrants.
Basic building block of the body. It requires nutrients and oxygen to survive, performs specific functions, and produces heat and energy. cells vary in shape, size and function. The body contains about 75 trillion of them.
separates the cell from the surrounding environment. The membrance controls what enters and leaves the cell, thereby regulating cellular function.
serves as the 'brain' for the control of the cells metabolic activities and cell dicision; has DNA and genes.
Functions as the site for RNA synthesis. The nucleus itself will have at least one nucleolus.
Serves as sites of cellular respiration and energy production. The 'powerhouse' of the cell
Serves as the site for protein synthesis. Made out of RNA and proteins in the nucleolus and pass through the nuclear membrane to become a two-part.They are found circulating the cytoplasm or attaching to the endoplasmic rheticulum.
The two-cylinder-shaped organelles near the nucleus. During mitosis, the centrioles separate and form spindle fibers that attach to the chromosomes to ensure their equal distribution to the new daughter cells.
When attached to the nuclear membrane, it serves as a passageway for the transportation of materials in and out of the nucleus. If grouped together they can store large amounts of protein. It regulates chemical reactions and controls the process of mitosis for reproduction.
Manufactures carbohydrates and packages secretions for discharge from the cell.
Serve a centers for cellular digestion. For example they consume protecin molecules such as found in old worn cells, bacteria or foreign matter.
Human beings have 46, or 23 pairs that store hereditary material. 22 pairs are same in number and kind, and one pair are sex chromosomes, determining the sex.
the material within the chromosome that encodes the genes that are location at specific sites.
A process whereby gas , liquid, or solid molecules distribute themselves evenly through a medium. They will move high concentrations to an area of lesser concentration for example
A process of diffusion of water or another solvent through a selective permeable, one through which some solutes can pass but others cannot. When the molecules are equal on both sides of the permeable the osmosis will stop. The pressure of the molecules inside the membrane is then said to be at equilibrium, a state known as osmotic pressure.
Seawater. ex. a red blood cell will shrink and wrinkle up because water molecules are moving outside of the cell.
compared to Fresh water. a red blood cell will swell and burst because water molecules are moving into the cell.
Human Blood Serum. A red blod remains unchanged because the movement of water molecules into and out of the cell are the same.
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Lagomorphs (the classified order into which rabbits fall) are small to medium mammals with soft fur. The soles of their feet are well furred which helps dampen the shock of rapid hopping. The have long toes that are webbed which keeps them from spreading apart as they jump. When there is a tail, the tail is very short. Their distinctive characteristic is having six (6) incisors. They have two upper sets and one lower set. The first pair of upper incisors are large and each tooth has a long groove on its front surface. The other pair of upper incisors are directly behind the first pair and are small and peg shaped. The incisors are a white enamel color. (Rodents have one pair of incisors and are yellow in color.) Both lagomorphs and rodents have teeth that have no anatomical root which means they continue to grow throughout life. Lagomorphs also have premolars and molars. All lagomorphs are herbivores and they move about by hopping. They do not hibernate in winter. Doheny has two types of rabbits; Bush Rabbits and Audubon Cottontails. They look very much alike, so good luck in telling the difference.
Photo above is of a Bush Rabbit. Below is an Audubon Cottontail.
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Raja Raja Chola I, also known as Rajaraja the Great, was an Indian king from the Chola dynasty. He is referred to as Kulothunga Cholan or just as Rajaraja in some inscriptions and literature such as in the Sanskrit work “Nitisara”.
Throughout his rule, he carried various conquest
- In 994, during the Kandalur War, Rajaraja I managed to defeat a fleet belonging to a Chera king called Bhaskara Ravi Varman Thiruvadi.
- He even defeated the Pandya king Amarabhujanga and captured the port of Virinam.
- The year AD 1008, the Chola army led by Rajendra Chola I captured Udagai from Cheras.
- Raja raja invaded the norther part of Sri Lanka in 993.
- In 998 CE, Rajaraja captured the regions of Nolambapadi, Gangapadi and Tadigaipadi (present day Karnataka)
To commemorate his south Indian conquests, he assumed the powerful title of Mummudi Chola. This word was used by Tamil kings who ruled the three kingdoms of Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas.
We present fifteen facts about great king Raja Raja Chola
- Ruled over the Indian kingdoms of southern India and Sri Lanka as well as Kalinga (Orissa) in Eastern India.
- Fought many battles with the Cholas in the south, Cholas in the north, Samantas in the west, Kadambas of Hangal to list a few.
- Rajaraja, by conquering Vengi, laid the foundations for the Chalukya Chola dynasty.
- After finally conquering Sri Lanka, the Cholas ruled the island for a hundred years.
- His conquests within a 14-year span of his reign, he brought the Pandyas, Bellary, Eastern Mysore, Tadigaipadi. Vengi and Coorg under his possession.
- He is the only King in India who expanded their territory to Cambodia.
- King Rajaraja I was the first king in India with the power of ships. He used his powerful naval force to annex countries across the sea.
- Raja Raja Chola 1 gave much importance to Architecture. Raja Raja Chola 1 Built the Peruvudaiyar Koyil in Thanjavur. This temple is referred to as Brihadeeswarar Temple.
- This Brihadeeswarar Temple was built with incredible architecture. It highlights the strength of both the Tamil language and the creativity of this artist.
- The Brihadeeswarar Temple, added as one of UNESCO’s “Great Living Chola Temples” on their UNESCO’s Architectural Heritage List.
- He built the spectacular “Siva temple” in Thanjavur, also known as “Rajarajeswaram”, “Brihadeeswarar Temple”
- One of the most famous temples in India, it’s one of the best architectural sites. It was built by Raja Raja Chola in 1010.
- Built from a single piece of black marble, a statue of a bull with a raised front leg is the centerpiece of the park.
- One of the major features of local architecture are the granite structures.
- Thanjavur Brihadeeswarar Temple is the most famous temple in the world, built by King Raja Raja Solan I (read: Raja-raja-solam).
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ACCESS TO COMPUTERS
Assistive Technology Solutions provides evaluation and training for individuals requiring alternative computer access methods due to motor, visual, cognitive or learning disabilities. Common hardware and software computer access applications include:
- Speech Recognition: Allow people to give commands and enter data using their voices rather than a mouse or keyboard.
- On-screen keyboard programs: Provide an image of a standard or modified keyboard on the computer screen. The user selects the keys with a mouse, touch screen, trackball, joystick, switch, or electronic pointing device.
- Touch screens: Devices placed on the computer monitor (or built into it) that allow direct selection or activation of the computer by touching the screen.
- Alternative input devices: These allow individuals to control their computers through means other than a standard keyboard or pointing device. They include items such as alternative keyboards, electronic pointing devices, sip-and-puff devices, mouth and head sticks, joysticks and trackballs.
- Screen Readers: Software programs that present graphics and text as speech. A screen reader is used to speak everything on the screen including names and descriptions of control buttons, menus, text, and punctuation.
- Speech Synthesizers: Receive information going to the screen in the form of letters, numbers, and punctuation marks, and then “speak&rdquers to review their input as they type.
- Refreshable Braille Displays: Provide tactile output of information represented on the computer screen. The user reads the Braille letters with his or her fingers, and then, after a line is read, refreshes the display to read the next line.
- Braille Embossers: Transfer computer generated text into embossed Braille output. Braille translation programs convert text scanned in or generated via standard word processing programs into Braille, which can be printed on the embosser.
- Talking Word Processors: Software programs that use speech synthesizers to provide auditory feedback.
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The outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) and the virus has now spread to many countries and territories, we know that it is transmitted through direct contact with respiratory droplets of an infected person. While COVID-19 continues to spread it is important that communities take precautions to prevent further transmission.
Today, children and young people are global citizens, powerful agents of change and the next generation of caregivers, scientists, and doctors. Any crisis presents the opportunity to help them learn, cultivate compassion and increase resilience while building a safer and more caring community. Having information and facts about COVID-19 will help diminish students’ fears and anxieties around the disease and support their ability to cope with any secondary impacts in their lives.
The protection of children and educational facilities is very important. Precautions are necessary to prevent the potential spread of COVID-19 in school settings; however, care must also be taken to avoid stigmatizing students and staff who may have been exposed to the virus. It is important to remember that COVID-19 does not differentiate between borders, ethnicities, disability status, age or gender.
*We Darjeeling Public Schools are abiding by all the rules and regulations shared by the Government.
What To Do In COVID-19
CHECKLIST FOR PARENTS/CAREGIVERS & COMMUNITY MEMBERS
Monitor your child’s health and keep them home from school if they are ill.
Teach and model good hygiene practices for your children.
Encourage your children to ask questions and express their feelings with you and their teachers. Remember that your child may have different reactions to stress; be patient and understanding.
Prevent stigma by using facts and reminding students to be considerate of each other.
Coordinate with the school to receive information and ask how you can support school safety efforts (through parent-teacher meetings, etc.)
CHECKLIST FOR STUDENTS AND CHILDREN
In a situation like this it is normal to feel sad, worried, confused, scared or angry. Try to remain Sanguine and know that you are not alone and talk to someone you trust, like your parent ,teachers or elders so that you can help keep yourself and your school safe and healthy.
Be a leader in keeping yourself, your school, family and community healthy.
Don’t stigmatize your peers or tease anyone about being sick; remember that the virus doesn’t follow geographical boundaries, ethnicities, age or ability or gender.
Tell your parents, another family member, or a caregiver if you feel sick, and ask to stay home.
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Few scientists have affected the world's knowledge in the expansive and continuing way that Albert Einstein did.
Born in 1879 in Ulm, Wurttemberg, Germany, Einstein died in 1955 in Princeton, N.J., and during his life he made discoveries that changed the way we view the world.
"My Einstein" is a gem of a book that celebrates not only Einstein the scientist but also Einstein the man, even though it is a collection of essays written by scientific figures. Each views Einstein as both a great scientist and as an unusual person who had an important impact on their lives.
In 2005, the world celebrated the major accomplishments of the scientist in the form of several seminal papers, the first on light and photoelectric effect (for which Einstein received a Nobel Prize), the second concerned small particles as connected to the molecular-kinetic theory of heat, and two papers dealt with special relativity, from which his famed theory of relativity emanates.
Einstein spent his middle years in a quest for a unified-field theory, a set of equations that would join the laws of gravity and electromagnetism. He thought they were the two fundamental forces in nature, and such a theory would therefore solve all of nature's puzzles. But that question was not to be satisfied, and today scientists believe the forces of nature are not so easily contained.
For many years, there have been a number of stories told about Einstein's personal life, the kind of things that are bound to happen to an icon. Unfortunately, most of them appear to be mythical. The contributors to this book deal both with the scientific genius of Einstein and his personal life as they knew it. The result is a remarkably well-rounded figure . . . whether or not all of it is true.
The British scientist Roger Highfield looks at all the most commonly believed Einstein traits and deals with them in terms of fact. Allegedly, Einstein began life as a dyslexic and a dullard in school. Not true. But he did grow up into a disheveled genius who hated socks. He had white and wild hair and a lined and a wise face.But what we don't know usually is that, as a young man, Einstein was powerfully built with brown eyes and a mass of curly black hair and a "raffish moustache." He enjoyed the company of women and they enjoyed his company.
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Background Resistance to pyrethroid insecticides is widespread among populations of leads to a valine to glycine substitution (V1016G) that confers resistance to deltamethrin. which is also known to confer pyrethroid resistance. Results The bioassay results revealed an overall mortality of 77.6%. Homozygous 1016G individuals survived at higher rates than either heterozygous or wild-type (1016?V) mosquitoes. The 1016G mutation was significantly and positively associated with deltamethrin resistance and was widely distributed throughout Thailand. Interestingly, wild-type 1016?V mosquitoes tested were homozygous for the 1534C mutation, and all heterozygous mosquitoes were also heterozygous for 1534C. Mutant homozygous (G/G) mosquitoes expressed the wild-type (F/F) at position 1534. However, the presence of the 1534C mutation was not associated with deltamethrin resistance. Conclusions Our bioassay results indicate that all populations sampled display some degree of resistance to deltamethrin. Homozygous 1016G mosquitoes had been significantly likelier to survive such publicity. However, level of resistance in a few populations can’t be explained because of mutations and shows that other level of resistance systems are operating. The current presence of this mutation only will not completely clarify the level of resistance phenotype we discover among Thai populations. is an important disease vector and nuisance throughout its range. In Thailand, as in many other regions, the species is incriminated as the major vector for dengue virus. Dengue fever, as well as its hemorrhagic manifestations, presents major public health problems in Thailand and millions of people are at continuous risk of this disease. Currently no vaccines or specific anti-viral medications are available. In the event of an outbreak, disease control efforts must resort to vector control. Reducing vector populations below thresholds capable of sustaining viral transmission requires the heavy use of space sprays of insecticides, JTT-705 usually pyrethroids. These insecticides are also widely used outside of an outbreak control context, in that they are used for ongoing, seasonal control efforts as well as being used in numerous households for personal protection against mosquitoes. Pyrethroid compounds are thus the primary insecticides used for the control of in Thailand. However, a number of reviews from through the entire nationwide nation present wide-spread and differing level of resistance to a number of insecticides, including DDT, organophosphate substances and pyrethroids [1-4]. Level of resistance in mutations inside the VGSC gene are regarded as involved with pyrethroid level of resistance. A phenylalanine to cysteine substitution at placement 1534 within the 3rd domain from the VGSC (F1534C) is certainly associated with level of resistance to permethrin. It’s been been shown to be widely distributed throughout Thailand previously. Various other research have indicated that this mutation is usually widely distributed, having since been detected within the Caribbean , and JTT-705 in Vietnam . A second mutation, involving a valine to glycine transversion in domain name II (V1016G) is usually associated with resistance to the type II pyrethroid, deltamethrin. At present it appears to be restricted to Southeast Asia, including Thailand [11,12], Indonesia , Vietnam and Taiwan . The 1016G allele frequency was found to be 0.23 in a previous study . A similar mutation at the same position (V1016I) occurs among populations from Latin America . Additionally, from Thailand are known to express various enzymatic resistance mechanisms. Increased expression of mixed function oxidases relative to a susceptible strain has also been seen in various pyrethroid-resistant populations originating from Thailand [16,17]. Such metabolic mechanisms can contribute to resistance along with mutations. A number of PCR-based techniques exist for JTT-705 detecting this and other nucleotide polymorphisms in larval Rabbit polyclonal to PLEKHG6. collections in Thailand. Underlined location names indicate sites from which collected larvae were reared to adulthood and tested with deltamethrin. Larvae from other provinces were … Deltamethrin bioassays One to three day old female mosquitoes were used for deltamethrin susceptibility testing. Test procedures followed standard WHO protocols . At least 100 females obtained from each location were used for testing, if available. This provided four replicates.
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Geography hazard notes
Home > Preview
The flashcards below were created by user
on FreezingBlue Flashcards.
Why floods and windstorms increasing
increased warming of the earth causes warm air to rise , creating convection cells – which form hurricane. Increasing temperature increases evaporation which in turn leads to increasing rainfall – and therefore greater flooding
How Hazard event become a disaster?
When it occurs in areas where environment and people of vulnerable
Why do people remain exposed to hazards?
- 1. Changing risks : it is difficult to predict when or where an event may occur or what the magnitude Will be. !!!! 2. Lack of alternatives : often the world's poorest ,most vulnerable people are forced to live in unsafe locations such as hI'll slides or floodplains, or regions subject to droughts, owing to shortage of land or lack of knowledge were better alternatives. 3. Benefits versus cost people may subconsciously weigh up the benefits versus the cost of living in high-risk areas such as the benefits of fertile land on the flanks of a volcano four example mat outweigh the risk from eruptions
- 4. Risk perception; people tend to be optimistic about the risk of hazards occuring
- R= frequency or magnitude of Hazard *level of vulnerability
- capacity to cope
What would you like to do?
Home > Flashcards > Print Preview
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“Q” can be a difficult letter for little ones to learn. It can be hard to say and hard to learn the sound, but with this fun craft they can learn a little bit about the letter “Q” and quails! As part of our Beautiful Birds Activity Bundle, this letter recognition craft is perfect for 3 years and up. If you are doing this with kiddos who already know their letters, then just have fun creating your queen quail!
(This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. You will not pay any more, but I will receive a small commission that helps finance our wild life. Thanks!)
We like to try to incorporate a book into our craft projects to get a visual aid and learn a little something about what we are creating. For this project we read the story Quincy the Quail Saves a Life. This book was great for learning about quail, even including QR codes for sounds that the birds make!
What You Need:
- Cupcake liner
- Coffee Filter
- Googly Eyes
- Paint brush
- Large paper
- Aluminum foil
- Stickers, glitter, etc for decorating the crown
How to Make the Queen Quail Letter Recognition Craft:
First, Paint the Quail.
The coffee filter is going to be the body of the quail. Paint this brown and then set it aside to dry.
The cupcake liner is the head. Half of the cupcake liner should be black and half should be white. Set this aside to dry as well.
This is a great opportunity to also teach your little one about mixing paint colors to make brown! Mix red and green to get brown!
Next, Put the quail together.
When the paint is all dry, glue the coffee filter body to the page. Then glue the cupcake liner head to the page, overlapping the body slightly.
Encourage your toddler to add a beak, eyes, wings, and legs to their quail as well.
Now it is time to make the crown!
Cut out a crown shape from aluminum foil and then decorate!
We used stickers and glitter to decorate our crowns, but sequins, buttons, and paint would be really fun, too!
Let your little one get creative and decorate their queen’s crown as they see fit!
Add finishing touches to your letter recognition craft!
Add any background or other elements to your quail and it is finished!
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|John Bavosi / Science Photo Library|
Nervous system injuries comprise a diverse group of disorders that include spinal cord injury (SCI) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) as well as stroke and brain cancer. SCI and TBI disproportionately affect the young, primarily because of motor vehicle accidents and violence, and stroke more commonly strikes older people, but brain tumors can develop at any age, with incidence peaking in children between the ages of 3 and 12 and in adults between 55 and 65.
The common thread among these injuries is the debilitation that typically results, which is often severe and chronic. This is because the central nervous system has such limited capacity to repair itself after an injury—whether the trauma results from a blow to the head or spine, a lack of oxygen to the brain as in stroke, or the invasion of healthy brain tissue by malignant cells. As a result, much of the basic neuroscience research relevant to nervous system injuries focuses on regeneration—that is, finding ways to jump-start the innate repair mechanisms of the brain or spinal cord to achieve some level of functional recovery. In recent years, a growing proportion of this research has focused on spinal cord injury, and 2005 was no exception.
Fixing Broken Cords
To better understand the dynamics of nerve degeneration and regeneration following a spinal cord injury, Martin Kerschensteiner and colleagues at Harvard used fluorescent dyes and time-lapse imaging to track the death and regrowth of axons in a living mouse for several days post-injury. They found that axons had partially withered within 30 minutes of the injury, and within 6 to 24 hours, many of them attempted to spontaneously regenerate. This initially robust regrowth failed, however, as the axons seemed to lose their ability to navigate in the right direction.1
The sheer complexity of the challenge in healing a severed or crushed spinal cord has demanded innovative strategies to address the central problems in regeneration: first, overcoming the molecules in myelin (the insulating sheath surrounding nerve fibers) that inhibit regeneration, as well as the scar that forms after an injury and physically impedes the reconnection of axons; second, restoring lost myelin from nerve fibers that remain; and third, inducing nerve fibers to grow across and beyond the injury to reestablish nerve connections. Continuing a trend begun in 2004, spinal cord injury researchers are increasingly relying on combined approaches to address multiple parts of the repair problem.
| Layers of protection|
Myelin, which surrounds nerve fibers called axons, plays a complex role after spinal cord injury. It must be restored to axons that remain, yet it contains molecules that discourage axon regeneration. Illustration by Benjamin Reece
One promising combination, reported in the Journal of Neuroscience by an international team of researchers anchored by Damien Pearse at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, used an enzyme that counteracts inhibitory signals together with two types of nervous system cells to act as structural support and guide nerve fiber regrowth in the right direction.2 This three-pronged strategy achieved significant improvements in several measures of movement ability and motor coordination when tested in adult rats with completely severed spinal cords. Although preliminary, the results provide important direction for researchers developing combined treatment regimens for spinal cord injury in humans, according to the authors.
A second experimental treatment combined stem cells with gene therapy to remyelinate nerve fibers in rats with spinal cord injuries, effectively improving the animals’ ability to walk, according to work reported in the Journal of Neuroscience by Scott Whittemore and colleagues.3 The therapy teamed stem cells called glial-restricted precursor cells, which have “committed” to becoming central nervous system support cells, with gene therapy designed to mimic the effects of two types of nerve growth factors.
The combination promoted the growth of myelin and enhanced nerve signal transmission along the resheathed nerve fibers, which corresponded with improved motor function. The study provided the best demonstration to date that boosting myelin growth can lead to functional improvements, according to a statement from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, which funded the research.
Another study, from the biotech firm Biogen Idec, combined an “old” drug with known anti-inflammatory action, methylprednisolone, with an experimental “Nogo blocker,” a drug that is being investigated for its ability to block inhibitory signals that restrict nerve growth (via a receptor called Nogo-66).4 Tested in rats with spinal cord injury, the combination had a more pronounced effect on recovery of movement and coordination and on axonal growth than either treatment alone, suggesting that each may work through different mechanisms.
Apart from trying to manipulate molecules that restrict or guide axons on their journey to regrow after an injury, deciphering these molecules continues to be a central emphasis of basic spinal cord research. Much of this work has focused on one or more of the three known myelin-based inhibitors, known as Nogo, MAG, and OMG, as scientists work on elucidating the molecular structures that underlie nerve growth inhibition. Several groups have reported separate findings that are gradually revealing the intricacies of how this cellular machinery works.
Separate teams of Nogo researchers have observed contradictory effects of blocking or deleting the Nogo receptor in laboratory animals. A multisite team anchored by Marc Tessier-Lavigne, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute neuroscientist now at Genentech, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that genetically deleting the Nogo receptor from laboratory animals or cultured cells did not free nerves to regrow.5 Although this study contradicted other findings suggesting that Nogo is responsible for inhibition, it underscored that the receptor is probably not the simple on/off mechanism its name suggests.
In fact, Steven Strittmatter’s group at Yale showed just how complex the Nogo receptor is. They reported in a Journal of Neuroscience article that different molecular pathways through the receptor exert different effects.6
Other clues in the Nogo molecular puzzle came from independent teams from Children’s Hospital Boston and from Biogen Idec. Reporting separately in Neuron, the teams discovered that a protein variously called TAJ or TROY is an important part of the Nogo receptor complex.7,8 Hunter College’s Mary Filbin and colleagues published a study, also in Neuron, in which they identified a pathway in the Nogo receptor that may be where the three known myelin-based inhibitors of axonal regeneration interact.9
New work suggests a fourth major player in nerve growth inhibition.
New work suggests a fourth major player in nerve growth inhibition (in addition to Nogo, MAG, and OMG). A University of Texas–Southwestern team led by Luis Parada reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that a molecule known to play a role in guiding axon development in fetuses, ephrin-B3, remains active through life to inhibit nerve fiber outgrowth in myelin and that its inhibitory activity is equivalent to that of the other three families of inhibitors combined.10
Harnessing Stem Cells for the Spine
Slowly but surely, scientists are making progress in learning how best to harness stem cells, in all their variations, for the goal of spinal cord repair. In 2005, a number of researchers inched toward this goal, including two separate groups at the University of California at Irvine.
Hans Keirstead and colleagues restored myelin in rats with spinal cord injuries and improved their capacity to move around by transplanting glial support cells called oligodendrocytes, which they had successfully developed from human embryonic stem cells grown in culture dishes.11 In research reported in the Journal of Neuroscience, the team saw benefits when the cells were transplanted seven days after the injury, but not when the transplant took place 10 months after the surgery, suggesting an early therapeutic window of opportunity.
The second study, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Brian Cummings and colleagues, used adult neural stem cells from humans to regenerate myelin and improve mobility in mice with spinal cord injuries.12 When the cells were transplanted nine days after an injury, they developed into oligodendrocytes that restored the insulating myelin sheath around nerve fibers, and the mice showed improved mobility.
Long-awaited results from the large government-funded Women’s Health Study found that vitamin E does not protect women from stroke (or heart attack or cancer). The data, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, add important new information to the ongoing debate about the health benefits of vitamin E supplementation, finding no support for recommending the antioxidant as preventative therapy for cardiovascular disease or cancer.13
On the diagnostic side, researchers from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, found that strokes affecting the right side of the brain are not recognized as frequently as those that strike the left side of the brain.14 Reporting in the Lancet, the team hypothesized that the more subtle symptoms characteristic of right-hemispheric strokes make them more difficult to identify, thus making an effective response a challenge.
The final report of the Glioma Outcomes Project, which studied patterns of care for adults with newly diagnosed gliomas, or glial cell tumors, found that doctors treating patients with these malignant brain tumors are not following published guidelines in a few key areas, including chemotherapy, which is apparently being underused.15 Of particular concern was the finding that 80 percent of patients with cancerous brain growths received anti-epileptic drugs to prevent seizures, for which people with brain tumors are at increased risk. However, these drugs seem to have little value for patients with no history of seizures, and they carry significant side effects. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, provides benchmark data that will enable clinicians to better plan and assess treatment, the authors wrote.
Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham reported in the Journal of Neuroscience that a drug currently used to treat inflammatory disease can switch off a protective molecular defense mechanism used by gliomas. In preliminary animal studies, the drug, sulfasalazine, which is FDA-approved for inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis, dramatically reduced tumor size when administered by injection into a membrane that lines the walls of the abdomen.16 Meanwhile, a study in rats by Gail Clinton and colleagues at Oregon Health and Science University showed that herstatin, a protein that inhibits enzymes involved in tumor cell proliferation, blocks the growth of glioblastoma, a type of glioma that is particularly aggressive and deadly. The findings, published in Clinical Cancer Research, suggest an avenue of potential therapy for another type of tumor that affects glial cells.17
Steroids and Traumatic Brain Injury
Despite a 30-year history of use in traumatic brain injury, a group of powerful anti-inflammatory drugs called corticosteroids do not help head injuries, according to results published in the Lancet of a trial involving 10,000 adults with head injury.18 The authors reported that using these drugs following an acute injury actually increases the risk of death within two weeks and makes it more likely that the patient will die or be severely disabled within six months of treatment. In a statement released by the journal, lead author Phil Edwards of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine called for an urgent re-evaluation of the practice of treating head injuries with corticosteroids.
Neural Prosthetics for Post-Injury Recovery
Hundreds of thousands of Americans are paralyzed or have severely limited mobility from injuries or diseases of the nervous system. For many of them, so-called neural prosthetics may represent the only hope for regaining a measure of independence. The idea is to capture nerve signals with electrodes implanted in the brain and translate the signals into movements on a prosthetic limb or a computer mouse, thereby enabling the person to use thought power alone to achieve a task such as grasping food or activating a computer-controlled light switch. A handful of specialized laboratories continue to advance the development of such “brain-machine interfaces.”
Researcher Miguel Nicolelis poses with a monkey involved in research in which monkeys treated a robotic arm as their own—revealed by structural changes in their brains— after they learned to control it with their brain signals. Photograph by Les Todd
Miguel Nicolelis and his team at Duke University found that monkeys trained to use their brain signals to control a robotic arm are undergoing structural brain changes that treat the arm as if it were their own appendage. The research, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, has implications for restoring function in paraplegics and others debilitated by neurological disorders.19 Meanwhile, Andrew Schwartz’s team at the University of Pittsburgh reported at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that a monkey outfitted with a robotic prosthesis the size of a child’s arm learned to directly control the arm well enough to feed itself chunks of fruits and vegetables.20
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Countries aiming to emulate China’s staggering transformation from one of the world’s poorest nations to one of its largest economies should focus on education, writes Jackie Cameron.
One of the South African government’s biggest embarrassments is its abject failure to provide a high quality education to prepare young citizens for an economically productive adult life. Now it has strengthened ties with China, South Africa would surely do well to follow many of its big brother’s examples on the educational front.
Many people believe China’s policy of opening up its economy to the world is a major factor in lifting most of its population out of poverty in three decades. But, there’s a case to be made for its education system being just as significant a factor in its turbo-charged growth.
China’s policymakers certainly believe education has been a vital backbone in its economic miracle and say as much in the country’s 10-year education plan. “By means of the development of education, China has transformed from merely being a country with a large population to being a country with powerful human resources,” it notes in the preface.
Although China gives itself a pat on the back for its education system, it is giving it a radical overhaul. This is with a view to bringing it in line with developed world standards as it aims towards being the globe’s best and most influential in science, technology and other sectors of the economy, rather than just being known as the biggest and cheapest. Still, what it has been relying on in recent decades certainly hasn’t been bad, if you consider China’s overall successes.
World Bank data show:
· China has a 94% literacy rate among people over the age of 15, while South Africa’s literacy rate is around 89%;· China’s poverty ratio has plummeted to below 3% of the population, while South Africa’s stands at roughly a quarter of all people living below the poverty line;· Life expectancy at birth in China is 73 years, considerably higher than the 52 years you can expect to live in South Africa;
· South Africans earn more than the average Chinese – South Africa’s gross national income per capita stood at about US$6000 in 2010, compared to China’s of just over US$ 4000; and
· About a quarter of South Africans who are able to work are unemployed, while less than 5% of China’s total labour force is unemployed.
So, what are the Chinese getting right that South Africans, and other nations in a similar unemployment and growth rut, should emulate? Here are some obvious areas where we in Africa have room for improvement:
Education is as important as eating
The Chinese value education enormously. After an entire generation was deprived of a decent formal education in the Mao-led Cultural Revolution years of the 1960s and 1970s, there is a huge appreciation for the opportunity to learn and obtain qualifications.
China has instituted compulsory free education for nine years across the country and continually improved access to education in rural areas with the help of organisations like the World Bank and the UK’s Department for International Development. Tibet is the first to offer 15 years of free schooling, including preschool, it was announced this week.
Vocational training and skills upgrading is a feature of China’s system. Everyone – not just those who are academically able – is encouraged to get an education in order to be productive.
South Africans were also deprived of a quality education during those same Cultural Revolution years because of apartheid. Yet we don’t have the same national enthusiasm for making up for it now.
There’s a logjam in the system. We have new generation of young political leaders and government officials coming up through the ranks who don’t have the inclination, or the wherewithal, to deliver a high quality education any more than their predecessors.
China spends at least 3.5% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on education. South Africa spends a higher chunk of its GDP on education, but this 5% is seen as a rotten investment. Many blame the switch to so-called outcomes-based education.
In China, more important than the money is that education as a strategic priority is emphasised from the highest echelons of political power down to party committees and local governments. There’s a feedback loop and consequences for officials who don’t meet specific targets.
Popularising higher education
China encourages its citizens to dig into their own pockets to pay for the best higher education money can buy. The Chinese save, save, save to put their only children through the best universities in China.
Those who can afford it, and who can bear to be away from their offspring for several years, send them to universities around the world. China is a major source of international university student intakes in the US and elsewhere.
Postgraduate qualifications are vitally important. Some argue that there are now too many Chinese students leaving universities with postgraduate degrees. Nevertheless, the appetite for higher education is a sign that university degrees are highly sought-after and valued.
Chinese leaders, like former president Hu Jintao, regularly emphasise their own educational qualifications. Former premier Wen Jiabao was constantly on the road, visiting education institutions and urging citizens to embrace the highest standards.
Perhaps it is time for some of our own political leaders to go to night school to improve their academic credentials and generally market the benefits of high quality education?
Chinese teachers are tough, strict, and have the power to discipline, with the sweetest young women turning into textbook tyrants. What’s more, their pupils are expected to respect them.
Use a bad word or sound slightly cocky to your Chinese teacher, and you can expect harsh punishment – usually in the form of even more homework or a cancelled school break. No doubt this respect for teachers helps keep pupils chained to their desks day-and-night.
South Africa has enormous problems with its teaching staff. Many aren’t qualified. Some blame this on poor salaries.
Chinese teachers aren’t particularly well paid either. Yet, in the main Chinese teachers take their jobs seriously and are seen as vitally important pillars of society.
Treat ‘em mean
In China, pupils who don’t finish their work in the teaching session can expect to stay behind and continue on the project in your recess. Homework is a serious business; even five-year-olds can expect up to two-hours a day of reading, writing and arithmetic practice at home after a seven- or eight-hour school day.
The work ethic is incredibly strong among the Chinese young and it is paying off. Chinese students caused a stir when they put their counterparts from Europe to shame in a computerised, standardised test of international student skills delivered by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. China is moving up the ranks among countries publishing the most academic articles in science.
I’m not in favour of tortuous rote-learning. At the very least, though, there’s a case to be made for getting into some kind of disciplined work routine in place so that it feels normal to roll up your sleeves and get on with it later on.
- A Quarter of Chinese Startups Are Founded by Overseas Returnees; Is That a Problem? (techinasia.com)
- Fixing China’s image in Africa, one student at a time (guardian.co.uk)
- China: Just as Desperate for Education Reform as the U.S. (business.time.com)
- A Promising Future for Africa? (thejakartaglobe.com)
- Getting US education to China – Shaun Rein (chinaherald.net)
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The Mississippi Coastal Watershed (HUC 03170009) covers approximately 4,059 square miles, stretching from Louisiana to Alabama. The hydrology of the area is heavily influenced by the Mississippi River, which provides a vast amount of freshwater to the Gulf of Mexico. Snowpack is not significant in this region due to its location in the southern United States. Surface water in the watershed includes streams, rivers, and several larger bodies of water such as Lake Pontchartrain. Reservoir constituents include various fish species, such as catfish and bass, as well as shrimp, oysters, and crab. The area experiences a subtropical climate, with hot summers and mild winters. One interesting climatic fact is that the Mississippi Gulf Coast is one of the most hurricane-prone regions in the world, with the most active hurricane seasons occurring from August to October. In recent years, the area has experienced an increase in extreme weather events, such as flooding, which has had significant impacts on the local ecosystem and communities.
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December marks the end of a geographic pilot project, managed by Cybera, that improves researcher access to international environmental data drawn from more than 60,000 sensors and 2,800 web map servers. The Geospatial Cyberinfrastructure for Environmental Sensing (GeoCENS) project was created in 2009 as a 3D platform that enables researchers and citizens to gain access to, and share insights on, the Earth's climatic, hydrologic, and biotic systems and processes. The $1.1 million system was funded through CANARIE's Network-Enabled Platforms (NEP) Program.
The GeoCENS cloud-based web platform collects and shares live and archived geographic data covering a range of topics, from soil erosion and ice thickness, to animal migration. This information is accessible through a virtual globe — similar to Google Earth and can be downloaded, analyzed and compared to other data sets. The open system works with a variety of data types, and enables researchers in the field to remotely upload their findings as they happen, both quickly and easily. The GeoCENS technology also allows for different applications to be built upon it, such as precision agriculture, groundwater monitoring, fleet management, or smart home maintenance.
"GeoCENS is changing the way scientists collect and collaborate on environmental sensing data," says Steve Liang, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geomatics Engineering at the University of Calgary, and Co-Principal Investigator for GeoCENS. He credits Cybera with providing the expertise and management support to help get GeoCENS off the ground. "Cybera has not only coordinated our activities and applications, but has also introduced the GeoCENS project to an international audience. Several organizations have now decided to adopt GeoCENS as their online platform for connecting, managing and sharing sensor data," Liang adds.
"Cybera is proud to have participated in the GeoCENS project, and looks forward to its evolution as an environmental monitoring tool for scientists and engaged citizens," says Robin Winsor, President and CEO of Cybera. "Enabling new discoveries and making Alberta the centre for leading-edge research is a major focus of Cybera's mandate, as we seek to spur and support innovation as an economic driver for the province."
The GeoCENS project recently received additional funding from CANARIE's NEP Maintenance Program, which will be used to continue its development until March 2012. "Advanced research projects such as GeoCENS are helping keep Canada at the forefront of innovation," says Jim Roche, President and CEO of CANARIE. "This web platform is an example of how the CANARIE network is actively contributing to higher rates of productivity in Canada's research fields."
GeoCENS is one of two CANARIE-funded NEP projects managed by Cybera. For more information on Cybera's projects, please click here.
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By Thu Vân
When Việt Nam’s main legislative body, the National Assembly, decided on Tuesday to cancel plans to build two nuclear power plants, many lauded the “courageous” move.
There is no denying that this decision would have been really tough, after so many years of planning, spending money on feasibility studies, looking for foreign collaboration, and so on.
But there is general agreement that scrapping the plants was a wise move, especially in the context of cheaper, safer renewable energy options including power imports. Besides, the massive investments involved could now be diverted to more urgent infrastructure needs.
Amidst all this back-slapping, however, we cannot shy away from the important question: How will Việt Nam meet its growing demand for electricity in the time to come, without nuclear energy?
The question gains greater urgency, given the waning hydropower potential in the country and the problems that the projects have posed over the past several years.
According to national utility, Electricity of Việt Nam (EVN), annual energy consumption in the country has reached 162 billion kWh and is set to grow by 10 per cent each year.
With hydropower no longer a priority and nuclear power out of the picture, the remaining choices have been laid out on the table: thermal power and renewable energy, like wind and solar power.
According to the National Power Development Masterplan for 2011-20 (with vision until 2030), thermal power will be the main focus of the power sector. By 2020, the country will have 31 thermal power plants producing 49.3 per cent of electricity output, using up 63 millions tonnes of coal.
By 2030, the numbers will grow to 52 plants producing 53.2 per cent of the country’s electricity output, using up 129 million tonnes of coal.
Experts say the focus on coal can prove problematic.
Studies show that thermal power plants are cheap but discharge a large amount of solid waste and gas harmful to the environment. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has reported that the current 20 thermal power plants discharge about 16 million tonnes of ash and cinder a year.
The heavy health costs of coal were also underscored by the release of a study by Harvard University and Greenpeace, indicating that pollution from coal plants in Việt Nam led to 4,300 premature deaths in 2011.
The world has been gradually giving up on thermal power because of its serious consequences. Why is Việt Nam going against the grain here?
Just this May, the World Bank’s Jim Yong Kim said at a conference in Washington D.C that if Việt Nam goes forward with the 40GW of coal, and if the entire region of south and south-east Asia implements the coal-based plans, it would be a “disaster” for the planet.
The Government is not unaware of this. Former Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng has spoken of the need to closely and stringently monitor environmental issues, especially related to coal-fired power plants. He has also said that it is necessary to review development plans of all coal-fired power plants and halt any new thermal power project. He said it is time to begin replacing coal with natural gas, and to accelerate investment in renewable energy.
Renewable energy. That’s the buzzword, the watchword, if you will.
Countries the world over are looking to renewable energy. It is an inevitable trend, which will accelerate further.
Previously, cost was cited as a main barrier to switching from fossil-based fuels like oil, coal and gas to renewable sources like solar, wind and geothermal energy. Things have changed now. Plummeting costs for renewable energy technologies are making a global energy transition more possible than ever.
In Australia, a country with the world’s fourth largest coal reserves, producing onshore wind energy proved to be 14 per cent cheaper than new coal and 18 per cent cheaper than new gas in 2013.
Việt Nam can tap into abundant solar energy, with an average 2000-2500 hours of sunshine yearly. Solar energy can provide 3 to 4.5 kWh/m2/day in winter and 4.5 to 6.5 kWh/m2/day in summer, experts estimate.
And according to the Energy evaluation in Asia programme carried out by the World Bank, Việt Nam has great potential in wind energy as well, at an estimated 513.360 MW. The South Central region, Mekong Delta, Central Highlands and islands have the greatest wind energy potential.
And while Yong Kim of World Bank tried to convince the Vietnamese Government that it should not build a network of polluting coal plants across the country, he also said that the bank would devote 28 per cent of its funding to helping developing countries invest in renewable energy.
So it is a matter of how we can utilise all these advantages. Although the potential of renewable energy is high, its exploitation and use has been very limited. The reasons are varied. There are institutional and policy barriers, technological and infrastructural shortcomings, a shortage of human resources and so on.
Several dozen investors have shown interest in developing wind energy here, but only three or four projects have gotten underway.
At the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference in Marrakech, Morocco, Việt Nam, as a member of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, agreed along with 47 other countries to make its energy production 100 per cent renewable "as rapidly as possible" by between 2030 and 2050 at the latest.
International agencies have committed to supporting and helping developing countries like Việt Nam to turn to renewable energy. The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the KfW Development Bank, Japan Bank for International Co-operation, and many private funds, have promised increased investment in renewable energy projects in Việt Nam.
So the alternative is obvious. The Government has to promote renewable energy, with policies and many other incentives. But tougher than all the power choices; tougher than all the questions about energy production is the one about consumption.
Do we have a choice other than to limit consumption? No. How we make our energy consumption choices, what we prioritise, what we give up – these are the factors that will decide our future, our fate, not just of Việt Nam, but that of the planet. — VNS
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Passion fruit flowers are a sight to behold, with their delicate petals and vibrant colors. These flowers, which belong to the Passiflora genus, are not only a feast for the eyes but also offer a range of nutritional benefits. In this article, we will explore the enchanting world of passion fruit flowers, from their captivating beauty to their remarkable health benefits. Join me as we take a closer look at these exquisite blooms and uncover the wonders they hold.
The Beauty of Passion Fruit Flowers
Passion fruit flowers are truly a work of art in nature. Their blooms come in a variety of colors, including shades of purple, pink, and white. The petals are intricately designed, with a unique structure that sets them apart from other flowers. The vibrant hues and intricate patterns of passion fruit flowers make them a popular choice for floral arrangements and garden displays.
Anatomy of a Passion Fruit Flower
To truly appreciate the beauty of passion fruit flowers, it is important to understand their anatomy. Each flower consists of several distinct parts. The sepals, which are the outermost part of the flower, protect the delicate petals within. The petals themselves are the colorful and eye-catching part of the flower. Inside the petals, you will find the stamens and pistil. The stamens are the male reproductive organs, while the pistil is the female reproductive organ. Together, these parts work in harmony to ensure pollination and fertilization.
The Life Cycle of a Passion Fruit Flower
Passion fruit flowers have a fascinating life cycle that begins with the emergence of a bud. As the bud grows, it eventually opens up to reveal the stunning flower within. The flower is at its most vibrant and fragrant during this stage, attracting pollinators such as bees and butterflies. Once pollination occurs, the flower begins to wither and fade away, making room for the development of the fruit. The fruit grows from the fertilized ovary of the flower, eventually ripening into the delicious passion fruit we know and love.
Pollination and Fertilization of Passion Fruit Flowers
Pollination is a crucial step in the life cycle of passion fruit flowers. It is the process by which pollen is transferred from the stamens to the pistil, allowing fertilization to occur. In the case of passion fruit flowers, they rely on pollinators such as bees and butterflies to carry out this important task. These insects are attracted to the flower’s vibrant colors and sweet fragrance, making them ideal partners in the pollination process. Once the pollen reaches the pistil, fertilization takes place, leading to the formation of seeds within the fruit.
Nutritional Benefits of Passion Fruit Flowers
Passion fruit flowers offer more than just beauty; they are also packed with nutritional benefits. These flowers are a rich source of antioxidants, which help protect the body against free radicals and oxidative stress. They are also a good source of vitamins A and C, which support immune health and promote collagen production. Additionally, passion fruit flowers contain flavonoids, which have been shown to have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. Including passion fruit flowers in your diet can be a delicious way to boost your overall health and well-being.
Culinary Uses of Passion Fruit Flowers
While passion fruit flowers are often admired for their beauty, they can also be used in culinary creations. The flowers have a subtle, floral flavor that pairs well with both sweet and savory dishes. They can be used as a garnish for desserts, added to salads for a pop of color, or even infused into syrups and beverages. Passion fruit flowers can elevate any dish with their unique taste and visual appeal, making them a versatile ingredient in the kitchen.
Growing and Caring for Passion Fruit Flowers
If you’re captivated by the allure of passion fruit flowers and want to grow your own, you’re in luck. These flowers can be grown in a variety of climates, making them accessible to many gardeners. They thrive in well-drained soil and prefer a sunny location. Passion fruit flowers are typically grown from seeds or cuttings. To ensure their health and vitality, it is important to provide them with proper care and maintenance. Regular watering, fertilizing, and pruning will help your passion fruit flowers thrive and produce beautiful blooms year after year.
Popular Passion Fruit Flower Varieties
There are several popular varieties of passion fruit flowers, each with its own unique characteristics. The purple passion fruit (Passiflora edulis) is perhaps the most well-known variety, with its vibrant purple flowers and delicious fruit. The yellow passion fruit (Passiflora edulis f. flavicarpa) is another popular choice, known for its bright yellow flowers and tangy fruit. Other varieties, such as the giant granadilla (Passiflora quadrangularis) and the banana passion fruit (Passiflora mollissima), offer their own distinct beauty and flavors. Whichever variety you choose, passion fruit flowers are sure to bring joy and wonder to your garden.
Conclusion: Appreciating the Wonders of Passion Fruit Flowers
Passion fruit flowers are a true marvel of nature, with their exquisite blooms and remarkable nutritional benefits. From their captivating beauty to their culinary uses, these flowers offer a diverse range of pleasures. Whether you’re admiring their vibrant colors in a garden or enjoying their delicate flavor in a dish, passion fruit flowers have something to offer everyone. So next time you come across these enchanting blooms, take a moment to appreciate the wonders they hold.
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The high-rise threat to birdlife
Contemporary architects just love glass and, to be fair, it is quite easy to see why. Glass makes the interior of buildings brighter and feel less claustrophobic, it also adds a twinkle to the cityscape. There is just one small problem with glass, though, and that problem is birds. Glass kills millions of birds every year, and as more buildings go up, so do bird mortality rates.
Of course, the higher the building, the greater the risk, especially for migratory birds that tend to fly higher than is usual. The problem is more pronounced at night time when the light from a building can be potentially more confusing for birds.
As an example, office workers arrived at their building (a skyscraper) to find 400 dead birds on the ground. The night before in Galveston, Texas, a large group of migratory birds had seemingly altered their flight path and 'ran' headlong into the high-rise.
Richard Gibbons, conservation director at the Houston Audubon, commented that "A storm was battering the city, which probably forced the birds to fly low. In the dark, they may have mistaken the skyscraper‘s lights for the sun or moon".
A problem a time of the day or night
Confusing lights aside, glass fronted buildings are a danger to our feathered friends but why do they hit them so frequently? It has been theorised that perhaps the birds simply do not see the glass, and there may be truth in that. A more popular theory is that a combination of reflections in the glass and items in the rooms beyond confuse the birds.
The theory goes that the bird sees a plant in the room and assumes that there is a way through the building. Reflections of the sky may be having the same effect on the birds. Whatever the exact reasons for the birds striking windows, there are things that can be done to help them and which have been shown to reduce the number of incidents.
Make flying safe again
We may not be able to stop window strikes completely, but there are things that we can do in order to dramatically lower the number of times of accidental collisions. Window stickers have been shown to be very effective in reducing window strikes, as birds see these as obstructions and so avoid the windows completely. This method is very effective on homes but is not practical for larger buildings such as skyscrapers.
Working on the idea that birds are able to see Ultra Violet light, German company Arnold Glass have developed a product with UV lines criss-crossing panes of glass. In subsequent tests, bird strike incidents were reduced by an incredible 75%.
These panes of glass look totally normal to the naked, human, eye but a bird sees an obstacle to be avoided. In fact, as Arnold Glass noted, Orb-web spiders produce a UV reflecting silk for the specific purpose of preventing birds flying into their webs.
Any architects making use of this or similar products in their skyscraper designs will find themselves with a lot of new feathered friends. Once more, high-rise office workers will be able to go about their business without jumping out of their skin every time a bird slams into their window.
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Understanding the Old and New Testaments
The Bible is one of the most influential and widely read books in the world. It is divided into two main sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament consists of religious texts that were written before the birth of Jesus Christ, while the New Testament contains writings that were written after his birth. Both sections contain valuable lessons and teachings that can greatly impact our lives.
Discovering Wisdom and Guidance
By reading from the Old and New Testaments on a daily basis, we have the opportunity to tap into a wellspring of wisdom and guidance. The Bible offers insights into how to live a virtuous and fulfilling life, providing answers to some of life’s most challenging questions. It teaches us about love, forgiveness, compassion, and the importance of treating others with kindness and respect. Investigate the topic further using this suggested external material. https://biblestudytogether.com/where-to-start-reading-the-bible, reveal fresh viewpoints!
Through the stories and teachings found within the Bible, we can gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us. It offers timeless wisdom that can help us navigate through the challenges and complexities of modern life. Whether we are facing struggles in our relationships, career, or personal well-being, the Bible offers practical advice that can bring clarity and peace to our lives.
Strengthening Faith and Spiritual Growth
For those who practice the Christian faith, daily reading from the Old and New Testaments can be a powerful tool for strengthening their relationship with God and nurturing spiritual growth. The Bible contains accounts of God’s faithfulness and love towards humanity, reminding us of his presence in our lives and offering comfort in times of distress.
Regularly engaging with the scriptures can deepen our understanding and connection to our faith traditions. It helps us to develop a deeper sense of purpose and meaning in life, as we align our thoughts and actions with the teachings of the Bible. Reading the Old and New Testaments can provide inspiration and motivation to live a life that is aligned with our spiritual values, encouraging us to be more loving, compassionate, and forgiving individuals.
Building a Foundation of Moral Values
Through its stories, parables, and commandments, the Bible provides a moral compass for believers. By reading from the Old and New Testaments daily, we are reminded of the importance of moral values such as honesty, integrity, and justice. It helps to shape our character and guides us in making decisions that align with our values.
In a world that is often characterized by moral relativism, the Bible offers unwavering principles that can serve as an anchor in turbulent times. It teaches us about the consequences of our actions and encourages us to live a life that is pleasing to God. By reading the scriptures daily, we are reminded of our responsibility to uphold ethical standards and contribute positively to our communities.
Creating a Time of Reflection and Prayer
Reading from the Old and New Testaments daily also provides us with an opportunity for reflection and prayer. It allows us to carve out a dedicated time each day to disconnect from the distractions of the world and engage in a conversation with God. This time of solitude and contemplation can be deeply rejuvenating and spiritually nourishing.
By reading and meditating on the scriptures, we open ourselves up to divine guidance and inspiration. It offers a chance to seek solace, find answers to our prayers, and deepen our connection to the divine. Daily reading from the Old and New Testaments becomes a spiritual discipline that helps us cultivate a closer relationship with God and experience a profound sense of peace and fulfillment.
Daily reading from the Old and New Testaments is an invaluable practice that can bring immense benefits to our lives. By engaging with the scriptures, we gain wisdom, guidance, and inspiration that can profoundly impact our relationships, character, and spiritual well-being. It offers us a moral compass and helps us navigate through life’s challenges with grace and resilience. Through daily reading, we create a sacred space for reflection and prayer, deepening our connection to God and experiencing a sense of peace and purpose. Let us make it a priority to spend time with the Old and New Testaments every day, for in doing so, we open ourselves up to transformative possibilities and a life filled with meaning and fulfillment. Learn more about the subject with this external resource we suggest. where to start reading the Bible https://biblestudytogether.com/where-to-start-reading-the-bible, additional information and new perspectives on the topic we’ve covered in this article.
Enhance your understanding of this topic by visiting the related posts. Happy reading:
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Magmatic and Metamorphic Processes
Module code: GL2103
Module co-coordinator: Dr Marc Reichow
What conditions are required to form magma and why do we find some magmas erupting onto the Earth's surface while others remain in the crust? In this module, you will study the processes by which mantle and crustal rocks melt to form magmas, as well as the chemical and physical processes involved in the cooling of magmas, which result in the wide range of igneous rocks exposed at the Earth's surface. We will investigate the process of burial and heating rocks, which leads to the development of metamorphic rocks, and construct pressure, temperature, and time paths for these rocks.
We will use a variety of resources, data sets, and equipment, including a petrological microscope, to investigate macroscopic and microscopic evidence. You will examine samples of igneous and metamorphic minerals in hand-specimen and thin-section and interpret their textural relationship.
- 16 hours of lectures
- 32 hours of practical classes
- 102 hours of guided independent study
- Exam, 2 hours (70%)
- Coursework (30%)
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Large, ancient landslides delivered preferred upstream habitats for coho salmon
A study of the Umpqua River basin in the Oregon Coast Range helps explain natural processes behind the width of valleys and provides potentially useful details for river restoration efforts designed to improve habitats for coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch). Coho salmon thrive in broad, flat valleys that contain multiple auxiliary channels to the main river. These valleys formed after large landslides altered the landscape, said study co-author Joshua J. Roering, professor of geological sciences at the University of Oregon. The network of secondary channels, while often devoid of water in the dry season, fill and provide a calm, safe haven away from swiftly running currents for the fish during periods of heavy rain and storms. They now have been identified as a critical component of salmon habitat.
While geologists and hydrologists long ago documented how river-channel width and depth varies, little had been done to understand how valleys beyond the channels form, and why they may be narrow or wide, Roering said. The study -- online ahead of print in the journal Geology -- combined on-the-ground observations and a remote-sensing technology known as airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR).
"There are two things that this research tells us," Roering said. "Valleys are things we can see from airplanes or from maps, and they behave, if you let them, in a very simple way. They get wider as the river gets bigger. We've all seen that. What we've learned here is that if you introduce variable geology and geomorphology -- big landslides, messiness that happens in the world -- the valleys tend to narrow and widen, and fish appear to love that. They seem to respond to the heterogeneity that is so inherent in most real landscapes. Nature is messy, and the fish have adapted to that."
Roering used LiDAR in previous research, including a project in which he and colleagues discovered a dry lakebed that formed some 22,500 years ago by a landslide and later drained in northern California's Eel River basin. That paper -- published Nov. 22, 2011, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences -- also connected landslides to a divergence of genetics in two present-day steelhead trout populations occupying the river.
Christine May, lead author of the new paper, said that Roering's work on landslides and her own previous observations led to the newly published research. May, a biologist at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., at the time of the project was a visiting UO professor under the Meierjurgen Visiting Fellowship. While a graduate student at Oregon State University, she had seen broad valleys and productive fish habitats upstream of ancient landslides while doing fieldwork after 1996 floods.
"This observation had lingered in my mind over the years, and when Josh's study on predicting the occurrence of these large landslides on a landscape scale was published I became very excited to pursue this area of research with him," she said. "Correspondingly, my colleague Kelly Burnett with the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corvallis published a predictive model that mapped the location of potentially productive fish habitat in the same area as Josh mapped the large landslides."
Combing the two predictive models, May said: "It became apparent that there was a strong linkage between the occurrence of large landslides and the location of highly productive salmon habitat."
For the study, May, Roering, Burnett and L. Scott Eaton, also of James Madison University, went into the field, studying the architecture of river valleys. They used LiDAR provided by the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, focusing on Harvey and Elk creeks -- part of the Umpqua River basin where Roering previously documented ancient landslides. Researchers measured the widths of the valley using the high-resolution topographic data and showed how widths varied based on watershed-mathematical formulas used to plot and map the terrain.
To understand the activities of the salmon, researchers applied topographically derived stream-layering techniques and a formula created by Burnett in 2007 for estimating the "intrinsic potential" of each stream to provide rearing habitats for Coho salmon.
They found that valleys downstream of landslides are narrower than would be expected, which suggested that valley constriction had subverted valley widening. Deep-seated landslides, the authors noted, caused wide valley segments to occur higher in the channel network than would otherwise be expected. Off-channel streams perched in mountain drainages, they said, increase habitat diversity and lead to a greater abundance of salmonid productivity.
"This study establishes how a valley sets its width," Roering said. "More importantly, the anomalies that make valleys look different are primarily controlled by big landslides in the Oregon Coast Range. Big events occurring thousands of years ago have had a long-running, persistent impact on the valley floor. So even if landslides sound scary or deadly, they've been active out there for long periods of time, and they make great habitat for salmon over the long term."
The findings provide fundamental insights on the geological and ecological controls on salmon habitat, May said. "I do believe the results will have broad applications for endangered species conservation and management," she added.
"Dr. Roering's explanation of how destructive natural forces can create fertile habitat answers some long-lingering questions about the geomorphology of our region," said Kimberly Andrews Espy, UO vice president for research and innovation, and dean of the graduate school. "This research helps us appreciate the richness and diversity of our state by furthering our understanding of Oregon's distinctive landscape and the plants and animals that live here."
The Umpqua River was chosen because of its "amazing uniformity," Roering said. "If mountains are being uplifted through tectonic forces -- the rocks are going upward and erosion is wearing them down -- we tend to see these two forces balancing each other. This mountain range has achieved a rough, steady state. It looks the same through time, even with a dynamic interface."
The National Science Foundation funded a portion of the research through a Division of Earth Sciences grant (0952186) to Roering.
Source: University of Oregon
- Large, ancient landslides delivered preferred upstream habitats for coho salmonfrom Science DailyMon, 11 Feb 2013, 22:30:29 EST
- Large, ancient landslides delivered preferred upstream habitats for coho salmonfrom PhysorgMon, 11 Feb 2013, 13:00:22 EST
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What are cookies?
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European food panel fails to protect EU citizen’s health from plastic component, BPA
In June 2010, during the EFSA review process, HEAL and other environment and health groups backed a letter sent to the European food authority by 21 leading scientists (2). It states that: "We believe any objective and comprehensive review of the scientific literature will lead to the conclusion that action is necessary to reduce the levels of BPA exposure, particularly in groups at highest risk, namely young infants and pregnant mothers."
Lisette van Vliet – Toxics Policy Advisor, Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) says “We are shocked by today's conclusion. With growing evidence that BPA may play a role in major chronic diseases, such as breast cancer and diabetes, reducing levels of human exposure is a necessary and important step. The exposure of the developing foetus in the womb warrants particular attention because BPA can cross the placenta."
Elizabeth Salter Green – Director of CHEM Trust noted “With so many studies showing current levels of exposure to BPA may be harming our children, the time for action is long overdue”
Some leading environmental and health groups have been calling for bans on BPA for several years. More recently, cancer groups in the UK and France, such as Breast Cancer UK (3) and the French League Against Cancer, have launched campaigns.
Clare Dimmer - Chair of Breast Cancer UK stated “we are deeply disappointed at this outcome which assists only those who sell the product and, as breast cancer is already the foremost cancer in Europe, this blatant lack of concern for public health will not help to reduce the incidence of this life-threatening disease.”
Bisphenol A is a hormone disruptor that can disrupt estrogen and other hormones. It is used for many consumer products, including polycarbonate babies’ feeding bottles, and widely found in people’s bodies and the environment.
In the long-awaited EFSA opinion published today, an expert panel stated that they see no need to reduce the tolerable daily intake (TDI). (4) EFSA acknowledges that they cannot rule out BPA related effects of possible relevance such as changes in the brain as these findings cannot be assessed for human health due to shortcomings in the studies. NGOs therefore believe that the precautionary principle should be invoked - given the potential serious and irreversible effects.
Some EU member states, such as Denmark and France, have taken action to reduce people’s exposure to BPA. Austria and Sweden have announced they will also take national measures if the EU does not quickly forbid BPA in baby bottles. (5) In June, the German authorities advised manufacturers, importers and users of bisphenol A (BPA) to use alternative substances that pose less risk to human health and the environment in all areas of use that significantly contribute to exposure. (6)
HEAL and other NGOs are calling for stronger regulatory protection of public health at the EU level, but in the absence of this, support national bans. They are also urging regulation of endocrine disrupting chemicals, such as BPA. (7) They continue to recommend that industry makes products "BPA-free".
“Industry must do better than use a hormone disruptor dating from the 1930’s which was scrapped due to its inefficiency as a drug and which has now ended up in numerous consumer items instead. BPA-free alternatives are already available on the market. Companies inside and outside the EU are well advised to use them,” commented Ninja Reineke from WWF European Policy Office.
Ninja Reineke – Senior policy officer, Chemicals, WWF European Policy Office:
+32 (0)2 740 0926, mobile: 32(0) 497 506805, firstname.lastname@example.org
Lisette van Vliet– Toxics Policy Advisor, Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL):
+32 (0)2 234 3643, mobile: 32 (0)484 614 528, email@example.com
Elizabeth Salter Green – Director, CHEM Trust:
+ 44 (0)1823 619002, mobile: +44 (0) 7976 273157, firstname.lastname@example.org
+ 44 (0)23 92261208 Clare.email@example.com
Notes to the editor:
1. EFSA updates advice on bisphenol A. 30 September 2010
In October 2009, EFSA was asked by the European Commission to assess the relevance of a new study on possible neuro-developmental effects of BPA and, if necessary, to update the "Tolerable Daily Intake" set in 2007. In March 2010, the Commission asked EFSA to take into account in its risk assessment any other new scientific evidence that may be available and to liaise closely with EU Member States risk assessment bodies on this issue. EFSA website on BPA: http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/ceftopics/topic/bisphenol.htm
2. In June 2010, a joint letter to EFSA from scientists and organisations across the globe expressed concerns and concluded that. based on the available scientific studies, reducing levels of human exposure to BPA was necessary.
3. Breast Cancer UK campaign video and report "No more BPA"
4. The Tolerable Daily Intake is a specific amount in food or drinking water that, according to the current processes of Risk Assessment, can be ingested orally over a lifetime without an ‘appreciable’ health risk.
5. Regulatory Actions on BPA
- Denmark has introduced a national ban on BPA in materials in contact with food for children aged 0-3 years (infant feeding bottles, feeding cups, packaging for baby food).
- France has introduced a law that forbids BPA in baby bottles, before which a number of French cities had banned BPA-laden baby bottles in city nurseries and day care centres.
- Sweden and Austria have announced it will also take national measures if the EU does not quickly forbid BPA in baby bottles.
- Canada has announced it will add BPA to its list of toxic substances, and banned polycarbonate baby bottles that contain bisphenol A on 11th March 2010.
- USA EPA has announced it will consider identifying BPA on the ‘Concern List’ as a substance that may present an unreasonable risk . Numerous cities and states have moved or are considering to ban sales of BPA in baby bottles and ‘sippy cups’ (Chicago, San Francisco, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Minnesota, Maryland). California has announced that it will add BPA to the state’s list of chemicals known to cause cancer or birth defects.
6. The German Federal Environmental Agency report and press statement on BPA
7. REACH is the EU chemicals law and stands for Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals. A restriction under REACH can ban on one or more commercial uses or product applications for the EU market, and includes both imports and products domestic to the EU. BPA has been on the NGOs REACH priority list (SIN list, Substitute It Now) since its first launch in 2008. See www.sinlist.org. More information on bisphenol A can be found on the SIN Database.
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Smoking harms nearly every organ in the body. Tobacco smoking, especially cigarettes, is linked to lung cancer, which is the most common cause of cancer death in most countries. Eighty-seven percent of lung cancer cases are caused by cigarette smoking. More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined. For each pack of cigarettes smoked per day, life expectancy is decreased by seven years. A two-pack-a-day smoker will likely die at 60, compared to 74 for a nonsmoker in the United States. There is an increased incidence of other lung diseases, heart and blood vessel diseases, stroke, and cataracts in smokers. Women who smoke face increased problems with infertility, preterm delivery, stillbirths, babies born with low birth weight, or having a baby die from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
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By Shelley Hill Young
There’s been increased interest recently in Gullah culture – its dishes sprinkled with seafood and its music with catchy rhythms. But there was nothing glamorous about growing up Gullah in the Lowcountry. That stark reality bares down on you hard like the hot sun after listening to 80-year-old Sarah Burnell, who shares her experiences Growing Up Gullah on Edisto Island on a boat tour hosted by Botany Bay Ecotours.
Burnell, who was born in 1938, speaks matter-of-factly about her hard childhood growing up on Edisto before the small coastal town was lined with white and brightly colored beach houses on stilts and the waters were filled with kayakers.
“There was nothing here,” she says, looking back at the houses on the shore.
There was no bridge to Edisto until the 1920s. That isolation allowed the West African traditions of descendants of slaves to endure, as it has on the sea islands along the Eastern coast from Jacksonville, North Carolina, to Jacksonville, Florida. The isolation also kept modern amenities, such as electricity, from reaching the island.
One of the first parcels of land developed was Edisto Beach State Park, but Sarah was not allowed to go. When state parks were ordered to desegregate in 1963, the park shut down for a time instead of opening up for African Americans.
Sarah recalls walking dirt roads to schools. There was no bus to take the African-American children to school. If the children didn’t arrive by 8 a.m., the doors were shut and they were sent home. She wore the same clothes to school five days a week. But her Mamma and Papa made sure that they were washed and ironed so Sarah could wear them again to church on Sunday.
She mentions one of her grandsons, who has a relatively short drive to school. “I cry sometimes just to see how far I’ve come,” she says.
Sarah attended school until she was about 15 and then began working on the farms that blanketed the rich coastal land. She tells of cutting cabbage and ripping Spanish moss from the trees. Sarah and other laborers put the moss in boiling water, which killed the red bugs and made the moss have a softer, more elastic texture once it dried. The moss was then sold to furniture makers in North Carolina, who used it to stuff chairs and sofas. (According to Gullah tradition, Spanish moss also has a medicinal use: Put it in your shoes to help reduce your blood pressure.) Sarah was paid $3 a day.
Sarah tells of cleaning the house for her Mamma to help prepare for “the company” who would come over after church on Sunday. She and her sisters used a dry grass called broom straw to clean the floor because they didn’t have brooms. Her doll was also dried grass twisted and pulled to form hair and a loose form of a body.
Sarah and her family ate oysters and mullet fish, two Lowcountry staples she says she refuses to eat now.
Sarah has eight children, though two have passed away. When asked how many grandchildren she has, she says, “Oh, Lord, I have a lot.”
Meg Hoyle, the owner of Botany Bay EcoTours, met Sarah when Sarah’s grandson worked for her as an intern at the state Department of Natural Resources. Meg says she had to beg Sarah to join her on the tours and share her life experiences. Sarah eventually agreed and has been a part of Botany Bay Ecotours for about five years.
“Sometimes people ask Sarah to speak Gullah,” Meg says at the beginning of the tour. “But she is Gullah.”
“Her family’s reliance on the natural resources for survival reveal the inextricable link of natural and cultural history on the sea islands,” Meg says when inviting me to take the tour.
Sarah clearly enjoys the opportunity to tell her story. When the women on the boat are distracted by the dolphins jumping near the boat, Sarah gets our attention: “I’ve got more to tell y’all.”
And we, we have more to learn.
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Social drinkers drink alcohol responsibly, for the most part — meaning they don’t drink to get drunk and binge. Their drinking habits as a whole are socially acceptable. But yes, even this kind of drinking can cause problems. Alcohol consumption at any level, even social, can cause strokes, heart disease and liver disease, the risk of certain cancers, not to mention impairment while driving to or from a party or social setting.
Professor Nigel Heaton of King’s College Hospital, London says, “Some people think it’s natural to have a bottle of wine a night. It seems respectable because you’re drinking with food and it’s not associated with any drunken behavior or even feeling drunk. But if it happens regularly, you may have problems later on.” (1)
A social drinker’s biggest risk is shifting to heavier drinking. With that relaxed, uninhibited feeling while out with friends, their bodies may get used to regular social drinking. One day they may not get that same, ideal buzz with one or two drinks anymore, and after a while, they’ll require more and more alcohol to achieve the desired results.
According to a poll created by YouGov, more than 55% of those questioned were under the assumption that alcohol only damages your health if you regularly get drunk or binge drink. The 2010 survey of 2,000 adults also found that 83% believed that regularly drinking more than the recommended daily limits doesn’t put long-term health at risk. (1) Of course, once someone has progressed to heavy drinking, the health risks quickly rack up.
Learn the limits
Guidelines have been established for those of you who want to keep a close eye on your drinking habits. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, moderate drinking is no more than one drink a day for most women, and no more than two drinks a day for most men. A standard drink is generally considered to be 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits. (2)
However, keep in mind that there are health risks to alcohol consumption at any level. Be aware, and stay healthy!
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Book Description: W. E. B. Du Bois was a public intellectual, sociologist, and activist on behalf of the African American community. He profoundly shaped black political culture in the United States through his founding role in the NAACP, as well as internationally through the Pan-African movement. Du Bois's sociological and historical research on African-American communities and culture broke ground in many areas, including the history of the post-Civil War Reconstruction period. Du Bois was also a prolific author of novels, autobiographical accounts, innumerable editorials and journalistic pieces, and several works of history. Written in very accessible prose, these two booklets, originally published in 1930, allowed W. E. B. Du Bois to reach a wide audience with an interest in Africa. What is so incredible about the two Africa booklets is their lasting relevance and value to the study of Africa today. Coupling Du Bois's breadth of scholarship with his passion for the subjects, the analyses in these booklets are integral to the study of Africa. Many of his arguments foreshadowed the issues and debates regarding Africa in the twentieth century. Expertly synthesized in an introduction by Emmanuel Akyeampong, this edition of the two Africa booklets is essential for anyone interested in African history.
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| 0.968767 | 261 | 3.859375 | 4 |
Pigs wallow primarily to regulate their body temperature and protect themselves from external parasites and sunburns. Here's why and how they do it.
Cows! They are intelligent animals who thrive in large pastures with their herd. Their intelligence is linked to their problem solving abilities and social behaviour. Here are six key areas that demonstrate their intellect:
1. Social Bonds: Cows are social animals and form close-knit groups within herds. They often establish hierarchies and can recognize and remember the social status of other cows. This ability to navigate complex social dynamics demonstrates a level of social intelligence.
2. Learning and Adaptation: Cows are quick learners when it comes to finding food and water sources. They can learn to associate specific cues with rewards, such as recognizing feeding times or the sound of a feed bucket. This adaptability allows them to thrive in different environments.
3. Communication: While cows don't have a wide range of vocalizations, they do communicate through various sounds, such as mooing, to convey different messages. They may moo to signal distress, hunger, or to locate other members of the herd. Additionally, their body language, such as ear and tail positions, can communicate their emotional state.
4. Memory: Cows have good spatial memory, which aids in their ability to find their way around their environment. They remember the locations of water sources, grazing areas, and shelter. They can also recall past experiences, which can help them avoid dangerous situations.
5. Problem Solving: Cows can exhibit problem-solving skills, especially in situations that require them to access food or overcome obstacles. For example, they may learn to open gates or find alternative routes to reach a desired food source.
6. Emotional Intelligence: There is evidence to suggest that cows experience emotions such as fear, excitement, and contentment. They can form attachments to other cows and will display signs of distress when separated from companions.
All these attributes demonstrate their ability to adapt, communicate, and interact with their environment and fellow herd members in a way that is essential for their survival and well-being.
Chickens manipulate objects and their environment using their beaks and feet. They can scratch the ground, peck at objects, and pick up items to explore and interact with them. Here are five ways they manipulate their environment:
1. Pecking: Chickens have specialized beaks that are adapted for pecking at the ground to find food. They use a combination of visual cues and tactile feedback to locate insects, seeds, and other small items. Their beaks have nerve endings that help them sense the texture and hardness of objects.
2. Scratching Chickens use their feet to scratch at the ground, which serves multiple purposes. This behaviour not only helps them uncover hidden insects and seeds but also turns over soil, exposing moist and cooler layers underneath. This is important for dust bathing and regulating body temperature.
3. Picking Up Objects: Chickens can use their beaks to pick up and manipulate objects in their environment. While they may not have the dexterity of hands like humans, their beaks are still quite versatile. They can pick up small items like leaves, twigs, or even small pebbles.
4. Exploration: Chickens are naturally curious creatures, and they use their beaks and feet to explore their surroundings. They might peck at different objects, including things that might not necessarily be food, to learn more about them.
5. Communication: Chickens also use pecking and scratching as a form of communication within their social hierarchy. These behaviours can convey dominance or submission among flock members.
Chickens don't have highly complex manipulation abilities compared to other animals, but they are able to perform basic actions to navigate their surroundings and find food. Their adaptations have evolved to suit their specific needs for survival, food gathering, and social interactions in their natural environment.
When geese feel threatened or cornered, they may exhibit defensive behaviours to protect themselves and their territory. Hissing is one of these behaviours. It's a vocalization that geese use to communicate their unease and to establish boundaries.
The hissing sound itself is created by the expulsion of air through their beaks. Geese might raise their necks, spread their wings slightly, and open their bills while emitting this hissing sound. This display serves as a warning to potential threats, such as humans or other animals, that they are feeling threatened and are prepared to defend themselves if necessary.
Geese are naturally protective of their nests, mates, and young goslings. By hissing and displaying aggressive body language, they attempt to deter perceived dangers and maintain their safety. It's important for humans and other animals to respect these warning signals and give geese the space they need to feel secure.
Sows, female pigs, take care of their piglets by nursing them, providing warmth, and protecting them. They build nests from bedding materials to keep the piglets comfortable, and they nurse them multiple times a day, supplying essential nutrients for their growth. Sows are attentive and protective mothers, ensuring the well-being of their piglets until they are old enough to become more independent.
1. **Nursing:** Sows nurse their piglets to provide them with the crucial nutrients they need for growth and development. They have several teats, usually around 12 to 16, allowing multiple piglets to nurse simultaneously.
2. **Nest Building:** Before giving birth, sows engage in nest-building behaviour. They gather materials like straw, leaves, and other bedding materials to create a warm and comfortable nest for their piglets. This helps protect the piglets from the elements and provides a cozy environment for them to rest.
3. **Protection:** Sows are protective mothers. They often exhibit aggressive behaviours if they perceive a threat to their piglets. This can include charging at or chasing away potential predators or intruders. Sows will also position themselves between their piglets and any perceived danger.
4. **Warmth:** Piglets are unable to regulate their body temperature effectively when they are born, so sows provide warmth by cuddling with them or lying down to allow the piglets to snuggle close. This helps regulate the piglets' body temperature and keeps them comfortable.
5. **Teaching and Nurturing:** Sows teach their piglets important behaviours, such as how to find food and explore their environment. They may root around to expose food sources and encourage piglets to start eating solid food as they grow.
6. **Cleaning and Grooming:** Sows also engage in grooming behaviours to keep their piglets clean. This involves licking the piglets to remove dirt, mucus, or other debris from their bodies.
7. **Social Bonding:** Sows develop a strong social bond with their piglets. This bond is crucial for the piglets' emotional well-being and helps create a sense of security as they explore their surroundings.
As the piglets grow and become more independent, the sow's role gradually shifts from constant care to allowing them more freedom to explore and learn on their own. The maternal behaviours exhibited by sows ensure the survival and well-being of their piglets during the early stages of their lives.
Many people don't consider chickens as intelligent animals, but they have shown us on many occasions that this is simply not true. They exhibit various behaviours that showcase their cognitive abilities and there is a lot going on in their little minds that we don't realize.
Here are four ways in which chickens demonstrate intelligence:
Problem-solving skills: Chickens have been observed to be quite adept at solving problems and learning from their experiences. For example, if they encounter an obstacle in their environment, they can figure out ways to navigate around it or even manipulate objects to create a path. Chickens can also learn how to operate simple devices to access food rewards, demonstrating their ability to reason and adapt to new challenges.
Social intelligence: Chickens are highly social animals that live in hierarchical structures within their flocks. They are capable of recognizing and remembering individual members of their group, as well as forming complex relationships with one another. They communicate through various vocalizations and body language, conveying information about food sources, predators, and other important aspects of their environment. Additionally, chickens can show empathy towards their fellow flock members and even display altruistic behaviours.
Communication: Chickens communicate through a variety of vocalizations, body language, and gestures. They have different calls for warning others about predators, indicating the discovery of food, and coordinating group movements. They can also recognize and respond to the calls of other chickens.
Spatial awareness and memory: Chickens possess a keen sense of spatial awareness, allowing them to navigate their surroundings effectively. They can remember the locations of essential resources, such as food and water sources, and are known to return to their coop at the end of the day. Chickens have shown the ability to learn and remember specific landmarks and paths, which helps them forage for food efficiently and avoid potential dangers.
In conclusion, while chickens may not be considered as intelligent as some other animals, they do display problem-solving abilities, social intelligence, communication, and spatial awareness, demonstrating a level of cognitive complexity that may surprise some people. They can even recognize 100 faces!
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Sales tax is an indirect tax on consumption. It applies to a large part of the goods and services consumed in the country. Businesses charge Sales tax to their customers, so consumers pay this tax, not corporations. It is important to know the different Sales tax rates so as not to make errors in the invoicing of customers. A good way to avoid making mistakes and being surprised by legislative changes is to rely on the advice of an accountant. You can visit taxfyle.com/sales-tax-calculator for the proper tax calculation in this matter.
Understand the usefulness of Sales tax thanks to the advice of an accountant
Sales tax, value added tax, is an indirect tax on consumption which generally applies to all goods and services consumed in the country. Companies are responsible for collecting this tax for the state. They therefore charge Sales tax to their customers, at different rates, and then pay it back to the Treasury, deducting what they paid on their purchases. Ultimately, it is the final consumer who pays the Sales tax and not the companies which encourage the production of goods and services. A chartered accountant can, thanks to his knowledge of tax matters, advise the business creator in his financial management and the preparation of his Sales tax returns.
What are the different Sales tax rates in the country?
In The country, there are four different rates for calculating Sales tax. The standard rate is 19.6% and concerns the vast majority of sales of goods and services. The reduced rate of 7% is reserved for goods and services which were subject to the 5.5% rate before January 1, 2012, with the exception of certain goods and services listed below. Then, the reduced rate of 5.5% is applicable inter alia to food products and to gas and electricity subscriptions. Finally, the special rate of 2.1% concerns certain products and services, including the television license fee. The website of the Ministry of the Economy and Finance presents the complete list of goods and services with the different applicable Sales tax rates. Please note, on January 1, 2014, these rates will be changed: the reduced Sales tax rate will drop from 5.5% to 5%, the intermediate rate will be increased from 7 to 10% and the standard rate will be raised from 19.6 to 20 %.
The regulatory field, in which Sales tax is entered, as in general the various tax systems in the country, is changing very rapidly. It is imperative to keep yourself regularly informed of upcoming developments and the impacts on the daily management of your business. That is why the help of an accountant is highly recommended in order to stay in compliance with the law.
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- Fully vaccinated Americans don't need booster shots right away, US health agencies said on Thursday.
- Pfizer announced earlier that day that it plans to seek authorization for a booster next month.
- The spread of the Delta variant has raised concerns about how long vaccine protection lasts.
Pharmaceutical companies and disease experts increasingly disagree about when booster shots might be necessary.
Pfizer announced Thursday that it plans to seek authorization for a booster shot next month. But in a joint statement later the same day, the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Americans don't need boosters right away.
Pfizer anticipates that a third dose of its existing coronavirus vaccine could be given six to eight months after the first two, the company's research head, Mikael Dolsten, told Bloomberg.
But research so far indicates that coronavirus vaccine protection lasts for the better part of a year, and likely many months beyond that.
Still, the spread of the Delta variant — the most transmissible version of the virus to date — has raised concerns about the degree to which vaccine protection holds up, and whether it could fade more quickly. Preliminary data from Israel's health ministry found that Pfizer's vaccine was 64% protective against coronavirus infections from June to July, when the Delta variant was spreading widely in the country. The vaccine was 94% effective the prior month, before Delta infections surged.
Dolsten told Bloomberg that these findings indicate antibody levels may have faded among vaccinated people in Israel. That could result in more mild breakthrough cases — the term for COVID-19 diagnoses at least two weeks after someone is fully vaccinated.
But many disease experts say that the goal of vaccines has always been to prevent severe disease and death, which the shots still do in the face of Delta. The Israeli data, along with several other studies, show that Pfizer's vaccine largely prevents hospitalization. Two doses were 93% effective at keeping people in Israel out of the hospital from June to July, and 98% the month prior.
"People who are fully vaccinated are protected from severe disease and death, including from the variants currently circulating in the country such as Delta," the CDC and FDA wrote. The statement added that "virtually all COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths are among those who are unvaccinated."
Preventing mild cases could still curb the virus' spread
There are benefits to preventing mild coronavirus cases, of course. Nobody wants to get sick, and scientists still don't know whether mild breakthrough cases can leave people with long-lasting symptoms the way some natural infections do.
Researchers also increasingly suspect that it might be easier for vaccinated people to spread the Delta variant to others. (Studies done before Delta emerged indicated that Pfizer's and Moderna's vaccines helped reduce asymptomatic transmission.)
But the CDC stopped monitoring non-severe COVID-19 cases among vaccinated people in May, making the answers to these questions elusive.
Experts don't even know for sure yet whether vaccines are significantly less effective in the face of Delta. A recent study found that 95% of blood samples from vaccinated people developed neutralizing antibodies against Delta after two doses of Pfizer's vaccine — a sign that those people would be protected from a symptomatic infection.
A UK analysis, too, found that Pfizer's vaccine was 88% effective against symptomatic COVID-19 caused by Delta. And a Canadian study similarly found that Pfizer's vaccine was 87% effective against symptomatic Delta infections.
However, the same studies indicate that just a single dose of Pfizer's vaccine was either weakly or not at all effective against Delta.
Drug companies' approach: 'Better safe than sorry'
Insider recently spoke with nine experts about booster shots, and several predicted that follow-up doses wouldn't be necessary for another one to five years. Others questioned whether the general public would ever need another round of shots.
But for the most part, pharmaceutical companies have adopted a "better safe than sorry" approach.
"I think for next fall, we, as a community, should rather be two months too early boosting than two months too late," Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said at a Goldman Sachs investor conference in June.
Pfizer's early data does seem to suggest that boosters could offer additional immune protection: A third shot appears to increase neutralizing antibody levels five-to-10-fold compared to the original vaccine.
But US health agencies are looking for a more holistic picture of how vaccine protection holds up over time, based on laboratory, clinical-trial, and real-world data. Studies from pharmaceutical companies are just one part of that, the CDC and FDA said on Thursday.
Ultimately, the decision to roll out boosters will depend on the level of vaccine efficacy that health authorities are willing to accept — a threshold that hasn't been determined yet. Research might also still reveal that antibody responses only dip in certain groups of people, such as the elderly, people with preexisting health conditions, or those who never caught the disease. So boosters could wind up being recommended for just a limited group.
"We are prepared for booster doses if and when the science demonstrates that they are needed," the CDC and FDA said.
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Pacemakers from several manufacturers can be commanded to deliver a deadly, 830-volt shock from someone on a laptop up to 50 feet away, the result of poor software programming by medical device companies.
The new research comes from Barnaby Jack of security vendor IOActive, known for his analysis of other medical equipment such as insulin-delivering devices.
Jack, who spoke at the Breakpoint security conference in Melbourne on Wednesday, said the flaw lies with the programming of the wireless transmitters used to give instructions to pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs), which detect irregular heart contractions and deliver an electric shock to avert a heart attack.
A successful attack using the flaw “could definitely result in fatalities,” said Jack, who has notified the manufacturers of the problem but did not publicly identify the companies.
In a video demonstration, Jack showed how he could remotely cause a pacemaker to suddenly deliver an 830-volt shock, which could be heard with a crisp audible pop.
As many as 4.6 million pacemakers and ICDs were sold between 2006 and 2011 in the U.S. alone, Jack said. In the past, pacemakers and ICDs were reprogrammed by medical staff using a wand that had to pass within a couple of meters of a patient who has one of the devices installed. The wand flips a software switch that would allow it to accept new instructions.
But the trend is now to go wireless. Several medical manufacturers are now selling bedside transmitters that replace the wand and have a wireless range of up to 30 to 50 feet. In 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved full radio-frequency based implantable devices operating in the 400MHz range, Jack said.
With that wide transmitting range, remote attacks against the software become more feasible, Jack said. Upon studying the transmitters, Jack found the devices would give up their serial number and model number after he wirelessly contacted one with a special command.
With the serial and model numbers, Jack could then reprogram the firmware of a transmitter, which would allow reprogramming of a pacemaker or ICD in a person’s body.
“It’s not hard to see why this is a deadly feature,” Jack said.
His research is just beginning. The FDA, he said, just looks at the medical effectiveness of devices and does not do an audit of a device’s code.
“My aim is to raise awareness of these potential malicious attacks and encourage manufacturers to act to review the security of their code and not just the traditional safety mechanisms of these devices,” Jack said.
Data vulnerable, too
He also found other problems with the devices, such as the fact they often contain personal data about patients, such as their name and their doctor. Other tell-tale signs of sloppy code were also found, such as potential access to remote servers used to develop the software.
“The new implementation is flawed in so many ways,” Jack said. “It really needs to be reworked.”
Jack is developing “Electric Feel,” an application with a graphical user interface that would allow a user to scan for a medical device in range. A list will appear, and a user can select a device, such as a pacemaker, which can then be shut off or configured to deliver a shock.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, Jack said it is possible to upload specially-crafted firmware to a company’s servers that would infect multiple pacemakers and ICDs, spreading through their systems like a real virus.
“We are potentially looking at a worm with the ability to commit mass murder,” Jack said. “It’s kind of scary.”
Ironically, both the implants and the wireless transmitters are capable of using AES (Advance Encryption Standard) encryption, but it is not enabled, Jack said. The devices also have “backdoors,” or ways that programmers can get access to them without the standard authentication using a serial and model number.
There a legitimate medical need since without backdoors, you might have to “cut someone open,” Jack said. “But if they’re going to have a backdoor, at least have it embedded deep inside the ICD core. These are expensive devices.”
Jack’s presentation was beautifully illustrated in a comic-book like fashion. At one point, a slide showed a man who looked quite similar to former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney, who has long suffered from heart problems. The flaws in the device, Jack said, could mean an attacker could perform “a fairly anonymous assassination” from 50 feet away.
“To me, a laptop doesn’t look like a device that is capable of killing someone,” Jack said.
Or as an audience member added: “There’s no muzzle flash with a laptop.”
Send news tips and comments to firstname.lastname@example.org. Follow me on Twitter: @jeremy_kirk
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Rumors are prevalent on the Internet that it is illegal to kill bees. This is not unilaterally true. Regardless, it should be remembered that bees are an indispensable part of our planet's ecology.
It is a misconception that it is strictly illegal to kill bees. It depends on the method used to kill the bee. Approaches such as swatting, using natural liquids or administering EPA-approved chemical solutions to kill a bee are not prohibited by law. The use of federally banned pesticides, however, is illegal.
Pollinator Protection Act
In 2008, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed the Pollinator Protection Act after it was noted that honey bee populations were in decline.
The terms of the Pollinator Protection Act promote research and study of honey bees and is intended to support the lifespan of these insects, which is integral to the earth's long-term welfare. There is no language, however, making it a federal law to kill bees.
Although it is not outright illegal to kill a bee, it is illegal to use certain pesticides on bees or any other insect. Federal courts have ruled pesticides that may severely harm entire bee populations, such as Movento and Ultor, illegal.
Killing bees may be hazardous to your health or potentially lethal should you have an allergic reaction to bee stings. The best method for bee removal or eradication is to contact your local pest control or bee swarm removal service.
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In the mature hardwoods of the Adirondacks, the American Beech reigns supreme. It is a majestic tree, stretching 80 feet or more and providing the dense summer canopy of the forest. The wood of this tree is also dense, and the trunk grows straight, with smooth gray bark. In the fall the golden leaves of the Beech offset the bright red of the many varieties of maple that grow here. While the forests at mid-elevation are described as Beech/Hemlock/Yellow Birch/Sugar Maple forests, it is the Beech that predominates the longer an area of forest is undisturbed.
Forest animals from Red Squirrels to Black Bears depend on the fruit of the Beech for survival. The tree produces two small triangular nuts encased in burry shells. The Beech fulfills a core sustenance role for wildlife played by the White Oak in warmer climates. Like the Oak, the Beech hangs on to its dry leaves throughout the winter, letting go only when spring arrives and its long spear-like buds emerge. The leaves are large, oval, and pointed, with toothed edges. This is a long-lived tree which bides its time in the shade for many years, shooting up quickly when a patch of sunlight emerges as another tree falls.
Though nature enthusiasts prize this beautiful tree, the lumber industry is equivocal about its merits. The wood makes beautiful furniture and durable blond flooring, but the trees themselves are susceptible to various diseases which are hard to recognize uncut. Beech is less desirable as cordwood because the wood takes a long time to season. Mostly the trees are left alone, which is just as well since they fill such an important ecological niche.
American Beech can be thought of as the North American equivalent of European oaks such as the English Oak. Both belong to the Fagaceae family, and according to Robert Graves much religious symbolism associated with the oak was transferred from the Beech, partly because the Beech is not found in Mediterranean climates. The European Beech is equivalent to the American in many ways: it is long lived, tall, shade tolerant, and produces the seeds that animals love. The American Beech is a bit fussier about its growing environment, though, and the European grows faster, so if you live in a North American city the beech tree in your neighborhood may not be a native one.
In German folklore the souls of children waiting to incarnate hung around beech trees, so women would wander around beeches to conceive. Beech wood could not be allowed near a woman in labor, however, or she would have a more difficult time with the birth.
Beech has a strong association with writing. Beech wood tablets were once used as a writing surface, particularly for runic script. The smooth bark of living beech trees continues to be used for carving.
Beech is considered conducive to divination, and it is a recommended wood for wands. I suppose it’s used for wands, rather than staffs, because it is so dense. I recently acquired a prime piece of American Beech, and I’m surprised every time I pick it up by how heavy it is. I am intending to use it as a staff, but I doubt I’ll be able to carry it too far into the woods.
Dana, “Sacred Tree Profile: American Beech (Fagus Gradiflora) – Magic, Medicine, And Qualities, The Druid’s Garden, July 6, 2015. https://druidgarden.wordpress.com/tag/beech-tree-mythology/
Chris Dunford, “Beech: The Most Beautiful Tree in the Wood,” Nature Explored Photography http://www.nature-explored.com/beech-info.htm
Stan Tekiela, Trees of New York (Cambridge, MN: Adventure Publications, 2006).
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Road sign quizzes are perfect for learning the road sign part of your State’s written knowledge test for a learner’s permit or full driver’s license.
Flip through your State’s Driver’s Manual or Driver Handbook and you will find about 50 traffic signs (perhaps even more) that you should learn before attempting the DMV test. Signs are generally categorized as guide, warning, or regulatory signs. Each has significant shapes and colors to help you recognize them from a distance.
Studies show that first-time test takers often fail because of too many errors on the signs part of their permit test. Meaning, it is a good idea to study highways signs carefully and not just assume that it is all common sense.
We hope that these online quizzes and YouTube videos can help.
Knowing and understanding the meaning of the most common road signs are a must for your DMV permit or Driver License written test.
Do you recognize all of them? Can you hit a perfect score of 100%?
Get 10 random questions from a larger pool of U.S. road sign questions. You can take this quiz several times to test your road sign knowledge.
We have the most comprehensive online quizzes for U.S. road signs. Exactly what you need to pass your official written DMV test!
10 random signs questions are drawn from a larger pool of 65 questions.
You can take this quiz several times and get new questions each time.
Use this quiz to prepare for your driver’s license or permit test, or just recap how well you know U.S. warning signs.
See if you can reach at least 80%, which is required on most state DMV tests.
Regulatory signs tell you what you must do and what you must NOT do on U.S. highways.
They are perhaps the most important signs to learn when you study for your learner’s permit or full driver’s license.
In this quiz, you are asked to pick the sign that matches the description or the question.
To pass a DMV or permit test you should get most of them right.
Knowing shapes and colors help you identify basic messages from a distance or when signs are covered in snow.
Often, you are asked to identify signs by just shapes and colors on a DMV test.
A road sign test with 20 of the most difficult U.S. road signs. Perfect practice for your learner’s permit and driver’s license.
Remember, when you are behind the wheel, you must understand and be able to act on all American road signs and traffic signals.
A second quiz with 20 questions focused on just the colors and shapes of U.S. road signs.
Spend a minute or two with this quiz. Can you score 100%?
Learn the most common traffic signs across United States
This quiz will help you prepare for a DMV test, regardless of your home state.
10 real DMV road sign questions from California official permit and driver license tests.
Exactly what you need when you study for your driver’s exam in California.
More California highways signs to help with your CA knowledge test.
10 additional questions that may show up on your official exam.
Prepare for your Texas driver’s knowledge exam with the road sign questions in this video.
Get more Texas road sign questions in this video.
Texas road signs that are an important part of your DPS written test.
This video shows the road signs that are most likely to show up on your Missouri Signs Recognition test!
Missouri Drivers Guide lists about 50 traffic signs you should know.
This Florida road sign video has 15 road sign questions from the Florida official handbook.
Take a first step towards your IN learner’s permit today. Sit back, relax, and watch the video.
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Shiitake is a traditional delicacy mushroom. The homeland of Shiitake is Japan, where the mushroom has been cultivated for thousands of years. Some documents dating back from about 199 AD show that Shiitake has been used not only as food but also as a remedy for diseases of the upper respiratory tract, poor blood circulation, liver diseases, weakness, and also to raise the vital energy Qi. It was believed that Shiitake could even prevent premature aging.
The most valuable ingredient in this japanese mushroom is the polysaccharide lentinan. This is a 1-3 beta glucan, which has already shown some promising anti-cancer results in series of studies. Unlike many others anti-cancer agents, the lentinan does not attack the cancer cells directly but it sets the immune system against these harmful tissues. Another interesting ingredient in Shiitake is the lentioninat, which is the main reason for the mushroom’s exotic flavor. Today Shiitake is considered as a valuable culture and it’s cultivated in many countries around the world, including Europe. Besides being a delicious food as an alternative to ordinary mushrooms, Shiitake has a medical value as well.
Furthermore, except of its edible form, Shiitake may be taken in the form of dried extracts, tinctures and others. The lentinan is sold separately from the Shiitake extract as a specialized anti-cancer medicine. All the problems where Shiitake has proven its efficiency are related in some way to the human immune system. The results of most studies reinforce the immune-stimulating and immune-modulating power of the Japanese mushroom.
In its dry form, Shiitake contains all the flavor qualities of the fresh mushrooms and their beneficial ingredients. The only thing missing is water. Shiitake's own taste is so strong that it can be cooked with products like pork, beef and soy sauce. Its foot is rough, with fibers, and in the Shiitake recipes it is recommended to use only the hat of the mushroom. But that does not mean that the foot has to be thrown away - it can become a great aromatic broth.
Consuming dried Shiitakes requires a little preparation. First, place the mushrooms in a deep dish and rinse thoroughly with water. Then, fill in a pot with fresh water and soak the mushrooms for 20-30 minutes to rehydrate. The water, in which the mushrooms have been soaked, absorbs much of their flavor and can be used to make soup or sauce.
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University of Queensland scientists are calling for greater international collaboration to save the world’s migratory birds, with research finding more than 90 per cent of species are inadequately protected due to poorly coordinated conservation efforts.
The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED) research team found many species of migratory bird were at risk of extinction due to habitat loss along their flight paths.
Dr Claire Runge, from UQ’s School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, said more than half of all migratory bird species travelling the world’s main flyways has suffered serious population declines in the past 30 years. “This is due mainly to unequal and ineffective protection across their migratory range and the places they stop to refuel along their routes,” she said.
The research found huge gaps in conservation efforts to protect migratory birds, particularly across China, India and parts of Africa and South America.
Dr Runge said a typical migratory bird relied on many different geographic locations for food, rest and breeding. “So even if we protect most of their breeding grounds, it’s still not enough. Threats somewhere else can affect the entire population,” she said. “The chain can be broken at any link.”
Dr Runge said birds undertook remarkable journeys, navigating across land and sea to find refuge as the seasons changed. “This ranges from by bar-tailed godwit endurance flights exceeding 10,000 kilometres to the annual relay of Arctic terns, which fly the equivalent distance to the moon and back three times during their lives.”
The study found that 1324 of 1451 migratory bird species had inadequate protection for at least one part of their migration pathway, while 18 species had no protection in their breeding areas and two species had no protection at all along their entire route.
The team examined more than 8200 important bird and biodiversity areas internationally recognised as significant locations for migratory bird populations, finding that just 22 per cent were completely protected, and 41 per cent only partially overlapped with protected areas.
Research team member and BirdLife International Head of Science Dr Stuart Butchart said establishing new reserves to protect unprotected sites — and more effectively managing all protected areas for migratory species — was critical to ensure the survival of these species.
UQ School of Biological Sciences Associate Professor Richard Fuller said the study highlighted an urgent need to coordinate protected area designation along the birds’ full migration route. “It won’t matter what we do in Australia or in Europe if these birds are losing their habitat somewhere else, as they will still perish,” he said. “We need to work together far more effectively around the world if we want our migratory birds to survive into the future.”
The study, Protected areas and global conservation of migratory birds, is published in Science.
Reproduced, with thanks, from UQ News, https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2015/12/weak-links-push-migratory-birds-toward-extinction
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What is Sedation Dentistry?
Sedation dentistry for children
Sedation dentistry refers to the use of sedation during dental treatment. Sedation is most commonly used during extensive procedures for patients with dental fear or anxiety or for patients who find it difficult to sit for dental treatment. There are different types of sedation, including nitrous oxide (laughing gas), IV sedation, oral sedatives, and general anesthetic.
Sedation can range from the use of nitrous oxide to calm a patient to general anesthetics used to put patients to sleep. Patients with dental fear or anxiety, low pain tolerance, major dental treatment, physical handicaps or strong gag reflexes may require sedation. Procedures like fillings, crowns, nerve treatment, extractions, gum surgery, and space maintenance often require sedation.
Sedation is endorsed by the American Dental Association and is an effective way to make many patients comfortable during their dental visit. Before using a sedative or anesthetic, it is important to tell your pediatric dentist about any medications or medical treatments your child is receiving. Before administering any sedative or anesthetic, your pediatric dentist will talk to you about the process of sedation and pre- and post-sedation instructions.
The following types of sedation are used at Tiny Teeth Pediatric Dentistry:
Sedation may or may not be a covered benefit of your dental or medical insurance plan. It is best to check with your carrier prior to sedation treatment to verify that the type of sedation being performed is covered by your plan.
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What are Cyber-Bullying Stories?
Cyber-Bullying Stories are recounts of experiences which individuals who have been the victims of Cyber-Bullying may choose to express in order to report the details and circumstances of their respective victimization from abuse and harassment taking place within a virtual setting. The reporting of Cyber-Bullying Stories may take place for a variety of purposes, including the desire to provide a support and assistance for other individuals who have been, or are currently, victims of Cyber-Bullying.
Why Does the Sharing of Cyber-Bullying Stories Help?
Although the implicit nature latent within the vast expanse of Cyber-Bullying Stories varies in nature, severity, and the victims involved, their expression has provided, and continues to provide, support and informational resources with regard to both the proliferation of awareness and preventative measures available in dealing with Cyber-Bullying.
The following facts about Cyber-Bullying illustrate why the exchange of this information is considered to be so valuable:
The primary ages of the victims of Cyber-Bullying are considered to be in the midst of the developmental stage. As a result, the effects of Cyber-Bullying are considered to pose great threats to the emotional well-being of its victims. The exchange and proliferation of Cyber-Bullying Stories may provide both emotional support, as well as informational support to children victimized by Cyber-Bullying.
Cyber-Bullying Stories may be shared within a vast array of forums or settings, which can include lectures, workshops, focus groups, literature, and seminars, all of which may allow for the abuse suffered by victims of Cyber-Bullying to proliferate the awareness of the potential damage latent within each circumstance of Cyber-Bullying.
Types of Cyber-Bullying Stories
Cyber-Bullying Stories may involve a variety of circumstances and events that span the scope of charges and offenses inherent within Cyber-Bullying. Due to the expansive nature of this crime, Cyber-Bullying Stories can range both in nature, as well as the implicit victimization.
Emotional and Psychological Cyber-Bullying Stories will typically include the verbal or emotional debasement of the victim involved, ranging from the issue of threats to the expression of emotional abuse. An example of a victim of this type of Cyber-Bullying is Megan Meir, who tragically took her own life on October 17th, 2006, after being verbally abused online.
Sexual Cyber-Bullying Stories may include victimization resulting from abuse and harassment with regard to personal information, which includes sexual orientation or sexual preference. An example of a victim of this type of Cyber-Bullying is Tyler Clementi, who tragically took his own life on September 22nd, 2010, after his roommate released a video of him, recorded illegally. In the ultimate violation of privacy, this video portrayed Clementi engaging in sexual activity with another male.
Reporting Cyber-Bullying Stories
Due to the ages of the victims, both the emotional and physical effects of Cyber-Bullying are considered as being amongst the most severe. For this reason, Cyber-Bullying Stories may serve as invaluable resources and assistance to other individual victims who are experiencing Cyber-Bullying. However, prior to the sharing of Cyber-Bullying Stories with support groups, victims of Cyber-Bullying are encouraged to report circumstances of which they have been a victim to the National Crime Prevention Council through their telephone number (202) 466-6272 in order to receive immediate help and support.
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Relining Sewer Pipes
When you have a clogged drain, it can be a big hassle. You might need to wait for the water to drain manually or even call a plumber if the problem is permanent.
Luckily, there are other options, like pipe relining, that can help you fix your drains and get them working again in no time. If you are looking for an affordable and accessible way to fix your clogged drains, relining your sewer pipes is the answer.
It involves covering the inner surface of your pipes with a new material that protects them from further damage while also keeping them functional. In this article, we’ll explore how relining sewer pipes works, its benefits, and its cost implications.
What is Sewer Pipe Relining?
Sewer Pipe relining, also known as pipe lining or pipe rehabilitation, is a process of covering the inside of pipes with new material.
Relining pipes is a cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional pipe replacement. It is used to protect, maintain, and extend the life of existing pipes.
There are different kinds of lining materials used in pipe relining. They include epoxy, polyethylene, polyurethane, cementitious, and others. Each lining material is suitable for a different set of pipes, depending on the material and diameter.
Why Is It Effective?
The main reason relining is so effective is that it involves no excavation work. Since you don’t need to dig up the ground to reach the pipes, pipe relining is a much more cost-effective and accessible way of fixing clogged drains than digging up the entire system.
Relining pipes is also a more environmentally friendly solution for fixing drains because it does not require the use of harmful chemicals and does not disrupt the landscape.
It also reduces the risk of property damage that comes with traditional digging methods. Since pipe relining involves covering the inside of your pipes with a new lining, it helps keep the pipes in good condition and extends their lifespan. This way, you don’t have to worry about replacing the entire system in the near future.
Benefits of relining sewer pipes
There are many benefits of relining pipes, but most importantly, it solves the problem of clogged drains.
If your pipes are damaged and corroded, chemicals can seep into the ground and cause soil and groundwater contamination.
Low Risk of Contamination
If you are relining damaged pipes, you can prevent the risk of contamination by covering the inside of them with new material.
Increase Pipe Lifespan
Pipe relining can increase the lifespan of your pipes, making it a more cost-effective solution for long-term maintenance.
You can also reline damaged pipes to maintain their structural integrity and prevent further damage.
Improving Pipe Aesthetics
Relining also improves the aesthetics of your pipes. When you have cracked or corroded pipes, they look unattractive and can be a health hazard. Pipe relining solves both of these problems.
Disadvantages of pipe relining
Relining is an effective way to fix your clogged drains, but it can also be used to repair minor damage.
If your pipes are extensively damaged and cannot be repaired with relining, you will have to replace the entire system. In such cases, pipe relining is not a suitable solution.
Pipe relining also requires you to shut off the water supply. It is best to hire a professional to do this job so that they can shut off the water at the correct location.
How much does it cost?
Relining pipes is a cost-effective solution for repairing damaged pipes. The cost of relining your pipes depends on the length of the pipes, the type of lining material, and the location of the pipes. The average cost of pipe relining a sewer pipe is $2,000.
Is Sewer Pipe Relining Worth It?
The answer depends on the extent of the damage to your pipes. If your pipes are heavily damaged, you will have to replace them entirely, which is expensive.
If your pipes have minor damage, pipe relining can be a cost-effective solution. Pipe relining is a suitable solution for repairing broken, cracked, or deteriorated pipes.
It is also a good option for repairing broken pipes that are too close to buildings or obstacles like trees. For extensive damage, you can replace your pipes. If they have minor damage and you want to save money, pipe relining is a good option.
Why you should reline your sewer pipe?
If you want to maintain the structural integrity of your pipes and extend their lifespan, pipe relining is a viable solution. It can also improve the aesthetics of your pipes, making them look brand new.
Another reason why you should reline your pipes is that it can prevent soil and groundwater contamination. If your pipes are damaged, they can leak harmful chemicals into the surrounding area. Pipe relining helps you fix this problem and protect the environment from contamination.
Contact a Professional
Sewer pipes are a vital part of any household, and it is important to maintain and repair them to extend their lifespan. When you have clogged drains, relining them is a good way to repair your pipes and restore functionality to your drains.
It can be an effective solution to repair and extend the lifespan of your pipes, but only if you hire a professional pipe relining company.
Same Day Trades guarantees a safe and effective pipe relining operation. They are a reputable business that can handle all your plumbing needs. Your pipes can be relined with ease by our team of skilled plumbers who are well-equipped and experienced.
You can contact Same Day Trades today at 1300 632 094 to book an appointment or visit our website for more information.
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7th graders Lewis and Clark / “Standing Outside the Fire “ Essays
Risk-taking is essential because without it no one would try anything new and progress wouldn’t be made. People who use bravery to accomplish something great show a tremendous amount of power and choice. You can learn about risk-taking from songs, quotes, a video, and many documents.
One way to learn about positive risk-taking is an important song that was written by Garth Brooks called Standing Outside The Fire. In this song the phrase “life is not tried it is merely survived when your standing outside the fire” is repeated many times. This tells me that if your not willing to take a risk and accomplish something, than your not really living. If you don’t eat seafood you’ll never know how grotesque it tastes. Stand up and stand out, that is how hero’s emerge.
Something that changed my perspective on risk-taking completely was something a great leader of our country once said. This man was John F. Kennedy, and his words were “Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly”. This is saying that if you have the courage to fall flat on your face, you’ll have the ability to stand tall and succeed. If you know you could fail in front of many people and still try anyway, that is the type of courage President Kennedy spoke about.
One group of explorers back in the early 1800s led by
Lewis and Clark took a huge risk when they traveled across the
Risk-taking is a decision that young people have to make every day but the mind of an average person below eleven is not developed enough to tell the difference between positive and negative risk-taking. People like Dr. Pontoon are working on helping children deciphering right from wrong. Some positive risk-taking is sports, art classes, after school activities, and doing extra credit. Negative risk-taking is drinking, reckless driving, and stealing. Parents need to encourage children to make positive choices and make them themselves.
In conclusion, those who really push the limits to get a task done express positive risk-taking. People who live beyond the confines of an average person are the ones who shine. Without risk-taking, instead of realizing what we’re missing and reaching for it, we’d be locking it out and throw away the key because we didn’t open our eyes and try something new.
Positive risk taking is important because if you don’t take risks then you are settling for less. You will have a bad identity, you will be a nobody .You will never know what will happen if you don’t try. As Paul Tillich said “ he who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being.” By taking risks you can learn a new language and have a new job. There are a whole lot of other possibilities. We can learn about positive risk taking from songs, movies, quotes, and articles.
In the song “Standing Outside the Fire” by Garth Brooks it talks about positive risk taking. It is saying that if you don’t try and never fail, then you are a nobody. Also you have the power to choose to take risks or not too. If you risk and fail, then you know you are not able to do that task, but at least you tried. Garth Brooks said in his song “ life is not tried it is merely survived if you’re standing outside the fire.” That means if you don’t take positive risks then you have not lived your life to the fullest. If you take a positive risk and try something new then you know if you are able to do it or not.
In the movie
of Lewis and Clark’s expedition it shows positive risk taking. Lewis and Clark
took a positive risk when they agreed to go on the journey. They also took a
positive risk when they traveled across
In president John F. Kennedy’s quote “Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly,” it talks about positive risk taking. It is saying that if you don’t try at all your identity will not be known. You will be a nobody, a loser. If you try and fail then you will have an identity of a person who tries and tries again and never gives up. If you try and don’t fail then you know that you can do it.
In the article Why Teenagers Do the Things They Do by Lynn E. Ponton, M.D. it talks about how parents can help their children take healthy risks. Parents can help their kids learn how to look at negative risks and positive risks. They can put them into sports and keep them out of trouble. Also they can work with the kids to put energy into healthier activities. The children can also make healthy positive risks by choosing to say no to drugs & alcohol. They can choose their friends and what they do with them.
In conclusion positive risk taking is important for your health. We can learn about positive risk taking from lyrics, videos, quotes, and articles. If you never take risks then you will never know what the outcome is. “ If at first you don’t succeed try and try again”
Healthy risk – taking is important because if you don’t take risks you will never know what the outcome is unless you take a chance to figure it out. So many things can be accomplished while taking risks. As Leo F. Buscaglia said “The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live”. You can learn about taking risks in quotes, songs, movies and television.
It is good to take risks but when you take risks you have to make sure that they are healthy and positive risks so you don’t put yourself in danger. Lewis and Clark took risks, but they were positive and healthy risks. Lewis and Clark took risks like talking to the Native Americans and trying to gain a friendship with them and in the long run it was a healthy risk because the Native Americans gave them supplies that they needed, and the supplies helped them survive throughout their journey. Another risk that Lewis and Clark took was keep on moving through the journey even though they risked there lives being taken from sicknesses, Native Americans that didn’t get along well with them, or even wild animals.
In the song “Standing Outside The Fire” Garth Brooks was talking about taking risks and when he says that “the hearts have no scars to show” he means that the kids think that they are cool and they have nothing to talk about because they have never really taken any risks. This song is a very good example that taking-risks is a good thing.
Parents should talk to their kids about risk taking because if they don’t talk about there own experiences they had when they were kids, their children might think it is OK to do something even though it is a poor decision. Unless the parents talk to them about healthy and unhealthy risk- taking kids could put them selves in danger by taking unhealthy risks they mistakenly think are healthy.
There are so many positive risks that are taken every day like for some people they have to take risks in there jobs in order to do there job the right way like fire fighters have to take risks every day to save people because that is there job. The fire fighters that were in the terrorist attacks on 9/11 took amazing risks when they were out there in that environment they were taking risks. So now people have no excuses to not take risks because not every day a plane crashes into a building and the people that were out there are hero so don’t you want to be a hero too?
As John F. Kennedy once said “Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly”. This quote means that if you are not afraid to fail if you take a risk you will achieve in the long run because if you are afraid to take risks and never take them then you will never know the outcome. John F. Kennedy actually took a HUGE risk by applying for the job of being the president of the U.S.A and he got it, but if he never took the risk he would have never gotten the job.
You can learn more about risk-taking in movies, television, songs, and quotes. Remember when you take risks make sure they are healthy and positive risks and they don’t put you into danger or else they wont be considered good healthy risks.
Positive risk-taking is very important when it comes to an everyday lifestyle because it helps you understand what makes life as exciting as it is. If you think about positive risk-taking you can find it everywhere, in history, songs, articles, from our presidents, and even in everyday life. Positive risk-taking helps you understand new things in life and it also helps you challenge yourself and helps you learn new things by exploring positive risk-taking. Many times people learn about positive risk-taking through some kind of mistake, and sometimes they learn it through a lesson that they were taught during life. Garth Brooks had said during the movie for, Standing outside the fire, was “ Competition is only feared through competition itself.”
During the movie, Garth Brooks talked about positive risk-taking and about how life always alters the way you do things and how it always seems to take control. As well as the quote before, in the introduction, Garth Brooks had said “While taking risks you should take them right on the spot and not wait for them to come.” Garth Brooks’ Standing Outside the Fire lyrics has a line that really stood out to me… “Life is not tried it is merely survived, if your standing outside the fire.” To me this line means that life is for real and to live for tomorrow not just to live for the fun of it. Another line that pounced on my mind was… “We call them strong. Those who face this world alone. Who seem to get by their own. Those who will never take the fall.”
Presidents help us during life as well, not just our own life activities. For example, John F. Kennedy helps us through a quote that stated, “Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.” With that we were able to understand what he meant, for those of us who shoot our goals to negative risk-taking, that’s were we’re going, were as if you shoot for the positive risk-taking, THAT’S were your going.
In the movie, Lewis and Clark; The Journey of the Corps of Discovery Lewis and Clark
work together through all of their accomplishments, finding the
Our parents are a big role in our lives especially when it comes to risk-taking. For those children who are younger, they can learn about their actions from their parents, by watching them and figuring out what they should do. Older children learn also through their parents actions but they become more thorough, making the kids have to make their own choice and learning how it will help later on in life. With the healthy risk-taking, behaviors have an impact on both younger and older children’s lives. For example children may run for class president or even run in the community heart run-and-walk association. There is another risk-taking ability that can change and person’s life… this is called negative risk-taking. Negative risk-taking can be taken during the time of childhood, for example they could smoke, drink, or even take drugs only because their parents have done it all their children’s lives. Those children might also drive recklessly when they become older and may even run away or have sexual activity at a young age. For many people in the world, over a quarter of the population has HIV before the age of 21!
In conclusion, risk-taking has many ways, that it can be both positive and negative. For example, healthy and positive risk-taking behaviors tend to have a positive impact on the persons’ life, such as sports, religion, and even books or school activities. Negative risk-taking can include drug or alcohol abuse, stealing, and running away, which can also lead to bad habits later on in life. Positive risk-taking helps teens both older and younger in age, learn the difference between what they should be doing in life and what they are doing in life.
Positive risk-taking is important because you can’t live life without taking risks. Risks are important because almost every choice you make there is a risk. People take risk every day. When I say risk I don’t mean jumping 500 ft with a dirt bike I mean taking positive risks.
In the Lewis and Clark Movie they made many risk like what river to take when the river slit in two. They take risks by making friends with the Indians. Lewis and Clark made risk like what to eat, what Indians to make friends with, were to sleep, and when to cross a mountain. Some more risks they took were a lot of different animals that they have never seen before so they didn’t know if they were dangerous or not.
John F. Kennedy said, “Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.” That means the people who dare to take a chance can gain more then other people. Mario Andretti said, “If things seem under control, you are just not going fast enough.” I take positive risk almost every day like if when I am sick, if I should go to school or not.
In the “Standing outside the fire” music video Garth Brooks sings, “Life is not tried, it is merely survived if you’re standing outside the fire...” That means that you take risks to live your life. When you play baseball, football, soccer, or any other sport you take a positive risk. There is a chance you could get hurt, miss a shot, or unbars your self. You take a risk a work like if you do something wrong you could get fired.
Jimmy Johnson the coach of the Dallas Cowboys said, “Do you want to be safe and good, or do you want to take a chance and be Great.” That means that if you take risk you can accomplish more in life. Positive risk-taking is very important.
A farmer takes risks by if there crops are going to grow.
Healthy risk taking is very good, but unhealthy risk taking is wrong because you can get hurt very badly from it, for example you can endanger your health by smoking and doing drugs. You can learn about healthy risk taking from songs. You can learn from about healthy risk taking from videos. You can learn from articles. You can also learn about healthy risk taking from quotes. You can learn more healthy risks from great athletes and presidents.
The song “Standing Outside The Fire” by Garth Brooks. In that music video he sings life is not tried it is merely survived, if you’re standing outside the fire. Garth Brooks means that you have to try healthy risks to survive and to learn from your mistakes. Like in the music video it showed the boy trying to practice for the track compotation and his mother was helping him practice and his father didn’t think he could do it. At the compotation his father was pushing him to complete what he had started, which was the race. In the music video his mother had empathy for her child, but his father did not have empathy.
Lewis And Clark; The corps of discovery made a choice
to finish making the map of what is now
In the article “why did you do that, it could be the brain” by Lynn E. Ponton M.D. . There are two different types of risk-taking one is negative risk taking the other is healthy risk taking. Negative risk taking is done mostly under peer pressure. That includes drinking alcohol, smoking, drug use, reckless driving, sexual activities, running away from home, stealing and gang activity. Drinking and smoking get started when they are in their teens. Positive risk taking is like common courtesy. Some positive risk taking actions are sports, volunteering, art classes, acting in school plays, musicals, traveling with parent(s), running for school office, making new friends, but keep the same ones you got and donating to your environment. Like famous people you can learn from your mistakes and you can correct them when the future comes and you can make sure that your kids do not make the same mistake as you did when you were young. You can learn from their greatest accomplishments when they were young or when they were growing up. Some people have a role model. Do you have a role model? If so who? role models can be anyone!
In quotes like, ‘those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly’. That means that even those who fail can still win. Quotes can talk about negative risk taking and positive risk taking. Quotes can come from anyone and anywhere. The quote above was written by John F. Kennedy the thirty-fifth president. The quote means that even though you fail you are still trying your hardest. You can be successful even though you are failing.
Taking risk is very important because in order to learn like what it feels like when you do something great. You first have to take a step closer to your goal. When you get offered drugs you should say no loud and clear and walk away. When you walk away you are being positive and taking a positive risk. Also when you say no to something you are the one that has more power than the other one.
The more positive risks someone takes, the more power they can achieve. If you choose not to take risks, you won’t have the chance to do something great. If you choose to take risks, you will be original and better than those who don’t take risks. Trying any thing new can be a risk. Trying an extra credit project can be a risk. People can learn about positive risk taking from movies, quotes, articles, and actual events.
Lewis and Clark took many risks on their journey. At the evenly split river, they took a chance and went one direction instead of the other. They knew that if they didn’t take any risks, they probably wouldn’t be able to survive the journey. They took chances to become friends with the Native Americans and their cultures. As a result, they gained new allies. If they chose not to make friends with the Native Americans, they might not have gained the fresh food, weapons, and horses, something vital to the mission. Lewis and Clark knew that if they didn’t take any risks, they wouldn’t have been able to complete the journey. There were a lot of dangers that the journey would present to them and they over-powered them with risks.
Most parents, when talking to their kids about healthy risk-taking, don’t talk about their own history of risks and behaviors. According to the article by Lynn Parton, studies have shown that an 11-year old brain isn’t developed enough to fully decide on risks. Kids need to learn healthy and non-healthy choices. So, the parents need to talk to their kids to explain the dangers of risk-taking in life. Kids look up to their parents as role models. Parents don’t want to talk about past mistakes in their own life because they don’t want their kids to know about them. Parents should talk about their mistakes because then the kids will grow up not knowing what the parents are doing is wrong. For example, if you were a reckless driver when you were a kid and you still are, your kids will think the way you drive is fine to be doing because you didn’t talk to them.
In the song “Standing Outside the Fire”, it says that life is not tried it is merely survived, if you’re standing outside the fire. This means that you are choosing to aim for nothing in life. You just want to merely get by enough to live. Interview for a job that pays much more than your old one. If you take the risk to do something great, you have a better chance of something happening to you that is better than you expected. You may be doing nothing, but your soul always wants to be as good as it can be. “If you aim for nowhere, that’s just where you’ll go.” Your environment will always be better than you just because you chose not to take risks. If you aim for something great, then you will do something great if you take that risk of losing something.
In the quote by John Fitzgerald Kennedy “Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly” it means that if you take the chance to lose, you can gain more than others. If you’re not willing to take chances, then you won’t lose anything but you won’t gain anything great either. Choosing to take risks allows you to become something in life. If you don’t take any risks, you can’t gain anything. Taking risks makes you a better person than those who don’t. Not all risk can come out the way you want them to. That’s why they are called risks because you are taking a chance to lose something to gain something else.
People don’t realize it but they are taking risks each and every day. Trying out a new sport is taking a risk because you don’t know how it will turn out. You need to make sure that all your risks are positive not negative. If you chose to take a negative risk, you can get hurt or lose more than you needed to. If you don’t take risks, than you aren’t living a full life.
Positive risk taking is good. Some people take risks too far though. But if you never take risks you will never get anywhere. If you take risks that you think you can handle you might as well take it and try it. Risk aren’t always about negative things, they can be about something positive like doing a new thing in school such as trying anew sport or doing something that your friends don’t like. But in the end you can think of a positive way to get them to like it to. You can learn to take risk from quotes, articles, and movie and songs.
Garth Brooks wrote a song based on risk taking. The name of the song was (Standing Out Side The Fire). The point of the song is that all people should be treated equally as free people. If people had choices made for them they would never be able to take risk on there own. Most people would not want you to take risk for another person. Most people would not want you to take unhealthy risk. People who do not make choices on there own will never get anywhere in life or they let other people make choices for you and that’s how people get hurt. No one should ever make choices for you because they can effect you and your own life even if they did it. My social studies class watched a video that Garth Brooks made and produced. The name of the song is “STANDING OUT SIDE THE FIRE”. But Garth Brooks idea and point of the song is that risk taking is a good thing. In the movie a mentally challenged child and he signs up for the track team and the coach was scared that the boy would get hurt. There was a boy in the move that proved his track coach took a risk and proved the coach wrong and finished the race finished the race and with just some cuts and bruises and was fine. Garth Brooks point of the song and movie was that all people can take risk. Some people take big risk some take small but they all have an effect good or bad.
Also in Social Studies class we
watched a movie based on Lewis and
Clark. They were explorers and were sent
to make a map from
As John F. Kennedy once said “those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly” this quote means that if you are scared to fail you will never achieve any thing in life. When you take a risk you have to be prepared for any thing because you might fail. Failing is not necessarily a bad thing. If you fail you just have to get up and try again. John F. Kennedy made a choice to try to become a president and succeed and now is a famous person.
Remember when you take risks they are healthy and positive risks that you take. If the risks you take are not healthy they could put you into danger and that would be bad if they put you into danger then they are not considered healthy risks. Also you can Choose to learn about taking risks in movies, quotes, TV, and songs.
Positive risk-taking is about taking risks that mean something. For example: standing up for someone who is always and constantly being picked on, even though none of it is your problem. Positive risk-taking is very important because you can accomplish more on goals and achievements. It helps because it shows that you can make something of yourself, even if it’s trying for the first time, or doing something for the last time it does not matter. But if you take advantage of it, it becomes a hard choice to deal with if you over work it. You can accomplish many, many goals opportunities, life problems. But if you just use it because you want to be known than it becomes very, very difficult.
As it says in the song standing outside the fire, “life is not tried it is nearly surviving when your standing outside the fire!” It is pretty much telling take the chances when you have the chance. Whenever you may think it is necessary, you should never say never. You may think its not time for your chances but its always the time for positive risk-taking. What positive risk-taking means if you have not gotten it yet it is pretty much about taking meaningful chances, or risks.
Here is a great example. Fighting for a certain right, knowing that you could risk your life if you stand up and talk. Because there may be people who are against what you are fighting for. Then they could try too hurt or even kill you. That’s what one positive risk is. There are many others but just one should get it into your mind.
What it means to me, is it shows what kind of person you are. It shows how strong you are. But if you don’t take at least one risk in your lifetime than you don’t know what it would be like to change something in a positive way. Or possibly change someone’s life. Now that would be an honor! I think everyone has a hint on what this topic means or what it’s about. It shows that you know what risks you are taking. And it shows who YOU are. It should not matter to you what people say negatively towards you. At least you would be standing up for a great , positive right that you know is good for the community or world. Why would you and stand in the dark and not want to know what things you could change. And maybe people will realize what everything really means.
Some risks for some people are too
strange or dangerous. So do a risk in something you enjoy or what you are
interested in. If someone does not like it that does not matter. That’s only
one persons opinion. But as some people say one persons idea or they’re opinion
may be can change what someone else stands up for. It matters what you do so
don’t think you cant do something when your sure you can. Some of the movies we
watched like the one about Lewis and Clark shows what kind of major risks there
are around to do. Like they show that they discovered another part of this
country! Now that is amazing especially in wagons, and horses. I don’t think
that I would be able to! But what they did is so amazing. Like traveling
through dangerous Indian cities. And traveling in rain and ice storms. WOW!
They did some major things for the
You may have to take a risk in life hopefully it is positive. Positive risk taking is when someone makes a risk that may help him or her in life for example trying out for varsity basketball even though there in 9th grade but maybe they have a chance of making the team. Positive risk taking has a big impact on your life it can help you be more confidents in your self. If you have confidence in your self you can be more powerful because you will feel good about your self. Some people “ Are afraid of change,” so they don’t like taking risks even though sometime taking risks helps you in being more confident.
In the music video by Garth Brooks Standing Outside the Fire, A special kid signs up for track instead of the Special Olympics this kid took a risk and at the end he got hurt because he tripped but the best thing was, was when his dad helped him up and finished the race with him. The thing is that in the beginning his father did not want him to be in track he wanted him to be in The Special Olympics instead. In the movie Garth Brooks talks about taking risks “ There’s as much risk in do nothing as there is in doing something”. In the lyrics for the song it says, “We call them cool Those hearts that have no scars to show The ones that never do let go And risk the tables being turned,” It is saying even special kids take great risks and sometimes succeed in those risks. There is also another part in the song where it talks about you must be tough when consumed by desire, Cause it’s not enough just to stand outside the fire, that explains you can’t be scared to take a risk but when you do it you must follow through with your choice.
President Kennedy quote was to influence people to make healthy choices like to do drugs or not to fail or to do your homework. President Kennedy quote was “Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly”, and those who achieved greatly are now remembered by a memorial or are very famous like John F Kennedy became our president and lead our country in many good things and gave our country great speeches.
Lewis and Clark completed many good
risks, they made it successfully across the mountains and they made peace with
the Indians, but the most important risk they completed was completing the map
The famous quote by Lynn E. Ponton, M.D, and Why Teenagers Do the Things They Do? Some teenagers do the things they do to fit in or to get attention. Sometimes teens do good things, like getting a summer job. Teens some times make bad risks such as drinking under age, or even doing drugs.
Someone who took a huge risk that changed our community was Martin Luther King Jr. He took a risk to change how people treated the colored people and tried to push them around, and terrorized their home. So Martin Luther King took a huge risk and even though he got terrorized he keep fighting for his dream.
In conclusion healthy risk taking can help someone be more successful and become very famous. They also complete many goals. Healthy risk taking can become very helpful in your future.
Positive risk taking is important because if you don’t sometimes you don’t get freedom. Positive risk taking is talked about in the music video standing outside the fire. In a quote wrote by president John f. Kennedy it talking about positive risk taking. Finally in a article with positive risk taking in the article. Starting by telling you about the music video.
The music video standing outside the fire is important because it shows that handicap people are just as good at things as people without problems. Positive risk taking is important because it says that don’t stay under people influences. Positive risk taking is important so you can take a chance in doing something better than what you where doing before. It’s also improving in what somebody says you can’t do. There’s a line in the lyric’s that say life is not tired it is merely survived which means you can sit around and not take a risk and not get anywhere in life or you can take a positive risk and get a lot of places in life. The point of the song is very important because it teaches you to take a positive risk. That is like turning your homework in on time. Now to the article.
The article your going to see why parents ask why teenagers do the stuff they do. A lot of teenagers are negative risk taking. Parents that take risk are role -models for the teens. People who positive risk taking is by joining teams and sports, volunteering, and traveling. Some people get into negative risk taking like things drinking, smoking, doing drugs, and sexual intercourse. Parents need to watch what they do around there kids because someday there kids may be like you. Some people who over power negative risk taking by teaching it to younger siblings in the families. A quote by John F. Kennedy.
This quote is “those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.” This means to try and you will achieve in what you are doing. For example kids in school who are failing if they try they could get better grades. At work you want a raise you have to work harder than before. At a sport when you want to play in a game and haven’t been to any practices it shows to you if you want to play go to practice. When your in a club you have to do your part in the club so that you can move on to something else. That’s what the quote means.
The music video standing outside the fire by Garth brooks does have positive risk taking in that song. John f. Kennedy’s quote also has positive risk taking. The article does tell you there is positive risk taking in it to. That is what this essay is about .
Each person must live their life as a model for others.
There is positive and negative risk taking. This essay is about positive risk taking. Positive risk taking is good for you because it gets things off your mind and to get outside into the wild. Some people made a choice and are powerful to go out in the environment and do many things for the world and not just themselves. Risk taking is important because it can accomplish many things like when Lewis and Clark went west and made a map. Then we Americans started to move west. You can learn many things about risk taking quotes, songs, movie, articles, History, and presidents.
“Standing Outside the Fire” by Garth Brooks shows risk taking and trying new
ones too. In this song a mentally challenge kid named,
The quote that President John F. Kennedy wrote that went like this “ Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly”. This quote means if you fail to do something even though you tired means that someday you will achieve greatly if you trying.
In Lewis and
Clark; Journey of the Corps of Discovery people could learn a lot from them
because they changed the
In this article Lynn E. Ponton describes health and non-healthy choices during adolescence. Some positive risk taking ones are classes, sports, volunteering, art classes, acting in the school play, traveling, running for school office, and making new friends at school, in the community, or around the world. Some negative risk taking are smoking, drinking alcohol, drug use, reckless driving, sexual activity, running away, stealing, and gang activity.
So go out and make your life accomplished and do a healthy (positive) risk taking. Remember go out into the environment and change the world by doing great things and you can do it in a diversity of ways. Some great positive risk taking ideas are explore the world, play a new sport, or do other things in the world that are important to you. Just remember that you can take any risk that you want. Even if you don’t achieve good thing that does not me that you are not a good person. Mia Hamm is a risk taker by taking by doing great things in life like play so many soccer games and also just being a great person and also a hero.
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Published in Times of India, October 08, 2010
We do not realize what a great invention the pot is. Without the pot, we would still be animals, going to water bodies like rivers and ponds to hydrate ourselves. Thanks to the pot, we can get the water into our homes, our family does not have to trek for miles for a sip of water. The water is safe, no crocodiles lurking beneath the water, no tigers waiting to pounce on us as we are at our most vulnerable. Pot represents human civilization. In fact, pot is the ultimate proof of humanity. It indicates we are no longer animals.
In ancient India, the pot was revered. It became the symbol of the womb or garbha, for it sustained human life, enabling storage of water and food. It was equated with the mother. A pot was worshipped as the symbol of divinity. A pot filled with water and sprouts and crowned with green leaves and fruits became the symbol of abundance and good fortune. It was worshipped over 3000 years ago. It is still worshipped today.
The gods, the ancient believed, had a pot that overflowed with grain and gold. It was called the Akshaya patra. They also had a pot brimming with Amrita, the nectar of immortality. Humans had neither. But they had amongst them women. Only women created life within them and ensured the survival of the next generation. Women were therefore a combination of Akshya patra and Amrita, holding in their bodies the promise of abundance and immortality for the family. Without a woman, a family perished. The family tree withered.
It is strange that India today is obsessed with sons. In ancient times women were clearly more regarded than men. The survival of a tribe depended not on the number of men it had but women. So in the early days, women were given the choice to choose husbands. Those who were rejected turned to abducting or even buying women. The foremost form of wedding was considered to be one where the father gave his daughter to another family. It was a gift of Akshaya patra and Amrita.
While the forest was equated with the wild goddess, the field was equated with the domesticated goddess. Forest was woman, field was wife. Forest was water in the pond, field was water in a pot. Field was the womb that sustained a village. It was worshiped as humanity’s Akshaya patra and Amrita, bringing forth wealth year after year.
In autumn, as the rains recede and the crops are harvested, three things come together on nine nights: the pot, the woman and the field. In the centre of the field, the pot is placed filled with water and sprouts, and around it women dance in circular formation. They bend down and clap as they thank the earth and the cosmos and energize it with their happiness. This is garbo, the dance of the earth-womb. For nine nights one is reminded that the pot like the wife and the field are cultural constructions, not natural phenomena, created by man. If we do not respect all three, they will collapse. And it will be the end of civilization.
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Before there was the fish stick, there was the fish brick.
Looking for ways to make its products more appealing to housewives in the late 1940s, the U.S. fishing industry briefly flirted with a novel idea: packaging fish similar to ice cream—in big, rectangular containers.
Fish were cleaned and filleted at sea, layered into stacks, and compressed into frozen bricks. The homemaker could “cut the fish into any shape and be confident that the shape will be retained even after cooking,” according to historian Paul Josephson.
Fish bricks didn’t fly off supermarket shelves.
Sometime after this misadventure, however, the fishing industry settled on the idea of single-serving, breaded fish sticks. Since the mid-1950s, the easy-to-serve, portion-controlled items have regularly found their way onto U.S. dinner tables and into school lunches. The past decade, however, has given fishermen and scientists a preview of the challenges they may face in keeping fish sticks on the menu as the planet gets warmer.
Alaska Pollock: the fish-stick fish
Historically, multiple types of white fish have been used for fish sticks, but today, the primary fish-stick fish is Alaska pollock (Theragra chalcogramma). They are also the go-to fish for many fast-food fish sandwiches, and the mild-tasting fish is regularly used in imitation crab. With an annual harvest that fluctuates around a million tons, Alaska pollock is the United States’ largest fishery, and it’s one of the biggest, most economically valuable fisheries in the world.
Found throughout the northern Pacific Ocean, Alaska pollock are most common in the Bering Sea. These fast-growing fish can reproduce within three years, and they live to be about 12. Juveniles eat tiny animals and protozoans known as zooplankton; older pollock sometimes expand the menu by cannibalizing younger pollock (eggs, larvae, and juveniles).
Alaska pollock populations exhibit large fluctuations from year to year. Historically, declines in some regions were exacerbated by heavy fishing. By establishing annual catch limits (quotas) on this stock since 1977, the United States has long worked to ensure that the pollock fishery is a model for sustainable seafood harvest.
But while quotas have largely addressed the problem of human overfishing of Alaska pollock, another challenge looms for the NOAA Fisheries Service: keeping up with changes in climate. Warmer water temperatures appear to be a double-whammy for pollock: they reduce availability of the pollock’s preferred food, while increasing the populations of its predators.
Eating and being eaten
Each summer and autumn, young pollock have to load up on zooplankton. Jeff Napp of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center explains, “Young pollock have to go through some lean times in the winter when they won’t find much food, so they have to lay in a lot of fat.”
Zooplankton abundance, in turn, corresponds with sea ice extent. Every year, sea ice waxes and wanes over the Northern Hemisphere, growing through the winter and melting through the summer. In the Bering Sea, ice may linger as late as May, or retreat as early as March.
Phyllis Stabeno, of the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, and others including Ron Heintz, of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, have found a correlation between the persistence of sea ice through the spring, the presence of zooplankton the following summer, and the health of young pollock.
Warmer conditions, with less ice, are less favorable for large zooplankton, and therefore less favorable for Alaska pollock.
“We don’t understand the exact mechanism of why, when conditions are warm, there are so few large zooplankton. That research is still being done,” she says. But clearly Alaska pollock can’t eat zooplankton that aren’t there.
Warmer temperatures present Alaska pollock with another challenge. Another northern Pacific fish species, arrowtooth flounder (Atheresthes stomias) feed on juvenile pollock. “And arrowtooth like warmer water,” Stabeno explains.
An odd decade
It’s normal for temperature and sea ice conditions to vary considerably from year to year in the Bering Sea, and short-lived warmth is unlikely to exert a long-term effect on Alaska fish stocks. But the years 2001 through 2005 brought prolonged warmth to the Bering Sea and other high-latitude seas in the Northern Hemisphere.
“It wasn’t the variability you normally see, it was a series of warm years,” Stabeno says. The five-year stretch of warmth decreased the young’s available prey while increasing their predators. Pretty soon it started to affect the fishing stock of pollock.”
Throughout the period of unusual warmth, the NOAA Fisheries Service monitored not only ocean temperatures but also Alaska pollock catches. Young Alaska pollock live around the middle of the water column, and older pollock live closer to the sea floor.
Jim Ianelli of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center says, “We have an annual bottom-trawl survey which surveys the older part of the population, and every other year, we also survey the younger part of the population.”
NOAA uses such surveys to set quotas. Mike Sigler, also based at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, describes the quota-revision process. “An author like Jim will produce the most contemporary evaluation of the stock status. That’s brought before two scientific review panels. The panels can adjust the assessment of how much should be caught in the next two years.” The assessments aim not just for population numbers, but an understanding of what factors might be affecting those numbers.
The prolonged warmth and low zooplankton availability from 2001 to 2005 prompted the NOAA Fisheries Service to lower the Bering Sea pollock quota, from about 1.5 million tons to 0.8 million tons for 2006 through 2010. Luckily, the years 2007 through 2011 brought colder weather, more sea ice, and more favorable conditions for Alaska pollock. As a result, in 2011, NOAA Fisheries Service raised the quota to 1.27 million tons.
By 2040, “unusual” warmth could be the status quo
Although the unusual warmth of 2001 through 2005 has passed, the researchers fear it may have been a preview of what’s to come in the decades ahead. A range of climate projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecasts that starting around 2040, temperatures around the Bering Sea could mimic those of 2001 through 2005.
A shift to warmer climate conditions could once again increase Alaska pollock predators, while decreasing their food supply. The changes could pressure pollock to move northward, from the southern Bering Sea to the northern Bering Sea, but the shift wouldn’t be straightforward.
Surrounded by landmass, the northern Bering Sea has different ocean physics, Stabeno explains. Further, she says, “The northern Bering Sea only has four hours of daylight in the winter, so it gets very cold. Pollock are not particularly fond of water below 2 degrees Celsius.” To move north, they would have to stay closer to the continental shelf edge where the water is warmer, than over the middle shelf.
Warmer conditions could force fishery managers to lower Alaska pollock quotas over the long term, which means by mid-century, fish sticks—at least as we know them today—might become less economical.
Sigler points out that the demise of pollock would affect more than just the fish stick market; pollock is a staple food for multiple species of marine mammals and birds. Napp adds, “Alaska’s waters supply up to about 50 percent of the domestically produced seafood for the nation. Changing climate would affect not just pollock, but other commercial fisheries such as crab, salmon, some of the flatfish species.”
And prolonged warmth in the Bering Sea could bring changes no one has yet envisioned. “It’s not easy to predict ecosystems,” Stabeno says. “About eight years ago, we thought if the Bering Sea warmed, Alaska pollock would like warmer water, and would spread all across the Bering Sea, but we didn’t take into account the drop in zooplankton. There are always winners and there are always losers in a changing system, but who those winners and losers will be is hard to predict.”
Ianelli, J.N., Hollowed, A.B., Haynie, A.C., Mueter, F.J., Bond, N.A. (2011). Evaluating management strategies for eastern Bering Sea walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma) in a changing environment. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68(6), 1297-1304.
Josephson, Paul R. (2008).The ocean’s hot dog: The development of the fish stick. Technology and Culture, 49(1), 41-61.
Mueter, F.J.. Bond, N.A., Ianelli, J.N., Hollowed, A.B. (2011). Expected declines in recruitment of walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma) in the eastern Bering Sea under future climate change. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68(6), 1284-1296.
NOAA Fisheries Service, Alaska Fisheries Science Center. Walleye pollock. Accessed May 9, 2012.
NOAA FishWatch. Alaska Pollock. Accessed May 9, 2012.
Roper, M. (2005, September 26). 50 years of the fish finger. Mirror Online. Accessed May 23, 2012.
Stabeno, P.J., Farley, E.V., Kachel, N.B., Moore, S., Mordy, C.W., Napp, J.M., Overland, J.E., Pinchuk, A.I., Sigler, M.F. (2012). A comparison of the physics of the northern and southern shelves of the eastern Bering Sea and some implications for the ecosystem. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, 65-70, 14-30.
Stabeno, P.J., Kachel, N.B., Moore, S.E., Napp, J.M., Sigler, M., Yamaguchi, A., Zerbini, A.N. (2012). Comparison of warm and cold years on the southeastern Bering Sea shelf and some implications for the ecosystem. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, 65-70, 31-45.
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Cyber-security incidents are dramatically increasing year-on-year across the full spectrum of international trade. Due to their visibility, disruption of the essential operations of airlines and airports could feasibly be the subject of a cyber-attack by cyber terrorists.
One such example would be the attack on Istanbul Atatürk and Sabiha Gökçen airports. In July 2013 the passport control systems at the departure terminals in both of these airports were shutdown by a cyber-attack. Passengers were forced to stand in line for hours, and the majority of flights were delayed. Even though the systems were restored, the damage could be felt for many hours after.
In order to keep the global aviation system operating smoothly, the industry relies on information and communications technology (ICT) to deliver critical information, empowering the people working within the network. It is clear that airport infrastructure supports many different operations that are critical for the efficiency and effectiveness of the air transport system.
Unfortunately, not all airports have implemented cyber-security systems that would protect and control those operations and all related features. It simply means that even though many may have security measures in place, cyber criminals, ‘hacktivists’, or cyber terrorists may consider this as a perfect opportunity to attack the airports in many different ways.
4 types of security incident
But first, we need to understand what are the possible threats for airports. According to 9 Steps to Cybersecurity by Dejan Kosutic, there are four types of security incident: Natural Disaster, Malicious Attack (External Source), Internal Attack, and Malfunction and Unintentional Human Error.
Firstly, natural disasters – these include severe floods, earthquakes, snow, and ice storms, hurricanes and other hazardous natural processes that may disturb the business continuity of an airport or even completely shut down the airports for an indefinite amount of time.
Secondly, malicious attacks are a serious threat, which usually come from external sources. These attacks are taking place all around the world almost every minute and the targets vary from banking systems to e-mail servers. In terms of airports, the most ‘desirable’ exposed parts could be public wireless hotspots, which are heavily used by the passengers at almost every airport; the baggage systems, serving thousands of passengers’ belongings; main airport websites, and so on.
Thirdly, if a member of the airport staff destroys airport data, leaks sensitive information, or in a worst-case scenario, harms the systems intentionally, then the airport would not have a pleasant experience from an internal attack.
And finally, sometimes the airport may suffer from random errors or accidental failures like power loss, equipment shutdown or damage, loss of internet and phone lines; this type of incident would be called a malfunction and unintentional human error.
As mentioned, the air transport industry is one of the targets likely to be selected by cyber terrorists, be it airlines or airports.
It is crucial to understand that the disruption caused by a cyber-attack also depends on the airport’s size and traffic. However, all these types of incidents may result in long-term implications for any type of the airport.
Loss of operations for any period of time would seriously harm the business. The same goes for reduced throughput of, for example, Hold Baggage Systems, which would lead to chaos from the passenger’s side, and operational productivity would drastically drop.
Moreover, the leakage or destruction of data does not sound convincing – sensitive information may reach third parties that are waiting to use it for their own interest, which could be disastrous not only for the airport, but also for the whole of the aviation sector.
Usually, any severe incidents that require time to be solved inevitably lead to a financial loss; whether it affects a stable hub airport or a small regional airport, delays or cancellation of flights result in high recovery costs.
If that were not worrying enough though, the whole situation would be aggravated by the press and an immediate negative ripple effect on social media.
Preparing for the worst
That’s not to say that airports will be left entirely defenceless against this new foe; there are many activities ongoing in Europe from different institutions and bodies aiming at spreading awareness of cyber-attacks and how to protect businesses. In 2013, the European Commission released a policy document called Cybersecurity Strategy of the European Union: An Open, Safe and Secure Cyberspace that invites industries to take certain actions at the national level in order to protect their business and to have harmonised cyber-security measures among all Member State airports in the EU.
In early 2014, the EU Cyber-security strategy was reviewed and it was agreed to continue the work with the Member States, national and private organisations.
The European Commission has also developed a policy on Network and Information Security (NIS). The aim of this policy is to better coordinate cyber-security measures between EU institutions and EU Member States, involving public and private sector cooperation. The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) was established in 2004 and a new Regulation to strengthen ENISA and modernise its mandate is currently being negotiated by the Council and European Parliament.
Despite progress based on voluntary commitments, there are still gaps across the EU, notably in terms of national capabilities, coordination in case of incidents spanning across borders, and in terms of private sector involvement and preparedness. In terms of airports in the EU, they are specifically vulnerable because air transport infrastructure (that includes ground and inflight ATM) is dependent on continuous and uninterrupted information flows and databases, which cannot be allowed to fail. An agreement on a Directive on NIS is planned for the end of 2014.
What is more, the UK Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) published a report in 2012, Cyber-security in Civil Aviation, based on discussions of the Joint Coordination Group (JCG), which states that cyber-security should be part of all civil aviation considerations. The JCG aims to coordinate operations related to developing cyber-security for the air transport industry. The report gives a background of the current situation, and names organisations and government bodies that are related and involved with the issues. Furthermore, it gives recommendations and guidance that the aviation industry should consider, in order to increase its cyber-security.
Research: ECAC Study Group & the EACCC
Furthermore, the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) has a Study Group on Cyber Threats to Civil Aviation that provides guidance for Member States, in terms of cyber-security control measures. The Study Group considers recent developments in cyber-security and a cyber-threat matrix taking into account work that was done by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, a framework for establishing best practices for reducing cyber-attacks on critical aviation information systems (CIAS), and risk assessment comparability.
Conclusions and lessons learned were presented from a cyber-crisis management exercise, which was held in May 2013 and one of the aims was to activate the European Aviation Crisis Co-ordination Cell (EACCC). The guidance material, written by the Study Group, is a supplementing directive on ‘cyber-threats to aviation’ in ECAC DOC30 chapter 14.
When the guidance material is prepared and published, it will depend on Member States to ensure that organisations and air transport operators take actions and implement measures accordingly. Although the guidance material is more focused on Air Traffic Management (ATM) and aircraft systems, airports are also encouraged to take action. ACI EUROPE has two representatives (from Birmingham Airport and ADP) in the ECAC Study Group and is actively involved in this work.
If we look at the US, the Transportation Research Board (TRB) is a part of the National Academies of Science that is aiming to develop Airport Cyber-security Best Practices. The research team, which consists of Grafton Technologies, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Massport, or Grafton Information Services, asks airports to share their experience, knowledge and concerns about cyber-security issues. The results of this research will be freely available in a guidebook and multi-media material on the TRB website. The outcome of this research is intended to help airports to set up and manage an efficient cyber-security programme.
How airports can prepare
There are a number of actions that airports could consider and implement in order to protect their business. Firstly, it is important to recognise the cyber-risk and threat, and then it would be easier to establish a cyber-security strategy, objectives, vision, and mission.
Secondly, promotion of cyber-security awareness would be effective at all levels, both business practices and the interface with customers. In particular, industries should reflect on ways to make CEOs and Boards more accountable for ensuring adequate cyber-security measures.
The first step could be the provision of training on cyber-security to all relevant staff, and a dialogue at all levels of airport management. Furthermore, airports should regularly test their own systems through the use of external audits, penetration testing, and regular examination of the airport’s websites. What could also help is deployment of advanced protection gateways for Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) networks. SCADA is a part of airports’ critical infrastructure and responsible for control of equipment (water pipes, apron services, etc), and having security devices installed, would eliminate the risk of access by cyber criminals to SCADA networks.
Moreover, airports should be encouraged to share their experience with other airports and national and international organisations by spreading the word through conferences, meetings, and so on.
ACI EUROPE is following discussions in the Council and European Parliament to ensure that the interests of airports are taken into account and that any reporting requirements are not too burdensome for members.
Not just for geeks
Ostensibly, cyber-attacks are not the responsibility of IT departments alone; it covers all the elements of an airport business and should be considered as a serious threat. Since airports are heavily dependent on interconnected systems, a sudden shutdown or a failure would undoubtedly reduce and suspend the continuity of business for an indefinite amount of time.
There is absolutely no guarantee that cyber-attacks will not happen, but if – or rather when – they happen, the time it takes to recognise, analyse and respond to an incident will limit the damage and lower the cost of recovery to an airport. The consequences can cost billions, but it is not only about the money: trust and reputation of the airport would be significantly harmed as well. Possible next step? “Put Cyber-security on the agenda before it becomes the agenda” (UK GCHQ, 2012).
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Environmental DNA (eDNA) is shed by plants and animals into the environment. We can detect these tiny traces left by living things and use them to monitor biodiversity.
Collecting eDNA is as easy as taking a sample of soil, air or water. Imagine collecting a bucket of seawater from a reef, filtering the tiny pieces of DNA, sequencing their unique codes and then matching those codes to species. That bucket of seawater could tell you every species present on that reef. It would save you sending out a team of divers or watching countless hours of underwater footage as a result.
But eDNA is only useful if we can match it to the species it belongs to.
Building a National Biodiversity DNA Library
Our researcher Dr Jenny Giles said marine species are common targets for eDNA studies.
“To read eDNA, we need to be able to match it to the species it came from. At the moment, researchers can only identify a small fraction of eDNA detected in marine studies. This is because there’s a lack of suitable DNA reference sequences,” she said.
Matching eDNA to a DNA reference sequence for a species is just like matching a marine animal to a photo of its species.
“To solve this problem, we decided to create a new DNA reference library. But it’s not just for marine species,” Jenny said.
“We’re building a comprehensive collection of DNA reference sequences for all known Australian animal and plant species. It will be accessible via an online portal so researchers, industries and governments can monitor our environment into the future.”
Using eDNA for monitoring and conservation
We are partnering with Minderoo Foundation to fund DNA reference sequences for marine vertebrate animals in the new DNA library. This will include fish, whales and dolphins, seals, turtles, sea snakes and sea birds.
These DNA reference sequences will enable eDNA studies to detect and map marine animals all around Australia. eDNA studies can do this cheaply, on a huge scale and at a detailed resolution. Also, eDNA studies are easy to repeat at different times of the year and achievable in remote locations.
So creating a full set of DNA reference sequences for Australia’s marine vertebrate animals will transform monitoring for these species.
Working with collections
Around 5500 scientifically named species of marine vertebrates live in Australian waters. Australia’s research collections including our Australian National Fish Collection and Australian National Wildlife Collection hold specimens of Australia’s species, identified by experts. Working with Bioplatforms Australia, we will use small samples of tissue from these specimens for creating DNA reference sequences.
We will use laboratory techniques we developed to create DNA reference sequences from specimens in natural history collections. Our techniques are high-throughput and work across all species from bugs to barramundi. By sequencing full reference genomes used for species identification for each species, our library will compatible with existing libraries, which use partial reference genomes.
Australia is home to around 700,000 species of plants, animals and other organisms like fungi and algae. Of these, only around a third have scientific names. Ultimately, we aim to include all named species of animals, plants and other key groups for biomonitoring in the National Biodiversity DNA Library.
Bioplatforms Australia is enabled by the Commonwealth Government National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy.
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Holidays Around the World BUNDLE of ACTIVITIES
PROJECT #1: HOLIDAYS AROUND THE WORLD 3D GLOBE
Students make a collage type 3D spinning project after reading passages about DIWALI, HANUKKAH, ST. LUCIA'S DAY, LAS POSADAS, KWANZAA, AND CHRISTMAS
PROJECT #2: HOLIDAYS AROUND THE WORLD CUBE
Students make a 3D cube (an alternate project to the one above) for after reading passages about DIWALI, HANUKKAH, ST. LUCIA'S DAY, LAS POSADAS, KWANZAA, AND CHRISTMAS
PROJECT #3: HOLIDAY WISHES CUBE PROJECT
Students make holiday wishes related to the following holiday words: Peace, Love, Family, Believe, and Joy. The 6th side of the cube allows the students to draw a picture of how they celebrate the holidays!
PROJECT#4: HOLIDAY PEN PALS AROUND THE WORLD
This Holiday Around the World pack includes 12 different fictitious pen pals (60 pages with follow up activities) for your students to learn about how the holidays are celebrated in other parts of the world! Each pen pal letter (full sheet or mini-book included) provides explicit information and informative text for your students to learn about different cultures. This file also includes 4 follow up (CCSS aligned) sheets for each pen pal letter/country.
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There are almost 60 million children around the world who are not in elementary or middle school. That’s nearly twice as many as the number of U.S. children who are in school. And a staggering global total of 250 million kids, nearly 40 percent of the world’s children of primary-school age, can’t read a single sentence.
We can and must drastically improve these numbers. Children, regardless of where they are born, deserve the right to reach their full potential. Thankfully a global education movement is on the rise, committing to provide quality basic education for all children.
Education is the catalyst for poverty reduction and a better world. For example, people with a primary education are 1.5 times more likely to support democracy than people with no education. A child with an educated mother is twice as likely to go to school. A child with a literate mother is twice as likely to reach age five. HIV/AIDS infection rates are halved among young people who finish primary school.
Congress must support the Global Partnership for Education and Basic Education so those 60 million children will be in school and can read every sentence.
Betsy Suero Skipp, Miami
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Read Chapters 8-15, study the vocabulary terms, and review your lecture notes.
- What direction do mid-latitude cyclones move across North America?
- Define a hurricane by wind speed.
- Know the characteristics of an occluded front, a cold front, and a warm front.
- What are air mass source regions?
- What is the sequence of clouds you experience as a warm front approaches?
- What conditions are necessary to form a tropical cyclone?
- What forecasting method is best suited for predicting the weather more than one month in advance?
- Know the letter codes for describing air masses (i.e. cP, mP, cT, etc.)
- If an air mass is warmer than the surface over which it passes, is it stable or unstable? What if it is colder than the surface over which it passes?
- What time of the year do tornados occur most frequently? Where are they most common in our country?
- What is a typhoon?
- What occurs in the eye of a hurricane?
- What time of the year are hurricanes most common in the Northern Hemisphere? Are they generally larger or smaller than mid-latitude cyclones?
- Understand the general characteristics of the Astronomical Theory of climate change.
- What are the two major variables in the Koppen Climate System?
- Of the major climate groups in the Koppen System, which one is not humid?
- Why are there so many deserts at 30º latitude?
- Even though subarctic and tundra climates generally have small precipitation totals, why are they still considered to be humid climates?
- What factors increase the concentration in of air pollution in the atmosphere?
- What are waterspouts?
- What latitudes are geostationary weather satellites best suited for observing atmospheric conditions?
- Does the Theory of Plate Tectonics offer a possible explanation for the discovery of tropical fossils that currently lie in colder climates?
- What happens to ocean currents during an El Nino?
- Can lightning occur within the same cloud?
- What happens in the cumulus stage of thunderstorm development?
- What is a squall line?
- Understand the difference between a tornado warning and a tornado watch.
- Define the term acid precipitation in terms of pH value.
- Know the characteristics of all the climate types discussed in class. (i.e. Mediterranean, desert, tundra, etc.)
- You will have a matching section on the hypothetical continent.
- You will have five questions on climate classification using monthly data.
- You will have a matching section on the weather in various locations in a mid-latitude cyclone.
- There will be no essay question on this final.
4/18/2012 3:32 PM
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Location: Fredericksburg, VA Fleet Type: Municipal Police Fleet
The City of Fredericksburg commissioned Virginia Clean Cities (VCC) to examine the benefits of switching to a hybrid fleet. The annual police patrol vehicle mileage ranges from 6,533 to 8,327. The Police Department’s fuel costs average is $1.53 per gallon for gasoline while electricity is 9.7 cents per kWh with very low volatility due to Virginia’s regulated electricity sector. For comparison, $0.10 per kWh equals about $1.00 per gallon of gasoline.
VCC found that when running air conditioning and heat, the cars benefit from an idle-reduction strategy. In a hybrid vehicle, the engine programming allows the engine to idle less because the battery can power the police radio, computer, climate control, and other functions that keep a gasoline car’s engine running when the vehicle is stationary. The average patrol vehicle consumes 663 gallons of gasoline annually, half of which is consumed while idling. VCC found that the 39 patrol vehicles idling generate 138 tons of CO2, consumes more than 13,833 gallons of gasoline and costs the department $21,165 in fuel expenses.
The study also found that a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, petroleum use, and air pollutants is possible from transitioning to an electric or gas-hybrid fleet. The replacement of gasoline vehicles with hybrid vehicles results in an estimated 62% lifetime reduction in petroleum use and a 62% lifetime reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from these vehicles
Outputs & Outcomes
The Police Department’s efforts to have a green fleet stemmed from City Council’s vision for a Green, Clean Environment (2036 Vision) and their 2019 100% Renewable Energy Resolution. In 2019, they committed to the goal of powering municipal operations with 100% renewable energy by 2035 or earlier.
Last summer, the Fredericksburg Police Department introduced three hybrid patrol vehicles into their fleet, and the reaction from the police force has been positive. There are plans to purchase more hybrid patrol vehicles in the future. Each hybrid police vehicle will reduce emissions in patrol areas of Fredericksburg where these vehicles operate.
Best Practices & Lessons Learned
Police fleet vehicles present a unique challenge and opportunity for electrification due to their duty cycle and operational needs.
Supply chain issues significantly delayed the delivery of hybrid Police Interceptors for 12 months.
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Staying in the loop
How can circular economy principles be applied to the water industry? Oliver Heidrich, Majed Khadem and Brett Cherry investigate
While the term ‘circular economy’ has become widespread in trade and industry, it doesn’t usually focus on our most valuable resource: water. According to the latest estimate, global demand for water will exceed our supplies by 40% in a decade if we take the ‘business as usual’ route. A circular approach could help us to realise the true value of water resources and avoid the linear ‘take-make-dispose’ mindset that is plaguing the global water sector.
Newcastle University hosted a Global Water Security Symposium in early 2020 to discuss water and the circular economy, attended by industry (P&G, ARUP and HR Wallingford), academia (Leiden University and Newcastle University) and some 50 audience members. This article takes its inspiration from the discussions and views expressed by the panel and audience.
The circular economy principle has historical and philosophical origins. The thinking around feedback loops, biological cycles and systems understanding is ancient and covers various schools of philosophy, from Karl Marx to Kenneth Boulding. Most recently, industrial ecology redefined industrial processes by introducing the idea of a circular flow of materials, in which the by-products of one process are used as an input for another process.
“It is possible to optimise resource usage through digital technologies and platforms”
The circular economy concept can be narrowed down to four basic principles:
1. Working with nature. The key element of a circular concept is to minimise, if not avoid, waste. In doing so, we must maximise our harnessing of nature. Examples are producing renewable energy or using green (natural) infrastructures instead of grey (concrete) counterparts.
2. Keeping resources in use as much as possible. This can be achieved by maximising the lifetime of our assets through the frequent maintenance, repair and upgrade of a system’s components. Additionally, it would be ideal if we could use digital and online platforms (eg online asset-sharing marketplace for companies) to optimise resource use in a supply chain.
3. Designing out waste externalities. This is closely tied to the reduction of wastes, and could be done by improving consumption behaviour, minimising energy and resource use, and considering alternatives that yield the same outcome without wasting natural resources.
4. Regenerating natural capital. For instance, we can sell performances, rather than goods (eg leasing instead of buying). We can also assign a higher value to energy and resources that are normally undervalued. We understand that this would require a substantial rewrite of existing business models but, as with cars, it is possible.
A water circular economy creates opportunities for business and environmental sustainability, and boosts profitability. There are many examples of how the circular economy concept could work in the sector.
Working with nature
Green infrastructure is vital to the water circular economy in both urban and rural areas. Green roofs, retention ponds and other green features help to slow, store and filter the water runoff that can lead to flooding.
To find out how green infrastructure can provide water circular economy solutions, it needs to be measured and evaluated, so that its full-scale benefits can be understood. The National Green Infrastructure Facility, part of the UK Collaboratorium for Research in Infrastructure & Cities and based at Newcastle Helix, makes this possible.
The facility has many noteworthy features, such as a unique sustainable drainage system consisting of a swale that holds 600m3 of water captured from nearby residential sites. It is designed to cope with a 1:100-year return interval storm, plus a 30% increase in rainfall, which allows for climate change. Data generated is freely available at newcastle.urbanobservatory.ac.ukhttp://newcastle.urbanobservatory.ac.uk
“The 'cap and trade' policies designed to reduce industry carbon dioxide emissions could also be used for water”
Keeping resources in use
How can the water sector better manage opportunities and optimise water usage from a water circular economy point of view? The answer is twofold. First, we need to do something to minimise losses in the water sector, especially leakage from piped networks. This can be done via the latest advances in this field. Twenty65, a research consortium in the UK, addressed this by creating leakage-detecting robots that can inspect pipes for damages and signal where they need to be mended.
Second, it is possible to optimise resource usage through digital technologies and platforms that allow such optimisation by providing live monitoring and tracking of water resources. It could be like the smart grid revolution for power systems,which enables the energy network to be managed in real-time and communicate directly with energy consumers.
Designing out waste externalities
A wastewater treatment plant can become an energy provider through, for example, anaerobic digestion or microbial electrolysis for hydrogen production. The former is already widely used by the water sector, and its use is growing; the latter could be use in the future, especially if market demand increases for renewable energy sources such as hydrogen.
Wind power to hydrogen – ‘power-to-gas’ – is already cost-competitive by comparison. A steady supply of clean water is necessary to generate hydrogen, meaning the water sector could play a major role; hydrogen is also used for a wide range of industrial purposes, such as manufacturing and steel production.
A range of valuable materials could also be upcycled from wastewater. In some cases, gold and other precious metals are attached to the sludge of municipal wastewater, along with many other useful materials.
Regenerating natural capital
Water is often viewed as a ‘freebie’ from the environment. It can be extracted at little to no cost, unless it is piped and metered. Based on circular economy principles, it should be the other way around – even volumes of water in a small lake should be assigned a value. There are some approaches to doing so. For example, Khadem et. al (2020 – bit.ly/2TqHB1U) developed a method to estimate the economic value of water stored in reservoirs. The method finds
the value per unit of water for every reservoir within a system that leads to maximised economic gain from system-wide allocation.
The ‘cap and trade’ policies designed to reduce industry carbon dioxide emissions could also be used for water. With water cap and trade in place, households and businesses that go over their designated allowances would have to buy the extra allowance from the water company at a much higher price than the cost of water below that ‘cap’. If a user has an extra allowance, they could sell it to others who have exceeded the ‘cap’. But they could ‘trade’ at a higher price than the water company charges below the cap, and lower than what the water company charges above the cap. Users could also sell the extra allowance back to the water company. This could prompt people to improve their overall consumption behaviour, but would require installing (smart) water meters for every user.
Additionally, the treating of household water alone is blamed for 3% of global electricity consumption. Cap and trade could be a big win in areas where energy use for operating water and sewerage systems is very high – such as California, where 20% of electricity is used to supply water.
Policy and technology can work together
Policies and technologies that help to reduce water consumption are urgently required. We also need to be thinking about water as a service by incentivising water conservation rather than exploitation. The ‘50L home challenge’ supported by P&G brings companies, policymakers and communities together. They want to develop and scale innovations for the home that help solve the urban water crisis, considering water access, quality, and innovation in the sector. Accepting that most water is used by food, agriculture and industry, it is a step in the right direction.
What we do in the food sector also has massive implications, as 70% of freshwater resources is used for agriculture. Thinking about water in a more circular way within a changing environment leads to the energy-water-food nexus, which encompasses a wide variety of public, business and international opportunities for sustainability.
There are many opportunities out there for delivering a truly circular water system – some of which are already being taken, many of which are not. As in other areas of the circular economy, there need to be incentives for reducing water usage, valorising water resources and interfacing with other sectors in smart ways.
It is imperative that circular economy principles are practised for water on a global scale for its numerous opportunities and benefits to be realised. However, there are barriers in our way, many of which are social and political rather than technical.
A better framework for understanding the true value of water may be needed – one that puts people to the forefront of water policies and considers the human right to water as a resource. Through an in-depth holistic understanding of the value of water, a circular economy is more likely to work in practice.
Dr Oliver Heidrich is a senior lecturer in the School of Engineering at Newcastle University
Dr Majed Khadem is water resource scientist at HR Wallingford
Brett Cherry is a science writer for Newcastle University
All authors work with the Water Group and Environmental Engineering in the School of Engineering at Newcastle University.
Picture Credit | iStock | Alamy
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Understanding the basic needs of your fish is the single most important thing to know about keeping successful aquariums! Doing so will make your life (and the lives of your fish) much easier and a lot more fun.
I’ve been keeping aquariums for 17 years. I quickly learned that taking care of my fish became far easier and much more enjoyable when I simply took the time to learn about my hobby. And, that's the purpose of these articles - to teach begginers the aquarium care basics.
In this Aquarium Care 101 series of articles I’ll cover fish tank size, filtration, acclimation, and other fundamental bits of knowledge I shared with customers while working at two top-notch aquarium shops. My goal is teach you how to keep clean, healthy beautiful aquariums.Read Aqurium Care 101 Articles
Although most people incorporate live plants within their freshwater aquascapes, the term “planted aquarium” applies to fish tanks that rely primarily on plants for aesthetic appeal.
Plants are the heart of the planted aquarium with tropical fish complementing the lush underwater garden. People interested in planted aquariums, therefore, tend to invest in extra equipment (stronger lighting, for example), and set their tank up in a way that will promote lush plant growth.
In the Planted Aquarium Care 101 series of articles I discuss the things to consider when setting up a planted fish tank. Even if your aquarium features few live plants, you’ll pick up bits of information that will help both with your fish and your plants.Read Planted Aqurium Care 101 Articles
View pictures and information about my aquariums. What's more, This section has transformed into a support forum of sorts where I answer people’s aquarium care questions!
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How to save money: A step-by-step guide for millennials – Transfer your debt to a credit card with a 0% APR introductory period and get aggressive with those payments. That way, you won’t be paying any interest. you can save the difference if you.
Interest rate vs. APY vs. APR: What’s the Difference? – Annual percentage rate, or APR, is an expression that tells you the true cost of borrowing money. In addition to the interest you pay your lender, APR also takes certain other costs into.
What is APR? | APR vs. Interest Rate | U.S. Bank – What is the difference between APR and interest rate? At its simplest, the interest rate reflects the current cost of borrowing. The APR provides a more complete picture by taking the interest rate as a starting point and accounting for lender fees required to finance the mortgage loan.
What Is APR and How Does It Affect Your Mortgage? – NerdWallet – APR is generally higher than interest rate, but that's not always a bad thing.. The difference between APRs and interest rates, and the other finer points of.
Mortgage Interest Rates Fha Fha Loan Rates Calculator Mortgage rates increase for Monday – At the current average rate, you’ll pay principal and interest of $525.87 for every $100,000 you borrow. That’s up $1.81 from what it would have been last week. You can use Bankrate’s mortgage.MBA: Mortgage Applications and Interest Rates Continue to Fall – The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share fell to 7.5%. The FHA share rose to 11.0% from 10.5%, the VA share rose to 11.0% from 10.0%, and the USDA share rose to 0.6% from 0.5%. The average contract.
What is the Difference Between Interest Rate and APR. – If so, it’s important to understand that an advertised rate of interest isn’t the same as your loan’s Annual Percentage Rate (APR). The interest rate is an annual cost to the borrower for borrowing money in the form of a mortgage or automobile loan.
What Is The Current Fed Rate Federal funds rate FED – American central bank's current and. – The current American interest rate FED (base rate) is 2.000 %. Note: at this time the FED has adopted an interest rate range of 1.75% to 2.00%.
Know the difference between deferred and no interest – The offer of no interest if paid in full within 12 months is a common come-on used to entice you to buy. Then there is the similar pitch of the 0 percent introductory annual percentage rate (APR..
What is the difference between nominal, effective and APR. – APR (aka Annualised Percentage Rate) is a type of interest rate that is calculated over a set period of months (normally twelve). Ok, so far that seems fairly easy to understand. Now let’s look at how APR is related to nominal and effective interest rates: Nominal APR is the simple interest rate you pay over one year.
Refi Rates 15 Year 10 Year Loan Interest Rate Current Mortgage Rates | Bankrate – The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate is 4.62%, up 8 basis points from a week ago. 15-year fixed mortgage rates are 4.00%, up 4 basis points from a week ago.Today’s Rates – Santa Clara County Federal Credit Union. – *APR= Annual Percentage Rate. Rates as low as 9.365% APR, your rate may be higher depending on your credit profile. personal loan interest rates range from 9.365% to 19.365% APR.
APR and APY: Why Your Bank Hopes You Can’t Tell the Difference – Investopedia The APY for a 1% rate of interest compounded monthly would. The more frequently the interest compounds, the greater the difference between APR and APY. Whether you are shopping for a.
Did Interest Rates Go Up Today Fha Loan Rates Calculator Mortgage Payment Calculator | USAA – Principal and interest are based on a fixed-rate mortgage. If you’ll be using an adjustable-rate mortgage, this amount only applies to the fixed period. See note 1. Use the calculator below to update your estimated monthly payment.home loan interest rate history historical Mortgage Rates and Historical ARM Index Rates – Home Mortgage Rates Historical Mortgage Rates Historical Mortgage Rates and Historical ARM index rates hsh associates has surveyed lenders and produced mortgage statistics for over 30 years.When Will Interest Rates Go Up – The Balance – As of March 21, 2019, it was 2.54 percent. Normally, as the economy improves, demand for Treasurys falls. The yields rise as sellers try to make the bonds more attractive. Higher Treasury yields drive up interest rates on long-term loans, mortgages, and bonds. There are five steps you can take to protect yourself from higher interest rates.
Difference Between Interest Rate and APR – The interest rate is actually dividing the total amount of interest charged by the loan amount, and APR is a calculated of total loan with an yearly rate and the Interest Rate of a mortgage loan.
Hyundai Santa Fe – And yet, as you might imagine, the Santa Fe is a long way from splitting the difference between those two land rovers. offers include a £2000 deposit contribution and a 5.9% APR interest rate,
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Lipid peroxides are generated by oxidative stress in cells, and contribute to ageing and neurodegenerative disease. The eye is at special risk for lipid peroxidation because photoreceptors possess amplified sensory membranes rich in peroxidation-susceptible polyunsaturated fatty acids. Light-induced lipid peroxidation in the retina contributes to retinal degeneration, and lipid peroxidation has been implicated in the progression of age-associated ocular diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Here, we show that exposing Drosophila melanogaster to strong blue light induces oxidative stress including lipid peroxidation that results in retinal degeneration. Surprisingly, very young flies are resilient to this acute light stress, suggesting they possess endogenous neuroprotective mechanisms. While lipophilic antioxidants partially suppressed blue light-induced retinal degeneration in older flies, we find that overexpression of cytochrome b5 (Cyt-b5) completely suppressed both blue light-induced lipid peroxidation and retinal degeneration. Our data identify Cyt-b5 as a neuroprotective factor that targets light-induced oxidative damage, particularly lipid peroxidation. Cyt-b5 may function via supporting antioxidant recycling, thereby providing a strategy to prevent oxidative stress in ageing photoreceptors that would be synergistic with dietary antioxidant supplementation.
During ageing, weakened antioxidant defenses allow accumulation of toxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) that contribute to ageing, and to multiple diseases, including cancer, neurodegeneration and age-related macular degeneration (AMD).1,2,3,4,5 Once initiated by any of several pathways, lipid peroxidation, oxidative damage of membrane lipids, spreads aggressively in a self-propagating chain reaction, amplifying oxidative damage.6 Lipid peroxides adversely alter membrane structure and function and generate highly reactive toxic secondary products that react with proteins and DNA, compromising normal activity.6 The retina is uniquely at risk for lipid peroxidation because of its high concentration of peroxidation-sensitive polyunsaturated fatty acids, and energy-intensive, oxygen-rich environment.4 Multiple pathways, including photodynamic generation of ROS by rhodopsin and associated metabolites, translate light into retinal oxidative stress;7 constant light causing photoreceptor degeneration in rat retina generates lipid peroxides in photosensory outer segment membranes.8 Antioxidants that terminate radical propagation, such as vitamin E, or glutathione peroxidases that reduce lipid peroxides form the major defense mechanisms against lipid peroxidation6 and antioxidant supplements are the standard of care to slow AMD progression.9 However, antioxidant supplements do not halt AMD progression,9 and antioxidant therapy has not shown positive results in intervention trials for other neurodegenerative diseases involving oxidative stress.5,10 Identifying factors that enhance the ability of neurons to cope with oxidative stress could provide therapeutic avenues for age-related neurodegenerative diseases, including AMD.
Here, we describe an acute phototoxicity model in the fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster, in which blue light exposure induces phototransduction-dependent oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation and retinal degeneration. We identify Cyt-b5 as a neuroprotective factor that prevents retinal degeneration by suppressing light-stress-induced lipid peroxidation. Cyt-b5 partners with Cyt-b5 reductase to form the plasma membrane redox system, an ancient front line defense against lipid peroxidation.2 Thus, potentiation of the plasma membrane redox system via targeted Cyt-b5 expression offers a strategy, potentially synergistic with dietary antioxidants, to delay the onset or progression of age-related neurodegenerative diseases involving lipid peroxidation.
To establish conditions that reliably elicited photoreceptor degeneration in response to light stress, we exposed flies to regimes of varying light intensity and duration at different ages and examined their eyes post-exposure using confocal and electron microscopy (Fig. 1a). As flies lacking normal eye screening pigment are sensitized to light damage,11 we used white-eyed (w 1118) flies. We found eight hours of strong blue light (λ = 465 nm) caused loss of the photosensory membrane organelle (rhabdomere) in fewer than 1% of photoreceptors in 1-day-old flies (12–19 h post-eclosion), but 17% and 62% by 3 and 6 days of age respectively (Fig. 1b, c). We previously showed that exposure to similar intensities of red light did not induce retinal degeneration in 6-day-old w 1118 flies,12 indicating that blue light specifically induces retinal degeneration. Strong blue light photoconverts the bulk of the light-sensitive G-protein-coupled receptor Rhodopsin 1 (Rh1) in the outer photoreceptors to its active form, metarhodopsin (M).13 In the absence of orange light (λ = 580 nm), which reverts M back to Rh1, prolonged phototransduction occurs.13,14 To test if phototransduction was required for degeneration, we examined flies carrying mutations that strongly reduce Rh1 levels (ninaE 7). We observed that ninaE 7 mutations suppressed rhabdomere loss in 6-day-old flies exposed to blue light (Fig. 2a, b), indicating that phototransduction is necessary for blue light-induced retinal degeneration. In flies, light triggers the phototransduction cascade in which signaling initiated via Rh1 culminates in opening of Trp calcium (Ca2+) channels and influx of Ca2+ into photoreceptor neurons.13 To test if Ca2+ influx was required for blue light-induced retinal degeneration, we examined trp 9 flies. Similar to ninaE 7, trp 9 mutations suppressed rhabdomere loss (Fig. 2a, b), indicating that phototransduction-activated Ca2+ influx and cytosolic Ca2+ overload is the proximal cause of degeneration in 6-day-old flies. This observation is consistent with findings that unregulated Ca2+ influx via constitutively active mutant Trp 365 channels causes photoreceptor degeneration15 and overexpression of CalX, which increases Ca2+ extrusion, suppresses this degeneration.16 One-day-old flies are thus resilient to blue light stress-induced Ca2+ cytotoxicity.
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) regulates cellular Ca2+ homeostasis and cytosolic Ca2+ overload causes ER stress.17,18,19 Fly photoreceptors lacking the Ca2+-buffering protein Calphotin show ER stress, enhanced autophagy, and strong, light-dependent ER amplification.20 We observed increased ER-like membranes in photoreceptors from 1-day-old flies, but not older flies, exposed to blue light (Fig. 3a, b). Since the ER expansion in 1-day-old flies exposed to blue light correlated with their resistance to blue light-induced retinal degeneration, we sought to test whether this increased ER biogenesis was neuroprotective. To test this hypothesis, we used the eye-specific LGMR-Gal4 driver to overexpress Cytochrome b5 (Cyt-b5, previously identified as dappled 21) or HMG Coenzyme A reductase (Hmgcr22), which are both reported to induce ER biogenesis.23,24 We did not observed expansion of ER-like intracellular membranes by day 6 post-eclosion in flies overexpressing Cyt-b5 or Hmgcr in the eye (Fig. 4a, b). However, by 18 days post-eclosion, overexpression of both Cyt-b5 and Hmgcr significantly increased ER-like membranes in photoreceptors relative to the Luciferase control (Fig. 4a, b). Strikingly, in 6-day-old flies that did not show expanded ER, overexpression of Cyt-b5, but not Hmgcr or Luciferase, strongly suppressed blue light-induced retinal degeneration (Fig. 4c, d). To confirm that Cyt-b5 was overexpressed by day 6, we examined Cyt-b5 transcript levels in eyes from Cyt-b5 overexpressing flies at day 6. Notably, Cyt-b5 transcript levels were ~18-fold higher than the Luciferase control at 6 days post-eclosion (Supplementary Fig. 1). Further, the suppression of blue light-induced retinal degeneration was not due to position effects of the UAS-Cytb5 transgene because in the absence of the LGMR-Gal4 driver, UAS-Cytb5 flies showed blue light-induced retinal degeneration (Supplementary Fig. 2). If the neuroprotective mechanism from blue light stress involved ER expansion, then we would expect that both Cyt-b5 and Hmgcr would be neuroprotective. However, the modest but significant membrane expansion in Hmgcr-overexpressing flies enhanced, rather than suppressed, blue light-induced retinal degeneration. Further, we did not observe expanded ER by day 6 when Cyt-b5 exerted its protective effect. Thus, ER stress-induced membrane biogenesis alone is not sufficient to protect photoreceptors from blue light-induced retinal degeneration. Rather, our data suggest that Cyt-b5 protects photoreceptors from degeneration through another mechanism.
Cyt-b5 is an ER and plasma membrane-associated heme-containing protein that transfers electrons in multiple biochemical pathways including fatty acid desaturation, cytochrome P450-reactions, and sterol metabolism.25 Cyt-b5 is required for synthesis of fatty acids including palmitoleic acid (16:1Δ), which has been shown to protect the mouse retina from light-induced damage.26 However, overexpression of Cyt-b5 did not alter the ratio of polyunsaturated fatty acids, or increase relative levels of palmitoleic acid, in the eye (Supplementary Fig. 3). Thus, Cyt-b5 is unlikely to suppress blue light stress-induced retinal degeneration via altering polyunsaturated fatty acid levels. Therefore, we sought to identify alternative mechanisms through which Cyt-b5 could suppress blue light-induced retinal degeneration. Cyt-b5 is the rate-limiting electron-donor for the NADH-dependent reduction of membrane resident antioxidant coenzyme Q, which quenches lipid peroxidation and protects cells from oxidative stress.27,28 Because their photosensory membranes are rich in susceptible polyunsaturated fatty acids, photoreceptors are at special risk for damage by lipid peroxidation, a ROS-induced peroxyl radical chain reaction that propagates across cell membranes, compromising membrane organization and cellular integrity. We hypothesized that Cyt-b5 overexpression promotes coupling of Cyt-b5 and its reductase, enhancing plasma membrane antioxidant defenses. Based on this hypothesis, we predicted that decreased Cyt-b5 levels would diminish resilience to blue light-induced oxidative stress in very young flies. To test this, we examined cyt-b5 01857 heterozygotes carrying one copy of a strong hypomorphic allele of Cyt-b5 and found that these flies showed strongly enhanced blue light-induced rhabdomere loss in day 1 flies (Fig. 5a, b). Despite this increase in sensitivity to blue light in flies with decreased Cyt-b5 levels, we did not observe differences in Cyt-b5 transcript levels between day 1 and 6 (Supplementary Fig. 1). We were unable to examine Cyt-b5 protein levels due to lack of an antibody that recognizes Drosophila Cyt-b5.
If overexpression of Cyt-b5 promotes coupling of Cyt-b5 and its reductase, then we would expect decreased levels of oxidative stress in flies overexpressing Cyt-b5. Previous studies have shown that overexpression of Cyt-b5 reductase extends lifespan in yeast,29 flies and mice,30 and reduces levels of H2O2 and lipid peroxidation in transgenic mouse liver.30 To test if overexpression of Cyt-b5 reduced oxidative stress, we measured H2O2 levels in eyes. H2O2 levels increased in the retina of day 6 flies following blue light treatment, indicating that blue light exposure results in ROS generation (Fig. 6a). The blue light-induced increase in H2O2 levels was not observed in day 1 flies, which also showed lower basal (dark) levels of H2O2 as compared with day 6 flies (Fig. 6a). Overexpression of Cyt-b5-reduced H2O2 levels in the retina of both dark and blue-exposed day 6 flies relative to the Luciferase control (Fig. 6a). Thus, blue light increases ROS levels in the eye, which are suppressed by overexpression of Cyt-b5.
Next, we asked if light-activated Ca2+ influx was necessary for the increase in H2O2 levels following blue light exposure. To do this, we examined H2O2 levels upon blue light exposure in the trp 9 mutant, which lacks the major Ca2+ channel required for influx. The increase in H2O2 levels upon blue light exposure was suppressed in the trp 9 mutant, indicating that light-induced Ca2+ influx is necessary for ROS generation (Supplementary Fig. 4). Since trp 9 mutations also suppress blue light-induced retinal degeneration, these data further support Ca2+ influx-driven increases in ROS levels as the proximal cause of retinal degeneration. Based on this model, one potential mechanism for Cyt-b5’s neuroprotective action could be suppression of the prolonged Ca2+ influx resulting from blue light exposure. However, overexpression of Cyt-b5 does not prevent light-induced Ca2+ influx because flies that overexpress Cyt-b5 showed normal electroretinograms (ERGs) with a clear prolonged depolarizing afterpotential indicative of sustained photoreceptor Ca2+ influx (Supplementary Fig. 5). Thus, Cyt-b5 overexpression suppresses blue light-induced oxidative stress without affecting phototransduction or light-induced Ca2+ influx. These data are consistent with a neuroprotective mechanism in which Cyt-b5 reduces ROS levels via enhancing activity of Cyt-b5-dependent enzymes such as Cyt-b5 reductase.
It appears unlikely that H2O2 is the critical ROS target through which Cyt-b5 exerts its neuroprotective activity, since overexpression of Superoxide dismutase 1 (Sod1), which destroys superoxide radicals, decreased blue light-induced H2O2 levels but did not suppress blue light-induced retinal degeneration (Supplementary Fig. 6). Cyt-b5 is known to enhance NADH-dependent reduction of membrane resident antioxidant coenzyme Q, which directly quenches lipid peroxyl radicals and also regenerates vitamin E, terminating the peroxidation chain reaction.27,28 Malondialdehyde (MDA) is a toxic secondary product of lipid peroxidation and marker of membrane oxidative damage; thus, we asked if blue light stress produced MDA and if Cyt-b5 overexpression decreased its production. We measured MDA levels in retinas from day 1 and day 6 flies exposed to blue light and found that blue light indeed increases levels of MDA in day 6 flies, but not in day 1 flies (Fig. 6b). Similar to our observations, mouse models of light-induced damage show extensive rod outer segment lipid peroxidation.31 Notably, overexpression of Cyt-b5 suppressed the blue light-induced production of MDA; indeed, the levels of MDA in Cyt-b5 overexpressing day 6 flies resembled those of day 1 flies (Fig. 6b). In view of Cyt-b5’s membrane association, we hypothesized that dietary supplementation with the lipid-associated antioxidant lipoic acid32 would protect flies from blue light-induced retinal degeneration. Lipoic acid supplementation suppressed blue light-induced MDA accumulation in day 6 flies (Fig. 6b) and also suppressed blue light-induced retinal degeneration (Fig. 6c, d). Flies supplemented with another antioxidant, vitamin E, which forms part of the current antioxidant therapy used for AMD patients,9 also showed lower blue light-induced retinal degeneration than vehicle controls, although to a lesser extent than that observed with lipoic acid (Supplementary Fig. 6). However, neither lipoic acid nor vitamin E treatment were as effective as overexpression of Cyt-b5 at suppressing blue light-induced retinal degeneration. These data show that Cyt-b5 is more protective than traditional antioxidants from an acute phototoxicity model involving blue light stress-induced retinal degeneration in Drosophila.
Although lipid peroxidation is a normal component of cell signaling, its dysregulation causes damage that contributes to ageing and degenerative disease.6 Oxidized plasma membrane lipids are a hallmark of senescent cells33 and oxidative stress contributes to neurodegeneration, and photoreceptor loss in AMD and upon blue light damage.34,35 Once initiated, lipid peroxidation spreads in a self-propagating chain reaction, amplifying membrane damage and generating secondary reactive compounds that crosslink DNA and proteins.6 The major defense mechanisms against lipid peroxidation are the membrane-targeted chain-breaking antioxidants, reduced coenzyme Q and vitamin E, and glutathione peroxidases that enzymatically reduce lipid peroxides.6 Reduced coenzyme Q and, in turn, vitamin E are regenerated in the membrane where coenzyme Q reductase partners with Cyt-b5 to transfer reducing power from cytosolic NADH.36,37 Here we show that Cyt-b5 overexpression improves resiliency to acute light stress in Drosophila photoreceptors; potentiation of the membrane coenzyme Q reductase antioxidant pathway by overexpression of its rate-limiting partner may offer a targeted antioxidant gene therapy to counteract lipid peroxidation-induced damage.
Calcium overload induces oxidative stress, a pathophysiology associated with several diseases including excitotoxicity and reperfusion injury.38 The calcium-based phototransduction pathway in Drosophila has been used to examine the effect of calcium overload on photoreceptor health.20 Calcium overload in photoreceptors expressing constitutively open Trp calcium channels results in oxidative stress and retinal degeneration,15,39 which can be suppressed by overexpressing proteins that reduce cytosolic calcium levels.16 The Trp-dependence of acute photodamage observed in our study is consistent with mitochondrial ROS as a proximal initiator of photoreceptor lipid peroxidation; we speculate Cyt-b5 enhances antioxidant chain-breaking to limit further damage. Parallel to our observations, expression of mouse glutathione peroxidase (mGpx1) in fly photoreceptors retards rhabdomere loss in a Huntington’s disease/oxidative stress model.40 Like Cyt-b5, mGpx1 draws reducing power from cell metabolism and was the most neuroprotective of the antioxidants tested.40 Together, Gpx1 and Cyt-b5 may provide a powerful synergistic approach to counter lipid peroxidation in neurons exposed to strong oxidative stress during neurodegenerative disease.
Surprisingly, our data indicate that 1-day-old flies are resistant to the same level of blue light stress that induces retinal degeneration in flies <1 week later. These flies are unlikely to have aged significantly since w 1118 flies show peak reproductive capacity between 3 and 6 days post-eclosion at comparable temperatures (23–26 °C) to those used in our study.41 Despite this, it is clear that flies lacking visual pigment are more susceptible to light-induced visual senescence than pigmented flies because continuous illumination induces loss of ERG in white-eyed flies at much younger ages as compared to red-eyed strains.42 In these studies, continuous light-induced complete blindness in white-eyed flies by 5 days post-eclosion at 25 °C.42 Loss of the red visual pigment maximizes absorption of blue light,43 thereby increasing susceptibility to blue light-induced retinal degeneration.11 Our data suggest that normal light exposure (12:12 light/dark) induces oxidative stress in fairly young white-eyed flies because w 1118 day 6 flies show higher levels of H2O2 than their day 1 counterparts even before being exposed to blue light (Fig. 6a). This oxidative stress does not include substantial lipid peroxidation because we do not observe a similar increase in MDA levels in day 6 flies in the absence of blue light (Fig. 6b). Flies lacking visual pigment might therefore be predisposed to premature visual senescence and enhanced susceptibility to light stress.
Why then, are newly eclosed flies resistant to blue light stress? One possibility is that very young flies have lower basal levels of oxidative stress and can therefore withstand the additional blue light exposure. An alternative explanation is that newly eclosed flies are transitioning from development into early adulthood and have additional cellular mechanisms available to deal with exogenous stress. Our data do not currently distinguish between these models.
Membrane-associated and the rate-limiting electron donor for Cyt-b5 reductase,28 Cyt-b5 is strategically positioned to quench toxic lipid peroxidation at its source. Enhanced regeneration of coenzyme Q, which in turn recycles vitamins C and E2,37 suggests Cyt-b5 could synergize with antioxidant dietary supplementation of membrane antioxidants. Our data indicate that increasing Cyt-b5 levels in Drosophila eyes enhances the enzymatic, renewable antioxidant activity of the cell itself, and suggests a strategy to improve photoreceptor health.
Stocks and genetics
Flies were cultured on standard cornmeal food at 23 °C–25 °C. The genotypes used in this study are described in Supplementary Table 1 and the corresponding genes are described in Supplementary Table 2. Transgenic lines with the mini-white marker were crossed to cn bw to deplete eye pigments.44 Flies were maintained with 12 h/12 h light/dark cycle except for ninaE 7 and trp 9 flies, which together with the w 1118 controls for those experiments, were raised in the dark prior to blue light treatment to prevent light-dependent retinal degeneration.45 Mated male flies were used for all experiments unless otherwise stated. For ageing experiments, flies were collected 0–8 h post-eclosion and aged post-collection for 12 h (day 1; 12–19 h), 3 days (day 1 + 2 days), or 6 days (day 1 + 5 days).
Blue light treatment
Flies were exposed to 2–8 h of blue light (λ = 465 nm) at 8000 lux (2 mW/cm2) using a custom designed optical stimulator with temperature control (23–25 °C). The design and characterization of the optical stimulator are fully described in ref. 12. Briefly, flies were placed in transparent polystyrene 25 × 99 mm vials (VWR, #89092-722), exposed to defined intensities of blue light, and light intensity was measured and exposure time was controlled using the device software. Generally, 5–10 male flies of the indicated age and genotype were exposed to blue light for indicated period of time, and compared to flies incubated in the dark for the same period of time (dark control). To assess retinal degeneration, flies were exposed to 8 h blue light or dark control, then placed in dark for 12 days to allow time for rhabdomeres to degenerate. Rhabdomere loss was assessed using immunostaining and confocal microscopy. For electron microscopy, flies were examined immediately following 8 h blue light exposure, or placed in the dark for 12 days following blue light exposure and then examined. To assay H2O2 levels and lipid peroxidation prior to retinal degeneration, eyes were dissected and assayed immediately following 2 h of blue light exposure, which is not sufficient to induce retinal degeneration in day 6 flies (data not shown).
Immunostaining and confocal microscopy
Rhabdomere loss was assessed by immunostaining dissected retinas with phalloidin and anti-Rhodopsin 1. Briefly, eyes were dissected and fixed in phosphate-buffered saline (1XPBS, pH 7.4) containing 4% paraformaldehyde, 1 mM EGTA, 1 mM MgCl2 for 25 min, washed four times in PBST (PBS containing 0.3% (v/v) Triton X-100), and incubated with mouse anti-Rh1 (1:50, Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank, Cat# 4C5) and phalloidin (1:100, ThermoFisher Scientific, Cat# A22287) for 8–16 h at 4 °C. Eyes were washed four times in PBST, incubated with secondary antibody (ThermoFisher Scientific, Cat# A21202) for 8–16 h at 4 °C, washed four times in PBST, and mounted in 2×PBS containing 70% sorbitol (w/v) (Sigma, Cat# S1876). Images were captured using a Zeiss LSM710 confocal microscope with Plan-Apochromat 63×/1.4 oil objective at Z-stack step size of 1 μm. Rhabdomere loss was quantified using stacked images and is presented as percentage loss of R1–R6 cells per ommatidium for >50 ommatidia per imaged retina. Rhabdomere loss was quantified in five independent male flies (single eye/fly) for four independent light exposures (paired blue light vs. dark controls).
Retinas of adult flies were microinjected with pre-fixative solution (2% paraformaldehyde, 2% glutaraldehyde, 0.1 M cacodylate buffer pH 7.4) and dissected after 10 min. Fixed eyes were then incubated for more than 2 h at 4 °C. Eyes were washed five times in 0.1 M cacodylate buffer (pH 7.4), post-fixed in 2% OsO4 in 0.1 M cacodylate buffer for >2 h, and stained with 2% uranyl acetate for 8–16 h. Next, eyes were washed three times in deionized H2O, followed by dehydration with a series of ethanol washes (30% for 10 min, 50% for 10 min, 70% for 10 min, 90% for 10 min, two times in 100% for 10 min). Eyes were then incubated two times in xylene for 15 min each, transferred to 50% xylene: 50% epon (v/v) resin for 12 h, then incubated in 100% epon for 8–16 h, and finally embedded in Quetol-812 (EMS). Ultrathin sections (80 nm) were stained for 3 min with lead hydroxide. Images were collected with a Philips 300 electron microscope. The membrane fraction in the cytoplasm was quantified by quantifying the area containing membrane structures (excluding mitochondria or lysosomes) and dividing this area by the total area in the photoreceptor. For blue light aging experiments, we quantified at least one eye for five independent male flies (single eye/fly) for four independent experiments (blue light vs. dark control). For transgene overexpression experiments, three to four representative eyes from three independent male flies (single eye/fly) were quantified. For all eyes, multiple planes were analyzed across many different ommatidia to obtain estimates of membrane structures within R1–R6 cells.
RNA isolation and qPCR analysis
RNA was isolated from dissected eyes using Trizol (Invitrogen) and quantitative PCR (qPCR) analysis was performed on cDNA generated from 100 ng RNA using oligo-dT primers relative to a standard curve of serially diluted cDNA. Relative expression for cytochrome-b5 was normalized to the geometric mean of two reference genes (eIF1a and RpL32). Primers are listed in Supplementary Table 3.
H2O2 assays in dissected eyes
The Amplex Red Hydrogen Peroxide/Peroxidase Assay Kit (ThermoFisher Scientific, Cat# A22188) was used to quantify the concentration of H2O2 in fly eyes based on the manufacturer’s instructions. Ten eyes per sample were dissected in ice-cold PBS (1× reaction buffer), transferred to 80 µL of fresh PBS with protease inhibitor cocktail (cOmplete protease inhibitor cocktail, Roche Diagnostics) and homogenized using a mechanized Kontes pellet pestle grinder (Kimble Chase, VWR Cat# KT749520-0000). The homogenized sample was centrifuged at 5000 x g for 30 s to remove cellular debris, and 50 µL of the supernatant was added to 50 µL of the Amplex Red reagent/HRP working solution in a 96-well microplate well. The standard curve was generated using 2 µM, 1 µM, 0.5 µM, and 0 µM of H2O2 standards. Fluorescence was measured with an EnVision Multilabel Plate Reader (APerkinElmer, Cat# 2104-0010) at 590 ± 20 nm for three technical replicates per sample. All experiments were performed within 30 min at room temperature. The protein concentration of the extract was determined using Qubit Protein Assay Kit (ThermoFisher, Cat# Q33211). H2O2 levels were determined as µM H2O2 /µg protein. Five biological replicates (independent light exposure, paired blue light vs. dark controls) were quantified per sample.
Lipid peroxidation assays
The Lipid Peroxidation (MDA) Assay Kit (Colorimetric/Fluorometric) (Abcam, Cat# ab118970) was used as per the manufacturer’s instructions. Ten eyes per sample were dissected in cold 1×PBS, and then transferred to 50 µL ddH2O with 1 µL BHT. After homogenization, 50 µL 2 N perchloric acid was added to the slurry. Samples were vortexed and centrifuged to remove precipitated protein. 100 µL of the supernatant was added to 300 µL thiobarbituric acid reagent, and incubated at 95 °C for 1 h. 200 µL of standard or sample were added to individual wells of a GREINER 96 F-BOTTOM plate. For fluorometric measurement, signals were collected with a CLARIOStar reader (BMG LABTECH GmbH) (Ex/Em = 532 ± 8/553 ± 8 nm). Three biological replicates (independent light exposure, paired blue light vs. dark controls) were quantified per sample.
Fatty acid analysis
The fatty acid composition of Drosophila eyes was analyzed by acidic transmethylation according to ref. 46 with minor modifications. Ten dissected eyes per sample were placed in glass tubes containing 1 mL 5% H2SO4 in methanol, with 300 μL of toluene as a co-solvent, 40 µg of butylated hydroxytoluene in methanol as an antioxidant, and 5 or 10 μg of tripentadecanoin (Tri-15:0-triacylglycerol) as an internal standard. Samples were heated for 1.5 h at 85–90 °C. After cooling to room temperature, the resulting fatty acid methyl esters, (FAMEs) were extracted by adding 1.5 mL of 0.9% NaCl and 1 mL of hexane. The hexane (top layer) was removed into a new glass tube, completely dried with N2, and then dissolved in 50 μL of hexane. FAMEs were detected by gas chromatography (GC) using flame ionization detection (Agilent 7890 A) and a FAMEWAX capillary column (30 m length × 0.25 mm i.d., 0.25 µm film thickness; Restek Cat # 12497) with helium as the carrier gas at 1.5 mL/min constant flow. For each GC run, 1 μL of sample was injected in split mode using a 10:1 ratio with the inlet set to 260 °C. The oven temperature was held at 150 °C for 3 min after injection, then increased at 10 °C/min to 240 °C, and held for 5 min. Fatty acid species in the samples were identified by comparing their retention times with FAME standards. Three biological replicates were quantified per sample.
Male flies were attached on their side to a coverslip using nail polish and oriented with the upward eye facing red (625–630 nm) and blue (465–470 nm) superbright LEDs driven by a Grass S88 stimulator. Drosophila Ringer-filled pulled glass pipettes were inserted into the retina and into the thorax for recording using a Getting Model 5 microelectrode amplifier and AD Instruments Powerlab and Lab Chart. Flies were dark adapted and then exposed to the blue LED for 4 s, then again 20 and 40 s later. A red flash was used to photorevert metarhodopsin to rhodopsin before the next recording. Representative traces are shown.
Vitamin E and lipoic acid supplementation
Newly eclosed male w 1118 flies were cultured on standard cornmeal food supplemented with vitamin E or lipoic acid for 6 days prior to blue light exposure. 200 μM vitamin E (Sigma, Cat# 258024) or 2.15 mM lipoic acid (Sigma, Cat# T1395) dissolved in 100% ethanol was added to the top of standard cornmeal food in a vial, mixed, and left overnight to allow the ethanol to evaporate. An equivalent volume of ethanol was added to standard fly food as control (vehicle).
Data were plotted and statistical tests were performed using built-in R functions (v3.4.1) and custom scripts, which are available upon request. Sample sizes were not pre-determined. Flies were assigned randomly to control or treatment groups without blinding. Box plots with overlayed points were generated using ggplot2; lower and upper hinges correspond to the first and third quartiles, and the whiskers extend to the smallest or largest values no more than 1.5× inter-quartile range from each hinge. For experiments with two groups of data, unpaired Student’s t tests were performed. For experiments with more than two groups, data were first tested for normal distribution. Normally distributed data were analyzed using ANOVA followed by Tukey’s honest significant different (HSD) post hoc test. If data were not normally distributed, we performed Kruskal–Wallis tests followed by pairwise Wilcoxon Rank Sum Tests and determined FDR values using a Benjamini and Hochberg correction.
All raw and supporting data has been deposited at the Purdue University Research Repository (PURR) as a publically available, archived data set and can be accessed using https://doi.org/10.4231/R789141Q. Any additional scripts or material required for analysis are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Beatty, S., Koh, H., Phil, M., Henson, D. & Boulton, M. The role of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration. Surv. Ophthalmol. 45, 115–134 (2000).
Buettner, G. R. The pecking order of free radicals and antioxidants: lipid peroxidation, alpha-tocopherol, and ascorbate. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 300, 535–543 (1993).
Crane, F. L. Biochemical functions of coenzyme Q10. J. Am. Coll. Nutr. 20, 591–598 (2001).
Brookes, P. S., Yoon, Y., Robotham, J. L., Anders, M. W. & Sheu, S. S. Calcium, ATP, and ROS: a mitochondrial love-hate triangle. Am. J. Physiol. Cell. Physiol. 287, C817–C833 (2004).
Huang, Z., Ren, S., Jiang, Y. & Wang, T. PINK1 and Parkin cooperatively protect neurons against constitutively active TRP channel-induced retinal degeneration in Drosophila. Cell Death Dis. 7, e2179 (2016).
Mason, R. P. et al. Glutathione peroxidase activity is neuroprotective in models of Huntington’s disease. Nat. Genet. 45, 1249–1254 (2013).
Hanson, F. B. & Ferris, F. R. Quantitative study of fecundity in Drosophila melanogaster. J. Exp. Zool. 54, 485–506 (1929).
Lee, S. J. & Montell, C. Suppression of constant-light-induced blindness but not retinal degeneration by inhibition of the rhodopsin degradation pathway. Curr. Biol. 14, 2076–2085 (2004).
Minke, B. The history of the prolonged depolarizing afterpotential (PDA) and its role in genetic dissection of Drosophila phototransduction. J. Neurogenet. 26, 106–117 (2012).
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Sengupta, S., Barber, T. R., Xia, H., Ready, D. F. & Hardie, R. C. Depletion of PtdIns(4,5)P(2) underlies retinal degeneration in Drosophila trp mutants. J. Cell Sci. 126, 1247–1259 (2013).
Christie, W. W. & Han, X. Lipid Analysis: Isolation Separation and Lipodomic Analysis (The Oily Press, Bridgwater, UK, 2010).
We thank Deborah Kimbrell, Ruth Lehmann and the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center (NIH P40OD018537) for flies. We thank the Ralph W. and Grace M. Showalter Research Trust, National Institutes of Health R01EY024905 to V.W., R01EY10306 to D.R., Purdue University Center for Cancer Research (American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant, IRG #58-006-53; NIH P30 CA023168), and shared Instrumentation Grant, NCRR 1 S10 RR023734-01A1 for funding to support this work.
The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.
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Chen, X., Hall, H., Simpson, J.P. et al. Cytochrome b5 protects photoreceptors from light stress-induced lipid peroxidation and retinal degeneration. npj Aging Mech Dis 3, 18 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41514-017-0019-6
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All procedures are accomplished following guidelines. It is, therefore, important for writers to learn some of the areas where adjustments can be made to create good university essays. Sufficient Editing In academic settings, it is a norm that writing practices begin with a draft. Therefore, the final university essays are a result of rewriting, editing, and re-editing of work.
Editing is vital because it ensures that mistakes that can cause peaceful resolution possible work to be of poor quality are eliminated. There are specific areas that are vital to university essays regardless of the field of study. These are grammar and originality. For grammar to be up to the academic standard, editing must be done at least once.
Sometimes errors occur without the knowledge of the writer. It could be typing mistakes. Sometimes it may be that the writer does not know the spelling of a particular word. Running academic content on grammatical software programs identifies these errors and provides suggestions for correction. This is important particularly for university essays that require perfect grammar.
This is the reason why all writing processes place emphasis on editing. In fact, grading rubrics for academic content often include marks or points allocated for grammatical correctness. The other aspect that makes editing important is originality. Students attend possible peaceful resolution to be creators of solutions to problems.
What this implies is that they should be able to create new information. Therefore, plagiarism has significant penalties in university essay assignments. Editing involves running university essays on plagiarism check papers to uncover errors that constitute plagiarism. Revision, therefore, is made to remove areas that resemble prior works done by other writers on the topic.
Expressive and Fluent University essays should peaceful resolution possible messages in a manner that is considered professional. They should be expressive meaning that readers should gain important lessons from the university essays. Vague messages should be eliminated from the academic materials. Possible peaceful resolution messages should be clear and direct.
This may require the writers to utilize short sentences in their statements. Long sentences may make the work difficult to read and understand. University essays should be straightforward. Through experience, writers gain the techniques essential in expressing information effectively. Repetition and unnecessary statements should be eliminated.
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What is Sumi-e
Plum Blossoms in Moonlight
Sumi ink and Asian watercolors on rice paper by Takashi Ijichi
by Iris Lowe-Reiss
Sumi-e: The Art of Ink, Paper and Brush
Sumi-e is an Asian art form in which paintings from nature are depicted in black ink on white paper. Sumi-e, along with Zen Buddhism, was introduced from China to Japan in the 15th Century.
As in many other Japanese arts and traditions, the
deep-rooted preference for simplicity and subtlety have become the hallmarks of the Japanese style of sumi-e. While the most traditional sumi-e style is black ink on white paper, color can also be used. Students practice first in black and white before working in color.
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Grumpy? This Will Cheer You Up!
In a bad mood? Don’t worry – according to research, it’s good for you. An Australian psychology expert who has been studying emotions has found being grumpy makes us think more clearly. In contrast to those annoying happy types, miserable people are better at decision-making and less gullible, his experiments showed. While cheerfulness fosters creativity, gloominess breeds attentiveness and careful thinking, Professor Joe Forgas told Australian Science Magazine.
The University of New South Wales researcher says a grumpy person can cope with more demanding situations than a happy one because of the way the brain “promotes information processing strategies”. “ Negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world ” Professor Joe Forgas reports.
He asked volunteers to watch different films and dwell on positive or negative events in their life, designed to put them in either a good or bad mood. Next he asked them to take part in a series of tasks, including judging the truth of urban myths and providing eyewitness accounts of events. Those in a bad mood outperformed those who were jolly – they made fewer mistakes and were better communicators.
Professor Forgas said: “Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, co-operation and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world.”
The study also found that sad people were better at stating their case through written arguments, which Forgas said showed that a “mildly negative mood may actually promote a more concrete, accommodative and ultimately more successful communication style”.
His earlier work shows the weather has a similar impact on us – wet, dreary days sharpened memory, while bright sunny spells make people forgetful.
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In today's earth, engineering has become more and heightened and is supporting us produce better, faster, and more effective ways of doings things. CAD design identifies computer-based drawings employed for planning interiors, architectural structures, and for product design. Removed are the days of architectural blueprints, pens, compasses and templates. CAD software has handled to change the architecture industry for the greater, compared to 2D composing yourself, CAD and CAAD computer software is more efficient. The application minimises redrafts, as instead of rubbing out or scrunching up the paper, you can reverse actions with the press of a button. scSTREAM
CAD and CAAD (computer-aided architectural design) are virtually identical in notion, the only various could be the computer-aided architectural style application contains more architecture-specific elements, for instance, architectural methods and a repository of terms only found in the industry. Both types of application develop correct and total drawings.
An edge of CAD or CAAD computer software (over give drawings) may be the automation function - that function may quickly bring an electronic digital representation of your structure from previous drawings. For instance, in the event that you attracted the leading see of a making using CAD then the wise pc software might be able to instantly produce a bird's vision view from your own 3D top view drawing. As long as the software has one 3D view of one's building, it will have a way to create all other opinions saving you enough time of pulling every view. CAD software enables architects to manipulate and transform photographs easily.
CAD computer software creates more practical, exact and comprehensive paintings than illustrating by hand. The program can cause photo-realistic representations, and can immediately make different views from a previous drawing. Using CAD gives you usage of active designs which means you will not also have to start from damage when planning a building, or you will at the least have a base-point to begin planning from. When an architect decides to employ a past style without the need for CAD, it will often require tracing over a classic plan, which takes much more time and power than using the pc software to accomplish designs.
Many architects and architectural firms are using CAD pc software for a easier and cost-effective experience when planning new buildings. If the customer wants to revise a particular facet of the style, it can simply be edited with a few presses, keeping the architect and customer time and hassle.
CAD style application isn't only used in the structure business - it is also beneficial for interior manufacturers for room preparing software, for merchants offering kitchens or bathrooms, and for item designers who require to control picture style for prototypes before they're going in to production. Today's marketplace is competitive for technicians so CAD inside style software enables more time for style modification as opposed to creating and redrafting.
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While choosing which journal writing techniques to include in my new course, Journaling for Memoir Writers, I was reminded of the power of Legacy Letters to explore aspects of ourselves and our life experiences we wish to preserve for the future—whether it’s as a gift for friends and family members or a gift for ourselves to facilitate future memoir writing.
I first came across the idea of of Legacy Letters in Sheppard B. Kominars’ book, Write for Life.
For almost everyone who writes with some consistency, there’a growing sense of empowerment. Through the act of writing, you discover new ways to appreciate what you’ve done in the past and feel good about what you’re doing right now. This lends great value to your sense of your legacy in life.
What exactly is a legacy? I like this definition best: anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor. Anything we receive from the past, particularly that received from those who meant the most to us, is a legacy, an inheritance not limited to money or possessions. Everything we write—letters, poems, journals, fiction, and nonfiction—if kept, becomes a legacy for the future. So, if everything is a legacy, why write Legacy Letters?
Legacy letters are a great way to take stock of where you are in your life right now, consider your relationships, and appreciate the gifts you have to offer. They can be a vehicle for reaching out to others now, rather than later. And they can help you reflect upon your life in new ways.
This week’s journaling prompts will help you write your own Legacy Letter(s). Freewrite for ten to twenty minutes exploring the questions and issues raised by each of the prompts.
- Make a list of values that have been important to you throughout your life. How has the importance of these values shifted during your life? What was important to you when you were young, and what’s most important to you now? How have these values influenced your life choices?
- Make a list of your major life accomplishments and write about why those accomplishments were important to you. Why do you value those accomplishments over others?
- What questions would you ask of your ancestors if they were here to tell you the answers? Write the questions, followed by why you’d like to know these details about their lives. Which of these questions will your ancestors want to know about you and your life?
- What have you dreamed of doing that you didn’t do? What are you still hoping to accomplish?
- What of your perceptions, knowledge, experience, and wisdom would you leave as a gift for others? For your children, grandchildren, or best friends? What gifts have others given you that you’d like to pass on? And what might be important for your future self to remember? What are you most grateful for about your life?
- Make a list of people you’d like to communicate your feelings to (past, present, alive or dead). Choose someone from the list who feels easy to write to, and chat with him or her in your journal, exploring your feelings about writing him or her.
- How would you like to remember your Self?
Finally, choose a person from your list (that person can be yourself) and write a letter, including whatever you want that person to know or remember about you. Write from your heart. You may choose to send the letter, or not.
Will you write legacy letters for yourself and/or others? Why or why not? Leave a comment and to share your thoughts.
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Childbirth Myths by your's truly.
Myth: Episiotomy is better than tearing.
Actually, tears are usually less severe without episiotomy, and the procedure itself can cause further tearing. Episiotomy--the cutting of perineal tissues during delivery--is not something that most women give a second thought to, at least not until they've given birth for the first time. The perineum is the delicate area between the vagina and the anus. After an episiotomy, even sitting can be painful, and sex can be unbearable. Episiotomy is the most common surgical procedure performed in the US, and, according to Sheila Kitzinger, "It is the only surgery likely to be performed without her consent on the body of a healthy woman in Western society."1 During a typical hospital birth, it's the rare woman who is not cut either "above" (in a C-section) or "below" (an episiotomy). Currently, at least 35 percent of first-time mothers delivering vaginally in the US undergo this painful procedure.2 A research review by the World Health Organization, however, indicates that evidence only supports a 5 to 20 percent episiotomy rate.3
Myth: Epidurals have no side effects.
The use of epidurals is so common today that many perinatal professionals are calling the 1990s the age of the epidural epidemic. Maternal Risks include : Hypotension (Drop in blood pressure), Urinary Retention and Postpartum Bladder Dysfunction, Uncontrollable Shivering, Itching of the face, neck and throat, Nausea and Vomiting, Postpartum Backache, Maternal Fever, Spinal Headache, Uneven, incomplete or nonexistent pain relief Feelings of Emotional detachment, Postpartum feelings of regret or loss of autonomy, Inability to move about freely on your own, Loss of perineal sensation and sexual function, Very Serious and rare risks include: Convulsions, Respitory paralysis, Cardiac arrest, Allergic shock, Nerve injury, Epidural abscess, Maternal death. Labor Side Effects: Prolonged First Stage of Labor, Increase of malpresentation of baby's head, Increased need for Pitocin augmentation, Prolonged Second Stage of Labor, Decrease in the ability to push effectively, Increased liklihood of forceps or vacuum extraction delivery, Increased likelihood of needing an episiotomy, Increase in cesarean section. Baby Side Effects: Fetal distress; abnormal fetal heart rate, Drowsiness at birth; poor sucking reflex, Poor muscle strength and tone in the first hours.
Myth: Laying on your back is the best position for labor and birth.
The choice of labor and birth positions has a huge impact on a mother's comfort level during birth and how quickly and effectively her labour does or doesn't progress. The more options she has, the more prepared she is to handle her birthing experience. Effective positioning can speed labor and reduce discomfort by aligning the baby properly, by reducing area-specific pressure, and by reducing unnecessary muscular effort. The reasons for using these positions have nothing to do with comfort or effectiveness for labor. Rather, they are used solely because they are convenient for doctors. While they allow doctors easiest access, they are detrimental to birthing for many reasons. Foremost among these reasons is that the pelvic outlet is up to 30% smaller when a woman is in these positions. They also restrict a woman from freely moving and put greater pressure on the perineum, all of which can lead to other unnecessary interventions or complications like tearing, episiotomy, forceps delivery, or vacuum extraction. In addition, the risks to the baby increase as well. Poor birth positions can decrease fetal heart rate or cause other types of fetal distress, which may lead to continuous or internal fetal monitoring, increased risk of shoulder dystocia/problems with presentation, or a prolonged pushing phase.
Myth: Women become screaming lunatics yelling at everyone in the room.
Childbirth is not a psychosis where a woman suddenly takes on a new personality. Although in the earlier half of the 20th century women were given labor drugs that made them act very strange indeed, becoming crazy isn't a part of the natural childbirth process. What does happen is a woman uses all her energy to focus on the work she is doing and distraction makes this harder. Women in hard labor will use the least amount of energy to communicate—this may mean body language, grunts or one word commands. Some women use hypnobirthing techniques to stay calm and focused throughout the birthing process.
Myth: A hospital is the only place to give birth.
There are many places to give birth. Home, birth center and hospital. In hospitals OBs and midwives attend births. Midwives also attend births in birth centers and homebirths. Birth centers and homebirths are equally safe as hospital births with a trained qualified midwife. In the Netherlands still today 1/3rd of births take place at home. Interestingly enough the Netherlands has the BEST birth outcomes out of 32 industrialized nations.
Myth: Babies should be born on or before their due date.
Allowing labor to begin naturally is the best way to assure that the baby is ready to be born. Only 5% of babies are actually born on their due date. Due dates are estimates at best. The average first time mom gestates till 41wks and 2 days. It is perfectly normal and safe to allow a pregnancy to gestate till 42wks and even beyond.
Myth: Drugs are the only way to relieve pain.
There are many ways to relieve pain during labor. The easiest one is to remain upright and mobile throughout labor. Laying down increases the pain and makes it more difficult to cope with. The use of water many women find soothing, either in a bath or shower. Massage with essential oils and using other massage “devices”. Using a birth ball is a very helpful aide. Long slow deep breaths to ensure you are getting plenty of oxygen. Many women today fear labor. It is a simple fact. And yet another simple fact is that fear in labor (or anything) will increase your pain. This is called the fear/tension/pain cycle. All this states is that when you are fearful, you tense, when you tense you cause more pain.
Myth: You can not push until you are 10cm.
Doctors, nurses, midwives, doulas and childbirth educators all warn that a swollen cervix will impede labor and increase the chances of tearing the cervix, thus causing hemorrhage. Non-medicated woman will never push so hard against her undilated cervix that it tears, because it will hurt. Pain is a natural deterrent to pushing too hard. However, when done in the correct manner, pushing to help rotate a baby and dilate oneself will actually eliminate a great deal of pain and cut hours off one’s labor and birth. So if you feel the urge to push, listen to your body – it can’t be wrong.
Myth: Once your water breaks you should go to the hospital ASAP!
About 15-20% of labors begin with rupture of membranes followed by contractions. If your water breaks and its brown or green in color and has an odor, you should go to the hospital. Or if you develop a fever after your water has broken without any color or odor you should go to the hospital. However this is rare. Ideally you want to stay home until you are in active labor. This isn't usually a problem since 70% of women with PROM will give birth within 24 hours. In fact, 90% of the women with PROM will have given birth within 48 hours. Only 2-5% will not have given birth after 72 hours. The “24hr rule” is hospital policy, sometimes it is even a mere 12hrs. Their thought is that you will develop a bacterial infection. Bacteria can’t migrate up the vagina unless physically pushed up there, for example by cervical checks. Hospitals are ramped with bacteria; MRSA, Staph and other bacteria. So when you are in a hospital your chance for an infection is much greater, especially if they are doing cervical checks every hour. Once in the hospital after your waters are broken you should limit or refuse vaginal exams.
Myth: You should be induced if your baby is too big.
Unless you've been wearing a corset since puberty...this is not going to happen. Period. The vast majority of the time, these weight estimates are based off of ultrasound very late in pregnancy. After the 1st and second trimesters, ultrasounds are off by up to TWO FULL POUNDS, either way. When ultrasound predicts a big baby, women may be just as likely to have a cesarean when the ultrasound is wrong than when it is right. In yet another study, roughly half the women predicted to have babies with birth weights in the top ten percent had cesareans regardless of whether their babies actually weighed in this range. It is very rare to grow a baby your body can’t birth. 50% of first-time moms that are induced will end up with a c-section. Women have been birthing “big babies” for centuries, women's bodies have not regressed in our birthing abilities.
Sources: Many ;O
"Yes, hospitals offer free childbirth classes, but that is because it is a way for them--for the most part--to get people to become passive, compliant consumers of whatever it is that they are offering, which may be the induced labor, the scheduled cesarean, whatever. So, the independent childbirth educator is crucial." --Suzanne Arms
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HOA homeowners are the “forgotten man” to use FDR’s characterization of the farmers and working-class citizens during the Great Depression of the 1930s. As Governor of NY running for the Presidency, FDR addressed the nation on April 7, 1932. The relevant parts are provided below.
“It has been said that Napoleon lost the battle of Waterloo because he forgotten his infantry . . . . The present administration in Washington provides, I think, a close parallel. It has either forgotten or does not want to remember the infantry of our economic army. These unhappy times call for the plans of 1917 that build from the bottom and not the top down . . . that puts their faith in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid . . . .”
In short, the people count and have been ignored by the rich and powerful people and corporations. The Depression needs to focus on the unemployed people if this country is to survive the Depression.
Today our nation is facing the real possibility of the loss of our democratic principles as set forth in the US Constitution. Yet, little attention had been paid the authoritarian private government HOAs that have succeeded from the Union; the HOA legal scheme has become an institution and accepted as “that’s the way it is.” (See The HOA-Land Nation Within America).
Are the homeowners in HOAs the forgotten men and women of our times? I think so. The evidence is quite clear that today, as occurred some 90 years ago, they have been abandoned by special interest corporations and government posing as friends of the people. And there is not nor has there been a protector of the people since FDR and JFK.
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The Virgin Forest? Amazon Myths and New Revelations
Modern day agriculture in the Amazon.
Controversial evidence uncovered over the past decade suggests that the Amazon rainforest was once home to large sedentary populations of people. Besides the well-known empires of the Inca and their predecessors, the Huari, millions of people once lived in the forests and shaped the environment to suit their own needs.
The Amazon has a long history of human settlement. Contrary to popular belief, sizeable and sedentary societies of great complexity existed in the rainforests of this region. These societies produced pottery, cleared sections of rainforest for agriculture and managed forests to optimize the distribution of useful species. The notion of a virgin Amazon is largely the result of the population crash following the arrival of the Europeans in the sixteenth century. Studies suggest that at least 10-12% of the Amazon’s terra firme forests are “anthropogenic in nature” resulting from the careful management of biodiversity by indigenous people. However, unlike most current cultivation techniques, these Amazonians were attuned to the ecological realities of their environment from five millennia of experimentation and accumulation of knowledge, with a strong understanding of how to manage the rainforest to meet their requirements within a sustainable capacity. They saw the importance of maintaining biodiversity through a careful balance of natural forest, open fields and sections of forest managed so as to be dominated by species of special interest and greatest use to humans.
The idea that the Amazon is not an untouched wilderness but the product of extensive management by large human populations sharply contrasts with long-held views that the region was sparsely populated by tribal groups who peacefully coexisted with the apparently hostile environment that surrounded them. The leading defender for this traditional view is Betty J. Meggars, director of the Latin American Program at the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History in Washington and author of “Amazonia: Man and Culture in a Counterfeit Paradise.”
In her work, based on the collection of soil samples during the 1960s, Meggars concluded that the soil in Amazon region was so poor it could not possibly support the intensive agriculture necessary for the establishment and maintenance of large communities. She argued that the pre-Columbian Amazon was a pristine environment that had been little altered by humans.
Today Meggars’ work is being increasingly undermined by evidence of extensive civilizations in the region, most notably the human-enhanced floodplains in Bolivia, remnants of ancient towns and road systems and the presence of rich, apparently man-made soils.
30,000 square miles of forested mounds
Near the Brazilian border of north-central Bolivia, there are some 30,000 square miles of raised forested islands in a grassy floodplain. Scientists speculate that the area may have been an extensive human-constructed landscape optimized for managing local fisheries and the distribution of vegetation. Building raised fields for agriculture and using fire to clear large areas of brush, native dwellers of the Beni region strongly influence if not controlled the distribution of plant species. Trees and crops that would otherwise drown in the waterlogged floodplain flourished in the raised gardens.
Deeper in the Amazon there is further evidence of widespread human settlement.
The discovery of a network of villages and towns connected by precisely engineered roads — some up to 45 meters (150 feet) wide — shocked many Amazon researchers when the study was published in 2003. The 10-year study, which covered 1000 square kilometers in the upper Rio Xingu region, found a cluster of nineteen villages that likely supported between 2,500 and 5,000 people.
Lead author of the research, Michael J. Heckenberger, says that the complex of communities could be just one of many complexes in the Amazon region. These societies were long overlooked by archeologists because they did not build the large cities and rock structures seen among the Mayans, Aztecs and Incas. Since stone is not widely available in the Amazon, settlements were constructed of wood, clay, bone and other materials that deteriorate rapidly in the warm, humid climate of the rainforest. Thus, once abandoned, buildings and roads constructed by Amazon dwellers quickly disappeared back into the jungle.
Amazonian societies supported large populations by the careful management of their surrounding environment. Instead of the European farm system where single crop monocultures were common, Amazon farmers may have cultivated and managed entire ecosystems. In his account of the pre-Columbian Indian societies, 1491, Charles Mann explains,
“Indians survived by cleverly exploiting their environment. Europeans tended to manage land by breaking it into fragments for farmers and herders. Indians often worked on such a grand scale that the scope of their ambition can be hard to grasp. They created small plots, as Europeans did (about 1.5 million acres of terraces still exist in the Peruvian Andes), but they also reshaped entire landscapes to suit their purposes… Unlike Europeans, who planted mainly annual crops, the Indians, he says, centered their agriculture on the Amazon’s unbelievably diverse assortment of trees: fruits, nuts, and palms.”
In an environment like the Amazon, without the benefits of iron tools or domesticated animals, clearing and sowing agricultural fields was a difficult and time-consuming process. Instead, Indians planted trees, yielding twenty years of productivity from their labor, as opposed to two or three years with a standard low-growing crop.
Creating orchards, instead of field, early inhabitants of Amazonian regions served themselves with great economy. Planting trees in the fertile river basin, Indians capitalized on the benefit of rich soil quality and the deep reaching roots of trees helped agriculture to survive during the dry season and in periods of drought. Experts now estimate that a significant portion of lowland forests, perhaps as much as 15 percent, were organized to benefit humans. The concept of a “built environment” contrasts sharply with the idealist and traditional version of an all-natural, virgin territory.
In 1990, Anna C. Roosevelt, an archaeologist from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, along with a team of specialists, re-excavated the Amazonian site of Marajó. Their findings revealed compelling evidence that the mound-ridden archeological wonder likely supported more than 100,000 inhabitants and covered thousands of square miles. Marajó’s presence, based on scientist’s studies, enriched the environment, rather than causing the typical detriment or stress of a large, densely populated area. The only traces left behind of the settlement, a series of raised lumps of earth, still contain the most lush and diverse forth growth in the region.
The best explanation for this kind of botanical record is the past creation and use of terra preta do indio, meaning “Indian black earth” in Portuguese. This unique, mineral-rich soil was purposely created by pre-Columbian people through a process of adding charcoal and animal bones to regular soil to create a highly fertile hybrid, ideal for agriculture. Beyond the Amazon’s notorious reputation for thin and poor-quality soil, terra preta provided unprecedented life and bounty for its inhabitants.
Charcoal is the essential ingredient of terra preta, which gives the soil a more substantial quality as organic matter latches on to the compounds within it through oxidation, retaining moisture and nutrients. Despite these benefits, charcoal lacks substantial nutrients on its own, so Indians enriched the soil with organic waste like the bones of turtles, fish and birds. Higher quantities of calcium, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur exist more in terra preta than is found in typical earth. If managed well, this matter can avoid exhaustion from agricultural stress far longer than regular soil. Soil ecologists believe they may be able to replicate terra preta to convert thin tropical soil into rich, substantial, sustaining and possibly self-replicating earth.
Scientists believe terra preta was created through a process one specialist calls the “slash-and-char” method. Essentially, instead of completely burning trees to ash, pre-Columbian farmers merely smoldered organic matter to form charcoal, and then stirred the charcoal into the soil. The added benefit of this method was that far less carbon was released into the air than now common slash-and-burn method. Carbon emissions, or rather an imbalance of carbon emissions, has a well-recognized negative effect on forests, so this ancient method was truly efficient and environmentally sensitive. Charcoal is capable of retaining its carbon in the soil for close to fifty thousand years.
Today, scientists and local inhabitants alike recognize the value and importance of terra preta. The earth is excavated and sold as potting soil known for its impressive productivity. Some individuals work it for years with only minimal fertilization. There is a wide range of estimates for the remaining quantity of terra preta. Estimates vary between 0.1 – 10 percent of the Amazon basin may harbor the soil. Ten percent encompasses an area the size of France. The largest collections of terra preta are located on low bluffs at the edges of floodplains, typically covering 5 to15 acres. The thickest layers of the material hover around six feet deep. Soil ecologists do not recognize a natural pattern for these bands of soil, suggesting that terra preta is indeed a man-made or directed substance. There are also typically broken ceramic pieces within the soil, further link it to a human design.
What all this information infers is that these inhabitants were essentially terra-forming the Amazon into a highly productive, sustainable agricultural region, managing a heady task that had evaded Europeans for centuries. Unfortunately, for the natives of the New World, the Old World arrived and both intentionally and unintentionally destroyed all they had worked toward.
What happened? Disease
Machu Picchu, Peru
Photo by R. Butler
Many of these populations flourished along rivers where means of transportation, excellent fishing, and fertile floodplain soils for agriculture were available in abundance. These locations were ideal for settlements, however, when the Europeans arrived, these were the first to be affected, and subsequently decimated, since the explorers used the major rivers as highways to the interior. Within the first one hundred years of European contact, the Amerindian population was reduced by at least 90 percent. The majority of the surviving peoples lived in the remote interiors of the Amazonian region, forced there by the encroaching Europeans, or those few already traditionally living there in smaller groups.
The premier cause of the massive reduction in population was disease. Smallpox was the first introduced malady to ravage the indigenous peoples. Subsequent epidemics of typhus, influenza and smallpox again in the 1500 and 1600s essentially erased all traces of living Incan culture. Dobyns, the first social scientist to trace the origins of the New World inhabitants’ demise, estimated that prior to European contact, the Western Hemisphere supported between 90 and 112 million people. To put this already large figure into clearer perspective, Dobyns’ estimate for the Americas’ population in the late 1400s surpassed that of Europes for the same period.
The reason behind Indians’ intense susceptibility to the diseases of the Old World lay in their isolation. Having never previously been exposed to certain biological agents, native inhabitants were utterly defenseless to the epidemics. Their ignorance about the diseases only aided the spread of these foreign ailments, as inhabitants remained with the sick for support instead of using the practiced European methods of quarantines and isolation.
Because the Amazon’s most skilled agriculturalists were killed off by European diseases, much of what was known about cultivating the rainforest ecosystem has been lost. Undoubtedly, these forest farmers relied on a far different agricultural philosophy than that used today — one, says Clark Erickson from the University of Pennsylvania, that sustained significant populations without destroying biodiversity. Their techniques, if uncovered, could prove useful and possibly essential in creating areas of high agricultural productivity without utter destruction. Instead of clearing large areas for crops with small yields and short life-spans and pastureland for low-density cattle grazing, perhaps the employment of ancient and apparently profoundly effective methods could revolutionize modern cultivation with minimal environmental impact.
It is probably unfair and unreasonable to expect Brazil and other Amazonian basin countries to leave the region’s remaining forests completely untouched from development. However, if there is a way to minimize the damage to the forest and biodiversity losses while maximizing agricultural yields, then it should be examined, especially if past inhabitants proved the merits of such management. If specialists find success with these methods, the same principles could be applied to other at-risk areas. Already 15 percent of the Amazon rainforest is gone. We should not waste what remains.
To explore this topic further take a look at 1491 : New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann. Mann provides a fascinating examination of pre-Columbian societies and goes into much greater depth of the topics covered in this article.
This article used information and quotes from 1491 : New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann, Science, and Amazonia: Man and Culture in Counterfeit Paradise by Betty J. Meggers.
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CC-MAIN-2023-50
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https://news.mongabay.com/2005/10/pre-columbian-amazon-supported-millions-of-people/
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en
| 0.954146 | 2,707 | 3.59375 | 4 |
- Lack of socialisation
- Society has accepted norms and values which most people know and follow.
- However some young people may have been socialised into criminal norms and values
- Functionalists believe that shared norms and values in society are important for the success of society
- However they see crime and deviance as a threat to this, but also that crime can be functional for society by having clear boundaries of acceptable behaviour
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<urn:uuid:cc70d3ad-58ae-49b5-af00-c57211caee93>
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CC-MAIN-2017-39
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https://getrevising.co.uk/diagrams/explanation-of-crime
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en
| 0.966502 | 86 | 3.375 | 3 |
Community service learning (CSL) is experiential education that combines classroom learning with learning in the community.
Students provide service to a non-profit community organization, while the community organization acts as a co-educator.
Reflection assignments or research papers are often assigned to encourage students to link theory and practice.
- engage students, community partners, staff, and faculty in a collaborative relationship
- link classroom theory, community based service, reflection, and research
- increase individual understanding and community capacity
Placements can generally be categorized into three types:
- Placement-based CSL: Students in CSL courses sign up for individual placements (approximately two hours per week) at organizations have identified a need (e.g., non-profit organizations, schools, daycares, etc.). Sometimes students can suggest their own placements as long as the placement is relevant and there is appropriate supervision. Each student in the class could be placed at a different organization.
- Project-based CSL: Organizations identify a project that integrates into the curriculum of students’ CSL course. Students work in groups with peers from their class to complete the project. The time line of these projects, unlike the placement-based CSL, could vary from week to week.
- Co-curricular CSL: Students combine service (e.g., on reading week, weekends, etc.) with structured learning activities (e.g., reflections). These placements or projects can be local, national, or international in scope.
What are the benefits of CSL?
Many students avoid or drop CSL courses because they fear the time commitment. First, though, students should consider some of the benefits:
- Career exploration: You have the opportunity to explore careers that are of interest to you and that are relevant to your field of study. If you are unsure about a career direction, you might be more willing to commit two hours a week over the course of a term, rather than completing an internship.
- Professional development and networking: Many students complete a placement in a more professional setting than their part-time jobs and say that they learn about appropriate office language and dress, office politics, and even about how they might apply their education to their career. Students can also network within a profession of interest, and perhaps even launch a career.
- Leadership development
- Intellectual pursuits
- Social change / justice
Does my school have CSL?
Some Canadian schools call this type of education service learning, community learning, experiential learning, etc., but they are all part of the Canadian Alliance for Community Service-Learning (CACSL). The CACSL has participating institutions in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland.
Check here to learn more about CSL courses offered at your school.
Have you taken a CSL course already? If so, what was your experience? If not, would you consider taking one of these courses in the future?
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<urn:uuid:960859f4-8cdd-49e8-ac44-548a23ea0d75>
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CC-MAIN-2020-34
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https://talentegg.ca/incubator/2010/05/19/community-service-learning-brings-education-out-of-the-classroom/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439738380.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20200809013812-20200809043812-00084.warc.gz
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en
| 0.949984 | 616 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Drinking alcohol during pregnancy leads to poorer cognitive functioning in children, according to the most comprehensive review on the issue to date.
Drinking alcohol during pregnancy leads to poorer cognitive functioning in children, according to the most comprehensive review on the issue to date. The University of Bristol research published today [29 January] in the International Journal of Epidemiology, reviewed 23 published studies on the topic and found evidence that drinking in pregnancy could also lead to lower birthweight. The findings reinforce the UK Chief Medical Officers' #DRYMESTER guidelines, which is abstaining from alcohol in all trimesters.
To study the effects of drinking alcohol during pregnancy, the researchers funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) combined results from very different study designs for the first time. Methods included traditional studies such as randomized controlled trials, alongside alternative strategies such as comparing children in the same families whose mothers cut down or increased their alcohol use between pregnancies, and a genetic marker-based approach, "Mendelian randomization."
Previously, research on this topic has been through 'observational' studies, where participants are already exposed to a risk factor and researchers do not try to change who is or isn't exposed. However, there are limitations with this type of study: it can be impossible to unpick what is caused by alcohol, and what is caused by other factors. These factors could include a woman's education or family environment, as well as genetic predisposition, which can affect her child's development and cognition in the long-term.
Alternative study designs use different ways of minimizing or removing these confounding factors, so the results are more reliable. If the results of these studies all point in the same direction, they are less likely to be because of errors and biases, and more likely to be true causes of health and disease.
All the studies included in the review tried to compare like with like groups of people who were only different in terms of exposure to alcohol during pregnancy. This is as close as it gets to what would be achieved in an experiment.
While the review was comprehensive it was limited in its ability to establish how much alcohol leads to these negative outcomes. However, the researchers concluded that women should continue to be advised to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy.
Dr. Luisa Zuccolo, the study lead and Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology at Bristol Medical School: Population Health Sciences, said: "The body of evidence for the harm that alcohol can do to children before they are born is growing, and our review is the first to look at the full range of studies on the issue. This is unlikely to be a fluke result, as we took into account a variety of approaches and results. Our work confirms the current scientific consensus: that consuming alcohol during pregnancy can affect one's child's cognitive abilities later in life, including their education. It might also lead to lower birthweight.
"Our study reinforces the UK Chief Medical Officers' guideline: DRYMESTER (abstaining in all trimesters) is the only safe approach. This message is more important than ever, given recent research which shows the alcohol industry promoting confusing information about the real health implications of drinking during pregnancy."
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<urn:uuid:77508d06-e10e-406b-a747-cfcd33d05d29>
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CC-MAIN-2020-10
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https://fabresearch.org/viewItem.php?id=14064&listId=341&categoryId=&navPageId=342
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875146485.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20200226181001-20200226211001-00348.warc.gz
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en
| 0.974886 | 662 | 2.859375 | 3 |
This is one of the scrappiest fish that swims. An increasing number of anglers throughout the state are learning that largemouth bass, with their jolting strikes and wild airborne leaps, are an exciting fish to catch. And increasingly, Minnesota is becoming nationally known for its largemouth bass. Professional bass fishing tournaments are held in state lakes and rivers throughout the summer.
Largemouth bass look similar to their close cousin, the smallmouth. Often they are found in the same waters. To tell the two apart, look at the closed mouth. If it extends back beyond the back of the eye, the fish is a largemouth. If it goes only to the middle of the eye, it's a smallmouth.
Stout and heavy in comparison to the sunfishes and crappies, the rock bass has red eyes and brassy flanks with black spots. A large rock bass measures about 10 inches and weighs about a pound.
The rock bass spawns in the spring, when the water temperature ranges from the high 60s into the 70s. The male fans out a nest in coarse sand or gravel and guards the eggs and fry. It lives in many lakes and streams in Minnesota, generally preferring well-oxygenated, hard water walleye lakes and walleye centrarchid lakes and the creeks associated with them. The rock bass prefers boulder and sand bottoms. It eats small fish, insects, crayfish and other invertebrates.
Rock bass require little management other than the protection of its habitat from pollution and other environmental degradation.
Sometimes called a "bronzeback" for its brassy brown hue, the smallmouth is one of the strongest fish for its weight. Many anglers who hook a 2-pounder will swear it's twice that big until the fish is in the net. Smallmouth are native to the Mississippi River watershed. They are abundant in warm southeast Minnesota rivers, central Minnesota lakes, and in northern waters such as Vermilion Lake and big Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness lakes, where the species was introduced in the late 1800s.
White and yellow
White and yellow bass are related to the much larger striped bass, a native of the Atlantic Ocean that has been stocked in freshwater but does not occur in Minnesota.
The white and yellow bass resemble one another, but as their names suggest, they are different colors. The white bass has separated dorsal fins, the second anal spine is one-third the length of the head, and the seven longitudinal stripes under the dorsal fins are solid. The yellow bass has joined dorsal fins, the second anal spine is half the length of the head, and the seven longitudinal stripes are broken. Both are deep bodied and occasionally exceed 2 pounds.
The yellow bass is limited to the backwaters of the Mississippi below Lake Pepin. The white bass is common in the Minnesota River, the St. Croix below Taylors Falls, the Mississippi below St. Anthony Falls and major tributaries, such as the Cannon and Zumbro rivers. It also occurs in reservoirs on these river systems and in several lakes in southern Minnesota. Because of its greater size and abundance, the white bass is a more important sport fish than the yellow bass. Though the following remarks apply to the white bass, they are generally true of the yellow bass as well.
White bass spawn over gravel bars in late April to June, when water temperature ranges from 55 to 79 degrees. Mass upstream spawning runs in the Mississippi and its major tributaries provide excellent fishing in April and May. The white bass is extremely prolific; a large female may lay more than 500,000 eggs. No care is given the eggs or fry, and few survive. The fish continue to swim in schools through the summer. Both species occupy rather open water, often near the surface. Adults feed on zooplankton, aquatic insects and small fish. Gizzard shad are important forage in large rivers. Individual fish may travel more than 100 miles in their seasonal movements.
White bass require little management beyond habitat protection, and aren't introduced into waters where they don't already occur.
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<urn:uuid:c3868e6d-f6cc-4d51-9c45-9da51cd325f3>
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CC-MAIN-2014-35
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http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/fish/bass/index.html
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1408500834663.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20140820021354-00255-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.959142 | 848 | 3.140625 | 3 |
The state of the physical sustainability of any residential development is influenced by its spatial organization. The design most suited for the infrastructure systems which serve a particular development in turn would depend on the number of dwelling units in a settlement and the number of occupants in each dwelling unit. Infrastructure development could either be a new installation or an addition to an existing system, and the best option for either case would be quite different. This paper evaluates the extent to which the spatial characteristics of residential developments determine the kind of infrastructure system that can be employed based on water supply for a series of urban settlements with varying residential densities, in Auckland, New Zealand. The true cost of water supply systems is assessed using a life cycle approach, which incorporates not only the initial construction but also maintenance, replacement and final demolition of systems over the useful life. Residential density/settlement patterns with the least environmental impact for mains water supply are identified in terms of life cycle energy and carbon dioxide emissions by detailed analysis of various land use patterns and the existing mains water supply system in Auckland.
|Keywords:||Life Cycle Analysis, Life Cycle Energy, Embodied Energy, Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Water Supply Systems, Residential Density, Spatial Organisation, Reticulated Supply|
Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Ecosystem Sustainability, Landcare Research, Auckland, New Zealand
Senior Researcher, Centre for Urban Ecosystem Sustainability, Landcare Research, Auckland, New Zealand
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<urn:uuid:edf28039-2896-4ab9-8081-6c119a06f941>
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CC-MAIN-2017-30
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http://ijs.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.41/prod.296
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en
| 0.904559 | 307 | 2.546875 | 3 |
The fundamental ideas of a diet are to burn fat from your body and store it as energy. This principle is adopted by Atkins diet wherein ketosis performs the above function. However, people on low carbohydrate diets do not understand the functions of ketosis and how it operates.
Diets are basically on calorie-reduction which helps in losing weight. Weight reduction can be from fat and also from lean muscle tissue. But this results in losing muscle and leads to a slower metabolism although you may appear to weigh less on a scale. So the effect is weight gaining is simpler and quicker than losing weight which becomes more difficult.
The Atkins diet restricts carbohydrates with the function of ketosis. Ketosis not only helps in burning fat but protects you from losing muscle. Fat is converted into energy, your primary source in the form of ketones. This operation is done by liver which converts fat into ketones. Logically, ketones are not converted back into fat and excreted in the natural way.
To know more about ketones and their primary function, first let us understand what is ketones. Ketones are actually a normal source of energy for the human body. These ketones are formed in the liver due to breakdown of body fat from the fatty acids. When both glucose and sugar are absent in the body then ketones appear. So, Atkins diet helps you in reducing both glucose and sugar which is in the bloodstream. This results in your body producing ketones and the process of creating ketones in your body is called ketosis.
Unfortunately, there is a misconceived belief that following Atkins diet is dangerous to health which is not true. On the other hand ketosis is a completely natural state and ketones are produced as a fuel by the human body as a substitute when there is no glucose.
Dr. Atkins, in his diet book gives valuable testing strips to determine the state of ketosis in your body while dieting.
The procedure is as follows:
a) small plastic strips which contain a special chemically treated absorptive pad are held in the urine stream
b) change in the pad color indicates the precense of ketones in the urine
c) the strip will change color from pink to purple, if ketones are present
The ketone levels are determined by a color scale that is available on the label of the bottle.
Now let us discuss about the availability of ketone strips. They can be found in the diabetic supplies of any pharmacy. At times these strips are stored behind the counter in a few shops and you may have to ask for it. You can buy them without a prescription. The shelf life of ketosis strips is 6 months and whenever you open the packet, it is desirable to have the opening date on the box for avoiding any use of expiry strips.
Ketone strips guides correctly on the progress you have made by following Atkins diet. Sometimes, you may not see purple in spite of following the induction plan to the letter. But there is no need to worry because for a few individuals the ketone count does not reveal or shows only a moderate count . Sometimes, doing exercises few hours before using the strips may also result in not seeing the purple. As long as you are losing your weight and inches is an indicator of your successfully using ketones.
A common belief in some dieters is that a dark purple color on the testing strip indicates a faster way of losing weight. On the other hand it is a signal or warning for dehydration and such persons should drink more water to avoid dehydration. The color change is due to urine concentration.
Ketone strips are meant as a guide for your use as they come from fat in the bloodstream. The fat can be from what you eat or what you burn from your body. So, testing strips should not be used immediately after you eat a heavy meal as it may result in a dark purple color. Use the strips when necessary and dont be overworked on the color.
Atkins diet is successful when you reach the state of ketosis and is simple in eliminating carbohydrates from the diet. Use the ketone strips when required and be sure to follow correctly your eating plan.
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<urn:uuid:a9c482ac-6d12-4b70-93ad-5ed57f32d4ad>
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CC-MAIN-2023-40
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https://www.easy-party-recipes.com/archives/2011/04/keep-healthy-with-atkins-diet-procedures.html
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en
| 0.949888 | 846 | 2.890625 | 3 |
The library runs a year round reading program for children who have not yet entered kindergarten. The 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program encourages parents and caregivers to read 1,000 books with their child before he or she enters school – a goal experts say helps prepare children to be successful readers once they enter school. Reading to children helps to develop important literacy skills that provide a solid foundation for learning and academic success. This program has no end date except when a child enters school.
Sign up at the Children's Desk to receive a 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten reading log and tote bag.
Read together and write the titles on the reading log.
After each 100 books, bring your reading log to the library to place your name on our Readers Board, collect your next reading log, and receive a prize.
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<urn:uuid:a1cddf64-cff4-4887-a1f9-c1176f1e7d75>
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CC-MAIN-2020-29
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http://cityofmpk.org/1213/Early-Learning
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en
| 0.935539 | 167 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Julius Robert Oppenheimer was appointed director of the central laboratory for bomb design and development in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in May 1942, by General Leslie R. Groves, head of the Army Engineers.
Oppenheimer recruited a highly qualified staff of scientists by informing them of the German attempt to create an atomic bomb and of the peacetime uses of atomic energy. His ability to mix with the scientists for open discussions and on-the-spot directions and his ability to apply his knowledge to new situations and theories, were components of his leadership ability.
When the Allies succeeded in removing the threat of a German atomic bomb by their military victories, in 1944, Oppenheimer focused his attention on making the atom bomb to help bring a quick end to the fighting in the Pacific. he also felt that knowledge of the possible devastation from the bomb would force nations to work for peace in the world.
When the atomic bomb was finally used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in 1945, Oppenheimer was exhausted and deeply troubled. He resigned as direct of the Los Alamos project. He accepted a professorship at Cal Tech and then in 1946, went to the University of California at Berkeley. He found it difficult to teach as he was constantly being called to Washington for consultation.
He left Berkeley to become the director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Albert Einstein was already a member of the nonteaching faculty there. The institute attracted many postdoctoral fellows and it succeeded pre-war Copenhagen as the world center of theoretical physics.
Oppenheimer's prestige grew and he became the spokesman for those who believed that the atomic age demanded a broader understanding of science and technology. He wrote many articles and gave many lectures on this subject. He was largely responsible for the tone and content of the Acheson - Lilienthal plan which was presented to the United Nations as a basis of negotiation for atomic energy control. Together with the Soviet scientists, he concluded that international control was technically realistic and achievable.
Oppenheimer served on many government committees that were related to atomic energy. After the Soviets exploded their first A-bomb, a gap developed between President Truman and his committee. President Truman didn't accept the committee's report negating any ideas of building thermonuclear bombs. This was never made public.
When Oppenheimer's General Advisory Committee appointment expired in July 1952, he remained as a consultant. This was the heyday of Senator Joseph McCarthy with his witch-hunts for communists and he focused in on Oppenheimer, who was not a communist.
Oppenheimer's clearance was taken away. He requested and received a secret hearing which lasted from April 12 to May 6, 1954, during which distinguished scientists and public servants testified on his behalf The hearing concluded that Oppenheimer's loyalty was not in question but it would be unwise to trust him with official secrets
. Oppenheimer remained as director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton until he resigned in 1966. He died in 1967. Oppenheimer was an outstanding Jewish physicist of the 20th century. His development of the A-bomb and his writings and lectures on atomic energy are a testimonial to his greatness.
This is one of the 150 illustrated true stories of American heroism included in Jewish Heroes and Heroines of America, © 1996, written by Seymour "Sy" Brody of Delray Beach, Florida, illustrated by Art Seiden of Woodmere, New York, and published by Lifetime Books, Inc., Hollywood, FL.
For additional information, contact
Special Collections and Archives
S.E. Wimberly Library
FAU Home Page
FAU Libraries Home Page
This page is maintained by: FAU Libraries Web Manager
Last updated 18 October 2006
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<urn:uuid:6a4f8805-4694-47f4-92bb-6806bf0a78a9>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.fau.edu/library/br117.htm
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en
| 0.979116 | 763 | 3.828125 | 4 |
20: 49: 17
Svivren I's heat may seem dangerous but it is nothing in comparision to the entirely gaseous lead atmosphere. With temperatures well about 10000 degrees, this planet is so hot it does not seem to have a liquid or metal core, rather a gaseous core formed when the sun was nothing but a small dwarf star... and the planet was no where near as hot. Since the the nearby suns increased temperature has caused the core to melt, however the gas that remained still held together. Another danger of this planet is that it is radioactive. Possibly, this might be another reason the planet's heat shot up rapidly 1000 years ago, destroying all life within a matter of two days. Also this planet is known to be so hot that it warms up other neighbouring planets 1-2 degrees.
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Green roofing with native species: alternative urban landscape areas to enhance water use and sustainability in Mediterranean conditions
1) Agronomy Institute, University of Lisbon (Coordinator)
2) Faculty of Sciences University of Lisbon
3) Mediterranean Garden Society (MGS) – NGO
4) Neoturf – Construções e Manutenção de Espaços Verdes, Lda – Company
Consultants: Dr Benz Kotzen from University of Greenwich and Celestina Maria Gago Pedras from Universidade do Algarve
Urban landscapes are generally characterised by the use of exotic plant species, and this is the case for central and south Portugal. However, exotic species have negative impacts regarding biodiversity. For example, exotic introduced species can become invasive and some of the worst invasives were introduced as ornamentals e.g. Pittosporum undulatum Vent.as well as several species of the genus Acacia. A rational and more sustainable alternative to this trend is the use of native species. In Mediterranean conditions, native species are adapted to drought and high temperatures, as they endure hot, dry summers. Thus, they are a key group of species to work with when low water use is intended.
The main objectives of the project are:
1. To study green roofs as alternative urban landscapes, regarding low water requirements and the use of native species, in order to:
i) save water,
ii) take advantage of environmental adaptations of native species, namely to drought conditions, to create landscape areas that maintain ecological, functional, aesthetic and recreation value,
iii) avoid the introduction of invasive species,
iv) and promote biodiversity and wildlife refuges in urban areas.
2. To quantify the water requirements of landscape species/areas by:
i) quantifying the water requirements of a set of chosen native species using gravimetric measurements of potted plants, in relation with irrigation levels and ornamental value,
ii) and quantifying the water requirements of green roofs with native plants, by the use of soil water balance.
3. To simulate the water requirements of green roofs, regarding irrigation scheduling, by using a model formerly adapted to agricultural applications, extending it to landscape areas.
4. To test the possibility of using Biocrusts in green roofs based on the use of mosses without additional water and comparing the performance of these organisms with the average/expected advantages of a green roof, namely the capacity to retain water and reduce roof temperatures.
5. To test the hydrological performance of the green roofs and the capacity to replace ecosystem functions.
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https://greenroofslivingwalls.org/research/projects/
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| 0.901975 | 539 | 2.75 | 3 |
Some knew South African leader Nelson Mandela personally while many only knew him from afar, but they shared how they drew inspiration from his strength and looked to live his message of continuing the struggle against social injustice and for human rights.
In nearly seven decades spent fighting for freedom and equality, Nelson Mandela inspired and challenged the world to stand up for others. As word of Mandela's death spread, current and former presidents, athletes and entertainers, and people around the world spoke about the life and legacy of the former South African leader.
From Havana to Caracas, Bogota to Mexico City, from Harlem to Hollywood and Paris to Beijing, people hailed Mandela's indomitable courage in the face of adversity as an inspiration for all. In a testament to his universal appeal, political leaders of various stripes joined critics and activists in paying tribute to Mandela as a heroic force for peace and reconciliation.
Some knew Mandela personally while many only knew him from afar, but they shared how they drew inspiration from his strength and looked to live his message of continuing the struggle against social injustice and for human rights.
Latin American Leaders React
Juan Manuel Santos, President of Colombia
"His legacy remains our guide to achieve peace."
Oscar Arias, Former President of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize Winner in 1986
"Madiba has died. His sunset would be a tragedy if not for his life having been a miracle of incandescence."
Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Prize Winner
"Mandela left, but he is not gone. His testimony of life and the principles he assumed in the struggle for life remain. Today, many challenges remain in South Africa and the process of struggle to which he collaborated will serve as a compass to South Africans. Nelson Mandela was and will be an example for humanity."
Nicolás Maduro, President of Venezuela
"In tribute to the giant Nelson Mandela, I've decided on behalf of all of Venezuela to declare three days of mourning throughout the country of Bolivar and Chavez!
In other tweets, Maduro wrote: Nine months after the death of our commander (Hugo Chavez) today another giant of the world leaves us. Madiba will live forever!
Raúl Castro, President of Cuba
Mandela was mourned in Cuba, which has long felt a close bond with the late South African leader. Havana considered him a hero for supporting it amid U.S. and international criticism.
"With deep sorrow, I transmit the deepest condolences on the passing of our dear comrad Nelson Mandela. We profess profund respect and admiration, not only for what did for his people, but for his proven friendship to our country. We can never speak of Mandela in the past.
Miguel Montenegro, Commission of Human Rights for the Government of El Salvador
"It's a loss for all humanity, Mandela was an enlightening person who served as a great example to all the world's nations and especially for unjust governments who committed serious human rights violations.
Laura Chinchilla, President of Costa Rica
"Today the world mourns the departure of Nelson Mandela. He led his country to a deferential scenario that suffered. Our country and the world are touched by the loss of one of the men most exemplary of contemporary history. Footprint Mandela is strong worldwide and more at the level of Africa. "
Fernando Núñez Fábrega, Panama's Minister for Foreign Affairs
"This was a man who suffered the brunt of the hardest dictatorship in Africa, however, he remained intact in his beliefs and succeeded because of it."
Daniel Ortega, President of Nicaragua declaring 3 days of mourning
“The world says goodbye to a great man, a myth, a legend, a patrimony of Africa and of humanity. Nelson Mandela lived each day of his life struggling steadfastly for peace, fraternity and human dignity.”
Piedad Córdoba Ruiz, Prominent Colombian lawyer and politician
"He was one of the few men left in the world with his inspiration, with his principles, his ethical stance, with his incorruptible stance, his defense of life, human rights...and especially (his capacity) to manage and reconcile a county torn apart by war."
"He no longer belongs to us. He belongs to the ages," said President Barack Obama, who shares with Mandela the distinction of being his country's first black president.
At the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Ky., on display is a photograph of the U.S. boxing great with Mandela, their hands clenched into fists as if they're boxing.
"He made us realize, we are our brother's keeper and that our brothers come in all colors," Ali said. "He was a man whose heart, soul and spirit could not be contained or restrained by racial and economic injustices, metal bars or the burden of hate and revenge."
Former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said the world had lost "a visionary leader, a courageous voice for justice and a clear moral compass." Both Annan and Archbishop Desmond Tutu were part of Mandela's group of statesmen known as The Elders.
"God was so good to us in South Africa by giving us Nelson Mandela to be our president at a crucial moment in our history," Tutu said. "He inspired us to walk the path of forgiveness and reconciliation and so South Africa did not go up in flames."
President Xi Jinping of China, which supported apartheid's opponents throughout the Cold War, praised Mandela's victory in the anti-apartheid struggle and his contribution to "the cause of human progress."
For Chinese rights activists, Mandela's death served as a reminder that one of their own symbols of freedom, Nobel Peace prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, remained imprisoned by Chinese authorities. "This moment magnifies how evil the current regime is," Beijing activist Hu Jia said.
In Kiev, where Ukrainians have gathered for anti-government demonstrations around-the-clock for the past week, protesters took a moment to recall Mandela's legacy.
"He had many troubles in his life. He was in prison, but he was waiting and he achieved what he wanted," protester Alena Pivovar said. "We have the same situation now. We have some barriers, but we have to pass them."
The United Nation's top human rights official, Navi Pillay — a South African who was once a defense lawyer for anti-apartheid activists — said Mandela "was perhaps the greatest moral leader of our time."
Pillay recalled how Mandela's release from prison triggered a "thirst for revenge" among his supporters but that he emphasized forgiveness over vengeance. "He told us to throw our spears and guns into the sea," Pillay said. "He showed us that a better future depended on reconciliation, not revenge."
In Haiti, a Caribbean nation that became the world's first black republic in 1804 through a successful slave revolt, Mandela symbolized the struggle for black equality.
"Mandela is not only the father of democracy in South Africa, but is also a symbol of democracy," said Haitian President Michel Martelly. "And like any symbol, he is not dead. He is present in all of us and guides us by his lifestyle, his courage and faith in the true struggle for equality."
"Mandela's message will not disappear. It will continue to inspire those fighting for freedom and to give confidence to people defending just causes and universal rights," said French President Francois Hollande, who is hosting dozens of African leaders this week for a summit on peace and security.
In New York City's Harlem neighborhood, artist Franco Gaskin, 85, stood before a mural featuring Mandela he had painted on a storefront gate almost 20 years ago. He remembered a Mandela visit there in 1990. "It was dynamic, everyone was so electrified to see him in Harlem," Gaskin said. "I idolized him so much. He leaves a legacy that all of us should follow."
Myanmar pro-democracy leader and fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi paid tribute to Mandela as a "great human being who raised the standard of humanity."
"I would like to express my extreme grief at the passing away of the man who stood for human rights and for equality in this world," she said. "He also made us understand that we can change the world."
India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh compared Mandela to his country's own icon for the struggle for freedom, independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi.
"A giant among men has passed away. This is as much India's loss as South Africa's. He was a true Gandhian. His life and work will remain a source of eternal inspiration for generations to come."
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott described Mandela as one of the great figures of the 20th century who had healed a broken country.
"He spent much of his life standing against the injustice of apartheid. When that fight was won, he inspired us again by his capacity to forgive and reconcile his country," Abbott said.
Israeli President Shimon Peres said Mandela was a "builder of bridges of peace and dialogue" who changed the course of history, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised his moral leadership.
"He was never haughty," Netanyahu said. "He worked to heal rifts within South African society and succeeded in preventing outbreaks of racial hatred."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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|Arduino controlling 2 motors, powered off 4.5v battery.|
Different power sources (Arduino and battery) are connected to same GND
If you ignore the capacitors and diodes for the moment, all you have here is 2 motors connected to a 4.5v battery via the 2N7052 transistors. These transistors only allow current to flow if they receive a signal from the Arduino.via one of the GPIO Pins (with a couple of 10k resistors to minimize current flow).
The capacitors and diodes are there to protect the circuit against some annoying properties of motors. The spinning motor creates noise, and (as I understand it), the capacitor absorbs spikes by acting as a cushion, and the diode prevents current reversal by acting as a valve. That's my understanding though - might find out I'm wrong a few posts later :)
Here's my circuitry as it stands with the motors now hooked up to the rest of the circuitry:
|Motors connected to arduino via motor controllers|
This close up shows 1 of the motor controllers on the bread board
|Motor Controller Closeup|
I now send alternate HIGH/LOW signals to the motor pins once per second and watch as the motors turn on and off, however this isn't too interesting, so I add some wheels to the motors - big, chunky wheels :)
I get the wheels turning alternately and it looks great and Dave sees it and makes an impressed noise which is always a good sign. Next I experiment with getting the left one to run more slowly by sending it a square wave (i.e. pulses of current) rather than a solid signal. This definitely works, but as I'm running the motors at significantly below power already (they're 12-18V motors), any significant drop in current just stops them running. This technique'll be much more effective when there's a higher voltage going in.
As a quick test to prove the point of the transistors, I hook up an ammeter - first in series with the Arduino and transistor, then later in series with the motor and battery. Ideally what we should see is the Arduino having to provide a very low current in order to allow a lot of current to flow from battery to motor.
On the left you see the reading coming out of the Ardiuno - a tiny 0.35mA - well within Arduino operating range. However on the right you see our 4.5V batteries pumping out 156mA of current, which will probably be closer to 1A by the time we've got full power batteries and proper motor controllers in - I'm starting to see why they recommend cut off switches!
So that's the lot for motors - all fun and games. Here's a final video of it in action responding to sensor input and turning motors. Blogger seems to have been having issues with it lately, so if the vid doesn't work check it out on you tube here:
Blog is almost caught up with real world now! Next one will be about my prototype dual axis sensor platform
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|Home | About | Journals | Submit | Contact Us | Français|
Metabolomics studies hold promise for discovery of pathways linked to disease processes. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) represents the leading cause of death and morbidity worldwide. A metabolomics approach was used to generate unbiased small molecule metabolic profiles in plasma that predict risk for CVD. Three metabolites of the dietary lipid phosphatidylcholine, namely choline, trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), and betaine, were identified and then shown to predict risk for CVD in an independent large clinical cohort. Dietary supplementation of mice with choline, TMAO or betaine promoted up-regulation of multiple macrophage scavenger receptors linked to atherosclerosis, and supplementation with choline or TMAO promoted atherosclerosis. Studies using germ-free mice confirmed a critical role for dietary choline and gut flora in TMAO production, augmented macrophage cholesterol accumulation and foam cell formation. Suppression of intestinal microflora in atherosclerosis-prone mice inhibited dietary choline-enhanced atherosclerosis. Genetic variations controlling expression of flavin monooxygenases (FMOs), an enzymatic source of TMAO, segregated with atherosclerosis in hyperlipidemic mice. Discovery of a relationship between gut flora-dependent metabolism of dietary phosphatidylcholine and CVD pathogenesis provides opportunities for development of both novel diagnostic tests and therapeutic approaches for atherosclerotic heart disease.
The pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease (CVD) includes genetic and environmental factors. A known environmental risk factor for the development of CVD is a diet rich in lipids. A relationship between blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels and cardiovascular risk is well established. However, less is known about the role of the third major category of lipids, phospholipids, in atherosclerotic heart disease pathogenesis.
Another potential yet controversial environmental factor in the development or progression of atherosclerotic heart disease is inflammation due to infectious agents. Studies have suggested associations between coronary disease and pathogens such as Cytomegalovirus (CMV), Helicobactor, Chlamydia, or C pneumoniae1–4. However, prospective randomized trials with antibiotics in humans have thus far failed to demonstrate cardiovascular benefit5–7 and studies with germ-free hyperlipidemic mice confirm that infectious agents are not necessary for murine atherosclerotic plaque development8. While a definite cause-and-effect relationship between bacterial or viral pathogen and atherosclerosis in humans has not yet been established, the prospect of a role for microbes and atherosclerosis susceptability remains enticing.
Intestinal microbiota (“gut flora”), comprised of trillions of typically non-pathogenic commensal organisms, serve as a filter for our greatest environmental exposure - what we eat. Gut flora play an essential role, aiding in the digestion and absorption of many nutrients9. Animal studies have recently shown that intestinal microbial communities can influence the efficiency of harvesting energy from diet, and consequently influence susceptibility for obesity10. Metabolomics studies of inbred mouse strains have also recently shown that gut microbiota may play an active role in the development of complex metabolic abnormalities, such as susceptibility to insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease11. A link between gut flora dependent phospholipid metabolism and atherosclerosis risk through generation of pro-atherosclerotic metabolites has not yet been reported.
In initial studies we sought to discover unbiased small molecule metabolic profiles in plasma that predict increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). An initial “Learning Cohort” was used comprised of plasma from stable patients undergoing elective cardiac evaluation who subsequently experienced a heart attack (myocardial infarction, MI), stroke or death over the ensuing three year period versus age- and gender-matched subjects who did not. Liquid chromatography with on-line mass spectrometry (LC/MS) analysis of plasma was performed to define analytes associated with cardiac risk as described in Methods. Of an initial 2000+ analytes monitored, 40 met all acceptability criteria within the Learning Cohort. Subsequent studies within an independent “Validation Cohort” led to identification of 18 analytes that met acceptability criteria in both Learning and Validation Cohorts (Fig. 1a,b, Supplementary Fig. 1a, Supplementary Table 1).
The structural identity of the 18 small molecules in plasma whose levels track with cardiac risks was not known since the compounds were screened based upon their retention time and mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) when analyzed by LC/MS. Among the 18 analytes, those with m/z 76, 104 and 118 demonstrated significant (p<0.001) correlations amongst one another, suggesting their potential relationship via a common biochemical pathway (Supplementary Fig. 1b). We therefore initially sought to structurally define these three analytes.
The candidate compound in plasma with m/z of 76 associated with CVD risks was isolated and unambiguosly identified as trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) using multinuclear NMR, MSn, LC/MS/MS, and GC/MS/MS following multiple derivitization strategies (see Methods, Supplementary Figs. 2a–d, and Supplementary Table 2). TMAO, an oxidation product of trimethylamine (TMA), is a relatively common metabolite of choline in animals12–13. Foods rich in the lipid phosphatidylcholine (PC, also called lecithin), which predominantly includes eggs, milk, liver, red meat, poultry, shell fish and fish, are believed to be the major dietary sources for choline, and hence TMAO production14. Briefly, initial catabolism of choline and other trimethylamine containing species (e.g. betaine) by intestinal microbes forms the gas TMA13, which is efficiently absorbed and rapidly metabolized by at least one member of the hepatic flavin monooxygenase (FMO) family of enzymes, FMO3, to form TMAO15–16. Identification of the plasma analyte associated with CVD risk with m/z 76 as TMAO therefore suggested that the plasma analyte with m/z 104 might be choline. Further, these results also suggested that the plasma analyte with m/z 118 associated with CVD might be related to PC (choline) metabolism.
To test the hypothesis that the plasma analytes with m/z 76 (TMAO), 104 and 118 might all be derived from the major dietary lipid PC, mice were fed egg yolk PC (via oral gavage) and plasma levels of analytes over time were monitored. In both male and female mice, analytes with the same m/z (76, 104 and 118) and the same retention times as the corresponding analytes of interest observed in human plasma all increased following oral PC feeding (Supplementary Figs. 3a and b), strongly suggesting the m/z 104 analyte was choline, and the analyte at m/z 118 was derived from PC. Confirmation that the plasma analyte (m/z 104) associated with CVD risk was choline was achieved by MSn, LC/MS/MS, and GC/MS/MS following multiple derivitization strategies (Supplementary Fig. 4a–d; Supplementary Table 3).
We next studied the plasma analyte with m/z 118. We hypothesized that the analyte was either betaine or one of several potential methyltransferase metabolites of choline (see Supplementary Fig. 5a for structures and strategy for discrimination amongst these isomers). To both distinguish amongst these species, and explore a role for intestinal generation of the various metabolites, different isotopically labeled choline precursors were administered to mice either via oral (gavage) vs. parenteral (intraperitoneal, i.p.) route. The observed m/z of new isotopically labeled analytes at the appropriate retention times identified in plasma following these isotope tracer studies are sumarized in Fig. 2a. Oral administration of non-labeled choline resulted in time-dependent increases in plasma levels of analytes with m/z 76, 104 and 118, consistent with TMAO, choline and either betaine or a methylated choline species (Supplementary Fig. 6a). Use of selectively deuterated choline species at either the trimethylamine moiety (d9-isotopomer) or the ethyl moiety (d4-isotopomer) unambigously confirmed the m/z 118 analyte as betaine (Figs. 2a, Supplementary Fig. 6b). Further confirmation was acquired by observing the same retention time in LC/MS and an identical CID mass spectrum (Supplementary Fig. 5b). Moreover, supplementation of PC or choline isotopomers via gavage or i.p. injection showed an absolute requirement for oral route in TMAO production, whereas betaine production from PC or choline was formed via both oral and i.p. routes (Fig. 2, Supplementary Fig. 7a).
Intestinal microflora play a role in TMAO formation from dietary free choline13. We therefore hypothesized that commensal organisms (i.e. gut flora) might also have an obligate role in TMAO formation from dietary PC. To test this, deuterated PC was synthesized whereby the choline-methyl groups were deuterium labelled (i.e. d9-PC) and used as isotope tracer for feeding studies. When mice were fed via oral gavage with d9-PC, time-dependent appearance of the anticipated d9-isotopomer of TMAO was observed in plasma (Fig. 2c). Interestingly, pre-treatment of mice with a three-week course of broad spectrum antibiotics to suppress intestinal flora completely suppressed appearance of d9-TMAO in plasma following oral d9-PC (Fig. 2c). A similar pattern was observed following oral administration of d9-choline to mice, with d9-TMAO produced in untreated mice, but not in the same mice following a three-week course of broad spectrum antibiotics (Supplementary Fig. 7b), or in germ free mice born sterilely by Caesarian section (Supplementary Fig. 7c). In a final series of studies, mice with suppressed intestinal microflora following antibiotics were placed in conventional cages with normal (i.e. non-germ-free) mice to permit intestinal colonization with microbes. After four weeks, repeat oral d9-PC challenge of the now “conventionalized” mice resulted in readily detectable plasma levels of d9-TMAO (Fig. 2c). Similar results were observed following conventionalization of germ-free mice and oral d9-choline (Supplementary Fig. 7c). Collectively, these results show an obligate role for intestinal microbiota in generation of TMAO from the dietary lipid PC. They also reveal the following metabolic pathway for dietary PC producing TMAO: PC → choline → TMA → TMAO.
We next sought to independently confirm the prognostic value of monitoring fasting plasma levels of TMAO, choline and betaine in a large independent clinical cohort distinct from subjects examined in both the Learning and Validation Cohorts. Stable subjects (N=1876) undergoing elective cardiac evaluations were enrolled. Clinical, demographic and laboratory characteristics of the cohort are provided in Supplementary Table 4a. Fasting plasma levels of TMAO, choline and betaine were quantified by LC/MS/MS using methods specific for each analyte (Supplementary Fig. 8). Elevated levels of choline, TMAO and betaine were all observed to show dose-dependent associations with the presence of CVD (Fig. 3a–c) and multiple individual CVD phenotypes including peripheral artery disease (PAD), coronary artery disease (CAD), and history of myocardial infarction (MI) (Supplementary Tables 5a–d for multilogistic regression models, and Supplementary Table 5e for Somers' Dxy correlation). The associations between increased risk of all CVD phenotypes monitored and elevated systemic levels of the three PC metabolites held true following adjustments for traditional cardiac risk factors and medications usage (Figs. 3a–c, Supplementary Tables 5a–e).
We next investigated whether the strong associations noted between plasma levels of the dietary PC metabolites and CVD risk reflected some hidden underlying pro-atherosclerotic mechanism. Atherosclerosis-prone mice (C57BL/6J.Apoe−/−) at time of weaning were placed on either normal chow diet (contains 0.08–0.09% total choline, wt/wt) or normal chow diet supplemented with intermediate (0.5%) or high amounts of additional choline (1.0 %) or TMAO (0.12%). At 20 weeks of age enhanced aortic atherosclerotic plaque was noted in both male and female mice on diets supplemented with either choline or TMAO (Fig. 3d, Supplementary Fig. 9a). Analysis of plasma levels of choline and TMAO in each of the dietary arms showed nominal changes in plasma levels of choline, but significant increases of TMAO in mice receiving either choline or TMAO supplementation (Supplementary Fig. 10). Parallel examination of plasma cholesterol, triglycerides, lipoproteins, glucose levels, and hepatic triglyceride content in the mice failed to show significant increases that could account for the enhanced atherosclerosis (Supplementary Table 6, Supplementary Fig. 11). Interestingly, all dietary groups of mice revealed a significant positive correlation between plasma levels of TMAO and atherosclerotic plaque size (Fig. 3e, Supplementary Fig. 9b). Of note, plasma TMAO levels observed within the female mice (which get enhanced atherosclerosis relative to their male counterparts), even on normal chow diet, were significantly higher than those observed among male mice (Supplementary Fig. 10). No significant gender differences in plasma levels of TMAO were observed in humans (P=0.47); however, a clear dose-response relationship was observed between TMAO levels and clinical atherosclerotic plaque burden in subjects undergoing coronary angiography (Fig. 3f).
Hepatic FMO3 is a known enzymatic source for TMAO in humans, based on the recent recognition of the etiology of an uncommon genetic disorder called trimethylaminuria (also known as fish malodor syndrome)15,17. Subjects with this metabolic condition have impaired capacity to convert TMA, which smells like rotting fish, into TMAO, an odorless stable oxidation product17. We therefore sought to identify possible sources of genetic regulation and role of FMO3 in atherosclerosis using integrative genetics in mice18. Expression levels of FMO3 were determined by microarray analysis in the livers of mice from an F2 intercross between atherosclerosis-prone C57BL/6J.Apoe−/− mice and atherosclerosis-resistant C3H/HeJ.Apoe−/− mice and compared with quantitative measures of atherosclerosis. The expression level of FMO3 showed marked differences between genders (females > 1,000 fold higher than in males). Significant positive correlations were readily found between hepatic FMO3 expression and atherosclerotic lesions (Fig. 4a; Supplementary Fig. 12 top row; Supplementary Fig. 13). Interestingly, a highly significant negative correlation with plasma high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels was noted in both male and female mice (Fig. 4b; Supplementary Fig. 12, middle row). Further, plasma levels of the PC metabolite, TMAO, showed a significant positive correlation with hepatic FMO3 expression level in mice (Fig. 4c; Supplementary Fig. 12 bottom row).
FMO3 is one member of a family of FMO enzymes, the majority of which are physically located as a cluster of genes on chromosome 1 in both humans and mice. The various FMOs share sequence homology and overlapping substrate specificities. Further, while rare mutations in or near the FMO3 gene have been identified in individuals with trimethylaminuria19, the impact of these mutations on other FMO genes remains unknown. Examination of the hepatic expression levels of the various FMOs revealed that many are highly correlated with each other in both mice and humans (Supplementary Table 7). Examination of hepatic expression levels of additional FMOs in mice from the atherosclerosis F2 intercross revealed multiple FMOs are significantly correlated with aortic lesion formation, HDL cholesterol concentrations, and plasma TMAO levels (Supplementary Figs. 14–16), suggesting that multiple members of the FMO family of enzymes may participate in atherosclerosis and the PC → TMAO metabolic pathway. To explore the relationship between hepatic FMOs and plasma TMAO levels in humans, paired samples of liver and plasma from subjects undergoing elective liver biopsy were examined. Amongst all of the human FMO monitored, only a trend toward positive association was noted between hepatic expression of FMO3 and plasma TMAO levels (Fig. 4d; Supplementary Fig. 17).
Next, we focused on the genetic regulation of hepatic FMO3 expression (and other FMOs) using eQTL (expression quantitative trait locus) analyses in the F2 mouse cross. The eQTL plot for FMO3 mRNA levels is shown in Supplementary Fig. 18, and demonstrates a strongly suggestive cis locus (LOD=5.9) on mouse chromosome 1 at 151 Mb. FMO3 (and several other FMOs) is located at 164.8 Mb in a region identified as non-identical by descent between C3H/HeJ and C57BL/6 (http://mouse.perlegen.com). This region is just distal to the 95% confidence interval of a previously reported murine atherosclerosis susceptibility locus20. Examining the effect of the closest SNP to FMO3 (rs3689151) as a function of alleles inherited from either parental strain indicated a strong effect on atherosclerosis in both genders of the F2 mice (Kruskal-Wallis test, p<1.×10−6). Bonferroni corrected pair-wise comparisons indicated a dose-dependent significant increase in atherosclerosis in F2 mice heterozygous or homozygous for the C57BL/6J allele (Fig. 4e). Although the resolution on average for an F2 intercross of this size is in excess of 20 Mb and thus does not provide `gene level' resolution, these data show that the locus encompassing the FMO gene cluster on chromosome 1 is associated with atherosclerotic lesion size. Collectively, these results indicate that: (i) hepatic expression levels of multiple FMOs are linked to plasma TMAO levels in mice; (ii) hepatic expression levels of multiple FMOs are associated with both the extent of aortic atherosclerosis and HDL cholesterol levels in mice; (iii) hepatic expression levels of FMO3 suggest an association with plasma TMAO levels in humans; and (iv) a genetic locus containing the FMO gene cluster on chromosome 1 in mice has a strong effect on atherosclerosis.
To explore potential mechanisms through which dietary choline and its metabolites might exert their pro-atherosclerotic effects, C57BL/6J.Apoe−/− mice at time of weaning were placed on a normal chow diet supplemented with either choline, TMAO or betaine (for > 3 weeks). Both mRNA levels (Supplementary Fig. 19) and surface protein levels (Figs. 4f, g; Supplementary Fig. 20) of two macrophage scavenger receptors implicated in atherosclerosis, CD36 and SR-A1, were then determined in peritoneal macrophages. Relative to normal chow diet, animals supplemented with either choline, TMAO or betaine all showed enhanced macrophage levels of CD36 and SR-A1. We next examined the impact of dietary choline and gut flora on endogenous formation of cholesterol-laden macrophage foam cells, one of the earliest cellular hallmarks of the atherosclerotic process. Hyperlipidemic C57BL/6J.Apoe−/− mice were fed diets with defined levels of choline as follows: (i) “control” (0.07–0.08%, wt/wt), which is similar to the choline content of normal chow (0.08–0.09%); versus (ii) high “choline”, corresponding to > 10-fold higher level of choline (1.0%, wt/wt) than normal chow. Concomitantly, half of the mice were administered broad spectrum antibiotics for 3 weeks in order to suppress intestinal microflora, which was confirmed by the reduction of plasma TMAO levels by >100-fold (plasma TMAO concentrations in groups receiving antibiotics were <100 nM). While mice on the control diet showed modest evidence of endogenous macrophage foam cell formation, as indicated by oil-red-O staining of peritoneal macrophages, mice on the 1% choline supplemented diet showed markedly enhanced lipid-laden macrophage development (Fig. 5a). In contrast, suppression of intestinal flora significantly inhibited dietary choline-induced macrophage foam cell formation (Fig. 5a,b). These results were confirmed by microscopic quantification of endogenous foam cell levels (Fig. 5b), and analytical quantification of the cholesterol content of recovered macrophages (Fig. 5c). Histopathology and biochemical studies of livers recovered from these mice showed no evidence of steatosis (Supplementary Fig. 21). Parallel analyses of plasma PC metabolites also demonstrated no significant changes in choline or betaine levels between the different dietary groups, and significant increases of plasma TMAO levels only in mice on the high choline diet in the absence of antibiotics (males, control vs. choline diet, 2.5±0.1 μM vs. 28.3±2.4 μM, p<0.001; for females, control vs. choline diet, 4.0±0.5 μM vs. 158.6±32.9 μM, p<0.001).
In additional studies we sought to test whether gut flora is involved in dietary choline-induced atherosclerosis. At the time of weaning (4 week old), atherosclerosis-prone C57BL/6J.Apoe−/− mice were placed on either a control diet (0.08±0.01%, wt/wt, choline) or a diet supplemented with 1% choline (wt/wt, choline diet). Half of the mice were also treated with broad spectrum antibiotics to suppress intestinal microflora. Serial plasma measurements confirmed suppression of TMAO levels to virtually non-detectable levels (<100 nM) throughout the duration of the study. At 20 weeks of age, mice were sacrificed and aortic root lesion development was quantified. In the absence of antibiotics (i.e. preserved intestinal microflora), choline supplementation augmented atherosclerosis in both male and female mice nearly three fold (Figs. 5d,e,f). In contrast, suppression of intestinal flora completely inhibited dietary choline-mediated enhancement in atheroscelerosis (Figs. 5d,e,f). Aortic macrophage content and scavenger receptor CD36 immunoreactive surface area within aortic lesions were markedly increased on the high choline diet, but not when intestinal microflora was suppressed with antibiotic treatment (Fig. 5g,5h; Supplementary Figs. 22,23). Both histopathological and biochemical examination of liver sections from mice showed no evidence of steatosis or altered neutral lipid (triglyceride or cholesterol/cholesterol ester) levels on either diet in the absence or presence of antibiotics (Supplementary Fig. 21 and Supplementary Table 8). Finally, the structural specificity of PC metabolites in promoting a proatherogenic macrophage phenotype was examined. Mice fed diets supplemented with trimethylamine species (choline or TMAO) showed increased peritoneal macrophage cholesterol content and elevated plasma levels of TMAO. In contrast, dietary supplementation with the choline analog 3,3-dimethyl-1-butanol (DMB), where the quaternary amine nitrogen of choline is replaced with a carbon, resulted in no TMAO increase and no increased cholesterol in macrophages (Supplemental Fig. 24).
Using a targeted metabolomics approach aimed at identifying plasma metabolites whose levels predict risk of CVD in subjects, we have identified a novel pathway linking dietary lipid intake, intestinal microflora and atherosclerosis (Fig. 6). The pathway identified (dietary PC/choline -> gut flora-formed TMA -> hepatic FMO-formed TMAO) represents a unique additional nutritional contribution to the pathogenesis of CVD that involves choline metabolism, an obligate role for the intestinal microbial community, and regulation of surface expression levels of macrophage scavenger receptors known to participate in the atherosclerotic process. The pro-atherogenic gut flora-generated metabolite, TMAO, is formed in a two-step process initiated by gut flora-dependent cleavage of a trimethylamine species (e.g. PC, choline, betaine) generating the precursor TMA, and subsequent oxidation by FMO3 and possibly other FMOs (Fig. 6). PC is by far the most abundant dietary source of choline in most humans. The present results indicate that both environmental exposure (dietary lipid) and microbial flora participate in TMAO production and the atherogenic macrophage phenotype. While the present genetic studies also suggest a role for hepatic expression levels of one or more FMOs in both enhanced atherosclerotic plaque and decreased HDL levels in mice, the participation of FMOs in human atherosclerosis and HDL cholesterol levels remains to be established. Strong associations between systemic TMAO levels and both angiographic measures of coronary artery atherosclerotic burden and cardiac risks were observed among subjects; however, no correlation was observed between plasma TMAO levels and HDL cholesterol levels in subjects. It remains to be determined whether genetic impairment in FMO3 alone or in combination with other FMOs, is protective for CVD. No phenotype other than the objectionable odor accompanying this disorder is known. In fact, individuals with trimethylaminuria often become vegans, since reducing ingestion of dietary lipids decreases TMA production and the associated noxious odor. Little is also known about the biologic functions of TMAO in humans. TMAO apparently serves as an osmolite in the freeze-avoidance response of some species21. In vitro it can function as a small molecule chaperone, affecting the folding and functioning of some proteins22–23. In addition, TMAO and TMA accumulate in plasma of subjects on maintenance hemodialysis24, suggesting that TMAO might contribute to the well-established enhanced CVD risk noted among subjects with end-stage renal disease.
Choline is an essential nutrient that is usually grouped within the vitamin B complex. Choline and its metabolite, betaine, are methyl donors, along with folate, and are metabolically linked to transmethylation pathways including synthesis of the CVD risk factor homocysteine. Deficiency in both choline and betaine are suggested to produce epigenetic changes in genes linked to atherosclerosis25–26, and acute choline and methionine deficiency in rodent models causes lipid accumulation in liver (steatohepatitis), heart and arterial tissues27. Alternatively, some studies have reported an association between increased whole blood levels of total choline and cardiovascular disease28–29. Few clinical studies have examined the relationship between choline intake and CVD30, probably because accurate measures of the choline content of most foods has only recently become available14 (http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/Choline/Choln02.pdf). The association between dietary choline (and alternative trimethyl amine containing species) and atherosclerosis is complex and will be influenced by the composition of the intestinal microflora.
The human intestinal microbial community is an enormous and diverse ecosystem with known functions in nutrition, gut epithelial cell health, and innate immunity31. Intestinal flora also has recently been implicated in development of some metabolic phenotypes such as obesity and insulin resistance, as well as alterations in immune responses11,32–34. As far as we know, the present studies are the first to identify a direct link between intestinal microflora, dietary PC and CVD risk. These results suggest that an appropriately designed probiotic intervention may serve as a therapeutic strategy for CVD. Interestingly, production of TMAO can be altered by probiotic administration35. Thus, in addition to the current clinical recommendation for general reduction in dietary lipids, manipulation of commensal microbial composition may be a novel therapeutic approach for the prevention and treatment of atherosclerotic heart disease and its complications. Finally, the present studies suggest an additional novel treatment for atherosclerosis - blocking the presumed pathogenic biochemical pathway at the level of the gut flora through use of a non-systemically absorbed inhibitor.
Plasma samples and associated clinical study data were identified in patients referred for cardiac evaluation at a tertiary care center. All subjects gave written informed consent and the Institutional Review Board of the Cleveland Clinic approved all study protocols. Unbiased metabolic profiling was performed using liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC/MS). Target analyte structural identification was achieved using a combination of LC/MS/MS, LC-MSn, multinuclear NMR, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and choline isotope tracer feeding studies in mice as outlined in Methods. Statstical analyses were performed using R (version 2.10.1)36. Intestinal microflora was suppressed by supplementation of drinking water with a cocktail of broad spectrum antibiotics37. Germ-free mice were purchased from Taconic SWGF. QTL analyses to identify atherosclerosis related genes were performed on F2 mice generated by crossing atherosclerosis prone C57BL/6J.apoe−/− mice and atherosclerosis resistant C3H/HeJ.apoe−/− mice38. mRNA expression was assayed by Microarray Analysis and Real Time PCR. Aortic root lesion area in mice was quantified by microscopy after staining39. Mouse peritoneal macrophages were collected by lavage for foam cell quantification and cholesterol accumulation assay. Surface protein levels of scavenger receptors, CD36, SR-A1, were determined by flow cytometry.
Lipids were extracted by chloroform:methanol (2:1, v/v)40. Cholesterol was quantified by GC/MS41. Triglyceride was quantified by GPO reagent set (Pointe Scientific)42. Cell DNA content was quantified by PicoGreen43. RNA was isolated by TRIZOL® reagent (Invitrogen) and RNeasy Mini Kit (Qiagen). All reagents were purchased from Sigma unless otherwise specified.
Plasma samples and associated clinical data were collected as part of two studies involving stable non-symptomatic subjects undergoing elective cardiac evaluations at a tertiary care center. The first study, GeneBank, is a large well-characterized tissue repository with longitudinal data from subjects undergoing elective diagnostic left heart catheterization or elective coronary computed tomography angiography44. The second study, BioBank, includes subjects undergoing cardiac risk factor evaluation/modification in a preventive cardiology clinic45. CAD included adjudicated diagnoses of stable or unstable angina, MI or angiographic evidence of ≥ 50% stenosis of one or more epicardial vessels. PAD was defined as any evidence of extra-coronary atherosclerosis. Atherosclerotic CVD was defined as the presence of either CAD or PAD. All subjects gave written informed consent and the Institutional Review Board of the Cleveland Clinic approved all study protocols.
Discovery metabolomics analyses began with an unbiased search for plasma (fasting, EDTA purple top tube) analytes linked to CVD risk using a case:control design (Learning Cohort, N=50 cases and 50 controls). Cases were randomly selected from GeneBank subjects who experienced an MI, stroke or death over the ensuing three year period. An age- gender-matched control group was randomly selected from GeneBank subjects that did not experience a CVD event. An independent non-overlapping Validation Cohort (N=25 cases and 25 controls) was also from GeneBank. A third large (N=1876) independent study comprised of non-overlapping subjects then evaluated clinical associations of identified analytes. Approximately half (N=1020) of the subjects enrolled were from GeneBank and the remaining (N=856) were from BioBank. Similar patient characteristics within each cohort and the combined cohort are observed, as shown in Supplementary Table 4a.b. The association of each PC metabolite and various cardiovascular phenotypes within each cohort (GeneBank and BioBank) are also similar (Supplementary Tables 4c–e). All subjects in the large independent clinical study had similar inclusion and exclusion criterion, negative cardiac enzymes (troponin I < 0.03 ng/ml) and no recent history of MI or CABG. Estimate of glomerular filtration rate was calculated using the MDRD formula46. Fasting blood glucose, C reactive protein, troponin I and lipid profiles were measured on the Abbott ARCHITECT platform (Abbott Diagnostics).
Plasma proteins were precipitated with 4 volumes of ice cold methanol and small molecule analytes within supernatants were analyzed following injection onto a phenyl column (4.6 × 250 mm, 5 μm Rexchrom Phenyl; Regis, Morton Grove, IL) at a flow rate of 0.8 ml/min using a Cohesive HPLC (Franklin, MA) interfaced with an PE Sciex API 365 triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (Applied Biosystems, Foster, CA) with Ionics (Ontario, Canada) HSID+, EP10+, XT+ redesigned source and collision cell as upgrades in positive MS1 mode. LC gradient (LC1) starting from 10 mM ammonium formate over 0.5 min, then to 5 mM ammonium formate, 25 % methanol and 0.1 % formic acid over 3 min, held for 8 min, followed by 100% methanol and water washing for 3 min at a flow rate of 0.8 ml/min was used to resolve analytes. Spectra were continuously acquired after the initial 4 minutes. Peaks within reconstructed ion chromatograms at 1 amu increments were integrated and both retention times and mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) of analytes were used for statistical analyses.
Selection criteria for determining analytes of interest were based upon the composite of MACE as the clinical phenotype, defined as incident myocardial infarction, stroke or death at 3 years, and included: (i) demonstration of a statistically significant difference between cases vs. controls using a Bonferoni adjusted two sided t-test (P<0.05); (ii) evidence of a significant (P<0.05) dose-response relationship between analyte level and clinical phenotype using Cochran-Armitage trend test; and (iii) a minimal signal-to-noise ratio of 5:1 for a given analyte.
To chemically define the structures of the plasma analytes selected for further investigation (i.e. analytes with m/z 76, 104 and 118 in positive MS1 mode), multiple approaches were used. Analytes of interest were isolated by HPLC, vacuum dried, re-dissolved in water and injected onto the same phenyl column with a distinct HPLC gradient (LC2, flow rate: 0.8 ml/min) starting from 0.2% formic acid over 2 min, then linearly to 18% acetonitrile containing 0.2 % formic acid over 18 min and further to 100% acetonitrile containing 0.2 % formic acid over 3 min. The targeted analytes were identified by their m/z and the appropriate fractions recovered. After removal of solvent, dry analytes were used for structural identification.
Samples analyzed by GC-MS were derivatized using Sylon HTP kit (HMDS + TMCS + Pyridine (3 : 1 : 9), Supelco). Derivitizations of TMAO and the plasma analyte at m/z 76 also included initial reduction by titanium (III) chloride47 and further derivatized by reaction with 2,2,2-trichloroethylchloroformate48. Analyses were performed on the Agilent Technolgies 6890/5973 GC/MS in positive ion chemical ionization mode. The GC/MS analyses used a J&W Scientific (Folsom) DB-1 column (30 m, 0.25 mm inner diameter, 0.25-μm film thickness) for separations.
Stable isotope dilution LC/MS/MS was used for quantification of TMAO, choline and betaine. TMAO, choline and betaine were monitored in positive MRM MS mode using characteristic precursor - product ion transitions: m/z 76→58, m/z 104→60, and m/z 118→59, respectively. The internal standards TMAO-trimethyl-d9 (d9-TMAO) and choline-trimethyl-d9 (d9-choline), were added to plasma samples prior to protein precipitation, and were similarly monitored in MRM mode at m/z 85→68 and m/z 113→69, respectively. Various concentrations of TMAO, choline and betaine standards and a fixed amount of internal standards were spiked into control plasma to prepare the calibration curves for quantification of plasma analytes. TMA was similarly quantified from acidified plasma by LC/MS/MS using MRM mode.
Apolipoprotein E knockout mice (C57BL/6J.Apoe−/−) were weaned at 4 weeks of age and fed with either standard chow control diet (Teklad 2018) or a custom diet comprised of normal chow supplemented with 0.5% choline (Teklad TD.07863), 1.0% choline (Teklad TD.07864) or 0.12% TMAO (Teklad TD.07865) for 16 weeks. Mice were anesthetized with Ketamine/Xylazine prior to cardiac puncture to collect blood. Hearts were fixed and stored in 4% paraformaldehyde prior to frozen OCT sectioning and staining with Oil-Red-O and hematoxylin. Aortic root lesion area was quantified as the mean value of 6 sections39. Aortic sections were immunostained with rat anti-mouse F4/80 antibody (ab6640, abcam) followed by goat anti-rat IgG-FITC antibody (sc-2011, Santa Cruz) and FITC conjugated CD36 mAb (Cayman Chemical) for F4/80 and CD36, respectively. Sections were mounted in Vectashield DAPI (H-1200, Vectashield) to take pictures under a Leica DMR microscope (W. Nuhsbaum) equipped with a Q Imaging Retiga EX camera (Burnaby, BC, Canada). Use Image-Pro Plus Version 7.0 (MediaCybernetics) to integrate the positive staining area of F4/80 and CD36 in aorta.
Cell surface expression of scavenger receptors, SR-A1 and CD36, were quantified on peritoneal macrophages from female mice by flow cytometry after immunostaining with fluorochrome conjugated antibodies. Fluorescence intensity was quantified on a FACSCalibur flow cytometry instrument with FlowJo software (BD Biosciences). >10,000 total events were acquired to obtain adequate macrophages numbers. The following antibodies were used to stain macrophages: CD36 mAb FITC (Cayman Chemical), anti-mouse SR-AI/MSRA1 (R&D Systems), goat anti-rat IgG-FITC (Santa Cruz Biotechnology), Alexa Fluor® 647 anti-mouse F4/80 (eBioscience), Alexa Fluor® 647 anti-mouse CD11b (eBioscience) and the isotype controls, Alexa Fluor® 647 rat IgG2b (eBioscience), Alexa Fluor® 647 rat IgG2a (eBioscience), normal mouse IgA-FITC (Santa Cruz). Cells were incubated with antibodies for 30 min at 4°C and washed with 0.1% BSA in PBS. Cells with double positive staining for F4/80 and CD11b were gated as macrophage49–51 for the quantification of fluorescence intensity for CD36 and SR-A1 (Supplementary Figure 20), with results normalized to F4/80.
C57BL/6J.Apoe−/− (B6.Apoe−/−) mice were purchased from the Jackson Laboratory and C3H/HeJ.Apoe−/− (C3H.Apoe−/−) mice were bred by backcrossing B6.Apoe−/− to C3H/HeJ for 10 generations. The F2 mice were generated by crossing B6.Apoe−/− with C3H.Apoe−/− and subsequently intercrossing the F1 mice. Mice were fed Purina Chow containing 4% fat until 8 weeks of age, and then transferred to a Western diet (Teklad 88137) containing 42% fat and 0.15% cholesterol for 16 weeks until euthanasia at 24 weeks of age. Mouse atherosclerotic lesion area was quantified using standard methods39. eQTL analyses were performed as previously described38. Each individual sample was hybridized against the pool of F2 samples. Significantly differentially expressed genes were determined as previously described52. Expression data in the form of mean log ratios (mlratios) were treated as a quantitative trait in eQTL analysis using Rqtl package for the R language and environment for statistical computing (http://cran.r-project.org/).
An antibiotic cocktail (0.5 g/L vancomycin, 1 g/L neomycin sulfate, 1 g/L metronidazole, 1 g/L ampicillin) previously shown to be sufficient to deplete all detectable commensal bacteria37 was administered in drinking water ad lib. In additional studies, 8 week old female Swiss Webster Germ Free mice (Taconic SWGF) underwent an oral (gavage) choline challenge (see below) immediately following their removal from their germ-free microisolator shipper. After the choline or PC challenge, the germ-free mice were placed in conventional cages with non-sterile C57BL/6J female mice to facilitate transfer of commensal organisms. Four weeks later, the conventionalized mice underwent a second choline or PC challenge.
C57BL/6J mice or B6.Apoe−/− mice were fed with either standard chow control diet (Teklad 2018) or a custom diet supplemented with 1.0% betaine (Teklad TD.08112), 1.0% choline (Teklad TD.07864), 0.12% TMAO (Teklad TD.07865) or 1.0% dimethylbutanol (DMB) supplemented in drinking water for at least 3 weeks. Elicited mouse peritoneal macrophages (MPMs) were harvested by peritoneal lavage with ice-cold PBS 3 days after intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of 1 mL 4% thioglycollate. Some studies with mice were performed using a custom diet with low but sufficient choline content (0.07% total; Teklad TD.09040) vs. high choline diet (1.0% total; Teklad TD.09041) in the presence or absence of antibiotics. Choline content of all diets was confirmed by LC/MS/MS.
Foam cells were identified by microscopy cultured peritoneal macrophages on glass cover-slips following 6 hours in RPMI 1640 medium supplemented with 3% lipoprotein deficient serum. Cells were fixed with paraformaldehyde and stained with Oil Red O/hematoxylin53. Cells containing >10 lipid droplets were scored as foam cells50. At least 10 fields and 500 cells/condition were counted.
Real time PCR of CD36, SR-A1 and flavin monooxygenases (FMOs) was performed using Brilliant II SYBR® Green QRT-PCR kit (Strategene). The forward and reverse primers, CD36, GAPDH, SR-A1, FMOs and F4/80, were synthesized by IDT based on sequences reported54–58.
d9-DPPC was synthesized by reacting 1,2 -dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine (Genzyme Pharmaceuticals) with per-deuteromethyliodide (CD3I, Cambridge Isotope Laboratories)59–60. The product was purified by preparative silica gel TLC and confirmed by both MS and NMR. Egg yolk lecithin (Avanti Polar Lipids) and d9-DPPC liposomes used for gavage feeding and i.p. injection of mice were prepared by the method of extrusion through polycarbonate filters61.
C57BL/6J mice were administered (gavage) unlabeled or the indicated stable isotope labeled choline or PC (egg yolk lecithin or d9-DPPC) using a 1.5 inch 20 gauge intubation needle. Choline challenge: gavage consisted of 150 μl of 150 mM choline-d9. PC challenge: gavage or i.p. injection of 300 μl 5 mg/ml of unlabeled PC or labeled d9-DPPC. Mice were fasted 12 hours prior to PC challenge. Plasma (50 μl) was collected via the saphenous vein from mice at baseline and post gavage or i.p. injection time points.
Student's t test and Wilcoxon rank sum test were employed to compare group means62–63. Pearson correlation, Spearman rank correlation and Somers' Dxy correlation were used to investigate the correlation between two variables64–65. Comparison of categorical measures between independent groups was done using χ2 tests66. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for cardiovascular phenotypes (history of MI, CAD, PAD, CVD and CAD+PAD) were calculated with R, Version 2.10.1 (www.r-project.org), using logistic regression67 with case status as the dependent variable and plasma analyte as independent variable. Trend tests in frequencies across quartiles were done using Cochran-Armitage Trend tests68. Levels of analytes were adjusted for traditional CAD risk factors in a multivariate logistic regression model including individual traditional cardiac risk factors (age, gender, diabetes, smoking, hypertension, lipids, CRP and estimated creatinine clearance) and medication usage (statin or other lipid lowering agents, antihypertensive agents including angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, angiotensin receptor blocking agent, diuretic, calcium channel blocker or beta blocker, and aspirin or other platelet inhibitors).
We wish to thank Dr. Effie Sehayek, Cleveland Clinic, for stimulating discussions, Dr. Lawrence W. Castellani, University of California, Los Angeles, for help with lipoprotein profile analysis, and Fallon McNally, Michael Berk, and Mike Pepoy, Cleveland Clinic, for technical assistance. This research was supported by National Institutes of Health grants R01 HL103866, P01 HL098055, P01HL087018-020001, P01 HL28481, and P01 HL30568. BJB was supported by supported by NIH Training grant T32-DK07789. The clinical study GeneBank was supported in part by P01 HL076491-055328, R01 HL103931 and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation General Clinical Research Center of the Cleveland Clinic/Case Western Reserve University CTSA (1UL1RR024989). Some of the laboratory studies (hemaglobin A1C, fasting glucose) in GeneBank were supported by R01 DK080732, and Abbott Diagnostics Inc. provided supplies for performance of some of the fasting lipid profile, glucose, creatinine, troponin I and hsCRP measured in GeneBank.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS Z.W. performed metabolomics analyses, and biochemical, cellular, animal model, and mass spectrometry studies. He assisted with statistical analyses, and assisted in both drafting and critical review of the manuscript. E.K., B. D. and J.D.S. assisted with performance of animal models and their analyses. B.S.L. synthesized d9-DPPC and assisted in metabolomics / mass spectrometry analyses. B.J.B., H.A. and A.J.L. performed the mouse eQTL experiments and analyses, and assisted in both drafting and critical review of the manuscript. A.J.L. provided funding for the study. R.K., E.B.B. and X.F. performed mass spectrometry analyses of clincal samples. Y.W. performed statistical analysis. A.E.F. and P.S. helped with collection of human liver biopsy material and interpretation of biochemical and pathological examination of animal liver for steatosis. W.H.W.T. assisted in GeneBank study design and enrollment, as well as analyses of clinical studies, and critical review of the manuscript. J.A.D. assisted in clinical laboratory testing for human clinical studies, animal model experimental design, and critical review of the manuscript. S.L.H. conceived of the idea, designed experiments, assisted in data analyses, the drafting and critical review of the manuscript, and provided funding for the study.
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