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Get Overdue-glaciation essential facts below. View Videos or join the Overdue-glaciation discussion. Add Overdue-glaciation to your PopFlock.com topic list for future reference or share this resource on social media. Various start dates for the Anthropocene have been proposed, corresponding with the Holocene calendar and ranging from the beginning of the Agricultural Revolution 12,000-15,000 years ago, to as recent as the 1960s. As of June 2019[update], the ratification process continues and thus a date remains to be decided definitively, but the Trinity test of 1945 has been more favoured than others. In May 2019, the AWG voted for a starting date in the mid 20th century, but the final decision will not be made before 2021. The most recent age of the Anthropocene has been referred to by several authors as the Great Acceleration during which the socioeconomic and earth system trends are increasing dramatically, especially after the Second World War. For instance, the Geological Society termed the year 1945 as The Great Acceleration. In 2008, the Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London considered a proposal to make the Anthropocene a formal unit of geological epoch divisions. A majority of the commission decided the proposal had merit and should be examined further. Independent working groups of scientists from various geological societies have begun to determine whether the Anthropocene will be formally accepted into the Geological Time Scale. The term "anthropocene" is informally used in scientific contexts. The Geological Society of America entitled its 2011 annual meeting: Archean to Anthropocene: The past is the key to the future. The new epoch has no agreed start-date, but one proposal, based on atmospheric evidence, is to fix the start with the Industrial Revolutionca. 1780, with the invention of the steam engine. Other scientists link the new term to earlier events, such as the rise of agriculture and the Neolithic Revolution (around 12,000 years BP). Evidence of relative human impact - such as the growing human influence on land use, ecosystems, biodiversity, and species extinction - is substantial; scientists think that human impact has significantly changed (or halted) the growth of biodiversity. Those arguing for earlier dates posit that the proposed Anthropocene may have begun as early as 14,000-15,000 years before present, based on geologic evidence; this has led other scientists to suggest that "the onset of the Anthropocene should be extended back many thousand years";:1 this would be essentially synonymous with the current term, Holocene. The Trinity test in 1945 has been proposed as the start of the Anthropocene. In January 2015, 26 of the 38 members of the International Anthropocene Working Group published a paper suggesting the Trinity test on 16 July 1945 as the starting point of the proposed new epoch. However, a significant minority supports one of several alternative dates. A March 2015 report suggested either 1610 or 1964 as the beginning of Anthropocene. Other scholars point to the diachronous character of the physical strata of the Anthropocene, arguing that onset and impact are spread out over time, not reducible to a single instant or date of start. A January 2016 report on the climatic, biological, and geochemical signatures of human activity in sediments and ice cores suggested the era since the mid-20th century should be recognised as a geological epoch distinct from the Holocene. The Anthropocene Working Group met in Oslo in April 2016 to consolidate evidence supporting the argument for the Anthropocene as a true geologic epoch. Evidence was evaluated and the group voted to recommend "Anthropocene" as the new geological age in August 2016. Should the International Commission on Stratigraphy approve the recommendation, the proposal to adopt the term will have to be ratified by the IUGS before its formal adoption as part of the geologic time scale. As early as 1873, the Italian geologist Antonio Stoppani acknowledged the increasing power and effect of humanity on the Earth's systems and referred to an 'anthropozoic era'. Although the biologist Eugene Stoermer is often credited with coining the term "anthropocene", it was in informal use in the mid-1970s. Paul Crutzen is credited with independently re-inventing and popularising it. Stoermer wrote, "I began using the term 'anthropocene' in the 1980's, but never formalised it until Paul contacted me." Crutzen has explained, "I was at a conference where someone said something about the Holocene. I suddenly thought this was wrong. The world has changed too much. So I said: 'No, we are in the Anthropocene.' I just made up the word on the spur of the moment. Everyone was shocked. But it seems to have stuck.":21 In 2008, Zalasiewicz suggested in GSA Today that an anthropocene epoch is now appropriate. Nature of human effects Homogenocene (from old Greek: homo-, samegeno-, kind, kainos-, new and -cene, period) is a more specific term used to define our current geologicalepoch, in which biodiversity is diminishing and biogeography and ecosystems around the globe seem more and more similar to one another mainly due to invasive species that have been introduced around the globe either on purpose (crops, livestock) or inadvertently. The term Homogenocene was first used by Michael Samways in his editorial article in the Journal of Insect Conservation from 1999 titled "Translocating fauna to foreign lands: Here comes the Homogenocene." The term was used again by John L. Curnutt in the year 2000 in Ecology, in a short list titled "A Guide to the Homogenocene", which reviewed Alien species in North America and Hawaii: impacts on natural ecosystems by George Cox. Charles C. Mann, in his acclaimed book 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, gives a bird's eye view of the mechanisms and ongoing implications of the homogenocene.[full ] The human impact on biodiversity forms one of the primary attributes of the Anthropocene. Humankind has entered what is sometimes called the Earth's sixth major extinction. Most experts agree that human activities have accelerated the rate of species extinction. The exact rate remains controversial - perhaps 100 to 1000 times the normal background rate of extinction. A 2010 study found that marine phytoplankton - the vast range of tiny algae species accounting for roughly half of Earth's total photosynthetic biomass - has declined substantially in the world's oceans over the past century. From 1950 alone, algal biomass decreased by around 40%, probably in response to ocean warming - and that the decline had gathered pace in recent years. Some authors have postulated that without human impacts the biodiversity of the planet would continue to grow at an exponential rate. Increases in global rates of extinction have been elevated above background rates since at least 1500, and appear to have accelerated in the 19th century and further since. A New York Times op-ed on 13 July 2012 by ecologist Roger Bradbury predicted the end of biodiversity for the oceans, labelling coral reefs doomed: "Coral reefs will be the first, but certainly not the last, major ecosystem to succumb to the Anthropocene." This op-ed quickly generated much discussion among conservationists; The Nature Conservancy rebutted Bradbury on its website, defending its position of protecting coral reefs despite continued human impacts causing reef declines. In a pair of studies published in 2015, extrapolation from observed extinction of Hawaiian snails of the family Amastridae, led to the conclusion that "the biodiversity crisis is real", and that 7% of all species on Earth may have disappeared already. Human predation was noted as being unique in the history of life on Earth as being a globally distributed 'superpredator', with predation of the adults of other apex predators and with widespread impact on food webs worldwide. A study published in May 2017 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences noted that a "biological annihilation" akin to a sixth mass extinction event is underway as a result of anthropogenic causes. The study suggested that as much as 50% of animal individuals that once lived on Earth are already extinct. A different study published in PNAS in May 2018 says that since the dawn of human civilisation, 83% of wild mammals have disappeared. Today, livestock makes up 60% of the biomass of all mammals on earth, followed by humans (36%) and wild mammals (4%). According to the 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services by IPBES, 25% of plant and animal species are threatened with extinction. Biogeography and nocturnality Permanent changes in the distribution of organisms from human influence will become identifiable in the geologic record. Researchers have documented the movement of many species into regions formerly too cold for them, often at rates faster than initially expected. This has occurred in part as a result of changing climate, but also in response to farming and fishing, and to the accidental introduction of non-native species to new areas through global travel. The ecosystem of the entire Black Sea may have changed during the last 2000 years as a result of nutrient and silica input from eroding deforested lands along the Danube River. Researchers have found that the growth of the human population and expansion of human activity has resulted in many species of animals that are normally active during the day, such as elephants, tigers and boars, becoming nocturnal to avoid contact with humans. One geological symptom resulting from human activity is increasing atmosphericcarbon dioxide content. During the glacial-interglacial cycles of the past million years, natural processes have varied by approximately 100 ppm (from 180 ppm to 280 ppm) As of 2013[update], anthropogenic net emissions of have increased atmospheric concentration by a comparable amount: From 280 ppm (Holocene or pre-industrial "equilibrium") to approximately 400 ppm, with 2015-2016 monthly monitoring data of displaying a rising trend above 400 ppm. This signal in the Earth's climate system is especially significant because it is occurring much faster, and to a greater extent, than previous, similar changes. Most of this increase is due to the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas, although smaller fractions result from cement production and from land-use changes (such as deforestation). Changes in drainage patterns traceable to human activity will persist over geologic time in large parts of the continents where the geologic regime is erosional. This includes the paths of roads and highways defined by their grading and drainage control. Direct changes to the form of the Earth's surface by human activities (e.g., quarrying, landscaping) also record human impacts. It has been suggested the deposition of calthemite formations are one example of a natural process which has not previously occurred prior to the human modification of the Earth's surface, and therefore represents a unique process of the Anthropocene. Calthemite is a secondary deposit, derived from concrete, lime, mortar or other calcareous material outside the cave environment. Calthemites grow on or under, man-made structures (including mines and tunnels) and mimic the shapes and forms of cave speleothems, such as stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone etc. Human activities like deforestation and road construction are believed to have elevated average total sediment fluxes across the Earth's surface. However, construction of dams on many rivers around the world means the rates of sediment deposition in any given place do not always appear to increase in the Anthropocene. For instance, many river deltas around the world are actually currently starved of sediment by such dams, and are subsiding and failing to keep up with sea level rise, rather than growing. Increases in erosion due to farming and other operations will be reflected by changes in sediment composition and increases in deposition rates elsewhere. In land areas with a depositional regime, engineered structures will tend to be buried and preserved, along with litter and debris. Litter and debris thrown from boats or carried by rivers and creeks will accumulate in the marine environment, particularly in coastal areas. Such man-made artifacts preserved in stratigraphy are known as "technofossils". Changes in biodiversity will also be reflected in the fossil record, as will species introductions. An example cited is the domestic chicken, originally the red junglefowlGallus gallus, native to south-east Asia but has since become the world's most common bird through human breeding and consumption, with over 60 billion consumed annually and whose bones would become fossilised in landfill sites. Hence, landfills are important resources to find "technofossils". In terms of trace elements, there are distinct signatures left by modern societies. For example, in the Upper Fremont Glacier in Wyoming, there is a layer of chlorine present in ice cores from 1960's atomic weapon testing programs, as well as a layer of mercury associated with coal plants in the 1980s.[full ] From 1945 to 1951, nuclear fallout is found locally around atomic device test sites, whereas from 1952 to 1980, tests of thermonuclear devices have left a clear, global signal of excess 14 C , 239 Pu , and other artificial radionuclides.[full ] The highest global concentration of radionuclides was in 1965, one of the dates which has been proposed as a possible benchmark for the start of the formally defined Anthropocene. Human burning of fossil fuels has also left distinctly elevated concentrations of black carbon, inorganic ash, and spherical carbonaceous particles in recent sediments across the world. Concentrations of these components increases markedly and almost simultaneously around the world beginning around 1950. "Early anthropocene" model While much of the environmental change occurring on Earth is suspected to be a direct consequence of the Industrial Revolution, William Ruddiman has argued that the proposed Anthropocene began approximately 8,000 years ago with the development of farming and sedentary cultures. At this point, humans were dispersed across all of the continents (except Antarctica), and the Neolithic Revolution was ongoing. During this period, humans developed agriculture and animal husbandry to supplement or replace hunter-gatherer subsistence . Such innovations were followed by a wave of extinctions, beginning with large mammals and land birds. This wave was driven by both the direct activity of humans (e.g. hunting) and the indirect consequences of land-use change for agriculture. From the past to present, some authors consider the Anthropocene and the Holocene to be the same or coeval geologic time span, and others viewed the Anthropocene as being a bit more recent. Ruddiman claims that the Anthropocene, has had significant human impact on greenhouse gas emissions, which began not in the industrial era, but rather 8,000 years ago, as ancient farmers cleared forests to grow crops. Ruddiman's work has, in turn, been challenged with data from an earlier interglaciation ("Stage 11", approximately 400,000 years ago) which suggests that 16,000 more years must elapse before the current Holocene interglaciation comes to an end, and that thus the early anthropogenic hypothesis is invalid. Furthermore, the argument that "something" is needed to explain the differences in the Holocene is challenged by more recent research showing that all interglacials differ. Although 8,000 years ago the planet sustained a few million people, it was still fundamentally pristine. This claim is the basis for an assertion that an early date for the proposed Anthropocene term does account for a substantial human footprint on Earth. One plausible starting point of the Anthropocene could be at ca. 2,000 years ago, which roughly coincides with the start of the final phase of Holocene, the Sub Atlantic. At this time, the Roman Empire encompassed large portions of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. In China the classical dynasties were flowering. The Middle kingdoms of India had already the largest economy of the ancient and medieval world. The Napata/Meroitic kingdom extended over the current Sudan and Ethiopia. The Olmecs controlled central Mexico and Guatemala, and the pre-Incan Chavín people managed areas of northern Peru. Although often apart from each other and intermixed with buffering ecosystems, the areas directly impacted by these civilisations and others were large. Additionally, some activities, such as mining, implied much more widespread perturbation of natural conditions. Over the last 11,500 years or so humans have spread around Earth, increased in number, and profoundly altered the material world. They have taken advantage of global environmental conditions not of their own making. The end of the last glacial period - when as much as 30% of Earth's surface was ice-bound - led to a warmer world with more water . Although humans existed in the previous Pleistocene epoch, it is only in the recent Holocene period that they have flourished. Today there are more humans alive than at any previous point in Earth's history. European colonisation of the Americas Maslin and Lewis argue that the start of the Anthropocene should be dated to the Orbis Spike, a trough in carbon dioxide levels associated with the arrival of Europeans in the Americas. Reaching a minimum around 1610, global carbon dioxide levels were depressed below 285 parts per million, largely as a result of sequestration due to forest regrowth in the Americas. This was likely caused by indigenous peoples abandoning farmland following a sharp population decline due to initial contact with European diseases- around 50 million people or 90% of the indigenous population may have succumbed. For Maslin and Lewis, the Orbis Spike represents a GSSP, a kind of marker used to define the start of a new geological period. They also go on to say that associating the Anthropocene to European arrival in the Americas makes sense given that the continent's colonisation was instrumental in the development of global trade networks and the capitalist economy, which played a significant role in initiating the Industrial Revolution and the Great Acceleration. Crutzen proposed the Industrial Revolution as the start of Anthropocene. Lovelock proposes that the Anthropocene began with the first application of the Newcomen atmospheric engine in 1712. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change takes the pre-industrial era (chosen as the year 1750) as the baseline related to changes in long-lived, well mixed greenhouse gases. Although it is apparent that the Industrial Revolution ushered in an unprecedented global human impact on the planet, much of Earth's landscape already had been profoundly modified by human activities. The human impact on Earth has grown progressively, with few substantial slowdowns. A marker that accounts for a substantial global impact of humans on the total environment, comparable in scale to those associated with significant perturbations of the geological past, is needed in place of minor changes in atmosphere composition. A useful candidate for this purpose is the pedosphere, which can retain information of its climatic and geochemical history with features lasting for centuries or millennia. Human activity is now firmly established as the sixth factor of soil formation. It affects pedogenesis either directly, by, for example, land levelling, trenching and embankment building for various purposes, organic matter enrichment from additions of manure or other waste, organic matter impoverishment due to continued cultivation, compaction from overgrazing or, indirectly, by drift of eroded materials or pollutants. Anthropogenic soils are those markedly affected by human activities, such as repeated ploughing, the addition of fertilisers, contamination, sealing, or enrichment with artefacts (in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources they are classified as Anthrosols and Technosols). They are recalcitrant repositories of artefacts and properties that testify to the dominance of the human impact, and hence appear to be reliable markers for the Anthropocene. Some anthropogenic soils may be viewed as the 'golden spikes' of geologists (Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point), which are locations where there are strata successions with clear evidences of a worldwide event, including the appearance of distinctive fossils. Drilling for fossil fuels has also created holes and tubes which are expected to be detectable for millions of years. The astrobiologist David Grinspoon has proposed that the site of the Apollo 11 Lunar landing, with the disturbances and artifacts that are so uniquely characteristic of our species' technological activity and which will survive over geological time spans could be considered as the 'golden spike' of the Anthropocene. The concept of the Anthropocene has also been approached via humanities such as philosophy, literature and art. In the scholarly world, it has been the subject of increasing attention through special journal issues, conferences, and disciplinary reports. The Anthropocene, its attendant timescale, and ecological implications prompts questions about death and the ends of civilisation, memory and archives, the scope and methods of humanistic inquiry, and emotional responses to the "end of nature." It has been also criticised as an ideological construct. Some environmentalists on the political left suggest that "Capitalocene" is a more historically appropriate term. At the same time, others suggest that the Anthropocene is overly focused on the human species, while ignoring systematic inequalities, such as imperialism and racism, that have also shaped the world. Peter Brannen criticised the idea of the anthropocene, suggesting the short timescale makes it a geologic event rather than an epoch, with hypothetical geologists of the far future being unlikely to notice the presence of a few thousand years of human civilisation. There are several philosophical approaches on how to handle the future of Anthropocene: Business-as-usual, mitigation, geo-engineering options. ^Edgeworth, Matt; Richter, Dan de B.; Waters, Colin; Haff, Peter; Neal, Cath; Price, Simon James (1 April 2015). "Diachronous beginnings of the Anthropocene: The lower bounding surface of anthropogenic deposits". The Anthropocene Review. 2 (1): 33-58. doi:10.1177/2053019614565394. ISSN2053-0196. ^Waters, Colin N.; Zalasiewicz, Jan; Summerhayes, Colin; Barnosky, Anthony D.; Poirier, Clément; Ga?uszka, Agnieszka; Cearreta, Alejandro; Edgeworth, Matt; Ellis, Erle C. (8 January 2016). "The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene". Science. 351 (6269): aad2622. doi:10.1126/science.aad2622. ISSN0036-8075. PMID26744408. ^"Deep ice tells long climate story". BBC News. 4 September 2006. Retrieved 2015. The 'scary thing', [Dr. Wolff] added, was the rate of change now occurring in concentrations. In the core, the fastest increase seen was of the order of 30 parts per million (ppm) by volume over a period of roughly 1,000 years. The last 30 ppm of increase has occurred in just 17 years. We really are in the situation where we don't have an analogue in our records. ^Dixon, Simon J.; Viles, Heather A.; Garrett, Bradley L. (21 June 2017). "Ozymandias in the Anthropocene: The city as an emerging landform". Area. 50: 117-125. doi:10.1111/area.12358. ISSN1475-4762. ^Cabadas-Báez, H.V.; Sedov, S.; Jiménez-Álvarez, S; Leonard, D.; Lailson-Tinoco, B.; García-Moll, R.; Ancona-Aragón, I.; Hernández, L. (2017). "Soils as a source of raw materials for ancient ceramic production in the Maya region of Mexico: Micromorphological insight". Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana. 70 (1): 21-48. doi:10.18268/BSGM2018v70n1a2. ^Zalasiewicz, J.; Williams, M.; Steffen, W. & Crutzen, P.J. (2010). "Response to 'The Anthropocene forces us to reconsider adaptationist models of human-environment interactions'". Environmental Science & Technology. 44 (16): 6008. Bibcode:2010EnST...44.6008Z. doi:10.1021/es102062w. ^Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society at LMU-Munich; Alexander von Humboldt Transatlantic Network in the Environmental Humanities (14 June 2013). Culture and the Anthropocene. Munich, Germany. Retrieved 2014. ^Wenzel, Jennifer (13 March 2014). "Climate Change". State of the Discipline Report: Ideas of the Decade. American Comparative Literature Association. Ellis, Erle C.; Fuller, Dorian Q.; Kaplan, Jed O.; Lutters, Wayne G. (2013). "Dating the Anthropocene: Towards an empirical global history of human transformation of the terrestrial biosphere". Elementa. 1: 000018. doi:10.12952/journal.elementa.000018. Kim, Rakhyun E.; Klaus Bosselmann (2013). "International Environmental Law in the Anthropocene: Towards a Purposive System of Multilateral Environmental Agreements". Transnational Environmental Law. 2 (2): 285-309. doi:10.1017/S2047102513000149. Purdy, Jedediah. (2015). "Anthropocene Fever". Aeon. pp. 1-9. Ripple WJ, Wolf C, Newsome TM, Galetti M, Alamgir M, Crist E, Mahmoud MI, Laurance WF (2017). "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice". BioScience. 67 (12): 1026-1028. doi:10.1093/biosci/bix125. Steffen, Will; Crutzen, Paul; McNeill, John (2007). "The Anthropocene: Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature?". AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment. 36 (8): 614-621. doi:10.1579/0044-7447 (inactive 25 September 2019).
LASA 2: Ethnographic Comparison Anthropologists are interested in framing broad hypotheses about human behavior. In order to do this, it is imperative to use examples from multiple cultures to ensure that their conclusions are not grounded in a single case. In this assignment, you will be taking on the role of an ethnologist, using multiple ethnographic accounts to study human behavior and culture. Do the following: - Identify two to three societies to compare such as African, Indian, Chinese, Korean, or Native American. - Choose one aspect of human culture discussed in the course: o Domestic life and kinship o Subsistence and economy o Culture change Write a research paper to include the following: - Describe the background information of each of the societies you have chosen. You need not analyze this background information, only provide details regarding these societies. - Analyze the aspect of human culture you selected for each of the societies. - Compare and contrast the similarities and differences between the societies in relation to the topic you chose—for example, standard of living, education, or employment opportunities. - Summarize and address human behavior in relation to your topic and based on your examples. o Address the realities of life for the cultures you have examined. o Examine some of the social problems and public policy issues that become apparent. Your paper should have a title page as well as an introduction section. This introduction section should include the societies you selected as well as the human culture aspect you will be discussing and why it is relevant to anthropology. As an anthropologist, use relevant anthropological terms in your analysis. Support your statements with examples and scholarly references. Write a 4–6-page paper in Word format. Apply APA standards to citation of sources Assignment 1 Grading Criteria Maximum Points Write an introduction of the topic you chose and describe why it is relevant to anthropology. 12 Write background information on the 2–3 societies. 32 Compare and contrast the similarities and differences between the societies in relation to the topic you chose. 100 Summarize and discuss human behavior in relation to your topic and based on your examples. has been added to your cart! have been added to your cart! You must log in and be a buyer of this download to submit a review.
The nearly complete mitochondrial genome of the extinct South American native ungulate Macrauchenia patachonica is reported in Nature Communications this week. The ancient DNA provides new insights into the evolutionary relationships of an animal group that has puzzled biologists since their fossils were first discovered by Charles Darwin. The South American native ungulates have no surviving descendants and their unusual combinations of traits - such as the camel-like body and tapir-like snout of Macrauchenia - defy classic methods of taxonomic classification. Previously, protein sequences from ancient collagen have provided the best idea of how these perplexing species are related to living mammals. Attempts to use ancient DNA to understand more about the evolutionary history of these unusual animals have been hampered by DNA degradation and a lack of reference genome from close relatives. Michael Hofreiter and colleagues overcome these issues by using new sequencing and mapping techniques to assemble the mitochondrial genome from ancient DNA collected from Macrauchenia fossil samples. They then used the DNA sequences in phylogenetic analyses to assess the evolutionary relationships of these animals, which strengthen previous proteomic evidence that Litopterna (including Macrauchenia) is the sister group to Perissodactyla (horses, tapirs, and rhinoceroses) and reveal that these groups diverged approximately 66 million years ago. The study demonstrates how ancient genomes can be reconstructed even without reference genomes from living relatives. However, additional studies will be needed to elucidate the evolutionary relationships of other South American native ungulate groups.
Unless you're a tardigrade, you need water to survive. For many creatures, this means lapping up or drinking water up through the mouth. Others, like those in desert environments, get it from the food they eat or by relying on other adaptations, like gathering moisture on their bodies. Snakes have their own particular adaptation as well. They open their mouths and just soak in the H2O. And it's kind of adorable when they do. Snakes don't lap up water with their tongues. It'd be pretty difficult to do that, after all, considering that snakes don't open their mouths up wide enough when they flick out their tongues. Additionally, snakes' tongues actually go into sheaths when they're not in use, gathering up scents to give the snake a sense of their environment. So if the tongue can't help a snake get water, what does? For a while, we believed that snakes simply sucked in water through a small hole in their mouths. Think of it as a sort of built-in straw. This method, called the buccal-pump model, relies on the snakes, particularly boa constrictors, alternating the negative and positive pressure in their oral cavities to make a flow of water. They depress their jaws, creating negative pressure to draw in the water and then seal up their mouths on the side to create positive pressure and push the water into the rest of their bodies. Except that's not how it works A 2012 study published in the Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A debunked this particular assumption, at least in regards to some snake species. The mouth sealing process, so important to the buccal-pump model, wasn't always found in snakes, leaving the issue of how the snakes consumed water up in the air. Mouth sealing, it turned out, was incidental to the whole process. "One thing that didn't fit the model was that these species don't seal the sides of their mouth," David Cundall, a biologist at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, explained in a 2012 statement released by the university. "From there, it took a long time for me to realize that the anatomy of the system and the lining of the lower jaw suggested a sponge model." Yes, a sponge model. It turns out that at least four species — the cottonmouth, the Eastern hognose snake, gray rat snake and the diamond-backed watersnake — move water through their mouths thanks to the sponge-like properties of their lower jaw. Watch Bacon Bit, a western hognose snake, show you how it's done in the video above. When snakes open their mouths to eat, they "unfold a lot of the soft tissues," according to Cundall, and the folding of this soft tissue creates a number of sponge-like tubes that water flows through. Muscle action then forces the water into the snake's gut. Cundall and his team used synchronized video and electromyographic recordings of muscle activity in three of those species and pressure recordings in the jaws and esophagus of a fourth to come to this conclusion. So sip on, snakes. And thanks for the quick lesson in biomechanics.
A planter, Reconstruction-era politician, Republican civil servant, and important historian, John Roy Lynch was born on 10 September 1847 on Tacony plantation, near the town of Vidalia, Louisiana, in Concordia Parish. The biracial progeny of plantation manager Patrick Lynch, an Irish immigrant, and slave Catherine White, Lynch followed his mother’s status into slavery. While saving to buy the family, his father died and left them enslaved. Later sold across the Mississippi River to Natchez, Lynch finally gained freedom after Union troops occupied the city in 1863. Lynch remained in Natchez and worked as a photographer during the day and attended school at night. In 1869 Gov. Adelbert Ames appointed Lynch to serve as a justice of the peace. Later that year he was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives, where his intellect and oratorical skill apparently impressed both black and white colleagues. His legislative record led not only to his reelection but also to his 1872 selection as Speaker of the House. In 1872 Lynch won a seat in the US House of Representatives, and he was reelected two years later. He lost the seat in 1876 but he returned to Congress for almost a year after contesting Gen. James R. Chalmers’s election in 1882. Lynch again failed to win reelection in 1884 and retired to his plantation in Adams County. On 18 December 1884 he married Mobile native Ella Wickham Somerville. Although he considered himself a planter, Lynch continued to study law and engage in politics. From 1883 to 1889 he served the Republicans in several key state and national positions, ultimately receiving a federal appointment from Pres. Benjamin Harrison to serve as an auditor in the Navy Department, a post Lynch held from 1889 to 1893. He briefly returned to Mississippi and gained admittance to the state bar in 1896. He practiced law in Washington, D.C., from 1897 to 1898, when Pres. William McKinley appointed him to serve as a US Army paymaster during the Spanish-American War. Lynch divorced his wife in 1900 and remained in the army, attaining the rank of major and spending three years in Cuba before moving on to postings in San Francisco, Hawaii, and the Philippines. He retired from the army in 1911, married Cora Williamson, and moved to Chicago, where he reestablished his legal practice and launched his writing career. Having experienced Reconstruction firsthand, Lynch was offended by the scholarship written under the direction of William Archibald Dunning, which was sympathetic to white southerners and portrayed Reconstruction as an era of Republican corruption, former slaves’ barbarity, and federal vindictiveness. In 1913 he published Facts of Reconstruction, an alternative to the Dunning School and an inspiration to later revisionist historians. Lynch further challenged scholarly consensus in Reminiscences of an Active Life: The Autobiography of John Roy Lynch and Some Historical Errors of James Ford Rhodes. Lynch died in Chicago on 2 November 1939 and was interred at Arlington National Cemetery. - Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (1950) - W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America, 1860–1880 (1935) - John Roy Lynch, The Facts of Reconstruction (1913) - John Roy Lynch, Reminiscences of an Active Life: The Autobiography of John Roy Lynch, ed. John Hope Franklin (1969) - John Roy Lynch, Some Historical Errors of James Ford Rhodes (1922) - US House of Representatives, History, Art, and Archives website, history.house.gov - Vernon Lane Wharton, The Negro in Mississippi, 1865–1890 (1947)
“Think of it: a disability is usually defined in terms of what is missing. … But autism … is as much about what is abundant as what is missing, an over-expression of the very traits that make our species unique.” Autism Spectrum Disorders or ASD is a group of complex neurodevelopmental disorders affecting a person’s ability to communicate and interact socially. The form of ASD could be severe, as in classical ASD (also referred to as autism) or mild, like in the cases of Asperger’s syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). ASD is reported in every ethnic group and is known to affect all age groups. Based on a media release by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2014, about one in 68 children are diagnosed with ASD. The number of diagnosed ASD patients has steadily increased over the past several decades. One school of thought attributes this to increased awareness and broadening of the definition of autism while another blames the environment. The truth is, the rise in reported ASD cases is indisputable. This rise warrants a look at potential known causes and therapies for ASD and caution against scientifically unsubstantiated data. The following are a few facts from reputable sources. What causes ASD? There are no concrete answers yet, but some studies imply that: - Genetic factors play a role, as evidenced by twin studies where if one twin develops ASD, 90% of the time, the other twin develops ASD - Mother’s age at pregnancy (risk is approximately 50% higher in a 35-year-old woman, compared to a woman in her 20s) - Father’s age at time of conception (preliminary studies show that fathers in their 40s have increased incidence of autistic offspring compared to men in their 20s) - Disruption of normal early fetal development - Increased serotonin and other neurotransmitter levels are reported in individuals with ASD, suggestive of their role in the development of the disorder - It is reported that Vitamin D deficiency may cause ASD, and conversely, children with ASD are more prone to Vitamin D deficiency. What does not cause ASD? - Interacting with autistic kids What are some of the symptoms one should look for? - Babies who are unresponsive to people and fixate on one object to the exclusion of others - No babbling or pointing by the first year of infancy - Not forming words by 16 months of age - Not speaking two-word phrases by two years of age - Children avoiding eye contact - Children are not responding to their name being called - Repetitive movements - Abnormal lining up of toys or objects - Self-abusive behavior like biting or head-banging - Epileptic attacks What therapies are available for ASD? - Educational interventions, where a qualified therapist helps a child develop language and social skills - Medication to help with anxiety, obsessive behavior, etc. - In severe cases, a doctor may prescribe antipsychotic medication for certain symptoms - Some experimental treatments include ongoing clinical trials with respect to nutritional intervention for ASD. However, a medical professional should be consulted before any major diet changes ASD is a lifelong disorder. It requires parents, the community, and society as a whole to make individuals with ASD feel that they matter. “It’s not a processing error. It’s a different operating system.” So today, on World Autism Awareness Day (April 2nd), let us pledge to make this world a better place for everyone. 5. Bishop DV et al., Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 2008, 50(5): 341-345 7. Jia F et al., Pediatrics, 2015, 135(1): e196-198 (online) 13. www.google.com, autism quotes
The California Condor, once headed toward extinction, is poised to make a remarkable comeback here on the North Coast. The Yurok Tribe is taking the final steps toward the reintroduction of the species tribal lands. Condors were prevalent in the days before the gold rush, but a decline in population was becoming evident to wildlife experts by the end of the nineteenth century. Many of these magnificent scavengers met their demise at the end of a rifle barrel, killed by settlers who erroneously vilified them as a predatory threat to their livestock and/or children. Once population numbers dropped drastically, the Condor stood little chance of rebounding, due to its breeding cycle and rearing habits. Condors in the wild do not breed until mature, at about 7 years of age. Only one egg is laid per reproductive cycle, and their young are reared for up to 12 months. As a result, Condors must skip a nesting cycle, meaning that a breeding pair can produce only one juvenile Condor every 2 years. Consideration of these factors, along with a total estimated population of fewer than 30 Condors in existence in the early 1980s, prompted wildlife groups to capture all remaining wild condors for a captive breeding program at the San Diego Zoo. Since this breeding program began in 1987, Condor populations in the wild have slightly rebounded. Total populations have risen to over 400 individuals, and less than half of these remain in captivity at present time.
Well, until January 2019, the answer would be ‘Ummmm, I’m not really sure’. And now the answer is, ‘Why, it’s 10 hours, 33 minutes and 38 seconds, of course!’ That is, according to a crackerjack team of astrophysicists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, led by Christopher Mankovich, who finally figured out this variable. Until now, Saturn was the only planet for which we didn’t know how long the day is. Why does it matter how long a day on a planet is? Well, scientists on earth are trying to find out as much as they can about the planets in our solar system. This is part of a larger effort to understand our universe and our place in it. The length of the day impacts our reading on its gravitational field and on the structure of the planet. Why was it so difficult to figure this out? Saturn, like Uranus, Jupiter, and Neptune, is a ‘gas giant’. A gas giant is a planet that is composed mostly of gas. So this means that there are no real physical markers or positions that can be tracked as the planet rotates. The other gas giants have magnetic poles that, like those on earth, are tilted from their rotational axes. So when the planet rotates, this causes its magnetic field to wobble due to changes in the planet’s core. So the rotation rate of the magnetic field will roughly equal the rotation rate of the planet. Simplistically, the length of that wobble equals a day on that planet. Apparently Saturn’s magnetic pole and rotational axis are along the same line. So rotation does not cause Saturn’s magnetic field to wobble, so this wasn’t a good marker that could be tracked. So what changed? Over time, scientists realised that Saturn’s rings do wobble though, in response to changes in Saturn’s gravitational field. What could cause changes in the planet’s gravitational field? A moon or satellite going by, if large enough, tugs at something in the planet’s core, causes a change in the gravitational field, and makes Saturn’s rings wobble. This wobble causes a visible ripple on the rings. The data about these waves or ripples was part of all the information collected on Saturn from spacecraft sent to study it. Cassini collected intricate data on Saturn while circling it for 13 years! It measured all these ripples and waves and gave the scientists a lot of data that told them a lot about Saturn’s core, and was also used to calculate the length of a day on this tricky planet. References: NASA: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/12955/measuring-a-day/ Sunaina Murthy. Sunaina is a biotechnologist, writer, greedy reader, and amateur photographer.
How regular ATMs work. History of ATM machines The history of banking goes back to 2000 BC in Egypt, where merchants started to give loans to farmers in the form of grain. Later, in ancient Greece and in the Roman Empire, lenders would give out loans similar to the ones in Egypt, but with two important differences: borrowers could make deposits and merchants from different regions of the world could trade one currency for another. The origins of the banking system The origins of the modern banking system come from the financial system of Italy that has developed in the fourteenth century, when powerful families of Bardi and Peruzzi established banking branches in many of the Italian cities. One of the most famous banks in Italy has been created in 1397. The bank that was the first one in the country of Italy to accept deposits opened in 1407. Modern banking practices are very similar to the ones that have appeared in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when merchants started to store their gold and other commodity currencies and valuables at banks and were receiving notes from the banks in exchange for their commodity currencies. In London, goldsmiths not only made items out of gold, but also owned secure vaults which they were renting to the merchants for a free. Gradually, goldsmiths started to lend money that they were storing and changing a fee for doing so. They would pay interest on deposits and would charge a fee to give out a loan. The Bank of England began to issue official banknotes in 1695. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, England had a system that bankers from various institutions could use to clear the transactions. The family of Rothschilds was a pioneer of lending and financing on a large scale with one of its projects being financing of the purchase of the Suez Canal by the government of the Great Britain. Early modern times and central banks In the early modern times, the Dutch were the nation that has invented and implemented many of the financial instruments and innovations that later became the foundation of the global financial system. For example, the Bank of Amsterdam, founded in 1609, is one of the banks that functioned similarly to a modern central bank. The bank helped create the foundation for the development of the modern central banking system. The Bank of Amsterdam had many subsidiary local banks and processed both national and international payments. The bank has even launched the first in history international reserve currency. Eventually, many various countries in Europe copied the model of the Bank of Amsterdam, including the Bank of England and the Bank of Sweden. Today, a central bank manages the currency of a country, including control over the supply of money and interest rates. Typically, central banks also oversee the banking system in the country. The difference between a regular commercial bank and a central bank is that a central bank is the only bank that can increase the supply of money in the country and is the only bank that can print new money. At the same time, regular banks serve the role of payment middlemen. They allow customers to have checking and savings accounts, process check payments and enable their customers to accept and receive payments via a variety of methods. Banks borrow money from deposits that clients open with the banks and lend money by issuing loans and debt securities. First ATM Machines ATM or automatic teller machines allow customers to perform financial operations such as withdraw cash, check the balances of the accounts, transfer funds between accounts, and make deposits without having to interact directly with bank staff. In the Western countries, most ATMs are located in areas with 24/7 access, which makes it very convenient for bank customers to use them. According to the data from the ATM Industry Association, there are about 3.5 million automatic teller machines in the world. Most of the machines identify customers by having a customer insert a plastic bank card and then type in personal identification number. The number must match the number that the card stores on the electronic chip, if it has one. If it doesn’t, the number must match the number in the database of the financial institution. The idea for an automatic teller machine originally came from Japan, where the first machine started operating in 1966. In the 1960s, Adrian Ashfield patented the idea of a card that combines elements of financial information and user identity. Barclays Bank in North London installed the first machine in the United Kingdom in 1967. The machine needed paper checks issues by a clerk to operate and it was exchanging checks for cash. The launch of the Barclays machine beat the launch of a machine from Sweden by nine days and the launch of a machine by Westminster bank by a month. The devices that became operational in the United Kingdom and Sweden have quickly spread all across the world. The first automatic teller machine appeared in Australia in 1969. In the same year, the first ATM opened in Spain and in the United States. The bank to open the first ATM in the United States was Chemical Bank in Rockville Centre, New York. The ATM could only dispense a fixed amount of cash, which means that customers did not have a choice as to how much money they wanted to withdraw. There was a card and a fixed amount that the card could get per transaction.
- multicultural and ethnic festivals - religious holy days from all major religions - environmental days to celebrate and honor our planet - United Nations International Days such as “Global Youth Service Day“ - fun holidays that celebrate friendship, empathy, and kindness - a summary table. Plan for the materials or equipment needed to play each game, as well as the best setting to play (indoor/outdoor) and the number of children needed to play. - a world map. Students keep their own copy to track the countries they have played games from. - 35 instruction cards. The colorful cards, decorated with the country’s flag, include clear instructions to prepare and play the game, its country of origin, and printables when necessary. - 8 extension activities. Students compare games, invent a new game, research other games, and more! I love her games! These can be used in the classroom, or homeschool. I would also venture to use them in cultural playdates, or parties. When planning a lesson on Ghana, Japan or Australia play one of the games, and the kids will love it!
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced this week that they have developed a new battery-like system can store the the sun’s energy and release heat when needed at a later time. In the near-term, the technology could provide a new energy source for communities in the developing world that don’t depend on the grid, or create a power system for people who live in cities who want to limit the amount of electricity they use. The MIT scientists have developed a chemical composite that only releases stored energy when it reacts to light, a system that could take wasted energy from heavy machinery and use it later for cooking or heating a room. “There are so many applications where it would be useful to store thermal energy in a way lets you trigger it when needed,” says professor Jeffrey Grossman, who worked on the project with MIT postdocs Grace Han and Huashan Li. The team’s findings have been published in this week’s Nature Communications. The research comes at a point when decentralized renewable energy is growing as an alternative to the grid-based model of old. More and more people are exploring ways to sever ties from the energy grid, particularly in the wake of recent hurricanes that have hit local infrastructure. Advancements in battery technology are helping to store up locally-generated energy. MIT’s development uses a phase change material as its starting point. These store up energy when exposed to heat and turn into liquid, but they need a lot of insulation to avoid losing that energy. They’re also not that dependable, with a habit of unexpectedly turning back to solids and releasing their energy due to temperature changes. With this new “battery,” the fatty acids that act as a phase change material are paired with an organic compound that responds to light. The arrangement melts when heated like normal, but when exposed to ultraviolet light it stays melted even after it’s taken away from the heat. A second light pulse activates the compound and causes the acids to return to their pre-heated solid state, releasing the thermal energy as they change back. The system, which can store around 200 joules per gram, has a variety of applications for areas where grid power is not dependable. Users can place the “battery” in front of the sun, but it can also work with vehicle heat, industrial machines, or pretty much anything else that throws out wasted thermal energy. The stored power could then be used for heating a space, or drying out crops. The team notes that they have already had interest from people interested in using it for cooking in rural India. “What we are doing technically is installing a new energy barrier, so the stored heat cannot be released immediately,” Han says. The current system can handle a temperature change of around 18 degrees Fahrenheit. Internal testing shows the arrangement stores the heat for around 10 hours, a big improvement over other phase change materials that lose the energy in the space of a few minutes. “There’s no fundamental reason why it can’t be tuned to go higher,” Han says. Thermal energy storage offers enormous potential for a wide range of energy technologies. Phase-change materials offer state-of-the-art thermal storage due to high latent heat. However, spontaneous heat loss from thermally charged phase-change materials to cooler surroundings occurs due to the absence of a significant energy barrier for the liquid–solid transition. This prevents control over the thermal storage, and developing effective methods to address this problem has remained an elusive goal. Herein, we report a combination of photo-switching dopants and organic phase-change materials as a way to introduce an activation energy barrier for phase-change materials solidification and to conserve thermal energy in the materials, allowing them to be triggered optically to release their stored latent heat. This approach enables the retention of thermal energy (about 200 J g−1) in the materials for at least 10 h at temperatures lower than the original crystallization point, unlocking opportunities for portable thermal energy storage systems. If you liked this article, check out this video where electricity is made from slow-moving water.
Voltage is the pressure emitted from an electrical power source. it is a quantitative expression of the potential difference in charge between two points in an electric field. Voltage is also known as electromotive force, electric potential difference, electric pressure or electric tension. In many materials the voltage can be defined using Ohm's Law: - Ohm's Law: V= IR - V = Voltage - I = Current - R = Resistance Ohms law states that the potential difference across the ends of a conductor is proportional to the current flowing through the conductor.
What do eyeglasses do? Eyeglasses correct vision problems, such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, and presbyopia by focusing light more appropriately on the retina. The type of vision problem that you have determines the shape of the eyeglass lens. For example, a lens that is concave, or curves inward, is used to correct nearsightedness, while a lens that is convex, or curves outward, is used to correct farsightedness. To correct astigmatism, which is caused by distortions in the shape of the cornea, a cylinder-shaped lens is used. Presbyopia requires bifocal or multifocal lenses. What are multifocal lenses? People who have more than one vision problem often need glasses with multifocal lenses. Multifocal lenses, bifocals, trifocals, or progressive lenses are lenses that contain two or more vision-correcting prescriptions. - Bifocals: Bifocals are the most common type of multifocal lens. The lens is split into two sections; the upper part is for distance vision and the lower part for near vision. They are usually prescribed for people over the age of 40 whose focusing ability has declined because of presbyopia. - Trifocals: Trifocals are simply bifocals with a third section for people who need help seeing objects that are within an arm's reach. - Progressive: Progressive lenses have a continuous gradient (inclined) lens which focuses progressively closer as one looks down through the lens. What types of lenses are available? In the past, eyeglass lenses were made exclusively of glass; today, however, most lenses are made of plastic. Plastic lenses are lighter, do not break as easily as glass lenses, and can be treated with a filter to keep out ultraviolet light, which can be damaging to the eyes. However, glass lenses are more resistant to scratches than plastic ones. As technology advances so, too, do eyeglass lenses. The following modern lenses are lighter, thinner, and more scratch-resistant than the common plastic and glass lenses: - Polycarbonate lenses: These lenses are impact-resistant and are a good choice for people who regularly participate in sporting activities, work in a job environment in which their glasses may be easily scratched or broken, and for children who may easily drop and scratch their glasses. - Photochromic and tinted lenses: Made from either glass or plastic, these lenses change from clear to tinted when exposed to sunlight. This eliminates the need for prescription sunglasses. - High-index plastic lenses: Designed for people who require strong prescriptions, these lenses are lighter and thinner than the standard, thick lenses that may otherwise be needed. - Aspheric lenses: These lenses are unlike typical lenses, which are spherical in shape. Aspheric lenses are made up of differing degrees of curvature over its surface, which allows the lens to be thinner and flatter than other lenses. This also creates a lens with a much larger usable portion than the standard lens. If you have questions about which type of lens is right for you, talk to your eye doctor. He or she can help you choose the lenses that are best for you based on your lifestyle and vision needs. How do I care for my eyeglasses? Always store your eyeglasses in a clean, dry place away from potential damage. Clean your glasses with water and a non-lint cloth, as necessary, to keep them spot-free and prevent distorted vision. How often should I change my glasses? Generally an eyeglass prescription is good for a year, sometimes longer. Some circumstances may lead to a need for new glasses at a shorter interval. They include: - Increasing nearsightedness in the teen years - Presbyopia in midlife - Developing cataracts - Onset of diabetes If your vision is decreasing in one or both eyes, you should check to see if you need new glasses or to be sure that there is no significant disease that may require treatment.
- Any two or more forms of the same element with different arrangements of atoms in their structures. For example, dioxygen (O2) and ozone (O3) are allotropes. - A substance that contains more than one (usually metallic) element and has metallic properties, such as strength, conductivity, ductility, and malleability. - A solid whose atoms or molecules are not arranged in regular, repeating patterns. - A solid whose atoms or molecules are arranged in regular, repeating patterns in any direction throughout the solid. - A small molecule that reacts to form covalent bonds with other monomer molecules over and over again to make a polymer. - A large molecule formed by the joining together (through covalent bonds) of a large number of individual molecules with low molecular mass (known as monomers). - The smallest repeating unit of atoms in a crystalline solid. - A technique for determining the structure of a crystal by passing X-ray beams through it and analyzing how the repeating units of atoms diffracts (spreads) the X-rays. © Annenberg Foundation 2016. All rights reserved. Legal Policy
\|A bumblebee, metallic sweat bee, and orange-spotted mint moth all feeding on a native green-headed coneflower in the native plant garden at Long Branch Nature Center.\| Happy National Pollinator Week! There are over 200,000 species of pollinators worldwide. These include such diverse animals as bees, wasps, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, and hummingbirds. We owe them much, as it is often said that one out of every three bites of food we enjoy is due to the direct actions of an animal pollinator. In fact, three-quarters of all plants regardless of whether we eat them or not depend on animal pollinators in order to reproduce. When thinking about planting things to benefit our pollinators who benefit us so often, a critical thing to consider is the use of native plants. Studies show that native plants are four or more times more attractive to native pollinators than exotic plants. This, of course, makes perfect sense since these plants and animals evolved together, sometimes to the point that one cannot exist without the other. Many caterpillars for example cannot survive without their specific native host plant to feed on. About a third of our native bees need the specific pollen of certain native plants or they cannot reproduce. So the most important consideration is to plant plants that are locally native. These plants are not only adapted to grow in this type of habitat, but are what the pollinators have been using for thousands of years. It is also always best to use straight wild species,rather than cultivars or nativars which have been selected for certain traits. When we plant a flower that has been bred to appeal to us through a novel color or look, it may not have the same appeal to the pollinator its parent plants originally evolved with. What might be attractive to us may not be attractive to pollinators, some of which see flowers through different spectrums or look for certain traits in them. This is especially true of plants bred to have double flowers or blooms with extra large petals, since they often sacrifice nectar/pollen for the extra showy flowers. Also something to consider are the multiple uses you get with native plants. Many exotic plants may have a pretty flower that may (or may not) provide nectar for a short time each year while blooming, but it otherwise provides little habitat or nutrition for pollinators or other native wildlife. Take the Chinese Aster (Callistephus) for example. It is a pretty flower, comes in many color forms and is widely planted (and has escaped and naturalized into some areas). The blooms on some varieties provide some nectar and pollen to a few pollinators for a short bloom time each year. But only two species of caterpillars have been recorded as feeding on it. It is for the most part and for most of its plant life a barren habitat for wildlife, taking the place of what might have been a much more beneficial native plant. Contrast that with one of our many (Virginia alone has 43 different species) colorful and attractive native asters, many adapted to a variety of growing conditions. Now you have flowers that not only provide attractive flowers for the garden and a similar look, but also serve a habitat and food function. In addition to pollinators visiting them, most also supply seeds for birds such as finches and sparrows. But 109 different caterpillar species have also been documented feeding on asters. These in turn feed the vast majority of our nesting native birds (97% of terrestrial birds feed on insects, particularly during the nesting season, most of which are caterpillars) and most of the 18 bat species found in our region (all of which are insectivores and many of which prefer moths over other insects). At least 8 different bee species need their pollen or they cannot reproduce. \|A pair of Checkered Skippers feed on a native aster.\| So you can see how something as simple as choosing a native plant species can not only serve to provide for pollinators, but then serve many other habitat functions as well. So this National Pollinator Week, enjoy the pollinators in our gardens, farms, and parks. If you're able to, include locally native plants in your gardens. This way you too can help the pollinators who are always helping us. In Arlington County, we try and make the vast majority of the plants we plant natives for all the reasons stated above. This National Pollinator Week we will be partnering with Dominion Energy to plant a Pollinator Patch in Bluemont Park featuring over 500 native plants. This will be one of several plantings we have made that we will try and certify as Monarch Way Stations. This week serves as the one year anniversary that Arlington County made the Mayor's Monarch Pledge to commit to doing several different things to help monarch butterflies. The milkweed plantings and meeting the rest of the pledge requirements will help us to certify this site among several as a wrap up of this year's efforts. We of course will continue to do many other things to help monarchs and and so many other pollinators. Here's a look at the Bluemont Pollinator Patch one year later in during National Pollinator Week in June of 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLu9pEFCpEo The establishing of Pollinator Patches and Monarch Way Stations is just one way we will continue to do so in to the foreseeable future. Please join us in supporting our pollinators by planting native plants when you can and taking pollinator needs in to consideration when you do things at home. \|A Monarch Butterfly and Clearwing Moth nectar at a native Swamp Milkweed flower in the Gulf Branch Nature Center Monarch Way Station and Pollinator Garden.\|
Social Studies Research Paper 12 November 2012 From early 1930s to middle 1940s, Jews in Germany, Especially, and other parts of Europe faced discrimination from Hitler as well as the Nazis. We were holding sent to ghettos and later attention camps and extermination camps. In the ghettos, Jews were required to live in tiny homes and consumed small amounts of food. In addition , disease and fatality were rampant. Living conditions had been worse in the concentration camps. In contrast to prevalent belief, not every Jews recognized such uncommon and unequal treatments of the Nazis. Subsequently, Jews resisted in various forms. Resistance by Jews could possibly be as simple as planning uprisings and escapes. They disguised themselves because Aryans (non-Jewish people). They will organized secret schools and religious providers, hid Judaism books, and wrote schedules about your life and fatality. The effort aid their practices was a sort of spiritual level of resistance. (Fidhkin 8) Resistance had taken forms with out weapons. For several, attempting to keep on a semblance of " normalвЂќ lifestyle in the face of wretched conditions was resistance. David Altshuler publishes articles in Hitler's War resistant to the Jews about life in the ghettos, which usually sustained Jewish culture in the middle of hopelessness and despair. (Grobman) Underground magazines were printed and allocated at superb risk to people who took part. Praying was against the guidelines, but synagogue services took place with regularity. The education of Jewish kids was not allowed, but the segregazione communities create schools. The observance of countless Jewish rituals, including diet laws, was severely reprimanded by the Nazis, and many Jews took wonderful risks to resist the Nazi edicts against these kinds of activities. Committees were structured to meet the philanthropic, faith based, educational, and cultural community needs. Several committees beat Nazi expert. (Grobman) The Jews would not care these actions had been against the rules. They felt they...
Natural gas and electricity: a closer relationship than you might realise Around 11% of Germany’s electricity was generated in gas-fired power stations in 2012. This is more environmentally friendly than using coal, as natural gas emits much less CO2 because of the low carbon content in methane. Moreover, gas-fired power stations attain very high efficiency rates thanks to sophisticated technology, converting a larger proportion of the energy in natural gas into electrical energy. For example, the power station Irsching 4 near Ingolstadt achieved an efficiency rate of 60.75% shortly after it was commissioned in 2011, which was a world record! In comparison, coal-fired power stations can reach an efficiency rate of 50% at best. Gas-fired power stations are increasingly efficient due to improvements made to turbines in the last few decades. They are powered by burning natural gas, which heats the incoming air and sets the turbines in motion, in a similar process to a jet aircraft. The rotary movement is transferred via a shaft to the electrical generator, which generates electricity, like a bicycle dynamo. Making electricity green: CCGT power stations and CHP stations Engineers took a huge leap in efficiency when they began putting the waste heat from gas turbines to use for electricity production. The heat is used to boil water and drive a steam turbine, setting an additional generator in motion to generate electricity. This innovation increases the yield substantially and was the technology that enabled the power station Irsching 4 to achieve its world record. Additionally, CCGT power stations are much cheaper than some other methods of electricity generation. They cost around 50% less than a comparable coal-fired power plant and can be built in a short space of time. There are some other possible uses for the waste heat. Rather than being used to drive a turbine, in combined heat and power (CHP) stations, it is used either directly on site for industrial processes or put on a local heating network for residential areas. This model is also available on a small scale, with so-called micro-CHP plants in that can be used in residential basements or cellars to generate electricity and heating. CHP plants achieve an 80-90% rate of efficiency, but to achieve this figure there must be a user for the energy in the immediate vicinity of the plant. Flexibility with Gas-fired Power Stations Gas-fired power stations are environmentally friendly because of their high efficiency rates and low CO2 emissions, which is why they will play an important role in the future of green energy. Wind turbines and solar power facilities do not generate a guaranteed and reliable output, so other power stations often have to stand in at short notice. Gas-fired power stations are ideally suited to this purpose as they can easily be fired up in just a few minutes, and subsequently shut down, far more quickly than coal-fired power plants. Gas-fired power stations, in combination with new electricity storage systems, will make sure that we have a secure electricity supply in the renewable energy age. Using Electricity to Produce Gas: A milestone in the energy future? As well as generating electricity from gas, innovative techniques mean that we are also able to do the reverse! When renewable energy techniques generate more electricity than can be used at that moment in time, artificial gas can be created with the excess electricity. First, the electricity is used to split water into its individual elements, hydrogen and oxygen, by electrolysis. Then the hydrogen is converted into methane by adding carbon dioxide in a process known as methanation. The natural gas created can be transported using the existing German gas pipelines and storage facilities, and can be used for heating or as a vehicle fuel. Although this ground-breaking technology, which we call “power to gas”, is still in its infancy, it could be a way to link up the power and gas highways intelligently and effectively to minimise any energy waste. Decentralised Energy: electricity and heat production at home in your cellar The close links between natural gas and electricity continue at micro level. Environmentally friendly electricity and heat can be generated with natural gas in fuel cells at home, perhaps in the cellar or basement. In the fuel cell heating systems, a “reformer” converts natural gas into hydrogen, which produces electricity by a chemical process. The heat generated by the process is not wasted, but used to heat the rest of the homes and provide hot water. This initiative will give individual homeowners the opportunity to make a real difference to the environment, as the fuel cells only emit around half the CO2 emissions of traditional solutions with the same output.
the set of points where the two sides of a two-variable linear inequality are equal constant of proportionality a constant ratio of two variables related proportionally a relationship between two variables in which the data increase or decrease together at a constant rate an equation whose solutions form a straight line on a coordinate plane a mathematical sentence using >, <, ≥, or ≤ whose graph is a region with a straight-line boundary y-y1 = m(x-x1), where m is the slope and (x1,y1) is the point the line is passing through. a linear equation written in the form y=mx+b where m is the slope and b is the y-intercept of the equation's graph the x-coordinate of a point where a graph crosses the x-axis the y-coordinate of a point where a graph crosses the y-axis Please allow access to your computer’s microphone to use Voice Recording. We can’t access your microphone! Click the icon above to update your browser permissions above and try again Reload the page to try again! Press Cmd-0 to reset your zoom Press Ctrl-0 to reset your zoom It looks like your browser might be zoomed in or out. Your browser needs to be zoomed to a normal size to record audio. Your microphone is muted For help fixing this issue, see this FAQ.
Midpoint of AB= (x1+x2/2, y1+y2/2) The distance AB= (root)(x2-x1)sqr+(y2-y1)sqr (pythagoras) A=(7, -10) B=(4, -8) Find the midpoint Find the length of line AB. The gradient of AB is y1-y2/x1-x2 If two lines have the same gradient, they are parallel two lines are perpendicular if the angle between them is 90deg. the product of these lines are -1 A= (6,7) B=(5,-4) Find the gradient. Find the gradient of the line perpendicular to this line. The equation of a straight line is y=mx+c m is the gradient and c is the y-intercept Another equation of a straight line is y-y1=m(x-x1) Find the equation of the line through the points A and B A is at (3,2) and B is at (6,11) A is at (-1,2) and B is at (1,12) A is at (-5,-3) and B is at (4,1) use simultaneous equations to find the point where these two lines intersect: if there are two y= or x=, put both equations equal each other. If there is just one question with 1 y or x=, replace the y or x in the other equation with the equation y or x=. The edges of triangle ABC are given by the equations: Find the coordinates of vertices A, B and C. Start with a sketch choose a pair of equations and solve simultaneously
NASA has announced that the next Mars rover — currently codenamed Mars 2020 — will be outfitted with an array of sophisticated, upgraded scientific instruments that will let it delve deeper and farther than Curiosity, with the hope that it will be able to uncover signs of life on Mars. Perhaps even more excitingly, Mars 2020 will also be equipped with a new instrument that can convert the carbon dioxide in Mars’ atmosphere into oxygen — this is of utmost importance if humanity ever colonizes Mars — and another instrument that will gather and store Martian rock samples for eventual return to Earth. NASA is forging ahead with plans to make water, oxygen, and hydrogen on the surface of the Moon and Mars. If we ever want to colonize other planets, it is vital that we find a way of extracting these vital gases and liquids from moons and planets, rather than transporting them from Earth (which is prohibitively expensive, due to Earth’s gravity). The current plan is to land a rover on the Moon in 2018 that will try to extract hydrogen, water, and oxygen — and then hopefully, Curiosity’s successor will try to convert the CO2 in the atmosphere into oxygen in 2020 when it lands on Mars. NASA has unveiled the science goals for Curiosity’s successor, the 2020 Mars rover. Whereas Curiosity is capable of analyzing Mars’ past habitability, the 2020 Mars rover will look for actual signs of life with an on-board microscope that can pick out fossils and other telltale indicators (biosignatures) that microbial life once existed on Mars. Whereas Curiosity is capable of analyzing Mars’ past habitability, the 2020 Mars rover will look for actual signs of life with an on-board microscope that can pick out fossils and other telltale indicators (biosignatures) that microbial life once existed on Mars. In a surprise announcement at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, NASA has revealed that it will be sending another rover to Mars in 2020. This news has been met with a mix of reactions, with some planetary scientists wondering why NASA continues to focus on Mars, when there are ice-covered moons like Saturn’s Titan that remain relatively unexplored. Subscribe Today to get the latest ExtremeTech news delivered right to your inbox.
Graves disease, a form of overactive thyroid disease, can cause insomnia, hyperactivity and weight loss. Women are affected up to eight times more often than men. Graves disease Overview Graves' disease is an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid, causing hyperthyroidism. The immune system makes antibodies that trigger the thyroid to make more thyroid hormone than your body needs. An overactive thyroid increases the body's metabolic rate, Common symptoms of an overactive thyroid include goiter (an enlarged thyroid), trouble sleeping, nervousness, irritability, heat sensitivity, and unexplained weight loss. With Graves' disease, the immune system makes antibodies that act like TSH, which triggers the thyroid to make more thyroid hormone than your body needs. This is called an overactive thyroid or hyperthyroidism. An overactive thyroid causes every function of the body to speed up, such as heart rate and the rate your body turns food into energy. Many factors are thought to play a role in getting Graves' disease including genetics, gender or sex hormones, severe emotional stress or trauma, pregnancy, and infection. Graves' disease treatments include medications, radioactive iodine therapy, and surgery. Methimazole and Propylthiouracil act on the thyroid from making too much thyroid hormone. Radioactive iodine destroys thyroid cells so that less thyroid hormone is made. Surgical removal of the thyroid is another treatment option. Graves disease Symptoms Most people with Graves' disease have symptoms of an overactive thyroid, such as: - Goiter (enlarged thyroid) - Trouble sleeping - Irritability or nervousness - Heat sensitivity, increased sweating - Hand tremors - Rapid heartbeat - Thinning of skin or fine, brittle hair - Frequent bowel movements - Weight loss without dieting - Fatigue or muscle weakness - Lighter menstrual flow and less frequent periods - Problems getting pregnant Unlike other causes of an overactive thyroid, Graves' disease also can cause: - Eye changes. For some people with Graves' disease, the tissue behind the eyes becomes inflamed and swells. This can cause bulging or discomfort in one or both eyes. Sometimes it affects vision. Eye symptoms can occur before, at the same time, or after other symptoms of Graves' disease begin. It may rarely occur in people with normal thyroid function. We do not know why these eye problems occur. They are more common in people who smoke, and smoking makes eye symptoms worse. Eye problems often get better without treatment. - Reddening and thickening of the skin, often on the shins and tops of the feet. This rare skin problem is not serious and is usually painless. Most people with this skin problem also have eye problems from Graves' disease. Symptoms of Graves' disease can occur slowly or very suddenly and are sometimes confused with other health problems. Some people with Graves' disease do not have any symptoms. Graves disease Diagnosis Most people with Graves' disease have symptoms that are bothersome. Tests used to diagnose Graves' disease include: - Thyroid function tests. A blood sample is sent to a lab to see if your body has the right amount of thyroid hormone (T4) and TSH. A high level of thyroid hormone in the blood plus a low level of TSH is a sign of overactive thyroid. Sometimes, routine screening of thyroid function reveals mild overactive thyroid in a person without symptoms. In such cases, doctors might suggest treatment or watchful waiting to see if levels return to normal. - Radioactive iodine uptake (RAIU). An RAIU tells how much iodine the thyroid takes up. The thyroid takes up iodine and uses it to make thyroid hormone. A high uptake suggests Graves' disease. This test can be helpful in ruling out other possible causes of overactive thyroid. - Antibody tests. A blood sample is sent to a lab to look for antibodies that suggest Graves' disease. Graves' disease can be hard to diagnose during pregnancy because it has many of the same symptoms as normal pregnancy, like fatigue and heat intolerance. Also, some lab tests can be harder to interpret. Plus, doctors cannot use RAIU during pregnancy to rule out other causes. Graves disease Treatments There are 3 main treatments for Graves' disease: - Antithyroid medicine. Two drugs are used in the United States: - Radioactive iodine (RAI). The thyroid gland uses iodine to make thyroid hormone. With this treatment, you swallow a pill that contains RAI, which is a form of iodine that damages the thyroid by giving it radiation. The RAI destroys thyroid cells so that less thyroid hormone is made. This cures the overactive thyroid. But you will likely need to take thyroid hormone for the rest of your life to replace the needed thyroid hormone your body can no longer make. RAI has been used for a long time and does not harm other parts of the body or cause infertility or birth defects. - Surgery. Most or all the thyroid is removed. As with RAI, surgery cures overactive thyroid. But you will need to take thyroid hormone to replace the needed thyroid hormone your body can no longer make. The treatment that is best for you will depend on many factors. Antithyroid drugs and RAI — or a mix of both — often are preferred. During and after treatment, your doctor will want to monitor your thyroid hormone levels. Ask how often you need to be seen for follow-up visits. Without treatment, Graves' disease can lead to heart problems, weak and brittle bones, and even death. “Thyroid storm” is a very rare, life-threatening condition that can occur if overactive thyroid is not treated. An acute stress, such as trauma, surgery, or infection, usually triggers it to occur. In pregnant women, untreated disease can threaten the mother and unborn baby's health. Graves disease Other Treatments Besides one of these 3 treatments, your doctor might also suggest you take a type of drug called a beta-blocker. Beta-blockers do not affect how much thyroid hormone is made. Rather, they block the action of thyroid hormone on your body. This slows down your heart rate and reduces symptoms such as shaking and nervousness. Beta-blockers work quickly and can help you feel better while waiting for the main treatment to take effect.
How to Write a Story makes it easy to develop confident, competent storywriters. There are lessons and reproducibles to help students learn the parts of a story, reproducible planning forms, and guidelines for writing in six different genres. How to Write a Story, Grades 4-6 is packed with easy-to-execute ideas and dozens of writing forms that will assist student in refining their sentence writing skills. Lessons and reproducibles to help students learn the parts of a story cover: Guidelines are presented for writing in six different genres: • realistic fiction • historical fiction • science fiction
\|Star Trek warp drive is a possibility, say scientists By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Two physicists have boldly gone where no reputable scientists should go and devised a new scheme to travel faster than the speed of light. In the long running television series created by Gene Roddenberry, the warp drive was invented by Zefram Cochrane, who began his epic project in 2053 in Bozeman, Montana. Now Dr Gerald Cleaver, associate professor of physics at Baylor, and Richard Obousy have come up with a new twist on an existing idea to produce a warp drive that they believe can travel faster than the speed of light, without breaking the laws of physics. In their scheme, in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, a starship could “warp” space so that it shrinks ahead of the vessel and expands behind it. By pushing the departure point many light years backwards while simultaneously bringing distant stars and other destinations closer, the warp drive effectively transports the starship from place to place at faster-than-light speeds. All this extraordinary feat requires, says the new study, is for scientists to harness a mysterious and poorly understood cosmic antigravity force, called dark energy. Dark energy is thought responsible for speeding up the expansion rate of our universe as time moves on, just like it did after the Big Bang, when the universe expanded much faster than the speed of light for a very brief time. This may come as a surprise since, according to relativity theory, matter cannot move through space faster than the speed of light, which is almost 300,000,000 metres per second. But that theory applies only to unwarped ‘flat’ space. And there is no limit on the speed with which space itself can move: the spaceship can sit at rest in a small bubble of space that flows at “superluminal” – faster than light – velocities through normal space because the fabric of space and time itself (scientists refer to spacetime) is stretching. In the scheme outlined by Dr Cleaver dark energy would be used to create the bubble: if dark energy can be made negative in front of the ship, then that patch of space would contract in response. “Think of it like a surfer riding a wave,” said Dr Cleaver. “The ship would be pushed by the spatial bubble and the bubble would be travelling faster than the speed of light.” The new warp drive work also draws on “string theory”, which suggests the universe is made up of multiple dimensions. We are used to four dimensions – height, width, length and time but string theorists believe that there are a total of 10 dimensions and it is by changing the size of this 10th spatial dimension in front of the space ship that the Baylor researchers believe could alter the strength of the dark energy in such a manner to propel the ship faster than the speed of light. They conclude by recommending that it would be “prudent to research this area further.” And even if this criticism can be met, Richard Obousy computed the amount of energy required to start up a “warp” process (but not the total energy required to travel a specific distance) around a 10x10x10 metre-cube ship based on the required change in dark energy in a space equal to the volume of the ship. The energy to kick start the drive turned out to be equivalent to turning the entire mass of Jupiter into energy, by Einstein’s famous E equals Mc squared equation, where c is the speed of light. Given the mass of Jupiter is around 2000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms, that is a big number. “That is an enormous amount of energy,” Dr Cleaver said. “We are still a very long ways off before we could create something to harness that type of energy.”
Pediatric Occupational Therapy Occupational Therapy (OT) can help optimize fine motor development, sensory function, motor planning and learning potential. Occupational Therapists work with children who do not demonstrate age appropriate behaviors and abilities in one or more of the following areas: Thinking skills; problem solving skills; attention to task; safety awareness. Integrating reflexes to develop voluntary movement patterns; developing motor skills, balance and equilibrium reactions; muscle tone; eye-hand coordination, grasp-release and manipulation of objects. Adaptive/Self Help Skills: Feeding or using utensils; dressing and using fasteners; toileting and other hygiene skills; awareness of environmental dangers. Ability to grasp pen/pencil; letter formation; spacing and page orientation. Orienting to and processing sensation from the body and stimuli from the environment. Frequently Asked Questions Occupational Therapist are trained to help both children and adults to function daily in their best capacity with things we do every day such as - Age appropriate self- help skills - Development of motor skills - Visual Perceptual skills - Cognitive development - Regulation of arousal level to attend to activities - Refinement of sensory processing - Appropriate social interactions Children do have an “occupation”. They have the job of being a kid! What do kids do? They often go to school, play, socialize and are challenged to continuously learn new things as they develop both cognitively and physically. If a child is missing or delayed in any of these skills, Occupational Therapy can help address any deficits or help build on missing skills. Sensory regulation is a popular term you may hear when reading about treatment of children with any sensory processing disorder. Just what is sensory regulation? Children with sensory regulation disorder often have difficulty regulating their emotions and behaviors in response to sensory input. Typically we take in many sensory inputs throughout the day and can filter them out without it interfering dramatically in our day. Adults often tap their legs, chew their nails, or listen to music. Some of us would never listen to music while trying to concentrate. Our bodies have a unique way of controlling or regulating the amount of sensations we can handle at once. Ever notice that you can hear the cars on the highway but you tune them out unless you specifically think about it? Then it might begin to bother you. You are unable to filter it out. This is a common reoccurring problem with regulating sensory information for many children. Sometimes they are under stimulated so they are always seem to crash into things or be extra rough. Maybe they are always making noises which stimulate their senses through vibration or sound. OT can help provide a sensory balanced diet by addressing the over reactive or under reactive systems in the body. We receive and perceive sensory input through sights, sounds, touch, tastes, smells and movement. Sensory Integration is defined as the neurological process that organizes sensation from one’€™s own body and the environment, thus making it possible to use the body effectively within the environment. Sensory integration dysfunction is a problem in processing sensations which causes difficulties in daily life. Sensory integration dysfunction is a complex neurological disorder, manifested by difficulty detecting, regulating, discriminating or integrating sensation adaptively. This causes children to process sensation from the environment or from their bodies in an inaccurately, resulting in “sensory seeking” or “sensory avoiding” patterns. It can also result in dyspraxia, a motor planning problem. When children are “picky eaters” it can be a result of poor motor planning or skills, oral motor control issues and often it is a sensory issue such as dislike for the texture or smell of the food. It gets back to how the child processes sensory information that so many of us take for granted every day. OT can help address the sensory deficits that may be interfering with the child being open to exploring new types of foods. Self-care skills are numerous for children such as age appropriate dressing, brushing their teeth, feeding themselves, learning to write, playing appropriately on a playground, playing with others, to putting on their shoes and socks. Handwriting skills are multi layered. It requires a cluster of skills to come together to write a language and numbers. This involves visual motor, visual perceptual, cognitive skills, and fine motor control of the hand and strength at the core to stabilize the arm for better performance. Additionally handwriting requires emotional regulation and attention to the task to sit and perform what is asked of the child. Occupational Therapy can address all of these issues to help your child’€™s handwriting improve to an age appropriate level as the objective.
Teaching approaches: task-based learning An article discussing different models for the organization of language lessons, including Task-Based Learning. What is TBL? How often do we as teachers ask our students to do something in class which they would do in everyday life using their own language? Probably not often enough. If we can make language in the classroom meaningful therefore memorable, students can process language which is being learned or recycled more naturally. Task-based learning offers the student an opportunity to do exactly this. The primary focus of classroom activity is the task and language is the instrument which the students use to complete it. The task is an activity in which students use language to achieve a specific outcome. The activity reflects real life and learners focus on meaning, they are free to use any language they want. Playing a game, solving a problem or sharing information or experiences, can all be considered as relevant and authentic tasks. In TBL an activity in which students are given a list of words to use cannot be considered as a genuine task. Nor can a normal role play if it does not contain a problem-solving element or where students are not given a goal to reach. In many role plays students simply act out their restricted role. For instance, a role play where students have to act out roles as company directors but must come to an agreement or find the right solution within the given time limit can be considered a genuine task in TBL. In the task-based lessons included below our aim is to create a need to learn and use language. The tasks will generate their own language and create an opportunity for language acquisition (Krashen). If we can take the focus away from form and structures we can develop our students’ ability to do things in English. That is not to say that there will be no attention paid to accuracy, work on language is included in each task and feedback and language focus have their places in the lesson plans. We feel that teachers have a responsibility to enrich their students’ language when they see it is necessary but students should be given the opportunity to use English in the classroom as they use their own languages in everyday life. How can I use TBL in the classroom? Most of the task-based lessons in this section are what Scrivener* classifies as authentic and follow the task structure proposed by Willis and Willis**. Each task will be organized in the following way: - Pre-task activity an introduction to topic and task - Task cycle: Task > Planning > Report - Language Focus and Feedback A balance should be kept between fluency, which is what the task provides, and accuracy, which is provided by task feedback. A traditional model for the organization of language lessons, both in the classroom and in course-books, has long been the PPP approach (presentation, practice, production). With this model individual language items (for example, the past continuous) are presented by the teacher, then practised in the form of spoken and written exercises (often pattern drills), and then used by the learners in less controlled speaking or writing activities. Although the grammar point presented at the beginning of this procedure may well fit neatly into a grammatical syllabus, a frequent criticism of this approach is the apparent arbitrariness of the selected grammar point, which may or may not meet the linguistic needs of the learners, and the fact that the production stage is often based on a rather inauthentic emphasis on the chosen structure. An alternative to the PPP model is the Test-Teach-Test approach (TTT), in which the production stage comes first and the learners are "thrown in at the deep end" and required to perform a particular task (a role play, for example). This is followed by the teacher dealing with some of the grammatical or lexical problems that arose in the first stage and the learners then being required either to perform the initial task again or to perform a similar task. The language presented in the ‘teach’ stage can be predicted if the initial production task is carefully chosen but there is a danger of randomness in this model. Jane Willis (1996), in her book ‘A Framework for Task-Based Learning’, outlines a third model for organizing lessons. While this is not a radical departure from TTT, it does present a model that is based on sound theoretical foundations and one which takes account of the need for authentic communication. Task-based learning (TBL) is typically based on three stages. The first of these is the pre-task stage, during which the teacher introduces and defines the topic and the learners engage in activities that either help them to recall words and phrases that will be useful during the performance of the main task or to learn new words and phrases that are essential to the task. This stage is followed by what Willis calls the "task cycle". Here the learners perform the task (typically a reading or listening exercise or a problem-solving exercise) in pairs or small groups. They then prepare a report for the whole class on how they did the task and what conclusions they reached. Finally, they present their findings to the class in spoken or written form. The final stage is the language focus stage, during which specific language features from the task and highlighted and worked on. Feedback on the learners’ performance at the reporting stage may also be appropriate at this point. The main advantages of TBL are that language is used for a genuine purpose meaning that real communication should take place, and that at the stage where the learners are preparing their report for the whole class, they are forced to consider language form in general rather than concentrating on a single form (as in the PPP model). Whereas the aim of the PPP model is to lead from accuracy to fluency, the aim of TBL is to integrate all four skills and to move from fluency to accuracy plus fluency. The range of tasks available (reading texts, listening texts, problem-solving, role-plays, questionnaires, etc) offers a great deal of flexibility in this model and should lead to more motivating activities for the learners. Learners who are used to a more traditional approach based on a grammatical syllabus may find it difficult to come to terms with the apparent randomness of TBL, but if TBL is integrated with a systematic approach to grammar and lexis, the outcome can be a comprehensive, all-round approach that can be adapted to meet the needs of all learners. Tasks: Getting to know your centre The object of the following two tasks is for students to use English to: - Find out what resources are available to them and how they can use their resource room. - Meet and talk to each of the teachers in their centre. To do these tasks you will require the PDF worksheets at the bottom of the page. Task 1: Getting to know your resources Level: Pre-intermediate and above It is assumed in this lesson that your school has the following student resources; books (graded readers), video, magazines and Internet. Don’t worry if it doesn’t, the lesson can be adjusted accordingly. Pre-task preparation: One of the tasks is a video exercise which involves viewing a movie clip with the sound turned off. This can be any movie depending on availability, but the clip has to involve a conversation between two people. Pre-task activity: In pairs students discuss the following questions: - Do you use English outside the classroom? - What ways can you practise English outside the classroom? Stage one - Running dictation Put the text from worksheet one on the wall either inside or outside the classroom. Organize your students into pairs. One student will then go to the text, read the text and then go back to her partner and relay the information to her. The partner who stays at the desk writes this information. When teams have finished check for accuracy. You can make this competitive should you wish. In pairs students then read the Getting To Know Your Resources task sheet (worksheet two). Check any problem vocabulary at this stage. This worksheet can be adapted according to the resource room at your school. - Stage three Depending on how the resources are organized in your centre, students then go, in pairs, to the resource room or wherever the resources are kept and complete the tasks on the task sheet. - Stage four Working with a different partner students now compare and share their experience. - Stage five - Feedback Having monitored the activity and the final stage, use this opportunity to make comments on your students’ performance. This may take form of a correction slot on errors or pronunciation, providing a self-correction slot. Task 2 - Getting to know your teachers Level: Pre-intermediate and above Students may need at least a week to do this activity, depending on the availability of the teachers in your centre Pre-task activity: In pairs students talk about an English teacher they have had. - What was her name? - Where was she from? - How old was she? - Do you remember any of her lessons? - What was your favourite activity in her class? Using the Getting To Know Your Teachers task sheet (worksheet three) and the Interview Questions (worksheet four) students write the questions for the questionnaire they are going to use to interview the teachers. To set up the activity students then interview you and record the information. Depending on which teachers are free at this time they can then go and interview other teachers and record the information. You may wish to bring other teachers into your class to be interviewed or alternatively give your students a week or so to complete the task, interviewing teachers before or after class, or whenever they come to the centre. Working with a different partner students compare their answers and experiences then decide on their final answers on the superlative questions. Feedback and reflection. Allow time for students to express their opinions and experiences of the activity. Provide any feedback you feel is necessary. The Get To Know Your Resources task sheet could be turned into a school competition entry form. Possible prizes could include a video or some readers. Krashen, S. (1996). The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom. Prentice Hall Scrivener, J. (2005). Learning Teaching. Macmillan. Anchor Point:bottom*Willis, J. & Willis, D. (eds.) (1996). Challenge and Change in Language Teaching. Macmillan (now out of print). Note from editor: Jane and Dave Willis have recently published another book (see below) - Willis, D. & Willis, J. (2007), Doing Task-based Teaching. Oxford University Press They have also set up a website which offers articles on task-based teaching and a number of lesson plans: http://www.willis-elt.co.uk/
The American Revolution, perhaps the single most important war in America's History, didn't begin with a single act on a single day. Rather it was an era of fighting and disagreements with England that began in 1763. The war actually lasted for 20 years, finally winding down in Yorktown Pennsylvania in 1783. The famous Battle of Bunker Hill wasn't until 1775 and many other notorious battles weren't until much later in the era. It is, of course, a war that framed America and established states and the Declaration of Independence. Much of the country's government was established then and is still in place to this day. Bringing the American Revolution to Your Classroom A classroom unit on the American Revolution can be an overwhelming unit to teach. There are so many dates to remember, concepts to absorb and important moments to explain. When children are very young, understanding the significance of the American Revolution can be a challenge. Teacher Planet offers lesson plans, worksheets, activities, clip art and a wealth of teaching resources to make teaching the American Revolution easier. You can find everything from women's role in the war to an American Revolution group writing worksheet.
A trans-neptunian object is any object that orbits the sun from a distance farther than Neptune. Ok, so you're saying that Pluto should then be a TNO, well it probably would have been if it were discovered recently instead of in the early 20th century. These objects occupy space in the outer solar system that is divided into the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. The astronomers Jewitt and Luu discovered the first of TNO in 1992. The community of astronomers decided on a new category for this object because surface reflection data revealed no evidence of a comet's dust tail. Since 1992, astronomers have located 578 trans-neptunian objects. The most famous of TNO is Varuna, which has a diameter of 800 km, or roughly 1/3 the size of Pluto. Varuna was discovered in 2000. However, Varuna is not the largest of the TNO. In 2001, astronomers pinpointed an object nearly half the size of Pluto with a diameter of 1100 km. Plutinos and cubewanos are two classes of trans-neptunian objects. Plutinos have a similar orbit to Pluto because a gravitational resonance from Neptune works to stabilize the objects. Cubewanos have more unique orbital paths because they do not require the resonance of Neptune to remain in orbit around Jewitt and Luu describe TNO as being relics from the accretion disk of the sun which circumnavigated the entire solarscape during an earlier stage of the sun's life. Recent spectrographic imagery suggests water that may exist on Pluto Update: March 14, 2004 - NASA announced the discovery of the farthest TNO known to date. It is thought to be about 3/4 the size of Pluto, and is named Sedna.
Semicolon vs Colon Knowing the difference between semicolon and colon is of great importance when using the English language. Semicolon and Colon are punctuation marks that should be used with precision in order to convey the correct sense. It is hence very important to distinguish between the two punctuation marks, colon and semicolon. Now, according to the history, the word colon has its origins in the mid 16th century. The word semi means half. Therefore, semicolon means half of the colon. From the two, it is interesting to note that the use of the semicolon correctly is the more problematic task in the English language for its users. What is a Semicolon? Semicolon is often used instead of the full stop in cases where sentences are grammatically full and independent. One of the important rules in relation to the application of a semicolon is that the sentences separated by it should have a close connection. Observe the sentences given below. Some people sing well; others dance well. You are a good person; you need to adjust with him well. In both of the sentences, you can see that there are two fragments that are full and grammatically independent. Hence, these fragments are connected by a semicolon. In fact, these fragments are nicely connected by means of an idea as well. Always remember that the two sentences that are separated by a semicolon should necessarily have a close connection between them. For more information about the punctuation mark semicolon, have a look at this definition given by the Oxford English dictionary. Semicolon is “a punctuation mark (;) indicating a pause, typically between two main clauses, that is more pronounced than that indicated by a comma.” What is a Colon? Colon, on the other hand, is often used before explanations or reasons as in the sentence given below. We had to drop our tour plan finally: we were unable to find suitable dates. In the sentence given above, you can see that a colon is used just before an explanation or a reason for the tour not coming off. Hence, in case you give an explanation or a reason for some happening, then you should not use a semicolon but you should use a colon between the happening and the explanation. This is an important rule in the case of the application of a colon. Sometimes we use a colon before a list as in the following example. The points of discussion were: a…..b….c….. You can see in the sentence given above that the points of discussions were preceded by a colon. Now, for better understanding about the colon here is the definition given to colon by the Oxford English dictionary. Colon is “a punctuation mark (:) used to precede a list of items, a quotation, or an expansion or explanation.” What is the difference between Semicolon and Colon? • Semicolon is often used instead of the full stop in cases where sentences are grammatically full and independent. • The sentences separated by a semicolon should have a close connection. • Colon, on the other hand, is often used before explanations or reasons. • Sometimes we use a colon before a list . These are the differences between the two punctuation marks, namely semicolon and colon.
Geometry Building Blocks: Angles More Lessons for High School Geometry A series of free, online High School Geometry Video Lessons and solutions. Videos, worksheets, and activities to help Geometry students. In this lesson, we will learn - types of angles and how to label angles - how to use a protractor to measure angles - what is an angle bisector and how to construct an angle bisector - how to identify and remember complementary and supplementary angles Angles: Types and Labeling There are four types of angles: acute, right, obtuse, and straight. Each name indicates a specific range of degree measurements. Congruent angles have equivalent measures. Adjacent angles share a vertex and a common side. How to label an angle and how to differentiate between acute, right, obtuse, and straight angles. Using a Protractor In Geometry, it is important to know how to measure an angle. Using a protractor helps us determine the angle measurement so we can label it as acute, right or obtuse. Every protractor is a little bit different, but all will have a location on the bottom edge where we align the vertex of the angle we are measuring. After lining up the vertex, we line up the bottom edge of the protractor with one side of the angle and use the marks on the top to measure. Using a Protractor How to use a protractor to measure an angle. An angle is formed by two rays with a common endpoint. The angle bisector is a ray or line segment that bisects the angle, creating two congruent angles. To construct an angle bisector you need a compass and straightedge. Bisectors are very important in identifying corresponding parts of similar triangles and in solving proofs. How to label an angle bisector; how to use an angle bisector to find a missing variable. This video shows how to construct an angle bisector Supplementary and Complementary Angles Supplementary angles are two angles whose sum is 180 degrees while complementary angles are two angles whose sum is 90 degrees. Supplementary and complementary angles do not have to be adjacent (sharing a vertex and side, or next to), but they can be. How to identify supplementary and complementary angles. How to remember complementary and supplementary angles Rotate to landscape screen format on a mobile phone or small tablet to use the Mathway widget, a free math problem solver that answers your questions with step-by-step explanations. You can use the free Mathway calculator and problem solver below to practice Algebra or other math topics. Try the given examples, or type in your own problem and check your answer with the step-by-step explanations.
Peritoneal fluid analysis is used to help diagnose the cause of peritoneal fluid accumulation (ascites) and/or inflammation of the peritoneum (peritonitis). There are two main reasons for fluid accumulation, and an initial set of tests (fluid albumin level, cell count and differential, and appearance) is used to differentiate between the two types of fluid that may be produced. An imbalance between the pressure within blood vessels (which drives fluid out of the blood vessel) and the amount of protein in blood (which keeps fluid in the blood vessel) can result in accumulation of fluid (called a transudate). Transudates are most often caused by congestive heart failure or cirrhosis. If the fluid is determined to be a transudate, then usually no more tests on the fluid are necessary. Injury or inflammation of the peritoneum may cause abnormal collection of fluid (called an exudate). Exudates are associated with a variety of conditions and diseases, and several tests, in addition to the initial ones performed, may be used to help diagnose the specific condition, including: Infectious diseases caused by viruses, bacteria, or fungi. Infections may originate in the peritoneum, be due to a rupture of the appendix, perforation of the intestines or the abdominal wall, contamination during surgery, or may spread to the peritoneum from other places in the body. Inflammatory conditions – peritonitis due to certain chemicals, irradiation, rarely due to an autoimmune disorder Microscopic examination – may be performed if infection or cancer is suspected. Laboratories may examine drops of the peritoneal fluid and/or use a special centrifuge (cytocentrifuge) to concentrate the fluid's cells at the bottom of a test tube. Samples are placed on a slide, treated with a special stain, and an evaluation of the different kinds of cells present is performed. Gram stain – for direct observation of bacteria or fungi under a microscope Test results can help distinguish between types of peritoneal fluid and help diagnose the cause of fluid accumulation. The initial set of tests performed on a sample of peritoneal fluid helps determine whether the fluid is a transudate or exudate. Findings may include: Albumin level—low (typically evaluated as the difference between serum albumin and peritoneal fluid albumin, termed serum-ascites albumin gradient, or SAAG. Values above 1.1 g/dL are considered evidence of a transudate.) Cell count—few cells are present Physical characteristics—fluid may appear cloudy Albumin level—higher than in transudates (typically with a SAAG less than 1.1 g/dL) Exudates can be caused by a variety of conditions and diseases and usually require further testing to aid in the diagnosis. Exudates may be caused by, for example, infections, trauma, various cancers, or pancreatitis. The following is a list of additional tests that the doctor may order depending on the suspected cause and typical results. Physical characteristics – the normal appearance of a sample of peritoneal fluid is usually straw-colored and clear. Abnormal appearances may give clues to conditions or diseases present and may include: Microscopic examination – may be performed if infection or cancer is suspected. Normal peritoneal fluid has small numbers of white blood cells (WBCs) but no red blood cells (RBCs) or microorganisms. Results of an evaluation of the different kinds of cells present may include: Total cell counts—WBCs and RBCs in the sample are enumerated. Increased WBCs may be seen with infections and malignant conditions. WBC differential—determination of percentages of different types of WBCs. An increased number of neutrophils may be seen with bacterial infections. Cytology – a cytocentrifuged sample is treated with a special stain and examined under a microscope for abnormal cells and for white cell differentiation. The differential can help determine whether the cells are the result of an infection or the presence of a tumor. Infectious disease tests – tests may be performed to look for microorganisms if infection is suspected. Gram stain – for direct observation of bacteria or fungi under a microscope. There should be no organisms present in peritoneal fluid. Bacterial culture and susceptibility testing—If bacteria are present, susceptibility testing can be performed to guide antimicrobial therapy. If there are no microorganisms present, it does not rule out an infection; they may be present in small numbers or their growth may be inhibited because of prior antibiotic therapy. Less commonly, if testing for other infectious diseases is performed and is positive, then the cause of the peritoneal fluid accumulation may be due to a viral infection, mycobacteria (such as the mycobacterium that causes tuberculosis), or a parasite. A blood glucose or albumin may be ordered to compare concentrations with those in the peritoneal fluid. If a doctor suspects that a person may have a systemic infection, then a blood culture may be ordered in addition to the peritoneal fluid analysis. This article was last reviewed on July 8, 2012. \| This article was last modified on October 8, 2014. The review date indicates when the article was last reviewed from beginning to end to ensure that it reflects the most current science. A review may not require any modifications to the article, so the two dates may not always agree. The modified date indicates that one or more changes were made to the article. Such changes may or may not result from a full review of the article, so the two dates may not always agree.
A computerized stress electrocardiogram (ECG) is a medical test that measures and records the electrical activity of the heart during physical activity. The heart is a muscular organ that beats rhythmically to pump blood and deliver oxygen throughout the body. The sinoatrial node (SA node) sends signals to the muscle fibres of the heart telling them when to contract. Each contraction is one heartbeat. The heart works harder under stress, and requires more oxygen. Any deficiency in the supply of oxygen to the heart muscle can be identified with a stress electrocardiogram. An ECG is performed to assess the heart's electrical activity for abnormalities, such as unexplained chest pain, shortness of breath and irregular heartbeats (palpitations). Some of these symptoms are brought on only with activity and may be missed on a regular electrocardiogram. It also indicates your level of fitness and may be used to assess the effectiveness of treatment. Before an ECG, a physical examination is performed to assess whether you are physically fit to carry on with the test. Prior to the test, you are advised not to eat, drink or smoke for 2 hours. Electrodes are placed on the skin of your chest. You are then asked to run on a treadmill with progressive difficulty until your heart rate reaches a target level or you start to experience symptoms such as chest pain. Please inform your doctor if you feel weak, faint or experience chest pain while on the treadmill, in which case, you are made to stop the test immediately. ECG is measured until your heart returns to normal. Following the test, you may return to your regular activities.
The need to be valued by others is universal (Kurzban & Leary, 2001; DeCremer & Mulder, 2007). While demonstrated differently in different cultures, it is a fundamental human need, and it is required to establish a secure sense of self. It is the fuel that feeds our drive to find a sense of purpose in our lives and to form attachments and connections with others. Without expressions of respect, we cannot know the value in ourselves or the value in others. Imagine how empty we would feel without this. Respect is a basic and intuitive desire, and so critical for positive outcomes in our work—which is why the authors of What Works with Teens: A Professional’s Guide to Engaging Authentically with Adolescents to Achieve Lasting Change devote an entire chapter talking about its value and application with adolescents. Receiving respect is important to teens. Researchers who have studied respect have found that not only do teens very clearly know when they are or are not being respected, but their behavior is shaped by these experiences. For many teens, respect is a powerful determinant for whether they will engage in productive behaviors or destructive behaviors. Even more critically, respect has been found to be a mechanism that supports the development of a strong moral core. During their research for their book What Works with Teens, clinical social workers Britt Rathbone, and Julie Baron also conducted interviews with teens about respect. In some instances, teens reported that feeling valued or respected came from being challenged or pushed beyond their comfort zone. Being pushed by an adult conveyed a message to these teens about the adult’s belief in their capabilities. Teens also expressed feeling respected when adults paid attention to them by listening and responding without judgment, and accepting their beliefs and values even if those beliefs and values were different from the adults’ own. Additionally, when adults were responsive to their intellectual, physical, social, and emotional needs, teens sensed a genuine concern for their welfare, which made them feel valued. Lastly, adolescents want adults to hold the bar high for them in all arenas. When adult expectations were expressed in the spirit of optimism and anticipation of attaining positive goals, and when adults treated them as capable of mastering challenges, teens reported feeling respected (Hajii, 2006). Treating others the way you want to be treated, respecting personal space and belongings, and not talking behind people’s backs were other behaviors young people identified as important in exhibiting respect, coming from both peers and adults (King & Vidourek, 2010). Positive behavior changes occur when respect, rather than coercion, is used to motivate adolescents. Curricula focusing on promoting caring, respect, empathy, self-discipline, and the cultivation of positive student-teacher relationships resulted in improved grades for students who had been taught these skills (Dunn, 2010). These students also demonstrated more of a willingness to admit mistakes, work on corrections, and stand up appropriately for their rights. They showed more respect for others’ property, persistence and effort to complete tasks, empathy for others, self-control, a willingness to accept responsibilities, and the ability to work without disrupting others. At the same time, they were less likely to exhibit attention-seeking behaviors, submissiveness with peers, exaggerated or inappropriate self-blaming, bossiness, bullying, and physical aggression. Finally, when students feel cared for and respected by their peers and staff in schools, they are significantly less likely to internalize or externalize risk-taking behaviors such as alcohol and drug abuse, violence, bullying, depression, self-harm, eating disorders, and suicide (King & Vidourek, 2010). Developmental theorists have long identified respect as an important component in making thoughtful moral choices, and vital for children and adolescents to develop empathy. Recent researchers and theorists suggest not only that moral development relies on prosocial behaviors—such as respect—demonstrated in the context of social relationships, but that it is the responsibility of educational systems to teach character education in order to help our youth build their foundation for a purposeful and fulfilling life and to contribute to a just and compassionate society (Frichand, 2008). So for adolescents, learning respect by receiving respect is critical for their moral development, and the adult-teen relationship has the potential to be the vehicle for the direct instruction and modeling of moral character and core values. For more about What Works with Teens, check out Britt Rathbone, MSSW, LCSW-C, and Julie Baron, MSW, LCSW-C’s new book. DeCremer, D., & Mulder, L. B. (2007). A passion for respect: On understanding the role of human needs and morality. Gruppendynamik und Organisationsberatung, 38(4), 439–449. Frichand, A. (2008). Moral and values of adolescents today: Where is this new generation going and what needs to be done? In: E. Avram (Ed.) Psychology in a positive world: Resources for personal, organizational and social development, 31–58, Bucharest: Editura Universitatii din Bucuresti. Hajii. (2006). Four faces of respect. Reclaiming Children and Youth, 15(2), 66–70. King, K. A., & Vidourek, R. A. (2010). In search of respect: A qualitative study exploring youth perceptions. International Journal on School Dissaffection, 7(1), 5–17. Kurzban, R., & Leary, M. R. (2001). Evolutionary origins of stigmatization: The functions of social exclusion. Psychological Bulletin, American Psychological Association, 127(2), 187–208.
To find out how a number of pulleys affect the effort needed to lift a load of 1 Newton (100g). I predict that as the number of pulleys we use increases, the effort needed to lift the pulley will decrease. There are many factors that could affect the results in this experiment all of which will have to be kept under control, if they were not kept under control then the results would not be fair. We will keep the test fair by keeping the load the same (1 Newton), by keeping the size of the pulley the same, by keeping the material the pulley is made from the same and the thickness of the rope the same. 1. Attach the pulley with a loop of string to a clamp stand. 2. Place a piece of string over the pulley. 3. Put small loops on either end of the string. 4. Attach load to one side of the string and attach the effort to the other. The effort force could be measured with a Newton metre so we are going to use a counter balance masses instead. 5. Record the force needed to lift the load by 0.1m. Repeat the above experiment with 2-pulley system and 3-pulley system. Load force (N) Actual mass of counter balance Actual effort (N) Theoretical effort (N) Friction in system (N) Friction in pulley system (N) (actual effort-theoretical effort) = Load (1N) /effort Energy output= Load (1N) Distance moved (m) Energy input=actual effort using counterbalance method Distance effort rope pulled through Efficiency =(energy output /energy input) 100 Theoretical effort force to lift a 100g (Newton) load (N) Distance I pulled rope through (m) to lift a load Theoretical energy input if no friction (= theoretical effort) Actual mass of counter balance g (mass and coins) Actual effort to lift pulley (Newton’s) using counterbalance method 10g + 48.57 As the results table’s shows, the actual effort to lift the pulley (Newton’s) decreases as the pulley number increases. This is because the more pulleys that are involved make it easier to lift the load. The actual effort is not identical to that of the theoretical effort although they are similar. Whilst conducting this experiment it is important that the friction between the pulley and the rope is taken into account. If this is not dealt with then the results will not be accurate. The more pulleys that are used means more friction is occurring. Friction occurs between the axle and the wheel as the wheel turns and as the rope passes over the pulley. After competing this experiment it is possible to overlook some of the potential problems that may occur. The first problem was that the pulley itself was not very stable, this could also be due to a poor clamp, and often collapsed. Another problem that we occurred was that as the ropes passed each other they produced a lot of friction. This friction also occurred between the axel and the wheel, which made the experiment slightly more difficult than it, should have been.
“The cinema camera doesn’t make movies; it allows movies to be made. It’s the creative people who make it real to people.”Ivan Sutherland Computer Assisted Design (CAD) uses mathematics to do the geometry and calculations necessary to draw and design. CAD is faster and more accurate than hand drawing. Sutherland’s “sketchpad” software, part of his doctoral thesis, was the first CAD program. Literally, decades ahead of its time, Sketchpad enabled a user to tell a computer how to draw, place, and move geometric shapes. As a professor at various University’s Sutherland became a “Johnny Appleseed” of modern computer science. Eventually, he influenced and trained countless computer scientists who went on to make groundbreaking innovations. A small number of notable Sutherland students include: - Alan Kay, inventor of object-oriented programming and the single-person modern computer (Xerox PARC). - Jim Clark (Silicon Graphics, Netscape). - John Warnock, inventor of PostScript, PDF, and co-inventor of spline fonts (Xerox PARC, Adobe). - Edwin Catmull, texture mapping and computer-animation pioneer (Pixar). - Bob Sproull, virtual reality. - Gordon Romney, 3D rendering. - Frank Crow, antialiasing. No computer or business historian would argue that Sutherland is not one of, if not the most important, seminal scientists responsible for the modern computer. Eventually, in 1964, Sutherland stepped away from academia and replaced J.C.R. Licklider as head of DARPA, during the time that DARPA invented the internet.
The puma, or puma concolor, is also known by other names, such as cougar and mountain lion. Pumas have inhabited a variety of regions throughout North and South America, and those that live in colder climates migrate during the winter. Pumas are territorial and mark their habitats. Although pumas may hunt either at night or during the day, they are rarely seen by humans. These skillful predators are solitary and secretive. Pumas are extremely agile, with features that help them to jump, run, pounce, climb and swim effectively. Strong legs allow the puma to jump up to 40 feet forward or 18 feet into the air. These animals are also very fast, reaching speeds up to 35 miles per hour when running. A flexible spine enables the puma to change direction quickly and effectively during these sprints. Pumas are also adept climbers, a skill that is useful when hiding in trees to escape predators, such as wolves. A puma has four claws on both of its back paws and five claws on each of its front paws. These claws are retractable. The puma uses its claws to clutch at its prey when hunting but retracts them to make walking easier and to prevent them from becoming blunted. Pumas’ paws leave only very slight tracks on the ground. This helps the animals to remain hidden from predators and prey. Pumas are carnivorous and hunt virtually any mammal and, occasionally, other animals, such as fish. These secretive animals are skillful stalkers. Their highly developed vision and sense of hearing play an important role in their ability to stalk prey effectively. Pumas hide in vegetation and rocky areas when they are stalking. Before attack, the puma will remain hidden with ears pointed up, eyes on its prey and its body crouched ready to pounce. It may also hide in a tree, ready to jump down onto its prey. Pumas are perfectly adapted to hunt and kill their prey swiftly. Puma cubs will begin to hunt their own prey from the age of 6 months, although cubs hunt much smaller animals to begin with. When a puma is ready to attack, its uses its strong hind legs to pounce at its prey. Its front legs are longer than its hind legs, allowing it to use them for holding onto its prey. The puma jumps onto its prey’s back and quickly uses its strong neck and jaw muscles to bite into the prey's neck. The flexible spine also helps a puma to carry out this attack. About the Author Born in Norfolk, United Kingdom, Hayley Ames' writing experience includes blog articles for a travel website. Ames was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in English language and literature from the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom.
Determination of nature of charges and number of charges in unit volume by Hall potential or Hall voltage. If a magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the flow of current, then a potential is created normal to both that of current and the magnetic field. This effect is called Hall Effect and the generated potential is called Hall potential or Hall voltage. Determination of the nature of charges From the experiment described above, it is seen that it the flow of current is due to the positive charges then along the width of the stripping potential of the upper face (Vu) is higher than the potential of the lower face (Vl), i.e., Vul = (Vu – Vl) = positive. On the other hand, if the flow is due to the negative charges opposite phenomenon will happen. That means, the potential of the lower face Vl will be higher than the potential of the upper face Vu i.e., (Vu ˂ Vl) So, Vul = (Vu – Vl) = negative. From this, we can determine the nature of charges. Determination of the number of charges in unit volume: Let, q = charge of each carrier v = velocity of the charges n = number of charges in unit volume B = magnetic induction or flux density E = electric field generated due to the creation of the Hall voltage between the two faces. VH = Hall voltage d = Width of the strip. So, electric field, E = VH/d or, VH = Ed Electric force acting on each charge, Fe = qE. By performing proper calculation it is seen that for Hall potential number of charge per unit volume, n = JB/qE. …. …. …. (1) here, J = current density = nqb and E = vB From equation (1) number of charges in unit volume can be determined. Since velocity of electron, magnitude of the magnetic field, widths of the conductor, electric charge are constant, so mathematically the value of Hall voltage is obtained as- VH = BI/nqb This is the equation of the Hall voltage. Here, B, I, b, d are constants, so VH ∞ 1/n. That means Hall voltage is inversely proportional to the charge density per unit volume. Note that the direction of the current I in the diagram is that of conventional current so that the motion of electrons is in the opposite direction. That further confuses all the “right-hand rule” manipulations you have to go through to get the direction of the forces.
Reading and Literacy The benefits of high standards of literacy are self-evident. Over time at Reading Girls’ School, we seek to raise these standards through the six strands: screening and support; reading for pleasure; explicit writing instruction; reading for meaning; vocabulary instruction; and standards of speaking. The first three are our immediate priorities, and explained in more detail below. Screening and Support Reading is not pleasurable if you cannot do it. This is why screening and support is first in this list. We assess pupils’ reading age on entry to the school. Any pupils who fall one standard deviation below the mean (this equates to a reading age significantly below their chronological age) then take a second test pinpoint their area of weakness as either phonics or comprehension. Pupils then receive small group intervention on this area of weakness. Since these pupils have found reading difficult in the past, it is likely they have read much less than many of their peers and consequently have a smaller vocabulary, which is another barrier to their progress. Because of this, we enrol these pupils on to a vocabulary intervention programme to supplement their progress in the main reading intervention. We assess these pupils’ reading age midway through the year, and at the end of the year to check on their progress. We also assess the reading ages of all again at the end of the year to ensure no one has fallen behind. This will be monitored by the literacy lead and SENCO, and the interventions implemented by teaching assistants. The literacy lead will evaluate the success of these interventions at the end of the year. Reading for Pleasure Reading for pleasure is strongly link to a multitude of positive benefits. Once at the level of a competent independent reader, our pupils can do can do fewer things better for themselves than pick up a book. While this may be true, it does make reading sound more like medicine-to-be-taken than enjoyable-thing-to-do. We focus on promoting it as the latter. At the beginning and end of the year, pupils take an attitude to reading survey that we use to measure our progress. During the year, Accelerated Reader is a central part of our strategy to motivate and incentivise pupils to read at their level, along with giving them the space in the timetable to choose books, seek advice and receive recommendations from our experienced librarian, and have the opportunity to read independently through library lessons. Adults in the school also demonstrate that they hold reading in high regard, and we communicate the message to parents that they should do the same. The literacy lead implements this, with support from the school librarian. The literacy lead monitors throughout the year and evaluates at the end. Explicit Writing Instruction Teachers can write well, and have an intuitive understanding of what writing well means in their lessons. But with some basic understanding of how language works, teachers could take much more intentional steps to improve pupils’ writing in their subject. During CPD, teachers will be taught the mechanics of a simple sentence, and how this foundation is built on to create complex sentences that are the basis for expressing sophisticated thought in writing. With writing an ever-present, taken-for-granted part of most lessons, it is something that can be leveraged into something all teachers really care about: the progress of pupils in their subject. The literacy lead will carry out the CPD, and classroom teachers will implement the strategies with monitoring from heads of department. The literacy lead will evaluate the success at the end of the year. The literacy lead will report on the success of the first three strands of our aims at the end of the year. We will look to implement the three other strands of our policy next year. For now, it is important to balance our long-term ambitions for pupils with the short-term pragmatism of getting things done, and doing them properly.
Diabetes is becoming much more prevalent around the globe. According to the International Diabetes Federation, approximately 425 million adults were living with diabetes in the year 2017 and 352 million more people were at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. By 2045 the number of people diagnosed is expected to rise to 629 million. Diabetes is a leading cause of blindness as well as heart attacks, stroke, kidney failure, neuropathy (nerve damage) and lower limb amputation. In fact, in 2017, diabetes was implicated in 4 million deaths worldwide. Nevertheless preventing these complications from diabetes is possible with proper treatment, medication and regular medical screenings as well as improving your diet, physical activity and adopting a healthy lifestyle. What is Diabetes? Diabetes is a chronic disease in which the hormone insulin is either underproduced or ineffective in its ability to regulate blood sugar. Uncontrolled diabetes leads to hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar, which damages many systems in the body such as the blood vessels and the nervous system. How Does Diabetes Affect The Eyes? Diabetic eye disease is a group of conditions which are caused, or worsened, by diabetes; including: diabetic retinopathy, diabetic macular edema, glaucoma and cataracts. Diabetes increases the risk of cataracts by four times, and can increase dryness and reduce cornea sensation. In diabetic retinopathy, over time, the tiny blood vessels within the eyes become damaged, causing leakage, poor oxygen circulation, then scarring of the sensitive tissue within the retina, which can result in further cell damage and scarring. The longer you have diabetes, and the longer your blood sugar levels remain uncontrolled, the higher the chances of developing diabetic eye disease. Unlike many other vision-threatening conditions which are more prevalent in older individuals, diabetic eye disease is one of the main causes of vision loss in the younger, working-age population. Unfortunately, these eye conditions can lead to blindness if not caught early and treated. In fact, 2.6% of blindness worldwide is due to diabetes. As mentioned above, diabetes can result in cumulative damage to the blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensitive tissue located at the back of the eye. This is called diabetic retinopathy. The retina is responsible for converting the light it receives into visual signals to the optic nerve in the brain. High blood sugar levels can cause the blood vessels in the retina to leak or hemorrhage, causing bleeding and distorting vision. In advanced stages, new blood vessels may begin to grow on the retinal surface causing scarring and further damaging cells in the retina. Diabetic retinopathy can eventually lead to blindness. Signs and Symptoms of Diabetic Retinopathy The early stages of diabetic retinopathy often have no symptoms, which is why it’s vitally important to have frequent diabetic eye exams. As it progresses you may start to notice the following symptoms: - Blurred or fluctuating vision or vision loss - Floaters (dark spots or strings that appear to float in your visual field) - Blind spots - Color vision loss There is no pain associated with diabetic retinopathy to signal any issues. If not controlled, as retinopathy continues it can cause retinal detachment and macular edema, two other serious conditions that threaten vision. Again, there are often NO signs or symptoms until more advanced stages. A person with diabetes can do their part to control their blood sugar level. Following the physician’s medication plan, as well as diet and exercise recommendations can help slow the progression of diabetic retinopathy. Scar tissues caused by the breaking and forming of blood vessels in advanced retinopathy can lead to a retinal detachment in which the retina pulls away from the underlying tissue. This condition is a medical emergency and must be treated immediately as it can lead to permanent vision loss. Signs of a retinal detachment include a sudden onset of floaters or flashes in the vision. Diabetic Macular Edema (DME) Diabetic macular edema occurs when the macula, a part of the retina responsible for clear central vision, becomes full of fluid (edema). It is a complication of diabetic retinopathy that occurs in about half of patients, and causes vision loss. Treatment for Diabetic Retinopathy and Diabetic Macular Edema While vision loss from diabetic retinopathy and DME often can’t be restored, with early detection there are some preventative treatments available. Proliferative diabetic retinopathy (when the blood vessels begin to grow abnormally) can be treated by laser surgery, injections or a procedure called vitrectomy in which the vitreous gel in the center of the eye is removed and replaced. This will treat bleeding caused by ruptured blood vessels. DME can be treated with injection therapy, laser surgery or corticosteroids. Prevent Vision Loss from Diabetes The best way to prevent vision loss from diabetic eye disease is early detection and treatment. Since there may be no symptoms in the early stages, regular diabetic eye exams are critical for early diagnosis. In fact diabetics are now sometimes monitored by their health insurance to see if they are getting regular eye exams and premium rates can be affected by how regularly the patients get their eyes checked. Keeping diabetes under control through exercise, diet, medication and regular screenings will help to reduce the chances of vision loss and blindness from diabetes.
Theo link is the receding of the chapter 2 And also there is the pictures of the First Amendment ppt In the file Use essay English please Assignment 2 Due Please answer the following questions by utilizing evidence from your textbook and lecture materials to support your answer. Answers must be at least 5 to 7 sentences for each question. 1. Identify at least three ways in which speech can be regulated or limited. Answers may include time, place and manner restrictions. 2. Describe two areas in which there is some debate over whether speech can be regulated. 3. Explain one way in which your understanding of the speech provision of the First Amendment has changed over the course of this module’s lesson. 4. Do you think recent protests as a reaction to the George Floyd tragedy have helped impact policyy? If so, can you give one specific example of it changing a policy in any state or city in the United states? Just read down below so u know what to do ((In the previous modules, you learned the history of how and why the Constitution was drafted. This week we will examine the first to Amendments. In this module, you will examine the First Amendment and discuss and analyze its importance for the existence of a democracy. The First Amendment has played a singularly important role in sustaining the system of government that the U.S. Constitution established more than two centuries ago. Think about the importance of having the ability to have citizens openly criticize their government in public channels of debate. Think about the various streams of information we receive daily. Today, the First Amendment is still being debated due to the ongoing protests, and exposure to so many outlets of information due to social media and the Internet. Your assignments for this module are: Read Chapter 2 in your textbook entitled Constitutional Law for Criminal Justice by Kanovitz, J.R. )))))
For years, research has proven to us that early diagnosis and interventions for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can have major long-term positive effects on a child’s symptoms and later skills. Interventions, such as family training, speech therapy, physical therapy, hearing impairment services, and nutrition services, can all have a significant impact on a child’s ability to learn new skills and overcome challenges. Before preschool age, up to 2 or 3 years of age, a child’s brain is still undergoing development and formation. Their young brains are referred to as having “plasticity” or being “plastic,” a term which means that the child’s brain is more flexible and able to undergo biological changes in response to experiences. For this reason, interventions at a young age have a better chance of being effective in the long term, helping to support healthy development and increase success in school and later in life. Autism-appropriate education and support at early key developmental stages are more likely to help children gain essential social skills. Additionally, a diagnosis can help to reduce self-criticism and foster a more positive sense of identity for the children who have ASD and have more time to grapple with their new understanding of self. Interventions at a young age have a better chance of being effective in the long term, helping to support healthy development and increase success in school and later in life. Importantly, early intervention can also help family members and parents to be better equipped. An early diagnosis can benefit parent-child relationships as parents of children with ASD can feel better prepared for the road ahead and learn early on how to help their children mentally, emotionally, and physically. A timely identification of ASD can also help families to identify the child’s needs and the types of interventions which are appropriate for the child. Knowledge of a diagnosis can also help increase access to services, as there are often substantial wait times for the services that can cause a delay in treatment to begin with. A new research study from Brown University, published in Autism Research, found that young girls with ASD may be at a disadvantage to their male peers as a result of being diagnosed at an older age. The study was conducted at the Rhode Island Consortium for Autism Research and Treatment, and included 1,000 participants ranging in age from 21 months to 64 years. Notably, they found that on average, the first diagnosis of ASD in females was nearly 1.5 years later than boys, a potentially crucial amount of time for interventions to begin taking effect. Analyses conducted by the researchers suggest that this difference may be a result of the reduced rate of nonverbal females compared to males, which leads to fewer young girls being flagged for autism by the lack of language. Young girls with ASD may be at a disadvantage to their male peers as a result of being diagnosed at an older age. This new research study from Brown University is not alone in its findings of a difference in the diagnosis process between male and female children. A previous review paper published in The Lancet Psychiatry Journal found that, compared to males, females are at a significantly elevated risk of their ASD going undiagnosed, either being mislabeled as something else or missed entirely. This is also corroborated by the fact that a diagnosis of ASD is more than 4 times more common among boys in the United States than among girls, but in non-referred populations it has been found that a diagnosis of ASD is only two to three times more common for boys than girls. Clearly, there are many girls who would meet the full diagnostic criteria for ASD if they were properly assessed, but who never receive a diagnosis or the help that comes with it. For those girls who are correctly diagnosed with ASD, those diagnoses and the associated support come later than for males. In general, this new research draws attention to the need for improved early diagnosis in young girls. With the significant benefits of early diagnosis and intervention on prognosis, we may need to find more deliberate or dynamic methods of diagnosing ASD in females at a younger age. “Early Intervention for Autism” NIH [https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/autism/conditioninfo/treatments/early-intervention] “Comprehensive synthesis of early intensive behavioral interventions for young children with autism based on the UCLA young autism project model.”, Reichow and Wolery (2009) “Clinical impact of early diagnosis of autism on the prognosis and parent-child relationships” Elder et al. (2017) “Brain Plasticity and Behaviour in the Developing Brain” Kolb and Gibb (2011) “Autism Heterogeneity in a Densely Sampled U.S. Population: Results from the First 1,000 Participants in the RI-CART Study” McCormick et al. (2020) “Identifying the lost generation of adults with autism spectrum conditions” Lai and Baron-Cohen (2015) [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26544750/] “Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children Aged 8 Years – Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 Sites, United States, 2016” [https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/ss/ss6904a1.htm?s_cid=ss6904a1_w]
Laughing Matters offers over 120 activities which will inject some light-hearted fun into lessons whilst still being grounded in respected language learning theory. Humour is a very effective way to help students remember key concepts and structures. The book contains step-by-step guidance on how to carry out the activities and suggestions for further work. Provides over 120 ready-to-use fun activities for the language classroom. Helps students remember key concepts, structures and vocabulary through using humour and jokes. Supports teachers in the art of using humour to invigorate their language lessons.
Pruning grapes is an important farming techniques in the care of the vine. By trimming vine impart the desired size and shape favorable for the cultivation, convenient for ripening and harvest. Young bushes up to 4 years of age is cut for the production of basic multi-part bearing the fruit of the vine. Adult bushes help regulate fruiting crop in the current season, removing damaged and outdated parts of the plant. If during the growing season of the grape Bush develop weak with short internodes and shoots a large number of small clusters, it must be concluded that Bush was overloaded. On these bushes it is necessary to conduct strong autumn pruning grapes, leaving less vines, buds and remove part of the clusters. If on the contrary, vines carries too thick stems with long internodes (up to 15cm), so the Bush underutilized and autumn pruning can be reduced. At the annual autumn trimming bushes of grapes is applied to a large number of wounds that can weaken the plant and even death. To avoid this damaging effects of the RAS can reduce follow the basic rules: - 1. All cuts should be on the same side, in this case disrupted the normal SAP flow of the undercut parts of the Bush. - 2. At the annual branches sections is performed according to the knot, cutting it in half. - 3. Complete removal of damaged annual shoots need to be cut off at the base, leaving stumps. Many years were cut from the stump, leaving 3 cm, but the following year it was removed. - 4. Use a sharp tool that cuts were smooth. When pruning cutting blade of the pruning shears pay remains part of the vine. Pruning young vines Young plants of grapes should be cut short, as it weakens the root system and the ground part. When planting seedlings developed it is desirable to leave two shoots on each cutting 2-3 buds. For the second year in the formation of the Bush should be cut 4-5 holes, remove only the weak shoots. The third year begin to form many years part, giving the desired shape of the Bush. In the fourth year of the grape Bush form 4 fruit link. Each two-year-old vine choose 2 best escape, the lower ones are cut into 4 points, and the top 8 points. The formation of 4 bag shape of the Bush ends.
Most people who sustain a traumatic brain injury will only experience one at a time. Some people, however, may experience many brain injuries, causing minor problems that compound over time. In very severe cases, a severe blow to the head or repeated blows to the head can cause a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. CTE is a degenerative condition with symptoms that appear slowly over time. Difficulty with attention, dizziness, disorientation, and headaches usually begin 8-10 years after the traumatic brain injury or series of injuries. As the disease progresses, sufferers experience memory loss, erratic behavior, social instability, and poor judgement. In its final stages, the disease can cause dementia, speech impediments, deafness, difficulty recognizing faces, problems controlling muscle movements, difficulty swallowing, ocular abnormalities, and suicidal impulses. In some rare cases, CTE sufferers may also develop chronic traumatic encephalomyopathy, a degenerative neuron disease that mimics ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). The progression of the disease causes the brain to lose weight over time; it goes through a series of structural changes as it atrophies and loses neurons. Scientists have also found significant deposits of tau proteins in the diseased tissue, which can also be a marker of Alzheimer’s disease. What Are The Most Common Causes Of CTE? This disease was once known as dementia pugilistica, as it was found frequently in boxers. Athletes who participate in sports involving repeated impacts to the head are particularly vulnerable to CTE. It has been found in football players, professional wrestlers, and ice hockey players, among other athletes. While professional athletes with long careers involving dozens of concussions are the most vulnerable, the disease has also been found in former high school athletes. Military personnel who are repeatedly exposed to explosive blasts can develop CTE as well. Researchers are currently investigating the prevalence of CTE among victims of domestic violence who have been struck in the head repeatedly. With current medical technology, it is impossible to definitively diagnose CTE in a living patient, although doctors hope that a test will be available within the next decade. The diagnosis is typically made after death, during an autopsy of the patient’s brain. Researchers have encouraged patients who believe that they may be suffering from CTE to donate their brains to science so that further studies can be performed. Preventing CTE is difficult, as the people who are at risk for the condition rarely want to give up a sport or a job even if they know that they are at risk. Research into safer headgear for members of the military and for athletes is currently ongoing. No cure for CTE exists at this time, although doctors may prescribe medication and psychotherapy to treat the symptoms of the disease.
I am a huge fan of reading just for fun. In fact, I believe that recreational reading should be our first exposure to reading. I also firmly believe that children should not have to formally respond to everything they read. However, in the homeschool setting, it’s nice to occasionally have our children interact what they are reading through writing, conversation, or a project. What Is a Reading Response? A reading response is simply put, a personal reaction to a text. In reality, we do this every time we read. - When we wonder, “Hmmmm...now why would that character do that?” we are responding to the text. - When we finish a book about birds and decide to check out another book about birds, we are responding to the text. A reading response is basically the process of interacting with the text on some level. It’s easy to fall into the trap of forcing a reading response to every single book or chapter, and I strongly caution against that. However, starting in the later elementary years, a written response to one book per quarter can be appropriate. So how can we teach our children to respond to what they read? 1. Talk it Out with Narration Charlotte Mason believed that one of the best ways to respond to reading is through narration. Narration is re-telling or summarizing a story orally or in written form. You’ll probably notice that your Sonlight Instructor’s Guide prompts you to have your child narrate often by way of the discussion questions. Narration is one of the best, most gentle ways a child can respond to a book. Have your child give a book review at the dinner table to your family. Have them give a short summary of the storyline, without giving away the ending. Then, have them share what they loved about the book. Maybe they had a favorite character that reminded them of their crazy fun cousin. Finally, have them rate the book and possibly recommend it to a family member. I recommend starting out with oral narration and transitioning to the occasional written narration somewhere around fourth grade. If your child has an aversion to writing, however, postpone written narration until they are comfortable putting pen to paper. 2. You Have to Read This Book! Organic book recommendations are the best! Take this idea a step further by asking your child to write a letter to a friend, recommending a particular book. If you are part of a co-op, you just need a little wall space and some post-it notes to make a book recommendation station. Have your child simply write, “I recommend Charlotte’s Web to Carly because it’s a book about a lot of farm animals, and Carly loves farm animals.” Book suggestions are an exciting way to cooperatively interact with literature. Children generally love them because they are akin to getting mail. Once children are older, they can publish their reviews on Goodreads. Of course, don’t forget about the book un-recommendation. We all know that we will at some point, come across a lemon, and when we find a lemon, we want to warn others! Be sure your child knows that it’s okay to dislike a book too! 3. E.B. White Meets Picasso Art is always an appropriate response to literature. Who doesn’t want to draw a picture after reading a fantastic book? Have your child draw a scene from the story or paint a picture of the main character. You may be surprised at how many small details your child picked up on in the reading. You may even take it further by creating a diorama of a scene from the book. 4. That Reminds Me... Have you ever been reading along in a book and your precious child keeps interrupting you because they are reminded of a time in their own life? Believe it or not, your child is responding to the reading! They are connecting with the text on a personal level. Now, I definitely understand how constant interruption is bad for comprehension, so you’ll probably want to set up some ground rules, but remember that this is a great thing! It should be encouraged. You may save time at the end of the day’s reading to discuss connections that your child made with the text. You may have them draw a picture to show what they were reminded of during the story. Don’t worry...if your child isn’t making connections just yet, you can help them along by modeling. One day, when you are reading, stop and say, “You know, this reminds me of a time when…” And don’t forget to occasionally allow your child to interrupt you to share a personal connection. You may not be able to do it every time, but those connections should be encouraged! 5. Take Your Thoughts Online Is your child a little techy? If so, they can put their skills to good use writing book review blog posts or making book review videos for YouTube. Setting up a website or a YouTube channel is fairly easy, and while it should be well-monitored by a parent, can be a great tool for responding to literature and learning new skills. However you decide to do it, encouraging your children to respond to what they are reading in some way is a great tool to get them truly interacting with the text. I would encourage you to find ways for your child to respond to literature that isn’t too laborious for them. Consider their natural bent. - Are they talkers? They should share orally. - Are they writers? Find opportunities to let them write their thoughts. - Are they more techy? Opt for online publishing. Finally, always model what you want to see in your children. Did you love a book you just finished? Share with your family. Build a family culture around reading and responding to great literature. Switch to a curriculum that is based on responding to great books. It's simple, low-prep, and enjoyable!
Do you have a child who knows the alphabet and is learning to blend sounds to form words? Are you looking for a hands-on way to support a child’s emergent blending skills? Check out this simple blending practice activity that uses letter beads and pipe cleaners! Note: For more language and literacy ideas, see my Literacy Activities for Kids Page. To prepare this sound blending activity, you will need the following materials: - Pipe cleaners - Letter beads When my daughter was working on blending sounds together, I strung letter beads onto pipe cleaners to spell out several simple CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words. As you can see in the photo below, I started by placing the words on the right side of the pipe cleaner. Note that children need to know their letter sounds before they are ready for this activity. If your child is still learning letter sounds, I’ve got some great resources to help with this in my book 101 Ways to Teach the Alphabet. I showed her how to move the beads, one by one, from the right side to the left side of the pipe cleaner as she said the letter sounds. Then after moving all the beads over and saying the letter sounds, she was to say the word quickly. What this sounded like was “/wwwww/ /iiiii/ /nnnnn/. . . win.” If your child is just starting to blend words together, I strongly recommend beginning with words whose initial sound can be drawn out. For example, you can say and hold the /s/ sound or the /f/ sound. But you cannot say and hold the /k/ sound or the /t/ sound. Sounds like /k/ and /t/ are called stop sounds. Words such as “fan” that do not contain any stop sounds are easier to blend than words with stop sounds like “kit.” If you are ready to introduce stop sounds, first introduce them as the ending sound of a word, such as “sit” or “red.” Once your child has mastered blending words that have stop sounds at the end, you can teach your child to blend words that begin with stop sounds. I hope your child enjoys this hands-on blending technique! More ways to teach to early language & literacy skills More literacy activities from Gift of Curiosity: - Language activities using miniature objects - Sight word ball toss game - Shaving cream writing - Sight word magic - Learning to alphabetize
Contributed by Rohit Agarwal Typically, math isn’t an area where parents excel themselves as we tend to forget what we don’t use on a day-to-day basis. In fact, the majority of American adults struggle with math past fourth grade level. Luckily, widespread focus on common core curriculum and STEM is bringing new light to mathematics in the United States. President Obama and other education-minded leaders have also talked up a math- and science-focused education system. They realize that a math-centered education develops high-order thinking skills required for competitive and lucrative careers, helping America compete in the future. Even though 46 states are adopting common core math as part of their curriculum, the foundation skills gap is still widening over the summer in math. Studies show a 14 percent drop in math proficiency between fourth and eighth grades, and we can attribute much of that loss to the “summer slide.” At TenMarks, our focus is on increasing mathematics achievement in a measurable way. From that focus, we have compiled four steps to help your child not only retain math skills, but actually increase competency before the fall. Before the school year ends, talk to your child’s teachers, even if you are happy with his/her grades. Go over their assignments, tests and notes to identify where they are and where they might be deficient, or where they may have room for growth. Since math concepts build on each other, much of your child’s lost proficiency could be due to failure to understand core concepts. After that, do some research and find worksheets or workbooks that focus on those weaknesses. No two children learn exactly alike. It’s important to understand the different ways your child learns before you invest in materials. One child might prefer lots of written instruction while another learns better working out problems on her own. Use what the teacher told you during your conference to find the resources that will work best for your learner. You can supplement the teacher’s suggestions with worksheets found online or at your local bookstore. It’s very important for you to help your student with her lessons so that, if she starts to struggle, you are there to immediately intervene. In TenMarks’ research, we have found that timely intervention and tips are crucial to improving competency. In fact, after a 10-minute intervention using the TenMarks adaptive learning program, students improved understanding by an average of 28 percent. Also, using videos and visual aids can be another key, particularly for visual learners. Data collected from the TenMarks Summer Math program last year, where students averaged an hour a week online, suggests students can actually make math gains over the summer months, demonstrating that regular at-home practice can make a big difference in preparing students for success in the next grade. Compared with many reading programs, which suggest dedicated time each day, retaining math competency with a diagnostic based, targeted program is very effective. For most households, helping your child with complex math might seem daunting at first, but educational resources have advanced substantially in the past couple of years, particularly with more adaptive educational technology. Customized instruction is not out of reach, and with that — along with some focus — students can arrest the decline in math skills this summer. About the author: Rohit Agarwal is the co-founder and CEO of TenMarks Education, the creator of a cloud-based, adaptive learning environment for mathematics, in use at more than 25,000 schools. And you'll see personalized content just for you whenever you click the My Feed . SheKnows is making some changes!
Response to Intervention What is RtI? My son is struggling in school, especially with reading. I asked his teacher what we can do, and she told me that they are working on improving his reading skills through a process called RtI. What does RtI mean? I’m concerned that my son is going to fall further behind if they don’t help him now. Response to Intervention (RtI) is a process to assist struggling learners in the general education setting that includes identifying students who are at risk, providing targeted instruction to improve their skills, and frequently measuring whether there is progress. Depending on how the student responds, the interventions can be increased and intensified. Response to Intervention is help now! It can give students the help they need early on. Sometimes learning disabilities do not show themselves to the extent where a student would qualify for special education for years – perhaps third or fourth grade- leaving valuable time wasted. RtI gives students access to research-based interventions (meaning they have been tested and proven to work) as soon as they show signs of struggling, and can assist in differentiating the students with learning disabilities from students who have simply experienced gaps in their education. RtI Terms to Know: These are terms you will hear in discussions about RtI. It is important to understand what they mean: All students are assessed- or ‘benchmarked’- in order to establish an academic and behavioral baseline and to identify learners who need additional support. Those students whose test scores fall below a certain cut-off are identified as needing more specialized academic interventions. Scientifically based practice that is used to frequently assess students’ academic performance and evaluate the effectiveness of instruction. Progress monitoring procedures can be used with individual students or an entire class. Curriculum and educational interventions that have been proven to be effective –that is, the research has been reported in scientific, peer-reviewed journals. Rather than make students adapt themselves to a one-size-fits-all curriculum, the curriculum is adapted to benefit all kinds of learners – content is presented in different formats, students have opportunities to express what they know according to their own strengths, and learning is reinforced for all types of learners according to their affinities and what motivates them to learn. Grounded in belief that every learner is unique and brings different strengths and weaknesses to the classroom. Check out these HVSEPC RtI Resources: Other Web Resources: Response to Intervention (RTI): A Primer for Parents This web page is produced by The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and explains RtI and including its role in the special education eligibility process. A Parent’s Guide to Response to Intervention Produced by the NYS Education Department. National Center on Response to Intervention: Provides technical assistance to states and districts and building the capacity of states to assist districts in implementing proven models for RTI Intervention Central Website created by Jim Wright with tools and strategies for educators. National Center on Student Progress Monitoring Offers resources about progress monitoring, written in family-friendly language, explaining the benefits of implementing student progress monitoring for the student, the teacher and the family.
Medical Biology Lab 16: Global Health and Epidemics - Durable a. Epidemics: Past & Present - In Part A, students will research and learn more about how epidemics have impacted the human population throughout history. The impact of group behavior on human survival will also be reviewed. In Part B, students will investigate current epidemics and trends. b. Group Behavior and Epidemics / Outbreak! A Group Behavior Simulation - Students then simulate the breakout of an Ebola epidemic in the classroom setting. Each student will take a saliva swab and be tested for the Ebola virus. Students will then debate and decide as a class what should happen in this situation. Items included in this lab are listed below. We Also Recommend
The word 'noun' is the grammatical term used to define a person, place, object, abstract idea or feeling. For example, John (person), China (place), tree (object), democracy (abstract idea) and anger (feeling). Proper nouns are the names of persons and places and are capitalized. In your English lessons, you will have covered nouns extensively. Practically every sentence in the English language will have at least one noun. Most of the time they are very easy to spot. In this 11-plus quiz, you should have no problems but for an extra challenge, try our Nouns 2 quiz. Just remember this: a noun names, but it doesn't describe anything. Best of luck!
August 26, 2015 Lab experiments question popular measure of ancient ocean temperatures Understanding the planet’s history is crucial if we are to predict its future. While some records are preserved in ice cores or tree rings, other records of the climate’s ancient past are buried deep in the seafloor. An increasingly popular method to deduce historic sea surface temperatures uses sediment-entombed bodies of marine archaea, one of Earth’s most ancient and resilient creatures, as a 150-million-year record of ocean temperatures. While other measures have gaps, this one is increasingly popular because it promises to fill in gaps to provide a near-global record of ocean temperatures going back to the age of the dinosaurs. But University of Washington research shows this measure has a major hitch: The single-celled organism’s growth varies based on changes in ocean oxygen levels. Results published in August in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences show that oxygen deprivation can alter the temperature calculations by as much as 21 degrees Celsius. “It turned out that oxygen has a huge, dramatic effect,” said corresponding author Anitra Ingalls, a UW associate professor of oceanography. “It’s a big problem.” Recent research shows these archaea, which draw energy from mere whiffs of ammonia, make up about 20 percent of microbial life in the oceans. Their bodies are plentiful in the ocean floor. A method established in 2002 uses fats in the archaea’s cell membrane to measure past ocean temperatures, including during a major warming event about 56 million years ago that is one of the best historical analogs for present-day climate change, and a sudden oceanic cooling of up to 11 degrees Celsius during a period of low ocean oxygen about 100 million years ago, when other records are scarce. Climate scientists found they could measure ocean temperature by looking at the change in the TEX-86 index, a temperature proxy named for the 86-carbon lipids in the cell membrane, which often tracks the surrounding water temperature. The method seemed to work better in some samples than others, prompting Ingalls and her co-authors to wonder about its physiological basis. The newly published experiments tested that relationship and found an unexpectedly strong response to low oxygen. “Changing the oxygen gives us as much as 21 degree Celsius shift in the reading,” said first author Wei Qin, a UW doctoral student in civil and environmental engineering. “That’s solid evidence that it’s not just a temperature index.” This means the TEX-86 measurements are inaccurate in parts of the ocean that may have experienced oxygen changes at the same time — for example, in low-oxygen zones or during major extinction events. This is exactly when the archaea are a popular index since other life forms, whose shells can provide a chemical signature for their growth temperatures, are absent. It’s not known exactly why the archaea shift their lipid membranes. They may adapt to a temperature change by making their membrane tighter or less brittle in the new environment, Ingalls said. Low oxygen is another big environmental stressor. “The envelope that encloses the cell is sort of the gatekeeper, and when stress is encountered of any kind, that membrane needs to adjust,” Ingalls said. The new study is the first to actually look at how these archaea grow in different temperatures. These archaea are famously hardy — it’s the same group that lives in Yellowstone hot springs — but they have stymied attempts to grow them in captivity. Qin was first author of a 2014 study that was the first to grow and compare individual strains of the marine Thaumarchaeota archaea under different conditions. He used samples from Puget Sound, a Seattle beach and a tropical-water tank at the Seattle Aquarium to show that related strains occupy a wide range of ecological niches. In the new paper, he shows that the membrane lipids of different strains can have different temperature dependences. Some of them are a straight line, meaning they would be a good indication of past temperature, but others are not. He also did experiments in which he changed the oxygen concentration of the air above the culture flasks. Results show that as the oxygen level drops, the TEX-86 measures rise dramatically, with reading spanning 15 to 36 degrees C even though all samples were grown at 26 C. “This index provides an amazing historical record, but it’s very important how you understand it,” Qin said. “Otherwise it could be misleading.” Knowing that oxygen affects the membrane structure can help improve interpretation of the TEX-86 record. Researchers can disregard samples from low-oxygen water to improve the accuracy of the technique, which as it is used now has error bars of about 2 degrees C. “Plus or minus 2 degrees is not very good when you think about the sensitivity of the climate system,” Ingalls said. “This gives us a new way of thinking about the data.” Next, the UW team hopes to do more experiments to learn how other factors, like nutrient levels and pH, affect these archaea’s metabolisms. “We think there’s reason to believe that there’s all kinds of things that could affect the membrane lipid composition, not just temperature,” Ingalls said. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation. Other co-authors are David Stahl, Laura Carlson, Virginia Armbrust and Allan Devol at the UW and James Moffett at the University of Southern California. NSF grants: MCB-0604448, MCB-0920741, OCE-1046017, OCE-1029281, OCE-1205232.
In today’s technology-driven world, it’s important to prepare students for the future. Teaching robotics to young students can increase their ability to be creative and innovative thinkers and more productive members of society. Many governments have already recognized the importance of robotics in the classroom and have begun to create programs and laws that would incorporate it into their public education system. By teaching our students the basics of robotics, we can open a whole new world to them and exciting opportunities. Why Teach ‘Robotics?’ An extraordinary opportunity to get hands-on, real world Science, Technology and Engineering experience in a way that is exciting and engaging. A technology that will become ubiquitous. 21st Century skills Emphasizes hands on project based learning by doing and experiencing An introduction to programming Encourages team work Develops problem solving and mathematical thinking Develops lateral thinking and planning skills Improves self-esteem and communication skills Prepare students for future The one we choose depends on students’ grade level, needs, skills and abilities.Examples: and much more
Readers Question: Why does printing money cause inflation? Does this always occur? If the Money Supply increases faster than real output then, ceteris paribus, inflation will occur. If you print more money, the amount of goods doesn’t change. However, if you print money, households will have more cash and more money to spend on goods. If there is more money chasing the same amount of goods, firms will just put up prices. The Quantity Theory of Money The Quantity theory of money seeks to establish this connection with the formula MV=PY. Where - M= Money supply, - V= Velocity of circulation (how many times money changes hands) - P= Price level - Y= National Income (T = number of transactions) If we assume V and Y are constant in short-term, then increasing money supply will lead to increase in price level. Simple example to explain why printing money causes inflation - Suppose the economy produces 1,000 units of output. - Suppose the money supply (number of notes and coins) = $10,000 - This means that the average price of the output produced will be $10 (10,000/1000) Suppose then that the government print an extra $5,000 notes creating a total money supply of $15,000; but, the output of the economy stays at 1,000 units. Effectively, people have more cash, but, the number of goods is the same. Because people have more cash, they are willing to spend more to buy the goods in the economy. Ceteris paribus, the price of the 1,000 units will increase to $15 (15,000/1000). The price has increased, but, the quantity of output stays the same. People are not better off, and the value of money has decreased; e.g. A $10 note buys fewer goods than previously. Therefore, if the money supply is increased, but, the output stays the same, everything will just become more expensive. The increase in national income will be purely monetary (nominal) If output increased by 5%. and the money supply increases by 7%. Then inflation will be roughly 2%. Assumptions in the above example [In the real world, it is possible, if the government printed money, people would just decide to save the extra money and therefore, prices wouldn’t automatically rise. However, to simplify the link between the money supply and inflation, let us assume that consumers are willing to spend the extra money. Also, if you expect inflation to rise, you have an incentive to spend it – rather than see the value of your money fall.] Printing money and devaluation If a country prints money and causes inflation, then, ceteris paribus, the currency will devalue against other currencies. For example, the hyperinflation in Germany of 1922-23, caused the German D-Mark to devalue against the currencies who didn’t have inflation. The reason is that with the German currency buying fewer goods, you need more German D-Marks to buy the same quantity of US goods. Examples of inflation caused by excess supply of money US Confederacy 1861-64. During the Civil War, the Confederacy printed more paper money. In May 1861, they printed $20 million notes. By the end of 1864, the amount of notes printed had increased to $1 billion. It caused an inflation rate of 700% by April 1864. By the end of the Civil War, the inflation rate was hitting over 5,000% as people lost confidence in the currency.[“Inflation in US confederacy:. Encyclopedia.com] Germany 1922-23. In 1921 one dollar was worth 90 Marks. By November 1923, the US dollar was worth 4,210,500,000,000 German marks – reflecting the hyperinflation and loss in value of the German currency. Link between money supply and inflation in the real world The above analysis is something of a simplification. For example, in the real world it is hard to measure the money supply (there are many different measures from M0 narrow money to M4 wide money) Also, in a liquidity trap (recession, different printing money may not cause inflation. (see: Why Printing Money doesn’t always cause inflation) However, this provides a rough explanation why printing money usually reduces the value of money causing prices to increase.
Oregon’s Grasslands (also known as prairies) are home to a wide array of avian species, including the endangered Streaked Horned Lark, Vesper Sparrow, Short-eared Owl, Common Nighthawk and Oregon’s State Bird, the Western Meadowlark. However, Oregon’s grasslands are also highly imperiled due to conversion for agriculture and development as well as from grazing, impacts of invasive plant species and altered fire regimes. Across North America, grassland birds have shown the steepest and most widespread declines of any ecological guild of bird species. Today in the Willamette Valley, less than 1% of the historic grasslands remain. Oregon’s state bird, the Western Meadowlark is rarely seen, the Streaked Horned Lark has been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and the Vesper Sparrow is proposed for listing. The Common Nighthawk which once could be seen flying over Portland is now a rarity and many other grassland birds are declining steeply. Portland Audubon works to protect Oregon’s grasslands and the species that depend on them in multiple ways. We advocate for strong grassland protection policies statewide. In the Willamette Valley we prioritize funding strategies (such as regional bond measures) to protect, acquire and restore grasslands and promote protection and restoration of specific priority sites such as Government Island in the Columbia River. Our top priority has been the recovery of the federally listed Streaked Horned Lark, a grassland dependent species whose range once extended from British Columbia to Northern California but which today sits on the brink of extinction.
Sport is a corporal competition with strict rules with an aim to determine the winner. Sport is a conditional, gaming system, which communicative sign structure has no practical value. Analysis of sports as a structure allows you to select the category of form (rules) and content (the competition). There is one more category - value (determining the winner), expressing the very essence of sport. In semiotics category of value, along with form and content is of essence in nature. The term value itself is derived from sign. If the form expresses "what” the content-”how to”, then the value meets "why”. These semiotic categories do not relate exclusively to the sport, you can select them in any cultural phenomenon, with unquestionable signs of significant organization. E Benvenist defines culture as "human environment, all which in addition to carrying out biological functions attaches to human life and activities form, value and content”. Definition by Ferdinand de Saussure says that language is a system of signs that indicate concepts, the most important of all systems in semiologic phenomena [1,2]. Therefore, learning of sport as a semiotic system should be started with the language: to examine sport as a language with its own specific system of signs, concepts and formal organization; compare the language of sports with universal language and identify their similarities and differences. The fundamental position in Linguistics is a view of language as a form in relation to thinking. E. Sapir said: "Language as a structure of some kind is a form of thought, a tool of the value expression" . The specifics of sport as a language is as follows: the language can be classified as verbal, natural and universal, the language of sport is visual, artificial and reserved. Greimas assigns natural languages a privileged position because they provide a starting point for changes and end point for transfers . However, a language can be examined as the basis or foundation, according to Levi-Strauss, "it is designed to establish the structures based on it, sometimes more difficult, but similar type corresponding to the culture, examined in its various aspects” (in our case, the semiotic structure of sport). In the semiotic structure of sport the form is understood as competition rules that are language by its nature. Let's use the definition of language by de Saussure: "A language is a grammatical system, virtually existing in everyone's brain, to be more precise, in entire aggregate of individuals, as the language does not exist fully in neither of them, it exists only in group.” . It is easy to note that the rules are well within the scope of this definition: in any competition the athlete must perform only actions arising from the rules. Even if two players chase the ball in a vacant lot in the absence of judges and spectators, they are guided by some conditional system, virtually existing in their consciousness. This conditional system as well as the language for the speaker determines their actions: If they throw the ball by hands, then this is volleyball, if by foot-soccer. Examining of "the form” categories in sign-semiotic system of sport lets us make a conclusion: sport as a semiotic structure has common signs with language as a linguistic structure. We can say that an iconic sports organization is subject to the same laws and regulations as that language. There are also significant differences. Firstly, sport is an artificial semiotic system. Date of birth of many sports is considered the appearance of universally accepted rules. So the game that could be called a prototype of soccer is known in England from the XI century. The official birthday of football-the year 1863, when the English Football Association adopted universal rules for football. Regarding to language this date cannot be determined (even approximately). De Saussure believed that language is a social product, a combination of essential conventions adopted by the collective to ensure implementation, functioning abilities of speech activities that has every native speaker. Although the language is a convention adopted by agreement, it formed naturally and independently from the will of the collective. Also a language changes spontaneously and randomly - it does not intend something (according to words of de Saussure). The rules of sport were not artificially created originally; they had been repeatedly changing by the conditional agreement of the relevant sporting organization. Secondly, sport is a closed semiotic structure. The whole system of rules and relationships which can be qualified as a significant communicative organization aimed only for the service of sport itself. The language is a great mediator. This is not only a mean of communication between people; language establishes relationships of men with the world and with himself. Thirdly, sport is a visual sign system. Texts of such kind are primary in relation to the sign. Visual text is not discrete and does not break into signs, but divides into different characteristics. In a language the sign is always primary. Signs written in a certain sequence form a discrete linguistic text. The next stage in the structural analysis of sport will be studying of the competition, which is in the semiotic structure of sport category named the content. In Linguistics, language as the form is contrasted by speech and its activity, expressing the content. De Saussure determined speech as an individual act of will and mind, including: a) Combinations in which the speaker uses the language code to express its thoughts; b) Psychophysical mechanism, allowing him to objectify The combination is a sports term that has the same meaning as in Linguistics, and if speaking about psychophysical mechanism we will mean the body movement (running, jumping, dribbling, throws, blows, etc.) used in sport for these combinations, the definition of Saussure completely captures the essence of sporting competition. Anyway speech is purely a linguistic term and is not really suitable for use in a sporting context, even semiotic. In Linguistics, is also used the term "text": separated articulated hypostasis of speech (according to the phrase by Lotman). In semiotics, the term text is has much broader meaning than in Linguistics. Semiotics interprets the text as a communicative act, transmission of messages, and content of statement and in this sense it is suitable for structural analysis of the content categories in sport. The content of sport is a competition-physical contest of two or more opponents. In sport there cannot be an individual act of expression. The actual content of the competition, the essence of sporting contest, suppose the presence of the opponent. Even if an athlete is making a single attempt to establish the record of divingor lifting on a balloon into the stratosphere, he competes not only with himself, but with the opponent who has made the previous record. Sport originally is a communication system that exists only as a collective act of expression and calling not only the sense function of the text, but also its meaning, interpretation. This is one of the main principles of sport as a semiotic structure. Sport can be denoted exactly because it is a collective product, a communicative system. In the semiotic structure of sport the category content is represented in the physical (body) competition. The denoted one here becomes the body of an athlete: gestures, moves, postures acquire the meaning of a sign. To express some content, these signs should line up in a certain sintagmatic row - the code, to acquire the sense, the meaning. Competition always involves an opponent, therefore the code of one athlete faces with anothers one (or with many). To get the necessary result-the victory in the competition- each of the opponents does best to outdo the other: to realize his code and to destroy enemy's code. The interaction of these codes forms the text of the competition, which is perceived by the audience. The main points that determine the codes and the text of the competition are opponents' idea (intention) and the implementation of this plan. Dynamic interaction of these moments, their struggles determines the nature of the text, make up the main content of the competition. Compulsory presence of an opponent and his code defines the dialog of the competition text. In Linguistics, dialog relations are relations between all sorts of utterances in speech communication. Russian linguist MM Bakhtin presents this definition: "Any two statements if we compare them in semantic plane will be in dialog relation" . In the semiotic structure of sport dialogical interaction of codes of the opponents does not exhaust dialogic relations of the competition text. Dialogic relations include all participants of the competition: athletes, judges and spectators. Bakhtin philosophically represented text as an expression of consciousness, something reflective (subjective reflection of the objective world). When the text becomes an object of our cognition, we may talk about the reflection of the reflection. This definition, in our view, expresses the essence of sports text. The rules of the competition, representing the category of the form in sport, are always objective - they are, as given, are independent from the will of the players. The competition itself, being as a content of sport, is always subjective, because it includes the contrary not only in the process itself (the opponents), but also in its assessment (the fans). The result of the contest, expressing in the sport the category of the meaning has dual content: it is objective in its form-as a necessary result of competition and subjective in its content-as an ambiguous reflection of the result. Sports competition can have many different forms: a single match or mileage, two-rounded match (at home and visiting), a qualifying tournament for the championship, the championship itself, consisting of a certain number of rounds, etc. As defined by the Eco, the structure will have a meaning if it functions as the code that can generate various messages. "The position can be structured if it meets the following two conditions: it must be a system with intercom; and this connection, invisible when viewing a single system can be found while examining its transformations, due to which in two different systems can be found commonalities" . Commonalities which are inherent to any contest are a system of lottery or a format (match, tournament, and championship), the event itself and outcome (final result). The necessary conditions for competition are - all participants before the start are on an equal position, and after finish the only winner is brought out. Competitions, as a rule, consist of several stages and are not limited with only one stage. Such long competitions cannot not be visual by way of perception, thus the content of the competition is passed as a verbal description or formed as a table or a protocol, which is essentially the same written text. Such a text can be represented as an inter text, describing the content of the competition by the means of common language. Sport is represented as a visual sign structure with a closed system of communicative relations. This is the peculiarity of sport in comparison with language and other semiotic structures. We will define visual communication of competition as the "visual sports text”. Sports competition is a single semantic unit, in which the visual sports text is seized by the audience in its pure form (perceived directly), and fixed a certain result. In sports, directly related to sport games, such a separate sports event is called the "game”. The term game is multi-valued and is used in different contexts. The term "game” denotes any sports event as a unit of competition. Visual sports text can be perceived directly within a certain time interval between the beginning and the end of the game. The game is limited by temporary, spatial or conditional scopes (90 minutes, 100 meters of the race, a player or a team gaining the required amount of points first). The result of the game becomes a part of the sports text of the competition and has an impact on the determination of the winner. A game can be divided into smaller units (round, period, time) and the results of these units add up to the overall outcome of the competition. The intermediate nature of a game in relation to competition, does not change its conditions: it (the game) always starts with score 0:0, although it admits dead heat final outcome. The competition may coincide with the game, if it consists of one stage, or takes place in a short period of time. Visual sports text consists of interaction between participants' codes of sports game. The minimum number of codes is-two (boxing, tennis, chess), the maximum is not limited (mass marathons involve thousands of people). There are two types of sports visual codes. In the first case, the competitors are present in the game simultaneously. Interaction of opponents' codes takes place directly here- athlete’s code varies depending on the opponent's code. This code we define as the diacode. As well as in dialogue, there can be two or more participants of diacode. The second case: the opponents in the game are presented not simultaneously but one by one. One athlete (or a team) appears on the sports ground with the previously prepared code. Code interaction occurs indirectly-competitors do not interfere in each other’s codes. This is what we call monocode. Monocode can be represented by two athletes (pair skating) or more (group synchronized swimming). A necessary condition here is one team affiliation. The text of the game is always represented by the whole product - it does not matter whether it is formed of diacodes or monocodes. As mentioned above, sport is a closed conditional gaming communicational sign system. Visual sign structures that make up codes, text and language of sports, we define as Basic. In sport, there are another signs serving for the basic sign structures. Generally, any item that is included into sports competition is a sign by its nature. These signs we call subsidiary. There is a great amount of subsidiary signs: pucks, sticks, balls, rackets, skates, football boots, form and its color, emblems of clubs or coats of arms of the country on this form, sports grounds and stadiums, scoreboards, gestures of referees, red and yellow cards, scarves, fan hats and jerseys with paraphernalia of their favorite club, etc. A process in which something functions as a sign, Morris called semiosis. Semiosis involves three factors: the thing that appears as a sign (significant mean by Morris's classification); the thing that indicates the sign (designat); the impact, in virtue of which the relevant thing turns to interpreter as a sign (interpretant). Based on these three members of the ternary relations of semiosis, Morris examines binary relations: of one signs with the others (sintactic dimension of semiosis), signs to their objects (semantic dimension of semiosis) and signs to interpreters (pragmatic dimension of semiosis). Syntactics, semantics and pragmatics are involved in studying of these measurements . From the position of our study, we note that syntactic studies the category of form, while pragmatics deals with content and semantics-meaning. Among other classifications of signs the best known is Peirce’s classification, which was based on the same principle of ternary. Ternary classification of Charles S. Pierce examines a sign in relation to itself, to the denoted object and towards interpretant (Figure 1). While the logical analysis of Pierce’s classification we should note that on each level-both the sign and its relations - there is a gradual (via representation) ascent from a simple form (compliance and submission) to the complex one (the convention and the law). A ternary principle of building this classification basically follows traditional notion of a sign, known as semiotic triangle : There are many variants known, representing the semiotic triangle. According to Mechkovskaya, opened by stoics triad "the signified-the meaning-the thing” remains logical- semiotic invariant of searches or as the coordinate axis of a single system. By its nature, this triangle expresses interaction of three categories, claimed us- form (the meaning), content (the thing) and values (the signified). These categories are present on each level of the semiotic structure-in sign, text and language (Figure 2). A necessary condition of any semiotic system existence is the compulsory presence of categories of form, content and value. The triad serves a distinctive feature of semiotics comparing with other structural entities. Ratio of categories in each structural element changes and the forefront always becomes one of them, whether the form, content or value. Based on triadic classification of Pierce, we present a classification of sports signs, where each unit corresponds to a certain visual phenomenon of sports communication: There is also a group of signs classified as values, which we define as the key signs (Figure 3). The interrelation between these signs expresses the result of sports game. In linguistic literature this concept corresponds to the term "keyword". Regarding visual sports text key signs reflect the process of achieving a result, help to comprehend the meaning of the game better. Key signs reveal semantics of games, they belong to the category of value, and the value or the meaning in sport expresses the result. As in every sport result is determined in accordance with their specific rules and has a different manifestation, and then key signs gain different incarnation. In sports games key signs are productive actions that define the score of the match. In football and hockey they are goals, in basketball and volleyball-points, in athletics- seconds and centimeters, in weightlifting-kilograms and grams. The key signs are also the results of individual segments of a match: half, period, set. On the second level of the perception of the game, when the visual sports text translates into graphic, the key signs are transformed into official technical protocol of the competition. The main function of the key signs is to specify the process of understanding. Key signs act as an expresser of common sense, the result of game, that combine the main content of the competition text. Thus, they contract information. The contracting occurs due to the "secondary” information, and the remaining one, provided by key signs, is the most significant. Lukin noted that these statements are true particularly concerning non-fiction texts . The result, as a sign that expresses the value category, is the crucial key sign. The entire text of the game can be contracted to a single result. In sports, there are several criteria to determine the result. Based on these criteria, all sports can be divided into a number of common groups and create a semiotic classification of sports, which would be based on the result as a sign that expresses the value category. a) Quantitative criteria of result. They include sports, where the winner is determined by objective indicators related to the system of measurement (the shortest time, maximum weight, the greatest height and length): athletics and weightlifting, skating, swimming, skiing, and cycling. b) Qualitative assessment of results. Sports with subjective statements: figure skating, gymnastics, diving, boxing, wrestling. c) Conditional criteria of determining the result. These are sports, where wins the team with the largest amount of conditional objective points (goals in football, points in basketball); or the smallest (penalty points in equestrian sport). They include all sports games. d) Complex criteria of evaluation. Here can be combined: the quantitative, qualitative and conditional indicators (in various combinations) in ski jumping the length of the jump is added to the assessment of the jump technique. This group includes all the all-rounds, including different sports: modern pentathlon (combines equestrian, shooting, fencing, swimming, and cross), Nordic combined (ski jumping and ski race), biathlon (skiing and shooting). Thus, the semiotic structure of sport is a unity of form, content and meaning. The same triadic division has any significant structure on any level of its building-in the sign, text and language. The category of form in the semiotic structure of sport is expressed in rules of the competition, which are language by its nature. The content is competitions that can be represented as a text, composed of athletes' codes. The meaning of sport comes down to identifying of a winner. In the semiotic structure of sports, we define it as a result expressing the category of value.
The Chinese Buddhist tradition of animal release has its origins in the Suvarnabhasottama Sutra (Chinese Jin guang ming), composed in the early centuries of the Common Era. According to this work, a merchant’s son named Jalavahana, while traveling through a forest wilderness during summer, came across a pond in which the fish were struggling to survive in the rapidly evaporating water. All around the pond crows, cranes and jackals had gathered waiting to snap up the unfortunate fish. Moved by compassion and determined to save the fish Jalavahana cut some foliage and placed it in the pool hoping to shield the water from the sun and prevent its evaporation. When this proved ineffective, he traced the empty stream bed that had provided water to the pool and found that the water had been diverted from it by a great hole that appeared in the bed of the stream. Unable to block this hole himself he approached the king, told him of the situation and asked for some elephants, which the king gave him. Jalavhana’s ingenuity and efforts eventually paid off and he was able to fill the pond with water and save the fish. When the Suvarnabhasottama Sutra was translated into Chinese the story of Jalavahana in particular had a powerful influence on people’s attitude towards animals. Soon, rather than releasing animals on an individual basis the custom developed of releasing large numbers animals in elaborate public ceremonies. The first person to organize such events was the monk Chih-I (538-97). In time, many temples came to provided ponds where people could release fish and tortoises, lofts for pigeons and pastures for goats, cows and horses. Sadly, today ‘animal release’ practice frequently takes the form of a mere ritual more destructive to life than life-saving. In countries with significant Chinese communities a whole industry of capturing wild birds simply so they can be released has developed. The birds are taken from their natural environment, shipped to the cities and set free in the ‘concrete jungle’ where they often soon die. Temple ponds are commonly so crowded that the fish and tortoises lead diseased and miserable lives. According to environmentalists the two leading threats to the Asian Temple Turtle (Heosemys annandalii, so-called because it is favored by Chinese Buddhists for ‘release’) are the restaurant market and the temple trade. Several of the more progressive temples here in Singapore now try to educate the Buddhist public about the proper way to practice animal release or even prohibit the practice within their premises.
On a cool, clear summer morning a few weeks ago in northern California, several members of the KBO team and I crouched behind a screen of willows next to our mist-net, swatting at the abundant mosquitoes and listening to the birds singing all around us. We were a bit nervous, as our research quarry was a Yellow-breasted Chat, a strikingly beautiful bird known for its garrulous song, but also a bird that can be furtive and shy, preferring to keep to the densest thickets of blackberry. Our goal was to capture, tag, and release 22 male chats… and we only had four days to do it! We would attach a lightweight scientific device called a geolocator to the Yellow-breasted Chats we captured in order to track the birds throughout the year. We wished to learn their migratory routes and the location of their wintering grounds. Understanding migratory connectivity – the way a single bird population links geographic areas through its breeding, migratory, and wintering behaviors – has long been a significant scientific challenge. Many songbirds travel incredible distances over the course of a year, and in most cases they are too small to carry GPS satellite transmitters that would allow biologists to study them year-round. The resulting gap in our knowledge is a barrier to successful full life cycle conservation. Scientists and land managers need to know where birds are throughout the year in order to better understand habitat needs and identify threats. Fortunately, advances in technology are helping us overcome the logistical challenges of monitoring small songbirds, and we’ve learned a tremendous amount about the movements of North American breeding birds during the past decade. Small light-level geolocators for tracking birds now weigh less than half a gram. A geolocator is attached to a bird via a tiny backpack with two leg loops, and it records ambient light levels throughout the day. The data it collects can later be used to estimate the bird’s prior locations within a few hundred kilometers. Day length gives an estimate of latitude, as days are longer in the north in summer, and longitude can be calculated from the timing of sunrise, as the sun rises earlier as you travel east across the globe. One limitation of geolocators is they are so small they cannot transmit information; therefore, these units must be retrieved—typically following a roundtrip migratory journey—in order to extract the data. On this cool June morning, Klamath Bird Observatory was attempting to employ the new geolocator technology on Yellow-breasted Chats at our Trinity River field site in northern California. We were trying to lure the male Yellow-breasted Chats into our mist-nets by playing audio recordings of other males singing territorial songs. The hope was that male chats in our area would rush in to investigate the new “rival” and inadvertently fly into one of our soft mist-nets. We also had a painted wooden chat decoy to use as additional bait. We weren’t sure how strongly the males would respond to audio playback or the decoy, and thus we waited anxiously; the success of our mission hinged upon their behavioral response. After some time passed and we hadn’t heard our target male singing, two of us broke off to set up a new net in a (hopefully) better location. Before long, we heard KBO Executive Director John Alexander’s voice over the walkie-talkie: “He’s in the net!” With excitement, we raced back to the banding station to attach our first geolocator in what would become a very busy and thrilling week. Assisting in this endeavor were KBO’s Trinity River field interns, who had been mapping the territories of Yellow-breasted Chat pairs, and several other bird species, for the past six weeks. They guided us to each known chat territory, allowing us to quickly locate and capture the resident males. We also had experienced bird banders from the US Forest Service’s Redwood Sciences Lab, including CJ Ralph and Andrew Wiegardt, and volunteer David Price, as well as experienced KBO staff, such as John Alexander and myself, to do the job. We captured four males on the first day alone. Having the male chat in hand, however, was only the first step of the process! Placing a small geolocator on a small bird whose dense feathers obscure your ability to see what you’re doing requires significant manual dexterity. Each geolocator has a harness threaded through it, consisting of two leg loops made of Stretch Magic, a common craft supply item. The night before, we measured out the moderately stretchy rubber threads and fused them into closed loops in the field house. We used a formula to calculate what size of bird would match up with each harness we created. The chats in northern California ranged from about 22-29 grams in mass, requiring harnesses with spans of 45-51 mm. The difference of a few millimeters may seem negligible, but a harness that fits correctly is vital for bird safety. A harness that is too big or too small could hinder the birds’ wings or legs, and it could fall off or create other problems during the long migratory journey. While our method required some preparatory work, it allowed us to quickly attach harnesses in the field, thereby saving valuable field time and reducing stress on chats during the handling period. We continued to move through our study plots, setting up nets in the dense streamside vegetation and eagerly watching the male chats respond to our audio “intruders” and fly into our nets. We eventually captured 22 males, which allowed us to deploy all of our geolocators! Now, we must hope that a substantial number of our tagged males survive the roundtrip migratory journey and the long winter to return again next spring so we have a chance of recapturing them and retrieving their data. Due to this challenge, most geolocator studies have relatively small sample sizes; nevertheless, these studies have revolutionized our understanding of migratory connectivity. We are partnering with Christine Bishop and her research team from Environment Canada and Simon Fraser University. Together, we will examine our data and compare the migratory routes and wintering grounds of our northern California population of Yellow-breasted Chats with those of an endangered population of chats that breed in British Columbia. This project will eventually form a tri-national partnership, including our San Pancho Bird Observatory partners working in overwintering areas in Mexico. We are excited to see the results, but for now we must wait. The Yellow-breasted Chats in northern California are finishing nesting for the season and will soon wing their way back to their southern homes. They will remain there for several months, until the lengthening days of spring urge them to return to us once more. Klamath Bird Observatory hosted an outreach event for professional partners on June 9th at our Upper Klamath Field Station’s Sevenmile Long-term Bird Monitoring and Banding Station in the Fremont-Winema National Forest. This picturesque research facility, a historic Forest Service Guard Station, is located on the northern outskirts of the Klamath Basin, nestled in a small clearing surrounded by shrubs, forest, and streamside habitats. Such habitat diversity translates into avian diversity, and as our partners enjoyed pastries, spooned parfait, and sipped coffee at the start of the event, a variety of birds called from the surrounding vegetation, including Northern Flickers, Yellow Warblers, Western Tanagers, Pacific-slope Flycatchers, Song Sparrows, and an occasional chatty Belted Kingfisher. Klamath Bird Observatory initiated this first annual Bird Banding Outreach Day to demonstrate the value of our long-term monitoring program to our professional partners who support the KBO programs that inform their natural resource management work on public lands. KBO Executive Director John Alexander opened the event with an overview of the history of the Klamath Bird Observatory, focusing on our work in the Klamath Basin and our nearly 20 years of collaboration with the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and US Fish and Wildlife Service. Then, Science Director Jaime Stephens provided a summary of our scientific programs, including a new study on the habitat preferences of Black-backed Woodpeckers in green, unburned forests. The group, including US Forest Service professionals from the Fremont-Winema National Forest, then moved to a shaded picnic table near a copse of young aspen where biologists are set up to measure, band, and release songbirds that are being tracked as part of KBO’s long-term monitoring program. When we arrived, KBO intern Kaitlin Clark from Michigan was gently blowing on the head feathers of a Yellow Warbler to glean information about skull development that can help determine the bird’s age. KBO Biologist and Banding Project Leader Robert Frey described the purpose and procedure of the banding program to our guests. In brief, bird banding is a method of bird monitoring that can be used to track the size and characteristics of a population over time. First, a bird is gently caught in a soft, fine net called a mist net. After being carefully removed by a biologist, a small aluminum band is placed around the bird’s leg like a bracelet. Engraved in the band is a unique number which will allow biologists to track the bird if it is recaptured. Additional data are collected (e.g., age, sex, weight, breeding condition) and then the bird is released to continue its daily activities. The Klamath Bird Observatory banding program has numerous conservation applications. We learn whether birds are successfully breeding in an area—an indication of healthy habitat. We learn whether birds are surviving migration—information that can inform international conservation efforts. Re-sightings of banded birds give us specific locations related to migration routes and overwintering sites. More generally, we monitor birds because they tell us about the functioning of the environment as a whole, and this has important consequences for birds, other wildlife, and human communities. Before concluding our morning, each of the banding interns—including Aracely Guzman from Mexico City, Alexis Diaz from Lima, Peru, and Chris Taft from Seattle, Washington—spoke about their interest in bird conservation and their professional development goals for their internship with KBO. One of the great contributions of the KBO banding program is the training of over 170 early-career conservation biologists who go on to advance conservation in the US and abroad where many of our breeding birds spend their winters. Klamath Bird Observatory is grateful for our federal agency partners who enable and support the bird conservation work we do on public lands. Thanks to all of those who joined us for our first annual Bird Banding Outreach Day! Klamath Bird Observatory is currently serving on a national team of scientists and communications specialists working to produce annual State of the Birds reports. The reports link bird conservation to the fundamentals of sustainability. They recognize that bird populations, like the famous canary in the coal mine, serve as bellwethers of the health of whole ecosystems, and thus our economic and social well-being. As the State of the Birds Team works on the upcoming report, which will provide an update on bird population trends in our country since the initial report five years ago, we reflect on the centennial commemoration of the Passenger Pigeon. Once North America’s most abundant bird, the Passenger Pigeon was driven to extinction 100 years ago. A lesson that emerges from this travesty is that we must use proactive approaches to natural resource management and excellent applied science to avoid such unnecessary losses in the future. While the State of the Birds reports highlight many inspiring conservation success stories, such as the recovery of the Peregrine Falcon, and the effective management of migratory birds through the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, they also outline some alarming trends. For example, declines of western forest birds appear to be sharpening, a reflection of the forest management challenges facing local communities, economies, and ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest. So, by placing a birding festival within a conservation context, we are balancing troubling news about declining bird populations with the optimism that science-based conservation can work. The Mountain Bird Festival celebrates how citizens and science can reverse bird population declines through strategic habitat conservation, an engaged citizenry, and stewardship for resilient ecosystems. During the festival, field trip goers will be exploring the Klamath Siskiyou Bioregion, an area renowned for its high diversity of western forest migratory birds. This is also an area where opportunities abound for improved conservation of these species. By signing up for the Mountain Bird Festival, every registrant will be purchasing a Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp and thereby directly contributing to habitat protection within the National Wildlife Refuge System. Additionally with registration, every festival attendee will be purchasing a Mountain Bird Conservation Science Stamp, with proceeds supporting Klamath Bird Observatory’s scientific programs that are driving western forest bird conservation in the Klamath Siskiyou Bioregion and throughout the Pacific Northwest. We hope you attend our inaugural Mountain Bird Festival and help us write a new conservation success story starring citizens, science, and mountain birds. Birding festivals are growing in popularity across the world, and, increasingly, these community events are becoming “eBird Festivals.” eBird is a real-time, online checklist program that has revolutionized the way that the birding community reports and accesses information about birds. eBird festivals use the eBird program to track the many birds seen on the field trips offered during these events that celebrate birds and birding. eBird Festivals also provide outreach, promoting the use of eBird by helping festival attendees set up their own eBird accounts and providing information about the powerful data entry and exploration tools offered by eBird. By integrating eBird within festival activities these eBird Festivals are building on a significant opportunity for the birding community to contribute to the science that drives conservation worldwide. Two of the first birding festivals to adopt eBirding as part of their annual celebrations were the Winter Wings Festival, held in February in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and the Godwit Days Spring Migration Bird Festival held in April in Arcata, California. These festivals first adopted eBirding as an integral part of their activities in 2008 in collaboration with Klamath Bird Observatory, who at that time created the regional eBird portal, Klamath-Siskiyou eBird. This portal celebrates the globally outstanding biodiversity of the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion of southern Oregon and northern California, and provides stories on the extensive conservation science efforts that have been developed in the region through the Klamath Bird Monitoring Network. This eBird Portal will soon be transformed into eBird Northwest, which will serve a broader geographical area while also acting as the citizen science application of Avian Knowledge Northwest. Avian Knowledge Northwest is a regional node of the Avian Knowledge Network that provides information from comprehensive datasets on birds and the environment for scientists, natural resource managers, and other individuals interested in conservation and science in the northwestern United States. Between 2008 and 2013, the Winter Wings Festival in southwest Oregon logged 309 checklists documenting 195 species into the regional Klamath-Siskiyou eBird portal. During this same time period, the Godwit Days Festival in northwest California logged 449 checklists documenting 283 species. A new eBird Festival, the Mountain Bird Festival, will be hosted by Klamath Bird Observatory and held for the first time this spring in Ashland, Oregon. These festivals are nurturing citizen-driven conservation by promoting eBird among their festival attendees and by helping each attendee contribute to one of the largest and fastest growing biological data resources in existence, eBird. eBird was launched in 2002 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society. The Search for the Conservation Meme (10:00am – 10:25am) Brandon M. Breen, Klamath Bird ObservatoryIn his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins coined the term “meme” to illustrate how evolutionary principles could help us understand cultural change in human societies. Each cultural idea, or “meme,” experiences increases or decreases in its expression in a human culture based, at least in part, on its merit or fitness. From a conservation perspective, the question arises, Does there exist a conservation meme with the potential for widespread expression in Western culture? This talk will be an exploration of how evolutionary principles can help us understand the prospects for a culture of conservation in the 21st century. Avian Knowledge Northwest: An Online Science Delivery Tool (10:45am – 11:10am) John D. Alexander, Jaime L. Stephens, Brandon M. Breen, Klamath Bird ObservatoryAvian Knowledge Northwest, a regional node of the Avian Knowledge Network, provides information on birds and the environment for professionals engaged in natural resource management in the Pacific Northwest. The data center is designed to advance bird and habitat conservation through the efficient delivery of information, specifically to (1) bring in and archive data, (2) ensure the multitude of datasets are discoverable and readily available, (3) combine datasets for broad-scale analyses, such as future species abundance under climate change scenarios, and (4) build a community of data providers and users who collaboratively identify information needs to address conservation challenges. Avian Knowledge Northwest is integrated with eBird Northwest, an application that encourages contributions from a growing citizen science community. During the recent International Partners in Flight Conference in Snowbird, Utah, the emphasis was on protecting birds throughout their annual cycle. Yet, it is really difficult to set conservation priorities when there are uncertainties concerning the threats that birds face throughout the year. And in order to identify threats, we need to know exactly where populations of our northern breeding birds go during migration and winter. Everyone at the meeting was talking about migratory connectivity. This refers to the way regional populations of breeding birds create linkages among geographic regions through their migratory behavior. Understanding connectivity is vital to the identification of factors that harm specific bird populations, and unfortunately there is a significant gap in scientific knowledge on this topic. The problem stems from the fact that it is extremely difficult to track such small animals as songbirds over the incredible distances they migrate. GPS transmitters—which have been successfully used on raptors and shorebirds—are simply too heavy to place on most songbirds, which often weigh less than a few quarters. Radio transmitters are small enough, but these are limited by short signal ranges that would require a biologist to be within several miles of a migrating bird in order to detect it. Fortunately, recent advances in technology are helping us overcome these logistical challenges and are generating valuable knowledge about the movements of North American breeding birds. Small tracking devices called light-level geolocators now weigh only 0.4 grams and have permitted some amazing advances in our knowledge of migratory connectivity. These geolocators are attached to a bird via a tiny backpack with two leg loops, and they record ambient light levels throughout the day. The light-level data they collect can later be used to estimate the bird’s location within about one hundred kilometers. Day length can give an indication of latitude, as days are longer in the north in summer, and longitude can be calculated from the timing of sunrise, as the sun rises earlier (relative to Greenwich Mean Time) in the east. The latest advance has been the development of archival GPS geolocators. These weigh a bit more (~1g), but they are far more accurate – within a few meters! To fit this technology into such a small package, they can only record ten location points. However, you can program the geolocator to record these location points whenever you want—say, three fixes during spring migration, four during winter, and three during fall migration. A single bird with a geolocator backpack can depart its breeding grounds in the summer and return in spring with a wealth of information on migratory routes and wintering grounds. The disadvantage of both types of geolocators is that they are only archival—which means you have to find and recapture your bird the following breeding season to retrieve the data. Due to this challenge, most geolocator studies have small sample sizes, but even so have produced amazing results. For instance, in a 2012 study by Franz Bairlein and colleagues, they discovered that Northern Wheatears in Alaska migrate 14,500 km across Asia to winter in eastern Africa—a unique and incredible journey that was previously undocumented. In another study, Kira Delmore and colleagues discovered in 2012 that neighboring populations of Swainson’s Thrush in British Columbia exhibited dramatically different migration routes. Coastal birds traveled down the west coast to winter in western Mexico, whereas inland birds traveled overland across the Rockies and crossed the Gulf of Mexico to winter farther south in Central America. Clearly, the conservation of these two populations would require very different strategies. I picked up brochures on both types of geolocators from the Lotek vendor booth at the conference. The challenge and opportunity now for KBO will be to determine how best to employ this technology to advance bird conservation. This article is the sixth installment in the series Achieving Partners in Flight Strategic Goals and Objectives. An important bird conservation goal is to integrate Partners in Flight priorities and objectives into public agency natural resource planning and action. Partners in Flight uses a science-based method for bird conservation that incorporates a multi-species approach for assessing landbird vulnerabilities and needs, setting measurable conservation targets, describing management to meet these targets, and measuring the effectiveness of conservation actions. This approach can help land managers meet their ecosystem management needs. By aligning science, planning, and implementation among partners, we can more strategically implement actions that address priority science and habitat needs. This strategic goal builds upon ten examples that illustrate both the process and science behind bird conservation throughout the western United States. These examples were recently featured in Informing Ecosystem Management: Science and Process for Landbird Conservation in the Western United States, a Biological Technical Publication published by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The publication (1) describes how bird conservation and effectiveness monitoring can be integrated into land management guidelines with an emphasis on partnerships, and (2) presents case studies which highlight bird monitoring within the adaptive management framework. The publication emphasizes both the science of monitoring and the process of its integration into land management because both are necessary in order for effectiveness monitoring to fully impact decision making. Collaborating with national and regional partners, Klamath Bird Observatory is working toward better integrating the Partners in Flight approach within federal management planning and implementation. At the 2012 annual meeting of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, we had an opportunity to present specific examples of how the tools developed by Partners in Flight can tie into natural resource management planning to an array of national resource management leaders. We then teamed up with partners in Oregon and Washington to take the message on the road, presenting a traveling workshop that provided training to a wider audience on the use of Partners in Flight tools for assessing conservation needs, setting quantifiable management objectives, evaluating management alternatives, and monitoring management effectiveness. We are now following up with regional partners to provide guidance on the process for identifying species that can serve as indicators of habitat and/or ecosystem condition at geographic scales appropriate for various land management and monitoring purposes. We are working with Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management partners to develop projects that focus on using Partners in Flight’s conservation planning process in support of broad scaled and project level planning. The recently published Habitat Conservation for Landbirds in Coniferous Forests of Western Oregon and Washington (Oregon-Washington Partners in Flight) is serving to guide these efforts. This plan identifies 25 focal species that collectively represent the important habitat components of a functioning coniferous forest ecosystem.
Alexander Hamilton was no friend of the Articles of Confederation and the decentralized republic it represented, but he did know the limits of newly-created federal power within the new constitution. His view was that States retained any authority not specifically delegated, and that State troops, as in 1861-1865, would constitutionally resist any invasion to preserve their independence and sovereignty. James Madison wrote of this as well, stating that more than one State might band together, as in the later Confederate States of America, to resist any and all encroachments on State sovereignty by the federal agent created by the States. Alexis de Toqueville, the French traveler in the America of 1831-32, saw firsthand the powers of “this strange new democratic monster” that would within thirty years gain control of the federal government and consolidate all, by force, into one common mass. Saddled with Another Absolutist Regime “In Toqueville’s opinion, the many levels of responsibility acted as buffers against the tyranny of the majority that ordinarily characterized democracy. Then United States possessed a centralized government but not a centralized administration. To what extent American self-government was an outgrowth of the federal constitution, or merely a by-product of their habits and experiences, remains to be seen. This much, however, is clear: no subject so agitated the founding fathers as the possible loss of local responsibility under a federal government. The new constitution had to be designed in a way that maximized State autonomy. As Hamilton put it in Federalist 62, “The equal vote allowed to each State [i.e. in the Senate] is at once a constitutional recognition of the portion of sovereignty remaining in the individual States, and an instrument for preserving that residual sovereignty.” Although Hamilton favored a centralized economic authority, he argued that the federal government could not legitimately use the taxing power as an excuse to interfere in the internal government of the States. In Federalist 28, he argued that State militias would be called out to resist invasions of sovereignty. [James] Madison concurred, and in Federalist 46 suggested that the States would band together to prevent such encroachments. Even the arch-federalist John Marshall declared (in McCulloch v. Maryland) that “no political dreamer was ever wild enough to think of breaking down the lines which separate the States, and of compounding the American people into one common mass.” Interference in the life of local communities had been one of the complaints against the royal government. The anti-Federalists were afraid that, by adopting the Federal Constitution, they were saddling themselves with another absolutist regime. Mass democracy, as Toqueville realized, was dangerous.” (The Politics of Human Nature, Thomas Fleming, Transaction Publishers, 1988, excerpts pg. 200)
Comparison of Properties of Ionic and Covalent Compounds Because of the nature of ionic and covalent bonds, the materials produced by those bonds tend to have quite different macroscopic properties. The atoms of covalent materials are bound tightly to each other in stable molecules, but those molecules are generally not very strongly attracted to other molecules in the material. On the other hand, the atoms (ions) in ionic materials show strong attractions to other ions in their vicinity. This generally leads to low melting points for covalent solids, and high melting points for ionic solids. For example, the molecule carbon tetrachloride is a non-polar covalent molecule, CCl4. It's melting point is -23°C. By contrast, the ionic solid NaCl has a melting point of 800°C. You can anticipate some things about bonds from the positions of the constituents in the periodic table. Elements from opposite ends of the periodic table will generally form ionic bonds. They will have large differences in electronegativity and will usually form positive and negative ions. The elements with the largest electronegativities are in the upper right of the periodic table, and the elements with the smallest electronegativities are on the bottom left. If these extremes are combined, such as in RbF, the dissociation energy is large. As can be seen from the illustration below, hydrogen is the exception to that rule, forming covalent bonds. Elements which are close together in electronegativity tend to form covalent bonds and can exist as stable free molecules. Carbon dioxide is a common example. Shipman, Wilson, Todd
The words ‘speech’ and ‘expression’ are often used interchangeably to serve the same legal purpose but in technical terms they are not the same. Freedom of expression is a much broader concept and it also covers the right to freedom of speech. Literally speech means to express one’s thoughts and feelings in the form of verbally spoken words only, whereas expression stands for all form of communication of thoughts and feelings. Consequently, international instruments on Human Rights have given superiority to the word ‘expression’ instead ‘speech’, as ‘speech’ can be confined to only verbal forms of expressions but ideas or information can also be communicated through books, photographs, paintings, sculpture, music and so forth ways which rightly assumes a nature, which is much broader than mere speech. Concept of freedom of speech can be traced down in early human rights documents. England’s Bill of Rights 1689 legally established the constitutional right of ‘freedom of speech in UK, which is still in effect. The first amendment of the US constitution also describes about this right. And gradually this right have expanded throughout the world as one of the basic fundamental human rights. No rational society can defy the necessity of the right of the freedom of expression because if there is no expression, there is no thinking and ultimately, there is no such thing as wisdom. But it became a burning issue to determine the scope of this right since many scholars have given their opinion in both the positive and the negative sides of its absoluteness. For example,, Indian Academician Pratap Bhanu Mehta believes that this right is not absolute because he believes some versions of hate speech will need to be prohibited in any democracy. But writers like Salman Rushdie believe it is absolute in nature. He believes that no one can remove from society terrible ideas by banning them. In fact, those ideas become more popular because of the social taboo it accumulates. However, the more powerful of these two argument is that, expression communicates information of one’s intellect; but one must not be allowed to express anything without any limitation because this may lead to an undesirable situation committing defamation, hurt to religious sentiment, abetment of crime and many more will become mandated phenomena. No room must be constructed which will violate other human rights which are already been recognized because the right of freedom of expression is not a superior right comparing to other rights. All legal systems of the world have put limitations in exercising this right otherwise it is proven to be hard to govern and consequently, difficult to maintain internal harmony. It is also important to enable one to express himself without much restrictions with a view to discovering the truth, promoting tolerance, supporting democracy and above all, ennoble the standard of society through constructive criticism. However, it is a matter of determination that what should the ambit of freedom of expression be. When the exercise of this right may be considered as violation of other rights and bad for the general good of the society. It is a very tricky business and intellectuals throughout the world have been sweating to solve this issue. Particularly at this moment, there are so many examples existing in international and national level which woke up the discussion of the ambit of this right. If we just look back to the events of Charlie Hebdo, this French satirical newspaper was attacked and 12 people were murdered by radical Islamists because of it republished hateful writings against the Prophet of Islam despite worldwide protest against it at the first time. The Editor of Charlie Hebdo, Stéphane Charbonnier, was asked before the incident “if he could understand that moderate Muslims might have been offended by its cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad” and he replied “Of course!” and added “Myself, when I pass by a mosque, a church or a synagogue, and I hear the idiocies that are spoken in them, I am shocked”. After this event the discourse on right of freedom of speech and expression gained much attention. Although the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen has ensured freedom of expression in France but there are several exceptions where this right is limited. For example, under The Press Law 1881 libel may be punishable by a fine of up to 12,000 Euros (about US$12,900). In the same way The Pleven Act of 1972 and The Gayssot Act of 1990 prohibits incitement to hatred, discrimination, slander, racial insults, anti-Semite, or xenophobic activities, including Holocaust denial. Surprisingly, French courts ruled in Charlie Hebdo’s favor when their acts were challenged. However, since then many people have been convicted by French Courts for homosexual comments, anti-Sematic comments and denial of the Armenian genocide. And in 2013, a French mother was sentenced for “glorifying a crime” after she allowed her son, named Jihad, to go to school wearing a shirt that said “I am a bomb.” The European Court of Justice enshrined the precedence principle in the Costa versus E.N.E.L 6/64 case. In this case, the Court declared that the laws issued by European institutions are to be integrated into the legal systems of Member States, who are obliged to comply with them. European law therefore has precedence over national law and is absolute. Therefore, it applies to French laws with a binding force. The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms; Article 10; provides “The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, (…) for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, (…).” The UN Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression stated the following in his report of 16 May 2011 to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/17/27): “legitimate types of information which may be restricted include (…), hate speech (to protect the rights of affected communities), defamation (to protect the rights and reputation of others against unwarranted attacks), (…) and advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence (to protect the rights of others, such as the right to life).” So we see that even in France freedom of expression is not absolute rather is conditional. However, too much restriction on freedom of speech might cause disastrous results. In Bangladesh, contexts are getting worse day by day with the killings of the bloggers and journalists even in daylight and shortcoming of the government to bring the murderers before Justice. Till 2013, four journalists named Shahidul Islam, Shahriar Rimon, Abu Raihan, Aftab Ahmed and one blogger named Ahmed Rajib Haider were killed while exercising their right of freedom of expression in their respective fields. Besides, the recent violent killings of bloggers Niloy Neel, Avijit Roy and Washiqur Rahman show that serious threats to freedom of expression persist in the country. More alarming is Government’s inability to control these attacks. Fear of persecution is causing de facto restriction on freedom of expression even where the restriction is not de jure. Moreover, the lawmaker’s recent attitude of having the desire of controlling the mass media through hugely criticized law is another indication of the freedom of expression situation in Bangladesh. Section 57 of the Information Communication Technology (Amendment) Act 2013 restricts the freedom of expression which is guaranteed in Article 39 and conflicts with Articles 27, 31 and 32 of the Constitution of Bangladesh. Section 57 of the Act says, if any person deliberately publishes any material in electronic form that causes to deteriorate law and order prejudice the image of the state or person or causes to hurt religious belief, the offender will be punished for maximum 14 years and minimum 7 years’ imprisonment. It also suggested that the crime is nonbailable. Interpreting section 57, all publications are deliberate; it’s a matter of analysis to ascertain the intention. The ambit of deteriorating law and order & hurting religious belief are not specified. So words and phrases of the section are not well defined so it left room for the law enforcers to abuse the provision. Only Ain o Salish Kendro (ASK) has reported 11 peoples’ information who became the victims of this section. All these make this provision even more draconian than that of section 66A of the IT Act of India holding the same as unconstitutional as it strokes the very root of the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression; the Indian Supreme Court has declared as null and void. Probably, the govt. learnt from our neighbor and appreciated the frequent opinions regarding the concerns of the specialists, civil society, human rights organizations and many more. Consequently, it is a good news came in Prothom Alo’s first page on 11th January 2016 that the government is going to finalize the draft of the Digital Security Bill 2016 omitting sections 54, 55, 56 and 57 of the ICT Act. To conclude, it is already clear that the world community started embarkation to define the scope of the right to freedom of expression. Only European Court of Human Rights gave 48231 judgments of which 2206 cases were only relating to violation of Art. 10 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms till the date. Experts, academicians, legal practitioners are greasing their elbows every time to decide a situation by showing the sense and substance of its signification and limitation. It is our power to express thoughts and ideas which have distinguished us from rest of the living animals and make us more civilized. So let us not go back to the cave men era. In 399BC Socrates told to jury at his trial: “If you offered to let me off this time on condition I am not any longer to speak my mind… I should say to you, Men of Athens, I shall obey the Gods rather than you.”
An interactive lesson for pupils in year 1 on calendar and dates. In this lesson, learners will be able to sequence events in chronological order using language such as: before and after, next, first, today, yesterday, tomorrow, morning, afternoon and evening. They are able to recognise and use language relating to dates, including days of the week, weeks, months and years With lots of classroom maths activities using drag and drop. Test with instant feedback. Can be used as learner resource or maths lesson plans for teachers.Designed with lots of drag and drop activities for independent learning. contains 27 Slides To view this resource, unzip and open the multiscreen.html file in the folder. The resource is also responsive so can be viewed on mobile devices.
Ancient otter could be the strongest predator of China According to a new study, an ancient relative of modern otters, may have been the dominant predator the size of a wolf. According to approximate calculations of the ancient otter weighed about 50 kilograms and had a surprisingly powerful jaws. The animal lived 6 million years ago in China. Ancient otter has a name Siamogale melilutra and she had incredibly strong jaws, in an attempt to understand the power of the animal scientists from an international team created a computer model based on the computed tomography scan of the skull, the scan was given to a scientist is not easy, as they had to put some of the bones of tiny pieces. Once the model was built, scientists began to compare the work of the jaws of an ancient predator and a modern otter. Initially, scientists believed that prehistoric otter had the same jaw as modern, but at the expense of large size could create more pressure. The results showed that the jaws of the otters have evolved a little differently, the larger otter had a more flexible jaw, small more hard. Due to its flexibility, the jaw could afford to crack even large mollusks. The team believes that the ratio of the size of the jaws and could do Siamogale melilutra the dominant predator in the territory of China at that time.
You can find all the previous posts about below: Introduction to Vedic Mathematics A Spectacular Illustration of Vedic Mathematics Multiplication Part 1 Multiplication Part 2 Multiplication Part 3 Multiplication Part 4 Multiplication Part 5 Multiplication Special Case 1 Multiplication Special Case 2 Multiplication Special Case 3 Vertically And Crosswise I Vertically And Crosswise II Squaring, Cubing, Etc. Division By The Nikhilam Method I Division By The Nikhilam Method II Division By The Nikhilam Method III But, what if the denominator is not just below a power of 10? What if the denominator is close to a power of 10, but just above it? In this lesson we will learn a method that is very similar to the Nikhilam method, but which is much better suited for division by denominators that are larger than a power of 10. This method follows from the Paravartya Sutra which says Paravartya Yojayet. Literally, this means Transpose And Adjust. Division is just one of the many varied applications of this sutra. We will illustrate by taking a simple example such as 256/11. Notice that 11 is just above 10. Its 10's complement is 89, which is very large and will make division using the Nikhilam method quite cumbersome. So, we take a different tack to perform this division. First we write the denominator, then write a modified 10's complement next to it. In this case, the 10's complement is made of negative numbers. Just as 1 is the 10's complement of 9, we can consider -1 to be the 10's complement of 11 with respect to 10. Similarly, 112 will have 2 digits in its 10's complement, -1 and -2. Another way to think about this is to consider 112 as 1x100 + 1x10 + 2x1. To find the 10's complement of this number with respect to 100, for instance, we take the transpose of the two coefficients following the 100's digit. That is the origin of the "transpose" in transpose and adjust. Going back to 256/11, let us write it down as below: The first line, as usual, consists of the denominator and in this case, its modified 10's complement. Notice that we have written the numerator with just one digit to the right of the "\|". The rule in this method is to put as many digits to the right of the "\|" as there are digits in the modified 10's complement of the denominator. Now, we put a zero below the first digit of the numerator, as before. Adding up the first digit of the numerator with zero gives us the first digit itself, 2 in this case. Multiplying 2 by the 10's complement, we get 2 x -1 = -2. Put -2 below the second digit of the numerator. In the figure below, we designate a negative number by bold red characters (I want to fit it within the space of 1 character, hence this compromise). Now add the numbers under the second digit of the numerator to get 5 + -2 = 3. Multiply this sum by the 10's complement to get 3 x -1 = -3. Put this -3 under the next digit of the numerator to get the figure below: Now add up the numbers under each digit of the numerator as before to get the intermediate quotient and remainder: In this case, the remainder is less than the denominator, so this is the final quotient and remainder. We can verify that this indeed is the correct answer to the problem. Let us deal with another example. This time we will tackle 256/12. We wrote 12 and its modified 10's complement (-2) on the first line. We wrote the numerator with one digit to the right of the "\|". We put a zero below the first digit of the numerator and added to get 2. Multiplying 2 by -2 gives us -4. Put -4 below the second digit of the numerator and add them to get 1. Multiplying 1 by -2 gives us -2 which went under the third digit of the numerator. Now, add up the digits under each column of the numerator to get the answer. 21 is the quotient and 4 is the remainder. This can be verified using a calculator. Now, let us deal with a special case by tackling 256/13. We get the figure below after a few steps of the process: We are confronted with the job of adding 5 and -6. Obviously this will give us a negative number (-1) as the answer. This is a perfectly valid outcome from the process. Multiplying -1 by -3 (the 10's complement) gives us 3, which goes under the 3rd digit of the numerator. We get the figure below: Obviously, when we add up the digits under the columns of the numerator, we have to make the appropriate adjustments for the negative number that results under the second digit of the numerator. Using normal carryover and borrowing rules of subtraction, we arrive at the answer below: It can be verified that this is indeed the correct answer to the problem. Now, let us tackle a different kind of special case by trying to solve 251/11. We notice that in this case, adding up the numbers under each digit of the numerator leads to a negative answer in the remainder part of the answer. We follow a modified borrowing methodology to deal with this predicament. Figure out how many 11's have to be added to the negative remainder to make it positive. For instance if the intermediate remainder is R (R is negative), the denominator is D, and R + nD = F where F is positive. In this case n is 1 (since -2 + 111 = 9). Subtract n from the intermediate quotient and make F the final remainder. Applying this procedure to the above problem we get: The procedure for extending this to 3-digit and higher denominators is quite straight-forward. Note that the modified 10's complement will consist of more than 1 digit in this case. But the procedure is the same as how we dealt with multiple 10's complements digits like in the previous lesson. To illustrate, we will deal with a few examples below. 112 -1 -2 The problem is to find the solution to 589569/112. Notice that the 10's complement of 112 is written as -1 -2 next to 112. The sum under the first digit of the numerator is 5. Multiplying 5 by the left digit of the 10's complement (-1), we get -5 which goes under the second digit of the numerator. Multiplying 5 by the right digit of the 10's complement (-2) gives us -10. Since this is 2 digits long, the units digit goes under the 3rd digit of the numerator and the tens digit goes under the 2nd digit of the numerator. Next we deal with the second digit of the numerator. We have 8 -5 -1 = 2 as the sum under that digit. 2 x -1 = -2 and this goes under the 3rd digit of the numerator. 2 x -2 = -4 and this goes under the 4th digit of the numerator. Next we deal with the third digit of the numerator. Adding up the numbers under that digit gives us 9 - 0 -2 = 7. 7 x -1 = -7, and this goes under the 4th digit of the numerator. 7 x -2 = -14 and this goes under the 5th digit of the numerator. Since this is the first digit of the numerator after the "\|" and there is one more numerator digit to its right, we pad the -14 to -140. Now, we come to the 4th digit of the numerator, the last digit we have to deal with. Adding up the numbers under this digit gives us 5 -4 -7 = -6. -6 x -1 = 6. This goes under the 5th digit of the numerator. Again, since that is the first digit to the right of the "\|", and there is one more numerator digit to its right, we pad it with one zero to make it 60. Then we get -6 x -2 = 12, which goes under the 6th digit of the numerator. Now, we add up the numbers under each of the columns of the numerator to get the final answer. It can be verified that what we got is indeed the correct answer. A couple more examples are worked out below to familiarize ourselves with the method so that we can apply it to other problems without any confusion. 1023 0 -2 -3 1123 -1 -2 -3 As you can see from the examples above, the method is simple to apply but one has to take care to keep the signs of the sums and products correct, otherwise the final answer will not be correct. Abundant practice is the key to doing this correctly and quickly. In a future chapter, we will deal with yet another way of doing division that does not rely on the 10's complement or the modified 10's complement being composed of small numbers. This will enable us to deal with denominators that are neither just below nor just above a power of 10. Until then, good luck, and happy computing!
With political fervor in the United States at an all-time high, many Americans find themselves increasingly confused by intense political jargon and complicated legal procedures. What exactly is impeachment, and what role does the rule of law play in it? Impeachment is the process of removing the President of the United States, a power granted to the U.S. Congress in the Constitution. The Constitution clearly describes the process of impeachment from start to finish, and endows certain privileges to both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Nonetheless, impeachment is largely a political act, and the role of law often takes a backseat in the process. Article 1 of the Constitution grants The House of Representatives the sole “Power of Impeachment”, and dictates that the U.S. Senate “shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments.” Impeachment has justifiably high standards; a president or vice president may only be impeached for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” In that regard, impeachment takes a step away from the law, and a step close toward politics. It is the U.S. Congress which truly decides whether an offense is impeachable; all that truly matters is whether enough representatives in the House support beginning the process. Naturally, this renders the process vulnerable to potential political favoritism; the majority party in the U.S. congress may only decide to impeach a president when it’s politically favorable to do so, rather than when there’s been a potential violation of the law. The process begins when a congressman drafts articles of impeachment, at which point the House of Representatives will vote on it. If at least one of the articles receives a majority vote, it means the president has been impeached, and it is passed on to the Senate for trial. If a president is being tried before the Senate, the process will be overseen by the Chief Justice of the United States. Once the Senate considers the articles of impeachment, it will summon the accused party to appear, either in person or through legal counsel. The respondent does not necessarily have to appear before the Senate, at which point it is assumed they are pleading “not guilty.” The Senate then sets a trial date, witnesses are subpoenaed, and evidence and testimony are poured over. The entirety of the U.S. Senate then meets and deliberates in a closed session; two successfully convict the person of impeachment, the Senate must have a two-thirds vote. Thus, the President of the United States is either successfully impeached, or not. If he has been impeached, the Senate may then choose to vote on whether to bar him from office in the future, through a simple majority vote.
All "skeleton-lesson plans" are based on state objectives. This resource has the vital questions that teachers would need to be sure that their students are able to answer at the conclusion of the lesson. NOTE: Answer Sheets are also provided for the teacher's benefit. Teachers Resources are other materials that would help you effectively convey the lesson/concept (i.e. worksheets, study guides, flashcards etc.). Conjunctions and Adjectives A conjunction is a word that connects two sentences, clauses, phrases or words. An adjective is word that describes a noun, such as tall, beautiful or friendly.
Question 1 Describe briefly regeneration in hydra? The process of getting back a full organism from its body part is called regeneration. Regeneration is carried out by specialised cells. These cells increase in number very quickly and make large number of cells From this mass of cell,different cells undergo changes to become various cell types and tissue. These changes take place in an organised sequence called as development.These tissue form various organs and body parts. This mode can be used to produce only those organism which have relatively simple body organisation consisting of only few specialised cells or tissue.
Ahead of getting comprehensive about the Sephardic Jews, it is great to think about their character first. They are fundamentally the descendants of individuals who honed the Jewish religion in Iberia and North Africa. Ari Afilalo is a specialist on the historical backdrop of the Sephardic Jewish culture. There are numerous different names given to Sephardic Jews, for example, - Spanish Jews - Latino Jews - Bedouin Jews Sephardic Jews and their descendants assume a vital part in the Latino people group in the Americas. Underneath are some of the facts related to Sephardic Jews and their journey of life. - 1492: An Amazing Year In Spain: It is said that Christopher Columbus, who was a remote business visionary planted the Spanish banner in a mainland. Furthermore, not even a solitary European had any thought regarding that. Around the same time, the primary Spanish sentence structure book was distributed. Aside from this, every one of the Jews living in Spain was requested to leave the nation under the danger of death. - To Practise The Christian Culture: Therefore, these individuals liked to shroud their confidence and changed over to Christianity and were named as Jewish conversos. - Crypto-Jews began honing Judaism under the pretense of Catholicism as they concealed their own particular custom. - To Move To The United States: With a specific end goal to move to the America, Spanish Jews needed to lie when the Spain started to vanquish and settle the Americas in the sixteenth century. - Hispanics Following Jewish Traditions: Without knowing anything about Jewish custom, They began honing the conventions of the Jewish individuals. A Jewish Association that is in New Mexico recognizes the accompanying practices of Jewish culture that were separated from any cognizance of a Jewish past: - To help the candles on Friday night - Not to eat pork - To watch the Sabbath on Saturday Accordingly, fascinating certainties about Latino Jews effortlessly inspire the enthusiasm of the perusers to think about the real occasions required with their lives. Aside from this, Afilalo has an immense information about the global exchange and assumes an essential part in helping individuals comprehend it appropriately. What is International Trade Law? International Trade Law characterizes the principles and directions for exchange exchanges between the nations. As far back as most governments progressed toward becoming individuals from the World Trade Organization, International Trade Law has turned into a free circle of study. Essential Parts of International Trade Law - Universal Trade Law depends on Economic Liberalism hypothesis which was shaped in Europe and US from post eighteenth century - Universal Trade Law is the mix of business laws and International Legislation - Universal Legislation is essentially acts and settlements of intergovernmental associations on the global level overseeing relations in worldwide exchange - Universal exchange connections have four levels in particular – multilateral game plans comprising of GATT/WTO, national law, plurilateral understandings and two-sided relations of Canada-US Free Trade Agreement Afilalo is a specialist in the issues of business contracts and exchanges and International Trade Law. His book ‘The New Global Trading Order: The Evolving State And The Future Of Trade’, thinks about the treatment of licensed innovation in organized commerce territories, cross-outskirt speculation rules, legal cures in the EU framework.
When it is colder outside, I noticed that the CFLs in my house and the fluorescent lights in my garage take longer to come on and get bright. Sometimes they flicker more. I am in Florida so coldest is probably 30-40 degrees in the Winter. Why does this occur? CFLs are in a standard outlet. Fluorescents are in an older ballast. When turned off, the mercury in the fluorescent tube condenses on the inside surface of the tube. In order to emit light, the mercury must evaporate and form a vapor as the conductive path between the ends of the tube. The colder the bulb is to begin with, the longer it takes for all the mercury to evaporate, and for the light to reach full brightness. This also explains why fluorescent lights get dimmer as they age: there is a small leakage of mercury from the tube during its lifetime, so there is less mercury vapor in the tube, so less light produced.
Robbins Definition of Economics Prof. Lionel Robbins gave his definition of economics in his book” Nature and significance of Economic Science” in the year 1932 .He defined economics as, “Economics is the science that studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses.” Robbins definition is based on: 1.Multiplicity of wants. 2.Scarcity of means In other words, Robbins definition says that: 1.The ends are unlimited, 2.The means to achieve those ends are limited, and 3.The means are capable of alternative uses. ATTRIBUTES OF THE DEFINITION Followings are some of the attributes of Robbins definition: 1. Multiplicity of Ends As a matter of fact, never come to an end. They are always unlimited. As soon as one want is satisfied, another comes forward. Thus it is the unlimitedness of a person wants that never stops him from working and keeps him engaged in the work of earning money for the satisfaction of his wants. 2. Scarcity of Means It refers to the limited resources due to which economic problems arise. But if the resources were unlimited, then consequently there would have no economic problems and all the wants would have been satisfied. But it should be noted that the means are scare with respect to their demand. 3. Selection / Urgency of Wants It is obvious that some of the wants are more urgent for us as compared to others. Naturally, we go to satisfy our urgent needs / wants first and then the remaining ones. If all the wants are same there would be no urgency to fulfill then and hence no economic problem would arise. 4. Alternative Uses According to the Robbins definition all the scars means are capable of alternative uses i.e. they can be put to a number of uses e.g water can be used for drinking as well as for cooking. The main problem arises that where the utilization should be made first. 5. Human Science Robbins in his definition has broadened the scope of economics. According to him economics is the study of human behavior as a whole both with in and out side the society. It does not restrict the subject matter within specific limits. CRITICISM OF THE DEFINATON Robin’s definition also faces criticism from many economists. Some of the criticizing points areas follows: 1. Economics as a Positive Science According to Robins, economics discovers only the facts that give rise to certain problems and does not give suggestions as to how to deal with human behavior that varies from man to man and from time to time. So it is not a physical science, which deals with matter and energy and remains unchanged at any place. Economics is therefore not a physical science. It discovers both causes / efforts and suggestions. 2. Human Touch Missing In Robbins definition the human touch is entirely missing. It does not take in to account the systematic thinking, human sympathy, imagination and the variety of human life. 3. Abstract and Complex Robbins has made economics more abstract and complex and hence difficult. This distracts from its utility for the common man. Utilities of economics lie in being a concrete and realistic study. 4. Macro Concept Another criticism on Robbins definition is that it ignores the macro aspect. It has ignored the issues like employment, national income from its boundaries. 5. Does not Covers Economics of Growth The economic growth theory or economic development theory has been overlooked in Robbins definition. Economics of growth explains how an economy grows and the factors, which bring about an increase in national income and productivity of the economy. Robbins takes the resources as given and discusses only their allocation.
EU legislation to protect the ozone layer is among the strictest and most advanced in the world. Europe has not only implemented what has been agreed under the Montreal Protocol on protecting the ozone layer but has often phased out dangerous substances faster than required. The ozone layer in the upper atmosphere protects humans and other organisms against ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun. In the 1970s scientists discovered that certain man-made chemicals deplete the ozone layer, leading to an increased level of UV radiation reaching the Earth. Overexposure to UV radiation carries a number of serious health risks for humans. It causes not only sunburn but also greater incidences of skin cancer and eye cataracts. There are also serious impacts on biodiversity. For example, increased UV radiation reduces the levels of plankton in the oceans and subsequently diminishes fish stocks. It can also have adverse effects on plant growth, thus reducing agricultural productivity. A direct negative economic impact is the reduced lifespan of certain materials like plastics. Gases that damage the ozone layer - ozone-depleting substances (ODS) - have been used in a wide range of industrial and consumer applications, mainly in refrigerators, air conditioners and fire extinguishers. They have also been used as aerosol propellants, solvents and blowing agents for insulation foams. The main ODS being phased out under the Montreal Protocol are Most man-made ODS are also very potent greenhouse gases. Some of them are up to 14 000 times stronger than carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas. Eliminating these substances therefore also contributes significantly to the fight against climate change. The international phase-out of ODS has so far delayed the impact of climate change by 8-12 years. On the other hand, phasing out ODS has led to a strong growth of other highly warming gases, such as the HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons). In 2016, Parties to the Montreal Protocol agreed to add HFCs to the list of controlled substances. The international community established the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer in 1987. Policies put in place by the EU and its Member States often go beyond the requirements of the Montreal Protocol. Already by 2010, the EU had significantly reduced its consumption of the main ozone-depleting substances, 10 years ahead of its obligation under the Montreal Protocol. Furthermore, the EU has put in place controls on uses of ozone-depleting substances that are not considered as consumption under the Montreal Protocol, such as the use of ODS as a feedstock in the chemical industry. The EU has also gone beyond the requirements of the Protocol in banning the use of the toxic chemical methyl bromide for any kind of fumigation. EU legislation has not only been very effective in controlling ozone-depleting substances but has also acted as a driver for the development of innovative technologies. These include The global consumption of ODS has been reduced by some 98% since countries started taking action under the Montreal Protocol. As a result, the atmospheric concentration of the most aggressive types of ODS is falling and the ozone layer is showing the first signs of recovery. Nevertheless, it is not expected to recover fully before the second half of this century. Much remains to be done to ensure the continued recovery of the ozone layer and to reduce the impact of ODS on climate change. Actions needed are: The European Commission supports research projects in the field of ozone layer protection. The ozone layer is a natural layer of gas in the upper atmosphere which protects humans and other living things from the harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays of the sun. Although ozone (O3) is present in small concentrations throughout the atmosphere, most ozone (about 90%) exists in the stratosphere, in a layer between 10 and 50 km above the surface of the earth. This ozone layer performs the essential task of filtering out most of the sun's biologically harmful UV radiation. Concentrations of ozone in the atmosphere vary naturally according to temperature, weather, latitude and altitude. Furthermore, substances ejected by natural events such as volcanic eruptions can have measurable impacts on ozone levels. However, natural phenomena cannot explain the current levels of ozone depletion. The scientific evidence shows that certain man-made chemicals are responsible for the creation of the Antarctic ozone hole and the global ozone losses. These chemicals are industrial gases which have been used for many years in a range of products and applications including aerosol sprays, refrigerators, air conditioners, fire extinguishers and crop fumigation. ODS are broken down by sunlight in the stratosphere, producing halogen (e.g. chlorine or bromine) atoms, which subsequently destroy ozone through a complex catalytic cycle. Ozone destruction is greatest at the South pole where very low stratospheric temperatures in winter create polar stratospheric clouds. Ice crystals formed in these clouds provide a large surface area for chemical reactions, accelerating catalytic cycles. Since the destruction of ozone involves sunlight, the process intensifies during spring time, when the levels of solar radiation at the pole are highest, and polar stratospheric clouds are continually present. Ozone hole, October 2011 Low concentrations of ozone are indicated in purple and blue Ozone destruction is greatest at the South Pole. It occurs mainly in late winter and early spring (August-November). Peak depletion usually occurs in early October when ozone is often completely destroyed in large areas. This severe depletion creates the so-called “ozone hole” that can be seen in images of total Antarctic ozone made using satellite observations. In most years the maximum area of the ozone hole is bigger than the area of the Antarctic continent itself. Although ozone losses are less radical in the northern hemisphere, significant thinning of the ozone layer is also observed over the Arctic, and even over continental Europe/the EU. The ozone loss over the Arctic is however usually less severe than over the Antarctic and is more variable from year to year due to the climatic and geographical situation in the Arctic. Nevertheless, in March 2011 not only a thinning but an actual ozone hole was observed over the Arctic and parts of Europe for the first time. Increased UV levels at the earth's surface are damaging to human health. The negative effects include increases in the incidence of certain types of skin cancers, eye cataracts and immune deficiency disorders. Increased penetration of UV results in additional production of ground level ozone, which causes respiratory illnesses. UV affects terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, altering growth, food chains and biochemical cycles. In particular, aquatic life occurring just below the surface of the water, which forms the basis of the food chain, is adversely affected by high levels of UV radiation. UV rays also have adverse effects on plant growth, thus reducing agricultural productivity. Furthermore, depletion of stratospheric ozone also alters the temperature distribution in the atmosphere, resulting in a variety of environmental and climatic impacts. Increased health costs are the most important direct economic impact of increased UV radiation. The medical expenses for millions of additional cases of skin cancers and eye cataracts pose a challenge to health care systems, particularly in less developed countries. Increased UV radiation also reduces the lifetime and tensile properties of certain plastics and fibers. Indirect economic impacts include a range of additional costs, for instance for combatting climate change or as a result of reduced fish stocks. Despite existing regulation of ODS, there continues to be severe ozone depletion. This is because once released, ODS stay in the atmosphere for many years and continue to cause damage. However, since smaller and smaller amounts of ODS are being released, the first signs of recovery of the ozone layer are visible. Nevertheless, because of the long lifetime of ODS, and unless additional measures are taken, the ozone layer is unlikely to recover fully before the second half of the century. Ozone-depleting substances are still present in many older types of equipment and appliances so awareness of how to deal with these is crucial. Here are some practical things individuals can do to help protect the ozone layer: There is a direct link between increased exposure to UV radiation and a higher risk of contracting certain types of skin cancers. Risk factors include skin type, sunburn during childhood, and exposure to intense sunlight. Recent changes in lifestyle, with more people going on holiday and deliberately increasing their exposure to strong sunlight, are partly responsible for an increase in malignant skin cancers. To minimise the risk of contracting skin cancer, cover exposed skin with clothing or with a suitable sunscreen or sun cream, wear a hat, and wear UV-certified sunglasses to protect the eyes. While an increased amount of UV radiation is bad for human health, too little exposure can also have negative effects. These are mainly related to the reduced vitamin D production in the skin which is induced by UV radiation. Under-supply of vitamin D is the cause of a number of illnesses such as osteoporosis, osteomalacia (softening of the bones), rickets or cardiovascular problems. Dark-skinned people are particularly vulnerable to a decrease in natural UV radiation. However, most people get adequate exposure to UV radiation in their daily lives. For healthy humans, there is no medical reason to seek additional exposure.
The island was inhabited by several different indigenous groups when it was visited in 1492 by Christopher Columbus. The Spanish conquest began in 1511 under the leadership of Diego de Velázquez, who founded Baracoa and other major settlements. Cuba served as the staging area for Spanish explorations of the Americas. As an assembly point for treasure fleets, it offered a target for French and British buccaneers, who attacked the island's cities incessantly. The native population was quickly destroyed under Spanish rule, and was soon replaced as laborers by African slaves, who contributed much to the cultural evolution of the island. The European population was continuously replenished by immigration, chiefly from Spain but also from other Latin American countries. Despite pirate attacks and the trade restrictions of Spanish mercantilist policies, Cuba, the Pearl of the Antilles, prospered. In the imperial wars of the 18th cent. other nations coveted the Spanish possession, and in 1762 a British force under George Pocock and the earl of Albemarle captured and briefly held Havana. Cuba was returned to Spain by the Treaty of Paris in 1763 and remained Spanish even as most of Spain's possessions became (early 19th cent.) independent republics. The slave trade expanded rapidly, reaching its peak in 1817. Sporadic uprisings were brutally suppressed by the Spaniards. Desires for Cuban independence increased when representation at the Spanish Cortes, granted in 1810, was withdrawn, yet neither internal discontent nor filibustering expeditions (1848–51) led by Narciso López, achieved results. The desire of U.S. Southerners to acquire the island as a slave state also failed (see Ostend Manifesto). Cuban discontent grew and finally erupted (1868) in the Ten Years War, a long revolt that ended (1878) in a truce, with Spain promising reforms and greater autonomy. Spain failed to carry out most of the reforms, although slavery was abolished (1886) as promised. Revolutionary leaders, many in exile in the United States, planned another revolt, and in 1895 a second war of independence was launched with the brilliant writer José Martí as its leader. There was strong sentiment in the United States in favor of the rebels, which after the sinking of the Maine in Havana harbor led the United States to declare war on Spain (see Spanish-American War). The Spanish forces capitulated, and a treaty, signed in 1898, established Cuba as an independent republic, although U.S. military occupation of the island continued until 1902. The U.S. regime, notably under Leonard Wood, helped rebuild the war-torn country, and the conquest of yellow fever by Walter Reed, Carlos J. Finlay, and others was a heroic achievement. Cuba was launched as an independent republic in 1902 with Estrada Palma as its first president, although the Platt Amendment (see Platt, Orville Hitchcock), reluctantly accepted by the Cubans, kept the island under U.S. protection and gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuban affairs. U.S. investment in Cuban enterprises increased, and plantations, refineries, railroads, and factories passed to American (and thus absentee) ownership. This economic dependence led to charges of "Yankee imperialism," strengthened when a revolt headed by José Miguel Gómez led to a new U.S. military occupation (1906–9). William Howard Taft and Charles Magoon acted as provisional governors. After supervising the elections, the U.S. forces withdrew, only to return in 1912 to assist putting down black protests against discrimination. Sugar production increased, and in World War I the near-destruction of Europe's beet-sugar industry raised sugar prices to the point where Cuba enjoyed its "dance of the millions." The boom was followed by collapse, however, and wild fluctuations in prices brought repeated hardship. Politically, the country suffered fraudulent elections and increasingly corrupt administrations. Gerardo Machado as president (1925–33) instituted vigorous measures, forwarding mining, agriculture, and public works, then abandoned his great projects in favor of suppressing opponents. Machado was overthrown in 1933, and from then until 1959 Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar, a former army sergeant, dominated the political scene, either directly as president or indirectly as army chief of staff. With Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration a new era in U.S. relations with Cuba began: Sumner Welles was sent as ambassador, the Platt Amendment was abandoned in 1934, the sugar quota was revised, and tariff rulings were changed to favor Cuba. Economic problems continued, however, complicated by the difficulties associated with U.S. ownership of many of the sugar mills and the continuing need for diversification. In Mar., 1952, shortly before scheduled presidential elections, Batista seized power through a military coup. Cuban liberals soon reacted, but a revolt in 1953 by Fidel Castro was abortive. In 1956, however, Castro landed in E Cuba and took to the Sierra Maestra, where, aided by Ernesto "Che"Guevara, he reformed his ranks and waged a much-publicized guerrilla war. The United States withdrew military aid to Batista in 1958, and Batista finally fled on Jan. 1, 1959. Castro, supported by young professionals, students, urban workers, and some farmers, was soon in control of the nation. Despite its popular support, the revolutionary government proceeded with a severe program of political purges and suppressed all remaining public opposition. The new government soon initiated a sweeping reorganization patterned after the countries of the Soviet bloc. Among its successful policy goals have been the provision of adequate medical care and education to the majority of the population. Less successful have been its attempts to diversify agricultural production and achieve a self-sufficient economy. The expropriation of U.S. landholdings, banks, and industrial concerns led to the breaking (Jan., 1961) of diplomatic relations by the U.S. government. That same year Castro declared his allegiance with the Eastern bloc. Opposition to Cuba's Communist alignment was strong in the United States, which responded with a trade embargo and sponsorship of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. The quick collapse of the latter was especially humiliating to the United States because of its direct involvement. Cuba's significance in the cold war was further dramatized the following year when the USSR began to buttress Cuba's military power and to build missile bases on the islands. President Kennedy demanded (Oct., 1962) the dismantling of the missiles and ordered the U.S. navy to blockade Cuba to prevent further importation of offensive weapons. After a period of great world tension, Soviet Premier Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the missiles (see Cuban Missile Crisis). Cuba's relations with other Latin American countries deteriorated quickly during this period because of its explicit intention of spreading the revolution to those countries by guerrilla warfare. In Feb., 1962, the Organization of American States (OAS) formally excluded Cuba from its council, and by Sept., 1964, all Latin American nations except Mexico had broken diplomatic and economic ties with Cuba. After the death (1967) of Guevara while engaged in guerrilla activity in Bolivia, Cuban attempts to encourage revolution in other countries diminished somewhat, and by the early 1970s several nations resumed diplomatic relations with Cuba. In the late 1960s and 70s Cuba's government policies went through a significant reformulation, including an increased leadership role among less developed nations and a reorganization of its domestic political and economic systems. From 1961 to the late 1980s Cuba was heavily dependent on economic and military aid from the Soviet Union. Cuban support of Soviet foreign policy (notably its invasion of Afghanistan in 1979) caused difficulties in its chosen role as a leader of less developed countries. Cuba also sent large numbers of troops to Angola, where they supported the Soviet-armed government forces in the civil war. In the late 1980s Cuban-Soviet relations became distanced as the Soviets moved toward more liberal policy positions. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Cuba lost its primary source of aid, and with the collapse of the whole Soviet bloc, Cuba largely lost its main sources of hard currency and oil and its principal markets for sugar. Castro apparently remained in firm control of the country. Most of those who had initially opposed him had fled the island (between Dec., 1965, and Apr., 1973, a Cuban government–controlled airlift carried more than 250,000 people between Havana and Miami, Fla.). Despite Cuba's severe economic problems, Castro enjoyed some popularity for his social programs. However, Cuba's decision to allow further emigration in 1980 resulted in an exodus of over 125,000 people from Mariel, Cuba, to Florida before it was halted, indicating a significant level of popular discontent. The economic problems caused by the collapse of Soviet aid, the continuing dependence on sugar, and a long-lasting U.S. embargo led the regime to reverse some of its socialist policies. In 1992 and 1993, the government allowed the use of U.S. dollars, authorized the transformation of many state farms into semiautonomous cooperatives, and legalized individual private enterprise on a limited basis. In 1994 all farmers were allowed to sell some produce on the open market. During the same year, there was a new flood of boat refugees; it stopped only after a U.S.-Cuban agreement was reached. The accord called for Cuba to halt the exodus and for the United States to legally admit at least 20,000 Cubans per year. U.S.-Cuba tensions increased in 1996 after Cuba shot down two civilian planes operated by Miami-based Cuban exiles. The U.S. economic embargo, which previously had to be renewed yearly, was made permanent, and Americans were allowed to sue foreign companies that profited from confiscated property in Cuba. These measures angered many of America's major trading partners, including Canada, Mexico, and the European Union (the UN General Assembly has voted annually for the embargo's end since 1992). Following a visit by Pope John Paul II to Cuba in 1998, the United States eased restrictions on food and medicine sales to Cuba, and on the sending of money to relatives by Cuban-Americans. U.S. legislation in 2000 exempted food and medicine from the embargo but prohibited U.S. financing of any Cuban purchases. Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter visited the country in 2002. During his visit he criticized both the Cuban government and U.S. policy toward the island. President George W. Bush tightened certain aspects of the embargo, mainly affecting Cuban Americans; the regulations took effect in 2004. The same year the government began reasserting control over areas of the economy that had been liberalized in the 1990s; among the changes was a ban on transactions involving the dollar and other foreign currencies, which were required to be converted to special Cuban pesos. In 2005 two hurricanes, Dennis in July and Wilma in October, caused extensive damage in Cuba. Fidel Castro temporarily stepped aside as Cuban president beginning in Aug., 2006, due to illness; Raúl Castro, his brother and the vice president, became interim president. Fidel retired as president in Feb., 2008, and his brother was elected to succeed him. Subsequently, the government eased its control over the economy somewhat; among the most significant moves were those designed to decentralize decision-making in agriculture and facilitate the increased production of food by private cooperatives and family farms and those intended to increase worker productivity by removing wage limits. In Aug.–Sept., 2008, many parts of Cuba suffered devastating damage to housing and crops when Hurricanes Gustav and Ike battered the island. A third hurricane, Paloma, caused additional significant damage in November. In Mar., 2009, there was a major government shakeup that led to the removal of the foreign minister and cabinet secretary, who subsequently resigned all their party and government posts. The restructuring also increased the role of current and former military officers in the government. Also in March and April, U.S. embargo restrictions imposed by Presidents Bush and Clinton were reversed by the U.S. Congress and President Obama. In June, after all American nations except the United States had restored diplomatic relations with Cuba, the OAS ended its 47-year suspension of Cuba, but the Cuban government said it would not rejoin the OAS. By late 2009, the Cuban economy was suffering significantly as a result of the costs of the 2008 hurricanes, the 2008–9 world financial crisis and recession, and a drop in export and tourism revenues combined with an increase in import prices. In Sept., 2010, the government announced plans to reduce the number of persons on its payroll by up to 1 million (roughly one fifth of the official workforce), with 500,000 to be laid off by Apr., 2011. In order to enable those workers to find jobs in the small private sector, it reduced restrictions on private enterprises, but it ultimately moved more slowly to reduce its payroll. The government also it said it would significantly reduce economic subsidies, and subsequently announced other reform plans, including authorizing (2012) the establishment of nonagricultural cooperatives and a plan (2013) for sweeping changes in food production and distribution by 2015. Overall, however, the pace of reform was generally slow, and difficulties associated with agricultural reforms contributed to the slow growth or losses in food production and increases in food prices (though the latter also was the result of reduced subsidies). The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. See more Encyclopedia articles on: Cuban Political Geography
Vitamin D is composed of fat- soluble secosteroids that are required by the body for aiding in the regulation and absorption of both calcium and phosphorus. It is different from other vitamins in that it can be ingested (D2 and D3), and because it can be taken in through your skin through increased exposure to sunlight. Vitamin D is often referred to as the “sunshine vitamin” for obvious reasons. Vitamin D’s most important trait is that it is responsible for inhibiting bone deficiencies, but it is also used for lowering mortality rates, reducing premature aging, preventing cardiovascular disease, and boosting the immune system. Vitamin D can be found in small amounts in a number of foods including different types of fatty fish like herring, mackerel, sardines and tuna. Fortified Vitamin D is also found in cereals, juices, and various dairy products like milk and yogurt. Many non-dairy foods, like soy milk and almond milk, also contain Vitamin D, but it is in the form of D2 (Drisdol), which is a synthetic form of this vitamin. It is important to know that Vitamin D2 vs D3 have some important differences in their effectiveness. Overall, D3 is approximately 87% more potent and is converted 500 times faster into usable vitamin D. In fact, research suggests that Vitamin D2 may cause more harm than good when consumed. These types of sources of Vitamin D only account for 15-20% of our Vitamin D intake. The vast majority of Vitamin D actually comes from exposure to ultraviolet rays. Amazingly, studies have shown that only 10 minutes of exposure to sunlight is necessary on a daily basis to prevent Vitamin D deficiencies. It was also discovered that for times when it isn’t possible to acquire adequate amounts of sunlight, it only takes 3 days of casual sunlight exposure to make up for 25 days without being in the sun. After being in the sunlight for a period of time, and Vitamin D is restored, the body continues to store Vitamin D in fat cells for later use. Vitamin D has also been credited for prevention and treatment of a rare bone deficiency disease known as rickets. Vitamin D aids in absorption of calcium which helps bones become denser, reducing risks of fractures and breaks. Another bone disease that is mostly present amongst the elderly is osteoporosis. Increasing their intake of Vitamin D can help elderly individuals reduce bone loss, prevent falls resulting in fewer bone fractures and breaks. Vitamin D also works in the same way to treat people with hyperparathyroidism where bones are also very brittle and easily broken. Further health benefits of Vitamin D that aren’t particularly bone related include improving heart health by treating high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Vitamin D also aids in improving diabetic health, obesity, muscular deficiencies, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, bronchitis, premenstrual syndrome as well as tooth and gum disease. Vitamin D also boosts the immune system preventing autoimmune disease and has been linked to preventing some types of cancer. Below are the recommended dietary allowances for Vitamin D as instituted by the United States Institute of Medicine: - People between the ages of 1 and 70- 600 IU/Day - People over the age of 71- 800 IU/Day - Women pregnant or lactating- 600 IU/Day
One of the tests you will have before you go on the waiting list is HLA typing, also called tissue typing. This test identifies certain proteins in your blood called antigens. Antigens are markers on the cells in your body, which help your body, tell the difference between self and non-self. This allows the body to protect itself by recognizing and attacking something that does not belong to it such as bacteria or viruses. Your body also sees antigens on a transplanted organ that are different from its own and it sends white blood cells to attack the organ. When your body attacks the new organ, it is rejecting it. In order to help prevent rejection, you will take certain medicines called immunosuppressants. These are discussed in another section. Although there are many different antigens, there are six, which have been identified as having an important role in transplantation. They are the A, B, and DR antigens. There are two antigens for each letter and they are identified by numbers. So, your HLA type might look something like this: You inherit these from your parents, three (A, B, and DR) from your mother and three (A, B, and DR) from your father. Children born of the same parents may inherit the same combination or a different combination of antigens. If you have brothers or sisters, there is a 25% chance that you will have inherited the same six antigens as one of them, a 50% chance of having three of the same antigens and a 25% chance of having none of the same antigens. Except for identical twins and some brothers and sisters, it is very rare to get an exact match between two people, especially if they are unrelated. The chance of finding an exact match with an unrelated donor is about one in 100,000. Although we try to match antigens as much as possible for kidney and pancreas recipients, we do transplant organs into recipients who have no antigens in common, and these patients do very well. Some of them have never had a rejection episode. In other cases, we have seen patients who have had an exact six-antigen match have rejection occur because there are other antigens that have not yet been identified that may play a role in rejections. Unfortunately, there is no way of predicting who will experience rejection and it can occur at anytime. Crossmatching is a test done just before transplant. A crossmatch determines if your body already has antibodies formed against the donor's antigens. It is very important to know if you have antibodies against a possible donor, because if you are incompatible with that donor you would not be able to safely receive a transplant from him/her.
Understanding Spanning-Tree Protocol Spanning-Tree Protocol is a link management protocol that provides path redundancy while preventing undesirable loops in the network. For an Ethernet network to function properly, only one active path can exist between two stations. Multiple active paths between stations cause loops in the network. If a loop exists in the network topology, the potential exists for duplication of messages. When loops occur, some switches see stations appear on both sides of the switch. This condition confuses the forwarding algorithm and allows duplicate frames to be forwarded. To provide path redundancy, Spanning-Tree Protocol defines a tree that spans all switches in an extended network. Spanning-Tree Protocol forces certain redundant data paths into a standby (blocked) state. If one network segment in the Spanning-Tree Protocol becomes unreachable, or if Spanning-Tree Protocol costs change, the spanning-tree algorithm reconfigures the spanning-tree topology and reestablishes the link by activating the standby path. Spanning-Tree Protocol operation is transparent to end stations, which are unaware whether they are connected to a single LAN segment or a switched LAN of multiple segments. Election of the Root Switch All switches in an extended LAN participating in Spanning-Tree Protocol gather information on other switches in the network through an exchange of data messages. These messages are bridge protocol data units (BPDUs). This exchange of messages results in the following: - The election of a unique root switch for the stable spanning-tree network topology. - The election of a designated switch for every switched LAN segment. - The removal of loops in the switched network by placing redundant switch ports in a backup state. The Spanning-Tree Protocol root switch is the logical center of the spanning-tree topology in a switched network. All paths that are not needed to reach the root switch from anywhere in the switched network are placed in Spanning-Tree Protocol backup mode. Table C-1 describes the root switch variables, that affect the entire spanning-tree performance.Read more…
What is corruption?Transparency International (TI) defines corruption as “the misuse of entrusted power for private gain”. In other terms, it is when there is no transparency, no law that emphasizes public access to information, hence allowing decision makers to act without being held accountable. How can corruption be measured?Corruption can be measured through many tools. TI has established an annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) in view of measuring corruption and ranking the countries depending of their score. The CPI aims at giving a general classification of corruption in countries using expert assessments and opinion surveys. Today, more than 150 countries are ranked by the CPI. The World Bank on the other hand uses the six following indicators to measure corruption: - Voice and accountability; - Political stability; - Government effectiveness; - Regulatory quality; - Rule of law; and - Control of corruption. How does corruption affect your life?Corruption affects each and every one of our lives; in some cases, it might even cost our lives. It endangers our everyday being, it destroys the country’s economy – hence it reduces the citizens’ personal wealth – and it does not contribute to the renewal of the political system – thus removing citizens’ trust in their own nation. What are the costs of corruption on your society?Corruption has a four-fold cost: - On the political level: it constitutes a major barrier to democracy, hindering the emergence of a more responsible political system. The rule of law must be strengthened, and the state needs to be invested in so as to increase its authority and credibility and thus helping to reduce corruption. - On the economic level: high levels of corruption ultimately lead to lower levels of foreign investment. Therefore, it limits the country’s development and reduces national wealth; leaving large segments of the population trapped in misery and poverty. - On the social level: corruption traps citizens in a vicious cycle where bribery becomes the norm and accepting it becomes a way of life. Corruption therefore undermines people’s trust in the state and the political system, as well as its institutions and leadership. - On the environmental level: there are no laws and regulations to control the impact of any projects on the environment. As a result, projects that have a negative impact on the environment have been able to proceed; despite the fact that they may be detrimental to the nation at large and ultimately serve the interests of the few individuals who are behind it.
The myth of the world's oldest culture The lost world of the Bradshaws Why no cities or villages? The extinction of the Megafauna Migrantion of flora and fauna Wrestling and reconciliation Australian Aboriginal Values Prior to European colonisation, there were between 350 and 750 distinct Aboriginal social groups in Australia. Each social group had distinct customs, traditions and values. Nevertheless, living as hunter gatherers resulted in all the groups sharing common values in regards to their social organisation and their relationship to the environment. In regards to social organisation, hunter gatherers had an egalitarian power structure relative to agriculture societies that have a hierarchical structure. The egalitarian structure was probably due to constant moving making it difficult for individuals to accumulate possessions unequally, and in turn bequeathing unequal benefit upon children (as is the case in agricultural societies.) The egalitarian power structures could be seen in how decisions were made by a committee of ‘elders’ within the social group. These elders all had relatively equal power. In contrast, agricultural societies have typically been led by a singular chief, king, pharaoh, emperor, or president in a pyramid like structure where power has been dissipated progressively dowanwards. The economic organisation of society affects social structure. Both the Ainu of Japan (left) and Aborigines of Australia (right) were hunter gatherers, which produced egalitarian values. Instead of chiefs or emperors, the cultures had a series of elders that shared in leadership of the social group. As well as being reflected in social leadership, differences in social values were reflected in burial customs. In hunter gatherer societies, burials were egalitarian with no particular reverence given to one deceased over another. Usually, the belief was that the deceased had come from the land and would return to the land if the correct burial procedures were followed. Although the rituals changed from social group to social group, they were relatively uniform for all individuals within the social group with no special reverence given to one over the other. In contrast, agricultural societies have been characterised by unequal reverence given to the deceased. In short, the deceased (and those mourning them) have wanted to have power and influence in the afterlife that would be comparable to what they had in life. Perhaps the best example comes from ancient Egypt where the pharaoh was buried with much of the wealth that was possessed in life, and within mausoleums that were intended to symbolise the individual’s special importance in death as in life. Yolngu burial totems. In some social groups, the deceased was burnt, and their bones were placed in hollowed out tree logs. In other Aboriginal groups, it was taboo to even mention the name of the deceased or show an image of them. In ancient Egypt, pyramids were constructed so that the body of the pharaoh could be entombed with some of the wealth possessed in life and in a way that symbolised their special importance. Although other wealthy members of society could not afford pyramids, their tombs likewise communicated the hierarchical nature of ancient Egyptian society. Furthermore, they indicated that the deceased wanted to remain on the lips of the living for eternity. Just as it is in social structure within the tribe, the relationship to the ecosystem in hunter gatherer groups was more egalitarian than has been in agricultural societies. People saw themselves as part of the environment and even deferred to animal and plant totems that were taboo to kill. In contrast, agricultural societies tend to disconnect themselves from the ecosystem to instead see themselves as masters over the animals and plants that they farm. The differences in the relationship could be best seen in art. In hunter gatherer art, animals tend to be the dominant subject. Sometimes the animals were those that were hunted but at other times, they were animals that were not hunted and therefore had a spiritual quality. In contrast, in agricultural societies, humans have become more common in the art. When animals are included, they have often been anthropomorphic with human qualities being given to the animals. Australian Aboriginal art places great significance on animals. The Abu Simbel Temple of ancient Egypt were constructed by Pharaoh Ramesses II as a lasting monument to himself and his queen Nefertari. Like most art of agricultural societies, the human is the dominant subject. \|"They look ancient but at 10,000 years of age they’re much younger than the lightly built Mungo people. How could that be? "The Bradshaw Paintings are incredibly sophisticated, yet they are not recent creations but originate from an unknown past period which some suggest could have been 50,000 years ago." Bradshaws "The reduction of plant diversity, however it came about, would have led to the extinction of specialized herbivores and indirectly to the extinction of their non-human predators." Megafauna extinction " Is the keelback’s ability to coexist with toads a function of its ancestral Asian origins, or a consequence of rapid adaptation since cane toads arrived in Australia?" Migrant flora and fauna "I've set myself the modest task of trying to explain the broad pattern of human history, on all the continents, for the last 13,000 years. Why did history take such different evolutionary courses for peoples of different continents? (Jared Diamond)" Why didn't Aborigines build cities? "It then dawned on the old man lizard that the lesson to be learnt by watching the kangaroos, was that death need not be the outcome of the fight." Wrestling and reconciliation
Last night I was outside doing a little stargazing, and I showed the star Betelgeuse to my daughter and her friend. It’s easy to see, being one of the brightest stars in the sky, and such a baleful orange-red it stands out as one of the few stars with obvious color. Through my small telescope it was intense, its 600+ light year distance deceptive due to the star’s luminosity—it's intrinsically over 100,000 times brighter than the Sun. That's because it's a red supergiant, a massive star nearing the end of its life. In the next million years or less it will explode, going supernova, and for a few weeks may get as bright as the full Moon in the night sky. But it has an appointment to meet long before then. Looking through my telescope with my eyes there was no hint of this, but when you see this picture taken by the European Space Agency’s Herschel telescope, things become far more clear: Spooky, isn't it? Herschel detects infrared light, far outside what the human eye can detect. In those wavelengths, vast shells of dust surrounding Betelgeuse become visible. All stars emit a wind of subatomic particles—we call the Sun’s the solar wind. Red supergiants do as well, but their outer atmospheres are far cooler than our Sun’s, so the chemistry is different. More complex molecules can form, including what we call dust. This dust is warmed by the star and glows in the far infrared, where Herschel can spot it. You can see the dust forms thin shells around the star. That indicates the wind isn’t constant. Most likely Betelgeuse expels dust in periodic episodes, rapid spasms of wind that blow out more dust than usual. Think of it as the star coughing—it’s dusty there, after all. You might expect the dust to form a sphere centered on Betelgeuse, but you can see the star is well off-center to the left. That’s because Betelgeuse is a star in motion! It’s moving through space at about 30 kilometers per second (18 miles per second, or about 65,000 miles per hour). Space isn’t really a vacuum, it’s only mostly a vacuum: There is material between the stars, a thin soup of dust and gas. The dust slows as it expands into this interstellar matter, but Betelgeuse just rams right through it, eventually becoming noticeably off-center. And note the thin straight filament of material on the left. That is most likely a denser region of interstellar matter, and Betelgeuse is headed right into it. Given the distances involved and the star’s speed, the expanding shells of dust will slam into the wall in about 5000 years, and the star itself will make contact in about 18,000 years. When the dust collides it will heat up and brighten; it will still be invisible to the naked eye, but in telescopes like Herschel (or whatever we’ll be using in 7000 AD) it will create gorgeous filaments and streamers. We’ve seen this before, like with the star Zeta Ophiuchi, seen inset here. Betelegeuse remains high in the northern hemisphere skies for a couple of more months, and is worth your time to take a look. When you see it, remember two things: There is always more going on in the Universe than meets the eye, and that this great, bright star will one day go out in a blaze of glory as a spectacular supernova. All good things must come to an end because, of course, all we are is dust in the wind. Dude.
Avian Influenza has been found on poultry farms in four counties around Wisconsin; the closest being Jefferson County, where two farms have tested positive for the disease. Since this is a highly contagious disease and because of its proximity to Dane County, poultry producers and small flock owners should be concerned and take steps to protect their birds. Avian Influenza or H5N2 or “bird flu” is a highly pathogenic virus that infects domestic poultry, such as chickens, turkeys, pheasants, quail, ducks and geese. It also affects wild birds, in particular waterfowl. The virus spreads through direct contact with infected birds, contaminated objects/equipment, and aerosol (only over short distances). The virus is found in feces, saliva, and respiratory secretions of infected birds. It spreads rapidly and has a high death rate. It is important to regularly check your birds for signs of illness and disease. Some symptoms of avian influenza include one or more of the following: - Decreased food consumption, excessive thirst - Respiratory signs, such as coughing and sneezing - Swollen wattles and combs - Watery greenish diarrhea, closed eyes, depression - Decreased egg production Biosecurity is vital during an outbreak and even before an outbreak occurs. Biosecurity is the implementation of best practices to prevent the spread of diseases. It is important for all poultry producers, no matter the size of their operation. The following are some steps you can take to protect your flock from Avian Influenza. These are taken from the Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection’s (DATCP) press release and are good information for anyone with poultry. - Keep your distance—Restrict access to your property and keep your birds away from other birds; try to reduce contact with wild birds. - Keep it clean—Wash your hands thoroughly before and after working with your birds. Clean and disinfect equipment. - Don’t haul disease home—Buy birds from reputable sources and keep new birds separated for at least 30 days; quarantine returning birds from the rest of your flock after visiting a poultry swap, exhibition or other event. - Don’t borrow disease—Do not share equipment or supplies with neighbors or other bird owners. If you must borrow, disinfect it first. - Know the warning signs—Early detection can help prevent the spread of the disease. Check your birds frequently. If you find a sick or dead bird, don’t touch it. - Report sick birds—Don’t wait. If your birds are sick or dying, call DATCP at 1‐800‐572‐8981. For more information about avian influenza, please visit the following website: http://datcp.wi.gov/Animals/Animal_Diseases/Avian_Influenza/index.aspx Currently there are no human health concerns for this strain of avian influenza. It is safe to eat properly prepared poultry products, including meat and eggs. Compiled by: Jennifer Blazek, Dane County Dairy & Livestock Educator 608‐224‐3717 or [email protected]
The Tethys Ocean (Ancient Greek: Τηθύς) was an ocean that existed between the continents of Gondwana and Laurasia during much of the Mesozoic era, before the opening of the Indian and Atlantic oceans during the Cretaceous period. It is also referred to as the Tethys Sea or Neotethys. About 250 million years ago, during the Triassic, a new ocean began forming in the southern end of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean. A rift formed along the northern continental shelf of Southern Pangaea (Gondwana). Over the next 60 million years, that piece of shelf, known as Cimmeria, traveled north, pushing the floor of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean under the eastern end of Northern Pangaea (Laurasia). The Tethys Ocean formed between Cimmeria and Gondwana, directly over where the Paleo-Tethys used to be. During the Jurassic Period (150 Ma), Cimmeria finally collided with Laurasia. There it stalled, the ocean floor behind it buckling under, forming the Tethyan Trench. Water levels rose, and the western Tethys shallowly covered significant portions of Europe, forming the first Tethys Sea. Around the same time, Laurasia and Gondwana began drifting apart, opening an extension of the Tethys Sea between them that today is the part of the Atlantic Ocean that is between the Mediterranean and Caribbean. As North and South America were still attached to the rest of Laurasia and Gondwana, respectively, the Tethys Ocean in its widest extension was part of a continuous oceanic belt running around the Earth between about latitude 30° N and the Equator. Thus, ocean currents at that time—around the Early Cretaceous—ran very differently from the way they do today. Between the Jurassic and the Late Cretaceous (which started about 100 Ma), Gondwana began breaking up, pushing Africa and India north across the Tethys and opening up the Indian Ocean. As these land masses crowded in on the Tethys ocean from all sides, to as recently as the Late Miocene (15 Ma), the ocean continued to shrink, becoming the Tethys Seaway or second Tethys Sea. Also, throughout the Cenozoic, global sea levels fell hundreds of meters, and eventually the connections between the Atlantic and the Tethys closed off in what is now the Middle East. Today, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Indian Ocean cover the area once occupied by the Tethys Ocean, and Turkey, Iraq, and Tibet sit on Cimmeria. What was once the western arm of the Tethys Sea was the ancestor of the present-day Mediterranean Sea. Other remnants are the Black, Caspian, and Aral Seas (via a former inland branch known as the Paratethys). Most of the floor of the Tethys Ocean disappeared under Cimmeria and Laurasia. Geologists including Eduard Suess have found fossils of ocean creatures in rocks in the Himalayas, indicating that those rocks were once underwater, before the Indian continental shelf began pushing upward as it collided with Cimmeria. Similar geologic evidence can be seen in the Alpine orogeny of Europe, where the movement of the African plate raised the Alps. Greece and the Levant also retain many units of limestone and other sedimentary rocks deposited by various stands of the Tethys Ocean. Paleontologists also find the Tethys Ocean particularly important because much of the world's sea shelves were found around its margins for such an extensive length of time. Marine, marsh-dwelling, and estuarian fossils from these shelves are of considerable paleontological interest. The Solnhofen limestone in Bavaria, originally a coastal lagoon mud of the Tethys Ocean, yielded the famous Archaeopteryx fossil. In 1885 Melchior Neumayr deduced the existence of the Tethys Ocean from Mesozoic marine sediments and their distribution, calling his concept 'Zentrales Mittelmeer' and describing it as a Jurassic seaway that extended from the Caribbean to the Himalayas. However, Eduard Suess is generally seen as the first person to provide evidence for the existence of this ancient and extinct sea. In 1893, using fossil records from the Alps and Africa, Suess proposed the theory that an inland sea had once existed between Laurasia and the continents which formed Gondwana II. He named it the 'Tethys Sea' after the Greek sea goddess Tethys. Suess first proposed his concept of Tethys in his four-volume work Das Antlitz der Erde (The Face of the Earth). In the decades that followed "mobilist" geologists regarded Tethys as a large trough between two supercontinents that lasted from the late Palaeozoic until continental fragments derived from Gondwana obliterated it. This concept evolved during the 20th century and after WW2 Tethys was described as a triangular ocean with a wide eastern end. "Fixist" geologists, however, regarded Tethys as a composite trough that evolved through a series of orogenic cycles and from 1920s to the 1960s they used the terms 'Paleotethys', 'Mesotethys', and 'Neotethys' for the Caledonian, Variscan, and Alpine orogenies respectively. In the 1970s and 1980s these terms, and 'Proto-Tethys', were used in different senses by various authors but the concept of a single ocean wedging into Pangea from the east, roughly where Suess first proposed it, remained. When the theory of plate tectonics became established in the 1960s, it became clear Suess's "sea" had in fact been an ocean. Plate tectonics also provided the mechanism by which the former ocean disappeared: oceanic crust can subduct under continental crust. Terminology and subdivisions Over 400 million years continental terranes intermittently separated from Gondwana in the Southern Hemisphere to migrate northward to form Asia in the Northern Hemisphere. These terranes were separated by three intervening Tethys oceans: in Asia, the Paleo-Tethys (Devonian–Triassic), Meso-Tethys (late Early Permian–Late Cretaceous) and Ceno-Tethys (Late-Triassic–Cenozoic) are recognized. The eastern part of the Tethys Ocean is sometimes referred to as Eastern Tethys. The western part of the Tethys Ocean is called Tethys Sea, Western Tethys Ocean or Alpine Tethys Ocean. The Black, Caspian and Aral Seas are thought to be its crustal remains (though the Black Sea may in fact be a remnant of the older Paleo-Tethys Ocean). However, this "Western Tethys" was not simply a single open ocean. It covered many small plates, Cretaceous island arcs and microcontinents. Many small oceanic basins (Valais Ocean, Piemont-Liguria Ocean, Meliata Ocean) were separated from each other by continental terranes on the Alboran, Iberian, and Apulian plates. The high sea level in the Mesozoic era flooded most of these continental domains, forming shallow seas. During the Oligocene, large parts of central and eastern Europe were covered by a northern branch of the Tethys Ocean, called the Paratethys. The Paratethys was separated from the Tethys by the formation of the Alps, Carpathians, Dinarides, Taurus and Elburz mountains during the Alpine orogeny. It gradually disappeared during the late Miocene, becoming an isolated inland sea. As theories have improved, scientists have extended the "Tethys" name to refer to similar oceans that preceded it. The Paleo-Tethys Ocean, mentioned above, existed from the Silurian (440 Ma) through the Jurassic periods, between the Hunic terranes and Gondwana. Before that, the Proto-Tethys Ocean existed from the Ediacaran (600 Ma) into the Devonian (360 Ma), and was situated between Baltica and Laurentia to the north and Gondwana to the south. Neither Tethys oceans should be confused with the Rheic Ocean, which existed to the west of them in the Silurian period. To the north of the Tethys, the then land mass was called Angaraland and to the south of it, it was called Gondwanaland. - Paleo-Tethys Ocean - Proto-Tethys Ocean - Tethyan Trench - Hațeg Island - Piemont-Liguria Ocean - Pannonian Sea - Ruhpolding Formation - Palaeos Mesozoic: Triassic: Middle Triassic Archived May 16, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. - Kollmann 1992 - Suess 1893, p. 183: "This ocean we designate by the name "Tethys," after the sister and consort of Oceanus. The latest successor of the Tethyan Sea is the present Mediterranean." - Suess 1901, Gondwana-Land und Tethys, p. 25: "Dasselbe wurde von Neumayr das 'centrale Mittelmeer' genannt und wird hier mit dem Namen Tethys bezeichnet werden. Das heutige europäische Mittelmeer ist ein Rest der Tethys." - Metcalfe 1999, How many Tethys Oceans?, pp. 1–3 - Metcalfe 2013, Introduction, p. 2 - Van der Voo, Rob (1993). Paleomagnetism of the Atlantic, Tethys and Iapetus Oceans. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.2277/0521612098. ISBN 978-0-521-61209-8. - Stampfli & Borel 2002, Figs. 3–9 - Kollmann, H. A. (1992). "Tethys—the Evolution of an Idea". In Kollmann, H. A.; Zapfe, H. New Aspects on Tethyan Cretaceous Fossil Assemblages. Springer-Verlag reprint ed. 1992. pp. 9–14. ISBN 978-0387865553. OCLC 27717529. Retrieved October 2015. Check date values in: - Metcalfe, I. (1999). "The ancient Tethys oceans of Asia: How many? How old? How deep? How wide?". UNEAC Asia papers. 1: 1–9. Retrieved October 2015. Check date values in: - Metcalfe, I. (2013). "Gondwana dispersion and Asian accretion: tectonic and palaeogeographic evolution of eastern Tethys" (PDF). Journal of Asian Earth Sciences. 66: 1–33. doi:10.1016/j.jseaes.2012.12.020. Retrieved October 2015. Check date values in: - Stampfli, G. M.; Borel, G. D. (2002). "A plate tectonic model for the Paleozoic and Mesozoic constrained by dynamic plate boundaries and restored synthetic oceanic isochrons" (PDF). Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 196 (1): 17–33. doi:10.1016/S0012-821X(01)00588-X. Retrieved October 2015. Check date values in: - Suess, E. (1893). "Are ocean depths permanent?". Natural Science: A Monthly Review of Scientific Progress. 2. London. pp. 180– 187. Retrieved October 2015. Check date values in: - Suess, E. (1901). Der Antlitz der Erde (in German). 3. Wien F. Tempsky. Retrieved October 2015. Check date values in: \|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tethys Ocean.\|
Uranus, like Earth, has four seasons. But that’s where the similarity between our seasons ends. For starters, the length of Uranus’ seasons are different from ours. It takes Earth 365 days to orbit around the sun, but it takes Uranus 84 years, more or less. So, each season on Uranus lasts 21 (Earth) years. Uranus’ seasons are also different from Earth’s because the tilts of our planets are different. Imagine the Earth is a large bead on a stick. The bead spins on the stick – which gives us our 24-hour day. The stick travels around the sun. But the stick isn’t straight up and down relative to the sun. Instead, it’s tilted a little bit off the vertical. Scientists call the stick the “axis” of the planet. But the position of the stick, or axis, stays the same as it goes around the sun. Imagine that at one point, the tilt points the bottom half of Earth more directly at the sun. This is when it’s summer in the southern hemisphere and winter in the northern hemisphere. When the planet has traveled to the other side of the sun, the situation is reversed. Now the northern hemisphere is more directly lit and the southern hemisphere is less directly lit. Now think about what happens at the poles. You probably know that during each hemisphere’s winter, days are really short near the north and south poles. Sometimes the sun barely comes up at all in midwinter. The situation at the poles is the situation most similar to days and seasons on Uranus. Basically, if you imagine Uranus on a stick (and by the way, about 64 Earths could fit inside Uranus), the tilt is so large that the stick is almost horizontal. This means for two 21 year seasons out of the 84 year journey, the poles are pointed more or less at the sun. It means that even as the planet rotates in its approximately 17-hour day, the side of the planet facing away from the sun will never see the sun. That hemisphere won’t see the sun until the planet has traveled on in its orbit, to a part of its orbit where the axis of Uranus is no longer pointing directly at the sun. Uranus has been visited by one spacecraft -the NASA spacecraft Voyager. At the time, Uranus was in its northern hemisphere winter. Since then, Uranus has moved in its 84-year orbit around the sun. Its northern hemisphere spring equinox occurred in 2007. There were more clouds in the atmosphere of Uranus – and bands encircling the planet that had changed in size and brightness – as sunlight struck parts of the planet for the first time in over two decades.
As the cold weather of winter starts to set in – it’s a good time to think about how calves can be affected by cooler temperatures. All animals have what is called a “thermoneutral zone” (TNZ). As shown in the picture below, it is the temperature range where animals don’t need to expend energy to maintain their body temperature. Above an upper critical temperature (UCT) animals sweat, drool and pant to keep cool. They will also eat less and move less to reduce the amount of heat they produce. Below a lower critical temperature (LCT), animals put energy into generating body heat. They also change their behaviour: seeking shelter or crowding up with other animals. The values of the upper and lower critical temperatures depend on the type, breed and age of animal. The lower critical temperature for calves is: - 0-3 weeks of age = 15-20ºC - >3 weeks of age =10ºC How do calves generate heat? There are two ways that calves generate heat. The first is brown adipose tissue. This is a special type of fat in newborn calves. It is found between the shoulder blades and covering the heart, kidneys and major blood vessels (see picture below). Brown adipose tissue contains vast amounts of mitochondria. Mitochondria power the cells of the body by producing the molecule ATP. When calves are cold the brown fat is metabolised and, instead of generating ATP, the mitochondria let the energy go as heat The second way calves generate heat is the shivering reflex. This is the rapid contraction and relaxation of muscles which creates warmth (apparently shivering expends as much energy as riding a bicycle!) Cold: what does it cost? A farmer recently asked “what’s the cost when a calf is cold?” That is, can you put a monetary or production value on it? Going by the National Research Council’s calculations for daily weight gain, at 5ºC below their LCT, calves use the amount of energy to maintain their body temperature that could have instead gone towards about 100g of weight gain. So for example, at 15ºC a 2 week-old calf might put on 400g in a day rather than 480g. At 10ºC below the LCT, calves sacrifice about 200g-worth of potential body weight in order to generate heat, and at 15ºC below the LCT they use up 300g-worth. Depending on environmental conditions, body weight and what they’re being fed, calves may even lose weight in order to stay warm When talking about weight gain in calves, a target that many references quote is for calves to double their birth weight by 8 weeks of age. This is because, all other things being equal, these animals should make 750–800 L more milk in their first lactation. Another study that looked at the combined result of several different studies recommended keeping daily growth rates above 500g per day to maximise first lactation milk production. If calves are cold – how likely are they to meet this weight gain target? How to help calves stay warm… - Providing shelter from wind and rain: rain, mud and faeces reduce the insulation value of the calf’s hair coat, so it’s important to keep them dry. Wind chill makes calves colder than the ambient temperature. Use shade mesh or plastic as quick fixes for blocking the wind in calf pens. For calves out in the paddock, stacked hay bales make an easy windbreak. - Cosy bedding: thick bedding will reduce the transfer of heat from the calf to the ground. If calves are able to nestle into the bedding it can trap a layer of warm air – straw is generally considered the best bedding for this. When nesting, instead of expending energy to maintain body heat, calves are able maintain their immune system which in turn reduces the risk of disease. - Calf coats: again these can trap a layer of warm air around the calf and help them stay warmer. It’s important that coats are put on dry calves. While it may be impractical to give every calf a coat, having some available for newborn calves, sick calves or smaller calves (like Jerseys) will be helpful. Rumination: stoke the fire! Older calves are more tolerant of colder temperatures because they have started ruminating. Imagine the rumen as a fire and the bacteria within it as the flames. It’s important to get calves eating solid feed ASAP to stimulate bacterial fermentation and the development of the rumen lining and the rumination reflex: - Coarse tasty concentrate/grain mixes available from birth. Change daily to keep it fresh and clean. - Good quality high protein hay (but not so much that it limits concentrate intakes). - Clean water should always be freely available Feeding more milk Another thing to consider in cold weather is to increase the amount of milk that calves are fed. For example in the USA (where things get much colder than here!) they may increase: - Milk volume: from feeding 3L twice a day to 4L twice a day - Total solids of the milk: continue at 3L twice a day but increase the total solids from 12.5% to 15% - Frequency: from feeding 3L twice daily to 3L three times a day Make any feed change gradually as rapid changes in volume or total solids can upset the calf’s intestinal bacteria and on occasion lead to outbreaks of Salmonella. Sudden increases in total solids when mixing milk replacer (either in water or milk) is where we see this issue most commonly.
CAMBRA — Caries Management By Risk Assessment Worried about tooth decay? Dental Decay is one of the most common and infectious diseases known to man, but it is also very preventable. Today, it is even possible to determine your risk for getting tooth decay. There are disease indicators and risk indicators that can be assessed and used to determine your chances of getting tooth decay. And more importantly, they can be used to prevent and reverse early decay. Essentially, the difference between healthy teeth and tooth decay is a matter of balance and keeping the balance tipped toward health. That means controlling the factors that tip it toward health and away from disease. Here’s a little about how it works: Disease indicators, as the name implies, are indicators of disease. For example, the presence of white spots on the enamel of your teeth, early signs of decay, which can be detected by your dentist, your past experience of cavities, and whether you currently have tooth decay. Today, with a “simple saliva sample,” we can test the bacteria in your mouth to determine your decay risk with a simple meter reading. There are also certain risk factors for tooth decay that you can change by modifying what you do. The ways in which you can help yourself include: - Reduce the amount of bacterial plaque (biofilm) build-up on your teeth. If plaque is actually visible on your teeth with the naked eye, it means there is a large amount that needs to be removed professionally. High levels of bacteria leave teeth more susceptible to attack from acid-producing bacteria that cause decay. - Stop snacking on foods containing sugar between meals. Reducing the number of times your teeth are exposed to sugary snacks, and those that contain high amounts of refined carbohydrates, will help lower your risk of tooth decay. Stop feeding the bacteria sugar, which is turned into acid. - Use fluoride toothpaste. This toothpaste will help strengthen your teeth, making them more resistant to acid attack. Deep grooves in the biting surfaces of your teeth, which we call pits and fissures, increase the likelihood of tooth decay making it impossible to reach with just a toothbrush. However, sealing these areas with “sealants” will prevent these areas from decaying. - Always ask your doctors about the potential side effects of all medications. Certain drugs reduce the production of saliva and lead to dry mouth, which is one of the main contributors to tooth decay. Saliva has important buffering properties, neutralizing acids in the mouth, helping to reduce risk of decay. - If you have an eating disorder, get professional help. People suffering from both bulimia and anorexia frequently vomit after meals, which creates a highly acidic condition in the mouth. Getting control over these conditions can help you also gain control over your risk for tooth decay. We can further help assess your risk for tooth decay by using low dosage x-rays, microscopes, innovative laser technology, and other modern means. Call our office today to schedule a screening. To learn more about the diagnosis and prognosis of tooth decay, read the exclusive Dear Doctor magazine article “Tooth Decay: How To Assess Your Risk.”
Phenomenology (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy): Phenomenology is the study of structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view. The central structure of an experience is its intentionality, its being directed toward something, as it is an experience of or about some object. An experience is directed toward an object by virtue of its content or meaning (which represents the object) together with appropriate enabling conditions. Visual rhetoric (Wikipedia) is the fairly recent development of a theoretical framework describing how visual images communicate meaning, as opposed to aural, verbal, or other messages. Visual rhetoric generally falls under a group of terms, which all encompass visual literacy. Purdue OWL defines visual literacy as one’s ability to “read” an image. In other words, it is one’s ability to understand what an image is attempting to communicate. This includes understanding creative choices made with the image such as coloring, shading, and object placement. This type of awareness comes from an understanding how images communicate meaning, also known as visual rhetoric. The study of visual rhetoric is different from that of visual or graphic design, in that it emphasizes images as sensory expressions of cultural meaning, as opposed to purely aesthetic consideration. Visual literacy (Wikipedia) is the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image, extending the meaning of literacy, which commonly signifies interpretation of a written or printed text. Visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures can be “read” and that meaning can be through a process of reading. Picture Superiority Effect (Wikipedia) refers to the phenomenon in which pictures and images are more likely to be remembered than words. This effect has been demonstrated in numerous experiments using different methods. It is based on the notion that “human memory is extremely sensitive to the symbolic modality of presentation of event information”. While explanations for the picture superiority effect are not concrete, they are still being debated. A Mnemonic Device, or Memory Device (Wikipedia), is any learning tech- nique that aids information retention in the human memory. Mnemonics make use of elaborative encoding, retrieval cues, and imagery as specific tools to encode any given information in a way that allows for efficient storage and retrieval. Mnemonics aid original information in becoming associated with something more meaningful—which, in turn, allows the brain to have better retention of the information. Commonly encountered mnemonics are often used for lists and in auditory form, such as short poems, acronyms, or memorable phrases, but mnemonics can also be used for other types of information and in visual or kinesetic forms. Their use is based on the observation that the human mind more easily remembers spatial, personal, surprising, physical, sexual, humorous, or otherwise “relatable” information, rather than more abstract or impersonal forms of information. Zone System Grey Scale (Wikipedia): measurements are made of individual scene elements, and exposure is adjusted based on the photographer’s knowledge of what is being metered: a photographer knows the difference between freshly fallen snow and a black horse, while a meter does not. Much has been written on the Zone System, but the concept is very simple—render light subjects as light, and dark subjects as dark, according to the photographer’s visualization. The Zone System assigns numbers from 0 through 10 to different brightness values, with 0 representing black, 5 middle gray, and 10 pure white; these values are known as zones. To make zones easily distinguishable from other quantities. Film noir (/fɪlm nwɑːr/; French pronunciation: [film nwaʁ]) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywoodcrime dramas, particularly such that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood’s classical film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key, black-and-white Discrimination based on skin color, (Wikipedia), also known as colorism or shadeism, is a form of prejudice or discrimination in which people are treated differently based on the social meanings attached to skin color.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_based_on_skin_color Colorism, a term coined by Alice Walker in 1982, is not a synonym for racism. Numerous factors can contribute to “race” (including ancestry); therefore, racial categorization does not solely rely on skin color. Skin color is only one mechanism used to assign individuals to a racial category, but race is the set of beliefs and assumptions assigned to that category. Racism is the dependence of social status on the social meaning attached to race; colorism is the dependence of social status on skin color alone. In order for a form of discrimination to be considered colorism, differential treatment must not result from racial categorization, but from the social values associated with skin color. Research has found extensive evidence of discrimination based on skin color in criminal justice, business, labor market, housing, health care, media and politics in the United States and Europe. Lighter skin tones are seen as preferable in many countries in Africa and Asia. Many studies report lower private sector earnings for racial minorities, although it is often difficult to determine the extent to which this is the result of racial discrimination.
A tunnel diode is a type of semiconductor diode which features a negative resistance on account of a quantum mechanical effect known as tunneling. In this post we will learn the basic characteristics and working of tunnel diodes, and also a simple application circuit using this device. We will see how a tunnel diode could be used for changing heat into electricity, and for charging a small battery. After a long disappearance from the semiconductor world, the tunnel diode, has been actually re-launched as a result of the fact that it could be implemented to convert heat energy into electricity. Tunnel diodes are also known as Esaki diode, named after its Japanese inventor. In the nineteen fifties and sixties, tunnel diodes were implemented in a lot of applications primarily in RF circuits, in which their extraordinary qualities were taken advantage of for producing extremely fast level sensors, oscillators, mixers, and stuff like that. How Tunnel Diode Works In contrast to a standard diode, a tunnel diode works by using a semiconductor substance that has an incredibly large doping level, leading to the depletion layer between the p -n junction to become approximately 1000 times narrower even than the fastest silicon diodes. Once the tunnel diode is forward biased, a process known as "tunnelling" of the electron flow starts happening throughout the p -n junction. "Tunnelling" in doped semiconductors is actually a method not easily understandable using conventional atomic hypothesis, and cannot perhaps be covered in this small article. Relationship between Tunnel Diode Forward Voltage and Current While testing the relationship between a tunnel diode's forward voltage, UF, and current, IF, we can find that the unit owns a negative resistance characteristic between the peak voltage, Up, and the valley voltage, Uv, as demonstrated in Fig below. Therefore, when the diode is powered within the shaded area of its IF-UF curve, the forward current comes down as the voltage goes up. The resistance of the diode is without any doubts negative, and normally presented as -Rd. The design presented in this article takes the advantage of the above quality of tunnel diodes by implementing a set of serially connected tunnel diode devices to charge a battery through solar heat (not solar panel). As observed in Figure below, seven or more Gallium-Indium Antimonide (GISp) tunnel diodes are hooked up in series and clamped over on a big heatsink, which helps prevent dissipation of their power (tunnel diodes get cooler as UF goes higher or increased). Heatsink is used to enable an effective accumulation of solar heat, or any other form of heat that may be applied, whose energy is required to be transformed into a charge current for charging the proposed Ni-Cd battery. Convert Heat to Electricity using Tunnel Diodes (Thermal Electricity) The working theory of this special configuration is actually amazingly straightforward. Imagine an ordinary, natural, resistance, R, is able to discharge a battery through a current I=V/R. which implies that a negative resistance will be able to initiate a charging process for the same battery, simply because the sign of I gets reversed, that is: -I=V/-R. In the same way, if a normal resistance allows heat dissipation by P= PR watts, a negative resistance will be able to provide the same amount of wattage into the load: P = -It-R. Whenever the load is a voltage source on its own with relatively reduced internal resistance, the negative resistance have to, certainly, generate a greater level of voltage for the charge current, Ic, to flow which is given by the formula: Ic= δ[ Σ(Uf) - Ubat] / Σ (Rd)+Rbat Referring to the annotation Σ (Rd) it is right away understood that all diodes within the string sequence have to be run inside the -Rd region, mainly because any individual diode with a +Rd characteristic might terminate the objective. Testing Tunnel Diodes To make certain that all of diodes present a negative resistance, a straightforward test circuit could be designed as revealed in the following figure. Observe that the meter should be specified to indicate the polarity of the current, because it could very well happen that a specific diode has a really excessive IP:Iv ratio (tunnel slope) causing the battery to unexpectedly charged on implementing a small forward bias. The analysis has to be performed at an atmospheric temperature below 7°C (try a cleaned out freezer), and note down the UF-IF curve for every single diode by meticulously increasing the forward bias through the potentiometer, and documenting the resulting magnitudes of IF, as displayed on the meter reading. Next, bring an FM radio close by to make certain that the diode which are being tested are not oscillating at 94.67284 MHz (Freq , for GISp at doping level 10-7). If you find this happening , the specific diode may be unsuitable for the present application. Determine the range of OF that guarantees -Rd for just about all diodes. Based on the manufacturing threshold of the diodes in the available lot, this range could be as minimal as, say, 180 to 230 mV. The electricity generated by tunnel diodes from heat can be used for charging a small Ni-Cd battery. First determine the quantity of diodes necessary for charging the battery through its minimal current: for the above selection of UF, a minimum of Seven diodes will have to be connected in series in order to provide a charging current of approximately 45 mA when they are warmed to a temperature level of: Γ [ -Σ (Rd)If][ δ (Rth-j) - RΘ].√(Td+Ta)°C Or approximately 35°C when the thermal resistance of the heatsink is no more than 3.5 K/W, and when it is installed under peak sunlight (Ta 26°C). To have the maximum efficiency out of this NiCd charger, the heatsink has to be dark-colored for the best possible heat exchange to the diodes. Additionally it must not be magnetic, considering that any kind of outside field, induced or magnetic, will cause unstable stimulation of the charge carriers within the tunnels. This may consequently bring about the unsuspecting duct effect; electrons may likely be knocked of from the p -n junction over the substrate, and thereby build up around the diode terminals, triggering maybe hazardous voltages depending on metallic housing. Several tunnel diodes Type BA7891NG are, regrettably, very sensitive to minutest magnetic fields, and tests have proven that these needs to be maintained horizontal with regards to the earth's surface for interdicting this.
Putting Therapy Into Practice Have your child(ren) help you set and clear the table. Ask your child what do we need to set the table? For example: How many plates do we need? How many cups do we need? Place the dishes, cups and utensils on the table and allow your child to set each place setting. After the meal is completed, have your child bring his/her plate to the garbage can and empty the remaining food into the trash. Then, he/she should place their plate in the sink and/or the dishwasher. You will need the following items: - a small pot - potting soil - flower seeds Give your child a cup to scoop the soil out of the bag. Fill the pot 3/4 of the way with soil. Your child can now drop a handful of seeds into the soil. Scoop one more cup of soil and place over the seeds. Moisten the soil with a cup of water. Place the pot in a sunny location inside. Make sure to save at least one seed for comparison later. You can check the pot with your child daily and talk about: - how the soil feels (wet/dry) - what the seeds need to grow? (water, sun) - what the plant looks like (big/small) - compare/contrast the seed vs. the plant (big/small, color, leaves/no leaves, flower) - how the flower smells (good/yucky) Kara’s Recommended Toy Create & Play Dinosaur Construction Set is a fun activity that can help build a child’s executive functioning skills such as working memory/short term memory, shifting attention, and inhibitory/impulse control. These kid friendly, mechanical screwdrivers, which contain 2 drill settings (forward/reverse switch), allow opportunities for problem solving during play. - Question Formation: Ask who goes now? what do you need? which one do you want? - Answering: In response to who goes now? you and your child can say I do, you do, me, you. In response to what do you need? you and your child can say I need ___, I don’t need it. In response to which one do you want? you and your child can say I want (the)___. - Turn-Taking: Encourage turn-taking with the screwdriver by saying (it’s) your turn, (it’s) my turn. - Commenting: When it’s your turn to use the screwdriver, make comments such as I am turning, I am using it, I need it, you need it, it’s loose, it’s tight, it’s fun, it’s off/on. - Problem Solving: Try to “create” a problem by talking through the situation. Depending on your child’s language skills, you can ask open ended questions such as, Which bit do I need to use? Which tool do I need to use? - National Cherry Blossom Festival through April 17th - April 9th from 1:00-9:00: Southwest Waterfront Fireworks and Festival - April 13th at 11:00: Thomas Jefferson Birthday wreath-laying ceremony - April 16th-17th: Arlington Festival of the Arts - April 23rd from 10:00-3:00: Touch a Truck in Sterling
In general the climates in Bolivia are dictated mostly by altitude not latitude. The basic weather pattern of Bolivia is the wet and the dry season, which happens at the same time country-wide. There are basically five separate climatic regions: The Andes and Altiplano, the Yungas and Chapare, the temperate valleys, the Chaco and the tropical lowlands of the upper Amazon basin. Andes and Altiplano: In the highland region, located in the western third of the country, the weather does not change too dramatically from season to season. In general it’s a cold weather region because of its geographical location and the weather patterns that affect it. It has been said that in the Andes one can experience all seasons in one day. During the night, it’s cold like Winter, in the early morning, it’s like an early Spring, during the day it’s like a hot Summer and in the late afternoon it’s like a crisp Autumn day. The weather can be hot during the winter days (May to September) but can get bitterly cold at night, and well below freezing the further south you go. During the wet season (December to March) it will be cold when it rains but can be very pleasant during the day when the sun is out and the nights can be mild. The Yungas and Chapare: The Yungas and Chapare regions are the eastern side of the Andes that are between the high Andes mountains and the upper Amazon basin. The geography for the most part is steep and rugged with a lot of jungle and whitewater rivers, which are abundant. This region is generally hot and humid and the climate does not change much during the year, except when the rains come during the wet season (December through March). During the dry season it rains less but it’s still hot and humid. The Temperate Valleys: These valleys are generally concentrated in the central and south-central part of the country have some of the most pleasant climates in the country. The geographic variety of the rolling hills and temperate climate made this region a favorite for the Spaniards during the colonial era. They characteristically don’t have the extremes temperature changes that occur daily or seasonally in other regions. The climate is mild and mediterranean-like with warm to hot days and pleasant night-time temperatures. This region is where the majority of the fruits and vegetables come from and which are distributed country-wide. The Chaco Scrub and Plains: In general the Chaco is known as the desert of Bolivia. It is generally flat with some rolling hills and valleys and a few rivers that drain the sparse landscape. Most of the plants have adapted to the very hot temperatures and low humidity that this region is known for. Short bushes, thorny branches, coarse grasses and cactus make up the majority of the plant life with a few scattered large trees. Since it’s so inhospitable few people live here and so the abundance of wildlife is varied and abundant. Hot, dusty and dry would describe the Chaco except in the rainy season when it’s hot and the dust turns to mud. Seasonal Temperatures: Once again, it depends on where you are in the country. During the dry season (the winter time) temperatures are generally colder and can be downright freezing in the highlands (and well below freezing the further south you go ) and it can be pleasant in the lowlands. The wet season (the summer time) brings hot temperatures and humid conditions to the tropics and cold and wet conditions to the highlands. In the middle altitudes (the valley region) temperatures don’t change in extremes like the highlands and lowlands. Winter has the most beautiful climate and temperatures in the valley regions. Best Seasons for Travel: There are primarily two seasons in Bolivia – the dry and the wet. The dry season is from May to October, the winter time months. The wet season is from November to April, the summer time months. It is coldest during the months of June to September and wettest from December to March. The dry season is best for travel due to the better road conditions and generally sunny skies and warm temperatures during the day. Travel to most regions of Bolivia is certainly possible year round but you must be prepared to deal with the seasonal changes (as in most countries that experience severe seasonal weather changes) and their effects on weather patterns and the subsequent roaand atmospheric conditions. The Tropical Lowlands: These regions, which make up most of the Bolivian territory are composed of the upper Amazon basin in the north and northeast regions and the Parana basin in the east and south-east region. These tropical lowlands have a variety of ecosystems and in general they are hot and humid year round. During the rainy season (December to March) the rain is constant and torrential downpours are the norm. It will rain probably everyday during the wet season and flooding is a normal part of the process. The rainforest ecosystem depends on the seasonal flooding to function normally. Hot and humid would describe the lowlands’ climate. But, there are bitterly cold winds that come up (called Surazos) from Patagonia and the Argentine pampas that can drop the temperatures 30-40 degrees for days on end. Rainfall: The wet season country-wide is from late November to late March or early April, depending on where you are geographically. The quantity of rainfall varies from region to region, but the tropics get most of the rain by far. It can rain any day of the year in the Yungas and parts of the tropics as well. The highlands get very little rain in the winter except when it snows or hails, which are more frequent in the summer – wet season.
Particulates, or particulate matter (PM), refer to any mixture of solid particles or liquid droplets that remain suspended in the atmosphere for appreciable time periods. Examples of particulates are dust and salt particles, and water and sulphuric acid droplets. The length of time a particle survives in the atmosphere depends on the balance between two processes. Gravity forces the particles to settle to the earth's surface, but atmospheric turbulence can carry the particles in the opposite direction. Under normal conditions, only particles with diameters less than 10 micrometers (μm) remain in the atmosphere long enough to be considered atmospheric particulates. In quantifying particulate matter, it is typical to give the mass of particles less than a particular size per cubic meter of air. For example, 10 μg/m3 PM2.5 means that in 1 cubic meter (m3) of air the mass of all particles with diameters less than 2.5 μm is 10 μg. Most atmospheric particulate comes from natural sources and is mainly dust or sea salt from mechanical processes such as wind erosion or wave breaking. Although most of this material is of large size and so is lost from the atmosphere by gravitational settling, many of the smaller particles can travel very long distances. For example, dust from Saharan dust storms is carried across the Atlantic Ocean and can be detected in Florida. Similarly, dust from Asia is regularly detected in Hawaii and sometimes even continental North America. Adding to the naturally produced dust is a small but often locally important contribution from the photochemical oxidation of naturally occurring gas-phase hydrocarbons, such as alpha and beta pinene, emitted by trees. These particles frequently give forested areas a hazy atmosphere. Although natural processes produce most of the atmospheric particulate on a global scale, anthropogenic processes are the source of most particulate in urban or industrial areas. The major anthropogenic sources are those that increase natural loading, such as extra dust due to agriculture or construction. However, a significant amount of particles are present in factory, power plant, and motor vehicle emissions, and produced from the reactions of anthropogenic gases present in those emissions. Primary emissions are those that are produced before being released into the atmosphere or immediately afterward. They result from condensation that follows the rapid cooling of high-temperature gases. An example is the soot that comes from diesel engines. Secondary particles are produced over a longer time period and derive from gas-phase chemical reactions that produce low-vapor-pressure (condensable) products. This process is especially important, as it produces the ultrafine particles (0.01 μm) that have been shown to be closely related to human health effects. An example is the atmospheric oxidation of sulphur dioxide to sulphuric acid, in which sulphur dioxide is a gas but sulphuric acid exists in the form of droplets. Particles are an environmental concern because they lower visibility, contribute to acid rain, and adversely affect human health. Particulate suspended in the atmosphere has diameters similar to the wavelengths of visible light, which makes it very good at scattering this light. In the presence of particulate, scattering reduces the light coming from distant objects, making it more difficult to see them. This loss of visibility is particularly important in areas that rely on clear vistas to attract tourists. Sulphur dioxide emitted from fossil fuel combustion is oxidized to particulate sulphuric acid or sulphate, which is a major component of acid rain. Particles can be a major irritant to the human bronchial and pulmonary systems. The body has natural mechanisms to limit the penetration of these particles into its sensitive areas. The nose is an effective filter for particles of greater than about three μm, and blowing the nose expels these. Smaller particles can penetrate deeper into the bronchial passages where mucous layers and small hairs called cilia catch the particles, which can then be expelled by coughing. The smallest particles, however, may penetrate all the way into the lungs. Irritation of the lung and bronchial tissue by particles prompts the body to produce mucous in self-defense, which can exacerbate existing respiratory problems such as bronchitis and asthma. There is also concern that harmful pollutants in, or attached to, the particles may be absorbed into the body. Heavy metals and carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs ) from combustion can be introduced into the body in this way. Most jurisdictions have, and are continually updating, air-quality standards for particulate matter. In 1997 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) added a new annual PM standard of 15 μg/m3 2.5 and a new 24-hour standard margin of 65 μg/m3, while retaining the annual PM10 standard of 50 μg/m3 and making minor technical changes to the 24-hour standard of 150 μg/m3. Approximately 29 million U.S. citizens live in areas that do not meet the PM10 standards, but because of the need for three years of monitoring and the requirements of the clean air act, nonattainment areas for PM2.5 have not yet been determined. The standards in most industrialized countries are similar to those in the United States. Many countries have large areas that exceed the local air-quality standards, and thus they have instituted control programs to reduce particulate levels. Fortunately, many of the strategies in place to combat smog, acidic deposition, and smoke releases are also effective in reducing particle levels. Most countries now have integrated strategies to reduce common emissions (e.g., nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons) that contribute to particulate matter, acid deposition, and smog. see also Air Pollution; Asthma; Diesel; Scrubbers; Smog; Vehicular Pollution. Finlayson-Pitts, Barbara J., and Pitts, James N. (2000). Chemistry of the Upper and Lower Atmosphere. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Donald R. Hastie
3.5 Method and Constructor References Sometimes, there is already a method that carries out exactly the action that you’d like to pass on to some other code. There is special syntax for a method reference that is even shorter than a lambda expression calling the method. A similar shortcut exists for constructors. You will see both in the following sections. 3.5.1 Method References Suppose you want to sort strings regardless of letter case. You could call Arrays.sort(strings, (x, y) -> x.compareToIgnoreCase(y)); Instead, you can pass this method expression: The expression String::compareToIgnoreCase is a method reference that is equivalent to the lambda expression (x, y) -> x.compareToIgnoreCase(y). Here is another example. The Objects class defines a method isNull. The call Objects.isNull(x) simply returns the value of x == null. It seems hardly worth having a method for this case, but it was designed to be passed as a method expression. The call removes all null values from a list. As another example, suppose you want to print all elements of a list. The ArrayList class has a method forEach that applies a function to each element. You could call list.forEach(x -> System.out.println(x)); It would be nicer, however, if you could just pass the println method to the forEach method. Here is how to do that: As you can see from these examples, the :: operator separates the method name from the name of a class or object. There are three variations: In the first case, the first parameter becomes the receiver of the method, and any other parameters are passed to the method. For example, String::compareToIgnoreCase is the same as (x, y) -> x.compareToIgnoreCase(y). In the second case, all parameters are passed to the static method. The method expression Objects::isNull is equivalent to x -> Objects.isNull(x). In the third case, the method is invoked on the given object, and the parameters are passed to the instance method. Therefore, System.out::println is equivalent to x -> System.out.println(x). You can capture the this parameter in a method reference. For example, this::equals is the same as x -> this.equals(x). 3.5.2 Constructor References Constructor references are just like method references, except that the name of the method is new. For example, Employee::new is a reference to an Employee constructor. If the class has more than one constructor, then it depends on the context which constructor is chosen. Here is an example for using such a constructor reference. Suppose you have a list of strings List<String> names = ...; You want a list of employees, one for each name. As you will see in Chapter 8, you can use streams to do this without a loop: Turn the list into a stream, and then call the map method. It applies a function and collects all results. Stream<Employee> stream = names.stream().map(Employee::new); Since names.stream() contains String objects, the compiler knows that Employee::new refers to the constructor Employee(String). You can form constructor references with array types. For example, int::new is a constructor reference with one parameter: the length of the array. It is equivalent to the lambda expression n -> new int[n]. Array constructor references are useful to overcome a limitation of Java: It is not possible to construct an array of a generic type. (See Chapter 6 for details.) For that reason, methods such as Stream.toArray return an Object array, not an array of the element type: Object employees = stream.toArray(); But that is unsatisfactory. The user wants an array of employees, not objects. To solve this problem, another version of toArray accepts a constructor reference: Employee buttons = stream.toArray(Employee::new); The toArray method invokes this constructor to obtain an array of the correct type. Then it fills and returns the array.
The term hidden hearing loss refers to people who have difficulty hearing in certain environments or have only a mild but gradual hearing loss that is undetectable with traditional hearing testing equipment. For people who suspects they have some degree of hearing loss, visiting an audiologist for a hearing exam is the first step in receiving a proper diagnosis and treatment. However, the audiogram report from hearing testing sometimes comes back normal, despite significant challenges with hearing conversation, especially in crowded environments. Hidden hearing loss can be especially frustrating because audiologists are not sure what help to offer patients when they cannot detect the problem. What Causes Hidden Hearing Loss? The inner ear contains hair cells and nerves that receive sound and send signals to the brain. Hidden hearing loss disrupts the transmission of signals, causing people not to hear certain sounds or speech at all or to interpret them incorrectly. Unfortunately, the audiology industry traditionally has not used the necessary hearing testing technology to pick up this type of hearing loss. According to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), a typical patient can lose up to 90 percent of electrical connections between the brain and inner ear before the hearing loss shows up on an audiogram. Thankfully, there is growing awareness of this phenomenon. Some of the tools audiologists currently use to help detect the nerve cell damage that causes hidden hearing loss include: - Auditory brainstem response test - Pure tone test of speech and speech reception threshold using octave band frequencies - Speech reception threshold - Words-in-noise test (WIN) - Word recognition in quiet test Another challenge with detecting hidden hearing loss is that changes take place slowly and impact the brain more than the inner ear. Brain changes associated with hearing do not always appear on standard neurological tests either. Researchers at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Center are currently conducting research to help audiologists and neurologists find a biomarker that signifies the presence of hidden hearing loss. Ongoing exposure to loud noise is the leading cause of hidden hearing loss in adults of all ages. The condition is especially common in younger adults who may not always think to protect their hearing when attending loud events such as concerts. Exposure to everyday loud noises like traffic congestions can also wear down the hair cells in the ear over time. What Are the Symptoms of Hidden Hearing Loss? People can go with undetected hidden hearing loss for several years before they realize the problem. The first indication of a potential hearing issue for many people is that they have difficulty following conversation in noisy environments such as a restaurant. A recent post by Nuheara.com describes why restaurants specifically represent such a challenge for individuals with hidden hearing loss: “Between the playing of overhead music, the whirring of kitchen equipment, the conversation of other guests, and the seating and departure of other guests, visiting a popular restaurant can be as loud as sitting near a diesel truck. At this level, even those with normal hearing can’t make out what others are trying to say.” Some application developers have responded to this situation by creating smartphone apps that allow people to look up the average decibel at a restaurant before deciding to dine there. Ringing or buzzing in the ears known as “tinnitus” is another common symptom of hidden hearing loss. Coping and Treatment Strategies Science has not yet discovered a cure for hidden hearing loss but that may happen eventually. In the meantime, people with this condition should avoid loud environments whenever possible and protect their hearing in any situation with above average noise levels. Wearing musician’s earplugs or noise-cancelling headphones can help keep sound levels more comfortable when avoiding a certain environment is not possible. People who listen to music through earbuds or headphones should turn the volume up only as high as necessary to hear at a comfortable setting. Sitting with distracting background noise behind you when eating at a restaurant can be helpful for those with this condition. Having other people sit directly in front of you also ensures the ability to see the mouths and faces of their dinner companions to make it easier to keep up with conversation. A visit to an audiologist is always in order, even if current testing equipment cannot identify the problem. Testing will at least confirm or rule out other hearing disorders such as mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss. People with that type of hearing loss usually benefit from wearing traditional hearing aids. Alternative Amplification Options for People with Hidden Hearing Loss Hearing aids have helped millions of people around the world amplify sounds and participate in social activities again, but they are not right for everyone. Many people cannot afford them due to the high out-of-pocket cost after receiving little or no insurance coverage. Those with hidden hearing loss do not benefit from traditional hearing aids because they do not transmit signals to the correct area of the brain for processing. However, there are a few companies like Blue Angels Hearing that offer its product up for sale online, directly to consumers making their products affordable compared to other brands. They offer high-quality hearing aids for an affordable price. Hearables are a new type of wireless technology that provide people with sound amplification based on their individualized hearing profile. The average cost is around $400 compared to the upper $5,000 to $6,000 range of a pair of technologically advanced hearing aids. There is a lot of excitement about the potential of so-called hearables as well as the future of “over-the-counter” hearing aids. These products will potentially work well for people with hidden hearing loss because they control intensity of incoming sound based on their current environment. For example, with some of these devices already on the market, users can adjust their earbuds at work to have better clarity with speech sounds and use the “world off” feature while driving to minimize all incoming noise. Other companies offer built-in hearing tests that accompany their earbuds, enabling the devices to adapt to the user’s personal hearing profile. Hearables represent an excellent alternative for people who would receive little benefit from hearing aids or are just not ready to commit to wearing them. Individuals with hidden hearing loss are a potential beneficiary of this technology.
Canadian youth are growing up in a time when spending is easier than ever and debt is a way of life. This problem is exacerbated by hectic family schedules, leaving parents with little time to teach their children about money management. Limited resources in schools mean that they are also not able to teach students critical financial skills that will keep them out of debt and help them succeed in life. Personal Finance teaches students personal money management skills including the key elements of personal finance such as spending wisely, budgeting, saving, investing and using credit. Program volunteers employ interactive lessons to boost students’ self-confidence, so they can apply their new knowledge to their lives immediately. By the end of the program, students will have a personal finance plan and clear goals for their financial security. Like other JA programs, Personal Finance is curriculum-linked, student-centered and skills-focused.
The scientists conducted a study and found out what would happen if our planet stopped rotating or slowed down its course. According to the researchers, life on the planet will immediately cease, and the oceans will merge, forming only two: the Southern Ocean at one pole, and the North Ocean – on the other. All objects that are on the planet will fly eastward at a speed of 1,300 km. And the maximum speed will be observed at the equator. Scientists also note that people, objects and oceans will merge into a huge tsunami. Their engine will be a hurricane, which is formed at a time when the atmosphere will continue to rotate over the stopped surface. Researchers assure that at this moment on Earth the real end of the world will come. It will be accompanied by constant eruptions of volcanoes. The shape of the Earth will be absolutely round, and the weather on one side will be constantly hot, and on the other – always cold.
The aim of this experiment is to study automatic and controlled processes by replicating the previously carried out Stroop effect. This paper investigates if colour related words have a effect on automatic and controlled processes. Previous research into the subject have revealed that recognition of colour named words will have the desired effect. The experiment was conducted by recruiting 20 participants aged between 18-68. Two lists of words were presented to the participants, one list of colour-associated words and another ink colour neutral words, they were timed and the data recorded for length taken in identifying the colour of each word. The results found that it took longer to identity colour associated words then neutral ink coloured words. This would indicated automatic processes have an effect on controlled processes and unconscious semantic processing were taking place. The Stroop effect theory was first put across in 1935 by the scientist J. Ridley Stroop. The effect has been detailed as a demonstration of interference, in which the brain experiences slowed processing time because it is trying to sort through conflicting information and degrades the performance. The Stroop effect is a test on the reaction time of a task. When the name of a colour (e.g “Yellow”) is printed in its colour and not denoted by the name, naming the colour of the word takes longer and is more prone to errors than when the colour of the ink matches the name of the colour. This is because the brain is trying to conceal the input from the printed words in order to focus on the colour of the words. A explanation for the Stroop effect is that the subjects have automated the process of reading. In turn the colour names of the words are always processed very quickly, regardless of the colour of the ink. On the other hand, identifying colours is not a task that observers have to report on very often, and because it is not automated and is slower. The selected words themselves have a strong influence over your ability to say the colour. The interference between the different information,(what the word say and what the are are) your brain receives causes confusion. Two theories have been put forward which may explain the Stroop effect, these are Speed of Processing Theory and Selective Attention Theory. Speed of Processing is the interference which occurs because words are read faster than colours are identified. Selective Attention is the interference which occurs because identifying colours requires more attention than reading words. Stroop had described the complication in identifying ink colours colour named words. He cited that the identity of the colour words were interfering with the perception of ink coloured word. Richard Shiffrin and Walter Schneider, two scientists construed that reading is a automatic process and can be a unconscious action and so intrudes on an frequent procedure. Shiffrin, R. M. & Schneider, W. (1977). Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. p130. This report details a modified version of the original experiment to investigate the Stroop effect, that being the interference of a controlled process by the use an automatic process. Schneider and Schiffrin, offer researched evidence that automatic processes are less persistent on the attention capacity and processing resources than conscious processes are. These lead to believe that, automatic and controlled processes are operating simultaneously. Shiffrin and Schneider identified certain basic properties of the automatic processes, these were they are virtually free of capacity limitations, they operate simultaneously, require detailed training, are hard to “unlearn”, and are unrealised actions. Reading is such a procedure, it takes a great amount of practice but eventually becomes automatic. The hypothesis for this experiment is to re run the Stroop effect, and to appraise the encroachment of automatic, unconscious semantic processing.In this variation of the Stroop effect however, the experimental conditions that will be employed is a list of colour-related words (e.g. “Sky”, “Blood”). The control condition will display a list of neutral ink coloured words (“Sty”, “Blame”). The words in the list in Stroop condition describe things that are defined by their colour and do not intrinsically refer to colours themselves. The prediction is that the experimental hypothesis will be the time taken to identify the ink colours of a list of colour related words will be longer than that of the control list of neutral words. The null hypothesis for the experiment is that there will not be a difference in time for the completion of the two lists. Word Count: 600 There were two independent variables represented by the word lists printed in various colours. One list consisted of associated names, for example “blood” was the colour “yellow” rather than “red”. The second independent variable was the other list of colour ink neutral words. The dependent variable was the time it took to identify the ink colours of the words. The number of errors in identification was also recorded. All timings recorded were to the nearest second. condition 1 was the “Stroop” condition, condition 2 was the controlled condition. No alteration was made to the independent variables, meaning the design is parallel between the values of the dependent variables obtained from condition 1 and condition 2 for each participant. 4 participants volunteered to take part in the study(excluding OU present data). The participants were recruited from Brighton University, they consisted of Staff and Students. The participants consisted of 2 females and 2 males between the ages of 18 and 68. All participants were educated to A-Level standard or higher, fully competent in English. None of the participants suffered from any visual impairment or colour blindness. 1 Participants wore glasses. A stopwatch accurate to the nearest second was used to time how long it took each participant to complete the task. The visual stimuli present in each condition consisted a list of 6 individual words, the words were replicated 5 times completing a total list of 30 words. The words were displayed in two columns 15 to each, all on A4 paper. The colours were randomly distributed between the words on both lists. All words were printed on white matt paper. Before the experiment began the participants were informed they would be participating in a experiment psychological study understanding cognitive processes and they have the right to withdraw at any time. All participants were informed that their details would be anonymous. They were handed consent form to read through and if they were happy with the information and too be involved with the experiment to give their consent and sign the form. Participants were individually invited to sit at a desk in a quiet, well lit unused room and were asked to read a set of instructions which were placed on desk in front of them. The lists was also place faced face down on the desk with two blank sheets of paper obscuring anything the participants might be able to see through the back of the lists. There was also a set of instruction explain the procedure for guiding them through the experiment Each participant received the same instructions. When they were ready the participant would indicate, remove the blank sheet and turn over the first list(condition 1) from which the stopwatch watch was simultaneously started. The stopwatch was used to record the time it took them to complete the list. The stopwatch was stopped when the participant completed reading the list and time take was recorded. The list was turned back over and re-covered. A two minuted interval was assign between lists, after this interval was over the same procedure was conducted with the seconded list. On completion of the second list and time recorded, the participant was informed about the reasons behind the experiment and why they may have recorded different time in each condition. All participants asked what their time was in each condition. Participants data was only shared with themselves and not with other participants. No participants withdrew from the experiment. The study was conducted in compliances with the British Psychology Society’s Code of Ethics and Conduct. Word Count: 606 The time it took for participant completing each condition was measured to the nearest second. The times taken by each of the 20 participants to complete the two conditions is shown in data set table which can be found in Appendices 1. The research hypothesis was that participants will take longer to complete Stroop effect condition then the controlled condition. From the data, the mean time in seconds for condition 1 is 25.15 seconds, whilst that for condition 2 is 22.95 seconds, 2.2 seconds less. From this it would suggest that the results meet the research hypothesis. From analysing the data its shows that the naming of ink colour for colour-related words were indeed longer than for neutral-related words. Word Count: 119 I can conclude that from analysing the results that they support the psychological research, conducted by J. Stroop, in which that it will take longer for a participant to name the ink coloured associated words (condition 1), then it will take the exact same participant to name the ink coloured neutral words (condition 2). The null hypothesis, that there will be no difference, was rejected. This conclusion supports findings from previous research done by Stroop, Schneider and Schiffrin into the interference effects between automatic and controlled processes. The results displayed a increase in the time taken to read the colour-related words over the neutral words and backs up the experimental hypothesis of this study. However the experiment was small scale and the data used was limited. Stroop used 100 participant in the original experiment and recorded more then a 60% increase in the time taken to identify the ink colours of the colour named words. The reason behind the smaller increase in this experiment could be linked to design differences. Stroop used coloured squares instead of the neutral words as the control condition. It is possible to conceive that the neutral words used in the current experiment were themselves a assistance . An altered experiment using colour squares as an additional condition could resolve this observation. In conclusion, the results gathered generate wider support to the suggestion that automatic processes have an effect on controlled processes. With further research it might be of interest to investigate from a Neuropsychological position, using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to check for any new brain activity involved when carrying out automatic processors against controlled processors. Other research maybe also be carried out in areas of automatic and controlled processes for example investigating the emotional state of participants in controlled conditions. Word Count: 462 Total Word Count: 1958 Edgar, G (2007) Perception and attention. In D. Miell, A. Phoenix, & K.Thomas (Eds.), Mapping Psychology, 10-50). Miltion Keynes: The Open University. MacLeod, C.M. (1991). Half a century of research on the stroop effect: An integrative review., 109, 520-553. Schmit,V. & Davis, R. (1974). The role of hemispheric specialisation in the analysis of Stroop stimuli.Act Psychological, 38, 150-160. Warren, L.R. & Marsh, G.R. (1979). Hemispheric asymmetry in the processing of Stroop stimuli Shiffrin, R. M. & Schneider, W. (1977). Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending, and a general theory. Psychological Review, 84, 127-190.
Have you ever experienced those nights where you toss and turn and can’t seem to… 4 Ways to Improve Your Memory Try some of these neuroscientist-approved ways to improve your memory. The Center for Teaching & Learning at UC Berkeley explains that the brain processes information in three steps: encoding (learning new information), storage (keeping information), and retrieval (remembering information you’ve already stored). To encode new information and retrieve it more easily: - Talk with your hands. A study published in Frontiers of Psychology found that retelling stories or facts with gestures may help you remember them more easily. Your brain makes a connection between the movement and the words you speak, helping you retrieve the information. - Color your world. The Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences published a study that discovered memories were easier to recall when colors were included. You can try writing lists and notes on bright paper or making objects you’re likely to forget a vivid color. - Create a story. The brain makes connections between information, so use that to your advantage. Connect new information, like a person’s name, to something familiar. For example, if a person’s name is Taylor, imagine that person working as a tailor. - Say it again. Repeating information aloud gives your brain more opportunities to make the same connection, according to Harvard Health. The more often you make those connections, the easier the information becomes to retrieve from memory. Have concerns about your memory function? Specialists at Carson Tahoe Behavioral Health Services can help.
In plasma cutting the cutting height is controlled by the arc voltage with the arc voltage being proportional to the distance between the cutting torch and the workpiece. The voltage varies by about 3 volts per millimetre so for example at a cutting height of 3 mm the arc voltage is 9 V. The operating voltage is, however, set at 110 volts. With an applied voltage of 101 volts the torch would touch the plate and with 119 volts the torch would be at a distance of 6 mm . When you cut, for example, with settings of 100 Amps and 110 volts, the circuit resistance can be shown to be 1.1 ohms using Ohm's Law (R = V / I) . Imagine a cutting operation where one of the following is true; the workpiece is not lying flat on the table, the table is not properly earthed, a worn torch tip need to be changed or the work piece has been already repeatedly cut. All of these will affect the resistance in the plasma circuit. In my example just a change of 0.1 ohms will mean a change in voltage of 10 volts. Practical experience shows that the these variations in voltage can be up to 15 volts. This is where "cutting height mode" becomes of real interest because with this method it does not matter how big the difference is. Here we are setting the height and measuring the operating voltage. It always guarantees an exact cutting height and a consistently accurate cut.
Firefly is a new mission to study lightning and gamma rays with CubeSats, small satellites in the shape of a cube. Click on image for full size Image Courtesy of NASA/GSFC Small Satellite Takes on Large Thunderstorms News story originally written on November 17, 2008 Scientists and students have designed a new satellite called Firefly. This satellite is the size of a loaf of bread and is designed to help solve the mystery of terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs). TGFs are short, powerful bursts of gamma rays sent into space from Earth's upper atmosphere. Scientists think the gamma rays are released by electrons which travel at or near the speed of light until they are slowed down by atoms in the upper atmosphere. This process might have connections with some lightning and thunderstorms on Earth. Scientists know that lightning builds up electric charges at the top of thunder clouds, and this can create a large electric field between the tops of clouds and the outer layer of the atmosphere. But they are trying to learn more about how this process can create TGFs. Firefly will carry instruments that detect gamma-rays and lightning. Students will be involved in all aspects of the project, including design, development, testing, mission operations, and data analysis. Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store! Learn about Earth and space science, and have fun while doing it! The games section of our online store includes a climate change card game and the Traveling Nitrogen game You might also be interested in: Satellites in the 1960's looked for a type of light called Gamma Rays. They found bursts of Gamma Rays coming from outer space! They can't hurt you. They are stopped by the Earth's atmosphere. We have...more Lightning is the coolest thing about a thunderstorm. In fact, it is how thunderstorms got their name. Wait a minute, what does thunder have to do with lightning? Well, lightning causes thunder. Lightning...more Thunderstorms are one of the most exciting and dangerous types of weather. Over 40,000 thunderstorms happen around the world each day. Thunderstorms form when very warm, moist air rises into cold air....more Cumulonimbus clouds belong to the Clouds with Vertical Growth group. They are also known as thunderstorm clouds. A cumulonimbus cloud can grow up to 10km high. At this height, high winds make the top...more Scientists have learned that Mount Hood, Oregon's tallest mountain, has erupted in the past due to the mixing of two different types of magma. Adam Kent, a geologist at Oregon State University, says this...more The Earth's mantle is a rocky, solid shell that is between the Earth's crust and the outer core. The mantle is made up of many different reservoirs that have different chemical compositions. Scientists...more Some faults look strong and like they wouldn’t cause an earthquake. But it turns out that they can slip and slide like weak faults causing earthquakes. Scientists have been looking at one of these faults...more
Making healthy food choices is never easy. It is made more challenging by the fact that some foods that appear to be a smart choice may be less healthy than you think. Often, prepackaged fruits and vegetables contain added sugar, fat or salt, making them less healthy than eating them fresh. Consumption of these foods can also make it less likely that people – especially children – will eat fresh fruits and vegetables when they are available. Here are some examples of foods that may appear to be healthy but, upon closer examination, turn out to be less nutritious than we might think. Fruit snacks: These gummy fruit treats are a favorite among kids. If you check the package you will probably see that they contain real fruit or fruit juice, so they must be healthy, right? While there is variation among different brands, in most cases these snacks contain little, if any, actual fruit. If you read the ingredients you will see that they do contain lots of added sugar, meaning that many of these snacks are essentially candy. In fact, if you compare some brands of fruit snacks with something that is easily recognized as candy, such as gummy bears, you will see that they have a similar sugar content. Fruit drinks: Not everything that looks like fruit juice is actually juice. Take Sunny D for example. This popular orange drink contains mostly sugar and water – and only 5 percent juice. By contrast, real orange juice contains fewer calories and more vitamins per serving. In fact, if you compare the ingredients and nutrition information, Sunny D is essentially orange soda without the bubbles! There are two problems with this. First, some foods that appear to be healthy because they either claim to or actually do contain fruit are actually less healthy than we might believe. Considering that fruit snacks and fruit drinks are likely to be consumed as alternatives to real fruit juice or a piece of fruit as a snack, these foods could lead to poor nutrition. This is especially true in children. Second, sweetness is one of the most important tastes we respond to. Consuming food and beverages that are flavored like fruit but are actually much sweeter may make real fruit less palatable. Again, this is especially true for children who may develop an expectation that strawberries should taste like strawberry-flavored fruit snacks or that orange juice should taste as sweet as Sunny D. These kids are likely to prefer the sugar-sweetened version over the real fruit. Since these sugar-sweetened “fruits” tend to be higher in calories, consumption of these foods is one contributor to childhood obesity. This isn’t just the case with fruit. Adding salt and sauces to vegetables makes them more flavorful, to the point that many of us don’t eat plain vegetables very often. The majority of potatoes are consumed in the form of French fries, loaded with both fat and salt. This has changed how we expect potatoes to taste so that now we typically eat baked potatoes “loaded” with butter, sour cream, cheese or bacon. When was the last time you ate a plain baked potato? But there are some simple steps you can take to get back to eating real fruit and vegetables. Look for 100 percent fruit juice or, better yet, a piece of fruit instead of fruit-flavored drinks. Instead of sugar-sweetened fruit snacks, try dehydrated fruit. Cut back on the salt, butter, and other toppings you add to vegetables or purchase frozen vegetables without added sauces. Brian Parr, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Exercise and Sports Science at USC Aiken where he teaches courses in exercise physiology, nutrition and health behavior. He is a member of the American College of Sports Medicine and is an ACSM certified clinical exercise specialist; his research focuses on physical activity in weight management and the impact of the environment on activity and diet. Parr lives in Aiken with his wife, Laura, and sons Noah, Owen and Simon. Notice about comments: Aiken Standard is pleased to offer readers the enhanced ability to comment on stories. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point.
Recently there has been an outbreak of Canine Parvo Virus in the Northern Rivers. You may have read about this in the local newspapers or on the Interwebs, Faceplant and such. In reality, Parvo is seen constantly in the Northern Rivers (especially in spring-summer), while Feline Enteritis pops up sporadically with nasty epidemics. Both these viral diseases are devastating in their effects on dogs and cats respectively. They are highly contagious and have a high mortality rate, even with very intensive treatment. Both these diseases are also included in the regular vaccines recommended by Vets for all domestic dogs and cats. While vaccines are never 100% effective due to all sorts of factors, nearly all of the cases reported are in unvaccinated animals, or animals that have not completed their vaccine course for one reason or another (e.g puppies and kittens, immune-compromised animals etc). So what are these diseases? Well, both are caused by a family of viruses called Parvo Viruses. ‘Parvo’ means ‘small’. These viruses are common across various species and cause a multitude of diseases. Feline Enteritis is actually a parvo virus disease as well. It’s also known as Feline Parvo, or Feline Panleukopaenia. The ‘panleukopaenia’ refers to the destruction of the immune system’s white blood cells in the affected animals. This is also a feature of Canine Parvo infection. A feature of Parvo Virus disease in both dogs and cats is a devastating gastro-enteritis with severe vomiting and diarrhoea. Dogs particularly develop a foul haemorraghic diarrohea in huge quantities. This is accompanied by severe depression, fever and abdominal pain in many cases. Not all animals develop diarrhoea, and kittens and pups sometimes just die suddenly after a brief period of depression and shock. Because the virus in both species also wipes out the animals’ immune system, the treatment becomes even more complicated. Death can be from shock, dehydration and blood loss, as well as septicaemia from secondary bacteria, or all of the above. Animals need IV fluids, antibiotics, plasma, blood transfusions, hospital isolation and a raft of other interventions if they are to survive. In general, young animals less than 6 months of age are the most severely affected, although any age is at risk. Purebred dogs are more at risk than crosses. The virus is very hardy as well. Canine Parvo can survive a year in the environment, and Feline Parvo for many years! So direct contact with infected animals is not necessary for infection. Prevention is by routine vaccination, with attention to worming and general health also important. That’s it really. Contact your Vet and get the correct information, and if your pet is not up-to-date with vaccination, get it sorted ASAP. I remember working in England in the early 80s dealing with a raging Parvo epidemic before vaccinations were widely available. Believe me, you don’t want to see that sort of thing here. I promise I’ll write about something more cheery next time! Bye now, Evan Kosack (Lennox Head Vet Clinic )
This week we have been learning facts about the planets in our solar system by listening to a brilliant song ' This is our solar system'. In their chatty chums pairs the children wrote fact sheets about each planet. Then they had a go at designing their own planets and writing about the features. They had to include the weather, temperature, size and specific features of their planet. The children were very engaged in this work and produced some really good writing. We have started putting together a display in the classroom and the children have started bringing in books and posters to link with the theme. Their home learning this term is to make a rocket and we will be displaying them in this space. Happy making!
The sun shines for free, so why doesn't everything run off solar power? One roadblock is silicon. It's one of the key materials in solar panels, and it's costly. But using other materials could cut that cost and power renewable energy in the future. Semi-conductors like silicon, when combined with other materials, become good conductors of electricity. But silicon is expensive to process and mass produce. And demand for solar grade silcon is so high that silcon suppliers are having a hard time keeping up. This has caused the price of silicon to go up significantly in the last few years. Researchers have studied 23 potential semiconducting materials that might replace silicon. Of those, a dozen are abundant enough for use on a massive scale to make solar power. And most of those raw materials are cheaper to process and mass produce than traditional crystalline silicon. The goal of the research is to meet consumer demand cheaply, while using materials that are plentiful, non-toxic and cheap to process.
Five Standards for Effective Teaching How to Succeed With All Students, Grades K-8Book - 2008 An acclaimed, research-based framework for promoting excellence Based on a proven instructional model distilled over years of research, this book focuses on five essential pedagogy standards for guiding teaching practice in classrooms with diverse students, including English learners. Providing key indicators for each standard along with the theoretical rationale and "best practice" strategies, the book offers teachers invaluable guidance for enhancing language, literacy, thinking, and content learning across the curricula. It also provides advice on creating classroom groupings for differentiating lessons and activities and includes extensive examples of practices from real-life classrooms. Stephanie Stoll Dalton, Ed.D., has taught diverse students from first to twelfth grade, community college, and as a teacher educator. She has consulted widely on teacher quality. She is currently with the U.S. Department of Education Baker & Taylor Presents five pedagogy standards for teaching in diverse classrooms along with strategies on ways to create classroom groupings for differentiating lessons and activites and guidance on increasing language, literacy, thinking, and content learning. Currently with the U.S. Dept. of Education, Dalton has taught diverse students from first to twelfth grade, community college, and as a teacher educator, and has also consulted widely on teacher quality. She describes five standards for effective teaching--their rationale, theory, indicators, and supporting research; provides examples of their implementation from real K-8 classrooms; and explains how standards guide teaching and build classroom compatibility to support all students' academic success. For pre- service and practicing teachers, teacher educators, administrators, teacher professional developers, and others interested in effective classroom teaching, particularly with diverse and at-risk students. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Your students will learn about the Winter Olympics while practicing math concepts. The packet includes worksheets and a board game with 27 playing cards and answer key. 16 pages. Packet activity concepts include: Temperature – Fahrenheit and Celsius Graphing – Tally and Line Graph Addition and Subtraction Place Value with Base Ten Block

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