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As summer temperatures continue to rise, heat waves are becoming more frequent and intense. These extreme weather events can be dangerous, and it's crucial to take precautions to stay safe and healthy. Here are some essential tips on things to avoid during a heat wave to protect yourself and your loved ones.
Avoid Excessive Outdoor Activities
One of the most critical things to avoid during a heat wave is engaging in excessive outdoor activities, especially during the peak heat hours, typically from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. When the sun is scorching, strenuous activities like jogging, hiking, or even yard work can lead to heat-related illnesses. Instead, plan outdoor activities during the cooler morning or evening hours to reduce the risk of heat exhaustion or heatstroke.
Don't Underestimate Dehydration
Dehydration is a serious concern during a heat wave. Avoid drinking alcohol, caffeine, or sugary beverages, as they can contribute to dehydration. Opt for water or electrolyte-rich drinks to stay properly hydrated. Remember that even if you don't feel thirsty, your body may still need fluids, so drink regularly throughout the day.
Heat waves can put extra stress on your body, so it's crucial to avoid overexertion. If you have to do physical work or exercise, pace yourself and take frequent breaks in the shade or a cool indoor environment. Listen to your body; if you start feeling lightheaded, dizzy, or overly fatigued, it's time to rest and cool down.
Do Not Leave Children or Pets in Hot Cars
Leaving children or pets in hot cars is incredibly dangerous and potentially deadly. The temperature inside a parked car can soar rapidly, even on moderately warm days. Never leave anyone, especially vulnerable individuals like children or pets, unattended in a vehicle during a heat wave. Always double-check the backseat before exiting your car to ensure no one is left behind.
Avoid Direct Sun Exposure
Prolonged exposure to direct sunlight can lead to sunburn, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke. To protect yourself, seek shade whenever possible, wear lightweight, loose-fitting clothing, and use sunscreen with a high SPF rating. Don't forget to wear a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses to shield your face and eyes from harmful UV rays.
Don't Ignore Warning Signs of Heat-Related Illnesses
Heat-related illnesses, such as heat exhaustion and heatstroke, can strike quickly during a heat wave. Don't ignore warning signs like excessive sweating, rapid pulse, nausea, dizziness, or confusion. If you or someone you're with exhibits these symptoms, it's essential to cool down immediately by moving to a cooler place, drinking water, and seeking medical help if necessary.
Avoid Hot Meals
During a heat wave, your body is already working hard to stay cool. Avoid hot, heavy meals, as they can increase your internal body temperature. Opt for light, cold meals like salads, fruits, and sandwiches to help keep your body temperature down.
Don't Rely Solely on Fans
While fans can provide some relief, they are not as effective when the heat is extreme. Avoid relying solely on fans to cool your living space. Instead, use air conditioning or consider visiting air-conditioned public places like malls, libraries, or community centers to escape the heat.
Surviving a heat wave requires mindfulness and precaution. By avoiding excessive outdoor activities, staying hydrated, and taking steps to keep cool, you can protect yourself and your loved ones from the dangers of extreme heat. Remember that heat-related illnesses are preventable, so follow these tips to stay safe and comfortable during even the hottest summer days.
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The latest news from academia, regulators
research labs and other things of interest
Posted: Nov 13, 2015
High durability and efficiency of perovskite solar cells
(Nanowerk News) A research group led by Dr. Liyuan Han, Director of the Photovoltaic Materials Unit, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), improved the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of perovskite solar cells to over 16% while employing cells that were greater than 1 cm2. The high efficiency cells also passed the durability test (exposure to AM 1.5G 100 mW/cm2 sunlight for 1,000 hours), which is considered to be a basic criterion for practical use. These achievements were made by replacing the conventional organic materials with inorganic materials as the electron and hole extraction layers of the solar cells.
Left: Distribution of power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) obtained from the perovskite solar cells fabricated by the research group. Right: Results of continuous exposure of perovskite solar cells to solar light (light intensity: 100 mW/cm2). The black line represents cells that were not exposed to light while the red line represents cells that were exposed to light.
There are high expectations for perovskite solar cells as they may be produced at lower cost than silicon solar cells. However, high efficiency perovskite solar cells have often been reached with poor stability and small area typically less than 0.1 cm2. As such a small device size is prone to induce measurement errors, an obligatory minimum cell area of >1 cm2 is required for certified PCEs to be recorded in the standard “Solar Cell Efficiency Tables” that allows the comparison of competing technologies. Therefore, in order to realize practical use of perovskite solar cells, it is urgent to conduct studies using larger cells and attain more reliable PCEs.
To solve these issues, the research group first replaced the conventional organic materials with robust inorganic materials for use in electron and hole extraction layers. Because these layers fabricated with inorganic metal oxide materials have high electrical resistance, it was necessary to reduce the thickness of the layers to several nanometers (nm). However, as the area of these thin layers increases, the occurrence of defects called pinholes also increases, leading to decreased PCEs.
To deal with this problem, the research group increased the electrical conductivity of these layers by more than 10 times through heavily doping in both electron and hole extraction layers. In this way, the group successfully fabricated layers that have fewer pinholes over wide areas and are applicable at thicknesses of up to 10 to 20 nm. Using these layers, a PCE of 16% was repeatedly attained while employing cells that were greater than 1 cm2.
Furthermore, the use of inorganic materials both in electron and hole extraction layers contributed to the control of PCE reduction within 10% even after undergoing 1,000 hours of continuous exposure to sunlight at an intensity of 1 sun, demonstrating outstanding reliability.
Based on these results, the group aims to develop more efficient light absorbing material capable of utilizing a greater amount of sunlight and precisely control the interfaces in the devices, for achieving higher PCEs and stability.
This study was conducted under the research topic “Device physics of dye-sensitized solar cells” in the research area “Creative research for clean energy generation using solar energy (research supervisor: Masafumi Yamaguchi, Principal Professor, Toyota Technological Institute)” as part of the Strategic Basic Research Programs (specifically the CREST program) sponsored by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).
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Every time astronomers announce the discovery of a new interstellar wonder or a distant exoplanet, one question always arises — how far away is it? It doesn’t matter that the answer is invariably such a huge number that our primitive mammalian brains can scarcely comprehend. Generally, we just need to know if it’s very far or really far. However, figuring out how far away these objects are isn’t as easy as you think. Things get weird when dealing with the immense distances between stars and galaxies.
There are several ways that scientists can determine how far away something is from our little blue globe. We can’t bounce a signal off things like you would on Earth with rangefinder devices — we’re talking about light years here! The method used depends on how far away the object is. For something in our own galactic neighborhood, it’s a (relatively) simple geometry problem. By looking at an object one day, then again six months later, we can see the apparent difference in location — that is, a measurement of parallax. Since we know how large the Earth’s orbit around the Sun is, a little basic math (admittedly with very big numbers) gives us a distance.
That’s all well and good for objects that are 400 light years or less from Earth, but any farther and there isn’t enough change in the parallax to get a good reading on distance. So how about the rest of the galaxy? The European Space Agency undertook an ambitious project in the late 1980s to advance the science of precision astronomy to solve this problem. The ESA launched a satellite called Hipparcos, which was designed to determine the distance of thousands of nearby stars using the parallax method.
Using all that data, astronomers were able to take into account the apparent brightness of each star based on its type. So for each of these several thousand stars, they knew how bright it was supposed to be, how bright it appeared from Earth, and how far away it was. Put that all together, and you get a scale by which you can calculate the distance to stars more than 400 light years away based on their brightness — essentially a standard candle. The final Hipparcos catalogue filled in a lot of weak spots in interstellar distance measurements.
When trying to get a distance for something well outside our galaxy, things get even more fuzzy. The farther you get out of the scale determined by exact parallax measurements, the less sure you can be of the results. This is when astronomers often turn to Cepheid variable stars. These stars are usually 4-20 times more massive than the sun and more than 100,000 times brighter. A Cepheid contains unusually high levels of ionized helium which causes a pulsation that cycles over a period of days or weeks.
These stars are vital in knowing how far away other objects are because the length of the pulsation period relates exactly to the actual brightness of the star. So by looking at the period of pulsation and comparing that to the apparent brightness from Earth, astronomers can figure out how far away a Cepheid variable star is without any other landmarks. Once you have these points of reference (we’ve found a few thousand so far), they become a network of distance markers spread across the universe. The distance to other stuff up there can be estimated to a high degree of accuracy by noting where they are in relation to Cepheid variable stars.
There are a few other ways astronomers can estimate distance, but they follow the same basic rules. See? It’s not as simple as looking through a telescope.
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|Skip Navigation Links|
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|Compartmented Mode Workstation Labeling: Encodings Format Oracle Solaris 11.1 Information Library|
The establishment of hierarchies among words is an extremely important feature of the translation software, because the software enforces that two words in the same hierarchy cannot appear together in a label. The software infers a hierarchy between two words W1 and W2 whenever both of the following two conditions are true: 1) if the bits explicitly specified for W1 includes all of the bits explicitly specified for W2, and 2) if the values of the bits specified for W1 dominates the values of the same bits for W2, with unspecified bits in W2 taken to be 0. The following series of examples highlights these concepts.
Example 8-3 shows the encoding of two normal words in a hierarchy, with word5 hierarchically above word4. This is the most common way to encode a hierarchy of normal words, with 1) the words in decreasing hierarchical order and 2) without any 0 bits explicitly encoded (using a ~). It is unnecessary to explicitly specify that for word4 bit 4 must be 0 (using ~4) because bit 4 was not specified as 1 in the initial marking bits. Note that if bit 4 is not specified as 0 for word4, that word4 must appear after word5 in the encodings. If the order of the two words were reversed, a label with bits 3 and 4 as 1 would have word4 shown in the human-readable label, because although both the word4 and word5 bits match the internal format, word4 would be encountered first by the translation software.
Example 8-3 Two Normal Words in a Hierarchy
name= word5; markings= 3 4; name= word4; markings= 3;
Example 8-4 is identical to the above example, except it demonstrates that while the ~4 is not necessary, it is a valid alternative representation. Note that bit 4 is not an inverse bit, and therefore need not be specified as 1 in the initial marking bits.
Example 8-4 Normal Words Alternative Representation
name= word5; markings= 3 4; name= word4; markings= 3 ~4;
Example 8-5 is identical to the above example, but has the order of the words reversed. This example works properly because the ~4 is present. As above, note that bit 4 is not an inverse bit, and therefore need not be specified as 1 in the initial marking bits.
Example 8-5 Normal Words Reversed Order
name= word4; markings= 3 ~4; name= word5; markings= 3 4;
Example 8-6 shows a hierarchy of inverse words, with word12 above word13 in the hierarchy. In this example, both bits 3 and 4 are inverse bits, and are specified as 1 in the initial marking bits.
Example 8-6 Hierarchy of Inverse Words
name= word12; markings= 3 ~4; name= word13; markings= ~3 ~4;
Example 8-7 does not represent any hierarchy between the two words. Bit 4 is an inverse bit, and is specified as 1 in the initial marking bits. Word12 is not in a hierarchy above word13 because the bits specified for word12 (3) do not include those specified for word13 (3 and 4). Word13 is not in a hierarchy above word12 because the values of the bits specified for word13 (1 and 1 for bits 3 and 4, respectively) do not dominate the values of the same bits for word12 (1 and 0, with the 0 for bit 4 implicitly assumed).
Example 8-7 No Hierarchy
name= word12; markings= 3; name= word13; markings= ~3 ~4;
It is always possible to specify all bits involved in hierarchies (leaving no bits implicitly 0). Allowing bits to be implicitly assumed to be 0, as the the first example above, is a convenience that can be used only for hierarchies—or portions of hierarchies—involving normal bits. If an inverse bit appears in a word in a hierarchy, all words above that word in the hierarchy must have the inverse bit explicitly specified.
Appendix B, Annotated Sample Encodings contains the following examples of information label words in hierarchies: CC, SB, bravo1, bravo2, bravo3, bravo4, B, alpha1, alpha2, alpha3, A, all eyes, p1 eyes only, p2 eyes only, WNINTEL, NOFORN, REL CNTRY1, REL CNTRY2, and REL CNTRY3. Appendix B, Annotated Sample Encodings also contains a graphical representation of the hierarchical relationships among these words.
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Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful tool in various fields, and one area where it is making significant strides is in environmental risk assessment and disaster management. The ability of AI to process vast amounts of data and analyze complex patterns has revolutionized the way we approach these critical issues. By harnessing the power of AI, we can now better understand and mitigate environmental risks, as well as respond more effectively to natural disasters.
One of the key roles of AI in environmental risk assessment is its ability to analyze large datasets. Traditional methods of risk assessment often rely on manual data collection and analysis, which can be time-consuming and prone to human error. AI, on the other hand, can process massive amounts of data in a fraction of the time, allowing for more accurate and comprehensive risk assessments. By analyzing data from various sources such as satellite imagery, weather sensors, and historical records, AI algorithms can identify patterns and trends that humans may overlook. This enables us to better understand the potential risks associated with climate change, deforestation, pollution, and other environmental factors.
In addition to data analysis, AI also plays a crucial role in predicting and forecasting natural disasters. By analyzing historical data and real-time information, AI algorithms can generate accurate predictions about the likelihood and intensity of events such as hurricanes, floods, and wildfires. This information is invaluable for disaster management agencies, as it allows them to make informed decisions about evacuation plans, resource allocation, and emergency response strategies. AI-powered predictive models can help save lives and minimize the impact of natural disasters on communities.
Furthermore, AI can assist in the early detection of environmental risks and provide real-time monitoring. For example, AI algorithms can analyze satellite imagery to detect illegal deforestation activities or identify areas at risk of wildfires. By alerting authorities to these risks in real-time, AI enables prompt intervention and preventive measures. This proactive approach can help mitigate the long-term environmental damage caused by human activities and natural disasters.
Another significant advantage of AI in environmental risk assessment and disaster management is its ability to facilitate decision-making processes. AI algorithms can analyze complex scenarios and provide recommendations based on the available data. This can be particularly useful in situations where time is of the essence, such as during a natural disaster. By providing decision-makers with real-time information and suggested courses of action, AI can help streamline response efforts and ensure a more coordinated and effective disaster management strategy.
However, it is important to note that AI is not a panacea for all environmental risks and disaster management challenges. It is a tool that complements human expertise and decision-making. While AI can process and analyze vast amounts of data, it still requires human oversight and interpretation. Additionally, ethical considerations must be taken into account when developing and deploying AI systems in this context. Transparency, accountability, and fairness should be guiding principles to ensure that AI is used responsibly and for the benefit of all.
In conclusion, AI has a crucial role to play in environmental risk assessment and disaster management. Its ability to analyze large datasets, predict natural disasters, detect risks, and facilitate decision-making processes makes it an invaluable tool in safeguarding our environment and protecting communities. By harnessing the power of AI, we can better understand, mitigate, and respond to environmental risks and natural disasters, ultimately working towards a more sustainable and resilient future.
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AIMSweb MAZE? Lexile Range? Huh? They work together? No way!
Many Post Falls schools use the AIMSweb MAZE probe as both a universal screener and progress monitoring tool. This is a three-minute nationally-normed measure that can be used by RtI teams, grade level teams, and classroom teachers to quickly assess students’ reading comprehension.
In 2011, links between AIMSweb MAZE scores and Lexile ranges were made by MetaMetrics. Please keep in mind these are simply correlations between the AIMSweb MAZE and Lexile. They don’t give us a complete picture of a student’s reading ability, but can be used as a quick reference to help students select reading materials. Students and teachers can use Lexile’s Find a Book tool to find high-interest non-fiction and fiction texts.
Elementary AIMSweb MAZE correlations begin on page 80. The middle level AIMSweb MAZE correlations start on pg 85. There are currently no correlations available for High School students.
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A new peer-reviewed paper in the journal Frontiers in Genetics, “Redundancy of the genetic code enables translational pausing,” finds that so-called “redundant” codons may actually serve important functions in the genome. Redundant (also called “degenerate”) codons are those triplets of nucleotides that encode the same amino acid. For example, in the genetic code, the codons GGU, GGC, GGA, and GGG all encode the amino acid glycine. While it has been shown (see here) that such redundancy is actually optimized to minimize the impact of mutations resulting in amino acid changes, it is generally assumed that synonymous codons are functionally equivalent. They just encode the same amino acid, and that’s it.
Well, think again. The theory of intelligent design predicts that living organisms will be rich in information, and thus it encourages us to seek out new sources of functionally important information in the genome. This new paper fulfills an ID prediction by finding that synonymous codons can lead to different rates of translation that can ultimately impact protein folding and function.
This means that DNA contains multiple languages or encoded commands occupying the same string of contiguous bases. On the one hand, a string of nucleotide bases encodes amino acids. On the other hand, that same string contains information about the rate at which the ribosome should translate the protein so that it can properly fold into the right shape. The paper calls this “translational pausing.” The ribosome is capable of reading both sets of commands — as they put it, “[t]he ribosome can be thought of as an autonomous functional processor of data that it sees at its input.” To put it another way, the genetic code is “multidimensional,” a code within a code. This multidimensional nature exceeds the complexity of computer codes generated by humans, which lack the kind of redundancy of the genetic code. As the abstract states:
The codon redundancy (“degeneracy”) found in protein-coding regions of mRNA also prescribes Translational Pausing (TP). When coupled with the appropriate interpreters, multiple meanings and functions are programmed into the same sequence of configurable switch-settings. This additional layer of Ontological Prescriptive Information (PIo) purposely slows or speeds up the translation decoding process within the ribosome. Variable translation rates help prescribe functional folding of the nascent protein. Redundancy of the codon to amino acid mapping, therefore, is anything but superfluous or degenerate. Redundancy programming allows for simultaneous dual prescriptions of TP and amino acid assignments without cross-talk. This allows both functions to be coincident and realizable. We will demonstrate that the TP schema is a bona fide rule-based code, conforming to logical code-like properties. Second, we will demonstrate that this TP code is programmed into the supposedly degenerate redundancy of the codon table. We will show that algorithmic processes play a dominant role in the realization of this multi-dimensional code.
They write that the ribosome’s ability to undergo translational pausing “reveal[s] the ribosome, among other things, to be not only a machine, but an independent computer-mediated manufacturing system.” The paper even suggests, “Cause-and-effect physical determinism…cannot account for the programming of sequence-dependent biofunction.”
Apart from ID’s expectation of finding new layers of information in the genome, the paper implicitly challenges some common evolutionary assumptions. The notion that shared synonymous codons are functionally irrelevant has been used to buttress arguments for Darwinian evolution.
For one thing, some evolutionists claim that phylogenetic signals can be carried by the distribution of synonymous codons since they’re functionally equivalent. This paper suggests otherwise.
For another, seeking to infer the activity of natural selection, evolutionary biologists statistically analyze the frequency of synonymous (thought to be functionally unimportant) and nonsynonymous (thought to be functionally important) codons in a gene. (We’ve discussed this previously here andhere.) As the thinking goes, if synonymous codons are functionally unimportant, then three conclusions may follow: a bias toward synonymous codons implies purifying selection in the gene, a bias towards nonsynonymous codons implies positive selection, and an equal balance implies neutral evolution (no selection). But if synonymous codons can have important functional meaning, then the whole methodology goes out the window, and hundreds of studies that used these methods to infer “selection” during the supposed “evolution of genes” could be wrong.
The evidence supports the view that synonymous codons have divergent effects upon translation, as the paper finds: “Data shows that with fixed levels of tRNA’s, synonymously encoded mRNA’s translate with different speeds” and “Recent work has built on the above observations showing a strong relationship between specific arrangements of codons in mRNA to the rate of translation.” Genetic modifications in the lab can even induce translational pausing:
“Pausingfunction” is caused by specific mRNA codon sequences rather than by tunnel-protein interactions to amino acid sequences. This contention is supported by data involving the substitution of rare codons with synonymous codons in E. coli. If the pausing effect was solely related to the amino acid chain sequence, then replacing codons with synonymous codons should still produce the same folded amino acid chain with the same translation speed. However, substitution of rare codons with synonymous codons did produce a change in speed and conformation changes.
These changes in translational speed can have phenotypic effects:
For example, a silent mutation in the human gene ABCB1 caused a conformational change to occur in the P-glycoprotein. This protein folded differently caused by a temporal change in translation affecting the timing of the folding process. … Thus, the protein folding pathways are affected by changes in the coding regions of DNA” (internal citations removed).
In short, “redundant” codons are not necessarily redundant at all. As the paper puts it: “we show why the term “degeneracy” is completely inappropriate. The dual coding functionality of redundancy is anything but ‘degenerate.’ It represents, instead, far more sophistication, layers, and dimensions of formal prescription.” In fact, this paper “defines new universal linguistic-like rules needed to identify and characterize codon mappings of TP events.” The authors write:
The TP code exhibits distinct meaning in relation to mappings between codons and pausing units. The TP code also exhibits a syntax or grammar that obeys strict codon relationships that demonstrate language properties. Because of the redundancy of the genetic code, it could be argued that the TP language is a subset of the genetic language. The subspace of the TP language resides, and thus appears to have a dependency on, the primary genetic code. Within this subspace, however, we argue that the TP language is decoupled from and remains independent of the protein-coding language.
Their conclusion about the high-information capacity of the genetic code is striking:
Redundancy in the primary genetic code allows for additional independent codes. Coupled with the appropriate interpreters and algorithmic processors, multiple dimensions of meaning, and function can be instantiated into the same codon string. We have shown a secondary code superimposed upon the primary codonic prescription of amino acid sequence in proteins. Dual interpretations enable the assembly of the protein’s primary structure while enabling additional folding controls via pausing of the translation process. TP provides for temporal control of the translation process allowing the nascent protein to fold appropriately as per its defined function. This duality in the coding function acts to reduce the redundancy in the genetic code when viewed holistically. The functionality of condonic redundancy denies the ill-advised label of “degeneracy.” When simultaneously combined with other coding schemas such as intron/exon boundary conditions, and overlapping and oppositely oriented promoters, multiple dimensions of independent coding by the same codon string has become apparent.
In his 2001 book No Free Lunch, William Dembski explained the primary prediction of intelligent design:
[W]hat about the predictive power of intelligent design? Intelligent design offers one obvious prediction, namely, that nature should be chock-full of specified complexity and therefore should contain numerous pointers to design … This prediction is increasingly being confirmed. (p. 362)
Multidimensional codes and new levels of specified complexity are exactly what ID predicts, and they’re exactly what this paper is reporting. It’s this sort of sophisticated, information-rich control that is expected by intelligent design, in contrast to Darwinian biology which fails to anticipate it. On the contrary, Darwinian advocates publish mountains of papers banking upon the unquestioned assumption that there is no important, functional reason for the existence of “redundant” or “degenerate” features. Slowly but surely, the data are turning the tide in the evolution debate.
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In this image made from video provided by NASA, U.S. astronauts Peggy Whitson, above, and Shane Kimbrough work on the outside of the International Space Station on Thursday, March 30, 2017. (NASA via AP/Thomas Pesquet via AP)
Take a virtual trip to the International Space Station
April 11, 2017
What's life like aboard the International Space Station? This is a question only a select few can answer. But thanks to a new virtual reality tour, more people than ever can step aboard the floating lab. They can virtually explore the station and its mindboggling views. This is according to Mashable's Adario Strange.
The program was created in cooperation with NASA and the Canadian and European space agencies. It is called Mission: ISS. And it's probably the closest you'll ever come to visiting the space station. The program uses Oculus Rift virtual reality and Oculus Touch motion control. They create a realistic simulation of life aboard the station.
As Oculus writes on its blog, the movie was designed to recreate the ISS "in painstaking detail." It is a free simulation. The program was based on NASA models. It was developed with the input of astronauts and NASA's Virtual Reality Laboratory. The lab uses virtual reality. It can train astronauts for their in-space tasks.
With the help of motion controls, users can try their hand at everything from spacewalks to docking spacecrafts. This is all in a simulated zero-gravity environment. (Strange warns that the simulated weightlessness is so realistic that users might want to sit down before stepping into the virtual world.)
The simulation may be fun, but it is no video game, Strange writes. The program is intended give users a realistic idea of what it's like to live in space. Users can also learn about individual astronauts and the history of the ISS through a series of video clips. The team is also testing the program as an educational tool. It could teach high school students about the station.
Augmented reality is already being tested in space. This is with the help of Microsoft's HoloLens headset. One day, it will be used to guide repairs and let on-ground techs see exactly what astronauts observe. Virtual reality has yet to make it into space. That's about to change, according to the Oculus blog. An Oculus headset will be sent to space. It will be used by astronaut Thomas Pesquet to test how gravity affects spatial awareness.
Assigned 410 times
CRITICAL THINKING QUESTION
Why don't we know all the ways VR will be used in space?
Write your answers in the comments section below
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As towns and cities grow and expand, they begin encroaching on areas once covered with trees, and whilst many trees will be cut down there are often trees left for decoration.
However, this can cause problems as the tree continues to grow into the space around it, which is now limited. In these situations, crown lifting is a commonly used solution.
- Increase light below the canopy
- To provide access beneath the tree
In many locations, benches placed in the shade of a tree are a pleasently common feature. In these cases it’s important to maintain the crown above a safe height so there is no danger to pedestrians.
It’s important that crown lifting be carried out by a professional, because if done incorrectly,poor pruning cuts can use up stored energy to heal over large wounds. Also excessive crown lifting can alter the dynamics in high winds and lead to storm damage.
For more information about crown lifting, including free quotes, get in touch with Trees Understood today.
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Senior Instructor, AKU-IED
Professional Development Center North, Gilgit
Curriculum consists of everything that promotes learners’ intellectual, spiritual/moral, aesthetic, emotional, social and physical development including co-curricular and extracurricular activities that include approaches to teaching, learning and assessment, the quality of relationships within the school, and the values embodied in the way the education system and a school operates (Minimum Standards for Quality Education in Pakistan). The document further elaborates that curriculum refers to a document describing the aims and objectives, the scope and sequence of contents, learning activities, methods of delivery in the classroom, and evaluation and assessment techniques in accordance with the curriculum framework of a particular subject. Further, a curriculum enables teachers to plan their classroom lessons, examiners to create assessments according to the prescribed competencies, and textbook reviewers to review the textbooks according to contents and scope. Finally a curriculum also helps inform the general public about the wider aims of the educational objectives and processes planned for the students.
The national curriculum document although already exists in Pakistan, its implementation at classroom level has always remained a challenge due to lack of a uniform policy and determination at policy level. The current education is mainly based on textbooks and entirely dependent on teacher’s personal capacity and self-preference to deliver a lesson. The national curriculum is inaccessible for most of the teachers and those who have access, very few bother to consult the SLOs while making a lesson plan and assessing student learning outcomes. The education system does not achieve the national and global purpose unless teachers align the three intertwined processes i.e. teaching and learning, assessment and curriculum in routine classroom practices.
Moreover, there are numerous categories of schools from elite private schools to government regular schools, Basic Education Community Schools, National Commission for Human Development, Danish Schools, self-initiated community schools for middle and lower middle class, personal private schools and madrasa schools. These institutions are imparting education with their own priorities within their own resource limitations. Due to lack of uniform curriculum implementation policy and accountability mechanism most of the institutions are unable to achieve the holistic purpose of education. They mainly focus on rote memorization and grades but fail to impart values education and life skills. As a result, we commonly observe in the society that there is incompetence, intolerance, lack of civic sense, serious issues in obeying the law, environmental and gender awareness, integrity, accepting others with differences, unity, and loyalty to the state. Therefore, the people of Pakistan so far in more than seven decades have not been able to become a unified nation. Despite teaching Pakistan Studies till graduation level, reciting National Anthem by all teachers and students every morning in schools, singing heart touching emotional national songs and delivering lessons on patriotism, the nation has only developed hatred for India but it is hard to see real patriots and loyal citizens in any stratum of the nation. Therefore, a uniform curriculum was a dire need of the time.
The present government of PTI is in the process of drafting a common curriculum for all education systems in Pakistan called Single National Curriculum to develop all school going students of Pakistan through the same course of studies and expecting the same learning outcomes. The uniform curriculum in other words is a vision of the present Prime Minister to lead and transform young generation into a unified nation in future. Although the document has yet to come out, google search revealed that the Single National Curriculum is being developed by focusing on 12 considerations that include; 1. Constitutional guidelines, 2. National policies and standards, 3. Emerging international trends, 4. Outcome-based approach, 5. Focus on values, life skills and inclusive education, 6. Promotion of intellectual, emotional, spiritual, aesthetic, Social and physical development, 7. Development of critical, analytical and creative thinking, 8. Application of knowledge with real life, 9. Move away from rote memorization, and focus on project, inquiry and activity-based learning, 10. Inclusion of modern teaching and assessment practices, 11. Use of information and communication technology, 12. Alignment with the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Although these considerations are well thought and sufficient to develop students as effective national and global citizens with needful knowledge, skills and values, the present government might face with numerous challenges in implementation of the single national curriculum as a shared and evenly benefiting roadmap in the prevailing diversified situation of education. The first challenge for the government is how to attract those more than 20 million out of school children to schools. It is a daunting task for the government to facilitate all children in an evenly manner where the textbooks are different, publishers are different, teaching and learning methods and assessment approaches are different and student success criteria, learning resources are different and more importantly there is huge gap in teachers’ capacity in different education systems. On one hand there are one room or two-room primary schools with only one or two teachers having inadequate qualifications and on the other hand there are schools equipped with rich human and financial resources providing a conducive learning and nurturing environment for students.
The government will require significant amount of financial input to less resourced schools to bring uniformity in diverse education systems at a certain level. Further the government has to shift its trends of investments in education and education must become the top priority of the state. We need to follow education models being applied in Finland, Singapore and Japan to become a knowledge economy instead of increasingly becoming a charity dependent society.
If the present government honestly owns and intends to bring reforms in school education, the Prime Minister and the President have to own this new curriculum and take the lead in formulation of an implementation policy and accountability mechanism in the country. They need to advise ministry of education and its concerned departments to put the single national curriculum into a change process that leads to quality inputs-quality processes and quality outcomes. There should be a scientific and systematic monitoring and evaluation system in place to continually inform stakeholders about the results and ensure their accountability at each level.
The quality inputs to increase access and improve students learning outcomes include; recruitment of adequate number of competent teachers especially in primary schools, introduce and distribute defined roles and accountability indicators to all stakeholders with timelines, preservice training, teachers’ training on how to align teaching and learning, assessment and curriculum, adequate and proper infrastructure, availability of fresh drinking water and electricity, provision of learning materials to ensure activity-based learning in different subjects, orientation of parents, teachers and senior management on Single National Curriculum, provision of a hard and soft copy of the new curriculum to each school, school library with adequate number of reference books, story books, general knowledge books, science books, dictionaries, globes, maps, charts and internet access. Above all, if the present government has good intentions to improve quality of education, it requires to allocate significant amount of financial resources from annual budget but it is nation’s misfortune the government has again followed the previous governments’ trends of ignoring education by allocating meagre amount. If the government continues to ignore education it will continue to produce ignorant and unmanageable people in the country.
Quality processes may include; proper monitoring and evaluation of utilization of funds at each level, appointments of competent, visionary and change-oriented education officers from headteacher to secretary education level, a strong accountability mechanism needs to be in place from ministry to school level, early retirement of underperforming teachers and headteachers with full monetary benefits in five phases. For this, a nationwide test could be conducted for all teachers in languages, ICT and the SLOs defined in the single national curriculum in the subjects they are teaching. Special focus needs to be given to ICT, Science, mathematics English and values education. Separate budget and accountability mechanisms for preprimary, primary and secondary education are necessary to manage change-oriented processes in an efficient and effective manner.
The present government at least now should wake up and follow the guidelines of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan who considered education as a matter of life and death. Teacher as the heart of education should be given the exalted rank in the society similarly assign the highest responsibilities to ensure progress, peace and prosperity of the nation. So, invest on teachers if you want to improve quality of education and build the nation.
As Bill Gates signifies the role of teacher and mentioned in a letter to Gates Foundation. He wrote, “If you want your child to get the best education possible, it is actually more important to get him assigned to a great teacher than to a great school.”
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"What is Glass" Information
Articles & Links on the History and Properties of Glass
|A Historical Look at Glass
The History, It's Nature, and it's Recipe
History of Glass
The mysterious physical, optical and aesthetic properties of glass have always intrigued man. Even the most sophisticated 20th century man is amazed and bemused by this solid, which he has been told is really a rigid uncrystallized liquid. The product and the process used to manufacture it seem to smack of alchemy, for glass is nothing but coarse sand and soda ash transformed into smooth transparent forms.
According to the Roman historian Pliny, who wrote in Naturalis Historica in 77 A.D., man first produced glass by accident about the year 5000 B.C. Phoenician sailors feasting on a beach near Belus in Asia Minor, could find no stones on which to place their cooking pots; therefore, they set them on blocks of soda carried by their ship as cargo. As the fire's heat increased, the sand and soda turned to molten glass.
Pliny's anecdote now is considered apocryphal, but it contains an accurate recipe for producing glass: heat plus silica and soda ash.
Ornamental glass beads dating from 2500 B.C. have been found in Egypt, and glass rods from even earlier have been uncovered in Babylon. The first useful glass objects date to Egypt's 18th dynasty, about 1500 B.C. Egyptians attached metal rods to silica paste cores, which they dipped repeatedly into molten glass to produce small bottles. The cores later were removed. The goblet of Thutmose III, made about 1490 B.C. and now at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, was produced in this manner.
Glassblowing, a Babylonian discovery, probably came about when glassmakers using the core-dipped method switched to hollow metal rods to hold silica paste cores and then discovered that molten glass could be blown into shapes. After this discovery, which dates to about 250 B.C., glass vessels suddenly became easy and inexpensive to produce. Romans imported Syrian and Babylonian glassmakers, and small bowls and bottles were selling for only a Roman penny in 200 B.C. Pliny the Elder noted in 79 B.C. that fine glass cups were replacing cups of precious metals as a status symbol among the Roman rich.
Glass, however, did not replace shutters at the windows of Roman homes. The Romans tried but failed to cast transparent flat glass to enclose or ornament their homes. Slabs 1/2" thick have been excavated - including a 32 by 44-inch piece at Pompeii - but Romans did not discover the art of grinding and polishing cast glass to make it transparent. Instead of glass, the rich used thin, translucent sheets of alabaster to enclose wall openings.
With the breakdown of the Roman Empire, glassmaking technology stagnated in Europe; in fact, it almost disappeared. True, Gothic cathedrals of the late 12th century and later featured brilliant bits of colored glasses, complex designs and rate and were prohibitively expensive. Even the rich still shuttered their windows, and the Middle English word for windows - "wind eyes" - underlined the fact that wall openings enclosed in glass were, for all practical purposes, nonexistent.
During the 13th and 14th centuries, glassmaking was revived in Venice as a result of that Italian state's trade contacts with Byzantium. Soda-Lime was developed by glassmakers of the island or Murano in about 1450, and Venetians termed this clear, thin glass cristallo. Despite attempts to keep their technology secret, it soon spread north over the Alps to Germany, France, Belgium and England.
In England, where deforestation was a problem as early as the 15th century, glassmakers were required after 1615 to use coal instead of wood in the glassmaking process. About 1675, the English learned to add lead oxide to the basic glass formula, and the resulting solid, heavy and durable vessels progressively replaced the fragile glasses of Venice.
Flat glass for windows was still rare during much of the 17th and 18th centuries. Small panes were made by blowing a large glob of glass, removing it from the blowing iron and then rotating the glass quickly so it would spread and flatten. Such glass had a dimple in its center, many air bubbles and a pattern of concentric circles, but it was transparent and effective in keeping out the weather. At the end of the 17th century, the French learned how to grind and polish cast glass to produce plate glass, but only the rich could afford it.
During the 1800s, glass technology improved rapidly. A hand-operated split mold developed in 1821 that ended the age of blowing individual bottles, glasses and flasks. A semi-automatic bottle machine perfected 50 years later mass-produced bottles and turned them into the everyday miracle they are today.
Great strides were made in the manufacture of flat glass during the 19th century. Compressed air technology led to flatter, better glass panes. Controlled amounts of air were used to blow a large glass cylinder, which was slit lengthwise, reheated and allowed to flatten under its own weight. Large, relatively inexpensive lites of glass were produced in this manner. As a result of such technological advances, window areas that required 18 to 24 panes to enclose in 1730 could be increased dramatically and glass prices dropped by the 1860s, glass-enclosed "wind eyes" were commonplace in the humblest homes.
Plate glass, that wickedly expensive French product, also became commonplace by the end of the 19th century. Water power, then steam and then electricity made the grinding and polishing of heavy glass plates faster and easier. By the 1860s, smart stores and office buildings in Europe and North America glistened with plate glass. France, Belgium and Germany monopolized the production of the product until 1883, when the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company became the first successful manufacturer of the product in the United States. By 1895, the company could produce 20 million square feet of plate glass a year, and imports from Europe fell sharply.
With the 20th century came an era of revolutionary technology. Machines were developed, improved and perfected to produce endless ribbons of sheet (window) glass, to produce plate glass polished and ground simultaneously on both sides and to produce float glass on a bed of molten tin. Also developed were processes to strengthen glass through thermal and chemical tempering, to add tints to glass for reduced heat transmission and glare and to coat glass with transparent metal and metal oxide films that reflected heat or conducted electricity. And products marrying these processes and developments were created to help make life more convenient, more comfortable, safer and more beautiful.
In retrospect, the romance of glass is not an Egyptian producing a bottle for a Pharoah or window glass being made from a cylinder, a pane at a time, in a one-man glass house. The true romance of glass is the story of the reasonable cost for use in architecture, transportation, industry, science and the home. Billions of people now benefit because technology has made glass a versatile, easy-to-use miracle.
The Nature of Glass
Its physical structure does not conform to liquid, solid or gas. Glass actually is more of a liquid than the solid it appears to be. Its complex nature has intrigued man from ancient times.
The American Society for Testing and Materials defines glass as "an inorganic product of fusion which has cooled to a rigid condition without crystallizing". Glass can be considered, then, an unusual material which has the random atomic arrangement of liquid but which somehow has been "frozen" in place so that it is a solid and permanent substance. Glass can be transparent, translucent or opaque. It is non-porous, non-absorptive and impervious to the common elements and many harsh chemicals and liquids. It is exceptionally resistant to abrasion and surface scratches. It is one of the best electrical insulation materials, yet can be treated to conduct electricity. Glass has lower head conductivity than most metals and can possess a very low, zero or even negative coefficient of expansion. Because it contains a large proportion of silica and is produced by the action of heat upon that silica, it is generally categorized as a ceramic. Glass, however, stands in a class by itself, quite distinct from other ceramics. Most ceramic materials are shaped cold and then fired to produce the desired result; glass is shaped at extremely high temperatures and then allowed to cool. It again may be made semi-plastic, plastic or even molten by the further application of heat. For this reason, glass also is considered a thermoplastic material, which softens when heated and hardens when cooled.
The Flat Glass Recipe
Glass goes back millenniums formed by nature as obsidian, or black glass, a hard noncorrosive, semiopaque substance fused by volcanic eruptions and enduring centuries of erosion.
This natural glass is composed of three elements of the earth-sand, soda and lime. These same elements in varying forms also make up the basic composition of manufactured glass products ranging from containers and glassware to windshields and windows for high-rise commercial buildings. About 50 other chemical elements are used in modern glassmaking, in major and minor ways, to affect color, viscosity or durability, or to impart some desired physical property. But nature's original ingredients are still basic elements in the formulation of glass.
Glass largely is an open chain of silicon atoms with atoms of various oxides occupying the spaces between. It is this loose structure that permits transparency. Silica, or sand, is the most important ingredient in glassmaking since it is the source of, and provides the structure for, transparency. But sand requires soda and lime for practical glassmaking.
Today, an average batch mix used to manufacture flat glass products contains about 70 percent silica sand, 13 percent lime, 12 percent soda and small amounts of other materials. About one-quarter of the batch is in the form of cullet, or cleaned and crushed glass recovered from previous glassmaking operations.
Silica or silicon dioxide, which is converted into glass by the action of heat is very difficult to fuse, requiring extremely high temperatures. Ancient scientists discovered that other materials such as soda, when melted in close contact with sand, would permit the melting of silica at much lower temperatures. Such materials are known as fluxes, and soda was probably the first flux.
The primary forms of soda used in glassmaking are soda ash (sodium carbonate) or caustic soda (sodium hydroxide). When a mixture of sand and soda dissolves in the molten soda, forming sodium silicate. Depending on the proportions of sand and soda, this sodium silicate is more or less soluble in water and is known as water glass. To overcome water solubility of glass, another element, lime, is required.
Lime (calcium oxide) usually is introduced into the glass batch mix in the form of limestone. Its use in correct proportion causes formulation of a soda-lime-silicate composition that is virtually unaffected by moisture or acids. Lime also renders the glass more viscous at the working temperature, shortens the setting time and improves weathering properties.
Because of its low melting range, the soda-lime-silicate composition undoubtedly was the type used by ancients to produce the earliest known vessels, vases, semi-precious glass stones and beads, and, much later, the earliest form of window glass. Today, soda-lime-silicate is the basis for float glass, and of course, products fabricated from it.
Other materials are added to produce different properties in the basic flat glass product or to replace one of the basic elements to produce different types of commercial glasses. Lead, for example, in the form of lead oxide, may be used to replace lime, and is introduced to increase brilliance, density and index of refraction. Lead glasses included optical and ophthalmic glasses and the finest stemware and art objects. Boron, substituted in whole or in part for the silica, increases the refractive index, deepens the color produced by various other coloring materials, and greatly reduces the coefficient of thermal expansion. Borosilicate glasses are used for such high heat resistant products as ovenware, laboratory glasses and range surfaces. Metallic oxides are added to produce tinted or colored glasses.
COPYRIGHT © 1996-1999 PPG Industries, Inc.
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While bookkeeping and accounting are both essential business functions, there is an important distinction. There is often a misconception that bookkeeping and accounting are the same things. Bookkeeping is the collection, sorting, and recording of the financial transactions of a business. The term accounting is much broader, going into the realm of designing the bookkeeping system, establishing controls to make sure the system is working well, and analyzing and verifying the recorded information.
The work of a Bookkeeper and Accountant often overlap. As Bookkeeping is part of Accounting. Accountants build on the information provided by the Bookkeeper.
Bookkeeping, as the word suggests, is about ‘Keeping Books’ and is the first step in the accounting process. An accountant focuses on the bigger financial picture and performs tasks that affect the whole accounting process.
A Bookkeeper keeps an accurate and complete record of the financial transactions of a business. Accountants apply further financial analysis to the financial records kept by bookkeepers. They focus on the recording of financial transactions with less focus on the analysis of these transactions.
The main functions of an accountant include analyzing financial statements, completing income tax returns, and helping business owners understand all the tax and financial regulations that apply to their company. Accountants classify, analyse, summarise, interpret and report on this financial information.
The choice to use a bookkeeper, accountant or both is determined by the size of your company, the difficulty of your operations and financial functions, and the demands of your industry. While the two services go together, only the biggest companies with many daily and complicated financials are likely to need the regular services of a bookkeeper, controller, and a CPA.
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Kīlauea Summit Collapses Have SimilaritiesNovember 16, 2018, 4:30 PM HST · Updated November 15, 3:26 PM 0 Comments
by U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists and affiliates
The prolonged yet dramatic partial collapse of Kīlauea caldera this past summer was the first to be observed in detail and the largest measured by subsidence volume of more than a dozen summit collapses in the past 200 years. The earliest known collapses (1823, 1832, and 1840) were large in subsidence volume but the process was not recorded by witnesses. The most recent collapses (1919, 1922, and 1924) involved smaller subsidence volumes but were witnessed by Thomas Jaggar and his staff at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
The collapse of 1868 was the first collapse after a hotel was established at the Kīlauea summit. Various observers were present for a few days each during the first weeks of the event. The months of March and April of 1868 are most often associated with strong earthquakes and Mauna Loa eruptions. The strongest earthquake, estimated a magnitude 7.9, generated a tsunami and a landslide and also started a collapse of Kīlauea summit.
According to Kaina, a Hawaiian resident of the summit area, Kīlauea Crater had been very active from late January to late March with eight overflowing lava lakes. The lake activity increased greatly and, on March 27 when the first strong earthquakes (possible foreshocks of the M7.9 earthquake to follow) started, the crater floor was covered with lava lake overflows.
On April 2 at a few minutes past 4 p.m., the above-mentioned M7.9 earthquake occurred “which caused the ground around Kilauea to rock like a ship at sea. At that moment, there commenced fearful detonations in the crater, large quantities of lava were thrown up to a great height; portions of the wall tumbled in. This extraordinary commotion, accompanied with unearthly noise and ceaseless swaying of the ground, continued” for three more days as the lava receded. By April 5, there was no lava to be seen in the crater—Pele had left Kīlauea.
The April 2 earthquake also triggered brief eruptions in Kīlauea Iki Crater and in the Southwest Rift Zone. The Volcano House hotel may have suffered a cracked foundation.
William Hillebrand descended into Kīlauea Crater on April 18: “At least two-thirds of the area of the crater towards W. and N.W. have caved in and sunk about 300 feet below the level of the remaining portion of the old floor.” South Lake, near the Halemaʻumaʻu location, “was transformed into a vast pit, more than 500 feet deep.”
“The caving in of the floor seemed to be still in progression, for twice during our exploration of the crater, our nerves were disturbed by a prolonged heavy rumbling and rattling noise, as from a distance platoon fire of musketry.” The collapse of the summit caldera that started on April 2nd was still going on the 18th.
Hillebrand also noticed only the “faintest trace” of the “stifling, sulphurous and acid gases” in the vicinity of lava lakes where those gases were formerly overpowering.
The 2018 sequence of events had some similarities to the 1868 sequence. The level of the Kīlauea summit lava lake had been rising through April of this year and started dropping on May 3 as the Puna eruption commenced. On May 4, a magnitude-6.9 earthquake occurred and on May 16, Kīlauea summit explosive events began. Over the next few weeks, subsidence of the summit caldera floor began and continued for more than two months. Gas emissions decreased dramatically.
The descriptions of the 1868 collapses involving detonations, avalanches of the walls, and sinking of a large portion of the crater floor could also describe many of the 2018 caldera down-drop events; Both the 1868 and 2018 summit subsidence involved a large part of the Kīlauea caldera floor with a deep pit where Halemaʻumaʻu had been. The estimates of the amount of 1868 caldera floor subsidence, between 0.2 and 0.5 cubic km (0.05 to 0.11 cubic mi), are smaller than the measurement of more than 0.75 cubic km (0.18 cubic mi) of 2018 caldera subsidence.
After the 1868 summit collapse and withdrawal of the lava lakes, lava returned for brief moments. The first reappearance was recorded on April 19 for less than an hour. By August and September of 1868, visitors reported that the deep pit was refilling, and the South Lake was active once more.
Kīlauea summit collapses accompanied by lava lake draining are a routine part of the long-term refilling of the current caldera produced centuries ago. Each collapse has been followed eventually by reappearance of lava months-to-years later. We are waiting to see what will happen next.
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An Xbar-chart is a type of control chart used to monitor the process mean when measuring subgroups at regular intervals from a process.
Each point on the chart represents the value of a subgroup mean.
The center line is the process mean. If unspecified, the process mean is the weighted mean of the subgroup means.
The control limits are either:
- A multiple (k) of sigma above and below the center line. Default k=3.
- Probability limits, defined as the probability (alpha) of a point exceeding the limits. Default alpha=0.27%.
If unspecified, the process sigma is the pooled standard deviation of the subgroups, unless the chart is combined with an R- or S- chart where it is estimated as described for the respective chart.
The observations are assumed to be independent, and the means normally distributed. Individual observations need not be normally distributed. Due to the central limit theorem, the subgroup means are often approximately normally distributed for subgroup sizes larger than 4 or 5 regardless of the distribution of the individual observations.
For data with different subgroup sizes, the control limits vary. A standardized version of the control chart plots the points in standard deviation units. Such a control chart has a constant center line at 0, and upper and lower control limits of -3 and +3 respectively making patterns in the data easier to see.
It is important to ensure process variability is in a state of statistical control before using the Xbar-chart to investigate if the process mean is in control. Therefore a Xbar-chart is often combined with an R- or S-chart to monitor process variability. If the variability is not under control, the control limits may be too wide leading to an inability to detect special causes of variation affecting the process mean.
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By Johanna Read
As more and more Americans travel to Cuba (well, unless the new U.S. president reverses President Obama’s decision), Cuba is changing, both for better and for worse.
Like any destination that has a large and rapid increase in tourism, Cuba faces risks of too much development done too quickly, with negative effects on the nation’s environment, culture, and people. It is all too easy for increased tourism, unless managed very carefully, to benefit multinational companies at the expense of a destination and its people.
But because of the U.S. embargo on this island nation, first imposed in 1958, Cuba is unique. Knowing how the embargo affects Cubans and tourism is critical if you want to travel there as a responsible tourist, especially for Americans’ first visit to Cuba.
Here’s what you need to know:
The U.S. embargo isn’t because Cuba is a communist country
Cuba is dedicated to socialist equality. The country is a socialist republic, as were countries like Estonia and Grenada, and as China, Viet Nam and Laos still are.
The embargo or el bloqueo (the blockade) first started as an arms ban in 1958. It expanded in 1960 and again in 1962 to include almost all imports from the United States to Cuba. The expansion was a reaction to Fidel Castro’s 1960 nationalizing of assets and national resources like utilities, railroads, timber, tobacco, mining and farmland. These had been owned largely by U.S. companies and Castro claimed them in the name of the people of Cuba. This is not an unknown practice. Pointing to the hypocrisy of the embargo, a bill was introduced in 1996 in the Parliament of Canada to enable Canadians to sue the U.S. as compensation for property the U.S. government confiscated after the American Revolution.
In 1992, the U.S.’s Cuban Democracy Act stated that sanctions would continue against Cuba until the Cuban government moved “toward democratization and greater respect for human rights.” Cuba was designated as a state sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. State Department until May 2015.
Democracy and the protection of human rights are, of course, good things. However, there is a long list of countries in the world with far worse short- and long-term records than Cuba. The only other countries (as of this writing) on which the U.S. imposes an embargo are Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and Burma/Myanmar (the latter were eased considerably in 2012).
Other pro-human rights and pro-democracy countries have not imposed sanctions against Cuba. Many governments, church groups (even American ones), Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and individuals such as President Jimmy Carter are critical of the embargo. The United Nations General Assembly has declared, every year since 1992, that the embargo violates the UN Charter and international law.
The U.S. has financial claims of $6 billion against the Cuban government, which many say is the real reason behind the six current statutes embargoing trade with Cuba.
The embargo affects you as a tourist
The effects of the embargo weren’t too severe until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which actively traded with Cuba until 1989. Since then, the U.S. embargo has severely affected the Cuban economy and Cuban people.
Tourists are not immune.
Almost all products, including food, are included in the embargo. When machinery like an air conditioner breaks, the parts can’t be shipped from the U.S., so there may be delays in getting it repaired. The air conditioner purchased in the first place can’t be from the U.S either. You’ll see Canadian store brands of cereal and condiments at hotel buffets. There is often just one supplier of a particular product, so when something doesn’t go exactly to plan, it is noticed.
In April 2016, there was a shortage of tomato juice in hotels across Cuba. The rumour mill said the country’s already-limited supply was sent to Havana for President Obama’s visit. During my May 2016 visit, hotels rarely had mango, despite it being peak mango season. I’m told the challenge was a gasoline shortage which affected shipping, particularly to far flung hotels.
Brownouts are frequent, though hotels do have backup generators. Internet is limited. In-room wifi is rare, though you can access wifi from most hotel lobbies. You’ll need to log-in frequently using complicated access codes which provide less than an hour of access ($1-2/card, though high-end hotels provide them free of charge). To protect bandwidth and enable more people to have access, downloading large files is impossible and sites like Youtube and Skype are blocked.
Hotel services and facilities aren’t at the same level as the U.S., or even other Caribbean countries like Barbados. Cuba’s beaches and ocean are often more pristine than in many other parts of the Caribbean and the fish are unafraid of human snorkellers, but the embargo has affected the quality of hotel infrastructure. A 5-star Cuban hotel is probably more like a 3.5 or 4-star Turks and Caicos hotel, both in terms of facilities and services.
The embargo affects Cubans a lot more
Goods of the best quality generally go to tourists. You’ll see filet mignon on menus in top hotels, but beef is extremely rare for Cubans to eat. Plus, citizens need a greater variety of products than tourists do, and the embargo affects almost everything, even water treatment chemicals and many medical products.
Cuba has a rationing system to fairly distribute their limited goods amongst citizens.
A typical monthly food ration, per person, is 22 lb of rice, 13 lb of white sugar, and 4.5 pounds of brown sugar (these three items seen as enough); as well as 1 cup of cooking oil, five eggs, a packet of coffee, a bun per day, 4.5 pounds of meat every 10 days, and a bag of salt four times per year. Extras, like powdered milk, are provided for young children, pregnant women, the ill and elderly people, but there are frequent shortages.
The ration does not provide enough calories or nutrition and Cubans must find other needed supplies on the free and black markets. Household products, clothes, and shoes are also included in the ration system. All rationed products are heavily subsidized: costs are about 20 times lower than the free market. All Cubans buy goods on the mercado libre (free market), mercado paralelo (parallel market), as well, as the mercado negro (black market). Cubans trade foods and other goods often, and will give food away if someone cannot afford to trade for it to ensure that no one goes hungry.
The U.S. embargo also affects the housing shortage. Lack of funds and limited construction materials result in difficulties in building more housing and adequately maintaining existing buildings from the damage caused by age, the tropical sun, wind, severe weather, and the sea.
The housing shortage means many Cubans live a long distance from their jobs, and their commute on crowded buses and in packed private ride-shares can take hours each day. Shopping for food is lengthy, with the need to visit several shops to find limited products, as well as to be creative in funding and trading non-rationed foods to supplement the rationed calorie intake.
Many consumer goods considered everyday items in the U.S. are either not available or the costs are so prohibitive they can not be purchased. Things like cosmetics, toiletries, painkillers and other over-the-counter medication, extension cords, and coloured pencils are considered luxury goods.
Cubans are better educated and healthier than citizens of many other Caribbean nations
While life is far from easy, Cuba provides education, health care and dental care free of charge. The quality is of a very high standard. One Cuban told me about feeling ill one day, visiting both the doctor and specialist the next day, and the day after that having surgery. There are no waiting lists.
Cuba has near universal literacy, and one of the lowest infant mortality rates and longest life expectancies in the region. Visiting Cuba is quite different than visiting many Caribbean nations, as tourists see much less poverty than in, for example, the Dominican Republic.
However, the best Cuban jobs are the ones which interact with tourists and their tips. So, you will see doctors driving taxis for additional income, and Ph.Ds. who prefer to work in hotels.
Your tips are more important in Cuba than in many other destinations
About 75% of Cubans work for the government directly or indirectly (including hotel workers). Salaries, paid in pesos, are low and universal. The average salary is the equivalent of $20 U.S./month. Doctors make the same money as hotel housekeepers, waiters and taxi drivers, although the latter have easier access to tips from tourists. The extra funds received through tips are essential to purchase non-subsidized goods.
Despite the vast economic disparity, most Cubans are happy to have you visit
Unlike in many tourist destinations, most Cubans do not see you as a walking dollar bill. Most Cubans you encounter want to create a genuine interaction with you because they are interested in who you are and want you to enjoy your stay in their country. They do not ingratiate themselves to you in hopes of a tip.
Some Havana residents do show their annoyance at the unrelenting influx of tourists, just as residents of any popular tourist destination do. In Havana, you will see more litter and some travellers have reported opportunity-thefts in hotel rooms. As in most destinations, it is wise to keep your valuables out of site and not flash jewellery, electronics and cash.
Outside of Havana and Varadero, signs of tourist fatigue are rare. Consider visiting destinations further off the tourist map so that you see a more genuine Cuba and spread your spending in places that see fewer tourists.
Cubans do not want to be American
Americans are proud of their country (current controversies aside), and are known throughout the world for their patriotic chants of “U.S.A, U.S.A.” Thanks to Hollywood, American culture is known everywhere in the world.
While tourists and their money are welcomed, many Cubans fear that an influx of American tourism could mean the degradation of their traditional culture. This is a concern for any country, but particularly so in Cuba because of the rapid rise in tourism. As in every other country in the world, Cubans want to pick and choose how other countries influence them, and they want to retain what makes them Cuban.
“Cuba is coffee, dance, music and rum,” an older man working in Cayo Santa Maria told me. “These traditions are very important to Cubans, and we don’t want to lose this.”
Cubans are also fearful of the influx of U.S. tourists bringing unwelcomed values, drugs, and crime to a country where most people don’t even lock their doors.
Your decisions make a big difference
The decisions you make as a traveller to any country significantly affect whether tourism improves or degrades a destination. This is especially true in destinations experiencing an influx of tourism like Cuba.
- Remember that Americans have an international reputation of being … let’s say ... demanding travellers. Americans want what they want, and are often heard complaining that wherever they are is not like home. Developing countries are not like home, and Cuba even more so thanks to the U.S. embargo.
- The increase in U.S. travellers means more spending in Cuba, but there is concern whether the dollars will stay on the island and benefit Cuban people, or go offshore to multinational companies. Spend your money in local businesses — casas (guesthouses) and paladares (private restaurants) —rather than in big name chain hotels.
- Spend time in places other than Havana and Varadero, enjoying both Cuba’s spectacular coastline but also the interior’s towns and rural areas.
- Tip fairly (not extravagantly), knowing how much of a difference your tips will bring. Go out of your way to make sure workers who don’t normally see tips — gardeners, kitchen staff — also benefit.
- Giving handouts when you travel to developing countries is controversial. Organizations that assist in economic development have studied the issue extensively and say that giving to individuals does more harm than good (particularly for products not purchased in-country). This is true in Cuba too. However, because of the lack of availability of so many goods, gift-giving may do less harm here. Consider bringing items like toiletries, over-the-counter drugs, clothes, shoes, toys, towels, face cloths, and extension cords. Do not leave them for the hotel maid, but distribute them more fairly. Never give handouts to children. Consider donating money to schools and NGOs, not just in Cuba but in far poorer countries like Haiti.
- Wherever you travel, be respectful and appreciative of the people around you and the way they live their lives. Don’t criticize the quality of what you see and experience. Don’t assume your practices and values are better or even wanted.
- Above all, enjoy your trip to Cuba. Don’t “go now before it gets ruined.” Go and make conscious decisions to not ruin it.
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2.2 Creating a Meta Box: The Save Function
In this lesson, you'll write the function to save data from your meta box.
1.Introduction1 lesson, 00:44
2.Creating Meta Boxes in Posts4 lessons, 28:39
2.1Creating a Meta Box: The Callback Function11:16
2.2Creating a Meta Box: The Save Function08:14
2.3Creating a Meta Box for Information or Instructions05:31
2.4Meta Boxes and the Gutenberg Editor03:38
3.Conclusion1 lesson, 03:00
2.2 Creating a Meta Box: The Save Function
Hello, and welcome back to this Tutsplus course on creating metaboxes in WordPress. In this part of the course, we're going to continue working on our code to create a metabox in the post editing screen. And what we're gonna do now is create a function that will save any data that we add to that metabox, because at the moment if we add any data to it, it won't do anything. So underneath our callback function, let's add a new function. Now this has one parameter which is the post_id. Before we go on to write the content of our function, we need to hook it to another action hook. And I'll make sure I type this one correctly this time, and the action that we use this time is safe post. So our first parameter is the action hook save_post, and the second is the name of our function. So now let's populate it. The first thing we need to do is check for the nonce. So firstly, we checking if a nonce hasn't been set, because if that's the case, we won't go any further. But it's not just if a nonce hasn't been set, it's also if the nonce can't be verified. So, we need o. So if either a nonce hasn't been set, let's have some spacing, or the nonce can't be verified. And this is for tutsplus nonce, which is the name of our nonce, not the action, which is tutsplus_metabox_nonce. So if neither of these is the case, We then return, so we do nothing, okay? So that's the first thing, so we check for our nonce, but if those aren't the case, we then continue. So now let's check if the current user can edit posts. So we're checking if the current user can't edit this current post, and again, if that's the case, we just return, so nothing will happen. So having run those two checks, we're now looking to do something if neither of those things are the case, so neither the nonce isn't correct or the current user can't edit posts. So the first thing we need to do again, is a check, so we're checking if our custom field has been set for this post. So we're checking if tutsplus-metadata-weather has been set for this post, and tutsplus-metadata-weather, this is name that we gave to the field. So what we're checking here is whether any data has been added to this field. We're not checking whether there's a value against this particular custom field, this piece of post metadata which is tutsplus_weather. Because we only need to run this if the user has added something in that field. So first let's create a new value. So our new value is what's being typed into tutsplus-metadata-weather for this post. And then having to find that new value, we save it to the post metadata using the update post meta function. Now, that has three parameters, the first of those, let me just type in all my spots for those. She that doesn't have quotes. So the first of those is the ID of the post, so that's post_id. The second is the value that we're updating, and that is this tutsplus_weather ID, which is the post metadata. So you see that we use tutsplus-metadata-weather first time to identify what had been input into our field, and then we save that value to the tutsplus_weather metadata. And then the third parameter is the value that we're updating that post meta with, so that's new value. So that's our save function. We check for the nonce, and I'm just looking at that nonce and realizing that this wp_verify_nonce function needs another parameter. So, after this closing square bracket, we need tutsplus, _metabox_nonce. Because the second parameter, the first one is the nonce and the second one is the action. So it's important to include both of those parameters but the first one, the set, is set function, just uses the nonce itself. So let's save that and then I'll go to my post on my site. It showed sunny because I tried doing that earlier on. I'm gonna put overcast, because the sun has gone in now, I'll hit Return to save that. My post has been updated and you can see that today's weather is overcast. And in this case, I've turned off custom fields on my screen options, but if I show you that, you can see how this has been stored as a custom field. So here on my custom fields, and I've got tutsplus_weather, the value is overcast. And I'm gonna turn that off again, because I think having a custom metabox like this is a much neater and more user friendly way of letting your users work with post metadata. So that's how you create a custom metabox to display on your post editing field to capture post metadata. Now obviously once you've done that, you can then display that on your site. But in the next part of the course, I'm gonna show you how to create a metabox that will appear over here on the right hand side. And what it'll do is give you some guidance on how to edit this particular post. See you next time, and thanks for watching.
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Differences in pathogenicity and clinical syndromes due to Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus flavus.
ABSTRACT Most of the information available about Aspergillus infections has originated from the study of A. fumigatus, the most frequent species in the genus. This review aims to compare the pathogenicity and clinical aspects of Aspergillosis caused by A. fumigatus an A. flavus. Experimental data suggests that A. flavus is more virulent than A. fumigatus. However, these were mostly models of disseminated Aspergillus infection which do not properly mimic the physiopathology of invasive aspergillosis, a condition that is usually acquired by inhalation. In addition, no conclusive virulence factor has been identified for Aspergillus species. A. flavus is a common cause of fungal sinusitis and cutaneous infections. Chronic conditions such as chronic cavitary pulmonary aspergillosis and sinuses fungal balls have rarely been associated with A. flavus. The bigger size of A. flavus spores, in comparison to those of A. fumigatus spores, may favour their deposit in the upper respiratory tract. Differences between these species justify the need for a better understanding of A. flavus infections.
- SourceAvailable from: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov[show abstract] [hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: The optimal treatment for invasive aspergillosis remains elusive, despite the increased efficacy of newer agents. The immunosuppressants cyclosporine (CY), tacrolimus (FK506), and sirolimus (formerly called rapamycin) exhibit in vitro and in vivo activity against Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, including fungicidal synergy with azole antifungals. We report here that both FK506 and CY exhibit a clear in vitro positive interaction with caspofungin against Aspergillus fumigatus by disk diffusion, microdilution checkerboard, and gross and microscopic morphological analyses. Microscopic morphological analyses indicate that the calcineurin inhibitors delay filamentation, and in combination with caspofungin there is a positive interaction. Our findings suggest a potential role for combination therapy with calcineurin pathway inhibitors and existing antifungal agents to augment activity against A. fumigatus.Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 06/2004; 48(5):1664-9. · 4.57 Impact Factor
- [show abstract] [hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: A 5-year-old boy with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and probable pulmonary aspergillosis developed a hard, protuberant, white-yellow and aggressive elongated lesion on the left side of his tongue during a febrile agranulocytopenic episode. Despite the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics and other supportive therapies, the lesion increased to about 2x4 cm in size within two days and became grey-black with an erythemateous, irregular line. Partial excision of the tongue was performed and isolates recovered from the tongue biopsy specimen were identified as Aspergillus flavus. An increase in the systemic dose (7 mg/kg/day) and local intraoral delivery of liposomal amphotericin B was successful in treating the patient and resulted in improved clinical and laboratory findings. Herein, we document the observation of tongue aspergillosis in a leukemic child with probable pulmonary aspergillosis receiving liposomal amphotericin B therapy and the successful treatment of tongue aspergillosis with an increased dose (7mg/kg) of liposomal amphotericin B. To the best of our knowledge, this is the youngest patient with documented intraoral aspergillosis and only the second case of tongue aspergillosis caused by Aspergillus flavus.Medical Mycology 01/2007; 44(8):767-70. · 1.98 Impact Factor
- [show abstract] [hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Physico-chemical properties of Aspergillus conidia rely on their outer cell-wall rodlet layer. In A. fumigatus and A. nidulans, the rodlet structure is due to an hydrophobin encoded by homologous rodA genes. To evaluate the role of the rodlet structure on the physico-chemical properties of conidia, we compared hydrophobicity, Lewis acid-base (i.e. electron donor/acceptor) characteristics and electrostatic charge of hydrophobin-less (rodletless) mutant and wild-type conidia of A. fumigatus and A. nidulans. The results obtained by aqueous-solvent partitioning assays, microsphere adhesion assays and microelectrophoresis showed that the disruption of the rodA gene modifies surface properties of A. fumigatus and A. nidulans conidia, and confirmed that the rodlet layer plays a key role in their physico-chemical behaviour. The absence of this layer on A. fumigatus spores led to the appearance of weakly basic and acidic characteristics, and had a slight effect on the hydrophobicity of conidia. Whereas in A. nidulans, it induced a basic character, a marked decrease in hydrophobicity and in the polarization capacity (electronegativity) of conidia. These physico-chemical differences between A. fumigatus and A. nidulans rodletless conidia may be attributed to differences in the composition of the conidial outer cell-wall of the two species.Letters in Applied Microbiology 01/2000; 29(6):364-9. · 1.63 Impact Factor
Differences in pathogenicity and clinical syndromes due to
Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus flavus
ALESSANDRO C. PASQUALOTTO
Infection Control Department at Santa Casa Complexo Hospitalar, Porto Alegre, and Post-Graduation Program in
Pulmonary Sciences, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil
Most of the information available about Aspergillus infections has originated from
the study of A. fumigatus, the most frequent species in the genus. This review aims
to compare the pathogenicity and clinical aspects of Aspergillosis caused by
A. fumigatus an A. flavus. Experimental data suggests that A. flavus is more
virulent than A. fumigatus. However, these were mostly models of disseminated
Aspergillus infection which do not properly mimic the physiopathology of invasive
aspergillosis, a condition that is usually acquired by inhalation. In addition, no
conclusive virulence factor has been identified for Aspergillus species. A. flavus is a
common cause of fungal sinusitis and cutaneous infections. Chronic conditions
such as chronic cavitary pulmonary aspergillosis and sinuses fungal balls have
rarely been associated with A. flavus. The bigger size of A. flavus spores, in
comparison to those of A. fumigatus spores, may favour their deposit in the upper
respiratory tract. Differences between these species justify the need for a better
understanding of A. flavus infections.
Pathogenicity, aspergillosis, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus,
Infections caused by Aspergillus species have grown in
importance in recent years. This probably results from
a higher number of patients being at risk, including
transplant recipients, neutropenic individuals, allergic
patients and those treated with corticosteroids or other
immunosuppressive regimens. Despite a better under-
standing of the epidemiology of Aspergillus infections,
important diagnostic limitations persist. Accordingly,
the mortality for invasive aspergillosis remains very
high. As most of the Aspergillus infections are caused
by A. fumigatus, the majority of studies have focused on
this species, and our understanding of other Aspergillus
species is far from satisfactory.
Aspergillus flavus is the second leading cause of
invasive and non-invasive aspergillosis . In addition,
it is the main Aspergillus species infecting insects, and it
is also able to cause diseases in economically important
crops, such as maize and peanuts, and to produce
potent mycotoxins. Curiously, some Aspergillus syn-
dromes are rarely associated with A. flavus. The aim of
this review is to summarize the available data compar-
ing the pathogenicity of these two medically important
thermotolerant fungi, A. fumigatus and A. flavus. In
addition, clinical syndromes particularly associated
with A. flavus are presented.
Geographic variations in Aspergillus species
Although not completely understood, climate and
geographic conditions are very important determinants
of the prevalence and distribution of Aspergillus species
in the air we breathe. The marked predominance of
A. fumigatus on clinical samples may simply reflect its
environmental predominance over other Aspergillus
species. However, important geographic variations in
Correspondence: Alessandro C. Pasqualotto, Servic ¸o de Controle de
Infecc ¸a ˜o Hospitalar, Av Independe ˆncia 75, Hospital Dom Vicente
Scherer, 7oandar, Santa Casa de Porto Alegre, Brazil. Tel: ?55 51
99951614; fax: ?55 51 32148629. E-mail: pasqualotto@santacasa.
Received 31 January 2008; Accepted 4 June 2008
– 2008 ISHAMDOI: 10.1080/13693780802247702
2008, S1?S10, iFirst article
the distribution of Aspergillus species occur all over the
globe. For instance, A. flavus is particularly prevalent in
the air of some tropical countries [2?5]. In countries like
Saudi Arabia and Sudan, with semi-arid and arid dry
weather conditions, A. flavus is frequently described as
a leading cause of invasive aspergillosis [6?8]. A. flavus
seems also to be a prevalent species in India, Pakistan,
Qatar and Iran . An early study from Sudan
showed that A. flavus represented 30% of all aspergilli
recovered from the air in June, when the weather is hot,
dry and dusty. Conversely, A. flavus was sporadically
recovered in winter months. Although A. flavus is very
prevalent in regions where the climate is dry and hot,
the presence of a humid and hot climate ? as occurs to
many parts of India ? may also predispose to A. flavus
infections. In addition, conditions of elevated humidity
and temperature have also been associated with A.
flavus contamination of crops and production of
In Europe, whilst A. flavus and A. niger were the
most frequent airborne aspergilli recovered in a study
performed in Barcelona , another investigation
conducted in Madrid showed A. fumigatus to be the
most prevalent species (54%) . This might be
explained by the existing climatic differences between
these two Spanish cities. Also interesting is the fact that
in the study performed in Madrid, A. niger and
A. flavus were found to be more heavily influenced by
meteorological parameters than A. fumigatus was .
Comparing the presence of Aspergillus species in the air
in London, Paris, Lyon and Marseille, Mallea et al.
found that A. glaucus and A. versicolor predominate in
Southern France, whilst A. fumigatus represented
?35% of the isolates recovered from Paris and London.
Conidial size, surface and pigments
Aspergillus species produce conidia (asexual spores)
that can easily be dispersed in the soil and air. Uptake
of conidia by a susceptible host is usually the initial
event in Aspergillus diseases with alveolar macrophages
A. fumigatus conidia ranges from 2 to 3.5 mm, A. flavus
produces conidia ranging from 3 to 6 mm. This
difference in size is of great importance, allowing
A. fumigatus conidia to reach the pulmonary alveoli
much easier than do those of A. flavus. This probably
also explains why A. fumigatus is the main agent of
invasive pulmonary aspergillosis, while A. flavus is an
important aetiology of Aspergillus sinusitis and a
frequent cause of cutaneous and wound aspergillosis
. No data seems to exist on the importance of speed
of sedimentation of different sizes of Aspergillus spores,
which might also be important for the transmission of
In addition to conidial size, the outermost cell wall
layer of Aspergillus conidia may also be of importance.
The outer conidial surface contains rodlets that are
structures may confer resistance to extreme atmo-
spheric conditions and facilitate airborne dispersion
of Aspergillus conidia. Mutants lacking the gene RodA
? encoding the protein responsible for rodlet structure ?
display enhanced sensitivity to alveolar macrophage
killing . Accordingly, rodlets are believed to be
virulence factors [13?16]. However, deletion of the
RodA gene had no impact on virulence in a murine
model of pulmonary infection . Conidia from
DrodA mutants do not properly bind to proteins with
hydrophobic pockets, such as albumin or collagen ?
instead, binding occurs to other host proteins like
laminin and fibrinogen . Therefore, this mechanism
does not seem to be essential for Aspergillus patho-
Melanin is a large group of dense hydrophobic
pigments present in the cell wall of many fungi,
adjacent to the rodlet layer . The colour of the
pigment is usually dark brown or black, but many other
colours have also been observed . Melanin synthesis
has been linked to virulence in fungal organisms such
schenckii [21,22]. The pigment seems to confer protec-
tion to the conidia against environmental damage from
UV radiation. In addition, it seems to protect against
phagocytosis in vitro and in vivo . Melanin may also
reduce complement opsonization by ‘camouflaging’
binding sites, which for instance can reduce C3 ability
to bind conidia [19,24]. Mutant albine Aspergillus
strains have shown reduced virulence in comparison
to wild type strains in models of experimental asper-
gillosis, with albine conidia being more susceptible to
the oxidative mechanisms of monocytes and polymor-
phonuclear leukocytes [18,23?25]. Differences in mela-
nization between A. fumigatus and A. nidulans were
demonstrated by exposing these fungi to tricyclazole, a
fungicidal inhibitor of the THN-reductase enzyme,
involved in melanin synthesis via DHN-melanin path-
way . Exposure to tricyclazole resulted in inhibition
of conidial pigmentation in A. fumigatus but not
A. nidulans, showing that pigmentation involves differ-
ent pathways in these species. Studying melanisation in
A. fumigatus strains by immunofluorescence techni-
anti-melanin antibodies avidly attached to Aspergillus
conidia. The strength of this binding decreased with
conidial germination to become null after hyphae
– 2008 ISHAM, Medical Mycology
formation. These data suggest that melanin could be
more important as a facilitating factor for fungal
survival in the external environment than for virulence
in the host. Also again, no much data is there for A.
flavus. Since several non-pathogenic fungi are also
known to produce melanin, this pigment is probably
not essential for the occurrence of invasive fungal
diseases in humans .
Adhesion of Aspergillus conidia to the lung
The adhesion of Aspergillus conidia to proteins present
in the lung cell basal lamina is considered an important
initial step in the development of invasive aspergillosis.
Important proteins in this context include fibronectin
[27,28], laminin [28?30], type IV collagen [28,29],
fibrinogen, complement, albumin, and surfactant pro-
teins . In a comparison involving several Aspergillus
species, conidia of A. niger, A. fumigatus and A. flavus
were found to bind significantly better to fibrinogen
than A. terreus conidia . In another investigation
, A. fumigatus conidia were found to bind signifi-
cantly better to the basal lamina and fibronectin than
those of A. flavus. Studying the mechanisms involved in
conidial binding, the authors realized that negatively
charged carbohydrates occurring on the conidiospore
cell wall played a role in the adhesion of the conidia to
host basal lamina.
Alveolar macrophages represent the first line of defence
against pulmonary aspergillosis. Accordingly, therapy
with corticosteroids ? which may cause important
interference with the ability of macrophages to kill
resting conidia ? is a major risk factor for invasive
aspergillosis. Most in vitro studies of interactions
between macrophages and Aspergillus species have
been done on A. fumigatus [33?35] and very little is
known about A. flavus [36,37]. Previous studies re-
vealed that monocyte-derived human macrophages
exhibited lower phagocytic capacities against non-A.
fumigatus aspergilli, especially in A. nidulans and
A. niger, when compared with A. fumigatus. In addi-
tion, polymorphonuclear leukocytes induced signifi-
cantly less hyphal damage to both A. flavus and A.
nidulans than to A. fumigatus . Perkhofer et al.
further investigated phagocytosis and intracellular kill-
ing for resting conidia of a wide range of Aspergillus
species by human monocytes-derived macrophages. No
differences between clinical and environmental isolates
were observed. Similar results were obtained for clinical
isolates of A. fumigatus and A. flavus, with mean killing
indexes at 120 minutes ranging from 13.7?77.8% and
14.2?42.2%, respectively. However, some marked iso-
late-related differences occurred.
Germination rate and thermotolerance
Araujo and Rodrigues showed that germination
rates at 378C differed significantly for the most
common pathogenic Aspergillus species. Using the
same inoculum of Aspergillus spores in RPMI 1640
medium, A. fumigatus germinated faster than A. flavus,
which in turn germinated faster than A. niger. Inter-
esting results were also obtained when germination rate
was evaluated at different temperatures. The percentage
of germination markedly increased 3- to 10-fold for
both A. fumigatus and A. flavus when temperature was
increased from 208C to 308C, and again 2- to 3-fold
from 308C to 378C. However at 418C germination of
A. fumigatus was still enhanced, while germination of
A. flavus decreased by 45% (as compared with 378C).
The study suggested that temperature plays a crucial
role in selecting and promoting pathogenic species of
Aspergillus, with A. fumigatus being the species most
able to adapt to extreme changes in environmental
conditions. Nonetheless, it remains to be elucidated if
the same phenomenon also occurs in vivo. As demon-
strated in earlier studies , high conidial densities
were associated with lower in vitro germination rates.
In contrast to A. fumigatus, Neosartorya fischeri is
only rarely identified as a human pathogen. Since
phenotypic characterization has shown that both
A. fumigatus and N. fischeri can grow at 428C,
A. fumigatus may possess other genetic determinants
besides thermotolerance that allow it to establish a
successful in vivo infection .
Interactions with the endothelial cells
In a previously reported model of interaction of
A. fumigatus with primary cultures of human umbilical
vein endothelial cells it was observed that after 16 h of
interaction hyphae caused injury to the endothelial cell
monolayers . Further studies using two clinical
isolates of A. flavus (AFL8 and AFL24) using this
in vitro model showed that both isolates caused the
same amount of injury as observed for A. fumigatus
[Lopes-Bezerra, personal communication]. Although
invasion of the blood vessels is a key feature of invasive
aspergillosis, no comparative data was found for
A. flavus and A. fumigatus on the potential for causing
– 2008 ISHAM, Medical Mycology
Comparison of Aspergillus fumigatus and A. flavus
The role of albumin
Albumin accounts for around 50% of plasma proteins
and is involved in several physiological processes.
Rodrigues et al. investigated the effect of human
albumin upon conidial germination and hyphal devel-
opment of Aspergillus species . Although albumin
was shown to significantly promote germination of
A. fumigatus, the germination of both A. flavus and
A. niger was reduced in presence of albumin. A. flavus
germination was reduced by 20 and 25% in the presence
of 2 and 4% of human albumin, respectively. Similar
effects were obtained with the use of bovine albumin.
The formation of conidiophores and maturation of
A. fumigatus conidia were also faster in the presence of
Fungal secondary metabolites and toxines
Aspergillus species have been shown to produce several
secondary metabolites during invasive hyphal growth in
tissues . Many of such substances have been
identified as being important in the process of fungal
assimilation of nutrients from the host, and include
fungal enzymes and toxins. It remains however a
subject of debate whether any of these metabolites
actually represent a virulence factor. Differently from
what was described for other fungi such as C. neofor-
mans , no single gene virulence factors has been
identified for Aspergillus species. In addition, very little
is known about A. flavus, in comparison to its counter-
part A. fumigatus.
In order to cause invasive infections, filamentous
fungi require the activity of extracellular enzymes to
degrade the structural barriers in the host [44,45].
These enzymes include nucleases, oxidases, catalases,
phosphatases, peptidases and proteases, that are pro-
duced to degrade complex macromolecules in order to
provide nutrients for the fungus. Fungal proteases may
also induce local airway inflammation by activating
inflammatory pathways via epithelial cells .
Since elastin constitutes about 28% of lung tissue,
play a role in the pathogenesis of invasive aspergillosis.
Kothary et al. inoculated mice with elastase-producing
and non-producing environmental isolates of A. fumi-
gatus . While non-producer isolates caused no
destruction to the mice alveoli, isolates that produced
elastase killed animals within 48?96 h, which was
associated with substantial alveolar necrosis. Similar
elastase activity has been observed when clinical and
environmental isolates of A. fumigatus have shown to
produce similar amounts of elastase . In another
investigation, the in vitro elastolytic activity of A. flavus
was found to be much lower than of A. fumigatus .
A. flavus isolate producing exceptionally high levels of
Other proteases have been detected during Aspergillus
infection, including the alkaline serine protease, the
metalloprotease and an aspartic protease. The exact
importance of these enzymes in pathogenesis is un-
certain, and this subject has been recently reviewed .
For instance, deletion of the coding sequences was
associated with no phenotypic modification, and the
corresponding mutants retained their virulence in
murine infection models, with histopathological studies
showing similar extent of mycelial growth in the lungs
of parental and mutant strains [51?57]. The significance
of the recently identified sedolisins is also unclear .
The role of fungal enzymes involved in the propionyl-
CoA detoxification has recently been investigated for
A. fumigatus and A. nidulans . When evaluated
in a steroid-immunosuppressed murine model of
A. fumigatus infection, a methylcitrate synthase mutant
displayed reduced virulence, suggesting that this pro-
tease may be involved in pathogenicity. Molecular
studies have been so far unable to identify a single
Aspergillus enzyme that is undoubtedly associated with
virulence in humans. Additionally, very little is known
about the importance of proteases in the pathogenesis
of A. flavus infections. Actually, most studies about
proteases secreted by Aspergillus of the flavus group
concerned A. oryzae and A. sojae, used in the food
Amongst the several secondary metabolites produced
by A. flavus are aflatoxins, the most toxic and potent
carcinogenic natural compounds ever characterized .
Aflatoxin may contaminate crops prior to harvest or
during storage, putting humans and other mammals
at risk. In addition, aflatoxins may also depress
phagocytosis, intracellular killing and spontaneous
superoxide production by macrophages . Experi-
mental animal models failed to establish a role for
aflatoxin as a virulence factor, since some virulent
strains of A. flavus do not produce aflatoxin [62,63].
Gliotoxin is one of the most abundant metabolites
produced by A. fumigatus during invasive hyphal
growth. This toxin exerts a broad spectrum of immu-
nosuppressive effects in vitro, including inhibition of
cytokine production, antigen presentation and produc-
tion of reactive oxygen species by macrophages, and
reduced cytotoxicity in T-cells . Low concentrations
of gliotoxin (0.2 mg/ml) may also impair respiratory
ciliary function, which is an important defence host
mechanism against aspergillosis . In parallel, other
– 2008 ISHAM, Medical Mycology
Aspergillus toxins like fumagillin and helvolic acid
require much higher concentrations to inhibit the cilia.
Gliotoxin has been detected in the blood of patients
with invasive aspergillosis , and mice administered
with gliotoxin showed marked immunosuppression
rending them at risk for invasive aspergillosis .
Therefore, gliotoxin has been proposed as a potential
virulence factor for A. fumigatus. However, a study
found no difference in the frequency or degree of
gliotoxin production when invasive aspergillosis pa-
tients were stratified by the EORTC criteria .
Similar results were observed for patients with proven
invasive aspergillosis or Aspergillus colonization, sug-
gesting that gliotoxin may have a limited role in the
pathogenicity of invasive aspergillosis, particularly in
infections caused by species other than A. fumigatus.
Data for gliotoxin production for A. flavus is scant,
and some experts will even argue that A. flavus does not
produce any gliotoxin at all. In a recent study, gliotoxin
production was detected in ?95% A. fumigatus strains
and in only 13% A. flavus strains . Similar results
were obtained in another investigation, in which 93%
and 4% of clinical isolates of A. fumigatus and A. flavus
were found to be gliotoxin-producers, respectively .
Not only gliotoxin production seems to be infrequent
for A. flavus isolates, but gliotoxin levels for A. flavus
are about 80-times lower when compared to what is
observed for A. fumigatus. For instance, in one
investigation mean gliotoxin concentration in the
culture supernatants for clinical and environmental
strains of A. fumigatus ranged from 5-6 mg/ml, while
mean levels for A. flavus were 0.001 mg/ml only for
A. flavus. The impact of gliotoxin production might
also differ for A. fumigatus and A. flavus. While lack of
gliotoxin production in A. fumigatus significantly
reduces cytotoxicity on macrophage-like P388D1 cells
and CD8 T-cells, absence of gliotoxin does not seem to
influence cytotoxicity in A. flavus. Although high
concentrations of gliotoxin can also be detected in
infected lung tissues , no data seems to exist for
A. flavus infections.
Calcineurin is a Ca??-calmodulin-dependent phos-
phatase that is important in cell signalling . This
protein is a critical mediator of calcium signalling and
numerous cell stress responses in eukaryotic organisms,
including fungi. In A. fumigatus, calcineurin seems
necessary for filamentous growth . An A. fumigatus
mutant lacking the calcineurin A catalytic subunit
exhibits defective hyphal morphology resulting in
decreased filamentation. Another study revealed that
deletion of the calcineurin gene reduced A. fumigatus
virulence in mice . Also, calcineurin inhibitors such
as tacrolimus and cyclosporine have shown to create
gross and microscopic morphological changes in
A. fumigatus colonies . Although the calcineurin
gene seems important for A. fumigatus pathogenicity,
its role has not been clarified for infections caused by
other Aspergillus species.
Virulence in animal models
Animal models play a central role in identifying
virulence factors. Maybe the best evidence showing
higher virulence for A. flavus isolates in comparison to
A. fumigatus comes from studies involving mice. One
example is the classical study by Ford and Friedman,
published in 1967 . The study evaluated cumulative
mortality rates of normal mice inoculated intrave-
nously with 106viable spores from various Aspergillus
species. Although A. flavus killed all animals within
5 days of infection, only 40% of mice infected with
A. fumigatus were dead 20 days after the inoculation.
Curiously A. oryzae ? which has GRAS (‘generally
regarded as safe’) status ? proved to be as virulent as
A. flavus. None of the Aspergillus species studied
caused death when only 102spores were inoculated.
However, when a 104inoculum was used, A. flavus was
still able to kill 38% of animals. Immunosuppression
with cortisone, although greatly enhancing disease, was
not necessary to ensure infection in mice. In another
publication , normal mice were intravenously in-
oculated with 104Aspergillus spores. A. flavus and
A. fumigatus killed 35% and 25% of animals, respec-
tively, while A. terreus caused 5% mortality only.
More recently, studies in cyclophosphamide-immu-
nosuppressed CD-1 mice have demonstrated that a
much lower inoculum is required to kill animals when
these are intravenously infected with A. flavus spores, in
comparison to A. fumigatus [75?77]. While the LD90
(lethal dose killing 90% of animals) for A. flavus ranged
from 2.2?105to 2.6?105CFU/ml, a 4- to 50-fold
higher LD90occurred for A. fumigatus (1?106to 1.2?
107). For A. terreus, the LD90was about 40- to 100-fold
higher (1?107to 2?107) than the observed LD90for
A. flavus. It is noteworthy however that none of these
studies have directly compared virulence by testing
more than one Aspergillus species in the same experi-
ment. Fig. 1 shows the results of a study in which the
virulence of different Aspergillus species was compared
in an immunosuppressed mice model [Warn P, personal
communication]. While mean LD90(dose per gram) for
isolates of A. fumigatus was 9,566, LD90for A. flavus
was 1,440 (?7-fold less). A much higher inoculum was
required for A. niger and A. terreus, suggesting reduced
– 2008 ISHAM, Medical Mycology
Comparison of Aspergillus fumigatus and A. flavus
Similar results have been observed in a study in
which the invertebrate wax moth larvae were used as an
alternative host model of invasive aspergillosis [Slatter
J, personal communication]. As shown in Fig. 2,
survival rate for uninfected larvae was about 90% on
day 7. A lower virulence was observed for isolates of A.
terreus, in comparison to A. fumigatus. Similarly to the
studies involving mice, A. flavus demonstrated a higher
virulence in larvae, in comparison to the other Asper-
gillus species. All larvae infected by A. flavus died
within 2 days of infection.
One important limitation of the studies above is that
they all represent models of disseminated Aspergillus
infections. Although the data strongly suggests that
A. flavus is a more virulent species than A. fumigatus,
no direct comparison seems to exist using models of
inhaled infection. Intranasal inoculation mimics the
natural route of infection and would also be a more
appropriate route than intravenous inoculation [13,14].
As mentioned before, the bigger size of A. flavus
conidia may be an important factor limiting the ability
of these spores to reach the alveoli.
In order to establish a proper model of A. flavus
sinus or pulmonary infection, bigger animals such as
rabbits may be required, instead of mice or rat .
Evidence from clinical trials
No data regarding species-related mortality was pro-
vided in the two largest trials on invasive aspergillosis
[79,80]. This is probably due to the limited number of
patients included with non-A. fumigatus infections in
these studies. For instance, although 277 patients were
included in the voriconazole versus amphotericin B trial
, only seven patients had documented A. flavus
infection. In the AmBiLad trial no details were
given regarding causative species. Therefore, no con-
clusion regarding differences in virulence among
Aspergillus species can be reached from these studies.
Due mainly to its conidia size, A. flavus is more likely to
be recovered from the upper respiratory tract than
A. fumigatus . A. flavus may be involved in all forms
of Aspergillus sinusitis, but there is a particular one that
deserves special attention: chronic granulomatous si-
nusitis. This is a curious syndrome of chronic slowly
progressive sinusitis associated with proptosis that has
been also called indolent fungal sinusitis and primary
paranasal granulomas [81,82]. Florid granulomatous
inflammation is the histological hallmark of this
condition, and virtually all cases are caused by
A. flavus. Again, almost all reports come from the
Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and the Indian subcontinent.
There are a limited number of reports in the USA,
which appear to almost exclusively affect African-
Americans . Patients tend to be immunocompetent
and involvement of the central nervous system fre-
Although A. fumigatus is the most frequent Aspergil-
lus organism causing allergic fungal sinusitis ,
A. flavus is a frequent aetiology in some geographic
areas, particularly the Middle East and India [84?88].
A. flavus is also not a frequent cause of sinuses fungal
balls (aspergillomas), with most reported cases occur-
ring in India, Sudan and other tropical countries .
Swiss mice. The y-axis shows the lethal dose required to kill 90% of
animals (LD90, dose per gram). All mice received 200 mg/kg of
cyclophosphamide 3 days before intravenous injection with Aspergil-
lus spores. Aspergillus species studied included A. fumigatus (strains
AF10, AF293, AF65, AF90, AF91, AF71, AF72, AF210, AF294,
and CEA10), A. flavus (AFL8 and AFL5). A. niger (AN6714), and A.
terreus (AT49). At least 10 animals were infected with each
Aspergillus isolate ? results on the graphic represent mean values.
Comparative virulence of Aspergillus species in outbred CD-1
Aspergillus species. Larvae were observed for 7 days at 378C. All
larvae received an inoculum of 2?106CFU/ml (2?104/larvae).
Survival rate for moth larvae infected with different
– 2008 ISHAM, Medical Mycology
As mentioned before, A. flavus is the second leading
cause of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis. Although
A. fumigatus causes the vast majorityof allergic bronch-
opulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) cases, most of the
series in which A. flavus has also been implicated were
originated in India [89?91]. Interesting cases of ABPA
occurring as an occupational disease in individuals
without asthma have also been reported in Japan .
These were usually caused by A. oryzae and affected
workers involvedin the production of soybean products.
For unknown reasons, A. flavus rarely causes chronic
remains to be elucidated if A. flavus is less able than
A. fumigatus in causing chronic conditions such as
Cutaneous and wound infections
Most cases of cutaneous aspergillosis involve A. flavus
. The same is also true for tongue aspergillosis [94,95],
which tends to affect neutropenic patients with intense
mucositis or oral ulcers. In a recent review of post-
operative aspergillosis, A. flavus was identified in 41.2%
of wound aspergillosis cases confirmed by culture .
In some reports, infections havebeen associatedwith the
dissemination of A. flavus spores within the surgical
room. A. flavus is also the main cause of Aspergillus
osteomyelitis following trauma [97?99].
Fungal keratitis occurs predominantly in tropical and
warm climates. At least 80% of Aspergillus keratitis
cases are associated with A. flavus . The major
predisposing condition to A. flavus keratitis is trauma,
generally with plant material .
Outbreaks of aspergillosis involving the skin, oral
mucosa or subcutaneous tissues are more frequently
associated with A. flavus than any other Aspergillus
A. fumigatus, the evidence for this assumption is based
mainly on experimental models of disseminated infec-
tion. Comparative studies in which animals are primar-
ily infected via the respiratory tract are lacking and
required. In addition, the available data shows highly
variable results depending on the Aspergillus isolate
studied, suggesting intra-species variation in virulence.
It seems however that A. fumigatus is more able than
A. flavus to adapt to extreme changes in environmental
conditions, which includes the human body.
The size of A. flavus conidia is a very important
determinant of the clinical presentations of aspergillo-
sis caused by this species. Accordingly, A. flavus is
particularly significant in infections involving the
paranasal sinuses, skin, mucosas and the eyes. The
prevalence of A. flavus in the environment depends
greatly on climate conditions. It remains to be seen if
the phenomenon of global warming will lead to an
increase in A. flavus infections in the clinical practice.
I would like to thank Dr Peter Warn and Joanne
Slatter, who kindly provided me with their data on
animal and larvae models. I am also in debt with Dr
Kwon-Chung, for giving helpful expert advice and Dr.
Lopes-Bezerra, for her data on endethelial cells.
Declaration of interest: The author reports no conflicts
of interest. The author alone is responsible for the
content and writing of the paper.
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ization of a secreted metalloprotease of Aspergillus fumigatus.
Infect Immun 1993; 61: 4099?4104.
55 Tang CM, Cohen J, Krausz T, Van Noorden S, Holden DW. The
alkaline protease of Aspergillus fumigatus is not a virulence
determinant in two murine models of invasive pulmonary
aspergillosis. Infect Immun 1993; 61: 1650?1656.
56 Jaton-Ogay K, Paris S, Huerre M, et al. Cloning and disruption
of the gene encoding an extracellular metalloprotease of
Aspergillus fumigatus. Mol Microbiol 1994; 14: 917?928.
57 Smith JM, Tang CM, Van Noorden S, Holden DW. Virulence of
Aspergillus fumigatus double mutants lacking restriction and an
alkaline protease in a low-dose model of invasive pulmonary
aspergillosis. Infect Immun 1994; 62: 5247?5254.
58 Reichard U, Lechenne B, Asif AR, et al. Sedolisins, a new class
of secreted proteases from Aspergillus fumigatus with endopro-
tease or tripeptidyl-peptidase activity at acidic pHs. Appl Environ
Microbiol 2006; 72: 1739?1748.
59 Fleck CB, Brock M. Characterization of an acyl-CoA: carbox-
ylate CoA-transferase from Aspergillus nidulans involved in
propionyl-CoA detoxification. Mol Microbiol 2008; 68: 642?656.
60 Monod M, Capoccia S, Le ´chenne B, et al. Secreted proteases
from pathogenic fungi. Int J Med Microbiol 2002; 292: 405?419.
61 Cusumano V, Costa GB, Seminara S. Effect of a-atoxins on rat
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62 Ford S, Friedman L. Experimental study of the pathogenicity of
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63 Richard JL, Thurston JR, Peden WM, Pinello C. Recent studies
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64 Kupfahl C, Michalka A, Lass-Flo ¨rl C, et al. Gliotoxin produc-
tion by clinical and environmental Aspergillus fumigatus strains.
Int J Med Microbiol 2007; 298: 319?327.
65 Amitani R, Taylor G, Elezis EM, et al. Purification and
characterization of factors produced by Aspergillus fumigatus
which affect human ciliated respiratory epithelium. Infect Immun
1995; 63: 3266?3271.
66 Lewis RE, Wiederhold NP, Chi J, et al. Detection of gliotoxin in
experimental and human aspergillosis. Infect Immun 2005; 73:
67 Sutton P, Newcombe NR, Waring P, Mu ¨llbacher A. In vivo
immunosuppressive activity of gliotoxin, a metabolite produced
by human pathogenic fungi. Infect Immun 1994; 62: 1192?1198.
68 Ascioglu S, Rex JH, de Pauw B, et al. Defining opportunistic
invasive fungal infections in immunocompromised patients with
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69 Lewis RE, Wiederhold NP, Lionakis MS, Prince RA, Kon-
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70 Liu J, Farmer JD Jr, Lane WS, et al. Calcineurin is a common
target of cyclophilin-cyclosporin A and FKBP-FK506 com-
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71 Steinbach WJ, Cramer RA Jr, Perfect BZ, et al. Calcineurin
controls growth, morphology, and pathogenicity in Aspergillus
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72 Goldman GH, Ferreira ME, Semighini CP, Harris SD, Fedorova
ND. Deletion of the Aspergillus fumigatus calcineurin gene
decreases virulence in a low dose murine infection. In: 2nd
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73 Steinbach WJ, Schell WA, Blankenship JR, et al. In vitro
against Aspergillus fumigatus. Antimicrob Agents Chemother
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74 Nobre G. Sensitivity to 5-fluorocytosine and virulence for mice
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75 Mosquera J, Warn PA, Morrissey J, et al. Susceptibility testing of
Aspergillus flavus: inoculum dependence with itraconazole and
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76 Denning DW, Radford SA, Oakley KL, et al. Correlation
between in-vitro susceptibility testing to itraconazole and
in-vivo outcome of Aspergillus fumigatus infection. J Antimicrob
Chemother 1997; 40: 401?414.
77 Johnson EM, Oakley KL, Radford SA, et al. Lackof correlation
of in vitro amphotericin B susceptibility testing with outcome in
a murine model of Aspergillus infection. JAntimicrob Chemother
2000; 45: 85?93.
78 Chakrabarti A, Jatana M, Sharma SC. Rabbit as an animal
model of paranasal sinus mycoses. J Med Vet Mycol 1997; 35:
79 Herbrecht R, Denning DW, Patterson TF, et al. Voriconazole
versus amphotericin B for primary therapy of invasive aspergil-
losis. N Engl J Med 2002; 347: 408?15.
80 Cornely OA, Maertens J, Bresnik M, et al. Liposomal ampho-
tericin B as initial therapy for invasive mold infection: a
randomized trial comparing a high-loading dose regimen with
standard dosing (AmBiLoad trial). Clin Infect Dis 2007; 44:
81 Sandison AT, Gentles JC, Davidson CM, Branko M. Aspergil-
loma of paranasal sinuses and orbit in northern Sudanese.
Sabouraudia 1967; 6: 57?69.
82 Milosev B, el-Mahgoub S, Aal OA, el-Hassan AM. Primary
aspergilloma of paranasal sinuses in the Sudan: a review of
seventeen cases. Br J Surg 1969; 56: 132?137.
83 Mukherji SK, Figueroa RE, Ginsberg LE, et al. Allergic fungal
sinusitis: CT findings. Radiology 1998; 207: 417?422.
84 Taj-Aldeen SJ, Hilal AA, Schell WA. Allergic fungal rhinosinu-
sitis: a report of 8 cases. Am J Otolaryngol 2004; 25: 213?218.
85 Taj-Aldeen SJ, Hilal AA, Chong-Lopez A. Allergic Aspergillus
flavus rhinosinusitis: a case report from Qatar. Eur Arch
Otorhinolaryngol 2003; 260: 331?335.
86 Saravanan K, Panda NK, Chakrabarti A, Das A, Bapuraj
RJ. Allergic fungal rhinosinusitis: an attempt to resolve the
– 2008 ISHAM, Medical Mycology
Comparison of Aspergillus fumigatus and A. flavus
diagnostic dilemma. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2006;
87 Chhabra A, Handa KK, Chakrabarti A, Mann SB, Panda N.
Allergic fungal sinusitis: clinicopathological characteristics. My-
coses 1996; 39: 437?441.
88 Fadl FA, Hassan KM, Faizuddin M. Allergic fungal rhinosinu-
sitis: report of 4 cases from Saudi Arabia. Saudi Med J 2000; 21:
89 Khan ZU, Sandhu RS, Randhawa HS, Menon MP, Dusaj IS.
Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis: a study of 46 cases
with special reference to laboratory aspects. Scand J Respir Dis
1976; 57: 73?87.
90 Sandhu RS, Mehta SK, Khan ZU, Singh MM. Role of
Aspergillus and Candida species in allergic bronchopulmonary
mycoses. A comparative study. Scand J Respir Dis 1979; 60: 235?
91 Chakrabarti A, Sethi S, Raman DS, Behera D. Eight-year study
of allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis in an Indian teaching
hospital. Mycoses 2002; 45: 295?299.
92 Akiyama K, Takizawa H, Suzuki M, et al. Allergic broncho-
pulmonary aspergillosis due to Aspergillus oryzae. Chest 1987;
93 Pasqualotto AC, Denning DW. An aspergilloma caused by
Aspergillus flavus. Med Mycol 2008; 46: 275?278.
94 Correa ME, Soares AB, de Souza CA, et al. Primary aspergil-
losis affecting the tongue of a leukemic patient. Oral Dis 2003; 9:
95 Bor O, Cagri Dinleyici E, Kiraz N, Dundar E, Akdeniz Akgun
N. Successful treatment of tongue aspergillosis caused by
Aspergillus flavus with liposomal amphotericin B in a child
with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Med Mycol 2006; 44: 767?
96 Pasqualotto AC, Denning DW. Post-operative aspergillosis. Clin
Microbiol Infect 2006; 12: 1060?1076.
97 De Vuyst D, Surmont I, Verhaegen J, Vanhaecke J. Tibial
osteomyelitis due to Aspergillus flavus in a heart transplant
patient. Infection 1992; 20: 48?49.
98 Corrall CJ, Merz WG, Rekedal K, Hughes WT. Aspergillus
osteomyelitis in an immunocompetent adolescent: a case report
and review of the literature. Pediatrics 1982; 70: 455?461.
99 Cimerman M, Gunde-Cimerman N, Zalar P, Perkovic T. Femur
osteomyelitis due to a mixed fungal infection in a previously
healthy man. J Clin Microbiol 1999; 37: 1532?1535.
100 Vonberg RP, Gastmeier P. Nosocomial aspergillosis in outbreak
settings. J Hosp Infect 2006; 63: 246?254.
– 2008 ISHAM, Medical Mycology
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Page 1 – Māori arrival and settlement
Discovery and migration
New Zealand has a shorter human history than any other country. The precise date of settlement is a matter of debate, but current understanding is that the first arrivals came from East Polynesia in the 13th century. It was not until 1642 that Europeans became aware the country existed.
The original Polynesian settlers discovered the country on deliberate voyages of exploration, navigating by ocean currents and the winds and stars. The navigator credited in some traditions with discovering New Zealand is Kupe. Some time later the first small groups arrived from Polynesia. Now known as Māori, these tribes did not identify themselves by a collective name until the arrival of Europeans when, to mark their distinction the name Māori, meaning ‘ordinary’, came into use.
The Lapita pottery trail
Although New Zealand has abundant clay deposits, Māori people did not make pottery. But their distant ancestors brought the skill from South-East Asia across the Pacific as far as Samoa and Tonga before it was lost. Lapita pottery (named after a site in New Caledonia) is one of the ways we can trace the emergence of Polynesians in the Pacific. The motifs of Māori art in New Zealand clearly resemble the decoration on Lapita pottery.
Hunting and gathering
The early settlers lived in small hunting bands. Seals and the large, flightless moa bird were their main prey, until moa were hunted to extinction. In the South Island, hunting and gathering remained the main mode of survival.
Gardening and fishing
The Polynesians brought with them kūmara (sweet potato) and yams, which grew well in the warmer North Island. Extensive kūmara gardens supported relatively large settlements. But even in the north, birds, fish and shellfish were important in the Māori diet. In some northern areas, large populations put pressure on resources. The Polynesian dog and rat came with the early arrivals, but the domestic pigs and chickens of the islands did not, for reasons not fully understood.
A robust people
In favourable conditions, Māori lived reasonably well. Their life expectancy was low by modern standards, but probably comparable to that of Europeans in the same era. The Māori population before European contact may have reached 100,000.
An oral culture
Māori passed on rich and detailed history and legends orally. Society was organised around groups that traced their descent from common ancestors. Reciting whakapapa (genealogies) was an important way to communicate knowledge.
The concepts of mana (status) and utu (reciprocity) were central to the culture, and led to widespread warfare. But the violence was usually episodic. For most of the time Māori lived not in fortified pā but in unprotected settlements or seasonal camps.
The greatest achievements of Māori material culture were carving wood for important buildings and canoes, and fashioning stone into tools and ornaments. Warfare did not inhibit regular trade in desirable stones and foods, and was itself a means by which resources were appropriated.
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A little over a year ago, Brookings and the China Development Research Foundation cohosted a discussion on how to best prepare future generations through early childhood development. Madame Liu Yandong, vice premier of the People’s Republic of China, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, former U.S. Secretary of State, presented dual keynote addresses emphasizing the importance of early childhood development programs and their potential for having long-term global impact.
Madame Liu anticipated that China would soon release a national plan for development of children in poor areas, with a goal “to ensure the healthy growth of every child in China.” She cited data demonstrating how China has met the U.N. Millennium Development Goals to reduce infant and child mortality rates. While acknowledging the “daunting challenge” of promoting children’s development in China, which is home to nearly 310 million children, Madame Liu remarked that “investment in early childhood development is a human capital investment with the highest return.” She noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping “attaches great importance to early childhood development,” thus sharing a vision expressed by President Barack Obama.
In December, China’s State Council issued the National Child Development Plan (for 2014‒2020) for Poverty-Stricken Areas (link in Chinese), which aims specifically to reach 40 million rural children in 680 counties. This plan prioritizes early interventions not only to increase child survival, but also to promote healthy child development, from birth to the completion of compulsory education, through provision of quality care and comprehensive protection. The goals are to raise the level of child development in the targeted counties to or near the national average; to reduce under-5 stunting to 10 percent of children; and to reduce the rates of infant and under-5 mortality to 12 per 1,000 children and 15 per 1,000 children, respectively.
This directive encourages national, provincial, and local governments to innovate continually (by conducting pilot studies and then evaluating and revising them); disseminate the lessons learned; expand capacity in the “know-how” of healthy child development; apply and use data to inform policy and programs; and leverage increased funding from public and private sources. China’s success in innovation and implementation derives from its capability and flexibility to continually experiment with pilot initiatives, to leverage and translate lessons from these pilots to policy, and to scale up—as it did when introducing the reforms of the 1980s and 1990s.
As development agencies look beyond the goals for 2015 and on to 2030, how early child development is framed in the development architecture really matters. To move forward, there must be a shift from beyond child survival to children’s holistic development by promoting their capabilities. Among the key tasks to consider are redirection of social policies to focus on young children ages 0‒6 years, expansion of public health and education models to incorporate the science of early human development, and collection and use of data to track how well children are doing and to quantify levels of inequality in child development across population groups.
Population measures that are designed and used to track child development must focus on objective assessments of what children actually “look like,” as opposed to subjective appraisals of where they should be on a milestone chart. Such assessments would then provide evidence for making sound policy decisions and aligning policies with program impacts. Countries currently and routinely collect data on rates of infant, maternal, and child mortality, as well as breastfeeding and immunization. While it is essential to have reliable data on child survival and access to services, now is the time when governments can and should be seeking indicators that go beyond mere survival, and capture, in addition, how well children are developing.
Building on successful pilots, China’s recent National Nutrition Intervention Program expands coverage of freely provided nutritional supplementation to all young children in remote poor counties. This pilot-to-policy translation was led by the China Development Research Foundation (CDRF). CDRF is now piloting and evaluating a “nutrition plus parenting” intervention modelled after a successful program in Jamaica that has also been replicated in other Latin American countries. It is also planning an independent evaluation of a village-based family skills and child development program emphasizing nurturing care for “left-behind” children, ages 0-6, developed and implemented by the Half the Sky Foundation. With its emphasis on continual evaluation-feedback-revision and translation of effective programs into policy, China is uniquely positioned to share the knowledge and lessons it generates with other developing countries and, ultimately, to leverage increased investment and capacity in early child development both within China and globally.
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Someone recently asked on another board why CI doesn’t use guessing. Most folks were brought up to understand that the ability to guess an unknown word is crucial for a foreign language learner. Isn’t CI shortchanging learners by always telling them what things mean?
For beginners, CI instruction is concerned with trying to find the fastest and most efficient way to get a beginner or novice speaker to correctly acquire the structures of the language, together with the highest-frequency vocabulary items.
After that happens, the student isn’t a beginner anymore — in fact, he’s actually pretty fluent within the bounds of that vocabulary, because all the grammar is truly internalized and can be used and understood automatically (which is more than many “intermediate” or “advanced” students taught traditionally can say). He’s not applying rules or stopping and groping for the words that he has had before. Now he needs to broaden his vocabulary and get used to how native speakers express themselves. So at that point, the emphasis shifts a bit. More unknowns are okay, since based on the known language, the student can often guess correctly.
More importantly, the unknowns that are occurring at that point are lower-frequency unknowns. There’s no point guessing what “go” means; it’s such a key word that it MUST be known. In the time that it would take to mime its meaning, or have the student guess it, the student could have the teacher establish its meaning and give a dozen-odd additional repetitions of the word used correctly, which will hasten its acquisition. But for a word that is less frequent, it won’t occur that often, and being able to guess it is a useful skill. Student guessing it won’t speed acquisition of the basic language, which is why we don’t play guessing games with beginners. It can be done, but it slows things way down without much corresponding gain in other areas.
My primary consideration in thinking about teaching is always beginners, because in Chinese (where I focus much of the time) very few students ever get past that point in a true sense of the word. Yes, they might finish the book, or do a year or two in class. But most have little ability to use the language without effortful thinking. That’s not language acquisition, it’s learning about the language. Why in the world wouldn’t a student be able to easily use what had been “mastered” in his classes at the end of the classes? What other class do we tolerate this in? “Sorry, I took a lot of math, but I can never remember what that curvy digit is…um, 5? 6 maybe?”
Once we can get the vast mass of students through the critical first year, and have them come out the other end with real fluency over a limited subset of vocabulary, which means internalization of all of the major grammatical structures of the language, we can think about expanding their strategies (guessing, circumlocution, polishing up those last few less-frequent structures, etc.) and exposing them to lots and lots of reading and bridging toward authentic input.
It’s sort of like the CI teacher is the basketball drill guy and after you get master what he is helping you do, you can play in a real game (or maybe some pick-up or half-court to get started!). You still need to gain some experience in real games, but if you know the fundamentals, you’ll perform much, much better than someone who starts playing basketball after just having watched a few games on TV.
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Snakes are known for their ability to slither, shed their skin, and eat prey. But why do snakes eat themselves? It is a question that has baffled scientists and naturalists alike.
There are many reasons why snakes might eat themselves, but the most common reason is that they cannot thermoregulate or maybe stressed. It commonly happens when snakes are held captive and struggle to move around and regulate their temperatures.
Do you know the difference between poisonous and venomous? Find out here.
Inability to Regulate Body Temperature
Snakes cannot control their body temperature, and this is why they die when the temperature changes. This cold-blooded reptile relies on its sense of touch to detect whether it is too hot or cold for it.
But, due to their poor thermoregulation, snakes often end up eating themselves. This is often seen in captivity, where the snake cannot move to a place to regulate itself.
Stress is a common problem in the wild. With the rise of the human population, snakes are also facing stress. Humans stress them out, and so they eat themselves to death.
A snake eating itself is a sign of stress. It may be caused by other factors like hunger, lack of prey, or simply being too big for its own good.
What Is Thermoregulation in Snakes?
Thermoregulation is the process of maintaining the body’s core temperature. In snakes, this is done by controlling the amount of heat lost from their bodies.
The snake has a very thin layer of tissue that covers its entire body, called the epidermis. This layer helps regulate heat loss from the body and keeps it at an optimal temperature.
Snakes use their tongues to sense prey, which allows them to detect when they are in danger by sensing temperature changes. It also helps them to hunt for prey by detecting its scent.
Coral snakes are known to change colors depending on their surroundings, but they also use thermoregulation as a defense mechanism when threatened by predators.
What Causes Stress in Snakes?
Stress is a natural phenomenon that many things can cause.
The most common causes of stress in snakes are:
- Being handled too much
- Moving from a dark area to a bright one
- Change in temperature/humidity/light
- Being held for too long
Ensuring Your Pet Snake Does Not Eat Itself
Regulate Tank Temperature
If you have a pet snake, you need to take care of it properly. You need to ensure that the tank is at the right temperature for your snake so that it does not become too hot or too cold and potentially die from eating itself.
Ensure Your Snake Is Not Stressed
It is essential to ensure that your pet snake does not eat itself. There are many ways to avoid this from happening, some of which include making sure the snake has enough hiding places, providing your snake with a substrate that it likes to eat, and ensuring that it isn’t stressed out.
Snakes are generally solitary animals and don’t like being around other snakes. They will often find ways to escape their enclosure or hide in places where their owner cannot see them. This can lead them to eat themselves or other animals if they are stressed out or hungry enough.
What Snake Is Most Known to Eat Itself?
The North American Rat Snake is also called the “self-eating snake” because of its habit of eating itself after it has eaten something else. It will usually do this if it has been captured or if it has been injured in some way.
What Happens When a Snake Eats Itself?
Eating their own tail is a self-destructive act that snakes do when they are too hungry to find food, and they can’t escape from hunger. When this happens, the snake’s body will start to digest its own body parts until it dies in the process.
The most common ways that snakes eat their own tail are by swallowing their head, swallowing their whole body, or swallowing themselves up into their own mouth. So if a snake eats itself, it will die shortly after and then decompose into fertilizers for other animals to eat.
Do Snakes Eat Their Young Ones?
Snakes are a common and often feared creature. They are known to be voracious eaters and have been found to eat their own tails. However, they are also very intelligent creatures who communicate with their prey through body language.
Snakes do not eat their young ones. There are a few exceptions to this rule, but for the most part, snakes will not eat their young unless they are dead. This is because all snakes lay eggs, and it would be detrimental to the survival of the species if they were to eat their young.
What Should You Do When Your Snake Tries to Eat Itself?
When your pet snake starts to eat itself, it’s usually a sign that the snake is stressed out. Sometimes snakes will do this when they are in captivity and don’t have enough space to move around.
If your snake is eating itself, try moving it to a new location and providing it with more hiding places.
Can a Venomous Snake Poison Itself?
Venomous snakes can bite themselves when they eat their own venom, but the process is not always fatal. The venom has been shown to cause self-poisoning in some cases, but it is not always successful.
However, a venomous snake can easily poison itself if it eats a poisonous snake which is also venomous.
Snakes are cold-blooded animals and have an ideal body temperature of about 86 degrees Fahrenheit. The best way to keep them at a comfortable temperature is by providing them with heat sources like rocks or logs.
Snakes need to be kept at a constant temperature to survive. Different types of enclosures can be used when caring for snakes, such as glass aquariums or plastic tubs with a moist substrate.
Some people might not know what the best enclosure is for their snake, so here are some things to consider when choosing an enclosure: size, cost, ease of cleaning, and humidity level.
- Why Do I Get Cold After I Eat?
- Poisonous vs. Venomous
- Why Do Fevers Spike at Night?
- Why Does Water Make Me Nauseous?
- Why Does Ice Cream Make Me Cough?
- Why Am I Craving Beans So Bad?
- Why Do Divers Shower After Every Dive?
- Why Am I Hungry After I Eat?
- Why Do I Crave Chocolate on My Period?
- Why Do I Yawn When I Workout?
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All-wheel-drive, or AWD, vehicles are ever-growing in popularity, many thanks to the included safety of all 4 wheels supplying equivalent acceleration while driving. With the expanding appeal of SUVs as well as gas economic climate figures virtually near their two-wheel-drive equivalents, all-wheel-drive cars feel like the apparent choice for a lot of vehicle buyers. Likewise, numerous vehicles are used with a four-wheel-drive choice.
To Contact when the vehicle is broken [ยานพาหนะเสีย ติดต่อได้เลย, which is the term in Thai], please click on the link.
What most individuals do not recognize, nonetheless, is when it becomes towed, four-wheel-drive automobiles go to a drawback. While a two-wheel drive automobile can conveniently be lugged by lifting either the front or rear drive wheels off the ground, four-wheel-drive cars require all their wheels raised in order to be towed. This is due to the fact that all the wheels are connected to the drivetrain using the driveshaft, so drawing the automobile seriously damages the drivetrain.
While practically it is feasible to tow an all-wheel-drive vehicle on its wheels, you would require to disengage the driveshaft, which is a complex as well as costly treatment just to be performed by a skilled auto mechanic. By doing so, the spinning of the wheels does not have an adverse influence on the driveshaft, as well as the drivetrain.
The proper means to tow an all-wheel-drive automobile is by raising all 4 wheels off the ground. You can have a flatbed tow truck to draw the automobile onto its flatbed. By doing this, the automobile’s wheels do not spin when being lugged. Flatbeds, nevertheless, are generally in high need, which indicates you’ll need to wait long prior to you can be lugged.
If you don’t wish to wait long for a flatbed, you can always ask for a tow associate dollies. Dollies are basically a system with two sturdy wheels on each side. Throughout a tow, your automobile is lifted as well as dollies are positioned under one vehicle. The other vehicle is raised by the tow vehicle’s wrecker. This ensures your wheels do not roll throughout the tow, as well as a result your drivetrain won’t be harmed. Because of their small nature, the majority of routine tow vehicles are geared up with dollies.
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By Dr Shona Morrison of The Open University and Daryl Baguley of the Diane Modahl Sporting Foundation.
Welcome to the fourth blog in our month-long series in celebration of International Women’s Day. Today’s blog seeks to highlight a lesser-known form of violence against young women and girls – exploitation of vulnerable girls in the context of drug dealing and organised crime groups, known in the UK as ‘County Lines’ drug dealing.
The emergence of ‘County Lines’
In the past decade, infamous cases of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and grooming in areas like Rotherham, Rochdale, and Oxford, highlighted the range of environments outside of the home which can lead to younger females falling victim to groups of (mainly older) men. Now a new threat is emerging. There is growing evidence of young women and girls being exploited through ‘County Lines’ drug dealing leading to the risk of physical and sexual violence. The County Lines model involves organised crime gangs based mainly in cities grooming children and other vulnerable people to carry out activities in support of their drug dealing operations. Young people are encouraged to travel to provincial coastal, or rural, areas to deliver and sell drugs, often staying in so-called ’safe-houses’, posing considerable risk to their immediate and long-term physical and mental health.
Until recently, the focus on exploitation through County Lines has been mainly on young men and boys, however, there is growing evidence that girls are being increasingly targeted and subjected to additional forms of harm.
The role of girls in gangs and County Lines
The role of females in criminal activity which is traditionally seen as the preserve of males has been largely under-researched. Research on young women and girls is in even shorter supply. Although there is some research on girls’ involvement in street gangs, for instance, the literature remains dominated by research on young males. In the context of County Lines, early research did identity exploitation of females on the periphery of the industry. For instance, there were cases of young girls forced to attend parties in safe houses where they were expected to provide sexual rewards to young male ‘runners’. Video footage taken at these events may then be used to blackmail and further intimidate the young females into silence.
However, more recent research implies that young females are beginning to replace males as the ‘foot soldiers’ of County Lines. The relative ‘invisibility’ of girls and young women allows them the travel largely unnoticed on rail networks across the country, making them ideal targets for drug dealing gangs. Some researchers compare the grooming of young girls into county lines drug dealing, and the strategies subsequently used to maintain control over them, as akin to ‘coercive control’ – a phrase more commonly found in the domestic abuse literature to describe a pattern of behaviour where someone exerts power over their partner through fear and control.
The 2018 publication of the Government’s Serious Violence Strategy (Home Office – Serious Violence Strategy, April 2018 (publishing.service.gov.uk) marked the beginning of efforts to intervene in the harm caused by County Lines, although it was recognised at that time that most of the violence was by males against males. Programmes aimed at young females at risk of county lines have been a lower priority and, subsequently, slower to develop. Preventing this form of abuse against girls must become a higher priority within education and other sectors before girls ‘going country’ becomes the latest exploitation scandal of the 21st Century.
We Move – A mentoring project for young people at risk of violence and child criminal exploitation
Dr Shona Morrison from The Open University is conducting an evaluation of a mentoring programme aimed at young males and females considered to be at risk of violence or exploitation by organised crime groups. The programme, named ‘WeMove’, is funded by Greater Manchester Police and delivered by two organisations in the Greater Manchester area. Daryl Baguley is one of the programme coordinators delivering WeMove, through the Diane Modahl Sporting Foundation (DMSF) (Home – dmsf.org.uk). DMSF work with young people across areas of deprivation, empowering them to fulfil their potential.
Daryl has implemented a unique approach to supporting girls referred to WeMove to reduce their vulnerability to criminal exploitation. Due to the number of mentoring referrals received through one school, Daryl and her team set up a ‘girls group’ which comes together once a week to talk and learn important life skills which empower them to have the confidence to say ‘no’. Daryl is convinced of the importance of gender-specific approaches to dealing with youth violence. Girls, she says, need a ‘safe space’ to talk and seek advice about issues of importance to them: “The stories that come from the girls can be frightening. They would share stories about being used by their boyfriends to transport items for them because they know they are less likely to get stopped, not recognising any of the dangers this carries for themselves or the manipulation which had been used over them.” Daryl believes their issues often come down to lack of knowledge about healthy relationships, low self-esteem and confidence. She says, “It is clear the girls do not always understand consent and didn’t recognise the signs of coercive and controlling behaviour, leaving them in danger of criminal exploitation, sexual exploitation and trauma”.
With both mentoring and financial support from WeMove, the girls decide on suitable topics and activities for the group. So far, they have requested sessions on body positivity, Andrew Tate, racism, social media awareness, positive relationships, consent, gang awareness and bullying. Some have also chosen to undertake First Aid or beauty industry qualifications, while others are themselves working towards gaining peer mentoring qualifications. Daryl highlights the reciprocal nature of the girls group saying “The conversations we have with the girls are invaluable. The girls give us a real insight into the challenges and barriers our girls are facing daily. We have seen an improvement in school attendance and drop in after-school detentions. The feedback we have had from parents and the school has been extremely positive. Girls have also left abusive relationships and have started to realise their own worth. The transformations have been amazing to see.”
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The Effects of Racial Segregation on Intergenerational Mobility: Evidence from Historical Railroad Placement
Abstract: This paper provides new evidence on the causal impacts of citywide racial segregation on intergenerational mobility. We use an instrumental variable approach that relies on plausibly exogenous variation in segregation due to the arrangement of railroad tracks in the 19th century. Our analysis finds that higher segregation reduces upward mobility for Black children from households across the income distribution and White children from low-income households. Moreover, segregation lowers academic achievement while increasing incarceration and teenage birth rates. An analysis of mechanisms shows that segregation reduces government spending, weakens support for antipoverty policies, and increases racially conservative attitudes among White residents.
File(s): File format is application/pdf https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/frbp/assets/working-papers/2023/wp23-18.pdf
Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
Part of Series: Working Papers
Publication Date: 2023-09-05
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Click a letter to see a list of conditions beginning with that letter.
Click 'Topic Index' to return to the index for the current topic.
Click 'Library Index' to return to the listing of all topics.
Shellfish Allergy Diet
General guidelines for shellfish allergy
The key to an allergy-free diet is to stay away from all foods or products containing the food to which you are allergic. If you are allergic to shellfish, you will need to stay away from foods that contain shellfish. To do this, you must read food labels.
The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA) is a law that requires U.S. packaged foods to state clearly on the label if they contain shellfish.
How to read a label for a shellfish-free diet
Don't eat foods that have any of these ingredients:
Clams, such as cherrystone, littleneck, pismo, and quahog
Crawfish, crayfish, écrevisse
Lobster, langouste, langoustine, scampi, coral, tomalley
Shrimp, prawns, crevette
These foods may also contain shellfish:
Always read the entire ingredient label to look for shellfish. Shellfish may be in the ingredient list. Or it could be listed in a “Contains: Shellfish” statement after the ingredient list.
Foods that don't have shellfish could be contaminated during manufacturing. Advisory statements are not regulated by the FDA. They are voluntary. These include labels such as "processed in a facility that also processed shellfish." Or "made on shared equipment." Ask your healthcare provider if you may eat products with these labels. Or if you should stay away from them.
Some foods and products are not covered by the FALCPA law. These include:
Foods that are not regulated by the FDA
Cosmetics and personal care items
Prescription and over-the-counter medicines and supplements
Toys, crafts, and pet foods
When you are eating out
Always carry 2 epinephrine auto-injectors. Make sure you and those close to you know how to use it.
Wear a medical alert bracelet or necklace with your allergy information.
If you don't have epinephrine auto-injectors, talk with your healthcare provider. Ask if you should carry them.
In a restaurant, food may be cross-contaminated with shellfish or seafood.
Stay away from steam tables or buffets with seafood. This helps to keep you away from the cooking vapors.
Some people with allergies will react to cooking odors. Or to touching seafood or shellfish.
Always read food labels. And always ask about ingredients at restaurants. Do this even if these are foods that you have eaten in the past.
Online Medical Reviewer:
Daphne Pierce-Smith RN MSN CCRC
Online Medical Reviewer:
Deborah Pedersen MD
Date Last Reviewed:
© 2000-2020 The StayWell Company, LLC. 800 Township Line Road, Yardley, PA 19067. All rights reserved. This information is not intended as a substitute for professional medical care. Always follow your healthcare professional's instructions.
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Also found in: Dictionary, Wikipedia.
Sierra Morena(syā`rä mōrā`nä), mountain range, SW Spain, extending c.375 mi (600 km) eastward along the southern edge of the Meseta (central plateau) from the Portuguese border to the Sierra de Alcaraz. Its highest peak is Bañuelo (c.4,340 ft/1,320 m). Partly forested with oak and chestnut trees, the range is also rich in a great variety of minerals, including copper, lead, and coal. The Sierra Morena is crossed by highways and railroads built to take the minerals out of the region. The Despeñaperros Pass is the main route through the mountains, linking Castile and Andalusia.
mountains in southern Spain that form the southern edge of the Meseta Plateau. The range is about 400 km long and rises to a maximum elevation of 1,299 m. The mountains, composed mainly of crystalline rock, have plateau-like watersheds. The southern slopes drop sharply to the valley of the Guadalquivir River and are dissected by its tributaries. There are evergreen shrubs and broad-leaved forests of oak, beech, and chestnut. The range has deposits of copper pyrites in Minas de Ríotinto and Tarsis and of lead and zinc ores in La Carolina and Linares.
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Yesterday, I joined an estimated 15,000 people who took to the streets of downtown Lima, Peru for the largest climate march ever in South America. This People's Climate March in Lima comes on the heels of the recent massive People's Climate March in New York. Citizens of the America's have united their voices. Governments and their negotiators gathered in Lima for the UN climate conference (COP 20) must produce a meaningful agreement that will save our planet from the devastating effects of climate disruption.
Back at the official venue where negotiators haggled over the future of our planet, 100 local school children delivered a petition signed by 2.2 million people to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres, Peruvian President Ollanta Humala, and COP 20 President Manuel Pulgar Vidal. The petition calls on negotiators to forge a realistic global agreement "to rapidly shift our societies and economies to 100 percent clean energy by 2050."
Under sweltering skies, the diverse congregation of marchers pled their case through song, dance, and banners. Drums, whistles, horns, and megaphones shouted for attention.
Interests were varied in content but singular in purpose.
Do not destroy the planet, it is our only home.
Indigenous youth call for defending our forests.
Glaciers of the Andes, like glaciers around the world, are melting at an alarming rate.
The message of "No" to REDD+ appeared to be in conflict with planetary needs. "REDD" refers to "Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation" in developing countries.
REDD+ is a powerful initiative which is gaining momentum within the UNFCCC process. At a high-level event at COP 20 on Monday, Helen Clark, administrator for the United Nations Development Programme and Chair of the United Nations Development Group, stated, "Deforestation accounts for 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions." But, indigenous peoples at the march offered me a counter view, "Financialization of nature is a false assumption. REDD+ asks us to reduce emissions and stop deforestation. However, pollution keeps happening in the northern countries. Our countries in the south are used as the lungs to absorb northern pollution." I would summarize their collective views by stating that 80 percent of pollution is from sources other than deforestation. They want to save their forests, but the major greenhouse gas emitters cannot buy-off their climate responsibility through minimal financial contributions to REDD+.
I felt that this tee-shirt concisely summarized the marcher's message.
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The botanical garden and botanic museum's large and sedate park in the southwest of Berlin provides the perfect respite to a hard day's slog through the hectic inner-city. One can admire the English gardens and a collection of flora from all over Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. The many greenhouses here are home to many rare plants from around the globe. Visitors shouldn't miss the unique Botanical Museum at the entrance.
The erection and fall of the Berlin Wall, which divided East and West Germany from 1961 to 1989, is one of the most significant chapters in German history. The Berlin Wall Memorial (Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer) is a salute to those who lost their lives during this tumultuous era. The Federal Republic of Germany established the memorial in 1998 on Bernauer Strasse, the site of the wall and the hub of the powers that ruled Germany during this period. The memorial comprises of the Monument in Memory of the Divided City, the Chapel of Reconciliation and the Window of Remembrance among other significant sites. The Documentation Center and the Visitor Center are also situated opposite the memorial in what was formerly West Berlin. Visitors can avail of guided tours of the monument and the open-air exhibition, which narrates the turbulent history of the site. The educational programs use innovative teaching methods so that kids and youth are immersed in local history. It also hosts events and film screenings, and has a bookstore and multimedia guides for visitors. This site is open to all visitors free of charge.
Tränenpalast, situated in the heart of the city, is the former border crossing where West Germans bid goodbye to East Germans while going back to West Berlin where East Germans were not allowed to enter. The literal translation of the name means Palace of Tears. After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, this building was used as a nightclub and live concert venue. Today, it is a museum featuring videos, photographs, audios, artifacts and documents which tell the story of this former border checkpoint and the history of Berlin's separation and reunification.
19th-century architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel provided Berlin with many of its greatest buildings, including the magnificent Konzerthaus and the equally striking Altes Museum. The museum, which opened in 1830, was the first to be built on Museum Island. It now houses rotating special exhibitions and is home to part of the Antique Collection, a breathtaking collection of ancient Greek and Roman artifacts that were excavated by the famous German archaeologist Hildesheimer.
The artist Yadegar Asisi is renowned for his awe-inspiring photographic exhibitions and panoramas, captivating the imagination of the thousands who are drawn to his massive installations. Through The Wall, Asisi brings to life a fictitious day in autumn on both sides of the Berlin wall in the 1980s. With the help of music, Asisi has created a truly immersive experience that brings to light the realities and deeper concerns of the denizens of a divided city. The lobby is home to numerous photographs collected by those who witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the events the preceded it, offering visitors an introduction to the experience that awaits within. Group and individual guided tours of the exhibition are offered as well.
Situated in the lovely Neuer Garten in Potsdam, Schloss Cecilienhof was built in 1913-17 as a residence for Crown Princess Cecilie. Although the Prussian royal family was deposed in 1918, Cecilienhof remained in the family's hands until the outbreak of the Second World War. While extremely pleasant, Cecilienhof's popularity is also due to its unique place in history. For it was here, in the heart of the Third Reich, that the four Allied powers met in July and August 1945 to determine the future of Europe. The negotiations culminated in the signature of the Potsdam Agreement which demilitarized Germany and divided the country into different sectors, a precursor of Germany's later division into East and West. Visitors can now view the delegates' chambers and the conference room—complete with an enormous round table made in Moscow especially for the event.
Built on the site of Berlin's oldest church, the Nikolaikirche today is still the site of regular services, but also houses a museum highlighting its rich history, a tower which boasts some spectacular views, and fantastic acoustics, which are a boon when it hosts musical acts. This attraction is also worth a visit for its Medieval architecture and twin green spires.
The imposing structure, with its striking golden dome makes Neue Synagoge one of Berlin's most instantly recognizable landmarks. Designed by architect Eduard Knoblauch in 1859, the synagogue was the center of Jewish life in Berlin until the the night of 9th November 1938 (Kristallnacht), when it was attacked by Nazi storm-troopers. After an Allied air raid in 1943, the synagogue lay in ruins for around 40 years after the end of the war. It was then restored and reopened as a museum of Jewish culture on the fiftieth anniversary of Kristallnacht, in 1988.
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The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Written by Eric Carle
Illustrated by Eric Carle
Reviewed by Monica G. (age 7)
I read the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The book is about a very hungry caterpillar who eats too much. He eats chocolate cake and ice cream, and he eats a lolipop. He eats too much junk food, and that is why he gets a stomache ache.
I liked the pictures in the book. They were very colorful, and looking at all the food made me hungry! I also liked the way the pages in the book were small, and then got bigger and bigger everytime you turned the page. The wholes in the pages were cool too because it looked like the caterpillar had eaten the food. My favorite part of the story was when the caterpillar makes a cocoon and he turns into a beautiful butterfly.
I think kids should read this book because it shows you what will happen if you eat to much. If you eat too much, you will get a stomach ache! I also think you should read this book if you want to learn how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly.
is a student in
Mrs. Rittikaidachar's 1st Grade Class
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Identifying homes with swimming pools is valuable to insurance companies, tax assessors, and public agencies. However, having human analysts collect and scour satellite imagery for pools is too expensive and time consuming. Enter GBDX and PoolNet. GBDX opens the way to easy access to high-resolution, high-quality satellite imagery on the cloud. PoolNet is a classifier we implemented which relies on a convolutional neural network and vast amounts of crowdsourced training data to distinguish properties that contain swimming pools on our satellite imagery. PoolNet achieves a recall of 93% and a precision of 88% and can classify more than 60 properties per second.
A large metropolitan area is comprised of hundreds of thousands of individual property lots. Insurance companies, banks, tax assessors, and many other private companies and public agencies can benefit greatly from the identification of properties that contain pools. Pools vary in shape, size, color, tree-coverage, location within the property and water level. On satellite imagery, they can be confused with blue tarps, trampolines, small buildings, and other features.
As a result, the problem of identifying which properties contain pools, with high accuracy, and at scale, is a very challenging one. On the one hand, having expert human analysts do it is out of the question: it is an accurate solution but it would be prohibitively slow and expensive at scale. On the other hand, deploying machine learning is fast but less accurate than human annotations: visual pattern recognition, which comes naturally to humans, is an extremely difficult skill for computers to learn. Machines struggle to account for high object variability, particularly in cluttered scenes like those encountered in satellite imagery.
To get the best of both worlds, we need to combine accurate human judgement with the speed of machines.
Heaps of crowdsourced data
We used our Crowdsourcing platform Tomnod (www.tomnod.com) to obtain human labeled properties as ‘pool’ and ‘no pool’ in Adelaide, Australia. Since only a very small percentage of the properties typically contain pools (< 6%), we directed our crowd to the properties which were likely to contain pools. This was done by ordering multispectral imagery of the region via GBDX and estimating with a simple algorithm which properties contained pixels matching the spectral profile of a pool. In this manner, we collected tens of thousands of reliably labeled properties in a matter of days.
Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are deep neural networks that are inspired by and roughly mimic the human visual cortex. As such, they are very effective in ‘learning’ from labeled images, using them as training to automatically infer rules and abstract properties for recognizing objects, without explicitly being told what to look for.
PoolNet is a CNN that we implemented based on an existing architecture [http://arxiv.org/pdf/1409.1556.pdf]. PoolNet contains 16 layers of neurons and runs on a single GPU. The input to PoolNet is an array of property pixels, obtained by clipping out the pixels of a pan-sharpened satellite image that correspond to that property. The output is the probability (i.e., how likely it is) that the property contains a pool. The way PoolNet is trained is by progressively feeding it properties with known labels; it then refines its rules in order to best match the known output.
In more detail, CNNs learn by breaking down complicated questions into simpler ones that they can answer at the level of single pixels. To produce a classification, the input image is processed through each layer, with early layers answering very simple and specific questions (e.g., is there a feature that is blue and oval), and later layers searching for more abstract qualities that may indicate the presence of a pool (e.g., is the feature close to a house). As the image ‘progresses’ through the layers, features that are characteristic of pools are illuminated. If enough of these features are present in the image, the network classifies the image as containing a pool.
Here is a cool example!
PoolNet was trained on tens of thousands of labeled properties in under 2 hours. Once trained, it can classify more than 60 properties per second: assuming we wanted to classify 10000000 properties, PoolNet would do the job in under 2 days! Our tests on a sample of 1650 properties indicate a recall of 93% and a precision of 88%. This means that out of 100 properties with pools, PoolNet correctly classifies 93 of them, and out of a 100 properties that PoolNet thinks contain pools, 88 of them actually do.
PoolNet’s accuracy is high but still leaves room for improvement. For example, feeding the near-infrared band to the network could help distinguish water from blue objects such as tarps, thus reducing the false positives and increasing the precision.
We have immediate plans to deploy PoolNet at a continental scale. This involves creating a GBDX PoolNet task which can be deployed by GBDX users on our imagery at scale. The input to the task is a satellite image and a shapefile indicating the property boundaries. The output is the shapefile augmented with a label (‘pool’, ‘no pool’) for each property. GBDX allows us to run thousands of these tasks in parallel.
We are also working on a generic GBDX classifier task based on PoolNet. The task can classify geometries belonging to multiple classes. You can easily imagine the extension of PoolNet to cars, boats, solar panels and other objects of interest.
You can play with the PoolNet code in the following link:
Stay tuned to this blog for updates!
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The existing interpretations
Creationism (reinvented recently as ‘Intelligent design') that adheres to the Biblical account of the origin of life is still seen in some places as an alternative to the materialist view, so it is worth briefly addressing this position. Creationists are very good at criticising the opposite standpoint, but not in providing a coherent support for their own. Genesis is clear that the creation of life is a deliberate act, but the way it is presented has many problems. Without getting into details, a general one is the claim that an agency assembled various species as discrete units. This does not seem plausible. All paleontological and micro-biological evidence indicates that life, in all its diversity, originated from very simple forms and evolved through a long period of time. Contrary to the creationist account, it is evident that more complex organisms have derived from simpler ones, and that there are big time gaps between the appearance of various species. This is not to say that life is an accident, as materialists would like to believe. The following is an attempt to show that such a claim is also problematic.
Materialism - from the materialistic perspective, the origin of life is explained as a chance event that occurred through the interplay of physical forces and chemical reactions. The idea that life came about accidentally from inanimate matter should not be taken for granted, though. Contrary to popular belief, this account is not proven, empirically or rationally. It has never been demonstrated in a laboratory or anywhere else that a complex structure such as a living cell could arise spontaneously (or through human intervention) from inorganic stuff. Honest scientists are ready to admit this:
We have not yet come up with a convincing mechanism for abiogenesis... And we have come nowhere near creating life in the laboratory. (Silver, 1998, p.339)
In the 1950s Stanley Miller recreated the conditions believed to exist on prebiotic Earth (a mixture of methane, ammonia, hydrogen and water was exposed to heat and occasional spark-discharges). In a relatively short time Miller found some amino-acids in the apparatus (amino-acids are the building blocks of proteins that are in turn the basis of organic life). Recent findings suggest, though, that life arose in an environment far less hospitable than Miller's glass apparatus. Moreover, many experiments since have not gone much further. Apparently, some researchers managed to create a synthetic organic molecule that could replicate itself, but this should not be confused with procreation. They only replicate in highly artificial, unnatural conditions, and they reproduce only exact replicas. Yet, without mutations the molecules could not evolve.
Not only has materialism failed to produce a convincing support for its position, but it is also internally inconsistent. Biogenesis is an accepted doctrine in biology, which states that living organisms are produced only by other living organisms, and that the parent organism's offspring are always of the same kind. Abiogenesis (the notion that life can appear from non-life) is only assumed for the beginning of life, when apparently the first living organism was accidentally generated from inanimate matter. This inconsistency is accepted not because the available data is in its favour, but because it fits current ideology. In his book The Intelligent Universe mathematician and astronomer Fred Hoyle asks:
...there is not a shred of objective evidence to support the hypothesis that life began in an organic soup here on the Earth. Indeed, Francis Crick, who shared a Nobel prize for the discovery of the structure of DNA, is one biophysicist who finds this theory unconvincing. So, why do biologists indulge in unsubstantiated fantasies in order to deny what is so patently obvious, that the 200 000 amino acid chains, and hence life, did not appear by chance? (1983, p.21)
Indeed, it has been calculated that accidental abiogenesis is extremely unlikely, even if millions of years were available (see, for example, Overman, 1997). According to palaeontologist Fondi, ‘a spontaneous assemblage of molecules driven by chance cannot account for the emergence of complex organisms - even the oldest algae and bacteria are too complex to have resulted from chance processes in the observed time frames' (in Laszlo, 1993, p.100). In order to survive and reproduce, a one-cell organism, however simple, requires at least several components, RNA, (and/or DNA), some proteins and a cell membrane. Furthermore, they all need to function in a synchronous way. Let us consider how likely this is if left to chance.
- . Silver, a biochemist himself, comments: ‘One can believe that a complex system like the living cell is capable of manufacturing large, complex molecules from small, simple precursors, but the original manufacturing mechanism has to come from somewhere' (1998, p.340).
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Identity and the Case for Gay Rights
Race, Gender, Religion as Analogies
Richards argues that racial and gender struggles are informative but partial models. As in these movements, achieving gay rights requires eliminating unjust stereotypes and allowing one's identity to develop free from intolerant views. Richards stresses, however, that gay identity is an ethical choice based on gender equality. Thus the right to religious freedom offers the most compelling analogy for a gay rights movement because gay identity should be protected legally as an ethical decision of conscience.
A thoughtful and highly original voice in the struggle for gay rights, David Richards is the first to argue that discrimination is like religious intolerance-denial of full humanity to individuals because of their identity and moral commitments to gender equality.
1. The Racial Analogy
2. The Gender Analogy
The Analogy between Race and Gender
The Analogy between Gender and Sexual Orientation
3. The Religious Analogy
Exclusion from the Military
4. Identity and Justice
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<urn:uuid:835ef1ec-1eb3-42e0-ac23-37c6aed10681>
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CC-MAIN-2014-23
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http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo5844692.html
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en
| 0.903408 | 201 | 3.453125 | 3 |
In 1900, the federal census recorded just over 200,000 American Indian people living in the United States. Most lived on reservations—parcels of land that Indian people had retained in treaty negotiations—over which the federal government claimed jurisdiction. By 1900, the policy of the federal government was that American Indian people needed to assimilate into white society, giving up their traditional ways to become like Euro-Americans in their living arrangements, dress, pastimes, religious expression, and work.
The government tried to achieve assimilation in many ways. One was to divide certain reservations into individual parcels of land for male-headed families to own and farm. A federal policy since 1887, this process drastically reduced the size of the affected reservations and saw the transfer of land from Indian hands to those of whites. A second government policy required Indian children to attend boarding schools a great distance from their homes, where school staff tried to make them look, speak, and pray like white children.
These policies largely came to an end in 1934 with the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), which replaced assimilation programs with initiatives that attempted to strengthen the tribes. Part of the “Indian New Deal,” this legislation was spurred by a 1928 Brookings Institution report that found terrible poverty on reservations across the United States. Each American Indian nation had to vote on whether to accept the IRA. When voting was finished, 172 tribes had accepted the act, and 73 had rejected it. The Navajo nation—the largest Indian nation in the country—rejected the plan. They distrusted the Bureau of Indian Affairs because it had ordered them to kill many of their sheep and goats in 1934 in a misguided attempt to stop soil erosion on the reservation. The Navajo were left without the livestock on which they depended, especially during the harsh winter of 1934.
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CC-MAIN-2023-23
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https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/reservations-resistance-and-the-indian-reorganization-act-1900-1940?timePeriod=the-emergence-of-modern-america-1890-1930
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en
| 0.976177 | 371 | 4.34375 | 4 |
Netspeak: a nifty little tool that uses web search to tell you if phrase X or Y is more popularly used
Google Labs presents the Books Ngram Viewer: chart/compare the usage of words/phrases in books over time
The Great Language Game: I can really only narrow it down to language group, and then I'm flipping a coin
Using may have vs. might have: "The alarm system may have prevented further damage" means that the alarm system did go off, people responded to it and we think things would have been worse otherwise. "The alarm system might have prevented further damage" means either it didn't go off at all, or it went off, but in a way that was ineffective, but whatever the case, it didn't work and it's too late now. H/T: Comic Strip of the Day
Getting your locale set right is important, but if you don't, a dedicated post office may compensate for you.
The Secret Language Code: it turns out that statistical analysis of a writer's use of pronouns reveals that they are correlated to lots of demographics about the writer, e.g. gender, age, social class, etc.
Sign language that African Americans use is different from that of whites (even at Gallaudet)
Why is [state X] so [Y]? as revealed by Google searches
Stephen Fry on Language (kinetic typography): big reveal at the end
The McGurk Effect: what we see can override what we hear (even when we know about the effect)
Lexicalist ("a demographic dictionary of modern American English"): breaks down words (e.g. found in Twitter) by age, gender, and geography
For all but one inflection, there are two ways to express the negative contraction form of "to be", e.g.: "you aren't" and "you're not", "he isn't" and "he's not", etc. "I" is the exception, which has only one form: "I'm not". Now: When the negative contraction of "to be" is placed at the end of a sentence, as a question-confirmation, it has to use the "n't" form, e.g.: "You're planning to cheat, aren't you?", "He's very smart, isn't he?". The trouble is that there's no "n't" form for the "I" case. Since we can't say "amn't I" we end up using "aren't I", e.g., "I'm going to fail, aren't I?" — which is not grammatically correct. (I'm trying to break this habit myself.) Captain Von Trapp sets the example for us. [Who thinks about this stuff?]
Negative questions in English are generally a bad idea. If you say, "You don't have any money?" and I reply, "No," am I disagreeing with you because I do in fact have money, or am I asserting I have no money and thus agreeing with you? Why ask a question that's likely to require an immediate follow-up question? Apparently German has a way to handle this: In addition to ja and nein you can answer doch — which always carries the meaning that you are contradicting what the speaker said or asked.
The Unrecognized Death of Speech Recognition
MLA interactive map of 'speakers per language in the USA'
Very insightful article on why Google offered free GOOG-411, the new Android speech-search app, etc.: It's to build a large phoneme database to improve speech-to-text which will then allow them to index video (YouTube).
Sometimes Google doesn't help when all you have to go on is a phonetic exchange. From That Thing You Do:
Guy: "If Jimmy's a genius then I'm [oo tahnt]."Try Googling "Oo Tant" or "Ou Tante" etc. and you'll get lots of pages talking about TTYD, but nothing else. Turns out the reference is to U Thant, the 3rd Secretary-General of the United Nations, 1961-1971, from Burma (now Myanmar). "'U' is an honorific in Burmese, roughly equal to 'Mister'." — Wikipedia
TBP: "Who's [oo tahnt]?"
Guy: "He's the sec— Forget it."
My contact information, brief autobiography (such as it is), and family tree. back to Nordist.net
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<urn:uuid:02c521b3-8ca9-409c-9637-e5b0d604d15f>
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CC-MAIN-2014-10
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http://www.nordist.net/~bjn/language.html
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en
| 0.95466 | 945 | 2.921875 | 3 |
A level Geography Edexcel
- Week 1: Monday 27 March – Friday 31 March
- Week 2: Monday 3 April – Friday 7 April (including Good Friday)
- Week 3: Monday 10 April – Friday 14 April (including Easter Monday)
Length of Course
5 half-day sessions
This course is suitable only for students following the Edexcel (9GE0) specification and is for Year 13 students only.
Geography fieldwork investigation will not be covered. Within each topic, knowledge of specific case studies is a requirement. Case studies will vary from school to school, therefore it will be beneficial for both student and tutor if the student brings their case studies to the course.
This course will only cover the compulsory topics within the specification
The course will cover:
- Tectonic Processes and Hazards (Paper 1)
- The Water Cycle and Water Insecurity (Paper 1)
- The Carbon Cycle and Energy Security (Paper 1)
- Globalisation (Paper 2)
- Superpowers (Paper 2)
- Synoptic assessment using resource booklet (Paper 3)
The course will not cover the optional units, ie:
- Glaciated Landscapes and Change (Paper 1)
- Coastal Landscapes and Change (Paper 1)
- Regenerating Places (Paper 2)
- Diverse Places (Paper 2)
- Health, Human Rights and Intervention (Paper 2)
- Migration, Identity and Sovereignty (Paper 2)
Discover more at MPW
In their own words - testimonials from our past students and their parents.
MPW Cambridge was judged as Outstanding in all areas by Ofsted.
At MPW we believe in making our courses fit the student’s requirements.
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<urn:uuid:abd9fd3d-0557-445b-b1f8-97935b16775d>
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CC-MAIN-2023-14
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https://www.mpw.ac.uk/locations/cambridge/courses/easter-revision/a-level/geography-edexcel-year-13/
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en
| 0.900728 | 390 | 3.171875 | 3 |
The garbage passed off as food today and the high rates of digestive disorders plaguing the nation make it clear that the importance of the digestive process is not understood. Digestion is a process that can affect our daily quality of life, playing a direct role in our mental health and mood. In essence, digestion is where our health begins, and recent research has blatantly illustrated this fact. Let's look at how the digestive system performs its function and discuss the key facts you need to know when seeking to protect your digestive health.
The Digestive Process
The digestive process involves three basic steps: the cephalic phase, the gastric phase, and the intestinal phase. Here are some of the main focus points associated with each phase:
- The Mouth. Upon chewing, enzymes in the mouth begin the digestive process by breaking down food. Amylase is one of the main enzymes in saliva that aid in the digestion of starch (carbohydrates).
- The Esophagus. This long, muscular tube aids in the passage of food from the mouth into the stomach. Hydrochloric acid will further break down food particles while killing microbes and denaturing proteins. Due to the high acidity of hydrochloric acid, a protective mucosal layer of tissue lines the stomach, protecting it from acid erosion and gastric ulcers.
- The Small Intestine. Once food has traveled to the stomach and been subjected to the actions of hydrochloric acid, the contents then travel to the small intestine. This is the main organ that is responsible for absorbing calories, vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and proteins. Small finger-like projections called "villi" line the small intestine to offer protection and facilitate absorption. The small intestine also hosts a wide range of beneficial bacteria responsible for digestion, specifically Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria.
- The Large Intestine. This is the final stage of the digestion process. Once nutrients have been absorbed by the small intestine, the leftover wastes travel to the large intestine before being eliminated. Water and salts are reabsorbed before elimination.
While digestion requires the three phases listed above, it also requires four essential components – stomach acid, enzymes, probiotics, and prebiotics.
Digestive enzymes break molecules into smaller parts so they can be absorbed by the body. These enzymes are categorized as:
- Protease - breaks down protein into amino acids
- Lipase - catabolizes lipids (fats) into fatty acids
- Amylase - breaks down carbohydrates, starches, and sugar into simpler monomers
Those that are deficient in these enzymes, or those that suffer from an impairment in enzyme function, may benefit from enzyme supplementation.
These bacterial colonies, Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria being the most common, play an essential role in digestion. Probiotics aid in the synthesis of vitamin K, B12, and biotin (B1), contribute to the digestion of foods, denature proteins, and kill off hostile microbes. Some studies even suggest that probiotics may aid in balancing mood. This effect is observed in relation to serotonin, a neurotransmitter found mainly in the gastrointestinal system.
These "bionics" are essentially the food for probiotic colonies. Generally speaking, prebiotics are pectins or fibers and aid in the nourishment and flourishing of probiotic bacteria. Some probiotic supplements come with prebiotics, an addition believed to increase the effectiveness of the probiotic bacteria. Are there certain foods you find you can't digest? Which ones are they? Leave us a comment below to let us know!
- Jane A. Foster. Gut Feelings: Bacteria and the Brain. Cerebrum. 2013 July-August; 2013: 9.
- Roxas M. The role of enzyme supplementation in digestive disorders. Alternative Medicine Review. 2008 December;13(4):307-14.
- Farmer AD, Randall HA, Aziz Q. It’s a Gut Feeling - how the gut microbiota affects the state of mind. The Journal of Physiology. 2014 March 24.
- Benton D, Williams C, Brown A. Impact of consuming a milk drink containing a probiotic on mood and cognition. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2007 March;61(3):355-61.
- Desbonnet L, Garrett L, Clarke G, Bienenstock J, Dinan TG. The probiotic Bifidobacteria infantis: An assessment of potential antidepressant properties in the rat. Journal of Psychiatric Research. 2008 December;43(2): 164-74. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2008.03.009.
- Roberfroid MB. Prebiotics and probiotics: are they functional foods? The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2000 June;71(6 Suppl):1682S-7S; discussion 1688S-90S.
†Results may vary. Information and statements made are for education purposes and are not intended to replace the advice of your doctor. If you have a severe medical condition or health concern, see your physician.
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en
| 0.887309 | 1,059 | 4 | 4 |
Submitted to: Journal of Chemical Ecology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/28/2001
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Knowledge of how pest insects use chemical scents to find others of their kind or their host plants has led to new ways of managing the pests in an environmentally friendly manner, such as using pheromone traps to monitor pest populations and to decide when (or whether) to apply pesticides. Research to gain such knowledge has recently begun for the wheat stem sawfly, a perennial pest of wheat in the northern Great Plains. Another study at NCAUR has identified chemicals that the sawflies emit to attract mates (pheromones). The present report demonstrates that key pheromone components can originate simply from the weathering (oxidation) of oils on the sawfly body surface. Some of these oils are novel compounds that have not been previously encountered in nature. The oxidation of surface oils into pheromone components is a very unusual mechanism for natural pheromone production, and this sawfly may provide a useful model species for future research on this topic.
Technical Abstract: The cuticular lipids of the wheat stem sawfly Cephus cinctus (Hymenoptera: Cephidae) were investigated as part of a chemical ecology project with this species. The major cuticular lipids were n-alkenes and n-alkanes. Alkenes were the most abundant and exhibited dramatic sexual dimorphism. (Z)-9-Tricosene accounted for about half of the total hydrocarbon in males but was nearly absent from females. The dominant alkenes in females were (Z)-9- pentacosene and (Z)-9-heptacosene. The alkane profiles were similar in both sexes, with n-tricosane being the most abundant, followed by n-penatcosane and n-heptacosane. In males, about one tenth of the surface lipids consisted of (Z)-9-alkene- 1,omega-diol diacetates with 22-, 24-, and 26-carbon chains. The same compounds were also detected from females but in much smaller amounts. The structures of these novel diacetates were proven by synthesis. By analogy to methyl oleate, a well studied food lipid, the alkenes and diacetates were expected to undergo slow oxidation in air to release specific aldehydes and other volatile products, and these were detected in volatile collections from living sawflies. One product from the diacetates, 9-acetyloxynonanal, was shown in other research to be particularly active electrophysiologically and was also attractive in the field. Aldehydes from the alkenes also showed strong electrophysiological activity. The concept of volatile pheromones originating from heavy, unsaturated cuticular lipids is discussed.
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<urn:uuid:616dbb23-4112-4b1d-8007-dffecba862a2>
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CC-MAIN-2017-26
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https://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publication/?seqNo115=116079
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en
| 0.956538 | 615 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Sisters of the Holy Cross
The Sisters of the Holy Cross trace their origin to the Congregation of Holy Cross, founded in the 19th century by Blessed Basil Anthony Moreau in Le Mans, France.
Coming to the new world to serve and educate
In 1843 Father Moreau sent four sisters to Indiana to assist the Holy Cross priests and brothers in establishing a school that would become known as the University of Notre Dame.
The four sisters soon turned their attention to the education of young women at a school in Bertrand, Michigan. They also responded to the needs of settlers and Native Americans, opening schools and establishing orphanages. Their school moved from Michigan to Indiana in 1855 and grew to become Saint Mary’s College, a recognized leader among Catholic women’s colleges in the United States.
The Sisters of the Holy Cross established more than 100 academies, schools and colleges. Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana, and The Academy of the Holy Cross in Kensington, Maryland, remain under the sponsorship of the Sisters of the Holy Cross.
In the second half of the 19th century, the women religious of Holy Cross became three distinct and autonomous congregations: Marianites of Holy Cross (headquartered in France), Sisters of Holy Cross (Montreal, Canada), and Sisters of the Holy Cross (Notre Dame, Indiana).
The needs of a nation spark a health care ministry
Six months after the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War in 1861, the sisters responded to the need to care for wounded soldiers. Although they had no training as nurses, six Holy Cross sisters, led by Mother M. Angela (Eliza Gillespie), volunteered to tend the sick and the wounded. Many more sisters followed. They were soon asked to take over the nursing at hospitals in Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, Missouri, and Washington, DC. The sisters were the first nurses to serve on the U.S. Navy’s first hospital ship, the Red Rover, caring for the wounded on both sides of the war and becoming the forerunners of the United States Navy Nurse Corps.
In the decades that followed, Holy Cross sisters continued to respond to the unmet health needs of people across the developing frontier, establishing 19 hospitals over 133 years. In 1979 the congregation formed Holy Cross Health System and consolidated resources with Mercy Health Services in 2000 to create Trinity Health, one of the largest Catholic health care systems in the United States. Today they continue to minister in a variety of health care settings worldwide.
Serving around the world
Beginning with a ministry in 1853 in Bengal (then part of India, now the country of Bangladesh), the sisters now minister around the globe—in eight countries on four continents—an international congregation with a growing international membership. They serve as educators, nurses, administrators, counselors, social workers, parish and campus ministers, retreat leaders, writers, attorneys, and advocates for social justice and systemic reform.
Responding to the sign of the times
From their earliest days in 1843 to the present, the Sisters of the Holy Cross have responded to the injustices of the times and have always stood in solidarity with God’s suffering people. The priests, brothers, sisters and associates of Holy Cross officially launched the Holy Cross International Justice Office in 2000. This office serves as a vehicle for creating a well-informed, proactive and public “Holy Cross voice” that impacts the critical justice issues of our time. Areas of focus for its work include global economic justice, ecological sustainability, rights of marginalized people, and peacemaking and nonviolence. The office also acts as a clearinghouse for information and action opportunities for the entire Holy Cross family. Activities include publicizing educational resources, providing analyses of issues, and facilitating unified action for justice among congregation members and with other justice-related groups.
Compassion compels us to stand with and embrace others in their suffering, that together we may experience God’s liberating and healing presence.
Faith impels us to trust God ever more radically and to risk responding as disciples of Jesus.
Prayer, personal and communal, grounds us in God’s unconditional love, calls us to integrity in discernment, and animates us in our work of building a society of justice and love.
Community commits us to seek ways to journey together which energize and sustain us to live our mission in solidarity with one another.
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<urn:uuid:241d811d-3826-47a7-92f4-166e7d6f81b2>
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CC-MAIN-2020-05
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https://www.academyoftheholycross.org/faith/sisters-of-the-holy-cross
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en
| 0.949716 | 901 | 2.734375 | 3 |
This MWKA Online Talk was delivered on 24 April 2020 by Puan Sarah Kambali and Ms Anis Mohd Sohaimi. Please visit https://mahwengkwai.com/talks-signup/ to register for upcoming talks.
OVERVIEW: As a Muslim, do you understand what is Faraid and its relevance to you? Faraid is a concept in Islamic Law, which determines the distribution of a deceased’s property to heirs in portions as set out in Al-Quran, As-Sunnah and Al-’Ijma. Faraid applies to Muslims and it is necessary for Muslims to learn about Faraid to understand the portions of the legal heirs to plan a better inheritance scheme. In this online talk, our speakers explained the basic principles of Faraid and demonstrated how such distribution would be calculated in given scenarios. Our speakers also illustrated the different categories of legal heirs and highlighted scenarios where some legal heirs may be impeded from inheriting a portion of the deceased’s property.
TOPIC: Introduction to Faraid and the Law of Inheritance for Muslims
● What is Faraid?
● Who are Quranic Heirs?
● What are the basic portions of Quranic Heirs?
● Why are there Quranic Heirs that do not inherit?
SPEAKERS: Sarah Kambali (Partner), Anis Mohd Sohaimi (Associate)
MODERATOR: Marcus Leong (Associate)
A copy of the talk slides in PDF format is available for download here.
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CC-MAIN-2023-14
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https://mahwengkwai.com/portfolio/introduction-to-faraid-and-the-law-of-inheritance-for-muslims/
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en
| 0.912836 | 332 | 3.1875 | 3 |
The first stirrings of this novel came to me as I read Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s The Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785 – 1812. I remember the thought that got the proverbial ball rolling: that midwives were privvy to the most intimate moments of a person’s life and death. My second thought was: What if a midwife came to wash a body and discovered that the person didn’t die of natural causes?
A few weeks might have passed before I knew my setting. I had been reading the letters of Abigail and John Adams when the setting came to me: “What if my midwife was a friend of Abigail Adams? What if someone died and, tending to the body, she discovered something amiss? I didn’t know what had happened, but I knew that it would involve the politics of the time. I was on my way.
I began my research with a monthly calendar which ran from June 1774 through November 1778. Each page contained boxes for all the days of the week. As I researched The Midwife’s Revolt, I wrote down all the facts that would have impacted the lives of my characters: was it hot the day Jeb went off to join Prescott’s regiment? Who died in Braintree in July of 1774, when Lizzie was mourning? What babies did he have to deliver despite her grief? Where was the army, and when did the inhabitants find out about the army’s victories and defeats? (It usually took anywhere from a few days to a full month for news to reach Braintree, depending on the source). What did the town selectmen decide about the livestock, the harvests, the grain situation? Lizzie notices many of these “facts,” and thus it is safe for a reader to assume that nearly all mentions of births, deaths, weather, diseases, and political events are all “real.” When Lizzie and Martha shoot crows for a shilling a piece, they do so because the selectmen of the time voted for this measure: the crows of Braintree were overrunning the farms. Taverns where Lizzie stops are all “real,” though my descriptions of them are imagined.
As for John and Abigail Adams and their family, I took special care to know their whereabouts and communications with one another throughout this time period. For example, when I write that Abigail was in Boston taking the “cure,” that is where she and her family actually were that week. Abigail did in fact have a stillborn child on the day Lizzie delivers it, and it took some hunting to discover the private letter in which the cause of death is described. Finally, John really does set sail for France on February 15, 1778, and his brief note scribbled from the frigate Boston to his wife, is included here verbatim, quirky capitalization and all.
I took more liberties with the “real” secondary characters Josiah Quincy, Richard Cranch, Mary Cranch, Stephen Holland, George Washington, Betsy Cranch, and Mr. Cleverly (a.k.a. Benjamin Thompson). In their actions, fact and fiction become harder to sort out. Nonetheless, I endeavored to stay true to their personalities and also their whereabouts at this time, based on many written sources. For example, Abigail’s sister Betsy Cranch was a true literary talent who kept astonishing diaries. But was her husband unappreciative of her? I don’t know. Her fictional husband certainly is. Stephen Holland was a Tory counterfeiter and was arrested at one point. But he eventually escaped to the British Army.
Lizzie Boylston is my own creation, and she is not related to any real Boylstons of Massachusetts. Martha and Thomas Miller, Harry Miller, Eliza Boylston, Giles and Bessie are entirely fictional. The plot against the Adamses—this plot, at least—is also a figment of my imagination.
Thus, George Washington never wrote letters to Josiah Quincy about Thomas Miller; nor, sadly, did he ever write my heroine Lizzie Boylston to congratulate her on a job well done. Of course, I take great pleasure in his having done so within my fictional world of The Midwife’s Revolt. It was a profoundly generous gesture; and neither Lizzie nor Martha will ever forget it.
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<urn:uuid:64572f37-d2af-4af5-9e22-27d4790545f1>
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CC-MAIN-2013-48
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http://www.jodidaynard.com/how-i-wrote-the-midwifes-revolt/
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en
| 0.983452 | 955 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Children born in summer are '13 months behind classmates' in maths, study finds
- Pupils born between May and August are around a third more likely to need extra numeracy tuition
- The study looked at 47,237 six and seven-year-olds who were among the weakest in their class in terms of numeracy
Pupils born in summer lag behind their older classmates when it comes to maths, a report has found.
And children born between May and August are around a third more likely to need extra numeracy tuition, according to the findings.
The report, produced by the Every Child a Chance Trust, studied 47,237 six and seven-year-olds who were among the weakest in their class in terms of numeracy.
Children born between May and August tend to be behind in maths and are around a third more likely to need extra numeracy tuition (stock picture)
It found that many summer born children were around 13 months behind the average for their year group in maths.
It comes after a separate study found children with birthdays in the summer are more likely to be unhappy at school, have low self esteem and are less likely to be accepted into top universities.
Children who struggle with numbers are also more likely to be boys, much more likely to qualify for free school meals, to have Special Educational Needs, to speak English as a second language and to come from an ethnic minority background.
But with a short but intense tutoring scheme struggling children can catch up with their peers
After just 3.7 months of support, the children made average gains of 15.7 months.
The report showed that found that many summer born children were around 13 months behind the average for their year group in maths
Children who were tutored in pairs and groups of three appeared to make just as much progress as those taught on a one-to-one basis.
And not only did three-quarters of pupils involved achieve national expectations, but by they time they reached the end of Year 2 they sustained that progress in follow-up tests six months later.
None of these children had been expected to meet the national standard of reaching Level 2 at the end of Year 2.
The latest figures were compiled by Edge Hill University which administers and provides the training for the Every Child Counts programme.
The scheme was originally managed and funded, directly, by the Department for Education.
It is now run by Edge Hill University and has developed into two schemes, Numbers Count and 1stClass@Number.
Instead of being automatically offered to schools, head teachers now decide whether they want to buy it in as a means of helping their pupils.
John Griffith-Jones, chairman of the Trustees of the Every Child A Chance Trust (ECAC), said the scheme was a successful example of how business and community could tackle a 'persistent problem that we have in our school system: the yawning gap between the talented and less able in basic numeracy.'
INITIATIVE FOUND CHILDREN WHO STRUGGLED WITH MATHS WERE:
- 35 per cent more likely to have been born between May 1 and August 31 (45 per cent compared to 33 per cent)
- Twice as likely to be on Free School Meals (39 per cent as compared to 19 per cent national average)
- 2 and half times as likely to be children with Special Educational Needs (51 per cent as compared to 20 per cent)
- 35 per cent more likely to be from an Ethnic Minority (37 per cent as compared with 27 per cent)
- 50 per cent more likely to speak English as an Additional Language (26 per cent as compared to 17 per cent)
- Slightly more likely to be boys than girls (53 per cent compared to 47 per cent)
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Checkup on Health: Take control of your asthma
by Sam Louie, M.D.
Every asthma sufferer knows it's spring, and ‘tis the season to be wheezing. One in every five Americans has bronchial asthma: incidence in both children and adults has increased over the past 25 years. The disease is particularly prevalent in California's Central Valley, where our warm spring air holds a high concentration of pollens, a common trigger for asthma attacks.
Asthma is caused by several mechanisms, all of which cause the airways to work less effectively. The first mechanism is a spasm or contraction of the muscles surrounding the tubes (bronchi) that bring air into the lungs. This "bronchospasm" causes the air passages to narrow, making airflow more difficult. Secondly, the lining of the bronchi and other air passages become swollen and irritated, further restricting airflow. To add insult to injury, mucus is produced, clogging the already narrowed airways to an even greater degree.
Not surprisingly, an asthma attack makes a person feel a need to fight for each breath. Attacks almost always involve rapid breathing, wheezing (a breathy whistle or accordion-like noise), coughing, chest tightness, and a relatively long expiration with each breath. Some people do not have the characteristic wheezing, but instead have a persistent cough as their only symptom.
Asthma usually worsens at night. This is believed to be due to our body's natural variation throughout the day, known as our circadian rhythm. Hormones we make that help asthma, such as cortisol and epinephrine, are low during nighttime hours, causing bronchial inflammation to increase.
Most asthma sufferers are aware of circumstances that bring on their attacks. Many are affected by strenuous exercise or cold air, or typical allergens such as perfumes, aspirin, animals (especially cats), or foods such as nuts or eggs. Some environmental triggers — like dust mites and pollens — may be so pervasive that they are unknown or difficult to avoid. Many people can control their asthma well until they get sick with something else, such as a cold or flu.
Medications for asthma treatment
Because the physiology of asthma is multifactorial and the triggers that set it off vary between individuals, treatment must be carefully tailored to each patient's needs. Drug treatment can be divided into "rescue" and "control" categories; some are best once symptoms have started and others are better for good overall control and attack prevention.
The most effective rescue drugs are short-acting bronchodilators, such as albuterol and metaproterenol. These inhaled aerosols relax the smooth muscle around the airways, allowing them to open. They should be used on an as-needed basis for mild, chronic asthma and during asthma attacks.
The most effective control drugs are inhaled corticosteroids, which are used for moderate to severe asthma. Many are available; the newer drugs promise only twice-a-day dosing. A new long-acting bronchodilator, salmeterol (Serevent®), is in the form of an inhalable dry powder, and has been found to enhance the benefits achieved with inhaled corticosteroids. Corticosteroids that are also in a dry powder form, such as Flovent® and Pulmicort®, are also newly available.
A new line of asthma defense acts by blocking the action of certain lipids or fats — called leukotrienes — that promote the inflammatory response. Singulair® is one such drug that was recently approved for both adults and children as young as six. It has the advantage of being taken only once a day and is available as a chewable tablet.
I encourage my patients to learn as much as they can and to demand good control over this disease. An asthma patient can expect to get a good night's sleep and wake up refreshed with good energy. The key is balancing a healthy lifestyle, regular exercise and the proper use of medications.
Children with asthma
Children with asthma should learn as early as they are able to self-administer their medications. They should participate in sports and other activities, using medications as necessary. Many find that sports which involve short bursts of activity, such as gymnastics or baseball, are easier to tolerate than those like basketball or long-distance running that require a more sustained aerobic level.
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A common mechanic found in roleplaying games is the Level. A level provides a means to measure the approximate power of a character. Levels are usually designated by a number that begins with 1 or 0 and progresses an integer at a time. However, Levels could also be designated by keywords such as novice, trained, and expert. The use of keywords to designate Level is usually referred to as Rank.
Levels are keyed to another mechanic, usually Class, or Experience, or both. However, level could be associated with Skills or other Traits that can be increased through play. Though, most gamers tend to associate level as an encompassing attribute that measures a character as a whole rather than individual traits.
The obvious (but usually overlooked) advantage of Levels is that it provides characters with the ability to increase power over time. It is a common expectation of roleplaying games, but it is not a universal trait shared by all RPGs.
Another advantage of Levels is reduced bookkeeping. By tying character statistics to a Level, it decreases the amount of values that a player needs to maintain. Having Level drive the effectiveness of abilities is a great method of simplifying the game.
The other advantage of Levels is the ability to determine the chances of character survival in against specific challenges. This allows Game Master (as well as publishers) to more easily create adventures and scenarios that are matched to the characters’ ability.
The primary disadvantage of using Levels, just like any controlling mechanic, is you add a layer of inflexibility. Levels place constraints on character Traits and story gamers may not like to play games that have levels because they feel it limits their roleplay (“Why can’t my level 1 dude take out a level 30 dragon?“).
From a design perspective, you also need to decide how much of the other mechanics are limited by level. A designer can trade flexibility for record keeping by allowing more traits to be unhindered by level (which increases bookkeeping).
Dungeons & Dragons is probably the most recognizable roleplaying game that implements levels. Third Edition used Character and Class Levels, and every character advances Levels at the same Experience values. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons had Classes that advanced at different Experience rates.
HARP uses Levels as a method of distributing Development Points that can be used purchase Skills, Talents, and Stats. Levels are obtained by gaining Experience.
Mutants & Masterminds uses Power Levels to determine the amount of Power Points a player can spend on a character.
With Echelon, I made the decision that I wanted Point-buy and with Powers that have Rank. Anyone who knows the Storytelling System will find this underpinning familiar. However, I wanted to break from the Storytelling System mold by providing a character Level (as opposed to the Levels of Power that are already there).
In Echelon, Levels are tied strictly to Experience. Once a certain amount of Experience has been achieved, a character gains a Level and all Level dependent Traits are recalculated. Some Traits or Powers may require a certain Level as prerequisite.
The character level will also provide a means to determine a base modifier that will be used in most Tests as well as providing a multiplier to increase the effectiveness of certain Traits (Mana & Vitality, which will be covered in a future article). Levels will help provide some built-in balance, even though my design principles maintain that balance is firmly in the dominion of the game master.
9 thoughts on “Designing Games at a New Level”
One of the first RPGs I ever played was Marvel Super Heroes. It was geared towards a younger audience who was already familiar with the most popular character in comic books. The one thing that I really liked about this system was that it didn’t have classes or levels. You were Spider-man and that was that. He didn’t improve or advance, his powers and abilities were clearly defined and there you had it. In this situation a level-based system wouldn’t work. If I could “advance” Spider-man by giving him new powers or making him stronger he would no longer be Spider-man as I knew and loved him. Although levels help keep players, monsters and encounters all around the same power-level, there is something to be said for throwing that mechanism out the window and just focus on having fun.
Ameron’s last blog post..More Than Just Minions
@Ameron: That brings up an excellent point. Having levels in games that are set in an already established mythos (like comics, movies, or novels) may destroy expectations. Many superheroes have a static power level that does not change over time, and playing one is more about creating fantastic stories than power accumulation.
You might find the leveling system in a computer game called Mount & Blade interesting. It uses a combination leveling and point-buy system, combined with derived stats. The demo is free, and allows you to get up to level 7.
In terms of the “base modifier” that is adjusted by level, how are you going to address the “can’t fail” issue? Most systems with improving base modifies get to the point were the bonus makes standard-difficulty tasks unmissable. DnD has generally addressed that by scaling difficulty up as characters level (resulting in fun things like “slipperier ice” or “even more unpickable lock”.
The storyteller games go with dice pools, botch mechanism and scaling levels of “success”, combined with the contested check mechanic. That has some issues with it too, of course. I’ve found that this problem is common to a lot of systems, so I’m curious as to how you’re addressing it.
@Wickedmurph: I’ll have to take a look at Mount & Blade, thanks for the reference. As far as the can’t fail issue goes, it will always be possible to fail or succeed. It is more of the purview of the dice mechanic, which I plan on posting about later.
We (oh yeah, I’ve brought some other people on board, but more on that later) are currently hammering out the details on that, but we are actually looking at a mechanic that produces a normal distribution, but again that is a discussion for another article.
One thing that might not be immediately obvious with the Mount and Blade leveling is that the main stats point provide bonuses to the derived stats point when you get them.
For example, you get 1 stat point, 1 skill point and 10 weapon skill points by default. But if you use the stat point on Intelligence, you get 2 skill points, or if you use it on Agility, you get 15 weapon skill points. Points spent on the other 2 stats flow over into other derived stats (damage dealt, weapon weight limits and overall party size) which also provide passive bonuses.
The thing I like about that point-buy system is that, although you level to get the points, nothing else is level-dependent. I’ve always thought that the “must be level 5 to use” rules you see in some rpgs (more commonly crpgs) were very artificial – too much so.
Ultimately, any good rpg mechanic should provide interesting choices for advancing your character somehow. I player Marvel Superheroes as well, and it was a neat game, but it lacked long-term appeal for me because my character felt static. I feel that some sort of reward/advancement mechanism is valuable in a system, but you have to be careful – the difference between fun and onerous is a thin one, which I felt 3e of D&D crossed. The storyteller system was better, since you could get points from things like good role-playing and was fairly simple to use.
I look forward to more of your Echelon posts.
wickedmurph’s last blog post..Psychology and "Enchantment"
I’m not so sure on reduced bookkeeping aspect of levels. I think that it often increases bookkeeping, in the manner that you always have to check your level against something or use your level as a reference. Although you can also make sure the numbers are correct for your level, in d&d for example, but that can be true of non-level games as well. Calculating your chance of survival via level can also be tricky. To do so correctly, the GM must understand the system more than the numbers. In 3.x, Dragons were more powerful than their CR to make them a tougher fight. In contrast, there are some CR 5 monsters that can be taken down by level 2-3 groups without a lot of trouble.
I agree with you on inflexibility being the main disadvantage of the level system. It has a lot of baggage that easily comes attached with it. However, I would think that the question of “Why can’t my level 1 dude take out a level 30 dragon.” would be more of the system in questions issue than levels in general. Again, the baggage of a level system is easy to mount up.
@Wickedmurph: I look forward to posting more Echelon stuff (heh, maybe this homebrew project will eventually get finished!).
@KingSpoom: The way Levels can decrease bookkeeping is by:
1) Pre-determining when a class recieves a feature (as opposed to a player being able to purchase a power whenever they have enough points)
2) Keying major values off of Level, such as attack = Strength + Level (as opposed to attack = 3 ranks in Melee + Strength + Weapon proficiency + etc.)
Of course, the more mechanics you add to any system, the more complex it gets. I also still stand my statement that Levels can help determine chances of survival, if the system was designed well. D&D presents a unique case where there are so many variables that it becomes very difficult to determine the exact chances of survival. But still, if you have a group of 4 1st level characters, I think it is a safe bet that they can’t handle a CR6 encounter. So it still works as a rough guide in D&D.
I enjoy it when I get some challenging comments, thanks for commenting!
@Mark: That sort of reminds me of Savage Worlds (Novice, Seasoned, Veteran, Heroic). Thanks for the letting me know about the Guts system.
The Guts system (mostly used by Wessex Games and mostly used for skirmish wargames but also quite handy for RPGs) uses points buying but each character has a level of sorts based on the number of points invested in a characters Stats. There are only four levels: Green, Normal, Experienced and Veteran but, surprisingly, thats actually enough.
.-= Mark Caldwell´s last blog ..The Danger of Difficulty Despair – With Graphs =-.
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ddginat ([email protected]) wrote: : I have a circle with unknown diameter. : I have been provided 28 different cord lengths for the circle. : All of the cords put together close or complete the circle.
So you have a cyclic 28-gon with known sides.
: Question: Is there a way to calculate the diameter?
Yes, but it's not terribly pretty. Each chord, of length C_k, will subtend a central angle of measure:
2 * Inverse Sine (C_k / D) , where D is the diameter.
[Note: Inverse Sine is multiple valued! But I shall ignore that for a few moments and just consider the "principal value" InvSin() = the value which a calculator will give.]
So you should get the equation in the unknown diameter:
Sum (over the 28 chords) 2*InvSin(C_k/D) = 2*Pi (radians)
or divide out the 2 to get:
Sum (over the 28 chords) InvSin(C_k/D) = Pi (radians)
You could take the Sine of both sides and reduce this to a polynomial in D, but I'm much to lazy to attempt that! (There is a "standard" formula for the Sine of a sum of N angles. I saw it derived in an old College Trigonometry book last summer - but I don't remember the details.)
If you just want a solution for 'D', feed the InvSin equation above into a graphing calculator or computer algebra package. Once you've finished the typing, a good approximation should be easy to find.
This equation will have a unique solution (when it has any solution) since, as D increases from C_k towards infinity, each InvSin(C_k/D) is strictly decreasing towards zero. So the entire sum is strictly decreasing towards zero and can only take on the value Pi at most once. And it WILL take on THAT value if the value, when D equals the longest chord, is greater than or equal to Pi.
However, remembering that Inverse Sine is multiple valued, at most one of the central angles can be larger than Pi radians, and it must be smaller than 2*Pi. So, for at most one chord, say C_1 (the longest one!), we can replace InvSin(C_1/D) with Pi-InvSin(C_1/D) to produce the alternate equation:
InvSin(C_1/D) = Sum (over other chords) InvSin(C_k/D)
Does this equation also have an most one solution?
Robert |)|\/| || Burnaby South Secondary School |\| |[email protected] || Beautiful British Columbia Mathematics & Computer Science || (Canada)
A counter-example for those who thought the Perimeter of the 28-gon divided by Pi ought to give a good approximation to the diameter. For a REGULAR 28-gon, that procedure is pretty good, yeilding an error of just over a fifth of a percent. However, the given polygon is explicitely NOT regular.
In a circle of diameter ONE, imagine a 28-gon inscribed with two sides forming an angles of just over zero degrees on either side of a diameter. The remaining 26 chords will be vanishingly small. So the perimeter is almost exactly 2. But 2/Pi is not a terribly good approximation for 1.
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Alaska to celebrate Arbor Day on May 21
(Anchorage, AK) – The Division of Forestry invites the public to celebrate Arbor Day on May 21. The State of Alaska celebrates Arbor Day – the nation’s tree planting holiday – on the third Monday in May and at least 26 Arbor Day events are planned this year. Typical events include planting ceremonial trees, educating children about the importance of trees, and honoring the important role that trees play in our daily lives.
Trees help support healthy communities by reducing air and water pollution, absorbing carbon dioxide, reducing soil erosion and flooding, improving building energy efficiency, supporting healthy lifestyles and creating more attractive neighborhoods.
If you want to learn more about planting and caring for trees or want to join in an Arbor Day celebration near you, visit the Alaska Division of Forestry Community Forestry Program website at http://forestry.alaska.gov/community. For a list of Arbor Day celebrations around the state go to the news and events page.
Posted: May 17, 2012
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published the annual update to the Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions and Sinks. The inventory tracks U.S. GHG emissions and sinks by source, economic sector, and specific gas going back to 1990.
Ambitious readers can review the full report here. For those that prefer the condensed version, Chapter 7 is specific to waste management and treatment activities. Landfills are still high on the list of anthropogenic methane sources, behind only enteric fermentation (digestion by livestock) and natural gas systems. Emissions from landfills continue to decline steadily, dropping 40% since 1990. A summary of Fast Facts is also available.
SWANA has been working closely with EPA to improve the waste sector data of the GHG Inventory for several years. These comments reiterate many of the same recommendations that have been submitted previously to the Agency, both in-person and in writing. SWANA’s recommendations have helped to improve the data used and more accurately reflect the actual role of the waste sector within the inventory of emissions and sinks.
Please contact the Hoosier Chapter to provide comments or questions.
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This week’s reading from Luke 10:25-37 fits right in with recent current events. The parable of the Good Samaritan brings home Jesus’s message of who is our neighbor. It challenges us to break stereotypes and to acknowledge in today’s society that we are conditioned to fear or hate those who are different from us. After the two shootings of black men and the shooting of five police officers, some people are choosing sides. We will not survive if these thoughts of division continues. We do not need to fan the flame by thinking that this is a war. If this parable were told today, it would be renamed either The Parable of the Good Police Officer or The Parable of the Good Black Man. The lesson we must take from this parable is we must be open to the possibility of the humanity of those who are conditioned to hate. We might just be saved by those we have spent our lives avoiding. They might have the solution to our problems. The day we refuse that possibility is the day we begin to die and we descend into chaos. Do not judge categorically but individually. It is hard to overcome our conditioning. Scholars note that nowhere in the text is the Samaritan called good. A better title is the Journey from Jerusalem to Jericho. This perspective offers an alternative interpretation. It is no longer us versus them but simply how can we safely get from one place to another together. We need neighbors to complete this journey. We need everybody on our journey. We are all neighbors to each other. What better time to act together than when these two communities are suffering such profound pain of loss. Let us walk together, police and people, to help end this senseless violence and death.
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Ecotoxicology is the study of the effects of toxic chemicals on biological organisms, especially at the population, community, ecosystem level. Ecotoxicology is a multidisciplinary field, which integrates toxicology and ecology.
The ultimate goal of this approach is to be able to predict the effects of pollution so that the most efficient and effective action to prevent or remediate any detrimental effect can be identified. In those ecosystems that are already impacted by pollution ecotoxicological studies can inform as to the best course of action to restore ecosystem services and functions efficiently and effectively.
Ecotoxicology differs from environmental toxicology in that it integrates the effects of stressors across all levels of biological organisation from the molecular to whole communities and ecosystems, whereas environmental toxicology focuses upon effects at the level of the individual and below.
- 1 History
- 2 Common environmental toxicants
- 3 Exposure to toxic chemicals
- 4 Effects on individuals and entire population
- 5 Effects of ecotoxicity on a community
- 6 Overall effects
- 7 Ways of prevention
- 8 Ecotoxicity testing
- 9 Classification of ecotoxicity
- 10 See also
- 11 References
- 12 Further reading
- 13 External links
The publication in 1962 of Rachel Carson's seminal volume, Silent Spring catalysed the separation of environmental toxicology - and, subsequently, ecotoxicology - from classical toxicology. The revolutionary element in Carson's work was her extrapolation from single-organism effects to effects at the whole ecosystem and the "balance of nature"
The term "ecotoxicology" was coined by René Truhaut in 1969 who defined it as "the branch of toxicology concerned with the study of toxic effects, caused by natural or synthetic pollutants, to the constituents of ecosystems, animal (including human), vegetable and microbial, in an integral context”
Although initially devoted to the study of anthropogenic toxicants, the term is now used to describe research into the ecological effects of diverse abiotic and biotic stresses, thereby integrating secondary effects of anthropogenic activities such as ocean acidification resulting from increased dissolution of carbon dioxide into the surface waters of the oceans It has been proposed that this broadening of focus from purely toxicological effects to the consideration of more general stressors moves beyond the definition of "ecotoxicology". Van Straalen (2003), in particular, argued that the field had diversified to become Stress Ecology and that, as the effects of anthropogenic toxicants compound existing, natural stressors, exclusive study of their effects in an ecological context was nonsensical. Whilst this proposal is well argued, it is odd of Van Straalen to have specified solely "ecology" as the field when the original field of ecotoxicology was intended to cover all levels of biological organisation from molecular-level causes to ecosystem-level effects. Therefore, the term Stress Biology would seem more appropriate.
Common environmental toxicants
1. PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) - found in coolant and insulating fluids, pesticide extenders, adhesives, and hydraulic fluids.
2. Pesticides-used widely for preventing, destroying, or repelling any organism that may be considered harmful. Commonly found in commercially grown fruits, vegetables, and meats. Methyl parathion is a commonly used pesticide used for agricultural reasons. Methyl parathion causes the formation of toxic mediums for humans, soil and water, fresh water fish, and other hydrophilous organisms in the ecosystem. Methyl parathion proposes numerous health risk factors that are life threatening
3. Mold and other Fungal Toxins
4. Phthalates are found in plastic wrap, plastic bottles, and plastic food storage containers.
6. Dioxins are a class of chemical compounds that are formed as a result of combustion processes such as waste incineration and from burning fuels like wood, coal, and oil.
7. Asbestos is found in the insulation of flows, ceilings, water pipes, and heating ducts.
8. Heavy metals include arsenic, mercury, lead, aluminum, and cadmium, which are found in fish, vaccines, and pesticides.
9. Chloroform, which is used to make other chemicals.
10. Chlorine is commonly found in household cleaners.
Exposure to toxic chemicals
- Chemicals propose the risk of killing off another animal’s food supply that change the overall population of the prey
- Animals can go to the brink of extinction because of the food chain that exists through the different communities. For example, bald eagles, ospreys, and peregrine falcons were facing extinction because their food sources(fish and other birds) were contaminated with toxins.
- We are all connected between the communities of living things. Plants can absorb toxins through their roots and leaves. Animals and humans are always exposed to chemicals by the air we breathe, things we touch, and what we put in our mouth.
- Animals and humans can also eat other animals or plants that are already poisoned, which will continue the spread of chemicals, which is referred to as secondary poisoning
Effects on individuals and entire population
- Direct effects- direct consumption of a toxin or something that has been contaminated with a toxin by breathing, eating, or drinking.
- Developmental and reproductive problems
- Indirect effects- organisms directly affected by the loss of food, which has declined due to toxins.
- With chronic use of pesticides, this runs the risk of causing abnormalities in chromosome structure in humans, as well as affecting the reproduction, nervous and cardiovascular system of any animals exposed.
- The genetics can be affected by toxicant exposure, direct changes can occur to the DNA, and if not repaired, the changes can lead to the appearance mutations
- Contaminants can modify the distribution of individuals in a population, effective population size, mutation rate and migration rate
Effects of ecotoxicity on a community
- Predator-prey relationships- either the predator is affected by the toxin resulting in a decline of predator population and thus increasing the prey population; or the prey population is affected by the toxin resulting in a decline in the prey population that, in essence, will cause a decline in the predator population due to lack of food resources
- Community ecotoxicology studies the effects of all contaminants on patterns and species abundance, diversity, community composition, and species interactions. Communities that rely heavily on competition and predation will have a difficult time responding and thriving in disturbances from contaminants. A community that is species-rich will have a better chance recovering from an exotoxin disturbance, rather than a community that is not species-rich. A species could be easily wiped out to the expense of a contamination from foreign chemicals. Protecting distinct community levels, such as species richness and diversity is essential for maintaining a healthy, well-balanced ecosystem
Chemicals are shown to prohibit the growth of seed germination of an arrangement of different plant species. Plants are what make up the most vital trophic level of the biomass pyramids, known as the primary producers. Because they are at the bottom of the pyramid, every other organism in an ecosystem relies on the health and abundance of the primary producers in order to survive. If plants are battling problems with diseases relating to exposure to chemicals, other organisms will either die because of starvation or obtain the disease by eating the plants or animals already infected. So ecotoxicology is an ongoing battle that stems from many sources and can affect everything and everyone in an ecosystem
Ways of prevention
- In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reviews all pesticides before the products are registered for sale to ensure that the benefits will outweigh the risks.
-Food Quality Protection Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act were passed in 1996, which required EPA to screen pesticide chemical for potential to produce harmful effects.
-Keep close track of the labeling when using a fertilizer, or pesticide. Try to look for products that will have less of an impact on the environment
- There are many federal and state laws protecting birds, animals, and rare plants. But the first order of protection comes from us taking steps to avoid harm since we are the main source of all the toxins.
- Proper waste disposal
- Acute and chronic toxicity tests are performed for terrestrial organisms including avian, mammalian, nontarget arthoprods, and earthworms.
- The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) test guideline has developed specific tests to test toxicity level in organisms. Ecotoxicological studies are generally performed in compliance with international guidelines, including EPA, OECD, EPPO, OPPTTS, SETAC, IOBC, and JMAFF.
- LC50 is the acute toxicity test that tests for the concentrate of tissue at which it is lethal to 50% within 96 hours. The test may start with eggs, embryos, or juveniles and last from 7 to 200 days.
- EC50 is the effective concentration at 50%, which is the concentration that causes adverse effects in 50% of the test organisms.
- Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP0
- Tier 1 screening battery
- Endangered species assessments.
- Persistent, Bioaccumulative, and Inherently Toxic (PBiT) assessments using the Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships (QSARs) to categorize regulated substances.
- Bioaccumulation in fish using the Bioconcentration Factor (BCF) methods.
Classification of ecotoxicity
Total amount of acute toxicity is directly related to the classification of toxicity.
< 1 part per million→ Class I
1-10 parts per million→ Class II
10-100 parts per million→ Class III
- Maltby & Naylor, 1990:[page needed]
- Bazerman et al., 2006:[page needed]
- Truhaut, 1977:[page needed]
- Harley et al., 2006:[page needed]
- Erkan Kalipci
- Mercola J.2007
- Oregon State University 2011, March
- Relyea, R. and Hoverman, J.(2006),
- Tran, D. et al. (2010) Aquaculture 298: 338-345
- Newman, M. C., & Jagoe, C. H.1996
- Newman, M. C., & Clements, W. H.2008
- Oregon State University.2011, March
- Clements, William and Jason Rohr
- An J, Zhou Q, Sun Y, Xu Z
- Agency, United States Environmental Protection
- The Humane Society of the United States. 2011
- The Humane Society of the United States.(2011)
- Altenburger, Rolf (2011). "Chapter 1. Understanding combined effects for metal co-exposure in ecotoxicology". Metal ions in toxicology: effects, interactions, interdependencies. pp. 1–26. doi:10.1039/9781849732116-00001.
- Agency, United States Environmental Protection. "Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention." 5 October 2011. U.S Environmental Protection Agency. 9 December 2011.
- An J, Zhou Q, Sun Y, Xu Z. "Ecotoxicological effects of typical personal care products on seed germination and seedling development of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)." Chemosphere (2009): p1428-1434.
- Bazerman, Charles and René Agustin De los Santos. "Measuring Incommensurability: Are toxicology and ecotoxicology blind to what the other sees?" 9 January 2006.
- Chapman, P. M. 2002, "Integrating toxicology and ecology: putting the "eco" into ecotoxicology", Marine Pollution Bulletin, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 7–15.
- Clements, William and Jason Rohr. "Community Responses to Contaminants: Using Basic Ecological Principles to Predict Ecotoxicological Events." Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (2009): p1789-1800.
- Erkan Kalipci*, Celalettin Özdemir, Fulya Öztas and Serkan Sahinkaya. "Ecotoxicological effects of Methyl parathion on living." African Journal of Agricultural Research (2010): p712-718.
- Fritsch C, Cœurdassier M, Giraudoux P, Raoul F, Douay F, Rieffel D, de Vaufleury A, Scheifler R. (2011) Spatially explicit analysis of metal transfer to biota: influence of soil contamination and landscape; PLoS One. 2011; 6(5):e20682. Epub 2011 May 31 (abstract).
- Harley et al. (2006). The impacts of climate change in coastal marine systems. Ecology Letters Vol. 9 Issue 2, Pages 228 - 241
- The Humane Society of the United States. (2011). Ecotoxicity. Retrieved December 12, 2011, from Procter & Gamble website: http://alttox.org/ttrc/toxicity-tests/ecotoxicity/
- Maltby L., Naylor C. (1990). Preliminary Observations on the Ecological Relevance of the Gammarus `Scope for Growth' Assay: Effect of Zinc on Reproduction - Functional Ecology, Vol. 4, No. 3, New Horizons in Ecotoxicology (1990), pp. 393-397
- Mercola, J. (2007). 10 most common environmental toxins. Retrieved December 6, 2011, from Encognitive.com website: http://www.encognitive.com/node/1670
- Newman, M. C., & Clements, W. H. (2008). Ecotoxicology: a Comprehensive Treatment. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id= y11sdkzQLKkC&pg=PA355&lpg=PA355&dq=ecotoxicology+affecting+population&source=bl&ots=WADQOnWEKb&sig=wkhTGGgdYOL4O1mYRg8gAT9iRU&hl=en&ei=snDeTvnbI-L20gGisPC0Bw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=ecotoxicology%20affecting%20population&f=false19.2.5
- Newman, M. C., & Jagoe, C. H. (1996). Ecotoxicology: a Hierarchical Treatment. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=I1i9SvR4wcMC&oi=fnd&pg=PA197&dq=ecotoxicology+affecting+population&ots=H6rxvWZ9BI&sig=hNJszO7dKkXyL1uf28xF9_VUPJw#v=onepage&q&f=false
- Oregon State University. (2011, March). Ecotoxicology topic fact sheet. Retrieved December 6, 2011, from National Pesticide Information Center website: http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/ecotox.pdf
- Relyea, R. and Hoverman, J. (2006), Assessing the ecology in ecotoxicology: a review and synthesis in freshwater systems. Ecology Letters, 9: 1157–1171. doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00966.x
- Truhaut, R. 1977, "Eco-Toxicology - Objectives, Principles and Perspectives", Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 151–173.
- Van Straalen N. (2003). Ecotoxicology becomes Stress Ecology. Environmental Science & Technology vol. 37 pp. 324A-329A
- Connell, Des et al. (1999). Introduction to Ecotoxicology. Blackwell Science. ISBN 0-632-03852-7.
- Catherine A. Harris, Alexander P. Scott, Andrew C. Johnson, Grace H. Panter, Dave Sheahan, Mike Roberts, John P. Sumpter (2014): Principles of Sound Ecotoxicology. Environ. Sci. Technol., Article ASAP, DOI: 10.1021/es4047507
- European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals
- ecotoxmodels website on ecotoxicology & models
- Online biomonitoring of water quality by a 24/7 record of various bivalve molluscs' behavior and physiology worldwide (biological rhythms, growth rate, spawning, daily behavior): the MolluSCAN eye project
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Jack Wallen shows you how to use the open source gpg to sign documents for a cost-effective way to ensure your clients the files you send them are, in fact, from you.
There may be plenty of times and reasons why you might want or need to digitally sign a file. For instance, say you're sharing sensitive information and you want to ensure the recipient can trust the file that contains the data. One way is to digitally sign that file prior to sending it to the client. Once the client receives the file, they can verify the signature and if they trust the digital signature, extract the file within and use the data.
On Linux, this is pretty easy to accomplish. All you need is gnupg installed, a gpg key, and the file to sign. Let me walk you through each of these steps.
Installing the software
I'll be demonstrating on Elementary OS, but the process will be the similar with every Linux distribution (you'll only need to modify the installation command to suit your distribution of choice).
To install gnupg, open a terminal window and issue the following command:
sudo apt install gnupg
The above command will pick up any necessary dependencies and complete without issue.
Generating a key
The next step is to generate a gpg key that will be used for the signing. The command for this will be run by the user that will do the signing of the files. To do this, issue the command:
You will be prompted to answer the following questions:
- The kind of key you want (press Enter to accept the default RSA).
- The desired key size (go for the maximum key size, which is 4096).
- The length of time the key should be valid.
NOTE: If you want to use this key for only one file, you could set the key to expire after a single day.
You will then be prompted to fill in the following:
- Real name
- Email address
- Comment (optional)
Once you've finished filling out the above, you will need to do some work so gpg can collect entropy for the creation of the key. Since I've recommended going with 4096-sized keys, you'll need to do quite a bit. Once the key is created, you're ready to sign.
Signing the file
The signing of a file is quite simple. From terminal window, change into the directory containing the file to be signed. I'll demonstrate with the file ~/Downloads/gpg.docx. From the terminal window, issue the command:
gpg --sign gpg.docx
You will be prompted for the passphrase you used when generating your gpg key. If you have multiple gpg keys on your system, you can specify which key via associated email address, like so:
gpg --sign --default-key email@address gpg.docx
Where email@address is the address associated with the key to use. If you're not sure what keys you have on your system, issue the command:
Once you've entered they passphrase for the key, the file will be signed and a new file generated with the .gpg extension. With that file signed, you can verify the signature with the command:
gpg --verify gpg.docx.gpg
The output of the above command will display the relevant information for the key (Figure A).
You can send the file to the recipient, who can then verify the file and extract the file with the command:
gpg --output gpg.docx --decrypt gpg.docx.gpg
The recipient will not be asked for the passphrase for the signing key. Once the decryption is complete, they will have the document ready to use.
You might be asking yourself this question, "What's to stop anyone from generating a gpg key with my information and then sending bogus data to a client?" Truth is, not much. However, I do have one very easy "work around" for this. What I do is create a new signing key that lasts only a day, and then in the comment section during the creation, enter a unique phrase. When I send the file to the recipient, I will have them verify the file and have them repeat the comment. If the comment is correct, I will give them the go-ahead to decrypt and use the file. If the comment isn't correct, they have a bogus file on their hands.
A simple path to document verification
If you like to keep things on the cheap (and in house), making use of tools like gpg for document signage makes perfect sense. It's an easy route to helping your clients know they are getting reliable data. It's not a perfect system, but it's cost effective and reliable.
- 2017: A year of highs and lows for Linux and open source (TechRepublic)
- Video: Top 5 things you need to know about Linux vs. Windows (TechRepublic Video)
- How to install and configure rsyslog for a centralized Linux log server (TechRepublic)
- How to install and use Logwatch on Linux (TechRepublic)
- From Linux to Cloud, why Red Hat matters for every enterprise (ZDNet)
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Music is an intrinsic part of society and culture. It was also probably one of the first things we invented once we began standing upright, and developed a bigger, cleverer brain than most other species. However, today we’d no doubt be hard pressed to find anything terribly ‘musical’ about our earliest forms of the genre. Experts believe music likely originated in Africa and would have consisted of drumbeats and stick tapping. It’s probable early music also imitated sounds of nature, like birds chirping, wind, water, and so on. We can still hear this original influence in music from Africa and in certain types of music.
Once we’d figured out how to beat out a rhythm with sticks and stones, it didn’t take us long to put our inventive brains to work coming up with adaptations and improvements. We also learnt that we could make sounds by blowing into hollow reeds, and that those sounds could be modified by varying our blowing, and by holes strategically placed along the reed. At some point we also discovered that plucking strings suspended on a frame made some lovely sounds and that the sound varied according to the length of the strings. These were the precursors of the modern musical instruments of today.
By 4000 BC, flutes and harps were being used in Egyptian culture. Lyres and double-reeded clarinets made an appearance around 3500 BC. Of particular note is the fact that lyres were associated with mythology. Orpheus played a golden lyre that was given to him by his father Apollo, the God of Music. The first trumpet appeared in Denmark circa 2500 BC. This early form of trumpet is still around today. It’s called a natural trumpet and doesn’t have valves like modern trumpets. Instead, the various changes in pitch are made by changing the way we blow into it. In 1500 BC the Hittites came up with the guitar. This concept of using frets on vibrating strings to change their pitch would ultimately contribute to the development of other stringed instruments like the harpsichord and violin.
As for written music – the first known samples of that date back to 800 BC, although some sources state there is evidence of it existing as early as 1500 BC. However, they weren’t written in the modern musical scripts we’re familiar with today. They were written in cuneiform, the first known form of writing. Needless to say, they were hymns as were most early songs. Within a hundred years, we’d begun to combine vocals and instruments and the modern song was born.
Pythagoras (600 BC) is usually associated with maths but he is also credited with inventing the cornerstone of modern music – the octave scale. Music was well and truly on its way to becoming the system of sounds we know today. Two and a half centuries later in 350 BC, another famous scholar called Aristotle developed a method of notating music that is still studied today. The Greeks made a huge contribution to music during this time. Eventually, their method of musical notation was taken to Western Europe in 521 AD by Roman senator Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius. From there, music developed in leaps and bounds to become the sounds we’re familiar with today.
Therapeutical Benefits Of Music
Music is so inextricably bound up in our lives that we’re probably not even aware of its value to our health. We just know that certain types of music make us feel better, sadder, happier, less stressed, more energetic, and so on.
A number of research projects have found that music can be a very powerful way of reducing anxiety and stress. For example, it’s been found that listening to certain types of music can prevent anxiety from building up to the point where it has a detrimental effect on our health. Other studies have found that exposing patients to certain types o
f music can alleviate depression and reduce anxiety. This article for example found that when patients waiting for a PET scan listened to meditative music, their heart rate and anxiety symptoms were considerably less than those who didn’t. This may be valuable to know because often anxiety and stress cause false-positive fluorine-18 fludeoxyglucose uptake and interfere with image quality and interpretation.
Music can also be beneficial for helping with the following:
- blood pressure,
- memory especially short term memory,
- cognitive function,
- brain aging
How Playing Music Affects The Brain
There’s a perfectly good scientific explanation for why music has these effects. Music can affect the production of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter involved in regulating movement, emotional responses, motivation, learning, and attention. Thus it’s part of our motivation / reward behavioural pattern. It’s also associated with pleasure and is often referred to as the ‘feel-good hormone’.
You can apply the benefits to be had from music in many various ways. Obviously, there are trained music therapists who use for stress relief music therapy. However, unless you’re specifically suffering from a medical condition that makes seeking professional assistance necessary, you don’t have to go to quite those lengths to benefit from music.
- If you’re into meditation and yoga, both of which are excellent for stress relief and relaxation, add some soothing background music.
- Match your moods and emotions by selecting music with the appropriate harmony, tempo, and rhythm. If you need a boost, select rousing music with uplifting tempo and a foot tapping rhythm. If you want something more soothing to help reduce stress and anxiety, go with calmer music. Classical music is good for this.
- Listen to the lyrics of songs. These can be motivational and inspiring as well.
You can also learn to play an instrument yourself.
However you get music happening in your life, you’re bound to feel a lot better for it. So turn on the radio, crank up the DVDs, or download your favourite iTunes.
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n. a written document which leaves the estate of the person who signed the will to named persons or entities (beneficiaries, legatees, divisees) including portions or percentages of the estate, specific gifts, creation of trusts for management and future distribution of all or a portion of the estate (a testamentary trust). A will usually names an executor (and possibly substitute executors) to manage the estate, states the authority and obligations of the executor in the management and distribution of the estate, sometimes gives funeral and/or burial instructions, nominates guardians of minor children and spells out other terms. To be valid the will must be signed by the person who made it (testator), be dated (but an incorrect date will not invalidate the will) and witnessed by two people (except in Vermont which requires three). In some states the witnesses must be disinterested, or in some states, a gift to a witness is void, but the will is valid. A will totally in the handwriting of the testator, signed and dated (a "holographic will") but without witnesses, is valid in many, but not all, states. If the will (also called a Last Will and Testament) is still in force at the time of the death of the testator (will writer), and there is a substantial estate and/or real estate, then the will must be probated (approved by the court, managed and distributed by the executor under court supervision). If there is no executor named or the executor is dead or unable or unwilling to serve, an administrator ("with will annexed") will be appointed by the court. A written amendment or addition to a will is called a "codicil" and must be signed, dated and witnessed just as is a will, and must refer to the original will it amends. If there is no estate, including the situation in which the assets have all been placed in a trust, then the will need not be probated.
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2 049,00 2 04900
Sendes vanligvis innen 5-15 dager
This state-of-the-art volume on French Applied Linguistics includes two introductory chapters, the first summarizes the past, present and future of French in applied linguistics, and the second reviews the history of French from a sociolinguistic perspective. The six chapters of the first part cover the core aspects of the second language acquisition of French: phonology, semantics/syntax, syntax/morphology, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and grammatical gender. The seven chapters of the second part explore the contribution of French in various subfields of applied linguistics such as language ideology and foreign language pedagogy, corpus linguistics, and French Sign Language. A chapter studies the role of affective variables on language learning, while another investigates natural language and lexical creativity. The chapters on creole studies and applied linguistics in West Africa address issues in first and second language acquisition in complex sociolinguistic and political contexts. The last chapter serves as an epilogue focusing on Louisiana, a region rich in linguistic history.
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| 0.841142 | 235 | 2.515625 | 3 |
After the end of the Age of the Primes, the titan Caminus left Cybertron to colonize other worlds. He landed on a small world which orbited a white dwarf and was able to generate new life and create a new civilization of Cybertronians. Like other colonies, Caminus retained differentiated genders. The Camiens were aware of the existence of the Thirteen and their predecessor, Solus Prime, whom they believed was the chiefest among them.
Caminus was a robotic planet within the Autobot Commonwealth area of its galaxy.
Titans Return marketing materialEdit
Combiner Wars cartoonEdit
The brawling Computron and Menasor warped to Caminus via orbital space bridge. They fell onto the planet and caused mass destruction as they landed; though Menasor killed Computron, he himself was slain by Windblade.
Beast Wars: UprisingEdit
The Book of Logos identified Caminus as one of seven colonies.
Caminus is a colony world inhabited by Cybertronians who have adapted by differentiating genders within the Autobot Commonwealth. It is named after the titan of the same name who founded the colony. Caminus appears to be smaller than Cybertron and Earth, but about the same size as Earth's Moon, Luna.
- The adjective for things relating to Caminus is Camien.
- Caminus's name is Latin for forge - an appropriate name, as Solus Prime is the source of most female Transformers in this continuity.
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On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The Declaration stipulates universal values and international standards of human rights that everyone is entitled to as a human being. This annual date of observance commemorates the day the Declaration was adopted and is an opportunity to emphasize the importance of human rights in realizing the world we want.
Human Rights Day 2022 is the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 1 states that "all Human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." This year’s Human Rights Day slogan is “Dignity, Freedom, and Justice for All” and the call to action is #StandUp4HumanRights.
Unfortunately, too many Black, Indigenous, People of Colour (BIPOC), 2SLGTBQIA and persons with disabilities continue to face workplace barriers and discrimination. Misogyny, xenophobia, racism, sexism and ableism are at the root of these experiences. UFCW Canada activists have publicly denounced these injustices and continue to advocate for changes at all levels of government. These include calls for increased mental health supports, priority access to vaccines, strengthened sick day legislation and access to strengthened employment insurance benefits.
Advancing human rights requires a consistent and intentional approach to addressing the barriers which fuel discrimination at work, and in society at large.
Solutions for combatting oppression through an intersectional lens is critical in dismantling the systems that perpetuate such inequities. In unionized workplaces, collective bargaining is at the cornerstone of defending and upholding workers’ rights. Read the Indigenous Rights and the Workplace Bargaining Guide and Anti-Racism Bargaining Guide.
UFCW Canada believes that workers’ rights are human rights, and our day-to-day work is guided by this principle. To learn more about UFCW’s efforts in the area of human rights, visit our Human Rights, Equity & Diversity webpage. UFCW members and their families can also register on webCampus and take our Human Rights webCampus courses.
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The November 2010 general election is less than six weeks away. In order to vote in the election, a United States citizen must be registered to vote at least thirty days previous to the day of the election.
The fact that we have the right to vote also means that we also have the right to not vote. We have the freedom to choose whether or not we will vote in this or any election. If we do not care enough to vote for our representatives, we do not have the right to complain about the results of the election or the actions of the elected officials.
When you are making the decision of whether or not to vote, think of the people in Afghanistan who went to the polls to vote in spite of death threats from the Taliban. How much is your freedom to vote worth to you?
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Grain overload is metabolic disorder in ruminants associated with overingestion or a sudden change to rapidly fermentable concentrate feeds (eg, corn, barley, or wheat). Compared with simple indigestion, it represents a more severe digestive upset due to excessive feeding of grain. Treatment of severe cases requires removal of rumen contents by rumenotomy or rumen lavage, accompanied by IV fluid therapy.
Etiology and Pathogenesis of Grain Overload in Ruminants
Grain overload is most common in cattle that accidentally gain access to large quantities of readily digestible carbohydrates, particularly grain. Grain overload also is common in feedlot cattle when they are introduced to heavy grain diets too quickly. Wheat, barley, and corn are the most readily digestible grains; oats are less digestible. Less common causes include engorgement with apples, grapes, bread, batter’s dough, sugar beets, potatoes, mangels, or sour wet brewer’s grain that was incompletely fermented in the brewery. The amount of feed required to produce acute illness depends on the kind of grain, previous experience of the animal with that grain, nutritional status and condition of the animal, and nature of the ruminal microflora. Adult cattle accustomed to heavy grain diets may consume 15–20 kg (33–44 lb) of grain and develop only moderate illness, whereas others may become acutely ill and die after eating 10 kg (22 lb) of grain.
Ingestion of toxic amounts of highly fermentable carbohydrates is followed within 2–6 hours by a change in the microbial population in the rumen. The number of gram-positive bacteria (eg, Streptococcus bovis) increases markedly, which results in the production of large quantities of lactic acid. The rumen pH decreases to ≤5, which destroys protozoa, cellulolytic organisms, and lactate-utilizing organisms and impairs rumen motility. The low pH allows the lactobacilli to utilize the carbohydrate and to produce excessive quantities of lactic acid. The superimposition of lactic acid and its salts, l-lactate and d-lactate, on the existing solutes in the rumen liquid causes osmotic pressure to rise substantially, which results in the movement of excessive quantities of fluid into the rumen, causing fluid ruminal contents and dehydration.
Low ruminal pH causes chemical rumenitis, and absorption of lactate, particularly d-lactate, results in lactic acidosis and acidemia. In addition to metabolic (strong ion) acidosis and dehydration, the pathophysiologic consequences are hemoconcentration, cardiovascular collapse, renal failure, muscular weakness, shock, and death. Animals that survive may develop mycotic rumenitis in several days and hepatic abscesses several weeks or months later. They may have evidence of ruminal epithelial damage at slaughter. A relationship between grain overload and chronic laminitis in cattle is suspected but has not been conclusively demonstrated.
Clinical Findings for Grain Overload in Ruminants
Carbohydrate engorgement (grain overload) results in conditions ranging from simple indigestion Simple Indigestion in Ruminants Simple indigestion occurs most commonly in hand-fed cattle and is the result of cattle being fed an abnormal diet. Diagnosis is based on multiple animals having decreased appetite and forestomach... read more to rapidly fatal acidemia and strong ion (metabolic) acidosis. The interval between overeating and onset of signs is shorter with ground feed than with whole grain, and severity increases with the amount eaten. A few hours after engorgement, the only detectable abnormality may be an enlarged rumen and possibly some abdominal pain (manifest by belly kicking or treading of the hind limbs). In the mild form, the rumen movements are reduced but not entirely absent, the cattle are anorectic but bright and alert, and diarrhea is common. The animals usually begin eating again 3–4 days later without any specific treatment.
Within 24–48 hours of the onset of severe overload, some animals will be recumbent, some will be staggering, and others will be standing quietly; all will be completely off feed. Immediately after consuming large quantities of dry grain, cattle may gorge themselves on water, but once ill they usually do not drink at all.
Body temperature is usually below normal at 36.5°C–38.5°C (98°F–101°F); however, in animals exposed to the sun in hot weather, it may be increased to 41°C (106°F). Respirations tend to be shallow and rapid, up to 60–90 breaths/min. Heart rate usually is increased in accordance with severity of the acidemia; prognosis is poor for cattle with heart rates >120 bpm. Diarrhea is common and usually profuse and malodorous. The feces are soft to liquid, yellow or tan, and have a distinct sweet-sour odor. The feces frequently contain undigested kernels of the feed that has induced the overload. In mild cases, dehydration equals 4%–6% of body weight, but losses may reach 10%–12% in severe cases.
In severe grain overload, the primary contractions of the forestomach are completely absent, although the gurgling sounds of gas rising through the large quantity of fluid are usually audible on auscultation. Ballottement and auscultation of the left flank may elicit fluid-splashing sounds in the rumen. The contents of the rumen, as palpated through the left paralumbar fossa, may feel firm and doughy in cattle that were previously on a roughage diet and have consumed a large amount of grain. In cattle that have become ill on smaller amounts of grain, the rumen will feel not necessarily full but rather resilient because of the excessive fluid. Severely affected animals stagger and may bump into objects; their palpebral reflex is sluggish or absent, and the pupillary light reflex is usually present but slower than normal. The extent of depression of the palpebral reflex is associated with the plasma d-lactate concentration and provides a useful clinical method to categorize severity of lactic acidosis and monitor response to treatment. Affected animals commonly lie quietly, often with the head turned into the flank, and their response to any stimulus is much decreased so that they resemble cases of parturient paresis.
Acute laminitis may be present and is most common in those animals not severely affected; chronic laminitis may develop weeks or months later. Anuria is a common finding in acute cases, and diuresis after fluid therapy is a good prognostic sign.
Death may occur in 24–72 hours, and rapid development of acute signs, particularly recumbency, indicates a need for aggressive treatment. Decrease in heart rate, increase in temperature, return of ruminal movement, and passage of large amounts of soft feces are more favorable signs. However, some animals appear to improve temporarily but become severely ill again 3–4 days later, probably because of severe bacterial and fungal rumenitis; death from acute, diffuse peritonitis usually follows in 2–3 days. In pregnant cattle that survive the severe form of the disease, abortion may occur 10–14 days later.
Diagnosis of Grain Overload in Ruminants
Ruminal pH < 5.5 (often < 5.0)
Excessive grain in feces
Diagnosis of grain overload is usually obvious if the history is available and multiple animals are affected. Diagnosis can be confirmed by the clinical findings, low ruminal pH (< 5.5 in cattle unaccustomed to a high-grain diet), and examination of the microflora of the rumen for presence of live protozoa. When only one animal is involved and there is no history of engorgement, the diagnosis is less obvious, but the clinical signs—a static rumen with gurgling fluid sounds, diarrhea, ataxia, and a normal temperature—are characteristic. Rumen fluid analysis in these animals is required to confirm the diagnosis of grain overload.
Although parturient paresis Parturient Paresis in Cows Parturient paresis (milk fever, hypocalcemia, paresis puerperalis, parturient apoplexy) is a disease of adult dairy cows in which acute hypocalcemia causes acute to peracute, afebrile, flaccid... read more may resemble rumen overload, diarrhea and dehydration are not typical, the intensity of heart sounds is reduced, and the response to calcium injection is usually dramatic. Peracute coliform mastitis and acute diffuse peritonitis may also resemble overload, but usually a careful examination will reveal the cause of the toxemia.
To avoid an increase in pH on exposure to air, the pH of rumen fluid obtained by ororuminal stomach tube or ruminal paracentesis should be checked promptly. Normally, the pH in cattle on roughage is 6–7; in those on a high-grain diet, the pH is 5.5–6. Values < 5.5 are strongly suggestive of grain overload, and a rumen pH < 5 indicates severe acidemia and metabolic acidosis. Wide-range (2–11) pH indicator paper is suitable for field use. Ruminal fluid should also be examined microscopically if access to a laboratory is available; fluid from affected cattle will have decreased numbers of protozoa (particularly large and medium-sized protozoa). In grain overload, a Gram stain of ruminal fluid will reveal a change from predominantly gram-negative bacteria (normal) to predominantly gram-positive bacteria, with a concomitant loss in bacterial diversity.
Increased blood d-lactate and l-lactate and inorganic phosphate concentrations, mild hypocalcemia, and reduced urinary pH are also seen, but it is seldom necessary to check such values to make a firm diagnosis. The diagnostic problem is to properly assess which animals require vigorous therapy (or slaughter), which require supportive therapy, which have only mild indigestion that will correct itself if water and grain intake are restricted and hay and exercise are provided, and which need nothing beyond their routine care and ration. In an outbreak of overload involving several animals, it is necessary to identify those patients that need the most intensive treatment and those that will recover with minimal medical treatment.
If the cattle are found while still eating, it is possible that some of the group will fall into each category, and close monitoring is necessary to minimize losses. Cattle found while engorging or shortly thereafter should be allowed no more concentrate but plenty of good hay for up to 24 hours and should be forced to walk periodically. Cattle that appear normal at the end of the first day are probably in good health, although if even one is ill, all should be monitored closely for 48 hours. Most of those that have eaten enough concentrate to be affected seriously develop clinical signs within 6–8 hours.
Treatment of Grain Overload in Ruminants
Severe cases: rumenotomy or rumen lavage, plus IV fluid therapy
Moderate cases: alkalinizing agents administered orally, and palatable grass hay given as feed
For cattle suspected of having eaten large quantities of concentrate and having developed grain overload, restricting water intake for the first 18–24 hours is believed to be helpful, although this has not been proved. If overload is serious, slaughter for salvage should be considered; in feeders nearing the end of their feeding period, it may well be the most economic choice. Mortality is high in severely affected animals unless aggressive therapeutic measures are started early. In such animals, removal of rumen contents and replacement with ingesta taken from healthy animals is necessary. In animals still standing, rumenotomy is preferred to rumen lavage because animals may aspirate during the lavage procedure and only rumenotomy ensures that all ingested grain has been removed. Rumen lavage may be accomplished with a large stomach tube if sufficient water is available. A large-bore tube (2.5 cm inside diameter, 3 m long) should be used, and enough water added to distend the left paralumbar fossa; gravity flow is then allowed to empty out what it will. Repeating this 15–20 times achieves the same results (and requires about as much time) as using rumenotomy to empty and wash out the rumen with a siphon.
Emptying the rumen should be followed by rumen inoculation ( see Drugs for Specific Purposes in the Ruminant Digestive System Drugs for Specific Purposes in the Ruminant Digestive System Esophageal obstruction due to a foreign body leads to severe discomfort and acute free-gas bloat. Physical removal of the object may be hampered by marked spasm of the surrounding muscle. Specific... read more ) and, if not accomplished before signs of severe illness are evident, by rigorous fluid therapy to correct the metabolic acidosis and dehydration and to restore renal function. Initially, over a period of ~30 minutes, 5% sodium bicarbonate solution should be given IV (5 L/450 kg, IV). During the next 6–12 hours, a balanced electrolyte solution, or a 1.3% solution of sodium bicarbonate, may be given IV, up to as much as 60 L/450 kg (no established withholding times). Urination should resume during this period. Usually, it is unnecessary and even undesirable to also administer antacids PO (or intraruminally), particularly if IV sodium bicarbonate has been administered. Procaine penicillin G may be administered in an extra-label fashion, where permitted, to all affected animals to minimize development of bacterial rumenitis and liver abscesses. Thiamine should also be administered (5–10 mg/kg, IM or slowly IV, every 3 hours for up to 5 doses) to facilitate metabolism of l-lactate via pyruvate and oxidative phosphorylation (no withdrawal time for milk and meat in the United States; no pharmaceutical products are approved for use in food-producing animals). Animals with grain overload also have low concentrations of thiamine in rumen fluid because of increased production of thiaminase by ruminal bacteria. There is no effective preventive treatment for mycotic rumenitis.
Emptying the rumen is unnecessary in less severe cases. In these cattle, magnesium hydroxide (500 g/450 kg) should be added to warm water, pumped into the rumen, and mixed therein via kneading the flank. Milk taken from animals during treatment and for 12 hours (1 milking) after the latest treatment must not be used for food. This may be all that is necessary if the rumen pH is >5 and the animal is still standing and reasonably alert several hours after the engorgement. Heart rate of 70–85 bpm, weak ruminal contractions, normal body temperature, and especially willingness to eat are additional reassurances that this treatment will suffice. If any question remains, additional fluid therapy should be given. During the convalescent period, which may last 2–4 days, good-quality hay and no grain should be given, and the grain then reintroduced gradually. If good appetite returns within 3 days, the prognosis is good. However, if treatment was not started early enough to prevent acidification of the ruminal contents, and mycotic infection of the rumen wall ensues, relapse is likely within 3–5 days and the prognosis is grave.
Prevention of Grain Overload in Ruminants
To prevent grain overload, accidental access to concentrates for which cattle have developed an appetite, in quantities to which they are unaccustomed, should be avoided. Feedlot cattle should be introduced gradually to concentrate rations over a period of 2–3 weeks, beginning with a mixture of ≤50% concentrate in the milled feed containing roughage.
Ruminants should not be allowed access to large amounts of grain.
Unaccustomed ingestion of large amounts of grain can lead to severe illness and possibly death in ruminants.
Treatment of severe cases requires removal of rumen contents by rumenotomy or rumen lavage, accompanied by IV fluid therapy.
For More Information
Fubini SL, Yeager AE, Divers TJ. Noninfectious diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. In: Divers TJ, Peek SF, eds. Rebhun's Diseases of Dairy Cattle. 3rd ed. Elsevier; 2018:168–248.
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from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A family system in which the a couple's
firstbornlives with them in the family home and whose spouse moves into the home of the said in-laws and the younger couple's children are raised in the home of the grandparents. Usually the younger offspringof move out upon marriage. The inheritance, depending on the culture, may or may not be the most favorable to the firstborn.
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Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word stem family.
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Queen Elizabeth I, or Elizabeth R, as she referred to herself, was a revered English queen, and a member of the Tudor family, who ruled over a period of English history often referred to as "The Golden Age." Ascending the throne at a time when England was in religious conflict and economic hardship, Elizabeth earned her country's respect as a bold and independently minded ruler, who successfully lifted England out of its troubled state.
Born in 1533, to King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth was the king's second child and his second daughter. After King Henry's first wife, Catherine of Aragon, bore his eldest child Mary, the king had hoped his next child would be a son to succeed him on the throne. King Henry regarded the birth of another daughter to be a critical failure of Elizabeth's mother, who he accused of adultery and incest. She was executed, although there is no evidence that these accusations were true.
King Henry's next child with Jane Seymour was a son, and a nine-year-old Edward VI succeeded the throne after his father's death. When Edward died in 1553, Elizabeth's sister Mary assumed the throne; her tumultuous reign was similarly short-lived and ended with her death in 1558. After Mary's death, Elizabeth ascended the throne to begin what would become a long and enormously successful reign that would redefine the expectations of women in power.
As queen, Elizabeth quickly set out a plan to stabilize England following years of conflict under turbulent and controversial rulers. Religion quickly became one of the new queen's primary concerns. Years earlier, King Henry had severed England's ties with the Catholic Church so that he could obtain a divorce. Following, Mary I, a Catholic, also known as "Bloody Mary," re-established Catholicism as the state religion and during her reign, persecuted many Protestants. The English public welcomed Elizabeth's ascension to the throne, and she reinstated Protestantism in 1559. She is heralded as a champion of religious freedom and tolerance, although there is evidence that she persecuted Catholics in an effort to establish a Protestant state.
During Elizabeth's rule, the British Empire prospered politically and economically, expanding westward as the first British colonists arrived in America in the mid sixteenth century. In 1588, England finally defeated the Spanish Armada, ending a decades-long threat from Spain, a country attempting to retain its dominance as a world power. The victory increased her popularity with her people and caused economic growth during the relative period of peace.
The literary, performing, and fine arts flourished during Elizabeth's reign as well, with countless artists, such as Nicholas Hilliard, and playwrights, such as William Shakespeare, benefiting from the court's patronage.
Although revered by her people and courted by suitors, Elizabeth never married. Despite her father's lifelong reservations about a woman occupying the throne, Elizabeth's arrival ushered in a new era in British royal history. She quickly and consistently proved herself to be a powerful and intelligent ruler and an inimitable symbol of female strength. Her nearly half-century reign ended officially with her death in 1603. Centuries afterward, Elizabeth's rise to power and her rule over England have become legendary. Her story has been retold and re-visited by scholars, artists, and, more recently, filmmakers.
In history and in art, Elizabeth I is often characterized as a larger-than-life figure, in both her fierce independence and her extravagant tastes. The Queen's place setting at The Dinner Party evokes the grandeur of her personality, the prosperity England enjoyed during her rule, and the opulence associated with the monarchy.
An expert in determining her own representation in art, Elizabeth often commissioned artists to paint portraits of her in sumptuous costumes. Those same portraits, created while Elizabeth was at the height of her reign, inspired her place setting. The Queen's elaborate dresses are suggested in the undulating folds depicted on the plate, and the regal deep blues, purples, and reds are reminiscent of the colors typically used in her portraits. The plate is adorned with an embroidered fabric ruff, the lace edges reminiscent of the high, stiff collars Elizabeth wore. A "cloth of gold" placed over the ruff recalls the famous "Field of the Cloth of Gold," an event in which Elizabeth's father met with Francis I of France and Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, to negotiate a treaty. For the three weeks of the meeting, the monarchs had ostentatious tents made of gold cloth set up in a field.
The runner includes feather and floral patterns stitched in blackwork, a form of textile decoration in which outlines of flowers and leaves are interspersed with geometric patterns. This intricate embroidery was popular on costumes during Elizabeth's reign and can be seen in portraits of the queen.
Elizabeth's royal signature is the basis for the illuminated capital letters "E" and "R" in her name on the front of her runner, referring to Elizabeth as she referred to herself, "Elizabeth R." The elaborate and snaking "R" was used by the Queen after her name; it stood for "Regina," which is Latin for queen. Elizabeth's name is embroidered in her own inimitable penmanship. Just as she refused to give up any self-control during her lifetime, Elizabeth personally introduces herself to The Dinner Party guests in her own exquisite hand.
Related Heritage Floor Entries
Catherine of Aragon
Christina of Sweden
Maria de Coste Blanche
Penette de Guillet
Isabella de Joya Roseres
Maria-Christine de Lalaing
Isabella of Castile
Jane of Sutherland
Margaret of Austria
Margaret of Desmond
Margaret of Navarre
Margaret of Scandinavia
Mary of Hungary
Philippa of Hainault
Sophia of Mechlenberg
Translations, Editions, and Secondary Sources
Bassnett, Susan. Elizabeth I: A Feminist Perspective. New York: Berg, 1988.
Beem, Charles. The Lioness Roared: The Problems of Female Rule in English History. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
Bradford, Sarah. Elizabeth: A Biography of Britain's Queen. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1996.
Doran, Susan. Queen Elizabeth I. New York: New York University Press, 2003.
Hibbert, Christopher. The Virgin Queen: Elizabeth I, Genius of the Golden Age. Reading, Pa.: Addison-Wesley, 1991.
Levin, Carole. The Heart and Stomach of a King: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994.
Marcus, Leah S., Janel Mueller, and Mary Beth Rose. Elizabeth I: Collected Works. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
Starkey, David. Elizabeth: Apprenticeship. London: Chatto & Windus, 2000.
Watkins, Susan. In Public and in Private: Elizabeth I and Her World. London: Thames & Hudson, 1998.
Weir, Alison. The Life of Elizabeth I. New York: Ballantine, 1998.
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Did you know that it is very likely that you live in a parallel universe? I mean, why couldn’t it be possible. The universe is infinite, so it would be likely that there is another universe that is a duplicate of ours. Here are some theories that would prove multiverses or parallel universes to be true:
- Infinite Universes
- Infinite universes would mean that the universe expands infinitely, making it possible for there to be a duplicate of our universe somewhere out there with humans. There might be multiple versions of you out in other universes making different decisions. In one universe, you could already be dead, while in another universe you could be a young millionaire, or you could live somewhere completely different than where you live right now. You could also just not exist in some universes, where your parents didn’t meet or don’t exist.
- Daughter Universes
- The Daughter Universes or Many Worlds Theory by Hugh Everett is based on the theory of quantum mechanics. He proposed that for every possible outcome to a situation to occur, the universe creates a copy of itself. Australian mathematician Hans Moravec made an experiment in effort to debunk Hugh’s theory, called quantum suicide. The experiment connects a person to a weapon and a machine that determines angular momentum of protons. Every ten seconds, the quark, aka spin value, of a new proton is recorded. If the Many Worlds Theory would not be true, the experimenter’s chances of survival decrease after every quark measurement until it becomes zero. The theory would suggest that in some parallel universes, the experimenter will always survive, therefore achieving quantum immortality. Hans was able to succeed in creating an “elaborate fantasy of an experiment” to disprove what he thought was imagination in the idea of parallel universes.
- Mathematical Universes
There are many other theories that make multiverses possible. If you are interested, you could even check out Stephen Hawking’s book about multiverses. I mean, imagine what the other universes could look like. Some might be way behind our universe in technology or industrial revolution terms, while others might be way ahead of us. It would be pretty cool to travel from one universe to another, you would just have to avoid coming in contact with the other you. Wouldn’t you want to see what life is like in other universes?
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Symmetry Butterfly Preschool Art
Below you will find an easy Butterfly Symmetry project to compliment your Caterpillar and Butterfly preschool theme. This art experience is an excellent opportunity to talk about symmetry and shapes with your preschoolers.
This fun activity is one of 200 hands on preschool activities featured in our Pre-K Play Ideas eBook! Purchase our eBook to have all of these activity pages at your fingertips.
Step 1: Fold 1- 12x18" paper for each of your children in half, and set aside.
Step 2: Draw 1/2 of a Butterfly Wing on Card stock and cut it out to use as your template.
Step 3: Use your template to trace an image on each folded sheet of paper. The folded edge should be in the center of the butterfly
(on the right hand side of the image below) .
*Note: If your children are too young to cut the image, you only need to trace the top sheet and then you can cut them all out at the same time.
(*Note: Before Cutting-Make sure your fold is to the right when you stack your folded sheets).
You should now have folded wings that look like the photo below.
Step 4: Place each wing on a tray or a protected surface for painting.
Step 5: Encourage the children to add paint to the wing.
With this project, thicker blobs of paint actually work better, than thin streaks.
Step 6: Help the child gently unfold the right side of the butterfly from behind their painting.
Step 7: Gently fold the right side of the butterfly, over the left side. Pat Down.
Step 8: This is where the magic happens! Have the child gently peel the wing up to reveal the symmetrical Butterfly!
*Note you may want to have extra's on hand-My kiddos love making these!
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Save time planning your hands on preschool activities! Find detailed directions for this activity + 199 more in our Pre-K Play Ideas eBook! Print each activity page, or access them digitally!
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Preschool Learning Centers are commonly referred to as Preschool Centers, or Learning Spaces. These are activity areas dedicated to a specific type of of play and exploring a variety of topics and activities. Download our Free set of Center Signs!
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Click here for information on ‘Choosing the right breed for your lifestyle
By the time puppies are seven to eight weeks old and ready to go to new homes, they will vary greatly in brain development depending on how they have been raised. This will have a profound effect on their future behaviour.
Puppies kept in isolated or barren environment with limited access to adults, children, other animals and other situations will find it very difficult to cope in a normal busy household. They are likely to be anxious and fearful which may develop into aggression and other behaviour problems later.
To avoid this, always choose a puppy that has been raised in a family home. Always insist on seeing the mother with the puppies and check on her temperament. Avoid buying puppies where the mother is absent, can’t be trusted with people around her puppies, or is aggressive. Make sure the puppies are well socialised with people, and well habituated to novel objects, smells, sounds and sights.
Ask how the puppies have been socialised (see ‘How to Socialise a Litter’ for how it should be done). Check these videos for further ideas on how to distinguish a socialised puppy from a poorly socialised puppy.
Puppies lacking in socialisation.
These nine week old Golden Retrievers were raised outside in a stable and have spent most of their time in a barren environment which is quite unlike the new pet home they will soon be expected to cope with. Although they appear healthy and happy, carefully watch their interactions with humans. Although they are attracted to them, they show no social behaviour towards them and are often afraid, flattening themselves or turning their faces away. Notice how they are happy to move away once released. The mother is absent and we were told that ‘she doesn’t tolerate her puppies any more now that they are weaned’ so we could not see her or see them together. These puppies have the potential to develop fear-based problems later in life and will have difficulties bonding with humans easily.
Well socialised puppies
These seven week old Labradors were raised in a house and have spend most of their time in the busy, enriched environment of a pet home. They have frequent access to normal family life with its attendant noises, smells and sights. Notice how sociable they are with children, adults, cats and dogs. Their environment is full of objects for them to investigate. These puppies will make ideal pets that will readily form happy friendships with people and other animals. They are likely to be relaxed and confident in most situations and will find it easy to adjust to their new lives with their new owners. In addition, because of their routine and care, they are already nearly housetrained.
Recognising a good breeder
Good breeders take care to select good parents, provide proper health care, take time to raise a litter properly and put in a lot of effort to ensure well-adjusted, healthy puppies. They rarely breed more than two or three litters a year, sometimes less than that. Finding a good breeder is not easy, but it is definitely worth the effort. You may like to begin by going to dog shows and talking to breeders and owners there about their dogs.
Dog shows are advertised in the specialist dog press or via the internet. Find out about breed clubs and ask people who run them how to find a good breeder. Usually, these people are real breed enthusiasts and will have lots of useful knowledge. Ask people who own nice dogs of your chosen breed where their dog came from and talk to their breeder.
Good breeders do not breed often and do not breed to order. They will be able to tell you when their next litter is planned so be prepared to wait – if you have chosen your breeder well, it will be worth it.
A good breeder is one who fulfils the following criteria. Be prepared to ask questions and if you cannot get satisfactory answers, look elsewhere.
A good breeder
- will be concerned about the health and temperament of the puppies (rather than breeding only to win prizes in the show ring)
- allows you to see the mother with the puppies.
- lets the puppies live in the house or have regular access.
- socialises the puppies with people and other animals and gets them used to things they will encounter when older (see videos above to tell from the puppies if they are doing all that is necessary)
- is knowledgable about dogs.
- cares about what happens to the puppies they breed.
Avoid buying a puppy from an advert in the paper or from a pet shop. Both of these can be outlets for puppy farmers who keep dogs in small cages, breed from them continuously, and often take the puppies away from the mother too early. The resulting puppies are often physically compromised, unhealthy and often show abnormal behaviour caused by the early stress. It is not possible to tell whether a puppy comes from such a place just by its appearance so it is better to avoid these outlets altogether.
Puppy farmers go to some lengths to disguise their trade. They may arrange to meet you in the car park of a pub or service station close to your home. Or they may deliver the puppy to a colleague’s home so that you see the puppies there rather than on their premises. Avoid places which keep many different breeds of puppy under the same roof. It is very likely that these puppies came from puppy farms and you may end up with problems as a result.
This is an extract from ‘Choosing the Right Dog for You’ by Gwen Bailey.
First time dog owner?
Our Family Dog is a website specifically for first-time dog owners in the UK, offering advice, chat and friendly support. Please visit www.ourfamilydog.co.uk for more info.
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Evoking the ancient mysteries of Petra, candlelight illuminates the Treasury's dusty-pink facade and intricate carvings that have survived for 2,000 years. Three times a week, the pathway between the Siq, the slender canyon that protected the city from invaders, and the Treasury, known in Arabic as Al Khazneh, glow with 1,800 candles as Bedouin musicians play for tourists. Although archaeologists are uncovering more of the ancient city buried under centuries of windblown sand, many secrets of the Nabataeans remain cloaked in darkness. Where these prosperous desert nomads came from and why they decided to create a permanent settlement at Petra remains unknown.
Special thanks to the Petra National Trust and the Petra Archaeological Park for their assistance on this project.
The preservation of this World Heritage Site in Jordan is being put at risk as more and more tourists flock to this ancient city of stone.
The votes are in! Check out a new list of the world's seven greatest man-made wonders.
Take a photographic journey through Montana and enter for a chance to win a trip for two!
Eighteen percent of the world's population can't get safe drinking water. Test your water knowledge.
Browse through our galleries and decorate your desktop.
See the latest discoveries and archaeological news.
Explore the life of Herod the Great with photos, videos, and more.
Discover the ancient world with this interactive map.
Kids, can you solve this ancient mystery?
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05.15.2013 - Nanosatellites now have their own mass transit to catch rides to space and perform experiments in microgravity.
05.09.13 - Hubble found the building blocks for Earth-sized planets in an unlikely place – the atmospheres of a pair of burned-out stars called white dwarfs.
05.09.13 - The team operating NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has selected a second target rock for drilling and sampling. The rover will set course to the drilling location in coming days.
05.09.13 - Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) Space Systems of Louisville, Colo., completed its first major, comprehensive safety review of its Dream Chaser Space System.
05.10.13 - On May 10, 2013, Earth, the sun and the moon lined up to create a solar eclipse visible from the South Pacific.
05.09.13 - Researchers have begun taking infrared pictures of planets posing near their stars in family portraits.
05.09.13 - Astronaut Karen Nyberg says she will be savoring this Mother’s Day weekend before departing for Kazakhstan, and ultimately space.
05.09.13 - The launch of a NASA Terrier-Improved Orion sounding rocket on May 9 brought to an end a very successful campaign studying ionospheric activity and its impact on radio, communication and navigation signals.
05.03.12 - From its orbit around the Earth, the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite or Suomi NPP satellite, captured a night-time image of California’s Springs Fire.
05.08.13 - NASA engineer Acey Herrera checks copper test wires inside the thermal shield of an instrument for the James Webb Space Telescope.
05.08.13 - With three crew members set to return home in less than a week, the station’s Expedition 35 crew tackled a full agenda Wednesday.› Space Station Live Recap | › Crew Timelines
05.07.13 - The roar of a 5,000 pound rocket engine has returned to the Johnson Space Center.
05.07.13 - The Equatorial Vortex Experiment was successfully conducted on May 7 from the Marshall Islands when a NASA Terrier-Oriole sounding rocket was launched followed by the launch of a Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket 90 seconds later.
05.08.13 - Workers added a nosecone to the top of the second solid rocket booster at the Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit as construction speeds ahead to a June 29 opening.
05.07.13 - The supermassive black hole at the core of our Milky Way galaxy is gobbling up hot gas, according to a new study from the Herschel space observatory.
05.07.13 - The station's Expedition 35 crew worked with Robonaut Tuesday while continuing preparations for homecoming of three crew members.› Space Station Live Recap | › Crew Timelines
05.06.13 - As LDCM flew over Indonesia's Flores Sea April 29, it captured an image of Paluweh volcano spewing ash into the air.
05.06.13 - A video of smoke from California’s Springs Fire was created by animating satellite imagery from NOAA’s GOES-15 satellite.
05.06.13 - Expedition 35 began its final week in space Monday while a ground-commanded robotics demonstration continued on the exterior of the station.› Space Station Live Recap | › Crew Timelines
05.06.13 - The Orion crew module is being put through a series of tests that simulate the loads the spacecraft would experience during its mission.
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Cystocele (Fallen Bladder) (cont.)
In this Article
How is a cystocele diagnosed?
A doctor may be able to diagnose a grade 2 or grade 3 cystocele from a description of symptoms and from physical examination of the vagina because the fallen part of the bladder will be visible. Other tests may be needed to find or rule out problems in other parts of the urinary system.
How is a cystocele treated?
Comment on this Read 1 Comment
Treatment options range from no treatment for a mild cystocele to surgery for a serious cystocele. If a cystocele is not bothersome, the doctor may only recommend avoiding heavy lifting or straining that could cause the cystocele to worsen. If symptoms are moderately bothersome, the doctor may recommend a pessary -- a device placed in the vagina to hold the bladder in place. Pessaries come in a variety of shapes and sizes to allow the doctor to find the most comfortable fit for the patient. Pessaries must be removed regularly to avoid infection or ulcers.
Large cystoceles may require surgery to move and keep the bladder in a more normal position. This operation may be performed by a gynecologist, a urologist, or a urogynecologist. The most common procedure for cystocele repair is for the surgeon to make an incision in the wall of the vagina and repair the area by tightening the layers of tissue that separate the organs, creating more support for the bladder. The patient may stay in the hospital for several days and take 4 to 6 weeks to recover fully.
For More Information
American Urological Association Foundation
American Urogynecologic Society
National Association for Continence
Medically reviewed by Steven Nelson, MD; Board Certified Obstetrics and Gynecology
Medically Reviewed by a Doctor on 4/15/2014
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Launch Date: 2023
Prime Mission: 2 years
Lead Institution: LASP
Lead Funding Agency: NASA Astrophysics
SPRITE will collect unprecedented data from modern-day stars and supernovas to help scientists better understand a time in the history of the cosmos called the “Epoch of Reionization”—a period in which the universe’s first stars lived fast and hard, burning out and going supernova in a span of just a few million years.
Before the Epoch of Reionization, the universe wasn’t anything like it is today. The cosmos’ first stars and galaxies were just beginning to form, but their light couldn’t spread far into space like it does today—the vast distances between galaxies were filled with neutral gas that effectively fogged up the universe.
Then, a little more than 13 billion years ago, that began to change: Radiation from these young stars started leaking out of their galaxies and ionizing the surrounding gas—kicking electrons off of the hydrogen atoms and changing the nature of the matter that permeates the universe.
There’s just one problem with the theory: Scientists still aren’t sure how this light was able to escape from the universe’s first galaxies. One theory suggests that ancient supernovas blew the clouds of dense gas surrounding those early stars out of the way, a bit like giant leaf blowers in space.
SPRITE won’t seek to observe those ancient eruptions directly. Instead, it will conduct two surveys closer to home. One will measure how nearby galaxies emit ionizing radiation. The second will look at the remains of exploded stars in the Magellanic Clouds, two dwarf galaxies that circle our own Milky Way.
To measure the ultraviolet radiation from galaxies and stars, the SPRITE team is experimenting with a range of new technologies that haven’t flown into space before to measure the ultraviolet light from these stars. SPRITE is flight testing two LUVOIR-LUMOS enabling technologies: protected eLiF mirror coatings and low-background borosilicate microchannel plate detectors. These advanced technologies allow SPRITE to reach projected far-ultraviolet sensitivities on par with previous larger NASA missions while maintaining imaging spectroscopic capability.
The LASP cubesat mission operations and data systems teams provide the commanding, downlink, data capture and data reduction for SPRITE operations.
The SPRITE team will publicly provide data when available.
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This is simply too cool.
Every once in a while, we find something from antiquity that we knew about but thought lost.
Archaeologists discover Augustan-era sculptures near Rome
Sculptures found in villa in Ciampino tell myth of Niobe
Rome, January 8 – Archaeologists say they’ve uncovered an “exceptional” group of sculptures dating to the 1st century BC in a villa in Rome’s suburb of Ciampino. The sculptures, found in an ancient villa owned by Roman general Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, a patron of the poet Ovid, tell the myth of Niobe, the proud daughter of Tantalus who lost all her 14 children after boasting to the mother of Apollo and Artemis, Leto, about her fertility. Niobe, regarded as a classic example of the retribution caused by the sin of pride or hubris, was turned to stone. Excavations at the villa have also revealed a thermal bath area with fragments of artistic mosaics and a swimming pool as long as 20 meters with walls painted blue. Inside the bath area were found seven sculptures dating to the Augustan age, as well as a complete series of fragments that experts say can be reassembled. The group tells the story of Niobe, which figured in Ovid’s epic poem of transformation, the Metamorphoses, published in AD 8. La Repubblica newspaper said Tuesday a team of archaeologists made the valuable discovery last summer. “Statues of Niobe have been found in the past, but in the case of Ciampino, we have a good part of the group,” of statues, said Elena Calandra, superintendent of archaeological heritage. According to their reconstruction of the bath area, experts say the statues were carved on all four sides of the swimming pool, which may have been buried by an earthquake in the 2nd century AD. (file photo of Niobe statue)
This is as cool as another story on the other end of the spectrum, as it were. The Mars rover Curiosity has – for the first time – used its brush! Yes! It has! HERE.
PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has completed first-time use of a brush it carries to sweep dust off rocks.
Nearing the end of a series of first-time uses of the rover’s tools, the mission has cleared dust away from a targeted patch on a flat Martian rock using the Dust Removal Tool.
The tool is a motorized, wire-bristle brush designed to prepare selected rock surfaces for enhanced inspection by the rover’s science instruments. It is built into the turret at the end of the rover’s arm. In particular, the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer and the Mars Hand Lens Imager, which share the turret with the brush and the rover’s hammering drill, can gain information after dust removal that would not be accessible from a dust-blanketed rock.
Choosing an appropriate target was crucial for the first-time use of the Dust Removal Tool. The chosen target, called “Ekwir_1,” is on a rock in the “Yellowknife Bay” area of Mars’ Gale Crater. The rover team is also evaluating rocks in that area as potential targets for first use of the rover’s hammering drill in coming weeks.
Images of the brushed area on Ekwir are online HERE.
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You are here: MEDICA Portal. MEDICA Magazine. Archive. Cancer.
The DNA encodes the entire genetic information required for building the proteins of the cell. Hence, DNA breaks disrupt the proteins and lead to changes in the cell function. These changes can lead to defects in the control of cellular proliferation resulting in cancer development.
Using cutting edge technologies, researchers Professor Batsheva Kerem and doctoral student Efrat Ozeri-Galai, of the Alexander Silverman Institute of Life Sciences in the Faculty of Science were able to characterize for the first time the DNA regions which are the most sensitive regions to breakage in early stages of cancer development. This is a breakthrough in our understanding of the effect of the DNA sequence and structure on its replication and stability.
"A hallmark of most human cancers is accumulation of damage in the DNA, which drives cancer development," says Kerem. "In the early stages of cancer development, the cells are forced to proliferate. In each cycle of proliferation the DNA is replicated to ensure that the daughter cells have a full DNA. However, in these early stages the conditions for DNA replication are perturbed, leading to DNA breaks, which occur specifically in regions defined as 'fragile sites'."
In this research Kerem and Ozeri-Galai used a sophisticated new methodology which enables the study of single DNA molecules, in order to study the basis for the specific sensitivity of the fragile sites. The findings are highly important since they shed new light on the DNA features and on the regulation of DNA replication along the first regions that break in cancer development.
The results show that along the fragile region there are sites that slow the DNA replication and even stop it. In order to allow completion of the DNA replication the cells activate already under normal conditions mechanisms that are usually used under stress. As a result, under conditions of replication stress, such as in early cancer development stages, the cell has no more tools to overcome the stress, and the DNA breaks.
The results of this study reveal the molecular mechanism that promotes cancer development. In the future, these findings could lead to the development of new therapeutic approaches to restrain and/or treat cancer.
MEDICA.de; Source: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Scars are a very common and very unrecognized cause of movement dysfunction and chronic pain.
Your skin, ligaments,tendons, muscles, and fascia are loaded with nerve endings. These nerve endings connect your body and brain, sense movement and potential danger, and generally allow you to know what’s going on in the world around you.
Information from those nerves travel to your brain, which then “decides” how you need to respond. When you feel cold, you shiver to warm yourself up. When you feel sudden pain, you try to get away from it (and maybe say some bad words.) You feel something creepy crawl on you, you jump and scream, etc.
When the skin and its connected fascia and muscles are disrupted due to injury or surgery, the information flow between your brain and that body part is also interrupted. You might develop a “protective” response around the injury, like limping or shifting your weight off of it. You may have decreased sensation like numbness or tingling around the area that your brain then learns to work around. Or the scar tissue is stiff and tight, and doesn’t stretch and move the way it should. Because all of these change the way you move, they cause strain and chronic pain in areas far from the original injury.
These changes can be subtle, but can have significant effects in other parts of the body over time — even decades after the injury. Because old injuries or surgeries are often forgotten (and rarely recognized by many healthcare professionals) it can take some detective work to connect the dots between the old injury and your current symptoms.
Once we identify these connections (or lack thereof!), we use various tools to “reconnect” the damaged neurological connections. We can use manual therapies stretch and mobilize the restricted soft tissues, functional neurology techniques to help your brain “find” the injured area again, and recommend exercises to restore strength and normal movement patterns.
Skin, fascias, and scars: symptoms and systemic connections https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3883554/
Clinical importance of active scars: abnormal scars as a cause of myofascial pain https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15319762
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click on the images for a link to related text or larger illustrations
A specimen of a cultivated grape
Herbemonte grape from
Flushing - Long island
from Dr McDonalds
Current name: Vitis vinifera L., the variety known as "Herbemont".
Throughout his life, Ravenel was actively involved in agriculture as well as in science. He wrote not only for scientific publications, but also for more general readerships in the Southern Agriculturist & Horticulturist, the Southern Cultivator, the Southern Farmer & Market Gardener, and Farmer and Planter. Ravenel grew an assortment of grape varieties at Hampton Hill, near Aiken. His diary indicates, in the summer of 1860, that he was very interested in the development of the local fruit industry, and was himself involved in shipping considerable amounts of peaches to New York. The Herbemonte grape was a popular variety, growing well in the southern states.
Sorghum, a potentially useful food and forage crop
Sept. 4 1857
found at Genl. Hammond's place
in Barnwell - said to grow wild on Savannah River. HWR
Current name: Sorghum vulgare L.; “Cane sorghum.”
This specimen had been widely grown as a source of sorghum molasses, and also for seed and fodder. Ravenel almost certainly knew James H. Hammond socially; Hammond (1807-1864), later to serve as state senator (and governor), had been elected as a General within the local militia, prior to the Civil War. In addition to being a rather flamboyant political personality, Hammond was a successful planter, and was very interested in new crops for introduction.
There are two separate plants on this sheet, and they are likely from different populations. The specimen was repaired in the 1930's, remounted on period paper, and then sent to Agnes Chase for determination.
Cultivated in Aiken, probably collected in the 1880s. Rhamie has enjoyed a reputation as an important fiber crop (the fibers obtained from tissues in the stems) and it was grown with some success in 19th Century South Carolina.
One of Ravenel's late collections, taken from a cultivated street tree in Aiken. This plant is introduced from Asia, and is still commonly grown in warmer parts of the USA. Its green bark and twigs, deeply lobed leaves, fragrant flowers, and prominent, yellow fall foliage make it an attractive curiosity. It still grows around Aiken, as well as other cities in South Carolina. (It appears in a few places on the USC campus, and around downtown Columbia.)
During the later years of his life, Ravenel, as seen in his journal, became less and less interested in politics, and became more devoted to his garden and to sharing information with other botanists. He died three years to the month after collecting this specimen.
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Published at Thursday, 14 May 2020. Reading Worksheets. By Bernadina Ruiz.
By the age of three, your child is ready to move onto mathematics worksheets. This does not mean that you should stop playing counting and number games with your child; it just adds another tool to your toolbox. Worksheets help to bring some structure into a child has education using a systematic teaching method, particularly important with math, which follows a natural progression.
This sounds like an awful lot, does not it! A good set of preschool worksheets should cover all of this, and more. In the preschool years, repetition is the key to learning, but you should look for worksheets that teach the same skills in a variety of ways. This not only prevents boredom setting in, but also reinforces the concepts by encouraging understanding as well. The importance of reading to your child cannot be emphasised enough, and you should encourage them to read as much as possible too.
For the kids who love stickers they are not left behind, with plenty of birthday printables to choose from stickers are abundant. For those who love nature, they will get butterfly, rainbow, flowers and plenty of others just to decorate their bedroom or anything they desire. It will really look like a natural landscape once they are done. Books can be decorated with clouds, smiling faces and lots of toys to choose from, if not yet filled up. A room can be transformed into a cozy personal space with love stickers that surely will fill the room with a warm fuzzy look and feel.
Any content, trademark’s, or other material that might be found on the Arrowheadinnovationfund website that is not Arrowheadinnovationfund’s property remains the copyright of its respective owner/s. In no way does Arrowheadinnovationfund claim ownership or responsibility for such items, and you should seek legal consent for any use of such materials from its owner.
Copyright © 2020 Arrowheadinnovationfund. All Rights Reserved.
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The cluster size that is chosen for striped configurations (RAID 0, 4, and 5) has a large affect on the performance of a virtual disk array. In a multiuser environment, you should adjust the cluster size to be equal to the predominant request size of the applications that are accessing the array. In this context, applications can include the operating system buffer cache, or relational database buffering mechanisms. It does not necessarily mean user programs which access a filesystem.
In a multiuser environment, the aim is for each request to affect only a single data piece. In this way, disk activity will be minimized and spread evenly between the disks. If a request begins halfway through a cluster, it will need to access two disks in the array. The effect of this will be to increase the overall disk I/O and reduce job throughput. Such a request is known as a split job. If this type of request occurs frequently, it may be worthwhile increasing the cluster size so that more requests fit in a single cluster. However, if you make the cluster size too large, contention between processes for access to individual clusters will also increase disk I/O and decrease job throughput.
Sometimes it is beneficial to make the dominant I/O size equal to the stripe size of a virtual disk array. Examples are a single application performing synchronous I/O, or a single-user system. This improves throughput because I/O requests are performed in parallel across all the disks in an array. The highest throughput is obtained when write requests are the same size as the stripe and are aligned on its boundaries. On RAID 4 and 5 arrays, such full stripe writes enhance performance because no old data needs to be read in order to generate parity.
A relational database server would appear to be an ideal application for full-stripe I/O. However, such applications often provide their own facilities for disk load-balancing and protection against disk failure. For the best possible performance, use these features in preference to virtual disk arrays. However, you should note that tuning such applications can be time consuming. Using virtual disk arrays provides a quicker and more easily configurable method of obtaining a performance improvement over single simple disks.
The vdisk driver keeps counts of the type of requests which have been made to an array. You can examine these counts using the -ps options to dkconfig(ADM).
In this example, dkconfig is used to examine the request statistics for the virtual disk array /dev/dsk/vdisk3:
/dev/dsk/vdisk3: 16384 iosz 397195 reads 153969 writes 551164 io piece 1 /dev/dsk/2s1 404172 reads 140260 writes 544432 io piece 2 /dev/dsk/3s1 350326 reads 137769 writes 488095 io piece 3 /dev/dsk/4s1 382089 reads 135147 writes 517236 io piece 4 /dev/dsk/5s1 365069 reads 135808 writes 500877 io Job Types: Full Stripe 0 reads 0 writes Group 174463 reads 94708 writes Cluster 332476 reads 119464 writes Split Jobs 260919 IO Sizes: 16384 bytes 205180 io 1024 bytes 94662 io 2048 bytes 73729 io 3072 bytes 48287 io 8192 bytes 14454 io 4096 bytes 23 io 12288 bytes 4 io 13312 bytes 3 io 5120 bytes 2 io 10240 bytes 1 io 7819 resets to IO size statisticsThe counts include:
io) of different sizes. Use these to help you determine the optimum cluster size for your application.
If you are using the block device to access a disk array, such as when using an array for a filesystem, you may often achieve the best performance by setting the cluster size to 32 (16KB) or greater. This is because the buffer cache reads ahead 16KB.
In the example shown above, the system was running a benchmark to perform a stress test of a filesystem implemented on a RAID 5 array with a cluster size of 32. The dominant request size was 16KB as expected for access via the buffer cache but there were a comparable number of split jobs. In this case, better performance might be achieved by increasing the cluster size to 40 or 48.
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Botanical Name and Pronunciation:
Pyracantha spp. (py-ra-CAN-tha)
red, orange, yellow
Form and Size:
The branches of pyracantha are of various lengths and have thorns. The branches are covered with clusters of berries.
7 – 12 days
fall – winter
Remove leaves from the bottom of the stem, cut under water and place in fresh water with flower food.
History and Usage:
A member of the Rosaceae (rose) family, pyracantha originated in southeastern Europe and Asia. The botanical name comes from the word “pyr” which is Greek for fire and “akantha” which is Greek for a thorn. This is in reference to the red berries and thorns on the branches. This is also where its common name firethorn comes from. These berries look lovely in arrangements with a winter or Christmas theme.
Points of Interest:
Relatives of pyracantha include cotoneaster, hawthorn, photinia.
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However, researchers only recently have identified non-celiac gluten sensitivity as a separate, distinct condition, and many in the medical field are waiting for confirmation of those still-new research findings before accepting gluten sensitivity as a possible diagnosis.
Given all that, plus the fact that there's no accepted test for gluten sensitivity, it's impossible to say for sure how many people may actually be gluten-sensitive. However, three prominent researchers in the field Dr. Alessio Fasano, Dr. Kenneth Fine and Dr. Rodney Ford recently spoke with me and speculated on what the percentages might be. Just note before you read on that the percentages they mention are based on their own (largely unpublished) research, and don't represent established medical opinion.
Fasano: Gluten Sensitivity May Affect 6% to 7% Overall
Dr. Fasano, director of the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research, published the first study looking at the molecular basis for gluten sensitivity and how it differs from celiac disease. He also participated in the research concluding that celiac disease incidence is one in every 133 people.
According to Dr. Fasano, gluten sensitivity potentially affects far more people than celiac disease. He estimates about 6% to 7% of the U.S. population may be gluten-sensitive, meaning some 20 million people in the United States alone could have the condition.
Symptoms of gluten sensitivity in this population can include digestive problems, headaches, rashes and eczema-like skin symptoms, brain fog and fatigue, Dr. Fasano says. Almost one-third of those he's diagnosed as gluten-sensitive report brain fog and headaches as symptoms, he says.
Drs. Ford, Fine Say Percentage Could Be Far Higher Up To 50%
Dr. Ford, a pediatrician in Christchurch, New Zealand and author of The Gluten Syndrome, says he believes the percentage of people who are gluten-sensitive actually could be much higher potentially between 30% and 50%.
"There are so many people who are sick," he says. "At least 10% are gluten-sensitive, and it's probably more like 30%. I was sticking my neck out years ago when I said at least 10% of the population is gluten-sensitive. My medical colleagues were saying gluten sensitivity didn't exist. We'll probably find it's more than 50% when we finally settle on a number."
Dr. Fine, a gastroenterologist who founded and directs the gluten sensitivity testing service Enterolab, agrees that gluten sensitivity probably affects half the population.
Another large percentage of Americans have autoimmune disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic headaches and/or microscopic colitis, which place them at high risk for gluten sensitivity. About 60% to 65% of people with those conditions test positive for gluten sensitivity through Enterolab, Dr. Fine says.
Meanwhile, about 20% to 25% of people with no symptoms are diagnosed with gluten sensitivity based on Enterolab testing results, Dr. Fine says.
"When we did the math, we came up with the number of about one in two are gluten-sensitive," he says.
Meanwhile, Dr. Fine says he believes the one in 133 estimate for people who have celiac disease may be too high "I think it's more like one in 200. I'm fully aware of the one in 133 study, but that was an invited and somewhat biased selection." Other studies have placed the incidence of celiac disease at around one in 200 people to one in 250 people, and Dr. Fine says he thinks those are more accurate.
What Do These Gluten Sensitivity Numbers Mean?
At the moment, these potential percentages of people who may have gluten sensitivity represent pure speculation on the part of these physicians and researchers the studies simply haven't been done to prove whether they're accurate or far-fetched.
Fasano A. et al. Divergence of gut permeability and mucosal immune gene expression in two gluten-associated conditions: celiac disease and gluten sensitivity. BMC Medicine 2011, 9:23. doi:10.1186/1741-7015-9-23.
Fasano A. et. al. Spectrum of gluten-related disorders: consensus on new nomenclature and classification. BMC Medicine. BMC Medicine 2012, 10:13 doi:10.1186/1741-7015-10-13. Published: 7 February 2012
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Biplot(dataset, options, plotoptions)
data set, DataFrame, or PCArecord
(optional) equation(s) of the form option=value where option is one of arrows, arrowlabels, components, dimension, pcbiplot, points, pointlabels, or scale; specify options for generating the biplot
options to be passed to the plots[display] command
The options argument can contain one or more of the options shown below. All unrecognized options will be passed to the plots[display] command. See plot[options] for details.
arrows : truefalse or list; controls the display of arrows corresponding to each principal component. The default is true. If the arrows option is given as a list, the arrows are shown and any elements of the list are passed as plot options to the arrow constructor.
arrowlabels : truefalse or list; specifies the labels shown on the arrows corresponding to each column of the data. The default is true. If the dataset is a DataFrame, then the biplot will automatically use the column names from the dataframe as labels. If the dataset is a Matrix, then the arrowlabels must be provided as a list, otherwise no labels are shown. The default arrow labels can be overridden by specifying a list containing the new values.
components : list; specifies the principal components used in the biplot. By default, Biplot uses the first two principal components for 2-D plots and the first three principal components for 3-D plots. The default is [1,2].
dimension : integer; specifies the number of dimensions, either 2 or 3 of the resulting biplot. The default is 2.
pcbiplot : truefalse; controls if with lambda = 1, observations are scaled up by n and variables are scaled down by n. This is referred to as a "principal component biplot", Gabriel (1971).
points : truefalse or list; controls the display of points corresponding to the individual rows of the principal components. The default is true. If the points option is given as a list, the points are shown and any elements of the list are passed as plot options to the plot constructor.
pointlabels : truefalse or list; controls the display of point labels. The default is false. If the dataset is a DataFrame, the row names from the DataFrame are used. If the dataset is a Matrix, the numbers 1 through n are used, where n is the number of rows of the Matrix. The default point labels can be overridden by specifying a list containing the new values.
scale : numeric value between 0 and 1; controls if the variables are scaled by λscale and the observations are scaled by λ1−scale, where lambda are the singular values computed by the principal component analysis. The default is 1.
The Biplot command generates a biplot for the specified set of data. A biplot is a method of data visualization suitable for the results of a principal components analysis.
The first parameter, dataset, can be a numeric Matrix or DataFrame with 2 or more columns, or a record generated by a principal component analysis. In the case that dataset is either a Matrix or a DataFrame, a principal component analysis is run on the dataset and the results are used for the biplot.
Generate a biplot for the Iris dataset.
IrisDF ≔ Importdatasets/iris.csv,base=datadir
pca ≔ PCAIrisDF`Sepal Length`,`Sepal Width`,`Petal Length`,`Petal Width`:
A Biplot can also be used to show the first two components and the observations on the same diagram. The first principal component is plotted on the x-axis and the second on the y-axis.
From the biplot, it can be observed that petal width and length are highly correlated and their variability can be primarily attributed to the first component. Likewise, the first component also explains a large part of the Sepal length. The variability in sepal width is more attributed to the second component.
It is also possible to generate a biplot displaying other principal components using the components option. For example, here is a plot of the third and fourth principal components:
It is possible to view the first three components using the dimension option. Also, the colorscheme option applies different colors based on the various levels in the "Species" column.
The canada_crimes.csv dataset contains information on types of crimes committed per 100000 people:
CCdata ≔ Importdatasets/canada_crimes.csv,base=datadir
The pointlabels option controls if the points in the biplot include labels or not. Additional options such as axes or size are passed to the plots:-display command.
Gabriel, K.R. (1971). The biplot graphical display of matrices with applications to principal component analysis. Biometrika, 58, 453-467.
The Statistics[Biplot] command was introduced in Maple 2016.
For more information on Maple 2016 changes, see Updates in Maple 2016.
The Statistics[Biplot] command was updated in Maple 2019.
The components option was introduced in Maple 2019.
For more information on Maple 2019 changes, see Updates in Maple 2019.
Download Help Document
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200 Years Beer Garden Anniversary
On the 4th of January 2012, the tradition of the Bavarian beer garden celebrated its 200th birthday. 200 years earlier, on the 4th of January 1812, an edict issued by King of Bavaria Max I. allowed all breweries to sell beer straight out of their storage cellars.
This edict was the reaction on a long quarrel between the breweries and restaurant owners. Already on the 13th of May 1791, some Munich innkeepers from the Au complained to the Elector Karl-Theodor about the beer cellars, which were located near the Isar. The innkeepers said, that the beer cellars ruin their business. The innkeepers were not wrong, given the fact that breweries were not allowed by law to sell beer for immediate consumption at the beer cellars. Yet it was widely practiced at the time.
In those days the beer was stored between huge ice blocks in underground cellars. The ice was necessary to cool the beer throughout the summer months, as brewing was only allowed between end of September and middle of April. To improve the cooling, breweries planted chestnut trees on top of the cellars. People collecting beer straight from the breweries usually drank their first stein on location before going back home. To provide more comfort, the breweries placed tables and benches under the chestnut trees with the result, that more and more people came to the beer cellars and the restaurants lost their guests.
The royal edict in 1812 brought an end to the argument between the breweries and innkeepers. The edict stated, that the breweries are allowed to sell their Märzenbier from June to September for straight consumption on location. To bring some guests back to the restaurants, the breweries were only allowed to sell beer and bread, but nothing else. Nevertheless, the beer garden guests started to bring their own food from home and over time this custom turned into tradition.
Throughout the 2012 beer garden season, many Munich beer gardens will celebrate this tradition together with their guests in combination with special events, such as for instance on the 22nd July in the Königliche Hirschgarten with a parade, music, dance, Schuhplattler dance and female whip crackers.
- Beer Garden Etiquette press release by the Munich and Bavarian tourist office.
- 200 Years Beergarden press release by the Munich and Bavarian tourist office.
- 200 Years of Beer Gardening in Munich January 2012, on the Munich blog thingstodo.viator.com/munich
- Bavaria marks 200 years of beer gardens on monstersandcritics.com
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On this page:
- What is Food: Too Good to Waste?
- Why is Reducing Wasted Food Important?
- Who Should Use this Guide and Toolkit?
- Where do Potential Partners Come From?
- How to Select a Target Population and Sample Size for a Small-Scale Campaign
- Implementation Guide and Toolkit Documents
Food: Too Good to Waste (FTGTW) consists of an implementation guide and toolkit that aim to reduce wasteful household food management practices.
- The Implementation Guide is designed to teach local governments and community organizations how to implement a Food: Too Good to Waste campaign in their community using the Toolkit.
- The Toolkit, which is in Appendix D of the implementation guide and posted separately below, provides behavior change and outreach tools designed to assist individuals and households to implement strategies to reduce wasted food in their homes. The FTGTW tools use community-based social marketing principles to reduce wasted food from households. A Food: Too Good to Waste campaign provides the tools in the toolkit to families and individuals to help them keep food out of landfills and more money in their pockets.
We hope this handbook will be used as a guide to start reducing wasted food in your community and home.
Reducing wasted food has social, environmental and economic benefits.
- Wasted food is a social problem: In 2018, 11.1 percent of U.S. households were food insecure at some time during the year. That is 37.2 million Americans, of which 11.2 million are children, living in food insecure households. Wholesome, nutritious food should feed people, not landfills.
- Wasted food is an environmental problem: Food is the largest stream of materials in American trash. Once wasted food reaches landfills, it produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
- Wasted food is an economic issue: It is estimated that at the retail and consumer levels in the United States, food loss and waste totals $161 billion dollars.
Learn more about why sustainable management of food is important.
The toolkit is designed for use by households.
The implementation guide is intended for community organizations and local governments or any organization interested in reducing wasted food from households. For example, a local government or other community organization can take the lead in implementing a small-scale campaign, may participate as partners, and/or provide additional resources. Implementing a FTGTW campaign may align with organizational long-term objectives (e.g., reducing solid waste management costs, reducing carbon footprint or building a sustainable food system).
In many cases local government will take the lead in implementing the FTGTW campaign. Other community organizations may also take the lead, may participate as partners, and may provide additional resources. Potential partners include:
- Interested government programs that include waste management and food programs.
- Civic or community groups and non-profits with constituencies who are part of a target audience or have an interest in related issues.
- Food purveyors (e.g., restaurants, groceries) and other businesses.
- Farmers markets, community supported agriculture (CSA) businesses and municipal waste management companies.
- K-12 schools that would like to integrate information on wasted food prevention and reduction into their curriculum or colleges and universities that support sustainability programs.
The target population refers to the demographic that the implementing organization hopes to engage in the small-scale campaign. The sample size refers to the number of households that participate and from which the implementing organization will collect information. Generally, the target population size is larger than the sample size. A number of considerations go into selecting a target population and sample size, among these are:
- demographics of the population the campaign is designed to reach,
- type and amount of resources the implementing organization has available,
- time frame planned for the campaign, and
- implementing organization’s objectives for the campaign.
Examples of a target population may be neighbors in a residential association or members of a church congregation or similar group.
You may need a PDF reader to view some of the files on this page. See EPA’s About PDF page to learn more.
Food: Too Good to Waste Implementation Guide and Toolkit (PDF)(61 pp, 4 MB,
The FTGTW Implementation guide gives background on how an organization might implement FTGTW. It includes initial pilot findings as well as a planning guide to get started.
Get Smart: Take the Challenge (PDF)(3 pp, 366 K,
The Get Smart: Take the Challenge tool consists of instructions and worksheets for households to collect and measure how much food they waste over the course of a two to six week challenge.
Smart Shopping: Shop with Meals in Mind (PDF)(1 pg, 192 K,
The Smart Shopping: Shop With Meals in Mind tool provides an easy-to-use template for making shopping lists that prevent food from being wasted. It is designed to encourage meal planning and create awareness around how much food will be needed for upcoming meals.
Smart Storage: Fruits and Vegetables Storage Tips (PDF)(2 pp, 199 K,
The Smart Storage: Fruit and Vegetable Storage Tips tool is a visual prompt to remind participants how to keep produce fresh.
Smart Prep: Prep Now, Eat Later (PDF)(1 pg, 230 K,
The Smart Prep: Prep Now, Eat Later tool provides consumers helpful tips on preparing perishable foods soon after shopping.
Smart Saving: "Eat First" Sign (PDF)(1 pg, 104 K,
The Smart Saving: "Eat First" tool is designed as a visual prompt. Households are encouraged to designate an area in the refrigerator for food that should be eaten relatively soon to prevent spoiling, and posting the prompt as a visual reminder.
Fact Sheet: Consider the Tomato (PDF)(1 pg, 158 K,
This poster can be used at tabling events to highlight the impacts of reducing wasted food.
Food: Too Good to Waste Toolkit Workshop Presentation Slides and Notes Pages (PDF)(29 pp, 2 MB,
An implementing organization can use this presentation to give background on why food waste is an important issue to tackle as well as information on how to reduce wasted food at home using the FTGTW toolkit materials.
- Food: Too Good to Waste Toolkit Workshop Presentation Slides (PDF)(29 pp, 885 K, February 2016)
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Some ideas on beach games for kids?
1. Fill a Bucket Relay Race:-What youll need:
2 small buckets of the same size
How to play:
Have kids split up into two teams (adults can join in too! Just be sure there are an even number of adults on both sides and the little kids and bigger kids are split up evenly on each team to make it fair). Have each team form a line by the shore.
Set up a buckets about 10 feet from the waters edge. The object of the game is for each team to carry the water in their bare hands to the bucket. Once a player fills the bucket then the next player in line can grab a handful of water and race to the bucket and so on until the bucket is filled. The first team to fill the buck ...more
On a Roll is a beach game that kids will love, and it's a terrific exercise in hand-eye coordination.
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|« Back to Article|
Brooks holds rocks from lunar landings
By Sig Christenson : August 18, 2013 : Updated: August 18, 2013 4:21pm
Editor's note: This story originally appeared in the San Antonio Express-News on July 21, 1999. Brooks AFB has since become Brooks City-Base after the Base Realignment and Closure in 2002.
Building 950 is a windowless block of concrete on the periphery of Brooks AFB. The beige building, measuring 62 feet by 48 feet, seems a tad low- rent for high-tech Brooks.
But appearances are deceiving.
Inside its 12-inch-thick walls are gems right out of this world, a national treasure protected like gold bars at Fort Knox.
"It's not very glamorous, " Brooks spokesman Dale Eckroth said. "If you never knew there were moon rocks there, if somebody never told you that, you'd never know."
Maybe that's the point. Even with the floodlights and tangerine-sized lock that seals a rusting 10-foot-tall barbed-wire fence ringing the one-story structure, the Remote Lunar Sample Storage Facility doesn't look like much.
Built in 1975, however, it has housed moon rocks at Brooks in case other samples at the Johnson Space Center in Houston are consumed by a catastrophe.
The idea of the facility, Eckroth explained, was to avoid keeping America's lunar eggs "all in one building."
Resting obscurely in a grassy area on the south end of Brooks populated by jackrabbits and ants, it today holds 114 pounds of lunar rocks and soil. That's almost one-seventh of the 842 pounds of moon dust scooped up during six successful American flights that ran from 1969-72, including Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin's historic Apollo 11 landing 30 years ago.
"Brooks is honored to have been chosen as one of the repositories for this nation's moon rocks, " said Col. Roy Ruff, vice commander of the 311 Human Systems Wing at the base. "The close scientific relationship between Brooks and NASA reinforces our awareness of the importance of the repository."
Awareness is the key word. Not many people know about the Brooks rocks, and a only a select, chosen few ever will see them.
But Brooks long has had strong ties to NASA, serving as the springboard for aerospace medical research and training. It was involved in astronaut selection, and researchers there developed a crew re-entry anti-gravity suit. The base has provided centrifuge training to all space shuttle astronauts, including retired U.S. Sen. John Glenn, since 1991.
Still, even Johnson Space Center spokesman John Ira Petty didn't know Brooks held the moon rocks.
The base and Johnson Space Center hold much of the lunar treasure. Other samples are on display at 55 locations worldwide. Ironically, the rocks are almost as undisturbed on overpopulated planet Earth as they were on the desolate, lifeless moon.
A NASA representative comes from Houston twice a year to ensure the samples are well-preserved.
Even Brooks' commander, Brig. Gen. John G. Jernigan, doesn't have a key to the building.
When it's time to mow the lawn, Air Force security police open a padlock and then stand watch nearby until the work is finished.
Security is even tighter inside the nondescript building, which is armed with an alarm system. Moon rocks and soil samples are protected by a steel-lined vault reinforced by the thick concrete walls. The stainless steel vault door has two combination locks that can't be opened without a Brooks security police officer and a member of the Johnson Space Center curator's office.
Flanked by technicians, the curatorial representative examines the samples, which are kept in a pair of stainless steel leak-proof cabinets. Nitrogen gas is used to prevent degradation of the rocks and soil due to chemical changes and earth-borne contamination.
"They really keep it under lock and key there, " Eckroth said. Security is so tight that retired Army Sgt. 1st Class Don Craig gave a vague answer when first asked what was in the building, which is across from his office.
"If I told you, I'd have to kill you, " joked Craig, a burly contractor who sports a faded "Army" tattoo on his muscular left bicep.
A moment later he told a reporter that moon rocks were there, and then added: "Now that I've told you that, I'll have to kill you."
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For good storage life, apples must be picked at optimum maturity. The standard starch iodine test is the easiest approach. The best levels for Honeycrisp are different.
Apple growers are preparing to bring in a moderately large crop of fruit, estimated in June at above 250 million bushels, up 20 percent from 215 million last year. Many of these apples will need to be stored for a full marketing year.
So, how do growers make sure their apples will store well?
Good Fruit Grower put that question to Dr. Jennifer DeEll, the postharvest physiologist and Fresh Market Quality Program leader at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food in Simcoe, Ontario.
Here are some of her recommendations:
Apply fungicides. Use a late-season fungicide spray program that will reduce the level of pathogens that come into storage from the orchard.
Many storage rots are initiated in the orchard, she said, and often there are no preharvest symptoms. Decay-causing organisms include Alternaria alternata (moldy core), Colletotrichum acutatum (bitter rot), Botrytis cinerea (gray mold), and Penicillium expansum (blue mold).
These organisms are resident in the environment and can invade fruit through lenticels or wounds, such as stem punctures. It is good practice to sanitize storage rooms and bins before using them in the fall.
Pick fruit at optimum maturity. Harvesting at the correct time is essential. For maximum storage life, apples should be harvested when mature but not yet fully ripe or overripe. If harvested too early, apples will have poor eating quality and be susceptible to storage disorders such as scald, cork spot, and bitter pit.
Ripe fruit will continue to ripen in storage, rapidly becoming soft and mealy. Firmness and the level of soluble solids in the apple are good indicators of maturity to use in determining picking time.
With some of the modern super-red varieties, maturity is not easy to gauge by color. Background color change is an indicator—if the background color is visible. It is important to know the appropriate harvest dates for the different varieties. Days after full bloom is a good indicator for individual varieties.
“Commonly used harvest indexes are based on days from bloom, external and internal fruit color, flesh firmness, ease of separation from spurs, and starch, sugar, or acid content,” according to information from North Carolina State University. “No one index is a completely reliable measure of harvest readiness, but days from full bloom gives the most reliable guide.”
The easiest approach, DeEll said, is for growers to use the standard starch iodine test. Start each season with freshly prepared potassium iodide solution. The procedure is to cut apples in half horizontally, dip the cut edges in the iodine solution, wait a minute, rinse with water, and compare to the standard color chart.
The starch chart—the one used in making SmartFresh applications—is the Generic Starch-Iodine Index Chart of Apples, an eight-value index developed by Cornell University that can be used on all apple cultivars. The best index level is somewhat variety specific, and, as is so often the case, Honeycrisp is different.
In general, index values of 2 to 3 are best for long-term storage, slightly higher for short-term storage, and Honeycrisp is unique, with starch index values of 6-plus being best.
Ethylene production in the apple triggers ripening, and it’s autocatalytic, DeEll said—meaning once it starts, it continues and builds. A test for ethylene requires a gas chromatograph, which most growers don’t have access to, so the starch test, which measures starch conversion to sugar, is more practical.
Growers have a few tools they can use to reduce ethylene production and delay onset of maturity.
Washington growers can use Harvista, which is an orchard spray containing 1-MCP, the same active ingredient that is in SmartFresh. In the Northeast, growers can use ReTain, which also acts as a stop drop, allowing apples to grow bigger and redder while they retain quality on the tree awaiting harvest. Both chemicals delay the onset of ethylene production.
Labor management is also important, DeEll said. When growers are short of labor and workers can’t keep up with apples as they ripen, apples go out of condition. Chemicals like ReTain and Harvista can help growers manage harvest.
Treat harvested fruit gently to avoid bruising. Soft varieties especially, like McIntosh, are easily bruised. Not only must pickers handle them gently, growers should give thought to the condition of their trucks and orchard roads. Smoothing out lanes and loading ramps can reduce bruising from “rut damage.”
The effects of bruising and scuffing cannot be reversed. Damage from rough handling will accelerate deterioration.
Boxes should not be overfilled. When stacked, apples throughout an overfilled box are bruised.
Remove field heat quickly. “Don’t leave full bins out in the orchard,” DeEll said. “Get the field heat out. Move them to refrigeration as fast as you can.” If they are hydrocooled, they can be drenched with scald inhibitor and fungicide at the same time.
Apples live and respire after they are picked. The object of postharvest cooling is to slow respiration and increase storage life. The higher the holding temperature, the greater the softening and respiration rate and the sooner the quality becomes unacceptable.
According to specialists at the University of Minnesota and at North Carolina State University, apples respire and degrade twice as fast at 40˚F as at 32˚F. At 60˚F, they will respire and degrade more than six times faster. The optimum storage temperature for apples depends on the variety, but all are within the range from 30˚ to 40˚F.
Use the proper storage regime and treatments. Apple varieties differ in what they need to be stored properly. “There are specific recommendations for every variety,” DeEll said. She and other postharvest physiologists devote most of their research work to ferreting out the details as new varieties and new treatments enter the picture.
DPA (diphenylamine) can be applied as either a fog or drench to reduce storage scald on susceptible varieties. Controlled atmosphere storage involves reducing the level of oxygen and increasing the level of carbon dioxide.
In the use of SmartFresh, applications should be made as soon as possible after the apples go into storage. For some varieties, such as McIntosh, repeated applications may work best if the storage can’t be filled completely in a short time. “Growers may need to treat, fill, then treat and fill again,” she said. “Sooner is better than later.”
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Transforming the Cotangent Graph - Concept
Cotangent is the reciprocal trig function of tangent function and can be defined as cot(theta)=cos(theta)/sin(theta). It is an odd function, meaning cot(-theta)=-cot(theta), and it has the property that cot(theta+pi)=cot(theta). Because sine is the denominator, and the function is undefined when sin(theta)=0, the cotangent graph has vertical asymptotes at all integer multiples of pi, when sin(theta)=0.
I want to talk about transformations of the cotangent graph but first let's review some things about cotangent. y equals the cotangent theta remember that cotangent is the same as cosine theta over sine theta that's an important identity and we'll need to develop a few facts about cotangent, for example is cotangent even or is it odd? Well we can use the fact that cosine is even and sine is odd. Cotangent of negative theta would equal cosine of negative theta over sine of negative theta. Cosine of negative theta equals cosine theta and sine of negative theta is negative sine theta and so this equals negative cotangent theta now we have the cotangents nod function. So opposite inputs give opposite outputs that's important to know. Then I want to find out what happens when I add pi, now I know that this equals cosine of theta plus pi over sine of theta plus pi.
Now both cosine and sine of the property that if you add pi to the input you get the opposite output. So this could be minus cosine of theta over minus sine of theta. Now the minuses will cancel and you'll just get cotangent theta. So if you add pi you get the exact same output, this means cotangent is periodic with period pi, so we'll need to know that. Okay let's start making a table of values for cotangent; let's start with 0, now cotangent is cosine over sine, sine of 0 is 0. So cotangent is going to be undefined at 0, what about let's say pi over 4, cosine and sine both have the value root 2 over 2. So this is going to be 1, root 2 over 2 over root 2 over 2, 1 pi root 2. Cosine of pi over 2 is 0, sine of pi root 2 is 1 so we get 0 over 1 which is 0.
Now let me actually work backwards, let me give us a little room here cotangent theta I'll work back to negative pi over 4 because cotangents node function, the cotangent of negative pi over 4 will be the opposite of the cotangent of pi over 4. So we'll get negative 1 here also because it has period pi if I add pi to this which will give me 3 pi over 4 I'll get the same output. And I can actually use periodicity to get the rest of the output, if I add pi to this, to 0 I get pi. I get the same output undefined, this is actually one complete period of the cotangent function. And so I can start graphing, let me start by plotting the vertical asymptotes, there's going to be a vertical asymptote to x=0 and to x=pi. So one of them is here and one of them is here, now in between what happens?
At pi over 2 we get 0, this is pi over 2, at pi over 4 we get 1 and at 3 pi over 4 we get negative 1. Now recall the shape of tangent, cotangent has a very similar shape, it's got this kind of curvy shape and of course it has the asymptotic behavior. So this is the rough shape of the cotangent graph. Now if you want to graph more of it remember this is one period all you have to do is duplicate this period. I can take this whole thing and shift it to the right, and shifting to the right everything shifts right including the asymptote. So for example when I shift this to the right, this asymptote shifts to the right as well. So I get another one at x=2 pi and I can also shift to the left, this asymptote shifted to the left gives me x equals negative pi. So let me shift each of these points to the right, this point shifted to the right gives me a point at 3 pi over 2, this one here, this one I'll put here and we're just using periodicity at this point.
I'll shift this to the left I get a point here, here, here and this is 3 periods of the cotangent function. So you'll notice it was actually really easy to develop the key points for this function all I needed to do was to remember that cotangent was cosine over sine and that allowed me to find zeros of the function and also where the function was undefined. Very easy to know that cotangent of pi over 4 is 1 because cosine and sine are both root 2 over 2. I also used the fact that cotangent was odd to get this value and then I used periodicity and turned this value into the value at 3 pi over 4. And that's all you need values at 0, pi over 4, pi over 2, 3 pi over 4 and pi and once you get a full period use periodicity to extend the graph in both directions.
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Push pull amplifier
A push pull amplifier is an amplifier which has an output stage that can drive a current in either direction through through the load. The output stage of a typical push pull amplifier consists of of two identical BJTs or MOSFETs one sourcing current through the load while the other one sinking the current from the load. Push pull amplifiers are superior over single ended amplifiers (using a single transistor at the output for driving the load) in terms of distortion and performance. A single ended amplifier, how well it may be designed will surely introduce some distortion due to the non linearity of its dynamic transfer characteristics. Push pull amplifiers are commonly used in situations where low distortion, high efficiency and high output power are required. The basic operation of a push pull amplifier is as follows: The signal to be amplified is first split into two identical signals 180° out of phase. Generally this splitting is done using an input coupling transformer. The input coupling transformer is so arranged that one signal in applied to the input of one transistor and the other signal is applied to the input of the other transistor. Advantages of push pull amplifier are low distortion, absence of magnetic saturation in the coupling transformer core, and cancellation of power supply ripples which results in the absence of hum while the disadvantages are the need of two identical transistors and the requirement of bulky and costly coupling transformers.
Class A push pull amplifier.
A push pull amplifier can be made in Class A, Class B, Class AB or Class C configurations. The circuit diagram of a typical Class A push pull amplifier is shown above. Q1 and Q2 are two identical transistor and their emitter terminals are connected together. R1 and R2 are meant for biasing the transistors. Collector terminals of the two transistor are connected to the respective ends of the primary of the output transformer T2. Power supply is connected between the center tap of the T2 primary and the emitter junction of the Q1 and Q2. Base terminal of each transistor is connected to the respective ends of the secondary of the input coupling transformer T1. Input signal is applied to the primary of T1 and output load RL is connected across the secondary of T2.Quiescent current of Q2 and Q1 flows in opposite directions through the corresponding halves of the primary of T2 and as a result there will be no magnetic saturation. From the figure you can see the phase splited signals being applied to the base of each transistors. When Q1 is driven positive using the first half of its input signal, the collector current of Q1 increases. At the same time Q2 is driven negative using the first half of its input signal and so the collector current of Q2 decreases. From the figure you can understand that the collector currents of Q1 and Q2 ie; I1 and I2 flows in the same direction trough the corresponding halves of the T2 primary. As a result an amplified version of the original input signal is induced in the T2 secondary. It is clear that the current through the T2 secondary is the difference between the two collector currents. Harmonics will be much less in the output due to cancellation and this is results in low distortion.
Class B push pull amplifier.
The Class B push pull amplifier is almost similar to the Class A push pull amplifier and the only difference is that there is no biasing resistors for a Class B push pull amplifier. This means that the two transistors are biased at the cut off point.The Class B configuration can provide better power output and has higher efficiency(up to 78.5%). Since the transistor are biased at the cutoff point, they consumes no power during idle condition and this adds to the efficiency. The advantages of Class B push pull amplifiers are, ability to work in limited power supply conditions (due to the higher efficiency), absence of even harmonics in the output, simple circuitry when compared to the Class A configuration etc. The disadvantages are higher percentage of harmonic distortion when compared to the Class A, cancellation of power supply ripples is not as efficient as in Class A push pull amplifier and which results in the need of a well regulated power supply.The circuit diagram of a classic Class B push pull amplifier is shown in the diagram below.
The circuit arrangement of the Class B push pull amplifier is similar to the Class A push pull amplifier except for the absence of the biasing resistors. T1 is the input coupling capacitor and the input signal is applied to its primary. Q1 and Q2 are two identical transistors and their emitter terminals are connected together. Center tap of the input coupling transformer and the negative end of the voltage source is connected to the junction point of the emitter terminals. Positive end of the voltage source is connected to the center tap of the output coupling transformer. Collector terminals of each transistor are connected to the respective ends of the primary of the output coupling transformer T2. Load RL is connected across the secondary of T2.
The input signal is converted into two similar but phase opposite signals by the input transformer T1. One out of these two signals is applied to the base of the upper transistor while the other one is applied to the base of the other transistor. You can understand this from the circuit diagram. When transistor Q1 is driven to the positive side using the positive half of its input signal, the reverse happens in the transistor Q2. That means when the collector current of Q1 is going in the increasing direction, the collector current of Q2 goes in the decreasing direction. Anyway the current flow through the respective halves of the primary of the T2 will be in same direction. Have a look at the figure for better understanding. This current flow through the T2 primary results in a wave form induced across its secondary. The wave form induced across the secondary is similar to the original input signal but amplified in terms of magnitude.
Cross over distortion.
Cross over distortion is a type of distortion commonly seen in Class B amplifier configurations. As we said earlier ,the transistor are biased at cut off point in the Class B amplifier. We all know a Silicon transistor requires 0.7V and a Germanium diode requires 0.2V of voltage across its base emitter junction before entering in to conducting mode and this base emitter voltage is called cut in voltage. Germanium diodes are out of scope in amplifiers and we can talk about a Class B push pull amplifier based on Silicon transistors. Since the transistors are biased to cut off, the voltage across their base emitter junction remains zero during the zero input condition. The only source for the transistors to get the necessary cut in voltage is the input signal itself and the required cut in voltage will be looted from the input signal itself. As a result portions of the input wave form that are below 0.7V (cut in voltage) will be cancelled and so the corresponding portions will be absent in the output wave form too. Have a look at the figure below for better understanding.
Class AB push pull amplifier.
Class AB is another type of push pull amplifier which is almost similar to that of a Class A push pull amplifier and the only difference is that the value of biasing resistors R1 and R2 are so selected that the transistors are biased just at the cut in voltage (0.7V). This reduces the time for which both transistors are simultaneously OFF (the time for which input signal is between (-0.7V and +0.7V) and so the cross over distortion gets reduced. Of the above said classes Class A has least distortion, then Class AB and then Class B. Any way Class AB configuration has reduced efficiency and wastes a reasonable amount of power during zero input condition. Class B has the highest efficiency (78.5%), then Class B (between 78.5 to 50%) and then Class A (50%) .
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By Alex Jones
OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD photos capture the voyage of a space probe which travelled FOUR BILLION MILES before crashing into a comet in one of the most important scientific journeys of this century.
Jaw-dropping photos taken by the Rosetta Space Probe allow the viewer to transport themselves into the emptiness of Space and explore one of the universe’s most peculiar celestial bodies – the comet.
Incredible otherworldly images include a snapshot of Earth and its finely balanced atmosphere, a satellite selfie featuring the Rosetta Probe and its ultimate resting place Comet 67P, and stunning trails of sunlit dust tailing behind the comet which scientists hope will unlock the secret of how life evolved on Earth.
The dramatic pictures are included in Comet: Photographs from the Rosetta Space Probe, an exquisite book which details the remarkable interstellar voyage of the European Space Agency’s Rosetta Probe.
The probe made history in 2014 when it became the first manmade machine to orbit a comet and land a module on its surface.
Its mission – to find clues to the origins of our solar system and the emergence of life on Earth.
“2019 is the fifteenth anniversary of the Rosetta’s launch,” explains a spokesperson for Thames & Hudson, the publishers behind the cosmic collection.
“Following a ten-year voyage and a journey spanning millions of kilometres through our solar system, the Rosetta entered the comet’s orbit on 6 August 2014. Its lander, Philae – a miniature science laboratory – landed directly on Comet 67P’s surface and, thanks to the highly developed optical technology – the OSIRIS system – captured captivating and incredibly detailed images of the celestial bodies it encountered on its mission.
“This triumph of scientific endeavour brought back a raft of incredible new photographs, the best of which are featured here.
“The book is built around the various phases in Rosetta’s journey: leaving Earth, breaching its atmosphere and watching the lights of home recede; skirting the Moon and coming close to Mars; plunging into the cosmos’ starry void and approaching the comet; and, finally, landing on Comet 67P. The images range from shots of the Earth receding into the distance, to fly-by images of Mars and the asteroid built and the four-kilometre-wide comet itself.”
The comet, known as ’67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko’, or just 67P for short, orbits Jupiter at a rate of once every six-and-a-half years.
It was named after the two Soviet astronomers who discovered it in 1969, and measures around 2.7 by 2.5 miles at its longest and widest points.
Rosetta reached 67P in 2014 after a spiralling trip through the cosmos before it crash landed into the comet in September in 2016 after it had completed its recon mission.
New details from the probe’s readings are still coming to light today as scientists sift through Rosetta’s stunning imagery.
Jean-Pierre Bibring is a French astrophysicist and Head of Scientific Operations on Philae, Rosetta’s lander.
In the book’s introduction, Bibring explains why the Rosetta’s ambitious endeavour was so significant for humanity.
“Rosetta and Philae are playing a key role in the revolution triggered by the space exploration of the solar system, and to our vision of planetary worlds,” he said.
“Reassessment of major existing paradigms are taking place, with in particular, the plurality of worlds being replaced by their diversity: what drives their distinct evolutions? Is cosmic evolution following the increased complexification of matter, within which life constitutes an advanced stage, a mandatory step, or is life a specific feature of a specific evolution, that of the Earth, in a specific system, namely, the Solar System? Above and beyond the unprecedented beauty of the images they took of a comet, Rosetta and Philae also raise fundamental new issues that challenge our very origins.”
Comet: Photographs from the Rosetta Space Probe, published by Thames & Hudson, will be released at the end of the month. Pre-order here.
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An electric car won’t run without a battery, commonly known as EVB which stands for Electric Vehicle Battery is also called traction battery. It is a rechargeable battery that is designed to power the drive or propulsion of electric vehicles such as golf carts, electric cars, E-bikes, vans, and trucks. And it makes up a sizable cost of electric vehicles - from 25% to 50% of the vehicle’s cost.
Considering how costly it is, potential buyers often wonder how long does an electric car battery last, since buying a replacement could set them back by several thousand dollars again. Before going to the cost, let’s first see why it is so expensive.
Why Are Electric Car Batteries So Expensive?
Type Of Battery
Electric car batteries are deep-cycle batteries instead of the traditional Starting, Lighting, and Ignition batteries or SLI batteries. This is because these batteries are meant to deliver power over a continuous period. These batteries are devised to deliver high ampere-hour capacity and are distinguished for their rather high energy density, “energy-weight" ratio, and “power-weight” ratio… lighter and smaller batteries lessen the load of the car and enhances its efficiency.
These rechargeable or secondary batteries used as electric car batteries are either lead-acid - wet, deep-cycle or valve-regulated lead acid (VRLA), nickel cadmium (NiCd), lithium-ion, Li-ion polymer, nickel-metal hydride, and the less common molten-salt and zinc-air battery.
Of course, batteries are not new, but the type of battery that can hold enough energy to propel a car on its own is new. Its novelty coupled with low demand, unlike ordinary car batteries, did not warrant mass production, thus the high cost.
Future Cost Of Electric Batteries
Advances in battery technology have caused the cost of batteries to drop, including batteries for electric vehicles. Price of batteries for electric vehicles has cheapened by over 35% from 2008 to 2014.
For example, the price of lithium-ion batteries has been reduced considerably because of the increased volume of production and manufacturers have finally found a way to produce them more cheaply.
In 2010, when the first commercial EVs were introduced in the market, their battery pack was estimated to cost $1,000 per kWh (kilowatt-hour). At present, the battery pack of Tesla’s Model 3 cost only $190 per kWh. The battery pack of the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt of General Motors is approximated at $205 per kWh. This shows that price per kWh of electric car batteries was reduced by over 70% in only six years.
When the cost of a battery pack drops to between $125 to $150 per kWh, it is predicted that the cost of EVs will be the same or even less than a fuel powered car of the same category. The industry predicts that the similarity in price can be realized as early as 2020. Other studies also project the price of a lithium-ion battery pack to fall to only $73 per kWh by 2030.
All this is due to changes in manufacturing processes and cell chemistry and the competitive pricing of large manufacturers forcing their way into a bankable market. By 2020 it is predicted that about 1.7 million electric vehicles will be on the road. Bloomberg however, is more optimistic, their projection is more like 7.4 million, with 2 million sold on that year. Another optimistic projection by Bloomberg is that 35% of the total sales of light vehicles by 2040 will be made up of electric cars. Recent developments could prove Bloomberg right! The cost of EV batteries has been decreasing rapidly, consequently bringing down the cost of electric vehicles.
Components And Materials Of Batteries For Electric Vehicles
Nearly all batteries of electric vehicles are lithium-based and are dependent on a blend of nickel, cobalt, graphite, manganese and other essential minerals and chemical elements. These are not exactly rare materials, but some are more difficult to source.There are four basic components of a lithium-based battery; electrolyte and the positive (cathode) and negative (anode) electrodes and a separator. In most cases, the positive electrode is made out of a lithium metal oxide powder, the negative electrode from graphite or carbon powder, the electrolyte consists of a lithium salt in an organic solvent, and the separator is made of a microporous membrane.
The Lifespan Of A Battery For Electric Vehicles
It is necessary for batteries of electric vehicles to have dependable durability for deep cycles to have a longer lifespan. Manufacturers aimed to develop lithium-ion batteries with a five-year or 100,000 kilometers driving distance guarantee. Presently, however, most manufacturers have warranties of 8-year/100,000 miles. Nissan is offering increased coverage on battery capacity loss for 60,000 miles or five years.
At the same time, because of the California emissions warranty coverage period requiring a minimum of 10-year coverage for batteries of vehicles with partial zero emission, manufacturers have also increased their coverage in states adopting such a policy.
The capacity of a lithium-ion battery is rapidly depleted as the number of deep cycles increases. Battery life is measured by cycles, and the benchmark used as an industry standard cycles to 80% capacity.
Factors That Affect The Longevity Of An Electric Auto Battery
1.High TemperatureExtreme temperature lessens the ability of the battery to accept the charge, so the battery’s temperature needs to be brought to a moderate level before it is charged. But heat is worst for batteries. Although lithium-ion batteries operate well under high temperatures, extended exposure to heat lessens its life expectancy. Charging and discharging at high temperature is at a risk of gas generation that could cause a pouch cell to swell or a cylindrical cell to vent. A large number of chargers disallows charging at above 50°C (122°F).
2. High Voltage Or Overcharging
Electric car batteries that are lithium-ion based do not need to be fully charged. In fact, it is preferred that it is not fully charged since a high voltage can stress the battery and shorten the battery’s life. It can also cause a fire, overheating and total battery destruction.
3. Deep Discharge
Deep discharging or heavily draining the battery is also not advisable. An electric car battery will have a longer life if draining it completely is regularly avoided. It is good to operate the battery between 80% to 50% charge, instead of starting at 100% and draining it to 20% and then recharging it fully.
4. High Discharges And Charge CurrentHigh discharge is about a substantial one-off pull on the battery, while charge current is fast charging the battery. Regularly fast charging a battery could lose you around 1% capacity per year. To illustrate, if you refrain from fast charging, after ten years or normal use, your battery may have an 80% capacity. But, if you fast charge regularly or more often, after ten years your capacity will only be 70%. While the effect on your battery’s lifespan is not considerable, fast charging still has a negative effect and must be avoided as much as possible.
If you are considering buying an electric vehicle, you have a legitimate reason to ask; how long does an electric car battery last, since the cost of a battery pack in an electric car constitutes a big slice of the cost of the vehicle.
Replacing it only after a short period of use is counterproductive. But the answer to your question depends on so many factors. Of course, as mentioned above, car manufacturers offer a warranty of from 5 to 10 years.
But, how long your electric car battery will last will ultimately depend on you - how you use it, or maybe disabuse it - and to other factors such as operating conditions, size, chemistries, pack configuration and to others more mentioned in this article.
Educating yourself with information like how long does an electric car battery last or the average life expectancy of an electric car battery will allow you to weigh all your options. It will help you come up with a smart decision that will determine if your purchase will be a good decision or not.
However, if you give your electric car battery some TLC (tender loving care?) and handle it properly, your EV battery could very well outlast the manufacturer’s warranty. Maybe, until such time when electric car battery price has gone down because its technology has gone mainstream and manufacturers have gone into mass production.
There is another option open to you. There is now an emerging market for second-hand or used electric car batteries, at least in the UK. Eaton, an energy company, is now selling second-hand/used electric batteries for domestic use.
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|Recent additions to the category|
|Oldest pages ordered by last edit|
Buryat terms that indicate people, beings, things, places, phenomena, qualities or ideas.
- Category:Buryat proper nouns: Buryat nouns that indicate individual entities, such as names of persons, places or organizations.
This category has only the following subcategory.
- ► Buryat proper nouns (0 c, 5 e)
Pages in category "Buryat nouns"
The following 63 pages are in this category, out of 63 total.
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(justice of the people), a town in the Roman province of Asia situated in the valley of the Maeander, on a small river called the Lycus, with Colossae and Hierapolis a few miles distant to the west. Built, or rather rebuilt, by one of the Seleucid monarchs, and named in honor of his wife, Laodicea became under the Roman government a place of some importance. Its trade was considerable; it lay on the line of a great road; and it was the seat of a conventus. From the third chapter and seventeenth verse of Revelation we should gather it was a place of great wealth. Christianity was introduced into Laodicea, not, however, as it would seem, through the direct agency of St. Paul. We have good reason for believing that when, in writing from Rome to the Christians of Colossae, he sent a greeting to those of Laodicea, he had not personally visited either place. But the preaching of the gospel at Ephesus, (Acts 18:19; Acts 19:41) must inevitably have resulted in the formation of churches in the neighboring cities, especially where Jews were settled; and there were Jews in Laodicea. In subsequent times it became a Christian city of eminence, the see of bishop and a meeting-place of councils. The Mohammedan invaders destroyed it, and it is now a scene of utter desolation, as was prophesied in (Revelation 3:14-22) and the extensive ruins near Denislu justify all that we read of Laodicea in Greek and Roman writers, and you can find more about that here on st-takla.org on other commentaries and dictionary entries. Another biblical subject of interest is connected with Laodicea. From (Colossians 4:16) it appears that St. Paul wrote a letter to this place when he wrote the letter to Colossae. Ussher's view is that it was the same as the Epistle to the Ephesians, which was a circular letter sent to Laodicea among other places. The apocryphal Epistola ad Laodicenses is a late and clumsy forgery.
* See also: Laodiceans.
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The Traffic Safety Problem – Florida Traffic School Online Course
The Traffic Safety Problem
Every year in Florida there are approximate 3000 fatalities recorded on Florida highways. That is 1.6 deaths per 10,000 people in the state. Economic loss in Florida was approximately nine billion dollars annually. Every time we get on the road were taking our lives and others into our own hands. By practicing common sense and safe driving techniques as well as obeying traffic laws every time we get behind the wheel of a vehicle, we can save lives.
Every year, over 40,000 people die on U.S. roads.
• Automobile crashes are the leading cause of death of young people under 34.
• Automobile crashes are the leading cause of on the job deaths.
• Automobile collisions cost the average employer nearly $120,000 dollars per employee death.
• Automobile collisions are almost double the number of accidents in the home.
• Automobile fatalities are ten times greater than fatalities caused by all other forms of transportation.
Causes of traffic collisions include:
• Driving at Unsafe speeds,
• Failure to yield the right of way
• Driving under the influence
• Talking or Texting on a cell phone
• Failure to stop at stop and go signals
• In-car distractions
• Tailgating or aggressive driving
Causes of traffic collisions include in-car distractions and failure to obey traffic laws. Why are there so many traffic collisions? One major reason has to do with in-car distractions. Add to that, drivers who simply don’t obey traffic laws.
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Technology prolongs and sustains life artificially. Parallel to the question of when becomes a person in the abortion debate, a central question in the euthanasia debate is when does one cease to be a person? If one is deemed no longer to be a person, then the question of their rights is less important.
What is death? Until recently the cessation of breathing and heartbeat defined death. Now machines maintain respiration and heartbeat even when there is no brain functioning. So increasingly brain death is the preferred definition.
Also relevant to discussion of death are: 1) philosophical concerns about what is a person; 2) physiological concerns about what criteria define death; and 3) methods used to determine physiological states. Moreover the various definitions have a huge impact on moral decisions (if one is already dead, the moral situation is different than if one is not.)
Another important distinction is between ordinary treatment that offer a hope of benefit without undue cost vs. extraordinary treatment that offer no hope of benefit at great cost. The most obvious difficulty here is that the definitions keep changing, as what was once extraordinary—say heart surgery—becomes ordinary.
Also to be differentiated is killing vs allowing to die. The former refers to an act of commission (causing harm) that brings about death; the latter to an act of omission (permitting harm) that brings on death. Defenders of the importance of the distinction argue that if we kill, we are the cause of death; whereas if we allow someone to die, the disease is the cause of death. Opponents argue the distinction is not relevant.
A narrow definition of euthanasia (E) includes only killing as E; allowing to die is not E. Proponents typically view E as wrong; but allowing to die as not wrong.
A broad definition of E includes both killing (active E) and allowing to die (passive E). Proponents typically argue that both killing and letting die can be moral.
Another distinction is between voluntary E—where the patient consents to treatment or non-treatment—and non-voluntary E—where someone other than the patient gives consent. In addition sometimes the category of involuntary E is introduced, cases where one doesn’t consent but had not made their wishes known beforehand.
Another important category is assisted suicide, typically by a physician (PAS). This is similar to voluntary active E except that in PAS the physician does not kill the patient but enables it.
In addition the right to refuse treatment has been recognized in America since 1990. In addition the use of living wills, durable power of attorney, advanced directives, and similar documents are now allowed.
Other problematic cases include the issue of defective newborns (DN). Here positions range from: 1) allowing to die in most circumstances; 2) allowing to die only when DN won’t have meaningful lives; 3) never allow to die. (At the other extreme would be killing in most circumstances.)
In the next few posts we will outline some views on the issue.
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The state of air pollution has historically been tightly linked to how we produce and use energy. Air pollutant emissions over Asia are now changing rapidly due to cleaner energy transitions; however, magnitudes of benefits for climate and air quality remain poorly quantified. The associated risks involve adverse health impacts, reduced agricultural yields, reduced freshwater availability, contributions to climate change, and economic costs. We focus particularly on climate benefits of energy transitions by making first-time use of two decades of high quality observations of atmospheric loading of light-absorbing black carbon (BC) over Kanpur (South Asia) and Beijing (East Asia) and relating these observations to changing energy, emissions, and economic trends in India and China. Our analysis reveals that absorption aerosol optical depth (AAOD) due to BC has decreased substantially, by 40% over Kanpur and 60% over Beijing between 2001 and 2017, and thus became decoupled from regional economic growth. Furthermore, the resultant decrease in BC emissions and BC AAOD over Asia is regionally coherent and occurs primarily due to transitions into cleaner energies (both renewables and fossil fuels) and not due to the decrease in primary energy supply or decrease in use of fossil use and biofuels and waste. Model simulations show that BC aerosols alone contribute about half of the surface temperature change (warming) of the total forcing due to greenhouse gases, natural and internal variability, and aerosols, thus clearly revealing the climate benefits due to a reduction in BC emissions, which would significantly reduce global warming. However, this modeling study excludes responses from natural variability, circulation, and sea ice responses, which cause relatively strong temperature fluctuations that may mask signals from BC aerosols. Our findings show additional benefits for climate (beyond benefits of CO2 reduction) and for several other issues of sustainability over South and East Asia, provide motivation for ongoing cleaner energy production, and consumption transitions, especially when they are associated with reduced emissions of air pollutants. Such an analysis connecting the trends in energy transitions and aerosol absorption loading, unavailable so far, is crucial for simulating the aerosol climate impacts over Asia which is quite uncertain.
- Wissenschaftliche Aufsätze
Ramachandran, S., Rupakheti, M., Cherian, R., & Lawrence, M. G. (2022). Climate Benefits of Cleaner Energy Transitions in East and South Asia Through Black Carbon Reduction. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 10: 842319. doi:10.3389/fenvs.2022.842319.
- Beteiligte Mitarbeiter
- Beteiligte Projekte
- Eine nachhaltige Atmosphäre für das Kathmandu-Tal (SusKat)
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A healthy diet will make your Hamster healthy and a healthy Hamster is a happy Hamster. By taking care of some dos and don’ts you can enjoy the company of your cute little furry for a long time. Hamsters are active pets and their metabolism rate is also good. So make sure to give them a healthy diet. Do not overfeed them because it will make them fat and slow, but make sure to give the proper nutrition to them. Hamster foods are available in mostly all the pet shops, you can buy some commercial food for them and treat them to some fresh fruits so that they get all the required nutrition. Here’s a guide, which will help you in keeping a balanced diet for your Hamster.
Timing of the food
Your Hamster is an active pet which requires balanced food at the proper time. Make sure to give your Hamster a healthy diet at particular a time. Giving them fresh food in a clean dish will be healthy for them. Most the Hamsters like to eat in the morning and evening. Make sure to give them food before they sleep and after they get up.
Fruits to be given to your Hamster
There are many fruits which you should give to your little furry and there are some fruits which you should avoid. Here are some fruits which are good for its health. You can give a seedless apple to your Hamster and a banana piece will also be a nice fruit. Other fruits to be given include, grapes, blackberries and cranberries. You can remove the seeds of cherries and give them to your fur buddy. Lychee without seeds, small pieces of mango, melons without seeds and carrots will be great for your Hamster.
Essential Meat and high protein food for Hamsters
Make sure to give your little pet ample proteins and meat food. You can feed a Hamster with Cooked Ground Beef and cooked, baked or steamed fish, Chicken or Turkey. For proteins, you can give it a small piece of cottage cheese, tofu, and boiled eggs. A small piece of bread soaked in milk without sugar will also be a nice option. You can also get some commercial high protein food like Grasshoppers, Mealworms and Crickets which are easily available in pet shops.
Food items which you should avoid
There are some food items which you should not give to your Hamster. This foodstuff can be harmful to the health of your Hamster so, do not feed your Hamster with, Lemon or Lime which are citric in nature, Jams and jellies because these are way too sweet for your Hamster. Also, make sure to keep the Hamster food free from spices and ingredients like Garlic and Onions. You should also avoid giving them Leeks and Chives. Another important food item you should keep away from a Hamster is Pickles. It is very dangerous for them. Other foodstuffs like Chocolates, Candies, junk food like chips etc. are also harmful to the health of a Hamster
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Week 1. Introduction.
Topics for debates with some ideas (from www.debate.org)
(more topics are available in www. dropbox.com . See “Debate game” there).
1. Should Humankind Be Spending Money On Space Exploration?
We need to get the hell off this rock
The time when we have to abandon earth may be sooner than we all think. The Board of Atomic Scientists predict that with all things considered, the world could end as soon as 2100. Ignoring this problem and not worrying because we will all most likely be gone by then is why our grandchildren will have to suffer because we screwed them over. Considering the fact that coal and oil power plants are still in use as well as gasoline powered cars (big one) and other air pollutants, the time where humans simply cannot live under the conditions is coming up fast. It's time we stop looking into our pocketbooks and start looking at the gun nature has to our heads. We need to stop polluting or get the hell out, and at the moment it seems getting the hell out is a lot more practical.
Not until there is nothing else left to spend on
Space exploration has cost us billions and billions of dollars. NASA's Orion aims to facilitate deep space exploration by humans. But what good will all this information generate while there are still millions out there still hungry and diseased?
I believe that space odysseys' funding must be cut down and that extra funding can be channelized to other fields, that require immediate attention and that can alleviate the suffering of the under-privileged.
Especially for developing countries, fighting terrorism, combating chronic diseases, sustaining economic growth, generating employment are some other avenues that demand more attention than space exploration
2. Will the human race survive if a large asteroid does hit Earth?
The human race will survive if a large asteroid hits the Earth, but it won't be pretty. If it lands in the water, massive tsunamis will flood coastal areas and our atmosphere will be ionized with megatons of extra water. If the asteroid hits land, a nuclear winter will happen and dark clouds of ash will obscure the surface of the Earth for decades while much of the vegetation dies from lack of sunlight. Humans will survive but they will have to live differently from how they do now.
Yes, billions of people will still be killed, but there will be some that do survive the impact. I think that when this does hit that the planet will be changed a whole lot, but that the people that are left can come back and make it back the way it is.
3. Is human genetic engineering ethical?
Yes At Least To A Degree
If we don't use human genetic engineering then we foresake the opportunity to cure many diseases and end a great deal of human suffering. We can debate about whether using genetic engineering beyond that is appropriate, but it certainly should be used for curing disease. In fact once developed and safely tested no parent should be allowed to refuse such treatment for their child.
Date: 2016-03-03; view: 169
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Today some 236 years ago, the American General Benedict Arnold committed his now infamous act of treason, in return for money and a high-ranking position in the British army. Arnold met with British Major John Andre on Sept. 21, 1780, to discuss giving West Point to British control.
The plan was uncovered, however, and Andre was captured and killed. Arnold swapped sides and later led British troops in Virginia and Connecticut. He went on to re-locate to England, but died in 1801, never receiving all of what the British had promised him.
Even now in the United States, his name is synonymous with “traitor.”
On Sept. 22, 1975, President Gerald Ford survived his second assassination attempt in a span of less than three weeks.
Sara Jane Moore, an F.B.I. informant at the time of the assassination attempt, aimed a gun at Ford as he left a San Francisco hotel. A bystander, Vietnam War veteran Oliver Sipple, instinctively grabbed her arm and prevented the shot from hitting Ford. Moore was given a life sentence for the attempt but was released from prison in 2007.
The first attempt at Ford’s assassination came 17 days before Moore’s, from the gun of Lynette Alice “Squeaky” Fromme, a member of the Manson Family. She was also sentenced to life imprisonment but released in 2009.
A much more positive event was the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Sept. 25, 1957.
A division of the U.S. Army escorted nine black students (nicknamed the “Little Rock Nine”) into the all-white high school, three weeks after Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus surrounded it with National Guard troops to keep them from entering. A standoff had ensued, and it’d forced President Dwight D. Eisenhower to federalize the state’s National Guard and send 1,000 Army paratroopers to enforce the federal order to integrate.
This all came three years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954 — the decision that educational facilities could not segregate on the basis of race. This event marked the biggest test of federal over state power since the time of Reconstruction.
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Social Science- CBSE- Class X- History- Age of Industrialization (Practice questions)Posted: July 4, 2008 in History
1. What do you understand by “Proto Industrialization”? 2. In which year did the earliest factories of England come up? 3. Fill in the blanks—— In 1760 Britain was importing 2.5 million pounds of raw cotton and by 1787 this import soared to_____________ 4. Name a few inventions in the 18th Century that increased the efficiency of production process. 5. Who created the first cotton mill? 6. What were the two most dynamic industries of Britain in the initial years of industrialization? 7. By 1873 Britain was exporting iron and steel worth about ________________? 8. Explain in detail the following statement——–“New industries could not easily displace traditional industries”. 9. What do you understand by pace of industrial change in 19th century. Explain. 10. What were the problems of life of workers in the age of industrialization? 11. What was the problem of seasonality of work? How did it affect the common workers?
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This workbook teaches the child to identify, write, and know the meaning of numbers 1-10. It teaches number sequence (after, before, and between) and simple math-related words such as more, less, first, and last.
Soft cover; 64 pages
Do you have any questions about Counting with Numbers workbook?
Please use the following form to request information.
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The chart above shows the annualized nominal gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate when priced in US dollars in each EU and US region over the past five years as of the fourth quarter of 2019 and the growth over the past ten years. All negative growth rates in the EU are attributed to currency rate fluctuations.
- The difference between the region with the largest annualized five-year growth rate, the Western US, and the region with the smallest, the Northern EU, is 5.79 percentage points.
- The difference between the region with the largest annualized ten-year growth rate, the Western US, and the region with the smallest, the Southern EU, is 7.65 percentage points.
- Three regions' economies (3 EU, 0 US) grew faster over the past five years than they did over the past ten years. Five regions' economies (1 EU, 4 US) saw their economies grow slower over the past five years than they did over the past ten years.
- All EU drops in growth rate are attributed to currency rate fluctuations.
- Data is from the fourth quarters of 2009, 2014, and 2019.
- The data is seasonally adjusted in current dollars.
- Euros are converted to dollars at an average exchange rate of 1.11 for the fourth quarter of 2019, 1.25 for the fourth quarter of 2014, and 1.48 for the fourth quarter of 2009 according to historic rates listed at the Federal Reserve (see source link below).
- US data comes in an annualized format which the EU does not, thus EU data is annualized by multiplying the quarterly figure by four.
- US growth rates may differ from those provided by the Bureau of Economic Analysis as the BEA's growth rates are based on chained dollars in conjunction with the chain index or the quality index for real GDP. The growth rates listed here are based on nominal GDP.
- All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
- The Eastern EU consists of Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
- The Midwestern US consists of Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
- The Northeastern US consists of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Delaware, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
- The Northern EU consists of Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.
- The Southern EU consists of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, and Malta.
- The Southern US consists of Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, and West Virginia.
- The Western EU consists of Germany, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Ireland, and Luxembourg.
- The Western US consists of California, Washington, Colorado, Arizona, Oregon, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Hawaii, Idaho, Alaska, Montana, and Wyoming.
The Northern EU had the smallest increase over the past five years with an annualized gain of 0.02%. The Western US had the largest growth with an annualized gain of 5.81%.
Over the past ten years, the Southern EU had the largest decrease with a 1.53% drop in GDP while the Western US had the largest growth with a 6.12% rise in GDP.
The Midwestern US saw the largest decrease in its growth rate between its annualized ten-year growth and its annualized five-year growth slowing its rate by 0.93 percentage points. The Eastern EU had the largest increase in its growth rate between its annualized ten-year growth and its annualized five-year growth raising its rate by 2.28 percentage points.
The Northern EU had the smallest range in annualized five-year growth rates with a low of -6.63% in Sweden to a high of 0.64% in Denmark. Conversely, the Western EU had the greatest range in annualized five-year growth rates with a low of 0.68% in the United Kingdom to a high of 12.00% in Ireland. Over the past ten years, the Northern EU had the smallest range in growth rates with a low of -0.07% in Finland to a high of 1.03 in Sweden. The Southern EU on the other hand, had the greatest range of rates on a ten-year basis with a low of -4.19% in Greece to a high of 6.13% in Malta.
Eurostat. 2020. "GDP and Main Components." Accessed May 28, 2020. https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-406779_QID_68139601_UID_-3F171EB0&layout=TIME,C,X,0;GEO,L,Y,0;UNIT,L,Z,0;S_ADJ,L,Z,1;NA_ITEM,L,Z,2;INDICATORS,C,Z,3;&zSelection=DS-406779UNIT,CP_MEUR;DS-406779INDICATORS,OBS_FLAG;DS-406779S_ADJ,SCA;DS-406779NA_ITEM,B1GQ;&rankName1=UNIT_1_2_-1_2&rankName2=INDICATORS_1_2_-1_2&rankName3=NA-ITEM_1_2_-1_2&rankName4=S-ADJ_1_2_-1_2&rankName5=TIME_1_0_0_0&rankName6=GEO_1_2_0_1&sortC=ASC_-1_FIRST&rStp=&cStp=&rDCh=&cDCh=&rDM=true&cDM=true&footnes=false&empty=false&wai=false&time_mode=NONE&time_most_recent=false&lang=EN&cfo=%23%23%23%2C%23%23%23.%23%23%23.
Federal Reserve. 2020. "Foreign Exchange Rates." Accessed May 29, 2020. https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g5/.
US Bureau of Economic Analysis. 2020. "GDP by State." Accessed May 27, 2020. https://www.bea.gov/data/gdp/gdp-state.
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Devil’s claw, scientifically known as Harpagophytum procumbens, is a plant native to South Africa. It owes its ominous name to its fruit, which bears several small, hook-like projections.
Traditionally, the roots of this plant have been used to treat a wide range of ailments, such as fever, pain, arthritis, and indigestion (1).
This article reviews the potential benefits of devil’s claw.
Devil’s claw is a flowering plant of the sesame family. Its root packs several active plant compounds and is used as an herbal supplement.
In particular, devil’s claw contains iridoid glycosides, a class of compounds which has demonstrated anti-inflammatory effects (
Some but not all studies suggest that iridoid glycosides may also have antioxidant effects. This means the plant may have the ability to ward off cell-damaging effects of unstable molecules called free radicals (3,
For these reasons, devil’s claw supplements have been studied as a potential remedy for inflammatory-related conditions, such as arthritis and gout. In addition, it has been proposed to reduce pain and may support weight loss.
You can find devil’s claw supplements in the form of concentrated extracts and capsules, or ground into a fine powder. It’s also used as an ingredient in various herbal teas.
Devil’s claw is an herbal supplement primarily used as an alternative treatment for arthritis and pain. It comes in many forms, including concentrated extracts, capsules, powders and herbal teas.
Inflammation is your body’s natural response to injury and infection. When you cut your finger, bang your knee or come down with the flu, your body responds by activating your immune system (
While some inflammation is necessary to defend your body against harm, chronic inflammation can be detrimental to health. In fact, ongoing research has linked chronic inflammation to heart disease, diabetes and brain disorders (
Of course, there are also conditions directly characterized by inflammation, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), arthritis and gout (
Devil’s claw has been proposed as a potential remedy for inflammatory conditions because it contains plant compounds called iridoid glycosides, particularly harpagoside. In test-tube and animal studies, harpagoside has curbed inflammatory responses (
For example, a study in mice showed that harpagoside significantly suppressed the action of cytokines, which are molecules in your body known to promote inflammation (
Though devil’s claw has not been studied extensively in humans, preliminary evidence suggests that it may be an alternative treatment for inflammatory conditions.
Devil’s claw contains plant compounds called iridoid glycosides, which have been shown to suppress inflammation in test-tube and animal studies.
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting over 30 million adults in the US (
It occurs when the protective covering on the ends of your joint bones — called cartilage — wears down. This causes the bones to rub together, resulting in swelling, stiffness and pain (16).
More high-quality studies are needed, but current research suggests that devil’s claw may be effective at reducing pain associated with osteoarthritis.
For example, one clinical study involving 122 people with osteoarthritis of the knee and hip suggested that 2,610 mg of devil’s claw daily may be as effective at reducing osteoarthritis pain as diacerein, a medication commonly used to treat this condition (
Similarly, a 2-month study in 42 individuals with chronic osteoarthritis found that supplementing daily with devil’s claw in combination with turmeric and bromelain, which are thought to have anti-inflammatory effects as well, reduced pain by an average 46% (
Research suggests that devil’s claw may help relieve joint pain associated with osteoarthritis and may be as effective as the pain reliever diacerein.
Gout is another common form of arthritis, characterized by painful swelling and redness in the joints, usually in the toes, ankles and knees (
It’s caused by a buildup of uric acid in the blood, which is formed when purines — compounds found in certain foods — break down (
Medications, such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), are typically used to reduce pain and swelling caused by gout.
Due to its purported anti-inflammatory effects and potential to reduce pain, devil’s claw has been proposed as an alternative treatment for those with gout (20).
Also, some researchers suggest it may reduce uric acid, though the scientific evidence is limited. In one study, high doses of devil’s claw decreased uric acid levels in mice (21, 22).
Though test-tube and animal research indicates that devil’s claw can suppress inflammation, clinical studies to support its use for gout specifically are unavailable.
Based on limited research, devil’s claw has been proposed to ease gout symptoms due to its anti-inflammatory effects and potential to reduce uric acid levels.
Lower back pain is a burden for many. In fact, it has been estimated that 80% of adults experience it at some point or another (
Along with anti-inflammatory effects, devil’s claw shows potential as a pain reliever, particularly for lower back pain. Researchers attribute this to harpagoside, an active plant compound in devil’s claw.
In one study, harpagoside extract appeared to be similarly effective as a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) called Vioxx. After 6 weeks, participants’ lower back pain was reduced by an average 23% with harpagoside and 26% with the NSAID (
Also, two clinical studies found that 50–100 grams of harpagoside per day were more effective at reducing lower back pain compared to no treatment, but more studies are needed to confirm these results (
Devil’s claw shows potential as a pain reliever, particularly for lower back pain. Researchers attribute this to a plant compound in devil’s claw called harpagoside. However, more research is needed to confirm these effects.
Besides reducing pain and inflammation, devil’s claw may suppress appetite by interacting with the hunger hormone ghrelin (
Ghrelin is secreted by your stomach. One of its primary functions is to signal your brain that it’s time to eat by increasing appetite (
In a study in mice, animals that received devil’s claw root powder ate significantly less food in the following four hours than those treated with a placebo (
Although these results are fascinating, these appetite-reducing effects have not yet been studied in humans. Therefore, substantial evidence to support using devil’s claw for weight loss is unavailable at this time.
Devil’s claw may suppress the action of ghrelin, a hormone in your body that increases appetite and signals your brain that it’s time to eat. However, human-based research on this topic is unavailable.
Devil’s claw appears to be safe when taken in doses up to 2,610 mg daily, though long-term effects have not been investigated (29).
Reported side effects are mild, the most common being diarrhea. Rarer adverse effects include allergic reactions, headache and coughing (
However, some conditions may put you at a higher risk for more serious reactions (31):
- Heart disorders: Studies have indicated that devil’s claw can affect heart rate, heartbeat and blood pressure.
- Diabetes: Devil’s claw may reduce blood sugar levels and intensify the effects of diabetes medications.
- Gallstones: Use of devil’s claw may increase the formation of bile and make problems worse for those with gallstones.
- Stomach ulcers: Production of acid in the stomach can increase with the use of devil’s claw, which may aggravate peptic ulcers.
Common medications may also negatively interact with devil’s claw, including prescription nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), blood thinners and stomach acid reducers (31):
- NSAIDs: Devil’s claw may slow the absorption of popular NSAIDs, such as Motrin, Celebrex, Feldene and Voltaren.
- Blood thinners: Devil’s claw may enhance the effects of Coumadin (also known as warfarin), which may lead to increased bleeding and bruising.
- Stomach acid reducers: Devil’s claw may decrease the effects of stomach acid reducers, such as Pepcid, Prilosec and Prevacid.
This is not an all-inclusive list of medication interactions. To be on the safe side, always discuss your use of supplements with your doctor.
For most people, the risk of side effects for devil’s claw is low. However, it may be unsuitable for people with specific health conditions and those taking certain medications.
Devil’s claw can be found as a concentrated extract, capsule, tablet or powder. It’s also used as an ingredient in herbal teas.
When choosing a supplement, look for the concentration of harpagoside, an active compound in devil’s claw.
Doses of 600–2,610 mg of devil’s claw daily have been used in studies for osteoarthritis and back pain. Depending on the extract concentration, this typically corresponds to 50–100 mg of harpagoside per day (
In addition, a supplement called AINAT has been used as a remedy for osteoporosis. AINAT contains 300 mg of devil’s claw, as well as 200 mg of turmeric and 150 mg of bromelain — two other plant extracts believed to have anti-inflammatory effects (
For other conditions, sufficient studies to determine effective doses are unavailable. In addition, devil’s claw has only been used for up to one year in studies. However, devil’s claw appears to be safe for most people in doses up to 2,610 mg per day (29).
Keep in mind that certain conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, kidney stones and stomach ulcers, may increase your risk of adverse effects when taking devil’s claw.
Also, any dosage of devil’s claw may interfere with medications you may be taking. This includes nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), blood thinners and stomach acid reducers.
Devil’s claw appears to be beneficial in doses of 600–2610 mg per day. More studies are needed to determine if these doses are effective and safe long-term.
Devil’s claw may relieve pain caused by inflammatory conditions like arthritis and may suppress hunger hormones.
Daily dosages of 600–2,610 mg appear to be safe, but no official recommendation exists.
Side effects are generally mild, but devil’s claw may worsen some health issues and interact with certain medications.
As with all supplements, devil’s claw should be used with caution. Be sure to speak to your doctor before taking it.
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Object-oriented programming principles
Are you a tester looking to learn how to write better automation code? Do you want to improve your programming skills by learning fundamental object-oriented programming principles? Looking to have more meaningful conversations with developers about the structure, quality and testability of their code?
In this course, you’ll learn how to increase your value as a tester through the acquisition of programming skills. You can use these skills to start working on or get better at writing automation code, but they will also be a massive help in improving your conversations and collaboration efforts with the developers in your team.
This course covers, among other things:
- Objects, classes, constructors, methods and parameters
- Principles of object-oriented programming: inheritance, encapsulation, polymorphism and abstraction
- Creating and structuring projects
- Dependency managers and build tools
- Working with unit testing frameworks
- Debugging, refactoring and clean coding practices
- Applying the SOLID principles to create better structured code that is easier to read, maintain and test
- Bringing your code under version control and running it as part of a Continuous Integration pipeline
There’s no better way to learn than by doing, so you’ll be presented with lots of hands-on (programming) exercises throughout this course.
Intended audience and prerequisite knowledge
This course is aimed at testing practitioners that want to learn to write (better) code to help them in their testing, automation and development efforts.
Delivery and group size
This is a live training course, available both on site and online. The maximum group size is 12.
This course can be delivered in Java, C# or Python.
This course takes three working days.
If you would like to book me to teach this course in your organization, or if you have any additional questions, please send an email to [email protected] or use the contact form on this page.
For an overview of all training courses I have on offer, please visit the main training page.
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<urn:uuid:6c341932-4902-4d47-999e-5db8fc799792>
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CC-MAIN-2023-50
|
https://www.ontestautomation.com/training/oop-for-testers/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100989.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20231209233632-20231210023632-00820.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.915055 | 425 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Heart disease continues to be one of the most common areas of concern in 2008. For years, it has been the # 1 cause of death in the United States. So let’s hear some good news. In January of 2008, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) who monitors death rates found that since 1999, coronary heart disease and stroke death rates are down by 25.8 percent and 24.4 percent, respectively.
Such good news means it is time to look a little more closely to see where success happened and keep it going. Most of us are familiar with the risk factors that set up the opportunity for a life changing event to occur. These risk factors are still too high according the American Heart Association and some are actually going up.
Risk factor list for heart disease: 1. Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome 2. High Blood Cholesterol and Other Lipids 3. High Blood Pressure 4. Overweight and Obesity 5. Physical Inactivity 6. Tobacco
The reduction in the death rates for heart disease and stroke equals approximately 160,000 lives saved in 2005 (the most recent year for which data is available) compared to 1999 statistics. Improved medications that address the prevention aspect of heart health and evidence-based practices have contributed to this reduction. While some of these advances are better discussed with the health care team, some are simple and equally as crucial to saving lives. Heeding the warning signs and getting to the hospital quickly make a big difference. If artery clogging cholesterol is a problem, getting coronary arteries checked can be timely management of the disease.
While it is everybody’s responsibility to make the lifestyle changes toward better health, there have been strides in our communities that have also made a difference. Clean indoor air legislation and government funded smoking cessation assistance has paid off.
Physical inactivity has been studied and studied and the rates for continued inactivity have changed very little even though the connection to serious health risk is reported in newspapers, magazine articles, TV shows and the internet. We are already seeing younger people with increased weight and the related concerns of developing disease from a lack of movement. Progress is happening but all Americans have to keep up the awareness and attention to getting up and walking, running, dancing or whatever type of exercise gets those calories burned. Be a role model or choose someone to be your best example.
If it is time to look at how to lower your risk and start being that example of change, then now is the time. Start by taking back your food preparation from strangers and make meals that are right for you.
Plan out a few meals and take a look at how and what kind of staples to keep in the house. There are many healthy choices that can be both convenient time savers and save money. If understanding the difference between healthy and unhealthy eating is confusing, start with the basics. The quality of the food is related to the number of preservatives, the kinds of fats and how much variety is eaten. Quantity of food is the bottom line for your bottom. Eating more calories than you burn up in a day is all about how much and how often you serve yourself. The dishes in the cupboard can be part of the understanding and the solution! Serve up what is a usual serving, and then measure it before you eat. Knowing the number of servings in a favorite dish or plate lets you take the lead with how to adjust your eating.
Just knowing the amount served and choosing between cutting back that portion and modifying it is a fix you control. Eating more than one serving of some things is usually fine. Knowing that a food with no fat does not mean it has no calories is to be ahead of the game. Bananas are a good high potassium food and a serving is about 100 calories. There are about 80 calories for the smaller ones and maybe 110 calories for the larger bananas. So go with the average since bananas come in different sizes. Try to buy smaller ones to keep the calories under control without having to count every calorie.
Your heart is not the only thing to benefit from healthy eating. Start to think about the big picture and what this healthy lifestyle really means. Consider the connections that can be made with family or friends when you prepare and eat together. What better excuse to strike up conversation with a teenager than working around a cutting board? Make the choices for all the other reasons besides improved health- better sleep, better fitting clothes, better attitude and more get up and go.
Your heart is in your hands.
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<urn:uuid:3175729b-dca7-473c-a493-1a5b198631e4>
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CC-MAIN-2020-05
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http://thebodyessential.net/services/blog.html
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579251802249.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20200129194333-20200129223333-00282.warc.gz
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en
| 0.964978 | 908 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Given a string, return its encoding defined as follows:
First, the string is divided into the least possible number of disjoint substrings consisting of identical characters for example,
"aabbbc" is divided into
["aa", "bbb", "c"] Next, each substring with length greater than one is replaced with a concatenation of its length and the repeating character for example, substring
"bbb" is replaced by
"3b" Finally, all the new strings are concatenated together in the same order and a new string is returned.
A substring of a string
S is another string
S' that occurs in
S. For example,
"Fights" is a substring of
s = "aabbbc", the output should be
lineEncoding(s) = "2a3bc".
- [time limit] 4000ms (py)
- [input] string s (String consisting of lowercase English letters.)
4 ≤ s.length ≤ 15.
- [output] string (Encoded version of s.)
import re def lineEncoding(s): grub = [ m.group(0) for m in re.finditer(r"(\w)\1*", s )] numb = 0 out = for i in grub: numb += 1 if len(i) > 1: out.append(grub[numb-1].replace(grub[numb-1], str(len(i))+i)) else: out.append(i) return ''.join(out)
>>> s = "aabbbc" >>> lineEncoding(s) "2a3bc" >>> >>> s = "abbcabb" >>> lineEncoding(s) "a2bca2b" >>> >>> s = "abcd" >>> lineEncoding(s) "abcd" >>>
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<urn:uuid:87a4bfc4-7c80-4260-b993-6493bbff02ec>
|
CC-MAIN-2020-29
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http://agusmakmun.github.io/python/codefights/2016/06/10/find-substrings-for-line-encoding-cf.html
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593657146845.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20200713194203-20200713224203-00419.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.770056 | 402 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Public health post Brexit
#DoNoHarm – How farming can support improved public health post-Brexit
The House of Lords is debating a ‘Do No Harm’ amendment to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill today (19th March). Backed by a cross-party group of peers and health professionals including the Royal College of GPs, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, the Royal Society of Public Health and the Faculty of Public Health, the amendment commits future the UK Government to ensuring that the public’s health and wellbeing continues to be of the highest priority after the UK leaves the EU.
Farming is an important part of this picture. The way that we produce our food has implications for our health – the reconfiguration of agricultural policy post-Brexit presents an opportunity to move towards farming practices that are not only better for the environment and for animals, but can support us to stay healthy.
Healthy and sustainable diets
Most people in the UK do not eat a sufficiently healthy and sustainable diet. Analysis of how our diet compares to Eatwell Guide by Oxford University shows that UK adults should be eating 75% less red and processed meat, 85% less cheese, and 53% less of foods high in fat and sugar, while eating 54% more fruit and vegetables and 85% more beans and pulses.
Future farming policy could support us to eat a healthier and more sustainable diet by:
- Harnessing the power of public procurement to stimulate demand for higher quality, fresh British produce, including organic, and particularly vegetables, pulses and fruits – supporting British farmers to produce more and British citizens to eat more healthily.
- Prioritising horticulture within the Agriculture Bill, including by introducing financial incentives and grants to support farmers to move into or start horticultural production, particularly those employing ecological production methods such as organic.
- Incentivise sustainable and higher-welfare livestock production systems, including organic, while promoting more sustainable diets that include less and better meat and dairy and more veg, wholegrains, and plant-based proteins, integrating sustainability into healthy eating guidelines.
The systematic overuse of antibiotics in human and animal medicine is undermining their ability to cure life-threatening infections in people, by creating new strains of bacteria resistant to antibiotics. Experts predict that 10 million people a year could die from antibiotic resistant infections by 2050.
Despite this, huge amounts of antibiotics continue to be used in farming. Farm animals account for almost two thirds of all antibiotics used in twenty six European countries, and around 40% of all antibiotics used in the UK.
Future farming policy could help to avoid an antibiotics crisis by:
- Banning the routine, preventative use of antibiotics in livestock farming and setting strict targets to reduce farm antibiotic use 50% by 2020, and 80% by 2050.
- Imposing import restrictions on animal products imported from countries with less rigorous requirements on antibiotics.
- Incorporating higher standards of animal welfare into farm antibiotic reduction strategies.
- Promoting organic production systems which use significantly less antibiotics and introducing transition funding to support farmers to move towards less intensive systems.
Public health as a public good
The Government’s recent consultation on the future of farming ‘Health and Harmony’ commits public money for farming to being spend on public goods, but it does not acknowledge public health as a public good.
Public health is a public good because a healthy population benefits every individual within it. “Good health flows from the population level to the individual rather than the other way round.”
Future farming policy can not only support healthier and more sustainable diets and more responsible use of antibiotics, it can ensure we continue to have: safe food; good water standards, with lower levels of water pollution, pesticide residues and endocrine-disrupting chemicals; access to green spaces including farms to support mental and physical wellbeing; a farming sector that looks after the wellbeing of its workers; and a food system that contributes less towards climate change, which will increase the risk of public health hazards including flooding, extreme weather and vector-borne illnesses.
In our response to the ‘Health and Harmony’ consultation we’ll be stressing the important contribution that farming can make towards public health. The ‘Do No Harm’ debate in the Lords today highlights the opportunity to harness Brexit towards improved public health in the future. Farming has an important role to play in this.
For more on this see the Food Foundation’s ‘Farming for Five-A-Day’ report
Tim Lang and Geof Rayner (2012) Ecological public health: the 21st century’s big idea?, BMJ 2012;345:e5466 doi: 10.1136/bmj.e5466
While you’re here…
…we’ve got a small favour to ask. As a charity we rely on fundraising to do our vital work. We champion a world where people, farm animals and nature can thrive – and we’ve made huge steps forward working with farmers, growers and researchers to find pioneering and practical solutions to today’s farming challenges. But there’s so much more to be done.
You can help change the way we farm and eat for good. If everyone who visits our website and cares about the food they eat and how it’s been produced, makes a small contribution today, we can do more of the work that really matters.
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<urn:uuid:76cd2780-f2aa-4fbe-9ca4-4765c60c83ff>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-40
|
https://www.soilassociation.org/news/2018/march/19/how-farming-can-support-improved-public-health-post-brexit/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510903.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20231001141548-20231001171548-00890.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.930018 | 1,135 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Take a quick look at this map. Given that the Middle East is such a volatile and combative part of the world, it is amazing that so little has changed since the pacts after the First World War. At that time, there were quite a few changes: Several countries that formerly belonged to the Ottoman Empire were carved out of desert because the British and French wanted it so. The British and French are long gone, but the lines they drew still hold (as of 1:30 p.m. today anyway).
The biggest change on the map was the creation of all the independent “-stans” after the Soviet Union fell apart around 1992. Other changes include the creation of Pakistan in 1946 (though its eastern part is now Bangladesh) and the union of the former British colony of Aden with Yemen. Also Cyprus is now independent (but divided into Greek and Turkish halves).
Probably the only country whose boundary was not drawn by the European powers is Pakistan. Far from stable, however, the Islamabad government is currently facing three insurgencies: the Taliban, the Belochis, and in Karachi (from several ethnic groups). They also risk war with Iran because of the Belochi insurgency and with China over helping to radicalize in Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang province.
Islamic populations in general seem to be divided into two groups:
- Apprehensive, politically ineffectual people who just want to get on with their lives, and
- Jihadists who want to conquer the world and introduce Sharia law everywhere.
In the near future, it seems that the Jihadists will be in the ascendant. That tendency will be reversed eventually because radicals who want to blow themselves up are generally not effective in creating a strong country. I suspect that soon the map boundaries will change until they are unrecognizable from the above illustration. Also, I suspect that there will be a lot more countries: several in Iraq, Pakistan, and Syria. Even tiny Lebanon is split between Sunni, Shi’ite, Druze, and Maronite Christian enclaves. Talk about Balkanization!
I think the best thing for the United States to do is to disengage from any military activity in the region: We always end up arming the wrong people. (It would have helped if someone in the Pentagon knew Arabic.) Although extraction of oil through fracking is dangerous, it would be nice if we were independent of the Middle East for our oil needs. Then we could just let them kill one another and go tsk-tsk while shaking our heads.
One exception: Look at what’s sitting right in the center of that map. The most stable country of the group is Iran. I think we should be friends with them and let bygones be bygones. But no military intervention, please!
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<urn:uuid:b3a967b3-0063-4a28-aa4a-bc7fa43f3584>
|
CC-MAIN-2017-34
|
https://tarnmoor.com/2014/07/10/hold-that-line/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886105922.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20170819201404-20170819221404-00267.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.969646 | 574 | 2.5625 | 3 |
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