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Everest is the highest mountain on Earth (as measured from sea level). The summit ridge of the mountain marks the border between Nepal and Tibet, with the actual summit located in Tibet.
Radhanath Sikdar, an Indian mathematician and surveyor from Bengal, was the first to identify Everest as the world's tallest peak in 1852 through trigonometric calculations based on measurements made with theodolites from 240 km (150 miles) away in India. Prior to its survey and naming it was known as Peak XV to the survey team.
The mountain is approximately 8,850 m (29,035 feet) high, although there is some variation in the measurements. Neither the government of Nepal nor the PRC have officially recognised this measurement, and still consider the official height of Everest to be 8,848 m.
It was first measured in 1856 to have a height of 29,000 feet (8,839 m), but declared to be 29,002 feet (8,840 m) high. The arbitrary addition of 2 feet (0.6 m) reflected the sentiment at the time that an exact height of 29,000 feet would be viewed as nothing more than a rounded estimate.
In the 1950s an Indian survey made closer to the mountain also using theodolites gave another often quoted figure of 8,848 m (29,028 feet). Today's generally accepted value of 8,850 m (29,035 feet) was obtained via GPS readings from a device placed on the summit by the USA in 1999. Everest is still growing due to the plate tectonics of the area, adding 3 to 5 mm to the height and moving north-eastward at 27 mm per year.
On June 8, 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, both of the United Kingdom, made an attempt on the summit from which they never returned. Noel Odell, the expedition's geologist, saw the pair climbing up "with great alacrity... near the base of the final pyramide" [sic] at 12:50pm that day. In 1979 climber Wang Hongbao of China revealed to a companion that he had discovered a body in 1975 thought to be Irvine, but he unfortunately was killed in a fall the very next day before he could provide precise details to anyone else. In 1999 however, the famous Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition found instead Mallory's body in the predicted search area near the old Chinese camp. Controversy has raged in the mountaineering community as to whether the duo may have made it to the top of the world, 29 years before the confirmed ascent (and of course, safe descent) of Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. The general consensus among climbers has been that they did not. There's no evidence of either man above the Second Step but if Mallory had made it that far then he likely summitted, for there are no difficult technical climbs further up. Almost everyone agrees Mallory died in a short fall during his descent. Irvine probably briefly survived the fall that killed Mallory, but died later of injuries and/or exposure. Irvine's body was probably found by another Chinese climber in 1960 but has not been rediscovered since, despite several searches in 2004. Mallory had gone on a speaking tour of the United States the year before in 1923; it was then that he exasperatedly gave the famous reply, "Because it is there", to a New York journalist in response to hearing the question, "Why climb Everest?" for seemingly the thousandth time. | <urn:uuid:39fb086b-c647-4eea-bfd7-952ae6932a09> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://sheppardsoftware.com/Asiaweb/factfile/Unique-facts-Asia2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396945.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00076-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978194 | 731 | 3.453125 | 3 |
Gender and Automobility: Consumerism and the Great Economic Boom
Many historians consider the 1920s to be the decade that ushered in “modern times” in terms of materialism and consumerism, new cultural and moral values, rational science, and improved transportation and communications, all stimulating national standards and new rhythms of everyday life. Certainly the contrast between the New Era of the 1920s and the Progressive Reform years of the twentieth century up to 1917 was striking. And this is indeed true for the automobile and motoring in the two periods. But taking automobility to denote the availability and use of the automobile and its diffusion and importance as a social and cultural artefact, then the move from popular experience and enjoyment to mass consumption and impact did not take place until the affluence of the years after World War II enabled most groups and classes to partake in the real rather than imaginary world of easier personal road travel. Encouraged by the mass media and helped by better access to finance, many more citizens then rushed to consume goods and services. Indeed by the 1960s auto consumption had become a way of life that Americans increasingly exported to the western world and then around the globe.
The ambition to own automobiles had been established in the 1920s and was put on hold during the depressed 1930s. American involvement in World War II made travel by personal car much more difficult. The federal government rationed gasoline and tires in mid-1942 and in October of that year reduced the earlier national speed limit of 40 miles per hour to 35 miles per hour to conserve fuel and rubber. It became more difficult to drive and at times also dangerous because of the condition of frequently repaired tires and patched up essential parts of vehicles that had already been nursed through the Depression. Indeed many drivers moved back en masse onto trains and buses and travelled by public transport. Intercity travel by automobile had accounted for 89% of the total passenger miles in 1939. By 1944 car travel fell to 58.6% of the total, with public carriers now accounting for the remainder. Americans did not like the conditions on the trains and the buses, which were crowded, if not overcrowded, slow, and often broke down. Long waits in congested terminals only compounded the misery. Americans on the home front worked hard in these years of full employment, saved money because of the shortage of consumer goods, and looked forward to peace and a return to normalcy when they could buy cars and get on the road again.
The return of peace did not immediately fulfill either their aims or those of Americans who had not previously been able to afford a car. It proved time-consuming for manufacturers to switch assembly lines from military requirements to civilian automobiles, and acute shortages of basic raw materials persisted. Only in late 1946 did the government lift all priorities. Then car sales reached over 2.1 million, a figure that was slightly less than the Depression-year output of 1934. Demand was very high, but supply did not match this demand for several years even though car sales reached 5.1 million in 1949. There was a slight dip in output during the Korean War, but otherwise production continued upwards, reaching 7.9 million in 1955. By then 52.1 million cars were registered, a huge increase over the 25.8 million of the last year of the war, 1945. A decade later in 1965, car manufacturers sold 9.3 million cars and there were 75.3 million cars registered. Here was the actual spread of “autopia” or the national love affair with the car, as most Americans started to enter what Lizabeth Cohen has called “The Landscape of Mass Consumption.”
This post-war boom in automobile ownership and its ensuing automobile-based culture was not solely the result of the craving of Americans of both sexes to get behind the wheel. The federal government was anxious to ensure prosperity and security and assisted the consumer boom either directly or indirectly. The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, more commonly known as the G.I. Bill of Rights, offered 16 million military veterans loans to buy homes or farms or to start a business. One fifth of all single-family dwellings built between the end of the war and 1966 were financed by Veterans Administration (VA) loans, and most of these houses were located in suburbia, where land was cheaper and more abundant. Automobiles then became American’s main mode of mobility. This automobile revolution was also aided by the federal government’s highway building program. The Federal Highway Act of 1944 authorized the spending of $1.5 billion in matching funds to build and improve roads. Then in 1956 the Federal Aid Highway Act authorised spending $25 billion over a twelve-year period to pay for a National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, a planned network of 41,000 miles of multilane, limited access, toll-free roads. Costs increased during the building of the interstates, but the network continued to be constructed, allowing nearly all groups to participate not only in local and regional motorization, but also in nationwide mobility. To be without a car in the United States was, except in the heart of large Eastern or Midwestern cities where a viable public transit system remained operative, to be almost in exile.
Suburbanization in single-family, low-density units, the re-domestication of women in order to care for these new homes, and differential family incomes were important ingredients in suggesting new patterns of transportation. Life in the suburbs—and by 1965 55% of those with incomes over $10,000 were suburbanites—was isolated and miserable without access to facilities. Commuting became a way of life for millions. Although these Americans were differentiated into particular communities by economic and racial discrimination, they all needed to move back and forth for work, school, shopping, running errands, and travelling to group events, whether these were religious, child-oriented, or recreational. Public transit, whether older modes like trains and streetcars or the newer bus, could not meet new individualistic aspirations and demands. The private car was the obvious practical answer, and soon there was an automobile parked on every suburban drive. Indeed, by 1960 15% of families registered ownership of two or more cars, a figure that had risen to 28% a decade later.
So where did the two sexes fit into this new level of automobility? Did they want and need the same service from automobiles, or did they have separate aims and objectives? And for those families who only owned one car, who was the prime driver and why? Work locations were slower to relocate to the suburbs than were domestic residences in the 1950s and early 1960s. Males needed to travel to work. As they were the breadwinners in most suburban families, they either drove themselves to the office or the factory or were driven to and from the local train station to continue their commute to the city. When the former happened, women often became socially isolated and frustrated, because the demand for public transit was too low to encourage private enterprise to provide service to downtown or to local retail centers. Housewives who retained control of the car during the day or those who managed to persuade their husbands that their lives would be difficult, lonely, and miserable without personal transport or that in their new upward mobility they deserved their own vehicle, whether new or second-hand, gained independence as well as mobility. For both of these female suburbanites, the car became almost a second home.
Initially such women got behind the wheel to shop. Retail outlets might be grouped a mile or more away from their homes, but these were gradually shifted into more purpose-built shopping centers. Such off-street retail complexes were frequently dedicated to domestic, if not female-oriented, consumption, and they were planned as primarily female meccas because market analysts estimated that women did between 67 and 92% of family shopping and spent considerable time at the stores. Designed to facilitate car access and to offer a variety of services in a one-stop journey, shopping centers increased from 8 in 1945 to 3,840 by 1960. Frequently anchored by department stores, they accommodated a number of different shops and services, thereby drawing in consumers from both the neighborhood and the region. If supermarkets were not located in these shopping centers, they required a separate visit from the motorized suburban housewife who wanted to take the weekly supply of food home in one journey. Indeed the supermarket came of age in the decades of post-war affluence. In 1950 it accounted for 35% of American food sales; a decade later this percentage had doubled. Not only did the low prices appeal to consumers' sense of value, but the supermarket also fitted the new automobile-led middle-class way of life. Supermarkets responded to their growing popularity by becoming bigger and better, by carrying new branded products and more sizes of pre-packaged foods, and by having larger parking lots.
Suburban women also perceived the growing need to transport children by car, initially to school. As more children’s activities became organized into such groups as Girl Scouts or Little League, in addition to the more traditional piano or dancing classes or school bands, mothers became major transporters of their offspring. While the yellow school bus might pick up children from the edge of the suburban complex, it was not privatized to adjust to the individual interests of specific families. Mothers wanted and needed to run their children from pastime to pastime. Indeed William Chafe has observed that the suburban family was essentially run by children. Even the advent of television, which by the mid-1950s was a feature of 66% of homes, did not prevent this child-centered mobility. Add to the shopping and children’s activities trips to doctors’ and dentists’ offices and visits to friends, families, or clubs, then it is easy to see that many suburban housewives were becoming dependent on the automobile to carry out domestic responsibilities and to pursue their own interests.
Suburban housewives might be synonymous with the growing numbers of white middle-class women in these decades, but other women were also interested in automobility in the post-war years. Increasing numbers of females were gainfully employed and were working wives or working mothers. By 1960 over twice as many women were employed as in 1940. The remarkable shift in this female labor force participation took place among married women with husbands present, revealing a 139% increase in women aged 35-44 and a 254% increase among the 45-54 year olds. Married women, frequently in older age groups and from the middle class, were leading the surge in the growth of employment in the service sector, where many women were already working. Whether they were suburban or metropolitan, they not only carried out their domestic responsibilities but also had to get to work. They were interested in multi-tasked journeys and faced complicated travel patterns that could not be accommodated by public transport. They, too, became gainfully employed commuters who wanted to drive themselves to work.
Yet there is more to gendering automobility in the post-war years than putting more women behind the wheel on a regular basis. Two other notable features of the mass spread of the car culture of the 1950s and 1960s were teenagers on the road and family vacations, and the overlapping dependence on roadside facilities used by both groups. In addition to the car parked on the drive as an icon of post-war society, vacation trips became another status indicator as well as being a potential time for enjoyment. Mark Foster has well described the less-than-relaxing reality of vacation trips for millions of blue-collar workers who were enjoying their first paid holidays in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Travelling in non-air-conditioned vehicles, usually with the father driving, mother navigating, and the children in the back seat, staying at motels that were still of the “mom and pop” variety and thus lacked amenities and often charged extra for children, was not a restful experience for anyone in the family. But as with many service sector businesses in the 1950s, entrepreneurs quickly seized the opportunities of a buoyant economy in which recreation and leisure were becoming important to American lives and promoted automobile-oriented businesses. Motel construction boomed in the late 1950s and the 1960s, and by 1964 there were 62,000 motels in the United States. Stimulated in part by the tax code of 1954 that allowed rapid depreciation of construction costs, some motels were flimsy, but others offered an enjoyable, secure and entertaining “home on the road.” Here family travellers re-energized in order to move on, whether their stay was in a franchised “no surprise” accommodation, an economy lodging, or a roadside inn.
In addition to lodgings, automobile tourists and travellers of both sexes needed food and gasoline service stations. As with the motel, limited-menu, fast-food chains emerged on or near major highways. Even before World War II, coffee shops, roadside stands, and new “drive-in” restaurants offered an eating experience that was integrated with automobility. As cars became much more central to post-war travel plans, families, especially working-class families, wanted quick, cheap and substantial meals at the roadside. More quick service, fast-food “eateries” emerged to meet the demands of automobile convenience. Howard Johnson’s expanded in the 1950s by merging the casual soda fountain with more formal dining into the familiar orange-roofed chain of family restaurants where children were welcome. White Castle, focusing on the hamburger served in look-alike diners, also expanded to cater to nervous mothers and families travelling without reliance on home cooking. This chain was soon overtaken by another generation of roadside eateries, McDonalds. Started in 1954, McDonalds had 82 outlets in 1966. Six years later it ranked second of all the food service operations in the United States with over 1,000 franchises. The rapid delivery of a uniform quality mix of prepared foods in a clean, orderly, and cheerful environment with drive-up or drive-in facilities underwrote the success of the “Golden Arch” operation. This “place-product-packaging” concept that co-ordinated architecture, décor, product, service, and working routine nationwide, set the standard for many imitators as they delivered uniform food products to a nation in a hurry and on wheels. And these fast-food outlets became more than the choice of tourists of both sexes in the post-war years. They attracted home-based families who wanted to give mother a rest from preparing meals, and they become the haunt of teenagers on wheels. Doubtless they, too, were hungry, but they also wanted a space in which to socialize with their peers.
Teenagers were publicly recognized as a growing phenomenon in the 1950s and 1960s. The offspring of the parents who had married young during the war or immediately thereafter, these “baby boomers” forged their own lifestyle, a proportion of which was centred on access to the car that could give them freedom. Having wheels meant escape from prying eyes, gaining “street cred[ibility]” among high-school or college peers, and access to the local automobile culture. Gaining a driver’s licence was, as Kenneth Jackson suggests, the most important rite of passage in the high-school experience. While the majority of teenagers who inherited and customized “hand-me-down jalopies” were young males, young females were by no means debarred from teenage automobility. Indeed, they were central to this style of youth culture. Part of teenage driving was to impress other male students about knowledge of and intimacy with car technology, but another part was to be seen cruising with a popular girl, often enjoying the new rock and roll music to the annoyance of the older generation. To join the scene teenagers also frequented the local drive-in restaurant or visited the drive-in movie theatres. By 1950 there were 1,700 outdoor drive-in movie theatres, a number that grew to 4,200 only four years later. Reaching their height of popularity in the late 1950s and known as “passion pits” by both their critics and admirers, they offered teenagers, more so than families, a haven where they could be themselves while watching road movies or movies with automobile themes at bargain-basement prices, if not indulging in other activities.
During the years of confidence in the twenty to twenty-five years after World War II, the automobile moved to center stage in American life. For both sexes of all ages, it became a household vehicle, if not technology that changed their way of life. It was the house on wheels. Girls and women viewed the car and its culture in differing ways from boys and men, but everyone wanted access, increasingly as drivers as well as passengers. Even though the years of liberalism in the 1960s also provided a sharp critique of the hypothetical benefits bestowed by automobility, car production and sales continued to rise as Americans became more dependent on their personal vehicles and public transit systems offered few alternatives to the increasing number of people living in suburbs. There was a growing awareness of the environmental, energy, and safety problems created by high levels of driving, but remarkably little action was taken as all Americans aged 16 and over (and sometimes younger) took to the road to pursue their individual desires and commitments.
Gender and Automobility: Consumerism and the Great Economic Boom
For the impact of highway building on Detroit, see Thomas Sugrue’s “Building the Motor Metropolis.” | <urn:uuid:3fbe2d22-0388-479f-9db8-e24a008b31f5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Gender/Walsh/G_Overview3.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396455.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00051-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982142 | 3,614 | 3.21875 | 3 |
When Gluten is a Problem
By Brent Lemberg, MD
Celiac disease has become an
increasingly common diagnosis lately. In the United States nearly two million
people have it and we suspect many more remain undiagnosed. Celiac disease is an
inflammatory condition of the small intestine caused when the body’s immune
system reacts to gluten, which is a protein found in the grains wheat, rye,
barley, and oats.
This immune reaction injures the
tiny villi on the interior walls of the small intestine. The villi are shaped
like fingers and their job during the digestive process is to extract vitamins,
minerals, calories, and fat from the food we eat. However, in people with
celiac disease the tops of the villi are damaged and eventually die off, leaving
the villi short and flat. As a result they are not able to do their job very
well, which can cause difficult symptoms.
Who gets celiac disease?
Celiac disease is a genetic
condition: if your mother, father, sister, or brother has celiac disease, there
is a 7-10 percent chance you have it, too. It affects both children and adults
and is most common in people of northern European ancestry. The symptoms are
often most severe in the teenage years.
What are the symptoms of celiac
Some people experience very mild
symptoms while others suffer from symptoms that are quite severe. Symptoms
include bloating and gas, chronic diarrhea, weight loss, and fatigue. In
children, celiac disease can result in growth retardation issues and small
stature due to the inability of the small intestine to absorb nutrients.
Unfortunately the symptoms of celiac disease are so common to other disorders
that finding the proper diagnosis can take a while. Some mild cases of celiac
disease go on for many years and are not diagnosed until the symptoms grow much
How is celiac disease diagnosed?
The first step in diagnosis is a
blood test to check for antibodies that are produced during the body’s immune
system reaction to the presence of gluten. If the blood test results are
positive, the second step is a small bowel biopsy. This is recommended because
blood tests have a 5 percent rate of false positive. A gastroenterologist
performs the biopsy using an endoscope, which is a narrow, flexible tube that
can be used to collect tiny pieces of tissue from the inside of the small
How is celiac disease treated?
Treatment involves adapting your
diet to avoid wheat, barley, rye, and oats, which can be tricky for teenagers
who consume lots of pasta, pizza, bread, and bagels. Thankfully it is much
easier nowadays to adhere to a gluten-free diet because since 2006
manufacturers have been required to label food that contains gluten. However,
products such as lipstick, multivitamins, and candies also contain gluten so
there are many ways to ingest it without realizing it.
Getting involved with a good
dietitian is very helpful. We refer many celiac disease patients to the
dietitians at the Cayuga Center for Healthy Living (6o7-252-3590). They can
tell you what to eat, what to avoid, and which restaurants serve gluten-free
food. Many celiac disease patients have been struggling with their symptoms for
so long they have forgotten what it is like to feel good. Within a week or two
of eating a gluten-free diet they experience significant improvement.
Lemberg is board certified in gastroenterology and serves on the medical staff
of Cayuga Medical Center. He practices with Gastroenterology Associates of
Ithaca and can be reached at (607) 272-5011. | <urn:uuid:14cb890a-da72-4e0f-afbe-0e759169435b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cayugamed.org/content.cfm?page=library&articleID=315&topicID=9 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394937.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00171-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950849 | 799 | 3.484375 | 3 |
AISB Workshop on Principles of Robotics, April 4th 2016, Sheffield UK
It is five years since the publication of the EPSRC’s Principles of Robotics developed by a panel of distinguished British robotics and AI experts at an EPSRC/AHRC funded retreat.
The principles, which were aimed at “regulating robots in the real world”, were stated in the form of five “rules” and seven “high-level messages”. The five rules are as follows:
- Robots are multi-use tools. Robots should not be designed solely or primarily to kill or harm humans, except in the interests of national security.
- Humans, not robots, are responsible agents. Robots should be designed; operated as far as is practicable to comply with existing laws & fundamental rights & freedoms, including privacy.
- Robots are products. They should be designed using processes which assure their safety and security.
- Robots are manufactured artefacts. They should not be designed in a deceptive way to exploit vulnerable users; instead their machine nature should be transparent.
- The person with legal responsibility for a robot should be attributed.
The principles have had significant impact in UK robotics research, and continue to provoke substantial debate. At a time when public concern about the development of robot technologies is heightening we consider that it would be useful to revisit the principles to consider their continued relevance according to the following criteria:
- Validity—are the principles correct as statements about the nature of robots (for instance that they are tools and products), robot developers, and the relationship between robots and people (for instance that robots should have a transparent design), or are they ontologically flawed, inaccurate, out-dated, or misleading.
- Sufficiency/generality—are the principles sufficient and broad enough cover all of the important issues that might arise in the regulation of the robotics in the real-world or are significant concerns overlooked.
- Utility—are the principles of practical use for robot developers, users, or law-makers, in determining strategies for best practice in robotics, or legal standards or frameworks, or are they limited in their use by lack of specificity or through allowing critical exceptions (such as the use of robots as weapons for the purpose of national security).
We propose a one-day workshop in the form of a debate around the EPSRC principles, at the AISB 2016 Convention.
Submissions. We invite participants from all areas of robotics, AI related to robotics, ethics, and law including any who participated in the original retreat to write a short commentary (2-8 pages A4) on one or more of the principles considered with respect to one or more of the criteria (a-c). Commentaries should be emailed to firstname.lastname@example.org by 29th February 2016.
Workshop format. The workshop will take the form of a debate on each of the principles, ideally with at least one participant speaking in defence of the principle and one providing a critique. These focused debates will be followed by a broader and more open-ended discussion structure according to ideas raised in the written contributions, and with the goal of formulating some consensus recommendations.
Workshop outcomes. A rapporteur will be appointed to write a document summarising the debates and the outcomes of the meeting. We intend that the commentaries together with this report will be published together in the AISB proceedings, and that a further publication will be generated to disseminate the commentaries and discussion to a broad international audience. A report of the meeting will be sent to the EPSRC.
Prof Tony Prescott, Director of Sheffield Robotics, University of Sheffield.
Prof Alan Winfield, Director of the Science Communication Unit, University of the West of England.
Prof Madeleine de Cock Buning, Utrecht University School of Law, President of the Dutch Media Authority.
Dr Joanna Bryson, Department of Computer Science, University of Bath. | <urn:uuid:ee2c208b-c3d3-4a7c-8cf4-a41d14b83137> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.sheffieldrobotics.ac.uk/aisb-workshop-por/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403508.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00058-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934885 | 812 | 2.625 | 3 |
Why are girls outperforming boys in literacy skills in the Western education system today? To date, there have been few attempts to answer this question. Literacy and Gender sets out to redress this state of affairs by re-examining the social organization of literacy in primary schools.
In studying schooling as a social process, this book focuses on the links between literacy, gender and attainment, the role school plays in producing social difference and the changing pattern of interest in this topic both within the feminist community and beyond. Gemma Moss argues that the reason for girls' relative success in literacy lies in the structure of schooling and in particular the role the reading curriculum plays in constructing a hierarchy of learners in class. Using fine-grained ethnographic analysis of reading in context, this book outlines methods for researching literacy as a social practice and understanding how different versions of what counts as literacy can be created in the same site. | <urn:uuid:bf4880ec-a657-42c8-af76-5032bcd86c1c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://linguistlist.org/issues/19/19-678.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393093.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00082-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944616 | 183 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Welcome to the Solar Technologies Resource. Photovoltaic solar renewable energy is free, and green, and increasingly popular now more than ever since governments and the general public are growing concerned about the relationship between our carbon emissions, and the subsequent effect of climate change. We all have a responsibility to lessen our carbon emissions and the overall impact of our lifestyles upon the earth.
One of the major causes of man-made greenhouse gas emissions is generation of the electricity that our homes are powered by. But there is a solution. Through advances in solar photovoltaic technology and the UK Government's feed-in tariff, photovoltaic solar panels are now a viable source of energy, that will generate CO2 free electricity, slash your bills and earn you a guaranteed income for a minimum of 25 years.
Renewable energy with photovoltaic solar
Photovoltaic solar panels are built to generate enough electricity to power most of your household needs, regardless of dull or cloudy weather. Any excess electricity that you don't need is sold back to your energy supplier for other people to use.
This electricity is green, clean and doesn't result in the release any harmful carbon dioxide (CO2) or other pollutants. According to the Energy Saving Trust, a typical home PV system could save around 1200 kg of CO2 per year - which over a lifetime could add up to around 30 tonnes. In terms of lowering your carbon footprint there is no better choice.
The UK must do better
The scale of the renewable energy challenge facing Britain was revealed by figures showing Britain installed about 270 solar photovoltaic (PV) systems on houses in 2007, compared with 130,000 in Germany.
At the time Britain was the worst performer behind Malta and Luxembourg in the EU in its use of renewable energy and produces only 2% of its energy in this form. The EU said Britain must raise that share to 15% by 2020. Malcolm Wicks, the energy minister at the time, acknowledged that Britain needed a “revolution” in green technologies and insisted the country was showing “leadership” in the area.
But a leaked document shows that Department for Business’ grants for households to install solar, wind or hydro-power would be underspent by £10m over the following year. That was more than half the £18m allocated for the three years to March 2009.
The low carbon buildings programme was cut in May when the scheme was reformed, leading many people to give up trying to install renewable technology. For solar PV, the maximum grant was cut to £2,500.
The Future is Solar
Thankfully, since then government policy has changed, and the current government and its policies fully support solar technologies and sustainable living with all manner of incentives and subsidies. Give us a call to find out more about Solar Technology deals and the saving you could make.
Welcome to the Solar Technologies Resource. Our site is dedicated to raising awareness about the dangers of global warming and the technologies that are available to us in our battle to prevent it.
Solar Panel Technology is no new fad, and has been refined over the years. It is now a very environmentally friendly and cost-effective method of turning your house into an eco-home. And with government feed-in tariffs and subsidies could actually end up earning you money.
Please browse our site and see what you could do for your planet. If you have any questions about Solar Technologies and Eco-Friendly Living feel free to get in touch with the team. We are always happy to discuss solar technology with you.
All rights reserved| The Solar Technologies Resource, Global Warming, Photovoltaic Cells, Harnessing Solar Energy, Clean Energy, Fuel Cells, Eco-Friendly Living, Financing a Sustainable Lifestyle, Green Links | <urn:uuid:bf021a16-0967-450b-b248-2c723d0ad495> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dfid.org.uk/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393463.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00080-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950793 | 775 | 3.15625 | 3 |
The understanding reached by Admiral Ghormley and General MacArthur for the cooperation of the two air forces of their respective areas developed with the situation. The basic agreement was that during the Tulagi-Guadalcanal action the Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area, would provide for the interdiction of enemy air activities westward of the operating area, the dividing line between the South Pacific Area and the Southwest Pacific Area to be the one hundred fifty-ninth meridian from the equator southward. Admiral Ghormley further directed Admiral McCain, commander of the South Pacific Air Forces, (Task Force MIKE) to arrange with General MacArthur fore the coordination of aircraft scouting by the land-based forces of the two areas.
Chapter 7: Preliminary Air Plans
General MacArthur further agreed that until 5 days before the attack his forces would maintain a 48-hour surveillance of the Port Moresby-Lorengau-Kavieng-Bulka-Ontong Java-Tulagi-Samurai area. Thereafter
all Southwest Pacific air operations to the eastward would be limited by longitude 158°15' E. between the equator and latitude 15° S., unless special missions were requested. The Commander Southwest Pacific also agreed to provide the following surveillance: from 5 days before the attack to 4 days afterwards, four daily reconnaissance flights over the area Port Moresby-Madang-Kavieng-Ontong Java-Port Praslin (northwest end of Santa Isabel Island)--easternmost point of New Georgia-Tagula Island. Further planes would be prepared to strike hostile naval targets discovered in this area within a 550-mile range of Port Moresby. On the day of attack and for 4 days thereafter planes under the General's command would interdict hostile air operations in the Rabaul-Kavieng area and deny hostile refueling operations from Buka Island if used; in the same period shorter range planes would attack Lae and Salamaua periodically to prevent reinforcement of Rabaul from that area. He further advised: "All available aviation in this area subject to actual limitations of range will operate in your support on request to COMSOWESPAC," and that "naval support will be given as previously arranged." This last presumably referred to the inclusion of the Australian cruisers in Task Force TARE.
On July 22d Admiral McCain reported to Admiral Ghormley that his planes would begin a search 2 days before attack day so as to insure the detection of any enemy entering the Coral Sea east of 158° E., and to cover the target area to the north as far as the range of the aircraft permitted. As scout planes moved to successive advanced bases, he said, the coverage would increase in extent. He suggested that SOUWESPAC aircraft be requested to cover approaches to Coral Sea and target area by search west of 158° E. to the maximum extent of their ability. His scouted area, he said, overlapped an average of 120 miles west of that meridian for the sake of increased effectiveness.
This suggestion proved satisfactory to General MacArthur, and he agreed that for 2 days preceding the attack and for 4 days afterward the SOUWESPAC air forces would search water areas to the limit of range southeast of line Madang-Kapingamarangi Islands and northwest of the line of Tagula Island-easternmost point of New Georgia Island, thence along 158° E., paying particular attention to entrances to the Coral Sea from the north and east. His aircraft, he said, would be prohibited, beginning 2 days before the attack, from operating east of 158° E.
Admiral McCain, in concurring in this plan, reported to Admiral Ghormley that his B-17s would cover the southeast side of Tagula
Island-New Georgia. This joint search proved completely successful, at least through the approach to and landing on Tulagi and Guadalcanal, since at no time during this period were our ships subjected to attack by enemy ships or planes. It is interesting to note that through this final exchange of dispatches between the two area commanders, the dividing line between their two areas was in effect changed from 159° E. to 158° E.
As the result of the arrangements, the air attack on Tulagi and Guadalcanal actually began a week before our ships sighted the two islands. On July 25th Admiral McCain issued his operation order for the shore-based Navy and Army planes within his command. Task Force MIKE consisted of the following:
21 Patrol Planes (PBY-5)
1 Patrol Plane (PBY-5A)
38 Pursuit Planes (P-39)
6 Bombers (Hudson, Royal New Zealand Air Force)4
27 Heavy Bombers (B-17)5
10 Medium Bombers (B-26)
16 Fighters (F4F-3P)6
9 patrol Planes (PBY-5)
3 Patrol Planes (Singapores, RNZAF)
12 Bombers (Hudsons, RNZAF)
9 Bombers (Vincents, RNZAF)
12 Medium Bombers (B-26)
8 Heavy Bombers (B-17)
This force had the responsibility of, first, conducting normal scouting operations and, second, covering the ships' approach to the Tulagi-Guadalcanal area. For these purposes Admiral McCain organized it in the following manner:
Task Group MIKE-ONE--Col. Clyde Rich (AC), USA, Sixty-ninth Bombardment Squadron, New Zealand Hudson Squadron, Sixty-seventh Pursuit Squadron, and two PBY planes. This group was directed to search sectors northwest from Plane Des Gaiacs, in central New Caledonia, to a depth of 400 miles, to conduct antisubmarine patrols and provide antisubmarine protection to incoming and outgoing vessels as might be required.
Task Group MIKE-TWO--Col. L.G. Saunders (AC), USA, Eleventh Bombardment Group. This group was directed to maintain daily search of the southern Solomons and their western waters, track important enemy contacts, and execute air attacks on enemy objectives as directed. This group was to base initially one squadron at Plaine Des Gaiacs, two squadrons in the Efate-Espiritu Santo area, and one squadron in reserve at Nandi in the Fijis. It was to establish group headquarters in the Curtiss.
Task Group MIKE-THREE--Comdr. Maurice E. Browder, USN, U.S.S. Curtiss (flagship) with attached patrol planes. This group was ordered to proceed with the Curtiss to Segond Channel, Espiritu Santo, escorted by the McFarland, to arrive 3 days before the attack on the Solomons. In the several days preceding Dog-Day, planes from this group were to operate from Espiritu Santo, Noumea, and Havannah Harbor (Efate), searching sectors south and east of the Solomons.
Task Group MIKE-FOUR--Comdr. Joseph L. Kane, USN, the McFarland, with attached patrol planes. This group was directed to proceed with the Curtiss as far as Espiritu Santo, and then move to Ndeni in the Santa Cruz Islands, whence it would search a sector north and east of Guadalcanal.
Task Group MIKE-FIVE--Comdr. Norman R. Hitchcock, USN, the Mackinac, with attached patrol planes. This group was directed to proceed 3 days before the attack to Maramasike Estuary on the east coast of Malaita and search a sector to the northeast.
Task Group MIKE-SIX--Maj. Harold W. Bauer, USMC, VMF squadron 212, VS Squadron D-14. This group was directed to provide three observation planes for inshore antisubmarine patrol in the vicinity of Segond Channel, Espiritu Santo. It was further ordered to operate with Task Group MIKE-SEVEN in defense of Efate and Espiritu Santo under the commanding general at Efate.
Task Group MIKE-SEVEN--Lt. Col. John N. Hart, USMC, VMO Squadron 251. This group was ordered to provide all possible service to bombardment aviation temporarily based at Espiritu Santo, and to cooperate with Task Group MIKE-SIX in the defense of the New Hebrides generally.
Patrol planes were ordered to carry a full allowance of machine-gun ammunition and four depth bombs, while bombardment aircraft on reconnaissance flights were to carry full allowances of machine-gun ammunition and such delay fused bombs as were practicable. All planes were
ordered to track enemy surface forces discovered, using radar when available, in accord with rules explained in an annex. Army-Navy joint communication procedure was declared effective, and aircraft were instructed to maintain radio silence except (a) in emergency, (b) to transmit information of the enemy, (c) for tactical purposes over the target area. Aviation gasoline and ammunition were made available in all tenders and at all land plane bases, and by arrangement with the Commander Naval Unit at Efate, about 25,000 gallons of aviation gasoline would be delivered in drums at Graciosa Bay, Ndeni, for Task Group MIKE-FOUR prior to 2 days before the attack, and additional gasoline and provision would be provided later.
Table of Contents * Previous Chapter (6) * Next Chapter (8)
[>4] Additional 12 Hudsons expected from New Zealand.
[>5] Noumea-Espiritu Santo-Efate area.
To Espiritu Santo when landing strip completed. | <urn:uuid:8f883f0c-43e6-4939-9eab-7ad6128cae4c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USN-CN-Solomons/USN-CN-Solomons-7.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396222.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00123-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94507 | 2,028 | 2.984375 | 3 |
As the East Coast of the United States awakes to devastation in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, IHS Global Insight has produced a preliminary evaluation of the macroeconomic impact of the superstorm.
Hurricane Sandy: Monster Storm Just In Time for Halloween
Category 1 Hurricane Sandy has now become the largest tropical system recorded in the Atlantic measuring around 900 miles across – covering an area close to one and a half times the size of Texas. According to the National Weather Service, Hurricane Sandy was reinforced by two cold fronts from the north and west transforming it into a post-tropical superstorm (i.e. nor’easter) with heavy rains, snow and gusting winds as it moved up the Eastern coast.
National Macroeconomic Impact Versus Regional Impact
Early estimates of potentialinfrastructure damagescurrently stand around $10 billion of insured damages and about twice as much, or $20 billion, in terms of total damages. This would put Sandy on par with Irene in terms of total infrastructure damage estimated around $15 billion. However, with Sandy being a much larger storm, it is likely to end up causing more flooding damage than its 2011 peer which would increase total damage estimates.
In addition to infrastructure damage, Sandy has forced the idling of about 70% of the East Coast’s oilrefineries. This does not bode well for the supply of refined oil products as capacity was already quite tight prior to the shutdowns. We are likely to see an accumulation of crude supply and a shortage of refined products in the coming days which will inevitably put upward pressure on gasoline prices. Already, on Monday the November reformulated gasoline blendstock for oxygenate blending (RBOB) gasoline futures price had increased.
Finally, Sandy looks likely to result in importantdisruptions to business activityas it hit the East coast on a Monday (versus a Sunday for Irene in 2011). The commercial shutdown of the East Coast is likely to result in gross domestic product losses that may outweigh infrastructure damages. And, while some of these losses will be offset by ex-ante “preparation” sales as well as clean-up, repair and reconstruction activity – thus lessening the “observable” GDP growth impact in the fourth quarter – part of the loss in economic activity is permanent (for example spending at restaurants).
Combining all of the above disruptions from Sandy, early estimates point toward total economic losses of around $30-$50 billion.
The region affected by Hurricane Sandy will be similar to the one affected by Hurricane Irene in 2011 – a region stretching across 15 states on the East Coast with a gross regional product of around $3 trillion. Assuming the total economic losses are around $30 billion to $50 billion that would represent losses equivalent to 1.0% to 1.7% of gross regional product (GRP) for the states affected.
This would be larger than the damages from Hurricane Irene which represented about 0.5% of GRP for the 13 most states affected, but it would be much less than Hurricane Katrina, which caused around $120 billion in damages, amounting to 9.6% of gross regional product for the states most impacted – Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
On a national scale, $30 billion to $50 billion in economics losses would represent about 0.2% to 0.3% of nominal GDP. Part of these losses will eventually be made up by reconstruction activity, but it would be naïve to put forward the view that a hurricane is in some sense a stimulus for the economy. There's no guarantee that reconstruction activity will be extra activity, on top of what would otherwise have occurred, rather than a substitute for that activity.
In the private sector, insurance will cover some of the reconstruction costs, but not all. Other reconstruction may take place at the expense of costs pared elsewhere, or simply may not be done at all. And even the reconstruction covered by insurance is not a "free lunch", since it comes out of insurers' profits and perhaps could lead to higher insurance premiums.
The effect on growth for the fourth quarter will not be catastrophic but might still be noticeable, especially in an economy with little momentum anyway. Suppose that the affected regions lose just 25% of their overall output for two days that is not recoverable later. That would knock about $25 billion annualized ($6 billion actual) off GDP, and could take as much as 0.6 percentage points off annualized fourth-quarter real GDP growth rate.
IHS Global Insight will continue to monitor the storm damage, and we will update our thinking as damage estimates become firmer.
Better Safe Than Sorry
Although it is hard to gauge the precise estimate of current and future damages from Hurricane Sandy, the superstorm is likely to cause severe infrastructure damage and has already disrupted business activity. Many homes in flood-prone areas along the coast were ordered to evacuate, thousands of flights have been cancelled and many public transportation services have been closed. In addition, numerous schools and businesses were shut down while the U.S. securities industry canceled equity trading on all markets on October 29 and October 30 – the first shutdown of the New York Stock Exchange since 9/11, and the first 2-day shutdown for weather since 1888. Finally, numerous refineries and a couple of nuclear facilities along the East Coast were either shut down or run at lower capacity.
President Obama has asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate efforts with states affected by the Hurricane, and he has signed emergency declarations for New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the District of Columbia
A Look At Prior Hurricanes
While it is still early to give a full accounting of the cost of Hurricane Sandy, IHS Global Insight has looked back at previous hurricanes to provide a range of macroeconomic impacts.
The current trajectory of Hurricane Sandy has some similarities to that of Hurricane Irene that pummeled the East Coast in August 2011. Irene left behind it a path of destruction worth about $15 billion – or, about 0.1% of nominal GDP in 2011 – across 13 states. But, while the livelihood of many households and businesses was affected by this storm, a couple of factors played a key role in minimizing its final impact. First, the Hurricane rapidly weakened to a tropical storm as it moved up the coast. Second, the storm made landfall on a weekend, hence reducing business disruptions (although some business activity was affected during the following week by flooding, power losses, and travel disruptions). Unfortunately, none of these mitigating factors look likely for Hurricane Sandy, which is also a bigger storm – so Sandy’s damages should be larger than Irene’s.
Hurricane Katrina hit the coast of southeast Louisiana about seven years ago, on August 29th 2005, as a Category 3 hurricane with winds around 120 miles per hour and a storm surge close to 28-feet in Louisiana. Damage was extensive along the Gulf coast from Florida to Texas, with the most severe impact taking place in New Orleans, Louisiana where the hurricane surge protection system failed to contain the storm surge. Katrina is considered one of the most destructive Atlantic hurricanes of all times in the United States with total property damage estimated around $120 billion, or about 0.95% of GDP in 2005. And, with a death toll of 1,836 people, it was the deadliest hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane. Fortunately, authorities have been proactive in preparing for this superstorm mandating evacuations of risk zones, reinforcing storm surge systems and declaring a state of emergency in many states. This will hopefully limit infrastructure damages and casualties in the wake of Sandy.
The storm has put a damper on the presidential campaigns of President Obama and Governor Romney, and has produced a very strange situation where the election, just days away, has been temporarily driven out of the news. Both candidates have had to cancel scheduled campaign stops in key swing states including events in Ohio, Florida and Virginia. This adds another twist in a race that looks pretty tight. Both will want to be very careful not to appear to be trying to make political capital out of a natural disaster. | <urn:uuid:c19988b8-790e-4d28-9154-c71fca0e45d2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://press.ihs.com/press-release/country-industry-forecasting/hurricane-sandy-monster-storm-just-time-halloween | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00053-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960807 | 1,667 | 2.65625 | 3 |
- freely available
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2010, 7(4), 1694-1707; doi:10.3390/ijerph7041694
Abstract: It has been well-established that some adolescents diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at increased risk for cigarette smoking. Current research on the genetic basis of this association could ultimately translate into genetic tests capable of identifying smoking-prone adolescents with ADHD. In this study we examined 81 ADHD affected adolescents’ (age 13–21) interest in genetic testing for nicotine addiction susceptibility. Fifty-seven percent of adolescents indicated a fair amount of interest or more in testing. Most adolescents indicated that the personal information revealed from testing would be either useful (29%) or interesting (37%). Implications for genetically-informed smoking prevention and cessation interventions in high risk adolescents with ADHD are discussed.
According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, approximately 27.6% of the U.S. population aged 12 years and older engages in tobacco use at least once per month . Over three million of these users are minors—or roughly 12% of America’s adolescents . Cigarettes are the most common form of tobacco use, and roughly 20% of teenagers currently smoke cigarettes . Given the consequences of smoking, tobacco use is a major public health concern. It remains the leading cause of preventable deaths, responsible for at least 400,000 deaths annually, and is estimated to cost $82 million/year in lost productivity . Most adult smokers began smoking when they were adolescents . Thus, it is crucial to identify risk factors for smoking, and provide education, counseling, and interventions to prevent and/or stop smoking in adolescents who are most at risk .
One group of adolescents that has been identified to be at high risk for smoking is adolescents diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) [6,7]. ADHD is a neurobehavioral syndrome that begins during childhood and affects approximately 3–5% of children and adolescents in the U.S. . ADHD is characterized by symptoms of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity and impairment in the areas of home, school, and/or social functioning . The increased risk for adolescents with ADHD to become smokers has been well-established through several studies. According to Lambert and Hartsough , by age 17 approximately 47% of adolescents diagnosed with ADHD report daily smoking as compared to 24% of adolescents without a diagnosis of ADHD. In another study, adolescents who display clinically significant symptoms of inattention, a major symptom of ADHD, are almost three times as likely as healthy adolescents to be current smokers .
Though the cause for this association remains unknown, it has been hypothesized that symptoms of ADHD, such as impulsivity, predispose adolescents to engage in a number of risky behaviors, including smoking . Concomitant symptoms of ADHD, such as inattention, are also proposed to maintain smoking behavior due to the fact that nicotine has remediating/psychostimulating effects on attention, arousal, and concentration [6,12]. Indeed, preliminary studies with adults suggest that individuals who have been diagnosed with ADHD have less success in smoking cessation programs than adults without ADHD . Despite this evidence, the only known smoking prevention program directly tailored to adolescents with ADHD was pharmacologically-based and proved ineffective . At this time there is a need for more advanced (i.e., targeted and tailored) smoking interventions that address the biological, psychological, and social aspects of smoking initiation and cessation .
Numerous twin studies demonstrate that approximately 60%–70% of the variance in nicotine addiction may be attributable to inherited factors [16,17]. Thus, a burgeoning area of research has focused on both candidate gene approaches and genome-wide association study (GWAS) approaches to provide a more comprehensive perspective on the biological propensity for nicotine addiction. Briefly, candidate gene studies examine single genes that are hypothesized to influence the development of health concerns by contributing to a particular disease phenotype . Several candidate genes have been proposed to be linked to smoking uptake and nicotine dependence. The impact of the cytochrome P450 CYP2A6 gene has gained prominence in the literature due to extensive replication studies [19,20]. Individuals with the wild genotype of CYP2A6 tend to metabolize nicotine faster, are more likely to be dependent on nicotine, and are more likely to relapse after an attempt to quit smoking . Other genes shown to be associated with earlier smoking initiation and nicotine dependence include genes that code for nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nACHr) subunits, the dopamine transporter gene (SLC6A3), the dopamine D3 and D4 receptor genes (DRD3, DRD4), and polymorphisms in a nicotine metabolizing enzyme gene CYP2A6 .
Whereas candidate gene studies focus on specific genes, GWAS examine the genome as a whole to assess the impact of multiple single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on health outcomes [22,23]. GWAS are usually exploratory in nature and advantageous in tobacco control research because they can provide information about previously studied genes and SNPs as well as novel genes and SNPs that have not yet been identified . Furthermore, GWAS have the potential to clarify the interaction of genetic and environmental influences, such as low socioeconomic status, peer smoking, and maternal smoking, on smoking behavior . Several GWAS have identified SNPs that may be related to cigarette smoking behaviors. Although a complete review of those works is well-beyond the scope of this article, several intriguing findings are noteworthy. For example, there is preliminary evidence that polymorphisms in the CHRNA3-CHRNA5 nicotinic receptor subunit gene cluster are related to cigarette use per day , and in the gene NRXN1 are related to nicotine dependence [25,26]. SNPs that play a role in glutamate (a neurotransmitter) signaling, such as in genes GRIN2B, GRIN2A, GRIK2, and GRM8, are elevated after nicotine administration, suggesting they may affect vulnerability to smoking initiation and maintenance . Specific SNPs have also been associated with success in stopping smoking, including those in genes ATP1BL1, CSMD1, DDX10, DSCAM, FLJ22746, RPL21P12, and SLC9A9 [27–30]. Studies indicate that the SNPs/variants for CNTN6, CSMD1, LRRN6C, and SEMA3C are associated with vulnerability to substance addiction as well [31,32].
One outgrowth of these discoveries may be the advent of predictive genetic tests of nicotine addiction susceptibility . Genetic testing for nicotine addiction susceptibility would allow health care providers to identify those adolescents at greatest risk for smoking [34,35]. Given the high rate of smoking among adolescents with ADHD, genetic testing may offer an additional strategy to reduce smoking risk by motivating adolescent behavior change . Genetic information could help target adolescents with ADHD who are at high risk for smoking and enable health care providers to tailor interventions to address both the adolescent’s genetic and neurobehavioral predispositions to smoke (i.e., by inhibiting genes that make smoking more likely and addressing symptoms of ADHD such as impulsivity) [37,38]. Adolescents who are knowledgeable about their genetic nicotine addiction susceptibility may be more motivated to refrain from smoking or make an effort to stop smoking. Physicians support the notion that knowledge of personal nicotine addiction susceptibility could motivate patients to quit smoking and indicate interest in using genetic testing to match patients to optimized smoking cessation strategies . Pharmacogenetic studies have begun elucidating which persons may have the most success with nicotine replacement treatments for stopping smoking , and this promising approach could be adapted for primary prevention as well.
Preliminary evidence suggests adolescents are interested in learning about their genetic risk for a wide range of health conditions. Studies on genetic testing for several health concerns, including adult-onset breast cancer, Tay-Sachs disease, hypercholesterolemia, osteoporosis, hemachromatosis, heart disease, and nicotine addiction, show that a majority of adolescents are interested in receiving genetic information regarding their personal risk [36,42–45]. These studies indicate that adolescents with a family member who has the target condition (such as breast cancer), or who are members of ethnic groups with a higher risk of a disorder (such as Tay-Sachs disease), and/or who perceive the condition to be severe tend to be most interested in genetic testing .
With respect to nicotine addiction susceptibility testing, Tercyak and colleagues found that approximately 62% of general population adolescents attending routine medical appointments would be interested in this form of genetic testing if it became available. Interest tended to be associated with higher socioeconomic status and better school performance. When asked to clarify reasons for their level of interest, 30% of adolescents wanted the information because it would directly affect their efforts to prevent or stop smoking. This suggests that nicotine addiction susceptibility test results may be a motivator for adolescents to alter their smoking intentions and practices. However, although this study provided significant information regarding the attitudes of adolescents in the general population, the sample did not include adolescents diagnosed with ADHD. It is crucial to assess the attitudes of adolescents with ADHD towards nicotine addiction susceptibility testing in particular because they are at increased smoking risk.
The purpose of the present study was to determine the interest of adolescents with ADHD in nicotine addiction susceptibility testing and to clarify adolescents’ reasons for their level of interest in such testing. It also sought to identify if adolescent smoking behavior was positively related to interest. Consistent with the results of the Tercyak and colleagues’ study , we hypothesized that the majority of adolescents with ADHD would be interested in this form of predictive genetic testing. We approached this issue by sampling affected adolescents presenting for clinical care of their ADHD symptoms, and administering a self-reported behavioral assessment of key constructs of interest (see Experimental Section for complete details). Data were analyzed descriptively by employing univariate statistical procedures, followed by a bivariate analysis of the relationship between adolescent smoking behavior and interest in genetic testing.
2. Results and Discussion
2.1. Interest in Genetic Testing
Most adolescents in this sample expressed interest in genetic testing (see Figure 1). Fifty-seven percent of the sample indicated a fair amount of interest or more.
2.2. Reasons for Interest in Genetic Testing
The reasons that adolescents provided for their level of interest in genetic testing were classified into five categories based on their indication that participation in testing would be: (1) useful, as it would likely affect their smoking decision making and smoking behavior, (2) generally interesting, but unlikely to impact upon decision making about smoking or smoking behavior, (3) irrelevant, (4) unimportant, or (5) other. The coding scheme achieved high inter-rater reliability among the two independent raters (Cohen’s κ = 0.98); any discrepancies in coding were resolved by consensus.
Out of the overall sample of 87 participants, 68 (78%) adolescents provided clarifying information regarding the reason for the strength of their interest in genetic nicotine addiction susceptibility testing (see Table 1). There were no differences between participants who did and did not elaborate upon their responses based on age or gender; however, non-Caucasian adolescents were less likely to elaborate than were Caucasian adolescents (62% vs. 85%), χ2 (1) = 6.00, p = 0.014. Most adolescents indicated that the personal information to be gained from genetic testing would be either useful (n = 20, 29%) and would directly affect smoking cessation/prevention, or interesting (n = 25, 37%) and would indirectly affect smoking cessation/prevention. Fewer adolescents reported that the personal information to be gained from genetic testing would be either irrelevant (n = 9, 13%) due to their self-proclaimed nonsmoking status, or otherwise unimportant (n = 12, 18%).
2.3. Association with Smoking Behavior
Finally, we explored whether or not interest in nicotine addiction susceptibility testing was associated with whether or not the adolescent with ADHD had ever smoked cigarettes. A Student’s t-test was used to compare the mean scores of ever smokers (M = 2.59, SD = 1.07) vs. never smokers (M = 2.70, SD = 1.13) and this result was not significant, t (85) = −0.46, p = 0.64. Additional independent variables, such as participant age, gender, race, and income, were examined as well. However, the findings were less robust than those presented herein (data not shown).
2.4. Summary and Interpretation
This study investigated the extent to which adolescents diagnosed with ADHD would be interested in genetic testing for nicotine addiction susceptibility if it were available and offered to them. It also assessed adolescents’ reasons for their level of interest and other key variables. Results indicated that most adolescents would be interested in nicotine addiction susceptibility testing and that the information to be gained from genetic testing would either directly or indirectly affect adolescents’ smoking cessation/prevention efforts--independent of their cigarette smoking history. Adolescents’ expressed desire to know their risk for nicotine addiction was related to their desire to lead a smoke-free life (e.g., “If I was at a greater risk for becoming addicted [to cigarettes] I’d go out of my way to avoid the temptation.”) or curiosity about personal health information (e.g., “I would want to know and be aware of anything that could happen to me.”).
The current study’s findings are similar to two previous studies reporting that adolescents in the general population and those coping with a chronic disease were interested in nicotine addiction susceptibility testing [36,45]. The current study is unprecedented in that it assessed interest in genetic testing for nicotine addiction susceptibility among adolescents with ADHD—a population that is at high risk for smoking cigarettes. To our knowledge, few works have assessed genetic testing interest among children and adolescents who were at high risk for a specific health concern (i.e., heart disease or breast cancer) . Furthermore, only one other study investigated the potential impact of genetic testing on specific adolescent health behavior . The distinctive information provided by the current study is that many high risk adolescents with ADHD are interested in genetic susceptibility testing, and believe the results of this genetic test would affect their smoking behavior. This was true regardless of previous smoking behavior, indicating that genetic susceptibility testing may have an impact on both smoking uptake and smoking cessation. The results provide early/preliminary support for continuing research regarding genetic biomarkers for risk of nicotine addiction in high priority populations.
The importance of increasing our knowledge regarding nicotine addiction susceptibility biomarkers cannot be overstated. Research has consistently demonstrated that adolescents with ADHD are more likely to smoke cigarettes than healthy adolescents . Symptoms of ADHD (i.e., impulsivity and inattention) have been proposed to impact the likelihood that an adolescent will try cigarettes and become addicted to nicotine [6,12]. However, there may be additional predisposing factors that have not yet been discovered, such as common genetic etiology for both ADHD and nicotine addiction. Increased information regarding the underlying genetic aspects of these two disorders could potentially provide a greater understanding of the mechanisms leading to both ADHD and nicotine addiction. This may one day translate into genetic tests capable of identifying adolescents with ADHD who are prone to developing smoking habits.
There are potential long-term clinical implications for the identification and use of nicotine addiction susceptibility biomarkers as well. Extensive evidence indicates that pharmacological interventions are a key component of the treatment of ADHD symptoms and individuals diagnosed with ADHD have less success in smoking cessation programs than individuals without ADHD . The identification of addiction susceptibility biomarkers may allow researchers to develop pharmacological treatments that concurrently address both ADHD symptoms and nicotine addiction risk. Furthermore, health care providers may be able to use genetic screening to tailor interventions and optimize care in order to address adolescents’ symptoms from a more comprehensive biopsychosocial approach. Given the staggering number of annual deaths and millions of dollars per year of lost productivity related to tobacco use and the high risk for nicotine addiction among individuals with ADHD, the potential benefits of nicotine addiction-related genetic research are vast.
Despite the possible gains of nicotine addiction susceptibility testing, there are also recognized caveats. As noted earlier, many questions about the relationship between ADHD and nicotine addiction remain unanswered, especially those examining causal mechanisms of action. It would be prudent for researchers to continue to examine this relationship, with an eye toward common genetic and/or environmental etiologies for both traits, both alone and in combination with one another. Furthermore, genetic susceptibility testing is not a panacea for future health concerns. There is scant evidence that providing individuals with information about risk biomarkers reduces smoking behavior, and there may be unforeseen consequences to such testing. For example, individuals who are known to be at normal risk of nicotine addiction may be encouraged to smoke or deterred from seeking cessation programs . Although unlikely, this possibility should be explored in future studies. Alternatively, individuals with a higher risk of smoking may believe that smoking prevention or cessation programs will not be successful because they are “destined” to be addicted to nicotine. Additionally, genetic testing for a disorder is not as clear-cut as it may have once seemed. Many genes are pleiotropic in nature, meaning they influence multiple phenotypic traits. Genes that are associated with the dopamine transporter system, one of several predominant gene systems being studied with respect to nicotine addiction, are related to other mental health conditions as well . Information about nicotine addiction risk or ADHD could reveal information about other potential health outcomes. Finally, there are a variety of ethical considerations as well, such as the stigma that may result from a societal view of nicotine addiction as a medical problem relative to other addictive disorders . Thus, researchers and health care providers need to consider an array of ramifications prior to using genetic screening with clinical populations. Continued research about the consequences of genetic testing is warranted.
3. Experimental Section
Demographic characteristics of the 87 participants in this study are provided in Table 2. Participants were 87 healthy adolescents between the ages of 13 and 21 (M = 16.64, SD = 2.17) who had been diagnosed with ADHD; 43% of the sample was male. Participants were recruited for this study upon attending a general medical check-up at an adolescent medicine clinic in an urban ambulatory care center. Adolescents were eligible for this study if they were: (1) within the specified age range, (2) able to read and comprehend English, (3) able to provide valid informed consent/assent, (4) in good general health as determined by parental or self-report, and (5) had a confirmed diagnosis of ADHD. ADHD diagnoses were determined by parental report with a structured interview , clinician report based on standard psychiatric diagnostic criteria , and medical record review. Participants’ current symptoms were confirmed using an ADHD behavior rating scale .
Potential participants were screened by research assistants who attended the adolescent medicine clinic at predetermined times. Research assistants directly approached adolescents who were 18 years of age and older. Parents/legal guardians of adolescents who were under 18 years of age were approached by research assistants prior to speaking with the adolescent. Once written consent/assent was obtained, participants completed a self-administered behavioral survey, provided a DNA sample in order for genes hypothesized to relate to smoking behavior to be isolated, and underwent a biochemical verification test of recent cigarette smoking (exhaled carbon monoxide). Participants were informed that they would not receive the results of their genetic test because clinical genetic testing for nicotine addiction susceptibility is not yet available. Participants received a small incentive as an acknowledgement of their time. There was an approximate 88% participation rate in the study, and the majority of adolescents who declined to participate did so due to a reported lack of time.
Demographic variables: age, gender, and race data were collected from each participant. Participants’ home address was used to create an area-based socioeconomic measure (via conversion of zip code to median household income [a mid-point division of income into equal groups]) . This approach is commonly used in behavioral epidemiologic investigations designed to understand multilevel influences on clinical health outcomes (e.g., environmental resources, risk and protective factors) .
Smoking status: participants’ smoking status was determined by their response to several standard epidemiological questions regarding experimentation with smoking, number of cigarettes smoked throughout one’s life, and the amount of time that had passed since the participant last smoked .
Interest in nicotine addiction susceptibility testing: the dependent variable for this study was participants’ interest in a hypothetical genetic test for nicotine addiction susceptibility. Participants’ responded to the following item on a 4-point Likert scale (1 = Not at all to 4 = A lot): “Someday, scientists may be able to predict who is at greater risk for growing up to become addicted to smoking, based on a person’s genes (their DNA). If this information were available, how strongly would you be interested in learning about your genetic risk for developing a smoking habit?” An open-ended question clarifying the rationale of the adolescents’ interest in genetic testing followed the item. These responses were then content-coded by two independent raters using a previously developed coding scheme .
There are several limitations to this study. First, the current investigation’s sample size was modest and affected our ability to conduct additional statistical analyses. Second, the majority of adolescents in this sample were Caucasian and from moderately-resourced families. The extent to which adolescents of other backgrounds might be interested in genetic testing for nicotine addiction susceptibility is not known; further study with more representative samples is also necessary. Third, adolescents who participated in this study consented to provide a DNA sample to identify genes related to nicotine addiction. This may have led to positive bias among participants’ responses to the primary outcome of interest. And finally, a single-item measure was used to assess adolescents’ interest in genetic testing. It is advised that future studies expand on this approach. Despite these limitations, the work provides novel information about a population that is well-documented to be at increased risk for nicotine addiction. These preliminary data may lead to further research regarding adolescents with ADHD, nicotine addiction, and genetic testing.
Over the last decade, interest in, and applications for genetic testing have expanded greatly . The human genome can now be sequenced and specific markers for future health disorders are rapidly being identified. The practice of medicine is increasingly becoming personalized, with greater emphasis on risk prediction and targeted and tailored interventions [55,56]. The present study provides preliminary evidence that adolescents with ADHD, a high risk population for developing nicotine addiction, are interested in genetic screening if available, suggesting that it would be prudent for researchers to continue researching genetic biomarkers for nicotine addiction susceptibility and ADHD. This research has the potential to provide novel information about the relationship of ADHD and nicotine addiction and may lead to better identification of adolescents who are at high risk for smoking and enhanced smoking prevention/cessation programs. Presently, it will be important for researchers, health professionals, and public health specialists to consider both the positive and negative ramifications of genetic testing and proceed with caution. Future studies regarding the ethical implications of genetic testing should be conducted prior to incorporating this approach into health care interventions.
This study was supported in part by P.H.S. grant no. CA 091831 from the National Cancer Institute to Kenneth P. Tercyak. The authors thank the research assistants, clinic staff, and those who participated in the study.
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|Interesting||Indication of a general/nonspecific interest in, or curiosity about, personal information that would be learned as a result of participation in testing without any expressed behavioral intent (e.g., altruistic, ‘a test/result is good to know for the future,’ ‘curious for future generations’)||25||37|
|Useful||Indication of a specific interest in, or curiosity about, personal information that would be learned as a result of participation in testing with the expressed intent of preventing smoking behavior or stopping smoking (e.g., risk avoidance, active maintenance of current/future health)||20||29|
|Irrelevant||Indication that personal information that would be learned as a result of participation in testing is irrelevant due to self-proclaimed nonsmoking status (e.g., ‘a test/result doesn’t matter because I will never smoke’)||9||13|
|Unimportant||Indication that personal information that would be learned as a result of participation in testing is generally unimportant, uninteresting, or insignificant (e.g., ‘a test/result would not affect my decisions,’ ‘it is not useful’)||12||18|
|Other||Miscellaneous (e.g., references to familial cancer, ‘just because,’ other inexplicable responses)||2||3|
|Variable/level||Mean (SD) or n (%)|
|Age, in years||16.64 (2.17)|
|African American||14 (16)|
|Income, in $||72,452 (23,404)|
© 2010 by the authors; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). | <urn:uuid:dee244f6-9542-4790-a4e9-e6e7424d8854> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/7/4/1694/htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394987.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00157-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903275 | 9,090 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Dr. Andrew Williams discusses how the power of robotics and artificial intelligence can improve the world.
Williams, Grad ’95, is John P. Raynor, S.J., Distinguished Chair and director of the Humanoid Engineering and Intelligent Robotics Lab in the College of Engineering. His current research focus is on using those technologies to address childhood obesity.
MM: You began using robots as a teaching tool early on. Why robots?
AW: Before I became a professor, I wanted to learn more about software but also artificial intelligence, which is getting a computer to think, reason, act and learn like a human being. When I became a faculty member, I became fascinated with using robotics as a teaching tool. Robotics is hands-on, and it provides a way to keep students who have different learning styles engaged.
MM: Aren’t robots just toys?
AW: In 2007, Bill Gates wrote an article in Scientific American titled “A Robot in Every Home.” I believe we’re not far from the day when there will be a robot in every home and every person will have a personal robot.
MM: Why focus on childhood obesity?
AW: Marquette students always want to focus on doing something to make the world a better place. I was thinking about how robots could be used to solve a social or health problem. A recent study from the University of Washington says, globally, obesity is a bigger health crisis than hunger and is the leading cause of disabilities.
MM: How can a robot fight childhood obesity?
AW: Kids think of robots as toys. We can leverage that idea of having fun. We have a prototype robot that can teach a student how to do pushups and leg stretches and sit-ups and other physical activity. Then we’ve taken the NIKE+ Fuel Band — which is an accelerometer that measures physical activity, calories, number of steps — and we’re using it to gauge the effectiveness of the human-to-robot interaction. We look forward to seeing the results and then improving the robot algorithms and trying this technology out in the community. There isn’t anyone else doing what we are with robots and wearable technology.
MM: What research is next for you?
AW: I’m interested in robot ethics and how to help our society develop policies to ensure robots will be used ethically to benefit people. This issue has been highlighted with the use of drones, which are human-controlled robots that are being used for national security. There are philosophical, technical and moral issues that need to be addressed as these robots become more sophisticated and intelligent. I also want to make sure there is an ethical voice for minorities and under-resourced communities related to robotics. I want Marquette students to be part of the next generation of technical leaders who are thinking about ethical concerns related to new technology to promote policies that are beneficial to everyone. — JMM
Blackmoney.com named Williams one of its 50 Most Important African-Americans in Technology.
Andrew Williams offers more insights in his book, Out of the Box: Building Robots, Transforming Lives, and the blog on his website, andrewbwilliams.com. | <urn:uuid:e641c94f-744b-4088-a908-117165fae164> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.marquette.edu/magazine/recent.php?subaction=showfull&id=1372804203&archive=&start_from=&ucat=9 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396538.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00001-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955685 | 657 | 3.203125 | 3 |
This true-color satellite image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite on July 14, 2014. Actively burning areas, detected by MODISís thermal bands, are outlined in red.
The Great Slave Lake, just southwest of center, is nearly obscured by the heavy smoke pouring off the multiple fires. To the northeast of Great Slave Lake, a circle of red hotpots marks fires burning east of Yellowknife. An additional circle of hotspots can be found northwest of Yellowknife. High rising smoke appears to remain under the layer of bright white cloud drifting over the scene.
According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center, on July 14 there were 175 fires burning over 842,331 hectares. A low winter snowpack leading to reduced soil moisture, a hot spring, and heavy winds have combined to create a significant fire season across much of Canada this year. | <urn:uuid:ab67cbe7-2a0e-4726-ba25-33b986727e4d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://modarch.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2014-07-26 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00185-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937812 | 186 | 3.125 | 3 |
Dynamometer Test Facilities
Dynamometers enable industry and testing agencies to verify the performance and reliability of wind turbines drivetrain prototypes and commercial machines. Designs are tested by simulating operating field conditions in a laboratory environment. In a typical dynamometer test, a powerful motor replaces the rotor and blades of a wind turbine. Wind turbine dynamometer testing focuses on the mechanical and electrical power-producing systems of a wind turbine including generators, gearboxes, power converters, bearings, brakes, lubrication, cooling, and control systems.
The National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) offers wind industry engineers a unique opportunity to conduct a wide range of tests. Its custom-designed dynamometers can test wind turbine systems from 1 kilowatt (kW) to 5 megawatts (MW).
The illustration of the NWTC 2.5-MW dynamometer (right) shows how a wind turbine drivetrain is coupled and tested. The test turbine is rigidly fixed to a foundation and coupled through its low speed main shaft to the dynamometer. Rotational energy supplied by the dynamometer is converted to electrical energy by the turbine's generator. Electrical power generated by the operating turbine is returned to the dynamometer through the local electrical grid. Depending on test objectives, non-torque loading actuators may be utilized to apply large thrust, bending, and shear loads normally generated by the turbine's rotor.
NWTC Dynamometer Test Capabilities
Dynamometers are an effective means by which new designs can be validated because the "wind" input into the turbine can be simulated without waiting for nature-driven events to occur. During steady state, or "static" testing, a series of speed/torque points along the turbine's power curve are imposed by the dynamometer, for a fixed period of time, to evaluate mechanical and electrical performance. Points outside the turbine's normal operating range can be selected to assess response to extreme events or to conduct Highly Accelerated Life Tests (HALT). By intentionally overloading a turbine in a HALT test, a lifetime of wear and tear is applied during a reasonable period of testing. To gain a better understanding of a turbine's mechanical, electrical, and control system response in real-world conditions, "model-in-the-loop" techniques are employed to replace the rotor, tower, pitch, and yaw systems with computer simulations operating in real time.
The NWTC's new 5-MW dynamometer can be connected either directly to the grid or to a controllable gird interface (CGI), providing system engineers with a better understanding of how wind turbines react to grid disturbances. Get more facts on the dynamometer and watch the above video to see how it—and the CGI—work.
NWTC dynamometer facilities are available for industry users. Contact the NWTC for testing inquiries at 303-384-6900. | <urn:uuid:befb5f06-5b48-41f7-8465-3cdf4231cafb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nrel.gov/wind/facilities_dynamometer.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395621.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00155-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.888068 | 582 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Introducing Windows Azure
Cloud computing is here. Running applications and storing data on machines in an Internet-accessible data center can offer plenty of advantages. Yet wherever they run, applications are built on some kind of platform. For on-premises applications, such as those running inside an organization’s data center, this platform usually includes an operating system, some way to store data, and perhaps more. Applications running in the cloud need a similar foundation. The goal of Windows Azure is to provide this. Part of the larger Windows Azure platform, Windows Azure is a foundation for running applications and storing data in the cloud. | <urn:uuid:b14733cd-d963-4d77-a3dc-233e55010bb9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.techrepublic.com/resource-library/whitepapers/introducing-windows-azure-copy1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398628.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00094-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918716 | 125 | 2.59375 | 3 |
High-Resolution Satellite Imagery Assessment of Osh, Kyrgyzstan
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conducted a damage assessment of the city of Osh, Kyrgyzstan and surrounding neighborhood areas at the request of Amnesty International, USA (AI) in order to corroborate on the ground and news media reports of widespread burning, violence, and corresponding movements in the population. This report documents the areas of observed damage based on a satellite image collected on 18 June 2010 by DigitalGlobe’s QuickBird-2 satellite. The study area encompassed the entire city of Osh, along with its suburbs from Furkat in the east to Kizil Kishtak in the west, and from the Uzbek border in the north to Dikan Kishtak in the south (Figure One).
Figure 1: Osh, Kyrgyzstan with Areas of Observed Damage
AAAS staff began a review of satellite imagery for the Osh region after receiving reports of the conflict that began in the region around 11 June 2010. Specifically, AI was calling for the Kyrgyzstani interim government to protect its population and ethnic minorities in particular. AI reported the flight of thousands of people from clashes which erupted in the region. The deadly violence is said to have started with clashes between rival gangs of mostly Kyrgyz and Uzbek youths on 10 June and rapidly escalated into large-scale arson, looting and violent attacks, including killings, on mainly Uzbek-populated districts in Osh and later in the city of Jalal-Abad and surrounding towns and villages.
Methods and Technologies
Satellite image analysis was conducted by AAAS and undertaken at the request of Amnesty International (AI) in order to document reported widespread burning in areas of Osh, Kyrgyzstan. Unfortunately, poor weather conditions in the area prevented the collection of a high-resolution image until 18 June. This image was tasked by a group other than AAAS, but AAAS purchased the image after it was made available in the DigitalGlobe imagery archives. The other imagery source was Google Earth’s base map imagery. The relevant details for each image source can be found in Table One. AAAS employed the software packages ERDAS Imagine and ArcView for processing satellite imagery and creating geo-referenced damage assessments.
Table One: Imagery Information
|Satellite/Source||Image Date||Acquisition Time|
|QuickBird-2||18 June 2010||06:02:26|
|Google Earth (QuickBird)||15 March 2007||unknown|
While most of the city appears largely intact, where damage is present, it appears to be severe. Large swaths of buildings in the city appear to have been destroyed (Figures Two and Three). The discontinuous distribution of the destruction largely appears to follow the major east-west road in the city (Figure One), but is also found in the northern and eastern suburbs.
Figure 2A: 15 March 2007
Figure 2B: 18 June 2010
Figure 3B: 18 June 2010
A damage assessment was conducted of the destroyed areas shown in Figure One. The results for the entire study area and for individual neighborhoods are included in Table Two. It is important to note that these are damage estimates, not exact counts, as it is difficult to count structures in such a dense urban area with a high level of confidence. Damage within the study area was concentrated in five main areas, listed in Table Two. These areas cover approximately 0.66km² and have a total damage count of 1640 structures.
Table Two: Damage Assessment
|Total Area of Damage||0.66 km2|
|Total Damage Estimate||1640|
In addition, on numerous occasions the letters “SOS” appear on roadways and athletic fields throughout the city (Figure Four). The sizes of these messages are at times quite large, and their shape and orientation shows little regard for the viewing angle or perspective of ground-based observers; it is likely that many of them would be difficult to read, except from above. The total count of “SOS” messages within the study area is 116 (Figure Five), the majority of which appear in intact neighborhood areas.
Figure 4: “SOS” Signs in Osh
Consistent with on-the-ground reporting, the city of Osh and surrounding neighborhoods appear to have been substantially damaged by widespread violence that completely destroyed some neighborhoods while leaving other, adjacent ones, undamaged. The presence of many “SOS” messages painted on horizontal surfaces throughout the city, in many different sizes and orientations seems indicative of a population that is looking for outside intervention. Despite reports of large numbers of internally displaced persons (IDP) massing near the Uzbek border no evidence of this was immediately visible; it is possible that groups of refugees are located beyond the bounds of the study area. | <urn:uuid:7c4f0da5-9946-4bc5-869b-5fbb0cc6c19a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.aaas.org/page/high-resolution-satellite-imagery-assessment-osh-kyrgyzstan | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395548.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00098-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952363 | 1,004 | 2.59375 | 3 |
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Staying dedicated to exercise may help control nerve pain or peripheral neuropathy. According to one study, people who took a brisk walk for an hour or walked on a treadmill four times a week slowed how quickly their nerve damage worsened. The key is making exercise a regular part of your life with diabetes. But first, speak with your doctor to see which exercise is right for you.
Swimming or water aerobics can be gentle forms of exercise. Water supports your body, putting less pressure on feet affected by nerve pain. Yoga and tai chi may also be good choices. Their movements may help with balance and relaxation.
No high wire needed for this move — just follow the same motion. Practice walking heel to toe. Line one foot up directly in front of the other as you step forward. Leave some bend in your knees and spread out your arms to help you balance. You can even try the same thing in the reverse manner as well.
Having a good fitting pair of athletic shoes is especially important for people with diabetes. They can help you avoid foot injury. When shopping, look for a roomy toe box to prevent unwanted rubbing and blisters. On your way to exercising, pack a quick source of carbs in case your blood sugar drops. Hard candy and raisins may be good choices.
Get your heart, eyes, and feet checked out by your doctor before starting a new form of exercise. After each workout, look for injury to feet, and other areas prone to injury. When you have diabetes blisters, cracks, cuts, and scrapes should be treated with extra care to avoid infection.
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Leave this field empty | <urn:uuid:aff96afd-e9f2-465c-add8-450b4d362b93> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://diabetes.ygoy.com/2012/10/27/diabetic-neuropathy-exercises-for-diabetic-nerve-pain/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00110-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938228 | 374 | 2.515625 | 3 |
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Monday, June 27, 2016
Inherited Disorders and Birth Defects
If a normal woman with 45 chromosomes has a child with downs syndrome, this child has 46 chromosomes. How is this so?
What you describe is what happens when a parent has a balanced chromosomal translocation but passes an unbalanced translocation on to the baby.
Every cell in the body has 46 chromosomes, except eggs and sperm that have 23. Chromosomes are the structures that carry genes that tell our body how to form and how to function. When cells divide to make new cells, half the chromosomes go to one cell and the other half go to the other cell. When eggs and sperm are made they should only have 23 chromosomes each, so that when they unite at conception, the embryo gets half their chromosomes from their mother and half from their father and has the correct number of chromosomes again - 46.
Sometimes, two chromosomes will stick together and look like they are just 1 chromosome. However, the right amount of chromosome material is there and is functioning correctly. The case you are asking about – the woman “looks like” she has only 45 chromosomes, because 2 of her chromosomes are stuck together – and in the situation of Down syndrome, one of those chromosomes would be a number 21 chromosome.
When this woman becomes pregnant, she can pass on an egg that has 1 normal chromosome 21 and the chromosome that has her 2nd 21 chromosome stuck to it. When this egg is fertilized by a sperm, the pregnancy gets the mom’s normal 21, the dad’s normal 21 and the chromosome with the extra 21 chromosome attached to it. In this case, the baby “looks like” it has only 46 chromosomes, but actually has an extra chromosome 21 (the one that is stuck to another chromosome). And because the baby has an extra 21 chromosome – the baby has Down syndrome.
Importantly, if this means that a person with a balanced translocation involving a chromosome 21 has an increased chance of having more than one child with Down syndrome. It is important that these people have genetic counseling to talk about these chances and options available to them
Anne Matthews, RN, PhD
Associate Professor of Genetics
School of Medicine
Case Western Reserve University | <urn:uuid:677d15ab-d545-4ca3-a3b7-81de6e87453d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.netwellness.org/question.cfm/78604.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00130-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956235 | 498 | 3.484375 | 3 |
One has to be careful when defining temperature not to confuse it with heat. Heat is a form of energy. Temperature is something different. We could begin with a technical definition, but I would prefer to start with a question. How hot is it? The answer to this question (or a question like this) is a measurement of temperature. The hotter something is, the higher its temperature. Therefore I would like to propose the following informal definition — temperature is a measure of hotness.
Don't go looking for "hotness" in any dictionary (except maybe a slang dictionary). There is no such word. I made it up. Despite this fact, I believe that most speakers of English will understand this neologism.
Quantities in science are typically defined operationally (through the process by which they are measured) or theoretically (in terms of the theories of a specific discipline). We will begin with a theoretical definition of temperature and end with an operational definition.
Let's review what you should already know.
- A system possesses energy if it has the ability to do work.
- Energy comes in two basic forms: the kinetic energy of motion and the potential energy of position.
- Energy is conserved; which is to say, it cannot be created or destroyed. When one form of energy decreases another form must increase.
The archetypal example of this is the rock at the top of a hill. Due to its height above the bottom of the hill it possesses gravitational potential energy. Give it a push and it will start to roll. If we assume the ideal situation of a closed system where no energy is lost on the way down, then the rock's initial potential energy will equal its final kinetic energy.
Now take the archetypal example one step further. Assume the rock crashes into a wall. Neither the rock nor the wall are elastic, so the rock comes to a halt. Now it appears as if we have violated the law of conservation of energy. The kinetic energy is lost and nothing has come along to replace it. Where has the energy gone?
The answer to this question is inside the rock. The energy has been transformed from the external energy visible as the motion of the rock as a whole to the internal energy of the motion of the invisible parts that make up the rock. The two energies are identical in size, but different in appearance. External energy is visible because it is organized. The translational kinetic energy of a rock is due to coordinated motion. All the parts all move forward together. The rotational energy is also coordinated. The parts all rotate together around the center of mass. In contrast, the internal kinetic energy of a rock is invisible since the pieces are so small and numerous and their motion is completely uncoordinated. Their motions are statistically random with a mean value of zero making the energy largely invisible to us macroscopic beings.
Potential energy can also exist in external and internal forms. I won't provide you with an example here but I will say that external potential energy is relatively obvious. (Look, there's a rock on the top of that hill.) Internal potential energy is more obscure. (Look, there's an atom next to another atom.) Internal potential energy is responsible for latent heat, a topic discussed later in this book.
If you believe that objects can have internal energy, then it shouldn't be much of a stretch to believe that they can exchange this energy. This is known as thermal contact. The irreducible bits and pieces of objects responsible for carrying the internal energy are known as atoms — from the Greek "α τομή" [a tomi] meaning "can't be cut" — but belief in atoms is not a necessity. It just makes life easier. (Surprisingly, much of thermal physics and thermodynamics was worked out before atoms were generally considered real.) Since we are dealing with large numbers of atoms in uncoordinated motion, there will be times and places where the transfer of internal energy will run in one direction and different times and places where the transfer of internal energy will be in the opposite direction. Since the numbers are so unimaginably large, we really don't care about what happens to any one atom. All that we can observe in such cases is the net or overall transfer of internal energy. This is known as heat. If the net exchange of internal energy is zero; that is, if no heat flows from one region to another; then the whole system is said to be in thermal equilibrium. Heat then is the net transfer of internal energy from one region to another.
Nothing can be said to have heat or store heat. Instead we say heat flows from one place to another. The direction is indicated by the sign in front of the number. Use "+" when heat flows in and "−" when heat flows out. Heat can travel left, right, up, down, forward, or backward, but that's not usually the way it's described. Heat is a form of energy and energy is scalar, therefore specific directions and angles and all the rest of that vector stuff is irrelevant.
Heat is a form of energy and the unit of energy is the joule [J], therefore heat should be measured in joules. Before this was known, however, heat had its own special units; like the calorie and the British thermal unit [Btu]. These are still widely used in the United States for some reason — calorie for food energy (which is really a kilocalorie) and Btu for furnaces, air conditioners, stoves, and refrigerators. This units will be discussed in greater detail in a later section of this book.
Getting back to temperature. What is it?
Two regions have the same temperature when there is no net exchange of internal energy between them. In it's most primitive sense, temperature is what determines the direction of heat flow. The net transfer of internal energy between regions in thermal contact is out from the region with the higher temperature and into the region with lower temperature. In more concise terms, heat flows from hot to cold. That's the theoretical definition of temperature.
Temperature is measured with a thermometer. The basic operating principle behind all thermometers is that there is some quantity, called a thermometric variable, that changes in response to changes in temperature. The relationship between temperature and the thermometric variable may be direct or inverse or it may be determined by a polynomial or power function. In any case, it is the thermometric variable that gets measured. There is no way to measure temperature directly.
|liquid in glass||volume|
|constant volume gas||pressure|
|bimetallic strip||coil pitch|
Once we've settled on the thermometric variable to be measured, the next step is to decide on a temperature scale. Not because "units matter" (as every physics teacher says when they subtract points from students who forgot to write them on a test) but rather because temperature has no meaning without values defined as standard. In thermometry, what we need are fixed points: reproducible experiments based on natural phenomena that occur at a definite temperature under a proscribed set of conditions. Actually, we need at least two fixed points and a defined range of numbers (called a fundamental interval) between the lower fixed point and the upper fixed point. The other reason that the operational definition of temperature is so tightly bound with temperature scales is that the early science of thermometry is tied up with the invention and construction of thermometers.
The first thermometer was constructed in what is now northern Italy in the Seventeenth Century by either Sanctorius Sanctorius (1561–1636), the first physician to record vital signs like weight and body temperature; Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), the man who basically invented the scientific method; or Giovanni Francesco Sagredo (1571–1620), an instrument maker who is sometimes called a "disciple" of Galileo. All three men built what are known as liquid in glass thermometers, which consist of a glass reservoir of liquid attached to a narrow glass tube. When temperature increases, the liquid expands and rises up the tube. When temperature decreases, the liquid contracts and falls back down the tube. The height of the column is therefore related to the temperature in a simple linear fashion. Galileo did not put a scale on his device, so what he invented is better called a thermoscope since all it can do is show changes in temperature, not really measure them. Sanctorus added a scale to an air in glass thermoscope and thus could be credited with inventing thermometer, but… Air in glass devices respond to pressure changes as well as temperature changes and pressure was not something that was well understood at the time. Sagredo added a scale to his thermometer with 360 divisions imitating the Classical division of the circle. Ever since then, temperature units have been called "degrees" whether or not there were 360 of them in the fundamental interval.
Robert Hooke (1635–1703) of London was the first to suggest using the freezing point of water as a lower fixed point. Ole Rømer (1644–1710) of Copenhagen assigned a value of 7.5° to the freezing point and 60° to the boiling point of water so that normal body temperature would wind up as 22.5° or three times the freezing point. In the days when thermometers were graduated by hand, such tricks were commonly built into temperature scales.
In any case, normal body temperature is not the kind of fixed point that satisfies the needs of serious thermometry. There's just too much variation in the concept of "normal" as it applies to human beings. (The more meaningful term would be "average".) Different people can have different body temperatures and still be considered healthy and everyone's body temperature varies over the course of the day. We are coldest in the early morning and hottest in the middle of the afternoon. Such a variable number just doesn't cut it as a fixed point.
Some other failed ideas for fixed points include…
- the armpit of a healthy Englishman
- the deepest cellar of the Paris Observatory
- the hottest summer temperature of Italy, Syria, Senegal,…
- the congealing point of aniseed oil, linseed oil, olive oil,…
- the melting point of butter, wax,…
- the boiling point of alcohol, wine,…
- a kitchen fire hot enough to roast foods
- candle flames
- the hottest bath a man can withstand without stirring it with his hand
- salt-ice mixtures
The longest lived of the temperature scales is the work of Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). Fahrenheit was born to a German family living in Danzig, Prussia (now Gdansk, Poland). When he was 15 he lost both of his parents to mushroom poisoning and was apprenticed to a local merchant who later moved him to The Netherlands. Fahrenheit did not enjoy this arrangement and basically skipped out on his master. Apprenticeships are less like the internships modern college students deal with and are more like seven years of indentured servitude.
During his period as a runaway and for a few years after, Fahrenheit traveled throughout The Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, and Poland; acquired technical skills like glassblowing and instrument making; and learned Dutch, French, English, and thermal physics.
When he was 28 he astounded the scientific community by constructing a pair of thermometers that gave consistantly identical readings. What astounds me is that anyone would have found this act astounding, but apparently no one had ever done it before.
Sagredo's now historic 360 degree thermometer assigned 0° to a snow and salt mixture, 100° to snow, and 360° to the hottest summer day. Thermometers of the kind first built in northern Italy were calibrated to unreproduceable fixed points. This meant that thermometers manufactured in 1650 gave different results from those manufactured in 1651 and thermometers manufactured in Florence gave different results from those manufactured in Venice.
Fahrenheit settled on three fixed points, which he detailed in a paper presented before the Royal Society of London in 1724. (Emphasis has been added to certain keywords.)
Hujus scalæ division tribus nititur terminis fixis, qui arte sequentimodo parari possunt; primus illorum in informa parte vel initio scalæ reperitur, & commixtione glaciei, aquæ, & salis Armoniaci vel etiam maritimi acquiritur; huic mixturæ si thermometron imponitur, fluidum ejus usque ad gradum, qui zero notatur, descendit. Melius autem hyeme, quam æstate hoc experimentum succedit. The division of the scale depends on three fixed points, which can be determined in the following manner. The first is found in the uncalibrated part or the beginning of the scale, and is determined by a mixture of ice, water and ammonium chloride or even sea salt. If the thermometer is placed in this mixture, its liquid descends as far as the degree that is marked with a zero. This experiment succeeds better in winter than in summer. Secundus terminus obtinetur, si aqua & glacies absque memoratis salibus commiscentur, imposito thermometro huic mixturæ, fluidum ejus tricesimum secundum occupat gradum, & terminus initii congelationis a me vocatur; aquæ enim stagnantes tenuissima jam glacie obducuntur, quando hyeme liquor thermometri hunce gradum attingit. The second point is obtained if water and ice are mixed without the aforementioned salts. When the thermometer is placed in this mixture, its liquid reaches the 32nd degree. I call this freezing point. For still waters are already covered with a very thin layer of ice when the liquid of the thermometer touches this point in winter. Terminus tertius in nonagesimo sexto gradu reperitur; & spiritus usque ad hunc gradum dilatatur, dum thermometrum in ore vel sub axillis hominis in statu sano viventis tam diu tenetur donec perfectissime calorem corporis acquisivit. The third point is situated at the 96th degree. Alcohol expands up to this point when it is held in the mouth or under the armpit of a living man in good health until it has completely acquired his body heat. Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, 1724 Translation by J. Holland for sizes.com
After Fahrenheit's death these fixed points were changed so that the scale bearing his name now has only two, more sensible fixed points. The normal freezing point of water stayed at the 32 ℉ but the saltwater and body heat points were dropped in favor of an upper fixed point of 212 ℉ at the normal boiling point of water. This divided the fundamental interval into 180 degrees, which was a tolerable number to work with. Dividing an interval up into halves or thirds (or powers of halves and thirds) is not that bad. It's fifths that are the real challenge. The factors of 96 are 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3; which is devoid of the dreaded fives. The factors of 180 are 2, 2, 3, 3, 5; which includes a five, but at least there's only one. The factors of 100 are 2, 2, 5, 5; which has twice as many fives as 180 and thus twice the dread.
René Réaumur (1683–1757) France. Anders Celsius (1701–1744) Sweden.
Since there are one hundred degrees between the two reference points, the the names degree centigrade and centesimal degree were used as well as the name degree Celsius. In 1948 these alternate names were dropped and degree Celsius was chosen as the official name. This was done to honor Celsius for his work in designing the original system and to avoid inconsistent use of the prefix centi. The name "centigrade" implies that there is a unit called the "grade".
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824–1907) Ireland–Scotland suggests the first absolute temperature scale. Rudolf Clausius (1822–1888) Germany suggested that the scale be modified so that the size of one degree on Thomson's scale was the same as one centigrade degree.
International Temperature Scale (ITS)
Several fixed points.
Most unit conversions are done by scaling. You take a number with a unit and multiply (or divide) by a conversion factor to get a new number with a new unit. The number by itself may be larger or smaller after the conversion, but the number with the unit is identical since the conversion factor is a ratio equal to one. Temperature units can't always be converted this way since not all temperature scales assign a value of zero to the same fixed point. Temperature conversions often require a translation to get the zeros to line up. You take a number with a unit and add (or subtract) a conversion factor with a number and a unit. You can do this before or after any scaling, depending on what you find convenient. A combination of scaling and translation is called a linear transformation (or a linear mapping).
The easiest temperature conversion is kelvin to degree Celsius. The size of the two units is identical by design. A temperature interval of 1 K is the same as 1 ℃, therefore the scaling factor is 1 ℃/1 K. A temperature of absolute zero is called 0 K on the kelvin scale and −273.15 ℃ on the Celsius scale, therefore a translation factor of −273 ℃ is needed. So we're basically multiplying by one, which is the same as doing nothing, and subtracting 273. The reverse conversion is equally simple.
|formal notation||shorthand version|
|K → ℃||
|T[℃] = T[K] − 273.15|
|℃ → K||
|T[℃] = T[K] + 273.15|
Let me tell ya somethin'. The last part of this section is really only useful for citizens and residents of the United States. There are 180 ℉ and 100 ℃ between the normal boiling and normal freezing points of water. This gives a scaling factor of 180 ℉/100 ℃ when converting from degree Celsius to degree Fahrenheit, which reduces to 5/9. The zero of the Celsius scale is 32 degrees above the zero of the Fahrenheit scale, therefore a translation factor of +32 ℉ is needed.
The reverse conversion (degree Fahrenheit to degree Celsius) is, I think, best done in a slightly different way. Start by lining up the zero points by subtracting 32 ℉, then use the scaling factor 100 ℃/180 ℉ or 5/9.
|formal notation||shorthand version|
|℃ → ℉||
|℉ → ℃||
For those of you who prefer your linear transformations in y = mx + b form, here's that last conversion again…
|T[℃] =||5||T[℉] −||160|
The only advantage to this notation is that it can be used to show that…
|0 ℉ = −||160||℃ = −17.78 ℃|
Totally worth it.
|event, location, phenomena, process
|~1032||planck temperature, upper limit of temperature|
|~1016||hottest laboratory experiment (LHC)|
|~109||core of hottest stars|
|~107||core of the sun|
|~106||solar corona (the sun's atmosphere)|
|25,000||surface of blue stars|
|6500||D65 standard white hot (effective)|
|6000||center of earth|
|5800||surface of the sun|
|3500||surface of red stars|
|4900||2700||3000||incandescent light bulb|
|1250||680||950||dull red hot|
|930||500||770||incipient red heat|
|850||460||730||mean surface temperature on Venus|
|840||450||720||daytime surface temperature on Mercury|
|574.5875||301.4375||574.5875||fahrenheit and kelvin scales coincide|
|530||280||550||very hot home oven|
|451||233||506||paper burns (according to Bradbury)|
|134||56.7||329.817||hottest surface temperature on earth (California, 1913)|
|106||41||314||New York City record high (1936)|
|100||37.778||310.928||nothing of importance|
|98.6||37.0||310.2||human body (traditional US)|
|98.2||36.8||309.9||human body (revised)|
|96||human body (according to Fahrenheit)|
|80||27||300||numerically convenient "room temperature" (300 K)|
|68||20||293||numerically convenient "room temperature" (20 ℃)|
|59||15||288||mean surface temperature on earth|
|32.018||0.01||273.16||water triple point|
|0||−17.8||255||ice-water-salt mixture (according to Fahrenheit)|
|−14.3||−25.7||247||New York City record low (1934)|
|−37.9019||−38.8344||234.3156||mercury triple point|
|−40||−40||233||fahrenheit and celsius scales coincide|
|−56||−49||220||mean surface temperature on Mars|
|−108||−78||195||sublimation point of dry ice|
|−128.5||−89.2||183.95||coldest surface temperature on earth (Antactica, 1983)|
|−279.67||−173.15||100||nothing of importance|
|−300||−180||90||nighttime surface temperature on Mercury|
|−308.8196||−189.3442||83.8058||argon triple point|
|54.3584||oxygen triple point|
|50||mean surface temperature on Pluto|
|24.5561||neon triple point|
|13.8033||hydrogen triple point|
|2.73||mean temperature of the universe|
|2.174||helium I/II λ point (0.050 atm)|
|~1||coldest point in space (Boomerang Nebula)|
|0.95||helium freezes (26 atm)|
|10−10||coldest laboratory experiment (Aalto University)| | <urn:uuid:ee971ea0-144b-4697-bab0-cfef36bffb9b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://physics.info/temperature/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00168-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914685 | 4,854 | 4.0625 | 4 |
|Oracle® Spatial User's Guide and Reference
10g Release 1 (10.1)
Part Number B10826-01
Oracle Spatial is an integrated set of functions and procedures that enables spatial data to be stored, accessed, and analyzed quickly and efficiently in an Oracle database.
Spatial data represents the essential location characteristics of real or conceptual objects as those objects relate to the real or conceptual space in which they exist.
This chapter contains the following major sections:
Oracle Spatial, often referred to as Spatial, provides a SQL schema and functions that facilitate the storage, retrieval, update, and query of collections of spatial features in an Oracle database. Spatial consists of the following components:
A spatial indexing mechanism
A set of operators and functions for performing area-of-interest queries, spatial join queries, and other spatial analysis operations
The spatial component of a spatial feature is the geometric representation of its shape in some coordinate space. This is referred to as its geometry.
Caution:Do not modify any packages, tables, or other objects under the MDSYS schema. (The only exception is if you need to create a user-defined coordinate system, as explained in Section 6.5.)
Spatial supports the object-relational model for representing geometries. The object-relational model uses a table with a single column of SDO_GEOMETRY and a single row per geometry instance. The object-relational model corresponds to a "SQL with Geometry Types" implementation of spatial feature tables in the Open GIS ODBC/SQL specification for geospatial features.
Note:The relational geometry model of Oracle Spatial is no longer supported, effective with Oracle release 9.2. Only the object-relational model is supported.
The benefits provided by the object-relational model include:
Support for many geometry types, including arcs, circles, compound polygons, compound line strings, and optimized rectangles
Ease of use in creating and maintaining indexes and in performing spatial queries
Index maintenance by the Oracle database
Geometries modeled in a single row and single column
Oracle Spatial is designed to make spatial data management easier and more natural to users of location-enabled applications and geographic information system (GIS) applications. Once spatial data is stored in an Oracle database, it can be easily manipulated, retrieved, and related to all other data stored in the database.
A common example of spatial data can be seen in a road map. A road map is a two-dimensional object that contains points, lines, and polygons that can represent cities, roads, and political boundaries such as states or provinces. A road map is a visualization of geographic information. The location of cities, roads, and political boundaries that exist on the surface of the Earth are projected onto a two-dimensional display or piece of paper, preserving the relative positions and relative distances of the rendered objects.
The data that indicates the Earth location (such as longitude and latitude) of these rendered objects is the spatial data. When the map is rendered, this spatial data is used to project the locations of the objects on a two-dimensional piece of paper. A GIS is often used to store, retrieve, and render this Earth-relative spatial data.
Types of spatial data (other than GIS data) that can be stored using Spatial include data from computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) systems. Instead of operating on objects on a geographic scale, CAD/CAM systems work on a smaller scale, such as for an automobile engine or printed circuit boards.
The differences among these systems are in the size and precision of the data, not the data's complexity. The systems might all involve the same number of data points. On a geographic scale, the location of a bridge can vary by a few tenths of an inch without causing any noticeable problems to the road builders, whereas if the diameter of an engine's pistons is off by a few tenths of an inch, the engine will not run.
In addition, the complexity of data is independent of the absolute scale of the area being represented. For example, a printed circuit board is likely to have many thousands of objects etched on its surface, containing in its small area information that may be more complex than the details shown on a road builder's blueprints.
These applications all store, retrieve, update, or query some collection of features that have both nonspatial and spatial attributes. Examples of nonspatial attributes are name, soil_type, landuse_classification, and part_number. The spatial attribute is a coordinate geometry, or vector-based representation of the shape of the feature.
A geometry is an ordered sequence of vertices that are connected by straight line segments or circular arcs. The semantics of the geometry are determined by its type. Spatial supports several primitive types, and geometries composed of collections of these types, including two-dimensional:
Points and point clusters
Arc line strings (All arcs are generated as circular arcs.)
Compound line strings
Two-dimensional points are elements composed of two ordinates, X and Y, often corresponding to longitude and latitude. Line strings are composed of one or more pairs of points that define line segments. Polygons are composed of connected line strings that form a closed ring, and the area of the polygon is implied. For example, a point might represent a building location, a line string might represent a road or flight path, and a polygon might represent a state, city, zoning district, or city block.
Self-crossing polygons are not supported, although self-crossing line strings are supported. If a line string crosses itself, it does not become a polygon. A self-crossing line string does not have any implied area.
Figure 1-1 illustrates the geometric types.
Figure 1-1 Geometric Types
Spatial also supports the storage and indexing of three-dimensional and four-dimensional geometric types, where three or four coordinates are used to define each vertex of the object being defined. However, spatial functions (except for LRS functions and MBR-related functions) can work with only the first two dimensions, and all spatial operators except SDO_FILTER are disabled if the spatial index has been created on more than two dimensions.
The Spatial data model is a hierarchical structure consisting of elements, geometries, and layers. Layers are composed of geometries, which in turn are made up of elements.
An element is the basic building block of a geometry. The supported spatial element types are points, line strings, and polygons. For example, elements might model star constellations (point clusters), roads (line strings), and county boundaries (polygons). Each coordinate in an element is stored as an X,Y pair. The exterior ring and the interior ring of a polygon with holes are considered as two distinct elements that together make up a complex polygon.
Point data consists of one coordinate. Line data consists of two coordinates representing a line segment of the element. Polygon data consists of coordinate pair values, one vertex pair for each line segment of the polygon. Coordinates are defined in order around the polygon (counterclockwise for an exterior polygon ring, clockwise for an interior polygon ring).
A geometry (or geometry object) is the representation of a spatial feature, modeled as an ordered set of primitive elements. A geometry can consist of a single element, which is an instance of one of the supported primitive types, or a homogeneous or heterogeneous collection of elements. A multipolygon, such as one used to represent a set of islands, is a homogeneous collection. A heterogeneous collection is one in which the elements are of different types, for example, a point and a polygon.
An example of a geometry might describe the buildable land in a town. This could be represented as a polygon with holes where water or zoning prevents construction.
A layer is a collection of geometries having the same attribute set. For example, one layer in a GIS might include topographical features, while another describes population density, and a third describes the network of roads and bridges in the area (lines and points). Each layer's geometries and associated spatial index are stored in the database in standard tables.
A coordinate system (also called a spatial reference system) is a means of assigning coordinates to a location and establishing relationships between sets of such coordinates. It enables the interpretation of a set of coordinates as a representation of a position in a real world space.
Any spatial data has a coordinate system associated with it. The coordinate system can be georeferenced (related to a specific representation of the Earth) or not georeferenced (that is, Cartesian, and not related to a specific representation of the Earth). If the coordinate system is georeferenced, it has a default unit of measurement (such as meters) associated with it, but you can have Spatial automatically return results in another specified unit (such as miles). (For more information about unit of measurement support, see Section 2.6.)
Before Oracle Spatial release 8.1.6, geometries (objects of type SDO_GEOMETRY) were stored as strings of coordinates without reference to any specific coordinate system. Spatial functions and operators always assumed a coordinate system that had the properties of an orthogonal Cartesian system, and sometimes did not provide correct results if Earth-based geometries were stored in longitude and latitude coordinates. With release 8.1.6, Spatial provided support for many different coordinate systems, and for converting data freely between different coordinate systems.
Spatial data can be associated with a Cartesian, geodetic (geographical), projected, or local coordinate system:
If a coordinate system is not explicitly associated with a geometry, a Cartesian coordinate system is assumed.
Geodetic coordinates (sometimes called geographic coordinates) are angular coordinates (longitude and latitude), closely related to spherical polar coordinates, and are defined relative to a particular Earth geodetic datum. (A geodetic datum is a means of representing the figure of the Earth and is the reference for the system of geodetic coordinates.)
Projected coordinates are planar Cartesian coordinates that result from performing a mathematical mapping from a point on the Earth's surface to a plane. There are many such mathematical mappings, each used for a particular purpose.
When performing operations on geometries, Spatial uses either a Cartesian or curvilinear computational model, as appropriate for the coordinate system associated with the spatial data.
For more information about coordinate system support in Spatial, including geodetic, projected, and local coordinates and coordinate system transformation, see Chapter 6.
Tolerance is used to associate a level of precision with spatial data. Tolerance reflects the distance that two points can be apart and still be considered the same (for example, to accommodate rounding errors). The tolerance value must be a positive number greater than zero. The significance of the value depends on whether or not the spatial data is associated with a geodetic coordinate system. (Geodetic and other types of coordinate systems are described in Section 1.5.4.)
For geodetic data (such as data identified by longitude and latitude coordinates), the tolerance value is a number of meters. For example, a tolerance value of 100 indicates a tolerance of 100 meters. The tolerance value for geodetic data should not be smaller than 0.001 (1 millimeter), and in most cases it should be larger. Spatial uses 0.001 as the tolerance value for geodetic data if you specify a smaller value.
For non-geodetic data, the tolerance value is a number of the units that are associated with the coordinate system associated with the data. For example, if the unit of measurement is miles, a tolerance value of 0.005 indicates a tolerance of 0.005 (that is, 1/200) mile (approximately 26 feet), and a tolerance value of 2 indicates a tolerance of 2 miles.
In both cases, the smaller the tolerance value, the more precision is to be associated with the data.
A tolerance value is specified in two cases:
In the geometry metadata definition for a layer (see Section 18.104.22.168)
As an input parameter to certain functions (see Section 22.214.171.124)
For additional information about tolerance with linear referencing system (LRS) data, see Section 7.6.
The dimensional information for a layer includes a tolerance value. Specifically, the DIMINFO column (described in Section 2.4.3) of the xxx_SDO_GEOM_METADATA views includes an SDO_TOLERANCE value for each dimension, and the value should be the same for each dimension.
If a function accepts an optional
tolerance parameter and this parameter is null or not specified, the SDO_TOLERANCE value of the layer is used. Using the non-geodetic data from the example in Section 2.1, the actual distance between geometries
cola_d is 0.846049894. If a query uses the SDO_GEOM.SDO_DISTANCE function to return the distance between
cola_d and does not specify a
tolerance parameter value, the result depends on the SDO_TOLERANCE value of the layer. For example:
If the SDO_TOLERANCE value of the layer is 0.005, this query returns .846049894.
If the SDO_TOLERANCE value of the layer is 0.5, this query returns 0.
The zero result occurs because Spatial first constructs an imaginary buffer of the tolerance value (0.5) around each geometry to be considered, and the buffers around
cola_d overlap in this case.
You can therefore take either of two approaches in selecting an SDO_TOLERANCE value for a layer:
The value can reflect the desired level of precision in queries for distances between objects. For example, if two non-geodetic geometries 0.8 units apart should be considered as separated, specify a small SDO_TOLERANCE value such as 0.05 or smaller.
The value can reflect the precision of the values associated with geometries in the layer. For example, if all geometries in a non-geodetic layer are defined using integers and if two objects 0.8 units apart should not be considered as separated, an SDO_TOLERANCE value of 0.5 is appropriate. To have greater precision in any query, you must override the default by specifying the
With non-geodetic data, the guideline to follow for most instances of the second case (precision of the values of the geometries in the layer) is: take the highest level of precision in the geometry definitions, and use .5 at the next level as the SDO_TOLERANCE value. For example, if geometries are defined using integers (as in the simplified example in Section 2.1), the appropriate value is 0.5; however, if geometries are defined using numbers up to four decimal positions (for example, 31.2587), the appropriate value is 0.00005.
Note:This guideline should not be used if the geometries include any polygons that are so narrow at any point that the distance between facing sides is less than the proposed tolerance value. Be sure that the tolerance value is less than the shortest distance between any two sides in any polygon.
Moreover, if you encounter "invalid geometry" errors with inserted or updated geometries, and if the geometries are in fact valid, consider increasing the precision of the tolerance value (for example, changing 0.00005 to 0.000005).
Many Spatial functions accept a
tolerance parameter, which (if specified) overrides the default tolerance value for the layer (explained in Section 126.96.36.199). If the distance between two points is less than or equal to the tolerance value, Spatial considers the two points to be a single point. Thus, tolerance is usually a reflection of how accurate or precise users perceive their spatial data to be.
For example, assume that you want to know which restaurants are within 5 kilometers of your house. Assume also that Maria's Pizzeria is 5.1 kilometers from your house. If the spatial data has a geodetic coordinate system and if you ask, Find all restaurants within 5 kilometers and use a tolerance of 100 (or greater, such as 500), Maria's Pizzeria will be included, because 5.1 kilometers (5100 meters) is within 100 meters of 5 kilometers (5000 meters). However, if you specify a tolerance less than 100 (such as 50), Maria's Pizzeria will not be included.
Tolerance values for Spatial functions are typically very small, although the best value in each case depends on the kinds of applications that use or will use the data.
Spatial uses a two-tier query model to resolve spatial queries and spatial joins. The term is used to indicate that two distinct operations are performed to resolve queries. The output of the two combined operations yields the exact result set.
The two operations are referred to as primary and secondary filter operations.
The primary filter permits fast selection of candidate records to pass along to the secondary filter. The primary filter compares geometry approximations to reduce computation complexity and is considered a lower-cost filter. Because the primary filter compares geometric approximations, it returns a superset of the exact result set.
The secondary filter applies exact computations to geometries that result from the primary filter. The secondary filter yields an accurate answer to a spatial query. The secondary filter operation is computationally expensive, but it is only applied to the primary filter results, not the entire data set.
Figure 1-2 illustrates the relationship between the primary and secondary filters.
Figure 1-2 Query Model
As shown in Figure 1-2, the primary filter operation on a large input data set produces a smaller candidate set, which contains at least the exact result set and may contain more records. The secondary filter operation on the smaller candidate set produces the exact result set.
Spatial uses a spatial index to implement the primary filter. Spatial does not require the use of both the primary and secondary filters. In some cases, just using the primary filter is sufficient. For example, a zoom feature in a mapping application queries for data that has any interaction with a rectangle representing visible boundaries. The primary filter very quickly returns a superset of the query. The mapping application can then apply clipping routines to display the target area.
The purpose of the primary filter is to quickly create a subset of the data and reduce the processing burden on the secondary filter. The primary filter, therefore, should be as efficient (that is, selective yet fast) as possible. This is determined by the characteristics of the spatial index on the data.
For more information about querying spatial data, see Section 4.2.
The introduction of spatial indexing capabilities into the Oracle database engine is a key feature of the Spatial product. A spatial index, like any other index, provides a mechanism to limit searches, but in this case the mechanism is based on spatial criteria such as intersection and containment. A spatial index is needed to:
Find objects within an indexed data space that interact with a given point or area of interest (window query)
Find pairs of objects from within two indexed data spaces that interact spatially with each other (spatial join)
A spatial index is considered a logical index. The entries in the spatial index are dependent on the location of the geometries in a coordinate space, but the index values are in a different domain. Index entries may be ordered using a linearly ordered domain, and the coordinates for a geometry may be pairs of integer, floating-point, or double-precision numbers.
Oracle Spatial lets you use R-tree indexing (the default) or quadtree indexing, or both. However, the use of quadtree indexes is discouraged, and you are strongly encouraged to use R-tree indexing. Significant performance improvements have been made to spatial R-tree indexing for this release. Quadtree indexing is a deprecated feature of Spatial. Almost all information about quadtree indexing has been removed from this guide and placed in a separate guide, Oracle Spatial Quadtree Indexing, which is available only through the Oracle Technology Network.
Testing of spatial indexes with many workloads and operators is ongoing, and results and recommendations will be documented as they become available.
The following sections explain the concepts and options associated with R-tree indexing.
A spatial R-tree index can index spatial data of up to four dimensions. An R-tree index approximates each geometry by a single rectangle that minimally encloses the geometry (called the minimum bounding rectangle, or MBR), as shown in Figure 1-3.
Figure 1-3 MBR Enclosing a Geometry
For a layer of geometries, an R-tree index consists of a hierarchical index on the MBRs of the geometries in the layer, as shown in Figure 1-4.
Figure 1-4 R-Tree Hierarchical Index on MBRs
In Figure 1-4:
1 through 9 are geometries in a layer.
a, b, c, and d are the leaf nodes of the R-tree index, and contain minimum bounding rectangles of geometries, along with pointers to the geometries. For example, a contains the MBR of geometries 1 and 2, b contains the MBR of geometries 3 and 4, and so on.
A contains the MBR of a and b, and B contains the MBR of c and d.
The root contains the MBR of A and B (that is, the entire area shown).
An R-tree index is stored in the spatial index table (SDO_INDEX_TABLE in the USER_SDO_INDEX_METADATA view, described in Section 2.5). The R-tree index also maintains a sequence object (SDO_RTREE_SEQ_NAME in the USER_SDO_INDEX_METADATA view) to ensure that simultaneous updates by concurrent users can be made to the index.
A substantial number of insert and delete operations affecting an R-tree index may degrade the quality of the R-tree structure, which may adversely affect query performance.
The R-tree is a hierarchical tree structure with nodes at different heights of the tree. The performance of an R-tree index structure for queries is roughly proportional to the area and perimeter of the index nodes of the R-tree. The area covered at level 0 represents the area occupied by the minimum bounding rectangles of the data geometries, the area at level 1 indicates the area covered by leaf-level R-tree nodes, and so on. The original ratio of the area at the root (topmost level) to the area at level 0 can change over time based on updates to the table; and if there is a degradation in that ratio (that is, if it increases significantly), rebuilding the index may help the performance of queries.
If the performance of SDO_FILTER operations has degraded, and if there have been a large number of insert, update, or delete operations affecting geometries, the performance degradation may be due to a degradation in the quality of the associated R-tree index. You can check for degradation of index quality by using the SDO_TUNE.QUALITY_DEGRADATION function (described in Chapter 18): if the function returns a number greater than 2, consider rebuilding the index. Note, however, that the R-tree index quality degradation number may not be significant in terms of overall query performance due to Oracle caching strategies and other significant Oracle capabilities, such as table pinning, which can essentially remove I/O overhead from R-tree index queries.
Spatial uses secondary filters to determine the spatial relationship between entities in the database. The spatial relationship is based on geometry locations. The most common spatial relationships are based on topology and distance. For example, the boundary of an area consists of a set of curves that separates the area from the rest of the coordinate space. The interior of an area consists of all points in the area that are not on its boundary. Given this, two areas are said to be adjacent if they share part of a boundary but do not share any points in their interior.
The distance between two spatial objects is the minimum distance between any points in them. Two objects are said to be within a given distance of one another if their distance is less than the given distance.
To determine spatial relationships, Spatial has several secondary filter methods:
The SDO_RELATE operator evaluates topological criteria.
The SDO_WITHIN_DISTANCE operator determines if two spatial objects are within a specified distance of each other.
The SDO_NN operator identifies the nearest neighbors for a spatial object.
The syntax of these operators is given in Chapter 12.
The SDO_RELATE operator implements a nine-intersection model for categorizing binary topological relationships between points, lines, and polygons. Each spatial object has an interior, a boundary, and an exterior. The boundary consists of points or lines that separate the interior from the exterior. The boundary of a line string consists of its end points; however, if the end points overlap (that is, if they are the same point), the line string has no boundary. The boundaries of a multiline string are the end points of each of the component line strings; however, if the end points overlap, only the end points that overlap an odd number of times are boundaries. The boundary of a polygon is the line that describes its perimeter. The interior consists of points that are in the object but not on its boundary, and the exterior consists of those points that are not in the object.
Given that an object A has three components (a boundary Ab, an interior Ai, and an exterior Ae), any pair of objects has nine possible interactions between their components. Pairs of components have an empty (0) or not empty (1) set intersection. The set of interactions between two geometries is represented by a nine-intersection matrix that specifies which pairs of components intersect and which do not. Figure 1-5 shows the nine-intersection matrix for two polygons that are adjacent to one another. This matrix yields the following bit mask, generated in row-major form: "101001111".
Figure 1-5 The Nine-Intersection Model
Some of the topological relationships identified in the seminal work by Professor Max Egenhofer (University of Maine, Orono) and colleagues have names associated with them. Spatial uses the following names:
OVERLAPBDYDISJOINT -- The interior of one object intersects the boundary and interior of the other object, but the two boundaries do not intersect. This relationship occurs, for example, when a line originates outside a polygon and ends inside that polygon.
ON -- The interior and boundary of one object is on the boundary of the other object (and the second object covers the first object). This relationship occurs, for example, when a line is on the boundary of a polygon.
Figure 1-6 illustrates these topological relationships.
Figure 1-6 Topological Relationships
The SDO_WITHIN_DISTANCE operator determines if two spatial objects, A and B, are within a specified distance of one another. This operator first constructs a distance buffer, Db, around the reference object B. It then checks that A and Db are non-disjoint. The distance buffer of an object consists of all points within the given distance from that object. Figure 1-7 shows the distance buffers for a point, a line, and a polygon.
Figure 1-7 Distance Buffers for Points, Lines, and Polygons
In the point, line, and polygon geometries shown in Figure 1-7:
The dashed lines represent distance buffers. Notice how the buffer is rounded near the corners of the objects.
The geometry on the right is a polygon with a hole: the large rectangle is the exterior polygon ring and the small rectangle is the interior polygon ring (the hole). The dashed line outside the large rectangle is the buffer for the exterior ring, and the dashed line inside the small rectangle is the buffer for the interior ring.
The SDO_NN operator returns a specified number of objects from a geometry column that are closest to a specified geometry (for example, the five closest restaurants to a city park). In determining how close two geometry objects are, the shortest possible distance between any two points on the surface of each object is used.
The Spatial PL/SQL application programming interface (API) includes several operators and many procedures and functions.
Spatial operators, such as SDO_FILTER and SDO_RELATE, provide optimum performance because they use the spatial index. (Spatial operators require that the geometry column in the first parameter have a spatial index defined on it.) Spatial operators must be used in the WHERE clause of a query. The first parameter of any operator specifies the geometry column to be searched, and the second parameter specifies a query window. If the query window does not have the same coordinate system as the geometry column, Spatial performs an implicit coordinate system transformation. For detailed information about the spatial operators, see Chapter 12.
Spatial procedures and functions are provided as subprograms in PL/SQL packages, such as SDO_GEOM, SDO_CS, and SDO_LRS. These subprograms do not require that a spatial index be defined, and they do not use a spatial index if it is defined. These subprograms can be used in the WHERE clause or in a subquery. If two geometries are input parameters to a Spatial procedure or function, both must have the same coordinate system.
If an operator and a procedure or function perform comparable operations, and if the operator satisfies your requirements, use the operator. For example, unless you need to do otherwise, use SDO_RELATE instead of SDO_GEOM.RELATE, and use SDO_WITHIN_DISTANCE instead of SDO_GEOM.WITHIN_DISTANCE.
With operators, always specify
TRUE in uppercase. That is, specify
= 'TRUE', and do not specify
<> 'FALSE' or
With operators, use the
/*+ ORDERED */ optimizer hint if the query window comes from a table. (You must use this hint if multiple windows come from a table.) See the Usage Notes and Examples for specific operators for more information.
SQL has long had aggregate functions, which are used to aggregate the results of a SQL query. The following example uses the SUM aggregate function to aggregate employee salaries by department:
SELECT SUM(salary), dept FROM employees GROUP BY dept;
Oracle Spatial aggregate functions aggregate the results of SQL queries involving geometry objects. Spatial aggregate functions return a geometry object of type SDO_GEOMETRY. For example, the following statement returns the minimum bounding rectangle of all geometries in a table (using the definitions and data from Section 2.1):
SELECT SDO_AGGR_MBR(shape) FROM cola_markets;
The following example returns the union of all geometries except
SELECT SDO_AGGR_UNION(SDOAGGRTYPE(c.shape, 0.005)) FROM cola_markets c WHERE c.name < 'cola_d';
All geometries used with spatial aggregate functions must be defined using 4-digit SDO_GTYPE values (that is, must be in the format used by Oracle Spatial release 8.1.6 or higher). For information about SDO_GTYPE values, see Section 2.2.1.
For reference information about the spatial aggregate functions and examples of their use, see Chapter 14.
Many spatial aggregate functions accept an input parameter of type SDOAGGRTYPE. Oracle Spatial defines the object type SDOAGGRTYPE as:
CREATE TYPE sdoaggrtype AS OBJECT ( geometry SDO_GEOMETRY, tolerance NUMBER);
Note:Do not use SDOAGGRTYPE as the data type for a column in a table. Use this type only in calls to spatial aggregate functions.
tolerance value in the SDOAGGRTYPE definition should be the same as the SDO_TOLERANCE value specified in the DIMINFO column in the xxx_SDO_GEOM_METADATA views for the geometries, unless you have a specific reason for wanting a different value. For more information about tolerance, see Section 1.5.5; for information about the xxx_SDO_GEOM_METADATA views, see Section 2.4.
tolerance value in the SDOAGGRTYPE definition can affect the result of a spatial aggregate function. Figure 1-8 shows a spatial aggregate union (SDO_AGGR_UNION) operation of two geometries using two different tolerance values: one smaller and one larger than the distance between the geometries.
Figure 1-8 Tolerance in an Aggregate Union Operation
In the first aggregate union operation in Figure 1-8, where the tolerance is less than the distance between the rectangles, the result is a compound geometry consisting of two rectangles. In the second aggregate union operation, where the tolerance is greater than the distance between the rectangles, the result is a single geometry.
This section describes the
sdoapi Java client interface for general Spatial operations. In addition to the
sdoapi interface, Spatial provides other specialized interfaces, which are documented in other manuals:
Topology data model client interface (
sdotopo), described in Oracle Spatial Topology and Network Data Models
Network data model client interface (
sdonm), described in Oracle Spatial Topology and Network Data Models
sdoapi Java client interface consists of the following classes:
JGeometry.Point: convenience class that represents a double-typed point.
DataException: class for MapViewer data access exceptions.
For detailed reference information about these classes, see the Javadoc-generated API documentation: open
index.html in a directory that includes the path
Geocoding is the process of converting tables of address data into standardized address, location, and possibly other data. The result of a geocoding operation includes the pair of longitude and latitude coordinates that correspond with the input address or location. For example, if the input address is 22 Monument Square, Concord, MA 01742, the longitude and latitude coordinates in the result of the geocoding operation may be (depending on the geocoding data provider) -71.34937 and 42.46101, respectively.
Given a geocoded address, you can perform proximity or location queries using a spatial engine, such as Oracle Spatial, or demographic analysis using tools and data from Oracle's business partners. In addition, you can use geocoded data with other spatial data such as block group, postal code, and county code for association with demographic information. Results of analyses or queries can be presented as maps, in addition to tabular formats, using third-party software integrated with Oracle Spatial.
Effective with Oracle Database 10g, Spatial creates a user and schema named MDDATA, using the following internal SQL statements:
CREATE USER mddata IDENTIFIED BY mddata; GRANT connect, resource TO mddata; ALTER USER mddata ACCOUNT LOCK;
It is recommended that you use the MDDATA schema for storing data used by geocoding and routing applications. This is the default schema for Oracle software that accesses geocoding and routing data.
Many factors can affect the performance of Oracle Spatial applications, such as the use of optimizer hints to influence the plan for query execution. This guide contains some information about performance and tuning where it is relevant to a particular topic. For example, Section 1.7.2 discusses R-tree quality and its possible effect on query performance, and Section 1.9 explains why spatial operators provide better performance than procedures and functions.
In addition, more Spatial performance and tuning information is available in one or more white papers through the Oracle Technology Network (OTN). That information is often more detailed than what is in this guide, and it is periodically updated as a result of internal testing and consultations with Spatial users. To find that information on the OTN, go to
Look for material relevant to Spatial performance and tuning.
To check which release of Spatial you are running, use the SDO_VERSION function. For example:
SELECT SDO_VERSION FROM DUAL; SDO_VERSION -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10.1.0.0.0
This section discusses some general guidelines that affect the amount of disk storage space and CPU power needed for spatial applications. They are not, however, intended to replace any other guidelines you use for general application sizing, but to supplement them.
The following characteristics of spatial applications can affect the need for storage space and CPU power:
Data volumes: The amount of storage space needed for spatial objects depends on their complexity (precision of representation and number of points for each object). For example, storing one million point objects takes less space than storing one million road segments or land parcels. Complex natural features such as coastlines, seismic fault lines, rivers, and land types can require significant storage space if they are stored at a high precision.
Query complexity: The CPU requirements for simple mapping queries, such as Select all features in this rectangle, are lower than for more complex queries, such as Find all seismic fault lines that cross this coastline.
Spatial error message numbers are in the range of 13000 to 13499. The messages are documented in Oracle Database Error Messages.
Oracle error message documentation is only available in HTML. If you only have access to the Oracle Documentation CD, you can browse the error messages by range. Once you find the specific range, use your browser's "find in page" feature to locate the specific message. When connected to the Internet, you can search for a specific error message using the error message search feature of the Oracle online documentation.
This guide also includes many examples in SQL and PL/SQL. One or more examples are usually provided with the reference information for each function or procedure, and several simplified examples are provided that illustrate table and index creation, as well as several functions and procedures: | <urn:uuid:a3e92548-9f3d-4f7a-bb4b-688317eb1a48> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://web.stanford.edu/dept/itss/docs/oracle/10g/appdev.101/b10826/sdo_intro.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396027.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00080-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.879577 | 8,123 | 3.203125 | 3 |
So it’s almost Back to School time, and with all the chaos of preparing for the first day, it’s easy to lose focus on the everyday items like phones and tablets. But, here at BullGuard we’re urging you to take a minute to ensure your children stay safe at school with their devices.
The following tips will help you keep your family’s information secure, and will help your children to avoid cyberbullying and theft:
- 1. Set a password on the device, and enable restrictions as you see fit.
- 2. Use that old label maker and paste a “If found please call/e-mail…” to the item.
- 3. Add an Emergency Contact within your Address Book and show your children where the information is located.
- 4. Turn off Geo-tagging – in other words, don’t share your location!
- 5. Install security software to their phones – try BullGuard Mobile Security 10 and use it to erase information from the phone, if stolen.
- 6. Learn about the school’s cell phone/device policy, and make sure your children are clear on the guidelines.
- 7. Encourage them to explore safe social networking site for children under 13, like everloop.com.
And remember to step away from all of the technology and talk to them. Start an open dialogue with your children about the risks of cyberbullying and sexting. Your children can learn to use their technology safely, with education.
Do you have any other tips for kids to start the new school year safely? Share them below! | <urn:uuid:28bf7efa-bed1-452d-8ea3-77d4fcc35912> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bullguard.com/blog/2012/08/7-safe-tips-for-school.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398628.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00198-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909957 | 341 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Sikkim’s political history as a subject of study has attracted the least attention so far of scholars of history and as such it remains a daunting challenge that needs to be adequately met. Nevertheless, whatever facts and fictions that are presently available to us must from the basis of its assessment and study. However, according to a rough estimate Sikkim’s history, ever since its recorded journey from the past, seems very likely to have passed through four phases broadly that are significantly noteworthy.
(i) Democratically-run Tribaldom: Even while kingdom after kingdom ruled by autocrats and feudal overlords had become established that encircled Sikkim from almost all sides, Sikkim was still a tribaldom, broken up into as many fragments as there were tribal heads who led a virtually nomadic existence. Amongst the various tribes constituting the inhabitants of the then Sikkim, the Lepcha tribe was solely led by the “Panu”, the Bhutia tribe was ruled by their religious head, the Tsongs were administered by their elected head, the Subba, while the Mangars were led by one whose claim to leadership rested purely on his physical strength and fighting prowess. The Lepchas, as a rule, were universally accepted by all as the original dwellers of the land and hence all other tribes who came later to this land had no qualms about accepting “Panu”, the Lepcha leader, as the supreme head despite the fact that it was the individually elected leader of each tribe who was responsible for running the affairs of each clan. This highly democratic system of running the affairs of the land that had not yet attained the status of a kingdom seemed to have survived until the end of the fourteenth century A.D. Even if it had made its initial inroads into the nomadic life of the clannish tribes of the day, agriculture was far from being accepted as a way of life to augment the economic well-being of the mixed populace that inhabited the then Sikkim. Raising animals, mainly cattle and sheep, was the main occupation of the people. Even the institution of marriage lacked firm basis of legal and moral acceptance. The law of the jungle was what generally prevailed and as a result constant fighting amongst the various tribes often erupted to may the social harmony. Weapons of defence and offence being strictly limited, physical strength and fighting prowess in combat often played vital part in determining the outcome of a clash that settled the controverted issue. For this reason, the electing of a leader from Lepcha’s Panu downward was strictly based on physical strength and fighting ability of the would-be leader. The people of this land in those balmy days, therefore, practiced and enjoyed a unique form of democracy and freedom where the concept of class was totally absent. Even though the Panu and other leaders of the clans commanded unique status during the period of crisis that often led to physical combats based on strength, these leaders from Panu downward in normal times of peace and tranquility were always among equals. The concept of wealth then being an unknown quantity, there was no distinction that separated the rich from the poor, the big from the small, because the concept of status and class was totally absent from the existing social milieu. Nobody had ever thought of drawing a line that distinguished a master from his slave or servant.
(ii) The advent of a King: In 1642 Phuntso Namgyal, by proclaiming himself as king of Sikkim, started the dynastic rule that was to last for nearly 330 years. Whereas by this time the neighboring countries like Tibet and Nepal had already come under the full way of kingly rule where power had become polarized on the ruling monarch. Thus Sikkim, too was subsequently drawn into the maelstrom of power monopoly that converted the erstwhile Sikkim enjoying absolute democracy into a fiefdom, through ruled by a begin king to begin with.
Animal raising accounting mostly for pursuing nomadic life-style made imperative by constant need to look for greener pastures, thus gave way to agricultural pursuits that, in the long run, served only to strengthen the hands of the monarchy. Despite which, agriculture became the mainstay to augment the economic well-being of the people while, raising domesticated animals like cattle, sheep and horses as part of the agricultural process did much to augment the success of their main occupation – farming. In order to develop agricultural process on a broad scale and basis and to introduce innovative methods practiced in the neighboring kingdom like Nepal, procurement of skilled Labour force became inevitable. Thus, in course of time there was an influx of skilled hands at various modes of agricultural applications, who were brought into Sikkim by some innovative and ambitious noblemen of the day. If it was considered a normal practice for men to marry and maintain a number of wives, such marital misadventure on the part of the female sex became socially taboo and this gave way to the founding of the institution of marriage, where a woman had a role to play and fulfill by being faithful to her spouse and raise the children begotten through him. The rights and privileges of the people hitherto enjoyed by them became pawn at the hands of the palace to be doled out to the public as and when the Darbar was pleased to do so. The king along with his kiths and kins began willfully to run the administration of the country. Dictatorial rule in its milder form came into being to ensure that the palace was the ultimate authority and that all power flowed from there. In the capital itself, some noblemen close to the palace became absolute masters to rule over those sections of the populace who came directly under their influenye. The people under such feudal overlords were subjected to ruthless oppression and subjugation.
Due to internal conflict that showed itself from time to time within the palace and the external threat that materialized from the Gurkha attacks which the country had to face often, the king and his followers had often had to flee the palace, seeking safety elsewhere. In spite of such early uncertainties that plagued his rule, the Namgyal dynasty, however, continued to rule over Sikkim for 330 years – in itself a unique record.
(iii) Foreign Influence On Sikkim Polity: At a time when Nepal was bent upon extending its boundaries through conquest, Sikkim’s giant neighbour to the south had already become a part of the British Empire. Therefore, it had become expedient for the wily Englishmen to put a stop to the growing menace of Gurkha’s expansionist ambition. The British tactical policy to contain the Gurkha menace consisted in acting as a mediator between the marauding Gurkhas on the one hand and the country under seige on the other to work out a peace treaty so that the treaty so entered into would prevent the attacking Gurkhas from taking over the captured territories of the vanquished country. It was during the reign of T enzing Namgyal that the Gurkhas under the command of Damodar Pandey had succeeded in capturing many parts of Sikkim.
The Sugauli Treaty of 1815-16 put a final stop to Nepal’s ambition of conquest and as per terms and conditions laid down in the said treaty, Nepal had to surrender whatever territories it won over and annexed of Sikkim back to the Sukhimpatti. Despite the fact that the Treaty of Sugauli enabled Sikkim to retrieve its lost territories, the next two years saw the whole of Sikkim being annexed by the Raj under the Treaty of Tittalia, thus bringing the sovereignty of Sikkim under the then hegemony of the British Raj. Even a territory like Darjeeling with its unique scenic beauty and salubrious mountain climate was annexed to the Raj in 1833.
It was during the reign of Dewan Namgyal (Pagla Dewan) that Sikkim had somehow attained its peak of power when the ruling monarch had made some determined gestures t assert his country’s independent status. In spite of this the Treaty of 1861 between Sikkim and the East India Company only served to make Sikkim all the more dependent on its giant neighbour to the south. When the Company Raj decided to establish a trading relation with Tibet, Sikkim was reduced to the status of a buffer state between China in the no British India to the South. In 1888 when Tibet was forced t vacate Ringtu while in the’ meantime a treaty of mutual friendship was forged between China and the Company Raj in 1890, Sikkim was further reduced to the status of a Protectorate of the Raj.
(iv) The beginning of Democratic Movement: With the escalation of freedom movement in India under the throes of the raj, a sign of similar aspiration apparently began to take root in the Sikkimese. It fell to the lot of the educated youth of the day in Sikkim to raise the voice in favour of democracy and democratic rule in the State rather than the dictates of the durbar. However, the stalwarts who led the early movement for democracy in Sikkim were purely inspired by the freedom movement then being overtly waged in British India under the leadership of the National Congress. It is interesting to note that even those early movements for democracy in Sikkim were not without the Indian influence, as those leaders of the day had a penchant for duplicating everything that was being undertaken by the leaders of the National Congress in the contemporary India under the Raj. It was for this reason alone that then leaders in their preoccupation to ape and photocopy the Indian leadership for freedom movement in the sub-continent, ended up ignoring nationalism they inherently owed to Sikkim.
The sole objective of this political body, the National Party, was to thwart and neutralise the democratic aspirations of the Sikkimese masses and to preserve and uphold the nationalistic favour of the State that was strictly confined to the sections of the population who figured as the gross minority in the State. If the National Party, on the one hand, was led by leaders loyal to the interest of the Durbar, the State Congress on the other hand had workers, sympathizers and followers who were from the bulk of commoners, but its leadership was wholly manned by stalwarts who apparently hailed from the upper echelon of society. The opposing leadership that faced each other there only to neutralise each other’s effectiveness and while one group lacked nationalism – it being non-existent in their manifesto – despite its massive support base, the opposing group, despite its nationalistic favour to maintain its sovereignty – even if it was self-effacing – it lacked massive support that otherwise come from the masses that, by and large, remained passive and cold towards Durbar’s overtures. For this reason in particular the democratic movement that finally overtook the tiny fiefdom was pathetically devoid of nationalistic overtone that’ made the merger look like the only option left open to choose for Sikkimese at large. And this accounted for a bloodless coup.
Those so-called demagogy of the day were woefully conscious of their limitation and shortcoming who fully realized that it was beyond them to usher in democracy in Sikkim through their efforts alone. They had no guts or imagination to work for a democracy that would come through hard toil and sacrifice as they were least prepared to exert will and effort for it. They no doubt believed in the right thing by having faith in the potential of true democracy and the good things it would bring to the State; but they pinned their .belief down in the wrong place when they expected the Indian leadership to put it on a silver platter and proffer it to them for a price. Which was precisely what happened when democracy came to Sikkim and with it the merger which the Sikkimese had to pay as a price for democracy.
The National Party in tow with the Durbar on the other hand were extremely’ keen to retain the identity of Sikkim more or less as an independent entity, but they were least inclined to establish a democratic set-up with which to respond to the aspirations of the masses. The Chogyal to them was a symbol of unity and nationalism, but, sadly enough, the Chogyal did little to evoke the kind of patriotism in the masses that remained forever alienated through the machination of his hangers-on. Therefore, when the merger came in 1975, it seemed the most natural and obvious thing that could have happened to Sikkim.
Despite the fact that there appeared to be two opposing political forces fighting for and against a common cause, the two Parties, in essence, were both led by persons of considerable means, most of whom were essentially landlords of Sikkim. A Party of the common masses led by a commoner was yet to be born in Sikkim of those days. Their mutual opposition which they apparently shared with each other gave way to an open contest between the two that saw them vying for New Delhi’s attention and apparent favour. Leaders of both the Parties went virtually out of their way to please and placate Delhi. Little wonder, New Delhi finally responded by doing what, according to late Mrs. Gandhi, should have been done much earlier. Pundit Nehru in this regard had once declared publicly that to annexe Sikkim by force to India would amount to shooting down a fly with a gun.
The democratic history of Sikkim in today’s parlance based on adult franchise begins after the merger with India in 1975. The leaders from the earlier generation, some of whom are still happily with us, have often done their best to elude us on the question of Sikkim’s merger by providing wrong impressio’l on the need to merge Sikkim in the mainstream so also on the circumstances that made the exercise necessary. And these wise guys are often under the illusion that they alone are the worthy sons of Sikkim’s soil while the rest are a mere burden on the State. In this regard, Shri N.B. Bhandari is perhaps the worst of the lot whose penchant for taking undeserved credit for having single-handedly preserved what remained of the Sikkimese rights and privileges after the merger, never seems to flag with passing years. His penchant for highlighting physical pains and suffering which he underwent as a result of beating at the hands of the CRPF jawans during the merger movement is still very much a part of him which he never fails to bring up at all his public addresses. “The pain inflicted by the beating I received at the hands of the CRPF jawans is still with me after all these years and the part of my body that sustained the injury still hurts,” says N.B. Bhandari every time he brings up the merger issue at a public meeting. The truth being the lie is again something else. It was, in fact, his fool-hardyness that led to the much publicized beating which consisted of a couple of dandas that landed on his person before he made a hasty retreat. He had not the slightest inkling as to what was going on as the movement gathered momentum to indicate in no uncertain terms that a positive history was in the process of being made. If he failed to read the writing on the wall then it was his fault that earned him the dandas he could have easily avoided. He was, no doubt taken prisoner at Barhampur jail in West Bengal where he remained imprisoned for a couple of months before he was set free on the plea that he would not repeat the same mistake again. Had Bhandari been seriously implicated in his fight for Sikkim’s freedom and sovereignty, he would have remained behind bars as a political prisoner for 14/15 years like Sheikh Abdullah of Kashmir did, who remained steadfast in his demand to the last. But Nar Bhandur Bhandari had relented and given up the ghost within a couple of months after he found himself in the can at Barhampur and had pleaded never to repeat the same mistake again. For his pain, his head was shaved off and released on condition never to come back for the same offence. And he never did.
And today, Mr. Bhandari is living on the interests he had earned over those few months he had unwillingly spent behind bars at Barhampur jail following the merger that made Sikkim part of India.
He has since succeeded in administering dandas after dandas on those who opposed his dictatorial rule, including a murder he masterminded and got away with; but he hardly makes mention of his misdeeds that set him apart as an incorrigible despot. However, he never fails to sing the glory’ of those few months he spent in Barhampur jail like a parrot glory of God’s name without knowing what it is doing.
World history is replete with events that are stranger than fiction. A historic event happened to transpire in Sikkim that is no less strange than fiction. A liberated country often adopts democracy as the best form of governance the outgoing century has known. But what happened in Sikkim was just the opposite. A merger with India was the price the Sikkimese were .required to pay in exchange for democracy that was proffered to us on a silver platter. It was democracy the Sikkimese leaders of the day had always asked for as a means of ridding of the ruling Chogyal and they got it duly handed over to them. When democracy made its advent into Sikkim, the Chogyal with a dynastic history of 330 years was bundled off to become a part of History. Sikkim had to give up the Protectorate status it had consistently enjoyed even after India became independent in 1947. Indeed, the price the Sikkimese had had to pay for democracy had been pretty heavy. But on a closer examination of Sikkim’s past history, it becomes evidently clear that what followed as a matter of course was bound tojJappen sooner or later. The Chogyal and all those leaders who became instrumental in the merger of Sikkim were flocked together by a common destiny to play their respective parts as prisoners of history.
Merger became reality when Sikkim was declared the 22nd State of the Indian Union. Although the merger in 1975 marked the beginning of Parliamentary democracy in Sikkim, yet the general masses remained somewhat isolated from the mainstream as fruits of democracy failed to reach the grass roots population who constituted the bulk of the havenots in the State. The reason for this is again linked with the history of the State. It must be clearly understood.
At the time of the merger, the State was devoid of properly planned communication network. It lacked comprehensive infrastructures for heavy and light industries, the very geography of this tiny State being at a disadvantage. It was a thoroughly backward State with insurmountable mountains and inaccessible terrains as its natural heritage but endowed with a rich array of unmatched and unspoilt scenic beauty that abounds in gay abundance. Democracy became established in the governing machinery of the State but it failed to reach the teeming masses at the base of the social pyramid. The State coffer was pumped to overflowing with development funds and the fruits of development did become manifest in various forms that could be seen and felt everywhere as they vibrated in unison with the spirit and ambition of the emerging bourgeois class who stood to gain most from the on-going rhythm of development in the State while the grassroots people remained practically isolated from the fruits of development overtaking the State. Democracy meant little or nothing to them when their inherent fear of the rich and mighty remained ever glued to their psyche to haunt them with the same intensity it had done over the years prior to the merger. The bulk of the State’s population remained . riddled with illiteracy superstitions and a host of ills that a backward society becomes heir to that blighted their hope of ever gaining a decent life-style. The fear-psychosis instilled before by the Durbar and the Kazis who ruled the roost with iron hands was now replaced by the fear-psychosis they felt towards the Chief Minster, Ministers and the MLAs. The Sikkimese masses were not happy with the antics of Kazi Lhendup Dorji who led the then State Congress Party, but there was no suitable option to replace him. The people were unhappy at the way things were and yet there was none to take up the cudgel and fight for people’s rights.
At a time when everything was tipsy truly due to complete dearth of able leadership in the overall scenario of feudal Sikkim, when Nar Bahadur Bhandari, with his sweet talks and a glib tongue appeared on the scene to make his political debut on the basis of talking bigger than the pair of panties he wore. That the ruling Chogyal must concede to the democratic form of governance in Sikkim being the burning issue of the day, N.B. Bhandari elected to oppose the said sentiment of the day. This he diffuse for the sake of opposing an issue that often made headlines in the local papers of the day. And based on this singular fete of his, he had declared himself as the leading democrat of the State. But going against the tide that sought to usher in democracy into Sikkim, he, by design, had metamorphosed overnight to become the leading democrat of the State. It was this stand of his – his stand against democratic rule in the State when the Chogyal was the ruling monarch – that enabled Bhandari to announce himself as pro-Cho9YClI and later as an anti-merger stalwart. It was this stared that later prepared him for the ‘Sikkim pharkaunchhu’ gimmickry with which he successfully spearheaded the election campaigns of 1979. Bhandari then was a supporter of the throne alright – a nationalist born overnight who, however, took full advantage of the fundamental rights granted to him of speech and expression by the Indian Constitution which he made full use of during the ‘Sikkim pharkaunchhu’ campaigns by calling names to Indian leaders that also included the Prime Minister with impunity. This he was able to do for various reasons. When Sikkim was in the process of being merged in the mainstream as the 22nd state of the union, there was a hue and cry raised by the opposition leaders in both the houses of Parliament while it had caused considerable eye-brow raising among neighboring powers outside the country. In the ensuing circumstances, the squabbling Janata Government at the Centre thought it best to overlook Bhandari’s antics, though definitely anti-national in overtone, as mere tantrums of a disgruntled politician just out to win votes. Besides, the Centre was convinced that the merger had become an irreversible fact of history that was beyond re-capture and redress. But in this tiny backward State of the then Sikkim Bhandari’s gimmickry did make an impact of sorts that sent Kazi Lhendup Dorji’s Janata party packing when the Party Kazi led at the hosting was totally routed, losing 32 out of 32 seats in the assembly. Bhandari romped home a winner, though not by a margin as was anticipated. Apart was the ‘poor-man’ background which he brought home to project before the Sikkimese masses who, in return, identified him as their very own. He would literally cry out aloud, shedding crocodile’s tears while addressing himself as a ‘poor orphan’ but determined to make every promise come true. This, having gone through the grinding mill of the Chogyal and later of Kazi’s, the gullible Sikkimese went head over heel to accept Bhandari as their ‘Messiah’ as Bhandari had somehow succeeded in identifying himself with the burden of being a poor man’s son!!
Gratitude in politics is often short-lived and leaders of Bhandari’s ilk have faulty memory. Soon everything was forgotten once Nar Bahadur took rein of office; the masses who stood by him during election time and the spate of promises mingled with the crying appeal he had made from the party platform both faded into limbo. He turned his attention towards cultivating the friendship of a handful of rich businessmen who became his business associates and began working in their interests so that his own interest was duly served. Bhandari, unlike the Chogyal and Lhendup Kazi before him, had a band of sycophants who hailed from the business circle and hence they were rank outsiders, while the sycophants who surrounded the Chogyal and L. D. Kazi were rich Sikkimese landlords who were purely sons of the soil of Sikkim. And as Bhandari was fully conversant with the ways of former autocrats and feudal overlords who ruled Sikkim with iron hands, the art of the oppressor he had previously acquired stood him in good stead when he himself became the ruler of Sikkim. A man who once addressed himself before the people as a discarded orphan, Bhandari had no compunction in abusing his public office when he began to rule as a monarch without a crown. Hailing from a poor home it was not long before he became master of millions. The fundamental rights of speech and expression granted by the Constitution to its citizens became imprisoned within the bounds of Mintokgang, the official residence of the Chief Minister of Sikkim. Those who sought to exercise their democratic rights, despite Bhandari’s strictures, were treated with icy fingers of death that suddenly overtook them. The clever ones with keen instinct for survival became pawns at the hands of Nar Bahadur who bought them at will, no matter what the price, as long as the buying was good. Those who dared to defy Bhandari’s offer to buy in order to uphold their personal integrity, were ruthlessly trampled underfoot. The public at large were reduced to helpless spectators who had no option but to maintain discreet silence to avoid Bhandari’s wrath. Tyranny and repression knew no bounds. All development funds allocated by the Centre for the upliftment of the Sikkimese people became Bhandari’s personal wealth to be doled out to his business associates, sycophants, the rag-tag and the bobtails of the prize ring of politics. The State coffers are all dry and empty. The general masses are reduced to paupers while Bhandari and those of his likes have become billionaires. | <urn:uuid:1d5f2ce0-231b-4b70-a97f-bfdc715b3f6b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://smilingsikkim.org/?p=746 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402479.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00154-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984756 | 5,520 | 3.625 | 4 |
|Rivers of India|
The Periyar River
First Online: June 12, 2006
The Periyar is one of the major rivers of Kerala state in southern India running a length of 140 miles. The Periyar river originates in the Western Ghats range near the border with Tamilnadu state. It flows north through Periyar National Park into Periyar Lake, an artificial reservoir created in 1895 by the construction of a dam across the river. From the lake the river flows northwest to join the Arabian Sea.
V.N. O'key/Kamat's Potpourri
Merchandise and Link Suggestions | <urn:uuid:f4cf2b0a-7e6c-470c-a5a7-debd51a7074d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.kamat.com/indica/rivers/periyar.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398628.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00118-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.897633 | 135 | 3.078125 | 3 |
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Proteins are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and folded into a globular form. The amino acids in a polymer are joined together by the peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid residues. The sequence of amino acids in a protein is defined by the sequence of a gene, which is encoded in the genetic code.
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Today is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first day in office and when it comes to science, his new cabinet appointees look like a step in the right direction.
On top of naming Catherine McKenna the first ever Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Trudeau also appointed a Minister of Science, Kirsty Duncan, as well as a Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, Navdeep Bains.
Duncan has a doctoral degree in geography, previously taught meterology, climatology and climate change at the University of Windsor and was a contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
These appointments combined with Trudeau’s point blank response to questions about his 50 per cent female cabinet mandate (“Because it’s 2015”), his inclusion of indigenous leaders and his collaborative approach to the upcoming Paris climate talks have inspired a lot of hope in the new Prime Minister.
But with an abundance of commitments about science, electoral reform and transparency some Canadian scientists are left wondering if Trudeau will be able to live up to the promises.
Minister Duncan, we've done some of the intelligence gathering for you and here's what Canadian scientists say they hope to see from the new government. | <urn:uuid:2c8424fb-1805-443a-bba4-e2b451f1ea19> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://desmog.ca/directory/vocabulary/7885 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396224.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00144-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953035 | 244 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Albert Einstein famously said, “A person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so.” That puts a lot of pressure, but especially on those in science, to have a “Eureka!” moment by the time they are 30. But according to economist Benjamin F. Jones of the Kellogg School of Management the”age of invention” is on the rise. This gives scientists more time to discover something new, but because now they have to be in school so much longer in order to obtain all the new information from the last 75 years they have less time to do original research.
Jones looked at the history of Nobel Laureates and found that that age at which people make their great discoveries has been rising steadily over the last 100 years. At the beginning of the century the majority of Nobel Laureates had done their work before they were 40, at the end of the 20th century, only 20% had. For scientists, this rise can be attributed to the fact that over the last 75 years a lot has been discovered. The average age of completing a PhD is now 31. For a young scientists just starting out, they have to learn so much more than their predecessors before they can start doing their own research. The other problem is, scientists aren’t working later into life.
Though the age of innovation rising seems like a good thing, it may have some negative ramifications. Because young scientists have to spend so much more time getting their PhDs , they aren’t working later into life and doing original research (the average age of completing a PhD in science is now 31.) But according to the study, most scientists aren’t working into old age on research so the window of time for discovery remains small. If the rate of innovation really slows down, we are all in trouble. Raymond Davis Jr. was considered an anomaly for winning the Nobel Prize in Physics at the age of 88 back in 2002.
A solution to this according to Wall Street Journal reporter David Wessel could be making PhD programs more efficient or just having more scientists in general. So just those two little thing and we’re all good.
Though the “age of invention” is on the rise I think this puts even more pressure on women in science. Academic science is notorious for its difficult environment for women, especially if they want to have families. If they drop out for a few years to have a family, it is so much harder to get back on track. This means it could take them longer to get their PhD and gives them less time to do original research. Dr. Joan Herbers, President of the Association for Women in Science, a Professor of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology and the former Dean of the College of Biological Sciences at Ohio State University, said academic science is extremely unforgiving to women who decide to leave to have a family and then try to get back on the demanding path to tenure.
“The tenure clock to get to the top of your career coinciding with a woman’s best child-bearing years is true, particularly for academia, but you also see this in the legal and accounting industries with the race to partner happening during those same years.”
Well, here’s hoping we can all at least have an Oprah-trademarked “Ah Ha” moment by the time we are 30. | <urn:uuid:7f9d970e-3fd4-479e-8bab-e961eb5ba146> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thegrindstone.com/2012/09/06/education/new-science-inventions-later-in-life-590/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403508.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00091-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969331 | 705 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Rubiks Cube - 1.15
Krzysztof Król (krolu)
Here's my first program in Python using PyGame. It calls "kostka", that means cube. It's a program for searching the solution to Rubik's Cube. It works like this: You program some combination of movements by clicking on arrows arround the spread-ed cube, and then click the Run Test button. After that, program will shuffle the Rubik's cube and begin to do every combination one by one from the list of movements that you program earlier. It looks if the puzzle is solved or after full run is the combination of blocks on the cube is identical with the start combination. If it is then the program will tell you how many movements have been before the puzzle had looped, and if it is not the whole loop start again. The object of that puzzle is to find out is there any combination that repeated over and over will eventually solve the Rubik's Cube. I wish you lots of fun with this program and good luck.
The previous version was mising couple of files and didnt execute. So here's one more time a working version :)
Pygame.org account Comments
If you wish to leave a comment with your pygame.org account, please sign in first. | <urn:uuid:97e4687a-e69f-45da-8e73-451afd337c63> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://pygame.org/project-Rubiks+Cube-463-.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393332.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00047-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916961 | 272 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Northern England has a strong industrial past, as well as an agricultural history. The cities of Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds were all major producers of textiles and other goods during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The areas in the northeast, such as Yorkshire, were agricultural producers, and the moors were home to enormous flocks of sheep. Today the area is known for its newly revived cities and natural wonders, such as the Lake and Peak districts.
Northern England's climate is relatively mild; it can get cold and snow there during the winter, but for the most part it tends towards the chilly and damp during the winter, and warm and fairly pleasant during the summer. The off season for traveling to the area is generally during November, which is the rainiest month, and January through March. High tourist season starts in the late spring and can bring overwhelming crowds to popular attractions.
Most of the air travel in and out of northern England is through Manchester, which has the nation's largest airport after the two airports in London. Numerous direct flights connect Manchester with North America, with a large number of flights originating in New York City. The flight from New York to Manchester takes about seven hours. Additionally, Manchester is a hub of major motorways, including the M6, which connects London to Scotland, and the M62, which connects Manchester with Liverpool to the west and Leeds to the east. Manchester is also well connected to the rest of England by train; multiple trains depart London's Euston Station for Manchester daily. Liverpool is a major ferry port, with regular ferries operating to and from Dublin.
While many visitors to England focus on London to the south, areas such as the Lake District (lakedistrict.gov.uk) in northern England have been holiday destinations for hundreds of years. The Lake District is about 80 miles northwest of Manchester and is one of the most picturesque areas in the country; the poet Wordsworth lived there and penned many of his most famous works on the banks of the lakes in the area. Just south of Manchester is the Peak District (peakdistrict.gov.uk), which is a national park and has numerous archaeological sites nestled into the mountains and valleys. Liverpool is famous for its waterfront and being the birthplace of The Beatles. To the north is Carlisle, which is on the Scottish border and is near the Roman-era Hadrian's Wall.
A huge range of accommodations is available for tourists to meet almost any budgetary need. Major hotels populate the cities, including familiar chains such as Hilton. For vacationers looking for a more intimate setting or who wish to experience more authentic England, many independently owned bed and breakfasts are available in the area. Youth hostels, small hotels, pensions and house rentals can also be found.
- Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images | <urn:uuid:2e63f02a-77dd-4535-8141-0fbe68eda101> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://traveltips.usatoday.com/northern-england-vacations-43081.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00086-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971705 | 577 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Useful Materials and Lesson Plans
A free downloadable program which creates high
quality printable math worksheets for K-6
Mathematics Worksheet Factory Deluxe
This is a site which allows you to print
worksheets directly from your browser for free.
Superkids Math Worksheets
Create and print free algebra worksheets,
solve basic math problems
or study online for the SAT or ACT.
More worksheets for students
who want to review basic skills
Rick's Math Web
This site is useful source of
lesson plans and materials for K-12.
Lesson Plan Z
Comments or Questions? You can e-mail me by clicking on the link below. | <urn:uuid:9bf5deb1-3685-412f-8fb8-7f4a2fab844b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.angelfire.com/games2/mathteacheraid/links.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396875.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00200-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.783134 | 149 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Along with transporting satellites and experiments to and from orbit, the shuttle astronauts have taken tens of thousands of photographs of Earth with handheld cameras. These photographs have documented many intriguing phenomena on land, in the oceans, and in the atmosphere. In this view, the pale green glow of the Aurora Australus (the “southern lights”) shines above the Antarctic continent, visible at upper left. Interactions between the solar wind, constantly blowing away from the Sun, and Earth’s magnetic field provide the power source for auroal phenomena around both poles. Atmospheric constituents are stimulated to emit light by the impacting solar particles; oxygen is the major contributor to the emitted light visible here at both green and red wavelengths.
Space shuttle photograph S39-23-020. | <urn:uuid:80e93871-7a7d-4d4f-84d1-261686ee0632> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/slidesets/ss_tour/slide_10.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00056-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.892657 | 156 | 3.65625 | 4 |
All rural people suffer during emergencies, but men and women are affected in different ways
Emergencies arising from natural disasters, drought, diseases, civil conflict, market shocks and extreme climate events often have their greatest impact on poor rural populations. During 2009, the UN estimates that some 30 million people required emergency assistance.
FAO says emergency preparedness and response must address the specific needs of populations dependent on agriculture, with particular focus on food insecure and nutritionally vulnerable groups.
Its strategy to help countries to prepare for food and agricultural threats and emergencies, and respond to them effectively, calls for the use of socio-economic and gender analysis tools to identify the most vulnerable communities.
Gender dimensions of emergencies
In emergency situations, rural communities are frequently traumatized and agricultural systems devastated, leading to disruption of food production, livelihoods, health care and law enforcement. Understanding how men and women experience and respond to crises, and assessing their capacity for recovery, is essential to effective emergency relief operations and to rehabilitation.
All rural people suffer during emergencies, but men and women are affected in different ways. Studies after the Asian tsunami of 2004 revealed that in several coastal villages in Indonesia, females made up 80% of all fatalities, possibly because they had not learned to swim. Throughout the region, men lost fishing boats, reducing many to poverty and forcing them to migrate in search of work. Women who traditionally processed fish also lost their livelihoods. With male household members absent, cases of rape increased, discouraging women from seeking employment.
During emergencies, women and children may be more exposed to risk of malnutrition because they have limited access to resources such as land, animals and savings. With fewer survival options, female-headed households especially may be forced to submit to "survival sex," which increases their exposure to HIV and other diseases. Men and boys have particular vulnerabilities - for example, when they are targets for recruitment into armed conflicts or when boys are unable to feed themselves due to lack of cooking skills.
Emergencies may present opportunities for poor men and women to participate more in decision making and contribute to the rehabilitation process. Since rural women are usually responsible for household food production, preparation and storage, they should be seen as potential partners in emergency related planning rather than simply "victims".
Post-disaster, women remain more vulnerable than men. Along with reduced access to resources, they must cope with increased responsibility for caring for members of the household. Following a devastating hurricane in Honduras, the increase in women's domestic workload made it impossible for many to return to work. Women's nutrition and health may also suffer as workload increases.
If rural women normally have limited access to land, their rights may be even further reduced following a natural disaster. With many title holders dead and boundaries erased, poor and marginalized women and men often have no alternative but to remain in refugee camps, and have little say in programmes for land redistribution.
FAO's targets 2008-2013
To mainstream gender equity in its programmes for emergency relief and rehabilitation, FAO has set itself the following targets to 2013:
Address gender-related concerns in FAO special alerts on food supply difficulties and crop prospects, and mainstream gender into regional food security assessments.
Identifying vulnerable households
Use socio-economic and gender analysis to identify food insecure and vulnerable (e.g. female-headed, orphan-headed and elderly-headed) households as participants in emergency projects.
Needs and livelihoods
Address women's and men's different needs and household livelihoods in needs assessment and livelihood assessment guidelines.
Require that NGOs and other partners in agriculture emergency operations use gender-sensitive approaches, including sex-disaggregated data.
Specifically address the vulnerabilities of men, women, boys and girls (e.g. gender-based violence), in projects aimed at mitigating the vulnerability of populations displaced by emergencies.
When performing impact assessments, analyse how men and women in households benefit from emergency projects. | <urn:uuid:cad0a13d-7c88-4a3e-958b-31566b85cbc7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.fao.org/gender/gender-home/gender-programme/gender-emergencies/en/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00034-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956069 | 798 | 4.0625 | 4 |
The muskrat is a semi-aquatic mammal with brownish fur and a long, rudder-like tail. It is found in marshes and other shallow-water areas throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
The muskrat has thick, glossy fur that varies in color from blackish to silvery-brown, with a paler throat and belly. Its scaly, hairless, rudder-like tail is flattened on the sides and can grow to 10 inches long. Its small ears are nearly hidden within its fur, and it has partially webbed hind feet. The muskrat grows to a total length of 16 to 24 inches and can weigh up to 4 pounds.
Found mostly in marshes; also lives in other types of wetlands such as swamps and in ponds, lakes, streams and rivers. Prefers shallow areas with 4 to 6 feet of water. Builds dome-shaped lodges of mud and marsh plants on top of tree stumps in shallow water. Lodges can be up to 3 feet tall and have one or more underwater entrances. Will occasionally burrow into stream banks to create a den. Mostly nocturnal, but can sometimes be seen swimming or sunning on a log during the day.
Found throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
The muskrat feeds mostly on the roots and rhizomes of marsh plants, especially cattails and rushes, but will also eat fish, frogs, insects and shellfish. It consumes about one-third of its weight every day. It will build separate feeding lodges or platforms so it can get out of the water and eat.
Muskrats have many predators, including minks, raccoons, owls, hawks, red foxes and bald eagles. Humans hunt muskrats for meat, fur and sport. To hide from predators, they dive underwater or into their lodge.
Breeding occurs frequently throughout most of the year. Muskrats nest in chambers inside their lodges. Females have 1 to 3 litters of 5 to 6 young (called kits) each year. Gestation lasts less than one month. Young are born blind. Within 10 days young can swim, and within 21 days they can eat plants. After one month, the female ejects her now-independent young from the lodge. Muskrats can live 3 to 4 years in the wild. | <urn:uuid:9e5a3837-6619-4b81-adf0-24a3c5e7c5c5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.chesapeakebay.net/S=0/fieldguide/critter/muskrat | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00071-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956444 | 485 | 3.96875 | 4 |
Topic: Country Estates
Yasnaya Polyana was the home of Russian writer and thinker Leo Tolstoy, where he was born and spent nearly 60 years of his life. During the distribution of inheritance between the Tolstoy brothers in 1847 Leo Tolstoy inherited the Yasnaya Polyana estate and several villages. Soon afterwards he sold the villages and the more than 1,000-hectare Yasnaya Polyana estate became his only property. The spacious three-storey house with 32 rooms where Leo Tolstoy was born on August 28th 1828 was later demolished. Upon his return from St.Petersburg in 1856, Leo Tolstoy and his family had to occupy one of the two wings which had been built by his grandfather. As Tolstoy’s family became larger, the wing was extended to provide more room. Members of the Tolstoy family referred to the Yasnaya Polyana house as “the big house”. Leo Tolstoy wrote many of his novels at Yasnaya Polyana and the estate bore witness to all the twists and turns of his more than eventful life.
The largest room, “the parlor” as the Tolstoys used to call it in those days, has preserved the interior of the old mansion. Director of the Yasnaya Polyana Museum Yekaterina Tolstaya comments.
"Many heirlooms were passed on from generation to generation. Portraits, mahogany furniture, and the comfy old chairs from the old mansion – all moved together with the family. The writing desk which belonged to Leo Tolstoy’s father is now in the writer’s study. Tolstoy wrote his most significant works at this desk."
Leo Tolstoy preferred to do a large share of work around the house himself and was on good terms with peasants for whom he had infinite respect. Even in his younger years Tolstoy believed that the landlord owed a lot to his peasants. When he was 21, Tolstoy opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana and often gave classes himself. The student-teacher relations were built on the basis of equality. Yekaterina Tolstaya comments.
"Tolstoy deemed the ABC book he wrote to be nearly the most important of all his works. While teaching high school, he practiced an individual approach. He knew what the kids’ interests were and read and discussed things with them. His classes were held in a friendly atmosphere so each pupil found them interesting and benefited from them."
In addition to “the big house”, the Yasnaya Polyana estate consists of a huge park with alleys and ponds. One of the most remote alleys has Leo Tolstoy’s favorite bench from which opens a marvelous view on the local landscape. The Tree of Love is another attraction. As the legend goes, if you go around the tree several times and wish for something, your wish will come true.
Despite Tolstoy's views on politics and the church (the latter of which led to his excommunication from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1901) it is interesting to note that the novels and short stories of Leo Tolstoy were a favourite of Tsar Nicholas II, who used to read them aloud to his wife and children on cold winter nights while in residence at the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo.
© The Voice of Russia and Paul Gilbert. 23 June, 2012 | <urn:uuid:3daa29e4-3185-4836-ade4-8ad04d42ce7c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.angelfire.com/pa/ImperialRussian/blog/index.blog/1438204/leo-tolstoy-russia-unthinkable-without-yasnaya-polyana/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393518.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00018-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988972 | 727 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Blue-spotted Rays, Taeniura lymma
« Database Home Animalia Chordata Elasmobranchii Rajiformes Dasyatidae Taeniura lymma
Description & Behavior
Blue-spotted rays, Taeniura lymma (Forsskål, 1775), aka blue-spotted fantail rays, blue spotted stingrays, blue spotted rays, and ribbontail stingrays, are colorful stingrays with large bright blue spots on an oval, elongated disc and blue side-stripes along their tails. Their snout is rounded and angular and the disc has broadly rounded outer corners. They have a short tapering tail that is less than twice their body length when intact, with a broad lower caudal finfold that extends to the tail tip. Their disc has no large thorns but does have small, flat denticles along their midback in adults. There is usually 1 medium-sized stinging spine on their tail found further from the base than most stingrays. They are gray-brown to yellow, or olive-green to reddish brown in color on their dorsal (upper) side, white on their ventral (under) side. They reach a maximum length about 70 cm.
World Range & Habitat
Blue-spotted rays are found around coral reefs in a depth range up to to 20 m. They are only rarely found buried under the sand. In the Indo-West Pacific they are found in the Red Sea and off East Africa to the Solomon Islands, north to southern Japan, and south to northern Australia.
Feeding Behavior (Ecology)
Blue-spotted rays migrate in groups into shallow sandy areas during the rising tide to feed on mollusks, worms, shrimps, and crabs; they disperse at low tide to seek shelter in caves and under ledges.
Blue-spotted rays are ovoviviparous. Distinct pairing with embrace ane bear up to 7 young at a time.
Ovoviviparous: eggs are retained within the body of the female in a brood chamber where the embryo develops, receiving nourishment from a yolk sac. This is the method of reproduction for the "live-bearing" fishes where pups hatch from egg capsules inside the mother's uterus and are born soon afterward. Also known as aplacental viviparous.
Conservation Status & Comments
Blue-spotted rays are venomous. Small specimens are popular among marine aquarists, though they do not survive well in aquariums. Although they are very wide-ranging and common, this species is subject to population decreases because of capture for the marine aquarium fish trade and by widespread destruction of reef habitats.
References & Further Research
Research Taeniura lymma » Barcode of Life ~ BioOne ~ Biodiversity Heritage Library ~ CITES ~ Cornell Macaulay Library [audio / video] ~ Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) ~ ESA Online Journals ~ FishBase ~ Florida Museum of Natural History Ichthyology Department ~ GBIF ~ Google Scholar ~ ITIS ~ IUCN RedList (Threatened Status) ~ Marine Species Identification Portal ~ NCBI (PubMed, GenBank, etc.) ~ Ocean Biogeographic Information System ~ PLOS ~ SIRIS ~ Tree of Life Web Project ~ UNEP-WCMC Species Database ~ WoRMS
Feedback & Citation
Start or join a discussion about this species below or send us an email to report any errors or submit suggestions for this page. We greatly appreciate all feedback!
Help Protect and Restore Ocean Life
Help us protect and restore marine life by supporting our various online community-centered marine conservation projects that are effectively sharing the wonders of the ocean with millions each year around the world, raising a balanced awareness of the increasingly troubling and often very complex marine conservation issues that affect marine life and ourselves directly, providing support to marine conservation groups on the frontlines that are making real differences today, and the scientists, teachers and students involved in the marine life sciences.
With your support, most marine life and their ocean habitats can be protected, if not restored to their former natural levels of biodiversity. We sincerely thank our thousands of members, donors and sponsors, who have decided to get involved and support the MarineBio Conservation Society. | <urn:uuid:51a527e3-8a53-4769-9f64-e5660dc40641> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=320 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00072-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902903 | 891 | 3.25 | 3 |
What is Animal Pain?
PAIN is a word used by humans to represent one of
their experiences. They know what it is without needing to define it.
Animal pain should not be confused with human pain.
However, it is helpful to use definitions of human pain to understand animal
pain. Animal pain probably serves the same purposes as human pain and is as
important to the animal as pain is to humans. However, animal and human
experiences of pain, in response to the same stimulus, may not be identical.
(Human) pain is:
'An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or
potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage'
definitions of animal pain are:
in animals is an aversive sensory experience that elicits protective motor
actions, results in learned avoidance and may modify species specific traits of
behaviour, including social behaviour
Animal pain is an aversive, sensory experience representing
awareness by the animal of damage or threat to the integrity of its tissues;
(note that there might not be any damage). It changes the animal's
physiology and behaviour to reduce or avoid the damage, to reduce the likelihood
of its recurrence and to promote recovery. Non-functional (non-useful)
pain occurs when the intensity or duration of the experience is not appropriate
for damage sustained (especially if none exists) and when physiological and
behavioural responses are unsuccessful in alleviating it (Molony,
Sites of Origin
from the body including skin, bone, muscles,
tendons and other tissues.
originates from the internal organs e.g. heart, lungs, alimentary canal and
originates from nerves, the spinal cord and
brain because of abnormal processing of nervous activity.
The pain from internal organs can be localised to superficial
Acute pain immediately follows injury and disappears when the
injury heals. It is usually associated with quantifiable changes to processes
providing the body with protection from damage (defensive body processes).
pain is prolonged, however, there is little agreement as to when recurring
bouts of acute pain become chronic pain or for how long pain must persist to be
considered chronic. Quantifiable changes to the functioning of defensive body
processes may NOT be seen.
Chronic inflammatory pain:
occurs when healing persists beyond the expected time, due
to infection or other inflammatory processors.
Chronic neuropathic pain:
may not have a well-defined onset and may not respond to treatments that are
effective against acute or chronic inflammatory
pain. It is sometimes described as "intractable" pain. | <urn:uuid:a8ce620f-a247-4165-993a-2465f48abe58> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.animalliberationfront.com/Philosophy/Morality/Biology/what_is_pain.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400572.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00017-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907454 | 549 | 3.5 | 4 |
|Dirtmeister's Science Lab on Levers|
Grade Levels: K - 5
Background Information: Levers
Managing Time & Students
Related Web Sites
The Dirtmeister is your personal guide to hands-on science exploration in the classroom. By participating in Dirtmeister's Science Labs, kids have the opportunity to experience science firsthand. The steps in completing the challenge follow the same methodology used by scientists in solving problems. After reading the question, students are encouraged to formulate hypotheses. With science expert Steve Tomecek (the "Dirtmeister") serving as facilitator, students complete the hands-on investigation and check their results against their predictions.
Teachers who participate in the challenge also have the opportunity to gain valuable experience in teaching inquiry-based science because each new challenge helps to reinforce basic science concepts. For personal advice and support from Steve, join the Hands-On Science discussion in the Teacher Center.Top of Page
In this experiment, we explore the wonderful world of simple machines, focusing on levers and how they work. Using some basic materials found around the home or classroom, students will construct a lever system and test several variables.
Levers belong to a class of objects called "simple machines" because they all have a minimal amount of moving parts. Other simple machines include the screw, the wheel and axle, the inclined plane, the pulley, and the wedge. The job of a machine, whether simple or complex, is to accomplish work more easily by somehow transforming energy or motion. To put it another way, machines help you get a job done with less effort.
The origin of the lever goes back to prehistoric times when people discovered that placing a rock under the end of a strong stick made it easier to lift heavy objects. All levers have two main parts: the arm, which does the actual movement, and the fulcrum, the point at which the lever pivots. In the case of this month's project, the pencil is the fulcrum. What we're working with this month is called a first class lever because the fulcrum is between the two ends of the arm. The end of the lever on which the force is applied is called the effort arm because this is where you must exert the effort. The end of the lever that does the lifting is called the load arm. By changing the position of the fulcrum, you can use a lever to lift a greater load without expending as much effort.
As with all simple machines, levers appear to give you "free energy" because your effort is reduced. However, as we all know, you don't get something for nothing. While it's true that moving the fulcrum closer to the load makes it easier to lift the load, you have to physically move the lever a greater distance. In this case, you're trading effort for distance. In the end, the amount of work you do is exactly the same.Top of Page
Learning Outcomes/National Standards Correlations
The Dirtmeister's Science Lab on levers helps students meet the following science content standards as set forth by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences:
Managing Time and Students
Classroom management is always a critical factor for any successful lesson, and the Dirtmeister's Science Lab is no exception. The following strategies will help to maximize the use of the activity in various classroom situations:
Here are some suggestions to enhance the experience of Dirtmeister's Science Lab for your students:
Extensions on LeversGrades K-2:
General ExtensionsGrades K-2:
The following Scholastic supplemental materials can be used in conjunction with Dirtmeister's Science Lab.
Call Scholastic directly at 1-800-724-6527 to order and for more information.Top of Page
Related Web Sites
Simple MachinesLego Dacta Enrichment Project: Gander Academy
A site created by the Centre for Innovative Technology Education provides eight activities for using Lego Dacta equipment in the classroom to focus on gears and pulleys. Lesson plans and student worksheets are provided.
General Science Sites
Science and Technology for Children Curriculum
The Natural History Museum Edison National Historic Site Endangered Species Program National Inventors Hall of Fame Understanding Our Planet Through Chemistry Maps and References
Edison National Historic Site
Endangered Species Program
National Inventors Hall of Fame Understanding Our Planet Through Chemistry Maps and References
Understanding Our Planet Through Chemistry Maps and References
Maps and References | <urn:uuid:d4de2f82-3611-44c0-9dd1-2ee5a637eb55> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://teacher.scholastic.com/dirt/lever/tguide.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00158-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.895888 | 926 | 4.21875 | 4 |
Corruption is a very big part of the reason why Europe is currently facing huge economic problems.
A new research project investigates what impact corruption has on the various EU countries during the debt crisis.
“There are many indications that the Greek crisis is closely linked to corruption and the problems it causes. The former Greek prime minister even said I could quote him on that,” says Professor Bo Röthstein, of The Quality of Government Insitute at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
“And like Greece, Italy also has a low credit rating. These two countries are finding it difficult to borrow money. The reason is that high levels of corruption lead to low credit ratings.”
Röthstein heads a new and comprehensive study into corruption, involving researchers from 16 countries. The EU has invested €8 million in the project with the aim of identifying the obstacles that prevent us from getting rid of corruption. This is the largest single grant for a social science project in the EU to date.
In Greece, it’s common to pay black money to public employees, e.g. doctors. This is the only way to gain access to public services, argues the researcher.
“The result of this is that tax fraud has become a national sport. People don’t want to pay black money while also paying taxes. So it ends up with people cheating on their taxes,” he says.
“This is why it’s difficult for Greece to get revenue through taxes. It’s a very serious problem for the country because its budget deficit is so great that no-one dares to lend it money. It’s risky to lend money to a country that cannot finance its repayments through taxes.”
An early part of the project has analysed how a representative sample of EU citizens relate to taxes and corruption.
Röthstein says they have compared moderate left-wing citizens in countries with low corruption – the Nordic countries – with an equivalent sample in countries with high corruption – the southern European countries.
“The citizens were asked whether they would be prepared to pay higher taxes if they were given more welfare,” he says.
“They all shared the same ideological beliefs; however, we found that only the citizens in the least corrupt countries were willing to pay higher taxes. Those in countries with high levels of corruption did not expect that higher taxes would lead to more welfare.”
So corrupt countries have trust problems both in relation to foreign investors and their own citizens.
This ultimately means that the least corrupt countries perform best during the crisis, argues Mette Frisk Jensen of Aarhus University’s Department of Culture and Society. She is the only Danish researcher in the project.
“The levels of corruption play a big role in a society,” she says. “It’s therefore important that we find a way of developing reliable institutions and a social order that leads to less corruption.”
“As early as in the 19th century, Denmark took some important steps in that direction. The development in public administration and the legal history that has been established in recent centuries is probably a major part of the reason why Denmark is currently one of the world’s least corrupt countries.”
On a global level, corruption in both the public and the private sector is more the rule than the exception. Seen in this light, the very low corruption in Denmark and the other Scandinavian countries is quite spectacular.
Although the research project has only just started, Röthstein has some general estimates of how the rest of the world can reach a level of corruption like that in Scandinavia.
Corruption is a common description for crimes such as nepotism, bribery, embezzlement and forgery, which are committed by a politician or a government official who misuses his or her power.
“The politicians need to send out signals strong enough to make all citizens change their attitude. Most people who are involved in corruption believe it’s pointless to change course unless everyone else does so too. So it’s all about creating a collective attitude,” he says.
“But it’s a complex problem and we can’t just write out a prescription and solve it all. We know a bit by now, but it’s still too early to make our suggestions official.”
The Swedish researcher mentions some general factors that appear to have an effect on whether a society has low corruption. These factors include:
“It’s important that the state doesn’t only serve the political elite – but all of its citizens. Therefore, the state needs to establish trust by distributing public goods,” says Röthstein.
“But the problem bites its own tail. In a corrupt society it’s difficult to convince people to pay the taxes required to make this possible.”
The ANTICORRP project is sheduled to run over the coming five years. | <urn:uuid:b920558f-0495-4467-9846-cc25456ae716> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://sciencenordic.com/debt-crisis-caused-corruption | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00069-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964214 | 1,041 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Urticaria – also known as hives, weals, welts or nettle rash – is a raised, itchy rash that appears on the skin. It may appear on one part of the body or be spread across large areas.
The rash is usually very itchy and ranges in size from a few millimetres to the size of a hand.
Although the affected area may change in appearance within 24 hours, the rash usually settles within a few days.
Doctors may refer to urticaria as either:
- acute urticaria – if the rash clears completely within six weeks
- chronic urticaria – in rarer cases, where the rash persists or comes and goes for more than six weeks, often over many years
A much rarer type of urticaria, known as urticaria vasculitis, can cause blood vessels inside the skin to become inflamed. In these cases, the weals last longer than 24 hours, are more painful, and can leave a bruise.
When to seek medical advice
Visit your GP if your symptoms don't go away within 48 hours.
You should also contact your GP if your symptoms are:
- causing distress
- disrupting daily activities
- occurring alongside other symptoms
Who's affected by urticaria?
Acute urticaria (also known as short-term urticaria) is a common condition, estimated to affect around one in five people at some point in their lives.
Children are often affected by the condition, as well as women aged 30 to 60, and people with a history of allergies.
Chronic urticaria (also known as long-term urticaria) is much less common, affecting up to five in every 1,000 people in England.
What causes urticaria?
Urticaria occurs when a trigger causes high levels of histamine and other chemical messengers to be released in the skin.
These substances cause the blood vessels in the affected area of skin to open up (often resulting in redness or pinkness) and become leaky. This extra fluid in the tissues causes swelling and itchiness.
Histamine is released for many reasons, including:
However, in many cases of urticaria, no obvious cause can be found.
Some cases of long-term urticaria may be caused by the immune system mistakenly attacking healthy tissue. However, this is difficult to diagnose and the treatment options are the same.
Certain triggers may also make the symptoms worse. These include:
Read more about the causes of urticaria.
Your GP will usually be able to diagnose urticaria by examining the rash. They may also ask you questions to find out what triggered your symptoms.
If your GP thinks that it's caused by an allergic reaction, you may be referred to an allergy clinic for an allergy test. However, if you've had urticaria most days for more than six weeks, it's unlikely to be the result of an allergy.
You may also be referred for a number of tests, including a full blood count (FBC), to find out whether there's an underlying cause of your symptoms.
Read more about diagnosing urticaria.
In many cases, treatment isn't needed for urticaria, because the rash often gets better within a few days.
If the itchiness is causing you discomfort, antihistamines can help. Antihistamines are available over the counter at pharmacies – speak to your pharmacist for advice.
A short course of steroid tablets (oral corticosteroids) may occasionally be needed for more severe cases of urticaria.
If you have persistent urticaria, you may be referred to a skin specialist (dermatologist). Treatment usually involves medication to relieve the symptoms, while identifying and avoiding potential triggers.
Read about treating urticaria.
Complications of urticaria
Around a quarter of people with acute urticaria and half of people with chronic urticaria also develop angioedema, which is a deeper swelling of tissues.
Chronic urticaria can also be upsetting and negatively impact a person's mood and quality of life.
Angioedema is swelling in the deeper layers of a person's skin. It's often severe and is caused by a build-up of fluid. The symptoms of angioedema can affect any part of the body, but usually affect the:
Medication such as antihistamines and short courses of oral corticosteroids (tablets) can be used to relieve the swelling.
Read more about treating angioedema.
Living with any long-term condition can be difficult. Chronic urticaria can have a considerable negative impact on a person's mood and quality of life. Living with itchy skin can be particularly upsetting.
One study found that chronic urticaria can have the same negative impact as heart disease. It also found that one in seven people with chronic urticaria had some sort of psychological or emotional problem, such as:
See your GP if your urticaria is getting you down. Effective treatments are available to improve your symptoms.
Talking to friends and family can also improve feelings of isolation and help you cope better with your condition.
Read about how talking to others can help.
Urticaria can be one of the first symptoms of a severe allergic reaction known as anaphylaxis.
Other symptoms of anaphylaxis include:
- swollen eyes, lips, hands and feet
- feeling lightheaded or faint
- narrowing of the airways, which can cause wheezing and breathing difficulties
- abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting
- collapsing and becoming unconsciousness
Anaphylaxis should always be treated as a medical emergency.
Call 999 immediately and ask for an ambulance if you or someone else is experiencing anaphylaxis. Tell the operator about your (or their) symptoms.
Page last reviewed: 28/02/2016
Next review due: 28/02/2018 | <urn:uuid:b2d2af7e-f84a-4a06-944a-d6238ad81a6b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/nettle-rash/pages/introduction.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393332.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00048-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944584 | 1,236 | 3.65625 | 4 |
IT is good news for the wilderness - and for all Americans: A compromise weeks in the making has now been reached. As a result the way has been cleared to add several million acres of unspoiled land across the United States to the wilderness system, which preserves land from development.
There are now some 80 million acres of officially designated wilderness. Some 10 million more will be added if all additional land now being considered is approved by Congress and President Reagan.
Two issues had been contentious between conservationists and opponents of the wilderness measures, including industries that wished to develop some of the land in question. One was how much acreage, and precisely which parcels of land, should be preserved in some states. The second was whether land not now preserved could ever be added to the wilderness rolls. A compromise has been reached on both points.
Economic development of much of the American landscape is important - for mining and lumbering, for homes and factories, and for recreational uses. Yet at the same time it is important to preserve some land in its wild state, to save its flora and fauna, and to see that America always has plenty of wilderness. Land once turned into shopping centers or parking lots can never be returned to its original wild state.
Even in these financially difficult years some states, just as the federal government, are finding a way to finance the preservation of open spaces. So are some communities, which with public or private funds are quietly buying up small parcels for preservation or recreational use. The State of Massachusetts, as one example, recently set aside $162 million to refurbish some parklands and buy additional open land.
Every level of government has the opportunity to preserve land for future generations. | <urn:uuid:b0297df1-2031-4d8a-a3a1-cc02e3aaa45c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.csmonitor.com/1984/0508/050834.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396029.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00186-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974461 | 345 | 2.890625 | 3 |
The sarode is a popular fretless stringed instrument in northern India. The sarode is usually a solo instrument, though it has also become popular in modern Indian orchestras. I have found that listening to a great sarode player can be a mesmorizing, transcendent experience.
The sarode is between three and three and a half feet long. The body is either carved from a single piece of teak or tune wood, or made from two pieces of wood and joined at the headstock. The rounded end of the instrument is covered with goatskin parchment. Sometimes a small gourd is added. The fingerboard is a smooth, polished steel plate.
The sarode has four main strings that carry the melody, six rhythm and drone strings, and fifteen sympathetic strings, all made of metal. The sympathetic strings add resonance to the instrument but are not actually played. The sympathetic strings and the rhythm and drone strings are tuned to the scale of the raga being performed. The sarode is played with a coconut-shell plectrum called a jaba. | <urn:uuid:ec752c0e-ae3f-4d32-89d0-f249d7efb878> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://everything2.com/title/sarode | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00135-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961611 | 218 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Messaging Service- ( JMS )
Java Message Service was developed by Sun Microsystems
to provide a means for Java programs to access
enterprise messaging systems. Enterprise messaging
systems, often known as message oriented middleware
(MOM), provide a mechanism for integrating applications
in a loosely coupled, flexible manner. They
provide asynchronous delivery of data between
applications on a store and forward basis; that
is, the applications do not communicate directly
with each other, but instead communicate with
the MOM, which acts as an intermediary.
JMS is a set of interfaces and associated semantics
that define how a JMS client accesses the facilities
of an enterprise messaging product.
Prior to JMS, each MOM vendor provided application
access to their product through a proprietary
API, often available in multiple languages,
including the Java language. JMS provides a
standard, portable way for Java programs to
send and receive messages through a MOM product.
Programs written with JMS will be able to run
on any MOM that implements the JMS standard.
The key to JMS portability is the fact that
the JMS API is provided by Sun as a set of interfaces.
Products that want to provide JMS functionality
do so by supplying a provider that implements
these interfaces. As a developer, you build
a JMS application by defining a set of messages
and a set of client applications that exchange
The objectives of JMS, as stated in the specification,
* Define a common set of messaging concepts
* Minimize the concepts a programmer must learn
to use enterprise messaging.
* Maximize the portability of messaging applications.
* Minimize the work needed to implement a provider.
* Provide client interfaces for both point-to-point
and pub/sub domains. "Domains" is
the JMS term for the messaging models discussed
earlier. (Note: A provider need not implement | <urn:uuid:643406f7-5421-4ff0-bd86-5c192809437d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.allapplabs.com/glossary/java_messaging_service.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00001-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.886137 | 414 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Environmental News Network: Southern air pollution study under way
Photo: NOAA AOC
Friday, 25 June 1999
Scientists are trying to develop tools to fight air pollution by studying hot and humid southern cities such as Atlanta, GA, and Nashville, TN.
In the late 1980s, scientists realized that the South had unique air quality management problems caused by warm temperatures, high humidity, stagnant air and natural emissions of hydrocarbons from the region's large rural and urban forests.
"Large urban heat islands, such as Nashville or Atlanta, surrounded by lush vegetation and forests, cause a unique air pollution mix of human-caused and natural emissions," said James Meagher of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Aeronomy Laboratory in Boulder, CO.
Under the Southern Oxidants Study, government and university researchers will investigate the processes responsible for the formation of ozone pollution and fine particulate matter that is believed to damage crops and forests and affect human health and scenic visibility.
Using planes, helicopters and air monitoring stations located throughout the South, scientists will collect air samples to assess the physical and chemical characteristics of fine particulate matter and ozone.
"The combined activities of this study provide an unparalleled opportunity to describe the production and distribution of ozone and PM throughout the southeast with a level of detail that has hitherto not been possible," said Meagher.
In one such experiment, a P-3 aircraft will gather data during low-altitude flights over the major population and air traffic centers of Atlanta and Nashville. This will give scientists a way to assess the similarities and differences in the air quality of the two cities and allow policy makers to determine the appropriate response to air quality management.
"We're expecting to develop a really good database from these experiments that will provide the sound science needed to find solutions to the special air pollution problems facing this region," said Meagher. | <urn:uuid:0a2aa6a8-9707-4e4c-8dee-43eb3c66706f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/csd/projects/sos99/newsroom/enn.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394937.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00141-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939265 | 377 | 3.515625 | 4 |
|Basic InformationAdolescent Parenting IntroductionHealthy Teens: Food, Eating & Nutrition During AdolescenceHealthy Teens: Exercise and SportsHealthy Teens: SleepParenting Teens: Clothing Clashes, Housing Decisions, & Financial ManagementParenting Teens: Skincare, Cosmetics, Tattoos, & Piercings Caring for Teens: Healthcare for Teens and Young AdultsParenting Teens: Discipline, Love, Rules & ExpectationsA Parentís Guide to Protecting Teensí Health and SafetyAdolescent Parenting Summary & ConclusionAdolescent Parenting: References & ResourcesLatest NewsQuestions and AnswersLinksBook Reviews|
Tattoos and Body Piercing
In addition to temporarily altering their physical appearance through the use of cosmetics and hair coloring, some adolescents choose to enhance their physical appearance in more permanent manner through the use of body piercings and tattoos. Naturally, decisions of such a permanent nature can alarm, frighten, or even disgust some parents. However, if parents can put their feelings aside they will be in a better position to talk calmly to their children about these options. When parents speak to their adolescent children in a calm and respectful manner, their children are more likely to listen to, and benefit from, their parents' wisdom. As parents become more knowledgeable and informed about these topics they are better able to assist youth to evaluate the risks and benefits of these procedures. This increases the likelihood their youth will make wise and healthy decisions that they will not later regret.
Tattoos (also called "tatts" or "ink") are words or images that are temporarily or permanently imprinted on the skin. The use of tattoos has a long history dating back to 2000 B.C. or even earlier. Throughout history, tattoos have served many different purposes including religious symbols, amulets for protection, status symbols, group membership identification, declarations of love, and simply body adornments. As body adornments, tattoos can be primarily decorative but they may also serve a specific cosmetic purpose (such as tattooed eyeliner).
Tattoos can be multicolored or they can be monochromatic shades of black and gray. Tattoos can be either temporary or permanent. Temporary tattoos use pigments rubbed onto the skin that can be washed off or removed with finger nail polish remover. Some types of temporary pigments, such as henna (commonly used in religious and cultural celebrations), are longer lasting. However, in this article we focus on permanent tattoos as these are the type of tattoos that are of the greatest concern to many parents. Permanent tattoos are created by using a needle to repeatedly inject pigmented ink into the skin. Human skin has many layers that serve different functions. The epidermis is the outermost layer of skin, and the dermis lies just underneath it. Tattoo ink settles between the epidermis and dermis layers of the skin. The only way these tattoos can be removed is through expensive, time-consuming, and painful laser treatments and other abrasive techniques that burn away the images. These costly procedures cannot restore the skin to its original condition, and will leave behind permanent scars.
Most tattoo businesses and tattooing practices are governed by state, territory, province or local jurisdictions. Therefore, the laws regarding teens and tattoos can differ from one community to the next. However, many states, territories and provinces require youth to be at least 18 years old to obtain a tattoo, and/or require a parent or guardian's presence during tattoo procedures performed on minor aged youth. As well, state and local agencies may develop their own laws and regulations regarding the minimum health standards and safety practices for tattoo artists and tattoo salons. In most areas, tattoo artists are required to obtain a license to practice, and this creates a mechanism to monitor and police this industry to enforce the minimum hygienic standards. Regardless of these rules and regulations governing tattoo practices in a particular community, youth need to be aware of the risks of permanent tattoos and weigh those risks against the anticipated benefits of having a tattoo. Parents can be an important source of factual information about tattoos and can help their youth to make a wise and healthy decision.
When teens express a desire to get a tattoo, many parents initially have a strong negative reaction (even parents who themselves have tattoos). The best course of action is for parents to put aside these negative feelings and strive to open a dialog with their youth about their reasons for wanting a tattoo. It is best to approach such a discussion with genuine curiosity, remaining calm and objective, while listening to children discuss their interest in obtaining a tattoo. Teens may want tattoos for many different reasons. Some youth want a tattoo because it permanently commemorates a special time or achievement in their life. Others want to commemorate a beloved family member, friend, or pet. Some teens want to get a tattoo for its social significance, perhaps one that shows their membership in a group, such as a fraternity, gang, or club; or one that shows their mutual commitment to a friendship or romantic relationship. Many of these reasons are often associated with some rather intense emotions, so adolescents can feel very passionate about getting the tattoo they want. Other teens are less passionate and simply want a tattoo because they think tattoos are visually appealing or "cool."
After parents listen to their teens' reasons for wanting a tattoo, parents should help teens to consider some of the risks of getting "tatted" or "inked." These risks falls into two basic categories: 1) dissatisfaction with the appearance, size, or placement of the tattoo, and 2) physical complications such as allergic reactions and infections, including acquiring some very dangerous viruses such as Hepatitis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) through improper, unsterile tattoo procedures. Moreover, tattoos can be very expensive. | <urn:uuid:97e497a2-293b-4232-a30c-f4df8123127c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.amhc.org/1342-child-development-and-parenting-adolescence/article/45530-tattoos-and-body-piercing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00174-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9418 | 1,182 | 2.625 | 3 |
Power Systems Technology and Power Mechatronics
comprises the "classic" as well as new disciplines of power engineering.
Power Systems Technology
The energy supply is one of the most important issues of our time, so the efficient use of fossil fuels, and the expansion of renewable energies is one of the great challenges of Power Systems Technology.
Power Mechatronics combines the classical engineering disciplines of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and information technology and deals with their interaction.
The power electronics is concerned with the conversion of electrical energy and its use at very high level of efficiency, for example for drive systems in traffic, industrial plants or power supply.
The main research interests lay in the renewable energy and its infrastructural integration as well as in the fields of mechatronic drive systems and power electronics.
Through a careful selection of lectures it is possible for the research group, to train young engineers in their research priorities and prepare them for industrial tasks also with the theoretical background.
With industrial projects and government subsidies, the research group brings new insights, not only in the education of future engineers, but is also a direct line into the economy.
In the promising field of electric vehicles, the research group has a large expertise, because of their projects in this field. For example, they have an own electric vehicle fleet on the road for some time, for everyday life tests. | <urn:uuid:e1a6277c-f8d1-4560-aa2b-68f7ae90ecee> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.enesys.rub.de/enesys/index.html.en | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00158-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942054 | 278 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Evegreen Cemetery, North Carrollton, Mississippi
At first glance, the large grave marker shown here in Evergreen Cemetery, located in North Carrollton, Mississippi, appears to be a combination marker for a number of deceased members of the Shaw and Hemphill families who died during the past century and a half. But closer scrutiny of the engraved names reveals that Anna S. Billingsley and Thomas M. Billingsley, who died in the early 1930's, are among the ten names listed on the stone.
This monument marks one of over 2,000 graves in this large old cemetery about 10 miles from Greenwood, Mississippi, the county seat of Leflore County. Evergreen Cemetery is very near Malmaison, the home of Greenwood Leflore, the last Chief of the Choctaw Nation and later, a Mississippi statesman. In fact, several of Leflore's descendants and their relatives are buried here in this cemetery. Others are buried in the Leflore Cemetery nearby.
Once a thriving agricultural area with a large population, North Carrollton is now a small town with barely 500 residents. | <urn:uuid:183d9545-ad61-4e76-b3f3-9e5df22913e3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://cemeteriesofdancingrabbitcreek.blogspot.com/2009/02/evergreen-cemetery-north-carrollton-ms.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393442.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00164-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957471 | 228 | 2.609375 | 3 |
This is of course the error of historicism, which in its extreme view denies any universal laws or truths. An opposite error idealizes all situations according to a simplistic theory, and ignores the inherent messiness of life. Most of us bounce back and forth between these two extremes, but rather let's find the virtuous middle and attempt to find out what black and white photography is about.
I can see various reasons for either shooting black and white film or doing digital black and white conversions.
- Just because you like it.
- Cost, convenience, or necessity.
- Technical advantages.
- For aesthetics or mood.
Just because you like it
OK, why do you like black and white photography? Contemplate the reasons why you find it appealing. Perhaps it is some combination of the following?
Cost, convenience, or necessity
Suppose your photograph will be printed in a newspaper, bulletin, flyer, or other inexpensive black and white medium. You may prefer your photo being printed in full color, but since that is not going to happen, you do the best you can despite this limitation.
Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, at Saint Louis University. I needed to convert my image, originally in color, to black and white for inclusion in the book Saint Louis University: A Concise History
If you shoot film, and have your own darkroom or film scanner, black and white photography remains rather inexpensive since you are able to develop and print your own quality photos. If you live in a remote area, this may actually be the most convenient solution also. Also, superb quality film cameras are available at low cost. While you can process your own color film, this is rather more expensive and difficult compared to black and white film.
Sometimes, the lighting conditions are so poor that a black and white conversion is the fastest and easiest way to produce a quality images. I will sometimes convert an image taken under sodium vapor lights to black and white, because the color of that lighting is usually unpleasant and detracts from the beauty of the image. I very often do a conversion when I use extremely high ISO or severe curves on an image, both of which produce intense noise.
Do you pine for a time when style of dress and manners were better? Times that were happier, even if more difficult? Do you feel a twinge of romance when viewing those older things? Then perhaps you like the nostalgic look of black and white photography.
Doris Day, singer and actress, ca. July 1946, New York City. Photograph by William P. Gottlieb.
I must admit to being a bit undecided if this kind of nostalgia is desirable or not: on one hand, this kind of nostalgia is pleasant. But ought we not prepare for the future, where we are inevitably headed? Or rather, ought we live our life in the present, the only time we can truly see? On the other hand, escaping from the drudgery of the present by an imaginative look in the past is sometimes necessary.
We must not fall into the trap of believing the doctrine of inevitable progress, the idea that things are always getting better and better. And likewise, we must not distrust those who prefer older things; for they may not be reactionaries, but rather they might be correct. The theory of evolution implies eternal betterness, but in reality, for every advancement there are multitudes of fatal mistakes. So what we call nostalgia may very well be a rational attraction to things that were in fact better in some way.
We must be humble enough to realize that older technologies might actually be better in many ways. A large format camera, with quality black and white film, expertly exposed and processed, will have a range of tones and detail that far exceeds any DSLR snapshot. I do use digital photography exclusively, since it is so convenient, but there are trade-offs.
One of the great advantages of black and white photography is the wide contrast range possible. Often in color, it is difficult getting a full range of tones from pure black to white, since your brightest significant detail may be a saturated color — you can't brighten it without losing saturation. This is particularly troublesome if your brightest color is a pure blue -- you just don't have that much room for other tones unless you do severe edits to the image. Blue skies are often a problem: you can't brighten the foreground without risking overexposure of the sky (which will damage the sky color), which is one reason why polarizing filters are so useful.
I inadvertently overexposed the sky on this image, turning it into an implausible shade of cyan: but it looks fine when de-colorized. This is Holy Family log church, in Cahokia, Illinois.
With black and white images, you only have to worry about over- or under-exposing one tone: white or black. With color images, you need to worry about three color channels, any one of which may be poorly exposed, harming the final image. With color, we have a far smaller dynamic range, which is why color images benefit from fairly flat lighting. On the contrary, the masters of black and white photography use the increased dynamic range to excellent effect.
I took this photo for a book on the Gateway Arch. This is a merge of numerous exposures, and the camera was set to automatic white balance. This is a terrible image in several ways, and the yellow sodium vapor lighting is particularly objectionable.
High efficiency electric lighting often has poor color; fluorescent lights are quite bad, due to the unattractive and broad range of green-to-magenta tones found. Sodium vapor lighting, with its narrow yellow-orange color leads to extremely poor color photos. In these cases, a black and white image may be superior.
The same series of images, but I converted them to black and white before blending. I did some additional processing on this image, such as applying curves and sharpening. In my opinion, this isn't an image I'd particularly want to see in print, but I do think it is an improvement.
Digital cameras have a linear sensor that respond to light such that twice the brightness registers as twice the signal. Unfortunately, this means that most of the sensor's data is clustered around the very brightest of objects, and there is always a great risk of losing detail through overexposure. This also means that most of the tonal scale will be represented with very little data, which leads to lack of detail and noise in the shadows. So the general advice for digital is that you expose for the highlights and post-process to improve the shadows. Black and white film technology, on the contrary, is known for having great shadow detail — you expose for the shadows and post-process to improve the highlights, and unlike digital, it doesn't have a hard cutoff at the ends of the tonal range. Black and white film is traditionally very good for photography in dim, highly contrasty lighting and is used to good effect in film noir.
A forest scene, at Gravois Trail, in Saint Louis County, Missouri. This hand-held photo is underexposed, and was shot at ISO 3200. There is hardly any visible detail, and brightening the image would reveal extreme color noise in the shadows.
The same image, converted to black and white — I discarded most of the red and blue channels. I brightened the image greatly, and applied some noise reduction and sharpening.
Digital noise is most evident in the shadows, and color digital noise is usually ugly and highly undesirable. On the contrary, black and white noise is far less objectionable, and can even improve an image, giving an impression of texture and sharpness. This is often an advantage when shooting at very high ISO, or when brightening a severely underexposed image: a terrible color image can often be dramatically improved by converting it to black and white.
For aesthetics or mood
While nostalgia seeks the better things from the past, and black and white photography may evoke that nostalgia, we must always remember that reality in all ages past is high-resolution, wide-gamut, high-dynamic range color. Would a master photographer of a bygone era have used color photography if it were technologically feasible? Was his mastery of the black and white medium merely making the best of an unsatisfactory situation? Undoubtably for many, although this is speculation. We do in fact know that color technology was eventually widely adopted, and also that black and white never went away.
Color is an important factor in beauty. Bright colors are pleasing, and there are many studies and theories of the psychology of color which assigns good, desirable effects to the various colors. However, the color black is nothingness, the color white can be blinding, and gray is dreary: black and white photography necessarily is less cheerful and pleasant than color. Since black and white is more abstract than color, it can also suggest mystery.
A statue in a cemetery - heavily processed to imply a bleak mood.
So contemporary photographers can use the dreary aesthetics of black and white to evoke a mood of bleakness, despair, and ugliness. This can invoke a kind of anti-nostalgia, seeing not the good in the past, but rather its ugliness, and so black and white photography can be used in a mocking, disparaging fashion. It can also be used with fantasy, where the dull everyday world is seen in black and white, while the fantasy world is in color.
Some conversion hints
When shooting or converting an image to black and white, it is usually essential to adjust the image to give you the full range of tones, otherwise the image may look flat. Good global contrast is essential for a good black and white image. Adjusting curves of color images is a perilous activity: you can have color shifts, oversaturation, and you can send an image out of gamut; these are hardly concerns with black and white images.
Gothic-style ornament at Washington University in Saint Louis. The straight-forward conversion on the left lacks contrast, which is corrected on the right.
The second important consideration is the conversion of colors to gray tones; there are many ways to do this in Photoshop, and there are some excellent plug-ins that improve the process. Even though you lose color information in your conversion, the various gray tones ought to imply different shades in the final image.
The color image on the left was converted in Photoshop using Image->Mode->Grayscale. This is obviously a fabricated image, since I specifically chose all colors to have the same luminance. Photoshop has many ways to convert to black and white, some may be better than others at implying changes in tone.
Generally speaking, you want to select the parts or combinations of each RGB channels which show good contrast between different objects. If the subject has stripes, you probably will want a conversion that shows the stripes in a good manner -- some conversions may not show the stripes at all. Also, for faces your conversion will have a drastic effect on showing or hiding blemishes and wrinkles. In Photoshop, the Black and White tool is very good for doing this conversion, however, a thorough knowledge of the channel structure of images and the laws of color mixing is very helpful for this.
Finally, you can add far more local contrast to a black and white image compared to color, while still making it look plausible. This final step has been used to great effect by the masters of the medium. | <urn:uuid:45bc6979-c9aa-4dbf-a569-ba8d98dd913e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://therefractedlight.blogspot.com/2010/10/black-and-white.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393518.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00126-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947008 | 2,353 | 2.765625 | 3 |
AP Radio News (March 3) narrated that:
“It’s anybody’s guess who win the best picture. It seems to be a close race between “American Hustle,” “12 Years a Slave” and “Gravity.”
I was under impression that ‘between’ is used for comparison, selection and differentiation of two things or objects, and 'among' is used in case of refering to more than three things or objects, since I learned so at middle school. As I was uncertain of the accuracy of my memory of more than a half century ago, I consulted dictionaries:
Online CED defines ‘between’ as:
prep, ad. in or into the space that separates two places, people, or objects.
However, online Merriam-Webster English Dictionary defines it as:
prep, : in the space that separates (two things or people)
: in the time that separates (two actions, events, etc.)
: in shares to each of (two or more people).
And, online OED gives reference to the use of ‘between’ for differentiation among two or more things:
- At, into, or across the space separating (two objects or regions):
- In the period separating (two points in time):
- In the interval separating (two points on a scale):
- With reference to a choice or differentiation involving two or more things being considered together: ex. You have to choose between two or three different options.
Is the use of ‘between’ instead of ‘among’ for differentiation of, and selection out of two more (five, six, ten) things or objects commonplace today? Is the distinction between "between" and "among" being blurred today? | <urn:uuid:112b75d3-6174-47a4-bc18-c009edf4b10f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/156209/is-it-ordinary-to-use-between-for-selection-among-two-or-more-things | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00099-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948771 | 379 | 3.765625 | 4 |
Controlled hydrogen fusion−the key to cheap, abundant energy−is still miles away but it is getting closer. After a two-day conference at Princeton, N.J. last week, U.S. and British atomic officials made the guarded announcement that several different approaches to the fusion problem have "for some months been yielding substantial numbers of neutrons . . ." These neutrons, the announcement explained, may come from the energy-yielding fusion of deuterium (heavy hydrogen) nuclei. If the scientists can prove that they do, an important step will have been taken toward controlled fusion.
Under a special arrangement, British and U.S. scientists are exchanging information on their fusion research. So far as is publicly known, both are working on similar lines, and so are the Russians. The basic problem in controlled fusion is to heat the material, usually deuterium, so hot that its nuclei will combine. This temperature is something like 100 million degrees C., and it must be held for an appreciable fraction of a second while the reaction takes place. Since all known materials turn into vapor at a few thousand degrees, the hot deuterium cannot be contained in any ordinary pressure vessel.
The best bet is believed to be a "magnetic bottle": an arrangement of magnetic fields that will grab the electrically charged deuterium nuclei and force them to stay close together while an electric current heats them very hot. In practice, a magnetic bottle is some sort of glass tube, often doughnut-shaped, filled with rarefied deuterium. When electric current is shot through it in the proper way, a hot, thread-thin spark flickers briefly in the center. This is deuterium pinched together by magnetic force. It is many times hot enough to melt the glass of the tube, but it never gets to touch it.
Devices of this general type have been developed in the U.S., Britain Russia, and probably other countries. Titular chief of such research for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission is Dr. Arthur E. Ruark, 57. His job is to ride herd on projects in progress at Princeton, Livermore (Calif.), Los Alamos and other scientific centers. Probably the most ambitious of these is centered at Princeton. Its chief is Professor Lyman Spitzer Jr., 43, an astronomer who got into thermonuclear physics because the interiors of the stars are convenient test tubes for observing what happens at very high temperatures. Stars need no magnetic bottle; their gases are held together by their own gravitation. Earth-side gravitation is too feeble for this, so Spitzer's main job is to devise a leakproof magnetic bottle that can pinch-hit for the gravitation of the brighter stars. | <urn:uuid:15e74016-7201-4915-8c08-2b3a8eee7f5a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,810076,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00127-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936599 | 564 | 3.578125 | 4 |
PLSJC Director Alan Hall writes a weekly column discussing library and community news, history, and other interesting subjects.
The Library routinely receives inquiries about the value of old books. It is a difficult question to answer, made easier in recent years by the volume of information on the Internet providing specific examples of the pricing for book titles. The bottom line is that only a very small number of books in the marketplace are considered "rare" or of great value. In simple terms, a book achieves the status of being "rare" only when the demand for it is greater than the supply. This means that "rare" books can come and go in the antiquarian marketplace. Librarians and book dealers will generally state that age has little to do with the value of a book.
General guidelines state that anything published before 1501, British books published before 1641, and books published in the U.S. prior to 1850 should be checked for possible rare book status. Those guidelines are subject to factors of importance, condition, and demand. Like any antiques, old books are subject to their condition. Books in poor condition lose a great deal of their value, if they have any value. Worn bindings, torn pages, mildew, or missing pages can cause a book to have no value. Former library editions with markings are generally worth nothing in the book marketplace.
Bibles are books with great sentimental value, but little monetary value. Only early Bibles from the Renaissance Period, or some specific publications from the 16th and 17th century are rare. Collected works of a particular author are seldom rare. Common from 1880-1920, publishing houses reprinted all of an author's works and numbered them. Sometimes, a beautifully bound set will bring a high price due to the binding.
Encyclopedias have no value. They are published for their current information and are obsolete in a short time after publication. An exception is the original 1768 "Encyclopaedia Britannica" in three volumes. Be aware of 1960s reprints of this edition, which were done well enough to fool even seasoned book dealers.
Old school textbooks have no monetary value, except for some published prior to 1850. People think that the well-known "McGuffey Readers" are all valuable, but it is specifically the 1836-1856 copies, and only if in good condition.
Some newspapers bring interest with book dealers, but most are simply old newspapers. Certain editions published on historic days may bring a larger price, but beware of reprinted editions that may look like the real thing. The day Lincoln was assassinated, and the day Washington died are two favorites for reprinting, and some were done so long ago they look real.
We hear a lot about "first editions." They are the first published appearance of a literary work and generally bring a higher price than later printings. Research is needed to confirm the status.
The new Internet sources for old books are revealing. The same book in the same condition will be offered for sale at a whole range of prices. Alibris www.alibris.com provides access to millions of books offered for sale from all across the country. The Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA) www.abaa.org has resources to for the beginning bookseller. Bibliofind www.bibliofind.com is Amazon's division for rare, used, and out-of-print books and can be a resource for simply learning about an author's works. The nation's most popular online auction site, Ebay www.ebay.com has numerous categories for old books, and can help establish value. Of course, you can always own a book, just because you like it! | <urn:uuid:fcf4d19d-3765-48ff-a26f-753b5db815b2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.steubenville.lib.oh.us/Director/DCdetail.asp?dcID=36 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00009-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944462 | 767 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Regional Geological Setting
Bangladesh lies between 20o 34′ and 26o 38′ north latitudes and 88o 01′ and 92o 41′ east longitudes and as a consequence falls in the north eastern South Asia. The Indian States of West Bengal, Meghalaya and Tripura border Bangladesh in the west, north, and east and Burma forms the southern part of the eastern frontier. The Bay of Bengal limits the land area in the south. Bangladesh having about 80% of its area as flat fertile alluvial land is rightly considered as an agricultural country. But the presence of abundant coal, hard rock, and limestone within mineable depths, large reserve of gas, peat, white ceramic clay, and glass sand can assist Bangladesh in gaining recognizing as an industrial country. Physically Bangladesh may be classified in to four distinct regions each having distinguished characteristis of its own.
I. The Eastern and Northern Frontier Hilly Regions comprising the extensive eastern hilly regions, hills of Lalmai and north-eastern Sylhet district and a narrow strips of a series of low hill ranges and isolated circular and elongated hillocks separated by recent alluvium along the northern frontier of districts of Sylhet and Mymensingh.
II. The great Table Land is trisect by the river systems of Meghna and Jamuna giving rise to three large blocks of high lands that exhibit smooth rolling topography.
III. Flood plains of the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna River systems cover approximately 40% of Bangladesh.
IV. The Delta at present appears to be a combination of three deltas, namely, the Ganges delta, the Old Brahmaputra-Meghna delta, and the Ganges-Jamuna delta.
Structure and Tectonics
The major tectonic elements of Bengal Basin are the Pre-Cambrian Indian Platform and the Bengal Foredeep. The Indian Platform is divided into four parts including Rangpur Saddle, Northern Slope of Rangpur Saddle, Southern Slope of Rangpur Saddle and a Hinge Zone [Bakhtine, 1965].
The Bengal Foredeep filled with thick strata of Neogene is divided into two parts naming the Western Platform Flank and Eastern Folded Flank. The Western Platform Flank represents an area of deep subsidence, having simple structure of platform type, which sharply differs from eastern folded part of the Flank.
The Eastern Folded Flank is characterized by folding of intermediate or transitional type. By structural peculiarities of folds, it can be sub-divided into the following three tectonic zones;
A. The western zone:
The quietest zone of box like structures, which indicates that this folding is not yet accomplish. This zone includes Dakhin Nhila, Inani, Sitakind Maheshkhali, St. Martin’s, Jaldi, and Walataung.
B. The middle zone:
More disturbed, predominantly asymmetrical and includes Matamuhuri, Bandarban, Gilasari, Siatpahar, and Kasalong, etc.
C. The eastern zone:
This zone includes narrow, ridge like elongated and tightly folded structures like Mowdak, Borcal, Uttar Chatra and Shisok etc.
The present study area, Chittagong city lies in the western marginal part Chittagong Hill Tracts within the folded part (Eastern Folded Flank) of the Bengal Foredeep of the Bengal Basin. The development of Bengal Foredeep is directly related to the development of Himalayan Mountains in the north and the Arakan Yoma Hill Range in the east due to the north and northeastern collision of Indian plate with Eurasian Plate and Burmese Plate respectively. Folds of Chittagong and Chittagong Hill Tracts are situated near the eastern edge of the Indian plate. An attempt has been made to interpret the mechanism for the formation of the folded belt of Chittagong and Chittagong Hill Tracts in the light of plate tectonic theory.
Figure 2.4: Major structural elements of the Bengal basin and its adjacent areas (modified after Bakhtine, 1966; Guha, 1978; Alam, 1990; Reimann, 1993 and Gunguly, 1997).
According to Curray and Moore (1974), the present relative plate motion between the Indian and Eurasian plates is apparently in a north-east south-west direction at a rate of convergence 5 to 6 cm per year. This movement is evidenced by the seismic activities in the plate boundaries and is confirmed by the studies of paleomagnetism of rocks and oceanic magnetic anomalies (McKenzie and Sclater, 1971). The Indian plate being subducted and has been underthrusting the Burmese plate in the east and the Tibet plate in the north and finally is being consumed beneath the Benioff zone. The under thrusting of the Indian plate has also been supported by the study of local mechanism solution for some earthquakes in the north eastern India and Burma (Rastogi et al., 1973). The movement of the Arakan subplate (bounded by the Ninety East Ridge and covering the eastern and the southeastern part of Bangladesh) has been suggested to has resulted the formation of folds of the eastern flank of the Bengal Basin (Faruquee, 1975).
The regional setting of South- Eastern Folded Belt has been described in various literature- Bakhtine, Raju , Guha , Hossain (1985) Alam, Khan, Shamsuddin and Abdullah, Sikder , Murphy and stuff of BOGMC etc.
All works conclude that the Chittagong and Chittagong Hill Tracts, the Geological name of southeastern folded belt is considered to be the youngest structural subdivision of the western flank of the Indo-Burma Ranges. The rocks of these north-south trending hills of this belt are ranging in age from Lower Miocene to Recent. The folded belt is separated from Arakan-Yoma Anticlinorium by the NNW-SSE striking Kaladan Fault [Rajib, 2002].
Folds of Chittagong and Chittagong Hill Tracts are the western extension of the Arakan Yoma geanticlinorium, which are known in Bangladesh as folded flank of Bengal Foredeep of Bengal Basin. The surface relief of the area is represented by north-south stretched hills of sedimentary cover. The axes of folds run along NNW-SSE directions, which are parallel to the trend of the Arakan Yoma geanticlinorium. The structure is disrupted and complicated by the presence of numerous faults. It is generally observed that the intensity of folding increases towards the east. The amplitudes of the anticlines range from several hundred meters to more than 3500m. Most of the anticlines are asymmetrical and plunging in nature. The axial planes are mostly inclined to the east and the plunge of anticlines ranges from 20 to 150.
From the above discussion, it is observed that the relative movement of the Indian and Burmese plate has developed the main east west compression in the region. The Burmese plate being overridden the Indian plate has been serving as the main pushing agent and as a result the magnitude of force is higher in the east than the west. The analysis shows that the intensity of deformation and folding is higher in the east than the west, which is very much conformable with the field evidences. The tectonic forces thus generated from the east caused intensive deformation in the east become progressively weak towards the west to raise the formation of relatively broad and box-shaped folds in the western zone.
The folded region of Chittagong and Chittagong Hill Tracts is characterized by asymmetrical box-shaped folds associated with reversed type of faults. Such structures can not be satisfactorily explained to have formed by horizontal compression alone. Similar structures have been studied extensively by Millar (1971) in the Tripura–Surma valley of India.
From his studies it has been found that such structure is developed due to vertical crustal movement. In the present study it is believed that the differential vertical movement of the curstal rock might have taken place due to the relative movement of the Indian and Burmese plate. When two plates came finally closer to each other, the basinal material may have bounced up to form the present structure. The upward movement of material in the region has also been confirmed by the abnormal gravity anomaly and elevation relationship (Verma & Mushapadhya, 1976). From the field study it has been observed that adjacent to the high angle reverse fault like Sitakund (Hossain & Akhter, 1983), the sedimentary rocks have been on the up thrown block due to gravity. This bending or draping effect can be responsible for the formation of asymmetrical anticlines. | <urn:uuid:fc938572-b18e-400f-8b7c-e111dd0144ea> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://geology-book.blogspot.com/2010/06/bangladesh-tectonic-system.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397567.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00048-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941195 | 1,866 | 3.6875 | 4 |
Explain It to the Children
This week, Congress will likely approve legislation that threatens to terminate the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. The $14 million program allows more than 1,700 children in the nation’s worst school district to attend some of best school in Washington, including Sidwell Friends, where President Obama sends his daughters. These families, whose average annual income is less than $23,000 a year, face the real possibility that they will have to send their children back to failing public schools next year.
Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) has offered an amendment that will save the program. If that amendment is rejected, the president and members of Congress who opposed it should explain their vote to the children. After all, the legislation approves $15 million in grants for Second Chance Act offender re-entry programs. Too bad those kids may never get a first chance.
The Cap-and-Tax Man Cometh
Ratcheting down carbon emissions, as President Obama campaigned on and outlined in his budget, produces a windfall for the government.
Over eight years (2012-2019), the government will raise $646 billion by auctioning off carbon dioxide emissions permits But that’s only the beginning. The administration’s own budget blueprint acknowledges that revenues may far surpass those projections. Constraining carbon is, quite simply, shaping up to be a very large tax.
Over the past 12 years, America’s elected officials have been quite clear that reducing affordable energy is not in America’s best interest. In 1998, the Senate rejected the Kyoto Protocol. In 2003, the Senate rejected “cap-and-trade” legislation sponsored by Sens. John McCain and Joseph Lieberman. In 2008, the Senate rejected another “cap-and-trade” bill sponsored by Lieberman and Sen. John Warner (R-Va.).
A Heritage Foundation analysis of last year’s relatively modest Lieberman-Warner legislation revealed devastating economic results. In the first 20 years alone it would have:
- Resulted in aggregate real GDP losses (adjusted for inflation) of nearly $5 trillion — equivalent to the economic damage done by more than 600 hurricanes.
- Destroyed between 400,000 and 800,000 jobs.
- Caused nearly 3 million job losses in the manufacturing sector by 2029.
- Caused some manufacturing sectors (e.g., paper, chemical and plastics) to shed over 50% of their jobs.
- Brought about significantly lower levels of employment, economic growth and lower family consumption.
The facts haven’t changed, but the rhetoric is. This week, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) will introduce a so-called “cap-and-dividend” legislation. Conservatives may be attracted to the word “dividend,” but they must recognize that the “cap” would harm the economy.
The intellectual architects of the “cap-and-dividend” plan acknowledge “higher energy prices that would result from an emissions cap.” However, they believe that harm can be mostly mitigated by returning “much of the cost of a carbon cap to consumers.” That calculation leaves businesses to absorb the cost of higher energy prices, which they will do by raising prices, cutting costs or just closing shop.
Last year, Americans saw their rebate checks devoured by soaring energy prices. The same will be true under a “cap-and-dividend” plan. Our country cannot afford more self-inflicted pain.
Bad Spending Habits
In his inaugural address, President Obama said that “those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.” The new administration and Congress has failed to honor that pledge on their $1.1 trillion “stimulus” plan. It took two grand bargains for that bill to become law, and both were brokered behind closed doors with little minority input.
The bloated $410 billion omnibus spending bill is shaping up the same way. The House of Representatives rushed the bill through two weeks ago, but things bogged down in the Senate. Late last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced he lacked the votes to cut off debate. The American taxpayer should be wondering what grand bargain was struck over the weekend.
Besides the lack of transparency, tax dollars are certainly not being spent. The bill contains nearly 9,000 earmarks worth $7.7 billion and double-funds dozens of agencies and accounts that received money from the $1.1 trillion “stimulus” plan. Americans are cutting back on basic necessities, and lawmakers need to do likewise. When will Obama hold Congress accountable?
Cheers to Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) for his speech to the Conservative Political Action Committee gathering last week “This Administration and this Congress is barely a month old, and already the problems facing this nation have grown in magnitude — eclipsing the ones the nation faced when voters cast their ballots in November. How we, as conservatives, respond to these challenges could determine whether America retains her place in the world as a beacon of freedom; or whether we slip into the abyss that has swallowed much of Europe in an avalanche of socialism. While some are prepared to write the obituary on capitalism and our movement …I believe we are on the brink of a great American awakening.” Pence and his fellow conservatives in Congress deserve our cheers for leading the fight against a growing federal government. | <urn:uuid:552c7ed7-c3cb-4a4a-8fe3-611b49563aad> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://humanevents.com/2009/03/09/explain-it-to-the-children/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00193-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949986 | 1,176 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Disease threatens aquaculture in developing world
Disease may challenge the ability of fish farming to feed the growing human population even as wild fish stocks decline and climate change hampers food production from other sources, a study shows.
Aquaculture is the fastest growing food sector in the world, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, with 90 per cent of production coming from the developing world, where it makes a significant contribution to many nations' economies.
But fish and shellfish disease will increasingly present a major problem for aquaculture in tropical countries, many of which rely on this form of food production for dietary protein, according to the study, which calls for better disease-response strategies and infrastructure in developing countries.
The study, published in February's issue of the Journal of Applied Ecology, is the first analysis of the global pattern of disease outbreaks in aquaculture, according to its lead author, Tommy Leung, a lecturer in parasitology and evolutionary biology at the University of New England, Australia.
By examining published reports of disease-induced mortalities in commercial aquaculture, it found that outbreaks were more deadly and progressed quicker in the tropics than in temperate regions, after controlling for differences in veterinary and disease-reporting infrastructure.
Leung says the results show that outbreaks in tropical regions can wipe out entire fish stocks in a relatively short space of time, with devastating consequences for both the economy and food security.
"As aquaculture continues to expand as a means of food production, achieving food security and bolstering the domestic economy of those countries, it becomes ever more crucial to ensure that such ventures are protected from the impact of diseases," Leung tells SciDev.Net.
The results highlight the importance of developing and maintaining disease-monitoring infrastructure and training to identify pathogens and parasites, he says.
They also indicate the need for rapid response strategies for disease outbreaks, he adds.
Leung now wants to examine what environmental factors are driving the disease pattern.
Judith Weis, a biology professor at Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey, United States, says that disease spreads faster at warmer temperatures and that the excessive use of antibiotics in aquaculture causes antibiotic resistance, which may explain the pattern the study found.
"You can't do anything about the temperature but you can reduce the use of antibiotics," she says.
Martin Krkosek, assistant ecology and evolutionary biology professor at the University of Toronto, Canada, says: "For the first time, we have a global perspective on the dynamics of infectious diseases in aquaculture".
Continue reading at SciDev.Net.
Aquaculture image via Shutterstock. | <urn:uuid:60d56ecb-6db3-4e00-835c-48ff48552106> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/45726 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00079-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937206 | 550 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Daylight saving time (DST) has been extended for Argentina’s San Luis province in 2010.
The province’s time zone will remain to be three hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC-3).
Daylight Saving Time Extended
Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Stella Catalfamo Rubino announced the decision to extend DST in San Luis at a press conference on Thursday, April 8, 2010. The decision was made after discussions with the San Luis Chamber of Commerce, the province’s Chamber of Industry and other parties.
San Luis’ time zone during the non-daylight saving period is UTC-4. The province moved its clocks one hour forward at midnight (00:00) between Saturday, October 10, 2009, and Sunday, October 11, 2009. The province’s time zone is now on UTC-3 as part of the DST schedule.
It was originally planned for San Luis to push the clocks back to its original schedule at midnight (00:00) on April 11 until October 9, 2010. However, the Minister, together with the Electricity Regulatory Commission’s head Sandra Correa, reported that there would be no time changes on Sunday, April 11, as DST would continue.
The rest of Argentina does not currently observe DST after the decision to abandon a planned DST schedule was made in late 2009. | <urn:uuid:102edfc7-d78b-4dc8-8b5e-0f92f0a2d7f7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/san-luis-extends-dst-2010.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396959.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00199-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949075 | 285 | 2.65625 | 3 |
“Animals A-Z,” paintings by students of Lani Carney, Gnomon Press/Lani Carney, 2010, 49 pp. $50.
Two years of artwork by children ages three to eight at Featherstone Center for the Arts have produced a special new book, “Animals A-Z.” Its special-ness comes not just from the vivid color reproductions of animals arranged in rough alphabetic order on 11- by 16-inch card stock. It also reflects the methods used by art teacher Lani Carney, of Vineyard Haven, in her summer classes at Featherstone.
Ms. Carney has clearly brought an acute sensitivity to the beauty of the natural world and a concern for the environment to her work in the classroom. Her students’ paintings, all done in acrylic and water-based inks with what also looks like pencil, exhibit a freedom and boldness that suggests they come from such a context.
“Animals A-Z” lets the work of the 15 young artists speak for themselves without comment or even identification and age of the artist. The exception comes in a brief final page of text and credits by Ms. Carney.
Ms. Carney writes there, “As nature lovers and young artists, we notice things small and significant at the grass-roots level with understanding, knowledge and love. We believe we all can make a difference…and stop the abuse of our natural world. We must.…”
The artists bring to bear a variety of styles and approaches. A green-shelled blue crab with carefully articulated cervical grooves on its carapace dances across a background of pink and yellow sand, its 10 blue and purple legs stretching across the page. Red ants march up and down a fence-like line of grass, while a coal-eyed pink bear sticks its black nose through a row of foliage.
No need to stick to one creature per letter of the alphabet. The B’s are inhabited by a bear and a butterfly, as well as the blue crab. P includes a beautiful panda as well as two sets of penguins.
Nor do these youngsters feel the need to confine their depictions to real animals. A red dragon outlined in black stares from its page through round eyes and nostrils. A portrait of the ocean does fine for “O.” Half the fun of looking at the scary, flaming “Vakari” is guessing that the artist may mean to convey the valkyrie of Norse mythology.
One nascent abstract expressionist uses a broad sweep of red paint to capture the wingspan of an eagle. Another captures the aquatic essence of a turtle in blurry fields of green and orange watercolor.
In “Animals A-Z,” children’s logic rules the alphabet, offering the reader a sled dog under “S” and two “narwals” (properly spelled narwhal). A handsomely horned ox suffices nicely for the letter “X.”
Some categories of creatures are popular enough for multiple representations. They include whales, penguins, and dogs. No cats, alas, except for the big ones such as cheetahs and lions.
Poetic license applies in “Animals A-Z.” The artist who created a giraffe chooses to use stilt-like legs and a not particularly long neck to achieve that animal’s height. Except for its head, a snake that is color-braided in green, gray and yellow could easily make an interesting belt.
Ms. Carney avoids shows and hanging art on walls with her students. She says no ranking is necessary: “It’s about their self-expression.” She believes our technologically oriented world can be stultifying and doesn’t allow erasers in the belief that mistakes should be left. She uses Native American chants in the classroom and encourages her students to appreciate the cattle and chicken in residence at Featherstone.
“You don’t ‘see’ animals more,” she says. “It’s more about listening to them with your heart.” The heartfelt visions of these young artists suggests she knows what’s she’s talking about. | <urn:uuid:5f97b53a-3e1f-4c63-8b19-9d56454047b8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mvtimes.com/2010/11/03/animals-a-z-3123/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00015-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943922 | 885 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Japanese Lesson Study
Friday, July 20
We ironed out specifics in our lesson in preparation for presenting it to the teachers at 4:30. It was agreed that Y.T. would present the lesson to the teachers, and Karen would present it to the students. We discussed the scale of our ³hook² problem, possible student difficulties, and how best to create a meaningful mathematical experience in our limited time. We discussed what materials would be helpful and appropriate, and what we needed to convey in our summary and discussion periods.
PCMI@MathForum Home || IAS/PCMI Home
With program support provided by Math for America
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under DMS-0940733 and DMS-1441467. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. | <urn:uuid:3f517fcf-f0cf-4d68-92ab-e9fc91628cff> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mathforum.org/pcmi/hstp/sum2001/wg/lessonstudy/journal/lessonstudy20.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391634.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00093-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938538 | 195 | 2.96875 | 3 |
I wrote an article for Nature News about a recent unexpected discovery about prime numbers. A prime number that ends in a 1 is less likely to be followed by another one ending in 1 than random chance would dictate. The finding is more general, extending to all primes, not just those that end in 1, and covering last digits in any base other than 2. Their paper is on the arXiv if you want to read it for yourself.
The result is surprising because prime numbers, although they are definitely not random, seem to behave like random numbers. As Erica Klarreich writes in her (excellent, as usual) Quanta article about the phenomenon, treating the primes as essentially random “does an excellent job of predicting certain features of the real primes, such as how many to expect between two consecutive perfect squares.” If we assume primes are random, we expect a 1 to be followed by a 1 25 percent of the time; for primes under a billion, the real figure is 18 percent of the time.
Robert Lemke Oliver and Kannan Soundararajan, the Stanford mathematicians who noticed this pattern, explain the phenomenon using the Hardy-Littlewood k-tuple conjecture. In talking about their work with James Maynard, another number theorist, I learned something peculiar and upsetting about this conjecture, or rather about it and its sibling conjecture.
The k-tuple conjecture is one of two Hardy-Littlewood conjectures about the distribution of prime numbers. It improves on the heuristic of primes being random by taking into account the fact that prime numbers have no small prime factors. As I wrote in my Nature News article,
The idea behind it is that there are some configurations of primes that can’t occur, and that this makes other clusters more likely. For example, consecutive numbers cannot both be prime — one of them is always an even number. So if the number n is prime, it is slightly more likely that n + 2 will be prime than random chance would suggest. The k-tuple conjecture quantifies this observation in a general statement that applies to all kinds of prime clusters.
The other Hardy-Littlewood conjecture is the seemingly innocuous statement that there are more primes in the first n numbers than in a string of n numbers starting anywhere else on the number line. For example, there should be more primes under 100 than primes between 900 and 1,000 and more under 1,000 than between 130,000 and 131,000.
To me, this conjecture is even more plausible than the k-tuple conjecture, in part because it is more straightforward. The primes are just so bottom-heavy! The prime number theorem, an excellent theorem if ever there was one, says primes thin out further along the number line and exactly how much. The number of primes less than n is proportional to the number of digits of the prime. A number with 4 digits is half as likely to be prime as a number with 2.
There are 25 primes less than 100 and 168 less than 1,000. It seems difficult for me to believe that there are places along the number line where the primes bunch up enough to make up for those very dense areas, and that's why the k-tuple conjecture seems so reasonable.
If you asked me about the conjectures, I’d say they both sound very plausible, and I’m in good company. Number theory giants G. H. Hardy and John Littlewood made these two conjectures in the same 1923 paper, but they are not both true. In 1974, Ian Richards published a paper showing that the second contradicts the first and posits that the first is more likely. Today, number theorists generally assume the first, the k-tuple conjecture, and many proofs are contingent on the conjecture.
Based on the consensus of number theorists and the many, many computations that seem to support the k-tuple conjecture, I have reluctantly come to accept the fact that somewhere up there, in the vast expanse of primes, a cluster sits there that outweighs the first chunk of prime numbers. | <urn:uuid:4d474595-e5e3-4533-8d85-eb30bb8ce2b3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/2-plausible-things-that-cannot-both-be-true/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396222.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00007-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954097 | 853 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Shrine of the Magi (1200)
Dating from c.1200, the beautiful Shrine of the Magi is the largest reliquary in the western world. The exterior is covered in a total of seven feet of gilded silver and jewels pillaged from Constantinople during the Crusades. Images of Old Testament prophets line the bottom while the twelve apostles decorate the top. Inside are three golden-crowned skulls believed to belong to the Magi. These relics were taken from Milan by Fredrick Barbarossa and given to the Archbishop of Cologne in 1164.
Credit: Holly Hayes | <urn:uuid:3c277288-837c-4b5c-8713-78d57de1c708> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.sacred-destinations.com/germany/cologne-cathedral/photos/IMG_0719 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00052-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946199 | 122 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Creating and using bisque stamps is a unique way to make personalized impressions on ceramic ware.
Roller Bisque Stamps
1. Draw a design for the stamp on a piece of white computer paper, taking care that the end points on each side match up. When the paper is rolled up so that the ends meet, the drawing should create a continuous design. To help the ends meet exactly, I will often fold the paper into quarters lengthwise and use the half or quarter marks as starting and ending points. Below is an example of a roller stamp pattern.
2. Roll out an even, thick coil of clay, making sure that it is thick long enough to fit the pattern. Wrap the pattern around the coil, using pushpins to fasten it in place. With a wire tool, trim off the excess clay at each end. With a pen or a very dull pencil, trace your pattern. The impression from the tracing will serve as an outline for carving.
3. Using the traced outline, carve out the stamp. Many different tools may be used. I personally prefer a sharpened paintbrush end, a broken hack-saw blade, and two very old Kemper wire carving tools given to me by a friend. Keep in mind that the carved stamp will become the negative of the actual impression made in the clay. Where the stamp is carved inward is where the impression will be raised up.
4. Several smaller, less detailed stamps can be made by slicing the extra coil into round peices and then texturing the outer rims. I like to put random marks and carvings in these smaller stamps. In combination with larger stamps, they make excellent borders.
5. When the stamps are finished, allow them to dry to leather hard. Gently remove the clay from the center of the stamp to create a hollow cylinder. It is important not to leave the stamp too thick, making an explosion in your kiln, or too thin, creating a weak and brittle stamp.
6. Bisque fire the stamps. All the stamps shown are bisqued to cone 06.
Below is the finished bisque stamp and what it looks like when rolled on a slab of clay.
A great informational article on how to make skinny roller bisque stamps can be found on the web at:
How to Make Ceramic Roller Stamps by Suzi Rhae | <urn:uuid:d6919fc2-7225-4cad-ae92-76fa667ea8a8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mypotteryblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/bisque-stamps-creating-and-using.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404405.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00150-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921475 | 484 | 2.84375 | 3 |
In a key step toward creating a working quantum computer, Princeton researchers have developed a method to read spintronic information off electrons, a potential step on the road to quantum computing.
Standard computers store information as classical "bits", which can take on a value of either 0 or 1. These bits allow programmers to create the complex instructions that are the basis for modern computing power.
The power of a quantum computer comes from the strange rules of quantum mechanics, which describe the universe of subatomic particles. Quantum mechanics says that an electron can spin in one direction, representing a 1, or in another direction, a 0. But it can also be in something called "superposition" representing all states between 1 and 0. If scientists and engineers can build a working machine that takes advantage of this, they would open up entirely new fields of computing.
Over the years, scientists have developed techniques to observe spin states without disturbing them. But analyzing small numbers of spins is not enough; millions will be required to make a real quantum processor.
A team led by Princeton physicist Jason Petta, could eventually allow engineers to build quantum computers consisting of millions of quantum bits, or qubits. The researchers have developed a method that may allow the quick and reliable transfer of quantum information throughout a computing device.
To make the transfer, Petta's team used a stream of microwave photons to analyze a pair of electrons trapped in a tiny cage called a quantum dot. The "spin state" of the electrons - information about how they are spinning - serves as the qubit. The microwave stream allows the scientists to read that information.
"We create a cavity with mirrors on both ends - but they don't reflect visible light, they reflect microwave radiation," Petta said. "Then we send microwaves in one end, and we look at the microwaves as they come out the other end. The microwaves are affected by the spin states of the electrons in the cavity, and we can read that change."
In an ordinary sense, the distances involved are very small; the entire apparatus operates over a little more than a centimeter. But on the subatomic scale, they are vast. It is like coordinating the motion of a top spinning on the moon with another on the surface of the earth.
"It's the most amazing thing," said Jake Taylor, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland, who worked on the project with the Princeton team. "You have a single electron almost completely changing the properties of an inch-long electrical system."
This is how the team reads the spin state: electrons of similar spin will repel, while those of different spins will attract. So the team manipulates the electrons to a certain energy level and then reads their position. If they are in the same cage, they are spinning differently; if they are in different cages, the spins are the same.
The second step is to place this quantum dot inside the microwave channel. This allows the team to transfer the information about the pair's spin state - the qubit.
Petta said the next step is to increase the reliability of the setup for a single electron pair. After that, the team plans to add more quantum dots to create more qubits. Team members are cautiously optimistic. There appear to be no insurmountable problems at this point but, as with any system, increasing complexity could lead to unforeseen difficulties.
"The methods we are using here are scalable, and we would like to use them in a larger system," Petta said. "But to make use of the scaling, it needs to work a little better. The first step is to make better mirrors for the microwave cavity."
Using quantum mechanics to build a new machine that would revolutionize computing. The goal is not build a faster or more powerful computer, but to build one that approaches problems in a completely different fashion.
Quantum systems could allow Mathematicians to accomplish tasks such as factoring currently unfactorable numbers, breaking codes or predicting the behavior of molecules.
The research was reported in the journal Nature on Oct. 18. | <urn:uuid:aac571e5-a66c-4801-86aa-7fb351939017> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Print.aspx?NewsId=34600 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393533.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00174-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93877 | 842 | 4.25 | 4 |
Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2012.07.22
Jenifer Neils, Women in the Ancient World. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011. Pp. 216. ISBN 9781606060919. $25.00 (pb).
Reviewed by Peter Keegan, Macquarie University (firstname.lastname@example.org)
The author of this volume, Jenifer Neils, is an art historian, classical archaeologist and museum curator with a broad interest in the art and archaeology of the ancient world from the Bronze Age to late antiquity and particular expertise in the history and material culture of Greece. 1 Given her longstanding focus on the visual language of the extant past, it will come as no surprise to learn that Neil’s aim is ‘to reveal how the imagery of women in the ancient world contributes to our understanding of their lives and roles in society’ (13). Chronologically, ‘ancient’ encompasses a period of time stretching from predynastic Egypt (4400 BC) to the late Roman empire (AD 476); geographically, the ‘world’ comprises Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa; ‘society’ is almost exclusively elite (acknowledged by the author in her introduction); and, importantly for the organization of the book and the display of the collected images, ‘women’ is a categorical denomination – ‘real’ women (Ch. 1) juxtaposed against an assortment of ‘stereotypes’ (Ch. 2), ‘mothers and mourners’ (Ch. 3), ‘working women’ (Ch.4) and ‘royal women’ (Ch. 7) – as well as described in relation to associated practices – physical modification (Ch. 5) and religion (Ch. 6). It should be clear, therefore, that this treatment of ‘women in the ancient world’ proposes a wide-ranging general examination of elite female representation across a broad sweep of historical periods, pre-modern cultures, and behavioural typologies, but restricted in the main to that social stratum ‘wealthy enough to commission images’ (13).
Chapter 1 (‘Real women: an introduction’) utilizes the well-known gilt silver toiletry box of a late Roman woman, Projecta, to illustrate the usefulness and limitations of visual material culture as a guide to the nature of female representation in antiquity. By means of this device, Neils claims that imagery relating to women in the ancient world may be distributed among three categories of display—wife, mistress of the household, mother (or reproducer)—for which she provides examples from Egypt, Greece, Etruria, and Rome. This overarching thesis is stated at the outset (13), reiterated throughout (e.g. 15-16, 32, 40-3, 54, 59-66, 69-77, 84, 138, 163-4) and rehearsed at the very end of the book (204). Neils concedes, however, that it is only through a study of the physical remains of deceased women that we can know anything about the realities of women’s existence in ancient times – lifestyle, diet, medical condition, physiognomy. Drawing on archaeological insights selectively illustrated to accompany the text, a brief outline of the various cultures encountered in the book rounds off the chapter.
Dispensing with the quest for historical reality, Chapter 2 (‘Female stereotypes’) illustrates a variety of perceptions and misconceptions that have adhered to women across the span of the last several thousand years. In line with the previous pattern of compartmentalization, these views pertain to such categories as the femme fatale (Eve, Pandora, Ishtar/Circe, Aphrodite/Venus, Helen, Athena/Minerva), the man-slayer (Amazons, Clytemnestra, Medea), the martyr (Jocasta, Phaedra, Iphigenia, Polyxena, Lucretia, Vestals, Christian martyrs), the witch (Lamashtu, Isis, Circe, Medea, Medusa, Lamia), and earth (and sky) mothers (Nut, Demeter/Ceres, Ge/Gaia, Mary). It is important to note that Neil’s catalogue of stereotypes—restricted, as it must be, both in length and depth—conflates the divine, demi-human, human, and monstrous, and explores only those facets of each representative type and accompanying exempla which accord with the defining category. Chapter 3 (‘Mothers and mourners’) addresses the imagery of the ancient reproductive economy and explores cross- cultural associations of women and emotional display as part of ritual funerary practice. Neils prefaces her examination of the female in relation to birth and death by touching on the centrality of marriage in the life of young women in the ancient world. Viewed as a key point of transition—mid-way perhaps between the starting- and end- points of temporal existence—she draws out the disconnection between genres of representation (epigraphic, documentary, literary, visual) and degrees of relationship to historical reality. This discussion of commercial, political, social, emotional and sexual dynamics inherent to ancient marriage is tied to beliefs and customs relating to virginity, the wedding, polygamy and incest, adultery and divorce and embraces a plethora of cultural affiliations— old Babylonian, neo-Hittite, Egyptian, Etruscan, Athenian Greek, south Italian, and imperial Roman. Neils segues into a similarly panoramic review of reproductive and memorializing roles reflected in ancient visual culture. For some, this diverse catalogue of material evidence might seem to dictate the direction of discussion rather than illustrate the line of argument. What is certainly true is that Neils’ transhistorical portfolio of mothers, midwives and mourners elicits a startling final observation: ‘[T]hese roles were essential to the well-being of ancient societies, perhaps more so that the actual work performed by women’ (86).
Chapter 4 (‘Working women’) addresses explicitly—though still through the filter of prestige material culture—the range of occupations assigned to non-elite women (most often, slaves) in ancient Mediterranean societies: textile production, food preparation, midwifery and childcare, entertainment, and prostitution. The selection of images used to illustrate Neils’ survey comprises a number of ‘usual suspects’ (e.g., an early Bronze Age spindle whorl, a pre- dynastic Egyptian model of brewers and bakers, an Athenian red-figure scene of Greek women making music) as well as depictions of less-seen female representations (e.g. 5th century BC Greek figurines of women engaged in domestic tasks, a Hellenistic statuette of a female dwarf dancing while playing castanets, a 1st-2nd century AD Roman relief of female gladiators discharged from the arena). Neils concludes this chapter with a brief excursus on the depiction on Athenian hydriae of women fetching water at the spring or fountain house. She uses this corpus of artifacts as a means by which to illustrate the problems facing ancient historians and archaeologists when interpreting ‘the silent material record’ (116) and to support her contention that the limited reference to female participation in art and literature reflects ‘the prevailing ideology in many [ancient] cultures’ (121).
Chapter Five (‘The body beautiful’) looks at the rhetoric of female decorum across the visual and plastic arts, and literature. After presenting ‘a gallery of post-mortem portrayals of individual women’ (126), which illuminates the idealizing and ideological foundations underlying such images of adornment, grooming, and dress, the author considers the elements with which ancient women decorated themselves in life. At the end of the chapter, Neils notes that ‘these beautification rituals … played a role in affirming the place of women in their culture’ (157). However, it should be noted that any analysis in her overview of the representation of the female body and its adornment underemphasizes this passing attestation of female agency in favour of the surface preoccupations of physical care and embellishment.
Chapter Six (‘Women and religion’) considers the roles and status of women in the sphere of religion by way of evidence pertaining to cult, legislation, rituals and festivals, offerings, and the trappings of office. Neils’ catalogue is instructive: Vestal Virgins (historical Rome) and temple prostitutes (mythistorical Babylon); sacred marriage (Egypt), divine intercession (Mesopotamia), and temple guardianship (Greece); oracles from Greece (the Delphic Pythia) and Asia Minor/Italy (the Cumaean Sibyl); cult devotees (again, Egyptian and Greek); women’s festivals (the Greek Thesmophoria and Roman Bona Dea) and votive offerings (a Mediterranean-wide phenomenon). According to Neils, it would seem that ‘[r]ecent feminist-driven investigations have perhaps overstated the power and independence of female priestesses’ (160) – a claim which should perhaps be measured in relation to the implications of this chapter’s sampler of elite female participation in civic religious activity. To take a single instance, reference is made to the ‘wide variety of objects dedicated by women … throughout the Mediterranean’ (178). Opportunity is an equally useful measure of participation, and, beyond the limited (and limiting) frame of elite representation, I would suggest that sub-altern cultural practices afforded women religious opportunities encompassing markers of ‘power and independence’ commensurate with their social strata and normative boundaries.2
Chapter Seven (‘Royal women’) touches briefly on references to and images of a number of women viewed as significant in historical and/or socio-political terms in their own times and in posterity. Oddly enough, not all the subjects of this chapter are royal—Roman Lucretia, for instance, was raped by Etruscan royalty but not royal in her own right; Eumachia was the daughter of a wealthy Pompeian businessman; Livia, I would suggest, should be viewed as Augusta rather than as a queen. Neils’ whirlwind tour of Mediterranean monarchy (from Hittite Puduhepa, Assyrian Sammuramat, and Egyptian Hatshepsut, to Ptolemaic Arsinoe II, Cleopatra VII, and Romano-British Boudica) registers in passing the display of political and intellectual achievements of a select cohort of historic and legendary women of note.
Neils includes at the end of her book a glossary of historical, artistic and archaeological terms, a list of goddesses, and a bibliography of further reading (in general and keyed to ancient cultures), a catalogue of illustration references, and an index of topics, persons and locations.
It should be clear from what has gone before that there is much in this book to admire, not least the splendid selection of well-sized, quality-rich photographs that illustrate every page of the text. The brief notes provided as captions to each image, comprising useful aesthetic detail and socio-historical context, enhance the general discussion. For students first encountering the representation of women in the artefactual record of the ancient Mediterranean, and for those with a general interest in the manufacture of gender- and status-specific ideology through material culture, Neils’ work is highly recommended. As a selective compendium of imagery pertaining to elite women from Egypt, Greece, Rome, and the Near East, or displaying non-elite women in relation to elite aesthetic and cultural principles—filtered, it should be noted, through exclusively male literary perspectives on female roles in ancient society – Women in the Ancient World is a most successful enterprise.
1. Publications include: The Parthenon: From Antiquity to the Present (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 [BMCR 2006.08.23]); with John Oakley, Coming of Age in Ancient Greece: Images of Childhood from the Classical Past (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003 [BMCR 2004.07.44]); The Parthenon Frieze (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001 [BMCR 2002.06.14]); Goddess and Polis: The Panathenaic Festival in Ancient Athens (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992 [BMCR 04.03.09]).
2. Cf. e.g. Celia Schultz, Women’s Religious Activity in the Roman Republic (University of North Carolina Press, 2006 [BMCR 2006.10.40]; Susan Guettel Cole, Landscapes, Gender, and Ritual Space: The Ancient Greek Experience (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004) [BMCR 2004.09.18]; M. P. J. Dillon, Girls and Women in Classical Greek Religion (London and New York: Routledge, 2002) [BMCR 2002.11.06]. | <urn:uuid:1fe66d0b-0309-4b7b-9697-bfc3d1abcc54> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2012/2012-07-22.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00201-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909067 | 2,748 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Matthew Disney is an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Fla. He has MDA support to design small molecules that target the toxic RNA that underlies myotonic muscular dystrophy (MMD, also known as DM).
MDA Medical and Science Editor Margaret Wahl talked with Matthew Disney about his work.
Background note: RNA is derived from DNA and is the chemical step between DNA and protein synthesis. In MMD, the RNA is abnormally expanded.
A: Yes. I have a background in biochemistry with a focus on the physical properties of RNA.
Myotonic dystrophy is thought to be a disease in which abnormal RNA folding plays an important role, and I'm particularly interested in RNA folding and misfolding. My training in RNA biophysics has had a great influence on our efforts in developing myotonic dystrophy therapies.
A: We've been studying what types of folds the toxic RNA in myotonic dystrohpy adopts, and we've been comparing these folds to those adopted by other cellular RNA molecules that we do not want to target.
By using this information, we've leveraged our ability to design and synthesize small molecules that can potentially bind to just the toxic RNA folds seen in myotonic dystrophy.
A: Right. It remains to be seen if you can do this and how well you can do this. The approach that we've put forward is that our designed compounds specifically target the expanded repeats of [the chemical sequence] CUG in myotonic dystrophy type 1 and the expanded repeats of [the chemical sequence] CCUG in myotonic dystrophy type 2.
We're targeting multiples of these repeats in a row, not a single copy of the repeat or just a few copies of the repeat. We think that by only targeting many repeats in a row, the compounds should have fewer off-target effects in cells and — although this has to be seen down the road — fewer side effects.
A: It's interesting that you ask that. When we first got interested in myotonic dystrophy drug targets, we designed compounds for type 2. However, there weren't adequate cell and animal models of MMD2 in which to test these, so we switched to type 1. But, yes, we're optimistic about type 2.
A: That is our goal.
A: Right. The reason we don't want to destroy the repeats is that the RNA attached to the repeat may have some physiological function. If you destroy the CUG repeats in type 1 myotonic dystrophy, for example, you may affect the DMPK messenger RNA [genetic instructions for the DMPK protein] that the CUG repeats are attached to.
We've demonstrated that when we target the CUG repeats in the DMPK instructions with our small molecules, our designer compounds, these instructions are no longer stuck in the cell nucleus. They can get out of the nucleus and into the cytoplasm of the cell, where they have to go for the DMPK protein to be made.
A: It's because the small molecules are binding to the CUG repeat RNA and stopping large proteins from sticking to them. It turns out that the protein sticking is what keeps that DMPK messenger RNA stuck in the nucleus. If we can dislodge the large proteins, then the messenger RNA can leave the nucleus.
A: Our compounds have RNA-binding modules that are separated by what we're calling spacers. We think by making small molecule with spacers, they will go to and recognize RNAs that fold up into a long hairpin shape and not the ones that don't. [It's believed that the CUG repeats in MMD1 cause the RNA to fold into a shape that looks like a hairpin.]
I think it remains to be seen how one can target these expanded repeats specifically with a small molecule. But if I were to bet I'd put my money on a modularly designed compound like the one we've designed that targets the expanded repeats in MMD1, as opposed to a traditional small molecule that might recognize just one repeat.
A: We've made derivatives of things like antibiotics, and we've made some other compounds that are similar to some known drugs. The bis-benzimidazoles are one class we're working on.
Q: What have you seen in the laboratory with these molecules?
A: In cells that have an MMD1-type defect, we've seen that the designed compounds are capable of correcting three key features of the disease: the binding of cellular proteins to the CUG repeats; the retention of DMPK RNA in the cell nucleus; and the creation of potentially cell-damaging clumps of RNA and proteins in the nucleus.
All three of those defects were corrected in cell models of MMD1. The cellular proteins were released from the CUG repeats, allowing them to do their normal jobs; the DMPK messenger RNA was able to leave the cell nucleus and be used for synthesis of DMPK protein; and there were fewer RNA-protein clumps.
A: Yes. The animal studies were done in collaboration with Charles Thornton. We wouldn't have been able to do them without him.
Charles' lab injected our compounds into their MMD1 mice. These mice have expanded CUG repeats in the actin gene, not the DMPK gene.
We saw correction of the MMD1-associated defects in chloride ion channels and calcium ion channels, which are required for controlling muscle contraction and relaxation. We think that's because MBNL1 [muscleblind-like protein 1] and possibly other proteins, which are needed for correct synthesis of these channels, were freed from the CUG repeats to do their usual jobs.
So far, that's all we've looked for, and that's all we've seen, but we're extending those studies.
We're also going to see if oral dosing of these compounds in the mice is effective.
A: I'm not so sure. That remains to be seen. Here at Scripps, we have a distribution, metabolism and pharmacokinetics facility, where we can test compounds to see their distribution very quickly and potentially optimize them if need be.
These drug discovery facilities are a major advantage that we have here at Scripps. They set us apart from more traditional academic institutions and make us uniquely positioned to potentially advance compounds from the lab to the patient.
A: The antisense strategies are much further along in development than the small molecules, and some have been shown to reduce myotonia [the prolonged contraction of muscles associated with myotonic dystrophy].
But the advantage of small molecules is that they're tried-and-true therapeutics. Most FDA-approved drugs are small molecules. There are only maybe one or two antisense oliogonucleotides that have been approved by the FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration].
Small molecules are easier to manufacture than antisense oligonucleotides, and they may get into targeted tissues and cells more easily.
Also, they can often be delivered orally. Aspirin, for instance, is a small molecule. It would be hard to envision an antisense molecule being orally available. It would be much easier to envision a small molecule being orally available.
And finally, antisense compounds are pretty costly to make. The thought is that a small molecule will be easier to make and easier to produce in large quantities, and therefore cheaper.
A: Antisense oligonucleotides are 10 to 50 times the size of a small molecule like ours. | <urn:uuid:919ead12-ac5a-4f0e-9d15-e5d9caacb904> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://quest.mda.org/series/mmd-research-blocking-harmful-interactions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403508.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00056-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965462 | 1,592 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Our Primary Program
For ages 3-6 years
The best description of the Montessori Primary Program (ages 3-6) comes from the North American Montessori Teachers’ Association. The Montessori preschool classroom is a “living room” for children, where they can choose their work from self-correcting materials in specific work areas.
The following five distinct areas make up the prepared environment in a Montessori classroom:
- Practical Life enhances the development of hand-eye coordination gross motor control, and cognitive order through care of self, care of the environment, development of social relations, and coordination of physical movement.
- Sensorial Areas enable the child to order, classify, and describe sensory impressions in relation to length, width, temperature, mass, color, pitch, etc.
- Mathematics makes use of manipulative materials to enable the cxhild to internalized concepts of number, symbol, sequence, operations, and memorization of basic facts.
- Language Arts include oral language development, written expression, reading, the study of grammar, creative dramatics, and children’s literature. Basic skills in writing and reading are developed through the use of sandpaper letter, alphabet cut-outs, and various presentations, allowing children to link sounds and letter symbols effortlessly and to express their thoughts through writing.
- Cultural Activities expose the child to basics in geography, history, life sciences, and earth sciences. Music, art, and movement education are part of the integrated cultural curriculum.
The primary environment unifies the social, physical, and intellectual functioning of the child.
Its’ important function is to provide children with an early and general foundation that will enable them to acquire more specialized knowledge and skills throughout their school career. | <urn:uuid:399a5f89-16c4-4f57-a4b0-c2ecf2c84020> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.hawaiimontessori.org/programs_primary.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00164-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912827 | 359 | 3.796875 | 4 |
The propagation of high frequencies sound waves is more directional (specular), and they don't diffract as much as low frequencies. Low-frequencies diffract and thus propagate in a more omni-spherical fashion. This, to my knowledge, applies to all waves, not only sound ones.
Now trying to imagine the air particles hitting one another at low/high frequencies doesn't really unlock why this happens. I am aware that deep understanding of wave theory will provide the answer.
But is there a simple, visual explanation to why this happens? And if not, is there at least some simple mathematical equation that can provide the answer? | <urn:uuid:81b0a5d2-bf43-4814-97e0-8e095eded5b0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/54360/sound-wave-propagation-why-hf-are-more-specular-while-lf-are-more-omni/54381 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397695.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00103-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948378 | 132 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Courses help communities identify, understand, and respond to mental illness
In an effort to help communities identify, understand, and respond to the signs of mental illness, the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) is encouraging Michigan residents to take a Mental Health First Aid training near them. There are currently more than 30 classes scheduled for the months of June and July across the state.
“We would like to see Mental Health First Aid training become as common and as widely known as traditional first aid courses are,” said James K. Haveman, Director of the MDCH. “Through these courses, we are not only helping reduce stigma by increasing understanding, but we’re helping our residents direct their friends and loved ones to the care they need.”
The MDCH is running online and radio promotions to increase awareness of the trainings to residents throughout Michigan communities. Currently, Mental Health First Aid trainings are being conducted free of charge for those who work or reside within Calhoun, Clinton, Eaton, Genesee, Ingham, Kalamazoo, Kent, Macomb, Muskegon, Oakland, and Wayne counties. Residents of other counties may take the training for a fee.
Mental Health First Aid is an eight-hour training certification course that teaches participants a five-step action plan to assess a situation, select and implement interventions and secure appropriate care for the individual. The certification program introduces participants to risk factors and warning signs of mental health problems, builds understanding of their impact and overviews common treatments. Thorough evaluations in randomized controlled trials and a quantitative study have proved the CPR-like program effective in improving trainees’ knowledge of mental disorders, reducing stigma, and increasing the amount of help provided to others.
Mental Health First Aid originated in 2001 in Australia under the direction of founders Betty Kitchener and Tony Jorm. To date, it has been replicated in twenty other countries worldwide, including Hong Kong, Scotland, England, Canada, Finland, and Singapore.
Kent County will hold trainings on Wednesday, July 16 and Tuesday, July 29, at Network 180, 790 Fuller NE, Grand Rapids. To register go to www.network180.org. For additional info, email firstname.lastname@example.org.
For more information about Mental Health First Aid trainings visit www.michigan.gov/mentalhealthfirstaid. | <urn:uuid:9d38a694-d452-48ef-bafd-37adb2e2cd06> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://cedarspringspost.com/2014/06/26/mental-health-first-aid-trainings/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393533.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00057-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942799 | 488 | 2.53125 | 3 |
On March 16, 1968 , American soldiers went into a small village in Vietnam called My Lai and killed approximately 400 unarmed civilians. Two years later the American public found out what had happened at My Lai. The government called it an incident while others called it a massacre. One person, Lt. William Calley, was charged with the killings. He served less than four years on house arrest. No others were found guilty of the killings or the cover up that the government was accused of doing.
Explain the events that led up to the killings and what happened that day in the village of My Lai. Was there a cover up by the government of the events? How did the story finally go public? What was the public reaction to the actual sentence that Calley served? What are the reactions and the message today, from both the general public as well as the survivors, concerning My Lai and the war overall?
Vietnam Online: The My Lai Massacre
Into the Dark: The My Lai Massacre by Mark Gado; Chapters 1-15
An Introduction to the My Lai Courts-Martial. By Doug Linder
Murder in the name of war - My Lai
Background on the My Lai Hearings and Reports
Court Adjourns on My Lai
Report of the Department of the Army Review of the Preliminary Investigations into the My Lai Incident.
Volume I - The Report of the Investigation
Volume II - Testimony
Volume III – Exhibits; Book 6 - Photographs
Investigation of the My Lai Incident
Frontline: Remember My Lai
Documents Relating to the Court Martial of William L. Calley
Documents Relating to the Court Martial of Ernest L. Medina
My Lai survivors gather to pray for victims – Associated Press
My Lai survivors recall tragedy by Ben Stocking | <urn:uuid:2d6dabcb-e056-4a4a-a8b3-5552b7365a88> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.studythepast.com/vbprojects/my_lai_massacre.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398075.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00051-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.855975 | 385 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D.
Sedentary lifestyle is a type of lifestyle most commonly found in modern (particularly Western) cultures. It is characterized by sitting or remaining inactive for most of the day (for example, in an office without any (or little) exercise.
It is believed to be a factor in obesity, and, in doing so, may contribute to other diseases, such as type II diabetes, heart disease, and even hemorrhoids.
The term sedentary in biology applies to organisms and species that are not migratory but rather remain at a single location (permanently fixed or otherwise).
Examples in zoology include such sessile orgasms as barnacles, corals and mussels.
Examples can include the change in telephones. Previously they were connected to cords forcing individuals to get up, but now with cell phones and cordless phones, inactivity and remaining seated occur more regularly.
|Circulatory system pathology (I, 390-459)|
|Hypertension||Hypertensive heart disease - Hypertensive nephropathy - Secondary hypertension (Renovascular hypertension)|
|Ischaemic heart disease||Angina pectoris (Prinzmetal's angina) - Myocardial infarction (heart attack) - Dressler's syndrome|
|Pulmonary circulation||Pulmonary embolism - Cor pulmonale|
|Pericardium||Pericarditis - Pericardial effusion - Cardiac tamponade|
|Endocardium/heart valves||Endocarditis - mitral valve (regurgitation, prolapse, stenosis) - aortic valve (stenosis, insufficiency) - pulmonary valve (stenosis, insufficiency) - tricuspid valve (stenosis, insufficiency)|
|Myocardium||Myocarditis - Cardiomyopathy (Dilated cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, Loeffler endocarditis, Restrictive cardiomyopathy) - Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia|
|Electrical conduction system|
of the heart
|Heart block: AV block (First degree, Second degree, Third degree) - Bundle branch block (Left, Right) - Bifascicular block - Trifascicular block|
Pre-excitation syndrome (Wolff-Parkinson-White, Lown-Ganong-Levine) - Long QT syndrome - Adams-Stokes syndrome - Cardiac arrest - Sudden cardiac death
Arrhythmia: Paroxysmal tachycardia (Supraventricular, AV nodal reentrant, Ventricular) - Atrial flutter - Atrial fibrillation (Familial) - Ventricular fibrillation - Premature contraction (Atrial, Ventricular) - Ectopic pacemaker - Sick sinus syndrome
|Other heart conditions||Heart failure - Cardiovascular disease - Cardiomegaly - Ventricular hypertrophy (Left, Right)|
|Cerebrovascular diseases||Stroke - Transient ischemic attack - Intracranial hemorrhage/cerebral hemorrhage: Extra-axial hemorrhage (Epidural hemorrhage, Subdural hemorrhage, Subarachnoid hemorrhage)|
Intra-axial hematoma (Intraventricular hemorrhages, Intraparenchymal hemorrhage) - Anterior spinal artery syndrome - Binswanger's disease - Moyamoya disease
|Atherosclerosis (Renal artery stenosis) - Aortic dissection/Aortic aneurysm (Abdominal aortic aneurysm) - Aneurysm - Raynaud's phenomenon/Raynaud's disease - Buerger's disease - Vasculitis/Arteritis (Aortitis) - Intermittent claudication - Arteriovenous fistula - Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia - Spider angioma - Dissection (Carotid artery, Vertebral artery)|
|Veins, lymphatic vessels|
and lymph nodes
|Thrombosis/Phlebitis/Thrombophlebitis (Deep vein thrombosis, May-Thurner syndrome, Portal vein thrombosis, Venous thrombosis, Budd-Chiari syndrome, Renal vein thrombosis, Paget-Schroetter disease) - Varicose veins / Portacaval anastomosis (Hemorrhoid, Esophageal varices, Varicocele, Gastric varices, Caput medusae) - Superior vena cava syndrome - Lymph (Lymphadenitis, Lymphedema, Lymphangitis)|
|Other||Hypotension (Orthostatic hypotension) - Rheumatic fever|
|See also congenital (Q20-Q28, 745-747) | | <urn:uuid:9e967b4c-8e4f-41db-99ef-2e74fd609879> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://wikidoc.org/index.php/Sedentary_lifestyle | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392527.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00026-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.705991 | 1,062 | 2.921875 | 3 |
About the Journal. Latest Blogs on K-12 Education Reform. Get Your Webtools Resource Bundle – Vol. 1. 84% Discount Expiring In… 4 hours 22 minutes 7 seconds!
“ 10 Step-by-Step Webtool Videos That Make You Feel Like You Can Do It Too! ” Watch these fun videos and YOU will learn 10 webtools that can improve your classroom Forever… and we have the Teacher Feedback to prove it! With ten easy-to-follow videos, you’ll be using these tools in no time. Just ONE of these helpful secrets is worth the investment for you and your students! You’ll get 10 videos and 10 additional resources from a master teacher…Kim Munoz! Plus… when you purchase today you’ll get 3 Bonus eBooks. If you are a Member of the Teacher Learning Community, you already have access to this great Bundle.
Hey Teachers, Every time Kim Munoz holds a webinar teachers “line up around the block” because they know they’re about to get the simple and quick How-To for another fun webtool! Here’s your chance to get the on-demand video recordings of 10 webtool webinars ALL presented by Kim Munoz. But it doesn’t stop there. Kim Munoz Mrs. 1. P.S. Tch This Week: Quick Classroom Tips & Tricks for 2012. Video Games for Learning: Resource Roundup. Facebook Edutopia on Facebook Twitter Edutopia on Twitter Google+ Pinterest Edutopia on Pinterest WHAT WORKS IN EDUCATION The George Lucas Educational Foundation Games in the Classroom Interactive Fiction in the Classroom, by Matthew Farber (2015) As a classroom tool, interactive fiction sharpens close reading and writing, and logical and critical thinking.
Back to Top Tips and Tools to Get Started A Guide to Game-Based Learning, by Vicki Davis (2014) A quick look at game modalities can help you approach game-based learning via single- or multiplayer, one-time or persistent, game or simulation . . . Using Games for Learning and Assessment Engaging Students With Innovative Programs Students as Designers: Game Jams! Games for Social Good Design Challenge: DIY Assistive Game Controllers, by Matthew Farber (2015) Students, working as designers, can work together to determine how to outfit standard video games with assistive-technology tools that students of any ability can enjoy. January 18, 2012. 3rd Grade's a Hoot.
Teaching With Soul - Inspiring, Mentoring, Equipping Teachers. How to Creatively Integrate Science and Math. Why is the sky blue? I remember in my physical science class, our teacher showed us a possible reason why the sky is blue. He took a canister of liquid oxygen and poured it out on the table. I saw the blueness of the liquid as it flowed out and then disappeared. Then we talked about color, frequencies, and absorption, reflected and radiated light. I wondered how scientist ever figured these things out? In science, geometric principles such as symmetry, reflection, shape, and structure reach down to the atomic levels. In math class one of the biggest needs is relevance. Being able to teach math better and being able to teach science better are powerful reasons for the math and science teacher collaborate with each other. Unfortunately, knowing that increased teacher collaboration in math and science will benefit students and teachers is not enough.
What are ways you work with your companion subject teacher (math or science) to help students understand math and science better? Schools That Work: Search Model Schools, Education Videos, and Teaching Resources. Skip to main content Sign InRegister Facebook Edutopia on Facebook Twitter Edutopia on Twitter Google+
Education Week: 2011 Year-in-Review Blog Posts. The 10 Most Viewed <i>EdWeek</i> Commentaries of 2011. Published Online: December 30, 2011 By The Editors In 2011, Education Week published in print and online well over 100 thoughtful Commentaries on education issues.
To give a sense of which opinion essays our readers found most compelling, the editors at Education Week have compiled a list of our 10 most-viewed Commentaries. Below, they are ordered by the number of online page views they generated. Revisit these Commentaries and examine perspectives you may have missed in 2011. 2. Formative assessment can work wonders when teachers realize it's a process of using assessment results to adjust how they work with their students, W. 5. Angela Beeley responds to those who would strip teachers of their collective-bargaining rights and calls attacks on teachers and unions cynical and calculated. 7. Prescriptive curricula make it harder for students to learn to write well, Paula Stacey writes. 8. 9. 10.
Vol. 30, Issue 15. 2011: The Year in Review. | <urn:uuid:eef5d991-7bb9-47cf-beca-11e4ba76f7fa> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pearltrees.com/knowledgeayaa/news-articles-education/id4028118 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00012-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911122 | 1,001 | 2.671875 | 3 |
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Mass-Based Demography of a Hispid Cotton Rat (Sigmodon hispidus) Population
John R. Sauer and Norman A. Slade
Journal of Mammalogy
Vol. 66, No. 2 (May, 1985), pp. 316-328
Published by: American Society of Mammalogists
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1381244
Page Count: 13
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Determination of age in rodents is difficult after the animals reach sexual maturity, and biologists often classify mature animals as "adults," considering this possibly heterogeneous group as a unit. However, many small mammals differ in probability of survival and reproduction as adults, and these differences often correlate with body mass. We provide a rationale for using body mass as stages in Lefkovitch transition matrices, and model the monthly population dynamics of cotton rats in eastern Kansas using mass-specific estimates of survival and reproduction. These monthly transition matrices illustrate seasonal differences in both patterns of individual growth and population dynamics. Sensitivity analyses indicate that natural selection may favor rapid growth in small northern cotton rats in summer and survival of all size classes in winter. Although these transition matrices are composite, they are quite accurate models of the observed population dynamics. Mass-based demography may be an effective method of modelling the population dynamics of short-lived animals that show variation in survival and reproduction related to body mass.
Journal of Mammalogy © 1985 American Society of Mammalogists | <urn:uuid:3f7b1456-cfab-4bde-ac14-ff91cefb3d9e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jstor.org/stable/1381244 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403826.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00024-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.894713 | 420 | 2.625 | 3 |
Sandia Experts Help When Sinkhole Opens Up in Louisiana
Source Newsroom: Sandia National Laboratories
Newswise — ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The U.S. Geological Survey turned to Sandia National Laboratories for help when the earth opened up last month near Bayou Corne, La.
Sandia’s David Borns is providing technical evaluations in weekly teleconferences about possible causes and remedies for a 300-foot-wide sinkhole there.
“We try to be of support to adding expertise to federal and local governments when they’re faced with understanding technical issues that impact their resources,” said Borns, a geotechnology and engineering manager.
Authorities have been trying to determine whether the sinkhole was caused by the collapse of an abandoned brine mining cavern along the margin of the Napoleonville Salt Dome or by something else. The operator of that cavern has drilled a borehole into the cavern at a depth of 3,500 feet to learn whether the cavern is the cause. The results of the drilling will determine what the technical evaluation committee recommends, Borns said.
The sinkhole opened up overnight on Aug. 2 off the western edge of the salt dome near Bayou Corne. It was reportedly originally about 300 feet deep, but Borns said only one part was that deep; the rest was about 50 feet deep.
“There were some broad impacts to the area,” he said. “A nearby community was evacuated, this big sinkhole formed, and it forced the closure of two major natural gas pipelines.”
The USGS, which is known for its seismic expertise, already had been keeping an eye on the area because of harmonic tremors that began in June, along with gas bubbling up at seven different locations in the wetlands of Bayou Corne and nearby Grand Bayou.
“What they were seeing was some sort of fluid movement through fractures, which they thought might be the natural gas that was bubbling up in the bayou,” Borns said.
Authorities first thought the source might be a broken pipeline, but all pipelines checked out. Then they started exploring whether something was happening within the caprock or surrounding sediments where natural gas comes from. The harmonic tremors continued for about six weeks but stopped after the sinkhole formed. Since then, only small seismic events continue to be recorded near the cavern under investigation, Borns said.
The cavern was developed for brining operations, in which companies dissolve salt to extract chlorine for use as a precursor for petrochemicals, he said.
On Aug. 22, the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness formally asked Energy Secretary Steven Chu for help from Sandia. The Labs previously worked on cavern collapse and sinkhole formation problems on Weeks Island, La. Borns said Sandia experts are called in once or twice a year to study similar concerns.
The USGS had suggested the state of Louisiana include Sandia on technical conference calls based on the Labs’ expertise in salt and salt caverns. Sandia began working on salt formations in the 1970s, when it began investigating the geomechanical response of salt caverns as a potential medium for underground nuclear weapons testing, Borns said. About the same time, some authorities proposed using underground nuclear shots in salt to create storage caverns for natural gas, he said.
Sandia’s studies of salt mechanics led to decades of research on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which has two locations in Louisiana and two locations in Texas, and on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, which stores radioactive waste from defense programs in rooms excavated in ancient salt beds near Carlsbad, N.M.
Sandia National Laboratories is a multiprogram laboratory operated and managed by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness. | <urn:uuid:67bcc507-fdd1-4feb-89a4-07011c1cee30> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/594183/?sc=rsla | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396455.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00158-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955513 | 855 | 2.578125 | 3 |
At the southern end of Brackenridge Park, just off Broadway on Millrace Street, stands a small, unassuming stone building that has witnessed over a century of progress, art, and culture in San Antonio. George Washington Brackenridge, the great South Texas businessman and philanthropist, first built “Pump Station No. 2” as part of the expansion of his San Antonio Water Works Company in 1885. Brackenridge had acquired the water works in 1883 through debts owed him for funding the initial construction of pipes for original owner, Jean Baptiste LaCoste. Brackenridge delighted in drilling for new wells, and worked tirelessly to meet the city’s burgeoning water needs. However, by the late 1890s, as Brackenridge’s business and personal life began to draw him further away from the San Antonio River, he slowly relinquished his claim over the headwaters. In 1899, he handed over 199 acres along the river to the city as a public park that took his name; in 1897, Mother Madeleine Chollet of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word wrestled his 280 acre estate - and his beloved library - from his grasp; and in 1905, he finally sold his interest in what would later become the San Antonio Water System to George Kobusch. In 1915, artesian wells supplied the entire city’s water, and the Millrace pump house fell into abandonment.
In 1924, the Texas Trail Drivers Association lured John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum to San Antonio. They hoped to persuade him to accept a commission for a monument to the pioneers who once drove the legendary Texas longhorn herds across the state, on the same scale as Borglum’s Wars of America in Newark, New Jersey. Borglum, anxious to move on after his infamous Stone Mountain incident in Georgia, became intrigued at the project and accepted. He took up residence at the Menger Hotel, and set out to look for a workspace. He soon found the old pump station, and obtained a lease from the city for to use it as his studio while he conducted his research for the Trail Drivers piece. The renowned sculptor spent almost $7,000 remodeling the old building, and constructing a 650 square foot wood-frame addition, complete with skylights. Once settled, the artist set to work.
Borglum produced some of his most famous and ambitious sculptures during his thirteen years at the San Antonio studio. As promised, he completed the Trail Drivers model, a forty-foot masterpiece that was to stand in front of the downtown Municipal Auditorium, but due to funding issues, never came to fruition. The model sat for years in the Witte Museum until 1942, when Borglum’s son, Lincoln, cast it in bronze, on a much smaller scale. It now stands in front of the Texas Rangers Museum, adjacent to the Witte in Brackenridge Park. Borglum also cast his North Carolina Memorial, and many illustrious figures, including Robert Ingersoll, the noted agnostic; Alexander H. Stephens, the Confederate Vice President; and opera singer Mary Garden. Two of his Brackenridge studio sculptures came under fire by Germany’s Third Reich, which Borglum despised from its early days. The first, his great rendering of Woodrow Wilson that stood in Poznan, was melted for ammunition when the Nazis moved into Poland. His depiction of Thomas Paine met a somewhat better fate, as the owner of the foundry in Paris where it was cast later revealed he had buried the statue on his property upon Hitler’s invasion.
But of all the works Gutzon Borglum fashioned in that small Brackenridge Park studio, none came to greater fame than his models for the massive faces for Mount Rushmore. The original figures for Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln all came from San Antonio, and both Gutzon and son constantly traveled back and forth from the Alamo City to the Black Hills of South Dakota in preparation of the project. Borglum lived to see each of the four faces emerge on the mountainside, but Lincoln finished the last details of his father’s masterpiece after his death in 1941.
Just before Borglum left the Pump Station in 1937 due to maintenance disputes, he turned his key over to Ellen Quillin, director of the Witte Museum. Quillin worked out a deal with the city to allow the museum to host art classes in the studio, and soon attracted artists Henry Lee McFee and Boyer Gonzalez to set up a permanent operation there. In 1939, the San Antonio Art League, under the leadership of artists Mary Aubrey Keating and Josephine Kinkaid, held a ball to raise funds for a permanent art school at the pump house. Their efforts successful, the Art League continued to sponsor the school under different directors until the demands of World War II forced the school to close in 1942. Ellen Quillin, anxious to see the project survive, persuaded Jesse Marion Koogler McNay to refurbish an old aviary on her estate, now the McNay Art Museum, so the artists might relocate. With renovation completed in 1943, the school reopened as the San Antonio Art Institute. The Institute grew in fame and popularity over the years, and in 1946, once again offered commercial art classes in the old Borglum studio to veterans of the war. The city continued to lease the pump house to numerous artists and classes until 1961, when it abandoned the property once again.
By the late 1970s, a series of storms had taken their toll on the old studio, causing the Borglum addition’s roof to collapse. In 1980, the Friends of the Parks took an interest in the dilapidated property, then overgrown with ivy and hidden amid pecan and oak trees. They leased the property from the Parks and Recreation Department, at a cost of one dollar per year, in the hopes of raising both awareness and renovation funds. By 1984, they had collected $14,000, far from the projected $150,000 cost of the project. In that same year, the architectural firm of Joe Stubblefield and Richard Mogas, who had succeeded in adding the building to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981, contracted with the Friends of the Parks to restore the landmark. They agreed that if the Friends would provide the $14,000 already collected, the firm would furnish the remainder of the funding, and would move their offices to the location upon completion, with 150 square feet left for use as the Friends’ permanent office. The architects set to work removing the debris, and managed to salvage much of the stone wall and basement structure, including fallen doors and windows. The firm also redesigned the Borglum addition, restored the skylights, and opened for business in early 1985.
When the architects left the building after several years, the pump house once more fell out of use, while city and park leaders discussed what next to do with the historic site. Some felt that its position adjacent to the historic Brackenridge Municipal Golf Course and clubhouse prompted the establishment of a golf museum or a meetinghouse for players. Still others, among them Borglum’s granddaughter, Ribin Borglum Carter, desired a venue where artists might once again come to practice their skills and display their work. However, she did concede that “turning the building into a golf museum is preferable to the abandonment the studio suffered for years.” In late 2007, both sides got some satisfaction when the San Antonio City Council and the Municipal Golf Association announced that they would include the studio in a multi-million dollar overhaul of the park and its golf course. The renovation plan for Pump House No. 2 meant that once again the Borglum studio would undergo restoration in order to house a conference center and a museum to commemorate the master sculptor, his Brackenridge studio years, and his contributions to American art and San Antonio.
Allen, Paula. "Sculptor Set Up His Studio Near Museum." San Antonio Express-News 2 July 2006, sec. H: 4. ProQuest. Douglas MacArthur High School Library, San Antonio. 28 Nov. 2007. Keyword: Borglum.
Boothe-Meredith, Sally. "Architects Restore Borglum Studio." San Antonio Express-News. 26 Aug. 1984, sec. J: 1+.
Carmack, George. "Historic Pumphouse No. 2: It Linked Two of S.A.'s Most Colorful Men." San Antonio Express-News 7 Aug. 1982, sec. C: 1+.
Carter, Robin Borglum. Gutzon Borglum: His Life and Work. Hong Kong: Paramount Printing, 1998.
Chick, Fern. "Sculptor's Studio is Being Restored Under City Leasing." San Antonio Express-News 12 July 1984, sec. C: 1+.
Curlee, Kendall. "San Antonio Art Institute." The Handbook of Texas Online. 3 Oct. 2003. The Texas State Historical Association. Accessed: 28 Nov. 2007 <http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/SS/klsuz.html>.
Fohn, Rosanne Doyle. "Borglum Studio Renovation Underway." North San Antonio Times 15 Nov. 1984: 1+.
Maverick, Maury. "Rushmore Was Born There; Now Will Studio Die?" San Antonio Express-News 19 Aug. 2001, sec. G: 3.
"Mount Rushmore Sculptor Once Lived in S.A." San Antonio Express-News 5 Aug. 1982, sec. C: 8.
Oliver, Richard. "Brackenridge Renovations Unveiled." San Antonio Express-News 14 Nov. 2007, sec. C: 9. ProQuest. Douglas MacArthur High School Library, San Antonio. 28 Nov. 2007. Keyword: Borglum.
Pfeiffer, Maria. "Brackenridge Park: An In Depth Historical View." Parks and Recreation Department - Park Histories. City of San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department. Accessed: 28 Nov. 2007 <http://www.sanantonio.gov/sapar/brackhistory.asp?res=1024&ver=true>.
"Pump Station Historical Site." San Antonio Express-News 20 Sept. 1981, sec. B: 7.
"SAWS History and Chronology." San Antonio Water System. 2006. San Antonio Water System. Accessed: 28 Nov. 2007 <http://www.saws.org/who%5Fwe%5Fare/chrono/>.
Sibley, Marilyn McAdams. George W. Brackenridge: Maverick Philanthropist. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1973.
United States. Department of the Interior. Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service. National Register of Historic Places. Inventory – Nomination Form. “San Antonio Water Works Pump Station No. 2.” | <urn:uuid:672b49db-7e8f-43f6-954d-8bdda810113b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.uiw.edu/sanantonio/pumphouse.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397565.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00082-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944139 | 2,289 | 2.75 | 3 |
Today in History: February 18
A City of ruins, —silent, mournful, in deepest humiliation…The band was playing 'Hail, Columbia,' and the strains floated through the desolate city, awakening wild enthusiasm in the hearts of the colored people…
A Northern reporter's description of Charleston, South Carolina, on February 18, 1865. Cited in E. B. Long with Barbara Long, Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac 1861-1865 (New York: Da Capo Press, 1971), 640.
The mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, surrendered control of the city to Union Brigadier General Alexander Schimmelfennig at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 18, 1865. With commanding General William T. Sherman's arrival imminent, evacuation of the city began on February 17 and continued through the early morning hours of February 18. The city had been under siege since July 10, 1863.
From the Nullification Crisis of 1832-33, to passage of the First Ordinance of Secession on December 20, 1860, South Carolina played a leading role in events leading up to the Civil War. Personified by John C. Calhoun, South Carolina's long-time senator, the state traditionally defended slavery and states rights. When Confederate troops attacked Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor in April 1861, few could have been surprised that events in South Carolina would push the nation into civil war.
View of Ruined Buildings through Porch of the Circular Church, Charleston, South Carolina, April 1865.
Selected Civil War Photographs
Click on the photograph for a better view of three small African-American children clustered at the column's base.
American Memory collections are rich in materials on the Civil War.
- President Lincoln's uncertainty in the face of the crisis at Fort Sumter is revealed in his draft of instructions sent to the officer in command on April 4, 1861. This document is featured in Words and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division’s First 100 Years.
- Selected Civil War Photographs, includes many images of Charleston during the Civil War. Sherman's Atlanta campaign and his march to the sea also are included in the collection.
- Search on Charleston in Map Collections to view numerous maps of the city and its harbor as well as that of the state of South Carolina.
- View the following collections for materials in various formats:
- Band Music from the Civil War Era
- Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society
- Civil War Maps
- The Hotchkiss Map Collection
- A Civil War Soldier in the Wild Cat Regiment : selections from the Tilton C. Reynolds Papers
- Washington during the Civil War: the Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861-1865
- Selected Civil War Photographs and
- The Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana
- Read the Today in History features on:
- General Lee's evacuation of Richmond and his surrender to Grant;
- Military engagements at Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Nashville, and Antietam;
- Other key figures from the Civil War era such as Jefferson Davis and Mary Todd Lincoln;
- Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and the execution of Andersonville Prison's Henry Wirz. | <urn:uuid:95dbb4a2-6325-419e-b5ab-6b2e75e255cd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/today/feb18.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00142-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931305 | 677 | 3.75 | 4 |
Learning piano chords? It's a great way to play the piano - I probably play chords more than anything else. Here are some step by step tips for getting started.
Begin learning some basic piano chords to get you started. You'll find a list here of common chords that are easy to play.
Improve your knowledge of chords. Move up from basics to knowing how to make chords. Move out from playing major and minor chords into playing more kinds.
Learn what the chord titles mean. Read understanding chord titles. You don't have to learn them all now. Just get a basic understanding of the differences.
Do you want to learn to play gospel? Learn about the chord types you need to be able to play on the gospel chords page.
Learn some tips and techniques for learning how to play chords.
When learning piano chords, most people start out playing block chords. After that, you want to spread the notes out or include the melody. Learn some ways of doing just that.
You can also visit the chord piano lessons page. It goes step by step through learning about chords and then playing them.
When learning about chords, you may also want to learn some chord theory. It will help you to understand why things are done the way they are. It will also help you to play chords faster in the end.
If you want to learn jazz, learn about jazz chords. Jazz chords are much more advanced than rock or gospel. That's why learning chord theory comes first.
To learn and play piano chords you don't have to be perfect. Follow the path that works for you and go with it. Don't worry about mistakes all the time, just play.
Our recommended chord course to take is called Power Piano Chords. It teaches all chords from basics to advanced progressions.
Return from Learning Piano Chords to Piano Lessons Info Homepage. | <urn:uuid:697e1509-0c05-4d4c-882a-9ed7197c55e2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.piano-lessons-info.com/learning-piano-chords.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00127-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959551 | 382 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Electric Light Years 1878AD - 1900AD
One of the most important developments in the history of modern life took place in the north - the use of electric light. The most important figure was the Sunderland-born Joseph Swan, inventor of the first practical light bulb, whose developments would result in the widespread use of electric light throughout the world. Newcastle was one of the first towns to be lit with electricity, Cragside in Northumberland one of the first houses to be lit and a light bulb factory at Benwell was the first in the world. The region was witnessing the birth of modern times. The late Victorian Age was certainly a period of great change and development in the North-East. It was an age of increasing travel, leisure, tourism and political reform. It was also a period of booming industry and rapidly expanding towns.
1878 - SWAN DEVELOPS LAMP (Tyneside) .
Joseph Swan develops a successful electric lamp
1878 - CRAGSIDE LIT BY ELECTRICITY (Northumberland)
Sir William Armstrong installs a small hydro electric plant on his estate for generating electric light in his picture gallery at Cragside. Using lakes in the grounds, Cragside is the first house in the world to be lit by electricity generated from water power. The arc lights he uses are not yet suitable for mass production and are unlikely to replace gas lighting.
1878 - HANCOCK MUSEUM (Newcastle)
The Hancock Natural History Museum opens.
December 18, 1878 - SWAN DEMONSTRATES LAMP (Newcastle)
Joseph Swan demonstrates his incandescent electric light bulb to an audience at the Newcastle Chemical Society, but it burns out after only a few minutes.
1879 January 19, - SWAN DEMONSTRATES LAMP AGAIN (Sunderland)
Joseph Swan demonstrates his incandescent electric light bulb during a lecture to an audience at the Athenaeum in Fawcett Street, Sunderland.
December 1879 - EDISON DEMONSTRATES LAMPS (United States)
American inventor Thomas Edison demonstrates an electric lamp similar to that pioneered by Joseph Swan.
1879 - US PRESIDENT VISITS SUNDERLAND (Sunderland)
US President Ullyses Grant visits Sunderland and opens the Central Museum and Library.
1879 - SUNDERLAND FOOTBALL CLUB FORMED (Sunderland)
A football club has been formed by teachers on Wearside.
1879 - NEW STEEL MAKING METHODS (Middlesbrough)
New steel-making methods enabling the use of Teesside ore are a great boon to Middlesbrough's industry.
1879 - GUMS AND PASTILLES (York)
York Chocolate manufacturers Rowntree & Co diversify into gums and pastilles.
1880 October 20, - SWAN REPLACES GAS WITH ELECTRICITY (Newcastle)
Joseph Swan once again demonstrates his incandescent electric light bulb, this time at the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society. In front of an eminent audience, he has 70 gas jets turned down and their light immediately replaced by 20 electric bulbs.
1880 - SWAN LAMPS AT CRAGSIDE (Northumberland)
Sir William Armstrong has installed Swan's light bulbs in his house at Cragside.
1880 - EDISON TAKES SWAN TO COURT (England and America)
Thomas Edison has threatened to take Joseph Swan to court over an alleged infringement of patent in the development of a successful electrical light bulb, but it becomes clear that the two inventors have coincidentally made their developments at the same time.
1881 - BENWELL LAMPS (Newcastle)
A company is formed at Benwell for the manufacture of Joseph Swan's newly-patented electric lamps. It is thought to be the world's first light bulb factory.
1882 - NEW CITY (Newcastle)
The town of Newcastle becomes a city and St Nicholas' Church becomes a cathedral. The first Fenwick's shop opens in Northumberland Street.
1883 - EDISON-SWAN FOUNDED (Tyneside)
The Edison & Swan United Electric Light Company is formed. The American inventor Thomas Edison has teamed up with Tyneside industrialist Swan after at first accusing Swan of copyright infringement. Both men developed an electric light at around the same time.
1883 - NEWCASTLE ELECTRICAL WORKS (Newcastle)
JH Holmes opens an electrical works at Portland Road Newcastle.
1883 - ARMSTRONG GIVES DENE TO CITY (Newcastle)
Lord Armstrong has given Jesmond Dene to the new city of Newcastle. It was part of his town centre estate.
1883 - MUSIC HALL DISASTER (Sunderland)
182 children die of suffocation at the Victoria Hall Theatre during a crush.
1884 - ELECTRICAL SWITCH (Newcastle)
JH Holmes of Newcastle has manufactured the first quick break electrical switch.
1884 - MARKS AND SPENCER (Leeds)
Michael Marks opens a Penny Bazzar in Leeds, with everything priced at one penny. Marks, a Lithuanian Jew who had entered the country via Stockton-on-Tees, later establishes a partnership with a Mr Spencer in Wigan.
1884 - FIRST STEAM TURBINE (Tyneside)
Charles Algernon Parsons has patented the first steam turbine on Tyneside. Parsons, born in Ireland in 1854, is the youngest son of the Earl of Rosse and is a keen inventor. He currently works as a junior partner in the Tyneside firm of Clarke Chapman. Turbines allow wide-scale generation of electricity and Parsons will come to be known as "the man who invented the 20th Century".
1884 - CRAGSIDE COMPLETE (Northumberland)
Cragside House, with it vast estate near Rothbury has been completed by Norman Shaw for Lord Armstrong.
1885 - BERWICK LOSES STATUS (Berwick)
Special references to Berwick in Acts of Parliament are abolished.
1887 - DARLINGTON STATION (Darlington)
Bank Top opens and becomes Darlington's main station.
1889 - PARSONS OPENS HEATON WORKS (Tyneside)
Parsons has opened his own works at Heaton for the manufacture of turbines.
1889 - LIGHT COMPANY REGISTERED (Newcastle)
The Newcastle and District Electric Light Company has been registered.
1890 - FORTH BANKS POWER STATION (Newcastle)
Newcastle's Forth Banks Power Station has started work.
1892 - NUFC FORMED (Newcastle upon Tyne)
Newcastle United football club formed by uniting Newcastle West End FC with Newcastle East End.
1893 - DUNSTON STAITHS (GATESHEAD)
The North Eastern Railways' Dunston Coal Staiths commence operation on the banks of the Tyne near Gateshead,
1894 - TURBINE COMPANY SET UP (Tyneside)
The Marine Steam Turbine Company is set up by Charles Parsons at Wallsend.
1894 - ARMSTRONG BUYS BAMBURGH (Northumberland)
Lord Armstrong has purchased Bamburgh Castle.
1896 - WOMEN AT UNIVERSITY (Durham)
The first women students are admitted to Durham University.
1897 - ARMSTRONG WHITWORTH WORKS (Tyneside)
Armstrong's works become Armstrong Whitworth & Co. The company achieves prominence in the manufacture of arms.
1897 - TURBINIA DEMONSTRATION (Spithead)
Parsons' Turbinia vessel is demonstrated at the naval review at Spithead.
1898 - SMALLPOX (Middlesbrough)
Smallpox kills 202 people in Middlesbrough.
1898 - ELECTRICITY COMES TO TOWN (The North)
Electric lighting is introduced to many towns in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. This year, electric lighting came to Middlesbrough. Electric trams are also beginning to replace horse drawn trams in North-East towns.
August 15, 1900 - POLICE CHASE (Newcastle)
The world's first pursuit of a criminal by motor car takes place at Newcastle. A car is borrowed by a policeman who orders the driver to chase a drunken horse-rider. The chase lasts one mile.
Search England's North East | <urn:uuid:b4bee655-0480-47e6-8211-fb96e25fe7d1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.englandsnortheast.co.uk/electric1870s.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00004-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917275 | 1,785 | 3.3125 | 3 |
Manual Section... (3) - page: putenv
NAMEputenv - change or add an environment variable
#include <stdlib.h> int putenv(char *string);
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
DESCRIPTIONThe putenv() function adds or changes the value of environment variables. The argument string is of the form name=value. If name does not already exist in the environment, then string is added to the environment. If name does exist, then the value of name in the environment is changed to value. The string pointed to by string becomes part of the environment, so altering the string changes the environment.
RETURN VALUEThe putenv() function returns zero on success, or nonzero if an error occurs.
- Insufficient space to allocate new environment.
CONFORMING TOSVr4, POSIX.1-2001, 4.3BSD.
NOTESThe putenv() function is not required to be reentrant, and the one in libc4, libc5 and glibc 2.0 is not, but the glibc 2.1 version is.
Description for libc4, libc5, glibc: If the argument string is of the form name, and does not contain an '=' character, then the variable name is removed from the environment. If putenv() has to allocate a new array environ, and the previous array was also allocated by putenv(), then it will be freed. In no case will the old storage associated to the environment variable itself be freed.
The libc4 and libc5 and glibc 2.1.2 versions conform to SUSv2: the pointer string given to putenv() is used. In particular, this string becomes part of the environment; changing it later will change the environment. (Thus, it is an error is to call putenv() with an automatic variable as the argument, then return from the calling function while string is still part of the environment.) However, glibc 2.0-2.1.1 differs: a copy of the string is used. On the one hand this causes a memory leak, and on the other hand it violates SUSv2. This has been fixed in glibc 2.1.2.
The 4.4BSD version, like glibc 2.0, uses a copy.
SEE ALSOclearenv(3), getenv(3), setenv(3), unsetenv(3), environ(7)
COLOPHONThis page is part of release 3.24 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 15:27:08 GMT, June 11, 2010 | <urn:uuid:9a728bac-4231-43b4-b32c-d9226445bd08> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://linux.co.uk/documentation/man-pages/subroutines-3/man-page/?section=3&page=putenv | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00052-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.80455 | 622 | 2.71875 | 3 |
The pH meter measures the voltage potential (mV) difference between the inside of the pH electrode and the outside sample (reference)
Glass pH electrodes develop a voltage across a permeable glass membrane.
The voltage is related to the difference in H+ activity inside and outside the glass.
§ Select proper reference for application
§ Select proper junction for application
§ Select appropriate body and membrane profile
• Standard, semi-micro, micro, rugged bulb, spear tip, flat surface
§ Select appropriate body type
• Glass body, epoxy body
§ Select refillable or gel filled
Advantages of Thermo’s ROSS electrode
• Variety of body styles
• Very stable reference
• Fast response
• Stable to 0.01 pH in 30 seconds over 50 o C temperature change
• Drift less than .002 pH units/day
• 0.01 pH precision
• No Ag/Cl in reference system
§ Can measure samples containing Cysteine ( milk & milk related products )
§ Better for TRIS buffers
§ Ag + is toxic – Ross is preferred choice for biological samples & culture media
• Ross electrodes are all double junction – popular choice for non aqueous pH measurements such a titration. | <urn:uuid:76225ed3-7619-4dfa-aea0-e771a6fccba9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ankersmid.com/AF/pH.electrodes.Electrodes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397795.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00197-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.764178 | 256 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Meeting the challenge of social pragmatics with students on the autism spectrum
Beverly Vicker, CCC-SLP
The purpose of this article is to provide a detailed introduction to the topic of social pragmatics (i.e., what it is, how it relates to social skills, what tools might be used to assess pragmatics and possible approaches to intervention).
Introductory Examples of Typical Social Pragmatic Use in Conversational Settings
Social pragmatics is usually cited as a core challenge for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One might ask, however, “What exactly is social pragmatics?” Definitions and classifications vary to some degree in term of what is included or how actions are labeled but the essence of pragmatics is the ability to effectively use and adjust communication messages for a variety of purposes with an array of communication partners within diverse circumstances. Everyone is not automatically born with this ability; the skills develop over time and development is dependent on other factors such as joint attention, perspective taking, comprehension monitoring ability, and social interest.
A few illustrations of pragmatic use in action at this early stage of discussion might help readers to understand aspects of what is meant by the definition. In order to avoid the impact of developmental issues, the examples will include two typical adults who DO NOT have autism spectrum disorder.
Example # 1. Hank sees his friend Terrell as he is climbing the stairs to get to his seat at the baseball stadium. He stops for a few seconds, greets his friend, indicates he will talk to him more after the game and moves onward to his seat. If no one had been climbing the stairs behind him, he might have had a longer conversation with his friend. However, he remained aware of the circumstances (i.e., people behind him wanted to get to their seats before the game started), so he kept the interaction to a minimum while not seeming unfriendly to his friend or obnoxious to the people behind him.
Example # 2. Hank sees his doctor at a party. He does not know him outside of the professional medical setting. He and the doctor exchange a few impersonal comments about the party and the weather before each moves on to talk to other guests. Hank knew he would have committed a social blunder if he had brought up anything relating to his medical care in that situation.
Example # 3. Hank sees his friend Tim at the mall. They talk about general topics in common- their workouts, their jobs, and their vacation plans. Hank and Tim express enough detail about these topics so that the other partner understands the message.
Example # 4. Hank meets his best friend Shawn at a restaurant for lunch. They reminisce about a camping trip that they took together a year ago. The conversation often involves one man bringing up an aspect of the trip and intermittently both may begin to laugh without a lot of exchange of detail. Often they do not even use complete sentences. They both have detailed common memories about the topic.
The subtle differences in the conversational examples almost seem insignificant. They do not represent things that ordinary people consciously think about or notice until certain behaviors occur that violate or breach cultural social pragmatic rules and/or communication partner expectations.
The Specific Elements of Social Pragmatics
For purposes of this article, the classification system used will be the one referenced by Rhea Paul (2009). Specific conversational elements involved in social pragmatics will be listed and examples used, when needed, to help readers understand the standard terminology, scope, and complexity of this topic area. This listing indirectly provides a global guide to assessment/intervention components although in real conversations, the elements do not occur in isolation of each other.
Concern about pragmatic use applies to individuals who use speech, signing, or some other form of augmentative communication. Pragmatics is what helps individuals engage in social connection with others. This need applies regardless of the form of communication used. To keep understanding of the concepts clear, however, the specific elements of pragmatics will be described in terms that would apply to individuals who have an adequate command of verbal communication. Adjustments or earlier steps would need to be considered for those who do not have adequate verbal skills. The specific elements include the following:
o Intent of Communication. Intent involves the ability to generate message such as requests, comments, questions, persuasion, refusals, negotiations, or other functions as required by a communication situation in daily life at a level appropriate for one’s age and experiences.
o Frequency of Communication. Frequency involves the number of messages offered during a conversation when compared to one’s communication partner. The objective in social conversational situations is to have a balance between partners and appropriate initiation by both.
(i.e., managing the conversation to keep it flowing and effective)
o Turn Allocation. Turn allocation involves taking a turn in conversation at the appropriate time, i.e. recognition of a signal that a turn has ended as well as limiting one’s talking to one’s turn.
o Topics. Topics involves staying on the topic unless there is a signal by one’s communication partner that he/she is going to change it. It also includes knowing how to smoothly introduce a topic shift.
o Repair of Conversational Breakdowns. Conversational repair involves recognition that there is a breakdown in communication or level of understanding by, or of, the communication partner and the subsequent usage of strategies such as repeat, rephrase, or add information to aid comprehension.
Politeness. Society requires that one know how to use a polite manner of discourse. This does not just mean adding “please” but knowing how to say something in terms of word choice and sentence form while using suitable vocal tone and gestures/body posture appropriate to the circumstances. For example, imagine a young child wanting a forbidden cookie or a friend wanting a babysitting favor.
Social Role Recognition. Each individual must show awareness of social roles as a guide to their discourse patterns. For example, one would speak differently to a young child vs. an adult, differently to a friend vs. an authority figure such as a judge or police officer, and differently to a same sex, same age relative than to a muscular, opposite sex, scary looking stranger.
(i.e., assumptions about what other people know)
Perspective-Taking. Perspective taking involves knowing that everyone has different thoughts, feelings, and experiences, knowing that this must be taken into account during the conversation, and making a cognitive leap or guess at how the other person might be viewing the situation as one adapts the conversation.
General Rules of Conduct for the Speaker’s Role in Relationship to the Communication Partner
• Quantity. Quantity involves the speaker providing enough information so that a communication partner understands but not so much as to assume he knows nothing or needs to know everything about a topic. It also involves a conversational technique called ellipsis which allows a respondent to abbreviate a response since the speaker already knows the framework for the response (For example, it is OK to just answer “chocolate” to the question “What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?” as opposed to repeating the whole sentence frame).
• Quality. When the person or his/her communication partner speaks, it is important that what is said is sincere, valid, or true. This is a trust factor that is important in conversations. If one knows that the partner is manipulative or deceptive, then much of what he says may be questioned as being believable. This can cause a breakdown in the conversation.
• Relation. It is important that information added during a conversation is relevant to the topic at hand.
• Manner. It is important that each communication partner’s contribution to the conversation is clear and concise. The speaker needs to connect information for the listener and not make the listener feel like he must navigate a maze in order to find meaning.
Although the above may represent more than what the average person wants to know about social pragmatics, it does outline the inclusive areas of conversational learning that may be addressed as part of a social pragmatics intervention program during the school years. Social inferencing, or the ability to make assumptions from specific information, may also be included within the realm of pragmatics when the broader term of social communication is used.
Is Pragmatics Different than Social Skills?
Before discussing assessment and intervention for pragmatic skills, it seems appropriate to put pragmatics into a familiar context. If a speech language pathologist focuses on building conversational capabilities, is he or she contributing to the overall development of social skills? Actually pragmatics is a subgroup of the category called social skills. According to Paul (2009) other equivalent aspects of social skills include:
(i.e., social meaning that is not language based)
o Prosody. Prosody involves the meaning conveyed by the use of one’s voice. Examples include messages that indicate what is emphasized, what is meant sarcastically, and what might be one’s emotional state.
o Gaze. Eye gaze during conversation can suggest meaning such as interest in the interaction, joint attention to topic, truthfulness and other messages. Eye gaze can also be used to monitor the nonverbal communication of the partner.
o Gestures. Gestures involve body signals that suggest meaning such as “Pay attention to what I am pointing to;” “Wow, what a surprise”; “Oops, I shouldn’t have said that;” or “No, I don’t want that.”
o Proximity. Proximity involves the meaning attributed to use of one’s body in space. It may carry meaning all by itself or be combined with other paralinguistic features. If one stands five feet away from a communication partner, the message may be one of disinterest or discomfort with a conversation. Standing too close to a partner may make the person feel uncomfortable as his/her personal space has been invaded.
Conventional Gestures. Conventional gestures are common gestures that have a meaning in a specific culture. Most people will recognize the meaning of a raised hand movement to signal greeting or departure or a raised hand to signal “Call on me” or “I will do it.” A high-five is a common gesture used to connote approval or success. Gestures can also include handshakes, a pat on the back, a social kiss or an European style double kiss on each cheek upon greeting, among other gestures.
Facial Expressions. Facial expressions can carry meanings that amplify or contradict a spoken message. The emotional message of facial expression might also be enhanced by the prosody features of one’s voice.
Social Actions or Behaviors. Social actions that are consistent with the expectations of one’s culture are an important aspect of social skills. Social actions represent responses such as dressing appropriately for an occasion, offering to share something, assisting someone who needs help, patiently waiting for a turn in a game, not talking on a cell phone while in a restaurant, or not making unkind remarks, even if truthful.
Many professionals and parents may be working on a variety of skills that fall within the social skills realm. Given the magnitude of the challenges for students with ASD, there is a need for multiple team members as implementers. Team members will want to be aware of who is working on what so there is consistency of approach and a variety of quality opportunities for frequent practice.
Assessment of Pragmatic Skills
Assessing pragmatic or conversational skills can be a challenge since conversations are dynamic and not static. As researcher, Scott Bellini (2006) suggests, one must consider whether the person has the knowledge to manage a situation such as conversation, or whether it is a performance issue. The old standbys in terms of methods of eliciting information about both still apply ( i.e., information can be gathered by):
1. Formal assessment which involves static, often pictured situations;
3. Interview of others about cumulative observations;
4. Provision of check lists or self inventories; or
5. Establishment of situations that probe specific skills.
Selective social pragmatic skills are often evaluated within an assessment of the larger category of social skills or language/communication skills. Pragmatic skills are highly dependent on the underlying language comprehension skills and metalinguistic skills of any individual (Adams, 2008). Metalinguistic skills involve the ability to use language to think/talk about language use. It is aso important to consider the individual’s command of semantics, grammar, and receptive/expressive skills when assessing pragmatics.
Tools that can provide some useful information or guidance regarding pragmatics include the following:
• The Conversational Effectiveness Profile which can be accessed at no charge from an article by Timothy Kowalski at http://www.flasha.org/flasha_journal05_112006.pdf (ignore site error message and scroll to pages 29-34.)
• Children’s Communication Skill Checklist-2 (U.S. edition) by D. V. Bishop (Pearson Assessment).
• Test of Social Pragmatics-2 by Phelps-Terasaki & Phelps-Gunn (Western Psychological Service).
• Social Language Development Test- Elementary by Bowers, Huisingh & LoGuidice (LinguiSystems).
• Discourse Skills Checklist (Paul, 2007).
• Pragmatic Language Skills Inventory by Gilliam and Miller (Pro-Ed).
• Yale in vivo Pragmatic Protocol (Paul, 2005).
Information from more than one source will need to be reviewed and priorities for intervention established. A good guide as to what is age appropriate should involve observing typical peers in everyday interactions in the student’s natural school environment. Some peer behavior may be desirable to emulate and others ignored. In the latter instance, the student with ASD will need to learn to cope or tolerate examples of peer immaturity. Interventionists will need to consider what skills are easiest to teach, which should be paired together, which should be taught first, and which will make the biggest impact in terms of improving conversational interaction skills.
While the SLP may provide the focus and guide strategy selection for intervention in the area of pragmatics, he or she should not be the sole implementer. Classroom staff and family members should be providing additional learning opportunities throughout the day/week. All members of a child’s intervention team should also be supporting the development of pragmatics within a broader social skills framework.
Several key concepts must be considered as an individualized program is developed for an individual with ASD. These include:
o The extent of a student’s repertoire of knowledge about social situations, social communication, and social strategies.
o The student’s ability to apply his social knowledge in various situations and the conditions under which he/she is both able or unable to perform.
o The cognitive/emotional cost to the student when he must remember many rules or bits of information, apply them appropriately, and then self monitor.
o The need to match strategy to specific challenge.
o The need to consider many underlying or co-occurring elements during the selection/implementation stages such as joint attention ability, executive function, theory of mind ability, language comprehension, and metalinguistic ability.
o The need for planned generalization of skills, particularly to peer situations.
o The need to teach self monitoring if the person with ASD is to develop independent, flexible skills.
o The need for many people to be involved in developing the skills.
o An understanding that acquisition of some skills will be easier than others; some may take a long time to acquire.
o An understanding that multiple strategies may be needed to work on a singular skill.
o An understanding of the complexity and interrelatedness of social pragmatic skills within the social communication/social skills realm.
Many books and articles have been written about social pragmatics, social communication, and the broader umbrella of social skills. Readers are encouraged to become familiar with a variety of sources and materials. Only selective strategies will be mentioned in this brief article.
Although social stories and comic strip conversations (Gray, 1994, 2000) are recognized tools for behavioral intervention, they also serve a purpose in building theory of mind skills and a knowledge base about the social world. Direct instruction materials by Michelle Winner and video modeling can also be important resources when addressing a restricted knowledge base. Perspective taking is a complicated but important topic to address through planned instruction but also during incidental opportunities, including the viewing of TV programs and movies, book reading, and real life situations.
Strategies that focus more on performance include video self modeling and peer mediated instruction. In the latter instance, peers are trained to facilitate interaction. The procedure may sometimes be called a Stay-Play-Talk strategy. Although such strategies may appear simple, they require some orchestration by teachers so that prompting of the peers and the target child is closely monitored (Goldstein, Schneider, & Theimann, 2007). Scripts that are eventually faded and role playing can also be used to increase performance (McClannahan & Krantz, 2005).
Most intervention programs will involve a combination of elements. For example, social stories might be used to provide background knowledge about a topic and then an alternation of role playing might help the individual to understand the concepts. Adam (2008), using a program called SCIP, described an activity focused on a child asking too many questions without allowing anyone to answer. As the article described the activity, the child was initially at the receiving end of the barrage of questions; a discussion followed about how the child felt; then the role was reversed; and then another discussion followed. Comic strip conversations might also be used during the discussion component of similar activities.
The use of visual or text supports is also an accepted practice in working on pragmatics; work sheets which promote only a paper and pencil busy task and little understanding or performance practice are not. Visuals or text might provide cues, sequential steps, reminders, or set ups for situations. Cue sheets might list possible topics to bring up for discussion with varying individuals, or provide sample lead in sentences for changing topics or asking to join a group activity.
An important aspect of intervention is also promoting self evaluation/self monitoring. This is crucial for developing independence and flexible application of skills. Of course, caution will be needed so that an individual is not too critical of him/herself. Typical speakers can participate in conversations with relative ease, although they do make mistakes in performance. Individuals with ASD have much to remember and monitor and they do not do well in multi-tasking situations. They are often also dealing with anxiety in social situations. So, the bottom line is that everyone can help the individual with ASD to be as good a conversational partner as he or she can be but everyone must also be accepting of the fact that performance will not always be perfect and that it is OK.
Adam, C. (2008). Intervention for children with pragmatic language impairments. In C. F. Norbury, J. B. Tomblin, & D. V. M. Bishop (Eds.). Understanding developmental language disorders: From theory to practice. (pp. 189-204). New York: Psychology Press.
Bellini, S. (2006). Building social relationships: A systematic approach to teaching social interaction skills to children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders and other social difficulties. Shawnee Mission, KS: Autism Asperger Publishing Company.
Goldstein, H., Schneider, N. & Thiemann, K. (2007). Peer-mediated social communication intervention. Topics in Language Disorders. 27(2), 182-199.
Gray, C. (1994). Comic strip conversations: Colorful, illustrated interactions with students with autism and related disorders. Jenison, MI: Jenison Public Schools.
Gray. C. (2000). The new social story ™ book. Arlington, TX: Future Horizons.
McClannahan, L. E. & Krantz, P. J. (2005). Teaching conversation to children with autism: Scripts and script fading. Bethesda, MD: Woodbine House.
Paul, R. (2005). Assessing communication in autism spectrum disorders. In F. Volkmar, R. Paul, A. Klin, & D. Cohen (Eds.) Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders. Vol. 2 . (pp. 799-816). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
Paul, R. (2007). Language disorders from infancy through adolescence: Assessment and intervention. St. Louis, MO: Mosby/Elsevier.
Paul, R. (2009). Social skills development in school-age children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders. Rockville, MD: American Speech Language Hearing Association.
Winner, M. (2005). Think social: A social thinking curriculum for school-age students. San Jose, CA: (www.socialthinking.com).
Winner, M. (2002). Thinking about you thinking about me. San Jose, CA: (www.socialthinking.com.) | <urn:uuid:398d849f-6b13-41b4-ab34-75e79e89798a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.autismsupportnetwork.com/news/meeting-challenge-social-pragmatics-students-autism-spectrum-887512 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394605.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00184-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937084 | 4,388 | 3.21875 | 3 |
But let us inquire whether there really is a temple of God. There is — there where He Himself says He is building and perfecting it!... I find, therefore, that there is a temple. How, then, will it be built up in the name of the Lord? Let me tell you. Before we believed in God, our little house, the heart, was decrepit and infirm, really like a temple built by hand; in fact, it was a nest of idolatry and a haunt of demons, because it was at enmity with God. It will be built in the name of the Lord. See to it that the temple of the Lord is built in splendour! How? Let me tell you. By receiving the forgiveness of sins and trusting in the Name, we were made new, being created all over again. That is why our little house — in us — there really dwells God.
The Epistle of Barnabas (1st–2nd Century A.D.) is early Christian work of disputed authorship. Although most popularly considered to have been written by Barnabas, a disciple of Christ’s mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, most scholars agree that the author’s erroneous understanding of the relationship between Old and New Testaments disproves the popular view. The epistle attempts to impart perfect knowledge of how to achieve salvation — while offering an often specious critique of the Jewish understanding of the Old Testament. | <urn:uuid:ea0c52b3-ba58-41e8-bebf-b4b2e2409298> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2010/sep/01/excerpt-epistle-barnabas/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392159.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00034-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977075 | 302 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Sanskrit is the
language India's classical literature is written in, with many literary works (religious
poems, prose, and epics) going back to 1500-200 BC, the Vedic period.
After this time from around 200 BC to around 11 AD, Sanskrit literature went
through a secular phase. A major development during the secular period was
the introduction of drama, with the early dramas set in historical epic
During the first
through fifth centuries, South India's literature was primarily secular and
written in Tamil, not Sanskrit, with the main topics being war and love.
Following this period was a time of change for southern literature, with the
tradition changing to bhakti (devotional) literature that in subsequent
centuries eventually spread northward.
outside sources, Britain for one, brought about changes in Indian literature,
particularly in the 19th century. A Nobel Prize was won by Rabindrinath
Tagore in 1913, which made him the first Indian to receive this
distinction. Today, English is the language of choice for some of India's
authors. An Indian writer, now living in England, Salman Rushdie, is
considered to be one of the more famous authors that has come out of India. | <urn:uuid:e3a6f91b-37e8-48a4-9aee-ad0fad52e13f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/india/pro-literature.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00034-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951849 | 262 | 3.796875 | 4 |
2016 Rabies Clinics will be happening during April. Click here for more info.
Remember: The best way to prevent the spread of rabies is the vaccination of house pets and people.
Humans are mammals. Therefore, theoretically, human-to-human rabies transmission is possible. However, there are no laboratory-tested cases to confirm that this has actually happened. But there have been 8 confirmed cases of death due to human-to-human rabies transmissions resulting from cornea transplants. Because these deaths were medically confirmed, there are now improved guidelines to screen organ donors for the rabies virus. **
Of the 32 human rabies cases reported between 1990 and 2000, 24 were caused by contact with bats, making bats a major concern when it comes to rabies and humans. Because bat teeth are small, bite marks are small as well. And bat bites don't hurt as much as a bite from other, bigger animals, so they have been known to go undetected.
In fact, sometimes bat bites don't hurt at all, which is why people have been bitten and infected while sleeping, without ever feeling a thing. So, like Dracula, bats have crept up on sleeping people, bitten them, and flown off.**
More bat info
The Old Cure VS the New
Years ago the idea of getting vaccinated against rabies was nearly as frightening as rabies' deadly symptoms, because it required a series of very painful injections in the stomach. Thankfully, modern science has improved the vaccine, so it is not as uncomfortable to receive and no one gets an injection in the stomach.
Rabies Info and Prevention
Rabies is a preventable viral disease that causes acute encephalitis (inflammation of the brain). The virus exists in the saliva of mammals and is transmitted from animal to animal or from animal to human by biting and/or scratching. The virus can also be spread by licking, when infected saliva makes contact with open cuts or wounds, and with the mouth, eyes, and nose. If left untreated in humans and animals, rabies is fatal. Therefore, to survive rabies exposure it is necessary to complete a rabies treatment under the supervision of a medical professional.
Thanks to pet owners across the United States complying with animal vaccination requirements, immunization has helped control the spread of rabies and has kept the general human and pet population relatively rabies-free. And, because of the rabies vaccine, as long as your pets are up-to-date on their shots, even if they come across a rabid animal in the backyard or in a park, they have an excellent chance of survival with the help of a veterinarian's care. To protect humans, there is a rabies vaccine for humans and an immune globulin (a protein that comes from the blood of a person or animal that has developed a resistance to rabies); both work to protect humans from the rabies virus. However, timing, as well as medication, is important to rabies prevention. For example, if you are a person who is planning to work in or travel to an environment where rabies is a risk, you should get vaccinated before you enter that environment; that's pre- exposure vaccination. And all those who have been exposed to rabies, whether or not they have had pre-exposure vaccination, absolutely must have post-exposure treatment as soon as possible.
Remember: Pre-exposure vaccination is for people who, because of their jobs or travel destinations, are in danger of being exposed to the rabies virus.
Post-exposure treatment is necessary for everyone who even suspects that he or she has come in contact with a rabid animal, whether he or she had pre-exposure vaccination or not.
Rabies and the Writer
A while ago an article was published investigating the illness and death of a writer who died in the 1800s. The writer was Edgar Allan Poe.
In late September 1849, Edgar Allan Poe traveled from Richmond, Virginia, to Baltimore, Maryland, where he disappeared for a few days, only to turn up unconscious under the steps of the Baltimore Museum. Brought to the hospital, he experienced some classic rabies symptoms: difficulty drinking water, hallucinations, trembling, and delirium. He died four days later. Although he was never tested for rabies during the time of his illness and death, a modern-day cardiologist believes that the documentation of Poe's death points to rabies as the cause. How did he get rabies? Edgar Allan Poe loved pets, especially cats. However, Poe lived during a time when animal vaccination against rabies was not available. Did someone's pet cat cause Edgar Allan Poe's death? We'll never know for sure. But because of improved rabies education and pet vaccination, today's pet owners can be confident about rabies prevention; when it comes to considering a death like Edgar Allan Poe's, they can say, "Nevermore."***
**Source: MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 1999:48(RR-1);1-21
***Source: Benitez, RM. Case records of the University of Maryland and Baltimore VA Medical Centers; Md Med J. 1996:45;765-769. | <urn:uuid:ab38c9f1-5a71-4ed7-a62a-62c748deee1e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://tailchaser.org/pages/Rabies.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392527.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00116-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966572 | 1,071 | 3.59375 | 4 |
We know many parents have questions about the AIMS and SAT tests. Many parents are concerned about how well their child may perform. While we believe that standardized tests are important and help our district to understand where our students stand in relation to our state, we also believe that these tests are just one snapshot of student performance. While we want our students to perform to the best of their ability on these exams, testing should not place undo stress on students. If you have any questions or concerns about these tests, please don’t hesitate to contact the district office or your school office.
What is the AIMS test?
AIMS (Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards) is a test designed to measure student's progress in learning the Arizona Academic Content Standards in writing, reading, mathematics, and science. These standards define what students should know and be able to do at various stages of K-12 education. The state requires that high school students successfully complete the AIMS test in order to graduate.
What is the purpose?
The purpose of AIMS is to improve the academic achievement of all students throughout the state. All Arizona students will take AIMS at grades 3, 5, 8, and high school. The results from these tests will provide parents with a clear picture to see how their children are progressing.
What do the scores mean?
AIMS scores are reported in terms of four performance levels:
Students who meet or exceed the standard have completed the AIMS requirements in that subject area. At the high school level, a rating of "Approaches The Standard" or "Below The Standard" means that a student needs additional to significant study and must retake the test.
What is the SAT?
The Stanford tests students on reading, mathematics, and language to see how well they are doing in school and what we need to do in order to improve their skills. To find out more about this test visit the Stanford Standards site for Arizona listed at the side of this page. | <urn:uuid:4acb2719-db75-47aa-bcee-71a532b8bd77> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wusd13.org/index.cfm?pID=4606 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00023-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960801 | 413 | 3.703125 | 4 |
Good morning. It’s February 12, 2013. And on this day in 1809, Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln welcomed the second of their children into the world. The couple’s gradual western migration would take them from Virginia to Illinois. On this day, when their son Abraham was born, the Lincolns lived at a place called Sinking Spring Farm, which consisted of 348 acres of stony land in what was then Hardin County, Kentucky.
Although the site now boasts an impressive granite and marble memorial that rises impressively out of its rural surroundings, Abe Lincoln would not recall living there. His family moved to another Kentucky farm, called Knob Creek, when the future president was two years old, and his first memories are of his times there.
The upshot of the many attempts by Abraham Lincoln’s father to find a better life for himself and his family is that many locales can authentically claim title to having played a role in the great man’s early life.
Sinking Spring Farm, where he was born, is the pride of Hodgenville, Ky. It was there, on the occasion of the centennial of his birth at a dedication ceremony, that President Theodore Roosevelt described Lincoln as “the mightiest of mighty men.”
It was at another farm, in southern Indiana, where Lincolns moved when he was nearly 8 years old and where his mother is buried, that Abe Lincoln grew into manhood.
And there was Illinois, where he moved one last time with his family when he was 21. Lincoln was busy making his name as a lawyer in Springfield when Thomas Lincoln and Abe’s step-mother Sarah Bush Lincoln lived in this place. The replica Lincoln Log Cabin still draws many history-loving tourists every year.
As Lincoln became the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in the summer of 1860, Samuel Haycraft, the circuit court clerk in Elizabethtown, Ky., invited Lincoln to visit his childhood home. By way of reply, Lincoln noted that he’d been born near Hodgenville, adding, “My earliest recollection, however, is of the Knob Creek place.”
Some of those recollections were poignant: the birth of a baby brother who was born – and who died – at the farm; watching his mother read her Bible; helping older sister Sarah plant a garden; watching as a rain-swollen stream on their property washed away that same garden; briefly attending elementary school; seeing slaves being taken south on the Cumberland Road.
Life could be perilous on the frontier. While living at Knob Creek, Lincoln was kicked in the head by a horse and nearly killed. Young Lincoln and his boyhood friends fished and played in Knob Creek. Three of them claimed to have fished young Abe out of the stream thereby avoiding a tragic drowning that would have taken the second of the Lincoln family sons and changed the course of American history.
The most plausible of these claims was made by Austin Gollaher. In Austin’s telling – and he told this story until he died in 1898 – young Abe slipped while playing on a foot-log, and was rescued when Austin grabbed a tree limb from the bank and held it out as a makeshift gaff.
Did this really happen? Until time travel is invented we’ll never know for sure. Lincoln never mentioned the incident himself, and Gollaher’s memory for details implausibly improved with each passing decade.
But this much is true: Austin Gollaher is buried under a marker that bespoke a guileless pride. It reads simply, “Lincoln’s Playmate.” | <urn:uuid:75707f37-551c-4b42-aef5-9ef91ce6a1ee> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.realclearhistory.com/historiat/2013/02/12/happy_birthday_abraham_lincoln_56.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00101-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984127 | 761 | 3.25 | 3 |
© National Portrait Gallery, London
William Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan
attributed to Louis Laguerre Click on the links below to find out more
oil on canvas, circa 1716
62 1/2 in. x 46 1/2 in. (1588 mm x 1181 mm)
- Louis Laguerre (1663-1721), Painter. Artist associated with 7 portraits, Sitter in 1 portrait.
- Ingamells, John, Later Stuart Portraits 1685-1714, 2009, p. 39
- Piper, David, Catalogue of Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery, 1625-1714, 1963, p. 51
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 95
Failure of the Jacobite rebellion. John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll disperses the remainder of the Jacobite troops. The Pretender, James Stuart, flees to France. Jacobite leaders James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater and William Gordon, 6th Viscount of Kenmure are executed. Septennial Act extends life of parliament from three to seven years.
Art and science
Artist Philip Mercier settles in England from Paris. Physicist and Astronomer Royal Edmond Halley suggests a precise measurement of the distance between the Earth and the Sun by timing the transit of Venus.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu leaves for Turkey with her husband who takes up the post of Ambassador to Constantinople. While there she writes a series of letters, observing contemporary Turkish life, later to be published as the celebrated Turkish Embassy Letters. Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI has a son, but the child dies within the year. | <urn:uuid:2c78ac1d-9972-476b-81ea-f10996de764a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw00994/William-Cadogan-1st-Earl-Cadogan?locid=683&rNo=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00163-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.882904 | 367 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Teens and Distracted Driving
Teens and Distracted Driving: Major Findings
Teens who text and talk while driving
Over the summer of 2009, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project conducted a survey of 800 teens ages 12-17 asking about their experiences with cell phone use in cars. All of the teens in our survey were asked about their experiences as passengers, and if they were 16 or older and have a cell phone, they were also asked about their own actions behind the wheel. Additionally, the Project and the University of Michigan conducted 9 focus groups with teens ages 12-18 between June and October 2009 where the topic of driving and mobile phones was addressed.
Fully 75% of all American teens ages 12-17 now own a cell phone, and 66% use their phones to send or receive text messages. Older teens are more likely than younger teens to have cell phones and use text messaging; 82% of teens ages 16-17 have a cell phone and 76% text.
Overall, 34% of teen texters ages 16-17 say they have texted while driving. That translates into 26% of all American teens ages 16-17.
Boys and girls are equally likely to report texting behind the wheel; 34% of each group say they have used text messaging while driving.
At the same time, texting at the wheel is less common than having a conversation on the phone while driving. Looking at teens ages 16-17 who have a cell phone, 52% say they have talked on a cell phone while driving. That translates into 43% of all American teens ages 16-17.
However, it is important to note that some of these teens may use hands-free devices or a speakerphone function with their cell phones. This survey did not include questions to differentiate between conversations with handheld phones and those that took place with the assistance of a hands-free device or phone feature.
Indeed, in focus groups and written surveys conducted in partnership with the University of Michigan, some teens told us that they draw a line between conversations and texting, while others expressed concern over any activity that takes the driver’s eyes off the road. One middle school-aged girl wrote: “I’m very concerned because to me it’s not too safe to drive and text or talk (…) because you’re looking down in order to read it or text back.”
Likewise, one middle school-aged boy wrote: “I do worry about it because what if you’re driving and not paying attention to the road you can hit someone or make them hit you.”
One 9th-10th grade boy said, “People texting worries me more than people calling people, because texting is more distracting than talking on the phone because you can pay more attention to the road when talking than texting.”
The teens in our focus groups who said they texted while driving reported a variety of motivations for their behavior, including the need to report their whereabouts to friends and parents, getting directions and flirting with significant others. Teens also told of a variety of practices they use to try to increase safety while still maintaining the ability to text in the car. Some felt as though they could safely manage a quick exchange of texts while the car was stopped. One high school-aged boy shared that he would text “only at a stop sign or light but if it’s a call they have to wait or I’ll hand it to my brother or whoever is next to me.”
Others told of holding the phone up to keep their eyes simultaneously on the road and the phone. “I try not to, but at a red light, it’s a lot easier” said one high school boy. “And if I do text while I’m driving, I usually try to keep the phone up near the windshield, so if someone is braking in front of me or stops short, I’m not going to be looking down and hit them.”
Some teens explained other methods for handling calls or texts while on the road “Most of my friends give me their phones to text for them and read their texts, so the driver doesn’t do it themselves,” wrote one older high school girl.
“I think [texting]’s fine…And I wear sunglasses so the cops don’t see [my eyes looking down].”
Other teens were more blasé about texting in the car. Said one high-school aged boy: “I think it’s fine…And I wear sunglasses so the cops don’t see [my eyes looking down].” Likewise, another high school-aged girl wrote that she texts “all the time,” and that “everybody texts while they drive (…) like when I’m driving by myself I’ll call people or text them ‘cause I get bored.” One older high school-aged boy explained that he limits his texting while driving only if his parents are around: “I’m fine with it, just not with my mom and dad in the car. Like when I’m with my brother, I do it.”
Teens did make a distinction between reading text messages and sending them. “There’s a difference, I think,” said one older high school boy. “Because just reading a text isn’t that bad, it’s just reading and then moving on. If you’re texting, it’s going to take more time when you’re supposed to be driving, and that’s when most people get in accidents.”
They also made a distinction between placing and answering calls on the phone in the car and sending and receiving text messages. “It’s different because texting you mostly have to look down,” said one middle school boy. “[While] calling you’re still mostly focused but you could get into conversations and not be aware of what’s going on and stuff.” Another high school boy wrote: “It depends on what the driver is doing -texting or calling. If he’s texting, to me that’s a dangerous thing. If the driver is using the phone to chat with people, I am worried, but if he or she uses the phone [in] an emergency, I’m not worried as much.”
Distracted drivers with teens as passengers
Among all teens ages 12-17, 48% say they have been in a car when the driver was texting.10 The older teens in our sample reported a higher incidence of this experience; while 32% of teens ages 12-13 say they have been passengers in a car while the driver was texting at the wheel, 55% of those ages 14-17 report this. Looking only at those who are of driving age—16 and 17 year-olds—the rate jumps to 64%.
In a separate question, teens ages 12-17 were asked if they had been in a car when the driver used the cell phone in a way that put themselves or others in danger. Four in ten teens (40%) said they had been in a risky situation like this. Younger teens ages 12-13 are generally less likely to say they have been in a car with a driver who used a cell phone in a dangerous way; 34% report this, compared with 42% of those ages 14-17. Teens of driving age (16-17) are the most likely to report this experience; 48% have been a passenger in a car with a driver who used a cell phone in a risky way.
However, it is important to note that the survey question wording does not identify the age of the distracted driver. The teens who were interviewed in the phone survey could be reporting experiences as passengers with adult drivers or other teen drivers. Indeed, as noted above, in the focus group setting, many teens relayed accounts of their parents or other adult relatives texting and talking while driving. While this was cause for concern for some, others felt that their parents and others were “good drivers” who could manage their phones safely.
“[My dad] drives like he’s drunk. His phone is just like sitting right in front of his face, and he puts his knees on the bottom of the steering wheel and tries to text.”
When asked whether he had any concerns about safety when a driver uses the phone, one middle school-aged boy wrote: “I am concerned because when my mom drives she talks on the phone a lot so she is still alert but she can get kind of dangerous.” Another 9th/10th grade boy said “Yeah [my dad] he drives like he’s drunk. His phone is just like sitting right in front of his face, and he puts his knees on the bottom of the steering wheel and tries to text.”
The frequency of teens reporting parent cell phone use behind the wheel in our focus groups was striking, and suggested that, in many cases, texting while driving is a family affair. When one middle school-aged boy was asked how often he was in a moving vehicle when the driver sends a text message, he replied: “All the time. My mom, sister or brother will sit behind the wheel the whole time and just text away.” Similarly, a middle school girl told us: “My uncle will drive and text while he is driving – he will text no matter where he is.”
“I don’t really get worried because everyone does it. And when my mother is texting and driving I don’t really make a big deal because we joke around with her about it”
Other teen respondents referred to their parents’ use of the phone while driving as part of a larger societal norm. One middle school-aged girl wrote: “I don’t really get worried because everyone does it. And when my mother is texting and driving I don’t really make a big deal because we joke around with her about it (cuz she’s a crazy driver) but we don’t take it so serious.”
Texting was not the only cause for concern among the teens who participated in our focus groups. We also heard about the distractions of drivers trying to access Global Positioning System (GPS) information while cars were in motion. And some teens cited other applications available on smartphones that take the driver’s eyes off the road. “My dad, he wasn’t really texting, but when he drives, he has a GPS on his Blackberry, so when he’s driving, he looks down at his phone” said one middle school boy, “…so it’s like the same [as] being distracted from the road. My mom always gets on him about how it’s unsafe and stuff.”
However, many of the teens we spoke with relayed experiences as passengers being driven by other young drivers. One young high school girl wrote about how often she’s a passenger with drivers who text: “Every time I leave to go somewhere with my brother or sister and my friends. Every time!” Another high school age girl wrote: “My sister does it despite my mother’s warnings, so does my brother and my friends despite my warnings.”
Teen texters are more likely than non-texters to be a passenger of a distracted driver.
Teens ages 12-17 who use text messaging report a higher incidence of being passengers when the driver is texting or otherwise using the cell phone in a dangerous way. Among all teen texters, 58% say they have been in a car while the driver was texting. That compares with just 28% of non-texting teens. Similarly, 44% of texting teens say they have been in a car when the driver was using a cell phone in a way that put themselves or others in danger, while 31% of non-texting teens have had this experience.
Fully 73% of texting teens ages 16-17 have been in a car when the driver was texting.
Older texting teens ages 16-17 are even more likely to be in the company of drivers who use their cell phones while at the wheel. Fully 73% of texting teens ages 16-17 have been in a car when the driver was texting. Half (52%) say they have been in a car when the driver used a cell phone in a dangerous way.
“I’ll snatch the phone out of your hands – don’t be driving in the car with me and doing that . . . I want to live until the end of this car ride.”
Teens in our focus groups had a variety of responses to these situations – some were adamant and angry about being endangered. One high school boy was asked about riding with drivers who text: “Not if they know what’s good for them. I’ll snatch the phone out of your hands – don’t be driving in the car with me and doing that…I want to live until the end of this car ride.”
Others were less concerned: “It doesn’t really bother me,” wrote one high school boy, “I’ve made and received calls almost every time I’ve driven.” Another high school boy wrote: “I worry about if they can do it. If they know what they’re doing and looking up every second. I usually watch the road when it happens and tell them if they’re going off the road or something. I don’t really care though.”
- The survey did not ask the age of the other driver, which could be either a fellow teen or an adult. ↩ | <urn:uuid:ea552955-6d06-4969-9992-2ed267f72123> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pewinternet.org/2009/11/16/teens-and-distracted-driving-major-findings/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00148-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976348 | 2,900 | 3.078125 | 3 |
New Charter Schools Across the Country and in the District of Columbia Face Similar Start-Up Challenges
GAO-03-899: Published: Aug 29, 2003. Publicly Released: Sep 3, 2003.
As of the 2002-2003 school year, nearly 2,700 charter schools operated in 36 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Charter schools are public schools that are exempt from certain state and local regulations in exchange for agreeing to certain student performance goals. To increase their understanding of problems faced during the start-up process, Congress included a provision in the Omnibus Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2003 (P.L. 108-7), which required GAO to report on charter school start-ups, including a comparison with charter schools in the District of Columbia. This report examines (1) the challenges faced by charter school start-ups across the nation and the resources available in various states to address these challenges and (2) how the District of Columbia compares in terms of charter school challenges and resources. To address these objectives, GAO analyzed federal, state, and D.C. charter school laws and interviewed Education and District officials, including representatives of the D.C. charter school authorizing boards, the D.C. public school system, and various city offices. GAO also conducted a discussion group consisting of District charter school experts and D.C. charter school founders.
Securing a facility, obtaining start-up funding, and, to a lesser extent, acquiring the expertise necessary to run a charter school are the three greatest challenges facing new charter school founders nationwide, although the extent of the challenges varied from state to state. Charter school advocates report that charter schools need buildings that allow them to grow as their enrollment grows and that they have limited access to financing for facilities--both of which make securing facilities one of the most difficult aspects of opening a new charter school. Additionally, charter schools report that obtaining start-up money, particularly early in the charter application and planning periods, is difficult. In gaining approval for charters, they may incur significant expenses, such as hiring experts to review charters, purchasing curriculum programs, and placing down payments on facilities, before becoming eligible to receive most forms of public funding. Another challenge facing new charter school founders is acquiring the expertise--business, legal, managerial--necessary to open and run a charter school. Several federal, state, and local programs are available to help charter schools address these challenges across the country and in the District of Columbia. At the federal level, the Public Charter Schools Program has awarded about $1 billion in grants since 1994 to charter schools to help offset their start up costs. The program has also provided additional funding for a limited number of grants to organizations to increase charter schools' access to facilities financing. Some states also provide assistance to charter schools to address these challenges. The challenges facing D.C. charter schools are similar to those around the country; however, obtaining facilities is particularly difficult in D.C. due to the cost of real estate and poor condition of available buildings. To offset this challenge, the District provides charter schools with various forms of assistance, including a limited preference to buy or lease surplus public school buildings and a per-pupil allotment for the cost of facilities. To address challenges associated with start-up funding, the District provides charter schools with some funding prior to schools' opening. Although the District chartering authorities provide some guidance to charter applicants, they do not provide them with general technical assistance. | <urn:uuid:20dd002e-0290-4e3c-a25c-6ade1c507dce> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-03-899 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392527.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00015-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959241 | 707 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Next month, California will hold the first auction as part of its carbon cap and trade program. The program, which will be the second largest CO2 emissions trading system in the world, has been in the works since 2006, when the Golden State passed the Global Warming Solutions Act, a piece of legislation that mandated chiseling down greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
A cap and trade system puts a limit on the total amount of carbon dioxide polluters can emit – that’s the cap. For its initial cap, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) set a CO2 limit of 162 million tons. That goes into effect next year, when the program kicks off. At first, only electrical utilities and large industrial plants will be capped. In 2015, companies that distribute fuels -- gasoline, diesel, natural gas and the like -- will be added. (The cap will rise when they enter the program.) The cap amount is divvied up into a number of “allowances” or “credits” -- each allowance entitles the owner to emit one ton of carbon dioxide.To start, California will give carbon emitters allowances worth 90 percent of their yearly carbon emissions for free. If they need to emit more carbon than that, they can buy more allowances at auctions held every three months. Those who reduce emissions can sell their extra allowances at the auction and make money. Those who don’t have to pony up to pollute.
Cap and trade programs are not new. In the U.S., companies have been trading allowances for sulfur dioxide emissions, the gas produced by coal-fired power plants that causes acid rain, since the mid-90s. By 2009 that program had reduced emissions of the acid-rain causing gas by 67 percent from 1990 levels.
On the East Coast, power plants in nine states are trading carbon credits through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. (Initially there were ten member states but New Jersey bailed on the plan.) In the first three years, power plants in that program cut emissions by 23 percent. And in the European Union, states have engaged in carbon trading since 2005.
The possibility of a federal carbon cap and trade scheme, however, withered away and died a pauper’s death back in 2010, dragging the Chicago Climate Exchange, a voluntary emissions trading system that operated from 2003 to 2010, into the grave with it. But California has forged ahead, despite legal challenges and critics conjuring up an exodus of businesses out of the state to avoid costs that come with the system.
Like any market, there will be winners and losers. And like any market, there are also incentives to win by skirting the rules and exploiting any loopholes in the system. The California Air Resources Board maintains that the program is structured to minimize foul play. A report from researchers at the University of California Los Angeles confirms that it is “unlikely” that CARB “will experience market manipulation that can significantly affect the efficiency or fairness of the market.”
One weakness, however, lies in poor incentives to accurately report emissions, which participants can underreport up to 5 percent without penalty, according to the UCLA report. If all participants decide to underreport their emissions by 5 percent each year then it would mean that the program would be a year behind its reductions target, explains Rhead Enion, a Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law, and one of the report’s authors. Companies should have to make up all of the difference in underreported emissions, he says.
The 5 percent buffer allows for inaccuracies in measuring carbon emissions at large plants, says Dave Clegern, a spokesperson for CARB. “We didn’t want to be so stringent that we wouldn’t be able to take into account normal kinds of variances you would have considering the volumes of heat and fuels that are being processed.” Third-party verifiers will be checking facilities and their emissions reports for accuracy, he adds.
When it comes to deterring companies from emitting carbon dioxide without buying allowances to cover those emissions, on the other hand, the program is strong, the UCLA researchers say. Emitters that fail to buy allowances for their emissions have to buy four times the number of allowances needed to cover the unaccounted emissions. The California Air Resources Board can freeze violators’ accounts if they continue to pollute without paying.
With safeguards against market manipulation in place, and the first allowance auction set to happen on November 14, supporters and foes of cap and trade are watching California with interest. “If the California market is deemed a failure, I just don’t see how, particularly in the U.S., you’d get anyone else interested in a cap and trade program,” says Enion. “If it goes well, then promoters of putting a price on carbon are going to point to the California model.”
Brendon Bosworth is a High Country News intern.
Image courtesy Andyhill8 via wikimedia commons. | <urn:uuid:76809a5e-8e30-43c4-94f9-0008cd349665> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/gettin-down-with-cap-n-trade/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397864.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00140-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946774 | 1,040 | 2.921875 | 3 |
In 2008, the rate of poverty in Canada was one of the highest among wealthy industrialised nations, according to a report published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In 2011, OECD ranked Canada 21st out of all 27 member states for poverty level.
It is believed that at around 1 in every 7 Canadians, which amounts about 4.8 million people, currently live in conditions of poverty, according to Canada Without Poverty, a not-for-profit anti-poverty advocacy organization. Another Canadian non-partisan advocacy group, Campaign 2000, reported in 2013 that nearly 1 in 5 Canadian children live in poverty. Due to the high number of children living in poverty, UNICEF has ranked Canada at 17th out of the 29 wealthy countries.
Canada has no official definition for poverty and thus no official statistical measurements of poverty. However, researchers use relative poverty data, such as low income statistics published by the Canadian government, to determine the poverty rates in the country. Throughout history, Canada has experienced several economic upturns and downturns, and with it spikes and decreases in overall poverty. Following the Great Depression in Canada, and as the country grew economically, welfare support programs have sought to reach Canadians in need. Canada currently has no official poverty reduction program.
Because the government of Canada does not measure poverty, researchers and activists use other measurements that indicate poverty, such as low income statistics, to gain an understanding of average rates of poverty in Canada. The Government of Canada, however, does not consider being 'low income' the same as being 'poor.'
According to public access data published by Statistics Canada, in 2011, 12.9 percent of the population (before tax) were in the low income category. The same year, 13.3 percent of the population under the age of 18 were low income. Other than low income statistics, poverty in Canada can also be determined by the market basket measures (MBM) calculated by the Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. The MBM estimates how accessible goods and services are to segments of the population based on disposable income. Direct poverty statistics in Canada are published by anti-poverty advocacy groups. One such group, Canada Without Poverty, estimates that 1 in 7 Canadians live in poverty. The group emphasized that socially marginalised groups, such as single mothers, aboriginal groups, people with disabilities, the elderly and racial minorities are more susceptible to poverty. For example, a person with a disability is twice as likely as an individual without a disability to be poor.
According to the World Bank, poverty 'includes low incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity'. The United Nations defines poverty as a 'violation of human dignity' that hinders a person's 'basic capacity to participate effectively in society.' Poverty has no single cause. A variety of issues can cause poverty among segments of a population, such as economic downturns, war, climate conditions such as droughts that destroy agricultural crops, social discrimination that bars access to basic necessities, and fatal epidemics like AIDS. Poverty is a multidimensional issue. Being poor does not only mean a lack of access to necessities such as food, safe drinking water, shelter and clothing. People who are poor also have inadequate access to healthcare, education, security, sanitation and political power. The poor are more susceptible to community violence and human rights violations. Due to lack of access to credit, the poor are likely to incur high-interest debts, such as payday loans, which results in endless cycles of borrowing and being victimized by loan sharks.
Poverty significantly strains a country's resources. For example, the Ontario Association of Food Banks once estimated that poverty levels in the province cost the government between 5.5 to 6.6 percent of the GDP. Alleviation of poverty levels, therefore, unburdens economic growth and fosters personal wellbeing. Many anti-poverty advocates in Canada have urged the federal government to take comprehensive steps towards alleviating provincial poverty levels, especially child poverty. Poverty alleviation is beneficial for all levels of society. For example, the Public Health Agency of Canada in 2008 reported that a dollar invested in a poor young child's life can save up to 9 dollars of government spending on health and criminal justice in the future.
The Open Data Initiative is a government program in Canada that seeks to make public information and data more accessible to citizens with the intention of making actions of elected officials transparent to taxpayers. The Open Data Initiative is a part of Canada's push for open government. Canadian citizens can access and view released datasets on the official website (open.canada.ca) in either English or French.
Canada is a nation committed to the doctrine of open government, which states that a government should be transparent and open to public scrutiny, as opposed to one that is committed to state secrecy. The origins of the ideology behind this doctrine go back the era of Enlightenment, when many governments were absolutist monarchies. The doctrine of open government encapsulates principals that are widely considered hallmarks of a democratic system, such as freedom of information, freedom of press and government accountability. Canada actively promotes open government initiatives domestically as well as internationally. Canada is a member of the Open Government Partnership, a multinational effort to promote governments to be more open and accountable. Canada has also expressed commitment to government transparency and freedom of information as a member of the G7.
The Open Data Initiative is a result of Canada's Open Government Partnership and the Open Data Charter, which the country adopted at the G8 summit in June, 2013. As a result, Canada developed a 12-step national action plan in October 30, 2014, to 'advance transparency, accountability, and citizen engagement' by implementing the principles of the Open Data Charter. The Open Data Charter has 5 principles: publishing government data while safeguarding privacy, releasing quality open data in a timely manner, making data easy to use and accessible, being transparent about data collection and publication, and using open data for citizen empowerment. Canada's Open Data Initiative seeks to meet these five principles. Canada first launched the Open Data Initiative web portal in 2011. The website was updated in 2013, and improved in 2014 to meet the new open data commitments as stipulated in Canada's Second Action Plan on Open Government. The political aspects of the Open Data Initiative are overseen by the president of Canada's Treasury Board.
The data available on the Open Data Initiative includes tender notices, population statistics, consumption ratings, government contracts, immigration statistics, government financial performance information and pension statistics, among many others. Data from the following government agencies are currently available for download from open.canada.ca:
To make datasets available on open.canada.ca easy to access, reliable and comprehensible to the public, Canada has encouraged the development of mobile apps and user-friendly Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). APIs are mostly used by developers, while the general public mainly accesses datasets on apps. Apps are developed by third parties, not the government of Canada, and are available on the web, iOS, Android and Blackberry platforms. An example of a web-based app is Border Wait Times, developed based on data released by the Canada Border Services Agency. Users of this app can estimate how long travellers can expect to wait at Canadian land border crossings. Examples of mobile apps include Learn to Camp, which shows camping sites based on information from Parks Canada, and PTSD Coach Canada, which helps sufferers manage symptoms and seek help based on data from Veterans Affairs Canada. All web and mobile apps for Open Data Initiative can be viewed at open.canada.ca/en/apps. | <urn:uuid:1dc9e032-c52d-484d-9d84-fd86badc7216> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.datadotgc.ca/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00108-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948582 | 1,553 | 3.921875 | 4 |
Geographic Information System (GIS)
Since September 2001, the City of Belleville's Development Services Department has been actively developing a municipal Geographic Information System (GIS) in order to provide city staff with a computer-based tool for viewing and analyzing geographic information.
GIS has been identified as a key technology for the City of Belleville and new and innovative applications are being recognized on a regular basis to improve municipal government efficiency.
This technology and information will be available to the general public via Internet technology from their own home personal computer or at kiosks based in municipal offices in the future.
Click Here to view City of Belleville maps on-line.
What is a Geographic Information System (GIS)?
A Geographic Information System (GIS) is not simply a computer system for creating maps.
A GIS is, first and foremost, an Information System. Software and hardware make up part of this system. The most important component is the collection of information (the database) about where geographic features (properties, roads, utilities, tourist sites, schools, etc.) are located in the City of Belleville.
The collection of information is a complex and never-ending task. Information can come from new digital maps, aerial photography, satellite imagery and complex database. Valuable information can also be taken from older paper maps, existing computer files, filing cabinets full of paper files, and staff experience!
Examples of information for the City of Belleville:
- Property information, zoning, Official Plan maps, land use mapping
- Location of city facilities, arenas, parks, pools, schools, libraries
- Transportation routes (roads, railways, trails)
- Topographic features (waterways, contours, wetlands)
The 'magic' of a GIS lies in its ability to pull together and integrate all these different kinds of information so that it can be displayed in a single, powerful system. Complex and time-consuming tasks that involved multiple departments can now be conducted efficiently and accurately through the GIS.
Detailed reports, databases, informative tables and charts, and colourful cartographic, or map, images are now possible to create from municipal data.
In the future, detailed satellite imagery and aerial photos will be included as well as mapping for underground/aboveground service networks, transit routes, and tourist sites.
Available GIS Mapping Services
Custom Colour Map (96" wide plot) - $90.00
Custom Black and White (96" wide plot) - $70.00
Custom Colour Map (36" wide plot) - $20.00
Custom Black & White Map (36 " wide plot) - $15.00
Custom Colour Map (24" wide plot) - $15.00
Custom Black & White Map (24" wide plot) - $10.00
Custom Colour/ B & W (8 ½ " x 11" up to 11" x 17") - $5.00
Labour Charge - $50.00/hr
(Includes data transformation, file transfer, analysis, creation of map images, spreadsheets, database, and/or tables)
Digital Parcel Mapping (SHP/DWG format, NAD83) $2.00/parcel
(Property boundary with assessment roll number)
Note: All rates are exclusive of HST (please refer to City of Belleville By-Law Number 2003-135 below)
If you have any questions/comments, please feel free to contact:
GIS Coordinator -- Corporate Services / Information Technology Department
Telephone 613-967-3200 Ext. 3237
City of Belleville By-Law Number 2003-135 | <urn:uuid:43fb434f-b1e7-4484-af24-482f1fbaac9b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.belleville.ca/city-hall/page/geographic-information-system-gis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00013-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.85504 | 751 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Bahamani Kingdom (1347–1527)
The Bahmani Sultanate or Bahmanid Empire was a Muslim state of the Deccan in southern India and was one of the great medieval Indian kingdoms. It was North Deccan region to the river Krishna. According to some Muslim historian a rebel chieftain of Saulatabad (an area around Ellora), was under Muhammad Bin Tughalaq. The sultanate was founded on 3rd of August 1347 by the Turkish Governor Ala-ud-Din Hassan Bahman Shah/ Hasan Gangu/ Allauddin Hassan, possibly of Tajik-Persian descent, who revolted against the Sultan of Delhi, Muhammad bin Tughluq. Nazir uddin Ismail Shah who had revolted against the Delhi sultanate stepped down on that day in favour of Zafar Khan/ Hassan Gangu who ascended the throne with the title of Alauddin Bahman Shah. His revolt was successful, and he established an independent state on the Deccan, including parts of present day Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh within the Delhi Sultanate's southern provinces. The Bahmani contested the control of the Deccan with the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire to the south. The Bahmani capital was Ahsanabad (Gulbarga) between 1347 and 1425 when it was moved to Muhammadabad (Bidar). The sultanate reached the peak of its power during the vizierate (1466–1481) of Mahmud Gawan. About eighteen kings ruled during the nearly 200 years. After 1518 the kingdom got divided into four smaller ones like Barishahi (Bidar), Kutbshahi (of Golkonda), Adamshahi( of Ahmadnagar), and Adilshahi (of Bijapur), known collectively as the Deccan sultanates.
History of Bahamani Kingdom :
Allauddin Hassan, a man of humble origin assumed the name of Gangu Bahamani in memory of his patron, a brahmin. Hasan Gangu declared the founder of the Bahamani Dynasty and ruled it under the title of Bahaman Shah. Bahamani was in constant war with south, kingdom of Vijaynagar.
Firuz Shah Bahamani left his remarkable foot prints over the Bahamani history. He was a learned man and having knowledge of many religions and natural science. He always wanted to develop the Deccan region as the cultural hub of India. He waged three battles against Vijaynagar Empire, and also extended his territories of Warangal. He gave up his kingdom and throne to his brother Ahmed shah I.
Agriculture was the main economic activity of Bahamani kingdom for earning the main revenue of the state.
The nobles in the Bahamani Kingdom were classified into two categories, Deccanis (old comers) and the Afaquis (new comers). They were always having problem of difference of opinion. Mahmud Gawan was a minister in Bahamani Empire who expanded and extended the Bahamani Kingdom rapidly. He was categorized as Afaqui and hence it was difficult for him to win the trust and confidence of the Deccanis. He was executed at the age of seventy by Muhammad Shah of Deccan in the year 1482 for his policy which made matters worse in Deccanis and Afaquis.
Culture of Bahamani :
The Bahamani kingdom flourished in architectural monuments. In the field of architecture, the Bahamanis paved way for the distinct style by inviting architects from Persia, Turkey, and Arabia and blended it with local styles. The culture that developed during this time was a blend of both north and south styles and also had its own distinct styles. Gumbaz (the largest dome in the world) and Charminar located at Hyderabad are the world famous examples of Bahamani architecture. The Bahanamis of Deccan left an important heritage of Indo-Islamic art, language, and spread of Islamic tradition in South India. Hazrat Banda Nawaz (1321 - 1422 CE) the great Sufi saint was patronized by the Bahamani kings and his Dargah of Gulbarga is a place of pilgrimage for Hindus and Muslims alike. Mahmud Gawan arrived in Bidarfrom Persia in 1453. A great scholar of Islamic lore, he founded the Madarassa (institution) from his own funds on the line of universities of Samarkhand and Khorasan. A selefless worker, he became a prime-minister of Bahamani king Mahmud III (1462- 82) whom he tutored in earlier days. But Gawan became a victim of the palace intrigue and was beheaded by the drunkern king. The later kings of the Bahamani dynasty were too weak to keep the kingdom in tact, and this led to the breakup
List of Bahmani Sultans :
During the 191 years of Bahmani reign following rulers ruled with Gulbarga and Bidar as their capital:
Gulbarga Period ( 75 years )
*Aladdin Hassan Bahman Shah/ Abu'l Muzaffar/ Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah (August 3, 1347 – Feb 11, 1358 AD)
Hasan Gangu s/o Kaikaus s/o Muhammad s/o Ali (there are different opinions)
Founder of Bahmani Dynasty of Deccan
Original name was Hasan Gangu or Hansan Kanku and also bore the title of Zafar Khan.
Nasir-ud-din Ismail Shah asked Zafar Khan to become the King with the title of ‘Sikandar- uth- thani Ala-ud-din Hasan Bahman Shah al-wali’. The new King was crowned on Friday Aug 3, 1347 in the mosque of Qtub-ud-din Mubarak Shah Khalji at Daulatabad. According to one historian, Hasan was the nephew of Malik Hizhbar-ud-din entitled Zafar Khan' Alai, who was killed in 1298 AD when Hasan was only 6 years old.
The first act of the new king was to transfer his title of Zafar Khan to prince Muhammad. King adopted the title of Bahman. He sent Qutbul Mulk who conquered Kotgir, Maram, Mahendri and Akkal Kot. Qir Khan was sent to conquer Kalyan. After the news of this great victory of Kalyan, King renamed Daulatabad to Fatahabad.
Sikandar was send to Malkher which was held by the Hindu Zamindars who opposed first but subdued later. Krishna Nayak of Tilangana entered into treaty and became friend of Sikandar and loyal to the King. Quir Khan revolted and was beheaded by the king. King renamed Gulbarga as Ahsanabad and made it the capital of Deccan.
The King died on Rabi-ul-awwal 1, Feb 11, 1358 at the age of 67.
Silver Coins struck in the name of Bahman Shah in 760 AH indicates that he might have died some time in 760 AH and hence Muhammad Shah I ascended the throne in 760 AH.
*Mohammed or Muhammed Shah I/ Zafar Khan (Feb 11, 1358 - April 21, 1375)
Son of Bahman Shah
Muhammad Shah ascended the throne. He is better known as organizer of Bahmani Kingdom and founder of its institutions. His Silver throne from his father was replaced by the magnificent ‘Takht-e-Firoza’ (Turquoise Throne) on March 23, 1363 presented to him by Raya of Tilangana. He constructed ‘Jama Masjid’ in Gulbarga Fort and Shah Bazaar Masjid in Gulbarga town. His father Alauddin Bahman Shah, Mohammed was involved in wars with Vijayanagar. However he also became embroiled in wars with Warangal. Sultan invaded Tilangana, Kanya Nayak offered Huns, elephants and horses along with Golkunda Town. Sultan died on Zi-qada April 21, 1375 AD from drinking too much.
Silver Coins struck in the name of Muhammad Shah I in, Silver coin of and a Gold coin is also known. No coin of his successor Mujahid Shah is known. Mujahid Shah's Gold coin is known. This indicates that Muhammad Shah I might have died in 1375 and issue may be a posthumously in his Mujahid Shah's reign.
*Aladdin Mujahid Shah (April 21, 1375 - April 16, 1378)
Son of Muhammad Shah
Muhammad I was succeeded by his son Aladdin Mujahid Shah at the age of 19. Mujahid Shah was murdered by Masud Khan (son of Mubarak Khan) and Daud Khan.
*Da'ud Shah (April 16, 1378 - May 21, 1378)
Son of Mahmud Shah S/o Bahman Shah
Immediately on Mujahid's murder Daud Shah proclaimed king of Deccan and all those present paid homage to him. It is said that Ruh Parwar Agha (Mujahid's sister) got Daud murdered through a royal slave Bakah while he was attending Friday prayer of Muharram, in great mosque of Gulbarga Fort.
*Mohammed Shah II (May 21, 1378 - April 20, 1397 AD)
Son of Mahmud Shah S/o Bahman Shah
Ruh Parwar after taking revenge of her brother's death, blinded Sanjar ( S/o Daud I ). She put Muhammad II brother of Daud I on throne. Muhammad Shah II's 19 year reign was one of the most peaceful period in the whole Bahmani history. Since he had no son so he adopted two sons Firoz Shah and Ahmad I of his uncle Ahmad Khan s/o Bahman Shah. But after the birth of Tahmatan Shah, Muhammad on his death bed wished that Ghiyasuddin Tahmatan Shah should succeed him and Firoz and Ahmad should pay homage to him.
Muhammad died of typhoid on. The next day died the grand old man of the Deccan Mallik Saif-ud-din Ghori who had lived through five reigns and who was the Prime Minister of Bahmani State in the time of storm and three of four rulers.
*Ghiyath ud-Din/ Ghiyas-Ud-Din-Tahmatan Shah (April 20, 1397 - June 14, 1397 AD)
S/o Muhammad Shah II
Capital : Gulbarga.
Muhammad's elder son Ghiyas-ud-din Tahmatan Shah succeeded to the throne without any trouble. Taghalchin (Turkish slave) who wanted to be the Prime Minister arranged a big feast at which king was also invited. Taghalchin blinded the king on Ramadan, and imprisoned him at Sagar and his step brother Shams-ud-din Daud II was put on the throne.
*Shams-ud-Din/ Shams- ud-Din Daud Shah II(June 14, 1397 AD - Nov 15, 1397 AD)
S/o Muhammad II
The first thing the boy king was made to do was to promote Taghalchin to be the Malik Naib and Mir Jumla of the kingdom. The manumitted slave girl who was Shamsuddin's mother was now raised to the rank and title of Makhduma-i-Jahan (Dowager Queen). Taghalchin tried to persuade Shamsuddin to imprison Firoz and Ahmad and asked king's mother to have them done to death. On hearing of the conspiracy the two brothers fled to Sagar. Firoz proclaimed himself king making his younger brother Ahmad Khan Amir-ul-umra, Mir Fazlil-lah Inju Wakil (Prime Minister). He had the blind boy Ghiyasuddin Tahmatan with him. He directly attacked into the Darbar Hall. Taghalchin and his son was killed Daud II was blinded and allowed to move Mecca with his mother. Shamsuddin Daud II died in 1414 AD at Mecca.
*Taj ud-Din Firuz Shah (Nov 16, 1397 - Sep 22, 1422 AD)
S/o Ahmad Khan s/o Bahman Shah
Firoz Shah was one of the most learned of Indian sovereigns. He was a good calligrapher and poet (poetic name Uruji or Firozi). Among other public works he under took the construction of an Observatory on the chain of hills near Daulatabad called Balaghat which could not be completed due to his death.
‘Hazrat Khwaja Syed Muhammad Gesu Draz’ was a Sufi (saint) and was deeply related with the Bahmani kings and the people of Gulbarga. He was the s/o Syed Yusuf who came to Daulatabad in the reign of Muhammad Tughlaq. Hazrat was born on Jan 30, 1331 and started living near ‘Gulbarga Jama Masjid’. He died on Nov 1, 1422 AD at the age of 105 years.
Firoz Shah paid tribute to him. He gave him many villages for his maintenance.
He knows and can carry translation in Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali and many other languages. He tamed prince Bukka and Harihara of Vijayanagar and Narasingha of Kherla in battle.
Firoz's army tried to kill Ahmad Khan (brother of Firoz) but defeated in battle fought cleverly by Ahmad. Gates of the city was opened for Ahmad and he was taken to dying king Firoz. Firoz died on Sep 28, 1422.
Bidar Period ( 116 years )
*Ahmad Shah I Wali/ Ahmed Shah Al Wali Bahamani/ Shihab-Ud-Din Ahmad I (1422 – 1436)
S/o Ahmad Khan s/o Bahman Shah
At the begening of his reign he suffered the shock of the death of ‘Hazrat Khwaja Syed Muhammad Gesu Draz’. He decided and shifted his capital from Gulbarga to Bidar. He made Khalaf Hasan Basri as his Wakil-e-Saltanate (Prime Minister).
He constructed the Tomb of Gesu Daraz at Gulbarga any buidings at Bidar.
Ahmad Shah attacked Vijayanagar and over powered Vijayaraya I. In the last year of his reign he appointed his eldest son Ala-ud-din Zafar Khan to be his heir, giving him the full charge of kingdom. King died after a short illness.
He was a great patron of arts and culture. He brought artisans from Iran, including the metal-worker Abdulla-bin-Kaiser, who was the father of bidriware, the inlaying of zinc alloy with silver and gold.
Ahmed Shah's, and his empress's, tomb is located in Ashtur village, Bidar District, and is the subject of an annual ‘urs’, or anniversary of death festival.
*Aladdin Ahmad Shah II (Apr 17, 1436 - May 6, 1458 AD)
S/o Ahmad Shah I
Ahmad I had been very successful as a king and when he died he was popular even to the extent of being regarded as a saint. His son Zafar Khan who asumed the title of Ahmad on his accession. He gave preference to newcomers from outside over the old in his cabinet. This created a great cleavage between them and the Dakhnis (old comers). He married the daughter of Raja of Sangmeswar and gave her the title of Zeba Chehra apart from the daughter of Nasir Khan Faruqi of Khandesh ‘Agha Zainab’.
There became two party, aparently the old-comers and the new-comers. King died early due to his wound in his shin (front of lower leg).
Silver Coins struck in the name of Ahmad Shah II in 838 AH has been reported. No coin of Ahmad Shah I has been reported so for. This confirms that Ahmad Shah II ascended the throne in 838 AH when Ahmad I was alive
*Aladdin Humayun Zalim Shah (May 7, 1458 - Sep 4, 1461 AD)
S/o Ahmad Shah II
Ahmad Shah II had nominated his eldest son Humayun heir to his throne. King made Khwaja Mahmud Gawan, Malik-ut-tujjar, trafdar of Bijapur and Wakil-e-Sultunate giving him full control of military matters. Humayun was a very short tempered and cruel man. He made his own cousin Sikandar Khan as Sipahsalar. Sikandar became rebellion and was crushed to death with the help of Mahmud Gawan. Humayun died on Sep 4, 1461.
Coins were struck in the name of Humayun Shah indicates that he might have died some time in Sep 4, 1461. Hence Ahmad Shah III ascended the throne in 1461.
*Nizam Shah/ Nizam-Ud-Din Ahmad III (Sep 4, 1461 - Jul 30, 1463 AD)
S/o Humayun Shah
On Humayun's death his son Ahmad succeeded to the throne as Nizam-ud-din Ahmad III at the age of 8. He was escorted to the throne by Shah Muhib-ul-la and Syed-us-Sadat Syed Hanif. Late king had nominated a council of Regency constituting of Khwaja-e-Jahan Turk, Mahmud Gawan with the Dowager Queen Makhduma-e-Jahan Nargis Begum. Master mind which ruled the country during the short reign of Ahmad Shah III was that of the great queen. All the political prisoners of Humayun period were released. Ahmad III died on the very night of his marriage on and was succeeded by his younger brother Muhammad Khan as Shams-ud-din Muhammad Shah III.
*Mohammed Shah III Lashkari/ Shams-Ud-Din Muhammad Shah III (Jul 30, 1463 - Mar 26, 1482 AD)
S/o Humayun Shah
Shamsuddin Muhammad was between 9 and 10 years when he succeeded his elder brother. He was escorted to the Turquoise Throne by Shah Mohib-ul-lah (who was released by his captor Mahmud Khalji of Malwa) and Syed Hanif. Nizam-ul-mulk murdered Khwaja-e-Jahan Turk (one of the member of the three party committee of Regency after the death of Humayun ) ) at the instance of Queen in the presence of boy king in 870 AH.
Mohammad Shah III got married at the age of 14 years. Dowager Queen retired from active role. Malik-ut-tujjar Mahmud Gawan was made Prime Minister. The Prime Minister ship of Mahmud Gawan saw the Bahmani State attaining high unequalled in the whole of its history. During this period Parenda Fort, Great College of Bidar and Madarsa at Bidar. Kherla was besieged in 872 AH. Kapileswar of Orissa was defeated in 1470 AD. Goa was annexed on 20th of Shaban 876 AH. Queen Dowager died in 877 AH.
Boundaries of Bahmani Kingdom now touching the Bay of Bengal in the east and the Arabian Sea in the west. Mahmud Gawan was one of the first ministers in Medieval India to order a systematic measurement of land, fixing the boundaries of villages and towns and making a thorough enquiry into the assessment of revenue.
King annexed Kanchi on 1st Muharram, 886 AH. This was the southern most point ever reached by Bahmani. Nobles conspired against Khwaja Mahmud Gawan and prepared a false paper on behalf of Khwaja saying he wants Deccan to be partitioned between him and Purushottum of Orissa. King sentenced Khwaja to death on 5th Safar 886 AH at the age of 73. Later King came to know that Khwaja was innocent. He appointed his son Mahmud as his heir. He died on on 5th Safar 887 AH.
*Mohammed Shah IV/Mahmud Shah/ Shihab-Ud-Din Mahmud (Mar 26, 1482 - Dec 27, 1518 AD)
S/o Ahmad Shah III
The long reign of Mahmud Shah Bahmani, was a period of gradual weakening of the state. He ascended the throne at the age of 12 years, when new-comers had been over thrown. New Regency was formed with Queen as president. Qasim Barid was entitled with Barid-ul-mumalik.
King began to indulge in wine, women and song and spent so much money that he had to extract many jewels from the Turquoise throne at the instigation of Qasim Barid. Qasim Barid forced Mahmud to make Prime Minister of the kingdom. Malik Ahmad Nizamul-mulk revolted and made a beautiful palace making it the center of his newly created capital, which he named after himself, Ahmadnagar. Qutbul-Mulk was appointed as the Governor of Tilangana in 1495-96 AD who controlled over Warrangal, Rajakonda, Dewarkonda and Kovilkonda. Qasim Barid died and was succeeded by his son Amir Barid. Ahmad Nizam died and succeeded by his son Burhan. Sultan died on Dec 27, 1518 AD.
*Ahmad Shah III/ Ahmad Shah IV (Dec 27, 1518 - Dec 15, 1520)
S/o Mahmud Shah
Amir Barid was very clever, He put Mahmud's son Ahmad on throne. Amir Barid was careful that king should not leave the palace but he actually set about to spoil his life and morals. New Sultan was forced to breakup the ancient crown of the Bahmanis, worth 15 lakes of Rupees (Rs. 1,500,000), and sell the jewels in order to provide himself with the means of ease and pleasure. Sultan died on Muharram Dec 15, 1520.
After 1518 the sultanate broke up into five states, Ahmednagar, Berar, Bidar, Bijapur, and Golconda, known collectively as the Deccan sultanates.
*Aladdin Shah (Dec 28, 1520 - Mar 5, 1523 AD)
S/o Ahmad Shah IV
Amir Barid's wish to become king was rekindled with Ahmad's death. He put the crown on Ahmad's son Ala-ud-din on Dec 28, 1520.The new Sultan was wise and courageous. Amir Barid conspired against him and Sultan was dethroned.
*Wali-Allah Shah/ Wali-Ul-Lah Shah (Mar 5, 1523 - 1526 AD)
S/o Mahmud Shah
Amir Barid put Waliullah son of Mahmud on throne. He was imprisoned in his own zanana (ladies room) and lived on bread and clothes provided to him by his master. Amir Barid married the pretty Bibi Sitti, Ahmad's widow who was just 22-23 yrs. Amir Barid was now a royal kinsman and was free to enter the zanana apartment of the palace. He began to make love with the queen. When Sultan resisted he was poisoned.
Coin of Waliullah and no coin of Alauddin Shah indicate that Alauddin Shah was dethroned and Waliullah ascended the throne.
Coins struck in the name of Kalimullah indicate that he ascended the throne and Wali-ullah died in 1526 AD.
*Kalim-Allah Shah/ Kalim-Ul-Lah Shah (1526 - 1527 AD)
S/o Mahmud Shah
After 1538 Bahamani Empire gets converted in to 5 shahis. Kalimullah son of Mahmud Shah was the last king of the Bahmani Dynasty. He was closely guarded by Amir Barid. A new political force had now appeared on the Indian Horizon in the person of Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur. All the rulers of Deccan i.e. Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Berar, and Burhanpur sent their congratulations to the Mughal conqueror. Kalimulla also wrote letter to Babur to relieve him from Amir Barid. This news was leaked and out of fear of his life Kalimullah Shah fled to Bijapur in 1527 AD. He was not welcomed there. He left for Ahmadnagar. He was first received well by Burhan Nizamul Mulk, but never again called in open court. Kalimullah soon breathed his last in Ahmadnagar. The men of shahis rulers planned to murder him after he was got down from his post because they thought that he could regain the position. His coffin was brought to Bidar. His date of death could not be confirmed. After the death of Kalimullah his son Ilhamullah proceeded to Mecca and never returned.
Coins struck in his name in 951 and 952 AH say that the sultan must have stayed long at Ahmadnagar.
Coins struck in his name in 1527 AD, indicate that he ascended the throne in 1527 AD. | <urn:uuid:3397d59e-665f-442b-8f23-7356f2434b6d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://historyofindia-madhunimkar.blogspot.com/2009/09/bahamani-kingdom.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00027-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975136 | 5,497 | 3.125 | 3 |
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Blog written by - Animal Curator Peter Pruett
As I move through the zoo guests sometime ask why the pool is ‘green’. Most people’s idea of a pool tends to be the one we and 100,000 other people swim in during the summer. Big, crystal clear water, smells of chlorine and has that shiny white or light blue bottom. All great for vacationing humans but not so good for animals that spend all or the majority of life in water.
Why then do we swim in such pools? Well for instance accidents happen and diseases could possibly be transmitted to many people. That’s where the chlorine comes in, it’s a great sanitizer but has side affects. Everybody who’s ever spent time in a pool knows that their eyes turn red, itch and become painful. Hair ends up dry and feels like straw, mine fell out. Imagine a harbor seal spending over 20 hours a day in that pool! The white or blue bottom allows us to see how clear the pool is, reflects light and makes us much more likely to go swimming.
The pools for the animals are ‘green’ because our swimming pools are not healthy for them and their quality of life will suffer. We want some algae growing in the water it’s a sign of a healthy aquatic system. When a pool is solid green and you can’t see the animals that would be no good. Too much green is BAD. To maintain that delicate balance between good and bad we do use chlorine. The levels are very low and at times are less than the levels in our drinking water. Everyday keepers test the chlorine and adjust when needed. Once a week water samples are taken to an environmental lab for testing. The tests tell us if there are any bad things growing in the water. If there are the pool is drained and cleaned. Cleaning a pool is not fun so keepers work very hard at maintaining happy healthy water.
Let’s go back to human pools and look at why they aren’t good for your harbor seals. Remember chlorine makes our eyes red and painful and the seals spend all day and night in the water. The seals eyes do become red and painful but more importantly lengthy exposure to all that chlorine can cause cataracts. A cataract is the clouding of the lense in an eye which leads to blindness. The shiny pool bottom can also cause cataracts. When light hits the shiny bottom it is reflected back everywhere. It would be similar to me sitting in a small white room with 100’s of light bulbs on. I would eventually go crazy and blind due to cataracts. Not fun at all. A darker pool with algae growing on the sides means more light is being absorbed not reflected and we’ll have happy healthy seals!
Ok, it is safe and fun for us to go swimming. We just don’t want to live our entire life in a swimming pool. The appropriate levels of algae growing in a zoo pool is good, it makes the animals happy. Next time your at the zoo and you hear someone comment on the ‘green’ pool tell them why!
posted by Keely Johnson
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
By Ashley Stalvig
From entering bills, to buying office supplies, or giving directions, to manning the first aid kit, my job as Office Support Specialist at the Lake Superior Zoo is never boring! The office always seems to be filled with varying sounds: children giggling, peacocks calling, wagons rolling, tigers roaring, and of course keyboards clicking. It still seems strange to me to hear animal sounds while I’m working, but I would not have it any other way.
This morning myself and two other office workers ventured out from behind our computers onto the grounds of the zoo. It was a little chilly out, but the sun was shining, most of the animals were moving (some still snoozing), and the wind was reminding us of the new spring growth on the trees. As we ventured around, with the goal of getting some good photos, all I could think was how lucky I am to work in a place that brings nature and wildlife to the forefront. We often get busy and forget about what lies beyond our comfortable little world. Not this morning. The creek is running, Trouble the bear is playing, the silver fox are napping, Berlin is training and learning new tricks, and Felix our new Siberian lynx, is curiously exploring her area. What a way to start this chilly morning!
Fortunately, I am not alone in my luck. From the time we get up in the morning nature surrounds us. Birds are chirping in the trees as we drink our coffee, leaves and grass are rustling in the lake wind, hawks are migrating, deer are perusing, the lake is stirring… Get out there and enjoy it!
posted by Keely Johnson
New Blog for Lake Superior Zoo!
posted by Faster Solutions, Inc. | <urn:uuid:9bf2fce2-96eb-4a73-938a-e7aac72acdb7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.lszoo.org/2010_05_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400572.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00044-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961265 | 1,037 | 2.78125 | 3 |
MIAMI, Jan. 2 -- Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress and a candidate for the presidency in 1972, died Saturday in Florida, friends said. She was 80.
"She was our Moses that opened the Red Sea for us," Robert E. Williams, president of the NAACP in Flagler County, told the Associated Press late Sunday. He said he had learned of Chisholm's death from his pastor.
Shola Lynch, director of a recent documentary about Chisholm, said in a telephone interview with The Washington Post that she was told of the former congresswoman's death by her former husband, Conrad Chisholm. Shirley Chisholm had been living in the Ormond Beach area.
Chisholm was elected to the House from Brooklyn in 1968 and was an outspoken advocate for women and minorities during her seven terms. She was a riveting speaker who often criticized Congress as being too clubby and unresponsive.
"My greatest political asset, which professional politicians fear, is my mouth, out of which come all kinds of things one shouldn't always discuss for reasons of political expediency," she once said.
Chisholm became a congresswoman the same year Richard M. Nixon was elected to the White House and served until two years into Ronald Reagan's tenure as president. She was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1969.
Jesse Jackson called Chisholm a "woman of great courage."
"She was an activist and she never stopped fighting," Jackson said from Ohio, where he is set to lead a rally on Monday in Columbus. "She refused to accept the ordinary, and she had high expectations for herself and all people around her."
Chisholm ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972. When rival and ideological opposite George Wallace was shot, she visited him in the hospital. Many of her followers were appalled.
Lynch's documentary, "Chisholm '72: Unbought and Unbossed," had its premiere last year at the Sundance Film Festival. Lynch said Chisholm was the first black person to conduct a large-scale campaign for the presidency within the two-party system.
"Others tossed their hats in the ring," Lynch told The Post, "but in terms of a full-fledged campaign," Chisholm was the first.
Pragmatism and power were Chisholm's watchwords. "Women have learned to flex their political muscles. You got to flex that muscle to get what you want," she said during her presidential campaign.
Born Shirley St. Hill in New York on Nov. 30, 1924, she was the eldest of four daughters of a Guyanese father and a Barbadian mother. Her father, an unskilled laborer in a burlap-bag factory, and her mother, a domestic, scrimped to educate their children.
At age 3, Shirley was sent to live on her grandmother's farm in Barbados. She attended a British grammar school and picked up the clipped Caribbean accent that marked her speech.
She moved back to New York when she was 11. She went on to graduate cum laude from Brooklyn College and earn a master's degree from Columbia University.
She started her career as director of a day care center, and later served as an educational consultant with the city's Bureau of Child Welfare. She became active in local Democratic politics and was elected to the state Assembly in 1964.
Chisholm served in the Assembly until 1968, when she defeated James Farmer, the former national chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality, to gain the House seat.
After leaving Congress, Chisholm was named to the Purington Chair at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., where she taught for four years. In later years she was a sought-after speaker.
Chisholm's 1949 marriage to Conrad Chisholm ended in divorce in 1977. Later that year, she married Arthur Hardwick Jr., who died in 1986. She had no children.
Staff writer Martin Weil in Washington contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:cb9b55c5-50e9-438d-92b4-cbe71fedbee9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43782-2005Jan3.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399428.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00164-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990244 | 852 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Help support New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more all for only $19.99...
Bishop of Mainz; born at Strasburg, 22 June, 1760; died at Mainz, 15 Dec., 1818. After his ordination (20 Dec., 1783) he was professor of history and Greek at the Royal Seminary, and curate at St. Stephen's, Strasburg. During the reign of terror, brought about at Strasburg by the apostate monk, Eulogius Schneider, he secretly remained in the city, and under various disguises administered the sacraments. After the fall of Robespierre he went about preaching and instructing, and worked so successfully for the restoration of religion in the city of Strasburg that Napoleon appointed him Bishop of Mainz; he was consecrated at Paris, 24 August, 1802. The metropolitan see of St. Boniface had been vacant for ten years; the cathedral had been profaned and partially destroyed in 1793; a new diocese had been formed under the old title of Mainz, but subject to the Archbishop of Mechlin; revolution, war, and secularization of convents, monasteries, and the property of the former archdiocese had ruined his new diocese spiritually and financially. Colmar worked like a true apostle; he rebuilt and reconsecrated the profaned cathedral, and by his influence saved the cathedral of Speyer which was about to be destroyed by order of the Government. After many difficulties he opened a seminary (1804), which he placed under the direction of the Venerable Libermann; he visited every parish and school, and reorganized the liturgical services, confraternities, devotions, and processions, which the Revolution had swept away. His principal aim was to organize a system of catechetical instruction, to inspire his priests with apostolic zeal, and to guard them against the false enlightenment of that age. He was an active adversary of Wessenberg and the rationalistic liberal tendencies represented by him and the Illuminati. He tried to reintroduce several religious communities in his diocese, but accomplished, however, only the restoration of the Institute of Mary Ward (Dames Anglaises). Shortly before his death he established the sisters of Divine Providence in the Bavarian part of his diocese (the former Diocese of Speyer). During the epidemic of 1813 and 1814, after the battle of Leipzig, he personally served the sick and dying. Colmar edited a collection of old German church hymns (1807) and several excellent prayer books. His sermons were published in seven volumes (Mainz, 1836; Ratisbon, 1879).
SELBST, J. L. Colmar (1902); REMLING, Gesch. der Bischöfe von Speyer (Speyer, 1867); see also life by SAUSEN in both editions of Colmar's sermons.
APA citation. (1908). Joseph Ludwig Colmar. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04115i.htm
MLA citation. "Joseph Ludwig Colmar." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04115i.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Douglas J. Potter. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster at newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads. | <urn:uuid:867bfdb7-2a86-4710-addb-ff08df8952be> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04115i.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00114-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961607 | 848 | 2.625 | 3 |
We’re skeptical about most technology that’s designed to help remote villages (yes, even that one), but these new UAV medical couriers look like a great idea. The turn around time for medical sample analysis in remote South African villages can be excruciating. A team of engineers have attempted to adapt two different unmanned aerial vehicles for transport of medical samples. These could be either blood or saliva that needs testing. Test results would be relayed via phone as they are now, but the initial transport time would be much faster. The larger of the two UAVs can carry up to 500g; that’s enough to haul two units of blood for transfusion. The UAVs can be launched by hand and can survive winds up to 45kph. They fly their preprogrammed routes autonomously and don’t require any operator intervention. The team has flown two successful trials and is waiting for approval from the South African Civil Aviation Authority. For safety, they’re only transporting samples that can be sterilized before flight. New Scientist has a short video after the break. | <urn:uuid:f57460ea-ef59-4089-bde0-af2e1a7d08ac> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://hackaday.com/2008/09/14/uav-medical-couriers/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=39eb77acf0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00042-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959605 | 223 | 3.03125 | 3 |
New hope for breast cancer research from unlikely source
Posted January 31, 2008
COLLEGE STATION, TX - There's new hope for breast cancer
research, and it's coming from a very unlikely place.
Researchers at the Texas A&M University College of
Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences recently published
articles in the journals Molecular and Cellular Biology
and Carcinogenesis which indicate that a protein long
suspected to play a role in Down Syndrome may also contribute to
treating this devastating disease.
It has long been known that Down Syndrome is caused when an
individual has an extra copy of the 21st chromosome, giving them a
total of three instead of the normal chromosome pair. With improved
medical care, people with Down Syndrome are now living longer,
healthier lives. With this advance came the observation that
individuals with Down Syndrome have a significant decrease in risk
for several types of tumors. Most striking is the observation that
women with Down Syndrome are 10-25 times less likely to develop
breast cancer. This effect is thought to be due to the presence of
one or more "tumor suppressor" genes on chromosome 21. However, the
identity of such genes has not been known, until now.
"Years of research into the genetics of Down Syndrome has helped
us to discover a very important gene on chromosome 21," said Dr.
Weston Porter, Associate Professor in the Veterinary Integrative
Biosciences Department. "This gene, called Single-minded 2 or SIM2
is thought to play an important role in Down Syndrome by regulating
neuron growth in the developing brain. Based on its developmental
role, we hypothesized that SIM2 may also be involved in breast
cancer, which is essentially a disease of uncontrolled growth."
For the last five years, Porter and his colleagues, Richard
Metz, Brian Laffin and Elizabeth Wellberg, have been using human
breast cells and mouse models as part of a research grant from the
National Institutes of Health to validate this hypothesis, and what
they have found is very promising. SIM2 is lost or suppressed in a
majority of human breast tumors, and deletion of the SIM2 gene
triggers rapid tumor growth in mice.
However, the process by which SIM2 suppresses breast cancer is
complex and not fully understood. This same protein which may hold
so much promise for breast cancer treatment is also thought to
contribute to the negative effects of Down Syndrome.
"As we move forward," said Porter, "it will be important for us
to understand the circuit of SIM2 and how it is turned on and off.
In light of the available data on breast cancer incidence in the
Down Syndrome population and our experimental data, knowing how to
turn SIM2 expression on and off and identification of down-stream
targets should have great therapeutic value."
While still in the early stages, this research represents a
promising weapon in the fight against breast cancer as it sheds
light on a previously unknown target to shoot for.
"What we are seeing now is a paradigm shift in breast cancer
research" said Porter. "For years we have gone after the wrong
kinds of cells. It was all about getting rid of the tumor itself.
This has led to a dandelion effect where, we didn't get to the root
and the cancers kept coming back and spreading. Now we're looking
at ways to get to the root of breast cancer, and not simply
shrinking the tumor to come back another day."
While it may be years before their research results in a
definitive treatment or cure, it is impacting our approach towards
understanding breast cancer today.
Angela G. Clendenin
Director, Communications & Public Relations
Ofc - (979) 862-2675
Cell - (979) 739-5718
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The Fox and the Crow
and other fables of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 57
D. L. Ashliman
- The Fox and the Crow (Aesop, translated by V. S.
- Links to Additional Type 57 Fables.
Return to folktexts, a library of folktales, folklore,
fairy tales, and mythology.
A crow was sitting on a branch of a tree with a piece of cheese in her
beak when a fox observed her and set his wits to work to discover some way
of getting the cheese. Coming and standing under the tree he looked up
and said, "What a noble bird I see above me! Her beauty is without equal,
the hue of her plumage exquisite. If only her voice is as sweet as her
looks are fair, she ought without doubt to be queen of the birds." The
crow was hugely flattered by this, and just to show the fox that she could
sing she gave a loud caw. Down came the cheese, of course, and the fox,
snatching it up, said, "You have a voice, madam, I see. What you want is
Links open in new windows. Most links lead to volumes in the digital
- Aesop. The
Raven and the Fox. In The
Fables of Aesop: As First Printed by William Caxton in 1484. Edited by
Joseph Jacobs. Vol 2: Text and Glossary, p. 21. London: David Nutt, 1889.
- Aesop. The
Fox and the Crow. In Fables
of Æsop and Others. Translated into English with Instructive
Applications by Samuel Croxall. No. 9, pp. 38-39. Philadelphia: Thomas
Cowperthwait and Co., 1850.
- Aesop. The Fox and the Crow. In Æsop:
Retold by Joseph Jacobs, no. 8. Harvard Classics, vol. 17, part 1. New
York: P. F. Collier and Son, 190914.
- Aesop. The
Fox and the Crow. In Aesop's
Fables. Translated by V. S. Vernon Jones. Introduction and Notes by
D. L. Ashliman. No. 9, p. 21. New York: Barnes and Noble, 2003.
- Jātaka. Jambu-Khādaka-Jātaka.
In The Jātaka; or, Stories
of the Buddha's Former Births. Edited by E. B. Cowell. Vol. 2
translated by W. H. D. Rouse. No. 294, pp. 299-300. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, .
- Jātaka. Anta-Jātaka. In The
Jātaka; or, Stories of the Buddha's Former Births. Edited by E.
B. Cowell. Vol. 2 translated by W. H. D. Rouse. No. 295, pp. 300-301.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, .
- La Fontaine, Jean de. Le
Corbeau et le Renard. In Fables
de La Fontaine. Book 1, fable 2, pp. 39-40. Tours: Alfred Mame et
- La Fontaine, Jean de. The
Crow and the Fox. In
The Fables of La Fontaine. Translated from the French [mainly by
Robert Thomson]. Book 1, fable 2, p. 18. London: J. C. Nimmo and Bain,
- Fansler, Dean Spruill. Auac
and Lamiran. In
Filipino Popular Tales, no. 64, pp. 395-97. Lancaster, PA. and New
York: American Folk-Lore Society, 1921.
- Wilhelm, Richard. The
Fox and the Raven. In The
Chinese Fairy Book. Translated from the German by Frederick H.
Martens. No. 13, pp. 29-30. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1921.
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GOOD MORNING! What is the saddest day of a person's life? Most likely it is the death of one of his closest relatives - father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter or spouse. What if the person felt no sadness over the passing of his closest relatives? Then he should definitely feel sad over his lack of appreciation and his inability to feel this appropriate emotion.
July 26th, Monday evening starting at sunset through Tuesday evening, is Tisha B'Av, the 9th day of the Jewish month of Av. It is the saddest day in the Jewish year. What should a person do if he has no feeling for Tisha B'Av? If a person is Jewish and identifies with being Jewish, then it behooves him to find out why we as a people mourn on this day: What have we lost? What did it mean to us? What should we be doing to regain that which we have lost? At very minimum, we should mourn that we don't feel the pain.
In 1967, Israeli paratroopers captured the Old City and made their way to the Wall. Many of the religious soldiers were overcome with emotion and leaned against the Wall praying and crying. Far back from the Wall stood a non-religious soldier who was also crying. His friends asked him, "Why are you crying? What does the Wall mean to you?" The soldier responded, "I am crying because I don't know why I should be crying."
Tisha B'Av is observed to mourn the loss of the Temples in Jerusalem. What was the great loss from the destruction of the Temples? It is the loss of feeling God's presence. The Temple was a place of prayer, spirituality, holiness, open miracles. It was the focal point for the Jewish people, the focal point of our Jewish identity. Three times a year (Passover, Shavuot, Sukkot) every Jew would ascend to the Temple. Its presence pervaded every aspect of Jewish life - planning the year, where one faced while praying, where one would go for justice or to learn Torah, where one would bring certain tithes.
On this same day throughout history many tragedies befell the Jewish people, including:
- The incident of the spies slandering the land of Israel with the subsequent decree to wander the desert for 40 years.
- The destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem by Nevuchadnetzar, King of Babylon.
- The destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE.
- The fall of Betar and the end of the Bar Kochba revolt against the Romans 62 years later, 132 CE.
- The Jews of England expelled in 1290.
- Pope Urban II declared the First Crusade. Tens of thousands of Jews were killed, and many Jewish communities obliterated.
- The Jews of Spain were expelled in 1492.
- World War One broke out on Tisha B'Av in 1914 when Russia declared war on Germany. German resentment from the war set the stage for the Holocaust.
- On Tisha B'Av, deportation began of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto.
Tisha B'Av is a fast day (like Yom Kippur, from sunset one evening until the stars come out the next evening) which culminates a three week mourning period by the Jewish people. One is forbidden to eat or drink, bathe, use moisturizing creams or oils, wear leather shoes or have marital relations. The idea is to minimize pleasure and to let the body feel the distress the soul should feel over these tragedies. Like all fast days, the object is introspection, making a spiritual accounting and correcting our ways -what in Hebrew is called "teshuva," returning, to the path of good and righteousness - to the ways of the Torah.
Teshuva is a four part process:
- We must recognize what we have done wrong and regret it.
- We must stop doing the transgression and correct whatever damage that we can.
- We must accept upon ourselves not to do it again.
- We must verbally ask the Almighty to forgive us.
On the night of Tisha B'Av we read in the synagogue Eicha, the book of Lamentations, written by the prophet Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah). We also say Kinot, special poems recounting the tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people. With the lights dimmed, we sit on low stools in synagogue as a sign of mourning.
Learning Torah is the heart, soul and lifeblood of the Jewish people. It is the secret of our survival. Learning leads to understanding and understanding leads to doing. One cannot love what he does not know. Learning Torah gives a great joy of understanding life. On Tisha B'Av we are forbidden to learn Torah except those parts dealing with the calamities which the Jewish people have suffered. We must stop, reflect, change ourselves and only then will we be able to make a better world.
The Complete Tisha B'Av Service by Rabbis Avrohom Chaim Feuer and Avie Gold is helpful to understand the day and the service. It is available at your local Jewish bookstore, at judaicaenterprises.com or by calling toll-free 877-758-3242. If you wish to delve deeper, I recommend going to Aish.com. There are 35 articles to help understand Tisha B'Av - http://www.aish.com/holidays/tisha_bav_and_the_3_weeks/default.asp
The story is told that Napoleon was walking through the streets of Paris one Tisha B'Av. As his entourage passed a synagogue he heard wailing and crying coming from within; he sent an aide to inquire as to what had happened. The aide returned and told Napoleon that the Jews were in mourning over the loss of their Temple. Napoleon was indignant! "How come I wasn't informed? When did this happen? Which Temple?" The aide responded, "They lost their Temple in Jerusalem on this date 1,700 years ago." Napoleon stood in silence and then said, "Certainly a people which has mourned the loss of their Temple for so long will survive to see it rebuilt!"
Torah Portion of the Week
This week we begin the last of the Five Books of Moses, Deuteronomy (which is the Greek name for the book of Devarim "Words" - as it is called in the original Hebrew). The Book is the oration of Moses (Moshe) before he died. It is the preparation of the Jewish people for entering and living in the Land of Israel. Moshe reviews the history of the 40 years of wandering the desert and gives rebuke so that the Jewish people will learn from their mistakes. It is always good to give reproof right before one dies. People are more inclined to pay attention and to take it to heart.
Moshe recalls what happened at Mt. Sinai, the appointment of judges and administrators, the story of the spies, the prohibition to attack Edom and Moav, the defeat of the Kings Sichon and Og, and how the land of Gilad was given to the tribes of Reuven, Gad and half of the tribe of Menashe.
based on Growth Through Torah by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin
In recalling the story of the spies, the Torah states:
"And they said, 'The land which the Lord, our God, is giving us is good.' "
Rashi understands these to be the words of Joshua and Caleb, the good spies; the Chasam Sofer says that these could also be the words of the other spies who were against going up into the land. The other spies could have meant that since the land is so good, the inhabitants will fight for it and not let us win.
Our lesson: When one praises you, do not assume anything negative; when you praise others, be careful that your words cannot be taken negatively. It is important to communicate clearly and unequivocally.
CANDLE LIGHTING - July 23:
(or Go to http://www.aish.com/candlelighting)
Guatemala 6:14 Hong Kong 6:49 Honolulu 6:54
J'Burg 5:19 London 8:41 Los Angeles 7:42
Melbourne 5:05 Miami 7:52 Moscow 8:33
New York 8:01 Singapore 6:59
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
It's not what you're willing to die for;
it's what you're willing to live for.
In Loving Memory of
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If the current US trends of foreclosures and suburban flight continue, one might expect that the suburbs of the future will be desolate, abandoned places. How will we ever recover those large swaths of land and put them back into good use? Enter the CV08, a suburb crushing, land restoring robot designed by Australian architect, and Inhabitat favorite, Andrew Maynard. Its mission is to bring Mother Nature back into the areas left unoccupied thanks to the rising costs of fuel and energy. A provocative, polemical and impossible solution? Sure. But, absolutely awesome at the same time.
As part of Critical Visions 08, a conference organized by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects in Sydney, Andrew Maynard and six other young up-and-coming architects presented a vision of what the future holds for architects and designers, and the challenges that we will have to face. The visions proposed everything from clearing large swaths of Sydney for creating green spaces, to radically conceptualizing what a city would look like if it only had public transportation, and all points were no more than 30 minutes away from each other.
Andrew Maynard’s caught our eye, because, well, they are effectively giant robots consuming suburbs. Obviously an outlandish vision, and certainly not something that will occur anytime soon. However, just as with any other concept, it is the idea behind it that just makes it pretty darn cool.
When oil ends, and energy is no longer cheap, it’s no longer feasible to have people living in the suburbs. After all, if you cannot get to it, or it is too expensive, no one will want to live there. So the suburbs will essentially become empty, abandoned, and the houses left behind will just be wasted resources left there unexploited and unresolved. A provocative vision, and one that may actually be closer to reality than what we would like to think.
The robot itself is pretty cool. The two front legs crush and process the suburban houses, and turn them into materials ready for recycling (naturally, being giant robots, the compacted materials are fired off in missiles to the recycling plants). The middle and rear-legs slowly but surely terraform the earth left behind. Flora and fauna are brought to the site via these behemoths, and Mother Nature is restored.
Andrew and his team have always impressed us with their design solutions and aesthetics. Now we can certainly add imagination, big ideas, and a good sense of humor to their already impressive list of qualities. For those of you who are living in Sydney, the exhibition is currently running at Customs House. Be sure to visit. | <urn:uuid:8ef4f29f-7cb1-4d52-82b4-10d1d0d1ed68> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://inhabitat.com/andrew-maynards-suburb-eating-robot/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00111-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962543 | 541 | 2.53125 | 3 |
This authoritative, reader-friendly introductory text presents core principles of good map design that apply regardless of production methods or technical approach. The book addresses the crucial questions that arise at each step of making a map: Who is the audience? What is the purpose of the map? Where and how will it be used? Students get the knowledge needed to make sound decisions about data, typography, color, projections, scale, symbols, and nontraditional mapping and advanced visualization techniques. The book's utility is enhanced by over 200 illustrations, including 23 color plates; suggested readings at the end of each chapter; a glossary; and recommended Web resources. All of the figures are also available at the companion website as PowerPoint slides.
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Rent Principles of Map Design 1st edition today, or search our site for other textbooks by Judith A. Tyner. Every textbook comes with a 21-day "Any Reason" guarantee. Published by Guilford Publications.
Need help ASAP? We have you covered with 24/7 instant online tutoring. Connect with one of our tutors now. | <urn:uuid:d4a324c6-9940-4f3c-a5d7-5b6fe12da5f5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.chegg.com/textbooks/principles-of-map-design-1st-edition-9781606235447-1606235443 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00075-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901998 | 222 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Scribner Seminar Program
Instructor(s): Masako Inamoto, Foreign Language and Literature
What is anime and what are its origins? Why does it appeal to audiences beyond Japanese cultural boundaries? In this seminar, students will explore the world of Japanese animation, one of the most important and popular cultural products in contemporary Japan. After examining the origins of anime and its relationship to the traditional picto-centric culture in Japan, students will study some of the prevailing themes and genres of anime (i.e., apocalypse, gender and sexuality, and metamorphosis) in their cultural and historical contexts. Through this exploration, students will learn about some of the most important Japanese social and historical conventions that inform anime. | <urn:uuid:a897d107-1636-4356-8278-ef1793f60494> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.skidmore.edu/fye/scribner/courses/japanese-animation.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392069.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00106-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914357 | 145 | 2.59375 | 3 |
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SL 241 Characterizing Agriculture in Floridas Lower Suwannee River Basin Area 1 Tom Obreza and Greg Means2 Introduction The Suwannee River is a major aquatic resour ce that begins in Georgia and flows through north Florida until it empties into the eastern Gulf of Mexico. About two-thirds of the river basin is in Georgia, while the other one-third, known as the Lower Suwannee Basin, is in Florida (Figure 1). The Lower Suwannee Basin forms the central portion of the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) (http://www.srwmd.s tate.fl.us), which encompasses all or parts of 15 counties (Figure 2). Figure 1. Florida's Lower Suwannee River Basin (in green) and surrounding area. The Lower Suwannee Basin is designated as a Showcase Watershed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It contai ns the highest concentration of firstmagnitude freshwater springs in the world. (A first magnitude spring is one that 1. This document is SL 241, a fact sheet of the Soil and Wate r Science Department, Florida C ooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Original publication date: May 2006. Visit the EDIS Web Site at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu 2. Tom Obreza, professor, and Greg Means, biological scientist, Soil and Water Science Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0290. The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is an equal o pportunity/affirmative action emplo yer authorized to provide resea rch, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function without regard to race, color, se x, age, handicap, or national origin. For information on obtaining othe r extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extens ion Service office. Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricu ltural Sciences, University of Florida. Larr y R. Arrington, Dean.
2 discharges at least 100 cubic feet of water per second, or about 64.6 million gallons per day.) During the last 20 years, the nitrat e-N concentration of some of the basins rivers and springs has increased to the point of envir onmental concern. In response, the states of Florida and Georgia, the Federal government, and other local organiza tions have identified the Suwannee River Basin as an ecosystem in need of protection because of its unique biota and important water resources. Figure 2. Boundary of the Suwannee River Water Management District. Objective of this Publication The Suwannee River Partnership (http://www.suwannee.org) was formed in 1999 to determine the sources of nutrient loads in the ri ver basin, and to work with local land users to minimize future nutrient loading through voluntar y, incentive-based programs. Agriculture and forestry are the dominant land uses in the waters hed. While the environmental impact of forestry is usually low, intensive agri cultural production has th e potential to aff ect water quality if nutrients and water are not carefully managed. Agriculture in the Lower Suwannee Basin is diverse--beef, dairy, poultry, field crop, forage, vegetable, and nursery production are all found there. Nutrient and water management issues important to environmental protection vary between these agricultural segments, so it is imperative to understand how they are spatially distributed throughout the 7,640 square mile area of the SRWMD. Therefore, the objective of this publication is to characterize agriculture in Floridas Lower Suwannee Basin Area so that Be st Management Practice educational programs can be appropriately developed and effici ently delivered to key target audiences.
3 Data Sources and Collection Method Data sources Agricultural production data: Florida Agri cultural Statistics Service (FASS) (http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Florida/index.asp) Pine plantations: Florida Geographic Data Library (http://www.fgdl.org) Soil characteristics: USDA-NRCS county soil surveys Population: U.S. Census Bureau (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/12000.html) Fertilizer consumption: Florida Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), Fertilizer Section (http://www.doacs.s tate.fl.us/onestop/aes/fertilizer.html) Irrigation: U.S. Geological Survey Data collection Data were obtained on a county-by-county ba sis. The SRWMD includes all of Columbia, Dixie, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Lafayette, Madison, Su wannee, Taylor, and Union counties, and parts of Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Jefferson, Levy, and Putnam counties. Since the District includes only portions of six counties, this report covers an area slightly larger than the entire Lower Suwannee River basin. The portions of Baker and Putnam counties within the District boundary are small and were deemed insignificant for the pu rpose of this report, so they were not included in the summaries. However, the reader is cautioned t hat the reported data for Alachua, Bradford, Jefferson, and Levy counties represent the en tire county, not all of which falls within the SRWMD or the Lower Suwannee River Basin watershed In some cases, agricultural production data were not available from FASS for particular counties where the number of farms for a given operation type were small, possibly compromising anonymity of the farms. In these cases, data could not be included in the overall summary, so severa l of the analyses are incomplete Characterizing the Basin Population The population of the 13 counties representing Floridas Lower Suwannee Basin area was 507,155 in 2004, but 44% of the total (223,090) was in Alachua county. The remaining counties had considerably lower population density (Fi gure 3) and remained rural in nature, although counties immediately north and west of Alachua were roughly twice as densely-populated as the rest due to influence of population centers like Live Oak, Lake City, Gainesville, and Jacksonville.
4 Figure 3. Population density (persons per square mile) in 2004. Landscape and soil characteristics The basin is generally flat with occasiona l rolling topography. Elevation ranges from sea level at the Gulf coast to around 180 ft in parts of Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Suwannee, Columbia, and Alachua counties (Figure 4). Soil er osion can be a localized problem in some sloping agricultural fields, but in general it is not a major issue across the basin. Most rain and irrigation water infiltrates the soil unless soil crusting has occurred, which can increase runoff to ditches and streams. Figure 4. Land elevation in Florida's Lower Suwannee Basin area.
5 Most of the soils used for agricultural production are classified as Entisols, Ultisols, or Spodosols. These soil orders cannot be differentiated from one another by observing only the surface soil (plow layer) because they are similar. One must look deeper in the profile to find differences. Entisols (Figure 5, top) have little or no evidence of so il formation, and the entire profile is sandy throughout. The reason for th is is that not enough time has elapsed for soil-forming processes to act following depos ition of the sandy material by the ocean. Ultisols (Figure 5, middle) have a sub-surf ace layer of loamy material (Bt horizon) due to the downward movement and accumulati on of clay. This clay is acidic and low in plant nutrient content. Spodosols (Figure 5, bottom) have a black, brown, or reddish-brown subsoil layer called a spodic (Bh) horizon. This layer is often overlain by a light-gray to whitish layer (E horizon). The spodic horizon is an accumulation of organic matter, aluminum, and iron compounds that leached from a surface litter layer. Sometimes a Bt horizon is found below the Bh horizon, but a Bh never occurs below a Bt.
6 Figure 5. Distribution of three major soil orders used for agricultural production in north Florida, and examples of their profiles.
7 Regardless of soil order, the root zone (A horiz on) texture in the basi n is usually sand or fine sand. Some Ultisols can have a slightly more loamy texture (e.g. loamy sand) at the surface. Compared with agricultural soils in other parts of the USA, the water-holding capacity of north Florida soils is low (Table 1). Water-holding capacity of a typical Midwestern corn belt soil is two to three times higher th an a sandy Florida soil. Table 1. Soil texture eff ect on water-holding capacity. Water-holding capacity, inches/foot Texture Low High Average Sand, Fine sand 0.24 1.20 0.75 Loamy sand, Loamy fine sand 0.36 1.44 1.00 Sandy loam, Fine sandy loam 0.90 1.80 1.40 Soil nutrient-holding capacity as measured by soil cation exchange capacity (CEC) and organic matter content is also low (Table 2). Although Ultisols and Spodosols have higher CEC in the Bt and Bh horizons, these layers do not support root growth due to high acidity, compaction, or low oxygen content. The organi c matter accumulated in a Bh horizon does not contribute to soil fertility because of high acidity and aluminum toxicity associated with it. Table 2. Nutrient-holding capacity factors for three north Florida soil orders. Soil order Property Depth Entisol Ultisol Spodosol Plow layer (A horizon) 3 5 4 Cation exchange capacity (meq/100 g) Sub-surface 1 (C horizon) 15 (Bt horizon) 19 (Bh horizon) Plow layer (A horizon) 0.8 1.0 1.2 Organic matter (%) Sub-surface 0.2 (C horizon) 0.1 (Bt horizon) 4.5 (Bh horizon) Of the three soil orders, Entisols are most vulnerable to leaching of nutrients and agrichemicals because they are sandy throughout, contain little organic matter, are highly conductive to water flow, and have no sub-surface layer that can slow wa ter drainage through the profile. Six of the thirteen counties in the Lo wer Suwannee Basin area have more than 20% of their area mapped as Entisols (Figure 5). The highest concentration runs along a straight line through Hamilton, Suwannee, and Gilchrist coun ties, increasing from north to south. Extent of farmland and planted pineland Most counties in the Lower Suwannee Basin ar ea had between one-quarter and one-third of their land area devoted to pine plantations (Figure 6). Taylor county contained the largest acreage of commercial pine forest by a wide margin, followed by Columbia and Levy counties (Table 3). Counties with the largest per centage of total land area devo ted to farms were Alachua, Suwannee, Union, Gilchrist, Jefferson, and Madi son (Figure 6). Alachua had the most farm
8 acres, followed by Levy, Suwannee, Madison, and Jefferson (Table 3). Taylor had the largest average farm size, followed by Lafayette, Jefferson, and Madison. Figure 6. Relative amount of land occupied by farms and pine plantations. Table 3. Land area devoted to farming and pine plantations by county. County Pine plantation acreage (1995) Farm acreage (2002) Number of farms Average farm size (ac) Alachua 156,759 222,728 1,493 149 Bradford 60,725 44,819 378 119 Columbia 179,210 90,227 688 131 Dixie 155,593 31,249 215 145 Gilchrist 54,435 81,489 408 200 Hamilton 103,873 52,027 239 218 Jefferson 119,297 132,727 418 318 Lafayette 94,695 91,988 195 472 Levy 179,993 180,314 897 201 Madison 111,455 156,995 529 297 Suwannee 105,400 170,149 1,054 161 Taylor 237,435 53,720 101 532 Union 56,944 59,635 275 217 Market value of farm production Suwannee County had the highest market value of farm production by a wide margin compared with other counties (Figure 7). Following Suwannee were Levy, Alachua, Lafayette, Columbia, and Gilchrist.
9 Figure 7. Market value of total farm production in millions of dollars (2002). Field crops Floridas Lower Suwannee Basin is a ma jor field crop producti on area. Field crop distribution was determined for all crops combin ed, and for three crop sub-categories (Table 4). Table 4. Sub-division of field crops and specific crops within each category. Grains, Grain Silage and other Field Crops Hay, Forage, & Seeds Vegetables & Melons Corn Field & grass seeds Beans (snap) Oats Alfalfa hay Broccoli Rye Small grain hay Cabbage (Chinese and head) Sorghum Other tame hay Cantaloupes Wheat Wild hay Collards Cowpeas Haylage, all Cucumbers Peanuts Eggplant Potatoes Lettuce Soybeans Mustard greens Tobacco Okra Peas Peppers Radishes Squash Sweet corn Tomatoes Watermelons
10 Field crop production was grea test in Alachua, Levy, and Suwannee counties (Fig. 8). Levy had the most acreage devoted to major (non -vegetable) row crops, Al achua had the greatest hay and forage acreage, and Suwannee had the mo st acreage of vegetables and melons. In 2002, of Floridas 67 counties: Alachua ranked no. 1 in land area devoted to forage and hay production, and no. 2 in silage corn. Gilchrist ranked no. 4 in silage corn and no. 1 in silage sorghum. Hamilton ranked no. 4 in grain corn and no. 3 in cowpeas. Jefferson ranked no. 2 in grain corn and no. 4 in cowpeas. Levy ranked no. 2 in peanuts and no. 1 in silage corn. Madison ranked no.1 in grain corn, grain rye, cowpeas, and soybeans. Suwannee ranked no. 4 in forage and hay, no. 5 in peanuts, no. 3 in silage corn, no. 3 in sweet corn, and no. 7 in all vegetables harvested. Figure 8. Cropland acreage in Florida's Lower Suwannee River Basin area (2002). *Some crop data in these counties was excluded from the ag census to avoid disclosing individual farms.
11Animal agriculture Floridas Lower Suwannee Basin area contains significant animal agriculture (Fig. 9). For example, in 2002, of Floridas 67 counties: Suwannee ranked no. 1 in sales value of poultry and eggs. Columbia ranked no. 1 in laying hen inve ntory (although the actua l number of birds was protected by FASS). Suwannee ranked no. 7. Suwannee and Lafayette ranked no. 1 and no. 4, respectively, in broiler inventory. Levy, Gilchrist, Lafayette, and Su wannee ranked 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 6th, respectively, in dairy production sales value. Figure 9. Animal agriculture in Florida's Lower Suwannee River Basin area (2002). *Animal numbers for these counties were excl uded from the ag census to avoid disclosing data for individual farms.
12Pastureland Pastureland is widespread throughout Floridas Lower Suwa nnee Basin area, and is the most common agricultural land use in each county (Fig. 10). Statewide, in 2002, Alachua ranked no. 12 for land area devoted to pasture. Figure 10. Pastureland acreage in Florida's Lower Suwannee River basin area (2002). Outdoor nurseries Levy County dominated in land area devoted to outdoor nursery production in 2002, with about half of the Lower Suwannee Basin area total (Fig. 11). Alac hua had 17% of the total, and the rest was distributed among 9 other counties for which data were available. No data were reported for Lafayette and Union. Figure 11. Outdoor nursery acreage in Florida's Lower Suwannee River Basin area (2002).
13Irrigation Although the Lower Suwannee Basin averages 50 inches of rainfall per year, uneven distribution can lead to drought periods in the spring and fall. Spring crops are particularly susceptible to water stress, so all vegetable cr ops and many other row crops are irrigated. Both overhead and low-volume (drip) irrigation system s are used, and the primary water source is groundwater. The top three counties in irrigated acreage are Levy, Suwannee, and Alachua (Fig. 12), which is no surprise because these are also th e top three counties in field crop production. These counties plus Gilchrist are the top four agricultural water us ers in terms of freshwater withdrawals (Fig. 12). When comp aring the two maps in Fig. 12, the reader is cautioned that while irrigated acreage is for the entire county, wa ter use data represent on ly the land area within the Suwannee River Water Management District boundary. Therefore, the two maps are not directly comparable for Alachua, Bradford, Je fferson, and Levy counties. Also, the water use data is 2 years older than the irrigated acreage data. Figure 12. Agricultural irrigation water use in Florida's Lower Suwannee River Basin area. *Values shown for Alachua, Bradford, Jefferson, and Levy counties represent only the portion of the county within the SRWMD boundary. Fertilizer consumption Fertilizer application is necessary to ach ieve maximum economic crop yields in the Lower Suwannee Basin. Nitrogen and phosphorus ar e two macronutrients commonly applied in fertilizers. These nutrients provide a positive crop response, but can also degrade water quality if, over the long term, they are transported by leaching or runoff from the application site to surface or groundwater.
14 Nitrogen fertilizer consumption by count y fell into four groups (Fig. 13): Suwannee and Levy consumed more than 3,700 tons of N per year. Gilchrist, Alachua, Union, and Jefferson used between 2,000 and 2,500 tons per year. Madison, Columbia, and Lafayette used between 1,000 and 1,500 tons per year. Hamilton, Bradford, Dixie, and Taylor used less than 1,000 tons per year. Phosphate fertilizer consumption fell into three groups (Fig. 13): Levy and Union consumed 1,000 or more tons of P2O5 per year. Jefferson, Suwannee, Gilchrist, and Alachua used between 600 and 900 tons per year. Columbia, Madison, Hamilton, Lafayette, Brad ford, Dixie, and Taylor used less than 400 tons per year. The amount of fertilizer used within a county is influenced by the amount and type of crops grown, and by the availability of animal manures that may be applied as an alternative source of N and P. It is no surprise that Levy, Suwannee, and Alachua counties are among the largest N and P fertilizer users since they are th e counties with the greatest field crop acreage. Although Union county is small in land area, it is the fourth largest in terms of vegetable production within the Lower Suwannee Basin area. Fe rtilizer use there is relatively high because vegetable crops are intensively fertilized. Figure 13. Nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer consumption (July 2002 through June 2003) in Florida's Lower Suwannee River Basin area.
15Summary Floridas Lower Suwannee Basin area contains: A population just above one-half million th at is skewed towards Alachua county. Topography ranging from flat to gently rolling. Sandy soils vulnerable to nutrient and agrichemical leaching, especially under conditions of excessive rainfall or irrigation. Mostly rural land that supports pine plan tations, numerous small to medium-sized farms, and a few large farms. Forest, field crop, forage, animal, and nur sery production that is economically important both locally and statewide. More than 75,000 acres of irrigated agriculture. Soils low in natural fertility that require high fertilizer rates to achieve maximum economic yield. Groundwater, surface water, and an ecosy stem in need of environmental protection. Therefore, educating the region s agricultural producers and other citizens about the best ways to manage water and nutrients will be essen tial to maintain water availability and improve its quality in the years to come. | <urn:uuid:783b83ca-2a82-4d3d-9dc1-f555ad93b5df> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ufdc.ufl.edu/IR00003156/00001 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394605.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00025-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.89439 | 4,386 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Name the rover!
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla
18-11-2008 14:00 CST
In an essay contest very similar to the one that The Planetary Society and LEGO teamed up to run for the Mars Exploration Rovers, JPL has announced today that they are working with Disney to collect name suggestions for the Mars Science Laboratory rover, scheduled to launch next October. The contest is open only to children ages 5 through 18 who are residents of the U.S. and are enrolled in an American school in grades K-12. The grand prize winner gets a trip to Los Angeles, including, it seems, a trip to the Jet Propulsion Lab and Disneyland. The amount that the kid entrant has to write to support his or her name suggestion depends on what grade they're in: 50 words for grades K-3, 250 words for grades 4-7, and 500 words for grades 8-12. The deadline is January 25, 2009, and parents of preteens take note: all entries from kids under 14 have to be submitted by mail. Read the rules and find out how to enter at marsrovername.jpl.nasa.gov. Don't think your kid can't win because they're only 7 and competing against 17-year-olds; the previous contest was won by a 9-year-old.
This is a great opportunity for American kids to consider why and how spacecraft get named, and to learn enough about MSL to think about what a good name will be. If you're not American, I think it would still be a fun exercise to do with your children, even if they can't officially enter in the contest. Perhaps ESA will run something similar for ExoMars that will make such a naming opportunity open to a wider slice of the world. As one tiny bit of solace for non-Americans who'd like some chance for involvement, it appears based on some text on the contest homepage that there will be an Internet-based popularity contest among a subset of the name entries that will be open to worldwide participation, which "may just help determine the Grand Prize Winner," which I assume means that NASA is reserving the right not to pay attention to the Internet vote (which sounds a bit weasely, but I imagine we'd've written the same rule in if we'd been running the contest too).
Or read more blog entries about: | <urn:uuid:dfd62958-2ed5-40bc-9d0d-e75f47eb9c47> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2008/1745.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394987.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970223 | 489 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Being a celebrity is great: you get to go to loads of flashy parties, top designers shower you with free clothes, and if you’re really lucky people name cool stuff after you.
So Jennifer Lopez must be pretty darn stoked that a group of biologists have named a newly discovered species of water mite after her. Yup, that sounds totally up her street.
The water mite was discovered nearly 70m (230ft) deep in the Mona Passage – a treacherous stretch of water that separates Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
And it has been named Litarachna lopezae, in honour of super-hot sex siren, Jenny from the block.
So how exactly did this amazing water mite naming come about?
Vladimir Pesic of the University of Montenegro explained: ‘The reason behind the unusual choice of name for the new species is … simple: J-Lo’s songs and videos kept the team in a continuous good mood when writing the manuscript.’
And so you can all get inspired too, here’s her first hit (and one of our all-time fave J-Lo tunes) If You Had My Love. Go forth and make scientific discoveries people. | <urn:uuid:6fbd403d-0bab-4cb3-8dcd-b9d777bbdc2c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://metro.co.uk/2014/07/19/jennifer-lopez-has-a-water-mite-named-after-her-and-about-time-too-4803718/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00186-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911987 | 256 | 2.84375 | 3 |
SOLVING AND LAYING OUT A
Now let’s solve and lay out a simple curve usingthe arc definition, which is the definition you will more often use as an EA. In figure 11-10, let’s assume that the directions of the back and forward tangents and the location of the PI have previously been staked, but the tangent distances have not been measured. Let’s also assume that stations have been set as far as Station 18 + 00. The specified degree of curve (D) is 15°, arc definition. Our job is to stake half-stations on the curve.
Solving a Simple Curve
We will begin by first determining the distancefrom Station 18 + 00 to the location of the PI. Since these points have been staked, we can determine the distance by field measurement. Let’s assume we have measured this distance and found it to be 300.89 feet. Next, we set up a transit at the PI and determine that deflection angle I is 75°. Since I always equals D, then D is also 75°, Now we can compute the radius of the curve, the tangent distance, and the length of curve as follows:
From these computed values, we can determine thestations of the PI, PC, and PT as follows:
By studying figure 11-10 and remembering that our task is to stake half-station intervals, you can see that the first half station after the PC is Station 18 + 50 and the last half station before the PT is 23+ 00; therefore, the distance from the PC to Station 18 + 00 is 42.2 feet [(18 + 50) - (18 + 07.80)]. Similarly, the distance from Station 23+ 00 to the PT is 7.8 feet. These distances are used to compute the deflection angles for the subchords using the formula for deflection angles (d= .3CD) as follows:
A convenient method of determining the deflection angle (d) for each full chord is to remember that d equals 1/2D for 100-foot chords, 1/4D for 50-foot chords, 1/8D for 25-foot chords, and 1/20D for 10-foot chords. In this case, since we are staking 50-foot stations, d = 15/4, or 3°45’.
Previously, we discussed the difference in length between arcs and chords. In that discussion, you learned that to be within allowable error, the recommended chord length for an 8- to 16-degree curve is 25 feet. Since in this example we are using 50-foot chords, the length of the chords must be adjusted. The adjusted lengths are computed using a rearrangement of the formula for the sine of deflection angles as follows:
As you can see, in this case, there is little difference between the original and adjusted chord lengths; however, if we were using 100-foot stations rather than 50-foot stations, the adjusted difference for each full chord would be substantial (over 3 inches).
Now, remembering our previous discussion of deflection angles and chords, you know that all of the deflection angles are usually turned using a transit that is set up at the PC. The deflection angles that we turn are found by cumulating the individual deflection angles from the PC to the PT as shown below:
Notice that the deflection angle at the PT is equal to one half of the I angle. That serves as a check of your computations. Had the deflection angle been anything different than one half of the I angle, then a mistake would have been made.
Since the total of the deflection angles should be one-half of the I angle, a problem arises when the I angle contains an odd number of minutes and the instrument used is a 1-minute transit. Since the PT is normally staked before the curve is run, the total deflection will be a check on the PC therefore, it should be computed to the nearest 0.5 degree. If the total deflection checks to the nearest minute in the field, it can be considered correct.
The curve that was just solved had an I angle of 75° and a degree of curve of 15°. When the I angle and degree of curve consists of both degrees and minutes, the procedure in solving the curve does not change; but you must be careful in substituting these values into the formulas for length and deflection angles; for example I = 42°15’, D = 5°37’. The minutes in each angle must be changed to a decimal part of a degree. To obtain the required accuracy, you should convert them to five decimal places; but an alternate method for computing the length is to convert the I angle and degree of curve to minutes; thus, 42°15’ = 2,535 minutes and 5°37’ = 337 minutes. Substituting this information into the length formula gives the following:
This method gives an exact result. By converting the minutes to a decimal part of a degree to the nearest fives places, you obtain the same result. | <urn:uuid:810fd347-649a-4030-819c-17c1461ee002> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.tpub.com/inteng/11f.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00142-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942674 | 1,062 | 3.765625 | 4 |
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