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Discover Research Tools for Textual Study
Micro-EYEBALL is a microprocessor version of the English language parser developed in the 1970s. This historically important legacy tool could also provide statistical descriptions of many linguistic features of a text. This tool is no longer available, and does not have a web presence.
More information on Micro-EYEBALL, its applications and development is available here:
Ross, Donald and David Hunter. "Micro-EYEBALL: An Interactive System for Producing Stylistic Descriptions and Comparisons." Computers and the Humanities 28.1 (1994): 1-11. Web.
More information about the original version of EYEBALL is also available here:
Ross Jr., Donald and Robert H. Rasche. "EYEBALL: A Computer Program for Description of Style." Computers and the Humanities 6.4 (1972): 213-221. Web.
Micro-EYEBALL was a revision of the mainframe program EYEBALL, which "parses English language texts and provides a statistical description of many linguistic features which are of interest to those involved in stylistics" (Ross and Hunter 1). It was a microcomputer implementation of the original, which dated to the 1970s, so the program could be of continuing use to humanities scholars who had not participated in mainframe computing (1).
EYEBALL, developed by Donald Ross Jr. and Robert H. Rasche, was an information system for students of literature with particular applications for the study of literary style, literary criticism and the history of ideas (Ross and Rasche 213). They began development in the late 1960s:
The general design of the project was outlined in December 1969; by July 1970, the basic VLII programming for all stages had been completed. Current work is in two areas. First, the PL/I programs have been "translated" into the Fortran language, in versions for IBM 360 and CDC 6600 computers. This step has made EYEBALL more widely useful; we have found also that Fortran is markedly faster (and cheaper). Second, we have designed batch-processing algorithms of Phase 2 and Phase 4 for computing systems which do not support interactive processors. (Ross and Rasche 216)
EYEBALL consisted of a series of computer programs that first surveyed natural language text and then marked wherever possible the text's syntax and vocabulary use properties (Ross and Rasche 213). The intermediate processing stage "indicat[ed] the ends of phrases (prepositional, infinitive, and so on) and of clauses and locations of subjects, predicates, and objects within clauses" (213). EYEBALL attempted to navigate the ambiguity of the English language while "maximizing accuracy and minimizing the man-hours involved in the analysis". Its error tolerance was in the range of 2%, which Ross and Rasche found to be "quite acceptable" to science and social science standards, particularly compared to the up to 10% error rate Ross calculated for his own hand counts (213). It did not require a large computer dictionary, nor did it require users to apply markup to their texts prior to processing (Ross and Rasche 214).
The microprocessor edition, completed in 1994), was a major overhaul of EYEBALL (Ross and Hunter 1). Ross and Hunter wanted to ensure Micro-EYEBALL would run on widely-available computers to remove the cost and accessibility barrier for even poorly-funded researchers (Ross and Hunter 2). It ran on IBM/PC or compatible personal computers and required only 512K of memory and DOS 3.02 to run, and though a hard disk install was preferable, Ross and Hunter believed that it should also work from floppy disks (2). They kept Micro-EYEBALL's constituent programs in FORTRAN and designed the whole "to be ported to other systems with little or no alteration of the source code" (2).
Micro-EYEBALL accepted ASCII text files and worked best with samples of 500-3000 words (2).
Its programs could accomplish common tasks such as generating word lists and parsing (Ross and Hunter 4), and could also systematically characterize distributions of categories and functions (Ross and Hunter 4). Ross and Hunter aimed for Micro-EYEBALL to be straightforward and to accomplish necessary tasks without requiring a large investment of time or effort of its users:
The parser does not identify "deep" or "remote" structures, transformational histories, nor is it delicate enough to analyze nominal or verbal phrases beyond their main constituents. Unlike a parser which might emulate the psychology of the human reader, both versions of EYEBALL have worked within the technical limits of readily available, inexpensive hardware and software. The aim of the project is not to develop a computer program which teaches or learns English grammar. Our goal is to get to an accurately tagged text with the least time and effort on the researcher's part. We have decided upon straightforward syntactic and structural descriptions since a more elaborate system would produce descriptive classes too small for the sample size we recommend. (Ross and Hunter 3)
In their view, EYEBALL enabled researchers to quickly and easy test hypotheses about relationships within texts (Ross and Hunter 10).
TAPoR v.2.5 | Copyright © 2014 TAPoR Team, University of Alberta. | <urn:uuid:d2e4cebe-0e80-4529-a8fa-ad712b21bed6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://tapor.ca/?id=207 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00006-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919677 | 1,092 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), one of the leading British sculptors of the twentieth century, was born in America, the son of Polish Jewish immigrants who ran a successful business on the lower East side of New York. He spent the formative years of his childhood drawing the exotic, down-at-heels crowds which gathered from all over the world in the city’s poorer districts. Throughout his life, he remained fascinated by the variety of human races and traditions, looking to distant countries for his artistic inspiration.
In 1902, he moved to Paris, then the world capital of art, to study at the city’s famous art schools. Yet in 1905, a trip to the British Museum in London, with its treasure trove of art from all parts of the globe, persuaded him to settle in Britain. The country became his home. In 1911, he acquired British citizenship. His two wives and five children were British, and in 1954 he was knighted, the ultimate honour reserved for British subjects. However, an aura of foreignness always surrounded Epstein and his work, exposing him to zenophobic suspicion. He was ever an outsider, always, as one critic called him, ‘a sculptor in revolt’.
For much of his career, Epstein worked alone, avoiding artistic coteries. Yet briefly, before the First World War (1914-18), he drew close to other young sculptors who shared his fascination with non-European art. Together with artists such as Eric Gill and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, he worked to revitalise the tradition of British sculpture, correcting what they perceived as its weaknesses. They promoted the practice of ‘direct carving’, whereby the sculptor works out his ideas directly in stone, instead of copying a clay model. This practice, they believed, respects the nature of the material in hand. Rather than carving the rock into a life-like form, they created forms responsive to its shape and grain. The many photographs in the Courtauld collection of Epstein at work, such as Maternity (1910), or of sculpture in progress in his studio, such as Night (1928-29), emphasise the direct relationship between the artist and his material.
Epstein eventually dissociated himself from avant-garde groups, partly because he drew back from the abstract experiments which dominated twentieth-century art. For him, the human subject was central. The modelling of realistic portraits in clay (for instance his Self-Portrait of 1920) was always an important part of his work, running parallel with his non-naturalistic stone carving. His interpretation of humanity, however, was never conventional, and earned him enemies. Critics accused him of creating figures which were deliberately ugly, deformed and obscene, demeaning the themes of motherhood, commemoration and religious suffering which characterised his greatest work. He retorted that everything is beautiful, and that moreover his purpose was to express emotions beyond beauty. The question of what is beautiful, and to what extent artists should restrict themselves to beautiful subjects, made Epstein a target for tabloid scandal all his life, and remains controversial to this day.
The caricature of Epstein as iconoclast, wreaking havoc on traditional art, scarcely fits his own explanation of his work. Repeatedly, he asserted his enormous respect for tradition. Only, his definition of tradition departed from the norm, in that he rejected the development of European art since the Renaissance. In works such as Primaeval Gods (1931-33), he looked instead to the ancient, non-Western cultures of Egypt, archaic Greece, China, Africa and Oceania. Again, his childhood awareness of the wealth of nationalities made itself felt. Epstein believed in universal aesthetic values, consistent across time and space. In the early twenty-first century, when many people are acutely aware of cultural differences, his panoramic vision seems curiously ahistorical. Yet his monolithic concept of an international tradition is more appealing than the other monoliths - imperialism, aggressive nationalism, communism, fascism - that sent waves of destruction across the world during his life.
After his death, the sculptor Henry Moore paid tribute to Epstein’s courage as a pioneering artist who bore the brunt of critical derision. His repeated exposure to controversy made it far easier for other sculptors, such as Moore, to follow in his wake. However, Epstein was not primarily a sensationalist. As the images displayed on this web-site demonstrate, his art is still capable of provoking a powerful emotional and intellectual response beyond the shock of its first exhibition. | <urn:uuid:555ae62a-46f7-45b6-a017-6ef1504a178c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/insight/brockington_epstein/brockington_epstein01.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394937.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00076-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98142 | 939 | 2.75 | 3 |
Era: 251-65.5 Million Years Ago
Cretaceous Period: 145.5-65.5 MYA
Idaho, Utah & Wyoming
a tree fern genus represented by permineralized false trunks.
The genus is an important index fossil for the Cretaceous. Click
word Tempskya for
a printable version of our article.
Chippy Creek, Idaho
7.5 cm x 6 cm x 0.8 cm thick
Tempskyaceae are an extinct family of Mesozoic ferns represented
by the single genus Tempskya (Tidwell, 2002,
Tempskya occurs as the
silicified false trunk of a Cretaceous aged tree fern. Tempskya is
referred to as a false trunk because internally it is composed
numerous small branching stems and petioles embedded
in a mat of adventitious
roots (Brown, 1936, p. 48). The ropelike mass of the false trunk
is often club-shaped, straight or conical when found
intact. The mass
of intertwined roots gives the exterior a rope or cable-like appearance,
see Figure 1. The flattened conical shape of the Tempskya specimen
in Figure 1 is referred to as a “Cardinal’s Cap” by
collectors and may represent the apex of a false trunk.
1: Tempskya “Cardinal’s Cap” or
Apex of False Trunk.
Dakota Sandstone Formation, Cretaceous. Utah.
species of Cretaceous aged Tempskya have been reported from North
America, eight or possibly ten from Europe, one
from Japan, one
from Argentina, and one from Australia (Tidwell & Wright, 2003, pp
141-143; Clifford & Dettmann, 2005, p. 71). Tempskya species are
defined primarily by differences in the arrangement and makeup of tissues
within the stems of the false trunks. The purpose of this paper is to
help collectors explore the general anatomy of the Tempskya false trunk
in transverse section.
False trunks of some Tempskya species reach diameters
of 30 centimeters and lengths of 3 meters (Tidwell, 1998, p. 190).
Thus, evidence suggests
that Tempskya was a short to medium height tree fern (Andrews,
1943, p. 136; Andrews & Kerns, 1947, p. 155). Internally, the
trunks are composed of stems, petioles and roots. Figure 2 represents
Tempskya false trunk cut in the transverse plane. The stems
making up the false trunk appear as circular or lobe-shaped structures
roughly 1 cm in diameter. The roots are mostly circular and measure
around 1 mm in diameter. Figure 3 gives us a closer look at the stems,
leaf traces or petioles and roots.
2: Tempskya. Lower Cretaceous, Wyoming.
Specimen 24.5 cm x 17
3: Tempskya. Close-up Showing Stems,
Leaf Traces or Petioles
transverse sections of varying sized false trunks have been used
to determine the supposed mode of growth for Tempskya as
well as examination of in situ specimens, those found in
growth position (Seward, 1924, pp. 489-491; Andrews & Kern, 1947,
pp. 134-138; Tidwell & Hebbert, 1992, p. 528). The base of in
exhibit three to nine lobes each containing a stem. Thus, several
stems initiated the growth of the tree fern and branched dichotomously
in a uniform profuse manner throughout life, producing both the
apical and lateral growth of the false trunk. Roots, emerging from
the sides of stems, branched profusely filling in voids, tying
the mass of stems together forming the false trunk. Roots, greatly
outnumbering the stems provided the structural support for the
false trunk. Stems produced leaf traces or petioles frequently.
Petioles of leaves, small in size, are close to their point of
origin on stems indicating small leaves that persisted for only
a short time. The false trunks of Tempskya tapered from
base to apex. Unlike other tree ferns Tempskya was not
crowned with large leaves; rather, leaves at the apex were small
in size. The false
trunk also bore small leaves for a considerable distance downward
from the apex (Andrews & Kern, 1947, p. 129).
Roots growing down ruptured stems and petioles. Upper portions of
stems continued to be nourished by emerging adventitious roots. Consequently,
transverse sections near the base of the false trunk have few stems
and many roots while transverse sections towards the apex of the false
trunk have many stems embedded among the roots, see Figures 5 and 6.
4: Tempskya. Lower Cretaceous.
Greenhorn Mountain, Oregon.
Specimen 12 cm. Image courtesy of Frank Daniels
specimen pictured in Figure 4 exhibits many stems embedded among numerous
roots and most likely represents
a transverse section higher
up on the false trunk (Daniels, 2009, p. 153). The specimen pictured
in Figure 5 has very few stems embedded among the adventitious roots,
which indicates it came from the base of the trunk. In general, there
is an increase in the number of stems from base to apex on the false
trunks of most Tempskya species. T. minor from Utah
seems to be different from other Tempskya species in that specimens
possess very few stems throughout the length of the false trunk (Tidwell & Hebbert,
Figure 5: Tempskya. Lower Cretaceous.
Greenhorn Mountain, Oregon.
Specimen 12 cm.
You can explore and learn the general anatomy of the stems and roots
with a loupe or dissecting microscope. A 10x loupe can be used to differentiate
stems, petioles and roots; however, a 20x loupe or dissecting microscope
with 30x or 40x allows one to study the tissues that make up these organs.
Most of the roots and stems of Tempskya grow in parallel indicating an
upright structure. The stems are larger than the roots. Depending on
the species, stems may have a diameter of 2.5 mm to 1.5 cm. Roots are
generally 1 mm in diameter or less. Roots are often circular in transverse
section while stems are circular or lobed. The circular stem pictured
in figure 6 is viewed at 30x.
6: Tempskya Circular Stem at 30x.
Stem measures 4 mm in diameter
or lobes on stems represent the formation of leaf traces or petioles.
In Figure 7 an outgrowth of
the stem represents the early
stages of leaf trace formation. Tissue from the stem will form the new
leaf trace. Figure 8 shows a leaf trace that has formed. The water conducting
tissue (xylem) of the leaf trace or petiole forms a characteristic horseshoe
or c-shape when viewed in cross-section. In many species the stem forms
a second petiole, see Figure 9. In Figure 9 we can see that the c-shaped
xylem in the petiole was derived from a portion of the ring-shaped xylem
in the stem. Once the leaf trace has formed the stem’s xylem will
once again form a ring-shape. Many of the petioles are formed oriented
to the outside of the stem. In many false trunks that are found complete
it has been observed that stem branching is numerous, and that the trunk
is radially symmetrical with respect to the departure of leaf traces
(Andrews & Kern, 1947, p. 126). Some specimens exhibit dorsiventral
symmetry with respect to leaf traces. Some have suggested that such specimens
represent false trunks that grew horizontal along the ground before growing
upright, while others believe these specimens are just partial false
trunks that were in fact radial in symmetry when complete (Tidwell & Hebbert,
1992, p. 524).
Figure 7: Tempskya Stem Forming Leaf Trace at 40x
Figure 8: Tempskya Stem
and Newly formed Petiole at 20x. Stem & petiole
9: Tempskya Stem Forming Second Petiole.
Idaho specimen pictured in Figure 10 possesses stems that measure 3 mm
and roots that measure 1 mm or less in diameter. A second leaf trace
is in the process of forming. Roots surround the stem and leaf traces.
Using a loupe or dissecting microscope one can learn to identify tissues
that make up the stems, petioles and roots of the false trunk.
Figure 10: Tempskya Stem,
Leaf Traces & Roots.
consist of a pith centered in a ring of xylem tissue (water conducting
tissue) surrounded inside and out by phloem
tissue). Cortex tissue surrounds the pith, xylem and phloem. The stem
pictured in Figure 11 measures 6 mm in diameter, while the roots measure
1 mm or less. Two leaf traces have formed and the xylem in the stem is
once again forming a ring-shape. The characteristic c-shaped xylem strands
of the leaf traces or petioles are clearly visible in this Wyoming specimen.
Figure 11: Tempskya Stem,
Leaf & Root Traces.
In cross section the xylem in Tempskya roots forms a cross.
Phloem surrounds the primary xylem filling in the remaining area at the
of the root. Cortex tissue surrounds the vascular tissue of the root,
see Figure 12. It is the cortex of the roots, which provides most of
the structural support for the false trunk. In fact the cable-like structure
of the Tempskya false trunk was composed mostly of roots. Figure
12 is the same large root trace pointed to in the picture above. As mentioned
earlier the transverse sections taken close to the base of the false
trunk may be composed entirely of roots. Stems lower in the plant were
ruptured by invading roots growing downwards. Disintegrated stems were
replaced by roots. Figure 13 shows a root growing through a stem. The
root with the characteristic cross-shaped xylem can be seen below and
adjacent to the pith of a stem. The pith of the stem has a somewhat pear
shape as it was in the process of forming a leaf trace.
Figure 12: Tempskya Root at 40x.
Root Measures 1.2 mm in Diameter
Figure 13: Tempskya Root Grows Through Stem.
Specimen from Idaho.
Galleries filled with fecal pellets in roots, stems and leaves provide evidence
of at least three different kinds of insects feeding on various Tempskya species
(Tidwell & Hebbert, 1992, pp. 521 & 524; Tidwell, 2002, pp. 154-157).
Fecal pellets of an unidentified insect can be seen in the roots of an Idaho
specimen, see Figure 14.
Figure 14: Fecal Pellets in Tempskya Roots at 40x.
resembling mycorrhizal fungi have been found associated with the roots
of some Tempskya specimens
possibly revealing a symbiotic relationship
(Tidwell & Hebbert, 1992, p. 524). Andrews and Kerns (1947) reported
that Tempskya fossils in Idaho and Wyoming are associated with cycadeoids,
conifers, angiosperm dicots, dinosaur bones, and possibly tropical ferns.
They picture a tropical habitat for Tempskya. Andrews and Kerns also
point out that although the leaves of Tempskya were small, large numbers
were distributed over a considerable portion of the false trunk possibly
making it ideal for browsers.
Tempskya fossils are found reworked in younger gravels or reworked
within the formations in which they were preserved. The only in situ Tempskya specimens are found in an upright growth position embedded
in undisturbed carbonaceous shale southeast of Castle Dale, Utah
(Tidwell & Hebbert,
1992, p. 525). The carbonaceous shale suggests Tempskya grew in swamps
on flood plains, similar to the Mississippi Delta or the Florida
Everglades. T. judithae described from Australia is associated with
and angiosperms. The depositional environment represents the broad
alluvial plain of a riverine/lacustrine system. Clifford and Dettmann
(2005) postulate a flood plain habitat with mild temperatures and
periodically moderate to high precipitation (p. 83).
Isolated spores and several sporangial remains have been found associated
with Tempskya but none with definite attachment to the plant (Taylor,
Taylor & Krings, 2009, p. 459). Transverse sections of leaves
have been reported associated with T. wyomingense (Tidwell & Hebbert,
1992, p. 521). The restoration of the probable habit of Tempskya by Andrews and Kern uses Anemia type foliage (Andrews & Kern,
1947, pp. 139 & 140). Interestingly, fronds of Anemia fremontii have been collected as compressions in the coalified sediments around
the base of in situ Tempskya false trunks (Tidwell & Hebbert,
p. 516). Discovery of complete Tempskya leaf structures and fertile
remains attached to the false trunk would be both exciting and
The false trunk of the tree
fern Tempskya is intriguing with its intertwined
rope or cable-like structure of roots, stems and petioles. The extensive
distribution of Tempskya in the Northern Hemisphere and
its discovery in the Southern Hemisphere provide evidence of its
One can imagine the highly evolved herbivorous dinosaurs of the Cretaceous
seeking out the foliage growing along the false trunks of Tempskya.
The profuse branching of stems and roots as well as the frequent formation
of leaf traces, frozen in time by silica, provides dynamic evidence
of ancient growth in most Tempskya specimens. For collectors, knowledge
of Tempskya anatomy may provide insight into specimens within their
collection. What part of the false trunk does the specimen represent?
Is there evidence of insect feeding? Can one identify a stem or root
dividing, petioles forming or roots invading stems? Permineralized
specimens with excellent cellular preservation can provide a snapshot
of ancient plant growth. Imagination fueled by empirical evidence;
a true joy of science.
wish to thank Jim Mills for sharing his in-depth knowledge of Tempskya and
his feedback on earlier versions of this article. I would also
like to thank Frank Daniels for his generosity in sharing his excellent
photograph of the Tempskya specimen from Oregon (figure 4
in this article, figure 5 in the pdf version). Finally, I would like
to thank my son Thomas Viney for his editing expertise.
Andrews, H.N. (1943). Notes on the Genus Tempskya. American
Vol. 29, No. 1 pp. 133-136.
H.N & Kern, E.M. (1947). The Idaho Tempskyas and Associated
Fossil Plants. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 34, pp.
Brown, R.W. (1936). Field identification of the fossil ferns called
Tempskya. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences Vol. 2, No
2, pp. 45-52.
Clifford, T.H. & Dettmann, M.E. (2005). First record from Australia
of the Cretaceous fern genus Tempskya and the description of a new
species, T. judithae. Review of Palaeobotany & Palynology.
134, pp. 71-84.
Daniels, F.J. and Dayvault, R.D. (2006). Ancient Forests:
A Closer Look at Fossil Wood. Western Colorado Publishing Company: Canada.
Seward, A.C. (1924). On a New Species of Tempskya from Montana:
Tempskya Knowltoni, sp. nov. Annals of Botany Vol. 38, pp. 485-507.
Taylor, T.N., Taylor E.L. & Krings,
M. (2009). Paleobotany: The Biology and Evolution of Fossil
Plants [2nd Ed]. New York:
Tidwell, W.D. & Hebbert,
N., (1992). Species of the Cretaceous tree fern Tempskya from
Utah. International Journal of Plant Science.
153, pp. 513-528.
Tidwell, W.D. (1998). Common
Fossil Plants of Western North America.
[2nd Edition]. Smithsonian Institution Press: Washington, pp. 214-215.
W.D. (2002). Tempskya-a Unique Fern from the Cretaceous. In Dernbach,
U. & Tidwell, W.D. Secrets of Petrified Plants:
Fascination from Millions of Years (pp. 153-159). Germany: D’ORO | <urn:uuid:9e5f90c4-265c-4f55-8405-262a387f8c5f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://petrifiedwoodmuseum.org/CretaceousIdahoUtahWyoming.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397562.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00179-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.850832 | 3,815 | 3.390625 | 3 |
There is an increased demand for restoration of anterior teeth based on esthetic requirements. Oftentimes, the teeth restored are compromised and have minimal remaining dentin after undergoing root canal treatment. Reduction of nonaxial forces by controlling incisal guidance is essential in improving the long-term prognosis of such situations. Another common complication when crowning anterior teeth is the lack of palatal space for restorative material. This is often evident in patients with anterior tooth wear and deep overbite. This article describes the Dahl principle, a conservative method for controlling incisal guidance and gaining palatal space for restorative material. A case presentation is used to illustrate the concepts discussed.
(Quintessence Int 2006;37:245–251)
Key words: anterior teeth, biomechanical forces, Dahl principle, incisal guidance | <urn:uuid:0e72fc9b-cead-490f-998c-c1512b864c21> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.quintpub.com/journals/qi/abstract.php?iss2_id=192&article_id=2192&article=2&title=The%20Dahl%20principle:%20Creating%20space%20and%20improving%20the%20biomechanical%20prognosis%20of%20anterior%20crowns | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393332.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00010-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.845409 | 166 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Watching the Oscar-winning global-warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth, I was struck by the similarities between climate change and education change. These seemingly unrelated crises on our planet and in our schools are, in fact, connected.
Both have taken many decades to develop and, at least in the United States, both originated in an industrial economy built on manufacturing. The effects of global warming and school decline are difficult to detect year to year, but over several generations, their impacts accumulate -- and are now converging to limit the future health of our economy and our society.
To reverse these declines, similar fundamental shifts in thinking and behavior will be required at the individual, institutional, and societal levels. Consuming less, recycling more, and the ethic of caring for the environment should begin with our youngest children, as modeled by their parents, teachers, and caregivers. It's the same with literacy, curiosity, and a love of learning. Just as green technologies can make energy consumption more efficient, learning technologies can play a key role in modernizing the learning process.
Many nations are moving to combat global climate change and toward changing their own educational climate. Though we don't have the educational equivalent of the Kyoto Protocol, the need to redesign educational systems is reaching a consensus among ministers of education around the world.
Odd, but perhaps familiar, is our own government's lack of urgency to effect fundamental changes despite widespread recognition that we are mortgaging our future. John Gage, director of the science office at Sun Microsystems and a former member of GLEF's National Advisory Board, has spoken with education leaders from many nations. "Other nations view spending on education as an investment," he says. "We view it as a cost."
Our complacency about the scale of the problem could prove costly indeed. Last week, I had a chance to hear Al Gore speak in San Francisco with John McCosker, the eminent marine biologist at the California Academy of Sciences. McCosker asked Gore how long we have to make the fundamental changes needed to reverse carbon emissions. Gore quoted some scientists' estimates of about ten years. We may be facing the same time frame to make radical changes in our school systems. Can we afford to let today's eight-year-olds go through ten more years of schooling without giving them the skills they need to make a life and a living in the twenty-first century?
In the same talk, Gore called for a new educational model that recognizes the unique digital era our children are growing up in and, especially, the potential of the Internet for their learning. He worried, though, that our nation seems distracted from the serious issues of our time, as citizens spend an average of four and a half hours each day watching television and being more obsessed with, as Gore puts it, "the embalming of Anna Nicole Smith."
Gore framed our inability to base our thinking and decision making on reason and evidence, rather than power, as a key issue. When a sixth grader submitted the question "What can we do?" Gore responded that students like that child "should learn as much as you can" about environmental issues and not be deterred by adults who may be in denial.
Sir Ken Robinson, the noted arts educator and the author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative, has also connected Gore's ideas to the future of schools. Gore and Robinson both spoke at the 2005 TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) Conference, in Monterey, California, and in a marvelous presentation on valuing the arts as ways of knowing and learning, Robinson said, "Al Gore spoke the other night about ecology and the revolution that was triggered by Rachel Carson. I believe our only hope for the future is to adopt a new conception of human ecology, one in which we start to reconstitute our conception of the richness of human capacity.
"Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we strip-mine the Earth for a particular commodity and for the future," he added. "It won't serve us. We have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we are educating our children."
In order to save the planet, we first need to save our children's minds. That truth is more than inconvenient. It's incontrovertible.
Please share your comments.
Milton Chen is executive director of The George Lucas Educational Foundation. | <urn:uuid:2c1bd7be-d49d-4d3a-a978-673dc2e04b53> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.edutopia.org/inconvenient-truth-about-education?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402479.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00106-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964327 | 896 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Gene Mutation Immortalizes Malignant Melanoma
Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center and from University Duisburg-Essen have discovered a previously unknown genetic cause of malignant melanoma: a gene mutation that leads to overactive telomerase, the so-called ‘immortality enzyme’. The mutated gene region found in familial melanoma is also altered in up to 74 percent of non-inherited cases of melanoma - here as a consequence of sun exposure. Substances inhibiting telomerase may be a novel therapeutic approach for treating malignant melanoma. The researchers have published their findings in Science.
About ten percent of all cases of malignant melanoma are familial cases. The genome of affected families tells scientists a lot about how the disease develops. Prof. Dr. Rajiv Kumar of the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) together with Prof. Dr. Dirk Schadendorf from Essen University Hospital studied a family where 14 family members were affected by malignant melanoma.
The scientists analyzed the genomes of family members and found an identical mutation in the gene for telomerase, an enzyme often called ‘immortality enzyme’, in all persons studied. Telomerase protects the ends of chromosomes from being lost in the process of cell division and, thus, prevents that the cell ages and dies. The inherited gene mutation leads to the formation of a binding site for protein factors in the controlling region of the telomerase gene, causing it to become overactive. As a result, mutated cells overproduce telomerase and hence become virtually immortal.
This spectacular finding of the family analysis prompted the scientists to also look for mutated telomerase genes in non-inherited (sporadic) melanoma, which is much more common than the familial variant. In most of the tissue samples of melanomas of all stages they found alterations in the telomerase gene switch, which the researchers clearly identified as typical consequences of sun exposure. Even though these mutations were not identical to those found in the melanoma family, they had the same effect: overactive telomerase.
“We don’t believe that the telomerase gene in melanoma is mutated by pure chance, but that it is a so-called driver mutation that drives carcinogenesis,” says Rajiv Kumar. This is also confirmed by the surprising incidence of this alteration: The telomerase gene is the most frequently mutated gene in melanoma. “This is something we hadn’t expected, because malignant melanoma has been genetically analyzed thoroughly. But this mutation always seems to have been overlooked,” says Kumar.
Rajiv Kumar, Dirk Schadendorf and their teams are hoping that the alterations in the telomerase gene may be a starting point for developing novel treatment methods for malignant melanoma. A very recent development targeting a specific alteration in the B-RAF gene, which characterizes about half of all melanomas, has shown that this is possible. The mutation gave rise to the development of a targeted drug that can arrest cancer growth. “Substances inhibiting telomerase have already been developed and some of them have even been tested in phase III clinical trials,” said Rajiv Kumar. Inhibition of the immortality enzyme might also be able to arrest growth in melanoma.
Susanne Horn, Adina Figl, P. Sivaramakrishna Rachakonda, Christine Fischer, Antje Sucker, Andreas Gast, Stephanie Kadel, Iris Moll, Eduardo Nagore, Kari Hemminki, Dirk Schadendorf and Rajiv Kumar: TERT Promoter Mutations in Familial and Sporadic Melanoma. Science 2013
The German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) with its more than 3,000 employees is the largest biomedical research institute in Germany. At DKFZ, more than 1,000 scientists investigate how cancer develops, identify cancer risk factors and endeavor to find new strategies to prevent people from getting cancer. They develop novel approaches to make tumor diagnosis more precise and treatment of cancer patients more successful. The staff of the Cancer Information Service (KID) offers information about the widespread disease of cancer for patients, their families, and the general public. Jointly with Heidelberg University Hospital, DKFZ has established the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg, where promising approaches from cancer research are translated into the clinic. In the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK), one of six German Centers for Health Research, DKFZ maintains translational centers at seven university partnering sites. Combining excellent university hospitals with high-profile research at a Helmholtz Center is an important contribution to improving the chances of cancer patients. DKFZ is a member of the Helmholtz Association of National Research Centers, with ninety percent of its funding coming from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the remaining ten percent from the State of Baden-Württemberg. | <urn:uuid:cba6e327-98a1-4e7c-8f9f-0ef2289ec16d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dkfz.de/en/presse/pressemitteilungen/2013/dkfz-pm-13-06-Gene-Mutation-Immortalizes-Malignant-Melanoma.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00038-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927838 | 1,068 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Sep 12, 2013 • Large underground water reserves have been found in Turkana, one of Kenya’s driest and poorest regions. The discoveries were made by the natural resources exploration firm, Radar Technologies International, during the course of a survey of groundwater conducted for the Kenyan Government on behalf of the UN. The aquifers were detected with the WATEX System, RTI’s state-of-the-art, space-based exploration technology.Both shallow and deep aquifers were surveyed across northern and central Turkana County in an effort to identify supplies to combat drought and water scarcity for the 2 million people living in the region.
Overall, the RTI study found that Turkana hosts a minimum reserve of 250 billion cubic meters of water, which is recharged mainly by the rainfalls of the Kenyan and Ugandan highlands at a rate of 3.4 billion cubic meters per year. This new wealth of water could boost Kenya’s share of available water by 17% and alone represents nearly double the amount of water that Kenyans consume today. This groundwater raises the prospect for improving the livelihoods of the Turkana people, most of whom live in poverty and have limited access to basic services and clean water.
Two major aquifers have been recorded and proven by drilling. The large Lotikipi Basin Aquifer is estimated to store 207 billion cubic meters of water, the same volume of the nearby Lake Turkana. About the size of the US state of Rhode Island, the aquifer replenishes at a rate of 1.2 billion cubic meters a year. This paleo lake could be part of the “Land of Marvels”, the ancient sources of the Nile that were explored by Queen Hatshepsut some 3,500 years ago.
The Lodwar Basin Aquifer, is situated within a short distance of Lodwar town and Turkana’s oil reserves. It is fed by the perennial Turkwel River and has an estimated reserve of 10 billion cubic meters. RTI recorded three other large structures – Gatome, Kachoda and Nakalale – which could prove to store an combined 30 billion cubic meters once confirmed by drilling.
In addition to deep reserves, RTI also mapped 2 billion cubic meters of water passing only a few meters under the ground and easy to reach, significantly raising the prospect for local agriculture activities.
Looking ahead, RTI has recommended that all measures be taken to ensure the sustainability and viability of these newly discovered resources. RTI’s work also establishes a new basis upon which future investigations and mapping in Kenya can be based.
The WATEX System detects water with its unique method of processing and interpreting remote sensing, oil industry and conventional data. The WATEX maps have a 6.25-meter surface accuracy and have been proven to locate underground water with over 94% certainty in many areas. Known for its rapid and large-scale mapping capabilities, the WATEX has been utilized in a number of countries to find water for international aid agencies and foreign governments, most recently in Ethiopia, Angola, Chad, Darfur and Afghanistan. During the Darfur Crisis, RTI used the WATEX to find water for thousands of Sudanese refugees. Its partners have used WATEX groundwater maps to drill over 1,500 wells to help alleviate the crisis in Darfur. Today in Turkana, the maps are already being used to supply water to refugees in Kakuma.
Source: Radar Technologies International
Note: Landsat often provides the optical satellite imagery for RTI’s WATEX mapping system; WATEX combines optical information with radar, climate, and seismic data to locate potential water sources. Details (from a 2005 report by Firoz Verjee for The George Washington University’s Institute for Crisis, Disaster & Risk Management): “RTI’s technique involve[s] merging information from several satellites such as multi-spectral optical imagery from Landsat-7, C-band and L-band radar imagery. In order to orthorectify the imagery for terrain distortion and Earth curvature, a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) derived from NASA’s Space Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) was used to spatially-correct the images so that they could be used together with other data. Landsat was used to develop a basic understanding of the vegetation and surface water conditions of the region, and to map basic geology. Radar C band was then used to map surface and near-surface topography, including geological structures such as faults, dikes, and dry riverbeds (known as wadis) that often indicate water potential.Then L Band radar imagery, which has the ability to penetrate the desert sand even deeper than C band thanks to its longer microwave signal wavelength, was used to map sub-surface water structures. The technique to create water potential maps in the region was based upon that employed for oil, gas and mineral exploration. According to Dr. Alain Gachet of RTI, ‘the optical imagery shows you the surface; C band sees to a depth of about 50 cm down, and L band goes down to a maximum 20 metres, so with them all together you obtain a kind of cross-sectional model of the landscape.'”
+ Kenya water discovery brings hope for drought relief in rural north, The Guardian
+ Kenya aquifers discovered in dry Turkana region, BBC
+ Groundwater reserves in Northern Kenya, UNESCO/YouTube
+ Kenya discovers vast aquifers in drought-hit north, Reuters
+ Huge aquifers are discovered in North Kenya, New York Times
+ The Application of Geomatics in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies, George Washington University (PDF) | <urn:uuid:982ec43d-2abc-454f-886f-a52ae985b537> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/?p=6404 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00139-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940332 | 1,178 | 3.21875 | 3 |
These pieces originally appeared as a weekly column entitled “Lessons” in The New York Times between 1999 and 2003.
[ THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN THE NEW YORK TIMES ON JULY 3, 2002]
Failed schools? The meaning is unclear
The Supreme Court ruled last week, in a case involving Cleveland schools, that public money in the form of vouchers could subsidize the tuition of students who choose to attend religious schools. It was only partly a legal judgment that such aid does not violate the separation of church and state. What propelled the court was also a policy conclusion that vouchers may be a way to rescue children from failing public schools.
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist said that his majority ruling was “not an endorsement of religious schooling,” but only a means “to assist poor children in failed schools.” Justice David H. Souter, in dissent, acknowledged that if ever there was reason to support religious schools, Cleveland’s failed public schools would provide it.
But nobody really knows how to identify failing schools, the justices included. Policy makers have been so anxious to punish school failure that they have worried too little about defining what failure is.
Typically, a failing school is deemed one with low scores. By this measure, Cleveland schools do fail, prompting parents to seek radical alternatives.
But while low scores can result from failed schools, they can also have other causes. Poor performance can also result from parents who do not read to young children or otherwise support learning at home. It can result from inadequate exposure to art and music. It can result from insecurity bred of violent surroundings, from emotional stress in broken families or from parents suffering severe economic hardship. In combination, these factors almost ensure failure.
How can policy makers distinguish schools that fail because of low expectations, poor teaching and disorderly classrooms from those that seem to fail because of social and economic pressure?
Cleveland vouchers highlight the problem. The State of Ohio commissioned studies to evaluate the program. If Cleveland schools were truly failing, then public school students who used vouchers at successful private schools should have higher scores than comparable students remaining in public schools.
But if voucher students did as poorly as comparable public school students, then Cleveland’s public school “failure” is likely attributable less to what public schools do than to obstacles all schools, public and private, face in educating disadvantaged children.
The studies were conducted by Kim K. Metcalf of Indiana University, and reviewed by outside experts, including supporters and opponents of vouchers.
In his most recent report, Dr. Metcalf compared students who got vouchers with public school students who wanted vouchers but did not get them because there were too few to go around. The two groups had no significant differences in scores.
When voucher students were compared with public school students who did not apply for vouchers, voucher students did better in language arts (like grammar) but not in math or other reading skills. The voucher students’ language scores were only slightly higher.
Susan Tave Zelman, Ohio’s superintendent of public instruction, concluded: “We don’t see anything one way or another from these studies on the academic results of vouchers. The lack of dramatic results is neither a negative nor positive judgment on the program.”
Meanwhile, state test data show how complex definitions of failure can be. Cleveland, where 80 percent of students are from low-income families, certainly seems to be failing; most students are not proficient in most subjects.
Like many other urban areas, Cleveland is surrounded by suburbs with growing minority populations. Most people would think that these districts succeed because their overall scores are still above standard. But minority students’ average scores are much lower, and the gap between white and black students in these “successful” districts is comparable to the gap in “failing” Cleveland schools.
Ohio permits Cleveland students to transfer not only to private schools, but also to public schools in these suburbs. But no suburb would take any Cleveland students. Officials at suburban schools that already had some poor students recognized that if they added too many more, their schools could be termed “failing” even if instruction remained adequate.
Of course, many Cleveland schools may fail because they do not rise to the challenge of educating disadvantaged students. Others may be more successful, although their test scores are still low. Roman Catholic schools in Cleveland, which accept most of the voucher students, may be in either category. We simply can’t tell them apart because scores are low in both cases.
When Supreme Court justices thought they found a way for urban students to escape failing schools, they ventured into an area beyond their judicial expertise. They should not be blamed. The expertise is pretty scarce, no matter where you look. | <urn:uuid:5a8fa132-0197-4b72-981d-ee13a944f366> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.epi.org/publication/webfeat_lessons20020703/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403825.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00157-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973893 | 985 | 2.953125 | 3 |
President Obama’s recently announced fuel-efficiency standards for heavy trucks will help such vehicles go farther on less fuel and further curb carbon pollution from America’s transportation sector, the largest source of carbon pollution after power plants. On February 18, President Obama directed the Environmental Protection Agency and the DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to develop and issue the next phase of medium- and heavy-duty vehicle fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards by March 2016. Under this timeline, the agencies are expected to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking by March 2015. This round of fuel efficiency standards will continue to shape the first-ever standards for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (model years 2014 through 2018 and will save vehicle owners and operators an estimated $50 billion in fuel costs and save a projected 530 million barrels of oil. For example, an operator of a new 2018 semi truck could pay for the technology upgrades in under a year and realize a net savings of $73,000 through reduced fuel costs over the truck’s useful life.
Increasing the efficiency of medium-and heavy-duty vehicles is a key factor of the President’s Climate Action Plan to reduce carbon emissions. Heavy-duty vehicles represent a major opportunity to cut transportation oil use and carbon contamination. In 2010, while heavy-duty vehicles represented just four percent of registered vehicles on the road in the United States, they accounted for roughly 25 percent of on-road fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector. They are the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions within the transportation sector (passenger cars and light trucks remain the largest source).
Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), responded saying, “The president’s initiative is an important step driving America toward a cleaner energy future. Strong heavy truck efficiency standards will not only cut carbon pollution that fuels climate change, but also save consumers money every time they go to a store and save truckers money at the pump. Just as clean car standards are revitalizing the American auto industry, which added more than 370,000 jobs, setting the bar higher for trucks will further encourage innovation in the industry. This is a win-win for the environment and the economy.”
The NRDC is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 1.4 million members and online activists. Since 1970, their lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world's natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, and Beijing. | <urn:uuid:1372d7ba-ac3a-4c0f-befa-e0f20f4ecc59> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.examiner.com/article/nrdc-responds-to-president-s-fuel-efficiency-standards?cid=rss | 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 | 0.937624 | 542 | 3.171875 | 3 |
E. Cobham Brewer 18101897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
The hero of the famous Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, by Lemuel Gulliver, first a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships, i.e. to Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the Houyhnhnms (Whin-nims), written by Dr. Swift, Dean of St. Patricks, Ireland. | <urn:uuid:7c472490-bfce-4f7d-bbf0-8d6124c84e53> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bartleby.com/81/7752.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00007-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.868033 | 103 | 2.734375 | 3 |
By this time of year, many peoples’ best-laid New Year’s Resolutions have died, just seven short weeks after they were born. One reason why it’s difficult to lose weight—the most common resolution—is that dieting is so confusing.
For instance, the American Heart Association's recommended diet is one of the most effective food plans out there. It’s also one of the most complicated. It requires, according to a recent study, “consuming vegetables and fruits; eating whole grains and high-fiber foods; eating fish twice weekly; consuming lean animal and vegetable proteins; reducing intake of sugary beverages; minimizing sugar and sodium intake; and maintaining moderate to no alcohol intake.” On top of that, adherents should derive half of their calories from carbs, a fifth from protein, and the rest from fat—except just 7 percent should be saturated fat. (Perhaps the goal is to keep people busy doing long division so they don't have time to eat food.)
It’s a lot to remember, and nutritional information is already notoriously contradictory. So rather than put people on a complex diet, a group of researchers recently decided to test whether they could still get people to lose weight and boost their heart health by telling them to do just one thing: Eat more fiber.
Researchers found 240 participants and divided them into two groups. One group was instructed to eat the American Heart Association, or AHA, diet, including shaving 500 to 1,000 calories off of their normal food intake. The other was simply told to eat more fibrous foods. High-fiber foods include fruit, legumes, whole grains, and some vegetables. (It’s recommended that adults eat about 25 to 30 grams of fiber per day, but very few people do this.)
After a year, the more-fiber group had lost 2.1 kilograms, or about 4.6 pounds, according to results published recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The AHA group, which had been following a much more complicated eating regimen, lost just half a kilogram more, or six pounds. It was a pretty small difference, but the AHA group suffered greatly for it: They were cutting more than twice as many calories per day, around 400, as the fiber group had been. Fiber is also a part of the AHA diet, but the fiber group was eating about twice as much of it as the other participants. There was no difference in blood pressure or fasting glucose levels between the groups at the end of the experiment. In other words, the people killing themselves to meet a raft of rules did roughly as well as the people who were simply eating more beans and apples.
Changes in Weight and Insulin Levels Over Time
“A dietary intervention focusing on a targeted fiber goal may be able to achieve clinically meaningful weight loss similar to the widely applied, but more intense, AHA dietary guidelines,” the authors, who were from the University of Massachusetts and elsewhere, wrote. They think this might be because, as past studies have suggested, it’s easier to follow one dietary rule than it is to adhere to a whole new life plan.
This might seem like yet another dubious miracle cure of the sort peddled by TV doctors, but it’s really not. Most people eat only about half as much fiber as they should. Foods that are high in fiber tend to be filling and, as far as caloric impact goes, are more of a swan dive than a cannon ball. A handful of high-fiber carrots can produce a feeling of satiety, but they don’t cause as much waistline damage as the same number of KFC hot wings.
Of course people should strive to eat as overall healthfully as they can, or desire to. Americans have been steered wrong by one-note dietary guidelines before. Still, we are nonetheless always on the hunt for one simple trick for weight loss. Fiber isn’t necessarily one, but it’s a good place to start. | <urn:uuid:2c09cc2d-2c50-4ced-8643-e701d0c9c082> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/02/the-skinny-grain/385708/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398216.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00066-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978434 | 832 | 2.859375 | 3 |
A crippling heat wave and strong winds in southeastern Australia contributed to an outbreak of forest and grassland fires in Victoria in late January 2009. By January 30, about 5,500 hectares had burned and at least 10 homes had been destroyed, reported the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). The homes were located in a small community near the town of Boolara. Nearly surrounded by wildfire, the town had also run out of water and lost power, said ABC News.
This image from the MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite was captured on January 30. A large plume of smoke spreads southward from a fire (outlined in red) that appears to be burning in a small area of forest west of Churchill (a larger town near Boolara) in Victoria’s Gippsland region. The forest is dark green in contrast to the surrounding grass or cropland. The fire, says ABC News, started as two blazes in plantation forests in the Strzelecki Ranges. The large version of the scene shows a wider area that includes several other fires. | <urn:uuid:c6dd199d-27f0-497b-ae09-c317a0e61d8a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2009-02-08 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00184-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980537 | 220 | 3.328125 | 3 |
PSOPShort for Plastic Small Outline Package, it's a surface-mount memory packaging from Intel. key features of the PSOP include the following: JEDEC standard compliance, footprint and height 50 percent of DIP, two-side leaded for routing simplicity, 50 mil (1.27 mm) pitch for SMT simplicity and ease of use, gull wing formed leads, and it supports future flash density and feature growth. Intel's PSOP is JEDEC standard.
See also Small Outline Package.
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Network Topology refers to layout of a network. How different nodes in a network are connected to each other and how they communicate is... Read More » | <urn:uuid:d8098d96-221f-4494-b546-7ec61bfea0e1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/PSOP.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391634.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00177-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.849204 | 318 | 2.625 | 3 |
Engineers Test Rotor Landing for Capsules
A team of researchers brought a pair of scale model space capsules to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to try out a rotor system that could be used in place of parachutes on returning spacecraft.
The design would give a capsule the stability and control of a helicopter, but would not be powered. Instead, the wind passing over the rotors as the capsule descends would make the blades turn, a process called auto-rotation that has been proven repeatedly on helicopters but never tried on spacecraft.
"The purpose of the testing we're doing here is to study how to get the rotor starting to spin," said Jeff Hagen, an engineer at Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We're trying to build as much of that story as we can."
With team members spread out at different levels of the VAB, Jim Meehan stood at the 16th level of the cavernous VAB, about halfway up to where the two-pound model capsule hung on a line 480 feet above the concrete floor. Holding a helicopter radio-control unit, he remotely changed the rotors' pitch and slowed the fall four times as the unpowered craft landed on a stack of foam.
"It's like running four separate tests in one drop," said Meehan, an engineer at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
The intent is to give real spacecraft a soft landing with enough control that they could touch down anywhere in the world, whether it be a runway or the top of a building. In other words, wherever a helicopter could land, a spacecraft could land, too.
"You can land gently and you can land where you want, you don't have to land out in the ocean," Meehan said. "Compared to a parachute, you get a soft landing and you get a targeted landing."
The rotor concept also fits nicely with spent rocket boosters, Hagen said. Instead of throwing away the stage and its valuable engines, rotors could be built into the booster frame and unfurled as the stage descends to Earth. Just as with the capsule, the stage would be controllable the whole way down and would land softly to save the all-important engines.
One might think the blades would fold up like an umbrella on a windy day the moment they touch the airstream around the capsule, but Hagen said the airflow around the hinges would be balanced, so the blades would hold strong.
The researchers note that their work is about incorporating different elements together into something that is innovative.
"A hundred years ago, there were cameras and there were phones and there were wireless devices to send Morse code and they were all separate technologies on their own," said Les Boatright, an engineer at Kennedy. "Now you have a telephone that does all three of those things and it's a merger of technology. Well, this is taking the capsule entry technology and helicopter rotor technology and merging those in an innovative way to make something that didn’t exist before out of two things that did exist before."
The development team also notes that some bombs have fins that flick open safely at high speed. The returning spacecraft could use a mechanism similar to the fins, with the difference being that the capsule's blades would start spinning almost immediately after opening. Control fins would open on the side of the capsule, too, to keep it from revolving with the blades.
According to the engineers, the testing is extremely simple compared to the high-tech evaluations that must be done before such an experimental system could be flown into space, but the analysis is critical to moving through the early phases of development to convince people it's an idea worth pursuing.
The idea is not all that new. In fact, NASA researched the concept for the Apollo capsules but opted for the parachute return for the sake of shortening development time during the moon race.
Testing of the concept will get more demanding over time, including the possibility of hauling a roto-capsule miles into the sky on a high-altitude balloon for release. And before rotors are entrusted with the lives of astronauts, designers expect to try them out on a small capsule returning fragile science samples from the International Space Station.
For that task, which at this point cannot be done by another spacecraft since the retirement of the space shuttle, the roto-capsule could find a successful niche pretty quickly, researchers said.
"That's kind of a big leap from something that's a small test article to something that's on a manned system, but in between you could have something that's a small-scale sample return that's cargo only," Hagen said.
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center | <urn:uuid:a941edf8-fd99-4f8c-a5c2-04802c6c2df3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/news/rotocapsule.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397744.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00132-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967218 | 966 | 3.28125 | 3 |
1. Physical or survival needs
Our most important need is to survive, to remain alive. To remain alive a man must have food, water, oxygen, shelter (clothing) and rest. So long as needs upon which health depends go unsatisfied, a person shows little interest in the other four types of needs. His thoughts and energies will be directed towards satisfying the survival needs to the exclusion of all other needs.
2. Security and safety needs
Once the human being’s most important physical needs are satisfied to at least a minimum and continuing degree, the next need that becomes dominant is the security and safety needs. His efforts are now aimed at being comfortable, healthy, safe and secure. Security needs include not only the physical safety of the person, but also include economic security - a steady job, life insurance, a savings account, etc.
Man’s resistance to change is often based on the fact that the change in the job means that they can no longer feel comfortable, safe and secure.
3. Social needs
These needs are also known as the belonging and love needs. When the individual is no longer continually hungry and has sufficient and continuing satisfaction of his security and safety needs, then belonging and love needs become most important to him. They are the needs to love and be loved, to belong and be accepted by a small intimate grout - his family and a few close fiends, He needs to receive as well as give affection. He feels the need to be wanted and accepted not only by his family but also by the group of people with whom he works and his other social groups, e.g. his church group, his bowls club, etc. He will often be motivated to work very hard, without any direct monetary reward, to satisfy these social needs.
4. Ego or esteem needs
The individual whose physical needs, security and belonging and love needs are satisfied becomes concerned with esteem needs; that is the need for self-respect and respect from others. This need to have pride, self-respect and self-confidence, to have the respect of others, to be important, to be given status, prestige and recognition by others is one of the forces which motivates most of us today. it is utilized by many leaders and managers in their dealings with people, e.g. the size of one’s carpet, the size of the company car, the job title etc., are all status symbols.
5. Self-realization needs
If the physical, security, belonging and love, and esteem needs are all satisfied, the individual’s most important need becomes self-realization. This need is aimed at self-fulfillment; his desire to become his best self; to realize his capabilities to the fullest. This need is sometimes called the “creative” need. It is the need to express one’s desires to paint, to write, to sing and to provide an outlet for one’s aptitudes and special abilities - e.g. to invent new devices.
This is the need which is perhaps the least used in the work situation. If we can learn to tap every man’s experience, creativeness and special abilities, the job will usually be done far more efficiently and the worker will be a happy, satisfied and well-motivated individual who will give of his best without the boss breathing down his neck all the time.
Application of Maslow’s theory
Many people are happier at work that at home. A satisfying job with a good leader goes such a long way toward making life worth living.
Whereas all of us may complain about our jobs (or our bosses) from time to time, each of us needs the security and will respond favorably to the stability of the work situation.
We can see now that your job provide the first two basic needs:
A good leader can see that a person’s job satisfies the social needs by demonstrating to the rest of the work group the desirability of taking in a new worker.
To satisfy the esteem needs, a good leader will make sure workers know when their work is appreciated.
To satisfy the desire to do worthwhile work, a good leader gives thought to placing employees on jobs for which they have the best aptitude and training.
Frederick Herzberg's motivation theory
Herzberg says that every human being has two motivational tracks:
The lower level motivational track: the hygiene, maintenance or care factors.
These factors physically maintain the status quo, but they do not motivate. They merely prevent dissatisfaction. If they are not present in the workplace, an employee will be dissatisfied and may look for a job elsewhere that provides these factors. The employee will not work harder just because these factors are given to him or her, it is only a basis on which a leader can build. They are called external motivators.
These might include things like friendly co-workers, good working conditions, paid pension schemes, job security, vacations and housing subsidies .Generally speaking we see that the company must provide the factors that prevent dissatisfaction. A company can help a leader to establish the right climate for employee job-satisfaction.
The higher level motivational track: the motivators, satisfiers or intrinsic factors.
People are only motivated by these motivators, which are embodied in the work itself. They will urge the workers towards better achievements. Satisfaction for an employee comes from truly motivating factors such as interesting and challenging work, utilization of one’s capabilities, opportunities to do something meaningful, recognition of achievement, access to information, involvement in decision-making, responsibility for one’s own work and a sense of importance to the organization.
The leader should provide the satisfiers. Few leaders can establish the basic pay rates for the organization, but almost all leaders can motivate. For example, the leader can provide an employee with a specific challenging goal: “Not many people can pack more than 200 cartons an hour. If you can pack 220 today, you’ll be a great asset to this department”.
Conclusion from research findings.
Every human being has these needs in different proportions, and this complicates the leader’s task. To summarize, the mainspring of motivation, is the need to feel important and the need to be recognised as a worthwhile individual.
Mcgregor's X and Y theory
Although not required for the syllabus, no thesis on motivation would be complete without McGregor. He recognized that managers or leaders can be classified according to their approach towards their employees or rather the way they see them. He decided to call these approaches the X and the Y approach. Leaders are referred to as being an X type or a Y type leader.
The X type approach
The Y type approach
From research it has been found that 16% of people want to be treated as being X. A full 68% of people prefers to be treated as Y. A further 16% were even more motivated than the Y , the so-called self motivated, or Z type. In practice, managers who had a high X attitude had significantly worse performance results than those with a high Y attitude.
Six critical factors of job design that will most likely increase the motivational aspects of work
When these factors are added to the job, it will help to meet organizational needs and thus to promote productive performance in support of departmental or organization goals. The factors are:
Everyone needs to do a whole job from beginning to end.
Everyone needs regular contact with consumers or clients.
Everyone needs to apply a variety of skills and to vary his tasks.
The employee needs to relieve the sense of confinement and monotony by employing more than one skill and accomplishing more than one task in getting the job done.
Everyone needs freedom of self-direction.
The employee needs the opportunity to make choices about how the work will be done, to decide for themselves how to divide the work, where and how to start the work, etc. - a feeling of autonomy.
Everyone needs direct feedback from the work itself.
The employee can tell immediately by looking at the finished product or service whether it has been done correctly or incorrectly. Example: A shaft with screw thread to be cut on a lathe, and by looking at the surface finish, testing the nut on the thread and measuring the diameter if it is between the allowable tolerance. This worker does not have to wait for this leader to get this information.
Everyone needs a chance for self-development.
Sometimes an employee needs to stretch his mind and sharpen his skill to solve a small problem about his work himself, without running to his leader for all the small problems. The satisfaction of finding the answer is more valuable to himself as well as to the company.
The above-mentioned factors enlarge the quality of work life itself, as a result of the nature, interesting and challenging, and type of design of jobs that employees hold. This will influence employee performance and satisfaction as much as or more than the interpersonal motivation provided by leaders.
Skills required of leaders
It is the ability to assemble and present to others a good case for what you think should be done.
This is the ability to exert power over others. This can be inherent to your position, your personality or even your greater knowledge. The most important is having the power to move others by responding to their needs.
Rapport is the art of creating in others the willingness to cooperate. It requires a deep understanding of motivation and the ability to perceive the needs of others.
Gladiators for God is hosted by the best host in the business! | <urn:uuid:15499cbd-12ca-415c-a1be-4163eaa17723> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://gladiatorsforgod.com/leadership_04_motivate.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00129-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971621 | 1,972 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Ne'er cast a clout till May be out
With most phrases and sayings the meaning is well understood but the origin is uncertain. With this one the main interest is the doubt about the meaning. So, this time, we'll have the origin first.
'Ne'er cast a clout till May be out' is an English proverb. The earliest citation is this version of the rhyme from Dr. Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732, although it may have existed in word-of-mouth form well before that:
"Leave not off a Clout Till May be out.
Let's look first at the 'cast a clout' part. The word 'clout', although archaic, is straightforward. Since at least the early 15th century 'clout' has been used variously to mean 'a blow to the head', 'a clod of earth or (clotted) cream' or 'a fragment of cloth, or clothing'. It is the last of these that is meant in 'cast a clout'. This was spelled variously spelled as clowt, clowte, cloot, clute. Here's an early example, from the Early English Miscellanies in Prose and Verse, circa 1485:
"He had not left an holle clowt, Wherwith to hyde hys body abowte."
So, 'ne'er cast a clout...' simply means 'never discard your [warm winter] clothing...'.
The 'till May be out' part is where the doubt lies. On the face of it this means 'until the month of May is ended'.
There is another interpretation. In England, in May, you can't miss the Hawthorn. It is an extremely common tree in the English countryside, especially in hedges. Hawthorns are virtually synonymous with hedges. As many as 200,000 miles of hawthorn hedge were planted in the Parliamentary Enclosure period, between 1750 and 1850. The name 'Haw' derives from 'hage', the Old English for 'hedge'.
The tree gives its beautiful display of flowers in late April/early May. It is known as the May Tree and the blossom itself is called May. Using that allusion, 'till May is out' could mean, 'until the hawthorn is out [in bloom]'.
Other rhymes in which May is ambiguous are:
- April showers bring forth May flowers.
- Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date. (Shakespeare's Sonnet 18)
The Hawthorn has long been a potent symbol of rebirth and appears, as May, in other old rhymes; for example, 'Here we go gathering nuts in May'. That is probably a corruption of 'here we go gathering knots of May [blossom]'. After all, there are no nuts to collect in England until Autumn - certainly not in May.
Putting the case for the month, as opposed to the flower...
A French proverb - 'En avril, ne te découvre pas d'un fil; en mai, fais ce qui te plaît'. This translates as 'In April, do not shed a single thread; in May, do as you please', which has much the same meaning as 'ne'er cast a clout...'.
Captain John Stevens's work, 'A New Spanish and English Dictionary', published in London in 1706, translates a Spanish proverb, as "Do not leave off your Coat till May be past".
Those rhymes may well have originated in England and migrated across the Channel. It is difficult to understand why the Spanish would coin such a proverb, which would seem a little cautious for that part of the world - the average temperature in Seville in May is 20°C. Quite a few correspondents from Spain, and some also from France and Italy, have pointed out a locale version of the phrase which goes:
'Hasta el cuarenta de mayo no te quites el sayo', that is, 'Don't leave off you coat till May 40th'
There is a homegrown version that supports the 'month' theory - a fuller version of the rhyme, which goes:
"Button to chin, till May be in,
Cast not a clout till May be out"
The first line appears to have been added later and can't be found earlier than the 20th century. It clearly refers to the month though, as May blossom can come out, but can hardly be expected to go back in again, which indicates that whoever coined this additional line thought that way.
There's an explicit mention of the month in the version of the rhyme from F. K. Robertson's Whitby Gazette, 1855:
The wind at North and East
Was never good for man nor beast
So never think to cast a clout
Until the month of May be out
Wise words for the North Sea-facing Whitby, which can't match Seville and can be icy cold even in mid-summer.
All in all, although the May blossom interpretation seems appealing, the 'May' in this proverb is the month of May.
See other phrases and sayings from Shakespeare. | <urn:uuid:71faf895-4627-46d6-9721-d8c00d70c760> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/till-may-is-out.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00014-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950915 | 1,124 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Wilfred Thesiger, who died in 2003, was the greatest British explorer of his generation. He rode camels or walked across deserts and scrub land from Northern Kenya to Western Pakistan. Iraq and Afghan-istan were more home to him than his native England ever was, and the emptier the terrain the more his heart ached for it. Closest to his soul were Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, and he encapsulated their allure in his classic travel account Arabian Sands (1959).
What is it about deserts and the British or, to be more precise, many British men from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries? In the famous David Lean film Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Thomas Edward Lawrence is made to answer that deserts are "clean," and his answer is classed as very significant by his American interlocutor. Undoubtedly both the answer and the significance were real for Thesiger as well.
He was a man of extreme austerity. The harder a journey was -- extreme shortages of food and water, hostility of terrain and weather -- the more he enjoyed it. He was a ferocious boxer (at school at Eton he once broke an opponent's jaw) and a manic killer of wild animals -- lions, pigs, deer, anything that was foolish enough to come within range of his rifle. He hated the modern world and its comforts. Planes, trains and especially cars, he believed, were robbing remote peoples of their nobility, and the austere beauty of their way of life.
Yet Thesiger was an aesthete of a kind, and the human beauty he found in the desert wastes, and by which he admitted being "disturbed," was always adolescent and male. He was quite open about this, photographing a long line of noble-looking young men, appointing them as guides, giving them presents of rifles and ammunition, and later in life, in Northern Kenya, employing them as houseboys and even sharing a bed with one of them.This has led commentators to pin-point a maso-chistic homosexuality as Thesiger's fundamental character trait. There is an important ante-cedent. Thesiger has often been called a "modern Lawrence of Arabia," but Lawrence has been shown to have had an addiction to flagellation and, when serving anony-mously in the UK's Royal Air Force, to have paid a young Scottish fellow-serviceman to cane him "to orgasm" over a period of several years, sometimes with witnesses. Was Thesiger like this as well? Was a desire to be punished at the root of his seeking out phenom-enal deprivation in the remotest, driest, hottest corners of the globe from the Hindu Kush to the Sudan?
This new biography, while providing most of the factual information you could wish for, doesn't answer such questions. Its author was a close friend of Thesiger's from 1964 onwards, if anyone could be described as close to such a man. They worked on books of Thesiger's photos together, for instance, and this is an approved, official biography. Alexander Maitland is not the kind of person to betray confidences -- always assuming that there were any.
But it seems to me that Thesiger belonged to an era when this parti-cular syndrome -- savage school beatings, an intense love of adolescent men, total non-interest in women, extreme self-discipline -- was rather common, at least in England. Society had got itself into a certain mind-set in which physical homosexuality was both unmentionable and not to be thought of. Alfred Edward Housman, the poet of A Shropshire Lad, was made in the same mold. When he fell in love with a fellow student, Moses Jackson, and Jackson got married and went off to India, Housman resorted to a life of fiendishly metic-ulous, and frequently acrimonious, textual criticism of Latin authors. He too left a collection of flagellation pornography to Cambridge University Library on his death. But it seems probable that both these men would have considered actual sex with the young men they so adored to be a defilement and something they perhaps couldn't even imagine. Manly comradeship, not sex, was their ideal. | <urn:uuid:b04f6f01-5bc7-4b06-831c-fd3640bf2292> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2006/02/19/2003293774 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00151-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986832 | 887 | 2.71875 | 3 |
For my first assignment as a summer intern at the Freer and Sackler Galleries, I was asked to research this monumental Chinese Buddhist stele, which is being considered for a future exhibition on Buddhist art. Steles were created to commemorate the Buddhist faith and proliferated during the Northern Wei dynasty (386–535 CE). At the bottom of this stele, the Historical Buddha Shakyamuni sits cross-legged with hands in dhyani mudra, flanked by bodhisattvas and ascetic figures.
The stele’s repetitive pattern is known as the “Thousand Buddhas” (qianfo), characterized by rows of small Buddha figures on the front and back. It’s one of the most important motifs in Northern Wei Buddhist art. According to scholars, it reflects the notion that the cosmos is filled with innumerable realms, which are all simultaneously inhabited by Buddhas. The motif supports the omnipresence of Buddha and Buddha-nature. Many experts propose that the motif is related to the practice of visualization and recitation during Buddhist practice. While there is room for debate on the meaning of the Thousand Buddhas, the inscription provides a concrete example of the hopes of the stele’s sponsors, including their good wishes for the emperor, hope for the spread of Buddhism, and request for peace.
After about a month of reading and researching, I was finally able to view the stele in Sackler storage. It is a remarkable experience to see an object after learning about its many details. It reminded me of meeting a penpal for the first time or reuniting with a childhood friend. I was immediately able to relate all of my research to the physical object in front of me. For instance, I knew to look for the bodhisattva to the right of Shakyamuni who holds a bottle of healing water, indicating that he is Avalokiteshvara. Once I finally saw the stele in person, a wave of complete comprehension and appreciation washed over me. What began as a simple research project evolved into a rewarding, thought-provoking experience. | <urn:uuid:d1231114-657e-45f1-b2f7-4e1af33978e7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://bento.si.edu/tag/buddhism/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00072-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958512 | 432 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Solar energy seems to be enjoying a new day in the sun, but that could be threatened by a reported rash of defective panels, caused by a high pressure to cut costs.
There are no industry wide figures about defective solar panels. And when defects are discovered, confidentiality agreements often keep the manufacturer’s identity secret, making accountability in the industry all the more difficult.
Most of the concerns over quality center on China, home to the majority of the world’s solar panel manufacturing capacity. After incurring billions of dollars in debt to accelerate production that has sent solar panel prices plunging since 2009, Chinese solar companies are under extreme pressure to cut costs.
Executives at companies that inspect Chinese factories on behalf of developers and financiers said that over the last 18 months they have found that even the most reputable companies are substituting cheaper, untested materials. Other brand-name manufacturers, they said, have shut down production lines and subcontracted the assembly of modules to smaller makers where they have little to no control over quality. Photovoltaic modules at a Shanghai laboratory in 2012 found the defect rate had jumped from 7.8 percent to 13 percent.
The heart of a solar panel is a photovoltaic cell that generates electricity when struck by sunlight. Among the most critical components is a thin film that protects the cell from moisture, and encapsulate that seals the cell between layers of glass. Inspections have found some manufacturers had been constantly switching to cheaper materials, including some whose use-by date had expired. If the materials aren’t good or haven’t been thoroughly tested, they won’t stick together and the solar module will eventually fall apart in the field.
All solar panels degrade and gradually generate less electricity over time. But a review of 30,000 installations in Europe by the German solar monitoring firm found 80 percent were underperforming.
Non-Chinese manufacturers have had quality problems as well. One company now offers a comprehensive insurance policy to customers and has established its own testing laboratory in the San Francisco area.
One industry executive, said manufacturers needed to be held accountable and advocated creating testing labs not beholden to the industry that would assess quality. “We need to start naming names,” he said.
The lesson learned is that in order for solar power to continue brightening our world, manufacturers must be held accountable for their production standards. So be vigilant when selecting solar contractors and make sure you know whose solar modules are being used and check for reliability and guarantees. Leasing programs may help as the lessor maintains performance and warranties the installation during the leasing term. | <urn:uuid:32c31109-dd67-45c3-b3b9-4390683a99fd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://greenhomeenergyaz.com/?p=102 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398216.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00191-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960462 | 534 | 2.71875 | 3 |
- Special Sections
- Public Notices
Sleep apnea is common, as common as adult diabetes, and affects more than 12 million Americans, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Risk factors include being male, overweight and older than 40, but sleep apnea can strike anyone at any age, even children. Yet still because of the lack of awareness by the public and healthcare professionals, the vast majority remain undiagnosed and therefore untreated, despite the fact that this serious disorder can have significant consequences.
Click the question mark below to see where your account ID appears on your mailing label. | <urn:uuid:2f023d2a-e2e7-48e8-ad20-559557ac1836> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cknj.com/content/sleep-apnea-support-group-meet | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399106.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00119-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938185 | 122 | 2.640625 | 3 |
SS8H5 The student will explain significant factors that affected the development of Georgia as part of the growth of the United States between 1789 and 1840.
a. Explain the establishment of the University of Georgia, Louisville, and the spread of Baptist and Methodist churches.
b. Evaluate the impact of land policies pursued by Georgia; include the headright system, land lotteries, and the Yazoo land fraud.
c. Explain how technological developments, including the cotton gin and railroads, had an impact on Georgia’s growth.
d. Analyze the events that led to the removal of Creeks and Cherokees; include the roles of Alexander McGillivray, William McIntosh, Sequoyah, John Ross, Dahlonega Gold Rush, Worcester v. Georgia, Andrew Jackson, John Marshall, and the Trail of Tears.
SS8E1 The student will give examples of the kinds of goods and services produced in Georgia in different historical periods.
SS8E2 The student will explain the benefits of free trade.
a. Describe how Georgians have engaged in trade in different historical time periods.
Essential Question (s):
What role has education and religion played in the development of Georgia and the south?
Where did Georgia get it's land? How did Georgia distribute this land?
Which political scandal put an end to Georgia's westward expansion?
How did technology play a role in Georgia's development?
Which invention of the early 1800's improved east-west transportation in Georgia?
A: The railroad.
Today in Class:
We continues to look at how technology played a role in Georgia's development. Students completed a graphic organizer on economics and technology using pages 179 - 183.
Full Power Point Ch. 6:
Our text book in Audio Format:
Review / study Unit 5 (Ch. 6) vocabulary, the "Land Fever" graphic organizer, and the Economics and Technology graphic organizer. Test to be announced.
Long term Assignments:
Test over Unit 5 Georgia Westward Movement TBA.
Today in Georgia History:
February 3, 1807 Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston [photo] was born in Virginia. He attended West Point, graduating in 1829 in the same class as Robert E. Lee. In 1861, he resigned from the U.S. Army to offer his services to the Confederacy. In 1864, he commanded the Army of Tennessee during much of Sherman's Atlanta Campaign before being replaced by John Bell Hood. In 1865, Lee named Johnston to again head the Army of Tennessee, with responsibility for Confederate forces in Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina. Johnston's surrender to Sherman on April 26, 1865 resulted in the end of the Civil War for Georgia. He died March 21 1891 in Washington D.C.
Link-O the Day:
The Cotton Gin:
The Mechanical Reaper: http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/reaper.htm
My Email Address: | <urn:uuid:0c074c68-6000-43ee-a8d1-1a4f31218c8b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://hutchinshistory.blogspot.com/2009/02/finish-economics-and-technology.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00178-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920459 | 616 | 3.859375 | 4 |
Skip to comments.New (PEER-REVIEWED!) Paper Demonstrates Lack of Credibility for Climate Model Predictions
Posted on 07/31/2008 7:13:36 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
On the credibility of climate predictions
The Abstract states:
Geographically distributed predictions of future climate, obtained through climate models, are widely used in hydrology and many other disciplines, typically without assessing their reliability. Here we compare the output of various models to temperature and precipitation observations from eight stations with long (over 100 years) records from around the globe. The results show that models perform poorly, even at a climatic (30-year) scale. Thus local model projections cannot be credible, whereas a common argument that models can perform better at larger spatial scales is unsupported.
The ONLY proof the global warming hoaxers have is general circulation models.
We need to shove this down their throats.
The first and last thing you tell them is that it is PEER-REVIEWED.
"Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the product of oceanic respiration due to the well-known but under-appreciated solubility pump. Carbon dioxide rises out of warm ocean waters where it is added to the atmosphere. There it is mixed with residual and accidental CO2, and circulated, to be absorbed into the sink of the cold ocean waters. Next the thermohaline circulation carries the CO2-rich sea water deep into the ocean. A millennium later it appears at the surface in warm waters, saturated by lower pressure and higher temperature, to be exhausted back into the atmosphere. Throughout the past 420 millennia, comprising four interglacial periods, the Vostok record of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is imprinted with, and fully characterized by, the physics of the solubility of CO2 in water, along with the lag in the deep ocean circulation.
Notwithstanding that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, atmospheric carbon dioxide has neither caused nor amplified global temperature increases. Increased carbon dioxide has been an effect of global warming, not a cause. Technically, carbon dioxide is a lagging proxy for ocean temperatures. When global temperature, and along with it, ocean temperature rises, the physics of solubility causes atmospheric CO2 to increase.
If increases in carbon dioxide, or any other greenhouse gas, could have in turn raised global temperatures, the positive feedback would have been catastrophic. While the conditions for such a catastrophe were present in the Vostok record from natural causes, the runaway event did not occur. Carbon dioxide does not accumulate in the atmosphere."
The graph above represents temperature and CO2 levels over the past 400,000 years. It is the same exact data Al Gore and the rest of the man-made global warmers refer to. The blue line is temps, the red CO2 levels. The deep valleys represent 4 separate glaciation periods. Now look very carefully at this relationship between temps and CO2 levels and keep in mind that Gore claims this data is the 'proof' that CO2 has warmed the earth in the past. But does the graph indeed show this? Nope. In fact, rising CO2 levels all throughout this 400,000 year period actually lagged behind temperature increases ...by an average of 800 years! So it couldn't have been CO2 that got Earth out of these past glaciations. Yet Gore dishonestly and continually claims otherwise. Furthermore, the subsequent CO2 level increases never did lead to additional warming, the so-called "runaway greenhouse effect" that Al Gore and his friends keep warning us about. -ETL
"The above chart shows the range of global temperature through the last 500 million years. There is no statistical correlation between the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere through the last 500 million years and the temperature record in this interval. In fact, one of the highest levels of carbon dioxide concentration occurred during a major ice age that occurred about 450 million years ago [Myr]. Carbon dioxide concentrations at that time were about 15 times higher than at present." [also see 180 million years ago, same thing happened]:
So, greenhouse [effect] is all about carbon dioxide, right?
Wrong. The most important players on the greenhouse stage are water vapor and clouds. Carbon dioxide has been increased to about 0.038% of the atmosphere (possibly from about 0.028% pre-Industrial Revolution) while water in its various forms ranges from 0% to 4% of the atmosphere and its properties vary by what form it is in and even at what altitude it is found in the atmosphere.
In simple terms the bulk of Earth's greenhouse effect is due to water vapor by virtue of its abundance. Water accounts for about 90% of the Earth's greenhouse effect -- perhaps 70% is due to water vapor and about 20% due to clouds (mostly water droplets), some estimates put water as high as 95% of Earth's total tropospheric greenhouse effect (e.g., Freidenreich and Ramaswamy, 'Solar Radiation Absorption by Carbon Dioxide, Overlap with Water, and a Parameterization for General Circulation Models,' Journal of Geophysical Research 98 (1993):7255-7264).
The remaining portion comes from carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, ozone and miscellaneous other 'minor greenhouse gases.' As an example of the relative importance of water it should be noted that changes in the relative humidity on the order of 1.3-4% are equivalent to the effect of doubling CO2.
Water Vapor Rules the Greenhouse System
Water vapor constitutes Earth's most significant greenhouse gas, accounting for about 95% of Earth's greenhouse effect (4). Interestingly, many 'facts and figures' regarding global warming completely ignore the powerful effects of water vapor in the greenhouse system, carelessly (perhaps, deliberately) overstating human impacts as much as 20-fold.
Water vapor is 99.999% of natural origin. Other atmospheric greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and miscellaneous other gases (CFC's, etc.), are also mostly of natural origin (except for the latter, which is mostly anthropogenic).
Human activities contribute slightly to greenhouse gas concentrations through farming, manufacturing, power generation, and transportation. However, these emissions are so dwarfed in comparison to emissions from natural sources we can do nothing about, that even the most costly efforts to limit human emissions would have a very small-- perhaps undetectable-- effect on global climate.
It's not peer-reviewed.
The global-warming hoaxers will sniff their noses and discount it.
bookmark for morning
Enviormentalism is mind pollution!
No, they have no peers—Lord Gore has NO PEERS, and could care less about what a few scientists have to say...
It's a fact. Rising CO2 levels throughout that entire 400,000-year interval (Vostok Ice Core record) *followed* temperature rises. Furthermore, once the oceans warmed and began releasing their dissolved CO2, no significant additional temperature increases resulted from it. Read the data for yourself. The present is on the right hand side of the graph. The ups and downs are the results of periodic glaciations (apprx every 100,000 years)
No, they have no peers—Lord Gore has NO PEERS, and could care less about what a few scientists have to say...
32,000 Scientists Dissent From Global Warming Consensus:
Project Petition: Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide:
Actually you are missing the most important, telling detail about this chart. Under Al Gore’s hypothesis, the lines should never cross, but they DO cross.
From BBC News [yr: 2004]:
"A new analysis shows that the Sun is more active now than it has been at anytime in the previous 1,000 years. Scientists based at the Institute for Astronomy in Zurich used ice cores from Greenland to construct a picture of our star's activity in the past. They say that over the last century the number of sunspots rose at the same time that the Earth's climate became steadily warmer."..."In particular, it has been noted that between about 1645 and 1715, few sunspots were seen on the Sun's surface. This period is called the Maunder Minimum after the English astronomer who studied it. It coincided with a spell of prolonged cold weather often referred to as the "Little Ice Age". Solar scientists strongly suspect there is a link between the two events - but the exact mechanism remains elusive."
It's really hard to imagine how this little ball of fire could have any impact on our climate at all.
But the main arguments being made for a solar-climate connection is not so much to do with the heat of the Sun but rather with its magnetic cycles. When the Sun is more magnetically active (typically around the peak of the 11 year sunspot cycle --we are a few yrs away at the moment), the Sun's magnetic field is better able to deflect away incoming galactic cosmic rays (highly energetic charged particles coming from outside the solar system). The GCRs are thought to help in the formation of low-level cumulus clouds -the type of clouds that BLOCK sunlight and help cool the Earth. So when the Sun's MF is acting up (not like now), less GCRs reach the Earth's atmosphere, less low level sunlight-blocking clouds form, and more sunlight gets through to warm the Earth's surface...naturally. Clouds are basically made up of tiny water droplets. When minute particles in the atmosphere become ionized by incoming GCRs they become very 'attractive' to water molecules, in a purely chemical sense of the word. The process by which the Sun's increased magnetic field would deflect incoming cosmic rays is very similar to the way magnetic fields steer electrons in a cathode ray tube or electrons and other charged particles around the ring of a subatomic particle accelerator.-ETL
There's a relatively new book out on the subject titled The Chilling Stars. It's written by one of the top scientists advancing the theory (Henrik Svensmark).
And here is the website for the place where he does his research:
2008: "The Center for Sun-Climate Research at the DNSC investigates the connection between variations in the intensity of cosmic rays and climatic changes on Earth. This field of research has been given the name 'cosmoclimatology'"..."Cosmic ray intensities and therefore cloudiness keep changing because the Sun's magnetic field varies in its ability to repel cosmic rays coming from the Galaxy, before they can reach the Earth." :
100,000-Year Climate Pattern Linked To Sun's Magnetic Cycles:
ScienceDaily (Jun. 7, 2002) HANOVER, N.H.
Thanks to new calculations by a Dartmouth geochemist, scientists are now looking at the earth's climate history in a new light. Mukul Sharma, Assistant Professor of Earth Sciences at Dartmouth, examined existing sets of geophysical data and noticed something remarkable: the sun's magnetic activity is varying in 100,000-year cycles, a much longer time span than previously thought, and this solar activity, in turn, may likely cause the 100,000-year climate cycles on earth. This research helps scientists understand past climate trends and prepare for future ones.
It appears the sun has been more magnetically active (more sunspots, etc) during the past 60-70 years than at any time during the past 11,000+...
From a well-referrenced wikipedia.com column (see wiki link for ref 14):
"Sunspot numbers over the past 11,400 years have been reconstructed using dendrochronologically dated radiocarbon concentrations. The level of solar activity during the past 70 years is exceptional the last period of similar magnitude occurred over 8,000 years ago. The Sun was at a similarly high level of magnetic activity for only ~10% of the past 11,400 years, and almost all of the earlier high-activity periods were shorter than the present episode."
^Solanki, Sami K.; Usoskin, Ilya G.; Kromer, Bernd; Schüssler, Manfred & Beer, Jürg (2004), Unusual activity of the Sun during recent decades compared to the previous 11,000 years, Nature 431: 10841087, doi:10.1038/nature02995, . Retrieved on 17 April 2007 , "11,000 Year Sunspot Number Reconstruction". Global Change Master Directory. Retrieved on 2005-03-11.
"Reconstruction of solar activity over 11,400 years. Period of equally high activity over 8,000 years ago marked.
Present period is on [the right]. Values since 1900 not shown."
Only conversion of the infidels to “green” holiness.
"Having posted a comment earlier (and waiting and trusting it to appear on RealClimate) I take the opportunity to express my gratefulness to RealClimate and its contributors, for hosting and disseminating some of my thoughts and ideas. A couple of comments that I posted in another occasion were very kindly received and replied in RealClimate (even though they might be different from the majority of ideas I read in RealClimate) and subsequently widely read and disseminated. I really appreciate this, particularly because I have experienced difficulties in publishing my ideas (including some of the articles I mentioned in my earlier comment..."
Which is one reason I recommended that even AGW skeptics look in there occasionally.
My take watching the discussion is that the vast majority of the professional science researchers on RC are pleased by the appearance of a skeptic who is not a fool or a crank, and delighted at the opportunity for the rest of us to watch the way in which real scientific discussion and debate is conducted by real scientists.
As for his analysis, and the discussion, it's well beyond my ability to evaluate, what is clear is that a) the professional climate-research contingent over on RC regard him as a peer and take his views seriously, and that 2) they think that though he raises very interesting questions, his general conclusion are unwarranted.
I would note, though, that this is another example of someone from outside the climate science community arriving on the scene to announce that everyone else has got it all wrong, and that the track record of such skeptics to date had been very poor.
You also need to keep in mind that this is a criticism of the modeling process, not the underlying atmospheric physics and chemistry which predict global warming - if you asked him if he believed that our understanding of atmospheric physics and chemistry should lead us to suppose that "greenhouse effects" are considerably heating the atmosphere, my guess is that he would say "Oh yeah. Sure, no question...".
The situation is sort of like mathematical modeling of what happens to the occupants of an automobile in collision: you can question the adequacy of the modeling, but that doesn't alter your understanding of the overall practical result based on your understanding of physics and biology- in fact to the extent that or modeling does not allow us to accurately and reliably predict the consequences of increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, that makes the situation more worrisome, not less.
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Definitions for vulcanization
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word vulcanization
process of treating rubber or rubberlike materials with sulphur at great heat to improve elasticity and strength or to harden them
A process by which rubber is hardened using heat and sulphur.
the act or process of imparting to caoutchouc, gutta-percha, or the like, greater elasticity, durability, or hardness by heating with sulphur under pressure
Origin: [See Vulcan.]
Vulcanization or vulcanisation is a chemical process for converting rubber or related polymers into more durable materials via the addition of sulfur or other equivalent "curatives" or "accelerators". These additives modify the polymer by forming crosslinks between individual polymer chains. Vulcanized materials are less sticky and have superior mechanical properties. A vast array of products are made with vulcanized rubber including tires, shoe soles, hoses, conveyor belts and hockey pucks. The process is named after Vulcan, Roman god of fire. Hard vulcanized rubber is sometimes sold under the brand names ebonite or vulcanite, and is used to make hard articles such as bowling balls and saxophone mouth pieces.
The numerical value of vulcanization in Chaldean Numerology is: 5
The numerical value of vulcanization in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5
Images & Illustrations of vulcanization
Translations for vulcanization
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
- vulcanitzacióCatalan, Valencian
- вулканиза́ција, vulkanizácijaSerbo-Croatian
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"vulcanization." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2016. Web. 1 Jul 2016. <http://www.definitions.net/definition/vulcanization>. | <urn:uuid:b61077d4-0e76-4c79-a8a3-5fa5d9f21285> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.definitions.net/definition/vulcanization | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402699.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00137-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.704706 | 481 | 3.71875 | 4 |
The Soryu and Hiryu his half-brother, unlike his predecessors, were designed from the outset as aircraft carriers, and the improved version of Hiryu Soryu, with larger displacement and mouth and the island moved to port (amendment unsuccessful, thus causing more accidents). Formed the 2nd Carrier Division, participating in the attack on Pearl Harbor actions in the East Indies and the Battle of Midway, where both were sunk.
- Amount Completed: 2 (Soryu and Hiryu)
- Length: 221.9 / 223 m (Soryu / Hiryu)
- Beam (width): 21.3 / 22.25 m (Soryu / Hiryu)
- Silent: 7,6 / 7,8 m (Soryu / Hiryu)
- Displacement: 16,000 ton. (Default) 19 800 / 21 900 ton. (Full load Soryu / Hiryu)
- Propulsion: 8 Kanpon boilers, geared turbines, 4 shafts, 152 000 / 153 000 shp (Soryu / Hiryu)
- Maximum speed: 34 knots
- Autonomy: N / d.
- Shield: 46 mm (lateral Soryu), 88–149 mm (lateral Hiryu), 30.5 to 50.8 mm (decks, both)
- Main ArmamentN / a.
- Secondary armament: 12 127 mm/L40 DP guns (6 twin mounts)
- Antiaircraft Weapons: 28 / 31 guns of 25 mm (Soryu / Hiryu - mont. Singles and doubles)
- Airplanes: 21 A6M2 Zero fighters, 16 / 18 D3A1 Val dive bombers (Soryu / Hiryu) and 18 destroyers B5N2 Kate (at Midway)
- Crew: 1,100 officers and sailors
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|The Blake Hall Estate Today|
Roe Head School
Drawing by Anne Brontë (c.1835 - 1837)
The School Today
The drawing was created from a location close to the lower entrance to the school grounds. The photograph was taken from just a few yards further to the right (to avoid the trees on the left from obscuring the view!). Roe Head School opened in 1830, and when Charlotte arrived in January 1831, there were only ten pupils. Through the Brontës' time at this school, the top floor was uninhabited, the middle floor housed the sleeping quarters, and the ground floor contained the dining room, sitting room, and school room. The 'school room', where the girls were taught, was one of the large front rooms on the double-domed side of the building (left side as seen here),53n and the windows on this side of the building give an open view (almost!) down the Calder Valley - see below. It is interesting to note how the trees, in both pictures, are inclining to the right - indicating that frequent and heavy winds must blow up the valley. (The wind direction is even further confirmed by the chimney smoke in Anne's drawing, though it does appear to be relatively clam on this particular day - the girls probably would not have been out sketching otherwise!)
This is the view down the Calder Valley from the front of the school (the left side in the pictures above). Mirfield is beyond and over to the left. The row of trees has obviously been planted to act as a wind break! Anne's drawing (above) seems to indicate that a similar row of trees was also used then for this purpose - but they were located much closer to the building.
The Brontë Society's plaque, mounted on the wall of the school, and indicating the Brontë connection with the premises.
Miss Margaret Wooler
|Margaret Wooler was both headmistress, and joint owner of the school at Roe Head (Roe Head being a hamlet situated at the north-western tip of Mirfield - about 18 miles south-east of Haworth). The first Brontë encounter with Roe Head School was when Charlotte attended as a pupil in 1831. It was here, amongst her fellow pupils, that she met the two girls who were to become her life long friends; Mary Taylor (pictured left), and Ellen Nussey (pictured right). Indeed, a life-long friendship also formed between Miss Wooler and Charlotte after Charlotte returned to the school in 1835 as a teacher, bringing with her Emily as a pupil. Emily soon became very ill with home-sickness and was replaced by Anne, who spent the next few years (October 1835 - December 1837) at the school. At the end of Anne's first year, she attained a prize for good conduct. The prize bore the inscription:|
|'Prize for good conduct presented to Miss A. Brontë with Miss Wooler's kind love, Roe Head. Dec.14th. 1836.' 54n|
Anne spent a longer period as a pupil at this school than either Charlotte, Emily, Ellen Nussey or Mary Taylor.
Miss Wooler also owned a house at Scarborough's very reserved North Bay, and when she heard of Anne's planned visit to the resort in 1849 in the hope of effecting a recovery from consumption, she offered the Brontë/Nussey party accommodation in that house. The offer was respectfully refused as Anne wanted to be in the area of Scarborough she knew and loved - the South Bay. As it transpired, Miss Wooler was also at Scarborough that week, and in addition to Charlotte and Ellen Nussey, she was the only other mourner at Anne's funeral. Five years later, in June 1854, she gave Charlotte away at her wedding; when Charlotte married her father's assistant curate, the Reverend Arthur Bell Nicholls. Miss Wooler lived a long life, making it to 93 before she died in 1885. Mary Taylor died at the age of 76 in 1893, and Ellen Nussey followed in November 1897 aged 80.
|Elizabeth Firth, born in 1797, welcomed the Brontës to Thornton when they arrived in 1815: the Firths subsequently formed a close friendship with Patrick and Maria. Elizabeth became one of the two godmothers of Anne (the other was Elizabeth's friend, Fanny Outhwaite). After Maria's death, Patrick made a proposal of marriage to Elizabeth: she declined, but the family friendship remained intact, and she continued to take an active interest in the Brontë children's welfare. In September 1825 she married the Reverend James Franks, vicar of St. Paul's church in Huddersfield. This was only about five miles away from Roe Head School, and on 17 June 1836, at the commencement of the girls' summer holidays, Charlotte and Anne went to stay, for a week, with the Franks at the Huddersfield vicarage. The girls were not totally enthusiastic about the visit as, naturally, they were anxious to return home to Haworth. Patrick pressured them a little to accept the Franks' invitation: he had earlier written to the Franks over his daughters' visit: 'I esteem it a high privilege that they should be under your roof, for a time - where, I am sure, they will see, and hear nothing, but what, under Providence, must necessarily tend, to their best interest, in both the worlds . . .'. Juliet Barker reports: 'The eldest child, John Firth Franks, recollected that Charlotte never spoke to him during the whole time she was there though Anne brought toys to him in the nursery.' 55n Elizabeth Franks died in September 1837 at the age of 40.|
Rev. James La Trobe (pictured right): Towards
the end of 1837, and while still at Roe Head School, the 17 years old Anne
suffered a very serious illness. Charlotte described her symptoms as 'pain'
and 'difficulty of breathing', the latter was assumed to be a symptom of
asthma, from which she had suffered since early childhood. Concurrent with
her illness, she also underwent a religious crisis:
56 she was experiencing
deep depression and fear on account of the hard-line preachings of the
local churches: a circle of clergy that tended to follow the scriptures
to the letter, and made great emphasis on the Calvinist doctrines of hell-fire
and eternal damnation, with the suggestion that only the 'elect few' would
earn themselves a place in heaven. This was far removed from the much milder
convictions of her Wesleyan aunt, and those preached by her father; whose
emphasis was on the 'goodness and infinite mercy of God', and the belief
that salvation was attainable by anyone who sought it. With the acute illness
she was experiencing, Anne must have felt that death was near, and desperately
needed reassurance on these religious matters. In the event, she did not
turn for help to the local Methodist churches, of whose clergy were known
to her and her father, but to a stranger. The stranger in question was
one reverend James La Trobe - the minister of the Moravian chapel at Wellhouse
in Mirfield. The Moravian sect preached doctrines more akin to Patrick
Brontë's, than those being advocated at Roe Head. They firmly believed
in Universal Salvation, where, 'after a period of purifying purgatory,
all men, however wicked, could attain heaven'.
Many years later, in 1897, La Trobe sent a letter to his friend and Brontë biographer, William Scrutton of Thornton, and in it recited the occasions he had attended Anne at Roe Head so many years earlier. The extract relating to Anne reads:
In December Patrick withdrew Anne from the school, and back at home she made a gradual recovery. James La Trobe went on to attain 'bishop' status: he died in 1897 at the age of 95.
Blake Hall - Mirfield
Mrs. Mary Ingham
In April 1839, at the age of nineteen, Anne acquired her first employment, becoming a governess to the Ingham family at Blake Hall, Mirfield. This was only about 2 miles from Roe Head School - the establishment she had attended a few years earlier. The Inghams were well known to Miss Wooler, and also had connections with the Nussey family, and it was probably through one of these avenues that Anne attained the post. As it transpired, the Ingham children were spoilt and wild, and persistently disobeyed, defied, teased and tormented her. She was not empowered to inflict any punishment, and consequently experienced great difficulty in controlling them, and had almost no success in instilling any education. On leaving for her Christmas holidays in December of that year, she was told her services would no longer be required.59n The Inghams had decided they needed to find some other mode of care and tuition for their offspring. The whole episode was so traumatic for Anne, she reproduced it in almost perfect detail in her later novel, Agnes Grey; where Blake Hall became 'Wellwood House' (though the name was almost certainly taken from Mirfield's Wellhouse Chapel: where the Moravian minister, James La Trobe, came from when he visited her at Roe Head School - detailed above), and the Inghams were authentically depicted under the guise of 'the Bloomfield family'.
Joshua Ingham is reputed to have been a tyrannical father - ruling his children by fear. He, himself, had a Puritan and patriarchal upbringing where 'women were thought of as wholly subordinate' (he probably wouldn't go down too well in today's 'women's lib' circles!). His wife, Mary Ingham (nee. Cunliffe), while giving no support to Anne in the controlling and disciplining of their horrendous children, was otherwise, very kind to her.
Joshua Ingham died on 16 May 1866 at the age of 64; his wife, Mary, reached the ripe old age of 88, dying on 17 September 1899.
The Blake Hall Estate Today (including relevant quotes from Agnes Grey)
|John Brown was the sexton at Haworth church for
a twenty year period during the Brontës' time. He was also a stonemason,
carving headstones for the churchyard, and he lived, for many years, in
the house adjoining the Sunday School - just beside the church. His daughter,
Martha, worked as a servant at the Parsonage for over 30 years. John Brown
became a very close friend, drinking companion, and confidant of Branwell,
who painted this picture of him sometime between 1835 - 1839. Brown died
in August 1855 (just 4 months after Charlotte) at the age of 51.
(Oil on canvas - by Branwell Brontë)
|At Thornton and Haworth||At Roe Head and Blake Hall||At Thorp Green|
|Main Page||More of the Cast and Locations| | <urn:uuid:9ea3d8b7-dccd-42e6-bd77-cb974a04f3df> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mick-armitage.staff.shef.ac.uk/anne/cast-2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391634.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00049-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982803 | 2,330 | 3.046875 | 3 |
There are significant numbers of people in the wealthy countries who believe that the great issues of resource depletion and global environmental pollution are caused primarily by the huge number of people on the globe — currently about 7 billion — and that things will only get much worse with the anticipated increase to about 9 billion by mid-century and 10 billion by the end of the 21st century. Their suggested solution (although some say there really isn't any — we are all doomed to chaos and barbarism) is to rapidly decrease the world's population, mainly through a program to induce people to lower the number of children that they have. They are behind the contraceptive programs in poor countries, funded by NGOs from the wealthy countries, making contraceptives and other family planning tools available to women.
I will save for a later date an analysis of these issues and the approaches that people are suggesting. For our purposes in this piece I will assume that what they claim regarding the large global population's deleterious effects on resource use and global environmental damage is absolutely correct. Okay?
Staff at the World Bank1 have estimated the resource use of the world's people by decile — the poorest 10%, the next 10% . . . up to the wealthiest 10%. They estimate that wealthiest 10% of the people use approximately 60% of the world's resources and that they are, therefore, responsible for about 60% of the world's pollution, contributing to global warming, water pollution, etc. The report also estimates that the poorest 40% of the population use less than 5% of the world's resources.
Now let's forget ideology for a minute. If you are very concerned about the issue of global resource use and environmental degradation, as I and so many others are, these numbers lead to an absolutely inescapable conclusion. Trying to reduce the population of poor people will not help deal with this at all. It is the wealthy of the world that are overwhelmingly responsible for the resource/environmental problems we face.
Given this reality, here is my Modest Proposal.
The world ecosystem and its people desperately need a reduction in the consumption by the richest 10%. I, therefore, propose the following programs for immediate implementation:
- enforce either a "no-child" or a "one-child" policy on the wealthy;
- immediately introduce a 100% inheritance tax on the wealthy; and
- lower the income of the wealthy by having a very modest maximum compensation (analogous to a minimum wage).
Following these prescriptions, we can rapidly reduce approximately half of all resource use and pollution in the world. The previously wealthy would then either disappear (as they die out) or live a life in which they consume at the rate of the average person in the world.
Now that we have some breathing room, let's get to work on the remaining issues to create a livable and socially just planet.
Fred Magdoff is professor emeritus of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont and adjunct professor of crop and soil science at Cornell University. He writes frequently on political economy. His most recent books are The Great Financial Crisis (written with John Bellamy Foster, Monthly Review Press, 2009) and Agriculture and Food in Crisis (edited with Brian Tokar, Monthly Review Press, 2010) and What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism: A Citizen's Guide to Capitalism and the Environment (with John Bellamy Foster, Monthly Review Press, 2011). | <urn:uuid:c61af8eb-a988-44b5-ab6f-0526e9ce5c1b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://zcomm.org/znetarticle/reducing-resource-use-and-environmental-degradation-a-modest-proposal-by-fred-magdoff/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00064-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954643 | 695 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Students with LD and the Search for College Financial Aid: A Discussion of Options and Resources
By: Daniel Gardner
For college-bound high school juniors and seniors, the fall semester can be a stressful time. In addition to classes and homework, the list of college-related tasks is long: SATs loom, there are campus visits to arrange, essays to write, recommendation letters to gather, and financial aid options to explore. Prospective college students with learning disabilities (LD’s) face the added challenge of finding a college where the approach to providing accommodations engenders confidence that their particular needs will be understood and addressed.
While students with LD’s must seek and select colleges with care, they can rest assured that they are not alone. In fact, an increasing number of their peers with LD’s are college-bound. In 1998, three times more students with learning disabilities were admitted to colleges across the country than were admitted in 1988. Over the past decade, students with various learning disabilities have come to represent the largest group of students with disabilities on college and university campuses. Of the college freshmen who reported having a disability in 1998, over 40 percent indicated the presence of a learning disability. Not only are increasing numbers of students with LD’s going on to college, but their aspirations for post-graduate study are high as well. In 1998, 51% of college freshmen who reported having a learning disability indicated a desire to pursue a degree beyond the bachelor level (Henderson, C. 1999. College Freshmen with Disabilities: A Biennial Statistical Profile. Washington, DC. American Council on Education).
So, the good news is that hundreds of thousands of students with LD’s are blazing a trail through postsecondary institutions. The progress they make will only facilitate the passage of future students with learning disabilities, as faculty and administrators become increasingly knowledgeable about the particular needs of this growing presence on their campuses. The bad news is that once they take the SAT’s, visit, apply to and finally gain admission to the colleges of their choice, they are not likely to find any scholarships on the basis of having a learning disability to help pay for the expense of college. In fact, there are very few disability-specific scholarships to offset the cost of college. While there may appear to be numerous grants for students who are deaf or hard of hearing, or those who are blind and visually impaired, these amounts are insignificant when compared to the number of eligible students. This is also true for students with learning disabilities: there are simply too few LD-specific scholarships and the amounts awarded are too small, for the acquisition of these awards to be central to any college financing strategy. Instead, students with LD’s should focus their efforts where they are most likely to produce results.
The Federal government is the single largest source of financial assistance for postsecondary education. (By comparison, grants and scholarships from private sources account for less than 2% of all college financial aid). Federal financial aid is made up of grants (which do not need to be repaid), loans (which must be repaid, with interest), and Work-Study programs. Federal loans account for nearly half and federal grants represent another 15% of all available financial aid for postsecondary study. Because so much financial aid is awarded as loan money, students and their families should be careful not to bite off more loan debt than they can comfortably handle. (Information specialists who staff the US Department of Education’s financial aid hot line, at 1-800-433-3243, can answer questions about the aid programs and provide estimates of monthly loan repayment amounts based on commonly used schedules.)
Most federal financial aid is awarded on the basis of the applicant’s financial need. Financial need is formulated by comparing the student’s educational expenses with the amount of money the student’s family can be expected to contribute. The expected family contribution is determined by a formula that considers the family’s income and assets, size and basic living expenses.
Students should be aware that poor performance in college may endanger their continued eligibility for federal student aid. Students with learning disabilities will want to make certain that they are receiving the necessary accommodations to ensure an equal opportunity for success in the classroom. Students who encounter difficulty or feel they are falling behind in their schoolwork should ask for help. As their best and only self-advocates, they should not delay in notifying the appropriate faculty and the Office for Disability Support Services of their concerns. Also, students should be mindful of the deadlines at the beginning of each semester for adding or dropping classes without financial penalty.
In addition to federal financial aid programs, state agencies for higher education are a key piece in the financial aid puzzle. These agencies generally offer a variety of need-based and non-need-based grants, loans and work-study packages. Contact information for granting institutions within each state can be found at www.ed.gov. While most states require only the completed FAFSA to determine an award package, several require the completion of additional applications.
Students with learning disabilities may also be eligible to receive assistance from their state office for Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) services, whose mission is to provide the counseling and training necessary for clients with disabilities to become employable. In some instances, the VR counselor will approve of college-level study as an appropriate activity in a client’s plan to become employed. If so, VR might provide tuition assistance or help with additional college costs, such as room and board, transportation expenses, or books and supplies. Students must meet with a VR counselor to determine their eligibility for services. Visit NICHCY to locate the central VR office in your home state. Or, look in the government pages of your local phone book under Vocational Rehabilitation Services, Division of Rehabilitation Services or Office of Vocational Rehabilitation to locate the VR office in your area.
Finally, colleges and universities offer additional financial aid resources, including merit and need-based scholarships, loans and Work-Study. Students seeking financial assistance should contact the financial aid offices at the schools to which they are applying. Financial aid offices frequently have prepared packets of information describing any available state, local, and campus-based financial aid as well as information about any forms and applications students must submit to be considered.
Once a student has completed and filed the FAFSA, and has contacted their state agency for higher education, the local VR office, and the financial aid offices at chosen colleges, they may then wish to look for additional funding. The Internet is the best place to begin the search. There are a number of online databases where students can register a detailed profile of their heritage, high-school performance, talents, interests, achievements, and other characteristics. The profile is then compared with database listings of available grants and scholarships and the user is notified of any scholarships for which they might be eligible.
- Obtain the FAFSA, either from the high school guidance counselor, or from the Internet.
- Send the completed FAFSA form as soon after January 1 as possible – forms sent before the first of the year are not valid.
- Keep track of college application deadlines; they differ from school to school. Keep a record of the dates each application was sent.
- Keep in touch with the college financial aid offices during the application process. Verify that they have received your application and are processing your financial aid package.
- Students who are clients of VR should verify that their counselor is in touch with the financial aid offices at the colleges of their choice.
- Be on time in filling out application forms.
- Check all completed forms for accuracy.
- Keep copies of each completed application form in the event that forms are lost in the mail or during processing.
In addition to the web-based resources described above, students wishing to learn more about options to finance postsecondary education should contact the HEATH Resource Center at 800-544-3284 to request a copy of Creating Options: A Resource on Financial Aid Options for Students with Disabilities. This annually revised paper describes federal, state, and private funding sources, and lists numerous print and Internet resources on the topic.
Gardner, Daniel (2000, December). Students with LD and the Search for Financial Aid: A Discussion of Options and Resources. The George Washington University HEATH Resource Center Website, [ http://www.heath.gwu.edu/ ]www.heath.gwu.edu ). HEATH Resource Center on Postsecondary Education for Individuals with Disabilities, 2134 G Street NW, Suite 220, Washington D.C. 20037. 202-973-0904. Phone. 1-800-544-3284 (toll-free phone) Fax 202-973-0908. | <urn:uuid:2036b9bd-67f3-4f62-802d-ced558bc0f5d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ldonline.org/article/6199/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00077-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955637 | 1,797 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Arctic shipping code, regulating navigation in the high Arctic, where maritime traffic is expected to increase as the ice cap recedes, is due to be implemented in 2016 as confirmed by International Maritime Organization (IMO).
Shipping along the Arctic northern sea route is set to grow more than 30 – fold over the next eight years and could account for a quarter of the cargo traffic between Europe and Asia by 2030.
It is predicted for the code to be operational in 2015 and to be fully implemented in 2016. The code aims to ensure safe navigation in fragile ecological environment, where infrastructure is few and help in case of an accident is far away.
The new code will govern all technical requirements covering design and operations. It will ensure the competence of seafarers.
By implementing the international polar code, IMO makes sure that vessels will not be allowed to navigate in the Arctic waters unless seafarers on board are well trained.
Opening of the Arctic waters caused by the global warming will increase the usage of high northern passages. Read more about the future of the Arctic shipping on Shipping Portlet – comprehensive gateway to Arctic shipping information on the internet. | <urn:uuid:53b68b8d-5762-483e-a6d9-4946b3130a58> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://arcticportal.org/news/21-shipping-news/1050-arctic-shipping-code-seen-in-place-by-2016- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402699.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00164-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932866 | 229 | 2.734375 | 3 |
People seek consistency in their lives.
People are sensitive to contradictions and
Dissonance (discomfort, guilt, doubt) fosters
Rules of Consistency
People Expect Consistency: “My behavior
is consistent with my self- concept”
Inconsistencies Create Dissonance
-- Uncomfortable and tense experiences
-- Stress-like physiology
-- If dissonance was a pill, would
you buy it?
Dissonance fosters the desire for consistency
-- Dissonance can be
reduced by changing one’s perception of the relevant behavior .
-- Dissonance can be reduced
by changing perception of one’s self.
Planning Is Important
Get and Hold Internal Attribution
-- Free Choice
-- No Rewards
-- No External Excuse (e.g., external
cause or blame)
Cause Negative Inconsistency
-- Get a behavioral commitment.
should actually do the inconsistency (the inconsistent behavior)
-- Let the person(s) do the work.
criticize the person’s "stupidity."
Focus on Behavior, not Self Concept
-- Let attitude change toward Behavior
be your Goal
-- Avoid direct attacks on Self Concept
Worse Is Best: more inconsistency, more
dissonance, more change
Interesting Explanation for Counter-Intuitive
-- Initiation, Military boot camp, Collegel
-- Abusive Relationships
-- Relatively Small Advertising Effects
Internal and External Attribution
Consequences of Failed Persuasion
of an Attitude
Attitude = one's evaluative orientation
toward a person, thing, idea, etc.
Do you like Shredded Wheat?
Will you vote for Al Gore for president?
Do you prefer lecture course or seminars?
What's your favorite Friday evening activity?
Is Seinfeld funny?
Often studied as changing people's attitudes
Goal is usually to change their behavior
Attitude-behavior link too often is
Communication focuses on noncoercive
Most real situations are partly coercive
How would you define coercion? Voluntary?
Think about choice within constraints
Point: attitude change (persuasion) is mediated
by judgmental processes and effects. Put differently, persuasion
occurs at the end of the process where a person understands a message then
compares the position it advocates to the person's position on that issue.
A person's position
on an issue is dependent on:
the person's most preferred position (his/her
the person's judgment of the various alternatives
(spread across their latitudes of acceptance, rejection, and noncommitment)
the person's level of ego-involvement with
Levels of attitudinal statements
1. Most acceptable to me: A "best guess."
2. Acceptable to me: The set of these
attitudinal statements comprise my Latitude of Acceptance (LoA)
3. Whatever (Lattitude of Indifference
4. Unacceptable to me: The set of these
attitudinal statements comprise my Latitude of Rejection (LoR)
5. Most unacceptable to me
representation of attitudes
Social Judgment Theory says:
Not just a single point: "This is where I
Need to know range of acceptable options.
Need to know what is objectionable.
Messages in LoA seen as closer to your X than
they may be--easy to nestle in with them
Messages in LoR seen as farther from your
X than they may be--no felt need to seriously consider these messages
Adjust our attitude according to where messages
falls In LoA attitude moves toward message
In LoR attitude moves away from message
How much does this attitude matter to you?
How important is it to you that you be right?
How much is your identity tied up in the concept?
Think about how identity and attitudes go
How does being certain affect your attitude
For today I'll assume certainty = short LoA
According to Social Judgment Theory can only
influence within LoA
If that's true, high certainty people are
less subject to influence.
Elaboration Likelihood Model
What if the attitude object is yourself?
Self-Esteem is the attitude you have toward
What about other self-judgments?
What about neutral judgments?
Prefer blues or reds?
Quiet or rowdy?
Point: The strength and durability of attitude change
depends upon the extent to which people people think about (elaborate on)
the contents of persuasive communication.
Elaboration Likelihood Model . . .
is an approach to understanding the persuasion
process which illustrates the decision-making path to belief, attitude,
and behavior change.
and Attitude Change May Take One of Two Routes
Central Route to Persuasion
The Central Route to persuasion is when the
receiver has high-involvement information processing-- whether the person
ponders the content and logic of message.
Central route leads to more enduring attitude
The Peripheral Route to persuasion is when
the receiver has low-involvement information processing-- persuasion depends
on nonmessage factors.
Peripheral Route to Persuasion
The receiver attends more carefully to the
message being received and compares it to his or her own attitudinal position.
Likely generates a number of cognitive responses
to the communication.
Central Cues refer to ideas and supporting
data that bear directly upon the quality of the arguments developed in
Theory of Reasoned Action
Cognitive responses are much less likely to
occur, because the receiver is not carefully considering the pros and cons
of the issue.
Peripheral persuasion cues include such factors
as the attractiveness and expertise of the source, the mere number of the
arguments presented, and the positive or negative stimuli that form the
context within which the message was presented (e.g., pleasant music).
This theory proposes that human behavior
is influenced by two factors:
Action and Social Learning
attitudes towards the behavior
the influence of social environment and general
subjective norms on the behavior. Social norms are determined by examples
that significant others set for us and by the attitudes they convey to
According to TRA, we develop attitudes
toward behavior and understand social norms through learning. Social
learning assumptions are:
Behavior dynamically influences the environment
and personal constructs.
Likewise, the environment and personal characteristics
affect each other and the person's behavior.
For a person to perform a particular behavior
s/he needs to know what the behavior is and know that he/she has the skills
to do the behavior. Individuals learn what to expect through their own
experience and through their social groups.
Individuals act in their self interest to
get likely outcomes they value.
Individuals learn through imitating the behavior
of others around them.
Individuals learn through reinforcements and
rewards they receive from their behavior. | <urn:uuid:a5764718-37e9-4479-9570-47e4613bca8e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/comm321/gwalker/influence.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00003-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.886946 | 1,465 | 2.84375 | 3 |
There are 23 miles of railroad in the United States.
Samuel Morse sends the first long-distance telegraph message from Supreme Court chambers in Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, ushering in a new era in communication.
President Millard Fillmore signs the first Railroad Land Grant Act. By encouraging railroad construction in undeveloped territories, particularly in the South and West, the government hopes to attract settlers, increase taxable wealth, and unify and strengthen the growing nation.
There are now 9,000 miles of railroad in the United States.
Telegraphs are now used for dispatching trains.
The growing railroad industry attracts energetic young employees like the Scottish immigrant Andrew Carnegie, who launches his career at the Pennsylvania Railroad as a $35-per-month telegraph operator.
In England, Henry Bessemer develops the Bessemer converter, which enables steel to be manufactured inexpensively, an accomplishment for which he is knighted in 1879. The process will be introduced in Troy, New York, nine years later.
There are now 30,000 miles of railroad in the United States.
The Civil War begins. It will be the first war in which railroads play a significant role in transporting soldiers and equipment.
Congress authorizes the construction of a transcontinental railroad with federal land grants under the first Pacific Railway Act. The Union Pacific will build westward from Omaha, the Central Pacific eastward from Sacramento. In addition, the legislation grants the railroads 10 sections of public domain lands on both sides of the railway. Two years later, the second Pacific Railway Act doubles the size of federal land grants.
The first domestic steel rails are produced. Steel rails are costly; only the lines with heavy traffic can afford to put them in place. By 1890, the majority of all railroad mileage will be laid with steel rails.
The first railroad sleeping car, designed by George Pullman, appears in the United States. When one of Pullman's cars is attached to the funeral train carrying Abraham Lincoln's body in April, demand for them skyrockets. Two years later Pullman will introduce the refrigerator car.
In Jackson County, Indiana, the Reno Gang, a band of outlaw brothers, is credited with the first organized transcontinental train robbery in history. In the aftermath of the Civil War, law enforcement officials and passengers consider train robberies a serious threat.
Between 1869-1894, five transcontinental railroads will be completed. Transcontinental railroads of the time do not run from coast to coast, but from the Missouri River to the West Coast.
Twenty-three-year-old George Westinghouse receives a patent for the air brake, which allows trains to stop with fail-safe accuracy. Though skeptics initially ridicule the invention, which earns Westinghouse the nickname "Crazy George," it is quickly embraced, and in July Westinghouse forms the Westinghouse Air Brake Company to manufacture them.
Central Pacific workers build an astounding ten miles of track in one day, racing to meet the Union Pacific and complete the first transcontinental railroad.
Union Pacific and Central Pacific officials drive the golden spike at Promontory Summit, in the Utah territory. The spike is connected to a telegraph line, which sends out word of the first transcontinental rail route's completion.
There are now 53,000 miles of railroad in the United States.
The federal government discontinues its Railroad Land Grant policy.
Without any federal assistance, and facing enormous geographic hurdles, railroad builder James J. Hill commences the expansion of his St. Paul, Minnesota-based railroad (which will become the Great Northern Railway Company) across the rugged terrain of the Pacific Northwest.
Thomas Edison and English inventor Joseph Wilson Swan independently devise the first practical electric lights.
There are now 93,000 miles of railroad in the United States.
George Westinghouse perfects the first automatic electric block signal, which is designed to prevent train crashes, increase passenger safety, and move rail traffic more efficiently. Westinghouse's safety devices will have a tremendous impact on the railroad industry.
The General Time Convention, a railroad trade group seeking to simplify train schedules, replaces local time with standard time in the United States and Canada; four standard time zones go into effect. Prior to this, all trains had run on local times, with each community setting its time independently, which made scheduling connections virtually impossible.
Karl Friedrich Benz debuts what is considered the world's first practical automobile. Powered by a gas engine designed by Gottlieb Daimler, Benz's three-wheel vehicle is unlike all previous automobiles; gas engines had been added to horseless carriages, but Benz's vehicle is designed from the ground up.
In response to local and state governments' protests over unregulated rate increases among railroads, Congress passes the Interstate Commerce Act. The legislation establishes the Interstate Commerce Commission to control aspects of the railroad industry, the first in America to be subject to regulation by a federal government agency.
Nikola Tesla receives a patent for the first alternating-current electric motor. Tesla's motor, purchased by the Westinghouse Company, paves the way for the manufacture of cars and trucks.
Major engineering feats -- and geographical exploration -- continue to characterize the railroads' westward expansion. The Great Northern Railway's bold civil engineer, John F. Stevens, locates the Marias Pass in Montana and builds the railroad through it, traversing the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of 5,216 feet. His experiences in the West will prepare him to step in and salvage the largest civil engineering project of his day, the construction of the Panama Canal.
There are now 164,000 miles of railroad in the United States.
After 12 years of trying to improve on the efficiency of the steam engine, Rudolf Diesel debuts his internal-combustion engine. It runs on its own power for the first time, but will take another four years to perfect.
Ransom E. Olds receives a patent for the horseless carriage, but as yet it poses little threat to railroads. Automobiles are novelties for the wealthy; railway passenger traffic triples between 1896 and 1916.
Former slave and ex-railroad worker Andrew Jackson Beard invents and patents the Jenny Coupler, the device that does the dangerous job of hooking train cars together. Beard says that his invention will save countless lives and limbs.
There are now 193,000 miles of railroad in the United States.
Inventor-author Frederick Upham Adams convinces the Baltimore & Ohio to build the Adams Windsplitter, an early streamlined train that reaches 85 miles per hour on test runs. By the turn of the 20th century, Adams has been granted several patents for streamliner designs.
Dr. H. Nelson Jackson and his driver, Sewell H. Croker, complete the first coast-to-coast crossing of the North American continent by car. It takes them 65 days to go from San Francisco to New York.
Henry Ford founds the Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturing company with a goal of mass production done by machines, not men, wherever possible.
Orville and Wilbur Wright make their first airplane flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
After years of scattered use at different railroads, all-steel passenger cars are now placed in regular service across the country.
Billy Durant incorporates General Motors. Within days, GM buys Buick, and later Oldsmobile and Cadillac.
Henry Ford introduces his first Model T, a car that will achieve unparalleled popularity and change the automotive industry, and American life, forever.
There are now 240,000 miles of railroad in the United States.
Charles Kettering develops the first practical self-starter device in the United States.
Ford slashes prices on the Model T after opening his Highland Park, Michigan, assembly line. By 1930, the number of registered cars on U.S. roads will soar to 23 million.
Sheffield, England, metallurgist Harry Brearley invents stainless steel while investigating the corrosion of rifle barrels for a local small arms manufacturer. Based on its rustless quality and its resistance to food acids and germs, Brearley persuades cutlery manufacturers to adopt it.
National rail mileage peaks at 254,000 miles. Four years later, it will begin to drop, though only by 1,000 miles at first.
Under President Woodrow Wilson, the U.S. government nationalizes railroads. The government-run United States Railroad Administration, staffed primarily by railroad men, runs the railroads with the purpose of increasing wartime efficiency. The USRA will function for 26 months.
The Standard Time Act is passed, instituting the standard time zones that have been in use in America since 1883. The act also implements daylight savings time, in an effort to conserve resources for the war effort.
Competing for a £10,000 prize offered by London's Daily Mail for a successful transatlantic crossing, Englishmen John W. Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown make the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic from Newfoundland to Ireland in 16 hours, 27 minutes.
Passenger rail travel reaches its all-time high, with 1.2 million passengers boarding 9,000 inter-city trains and racking up 47 million passenger miles every day.
The Esch-Cummins Act, or the Transportation Act, of 1920 returns railroads to private management.
The Central Railroad of New Jersey uses the first diesel-electric locomotive in regular switching service for its operations to New York City.
Commercial airlines carry 5,800 passengers over the course of the year.
Train designers produce prototypes of air-conditioned passenger cars.
With the goal of using environmental resources wisely, Buckminster Fuller designs the Dymaxion House, a mass-produced, easily transportable, environmentally efficient house. According to his plans, the dwelling can be shipped anywhere in the world in a tube.
Charles Lindbergh becomes an international celebrity when he makes a successful transatlantic flight aboard his plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, traveling nonstop from New York to Paris in 33.5 hours.
The Iron Lung, the first artificial respirator designed to help polio victims breathe, is developed by Philip Drinker and Louis Shaw. Eight years later, the Iron Lung will figure prominently in Silver Streak, a film starring the Burlington Zephyr train.
Britain's premier train, the Royal Scot, sets the nonstop distance record for rail travel on a route from Glasgow to London. The English train will hold the record for six years, until the record-breaking run of the Zephyr.
Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic.
In Washington, the Great Northern Railway's Cascade Tunnel, begun in 1925, is completed. At close to eight miles, it is the longest railroad tunnel in the Western Hemisphere.
Greyhound Bus Lines begins service.
The U.S. stock market crashes. The crash occurs over a period of several weeks.
The country slides into a severe economic crisis, the Great Depression.
Ralph Budd, a protégé of John Stevens from railroad-expansion and Panama Canal days, takes control of the Burlington Railroad, which has been losing business to cars, buses, and airplanes since the late 1920s. The railroad has also been crumbling under the weight of the Depression. Between 1926 and 1929 the 11,000-mile railroad had lost a fifth of its passengers, and then between 1929 and 1931 lost half of what remained.
President Herbert Hoover's Reconstruction Finance Corporation, created to spur economic activity during the Depression, lends money to the railroads and other financial, agricultural, and industrial institutions. The government agency's scope will be expanded under Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, and will merge with other agencies to form the Federal Loan Agency in 1939. It will be disbanded in 1957 amid charges of political favoritism.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected to the first of his four presidential terms. Vowing to lead the nation out of the Depression, Roosevelt campaigns on a platform of new social programs and public works expenditures such as the CCC, and he promises to revive the rail industry.
Chicago's World's Fair, known as "A Century of Progress," opens and runs for two years. During the second year of the Fair, the Burlington Zephyr and the Union Pacific M-10,000 will attract hundreds of thousands of visitors and will help to usher in the era of professional industrial design, a field deeply influenced by the streamliner trains' integration of form and function.
Congress passes the Emergency Railroad Transportation Act, freezing railroad employment for three years. In his implementation of the new law, President Roosevelt names Joseph Eastman the Federal Coordinator of Transportation. He is given the task of eliminating duplicated services and facilities, and reducing costs wherever possible. Eastman will be instrumental in arranging funding for the railroads to build the next generation of streamliners.
Railroads introduce diesel locomotives for passenger service. Within seven years they will be used in freight service as well, and boxy, steam-powered locomotives, with their billowing clouds of white steam exhaust, will inexorably give way to sleek, internal combustion-powered trains.
The Union Pacific M-10,000, (or The City of Salina, as it was later named) embarks on a 12,000-mile coast-to-coast tour. Enormous crowds turn out across the nation to admire its streamlined look.
Having noticed that personal washing machines are a luxury many of his neighbors can not afford, J.F. Cantrell opens the first laundromat, in Fort Worth, Texas. Soon thereafter, household appliances will get a facelift as the popularity of streamline design grips America.
Completed in April, the Burlington Zephyr makes its triumphant nonstop "Dawn to Dusk" run from Denver to Chicago. Achieving an average -- and unprecedented -- 77.6 miles per hour, and hitting a top speed of 104 miles per hour, it amasses world speed records, as well as legions of fans.
The Zephyr is put into regular service between Lincoln, Nebraska, and Kansas City, Missouri. Despite double-digit unemployment in the farm belt, the train attracts so many riders that passengers must be turned away. The following year it will add a fourth car to meet the demand.
The film Silver Streak opens in the United States, capitalizing on the nation's infatuation with new train technology. The Burlington Zephyr plays a starring role in the film, charged with getting an Iron Lung to an ailing patient before it's too late.
The first Public Works Administration-funded streamliner, The Comet, makes its debut. Made for the New Haven Railroad, it runs between Boston and Providence and can reach speeds of up to 109 miles per hour. Despite the streamliner craze, The Comet is only one of a handful of new diesel trains, and diesels are still only used for passenger traffic; most railroads streamline their existing steam locomotives because updating old equipment costs less than purchasing new trains.
A year after it is put into service, the Burlington Zephyr is renamed the Pioneer Zephyr, to distinguish it from the other Zephyr trains that Burlington is adding to its roster.
With the ever-increasing popularity of Florida as a tourist destination, the Seaboard Railway inaugurates the Silver Meteor, which trims eight hours off the 33-hour run from New York to Florida. Despite the public's evident delight with streamliners, the railroads' spectacular promotional efforts, and steady technological improvements, the railroad industry still struggles.
With the threat of war in Europe, Burlington's Ralph Budd meets with President Roosevelt and Joe Eastman in the White House. Budd argues successfully against nationalization of the railroads, but agrees that railroads will be important to the wartime effort.
Britain and France declare war on Germany. President Roosevelt still hopes that the United States can retain its position of neutrality.
Railroad mileage in the United States drops to 233,000 miles.
The Union Pacific M-10,000 is retired from service.
In an effort to coordinate wartime transport, President Roosevelt names Ralph Budd Transportation Commissioner of the Advisory Commission to the Council of National Defense. Seven months later, as the war in Europe escalates, Budd is appointed Director of the Transportation Division in the newly formed Office of Emergency Management.
The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The United States enters the war the next day.
President Roosevelt sets up the Office of Defense Transportation and picks Joe Eastman to lead it. The ODT coordinates all transportation facilities for the war effort. To avoid a federal seizure of railroads, as happened during the First World War, the railroads cooperate completely.
Henry Ford halts production of nonmilitary vehicles as America enters the war. Many railroad companies will soon follow suit.
Heavy reliance on railroads during the war completely reverses the railroads' situation. Despite the wild success of streamliner trains, railroads had been underused during the Depression. Now they are in constant demand, as the only long-distance transport system that can handle heavy machinery and large numbers of people. Trains are run harder and longer, in order to transport soldiers, along with wartime cargo like jeeps and tanks, across the nation. At the same time, with raw manufacturing materials and labor diverted to the war effort, new train cars, equipment, and supplies for necessary repairs are all in short supply. By war's end, the railroads will be left in poor shape physically.
Under orders from President Roosevelt, the U.S. Army takes possession of the nation's railroads. Recent labor strikes have crippled wartime industries, and Roosevelt fears that rail workers, in a wage dispute with their owners, might be next. The dispute is settled in a few weeks, and the government returns the railroads to their private managers.
Railroads handle two-thirds of the nation's commercial passenger traffic. Yet the railroad industry fails to revitalize itself after the war, even though it invests millions in new passenger equipment. Over the next two decades, railroad passenger volume will steadily decline, from 790 million riders to 298 million, as people choose other means of transportation. Cars, which allow people to go directly from point to point, will explode in popularity. Airplanes will start to capture long-haul passenger traffic, also eating into the railroads' business.
The number of commercial airline passengers in the United States reaches 16.7 million.
U.S. railroad mileage, now at 224,000 miles, continues to drop.
Railroads make an expensive decision to convert their entire locomotive fleets to diesel power.
To service Americans' growing love for car travel, Holiday Inn opens the nation's first motel chain. Americans are increasingly taking car vacations, and the chain is an instant success.
The Federal Aid Highway Act authorizes the construction of an interstate highway system of more than 40,000 miles. Railroads and public transportation systems remain unsubsidized. This massive public works project will lead to a major shift in population from city to suburb, and to increased American reliance on the automobile.
For the first time, air travel boasts more passengers than rail travel, and airlines improve their appeal and their bottom lines by introducing jet airplanes. The following year the Federal Aviation Administration will be formed, after a series of midair collisions jeopardizes the burgeoning industry.
The ICC issues a report stating that the passenger train is becoming obsolete, and will "in all probability 'take its place in the transportation museum along with the stagecoach, the sidewheeler, and the steam locomotive.'"
Three months after it is removed from service, and 26 years to the day after its record-breaking run, the Pioneer Zephyr is presented to Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.
Congress creates Amtrak in an effort to relieve railroads of the burdens of passenger traffic. For the first time, the U.S. government will provide direct financial assistance to the rail passenger service. Having signed contracts with virtually all the privately owned railroads, Amtrak begins operation in 1971. Under Amtrak, passenger rail service continues to lose money, as it has since the 1930s.
The Staggers Act is passed. Though it does not completely deregulate the rail industry (the ICC still retains control over setting rates), the legislation triggers massive reforms by allowing railroads to function competitively, placing increased reliance on the marketplace and not on regulation.
It was the deadliest workplace accident in New York City’s history.
The impact of tuberculosis in America, once the deadliest killer in human history.
Though first seen only as an expensive luxury, Alexander Graham Bell's telephone soon transformed American life and became a necessity.
Native Alaskans, oil company representatives, environmentalists, politicians, and others tell the story of the 800-mile pipeline.
The worst epidemic in American history killed over 600,000 Americans during World War I.
The contradictory history of a dam that became a statement of American power and prestige.
They were the first to brave the unknown.
The most daring and innovative accomplishment at the turn of the 20th century. | <urn:uuid:977b50cf-b1ff-45c4-9861-86881cb16a8c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/timeline/streamliners/?flavour=mobile | 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 | 0.936584 | 4,366 | 3.5625 | 4 |
A novel application of supramolecular chemistry allows molecules to join in only one direction, providing a new way to control the shape of large molecules.
Archive for the 'Nano' Category
A lipid bilayer supported by a mica surface assisted the mobile self-assembly of DNA nanostructures of various shapes into micrometer-scale 2D lattices.
A free to read online edition of the classic 3-volume physics text developed from Richard Feynman’s legendary Cal Tech physics lectures, specially designed for online reading, has been made available by the California Institute of Technology and the Feynman Lectures Website.
Prof. Art Olson discussed how we understand what we cannot see directly, how we integrate data from different sources, and how to develop software tools to move forward.
Optimized Geek podcast featured Christine Peterson on the future of nanotechnology, human lifespan, artificial intelligence, finding love, and other topics.
Hijacking a viral method of replicating circular genomes, ball-of-yarn-like DNA clews are used to transport the protein and guide RNA molecules needed for gene editing into the cell nucleus.
DNA strands decorating cell membranes like ‘Velcro’ program the adhesion of cells to other cells or to extracellular matrices to build tiny tissue models.
A micromotor covered with the enzyme carbonic anhydrase zips through water rapidly converting dissolved carbon dioxide to the bicarbonate ion, which can then be precipitated as calcium carbonate.
The ability to dope graphene nanoribbons with boron atoms to atomic precision opens a range of possible new applications, from chemical sensing to nanoelectronics to photocatalysis to battery electrodes.
Designing a small DNA origami that can fold in several almost equivalent ways demonstrates how understanding and guiding the folding pathway can improve the efficiency of the folding process, potentially leading in more complex situations to higher yields of the desired nanostructure and fewer misfolded structures.
An extensive review of artificial molecular machines, their large-amplitude motions, and the changes these motions produce, emphasizes small molecules and the central role of chemistry in their design and operation.
Dr. Alex Wissner-Gross surveyed the interplay between programmability of bits and atoms in the development of technology, asking how the recent successes with programming bits can help nanotechnology progress in programming atoms.
Simple molecular switches based upon bistable mechanically interlocked molecules can be incorporated within pre-assembled metal organic frameworks and addressed electrochemically.
A review of molecular parts that act as switches, motors, and ratchets illuminates similarities between artificial and biological molecular machines and argues that useful applications are coming.
Adding nanotechnology-based optoelectronic sensors to human cells cultured on a chip keeps the cells healthy long enough to replace animal testing with a human liver-on-a-chip.
A pliers-shaped molecule in which two covalently linked naphthalene moieties serve as the hinge connecting the two halves of the pliers, and each naphthalene connects the hydrophobic handle with the hydrophilic jaw of that half, opens and closes in response to surprisingly little energy applied to a molecular monolayer.
Analysis of multiple diffraction images provides high contrast, high quality, full field 3D imaging of surfaces illuminated by extreme ultraviolet photons from a tabletop laser.
A vertical electrical field from dopant atoms of potassium added to the surface of a few stacked layers of phosphorene tunes the band gap of black phosphorous, possibly leading to novel electronic and optoelectronic devices.
A new set of design rules enables constructing any wireframe nanostructure, which may lead to new medical applications and new nanomachines.
Modeling DNA strand displacement cascades according to three simple rules can in principle mimic the temporal dynamics of any other chemical system, presenting a method to model regulatory networks even more complicated than those of biology. | <urn:uuid:172914d0-1237-4ad9-a36a-da7a6009a7d4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?cat=76&paged=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00068-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.891875 | 817 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Foetuses cannot feel pain because it requires mental development that only occurs outside the womb, says a report in the British Medical Journal.
The debate about whether foetuses feel pain is long-running
Dr Stuart Derbyshire, of the University of Birmingham, said a baby's actions and relationships with carers enabled it to process the subjectivity of pain.
Pro-life groups say foetuses respond to stimuli from 20 weeks.
The US is considering legislation to make doctors tell women seeking an abortion it will cause the foetus pain.
It is also being suggested that, if the pregnancy is over 22 weeks, foetuses should be given pain-relieving drugs.
Dr Derbyshire, who is linked to pro-choice groups, said there were various stages of a foetus' gestation at which certain parts of the body's pain "alarm system" developed.
He concludes that pathways in the brain needed to process pain responses and hormonal stress responses are in place by 26 weeks.
But he says the crucial factor is the environmental difference between the womb - where the placenta provides a chemical environment to encourage the foetus to sleep - and that of a newborn baby, who is exposed to a wide range of stimuli and environments.
"Pain is something that comes from our experiences and develops due to stimulation and human interaction.
"It involves concepts such as location, feelings of unpleasantness and having the sensation of pain.
"Pain becomes possible because of a psychological development that begins at birth when the baby is separated from the protected atmosphere of the womb and is stimulated into wakeful activity."
Dr Derbyshire said whether or not foetuses felt pain did not affect the abortion debate because it did not change the moral viewpoints of the pro-choice and pro-life lobby, or the legality of terminations.
But he said: "Avoiding a discussion of foetal pain with women requesting abortions is not misguided paternalism but a sound policy based on good evidence that foetuses cannot experience pain."
And he said giving foetuses painkilling drugs - which would have to be given through the placenta - involved procedures which may expose the woman to unnecessary risks and distress.
But Anna Pringle, a spokeswoman for the pro-life charity Life, said: "This complex debate has been ongoing for a long time.
"Of course, if the unborn child can feel pain - as has been suggested by other research - then it makes abortion all the more horrifying.
"What we know for certain is that by the age of 20 weeks unborn children can respond to external aural stimuli such as music and conversation, and the 4-D ultrasound techniques used by Professor Stuart Campbell have shown that a child also responds to physical stimuli."
But she agreed that the issue of whether foetuses felt pain was irrelevant to the abortion debate.
"A human person is a human person, and as such has the right to life, which is quite literally fundamental to all other rights." | <urn:uuid:eaca3958-4c17-48ee-b655-1cafd6013329> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4905892.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00045-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95442 | 617 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Having dealt with light quantity, conside-ration must be given to the quality of light, the difference between diffuse light and directed light being one of the most important aspects. We are familiar with these different forms of light through our everyday experience with daylight – direct sunlight when the sky is clear and diffuse light when the sky is overcast.
Characteristic qualities are the uniform, almost shadowless light we experience under an overcast sky, in contrast to the dramatic interplay of light and shade in bright sunlight.
Diffuse light is produced by extensive areas that emit light. These may be extensive, flat surfaces, such as the sky in the day-time, or, in the field of artificial lighting, luminous ceilings. In interior spaces diffuse light can also be reflected from illuminated ceilings and walls.
This produces very uniform, softlighting, which illuminates the entire space and makes objects visible, but produces reduced shadows or reflections.
Directed light is emitted from point light sources. In the case of daylight this is the sun,in artificial lighting compact light sources. The essential properties of directed light are the production of shadows on objects and structured surfaces, and reflections on specular objects. These effects are particularly noticeable when the general lighting consists of only a small portion of diffuse light.
Daylight, for example, has a more or less fixed ratio of sunlight to sky light (directed light to diffuse light) of 5:1 to 10:1. In interior spaces, on the other hand, we can determine the ratio of directed and diffuse light we require or prefer.
The portion of diffuse light decreases when ceiling and walls receive too little light, or when the light falling on a surface is absorbed to a large extent by the low reflectance of the environment.
This can be exploited for dramatic effects through accent lighting. This technique is often applied for the presentation of objects, but is only used in architectural lighting when the concept intends to create a dramatic spatial effect.
Directed light not only produces shadows and reflections; it opens up new horizons for the lighting designer because of the choice of beam angles and aiming directions that he has at his disposal.
Where as the light emitted by diffuse or exposed light sources always has an effect on the entire space, in the case of tightly controlled light, the effect of the light relates directly to the position of the luminaire.
Here lies one of the most progressive aspects of lighting technology. Whereas in the era of the candle and the oil lamp the light was bound to the immediate vicinity of the luminaire, it is now possible to use light in other parts of the space at any distance from where the light source is located.
It is possible to use lighting effects at specific illuminance levels on exactly defined areas from practically any location within a space.
Another basic feature of the world around us, and one that we take absolutely for granted, is its three-dimensional quality.
One essential objective regarding visual perception must therefore be to provide information about this aspect of our environment. Three-dimensionality comprises a number of individual areas, from the extension of the space around us to the location and orientation of objects within the space, down to their spatial form and surface structure.
Perception of the three-dimensional character of our environment involves processes that relate to our physiology and perceptual psychology. The shaping of our environment through light and shade is of prime importance for our perception of spatial forms and surface structures.
This has been referred to, but the significance for human perception must be analysed.
If we view a sphere under completely diffuse light we cannot perceive its spatial form. It appears to be no more than a circular area. Only when directed light falls on the sphere – i.e. when shadows are created, can we recognise its spatial quality.
The same applies to the way we perceive surface structures. These are difficult to recognise under diffuse light. The texture of a surface only stands out when light is directed onto the surface at an angle and produces shadows.
Only through directed light are we able to gain information about the three-dimensional character of objects. Just as it is impossible for us to retrieve this information when there is no directed light at all, too much shaping can conceal information. This happens when intensely directed light casts such stark shadows that parts of an object are concealed by the darkness.
The task of lighting design is therefore to create a suitable ratio of diffuse light to directed light to meet the requirements of each individual situation. Specific visual tasks, where the spatial quality or the surface structure is of prime importance, require lighting that emphasises shapes and forms. Only in situations where spatial quality and surface structure are of no importance, or if they are disturbing factors, can completely diffuse lighting be used.
As a rule suitable proportions of diffuse light and directed light are required.
In some standards for workplace lighting there is a criterion for the modelling effect of a lighting installation. It is referred to as the modelling factor, which is defined as the ratio of cylindrical illuminance to horizontal illuminance. When planning the application of directed and diffuse light it is advisable to rely on our fundamental experience of daylight with regard to the direction and colour of the light.
Direct sunlight either comes from above or from the side, but never from below. The colour of sunlight is clearly warmer than that of diffuse sky light. Consequently, lighting that comprises directed light falling diagonally from above with a lower colour temperature than the diffuse general lighting will be felt to be natural.
It is, of course, possible to apply light from other directions and with other colour temperature combinations, but this will lead to effects that are especially striking or strange.
Another feature of directed light alongside its modelling effect is brilliance.
The light source itself will be seen as a brilliant point of light. A good example of this is the effect of a candlelight in evening light. Objects that refract this light are perceived as specular, e.g. illuminated glass, polished gems or crystal chandeliers. Brilliance is also produced when light falls on highly glossy surfaces, such as porcelain, glass, paint or varnish, polished metal or wet materials.
Since sparkling effects are produced by reflections or refraction, they are not primarily dependent on the amount of light applied, but mostly on the luminous intensity of the light source. A very compact light source (e.g. a low-voltage halogen lamp) can create reflections of far greater brilliance than a less compact lamp of greater luminous power.
Brilliance can be a means of attracting attention to the light source, lending a space an interesting, lively character.
When applied to the lighting of objects brilliance accentuates their spatial quality and surface structure – similar to modelling – because sparkling effects are mainly evident along edges and around the curves on shiny objects.
Accentuating form and surface structure using brilliance enhances the quality of the illuminated objects and their surroundings. Sparkling effects are in fact generally used in practice to make objects or spaces more interesting and prestigious. If an environment – a festival hall, a church or a lobby – is to appear especially festive, this can be achieved by using sparkling light sources: candlelight or low-voltage halogen lamps.
Directed light can also be applied with sparkling effect for the presentation of specific objects – making them appear more precious. This applies above all for the presentation of refractive or shiny materials, i.e. glass, ceramics, paint or metal. Brilliance is effective because it attracts our attention with the promise of information content. The information we receive may only be that there is a sparkling light source.
But it may also be information regarding the type and quality of a surface, through the geometry and symmetry of the reflections.
If the brilliance possesses no informative value, then it is found to be disturbing. Disturbing brilliance is referred to as glare. This applies in particular when it arrises as reflected glare.
In offices, reflections on clear plastic sleeves, computer monitors or glossy paper are not interpreted as information (brilliance), but as disturbing glare, disturbing as it is felt that the information we require is being concealed behind the reflections.
Resource: Handbook of Lighting Design – ERCO Edition (Rüdiger Ganslandt, Harald Hofmann) | <urn:uuid:4e490d6e-b357-4676-9b96-477fe29869d1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://electrical-engineering-portal.com/difference-between-diffuse-and-directed-light | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398216.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00029-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935727 | 1,697 | 3.40625 | 3 |
February 10, 2003: An aging star's last hurrah is creating a flurry of glowing knots of gas that appear to be streaking through space in this close-up image of the Dumbbell Nebula, taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The Dumbbell, a nearby planetary nebula residing more than 1,200 light-years away, is the result of an old star that has shed its outer layers in a unique display of color.See the rest:
The Hubble image of the Dumbbell shows many knots, but their shapes vary. Some look like fingers pointing at the central star, located just off the upper left of the image; others are isolated clouds, with or without tails. Their sizes typically range from 11 - 35 billion miles (17 - 56 billion kilometers), which is several times larger than the distance from the Sun to Pluto. Each contains as much mass as three Earths.
Dense knots of gas and dust seem to be a natural part of a planetary nebula's evolution. They form in the early stages, and their shape changes as the nebula expands. Similar knots have been discovered in other nearby planetary nebulae. The detection of these knots in all the nearby planetaries imaged by the Hubble telescope allows astronomers to hypothesize that these glowing objects may be a common feature in all planetary nebulae. | <urn:uuid:cbaf9764-bafe-4371-b056-a95caa73b00a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2003/06/results/100/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00106-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959288 | 271 | 3.53125 | 4 |
National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program
More Information about Urbanization
Effects of Urbanization on Stream Ecosystems | Nutrients National Synthesis Project | Pesticide National Synthesis Project | Volatile Organic Compounds National Synthesis Project
Sorted by: | Publication Date (newest first) | Publication Date (oldest first) | Author (A-Z) | Author (Z-A) | Title (A-Z) | Title (Z-A) |
Showing results 201 to 226 of 242.
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Spruill, Timothy B., Harned, Douglas A., Ruhl, Peter M., Eimers, Jo Leslie, McMahon, Gerard, Smith, Kelly E., Galeone, David R., and Woodside, Michael D., 1998, Water quality in the Albemarle-Pamlico Drainage Basin, North Carolina and Virginia, 1992-95: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1157, 36 p. Available Online
Wall, Gary R., Riva-Murray, Karen, and Phillips, Patrick J., 1998, Water quality in the Hudson River Basin, New York and adjacent states, 1992-95: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1165, 32 p. Available Online
Wilhelm, Lance J., and Maluk, Terry L., 1998, Fecal-indicator bacteria in surface waters of the Santee River Basin and Coastal Drainages, North and South Carolina, 1995-98: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet FS-085-98, 6 p. Available Online
Anderholm, Scott K., 1997, Water-quality assessment of the Rio Grande Valley, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas--Shallow ground-water quality and land use in the Albuquerque area, central New Mexico, 1993: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 97-4067, 73 p. Available Online
Ator, Scott W., and Ferrari, and Matthew J., 1997, Nitrate and selected pesticides in ground water of the Mid-Atlantic Region: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 97-4139, 8 p. Available Online
Baehr. Arthur L., Stackelberg, Paul E., Baker, Ronald J., Kauffman, Leon J., Hopple, Jessica A., and Ayers, Mark A., 1997, Design of a sampling network to determine the occurrence and movement of MTBE and other organics through the urban hydrologic cycle: American Chemical Society Division of Environmental Chemistry Preprints of Papers, 213th ACS National Meeting, San Francisco, California, April 13-17,1997, vol. 37, no. 1, p 400-401.
DeVivo, J.C., Couch, C.A., and Freeman, B.J., 1997, Use of a preliminary index of biotic integrity in urban streams around Atlanta, Georgia: in Hatcher, K.J., ed., U.S. Geological Survey reprints from proceedings of the 1997 Georgia Water Resources Conference, March 20-22, 1997 The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, p. 40-43.
Hinkle, Stephen R., 1997, Quality of shallow ground water in alluvial aquifers of the Willamette Basin, Oregon, 1993-95: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 97-4082-B, 48 p. Available Online
Hippe, Daniel J., Wipperfurth, Caryl J., Hopkins, Evelyn A., Frick, Elizabeth A., and Wangsness, David J., 1997, Water-quality issues related to urban development of the upper Chattahoochee River watershed: Everyone lives downstream: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report (Poster) 96-4302, 1 p. Available Online
Kolpin, Dana W., Squillace, P.J., Barbash, J.E., and Zogorski, J.S., 1997, Pesticides and volatile organic compounds in shallow urban ground water of the United States: in Chilton, J., ed., Ground water in the urban environment: A.A. balkema, Netherlands, p. 469-474.
Lopes, Thomas J., and Price, Curtis V., 1997, Study plan for urban stream indicator sites of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 97-25, 15 p. Available Online
Moring, J. Bruce and Rose, Donna R., 1997, Occurrence and concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in semipermeable membrane devices and clams in three urban streams of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, Texas: Chemosphere, vol. 34, no. 3, p. 551-566. doi: 10.1016/S0045-6535(96)00391-8� Available Online
Mullaney, John R., and Grady, Stephen J., 1997, Hydrogeology and water quality of a surficial aquifer underlying an urban area, Manchester, Connecticut: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 97-4195, 40 p. Available Online
O'Brien, Anne, 1997, Presence and distribution of trace elements in streambed sediments, New Jersey: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet FS-049-97, 4 p. Available Online
O'Brien, Anne K., 1997, Presence and distribution of trace elements in New Jersey streambed sediments: American Water Resources Association, vol. 33, no. 2, p 387-403. doi: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.1997.tb03518.x Available Online
Pankow, James F., Thomson, Neil R., Johnson, Richard L., Baehr, Arthur L., and Zogorski, John S., 1997, The urban atmosphere as a non-point source for the transport of MTBE and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to shallow groundwater: Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 31, no. 10, p. 2821-2828. doi: 10.1021/es970040b Available Online
Schmidt, Arthur R., and Blanchard, Stephen F., 1997, Surface-water-quality assessment of the Upper Illinois River Basin in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin--Results of investigations through April 1992: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 96-4223, 63 p. Available Online
Squillace, P.J., Zogorski, J.S., and Price, C.V., 1997, Urban land-use study plan for the National Water-Quality Assessment Program, U.S. Geological Survey: in Chilton, John and others., eds., Congress on Groundwater in the Urban Environment, Nottingham, United Kingdom, Sept. 21-27, 1997 [Proceedings]: Netherlands, A.A. Balkema, p. 665-670.
Stackelberg, Paul E., Hopple, Jessica A., and Kauffman, Leon J., 1997, Occurrence of nitrate, pesticides, and volatile organic compounds in the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer system, southern New Jersey: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 97-4241, 8 p. Available Online
Anderson, Chauncey W., Rinella, Frank A., and Rounds, Stewart A., 1996, Occurrence of selected trace elements and organic compounds and their relation to land use in the Willamette River Basin, Oregon, 1992-94: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 96-4234, 68 p. Available Online
Bruce, B.W., and McMahon, P.B., 1996, Shallow ground-water quality beneath a major urban center: Denver, Colorado, USA: Journal of Hydrology, vol. 186, no. 1-4, p. 129-151. doi: 10.1016/S0022-1694(96)03031-4 Available Online
Delzer, Gregory, C., Zogorski, John S., Lopes, Thomas J., and Bosshart, Robin L., 1996, Occurrence of the gasoline oxygenate MTBE and BTEX compound in urban stormwater in the United States, 1991-1995: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 96-4145, 6 p. Available Online
Fenelon, Joseph M., and Moore, Rhett C., 1996, Occurrence of pesticides in ground water in the White River Basin, Indiana, 1994-95: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet FS-084-96, 4 p. Available Online
Kimbrough, Robert A., and Litke, David W., 1996, Pesticides in streams draining agricultural and urban areas in Colorado: Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 30, no. 3 1996, p. 908-916. doi: 10.1021/es950353b Available Online
Land, L.F., 1996, Water-quality assessment of the Trinity River Basin, Texas--Pesticides in urban and agricultural streams, 1993-95: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet FS-178-96, 2 p. Available Online
Go to page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | <urn:uuid:c7b17927-f6df-45d3-83b8-71673d4f4efd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/bib/pubs.php?start=201&sort=pub_date&updn=DESC&cat=14 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00129-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.663256 | 1,968 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Medha Chandra, PAN North America
415) 981-6205 x327, firstname.lastname@example.org
Thursday, April 21, 2011
WHO Assessment: DDT use for malaria a concern for human health
The World Health Organization (WHO) has published an assessment of the risks to human health associated with the use of DDT for malaria control. The assessment shows that exposure to DDT in treated homes can pose a serious risk to human health. Of particular concern are women of childbearing age who live in houses sprayed with DDT. The WHO assessment emphasises that best practices need to be implemented to better protect affected people.
National health authorities are allowed to spray the indoor walls of houses with DDT as stated in the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and under the supervision of the WHO. Today, there are about 11 countries using DDT – most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa. Under the Stockholm Convention, the global community has committed to assisting these countries adopt safer and more effective alternative malaria control approaches, to reduce and eventually eliminate reliance on DDT worldwide.
Exposure above level of concern
The WHO assessment confirms that people living in houses sprayed with DDT face health risks. In some areas where DDT was sprayed, the “exposure in treated residences has been higher than levels of concern”. WHO also finds that exposure can vary from location to location. Of particular concern are “women of childbearing age who live in DDT IRS-treated houses”.
One study from South Africa is highlighted, showing that newborn boys have an increased risk of deformation if their mothers lived in houses sprayed with DDT. Many previous studies have shown that mothers can transfer DDT to their unborn child during pregnancy and to newborns via breastmilk. According to WHO, DDT can also be acutely poisonous to children - high doses are associated with convulsions and even death.
“After having read the WHO assessment, it can no longer be said that DDT is safe,” notes Dr. Hans Rudolf Herren, member of the DDT Expert Group of the Stockholm Convention. “The international community should implement and give all support to an effective malaria control without the use of DDT”.
Countries to decide on stricter rules governing DDT use in Geneva
The WHO assessment will be discussed at the Fifth Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention, to be held between April 25 and 29 in Geneva. At this session, the international community will re-evaluate the continued need for the use of DDT for malaria control, and will consider stricter controls on the use of the chemical, in response to recommendations from the Convention’s DDT Expert group.
In view of the evidence provided by the WHO regarding risks to human health, along with documentation of problems with illegal use and trading of DDT in some countries, NGOs around the world are calling onparticipants in next week’s meeting to ensure implementation of an improved set of stricter rules for the use of DDT.
“Tightened rules would mean an important step towards effective, safe, and environmentally sound malaria vector control,” says Andreas Schriber, CEO of Biovision, an NGO based in Switzerland and Kenya. “If all necessary measures are being implemented and accounted for, DDT will no longer be as cost-effective as it is claimed.”
“The WHO's new evaluation combined with the report of the Stockholm Convention's DDT Expert Group, which concluded that most countries using DDT don't have the capacity to properly manage it and many lack the capacity to comply with WHO guidelines, indicates that countries should rethink their use of DDT.“ says Karl Tupper of Pesticide Action Network.
Alternatives to DDT
Effective alternatives to DDT are available to control malaria, making reduced reliance on DDT a sound and urgent option. Evidence from countries such as Mexico and Kenya show that environmentally safe alternatives can be used, and have proven to be effective and efficient.
The International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) along with the Kenyan Ministry of Health and with support from Biovision, have been implementing environmentally sound Integrated Vector Control programmes in various parts of Kenya, which have lead to significant reductions in malaria prevalence both in rural and urban environments. Dr. Charles Mbogo, Senior Scientist at icipe, is convinced that “a detailed analysis of the local situation and the involvement and co-operation of local communities” is the key to successful malaria control programmes.
Malaria control should be in the hands of the local communities to be sustainable and successful. To this end, the Millennium Institute, together with icipe and with support from Biovision has been implementing a new program that is based on a system dynamics model. The model supports broad stakeholder participation in the decision making process on how best to manage the malaria problem at community level.
DDT continues to be used in malaria vector control, despite its risks to human health and the environment. National health authorities are permitted to use it to control populations of the malaria-transmitting anopheles mosquito as stated in the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and under the supervision of the World Health Organization. The WHO has conducted an expert consultation on impacts of DDT use for Indoor Residual Spraying in view of concerns about human health.
# # #
Photos and captions:
© Biovision (pictures can be used free of charge in connection with this press release): Dropbox Picture Gallery
© Laif : link
© Juda Ngwenya/ The Global Fund: c.f. www.faz.net
World Health Organization (2011). DDT in Indoor Residual Spraying: Human Health Aspects.www.who.int/ipcs/publications/ehc/ehc241.pdf
Bouwman H, van den Berg H, Kylin H (2011). DDT and Malaria Prevention: Addressing the Paradox. Environmental Health Perspectives, http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.1002127
Inquiries and information:
Medha Chandra, PAN International, Contact : email@example.com
Alexandra Pellanda, Communication, Biovision, Contact : Tel. +41 (0) 44 341 97 18, E-Mail : firstname.lastname@example.org
Available for statements and interviews:
Michael Brander, Project Manager, Biovision – Foundation for ecological Development, Switzerland, Contact : Tel. +41 (0) 44 341 97 18, Mobile: +41 (0) 78 775 48 18 E-Mail: email@example.com
Hans R. Herren (Dr.), President, Millennium Institute, USA, Tel. +41 (0) 44 341 97 18, Contact: firstname.lastname@example.org
Karl Tupper, Scientist, PAN International. Contact: email@example.com
This is a joint release of the following organizations:
Pesticide Action Network(PAN) is a network of over 600 participating nongovernmental organizations, institutions and individuals in over 90 countries working to replace the use of hazardous pesticides with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives. PAN was founded in 1982 and has five independent, collaborating Regional Centers in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America that implement its projects and campaigns. (www.pan-international.org)
Biovision was founded with the aim of sustainably improving life for people in Africa while conserving the environment as the basis for all life. Biovision Foundation is registered as a charitable organization in Switzerland. Biovision Foundation has for years been engaged in a positive campaign for malaria control using ecologically sound methods. (www.biovision.ch)
icipe’s mission is to help alleviate poverty, ensure food security and improve the overall health status of peoples of the tropics by developing and extending management tools and strategies for harmful and useful arthropods, while preserving the natural resource base through research and capacity building. (www.icipe.org)
Millennium Institute’s vision is of a world where society manages its economy equitably, in harmony with its life-supporting environment and within the available renewable natural resources. Its mission is to help people and organizations enhance insight for decision-making in complex systems towards the development of a global sense of shared responsibility about our common future. (www.millennium-institute.org) | <urn:uuid:542a925d-85b5-4b21-9c4b-bec2e6389321> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.panna.org/media-center/press-release/world-health-organization-ids-health-harms-ddt-malaria?quicktabs_1=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00138-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908658 | 1,804 | 3.203125 | 3 |
In geometry a line:
- is straight (no curves),
- has no thickness, and
- extends in both directions without end (infinitely).
A line has no ends !
Play With It
Change the position of points A and B. Note that line AB extends forever in both directions:
If it does have ends it is called a "Line Segment".
If it has just one end it is called a "Ray"
This is Cool
Now play with this one ... point "C" is made to always be an equal distance from point "A" and "B". The result is a line (all the possible position of point "C" make a line):
Point, Line, Plane and Solid | <urn:uuid:b02ed0d4-3879-4c7c-a8a1-51e9cb2dd748> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/line.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00016-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951948 | 151 | 3.84375 | 4 |
Redwoods have an interesting taxonomic history. Although several species of redwood () once spread across the globe, long-term climate changes have reduced their numbers and their range. Now, only one species exists, Sequoia sempervirens, and it occupies a narrow band along the west coast of North America, from southwestern Oregon to Monterey, California.
Two other trees are commonly confused with redwoods, but each is a separate genus: giant sequoia, Sequoiadendron, and dawn redwood, Metasequoia.
Prior to the formation of the Cascades, when the Pacific Northwest's climate
was warmer and wetter, all three "redwoods" grew here. Now, giant sequoia
grows naturally only in California, while dawn redwood is native to China.
As with redwood, each of these trees has been widely planted outside its native
trees by common name trees by scientific name dichotomous key mystery tree
website authors order a book "Trees to Know" more informational sites | <urn:uuid:1785a463-6259-4cac-83cd-503a128876bf> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://oregonstate.edu/trees/conifer_genera/redwood.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00056-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931125 | 218 | 3.5625 | 4 |
WHAT: A presentation of groundbreaking results on potential chemical treatments shown in University of California, Berkeley, tests to slow down Sudden Oak Death, a deadly fungal disease that is decimating thousands of oak trees in parts of northern California.
WHEN: Friday, March 9, 10:15 a.m.
Rafael Community Center, 618 B St., San Rafael
WHO: Matteo Garbelotto, a forest pathology specialist and adjunct professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management in the College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley.
BACKGROUND: The new results come from the first controlled field experiment performed on oaks with the disease. The experiment, which began in August 2000 and ended in March 2001, was performed on 90 potted coast live oaks in Sonoma County. The trees were artificially inoculated with the Sudden Oak Death pathogen and later treated with four different chemical treatments. After approximately 100 days, the size of disease-related lesions were measured and compared among treatments. Injections of three of the four compounds produced statistically significant reductions in canker size as compared to inoculated but untreated stems. Phosphonate was the most effective compound.
Discovered in 1995, Sudden Oak Death is caused by a fungus belonging to the genus Phytophthora (pronounced Phy-TOFF-thor-uh) that infects and rapidly kills tan oaks, coast live oaks and black oaks. Related species caused the 1845 potato famine in Ireland and deaths of cedars in Oregon and eucalyptus in Australia. | <urn:uuid:da95d6ce-d95e-4d23-9e4a-fba2b52110a7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2001/03/08_sdoak.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00142-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952629 | 325 | 3.234375 | 3 |
KERALA VILLAGE EXTENSION OFFICER SOLVED QUESTION PAPER 2007
1. When did Alexander the Great invaded India?
(a)335 BC (b)327 BC (c)297 BC (d)261 BC
2. To which personality Gandhiji gave the title ‘Deen Bandhu’?
(a)C.F. Andrews (b)Arobindo (c)Vinoba Bhave(d)C.R. Das
3. At the equator the duration of a day is:
(a)10 hrs (b)12 hrs (c)14 hrs (d)16 hrs
4. Tulsidas lived during the regime of:
(a)akbar (b)Shahjahan (c)Sher Sha Suri (d)Humayun
5. Who among the following was known as the Nightingale of India?
(a)Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (b)Amrita Preetam
(c)Padmaja Naidu (d)Sarojini Naidu
6. The element which is rich in most leafy vegetables is:
(a)Phosphorus (b)Zinc (c)Iron (d)Calcium
7. Polio is caused by:
(a)Bacterium (b)Fungus (c)Virus (d)Insect
8. The main controlling centre of the cell is:
(a)Nucleus (b)Mitochondria (c)Ribosome (d)Chloroplast
9. Genetics is the study of:
(a)Cell division (b)Growth and differentiation
(c)Reproduction (d)Mechanisms of inheritance
10. What is the main component of bones IInd teeth
(a)Calcium Carbonate (b)Calcium Phosphate
(c)Calcium Sulphate (d)Calcium Nitrate
11. Who is the Chief Minister of West Bengal?
(a)Biman Bose (b)Jyothi Basu
(c)Somanatha Chatterjee (d)Budhadev Bhattacharya
12. The solar system belongs to the galaxy called:
(a)Adromeda Nebula (b)Milky way
(c)Radio galaxy (d)Maellanic cloud
13. James Bond is a character created by
(a)Perry Mason (b)Stanley Gardener
(c)Ian Fleming (d)P.G.Wode House
14. The famous book of Leo Tolstory is:
(c)Great Expectations (d)War and Peace
15. The President of India can be removed from office by:
(a)The Prime Minister (b)The Chief Jusice of India
(c)The Parliament through Impeachment
(d)The Lok Sabha by passing a resolution
16. Which of the following is based on the process of fusion?
(a)Atom Bomb (b)Hydrogen bomb(c)Ordinary bomb (d)Napalm bomb
17. Who was the founder of Saka Era?
(a)Chandra Gupta Vikramaditya (b)Samudra Gupta
(c)Chandra Gupta Maurya (d)Kanishka
18. To which dynasty did the Asoka belong?
(a)Vardhan (b)Gupta (c)Maurya (d)None of these
19. Which is the national animal of India?
(a)Leopard (b)Cow (c)Lion (d)Tiger
20. Who was the first Indian to become a member of the British Parliament?
(a)Dadabhai Naoroji (b)W.C. Banerji (c)M.K. Gandhi (d)D.N. Wanchu
21. What is the most important event of 24-10-1945?
(a)dropping of atom bomb on Hiroshima (b)The end of second world War
(c)The foundation of UNO (d)None of these
22. What is the name of the Indian made Main Battle Tank?
(a)Arjun (b)Garuda (c)Ajeya (d)Maruti
23. Name the state in which Hirakud is located
(a)Karnataka (b)Orissa (c)Gujarat (d)Uttar Pradesh
24. Which one is not a fundamental right in the Constitution of India?
(a)Right to Liberty (b)Right to Equality(c)Right to Property
(d)Right against Exploitation
25. When was the Magna Carta signed by King John of England?
(a)1215 (b)1217 (c)1212 (d)1066
26. The concept of welfare state is included in the Constitution of India in:
(a)Preamble (b)Fundamental Right
(c)Fourth Schedule (d)Directive principles of state policy
27. Who among the following is associated with the invention of computer?
(a)Edison (b)Babbage (c)Mac Milan (d)None of these
28. Where are tanks manufactured in India?
(a)Perambur (b)Avadi (c)Kirkee (d)Bhadravati
29. Name the state in which the Nagarjuna sagar dam is located?
(a)Tamil Nadu (b)Karnataka (c)Kerala (d)Andhra Pradesh
30. The term ‘smash’ in sports is associated with:
(a)Lawn Tennis (b)Badminton (c)Volleyball (d)Hockey
DOWNLOAD FULL SOLVED PAPER OF VILLAGE EXTENSION OFFICER 2007 | <urn:uuid:0f53dedc-0372-46b6-a9bf-90f2af9b972b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://kpschelper.blogspot.com/2013/07/kerala-psc-village-extension-officer_5.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00025-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.788317 | 1,267 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Identical isolated conducting spheres 1 and 2 have equal
chargesand are separated by a distance that is large compared with
theirdiameters (Fig. 21-22a). The magnitude of
theelectrostatic force acting on sphere 2 due to sphere 1
isF = 9.8 N. Suppose now that a third identical sphere
3,having an insulating handle and initially neutral, is touched
firstto sphere 1 (Fig. 21-22b), then to sphere 2
(Fig.21-22c), and finally removed (Fig. 21-22d).
Whatis the magnitude of the electrostatic force
F'that now acts on sphere 2?
The number of significant digits is set to 2; the toleranceis +/-8% | <urn:uuid:f60df661-59ee-4b2b-baed-03db190dde08> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.chegg.com/homework-help/questions-and-answers/identical-isolated-conducting-spheres-1-2-equal-chargesand-separated-distance-large-compar-q640963 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399522.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00162-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.845761 | 157 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Having students use their own electronic devices for schoolwork is one of the newest trends in education as administrators work to bridge the technology gap in their classrooms. However, a study from Cisco found those students are also at high risk for security issues, according to an article at ITPortal.com.
The networking firm reported in its 2013 Annual Security Report that online shopping sites are 21 times more likely and search engines are 27 times more likely to release malware on personal computers or mobile devices than pornography or gambling sites. The riskiest sites for malware are online advertisements, which are 182 times more likely to spread a virus.
In addition, the Cisco Connected World Technology Report suggested that Generation Y respondents don’t really care. It found that 91% of Generation Y employees said the age of privacy is over and a third claim not to be worried about data about them available online.
“Unfortunately, what the security studies show is the next-generation workforce’s lifestyles are also introducing security challenges that companies have never had to address to this scale,” Cisco said in a release.
The report found that more than 33% of all infections from global malware occur in the United States, while cases of Android malware rose 2,577% in 2012. The good news is the threat to mobile malware was just 0.5% of the total.
“Today, we live a blended work-personal life,” said John Stewart, senior vice president of Cisco global government and corporate security. “The hackers know this, and the security threats that we encounter online, such as embedded web malware while visiting popular destinations like search engines, retailers, social media sites, and smartphone/tablet apps, no longer threaten only the individual; they threaten our organizations by default.” | <urn:uuid:04b149fd-cf70-42b1-965f-a0eeb6105835> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://thecite.blogspot.com/2013/02/students-social-media-habits-at-high.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403826.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00166-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953256 | 363 | 2.546875 | 3 |
>>Why in the old Testament did people feel the need to sacrifice animals to God? Was this only done before Jesus came?<<
People in the Old Testament sacrificed animals because God instructed them to do so and accepted them from their hand. Some illustrations include Abel (Gen. 4:4; Heb. 11:4), Noah (Gen. 8:20-21) and Abraham (Gen. 22:12-14). When God gave the nation of Israel a distinct law at Mount Sinai, it contained a great deal of instruction about animal sacrifices (see Exo. 29:38-46; the book of Leviticus).
One of the central purposes of the animal sacrifices under the Law of Moses was to keep before the eyes and hearts of Israel their sin and the truth that life had to be given in order for their sins to be forgiveness (Heb. 9:22; 10:3).
There was a problem, though: "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins." (Heb. 10:4) Therefore, the animal sacrifices of the OT law of Moses were repeated over and over (Heb. 10:1-3, 11).
This leads to your next question:
>>Was this only done before Jesus came?<<
Yes, animal sacrifices were only properly offered to God before the death of Jesus on the cross. Once His blood was shed, it was offered before God, opening the way to heaven for all who believe (Heb. 9:11-12; 10:19-20).
The animal sacrifices of the law of Moses were a foreshadowing of the perfect and complete sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the sins of the world (see Heb. 9:13-14; 10:1). If animal sacrificed had perfected the worshipper, no more would have been needed nor offered. Yet, there was continual shedding of animal blood under the law of Moses (Heb. 10:2-3, 11).
This is not true of the sacrifice of Jesus, who offered Himself one time for all
time for the sins of the world. Hebrews 10:10-14 emphatically states:
10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,
13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.
14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
Note especially verse 12, which says Jesus offered "one sacrifice for sins forever." His sacrifice on the cross was sufficient to forever pay the price of redemption for sinners (Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 2:24).
Animal sacrifices served their purpose well. They taught man of his need to be purified from his sins by the giving of life (please see Lev. 17:11). But now, the law of Moses, which contained regulations for animal sacrifice, has been "nailed to the cross" (Col. 2:14).
It was the life of the Son of God, given up freely on the cross once, that forever has the power to remove sin (Heb. 9:25-28). The gospel of Christ, which contains the provisions of the sacrifice of Christ, brings salvation to all who will believe and obey Him (Rom. 1:16-17; Heb. 5:8-9).
Thank you for your good Bible question. Please continue to visit www.bibleanswer.com as you read and study God's word, the Bible. | <urn:uuid:59b4b16a-6d66-41be-8ae1-40b41062a83a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bibleanswer.com/animalsac.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00152-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955224 | 773 | 3.46875 | 3 |
Internuclear Ophthalmoplegia (INO) is a disorder of eye movements caused by a lesion in an area of the brain called the medial longitudinal fasciculus (MLF). INO is associated with jerky eye movements (nystagmus) in one eye when the other one moves outwards. It can also, but not always, cause double vision (diplopia).
Multiple sclerosis is the most common cause of internuclear ophthalmoplegia and in MS it is usually unilateral. There are other causes including cerebrovascular problems (usually in older people) and HIV infection.
Handbook of Ocular Disease Management - Internuclear Ophthalmopledia
Internuclear ophthalmoplegia (INO) | <urn:uuid:b951c213-2759-46fc-87eb-02fc00342ec4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/internuclearophthalmoplegia.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00070-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.822045 | 154 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Sahel <<sah HEHL>> is a dry grassland in Africa. It lies south of the Sahara. It covers elements of the nations Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan. Some individuals additionally think about parts of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia to be a part of the Sahel.
The Sahel has suffered many droughts (drowts) (durations of no rain). The shortage of rain has brought on the land to dry up and switch to abandon. Excessive winds from the Sahara blew a lot of the soil away. They left sand instead. | <urn:uuid:2bd19eed-478e-4855-aab6-9a888e71aa81> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://placesbook.org/sahel | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00178-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906826 | 133 | 2.9375 | 3 |
These notes are from the course Playing with Meaning, Tate Modern, (by ticket only, sold out).
Session 1 The artist's intentions and other contributions to meaning
What does a work of art mean? Possibly nothing at all. Possibly many different things. We all engage in projective interpretation (finding our own meanings in someone else's art) to some extent. But often artists want you to recognize features of their style, content, etc. So does that mean that the artists have the last say on what their work means? The debate is polarised between those who say No (labelled 'anti-intentionalists here) and those who say Yes (Intentionalists). Some philosophers have also suggested that what matters is not actual intentions, but virtual intentions, those which, based on the work and context, might plausibly be attributed to the artist...
Anti-Intentionalists see the principal appropriate activity of an art critic/viewer as scrutiny. That is, the viewer looks to see what is there, is not unduly influenced by art historical detail, facts about the artist's life, the subject matter, and so on. Clive Bell's views in his book Art (1914) are an extreme example. Bell believed that what all art has in common is that it possesses Significant Form. Not all form is significant, but when patterns of lines, shapes and colours (and some depth) combine they can produce an aesthetic emotion in a sensitive viewer. For Bell, we should bring nothing of life to art. All art through ages has achieved its status as art from these formal properties. The emotion they produce, aesthetic emotion, is not characteristic of everyday life. For Bell its power almost certainly came from its potential to put us in touch with the noumenal world (a Kantian term), that is the world of deeper reality that lies behind the veil of everyday appearances and is not usually available to us.
Another famous defence of anti-intentionalism was Wimsatt and Beardsley's famous paper 'The Intentional Fallacy'. ('Fallacy' in this context is simply an unreliable way of arguing) There they argued that we shouldn't treat the author of a poem as an oracle about its meaning. Rather, readers should focus on the words on the page, and not get embroiled in author psychology. Their main argument was that appeals to authors' intentions were either misleading or unnecessary. If the poem failed to achieve the poet's intentions, then it was misleading to refer to the intentions as the source of its meaning; if the poem did achieve the aims, then appeals to intention were redundant since the meaning was there to be discerned in the poem. The philosopher Stanley Cavell used a knock-down argument to make the first of these two points: '...it no more counts towards the success or failure of a work of art that the artist intended something other than is there, than it counts when the referee is counting over a boxer that the boxer had intended to duck' (in 'Music Discomposed').
Difficulties with the anti-intentionalist position include the fact that as Ernst Gombrich often pointed out, there is no innocent eye. Also it is hard to appreciate irony if you don't have some access to the artist's or writer's intentions. Extreme anti-intentionalists would say that to appreciate a Rembrandt self-portrait the fact that the artist intended (if he did) to potray himself ageing, is irrelevant to our appreciaton of it as art - this seems wrong. Subject matter has to be part of some art. It also seems a bit perverse not to find out as much as you possibly can about the circumstances in which a work of art was produced. For more about Clive Bell and why is theory of art fails, see Chapter One of my book The Art Question. Wimsatt and Beardsley's paper 'The Intentional Fallacy' is reprinted in my book (ed.) Philosophy: Basic Readings, 2nd ed.
In contrast, intentionalists, such as Richard Wollheim, argue that the job of the critic or viewer involves retrieval, retrieval of an artist's intentions, motivations, historical milieu, and so on. Understanding a work of art involves understanding how it came to be as it is. Obviously information is incomplete in many cases, but this does not prevent it from being a worthwhile goal where we do have access to background information. Nor would Wollheim want us to forego spending time looking very closely at the work itself; it is just that the history of how it came to be as it is, its aetiology is important for understanding it. For more on Intentionalism see Richard Wollheim 'Criticism as Retrieval' supplementary essay in the second ed. of his book Art and Its Objects.
A third position, taken by Jerry Fodor, amongst others, in his article 'It's Deja Vu All Over Again' (a quotation from the accidentally brilliant Yogi Berra - my favourite quotation of his is 'When you come to a fork in the road, take it') is what might be called Virtual Intentionalism. Here the facts don't matter so much about what the artist's actual intentions were. The point is to try to reconstruct what they might reasonably have been. The artist can't overrule your interpretation here. Fodor's article is in Danto and His Critics.
There is a further issue of whether this sort of discussion of artist’s intentions implies a misleading picture of what it is to do something intentionally. Many writers in this area describe intentions as if artists always had introspectible mental events that are the precursors of and causes of their works. But is this so? What of R.G. Collingwood’s account of art (in his The Principles of Art) where he described the artist as beginning with an inchoate emotion that he or she makes clear to him or herself in the process of producing a work of art. On that picture (which rings true with many artists), the idea that an artist has a clear intention that precedes the creation of the artwork is implausible in most cases.
On the general question of how we discern the meaning of various communications, this audio podcast interview with the philosopher Stephen Neale on Meaning and Intention might be of interest. | <urn:uuid:9bfbc15d-1fce-4309-9dcb-0a27f30eaada> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://nigelwarburton.typepad.com/art_and_allusion/2013/10/playing-with-meaning-notes-and-links-from-the-tate-modern-course.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396455.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00130-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972773 | 1,304 | 2.765625 | 3 |
[Previous] | [Session 25] | [Next]
S. J. Edberg, S. L. McConnell (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
The Cassini Program Outreach Team has developed a number of classroom demonstrations and activities that present science investigation techniques and spacecraft flight operations. These activities and demonstrations include analogs to planetary magnetic field orientations, ring particle and atmospheric scattering, thermal inertia studies, body-mounted vs. scan platform-mounted instrument operations on spacecraft, gravity assist, and many others. These curriculum supplements utilize inexpensive, commonly available materials that can be found in household kitchens, backyards, and hardware and variety stores. While designed for middle school classrooms, these activities are easily modified for use in both elementary and high school classes. We will demonstrate several of our activities and present information on others.
This research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/products/. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser. | <urn:uuid:bb4fe370-eea8-4dc2-a608-7a947f387ce8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://aas.org/archives/BAAS/v32n3/dps2000/582.htm | 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 | 0.929035 | 267 | 3.359375 | 3 |
Goats were one of the first animals to be tamed by humans
and were being herded 9,000 years ago. They are a member of
the cattle family and are believed to be descended from the
wild goat, bezoar.
Worldwide, more people
eat the meat and drink the milk of goats than any other single
animal. Most goat meat producers are also the consumers.
For that reason, goat is not one of the top imports or
There are over 210
breeds of goat. Of the 450 million goats in the world,
6 to 8 percent of them are
in North America. The largest part of the world goat
population can be found in the Mideast and Asia.
Oklahoma ranks number
4 nationally in meat goat production. Oklahoma meat goat
producers had 75,000 goats and kids in 2006. Between 1997
and 2007, goat production doubled in Oklahoma.
The US is the largest
importer of goats. Australia is the largest exporter.
The primary consumers
of goat meat in the US are ethnic populations such as Muslims,
Latinos and Asians. Typically goat meat must either be
purchased in an ethnic marketplace or directly from slaughter
facilities as a whole carcass.
The meat from a young
goat is called "cabrito." Meat from more mature goats is
The Boer is the most
popular breed of goat in Oklahoma.
Goats are easy to handle
and inexpensive to maintain. For this reason they are gaining
popularity as show animals.
The biggest expense
in goat production is adequate fencing. Because of their
size and intelligence, goats are good at getting out. Predators
are another worry for goat owners.
The female dairy goat
is a doe; the male, a buck; the young, kids;
and a castrated male, a wether. Femaile goats are sometimes
called nannies, while males are called billies.
The life span of
a goat is eight to twelve years.
breeding occurs in late summer through early winter.
period is five months. Twins are common, but single
or triplet births are not rare.
Kids are milk fed until
two to three months of age.
Goats are ruminants,
or cud-chewing animals
Dairy goats will
graze grass pastures but prefer to browse brushlands
and a varied selection of pasture plants, including
Some producers allow goats and cattle to graze together on native grasslands because the cattle will eat the grass and the goats will eat the forbs. Cattle help eliminate goat internal parasites while goats minimize the population of ticks that affect cattle and carry cattle diseases.
Dairy goats have fastidious
eating habits and are particular about the cleanliness of
their food. Their natural curiosity may lead them to investigate
newly found items by sniffing and nibbling, but they quickly
refuse anything that is dirty or distasteful.
Dairy goats can be
kept successfully in all climates.
Dairy goats have
a strong herd instinct and prefer the companionship
of at least one other goat.
Goat milk byproducts include cheese,
soap and baby formula. Goat milk is used as a replacement
for cow's milk for babies who are allergic to cow's milk.
Goats are usually
dehorned when they are very young.
The main products associated with goats are milk, cheese,
meat, mohair, and cashmere
Goat milk has a
more easily digestible fat and protein content than
cow milk. It has a better buffering
quality, which is good for the treatment of ulcers, and can
successfully replace cow milk in diets of those who are allergic
to cow milk.
Many dairy goats,
in their prime, average 6 to 8 pounds of milk daily
(roughly 3 to 4 quarts) during a ten-month lactation,
giving more soon after freshening and gradually dropping
in production toward the end of their lactation. The
milk generally averages 3.5 percent butterfat. A doe
may be expected to reach her heaviest
production during her third or fourth lactation.
goats are curious and agile and require well
built fences for containment and protection from
Goat milk is used
for drinking, cooking and baking. It is used to make
cheese, butter, ice cream, yogurt, candy, soap and
other body products. Goat milk is whiter than whole
cow milk. Butter and cheese made from goat milk are
white, but may be colored during processing. Due to
its small fat globules and soft small curd, products
made with goat milk are smooth and cream-like. Goat
milk is also naturally emulsified.
Chevre is the French
word for goat. Domestically, it is a generic term that
applies to all goat cheeses and, more specifically,
the mild fresh cheeses.
Goats provide the principle source of animal protein in many
North African and Middle Eastern nations. Goat is also important
in the Caribbean, in Southeast Asia, and developing tropical
countries. Three-fourths of all the goats in the world are
located in the developing regions of the world.
Since goats are small animals, they can easily be raised
on a small piece of land, as little as one to three acres.
The three fatty acids
which give goat products their distinctive flavor are capric,
caprylic and caproic.
Goats have a lower set of teeth which meet a hard pad in
the upper jaw, and 24 molars on the top and bottom in the
back of their mouths. Kids have 8 small, sharp teeth in their
lower front jaw, and like children, when their baby teeth
fall out they are replaced by permanent teeth. The age of
a goat can often be closely determined by their teeth.
Both male and female
goats can have beards.
The pupil in a goat's
eye is rectangular in shape instead of being round like those
of other animals. It is believed that goats have excellent
night vision and will often browse at night. The actual color
of the goat's eyes is varied. The most common colors
are yellow or brown. Blue eyes are more rare.
Worldwide, goat meat is an important source of protein. Goats
are inexpensive to maintain, and goat meat is lower in fat
and calories than chicken, beef, pork or lamb.
There are few, if any, religious taboos limiting goat meat
consumption. In fact, goat meat is an important component of
the traditions of Hindu and Muslim faiths. | <urn:uuid:78fb17c0-f5e2-4090-9e57-5b07c2a5534f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.clover.okstate.edu/fourh/aitc/lessons/extras/facts/goats.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396872.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00025-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95112 | 1,409 | 3.265625 | 3 |
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Allows students to look at descriptions of amplitude, wavelength and frequency on a sinusoidal wave. A diagram accompanies each description.
Detailed descriptions of the submillimetre wavelength, Hawaii based, telescope and the experimental work being done with it
A java applet to investigate Young's fringes slit width can be varied as can wavelength. Shows wavefronts.
Java applet showing constructive and destructive interference between two longitudinal waves, the wavelength and amplitude of each of which can be altered by the user.
The site is an interactive page to study the photoelectric effect on different materials (sodium, cesium and silver) by changing the wavelength and the intensity of the light.
A Java applet of a wave where you can adjust its wavelength, frequency, and amplitude by clicking on the drop down list in the upper left corner, and then selecting one of the choices which appear.
Detailed description of Bremsstrahlung, includes a graph illustrating intensity/wavelength relationship. Part of a larger site which includes many definitions and links.
Historical background and online tutorials on diffraction in which you can vary wavelength and aperture width, and see the results as wave fronts, and as an intensity graph. Explanations include the ...
An explanation of Doppler shift, which occurs when the light emitted by a moving star for example changes wavelength (known as redshift or blueshift).
The region just below the visible in wavelength is called the near ultraviolet. It is absorbed very strongly by most solid substances, and even absorbed appreciably by air.
Showing 21 - 30 of 43 | <urn:uuid:acb2e0f0-523c-4c29-8eca-703025309e51> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.physics.org/explore-results-all.asp?currentpage=3&age=0&knowledge=0&q=wavelength | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396872.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00067-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920569 | 422 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Superfund Locations and Populations
Project DescriptionThe contamination of groundwater and soils with arsenic (As) and manganese (Mn) is associated with major public health, remedial, and environmental policy problems. Both arsenic and manganese are found at numerous Superfund sites. This Superfund Research Program (SRP) seeks to obtain new knowledge, facilitate the translation of these findings into policy applications, and train multidisciplinary pre- and post-doctoral students concerning the health effects, geochemistry, and remediation of As and Mn, with a particular focus on groundwater. The program has involved substantial work at the single most seriously As-affected Superfund site in Vineland, New Jersey. It also encompasses epidemiologic studies of As- and Mn-exposed adults and children residing in Bangladesh, New Hampshire and Maine. As in the past, the Columbia University SRP includes a unique balance of highly integrated biomedical and non-biomedical research.
As indicated in the list on below, the program includes three biomedical research projects, intimately intertwined with three non-biomedical projects; these projects are supported by research support cores. An Administrative Core is responsible for the supervision, coordination, and financial accountability of the entire SRP. The Research Translation Core "Collaborating with Government & the Public: As & Mn Exposure via Groundwater" provides additional mechanisms for sustained communications among the SRP research projects, cores, government agencies, and interested parties. The RTC also helps government agencies and the public evaluate and address local groundwater contamination by providing geospatial data integration, mapping, and field assistance. Finally, the newly created SRP Community Engagement Core aims to reduce health risks of residents in Maine who rely on domestic wells for water supply and who are exposed to arsenic, and other contaminants including radon (Rn), uranium (U) and manganese (Mn).
For more information, please visit: http://superfund.ciesin.columbia.edu/niehsWeb/index.jsp | <urn:uuid:bbf1440d-49fe-4640-bb0c-d4d565d34117> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://gcmd.nasa.gov/KeywordSearch/Supplementals.do?Portal=GCMD&KeywordPath=Projects&NumericId=12457&MetadataType=0&lbnode=mdlb3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00023-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921226 | 410 | 2.875 | 3 |
ERIC Number: ED398737
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1994
Reference Count: N/A
"Cultural Scripts": A Semantic Approach to Cultural Analysis and Cross-Cultural Communication.
This paper argues that the ways of speaking characteristic of a given speech-community cannot be satisfactorily described or explained in purely behavioral terms, that they constitute a behavioral manifestation of a tacit system of cultural rules or scripts, and that to understand a society's ways of speaking, it is necessary to identify and articulate its implicit cultural scripts. Furthermore, that to be able to do this without ethnocentric bias a universal, language-independent perspective is needed, and that this can be attained if the rules in question are stated in terms of lexical universals (i.e., universal human concepts lexicalized in all languages). To illustrate these propositions, ways in which these cultural scripts can be stated and justified are presented, using Japanese, (White) Anglo-American, and Black American cultural norms. The cultural scripts advanced here are formulated in a highly constrained "natural semantic metalanguage" based on a small set of lexical universals and a small set of universal syntactic patterns. It is proposed that this metalanguage allows portrayal and comparison of culture-specific attitudes, assumptions, and norms from a neutral, culture-independent perspective in terms of simple formulae that are intuitively self-explanatory while also rigorous and empirically verifiable. (Author/MSE)
Descriptors: Behavior Patterns, Blacks, Contrastive Linguistics, Cross Cultural Studies, Cultural Traits, Foreign Countries, Intercultural Communication, Japanese, Language Patterns, Language Research, Language Universals, Linguistic Theory, North American English, Pragmatics, Semantics, Sociocultural Patterns, Whites
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Note: In: Pragmatics and Language Learning. Monograph Series, Volume 5, p1-24, 1994; see FL 014 038. | <urn:uuid:793883f0-2172-45f3-b325-81d8b1e27351> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED398737 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397744.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00139-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.84375 | 432 | 2.546875 | 3 |
In the previous post, we were looking for a monster—a nonlinear additive function. We found that such a function is extremely pathological: it is nowhere locally monotone, nowhere continuous and nowhere locally bounded. Worse than that, it's easy to prove that the graph of a monster is dense in , that is, for every x and y, an arbitrary neighborhood of x contains a point that monster sends arbitrarily close to y.
Recall our attempt to construct a monster. Any additive function is linear on any -set and is fully determined on this set by a value it has in any single of its points. Our Direchlet function derived monster failed (or rather fell) because the slopes an additive function has on different -sets are not independent. Indeed, given that f has a slope on a -set and a slope on a -set , it has to have a slope on a -set . This shows a way to construct a monster: one has to find a collection B of real numbers such that (i) every real number can be represented as a sum , with rational coefficients of which only finite number is non-zero (so that the sum is defined) and (ii) that such representation is unique. Then one can select arbitrary values on elements of B and take moster's value on to be , which is well-defined thanks to (ii).
Looks familiar? It should be: the definition of B is exactly the definition of a basis of a vector space. Real numbers can be added to each other and multiplied by rationals and, therefore, form a vector space over . This space is very different from a usual one-dimensional vector space real numbers form over (i.e., over themselves).
After a streak of bad and unlikely properties that a monster has, we now got something positive: a monster exists if and only if as a vector space over has a basis. Does it?
But of course. Any vector space has a basis—this is a general theorem almost immediately following from the Zorn's lemma. The basis we are looking for even got a name of its own: Hamel basis.
At last we stumbled across the whole family on monsters. Specifically, there exists a set and a function such that every real number r can be uniquely represented as
where only finite number of are non-zero for a given r. From this it immediately follows that .
Take an arbitrary function , and define
that is, f is additive. Intuitively, is a slope f has at the -set . f is linear if and only if is a constant function, in all other cases f is a monster. If one takes , then
is an especially weird monster function: it takes only rational values!
Note that almost all additive functions are, after all, monsters—only very small sub-set of them is linear. | <urn:uuid:8a4ba121-378d-45e9-8eb0-7f7c1ef19bd8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cofault.com/2010/02/hunt-for-addictive-monster-2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00039-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94769 | 584 | 2.8125 | 3 |
THE DARKER SIDE OF ELECTRICITY
If we are to gain a new understanding of the role of EMFs in human biology, and harness them for healing, many more advocates must become involved.
In June 1990, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a draft report stating that low-level electromagnetic fields (EMFs), emanating from power lines, electric blankets, video display terminals (VDTs), and virtually every other electrical appliance may promote cancer. EPA scientists based their conclusion on dozens of studies showing higher rates of cancer among people exposed to EMFs at home or on the job.
The cancer studies, together with research linking EMFs to reproductive problems and behavioral changes, represent a direct challenge to public health policy and the traditional laws of physics upon which it is based. If low-level EMFs are indeed hazardous, we are at risk from hundreds of thousands of miles of electric power lines and millions of VDTs and appliances. The issue is not only whether individuals must consider EMFs when thinking about where to live, but whether our country must redesign its entire electric power infrastructure.
EMFs and the Pioneering Scientists
When an alternating current passes through a wire, and electromagnetic field is created that exerts force on the surrounding objects. And wherever there is electricity, there are EMFs.
Alternating-current EMFs -- unlike the earth's static magnetic field in which human beings have evolved for millions of years -- came about with artificially generated electricity. As time passed, we began surrounding ourselves more and more with these artificial EMFs -- without knowing their impact on human health.
The first scientist to identify the link between EMF exposure and increased cancer risk was epidemiologist Nancy Wertheimer, who conducted an investigation on her own time and with her own money. In 1974, she began driving through residential neighborhoods in Denver, Colorado, hoping to find some pattern that might explain why a particular set of children was stricken with leukemia. Wertheimer soon noticed that the houses of the victims were often located near an electrical transformer.
Aware that EMF levels in homes can very considerably over time, Wertheimer knew that one or two "spot" measurements were not enough to accurately characterize exposures. So she worked with physicist Ed Leeper to develop a "wire code," based on proximity to power lines, that would provide a better estimate of long-term exposures. A subsequent comparison of the leukemia victims with a corresponding group of healthy children showed that the incidence of leukemia among children living closest to power lines was double that expected.
Wertheimer could hardly believe the findings. Higher frequency radiation - from X rays or nuclear reactors, for instance - contains sufficient energy to break up atoms and molecules and form ions, and was known to cause cancer. However, conventional physics had long dictated that low frequency, non-ionizing radiation from weak EMFs lacks the power to damage human health. At sufficient strength, EMFs were known to cause shocks and burns, but the levels that Wertheimer and Leeper found to be associated with increased cancer rates were thousands of times too weak to cause such obvious harm.
Wertheimer and Leeper's paper, published in 1979, attracted little more than curiosity. Many scientists questioned their estimates of exposure, suggesting that EMFs from television sets, refrigerators, and other electrical appliances would far exceed those produced by power lines. These critics overlooked the fact that an appliance's EMFs diminish rapidly with distance, exposing people only when they are close by. Power lines, on the other hand, produce EMFs that extend over much longer distances, exposing occupants of nearby homes all day and night.
Electric utility companies as well as government agencies dismissed Wertheimer's findings and refused to fund studies that would confirm or refute them. The follow-up work fell to Swedish physician Lennart Tomenius. In June 1982, Tomenius reported that he had found a significantly higher than expected incidence of cancer among people of Stockholm who were exposed to EMF levels similar to those reported in Denver. Tomenius's findings, like Wertheimer's, were largely ignored.
In November 1986, David Savitz and colleagues at the University of Colorado provided a second confirmation of Wertheimer's findings. These researchers again found an association between proximity to power lines and increased cancer risk, prompting Savitz to conclude that the EMF-cancer link had "gone from a flaky issue into the mainstream of environmental epidemiological research."
One skeptic who changed his mind at this point was David Carpenter of the New York State Department of Health. Carpenter, originally dubious of the EMF-cancer link, had funded the Savitz study as director of a $5 million research project on EMF health effects -- an investigation that grew out of a dispute between citizen groups and electric utilities in New York State over the routing of a high voltage power line. Upon completion of the project in 1987, Carpenter estimated that 30 percent of all childhood cancers may be related to EMF exposure, amounting to a total of 2,000 children per year in the United States. According to Carpenter, roughly 4,000 of the nation's adults may also be affected.
Upon publication of Savitz's paper, the utility industry's Electric Power Research Institute funded its own study of power lines and childhood cancer. One of the issues the Institute hoped to resolve was Savitz's finding of a stronger association between a cancer and wire code estimates than between cancer and spot EMF measurements. In February 1990, this study -- conducted by John Peters and his research team at the University of Southern California --
confirmed once again that Wertheimer's discovery of a wire code-cancer connection; like Savitz, however, they found only a weak association with spot EMF measurements.
In addition to these researchers, many other scientists maintain that wire codes are better predictors of long-term exposures, because the EMF strength produced by power lines can vary from day to day and from hour to hour. Still, there is more to know about EMFs than the wire code studies can tell us.
A large number of occupational studies also demonstrate and EMF-cancer link. In July 1982, Samuel Milham of The Washington State Department of Health published the results of his study indicating that workers with high EMF exposures -- such as electricians and power station operators -- have a higher than expected rate of leukemia. Over the next several years, dozens of studies supported these findings. Then, in 1989, a Johns Hopkins University report showed that male telephone cable splicers have a higher than average risk of leukemia and lymphoma, as well as lung, prostate, colon, and even breast cancer. Unlike earlier studies that analyzed cancer rates according to expected job-related exposures to high EMFs, the Johns Hopkins data were based on actual measurements. These showed higher cancer risks at very low exposure levels - consistent with the childhood studies.
EMFs, VDTs, and Reproductive Problems
The pioneering researcher on EMF-related reproductive problems, Jocelyne Leal, did not set out to study the hazards of magnetic field exposures. Like Wertheimer, she stumbled upon a finding that seemed to contradict traditional scientific thinking.
In May 1982, Leal and her other coworkers at the Centro Ramon y Cajal Hospital in Madrid, Spain, published a paper showing that extremely weak magnetic fields can cause malformations in developing chick embryos. Though Leal did not realize it at the time, the magnetic fields she studied were similar to those emitted by VDTs. While occupational health advocates had long pointed to VDT EMFs as a possible cause of several clusters of miscarriages and birth defects reported among VDT workers, Leal's results provided the first scientific data to support a link between VDT EMFs and reproductive problems.
Under pressure from office worker's unions concerned about Leal's findings, Swedish government scientists exposed pregnant mice to pulsed EMFs that mimicked VDT radiation. In January 1986, the investigators announced that the offspring of the exposed mice had nearly five times the rate of malformations as the unexposed mice.
No follow-up research on the EMF-related reproductive hazards of VDTs was conducted in the United States. However, Tom Rozzell at the Office of Naval Research won funding for an international project designed to test the Leal findings. Five out of six participating labs in four countries confirmed her results.
In June 1988, the possibility of VDT-miscarriage link became widely known with the publication of an epidemiological study by Marilyn Goldhaber and coworkers at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California. They showed that women who used VDTs more than half the workweek during the first three months of pregnancy had nearly twice as many miscarriages as women who performed similar tasks without using VDTs.
The Kaiser study did not demonstrate whether the higher miscarriage rate was caused by EMFs or by some other factor. Other studies on VDT work and miscarriages have yielded contradictory results. And in several instances in which VDT workers were found to be at higher risk, the authors dismissed the findings.
The interpretation of a study's results often has much to do with politics as with science. A recently published study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is a case in point. It boldly concludes that "the use of VDTs and exposure to accompanying [EMFs] were not associated with an increased risk of spontaneous abortion." EMF measurements were not part of the original study design, however, and were not taken until years after the study began. According to the abstract, the VDT workers and the non-VDT workers received similar doses of EMFs, probably due to the electrical wiring in the office --something the researchers did not discover until they had nearly completed their work.
Critics speculate that NIOSH took the measurements after finding no link between VDTs an miscarriages, in an effort to put the EMF issue to rest as well. Whether or not this is true, the fact remains that the conclusion was stretched to include EMFs despite little variation in worker exposure -- suggesting that some federal agencies would like to dispose of the question of EMF-related health hazards without investigating it.
In the 1970s, Stephen Perry, a doctor in Shropshire, England, noted a cluster of suicides and depression among patients living near two high-voltage transmission lines. When one of the cables was moved, the problem ceased along the old route and cropped up along the new one. With the help of a group of American researchers, he began studying the relationship between measured EMFs and suicides in the English midlands. The team found a clear association. In one village with a population of 2,500, for instance, eight suicides occurred in a seven year period -- eight times the expected rate. All but one of the victims had lived in a home with higher than average EMFs.
Perry concluded that he had identified "the first demonstrated correlation between human behavior and environmental power frequency fields." Perhaps more remarkable is that to this day, nor British or American government agency has repeated this study. Still, Perry continued his investigations and, in 1988, identified an association between depression and EMFs in apartment buildings. The same year, another British study confirmed the link between power line exposure and depression.
While the possible hazards of EMFs are as diverse as the sources of exposure, the common connection between the different health effects has proven elusive. What is it about EMFs that can cause such varied and drastic changes in human health?
One clue is in the physical and mental changes produced by exposure to sunlight. Reduced exposures to sunlight for winter, for instance, can lead to what has been termed seasonal affective disorder (SAD), with its attendant symptoms of depression and fatigue. An increasing number of scientists believe that SAD is caused by disruption of the pineal gland's function, and can be remedied by daily exposure to bright light.
EMFs and visible light are part of the same electromagnetic spectrum; and though they are of differing frequencies, they share many of the same properties, including the capacity to affect the pineal gland. This gland synthesizes the neurotransmitter serotonin, which is metabolized in to melatonin -- a hormone that can strongly influence physical and mental health and can inhibit the formation of tumors. Research has proven that both sunlight and EMFs can suppress the production of melatonin. Researchers have also associated reduced concentrations of 5-HIAA -- another metabolite of serotonin that can be suppressed by EMF exposure -- with depression and suicidal behavior.
Several studies suggest a connection between EMFs, the pineal gland, and adverse health effects. This "pineal hypothesis" helps explain not only why EMF exposure might cause physical and behavioral changes, but also why such exposure is linked to a variety of cancers. EMFs rather than causing tumors directly, may promote their growth and, at the same time, decrease the body's capacity to inhibit such growth -- thus supporting the results of the many epidemiological studies showing association with cancer.
A Revolution in Biology
In the wake of Wertheimer, Leal, and Perry's findings, together with those that followed, public exposure standards are being called into question. Their premise - that non-ionizing radiation can harm only through shocks or burns -- goes the way of the geocentric model of the universe. While government and industry officials shudder at the thought of rebuilding the nations electrical grid, however, we need not turn out all the lights to reduce our risk. Electric utility companies are designing power lines that will generate lower EMFs. EMFs may be invisible and may be all around us, but with a willingness to investigate, we may find out that we they are not beyond our power to understand and control.
Written by: Matthew Connelly and Louis Slesin
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|COMMUNICATIONS||WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING||ACCOLADES| | <urn:uuid:9e4cbd28-6601-46af-adc5-02b5cd4751c6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/memf.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400572.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00045-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954578 | 3,115 | 2.828125 | 3 |
My analysis of the slime:
The black slime is meant to deconstruct DNA. It takes it apart in order to create opportunities for new life. When it breaks DNA, that DNA can take on new forms (that's important). The first Engineer seen drinks the slime in order to spread his DNA throughout the planet, and be a gardener of life. Once the DNA is spread, it begins to form new life in a rapidly adapting state. Those forms are able to adapt so rapidly to ensure the successful spread of life, and can do so in the same way shown in the beginning of the movie.
The black slime kept in containers on LV-223 is a "weaponized" form of the slime; a quantity large enough to destroy a world's worth of DNA. It is used to erase creations that go awry. It is launched at a world and destroys all of the DNA contained on that world.
Holloway, upon infection, begins to break apart as the Engineer did, albeit slowly due to the tiny dose. As his DNA breaks down, he spreads it via insemination to Shaw. The broken-down DNA begins to rapidly adapt to its environment -- Shaw's womb.
This is why the slime reacts differently to different "host DNA". It is simply disassembled DNA being reconstructed. The mealworms become extremely strong snake-like creatures; Fifield doesn't ingest it, but its contact with him changes him drastically.
The slime that occupies Shaw's womb is simply the progenitor to the Xenomorph. The lifeform that is created by the slime's reaction with Holloway's DNA is one that is near the pinnacle of life's many forms -- in Bishop's words, "The perfect organism." It is a form that can reproduce using a host to evolve rapidly, absorbing traits in the host DNA.
TL;DR: the slime deconstructs DNA so it can reconstruct new lifeforms, and Shaw is impregnated with the result of one of these breakdowns. This resulting lifeform is the progenitor of the Xenomorph.
My analysis of why the Engineers had meant to destroy Earth's life and how it led to the events in Prometheus:
The Engineers spread and monitored life. They wished to spread life, for whatever reason. Once that life was spread, they watched the lifeform and attempted to guide their development.
On Earth, an Engineer sacrificed himself to sow his DNA as a seed throughout the "gardens" of the galaxies. This DNA eventually took the form of humans.
Throughout our development, they visited Earth to guide us. On those visits, they directed primitive man to a solar system where we might contact the Engineers.
In that solar system, the Engineers terraformed a moon for us to travel to. Once there, we might contact them.
Around 2000 years ago, human civilization became much less civilized. Ridley Scott chose not to use the crucifixion of Jesus as the catalyst, but something more like the rise of Rome and other empires/violent civilizations like it spurred the Engineers to decide that we were not fit to exist any longer. The human experiment was to be terminated -- the garden had too many weeds.
To eliminate us, they created a biological weapon using the DNA-destroying black slime that they used for gardening. They created this stockpile on a forward base as they knew it was dangerous and even threatened them as a species. They used the planet they had directed us to; I think this was because that base was the one assigned to monitor Earth and humankind.
They planned to drop this stockpile onto Earth to destroy mankind, but allow life to continue. The garden would be uprooted and new seeds would be sown.
Something triggered the stockpile -- perhaps something happened to an Engineer in the manufacturing process. Remember, all of the hologram Engineers were running out of the stockpile room. At the entrance to that room were multiple suits. I think that, upon entering the room, they would don their suits to avoid exposure to the slime. Something triggered the stockpile to rupture or overwhelm their suits.
The rupture caused the Engineers to run. None of them were able to escape the slime. As shown in the hologram, one made it fairly far away, but died. When he died, he collapsed onto the ground. When Shaw removed his helmet, it was clear that he had the DNA-destroying slime in his veins.
The lone surviving Engineer lived because he was in cryostasis. He was in that state in preparation for the journey to Earth. The stockpile ruptured as they made preparations to leave. Hence the Engineers running from the ship in full flight gear.
When Weyland wakes the Engineer, he awakens to find the creation he had set out to destroy. That creation asks him to preserve his already unnaturally long life. It was this hubris that had necessitated humanity's destruction, so he tries to complete his mission.
He first looks and smiles at David, seems to caress him, and then destroys him. I believe this is because he recognized David as humanity's feeble attempt to create life -- they could only manage an imitation. This seems almost touching to the Engineer. The apple, it would seem, does not fall far from the tree; humanity unwittingly followed in the Engineers' footsteps.
The Engineer kills the present crew and begins to set out for Earth. Not only was his mission 2000 years delayed, but the problem had compounded itself immensely. Not only had humans become self-centered and full of hubris, but they had actually sought out their creators to ask them for more than the life they had been given.
TL;DR: mankind was created as an experiment, but humanity became prideful and undeserving of the life they had been granted. The Engineers developed a weaponized form of their DNA-seeding material, and meant to use it to "reseed" Earth. In their effort, something went wrong and they were themselves affected by the weapon.
EDIT: Upon further investigation, I think this picture is extremely important. It depicts the Xenomorph's life cycle, from H.R. Giger. It seems to depict Engineers, in their exosuits, overseeing the birth of a facehugger and its subsequent infection of an Engineer as a host.
They may not be overseeing the birth cycle; instead, they might be happening upon the Xenomorph and recording the life cycle as they encountered it.
Either way, it proves that the Engineers had contact with the Xenomorph prior to the events in Prometheus. They knew about it and how it was born. I think the mural was made as a warning to anyone who encountered the Xenomorph, which was one of the clear and present dangers when the black slime was involved.
here is the pic | <urn:uuid:58d693b1-eae7-4d68-b2ee-87110e807f58> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://hypebeast.com/forums/entertainment/163123/page/7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397797.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00104-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983583 | 1,381 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Brewing Up Biomass
When Jesse Evans and his brother Samuel, founders of New Chicago Beer Co., saw the wide open first floor of Chicago’s The Plant and were told a brewery would eventually occupy that space, they immediately knew they wanted to be involved.
The pair had been making beer in California, but they were eager to return to their home city of Chicago and set up shop there. The Plant, a developing vertical farm and food business incubator, presented a perfect opportunity.
So New Chicago Beer is now preparing the space for its 8,000-barrel operation, just one aspect of a developing multi-faceted and integrated project that will occupy The Plant, a 93,500-square-foot, three-story building. The brewery, expected to be operational in the middle of this year, will be integral for The Plant, as it will provide a waste stream for the in-house anaerobic digestion process that will eventually produce 380 kilowatts of energy to heat and power all 20 expected tenants of the enormous building. “It’s quite a substantial amount of beer and subsequent brewers grains,” Evans says.
“We’re very excited because they’re a very key component of what we’re doing,” says Melanie Hoekstra, operations manager at Plant Chicago, NFP, the nonprofit that will own and operate several aspects of The Plant, as well as conduct research and educational programming regarding the facility’s operations. The combined-heat-and-power (CHP) process will produce about 2.1 million Btu (MMBtu) per hour when fully operational, processing about 10,000 tons of brewery waste from New Chicago Beer and other breweries per year. Initially, the process will digest about 5,000 tons annually, until the building is at full capacity and can utilize all the energy that can be produced with 10,000 tons of feedstock.
“We hope to just produce enough for our own needs and any extra we’re just going to put back on the grid for free,” Hoekstra says. “We’re not going to try to sell it.” In Illinois, she explains, only a very small amount of energy can be sold to the grid before the generator is considered a utility.
“The idea is we’re going to produce lots and lots of grain that will be useful, not just for anaerobic digestion, but will also be used [by all the other tenants],” Jesse Evans says, citing additives in mushroom growth, fish feed and other developing operations within the building. “That biomass will move all around.”
The plans for the facility are quite novel and carry a crucial net zero energy goal. The building is a former meat packing plant and was purchased a year ago for realization of plant director John Edel’s self-sufficient indoor food growth vision. With food-grade infrastructure including high-quality stainless steel and floor drains already in place, the vertical farm, a concept where food is grown on vertically-inclined surfaces, is a perfect fit. “The fact that we’re producing food is a function of the facility itself,” Hoekstra says. “We’re reusing probably 80 percent of the material that was in the building. We adjust as we go and realize the advantages we have.”
Currently, the indoor farm is growing mostly greens, using horizontal systems that consist of flat beds filled with water and floating rafts to hold the plants. “But probably in the next few months, we will be building prototypes for vertical systems, meaning floor-to-ceiling systems,” Hoekstra says. In that scenario, the plants will grow on plastic boards sitting vertically at a 10- or 15-degree angle. Holes will allow the roots to sit inside the boards, while the plants grow out from them, she explains. “There are lots of different ways you can do this. I’ve also seen people use netting.”
Water will be dispersed through a specialized system that prevents trickling and ensures all the plants get the nutrients they need. Taking the concept further, The Plant has implemented an aquaponics design, connecting fish and their waste to the plants. “The plants actually clean the waste for the fish,” Hoekstra says. The facility will grow freshwater fish, currently focusing on tilapia.
While most of the facility’s elements are still under development, about 250 plants are currently harvested per week, yielding about 75 pounds of food per month. With all aspects of the project firing on all cylinders and the vertical farms in place, Hoekstra expects The Plant will produce three to six times more food, sold to restaurants and eventually farmers markets.
No fish are being harvested currently because the practice just recently was legalized in Illinois, but The Plant will harvest about 160 pounds of fish every other month.
Besides the vertical farms, aquaponics, brewery and anaerobic digester, the single building houses a bakery and a kombucha tea producer.
And that’s still not all. The Plant will also serve as a food business incubator with a two-pronged model. It will include a commercially licensed kitchen that can be used any time of the day or night and will be invaluable to start-up businesses with low profit margins that are currently using restaurant kitchens and have to operate in the middle of the night when the restaurants aren’t open, Hoekstra says. “This is a great setup for small businesses because having a kitchen of your own is very, very expensive.” The second aspect of the food business incubator will be 10 tenant kitchens available for rent by individual companies. Plant Chicago NFP will own and operate the vertical farm and food business incubator.
“There’s a lot that’s going on in the building,” Hoekstra says.
Because of its innovation and positive spirit, support for the digester and the plan for The Plant as a whole has come from city officials and community members alike, according to Hoekstra and Evans. Even though the plant is near a residential neighborhood, both say the project has encountered no opposition and those residents are eager to finally see action in a building that has been vacant for four years.
“We’re turning a building that was meant to be torn down into at least 125 jobs and that’s a number that’s going to grow,” Evans says. “To do that around a green technology is incredibly exciting. We’ve had nothing but support here.”
Alderman Pat Dowell has been integral in helping plans for the facility get off the ground, and Hoekstra says even Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has expressed interest in the project. “That’s really flattering and exciting,” she says. “The support has been really overwhelming.”
The anaerobic digester has to be operational by the end of June 2013, in accordance with guidelines set forth for state funding it received. “We should have no problems getting it done by that time,” Hoekstra says. A total of two state grants—one in Recovery Act funds and the other from Illinois’s food scrap composting program—will pay a total of $1.5 million toward the anaerobic digestion system. In addition, The Plant closed on a loan in February from Chicago Community Loan Fund, a nonprofit bank that is supportive of the operation. “They’re really excited about what we’re doing,” Hoekstra says.
Heat from the CHP system will go to the brewery, as well as to heat the rest of the building. “We have to boil 9,000 gallons of water per batch,” Evans says of the beer-making process. “That takes a massive amount of energy, so we’re using gas right off the anaerobic digester to burn in steam boilers and we’re using steam heat instead of burning fossil fuel underneath the kettles.”
As if The Plant weren't facilitating enough reuse and renewable concepts, the CHP generator itself, from Alcor Energy, is made of old, repurposed Air Force jets, Evans adds. Construction work on the brewery began this winter and the CHP generator was delivered in mid-February. “Everything is progressing very well there,” he says.
Evans eagerly divulges the numerous reasons he and his brother chose to develop their next brewery inside the facility, fulfilling a crucial aspect of its self-sufficient concept. He can’t wait to be a part of the intricate, integrated and progressive design of The Plant.
“It’s been inspiring since the first day we were in here,” he says.
Author: Lisa Gibson
Editor, Biomass Power & Thermal | <urn:uuid:88c40140-da75-4e04-bbd2-9d53e489692e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/6239/brewing-up-biomass | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00127-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960804 | 1,871 | 2.65625 | 3 |
HealthDay News - Teen Drinkers Risking Their Lives: Study
THURSDAY, July 3, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Teen drinkers who also use drugs run a greater risk for serious health problems and death, a new U.S. government study shows.
Researchers analyzed data on underage drinkers (aged 12 to 20) treated at U.S. hospital emergency rooms in 2011, and found that 20 percent of all hospital emergency department visits involving underage drinkers result in serious health outcomes.
Yet, while 12 percent of those visits involving drinking alone led to serious outcomes, the rate of serious outcomes among underage drinkers who also used drugs jumped to 33 percent, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) researchers found.
Those serious outcomes included hospitalization, transfer to another health center after their emergency department visit, or death.
"The 9.3 million underage drinkers across America are putting their health and futures at risk -- even more so when they combine alcohol with drugs," SAMHSA Administrator Pamela Hyde said in a government news release.
"The start of summer is a good opportunity for parents and other concerned adults to talk with teens and young adults about the dangers of underage drinking and drug use," she added.
SAMHSA has an underage drinking prevention program called "Talk, They Hear You." It's meant to help parents and other caregivers talk to children about the risks of underage drinking.
The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about underage drinking. | <urn:uuid:928e995a-d0bf-498e-86f5-850ed8865098> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://healthlibrary.epnet.com/GetContent.aspx?token=08bd2ac8-fad2-4a08-b4df-003140de2f15&chunkiid=899222 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00059-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955298 | 309 | 2.5625 | 3 |
half of all children having started antiretroviral treatment (ART) at under one
year of age were still in care two years later, according to the largest single
programme multi-country retrospective analysis of children on ART in Kenya,
Mozambique, Rwanda and Tanzania, published in the advance online edition of the
Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency
the more than 17,000 children (0 to under 15 years of age) having started ART
at 192 facilities in the four countries over the six-year period, overall
retention rates at 12 months and 24 months were 80 and 72%, respectively;
differing considerably by country ranging from 71 to 95% and 62 to 93%, respectively.
overall 16 and 22% were lost to follow-up (LTFU) and 5 and 7% were known to
have died at these respective time points, there were significant differences
among patient populations.
24 months, 18% of those having started ART at under one year of age died.
these estimates can be considered an improvement from the reports in the
pre-ART era (50% mortality at 24 months), the mortality rate remains
unacceptably high in the context of ART” write the authors.
benefits for children on ART should be the same whether in a resource-poor or
-rich setting, yet the death rate among the former is eight times that of the
spite of increased early diagnosis and getting larger numbers of younger
children onto treatment many paediatric HIV programmes in resource-poor
settings have yet to see these benefits.
study builds upon evidence that overall retention, LTFU and death are
suboptimal, and young children and those with advanced disease are at highest
risk for LTFU and death” the authors note.
of paediatric HIV treatment and care in sub-Saharan African, home to over 90%
of children living with HIV, has resulted in over 400,000 children having
in resource-poor settings respond to treatment as well as those in
resource-rich settings. The vast difference in outcomes is the result of both
biomedical and programme factors and include having advanced disease upon
diagnosis, other co-infections, malnutrition, delays in starting ART, and
suboptimal retention in care.
HIV-infected children in care is critical for prevention of HIV-related illness
and death. It means the timely start of ART, monitoring and managing disease
progression and treatment failure, and providing ongoing treatment and
outcomes are to be improved factors that affect retention need to be
authors chose to undertake a retrospective cohort analysis of data of children
having started ART between January 2005 and June 2011 to determine the
proportion of children retained in care, LTFU and died at 12 and 24 months; to
look at the variations by country and identify those individual- and
facility-level associated factors.
192 health facilities received support from the International Center for AIDS
Care and Treatment Programs (ICAP), a PEPFAR implementing partner supporting
HIV treatment and care in sub-Saharan Africa since 2005.
for starting ART followed national guidelines reflecting World Health
Organization (WHO) recommendations.
was defined as the proportion of children known to be alive and getting care at
the health facility where treatment was started; LTFU was defined as no clinic
visit for more than six months.
factors included: CD4 count or percentage, according to WHO guidelines, to
determine disease severity when starting ART; malnourishment; “severe illness” (a new category because of the high proportion of missing CD4 measurements and
WHO stage); WHO definition of severe immunodeficiency or WHO Stage 4 at the time
of starting ART.
level factors were defined as primary and secondary/tertiary; the former any
health centre and the latter district, regional or national hospitals.
Locations were categorised as urban, semi-urban and rural.
the 37,514 children enrolled in HIV services, 17,712 started ART; Mozambique
had the largest number (7226) and Rwanda the smallest (2170).
year, the numbers starting ART increased, from 585 in 2005 to 3653 in 2010 with
the number of facilities increasing from 75 to 192.
half of all facilities were in rural areas.
starting ART the median age was 4.6 years (IQR: 1.9-8.3), the median CD4
percentage for children under five years of age was 15% (IQR: 10-20%) and 265
cells/mm3 (IQR: 111-461) for those over five.
over a third of all children were severely ill when starting ART.
proportion of young children under two starting ART increased over time (from
12% in 2005 to 33% in 2011) with a corresponding decrease in the severity of
illness in children under one (from 56 to 18%). Yet contrary to what would be
expected – enrolling healthier children and the benefits of getting them on
treatment earlier – no improvements were seen in retention or death over time.
children under one year of age the adjusted hazard ratio for LTFU and death was
aHR=2.0, 95% CI: 1.7-2.4 and aHR=3.4, 95% CI: 2.6-4.6, respectively.
to children with less advanced illness those with severe illness had higher
death rates HR=1.6, 95% CI: 1.1-1.9, but similar LTFU rates, HR=0.99, 95% CI:
highlighting the continued need to pay special attention for infants to be
diagnosed promptly, started on treatment and kept in care, these findings also
show the need for more research to identify those factors affecting health
outcomes among this highly vulnerable group, the authors note.
all facilities receiving technical support through ICAP, having the same model
of care in place with an emphasis on early infant diagnosis, family-focussed
care, peer educators and active follow-up, there were considerable differences
in outcomes across country programmes as well as within country.
to children in Rwanda, children in Mozambique were over 16 times more likely to
be lost to follow-up (aHR: 16.8, 95% CI: 8.9-32.0) and children in Tanzania had more than
twice the death rate (aHR: 2.6, 95% CI: 1.8-3.6).
authors suggest these differences result from a combination of factors
including national leadership, access to care, HIV prevalence, patient-provider
ratios, caseload and decentralisation.
had the highest retention rate consistent with other findings. However, they
also had the smallest proportion of young children (15.6% compared to 38.7% in
Mozambique) and the smallest proportion of severely ill children, (18.6%
compared to 44.5% in Mozambique).
Rwanda had a smaller programme with a lower caseload, a factor linked to lower
LTFU in resource-poor settings. This may be the result of higher
staff-to-patient ratios, shorter wait times, more staff and active follow-up,
factors shown to reduce LTFU, the authors note.
the exception of Rwanda, the proportion of LTFU was higher than the proportion
of known death for all age groups and time periods.
results are encouraging as they illustrate what is achievable in public
programmes and suggest that improvement is obtainable,” the authors comment.
is the largest single programme multi-country analysis on outcomes among
children reflecting the scale up of HIV care and treatment in sub-Saharan
Africa and can probably be generalised to other PEPFAR-supported paediatric HIV
analysis is limited by the large amount of missing data at the start of ART.
Missing data – a separate category in the regression analyses – showed that
children with missing data appeared at greater risk for LTFU or death.
authors conclude “The vast differences across country programmes illustrate
that improved retention is achievable…additional attention to prompt diagnosis,
early ART initiation, active follow-up of children who miss appointments and
improved documentation of known transfers and death are urgent priorities for
paediatric HIV programmes.” | <urn:uuid:d1dff36b-e381-45a7-b25f-4a0ce43fa73c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.aidsmap.com/Child-death-rates-still-high-despite-HIV-treatment/page/2560946/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408828.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00072-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943008 | 1,768 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Didn't the radio operator on the Titanic send "CQD" and not "SOS"? CQD being the distress call (hence the "D") at the time--before SOS was developed and replaced it.
As AE4RV points out, both CQD and SOS were used in the Titanic disaster. It wasn't the first time SOS was used, either; it had been adopted years earlier. It was "new" to the operators on Titanic because the Marconi Company they worked for had only recently adopted it.
Jack Phillips and Harold Bride were the two radio operators on Titanic. Technically they were not part of the ship's crew; the Marconi Company supplied the equipment and operators under contract to White Star.
Most ships of those days only carried one radio operator, but Titanic and her sisters carried two because of the high volume of passenger traffic.
Radio was so new and unregulated in 1912 that different companies had different procedures, equipment and methods. The Titanic disaster pointed out the need for more regulation and uniformity.
73 de Jim, N2EY | <urn:uuid:562ad965-e9bc-4579-87ab-51f3e4ce68dc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/index.php?topic=73262.15 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403823.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00068-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981845 | 223 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Congestive Heart Failure
Overview and Facts
Heart failure, also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), means your heart can't pump enough blood to meet your body's needs. Over time, conditions such as narrowed arteries in your heart (coronary artery disease) or high blood pressure gradually leave your heart too weak or stiff to fill and pump efficiently.
You can't reverse many conditions that lead to heart failure, but heart failure can often be treated with good results. Medications can improve the signs and symptoms of heart failure. Lifestyle changes, such as exercising, reducing the salt in your diet, managing stress, treating depression, and especially losing excess weight, can improve your quality of life.
The best way to prevent heart failure is to control risk factors and conditions that cause heart failure, such as coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes or obesity. | <urn:uuid:87d4eda8-b5ba-4f70-a289-14f875a2c758> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nucara.com/Resource-Center/Medical-Health-Issues.aspx?Issue=Congestive%20Heart%20Failure&tid=225 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00107-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942752 | 182 | 3.625 | 4 |
Taming Toddler Tantrums
Toddlers have tantrums primarily due to frustration and anger. Your toddler is probably very demanding and ambitious. Yet at the same time, she probably has a very low threshold for frustration. This volatile combination often leads to tantrums. When your child cannot do what she wants, or when you deny her something in what she considers a battle of wills, she naturally gets frustrated. But a two-year-old has few words to express her frustration. She may not even have the exact words to express what she wants in the first place. Denied verbal expression, frustration often comes out physically—through violence or tantrums.
Parents of toddlers need to keep one thing in mind when their child begins to have a tantrum: Your child cannot help it. Older children often use tantrums to show they mean business, to demonstrate how much they want something. But two- and three-year-olds do not yet have the capacity to manipulate in this way. When her frustration builds to a certain level, your toddler literally loses control. Think of your child as a pressure cooker: the steam of frustration builds and builds and builds inside her until it finally forces an explosion.
If it's frightening for you to see your toddler possessed by the demon of a tantrum, think how she must feel. It's not a pleasant experience to be overwhelmed by the force of one's own emotions. Tantrums—and the uncontrollable internal rage that fuels them-are very scary for your child.
An Ounce of Prevention
The best way to deal with tantrums is, of course, to stop them before they start. You will need to monitor your child's frustration and try to keep it at a manageable level. In doing this, you will function as the relief valve on your child's pressure cooker.
This does not mean you should do everything for your child so that he never experiences any frustration. For one thing, a certain degree of frustration is good for your two-year-old. Moving beyond frustration to succeed at a task is one of the most satisfying ways that your child can learn how to do things. If he can do it, working through frustration will teach your toddler a great deal about himself and about how to accomplish certain tasks. For another thing, your child may regard your interference as an added source of frustration. He wants to be able to master new tasks. If you won't let him try, he's just as likely to explode as if he had tried and failed.
You shouldn't protect your child from every experience of frustration, but you should try to keep it at a manageable level. To do this, you will need to pay attention to what your child is doing. Watch for signs of frustration and then try to head them off. If you do notice your child's level of frustration building, try one of the following:
Fatigue can decrease your child's level of competence as well as his threshhold for frustration. And that's a sure formula for tantrums.
- Offer help before your toddler reaches the tantrum stage. If he refuses your help, however, back off. Remember that you can add to your child's frustration by trying to take over.
- Encourage your toddler to take a rest and come back to it later with a refreshed attitude.
- Distract your toddler with a different toy, a snack, a book, or a video. This may be a good time to encourage some quiet time activities.
- Constantly try to teach your toddler words that will help him express his anger and/or frustration. The inability to express these emotions in words heightens the likelihood of tantrums.
Besides monitoring your child's frustration level from a safe distance, recognize that the limits you establish can be another external source of frustration for your child. Certainly, you shouldn't have to roll over backward to avoid offending your little angel. But set limits on your child's behavior primarily to insure safety and promote socialization. Try to avoid laying down the law arbitrarily or—with noted exceptions—absolutely.
More on: Preschool
Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Parenting a Preschooler and Toddler, Too © 1997 by Keith M. Boyd, M.D., and Kevin Osborn. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
To order this book visit Amazon's web site or call 1-800-253-6476. | <urn:uuid:b3c25675-aabe-4e78-9d9c-56301fa45b37> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://life.familyeducation.com/tantrums/toddler/53392.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00184-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966521 | 929 | 2.90625 | 3 |
How feasting on steak and spinach can cut the chances of Alzheimer's
- Iron-rich foods can delay onset of degenerative disease, say researchers
- Anaemic peope are more likely to develop conditions like Alzheimer's
Iron-rich foods such as steak, spinach, liver and nuts could cut the risk of dementia in later life, say researchers.
A study has found that people with anaemia – where levels of red blood cells are lower than normal – were more likely to develop conditions such as Alzheimer’s.
The most common cause of anaemia, besides heavy blood loss, is iron deficiency, suggesting that a dietary change could help protect against dementia.
Rich: Steak is a source of iron-rich food, which may help protect against dementia
Researchers made the connection between dementia and anaemia after studying more than 2,500 adults aged between 70 and 79.
‘Anaemia is common in the elderly and occurs in up to 23 per cent of adults aged 65 and older,’ said lead researcher Dr Kristine Yaffe, of the University of California San Francisco.
‘The condition has also been linked in studies to an increased risk of early death.’ Of those who took part in the study, 393 had anaemia at the start, while all those involved were given memory and brain power tests.
At the end of the study, 445 – or about 18 per cent – had developed dementia.
The research found those who had anaemia at the start of the study had a nearly 41 per cent higher risk of developing dementia than those who were not anaemic.
Spinach: Anaemia may play a role in dementia by reducing oxygen supplies to the brain, which can damage neurons. Foods like spinach could combat that
The link remained after considering other factors, such as age, race, sex and education, says a report in the medical journal Neurology.
Of the 393 with anaemia, 89, or 23 per cent, developed dementia, compared to 366 of the 2,159 who did not have anaemia, or 17 per cent.
Dr Yaffe said anaemia may play a role in dementia by reducing oxygen supplies to the brain, which can damage neurons and have been shown to reduce memory and thinking abilities.
Dr Doug Brown of the Alzheimer’s Society said: ‘Maybe our parents were right to tell us that we should eat more spinach.
‘This interesting research suggests that lower iron levels may have a link with cognitive health later on in life.
‘However, more research is needed and we shouldn’t make the jump to claim that anaemia causes dementia.
‘The best way to reduce your risk of dementia is to lead a healthy lifestyle.
Enjoy a balanced Mediterranean diet rich in fruit and vegetables, oily fish and even the occasional glass of red wine, take regular exercise and don’t smoke.’
Dr Eric Karran of Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: ‘This large study adds to previous observations of a link between anaemia and a higher dementia risk, but it hard to say with any certainty that anaemia is a causal factor in the condition.’
‘While age is the biggest risk factor for dementia, current research suggests that lifestyle choices may have an influence on our dementia risk.’ | <urn:uuid:505f11df-e903-499e-b664-e61ea1f05cbd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2382262/How-feasting-steak-spinach-cut-chances-Alzheimers.html?ico=home%5Eheadlines | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399117.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00194-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966165 | 686 | 2.65625 | 3 |
The mountains of
Uzbekistan enter in structure of Tyan-Shan and Alay mountain systems. On territory turn the western spurs of
Tyan-Shan and Gissar-Alay mountain system.
To south and west they gradually lower and turn to plains.
Internal (tectonic) power of Earth formed folds grown the powerful ranges of mountains.
The mountains and foothills with brook relief, located in east and south-east part of Uzbekistan, where they unite with powerful mountain deep brook massive on territory of Kirgizya and Tadjikistan. Mainly this
Ugam, Pskem, Chatkal, Kuramin ranges and their western and south-western spurs, concerning to
Western Tyan-Shan system and Turkestan, Zerafshan and Gissar ranges with their continuous on south-western -
Babatag and Kugintangtau ranges, concerning to Gissar-Alay system.
Entering on territory of Uzbekistan its spurs formed radiating bundle of mountain chains, constantly less in north-western and south-western directions. The character example is
Maygashkan and Surenata ranges in western Tyan-Shan system and Nuratau,
Aktau and Kuratau ranges and Karatepa and Ziadin-Zirabulak mountains, being the last of
Entering in Western Tyan-Shan system the mountain ranges (Karjantau, Ugam, Pskem, Chatkal, Kuramin) began from Talass Alatau (on border with Kirgizstan), further as fan radiate from here and continuos to north-east to south-west.
The more high point of Talass Alatau is mountain Manas (4482m).
The high point of Chatkal range on territory of Uzbekistan - Greater Chimgan peak (3309 m).
Between Chatkal and Kuramin ranges located Akhangaran valley.
The apexes of Western Tyan-Shan covered with snow and glaciers.
The Chatkal and Kuramin ranges border on north with Fergana valley. From east she borders with
Fergana range, from south with Alay and Turkestan ranges.
To north-west from Turkestan range raises the Malguzar range, to south-west
Chumkartau range. Only the north slopes of Chumkartau entering on territory of Uzbekistan. The valley of
Sanzar river separate the Malguzar mountains from Nuratau mountains. The weak point in this valley named
The Nuratau mountains stretch on 180 km. Their north slope is steep, the south slope is gently sloping. The high point of North part of Nuratau mountains is
Khayatbashi apex (2165 m). The south part of Nuratau mountains consists from separate apexes (Aktau, Karatau, Karagatau, Gabduntau).
On the south and as parallel to Turkestan range located Zarafshan range. With self eastern part he entering on territory of Tadjikistan. On south from Zarafshan range located
Gissar range and his south-western spurs (Yakkobag, Surkhantau, Kugikantau, Baysuntau, Chakgar and other). Here located the
highest point of Uzbekistan - the Khazret Sultan (4643 m).
In western part of Gissar range are two glaciers - Batirbay and Severcev. On south of Uzbekistan along of border with Tadjikistan located
Babatag range. The high point - Zarkasa (2292 m).
The main features of orography of Uzbekistan connected with features of geological structure of above-mentioned the mountain systems.
This bond found expression in these, that between mountain ranges located spacious foothill and intermountain depressions, the large from which is
Tashkent-Golodnosteppe, Fergana Zarafshan, Kashkadarya and
Please note that Uzbekistan's fourthousanders (Uzbekistan's Mountain Peaks, which are above four thousands meters high) are located in border areas. For example the
Khazret Sultan Peak, the highest point of Uzbekistan (4,643 m), is located on the border between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, in Surkhandarya Province, in the Uzbek part of the Gissar Range.
The Adelung Peak (4,301 m) the highest peak in Pskem Range in extreme north-east of Uzbekistan's Tashkent Province as well as the nearby the Beshtor Peak (4,299 m), located a little further to the south-west in the same range, are situated near to Kyrgyz border. Therefore even local climbers cannot go there without a special permit. Besides, there is no transparent procedure of getting the permits to border areas, which haven't good infrastructure of tourism, into the bargain; therefore organizing of any expedition there takes enormous efforts, time and money. Knowing this most of climbers prefer the
Fann mountains near to Uzbekistan with good infrastructure,
Asian Patagonia of Pamiro-Alay in Kyrgyzstan,
Experienced Climbing in Ala-Archa, Kyrgyzstan or the Chimgan Mountains (both, in winter and in summer) near to Tashkent.
We can offer you very interesting experience of rock climbing in the Chimgan mountains. There are routes of 1B-4B Russian grade. We can provide you with
official certificate of successful climbing. We provide gears and can guarantee your success.
The suggested route is a traverse of three peaks (3A by Russian grade): the Greater Chimgan
(3309 m), the Kichkina (2879 m) and the Aukashka (3099 m). It will take 4-5 days.
Magnificent landscapes and challenge rock climbing. You can see a picture of proposed route below.
Chimgan Mountains are invariably attractive
for mountaineers. The wide variety of Chimgan and its surroundings allows the
activity in all kinds of mountaineering and landscape tourism. Mountains
(Small and Greater Chimgan Peaks - 3,309 m) of Chatkal range, plateaus, the
Black Waterfall (40 m) at the lower part of
Greater Chimgan Peak,
Novotasha waterfalls, attract a lot of tourists from Uzbekistan and abroad.
The Greater Chimgan Mountain (3,309 m) of the Chatkal Mountain range (the Western Tian Shan) is located in the territory of the
Ugam-Chatkal National Park, and it is in the Bostanlyk administrative district (Tashkent Province), Uzbekistan.
The Chimgan village was settled 400-500 years ago in the mountain massive of dominant the
Greater Chimgan peak (3,309 m), at an altitude of 1,620 m.
Some experts see Chinese words in the name "Chimgan" but others translate it as "sod" or "pasture abundant in water, green valley".
For generations of those, who live in Tashkent province, the Greater Chimgan
Mountain is the place of romantic gravitation.
The Greater Chimgan Mountain is known to mountaineers since the beginning of the 20 century.
For those who want to experience of rock climbing, hiking and mountaineering Chimgan Highlands caters many opportunities. Chimgan Highlands have been a host for many other outdoor activities such as hang gliding, skiing, snowboarding and horseback riding.
For many years the Greater Chimgan was the first challenge for thousands beginners of Soviet mountaineering.
A great number of routes of several levels of complexity (from 1B to 4B inclusively) allows a wide spectrum of mountaineering. Beginners at climbing usually take on the uncomplicated
Western Ridge of the Greater Chimgan Mountain (1B Russian grade), while there are plenty of more complicated routes for experienced climbers.
Driving from Tashkent through Galvasay
village to the recreation zone "Chimgan" at the foothill of Chatkal
range in West Tien Shan (100 km, 1,5 hours, 1,300 m). Going up by a good path to
the Pesochniy pass (1,832 m). Descending to the
gorge of the Gulkamsay
river. After rest in the birch grove go through one of the most beautiful
places in the mountains of Uzbekistan - the Gulkam canyon.
Canyoning. Rock chap at
times converging up to 5 m having numerous small waterfalls, baths, rock gorges
and with frequent wades can be walked through in 2 hours. Lunch is organized in
the picturesque grove at the end of canyon. After rest crossing on the country
road around the Smaller Chimgan Peak (2,100 m). Majestic panorama of Ugam, Pskem and
Koksu ranges of the West Tien Shan surrounding
Charvak water reservoir opens up
from the road. After 3 hours drive arrival in Chimgan village. Departure by car
to Tashkent along Charvak reservoir. See the map ... | <urn:uuid:7f27bbc4-4f2f-48c8-bba0-b31748a06b77> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pagetour.org/tashkent/chim/Chimgan_1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00009-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919352 | 1,973 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Relief Society Lesson 13: Relief Society: True Charity and Pure Religion
From the Life of Eliza R. Snow
The text briefly mentions that Lorenzo Snow’s sister, Eliza R. Snow, served as president of the Relief Society. As it is highly likely that much of Lorenzo Snow’s knowledge and appreciation for the Relief Society can be credited to his sister, I’ll begin by reviewing her Relief Society service.
Eliza R. Snow was instrumental in the initiation of the Relief Society. She was one of about 12 women whom Sarah Kimball invited to discuss the idea in 1842. Eliza R. Snow then drafted the original constitution for the organization. Reference A After discussing their plan with Joseph Smith, Smith expanded their original vision, telling them:
I will organize the women under the priesthood, after the pattern of the priesthood. –Joseph Smith Reference A
Joseph Smith organized the Relief Society in the format of the priesthood and gave the organization autonomy unparalleled in the modern church. Reference B
[Joseph Smith] propos’d that the Sisters elect a presiding officer to preside over them, and let that presiding officer choose two Counsellors to assist in the duties of her Office— that he would ordain them to preside over the Society— and let them preside just as the Presidency, preside over the church; and if they need his instruction— ask him, he will give it from time to time. Let this Presidency serve as a constitution— all their decisions be considered law; and acted upon as such. If any Officers are wanted to carry out the designs of the Institution, let them be appointed and set apart, as Deacons,Teachers &c. are among us. -Eliza R. Snow quoting Joseph Smith in Nauvoo Relief Society Minutes Reference C
After officially organizing the Relief Society, Joseph Smith gave several lectures to the new Society. In his personal diary, he wrote that he:
gave a lecture on the pries[t]hood shewing how the Sisters would come in possession of the privileges & blessings & gifts of the priesthood & that the signs should follow them. such as healing the sick casting out devils &c. & that they might attain unto these blessings. by a virtuous life & conversation & diligence in keeping all the commandments. -Joseph Smith Reference D
Eliza R. Snow served as secretary of the newly formed Relief Society and took copious notes detailing Relief Society activities and Joseph Smith’s lectures to the Relief Society, now available online as the Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book. (Read more about the Nauvoo Relief Society here and here.)
After Joseph Smith died in 1844, Brigham Young disbanded the Relief Society, possibly due to conflicts with the ordained president of the Relief Society, Emma Smith, who objected to the practice of polygamy. Reference E Reference F
Sister[s] … have no right to meddle in the affairs of the kingdom of God … [they] never can hold the Priesthood apart from their husbands. When I want Sisters or the Wives of the members of the church to get up Relief Society I will summon them to my aid but until that time let them stay at home & if you see females huddling together veto the concern … and if they say Joseph started it tell them its a damned lie for I know he never encouraged it.–Brigham Young, 1845 Reference B
In spite of Brigham Young’s opposition, Eliza R. Snow and Patty Sessions continued to unofficially hold Relief Society meetings through 1848, while the women were stationed at Winter Quarters and crossing the plains. Reference F After arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, Eliza R. Snow developed an illness, possibly tuberculosis, that precluded public work for several years. Reference F Reference G
In 1855, a group of Utah women began a society similar to the former Relief Society with the primary goal of providing clothing for local Native Americans. Four months after their effort began, Brigham Young made this “proposal” (an interesting choice of words, given that the women in this particular congregation had already been doing this for months.) Reference F Reference H
I propose to the Sisters in this congregation to form themselves into societies to relieve the poor brethren and sustain them. We need not have a poor family. I propose to the women to clothe the Lamanite children and women and cover their nakedness. All the Lamanites will be numbered within this Kingdom in a very few years and they would be as zealous as any other. The sisters should meet in their own wards and it will do them good. –Brigham Young, 1855 Reference F
After Brigham Young’s endorsement, similar societies were developed in other areas of the territory, but most of these efforts were short-lived. Reference F (More information about this time period is available here.)
In 1867, Brigham Young reestablished the Relief Society. He placed the new Relief Society under supervision of the male priesthood rather than parallel to it as in the Nauvoo version of the organization. He appointed Eliza R. Snow to oversee the effort, although she was not officially designated president until 1880, after Emma Smith’s death. Reference E Reference I
Let [the sisters] organize Female Relief Societies in the various wards. We have many talented women among us, and we wish their help in this matter. Some may think this is a trifling thing, but it is not; and you will find that the sisters will be the mainspring of the movement. Give them the benefit of your wisdom and experience, give them your influence, guide and direct them wisely and well, and they will find rooms for the poor and obtain the means for supporting them ten times quicker than even the Bishop could.2 -Brigham Young, 1867 Reference I
The Encyclopedia of Mormonism outlines the administrative accomplishments of the Relief Society under Eliza R. Snow’s direction:
1866-1887. In 1866 President Young initiated Churchwide reorganization of the Relief Society, appointing Eliza R. Snow to assist bishops in establishing the organization in each ward. The minutes that she had recorded in Nauvoo became the common “Constitution” for all local units, providing continuity of name, purpose, and organizational pattern. Though not formally called and set apart as general president until 1880, Eliza R. Snow directed Relief Society work from 1867 until her death in 1887. She was aided by her counselors Zina D. H. Young and Elizabeth Ann Whitney and by the retrenchment society, which served informally as a central board.
By 1880, the Relief Society had 300 local units, and each one cared for the suffering and needy within its ward boundaries, using an expanded corps of visiting teachers to collect and distribute donations. Ward Relief Societies managed their own financial resources, and many of them built their own meeting halls.
The Relief Society engaged in a number of bold and innovative economic activities spurred by the Church’s movement for economic self-sufficiency. Ward societies initiated cooperative enterprises for making and marketing homemade goods, raised silk (see Silk Culture), established a grain storage program with local granaries, and helped finance the medical training of midwives and female doctors. With the support of ward units, the central board established the Deseret hospital (1882-1895). Assuming a new political role, the Relief Society sponsored a series of “indignation meetings” to voice women’s opposition to proposed antipolygamy legislation. After Utah women were enfranchised in 1870, the Relief Society encouraged women to vote. Then they actively campaigned for woman suffrage after they were disfranchised by the federal government in 1887.
The Relief Society helped to organize and nurture the Young Ladies’ Retrenchment Association (later young women) and the primary. Though separate general presidencies were appointed for these groups in 1880, President Eliza R. Snow served as their general head, and she and her board visited local congregations in Utah and Idaho to instruct all three groups. Local visits and conferences, the appointment of stake Relief Society presidents and boards (beginning in 1877), and publication of the semimonthly Woman’s Exponent (1872-1914) strengthened women’s sense of sisterhood. In assuming new responsibilities at ward, stake, and general levels, hundreds of LDS women entered the public sphere, simultaneously strengthening the community and developing their individual talents. Reference J
Eliza R. Snow was not just an administrator; she was the “high priestess” and “prophetess.” In the endowment house, she served in a manner analogous to the modern office of temple matron, although she often offered blessings beyond the scripted ceremonies. Outside the temple, she blessed the sick by laying on of hands, performed washing and anointings for pregnant women, and instructed other women about how to perform these ordinances. She was also known to have the gift of speaking in tongues. An accomplished poet, she often expounded doctrine through poetry, such as Invocation, or the Eternal Father and Mother, which has been included in the modern Hymnal as O My Father. Reference K (You can read more about this time period here.)
How has the work of Eliza R. Snow affected the church today? What can we learn from Eliza R. Snow’s example? How did Brigham Young’s attitudes and policies toward the Relief Society change over time? What might have influenced these changes? Why is it important to learn how women contributed to the history of the church?
Members of the Relief Society exemplify true charity and pure religion.
The mission of the Relief Society is to succor the distressed, to minister to the sick and feeble, to feed the poor, to clothe the naked, and to bless all the sons and daughters of God. No institution was ever founded with a nobler aim. Its basis is true charity, which is the pure love of Christ [see Moroni 7:47], and that spirit has been manifested in all the ministrations of the Society among the people. The Apostle James said that “pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” [James 1:27.] Accepting that as true, the members of the Relief Society have most surely exemplified in their lives pure and undefiled religion; for they have ministered to those in affliction, they have thrown their arms of love around the fatherless and the widows, and they have kept themselves unspotted from the world. I can testify that there are no purer and more God-fearing women in the world than are to be found within the ranks of the Relief Society. -Lorenzo Snow 2 Reference L
How did the Relief Society fulfill this mission during the lifetimes of Eliza and Lorenzo Snow? How does the Relief Society fulfill this mission today? Think of a time when Relief Society sisters helped you or someone you know. How have such actions influenced your life?
From the Life of Lorenzo Snow
This lesson is unusual for the Teachings of the Presidents of the Church series. Most of these lessons include quotes drawn from a wide variety of sources and time periods. This lesson almost exclusively draws from a 1901 speech at a Relief Society excursion to Saltair Resort, which was printed in the Deseret Evening News on July 1, 1901. The article is titled, Prest. Snow to Relief Societies: Their Good Work—Have $100,000 in Property and 103,783 Bushels of Grain and Some Flour For Times of Need. The full text is available here: Reference L
He began the speech:
I appreciate the privilege of being able to spend an hour or two in your company this afternoon, and I trust you are all enjoying yourselves today. Proper recreation and amusement are good things, and I am glad to see you sisters indulging in a little rest and recreation, for you who work so hard day after day in your homes and in the Relief Society certainly deserve all the enjoyment you can get. -Lorenzo Snow Reference L
Why is it important to rest from labor? What are some good ways to reward ourselves for hard work?
He then referred to the womens’ support of the Church’s missionary program. In that time, married men often were called to serve full-time missions, leaving their wives to financially support their families.
It is difficult to imagine what we should have done, or what progress the work of the Lord would have made, without [the women of the church]. When we [brethren] have been absent on foreign missions, their missions at home have generally been no less arduous than ours abroad; and in the midst of trial and privation they have exhibited a patience, a fortitude and a self-help that has been truly inspiring. Thank God for the women of this Church! That is the way I feel today as I join in this assembly. 1 -Lorenzo Snow Reference L
What are some of the ways family members support people with demanding church callings today? How can ward members support these families?
Relief Society sisters work with priesthood holders to advance the interests of the kingdom of God.
Lorenzo Snow continued his speech, noting that not only were women responsible for providing for their families while their husbands were abroad conducting missionary service, but were also engaged in a number of financial projects for benefit of the church:
I understand that one of the objects of this excursion is to raise funds towards the proposed women’s building in Salt Lake City…that will be suitable as headquarters for the Relief Society, the Young Ladles Mutual Improvement Association, and the Primary Association…I am glad to note that you are making strenuous exertions to raise the requisite means for this purpose and if you are united in your feelings, I do not think you will find it a hard task. I would encourage every member of these organizations to assist in this work. I would also invite every Bishop to assist you in obtaining sufficient means to erect a magnificent edifice that shall reflect credit upon our women and attract the admiring gaze of the great and noble of all nations who may visit Zion. I am told that a number of ladies who are not members of the Church have generously contributed towards the building much to the gratification and appreciation of those who have the matter in hand, and this ought to prove a stimulus to those who are in the Church. I hope to see a handsome structure reared and I anticipate soon having the pleasure of meeting with you in it. Success to you in your effort in this direction…You are now 30,000 strong, I am told, with a building fund of nearly $5,000 and with upwards of $100,000 worth of property in your possession…In addition to this, you are the only ones among the Saints who are doing anything in a financial way against a day of famine. Your work in this direction is most commendable and I hear as a result that you have 103,783 bushels of grain, together with an amount of flour and beans, safely stored away against a time of need, as well as $3,331 to expend for the same purpose. I understand that in some few instances your labors in this direction have been interfered with but I hope that hereafter there will be no occasion for complaint on that point. -Lorenzo Snow Reference L
At this time in history, the Relief Society functioned essentially as its own company, with responsibility to raise its own funds and authority over how these funds were spent. The Relief Society grain storage program began in 1876. Emmeline B. Wells, who would later serve as General Relief Society President, was called to lead the program during the administrations of Brigham Young and Eliza R Snow. The Relief Society raised funds to buy or grow grain and build storage facilities. Just two years before this speech was delivered, the wheat storage program had proven useful during a severe drought. Reference I Reference M
The “interference” Lorenzo Snow referred to was frequent and ongoing attempts by local bishops to access Relief Society assets for local projects. Lorenzo Snow was true to his word about not interfering with the Relief Society’s grain program, but his successor, Joseph F. Smith, had a different vision for the Church in which there would “not be so much necessity for work that is now being done by the auxiliary organizations because it will be done by the regular quorum of the Priesthood.” Under his administration, priesthood leaders became more involved in the grain program, although primary responsibility for it continued to rest with the Relief Society. During World War I in 1918, the government of the United States of America requested to purchase the grain to address worldwide grain shortages. Without consulting the Relief Society General Presidency, the First Presidency and the Presiding Bishopric agreed to sell the grain. After learning of the transaction, the Relief Society General President, Emmeline B. Wells, expressed that she agreed with the decision to sell to the government but objected to how Relief Society assets were sold without permission of the Relief Society. The presiding bishop apologized, but moving forward, final decision-making authority about the grain program was shifted from the General Relief Society Presidency toward the Presiding Bishopric. Reference M
This pattern of shifting financial authority away from the Relief Society and toward priesthood holders continued in the decades that followed. In 1978, in response to the comprehensive Church correlation program, an effort “to place the priesthood of God where the Lord said it was to be—as the center and core of the church and kingdom of God,” the Relief Society transferred 266,291 bushels of wheat and nearly 2 million dollars in assets to the First Presidency. Reference N Reference O Reference J In 2010, the Church Handbook of Instruction included a new provision excluding women from callings as financial auditors. Reference P
What can we learn from the early Relief Society’s efforts to maintain financial viability and prepare “against a day of famine”? What can we do today to follow their example? How can Relief Society sisters and priesthood holders improve collaboration in operating church programs?
It has always been a source of pleasure to me to notice how faithfully you sisters of the Relief Society have stood by the servants of the Lord under all circumstances. You have ever been found at the side of the Priesthood, ready to strengthen their hands and to do your part in helping to advance the interests of the kingdom of God; and as you have shared in these labors, so you will most certainly share in the triumph of the work and in the exaltation and glory which the Lord will give to His faithful children…No wise Bishop will fail to appreciate the labors of the Relief Society in his ward. What could a Bishop do without a Relief Society? I would say to all the Bishops in the Church, encourage the sisters of the Relief Society, and support them in their work of charity and benevolence, and they will prove a blessing to you and to the people.3 -Lorenzo Snow Reference L
What examples have you witnessed of Relief Society sisters and priesthood holders working well together?
As the Church grows, Relief Society sisters will have greater opportunities to serve.
The future of the [Relief] Society is full of promise. As the Church grows, its field of usefulness will be correspondingly enlarged, and it will be even more potent for good than it has been in the past. If all the sisters will rally to the support of the society, it will accomplish a mighty work and be a continued blessing unto the Church. 5 -Lorenzo Snow Reference L
Do you think this prediction by Lorenzo Snow has come to pass? Why or why not? What can Relief Society sisters do today to increase in their influence for good? How can wards, branches and stakes better utilize the talents of Relief Society sisters?
It is good to have the influence of the Relief Society in every home.
…It would be a good thing to have the influence of this organization in every home…It would be gratifying to see the middle-aged as interested in this institution as the aged, and by becoming so they will find that it will strengthen their faith, give them broader ideas of life and its responsibilities, and advance them materially along the path of progress and perfection.5 -Lorenzo Snow Reference L
At the time of Lorenzo Snow, LDS women had the option of choosing to join the Relief Society. Since September 1971, all LDS women have been automatically enrolled in the Relief Society. Reference J While membership in Relief Society is now automatic, participation is not. In 2003, General Relief Society President Bonnie D. Parkin challenged Relief Society members to be more welcoming to younger women. Reference Q
Ultimately, all women—young or old, Primary and Young Women leaders—are members of Relief Society. And all women have the responsibility of helping our young adult sisters recognize that they, too, have a place in Relief Society. We need to become acquainted with each girl, learn her name, learn about her activities and interests, and make every effort to enfold her into our sisterhood before she turns 18. These transitioning young adult women should enter Relief Society already having older friends who know them, love them, and are ready to receive them. -Bonnie D. Parkin Reference Q
What was your experience transitioning into Relief Society? How have you seen success at involving women of different generations in Relief Society? | <urn:uuid:d8280a5d-ea85-47e3-843e-a0eeb82b83c5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.the-exponent.com/reliefsocietylesson13/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391634.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00141-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962598 | 4,443 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Astronomers have found the third closest star system to our own - the nearest in almost a century.
The snappily named system - official moniker WISE J104915.57-531906 - is just 6.5 light years from Earth and is the third-closest ever found.
The system is in fact a pair of "brown dwarf" stars, which orbit each other and possibly have planets of their own.
Above: An artists' impression of the binary system
The stars are the closest discovered since 1916. Alpha Centauri, the closest star to us at 4.4 light years, was found in 1839. Barnard's Star, discovered in 1916, is 6 light years from Earth.
Discovered by Kevin Luhman at Penn State using Nasa's Wide-field Infrared Survey map of the night sky, the stars are two small in mass to ever ignite hydrogen fusion.
As such they resemble a planet like Jupiter more than our own Sun.
Above: animated GIF of the WISE images Luhman used to discover the star system
Still they might be a good place to search for planets, their discoverer claims:
"It will be an excellent hunting ground for planets because it is very close to Earth, which makes it a lot easier to see any planets orbiting either of the brown dwarfs." Since it is the third-closest star system, in the distant future it might be one of the first destinations for manned expeditions outside our solar system."
Luhman found the system by studying time-lapse images of the sky produced by WISE, and noticing that it was moving so quickly that it was likely to be quite close to our solar system.
"Based on how this star system was moving in the images from the WISE survey, I was able to extrapolate back in time to predict where it should have been located in the older surveys and, sure enough, it was there," Luhman said.
"It was a lot of detective work." | <urn:uuid:ad22ad84-995d-49fc-959c-cebd0d541260> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/12/third-closest-star-system_n_2859003.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393518.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00068-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967922 | 418 | 3.6875 | 4 |
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Rep. Tom Petri of Wisconsin, both Republicans, are concerned with the high cost of college and, like President Barack Obama, want to make it easier for students to repay their loans.
People generally default on their student loans because their incomes fall or they stop working. Under Rubio’s proposal, students with federal college loans would be enrolled in what’s known as income-based repayment – their monthly payment would be a fixed proportion of their paycheck. Everyone’s repayments would be affordable.
That isn’t a new idea; the federal government already offers income-based repayment programs for some low-income students, and Obama has proposed making those programs more widely available. What makes Rubio’s proposal noteworthy isn’t just that everyone would be eligible for income-based repayment. It’s that every borrower would automatically be enrolled.
Petri’s plan would go one step further – students would have their loan payments automatically deducted from their paychecks. Processing payments through the tax-withholding system means most borrowers simply won’t have the option of falling into delinquency and default. If they’re not working one year or don’t make enough to pay taxes, they would have no obligation to pay anything that year.
Using the Internal Revenue Service to collect student loan payments for millions of Americans would be a huge technological undertaking and would require a significant expansion of the agency’s scope and responsibilities. At some point, it’s reasonable to ask, is the IRS doing too much? It’s a question many conservatives, including the junior senator from Florida, can be relied upon to keep front and center.
There are other details to be worked out. If former students take longer to pay off their loans, they will end up paying more in interest. They could be allowed to increase their payments, which Petri’s bill would do, or the government could use the revenue from greater interest payments to reduce interest rates.
Another concern is that, under the current system, all outstanding loans are automatically forgiven after 20 years; if students are making lower monthly payments, it stands to reason that the government will collect less money.
The Obama administration has proposed limiting the amount of money that can be forgiven, while Petri’s bill would replace loan forgiveness with a cap on accrued interest.
All that said, the focus on making it easier for students to repay their loans is welcome. And if two people as far apart as Marco Rubio and Barack Obama can agree on the outlines of a solution, it may be promising as well. | <urn:uuid:ab93cad4-3e1f-47b3-a6e2-e23e66d36b75> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.kcchronicle.com/2014/03/17/another-view-rubio-obama-have-a-plan-to-pay-off-your-college-debt/asr0e6n/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408828.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00195-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973245 | 541 | 2.6875 | 3 |
by fen montaigne
As sea ice rapidly melts in the Arctic and parts of Antarctica, the threat to creatures that use the ice as a feeding platform — polar bears and walruses in the Arctic, and Adélie penguins in the Antarctic — has been well publicized.
But these iconic symbols of global warming are merely the pinnacle of polar marine ecosystems whose foundations rest, above all, on one thing: the widespread, seasonal formation and retreat of sea ice. And as temperatures rise in the Arctic and along the Antarctic Peninsula faster than anywhere else on earth, evidence is growing that the sea ice’s retreat is altering a food chain that supports a wide array of marine life, from single-celled phytoplankton to gray whales.
This intricate web of life — whose annual cycle of reproduction is kick-started every spring and summer by the retreat of sea ice and ensuing phytoplankton blooms — is facing profound shifts in that timing, upending many long-established interactions. Some creatures will benefit from the shifts, and others will lose. But one thing is certain: Many forms of polar marine life that have evolved over millions of years to live in a relatively stable, sea-ice dominated world are now facing a new, swiftly changing reality.
“These ecosystems are very sensitive to sea ice changes and if you change that equilibrium you might end up with a totally different ecosystem,” said Martin Montes-Hugo, an oceanographer and remote sensing expert at the University of Quebec who has studied the impact of sea ice declines on the marine food web along the western Antarctic Peninsula.
The changes in the Southern Ocean in that region are indicative of the cascade of events that ripple through polar oceans as sea ice melts. Winter air temperatures along the northwestern Antarctic Peninsula have risen by 11 degrees F in the past 60 years, and sea surface temperatures have risen by about 1 degree F — a slight but significant change. As a result of these increases, sea ice now blankets the Southern Ocean off the western Antarctic Peninsula nearly three fewer months a year than 30 years ago.
For eons, the marine world in this region has come to life every spring as sea ice retreats, exposing the ocean to the sun’s rays. Marine algae, or phytoplankton, trapped in the ice and floating in the water column have burst into life as the sun catalyzes the photosynthetic process. In addition, melting freshwater from the sea ice formed a buoyant cap atop the heavier salt water, trapping the algae in the upper layer of the ocean, where it was exposed to the sun’s rays and bloomed.
These seasonal phytoplankton blooms have fed the entire food web around Antarctica: shrimp-like krill and fish ate the phytoplankton, and virtually everything else — from Adélie penguins to humpback whales — ate the krill, which are part of the crustacean family.
Now, however, Montes Hugo and his colleagues are detecting major changes at the base of the food chain — the phytoplankton — that appear to be working their way up to top predators, including Adélie penguins. Using various records — including satellite-based remote-sensing technology that measures the chlorophyll (an indication of phytoplankton) in the water — Montes-Hugo compared phytoplankton production during two periods: 1978 to 1986, and 1998 to 2006. Over those three decades, he concluded, phytoplankton production declined by nearly 90 percent in the northwestern Antarctic Peninsula.
Montes-Hugo says the main reason for the drop is the sharp decline of sea ice during that same period. Less sea ice has meant two things. First, it has reduced the size of the freshwater layer that kept phytoplankton trapped in the upper layer of the Southern Ocean, where they bloomed when exposed to sunlight. Second, the region’s nearly three-month decline in sea ice duration means that the ocean’s surface is more exposed to winds, which stir up the water and mix the upper layers with lower layers. The upshot is that phytoplankton blooms have been sharply reduced as the algae are driven deeper into the water column, where they are not exposed to the bloom-producing energy of the sun.
The decline in phytoplankton is believed to be a major reason for a regional decrease in Antarctic krill. And that loss of krill, coupled with the shrinking of the sea-ice that Adélies use as a feeding platform in winter, is a major reason why Adélie penguin populations in the northwestern Antarctic Peninsula have plummeted by more than 80 percent in the last 35 years.
Farther south on the Antarctic Peninsula, where temperatures are considerably colder, warming has had the opposite effect. Previously, the more southerly waters off the Antarctic Peninsula were covered in extensive sea ice nearly year-round, inhibiting phytoplankton growth. But as the region has warmed and sea ice has retreated, the growing expanses of open water have actually led to an increase in phytoplankton production of more than 60 percent, which may well boost production of krill and the creatures that feed upon them.
Hugh Ducklow, who heads the National Science Foundation’s Long Term Ecological Research program on the Antarctic Peninsula, said he and his colleagues are observing another important change related to the loss of sea ice. Ducklow, a biological oceanographer who is director of The Ecosystems Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., said that Antarctica has long been characterized by a relatively simple marine ecosystem with few links in the food chain, which is dominated by large species at every level. A large type of phytoplankton, called diatoms, has prevailed, as has the large Antarctic krill.
Now, however, Ducklow said that smaller phytoplankton — which Antarctic krill do not customarily eat — are becoming more prevalent, which he says is related to rising water temperatures and changes in ocean stratification. In addition, researchers in the region are finding that Antarctic krill are beginning to be replaced by a creature known as a salp — a clear, barrel-shaped, jellyfish-like tunicate that is 99 percent water and therefore has little nutritional value. These developments, said Ducklow, could bode ill for the penguins, seals, and whales so dependent on Antarctic krill.
“This indicates fundamental changes in the food chain as a result of the loss of sea ice,” said Ducklow.
Added Montes-Hugo, “There is definitely large-scale ecosystem change, and where it’s heading, nobody knows.”
In the Arctic, where sea ice is retreating rapidly across nearly the entire Arctic Basin, scientists are detecting significant changes in phytoplankton blooms and in the many creatures that depend on those blooms for sustenance. Since 1979, summer sea ice extent in the Arctic Ocean has declined by a third, and thick, multi-year sea ice is swiftly giving way to thin, year-old ice.
As sea ice retreats sooner, phytoplankton blooms are occurring earlier in the Arctic summer. And recent studies indicate that the widespread retreat of sea ice in the Arctic is leading to an increase in phytoplankton production, as areas that were previously covered in sea ice nearly year-round are now exposed to more sunlight, triggering more intense phytoplankton blooms. (Phytoplankton blooms also are dependent on nutrients in the water, such as nitrogen; much of the Arctic Ocean is nutrient-poor, but that could change as winds churn ice-free water, bringing up nutrients from the deeper parts of the Arctic basin.)
Kevin Arrigo, an oceanographer and biogeochemist at Stanford University, conducted a study showing that from 1998 to 2009, phytoplankton production increased by 20 percent in the Arctic. The study also showed that the number of ice-free days in the Arctic Ocean increased from 87 to 132 in just 13 years, which lengthened the phytoplankton growing season.
But this spurt in phytoplankton growth caused by the ice retreat is not universally good news for the Arctic Ocean ecosystem and the marine mammals and seabirds that inhabit it. Since phytoplankton blooms generally peak about two weeks after sea ice retreats, the earlier blooms mean that whales and seabirds that have long timed their arrival in the Arctic to coincide with the peak of zooplankton, whose populations eat phytoplankton, may find that they have arrived too late, at a time of declining food resources.
“There have been huge changes in timing, and animals that time their reproduction to coincide with the big phytoplankton blooms, they are going to be at a disadvantage now,” said Arrigo. “If you’re a gray whale migrating north, and the phytoplankton bloom is happening 20 days earlier, and you want to feed on krill and invertebrates whose population growth is fueled by phytoplankton productivity, that’s not a good thing.”
One recent study showed that peak phytoplankton blooms in some parts of the Arctic Ocean had advanced in recent decades by up to 50 days — a huge change for creatures that, over millennia, had evolved to arrive in the Arctic at a moment of maximum foraging opportunities. This search for optimum foraging periods may explain why a number of marine mammals, including gray whales, are now moving into new, more northerly Arctic ranges.
This issue of timing is a key one for many species in an era of global warming, when everything from butterflies to birds to whales may find themselves out of sync with an environment that is rapidly changing. Scientists have a name for this phenomenon — the match-mismatch dynamic.
In the Arctic, scientists are also beginning to understand that retreating sea ice will often favor one set of species over another. In the northern Bering Sea and the Chukchi Sea, Jacqueline Grebmeier, an oceanographer at the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science, and her colleagues have been studying this phenomenon. What they have found is that disappearing sea ice is clearly bad for a mix of species — spectacled eiders, walruses, and bearded seals — that depend on sea ice as a resting platform to access a rich sea bottom, or benthic, ecosystem of clams to survive.
At the same time, the loss of sea ice appears to be a boon to some fish and whale species, such as bowhead whales, that make their living in the middle and upper layers of the ocean.
The reason for this shift is relatively straightforward. Earlier, when sea ice covered more of the ocean for a longer period of time, cold waters and the late retreat of sea ice tamped down populations of the zooplankton that feed on phytoplankton. As a result, when phytoplankton finally bloomed, most of that algae was not eaten by zooplankton and drifted down to the bottom, where it nourished a thriving community of clams and other bottom-dwelling organisms. Spectacled eiders and marine mammals gorged on this bounty resting on the bottom in the shallow waters of the continental shelf.
Now, however, Grebmeier says that warmer waters — sea surface temperatures in parts of the Arctic Ocean have increased by up to 3.5 degrees F in 30 years — and longer-ice-free periods have given rise to large populations of zooplankton, which then consume the phytoplankton before they can reach the sea bottom. As a result, clam populations have declined in many parts of the northern Bering and Chukchi Seas, which has taken a toll on birds and mammals higher up the food chain, such as spectacled eiders. Populations of spectacled eiders that nest in North America have declined by 50 to 90 percent in many parts of the Chukchi Sea, studies show.
“So if you’re an organism that uses the upper water column, you’re going to be a winner,” said Grebmeier. “If you’re an organism that uses the bottom, you’re going to be a loser.
These widely varying impacts show the complex interplay occurring among species as polar ecosystems respond to a level of warming unprecedented in recent geological time. “We’re starting to understand how this warming and retreating sea ice is affecting individual populations and species,” said Scott Doney, a marine geochemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. “But how it cascades through food webs is really an open question.” | <urn:uuid:198d5b05-8b35-4802-8051-386f67705abe> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.americanpolar.org/2011/07/01/world-centered-on-sea-ice-changing-at-poles/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399117.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00176-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94667 | 2,710 | 3.734375 | 4 |
Written on July 17, 2013
Storytelling and the Sciences of Mind by David Herman (MIT Press, 2013)
Book description from the publisher:
With Storytelling and the Science of Mind, David Herman proposes a cross-fertilization between the study of narrative and research on intelligent behavior. This cross-fertilization goes beyond the simple importing of ideas from the sciences of mind into scholarship on narrative and instead aims for convergence between work in narrative studies and research in the cognitive sciences. The book as a whole centers on two questions: How do people make sense of stories? And: How do people use stories to make sense of the world? Examining narratives from different periods and across multiple media and genres, Herman shows how traditions of narrative research can help shape ways of formulating and addressing questions about intelligent activity, and vice versa.
Using case studies that range from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde to sequences from The Incredible Hulk comics to narratives told in everyday interaction, Herman considers storytelling both as a target for interpretation and as a resource for making sense of experience itself. In doing so, he puts ideas from narrative scholarship into dialogue with such fields as psycholinguistics, philosophy of mind, and cognitive, social, and ecological psychology. After exploring ways in which interpreters of stories can use textual cues to build narrative worlds, or storyworlds, Herman investigates how this process of narrative worldmaking in turn supports efforts to understand — and engage with — the conduct of persons, among other aspects of lived experience. | <urn:uuid:c7dffec5-1172-49a9-841b-c348f1d96b8c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mymindonbooks.com/?p=7151 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00150-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916351 | 314 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Friedrich A. Von Hayek in his Economics Nobel acceptance lecture 1974 had warned, “To act on the belief that we possess the knowledge and the power which enable us to shape the process of society entirely to our liking, knowledge which in fact we do not possess, is likely to make us do much harm”. Almost four decades later, Ricardo J.Caballero, an economist with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, observed in his October 2010 paper “Macroeconomics After the Crisis: Time to Deal with the Pretense of Knowledge Syndrome”: “The root cause of the poor state of affairs in the field of macroeconomics lies in a fundamental tension in academic macroeconomics between the enormous complexity of it’s subject and the micro-theory-like precision to which we aspire… The old institutional school concluded that the task was impossible and hence not worth formalizing in mathematical terms… The modern core of macroeconomics swung the pendulum to the other extreme, and has specialized in quantitative mathematical formalizations of a precise but largely irrelevant world.”
There would be no economy without a constant inflow of natural resources like the sun and the atmosphere, the soil, the seas, fossil fuels, minerals, etc throughput in the system. Most classical economists had their vision of a “stationary state” — the ontological destination of economic growth and development constrained by the planet’s population exploration vis-à-vis finiteness of arable land and the exhaustibility of non-renewable resources. Humanity does not produce these “fictitious commodities” but exploits them, as observed by Karl Polanyi in his pathbreaking treatise The Great Transformation (1944). Simply by holding title to a portfolio of real property, without any effort to increase their value, one could quickly turn a profit from social investments, as revealed in classical prudence. Karl Marx’s entire critique of political economy is based on the contradictions between use value and exchange value. Marx established that the soil had no “indestructible powers,” as it could be degraded leading to ecological destruction.
Marxism was never a major force in United States. The primary challenge to the classical tradition came from what has since come to be known as neo-classical economics. The classical tradition of economic thought was ably synthesized and represented by one dominant figure of the age in America: Henry George. His 1879 book, Progress and Poverty sold more copies throughout the world than any book till that time except the Bible. George propagated that conflating land into capital allowed land rent to be concealed and diluted and the undeserving windfalls accrued to “leisure class” speculators and led to depression of labour wages at the margin. Following the classical tradition, George recognized that there is no justification for the titleholders to reap the return of what society has invested. George advocated for a progressive tax because land was mostly concentrated among the wealthy. Mason Gaffney in his 1994 book The Corruption of Economics has described how most influential oligarchy in late nineteenth century America, the railroad barons exerted their manipulative power to preempt the possibility of any rent extracted from land use. Leading Economics scholars engaged in establishing the American Economic Association (AEA) were induced to change definitions and to initiate two-factor (capital and labour) neoclassical economics denying land and natural resources’ contribution in production process. To oppose and alienate George from the domain of economics had been the preoccupation to the founding members of the AEA that fetched a grand success.
Frederick Soddy, recipient of Chemistry Nobel Prize in 1921, considered economics a pseudoscience requiring a paradigm shift and offered an alternative perspective on economics, rooted in the laws of thermodynamics. Contrary to mainstream belief, economy used to draw energy from outside itself and thus incapable of generating infinite wealth. Sody’s critique has been furthered by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen in his magnum opus The Entropy Law and the Economic Process (1971). Georgescu-Roegen considered the economy as a living system that used to draw from its environment valuable or low entropy matter and energy adjusted by equal quantity of polluting high entropy matter-energy back to the environment.
Classical economics was concerned about scarcity of savings as well as dangers of overconsumption. Thomas Malthus was a remarkable exception within the classical tradition who promoted the idea that underconsumption causes recession. Based on Malthusian conviction, J.M. Keynes came forward to reverse under-consumption and oversaving during the Great Depression of the 1930s in his The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. (1936) that government spending and subsidized consumer spending can compensate for “demand deficiencies”. Keynesian revolution aimed at long-term growth of national income through consumption, investment, incremental capital/output ratio without considering physical and energetic realities. An American economist Murray Rothband observed that Keynes “possessed the tactical wit to dress up ancient statist and inflationist fallacies with modern, pseudoscientific jargon, making them appear to be the latest findings of economic science.” Keynes’ misrepresented Say’s Law as “supply creates its own demand” as if it were a quotation from J.B. Say. Paul Samuelson’s Foundations of Economic Analysis (1947) had initiated the mathematization of economics in a grand scale that provided the power to confuse the outsiders along with the economists incapable to cope with “competitive inflation of rigour”. The novelty of Milton Friedman’s essay, “The Methodology of Positive Economics” (1953), was in innovating the immateriality of background assumptions. According to another main proponent of neoclassical school of economics Robert Solow, technology has been the determinant factor of economic growth. Subsequent research has observed that Solow has failed to assess the energy processes of consumption, transformation, and depletion, though these factors are inseparable from the growth of industrial production.
Thus the treadmill of production, founded on the eternal law of capitalist circulation: supply creates its own demand, drives the expansion of production and consumption synergistically. The zero-sum game has its obvious tolls on wretched teeming millions mostly of the “other” world. Andre Gunder Frank elaborated his earlier “Development of Underdevelopment” thesis in a 2001 paper based on multilateralism and entropy on how the structure, process and transformation of the world-system generate the new wealth and poverty of nations. Entropy is dispersed from the more “ordered” regions and sectors of the global world economy to other less “ordered” regions that are obliged to absorb the entropy dissipated in their direction by the more “ordered” one. Global biophysical transformation engenders localized stresses in the forms of coastal erosion, ice melt, and infertile land and deteriorating water sources. Thus fast liquefying of Arctic cryosphere, causes matching rise in sea-beds that will result in submerging of several small-island states in Pacific and Indian Ocean by the end of twenty-first century. The catastrophic ecological crises manifested by growing human strive for higher per-capita consumption, the only indicator of economic growth, by deploying ruthlessly limited resources stored in a finite and fragile planet. Thus the project to divert Economics from the road to flourish as a disciplined study of humans’ economic activities in the broader socio-ecological context to a mere vocational training equipped with quantitative tools had been completed. A “boutique” or more aptly, a “comprador” economics had elevated to full-swing marginalising political and methodological plurality. Margaret Thatcher’s famous assertion that ‘there is no alternative’(TINA) and Francis Fukuyama’s equally famous verdict of ‘End of History…’ trumpet the advent of a particular political and economic system as the final destination of humanity’s socio-cultural evolution.
The global financial crisis surfaced in 2000s, apparently as a consequence of sub-prime housing mortgage practices in USA, has its root in growing disjuncture between the real economy of production and the paper economy of finance. As early as in 1920s, Soddy argued that the financial system could increase the public and private debts and mix-up this expansion of credit with the creation of real wealth. But growth of production and growth of consumption imply growth in the extraction and final destruction of fossil fuels. The obligation to pay debts at compound interest could be fulfilled either by inflation or economic growth. But economic growth is fallaciously measured because it is based on undervalued exhaustible resources and unvalued pollution. The myth of unlimited economic growth has all along been justified with unrealistic assumptions and “evergreen” predictions. Vested interests from late nineteenth century American railroad oligarchy to vanguards of Washington consensus have promoted the pseudoeconomics quixotically empowered to dominate academics and policy. Foucauldian knowledge-power discourse reminds us that if the values and political implications underlying the “growth business-as-usual” do not ensure how to protect the society, we can refuse to accept their imperatives and develop alternative epistemology. | <urn:uuid:7604247d-f0a5-4965-aa79-f783bfb7f124> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://dissidentvoice.org/2012/01/pseudoeconomics-catalyzes-catastrophe/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00142-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942438 | 1,911 | 2.609375 | 3 |
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Considering the service performed by Armstrong, and his standing among his men and superior officers, this memo must have been hard to send -- as well as receive.
Armstrong would apply for a French patent on his
second great invention, the superheterodyne circuit, in December
of 1918. He would apply for a U.S. patent in February of 1919
(issued in June of 1920, #1,342,885). However, as would happen to
Armstrong time and again, the story does not stop there. His U.S.
patent was overturned by the U.S. District Court of Appeals of
the District of Columbia in December of 1928. A Frenchman, Lucian
Levy, would be judged to have disclosed the basic principals of
the circuit in 1917.
So why do so many consider Armstrong to be the inventor of the superheterodyne circuit? Walter Shottky may have stated it best in 1926: "The "word" seems, at any rate, to have been far less important than the "deed," and there appears to be no doubt that it is Mr. Armstrong and his collaborators to whom we owe the deed, which has made the super-heterodyne method such an invaluable instrumentality in radio engineering." (Must reading is "Who Invented the Superheterodyne?" by Alan S. Douglas, The Legacies of Edwin Howard Armstrong, published by The Radio Club of America, 1990.)
Documents pertaining to Armstrong's French patent application.
Armstrong, General Ferrie and Professor Abraham in front of the Eiffel Tower, 1918. | <urn:uuid:8fb04c48-7e56-4656-bf94-d064083b0195> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://users.erols.com/oldradio/eha20.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00066-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977207 | 342 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Mosquito-borne diseases found in Florida include the West Nile virus, Eastern Equine Encephalitis, Dengue fever, malaria, yellow fever, Rift Valley fever and Chikungunya fever. Mosquitoes cause more human suffering than any other organism, according to the American Mosquito Control Association, or AMCA, scientists say more than one million people die of mosquito-borne diseases every year.
In Florida, the first case of locally acquired Chikungunya fever, a mosquito-borne disease, was documented on July 17, 2014, only seven months after the virus was charted on St. Martin in the Caribbean islands, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A 50-year-old man in Palm Beach County was the first U.S. citizen documented with locally acquired Chikungunya fever. He had not been traveling outside the country before he was infected. A second case was reported in Miami soon after.
Dr. Carlos Fernandes, director of Mosquito Control of Hillsborough County, said in the last week there have been two additional cases of locally acquired Chikungunya fever documented in Florida, for a total of four cases. Two cases have now been confirmed in Palm Beach County, one case in Miami and one case in St. Lucie County.
Aedes Aegypti and Aedes Albopictus are the two species of mosquitoes that transmit the Chikungunya virus. Both species are found in the southeastern United States and in limited areas of the Southwest, plus other areas in our northeastern states.
These are the first known cases where the Aedes mosquito in the United States infected a resident who lived here and had not been outside the country before being infected. Until then, Chikungunya fever was considered to be an international or imported disease.
The virus was first identified in 1952 in Tanzania. It was epidemic in Africa and Southeast Asia before it jumped to the Caribbean islands by 2013. It is also found in southern Europe and the islands in the Indian and Pacific oceans.
Though the CDC says the Chikungunya virus is not on the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System list, there are 31 states and two U.S. territories that have reported cases of the disease this year.
In all, there have been 350,000 people infected, with 21 deaths reported, from the Chikungunya virus.
According to the World Health Organization, the name Chikungunya is a word from the Kimakonde language and means “to become contorted,” describing the stooped appearance of sufferers. The WHO says that prevention and control rely heavily on reducing the number of natural and artificial water-filled container habitats that support breeding of the mosquitoes. During outbreaks, they recommend that insecticides may be sprayed to kill flying mosquitoes and the immature larvae.
Fernandes said his department has 78 CDC traps spread throughout Hillsborough County. By Tuesday every week, the traps are set up and studied to decide where to spray by Thursday.
“We also have 15 chicken coops with chickens who will give us information,” Fernandes said. “We collect blood from the chickens and take it to the Health Department so it can be analyzed. The chickens work like a canary in a mine.”
The blood, if infected, will tell authorities whether the chickens have any of the mosquito-borne diseases.
Steve Huard with the Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County said only six cases of Chikungunya fever have been confirmed in this county and that all of them were people who were infected outside the country.
“There have been six cases of Chikungunya reported in Hillsborough County, all international. All six of these are associated with travel,” Huard said. “There have been 137 cases reported statewide.”
Huard said the Florida Health Department in Hillsborough County has a strong working relationship with Mosquito Control.
“We do surveillance on the medical side,” Huard said. “If we find someone, we give Mosquito Control their address and they will go out and spray that whole area.”
Symptoms of Chikungunya begin with a sudden high fever, accompanied by severe joint pain or swelling of the hands and feet and a severe headache. There can also be back pain, muscle aches, nausea and a rash showing up from three to five days after the fever starts. Fatal infections are rare, but it is possible for people infected to have chronic joint pain, arthritis, loss of energy and depression lasting weeks to years.
There is no vaccine available.
Ways to prevent infection involve preventing a mosquito bite by using insect repellent, wearing long sleeves and pants, and using air conditioning and screens in windows.
Most will feel better within a week. More susceptible to the Chikungunya virus are newborns, adults older than 65, or those people with medical conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes or heart disease.
If bitten and then infected, it is important for that person not to be bitten again by another mosquito the first week of the illness. The virus is passed from an infected person to another person through mosquito bites, and this transmits the virus to other people. | <urn:uuid:bbf1b656-3a36-4016-9ee3-c67231109c2f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.observernews.net/2014/08/13/chikungunya-mosquitoes-bring-disease/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00100-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957438 | 1,096 | 3.359375 | 3 |
Engineering is a field that deals with practical applications of science and technology. As engineers, we often find ourselves weighing the pros and cons of any design implementation. While using a power amplifier with SMPS reduces average current consumption, there are other considerations.
First, adding SMPS with a DC/DC converter requires additional external components. The cost of these extra components is roughly equal to the cost of the power amplifier. When all of the extra components are considered, the complete PA solution cost for the user when implementing a DC-DC converter is nearly twice that of a standalone single-band PA. Therefore, the cost of the bill of materials for the entire RF section will increase.
With the addition of the DC/DC converter and inductors, space is allocated not only for the physical devices, but also for routing. This can increase RF printed circuit board space requirements significantly (Figure 3). Additionally, it creates a challenge in layout. Not only does the implementation require additional board space, but it also adds complexity and engineer design time to achieve an optimized layout.
Figure 3 (Click graphic to download larger image.)
Lastly, mobile device calibration becomes significantly more challenging with a DC/DC converter regulating the voltage, because voltage must be considered along with frequency, gain, and temperature in the calibration algorithm. This does not affect the linearity of the calibrated device, but it does create a challenge at the factory calibration step.
Switched Mode Power Amplifiers
In recent years, some power amplifier manufacturers have developed unique designs that have eliminated the need for DC/DC converters. The driving force behind this effort has been a desire to overcome the drawbacks of SMPS, while achieving performance gains. Switched-mode designs provide multiple gain states within the power amplifier to select more efficient amplification paths in low power modes. The end result is a power amplifier that is able to achieve excellent efficiency across the entire dynamic range of operation. Innovation in power amplifier design has continued to drive down current consumption.
The recent development of power amplifiers with three gain states, such as ANADIGICS’ fourth-generation HELP™ power amplifier, HELP4™, offers designers low power mode (LPM), medium power mode (MPM), and high power mode (HPM). The current consumption using the DG09 WCDMA probability model indicates that these switch-mode power amplifiers offer a significant average current savings compared with a standard WCDMA power amplifier (Figure 4).
Switched mode power amplifiers such as ANADIGICS HELP technology products optimize current consumption at several output power modes through internal changes in the RF amplification circuits to deliver improved efficiency at backed-off power levels. Switched mode PA’s are designed to efficiently from a fixed supply voltage, but many of them can also operate from a variable voltage supplied by a DC-DC converter or switched-mode power supply (SMPS). A plot of the current consumption of ANADIGICS’ HELP4 power amplifier (Figure 5), demonstrates how the use of SMPS provides additional current consumption advantages in high power mode.
Figure 5 (Click graphic to download larger image.)
ANADIGICS set out to create a family of devices that combines the best of both worlds: A switch-mode power amplifier optimally designed for use with a DC / DC converter.
Introducing Another Option
In order to provide an additional option for reducing current consumption, ANADIGICS is introducing a new series of power amplifiers. The new HELP3DC power amplifiers offer two gain states and have been optimized for use with a DC/DC converter, allowing the two technologies to complement each other.
Utilizing the same DG09 WCDMA models, we can compare the current consumption of two gain state, SMPS-optimized two state mode, and three state mode power amplifiers with and without SMPS (Figure 6). The performance advantage of using SMPS with an optimized two state power amplifier, is equivalent to a three state power amplifier. This provides an additional path to greater battery life.
Figure 6 (Click graphic to download larger image.)
Designers now have multiple design paths when developing the RF section of a mobile device. There are a few questions to initially answer: Does my design need the lowest current consumption? Can the chipset support three gain states? Do the drawbacks of adding SMPS outweigh the performance advantage? Since each device has a specific set of requirements, the answer to these questions will change based upon the device that is being created. With two-state power amplifiers optimized for use with a DC/DC converter offering equivalent performance to a three-state device, one thing is certain -- RF engineers and designers have several choices to deliver the optimal device for each device.
1. Battery Life Measurement Technique ver 5.1” Document DG.09 by GSM Association
About the Author:
Bruce Webber currently serves as Director of Marketing for Wireless Products at ANADIGICS, leading the company’s product development and marketing strategy for the wireless business. Prior to joining ANADIGICS, Bruce has held marketing leadership positions at leading wireless companies, including Flarion, Agere, and Lucent Microelectronics. Bruce received a B.S. from Purdue University and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. | <urn:uuid:cbfe61c0-c663-42f1-bdc2-a64568041b1a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1278753&page_number=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00196-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921949 | 1,079 | 2.640625 | 3 |
In the archdiocese, the population was 4,650,000 at end of 2004. (The population of the whole country is 1 billion). Most residents are Hindus, followed by Muslims. Syro-Malabar Catholics constitute only 10.84 per cent.
Malayalam and English are used.
The Syro-Malabar Church was known as the Church of the St. Thomas Christians until the 18th century as it was founded by St Thomas, one of the apostles of Jesus Christ. St. Thomas came to India in 52 A.D. He died as a martyr in a place called Mylapore near the present town of Chennai (Madras). His tomb is still venerated there.
As a Church that existed outside the Roman Empire, the Church of the St. Thomas Christians had little contact with the Roman or the other Churches within the empire. At the same time it maintained communion with the Church of Rome through the Church in the Persian Empire, which later came to be known as the East Syrian or Chaldean or Babylonian Church. It is believed that Christianity in the Persian Empire was introduced by the disciples of St. Thomas. It seems that the Christians in India had contact with these Christians of the Persian Empire from very early times. Given the commercial relations of India in those days, such a contact was possible.
In the middle of the 4th century or later, a group of Christians from these communities under the leadership of a merchant called Thomas of Kinayi migrated to the southern part of India known as Kerala today. The descendants of this latter group are called Knananites or Southists, and the former Northists Both of them now belong to the Syro-Malabar Church. Even now they live as two separate communities with their own dioceses and parishes.
For some unknown reasons, at least from the 8th century until the end of the 16th century, the bishops of the Syro-Malabar Church were sent from the East Syrian Church, appointed by the Patriarch of the East Syrian Church. There is a tradition which says that there were Indian bishops in the beginning, but there is little proof.
Because of the Portuguese colonization of parts of India in the early 16th century and consequent ecclesiastical arrangements, from 1600 onward, European bishops from the Latin-rite Church
The Communist Party of India (Marxist )-led political front heads the government in Kerala state while Congress is led by the opposition and the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), the right-wing Hindu party which has a sizeable presence in the archdiocese.
The archdiocese has road, rail and air links. Cochin International Airport is only 30 kilometers north of the Archbishop's house.
In a land area of 1,500 square kilometers, the archdiocesan territory covers the entire civil district of Ernakulam and portions of Trichur, Kottayam and Alappuzha in Kerala state, with 94,807 Catholic families.
Ernakulam is the business hub of Kerala. IT, fertilizer and tyre industries as well as several other medium-size industries are housed in the diocese.
There are well developed telecommunication networks in the archdiocese. Four television channels broadcast from Ernakulam
The literacy rate in the territory is almost 100 percent. | <urn:uuid:ee96057a-2ad2-44c6-863a-c76bb7c5c856> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://directory.ucanews.com/dioceses/india-ernakulam-angamaly/146 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00065-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973363 | 687 | 2.828125 | 3 |
“ Address: 233 Bangor Road / Newtownards / County Down / BT23 7PH / Tel: Tel: (028) 9182 3202 „
--- title quotation from Winston Churchill.
1, July 1916 - The Somme - over 60,000 British Casualties in one day would set the scene for 18 days of conflict in a battle that would eventually see over 1,000,000 men dead or wounded. The 36th Ulster Division and the 16th Irish would be among those units suffering the heaviest losses. The 36th would lose over 5,000 men on the first day alone, and over 32,000 nearly half of their total number would be lost or wounded in total . Because of the enlistment practice of the day, men could enlist together and remain together in what was known as "Buddy Regiments". The unfortunate result of this was that when all the young men from a particular village joined up together, they could all be killed together as well, leaving some smaller towns almost entirely bereft of young men. The Somme has been referred to by some as "the death of a generation", for many in Ulster, it was just this. The battle left a lasting impact on Ulster, which can be felt even today. Unfortunately, the gallant sacrifices of the Ulstermen probably did not have a major effect on the battle itself. The shattered remnants of the Ulster Division would be withdrawn after only a few days due the incredibly high number of casualties, but the battle itself would rage on for months. But at least the men from Ulster who did make it home, came home as heroes. The brave men from the 10th and 16th Irish, would be largely forgotten, ignored and even treated as traitors when they return home. A sad fate for brave and gallant men.
The Somme Heritage Centre was built in 1994 and focuses primarily on the roles of the 36th Ulster division and the 10th and 16th Irish Divisions. It attempts to preserve the history of these brave men, but also focuses on the cross community involvement in both wars. The tour guide on the day I visited speculated on whether men like John Redmond and Edward Carson, having shared the horrors of the battlefields in France, might have come to terms without bloodshed, had they been given a bit more time. Of course that is only speculation now, but the Somme Heritage Centre makes a special effort to focus on shared history and inclusion rather then conflict and division between all those who served, in this war and others.
I have copied this statement from the Somme website:
"Vision Statement of the Somme Museum
To assist in bringing the people on the island of Ireland to a mutual understanding through the commemoration and interpretation of the experiences of men and women who lived, served, fought and died in two World Wars." http://www.irishsoldier.org/museum.htm
The museum itself is really more of a combination of museum and interactive experience. As you walk through the doors you will come into a very very small gift shop, and where you can buy tickets for the tour. If you do not wish to take part in the tour, you can explore the museum itself free of charge, but the tour really is the main part of this exhibit. There is usually a small exhibit of WW2 artifacts, but most of this was away temporarily to make room for a temporary exhibit on the Korean War when I visited. We spent about 20 minutes browsing this section of the museum waiting for the tour to begin, which was more than adequate.
The tour itself lasted for roughly 40 minutes. We visited during the school term time in April, and there was only one other couple taking the tour, plus myself and husband and two children. I found the tour itself absolutely outstanding. We viewed a number of artifacts, and would stop at various points to sit down and hear brief lectures on the events, and explore different exhibits as well as brief film section. My sons especially enjoyed the recreation of the recruiting office, where they were allowed to try on and be photographed in a very small, but authentic uniform. We were told that many of the boys who served were well below the required age of 18, with the youngest known British soldier to serve being only 12. We also viewed a picture of another boy, who did not look so very much older than my own son. I understand he was believed to be 9 and served in the Prussian Army. The thought of children so young fighting in such a brutal conflict is absolutely chilling. We also walked through recreations of a base camp, the trenches and a darkened area with simulated explosions which made an incredibly realistic recreation of No Man's Land. Of course the smell and the rats were missing, ( except a few toys) as well as the gore and screaming, but I am happy enough to have done without this. The children also enjoyed this section quite a bit. I understand much of this has been added recently. The entire exhibition is extremely modern, high tech, and realistic.
I checked prices for admission prior to visiting and was surprised to find that the actual Somme Heritage Site does not give admission prices. Various other sites list incorrect admission charges. The current prices are
£4.75 child (5+) or concession
Please confirm opening hours yourself before a visit, but at the moment they are:
M-Th 10:00 - 4:00
Saturday 11:00 - 3:00
I would reccomend arriving a minimum of 1 hour before closing for the last tour.
The centre is fully accessible to wheelchairs, disabled. I have some mobility problems myself and would note that the tour included several chances to sit down and rest before moving on to the next phase. My sons are army mad and so enjoyed this, but the 2 year old was getting a bit bored in a few parts. I do think this would be better for older children and would really recommend it for ages 8+ unless the child has special interest in the military.
There is a tea room, which looked lovely, but we were planning a picnic at a farm park later in the day, and did not try this. There were plenty of toilet facilities which were easily accessible and spotless. I found the over all experience extremely educational and moving. I will certainly visit again when the children are older. If you live in or visit Northern Ireland, I can not recommend a visit highly enough. I feel my description is inadequate, but it is an experience you will not forget.
The Somme Heritage Centre is located at:
233 Bangor Road
and is roughly a 30 minute drive from Belfast. | <urn:uuid:dbdc233c-31ae-459d-aea9-5a2a9ac2499a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://members.dooyoo.co.uk/museums-national/somme-heritage-centre-newtownards-co-down/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393146.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97977 | 1,351 | 2.703125 | 3 |
For his 50th birthday, John Parr Snyder’s wife bought him a special gift: a ticket to “The Changing World of Geodetic Science,” a cartography convention in Columbus, Ohio. Geodesy, an esoteric branch of geography studying the shape of the earth, had been one of Snyder’s lifelong hobbies. As a keynote, the 1976 conference featured a speech from Alden Partridge Colvocoresses, decorated World War II hero and head of the USGS’s national mapping program.
Snyder went home inspired. He had a day job, but in less than four months, working alone, at night, without pay, and using a calculator that stored his work on magnetic tapes, he solved the problem of making maps from space.
When NASA launched the LandSat program (originally called the Earth Resources Technology Satellite), making maps wasn’t a priority. But many engineers soon saw how valuable it would be to assign geographic coordinates to high-resolution images. Colvocoresses, no mapping slouch, came up with a theoretical solution in 1973, which he called the Space-Oblique Mercator projection.
It was based on Geraldus Mercator’s 1569 projection, because it preserved the angles of Earth’s surface features in relation to one another (a property called conformality). Unlike the original Mercator, which used the equator as a line of zero distortion, Colvocoresses decided that the line of zero distortion would be the path along the earth’s surface directly below LandSat’s camera. Because LandSat’s camera only captured a 100-nautical-mile-wide swath, distortion would be minimal.
Mapping from space isn’t as easy as matching up photo features to the cartesian graticule. Even though the images were two-dimensional, they were of a curved surface, which means they needed to be geometrically adjusted—projected—as flat areas.
Colvocoresses turned the Space-Oblique Marcator’s basic structure over to his team of geographers. “They didn’t think it would be a big problem to project the photos and make them into maps,” said John Hessler, a geographer at the Library of Congress.
Thing is, there are no small problems in space, and LandSat’s mappers had four. Projections are essentially views of the Earth from imaginary, elevated viewpoints, and people have been making them for 2,000 years. However, nobody had ever considered that if they were going to actually make a map from an actual elevated viewpoint, they’d have to account not only for the platform moving (in orbit), but also the earth rotating below. But the Earth doesn’t just spin, it has a little bit of a wobble, too. And then there’s gravity, which doesn’t pull uniformly across the earth’s surface, but is stronger is some places, weaker in others (because the Earth is denser in some areas and less dense in others). All these things affect the satellite’s position and altitude relative to the Earth, and all of them need to be considered before you make a map from a satellite.
When years went by without a solution to these problems, Colvocoresses turned to outside help, including John L. Junkins, an engineer at Texas A&M. Junkins specialized in telemetry—tracking moving objects—and was a good bet for figuring out how all those motions could fit into a mappable geometric equation.
But Colvocoresses was a former Army strategist (who helped prep for D-Day), and he knew that a battle this tough should be fought on multiple fronts. He put his plea to the masses, and in 1976, at Ohio State University, at the Fawcett Center for Tomorrow, at the geodetic conference, that plea reached the ears of lifelong map addict John Snyder.
Snyder took a different tack than Junkins and the USGS scientists. They were trying to create a comprehensive framework using Newtonian physics that could be used to predict the ground track of any orbiting body onto Earth. Snyder didn’t care about trying to predict all the motions, he was only concerned with the ones that mattered. “His equations didn’t tell you anything about how the satellite was moving,” said Hessler. “He just looked at the central path of the satellite and calculated how it would relate to lines of latitude and longitude.”
Hessler, the Library of Congress geographer, calls Snyder a cartographic prodigy. His high school notebooks are full of drawings, notes, and equations all about map projections. Though he went to school for, and worked most of his adult life as, a chemical engineer, he wrote several books about mapping. Shortly before the Ohio convention, he had bought himself a TI-59 programmable calculator. (Snyder had quit trying to create map equations years before, because the equations got too difficult for him to do on paper.)
In his later years, he became a master of herding geographic distortion, so he could preserve the shapes and sizes of the features that he was wanted in focus. One example of this is the GS50, the only projection where you can see all 50 states—including Alaska and Hawai’i—on a single, seamless map with minimal distortion. A few years before he died in 1997, he published what many consider to be the bible of map projections: a surprisingly readable volume called Flattening the Earth.
Snyder was too anxious to send his calculations directly to the USGS, so he asked Waldo Tobler, a geographer at the University of California in Santa Barbara, to review them first. Tobler saw that they would work, and forwarded them along to the Colvocoresses. The moment he saw it, the USGS mapper knew that Snyder’s work was the key to making Space-Oblique Mercator work. He asked if he wanted to move from New Jersey to Virginia, and become a professional cartographer with the USGS. And John Parr Snyder, who had been obsessed with maps since he was a boy, accepted without hesitation.Go Back to Top. Skip To: Start of Article. | <urn:uuid:08e40e23-9d19-4e6c-9c30-f8875be7fc2c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wired.com/2014/06/get-to-know-a-projection-the-space-oblique-mercator/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393518.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00062-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973332 | 1,320 | 3.71875 | 4 |
|Name: _________________________||Period: ___________________|
This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. In Jesus' time, what was the rule of law considered to be?
(a) A dictatorship.
(b) Divine law.
(c) An ever-changing system.
2. Who is it clear does not reign on Earth today, but will some day?
(b) The people.
3. What does Sanders refer to reversal of values as?
(b) Unpredictability of God.
(d) Ethical perfectionism.
4. According to Sanders, a man who divorces and remarries is considered what?
(a) An adulterer.
(b) A heretic.
(c) A blasphemer.
(d) None of the answers is correct.
5. Whom were the apostles accountable to?
(b) No one.
Short Answer Questions
1. What was the reputation of many of the doctors practicing in ancient times?
2. What aspect of life is it clear will not be the same in Heaven?
3. Some people believe that Jesus' divinity gave him the ability to do what?
4. Which two Gospels focus on Jesus' teachings?
5. What did Jesus say people who followed him would come to know?
This section contains 195 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) | <urn:uuid:a94a17dc-698e-43c3-b678-ebf197d4057d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bookrags.com/lessonplan/the-historical-figure-of-jesus/test4.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394987.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00070-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903071 | 313 | 2.78125 | 3 |
- freely available
Measuring Sprawl across the Urban Rural Continuum Using an Amalgamated Sprawl Index
AbstractUrban sprawl is rapidly transforming the landscape of Kentucky’s prime farmland from a dominant agricultural land use pattern to a patchwork of dispersed and loosely defined parcels. This state, located in the east central portion of the U.S., is not unlike many states considered rural, nor is it unlike many rural regions found throughout the world where urban sprawl is concentrated in metropolitan areas that are often encroaching into these rural areas. Authors have argued for and against urbanization patterns generally understood to be sprawl on the basis of social, economic, and biophysical opportunities and constraints. Finding consensus in the literature about defining and measuring urban sprawl is difficult. This paper demonstrates a method for cost effectively measuring urban development using National Land Cover Data, Census data, and ancillary data across 34 counties. Based on seven indicators framed around the amount, configuration, and per capita land usage, an amalgamated sprawl index (ASI) is demonstrated through an example in north central Kentucky, USA. While the public believes this growth area of Kentucky is rapidly sprawling, this study indicates the pattern of sprawl is spreading faster in areas not obvious to this same public.
Share & Cite This Article
Kew, B.; Lee, B.D. Measuring Sprawl across the Urban Rural Continuum Using an Amalgamated Sprawl Index. Sustainability 2013, 5, 1806-1828.View more citation formats
Kew B, Lee BD. Measuring Sprawl across the Urban Rural Continuum Using an Amalgamated Sprawl Index. Sustainability. 2013; 5(5):1806-1828.Chicago/Turabian Style
Kew, Barry; Lee, Brian D. 2013. "Measuring Sprawl across the Urban Rural Continuum Using an Amalgamated Sprawl Index." Sustainability 5, no. 5: 1806-1828.
Notes: Multiple requests from the same IP address are counted as one view. | <urn:uuid:f13ef9b2-a474-41fe-bce7-2a09c550ae53> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/5/1806 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00081-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.851902 | 429 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Today, we got back the results from a cousin's y-DNA test. We have been uncertain of the origin of this line: SPORT(S). The earliest ancestor we know, William SPORT (c.1756-1820 SC), fought in the Revolutionary War in North Carolina and later moved to South Carolina. One branch in SC added the ending -s around the time of the Civil War. There have been rumors of American Indian, Jewish, Scottish, and English origins. It looks as though the testing rules out the first two. The cousins's haplogroup came back R1b1b2 which is European Atlantic, most common in the British Isles, Spain, and Portugal. The name has been said to have originally been SPOWART and that William came from Scotland. The name Spowart has been found in low-land Scotland and northern England. All the closest matches were located in England. A second cousin is also being tested in a different line. We would love to get as many lines tested as possible to build up a valid genetic picture of William's DNA. | <urn:uuid:e75f8811-69c3-4487-9322-cc0be2c2977b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://tesstree.blogspot.com/2009/08/sports-dna-testing.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393332.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00108-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980729 | 222 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Water, the key to life, is also a key to understanding the way the natural world works. Water in the form of ice is especially instructive.
Water moves through the hydrologic cycle, one of the most basic and vital processes of Earth’s systems, in three forms — as a liquid in seas and streams; as a vapor in clouds and fog; and as a solid in ice. Found predominately in glaciers, the world’s ice is, by nature, temperature dependent. Thus the presence or absence of glaciers and their geographic distribution around the globe are closely linked to Earth’s historical and current climate conditions and to changes in global sea level.
The recently published State of the Earth’s Cryosphere at the Beginning of the 21st Century summarizes past and present-day changes in the Earth’s cryosphere (the whole of its frozen water) and describes the ongoing and potential effects of those changes. Extensively illustrated in print and connected to a companion online image gallery, this volume supplies a synthesis for 10 other geographically-based volumes in the 11-volume Satellite Image Atlas of Glaciers of the World.
“Evidence from a wide range of satellite and field observations over the last 30 years shows that nearly all glaciers, snowpack, sea ice, and permafrost are in retreat around the globe,” said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. “That this worldwide phenomenon can be readily observed by a non-specialist without any sophisticated data processing or image enhancement is strong evidence that our rapidly warming planet is causing major changes in one of the key Earth systems.”
Glaciers as Climate Indicators
Glaciers cover about 15.9 million square kilometers of Earth’s land surface (2009 figures), slightly less than the size of Russia. Ice sheets in Antarctica and in Greenland store most of the glacier ice on Earth, occupying 95.5 percent of glacier area and containing 99.4 percent of glacier volume. Other glaciers are located on all of Earth’s continents except Australia. (The term glacier in the Satellite Image Atlas includes ice sheets, a long-held definition also used by the Scott Polar Research Institute and the American Geosciences Institute.)
Glaciers have waxed and waned throughout the history of Earth in response to several factors: the global climate, the latitudinal position of the continents, the geographic position and elevation of mountain ranges, and slight changes in the Earth’s orbit. Presently, glaciers around the world are responding to natural warming after the end of the Little Ice Age in the late 1800s, as well as to the warming that human activity has caused through increased concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
For example, since the late 19th century, all of Iceland’s glaciers have decreased in area and thickness. Although Iceland’s glaciers retreated from 1930 through 1970, they advanced during 1970 to 1995. Since 1995, however, the decrease has been quite dramatic. If the climate continues to warm, glaciers in Iceland will probably decrease by 40 percent during the 21st century and will virtually disappear by 2200.
The overwhelming scientific consensus is that burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, both of which are human activities, are critical factors in the Earth’s observed warming.
Melting Glaciers — Rising Seas
Water covers 70 percent of the Earth’s surface. Of all the world’s water, water in the oceans makes up 97 percent while frozen water in glaciers accounts for just 2 percent.
Although 2 percent seems like a small ratio, it is the long-term exchange between glacier ice and the oceans that principally determines global sea level. Warming of the Earth alters the relationship between global sea level and the volume of glacier ice on land, as frozen water is converted to meltwater and transferred from land to the oceans. The warming of the Earth’s oceans also serves to increase the volume of the water and add to global sea rise.
In response to variations in the volume of glacier ice on the continents, sea level has repeatedly fallen and risen between glacial and interglacial periods of Earth’s geologic history. Approximately 20,000 years ago, for example, sea level was about 125 meters (410 feet) lower than at present (2009 figures). If all of the present glacier ice on land were to melt, sea level would rise an additional 75 meters (246 feet).
The present rate of the global rise in sea level is now about 3-4 mm each year, equivalent to a stack of three to four U.S. pennies.
The Cryosphere: Beyond Glaciers
The cryosphere (from Greek, cryos, “cold”) is the term that describes the portions of the Earth’s surface where water is in solid form. It includes glaciers, snow cover, floating ice, and permafrost, although glaciers are the dominant component.
Global snow cover is measured on a daily basis, and snow-cover trends can be measured over decades. These advances have important applications to hydrological forecasting, enabling us to predict flooding and water supply.
Sea ice covers vast areas of the polar oceans, affecting the atmosphere, the oceans, and terrestrial and marine ecosystems of the polar regions. Changes in the ice, if sufficiently large, can initiate regional and global climatological and ecological consequences. This publication notes that 2007 was a record low year for Arctic sea ice extent, but an even lower minimum was recorded more recently in September 2012.
Permafrost or perennially frozen ground includes northern peatlands and frozen, organic-rich sediments that contain large amounts of carbon. Deep, perennially frozen sediments, both onshore and beneath the Arctic shelves, contain methane hydrates. These carbon-rich deposits are potential sources of greenhouse gases, especially methane, if climate warming continues.
The Cryosphere in Education
A substantial section of the new volume is designed for use by teachers and students in the classroom to improve the understanding of major aspects of global environmental change. The print version of this section contains a wall-size plate, “Earth’s Dynamic Cryosphere,” and eight Supplemental Cryosphere Notes (two-page summaries of topics included in the report). These materials support a major national effort to increase higher-education student enrollment in the Earth sciences.
Global Collaboration and Space-Based Views
The State of the Earth’s Cryosphere represents an extensive collaboration among 20 glaciologists from the United States and three other nations (Canada, Denmark, and Norway) who represent 14 scientific institutions. Since 1988, more than 110 scientists from 24 countries have contributed to the 11-volume series, Satellite Image Atlas of Glaciers of the World (USGS Professional Paper 1386A-K).
The goal of Satellite Image Atlas of Glaciers is to establish a comprehensive baseline of glacier conditions on all continents so that subsequent change can be readily seen and investigated. The advent of spaced-based Earth observation satellites — beginning with the first Landsat satellite in 1972 and continuing with the forthcoming launch of Landsat 8 — made that sweeping objective feasible.
This article is from UCGS and is by Jon Campbell and Dr Richard Williams | <urn:uuid:0f283dba-e37f-4d54-9fd8-e8113db70cd3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.celsias.com/article/cold-look-planet-earth-learning-worlds-frozen-plac/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396875.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00051-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930534 | 1,483 | 4.09375 | 4 |
- Resource Centers
After completing this continuing education article, the pharmacist should be able to:
2. Differentiate the symptoms of PMDD and premenstrual syndrome.
3. List the PMDD diagnostic criteria.
4. Explain the burden of PMDD from a societal and economic standpoint.
5. Analyze the pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic treatment options for PMDD.
6. Counsel patients regarding effective management of PMDD.As many as 90% of women of reproductive age experience at least 1 uncomfortable symptom during their menstrual cycle.1 Symptoms may be limited to mild discomfort but can be sufficiently bothersome to qualify as premenstrual syndrome (PMS). If symptoms are severe enough, they may be classified as premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), which can compromise not only a woman's quality of life (QoL), but also the ability to function across family, social, and occupational settings.1
The Menstrual Cycle
The female menstrual cycle is comprised of 2 major phases influenced by hormones from the hypothalamus, pituitary, and ovaries (Figure 1).2 These 2 phases are the follicular phase and the luteal phase, with ovulation occurring between the phases. The follicular phase begins on the first day of menses and continues until ovulation. The luteal phase starts from ovulation and ends at the start of the next menses.3
The hypothalamus secretes gonado-tropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), and in response to GnRH the anterior pituitary secretes 2 hormones, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH). Days 1 through 4 of the menstrual cycle are marked with an elevation in FSH. This rise in FSH continues the further growth and development of a group of follicles, and 1 follicle becomes dominant during days 5 through 7. This follicle, which secretes estradiol and inhibin, will eventually release an oocyte during the cycle. Estradiol and inhibin act via negative feedback on the hypothalamus and pituitary to reduce FSH levels, which will cease the development of the remaining follicles. As the dominant follicle continues to develop, estradiol levels will continue to increase, leading to the development of the endometrial lining. As estradiol levels remain elevated for a sustained period, the pituitary releases a surge of LH, which causes the final maturation of the dominant follicle, ovulation, and the formation of the corpus luteum. Ovulation generally occurs 34 to 36 hours after the onset of the LH surge.3
The corpus luteum is the main hormone-secreting entity during the luteal phase. After the LH surge, the corpus luteum is stimulated to synthesize and secrete progesterone. Progesterone maintains the endometrial lining for implantation and provides negative feedback on GnRH, FSH, and LH. Reduction of these hormones prevents further development of follicles. If implantation does not occur, the corpus luteum will degenerate and decrease progesterone levels, leading to the shedding of the endometrium and the beginning of a new cycle. At the end of the luteal phase, FSH levels will rise again due to the lack of feedback inhibition. If implantation of an embryo does occur, human chorionic gonadotropin is produced and released by the placenta, which prevents the degeneration of the corpus luteum and maintains progesterone and estrogen levels. The maintenance of progesterone and estrogen levels prevents further development of follicles.3
PMS Versus PMDD
The high prevalence of premenstrual disorders and their negative impact on a woman's QoL has been an ongoing concern for both patients and physicians. Because symptoms are so varied and no specific diagnostic test exists, premenstrual disorders are often unrecognized or may be misdiagnosed. Some data have suggested that women seek assistance from an average of 3.75 physicians over an average period of 5.33 years before receiving a diagnosis of PMS or PMDD.1 Diagnostic criteria developed for PMS and PMDD, however, have made it possible to consider more objectively the somatic, emotional, and behavioral symptoms that cause long-term distress for so many women.1
Although most women report some somatic and/or affective symptoms during their menstrual cycle, the character, nature, and extent of these complaints differ greatly, and for many women the symptoms do not recur during each cycle, providing insufficient evidence for a diagnosis. Premenstrual symptoms are characterized by their type, severity, frequency, and timing during the menstrual cycle. Normal manageable symptoms associated with premenstrual molimina (the periodic symptoms such as tension or discomfort that are associated with the physiologic stress preceding or accompanying menstruation) that most ovulatory women experience include breast tenderness, food cravings, and bloating or pelvic heaviness. These symptoms do not typically affect a woman's ability to function during daily activities.1 Both PMS and PMDD are associated with disturbing, predictable, recurring, cyclic symptoms that begin in the late luteal phase of the menstrual cycle and remit shortly after the onset of menstruation. Common somatic or physical symptoms include headache, breast tenderness, and abdominal bloating. Affective or mental/emotional symptoms include irritability, depression, angry outbursts, anxiety, and social withdrawal. PMDD is distinguished from PMS by the severity of symptoms, predominance of affective versus somatic symptoms, and a marked impairment in personal and/or social relationships, including feelings of hopelessness, self-deprecation, and increased interpersonal conflicts.1,4,5 PMDD represents the most severe and disabling end of the spectrum of premenstrual disorders and requires clear evidence of disability to diagnose.4
As many as 40% of women believe they have symptoms sufficiently bothersome to qualify as PMS.1 The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) guidelines (Table 1) specify that, to diagnose PMS, 1 or more affective or somatic symptoms must occur during the 5 days before menses in each of the previous 3 menstrual cycles, be relieved within 4 days of the onset of menses, and not recur until at least day 13 of the next cycle.1,6 Diagnosis typically involves the daily charting of symptoms over 2 or more cycles. The most commonly reported symptom associated with PMS is irritability.1
PMDD, on the other hand, is diagnosed similarly to depression based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV)8 criteria and requires that at least 5 of the listed symptoms, including 1 of the specific symptoms listed in Table 2, be present during a majority of menstrual cycles during the preceding year (Table 2). Additionally, symptoms must seriously interfere with work, social activities, and personal relationships. PMDD reportedly affects between 2% and 10% of women during their reproductive years, regardless of race or culture.1,4,8-10 PMDD symptoms can begin any time after menarche, but they commonly start to affect women in their early-to-mid 20s. PMDD is a chronic condition that worsens over time until the woman reaches menopause, although symptoms do disappear during pregnancy.
Consensus on the exact cause of PMDD is currently lacking, but it appears to be related to an abnormal response of central neurotransmitters such as serotonin and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) to normal ovarian function, because there has been no demonstrable hormonal imbalance in women with severe PMS or PMDD.5,11 It is hypothesized that women who develop PMDD have an underlying vulnerability in central nervous system (CNS) neurotransmitter systems, especially the serotonergic system. This underlying dysregulation of the serotonergic system is made worse during the luteal phase by the changes in the gonadal steroid levels.11 Biological, psychological, environmental, and social factors all seem to play a role in the disorder. Genetic factors are also pertinent, as 70% of women whose mothers have been affected by PMS have PMS themselves, compared with 37% of women whose mothers have not been affected.10 A large number of women with PMDD also have a history of major depression, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, and/or substance abuse. PMDD is also more common in women with fewer pregnancies and increases in incidence after major life events and stressors.10,11
As part of the diagnosis, PMDD must be distinguished from a premenstrual exacerbation of an underlying depressive and/or anxiety disorder. A diagnostic sign of PMDD is the notable difference in the frequency of moderate-to-severe symptoms during the follicular phase, as compared with the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, whereas other depressive disorders occur throughout the cycle.1,4
Burden of Disease
PMDD can result in significant interference in a woman's life, including family, social, and work life. A relationship has been found between PMDD symptoms and the social and occupational impairments that women with PMDD experience. As the number of symptoms experienced increases, so does the level to which they impact daily life. PMDD significantly decreases a woman's QoL by an average of 6.4 days of severe symptoms per cycle, adding up to a lifetime total of potentially 3000 days or close to 8 years of impaired functioning during a woman's reproductive years.1
A study conducted by Halbreich et al found that, during the late luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, women with PMDD suffer impairment in their marital and parental relationships that are as severe as women with other repeated or chronic clinical depressions; additionally, they have social- and leisure-activity impairment that is even worse, resulting in a substantially impaired QoL.9 Similarly, Rapaport et al concluded that the magnitude of disruption caused by PMDD on women is comparable with that of other depressive or anxiety disorders, and mean scores on QoL, enjoyment, and satisfaction questionnaires are similar to those of dysthymia (Figure 2).12
Societal and Economic Impact
PMDD can have both direct and indirect economic costs. The direct costs include outpatient office visits, laboratory costs, and costs for treatments. The indirect costs are more difficult to quantify and include lost productivity due to missed days of work or impairment from symptoms while at work, as well as lost wages from the days taken off due to PMDD symptoms.1
A study by Chawla et al was conducted to quantify the economic burden of PMDD by assessing health care service use and related expenditures, work loss, role limitation, and productivity. The study concluded that, although the use of health care services such as emergency department visits increases as symptom severity increases, the economic burden of PMDD manifests primarily in reported productivity decreases while at work or reduced hours worked per day.13Borenstein et al developed a model to project direct and indirect costs related to PMS and concluded that a PMS diagnosis was associated with an average annual increase of more than $4000 in indirect costs as a result of a 15% reduction in productivity due to absenteeism and reduced efficiency while at work. This was similar to productivity losses due to other major diseases, such as gastrointestinal (GI) reflux disease, headaches, and back pain.14 Additionally, Borenstein notes in a separate study that women with PMS used more health care resources than those without PMS in terms of increased frequency of ambulatory care visits and in the proportion of individuals that accrue >$500 in visit costs over 2 years.15
Pharmacologic Treatments for PMDD
Initiation of therapeutic intervention begins once the patient meets the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for PMDD. There are many different treatment options available for PMDD ranging from the basic lifestyle modifications and nonpharmacologic interventions, to nutritional supplements, herbal supplements, pharmacologic interventions, and surgery. Treatment strategies need to be individualized based on specific patient desires and needs to obtain the required effectiveness (Table 3). Goals for treating PMDD are to provide patients with the following10:
Although no single intervention has proved effective for all patients with PMDD, a wide range of agents have been used for the management of PMS/PMDD that have targeted various aspects of the perceived underlying pathophysiology of the condition. Primarily, 2 general categories of agents are used for the treatment of PMS/PMDD: one involves suppression of the ovulation process and the other targets CNS processes that are thought to contribute to mood symptoms.11,19
Affective Symptom Improvement
Affective symptoms, such as irritability, depression, angry outbursts, and anxiety, experienced by women with PMDD appear to be related to changes in neurotransmitters such as serotonin and GABA caused by ovulation and normal gonadal hormone release.1 Treatment of these emotional symptoms associated with PMDD have therefore been primarily directed toward the use of agents that impact these neurotransmitters.
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs). SSRIs were the first FDA-approved treatments for PMDD and are considered to be the first line of therapy. Many studies have shown that SSRIs improve symptoms of irritability, depressed mood, and dysphoria and enhance work performance and overall QoL in patients with PMDD.5,10,16,17 Currently, 3 SSRIs have been approved by the FDA for the treatment of PMDD: fluoxetine (Sarafem), sertraline, and paroxetine controlled release.
Although SSRIs offer the potential for controlling affective symptoms, they do not come without side effects. Use of SSRIs may lead to adverse events including sexual dysfunction, insomnia, fatigue, weight gain, and nervousness. Numerous drug interactions with SSRI agents can also pose a problem for patients taking other agents that are highly protein-bound or metabolized through the cytochrome P-450 pathway, such as barbiturates, benzodiazepines, digoxin, warfarin, and theophylline.18
SSRI therapy can be initiated as continuous, intermittent, and/or semi-intermittent dosing. Continuous dosing involves administering the SSRI once a day during the entire menstrual cycle. Women with coexisting mood or anxiety disorders and those who develop mood symptoms during the follicular phase could benefit from continuous dosing. Other candidates for continuous dosing include those who have trouble remembering the timing of intermittent dosing, those who have irregular menstrual cycles, and those who are concerned about symptoms from abrupt discontinuation of an SSRI.5 Additionally, some data suggest that continuous dosing of SSRIs may have an impact on somatic symptoms associated with PMDD, whereas intermittent therapy has been shown to have little effect on somatic complaints.19
In intermittent or luteal-phase dosing, treatment begins at the same time as ovulation and stops 1 or 2 days after menses begins.5 Women with regular menstrual cycles who are able and willing to adhere to this on/off schedule and have no symptoms during the follicular phase are good candidates for this type of treatment. The semi-intermittent dosing is more complicated, involving continuous administration of the SSRI throughout the cycle with increased doses during the luteal phase.5 Additionally, other agents such as citalopram (another SSRI) and venlafaxine (a serotonin and norepinephrine re-uptake inhibitor), have also been studied and used in the treatment of PMDD, but they are not FDA-approved for this purpose.
GABAergic Agents. Although not FDA-approved for the treatment of PMDD, alprazolam has been studied and used to treat PMDD symptoms during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. Some studies have shown that alprazolam reduces the symptoms of depression, anxiety, irritability, low mood, mood lability, impulsivity, fatigue, social withdrawal, and impaired social functioning experienced by women with PMDD but does not impact the physical or somatic symptoms.19
Side effects and addictive potential limit the usefulness of this agent as a chronic therapy, however.19,20
Somatic Symptom Improvement
Physical symptoms such as mastalgia (pain/tenderness in the breast), cramps, bloating, abdominal pain, and headache are typically treated with specific symptom relief therapies.
Analgesics. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen and naproxen can be used to relieve somatic pain and cramps during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. NSAIDs should not be taken with any other aspirin or aspirin-containing products and should always be taken with food to prevent GI upset and/or bleeding. These agents have no impact on other PMDD symptoms, however, making their use limited to adjunctive therapy.
Diuretics. The use of spironolactone, a potassium-sparing aldosterone-receptor antagonist, to reduce symptoms related to water retention is inconclusive. Spironolactone has been shown in some studies to improve symptoms of general bloating in doses of 100 mg per day when taken on day 12 of the cycle until menses or from days 19 through 26 of the cycle.19
Other symptoms, however, including depression, sadness, lethargy, anxiety, headache, breast tenderness, swollen abdomen, and swollen feet did not significantly improve with spironolactone therapy. Common side effects of spironolactone can include drowsiness, lethargy, headache, nausea, and/or cramping. In addition, because spironolactone is a potassium-sparing diuretic, women using this agent need to be counseled regarding potassium intake and asked to notify their physician if they develop signs of muscle weakness, fatigue, or muscle cramping.
Patients should be cautioned about the increased risk of hyperkalemia (increased potassium levels) if they are taking both spironolactone and other potassium-sparing agents such as an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor, aldosterone antagonist, or angiotensin II-receptor antagonist.
Dopamine Agonists. Breast pain and tenderness, usually associated with breast swelling, occur in many women during the late luteal phase. Bromocriptine, a dopamine agonist, has been shown to reduce prolactin levels believed to be associated with these symptoms when given during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. Little evidence suggests that the use of bromocriptine alleviates any non-breast-related symptoms associated with PMS or PMDD, however, and common side effects of dizziness and nausea limit its use in some patients.11,19
Relief of Both Affective and Somatic Symptoms
Estrogen/progesterone Combinations. Recently, Yaz (drospirenone 3 mg/ethinyl estradiol 20 mcg) was the first oral contraceptive approved by the FDA for the treatment of PMDD. Drospirenone, the progesterone component of Yaz, is an analog of spironolactone with diuretic activity that has shown to lessen premenstrual bloating, breast pain, depression, and irritability. Yaz has shown to be clinically effective in treating both the emotional and physical symptoms of PMDD.21 With its unique progesterone and low-dose estrogen formulation along with a shortened drug-free interval (24 active/4 placebo pill pack), studies have shown a >50% reduction in daily symptoms scores in 48% of patients taking Yaz, compared with only 36% of patients taking placebo.22 Recent meta-analyses have also reported that the general therapeutic effect of Yaz is similar to that of SSRIs, except that Yaz demonstrates a greater reduction in physical symptoms, compared with SSRIs.22 Common side effects observed during clinical trials were inter-menstrual bleeding, nausea, breast pain, and asthenia.22,23
Additionally, because the progesterone in Yaz, drosperonone, is a spironolactone analog, women using Yaz need to be counseled regarding potassium intake and to notify their physician if they develop signs of muscle weakness, fatigue, or muscle cramping. Patients should be cautioned about the increased risk of hyperkalemia (increased potassium levels) if they are taking both Yaz and other potassium-sparing agents such as a potassium-sparing diuretic, ACE inhibitor, aldosterone antagonist, or angiotensin II receptor antagonist.Ovulation Suppressants. Data support that cyclical fluctuations of ovarian hormones are associated with PMDD symptoms; thus, ovulation-suppressing therapies have been thought to be a useful therapeutic option for treating symptoms. GnRH agonists such as leuprolide, and androgens such as danazol have both been shown effective in reducing the symptoms of PMDD, especially irritability, breast tenderness, fatigue, and bloating. The cost of these agents, however, along with potential hypoestrogenic side effects, such as osteoporosis, masculinization, and atrophic vaginitis, limit their use to only the most severe patients who cannot be managed through other therapies.10,19,20
Nonpharmacologic Management and Other Treatment Options
Nonpharmacologic interventions for PMS and PMDD include patient education, supportive therapies, and behavioral changes. Women who have been educated about the biologic basis and prevalence of PMS symptoms report a sense of control and symptom relief.20
Behavioral measures may include keeping a diary of symptoms (Figure 3), getting adequate rest and exercise, and making dietary changes such as reducing the intake of salt, alcohol, and caffeine, which help to minimize fluid retention and insomnia.20
Vitamins and dietary supplements such as calcium, magnesium, and vitamins A, E, and B6 have also been shown in some studies to improve PMS and PMDD symptoms, although the evidence is best with calcium supplementation and vitamin E.20,24,25 Vitamin E in doses of 400 IU per day during the luteal phase has been shown to improve affective and somatic symptoms in women with PMS.20 Similarly, calcium carbonate in doses of 1200 mg per day for 3 menstrual cycles resulted in symptom improvement in 48% of women, compared with 30% of women taking placebo.20
Many women also turn to botanicals for relief of PMS and PMDD symptoms. Several agents, including chasteberry, evening primrose oil, black cohash, ginkgo, St. John's wort, kava, and others have been considered potential therapies. 11 In addition, acupressure, acupuncture, massage therapy, reflexology, and light therapy have been explored as potential nonpharmacologic treatments for PMS and PMDD.11 Although some of these therapies showed promise in early evaluations, large randomized, placebo-controlled studies need to be conducted to determine the value of these therapies in the treatment of PMS or PMDD.11,25
Role of the Pharmacist in Patient Management
While seeking ways to manage their symptoms, many women may turn to their pharmacist for information on how best to manage premenstrual complaints prior to consulting with their physician or other health care provider. Thus, the pharmacist has the opportunity to offer support and guidance to these women on how to successfully manage both the physical and emotional symptoms of PMS or PMDD that are having a significant impact on their lives. Counseling women on the nature of their symptoms and the variety of treatment options can provide much needed reassurance as well as encouragement to seek additional assistance and appropriate treatment.
Key counseling points the pharmacist can touch on are as follows11,26:
Somatic and/or affective symptoms during the menstrual cycle are common complaints for most women. Both PMS and PMDD are associated with disturbing, predictable, recurring, cyclic symptoms that begin in the late luteal phase of the menstrual cycle and remit shortly after the onset of menstruation. PMDD represents the more severe and disabling end of the spectrum of premenstrual disorder and requires clear evidence of disability to diagnose.
SSRIs are considered to be first-line treatment, but with the recent FDA approval of Yaz, women now have more options in managing their PMDD symptoms, especially those who desire contraception in addition to PMDD symptom relief. In addition to drug therapy, nonpharmacologic therapies such as diet modification and exercise, and supplementation with vitamin E and calcium seem to be of benefit.
Pharmacists can play a significant role in providing women with education about the biologic basis of the disease and the prevalence of PMS symptoms, along with advice on available prescription, nonprescription, and nonpharmacologic therapies to help improve patients' sense of control and help them obtain symptom relief.20
For additional information on PMS and PMDD, pharmacists can refer to the following organizations:
(Based on the article starting on page 116) Choose the 1 most correct answer.
1. What is the cause of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD)?
2. Symptoms of PMDD are known to become worse during pregnancy.
3. How can one differentiate PMDD from premenstrual syndrome (PMS)?
4. To diagnose PMDD, the following must be established:
5. The following is not a specific symptom that needs to be identified for diagnosis of PMDD:
6. The magnitude of disruption in the quality of life of women with PMDD is comparable to which of the following disorder(s)?
7. The treatment goals for PMDD patients include the following:
8. Which of the following is an appropriate behavioral modification for PMDD?
9. The economic burden of PMDD is primarily due to:
10. The following nonpharmacologic therapy will not help alleviate PMDD symptoms:
11. Which of the following is/are pharmacologic options for treating PMDD?
12. Which of the following is/are FDA-approved medications for PMDD?
13. What is the first-line treatment for PMDD?
14. Intermittent dosing is giving the SSRI once daily starting at ovulation and stopping 1 to 2 days after menses begins.
15. The following is not a direct cost for treating PMDD:
16. SSRIs are only effective in treating the physical symptoms of PMDD.
17. Which of the following medications is effective in treating both the physical and emotional symptoms of PMDD?
18. Which of the following shows the correct association between medications and symptom relief in treating PMS/PMDD?
19. Pharmacists can assist patients with PMS/PMDD by:
20. Which of the following herbal therapies should be recommended to patients with PMDD?
1. Mishell D. Premenstrual disorders: epidemiology and disease burden. Am J Manag Care. 2005;11:S473-S479.
2. Wikipedia contributors. Menstrual cycle. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. April 29, 2007, 09:49 UTC. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Menstrual_cycle&oldid=126823676. Accessed March 2007.
3. Lieu C, Yoshida T. Infertility. In: Dipiro J, ed. Pharmacotherapy: A Pathophysiologic Approach. 5th ed. McGraw-Hill Co; 2002:1431-1443.
4. Freeman E, Sondheimer S. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder: recognition and treatment. Prim Care Companion J Clin Psychiatry. 2003;5:30-39.
5. Steiner S, Pearlstein T, Cohen L, et al. Expert guidelines for the treatment of severe PMS, PMDD, and comorbidities: the role of SSRIs. J Womens Health. 2006;15(1):57-69.
6. Milewicz A, Jedrzejuk D. Premenstrual syndrome: From etiology to treatment. Maturitas The European Menopause Journal. 2006;55S:S47-S54.
7. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Available at: www.acog.com. Accessed March 2007.
8. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder. In: American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision. Washington, DC: APA; 2000: 771-775.
9. Halbreich U, Borenstein J, Pearlstein T, Kahn L. The prevalence, impairment, impact, and burden of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMS/PMDD). Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2003;28(suppl 3):1-23.
10. Bhatia SC, Bhatia SK. Diagnosis and treatment of premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Am Fam Physician. 2002;66(7):1239-1248.
11. Kaur G, Gonsalves L, Thacker H. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder: A review for the treating practitioner. Cleve Clin J Med. 2004;71(4):303-318.
12. Rapaport MH, Clary C, Fayyad R, Endicott J. Quality-of-life impairment in depressive and anxiety disorders. Am J Psychiatry. 2005;162:1171-1178.
13. Chawla C, Swindle R, Long S, Kennedy S, Sternfeld B. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder: is there an economic burden of illness? Med Care. 2002;40(11):1101-1112.
14. Borenstein J, Chiou CF, Dean B, Wong J, Wade S. Estimating direct and indirect costs of premenstrual syndrome. J Occup Environ Med. 2005;47:26-33.
15. Borenstein JE, Dean BB, Endicott J, et al. Health and economic impact of the premenstrual syndrome. J Reprod Med. 2003;48:515-524.
16. Steiner M, Brown E, Trzepacz P, et al. Fluoxetine improves functional work capacity in women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Arch Womens Ment Health. 2003;6:71-77.
17. Yonkers KA, Halbreich U, Freeman E, et al. Symptomatic improvement of premenstrual dysphoric disorder with sertraline treatment: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 1997;278(12):983-988.
18. Lacy C, Armstrong L, Goldman M, Lance L. Drug Information Handbook. 12th ed. Hudson, OH: Lexi-Comp; 2004.
19. Halbreich U, O'Brien PS, Ericksson E, Backstrom T, Yonkers K, Freeman E. Are there differential symptom profiles that improve in response to different pharmacological treatments of premenstrual syndrome/premenstrual dysphoric disorder? CNS Drugs. 2006;20(7):523-547.
20. Dickerson LM, Mazyck PJ, Hunter MH. Premenstrual syndrome. Am Fam Physician. 2003;67:1743-1752.
21. Press Release: FDA approves new indication for YAZ to treat the emotional and physical symptoms of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). Available at: www.YAZ.com. Accessed March 2007.
22. Yonkers KA, Brown C, Pearlstein TB, Foegh M, Sampson-Landers C, Rapkin A. Efficacy of a new low-dose oral contraceptive with drospirenone in premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Obstet Gynecol. 2005;106(3):492-501.
23. Pearlstein T, Bachmann G, Zacur H, Yonkers K. Treatment of premenstrual dysphoric disorder with a new drospirenone-containing oral contraceptive formulation. Contraception. 2005;72:414-421.
24. Bianchi-Demicheli F, Ludicke F, Lucas H, Chardonnens D. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder: current status of treatment.Swiss Med Wkly 2002;132:574-578.
25. Girman A, Lee R, Kligler B. An integrative medicine approach to premenstrual syndrome. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2003;188(5 suppl):S56-S65.
26. Rapkin AJ. New treatment approaches for premenstrual disorders. Am J Manag Care. 2005;11(16):S480-S491. | <urn:uuid:a03114eb-fcfb-45e6-82b0-61f2b91c17ce> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pharmacytimes.com/publications/issue/2007/2007-06/2007-06-6590 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00135-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917525 | 6,874 | 2.765625 | 3 |
This report is a non-technical summary of a new working paper by the authors: “Child Cash Benefits and Family Expenditures: Evidence from the National Child Benefit” available through the National Bureau of Economic Research, www.nber.org.
Download this Report (PDF)
Programs designed to transfer income to low-income families are common in many jurisdictions. The National Child Benefit (NCB) and Canadian Child Tax Benefit (CCTB) in Canada, the Earned Income Tax Credit in the United States, and the Working and Child Tax Credits in the UK are some examples. Each of these programs provides cash transfers that can be spent at the discretion of the recipient, and they tend to be either exclusively available to families with children or more generous for such families. While such programs often have multiple goals, one common policy aim is to improve the lives and chances of children in these families, and to lift them out of poverty.
There is an increasing amount of research that shows that these programs are successful in helping low-income families. They improve children’s performance in school, they improve child (and maternal) mental health, and they even have positive benefits for kids’ physical health.1 The question of how transfer programs achieve these results remains unanswered. How, exactly, do families spend transfer income in order to improve the outcomes of children? This paper summarizes recent research that we have conducted and provides some evidence on how families actually spend the money they receive. The results give some insight into how providing money to low-income families helps improve outcomes for children.
Economists, sociologist, and child psychologists have suggested two ways in which children can benefit from these types of transfers. On the one hand, families may use the income to purchase those goods and services that are directly related to improving education and health outcomes. If families use additional income to purchase direct inputs to education or health, such as tuition, reading materials, health care or nutritious food, improvements in these areas are likely to occur. Previous research has labeled this the “resources channel” (Mayer 1997, and Yeung et al. 2002).
On the other hand, income transfers may improve health and education outcomes indirectly if additional income reduces stress and improves household relations, increases the chance and opportunities for employment and eases financial burdens. Spending in areas like housing, recreation, or clothing, for example, may improve general health and education indirectly by improving the conditions children face and their ability to function, learn, and improve themselves. Previous research has called this the “family process” channel (Yeung et al. 2002). Recent research by Janet Currie and Mark Stabile has documented a strong relationship between early child mental health and both short-term educational achievement and longer-term economic outcomes such as welfare take-up. As such, the possibility that a broader set of expenditures, not necessarily immediately related to education, might also improve future educational outcomes is quite plausible.2
We investigate how families use income from the CCTB and NCB in Canada using twelve years of a Statistics Canada dataset, the Canadian Survey of Household Spending (SHS). The SHS is a nationally representative annual survey of Canadian families and is intended to measure spending habits. Respondents to the survey are asked to report their spending in the previous year on a wide array of spending categories. We choose to focus on categories grouped into four broad areas: education spending; health care spending; stability spending, including expenses like rent, clothing, food, transportation, child care and recreation; and spending on risky behaviour, including alcohol and tobacco purchases.
The Landscape of Benefits Programs in Canada
For readers unfamiliar Canada’s child benefit system, it consists of two main benefits. First, the Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB) is paid to parents of children age 0 to 17. This is a federal benefit initiated in 1993 that pays the same across the country with two small exceptions.3 The CCTB is payable for a twelve-month period running from July to June, with the amount dependent upon the reported net income of the parents in the previous calendar year. So, the July 2014 to June 2015 maximum annual benefit of $1446 per child was based on reported family net income from 2013. Benefits do not require any earned income, so families with no income still qualify for the benefit. Take-up is high—in many provinces the application is given to families of newborns and the administration is well-integrated with the tax system so any tax filer who qualifies will be made aware of the transfer. The benefit level was constant in nominal dollars between 1993 and 1999, but has been indexed to CPI inflation since 2000. A small supplement ($101 annually in 2014) is available for a third or higher order child. The federal benefit is therefore the same for all families with children, including non-workers, except that it varies by the number of children and begins a slow phase-out once an income threshold is reached.4
The second component of the child benefit system is the National Child Benefit program, begun in 1998.5 This program is a federal-provincial initiative that features a federally-paid benefit called the National Child Benefit Supplement (NCBS) equal to $2241 for a one child family, $1982/child for a two child family and $1886/child for families with three or more children in 2014. The federal government provided additional funding for an expanded benefit payment, but provinces, at their discretion, could subtract the NCBS from welfare recipients in their province and use the ‘savings’ to fund different provincial programs target to children. This yielded substantial differences in benefit amounts across provinces. In addition, the province of Quebec, while it elected to stay outside the NCB program, instituted major reforms of its child benefits system in 1997 and 2005. In short, two provinces introduced new transfers that weren’t related to earnings, two provinces introduced earnings-related benefits, and three provinces did both. Across provinces, there were large differences in the structure of benefits across family size. The provincial differences create variation in the flat federal benefit amount, the income threshold, and the reduction rate.
In addition, some provinces have provincially-funded and administered benefits. In particular, Manitoba and Quebec feature unique components to their system and British Columbia introduced a benefit very similar to the National Child Benefit Supplement two years before the rest of the country in 1996.
Figure 1 shows how the benefits for which a two-child two-parent family from Ontario would be eligible change over time. The values come from a tax and benefit simulator that calculates tax benefits and liability for different families.6 Importantly, much of the increase over time is focused on those at $10,000 and $25,000 income levels, through the expansion of the National Child Benefit program and the associated provincial program. Figure 2 shows how benefits for the same two-child family from Ontario evolve as earnings grow. The large jump between 1994 and 1999 results from the replacement of the $500 federal Working Income Supplement with the Ontario Child Care Supplement for Working Families paying $1100 per year. The further increase in 2004 results from the more-than doubling of the federal National Child Benefit Supplement in the first half of the 2000s.7 In short, there is significant variation in the amount of benefits for which different families are eligible.
Figure 1: Total benefits for an Ontario family with two children. Simulated benefits through time.
Figure 2: Total benefits for an Ontario family with two children. Simulated benefits by income levels.
Identifying How Families Spend Benefit Income
Our research explores how families spend additional income received from tax benefits. Ideally, to answer this question, we would take a sample of families and randomly assign them different levels of benefit income; we would then see how spending differed for families who received more or less benefit income, where the only determinant of their benefit income was the group to which they were assigned. This is the experimental ideal: think of it like a randomized control trial (RCT) to test the effects of a new medical treatment. Of course, the data we have does not allow us to complete a RCT of benefit income. We know the amount of benefit income a family received, and their spending, but the amount of benefit income a family receives is not randomly assigned – it is highly related to their income. Because families with less earned income receive more benefit income, using a simple analysis that relates spending to benefit income will not produce accurate results; such an analysis would simply show that families who receive more benefit income have lower spending, which is not the relationship that interests us.
To get around this selection problem, we use the fact that there is considerable policy variation over time, province and family size in the amount of benefits families receive. Importantly, this type of variation in benefit income is not related to any one family’s income; it is determined by government policy. Our methodology, which is described fully in Jones, Milligan and Stabile (2015), essentially approximates the experimental ideal by relating a family’s spending to the part of the variation in their benefit income that comes from government policy, ignoring the part that comes from the family’s earned income. The numbers we report below show how a family spends an additional dollar of benefit income that they have received because the government made their benefit more generous, not because their earned income was reduced. This solves the selection problem because it relates spending to changes in benefit income — government mandated changes — that should only affect spending by providing families more benefit income.
Resources or Process: How do Families Spend Benefit Income?
Our results reveal some interesting patterns and we present the most important ones in Table 1. There is evidence that, among low-income families, the benefits are used across a wide variety of expenditure categories, which provides evidence consistent with both the “resource channel” and the “family process channel” hypotheses. For example, we see increases in expenditures on food bought in stores, child care and transportation – general expenditures required by low-income families. For the sample of all families we see large declines in alcohol and tobacco use. While it is not possible to say for certain how these changes in spending patterns drive improvements in child outcomes, it is likely that benefit income may be helpful in reducing financial stress (and hence reducing consumption of items like alcohol and tobacco) thereby providing an improved learning environment for children. This is consistent with the family process channel hypothesis.
We also, however, observe direct investments in education and, to a lesser extent, health. We find increases in overall spending on education by low-income families as well as increases in spending on tuition and computer equipment in particular. Overall there is a clear pattern that some of the resources provided by benefit programs are being used to directly improve learning. This is consistent with the resource channel hypothesis.
Overall, families appear to be quite sophisticated in the way they spend their benefit income. They are purchasing more basic necessities, and as their resources increase, they are directing increasingly more of the money towards those items that directly affect learning, such as educational tools. Interestingly, they significantly cut back spending on alcohol and tobacco (in contrast to some anecdotal descriptions of how low-income families spend public money).8 These results provide some context to the observed success of these benefits on child outcomes.
The policy implications of the current work are important. Politicians continue to debate whether families can be trusted to spend unconditional transfers “responsibly”, or whether policy-makers are better off providing targeted transfer income that directs spending to certain areas. Our results imply that unconditional transfers are very well-spent: families appear to be using the income to enhance education and health production for children, and to improve the general living conditions of the family.
Variable average and change in amount spent for all families and low-income families
|Spending||All Families: Variable Average||All Families: Change in amount spent||Low-income families (Bottom quartile of income): Variable average||Low-income families (Bottom quartile of income): Change in amount spent|
|Food (not at restaurants)||$6,207||0.081*||$4,469||0.230***|
|Personal care items||$1,085||-0.011||$666||-0.035**|
|Notes: * p<0.05; ** p<0.01; *** p<0.001.Regressions using the Survey of Household Spending and instruments simulated from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics. Data from years 1997-2009. Regressors include gender, age and marital status of primary respondent, survey year, province, number of children dummies, and all second-order interactions of the year, province and number of children controls. Column (1) reports estiamtes from OLS models of the imputed benefit coefficients. Column (2) reports results where the SLID simulated benefits have been used as instruments from the imputed benefit amount. Robust standard errors clustered at the province level reported in parentheses.|
1 Dahl and Lochner (2012) and Milligan and Stabile (2012) both find, for example, that these programs lead to improved outcomes for children, both in terms of math and reading skills, and in terms of mental and physical health measures. Hoynes, Miller and Simon (2015) find that the EITC improves infant health outcomes and maternal health behavior.
2 See for example, Currie and Stabile, 2009; Currie, Stabile, Manivong and Roos, 2008.
3 In Alberta, the benefit is differentiated by age of the child. For example, in 2014 children age zero to six received $1,333 while those age 16 to 17 received $1,687. Until 1997, benefits paid to Quebec residents depended on how many children were in the family, with higher-order children receiving more benefits. We account for each of these exceptions in our benefit calculator.
4 For 2014, the clawback threshold is $43,953, with a reduction rate of 2 percent for income over that threshold for one-child families, and 4 percent for two or more child families.
5 The National Child Benefit Supplement replaced the Working Income Supplement, which was in place from 1993 to 1997. See details in the Appendix.
6 We use the Canadian Tax and Credit Simulator (CTaCS). This is described in Milligan (2010). This is the simulation that will create the instrument used in this study.
7 The National Child Benefit Supplement annual rate for two-child families went from $1,370 in 1999 to $3964 in 2014.
8 One political strategist in Canada was famously lambasted for suggesting that expanding cash transfers to families would cause them to “blow” the income “on beer and popcorn” (CBC News 2005).
CBC News. 2005. “Federal Liberals deride ‘beer and popcorn’ money”. http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/politics/elections/fumbles-and-stumbles-eight-great-election-gaffes/liberals-deride-beer-and-popcorn-money.html Accessed on. April 2, 2015.
Currie, Janet and Mark Stabile. 2009. “Mental Health in Childhood and Human Capital.” In The Problems of Disadvantaged Youth: An Economic Perspective, ed. Jonathan Gruber, 149-180. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Currie, Janet, Mark Stabile, Phongsack Manivong, and Leslie L. Roos. 2010. “Child Health and Young Adult Outcomes.” Journal of Human Resources, 45(3): 517–548.
Dahl, Gordon B., and Lance Lochner. 2012. “The Impact of Family Income on Child Achievement: Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit.” American Economic Review, 102(5): 1927–1956
Jones, Lauren, Milligan, Kevin, and Mark Stabile, “Child Cash Benefits and Family Expenditures: Evidence from the National Child Benefit,” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper # 2015.
Mayer, Susan E. 1997. What Money Can’t Buy. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press.
Milligan, Kevin. 2010. Canadian Tax and Credit Simulator. Database, software and documentation, version 2010–1.
Milligan, Kevin, and Mark Stabile. 2011. “Do Child Tax Benefits Affect the Well-Being of Children? Evidence from Canadian Child Benefit Expansions.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 3(3): 175-205.
Milligan, Kevin and Stabile, Mark, “The Integration of Child Tax Credits and Welfare: Evidence from the Canadian National Child Benefit Program,” 2007, Journal of Public Economics, 91(1-2), pp. 305–326.
Yeung, W. Jean, Miriam R. Linver, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. 2002. “How Money Matters for Young Children’s Development: Parental Investment and Family Processes,” Child Development, 73(6): 1861–1879. | <urn:uuid:6017bd53-8c51-4d1d-9a0d-0134e144d3fc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://martinprosperity.org/content/how-do-families-who-receive-the-cctb-and-ncb-spend-the-money/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397695.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00162-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927882 | 3,539 | 3.234375 | 3 |
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – South Floridians are no stranger to heat, and with the month of August a day away, we are undoubtedly entering one of the hottest months of the year.
Such extreme heat has its dangers. Heatstroke is certainly one and another is the death of children being left inside hot vehicles which, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, happens every 10 days.
On Thursday, which is National Heatstroke Prevention Day, national and local authorities aimed to raise awareness and educate about the dangers of leaving children in hot cars.
In Miami, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department simulated a vehicular heatstroke scenario demonstration. Fire fighter’s used a life-sized pediatric simulator showing what happens when a child is left in the car. As part of the demonstration, a distracted mom left her toddler behind in the car with temperatures soaring past one hundred. Fire rescue crews demonstrated how they would break into the car to try to save the child. Many times, it’s too late. “At a certain point, 107 to 108 degrees for any length of time, you actually start to cook the cells,” explained Dr. Jerry Brook from Broward Health North. “The body shuts down,” he continued, “literally you’ll probably start to damage cells irreversibly.”
In Broward, the Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue is teaming up with Broward Health for a similar demonstration for National Heatstroke Prevention Day. Also, a new app called SafeKids Alert will be debuted. The app allows users to set a Hot Car Alert that notifies them if the car has been stationary for more than 10 minutes and they haven’t pressed the alarm off button–indicating they have taken their children with them. The app is available for android phones as of today. It will be out on I Tunes soon.
The call-to-action for National Heatstroke Prevention Day is a national event as well. To spread the word, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Safe Kids Worldwide and the Administration for Children and families are using social media to share important safety tips.
Some of the safety tips include:
- Never leave a child unattended in a vehicle – even if the windows are partially open or the engine is running and the air conditioning is on
- Make a habit of looking in the vehicle – front and back – before locking the door and walking away;
- Ask the childcare provider to call if the child doesn’t show up for care as expected;
- Do things that serve as a reminder that a child is in the vehicle, such as placing a phone, purse or briefcase in the back seat to ensure no child is accidentally left in the vehicle, or writing a note or using a stuffed animal placed in the driver’s view to indicate a child is in the car seat;
- Teach children that a vehicle is not a play area and store keys out of a child’s reach;
- Community members who see a child alone in a vehicle should immediately call 911 or the local emergency number. A child in distress due to heat should be removed from the vehicle as quickly as possible and rapidly cooled. | <urn:uuid:aaed023f-b243-49ab-8305-618539f23f4b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://miami.cbslocal.com/2014/07/31/national-heatstroke-prevention-day-takes-aim-at-child-left-in-hot-car-deaths/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00093-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945837 | 670 | 2.71875 | 3 |
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Wednesday, June 29, 2016
During surgery you will be monitored very intensively. Advanced medical instruments are used to keep an eye on the function of the heart, lungs, brain and other vital organs, as well as to make sure you are receiving just the right amount of anesthesia. Of course, the presence of a skilled and vigilant anesthesia provider is the best monitor of all!
Aneshesiologists often take care of patients with heart disease, lung disease, kidney failure, and all sorts of other serious medical conditions. Your anesthesiologist will ask you a number of questions about your illness and will have a plan to minimize the risk associated with your condition. Tests or consultations may be arranged to learn more or even to improve your condition before surgery.
If you are a smoker, our advice is to quit smoking as soon as you can! Smokers are more likely to experience breathing complications during and after anesthesia. Fortunately, these problems are usually managed without great difficulty. Smokers must also be especially careful to carry out deep breathing exercises after their surgery to prevent chest infection, pneumonia or other lung problems. The use of a so-called incentive spirometer can be very helpful during recovery from surgery.
Allergic reactions can occur with any medicine. Allergies to anesthetic agents can occur, but fortunately are very rare. From time to time, people get skin rashes such as hives. Shock-type reactions are, luckily, rather rare. Should such a reaction occur, your anesthesiologist is trained to recognize this kind of problems and knows how to deal with it.
In almost all cases of surgery, one or more intravenous lines are necessary. Frequently, the intravenous is started in the back of the hand, using a small amount of local anesthesia to minimize the discomfort. Other sites can be used as well. The IV is used not only to provide analgesics (pain killers), and anesthetic agents, but also as a route for fluids. The IV also serves as a "lifeline" for the administration of emergency drugs if needed. The IV is usually removed when you are able to drink well and when there is no further need for intravenous medications.
Your anesthesiologist will want to know about any dental prostheses (false teeth, bridges, implants), tooth or gum disease, or cosmetic dentistry. This information is needed because of the risk of trauma or damage to teeth during the insertion of breathing tubes or other instruments. Obviously the danger is increased if a tooth is actually loose.
If you inform your anesthesiologist about dental prostheses, tooth or gum disease, or cosmetic dentistry, it will help avoid tooth damage. Special anesthesia techniques may be necessary. Sometimes, if a tooth is very loose or fragile, it is wise just to have it removed by a dentist before your surgery.
The process begins once an intravenous line is started (usually with the use of some local anesthetic). In many cases, a mild sedative agent is then administered intravenously to reduce the nervousness that is common before surgery.
When you are on the operating room table monitoring equipment is attached. For major surgery, special monitors, such as tubes going into the heart or into an artery for blood pressure measurement, are sometimes used. If a lot of blood loss is expected, more than one intravenous line may be started.
In most cases you are given oxygen to breathe through a mask for a couple of minutes. After this, drugs are injected into the intravenous line to cause unconsciousness, often followed by a muscle relaxant drug. Muscle relaxant drugs make it easier to insert a breathing tube and also assist the surgeon's work. The breathing tube may then be connected to a ventilator (breathing machine) which breathes for you during the surgery. Additional medications to keep you asleep are introduced through the anesthetic breathing tube or the intravenous line. Not infrequently, morphine-like pain relievers will be given to eliminate the pain while you are asleep.
The depth of anesthesia is continually monitored during the procedure and more drugs are added as necessary to keep the appropriate level of anesthesia and muscle relaxation, and to control the body's responses to the surgery.
Fortunately, we monitor a variety of signs that help assess how deeply under anesthesia you are. So, in ordinary elective surgery, waking up, or what we call "awareness" under anesthesia, is very rare. Although still unusual, awareness can sometimes occur during emergency surgery, such as Cesarean sections done under general anesthesia, or during operations for major trauma. If you believe that you were awake during your procedure under general anesthesia, please let your doctors know, so that your anesthesiologist can meet to discuss this with you and provide appropriate assistance.
There are great variations in the amount of pain a patient will experience after surgery. Some surgical procedures, such as lung surgery and bone surgery, can be very painful. Other procedures like cataract surgery can be almost painless during recovery.
A popular method, known as "patient controlled analgesia" (PCA), works very well. With PCA, you are able to control the amount of pain medication merely by pushing a button whenever pain is experienced. When the button is pushed, you get a small dose of narcotic analgesic. Following the administration of this dose, you are "locked out" from getting any more medication for a particular period, for example, 5-10 minutes. After that, you can get more medication. PCA is very safe when administered, as intended, by the patient. Family members or others should never be permitted to press the button for you.
Another method of pain relief that is very effective for some big surgical procedures, such as lung surgery, is epidural analgesia. Similar to epidual analgesia, various types of nerve blocks are becoming more popular as a highly effective form of pain relief, particularly for orthopedic procedures. In some centers, a catheter (thin tube) is left in place to bathe the nerve(s) continually with local anesthetic and provide around the clock comfort for surgical patients, in the hospital or at home.
Once you are eating and drinking well, the need for intravenous or intramuscular medications is reduced, and medications taken by mouth can be helpful. Not infrequently acetaminophen (e.g. Tylenol) with codeine, or similar analgesics, are used at this stage to provide pain relief. Occasionally, Tylenol, or similar medications, are not adequate for some kinds of pain, in which case "breakthrough" medication, for example intramuscular morphine, given by injection, may be ordered.
The simple answer is, no. There is no need to be concerned about the appropriate use of post-operative narcotic analgesics provided appropriate clinical precautions are used. Effective pain relief is important for many reasons. If you don't have adequate pain relief after surgery this interferes with recovery from surgery, and the risk of complications such as blood clots in the lung or pneumonia may increase.
The insertion of the endotracheal tube or other type of "breathing tube" can result in a sore throat after the surgery. Sometimes a sore throat will occur even without intubation. This is usually not a major problem, but some people find it annoying. Throat lozenges can alleviate the symptoms. A persistent or severe sore throat should be reported to your anesthesiologist or your surgeon.
Certain surgical procedures are more likely to induce nausea and vomiting than others. For example, operations on the eyes, ear, breasts, and bowel are more likely to cause nausea. Some individuals appear to be more susceptible to this problem, including those who have had motion sickness or previously had nausea or vomiting after anesthesia.
When nausea and vomiting occurs, a variety of medications are available that can alleviate the symptoms. If you had major problems with nausea or vomiting after previous surgery, please make a point of letting your anesthesiologist know, so that he or she can decide what anesthetic technique to use to minimize this possibility.
You will be given a blood transfusion only if your anesthesiologist considers it absolutely necessary to protect your life and health. All blood given is tested for presence of the AIDS virus, Hepatitis B and C viruses and other infections, so the chances of getting these serious infections is extremely low. If your religion forbids receiving blood transfusions (Jehovah's Witness), please let us know so that the risks can be explained, the issues discussed in depth, and your wishes respected.
"Malignant hyperthermia" is a very rare hereditary (inherited) problem that is triggered by anesthetic agents such as halothane or succinylcholine. If this was the case, your relative might have experienced severe fever and other problems during surgery or during recovery from anesthesia.
Some individuals are unable to metabolize (break down) the drug succinylcholine which is often used to relax the muscles during the surgery. As a result of their inability to metabolize this drug, the drug may last much longer than it would ordinarily. This is also a rare problem, which occurs in about 1 in 3,000 people.
Last Reviewed: Oct 05, 2010
Gareth S Kantor, MD
Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology
School of Medicine
Case Western Reserve University | <urn:uuid:fc0c0681-29c2-4a16-b6f9-c88ded732adb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.netwellness.org/healthtopics/anesthesiology/faq3.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00014-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956036 | 1,952 | 2.765625 | 3 |
President Obama's stated objective to reduce inequality, as laid out in public addresses and budget plans, is a noble one. The growing income gap – not only between rich and poor, but also between the ultra-affluent and the middle class – poses a threat both to the economy and the long-term viability of our republic.
But ironically, what seems to be the administration's core proposal, ratcheting up the burden on "rich" taxpayers earning over $250,000, could have unintended consequences. For one thing, it would place undue stress on the very places that have been Obama's strongest supports, while providing an unintended boost to those regions that most oppose him.
At the heart of the matter is the age-old debate about who is "rich." If you define wealthy as $250,000 a year for a family of four, that means different things in different places. America is a vast country, and the cost of living varies widely. What seems a princely sum in, say, red state Oklahoma City is barely enough to eke out a basic middle-class life in blue bastions like New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco.
In the recent study on the New York middle class that I conducted with Jonathan Bowles at the Center for an Urban Future, we compared the cost of a "middle class" standard of living in New York and other cities. The report found that Manhattan is by far the most expensive urban area in the country, with a cost of living that's more than twice the national average. (This is according to a cost of living index developed by the ACCRA, a research group formerly known as the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association.)
But even Queens, the city's middle-class haven and the only other borough included in the ACCRA analysis, suffers the eighth highest cost of living in the country.
What does that mean? An individual from Houston who earns $50,000 would have to make $115,769 in Manhattan and $81,695 in Queens to live at the same level of comfort. Similarly, earning $50,000 in Atlanta is the equivalent of earning $106,198 in Manhattan and $74,941 in Queens. (See "New York Should End Its Obsession With Manhattan.")
The cost of housing constitutes one critical part of the difference. Average monthly rent in New York was $2,720 in the fourth quarter of 2007, by far the top in the nation. That total was both 55% higher than the second place city, San Francisco, where average effective rents are $1,760, and nearly triple the national average of $975.
Even in relative boom times, such high costs have been driving many out of New York, and now it could get worse. During tough times, people's incomes drop, so they are less able to absorb high costs and taxes, which are rising in many blue cities and states. Imposing more taxes on some label-rich New Yorkers or Angelenos, who earn $250,000 a year, won't make them more likely to stay.
Perhaps even worse, higher taxes probably won't help the inequality issue. True, historically and to this day, the greatest levels of inequality occur in low-tax areas like the Mississippi Delta, the Rio Grande Valley and Appalachia. But, increasingly, this unsavory distinction is shared by big cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. In contrast, the most egalitarian states are generally deep red places – such as the Dakotas, Alaska, Nebraska and Wyoming.
Higher costs – manifested in everyday expenses like sales taxes and energy bills – now contribute in a large way to growing inequality even in the richest, most elite cities. When housing and other costs are factored in, notes researcher Deborah Reed of the left-leaning Public Policy Institute of California, deep-blue mainstays Los Angeles and San Francisco rank among the top 10 counties in America with respect to the percentage of people in poverty. Only New York and Washington, D.C., do worse.
Worst of all, the rise of inequality in these high-cost blue cities seems to be connected to policy decisions. High taxes and strict regulations have expelled relatively well-paying blue collar jobs in manufacturing and warehousing from expensive urban areas. Without them, an extremely bifurcated economy and society forms because no traditional ladders for upward mobility remain; they are critical to a successful urbanity.
Back in the 1960s, Jane Jacobs predicted that Latino immigrants to New York, mainly from Puerto Rico, would inevitably make "a fine middle class." Yet four decades later, in the Bronx, the city's most heavily Latino county, roughly one in three households lives in poverty – the highest rate of any urban county in the nation.
At the other extreme, in Manhattan, where the rich are concentrated, the disparities between socioeconomic classes have been rising steadily. In 1980, the borough ranked 17th among the nation's counties for social inequality; today it ranks first, with the top fifth of wage earners earning 52 times that of the lowest fifth, a disparity roughly comparable to that of Namibia.
To an old-fashioned Truman Democrat like me, this is bad news. But some modern-day "progressives," like Richard Florida, celebrate the concentration of rich people. They see them as guarantors that places like New York will be the winners of the post-crash economy. The losers? Goods-producing regions of the Great Plains, the industrial Midwest and, of course, those unenlightened, suburban middle-class people.
Yet it seems more and more likely that raising taxes for urban middle-income workers will, over the long term, add to the flood of people fleeing to less costly locales with lower taxes. This will be particularly true for the growing ranks of information economy "artisans" who might find critical write-offs for home offices and other business expenses cut from their next tax return.
None of this is necessary. The "creative destruction" resulting from the downturn might actually prove a boon to these big cities – by making them more affordable for the urban middle class. This help would be accelerated if city governments – as in Los Angeles, New York, Houston and even San Francisco during the early 1990s – nurture local businesses.
But "growth" – a word not widely embraced in this greenest of administrations – does not seem to be a priority in either Washington or in most city halls. There are murmurs that investment in high-cost, subsidized alternative energy will create vast numbers of new jobs, but this is likely just wishful thinking for everyone but Al Gore's business partners.
This is not to say cities' policies need to return to Bush-style Republicanism. Tax breaks for big-time investors and real estate speculators do not make a sustainable urban policy either. What's needed is something closer to lunch-bucket liberalism, which focuses on productivity-enhancing initiatives and sparking entrepreneurial growth. America – its cities in particular – could do with more private-sector stimulation and a lot less high-minded social engineering.
With policies geared toward the latter at the expense of the former, one of the great ironies of the Obama era will continue to unfold.
By targeting the urban middle class to pay for its deficit and new social programs, the president's plan could end up draining wealth – and boosting inequality – from our nation's great cities, where he currently draws overwhelming support, to its hinterlands. Not exactly what the White House had in mind, no doubt, but, sadly, it's a distinct possibility.
This article originally appeared at Forbes.
Joel Kotkin is executive editor of NewGeography.com and is a presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University. He is author of The City: A Global History and is finishing a book on the American future. | <urn:uuid:dfd7ceb0-0f68-4555-8480-8c4096707a5b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.newgeography.com/content/00633-urban-inequality-could-get-worse | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00123-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953251 | 1,606 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Graphics for Architecture Kevin Forseth with David Vaughan A thorough understanding of design drawing enhances the designer's ability to reason out difficult graphic constructions and to select or create appropriate means for depicting buildings and environments. This fully illustrated guide presents the most effective methods for mechanically constructing architectural plans, elevations, sections, paralines, perspectives, and shadows. All methods are described in basic principles of perspective geometry. Throughout the volume many pictorial drawings illuminate the connection between step-by-step procedures for constructing design drawings and the abstract concepts underlying orthographic, oblique, and perspective projections. For formulating graphics work-book problems around paraline construction the guide includes a notation system for describing an unlimited range of paraline-oblique drawings. A shortcut method for casting shadows in plan and elevation is useful for modeling shadows in architectural site plans and for obtaining fast design results. In addition there are eight different step-by-step procedures for setting up and constructing one and two-point perspective. Common-method perspectives are presented in the context of a drafting-board surface, and perspectives without plan are discussed as interiors, exteriors, and sections. Combining carefully organized learning sequences with the quick reference qualities of a handbook, this volume is an excellent reference source for the architectural office or studio as well as an easy-to-follow manual for students.
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Rent Graphics for Architecture 1st edition today, or search our site for other textbooks by David Vaughan. Every textbook comes with a 21-day "Any Reason" guarantee. Published by Wiley.
Need help ASAP? We have you covered with 24/7 instant online tutoring. Connect with one of our tutors now. | <urn:uuid:b332558c-6796-4241-a550-22d7a171a9e5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.chegg.com/textbooks/graphics-for-architecture-1st-edition-9780471289425-0471289426 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396224.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00186-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908842 | 343 | 3.390625 | 3 |
A liability is a a legally binding obligation payable to another entity. Liabilities are a component of the accounting equation, where liabilities plus equity equals the assets appearing on an organization's balance sheet.
Examples of liabilities are:
- Accounts payable
- Accrued liabilities
- Accrued wages
- Deferred revenue
- Interest payable
- Sales taxes payable
Accounting for Liabilities
For all of these sample liabilities, a company records a credit balance in a liability account. There may be rare cases where there is a negative liability (essentially an asset or a decline in a liability), in which case there may be a debit balance in a liability account.
The basic accounting for liabilities is to credit a liability account. The offsetting debit can be to a variety of accounts. For example:
- Accounts payable. The offsetting debit may be to an expense account, if the item being purchased is consumed within the current accounting period. Alternatively, the offsetting debit may be to an asset account, if the item is to be used over several periods (as is the case with a fixed asset).
- Accrued liabilities. The offsetting debit is nearly always to an expense account, since accrued liabilities are usually only recognized as part of the closing process, where there is an expense but no documentation in the form of a supplier invoice.
- Accrued wages. The offsetting debit is to the wage expense account, and reflects earned but unpaid hours at the end of the reporting period.
- Deferred revenue. The offsetting debit is usually either the cash account or the accounts receivable account, and reflects a situation where a customer has at least been billed for services rendered or goods shipped, but the revenue creation process is not yet complete. A variation on this concept is a customer prepayments account, or a customer deposits account.
- Interest payable. The offsetting debit is to the interest expense account, and indicates the amount of interest expense accrued by a business, but not yet billed to it by a lender.
- Sales taxes payable. The offsetting debit is the accounts receivable account, which is where the sales tax billing to the customer is located.
In short, there is a diversity of treatment for the debit side of liability accounting.
When presenting liabilities on the balance sheet, they must be classified as either current liabilities or long-term liabilities. A liability is classified as a current liability if it is expected to be settled within one year. All other liabilities are classified as long-term. Accounts payable, accrued liabilities, and taxes payable are usually classified as current liabilities. If a portion of a long-term debt is payable within the next year, that portion is classified as a current liability. Most liabilities are classified as current liabilities.
There are also cases where there is a possibility that a business may have a liability. This is known as a contingent liability. You should record a contingent liability if it is probable that a loss will occur, and you can reasonably estimate the amount of the loss. If a contingent liability is only possible, or if the amount cannot be estimated, then it is (at most) only noted in the disclosures that accompany the financial statements. Examples of contingent liabilities are the outcome of a lawsuit, a government investigation, or the threat of expropriation. A warranty can also be considered a contingent liability.
Other Liability Issues
When you record a liability in the accounting records, this does not mean that you are also setting aside funds to pay for the liability when it must eventually be paid – recording a liability has no immediate impact on cash flow. | <urn:uuid:db092aa9-71b0-4dd4-b5dd-a319a0b8005f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.accountingtools.com/liability-accounting | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00095-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948609 | 731 | 3.296875 | 3 |
There are two styles of address for individuals in the legal profession: judicial/formal and social. In most circumstances the social form of address is used - a polite but slightly less deferential style of approach than the very rigid form that was followed in the last century. By convention it is never considered to wrong to address a judge of any seniority (from district judge up to Justice of the Supreme Court) when not in court as ‘Judge’.
There are three legal systems in the UK; English law, Scottish law and Northern Irish law.
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is the highest court in the land for all criminal and civil cases in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and for civil cases in Scotland.
The English and Welsh court system is headed by the Senior Courts of England and Wales, consisting of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice (civil) and Crown court (criminal). Northern Irish courts follow the same pattern. In Scotland the chief court for civil cases is the Court of Session, while the High Court of Justiciary has responsibility for criminal cases. | <urn:uuid:16762872-e8fd-4a15-98d3-f2afeb7857d9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.debretts.com/forms-address/professions/legal | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399522.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00019-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958032 | 223 | 3 | 3 |
Physician Assistant Exam: Systolic Heart Failure
Systolic heart failure is a failure of the heart to work well as a pump. Your Physician Assistant Exam will expect you to know about this type of heart failure. On an echocardiogram, you see this failure as a reduced ejection fraction. Assuming that the heart has a normal ejection fraction of 65 percent, anything less than 50 percent is thought to represent some degree of a pump problem.
Common causes of systolic heart failure include ischemia due to CAD (that is, an ischemic cardiomyopathy), hypertension, and other causes of cardiomyopathy, especially a dilated cardiomyopathy (which you read about later in Muscling In on the Cardiomyopathies).
On the PANCE, you’ll be asked not only about the medications for treating systolic heart failure but also about key side effects and potential drug-drug interactions. Here’s a list of meds typically used in treating systolic heart failure:
Furosemide: Furosemide (Lasix) is used to help treat the volume overload and pulmonary edema associated with congestive heart failure. It can be given intravenously or orally. Before it does its main job — facilitating a diuresis — it works in the pulmonary circulation to decrease preload. Side effects of this medication and other loop diuretics include hypokalemia, hypomagnesemia, and metabolic alkalosis.
ACE inhibitors and ARBs: Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers prolong morbidity and mortality in systolic CHF. The medications can cause remodeling of cells of the left ventricle and decrease left ventricular hypertrophy. Side effects include a cough and hyperkalemia. An uncommon side effect of an ACE inhibitor is angioedema. If used, you need to check a blood chemistry panel for the serum creatinine and potassium levels.
Digoxin: Digoxin (Lanoxin) improves systolic heart failure symptoms and morbidity, but it doesn’t improve mortality. In CHF, digoxin has been shown to help reduce sympathetic tone. This medication is also an atrioventricular nodal blocker that can be used in managing rate control for atrial fibrillation. Digoxin is renally eliminated, so in cases of chronic kidney disease or acute kidney failure, the dosing needs to be greatly reduced or held.
Watch for symptoms of digoxin toxicity. When the digoxin level is very high, symptoms of toxicity include nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and palpitations. On an ECG, you can see many types of arrhythmias, including junctional rhythm. The most common arrhythmia you see with digoxin toxicity is paroxysmal atrial tachycardia with block.
Note that hypercalcemia can make digoxin toxicity worse, as can hypokalemia. You treat digoxin toxicity by using Fab antibody fragments (Digibind) that bind digoxin. Because digoxin is heavily protein-bound, it can’t be removed by hemodialysis.
Beta blockers: Beta blockers are used in treating chronic systolic heart failure. They improve morbidity and mortality. They can reduce sympathetic tone, as can digoxin. Beta blockers also have a mortality benefit in treating the post-MI patient. Commonly prescribed medications include metoprolol (Lopressor) and carvedilol (Coreg).
Spironolactone: Spironolactone (Aldactone) is added after a person is on digoxin, an ACE inhibitor, a beta blocker, and a loop diuretic. Spironolactone can help with survival in patients with CHF. It also can help reverse left ventricular hypertrophy, as can an ACE inhibitor.
Spironolactone has to be carefully dosed in patients with a glomerular filtration rate (GFR) < 30 mL/min. It’s contraindicated in advanced kidney disease because it can cause hyperkalemia. The kidney function and potassium levels need to be watched, especially if the person is also on an ACE inhibitor.
In general, treating heart failure involves more than just using the meds described here. The patient should get daily exercise and adhere to a diet that is low in sodium (1,500–2,000 mg/day limit) and high in fruits and vegetables. Fluid restriction is often recommended.
Avoiding medications like NSAIDs is also important, because they can cause high blood pressure and salt and water retention and can blunt the effect of loop diuretics. NSAIDs can also cause hyperkalemia and acute kidney failure. | <urn:uuid:95cbf5f2-252e-4357-b4c0-fbbdd3f7aa08> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/physician-assistant-exam-systolic-heart-failure.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00146-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902724 | 996 | 2.609375 | 3 |
by Cat Rambo
If your writing features a richly detailed universe, full of names, places, and historical events, you may want to explore using a wiki to chronicle it. A wiki’s structure allows intricate details to be recorded in a way that both preserves it in an easy to locate fashion but also allows devoted fans to browse the longtime story of your work.
What is a Wiki?
The word “wiki” means “quick” or “fast” in Hawaiian. A wiki is usually a web application that allows people to quickly and easily collaborate on a set of webpages.
Wikipedia is the most obvious example. Started in 2001, it now has over four million pages, 470 million monthly visitors, and 77,000 contributors. Wikipedia operates by five principles:
It is an encyclopedia.
It maintains a neutral point of view.
It is free content that anyone can edit or use.
Editors must treat each other with civility and respect.
It does not have firm rules, but adapts to new situations as they arise.
Wikis are usually unstructured, with no overall leader or owner, but levels of control can be set on a wiki to restrict user access in terms of viewing, creating, and editing content. Wikis can be public or private.
How a Wiki Works
In a wiki, users are invited to create or edit webpages. Link creation is easy and intuitive, allowing pages to link to each other when they overlap in content. I could create a list of fantasy writers on a wiki page, for example, and easily make each name link to a page about that writer.
To use a wiki, you need to know the basics of wiki markup, which lets you create links and format text. For a good overview of wiki markup, check the Wikipedia page on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
How Writers Can Use Wikis
One interesting way to use a wiki is to document the details of your fictional universe in an interesting form on your website. You can choose to restrict access level to yourself and chosen editors, or you can crowdsource its creation and let your fans build it with you. The latter engages fans more deeply with your universe, which in theory should make them more eager to consume new books set in it.
You might choose to use a wiki to keep track of things while writing, then release it later as a bonus to people who buy the book. Or if you’re crowdfunding, this might be a possible reward for backers.
Create a wiki about the genre you’re writing in: steampunk, space opera, military fantasy, etc. Make sure your books are listed but give wiki participants more than that. Include other authors and resources. Rather than investing the amount of time it would take to develop such a wiki, you may want to look for existing wikis in your genre to make sure your work is listed. Make sure you read the individual wiki’s rules before you go adding yourself, though. Some communities have rules against self-promotion.
Along the same lines, you may want to see yourself in Wikipedia, but you’ll find if you write and submit your own entry, it will, most likely, get deleted. Find a friend who is an established Wikipedia editor, and ask them to submit it. Before you do so, however, ask yourself if you’ve hit the point in your career where such an entry is justified. Have you appeared in major publications or on an award ballot? Had a book published by a notable press? Edited a publication that achieved notoriety? Wikipedia editors are ruthless in removing material they deem trivial.
Anyone can edit a wiki, and so you may find someone editing your entry somewhere in a way that you object to. In such cases, first relax. What is edited in can be edited out, usually with ease. Secondly, in trying to fix the situation, adhere to the rules of the wiki.
Setting Up Your Own Wiki
Before anything else, decide whether you are creating a public or private wiki, as well as whether you are hosting it on your own machine or server or alternatively using a wiki service.
If you simply want a personal wiki for your computer, try Tiddlywiki. Only you will be able to access it. Tiddlywiki works via your browser, and is available for both Mac and Windows machines via Firefox, IE, Safari, and Opera.
For a wiki service that will allow you to show the wiki on your site, there are a number of alternatives. Here are four good ones.
Tiddlyspace: Tiddlyspace is based on open source software, so you can run it on the Tiddlyspace website or on your own domain. Here’s a sample I’ve started: http://catrambo.tiddlyspace.
com/. If I wanted to expand it, a next step might be to make each story title link to the story or a page about it.
Wikispaces: Wikispaces provides wikis for educational purposes. If you are not an instructor, you can still sign up for one or purchase a membership with additional features. It includes a visual editor for those who don’t want to learn wiki markup.
Wikia: Wikia includes a mobile version, which is a nice, forward-looking feature. It bills itself as the “world’s largest network of collaboratively published video game, entertainment, and lifestyle content,” and hosts over 200,00 blogs across a wide range of topics. Writers will be interested in exploring the Wikia Book Club
Google Sites: In Google Sites, click on “Project Wiki” and then either select “Simple Wiki Site” or “Browse the gallery for more” if you want to see some additional kinds of wikis.
Some Interesting Wikis on the Web
The Trek Initiative is a Star Trek wiki sanctioned by Roddenberry Entertainment, which hopes to unite all of the various Star Trek fan communities. http://trekinitiative.wikia.
Wookieepedia is a Star Wars wiki that grew out of Wikipedia’s refusal to let Star Wars oriented editors go as fine-grained as they wanted to in 2005. Wookieepedia lists every minor character, location, object, and term in loving detail.
JMRL Reads (run by the librarians of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library of Charlottesville, Virginia) http://www.jmrl.org/wiki/Main_
WikiAnswers, where you’ll find lists like this: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/
Cat Rambo’s most recent short story collection, Near + Far, appeared last fall from Hydra House. Find links to her fiction as well as her upcoming online classes on her website, http://www. | <urn:uuid:be0c5e32-668b-4add-b96e-26a2d2216089> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.sfwa.org/2013/10/tools-writers-wikis/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00032-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911349 | 1,428 | 3.21875 | 3 |
All parents and caregivers, no matter how busy, want to provide their children with the most stimulating environment for learning and using language. A trip to the supermarket, taking a ride, playing outside, or doing everyday activities at home provide great opportunities for developing speech and language skills.
Written by SLPs, Talking On the Go is loaded with everyday activities to enhance speech and language development in four major areas:
- building vocabulary
- listening and speech production
- reading and writing readiness
- participation in conversations
Talking On the Go offers simple and fun suggestions for parents and caregivers to use in a variety of settings. Activities are geared for children from birth through age five.
The spiral-bound book includes:
- a pull-out poster
- a CD with reproducible pages
Now available as an eBook! | <urn:uuid:1089459f-2726-4354-b716-48c9bd92f52f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.asha.org/eWeb/OLSDynamicPage.aspx?site=ashacms&webcode=olsdetails&title=Talking+on+the+Go | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00039-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936427 | 165 | 2.859375 | 3 |
The dramatic shrinkage of Peru's Quelccaya Ice Cap -- the world’s largest tropical ice sheet -- in recent decades is caused by rising temperatures and not because of reduced snowfall in the region, a new study by Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., has concluded.
The rapidly melting Quelccaya Ice Cap, which sits 18,000 feet above sea level in the Peruvian Andes, has become a symbol for global climate change, and the new study, published Tuesday in the journal Geology, supports a previous theory that tropical glaciers are rapidly shrinking because of a warming planet. The researchers believe that the findings will help scientists better understand the natural variability of past and modern climates, and improve models to predict tropical glaciers’ response to future climate change.
“This is an important result since there has been debate about the causes of recent tropical glacial recession – for example, whether it is due to temperature, precipitation, humidity, solar irradiance or other factors,” Meredith Kelly, a glacial geomorphologist at Dartmouth and the study’s co-author, said in a statement.
Kelly and her team of researchers used field mapping combined with a surface-exposure dating method called beryllium-10 and ice cores obtained by Lonnie Thompson, a paleoclimatologist at the Ohio State University, to examine how the Quelccaya Ice Cap has expanded and retreated over the past 1,000 years.
The researchers used elaborate techniques to date the expansion and retreat of Qori Kalis, a major outlet glacier from the Quelccaya Ice Cap, over the past 500 years. During the last millennium, a major cooling event known as the Little Ice Age occurred, but scientists don't know what caused the cooling.
Continue Reading Below
The Qori Kalis grew to its maximum position prior to 520 years ago and subsequently retreated with only minor re-advances since that time, and according to Justin Stroup, the Dartmouth study’s lead author, the glacier was more sensitive to temperature, while other factors such as the amount of snowfall, were secondary causes of the glacier’s expansion and retreat. The study suggests that melting of other glaciers in tropical South America is similar to what's happening on the Qori Kalis.
However, the study's broader conclusion that rising temperature is the controlling factor for the glacier needs more supporting evidence according to some scientists.
According to Douglas R. Hardy of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Mass., the study's conclusion is based on a record of ice accumulation over centuries, and because the ice has been compressed over time, the evidence in the study requires substantial interpretation.
“I actually believe that finding is probably accurate, but I don’t see that they make a compelling case for that with this study,” Hardy told The New York Times. | <urn:uuid:97b8f231-5a1e-4c34-a371-7506e12942a9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ibtimes.com/melting-perus-quelccaya-ice-cap-caused-rising-temperature-not-reduced-snowfall-study-1557957 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394937.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00093-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94815 | 592 | 3.71875 | 4 |
|Adolescent Sexuality and the HIV Epidemic (UNDP, 1999, 24 p.)|
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About the Authors
Kirn Rivers is a senior research officer within the Thomas Coram Research Unit at the Institute of Education, University of London. She has extensive international experience working in the fields of sexual and reproductive health.
Peter Aggleton is Director of the Thomas Coram Research Unit. He is editor of the Social Aspects of AIDS series of books published by UCL Press/Taylor and Francis, and of the journal 'Culture, Health and Sexuality. He has worked internationally in HIV-related promotion for nearly fifteen years. All correspondence to Thomas Coram Research Unit, 27-28 Woburn Square, London, WC1H OAA, UK.
The United Nations Development Programme is the UN's largest source of grant for development cooperation. Its funding is from voluntary contributions of Member States of the United Nations and affiliated agencies. A network of 132 country offices - and programmes in more than 170 countries and territories - helps people to help themselves. In each of these countries, the UNDP Resident Representative normally also serves as the Resident Coordinator of operational activities for development of the United Nations system as a whole. This can include humanitarian as well as development assistance.
UNDP's main priority is poverty eradication. Its work also focuses on the closely linked goals of environmental regeneration, the creation of sustainable livelihoods, and the empowerment of women. Programmes for good governance and peace building create a climate for progress in these areas. Country and regional programmes draw on the expertise of developing country nationals and non-governmental organisations, the specialised agencies of the UN system and research institutes. Seventy-five per cent of all UNDP-supported projects are implemented by local organisations.
Ninety per cent of UNDP's core programme is focused on 66 countries that are home to 90 per cent of the world's extremely poor. UNDP is a hands-on organisation with 85 per cent of its staff in the countries that it supports.
United Nations Development Programme
HIV and Development Programme
The UNDP HIV and Development programme draws together UNDP's headquarters, regional and country programming and other initiatives designed to strengthen the capacity of nations and organizations to respond effectively to the HIV epidemic. The activities covered in this programme include:
· establishing priority needs through consultations with those directly affected by the epidemic;
· national capacity building through field missions, consultations and HIV and development workshops on multisectoral programme development and coordination;
· development of gender-sensitive and community-based approaches through pilot programmes, consultations, workshops and publications;
· multisectoral policy development and advocacy through intercountry consultations, colloquia, the establishment of regional networks (legal, economic, for example), publications and technical assistance;
· programme development through workshops and facilitated study tours which explore innovative ways of increasing and measuring programme effectiveness and sustainability;
· mainstreaming HIV in key programming areas, for example, in village self-help schemes, food security systems, regional planning approaches, etc., through studies, workshops, training and technical assistance;
· establishing operational research priorities relevant to effective and sustainable programme and policy development and evaluation through colloquia, commissioned reviews and consultations; and
· mobilising and coordinating the response of the UN system and other players at the national level to maximise the effectiveness of their support for the national response to the epidemic.
The work of the UNDP HIV and Development programme is coordinated within the UN system by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). The HIV and Development Programme was established by the UNDP Governing Council and its mandate is contained in its Policy Framework and Guiding Principles (DP/I 991/57). UNDP works in close collaboration with UNAIDS and other multilateral and bilateral agencies, national governments, non-governmental and community based organizations, and academic and private sector institutions to contribute towards an effective, sustainable and coordinated response to the HIV epidemic.
UNDP HIV-RELATED LANGUAGE POLICY
Language and the images it evokes shape and influence behaviour and attitudes. The words used locate the speaker with respect to others, distancing or including them, setting up relations of authority or of partnership, and affect the listeners in particular ways, empowering or disempowering, estranging or persuading, and so on. The use of language is an ethical and a programmatic issue.
UNDP has adopted the following principles to guide its HIV-related language.
Language should be inclusive and not create and reinforce a Them/Us mentality or approach. For example, a term like "intervention" places the speaker outside of the group of people for or with whom he or she is working. Words like "control" set up a particular type of distancing relationship between the speaker and the listeners. Care should be taken with the use of the pronouns "they", "you", "them", etc.
It is better if the vocabulary used is drawn from the vocabulary of peace and human development rather than from the vocabulary of war. For example, synonyms could be found for words like "campaign", "control", "surveillance", etc.
Descriptive terms used should be those preferred or chosen by persons described. For example, "sex workers" is often the term preferred by those concerned rather than "prostitutes"; "people living with HIV" or "people living with AIDS" are preferred by infected persons rather than "victims".
Language should be value neutral, gender sensitive and should be empowering rather than disempowering. Terms such as "promiscuous", "drug abuse" and all derogatory terms alienate rather than create the trust and respect required. Terms such as "victim" or "sufferer" suggest powerlessness; "haemophiliac" or "AIDS patient" identify a human being by their medical condition alone. "Injecting drug users" is used rather than "drug addicts". Terms such as "living with HIV" recognize that an infected person may continue to live well and productively for many years.
Terms used need to be strictly accurate. For example, "AIDS" describes the conditions and illnesses associated with significant progression of infection. Otherwise, the terms used include "HIV infection", "HIV epidemic", "HIV-related illnesses or conditions", etc. "Situation of risk" is used rather than "risk behaviour" or "risk groups", since the same act may be safe in one situation and unsafe in another. The safety of the situation has to be continually assessed.
The terms used need to be adequate to inform accurately. For example, the modes of HIV transmission and the options for protective behaviour change need to be explicitly stated so as to be clearly understood within all cultural contexts.
The appropriate use of language respects the dignity and rights of all concerned, avoids contributing to the stigmatisation and rejection of the affected and assists in creating the social changes required to overcome the epidemic.
HIV AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME PUBLICATIONS
Available online at http://www.undp.org/hiv
Gender and the HIV Epidemic
Adolescent Sexuality, Gender and the HIV Epidemic, 1998
Dying of Sadness: Gender, Sexual Violence and the HIV Epidemic, 1998
Men and the HIV Epidemic, 1998
Socio-Economic Causes and consequences of the HIV Epidemic in Southern Africa: A case study of Namibia, 1998
The HIV Epidemic and Sustainable Human Development, 1998
The Impact of HIV/AIDS on Children, Families and Communities: Risks and Realities of Childhood During the HIV Epidemic, 1998
Strengthening National Capacity for HIV/AIDS Strategic Planning, 1998
Poverty and HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, 1998
HIV Prevention in Multicultural Contexts, 1996
The Impact of HIV on Families and Children, 1996
The Vulnerability of Women: Is This Useful Construct for Policy and Programming, 1996
HIV and the Challenges Facing Men, 1995
Development Practice and the HIV Epidemic, 1995
Living With HIV, 1994
Children in Families Affected by the HIV Epidemic: A Strategic Approach, 1993
Approaching the HIV Epidemic, 1993
Young Women: Silence, Susceptibility and the HIV Epidemic, 1992
The HIV Epidemic and Development; The Unfolding of the Epidemic, 1992
The Economic Impact of the HIV Epidemic, 1992
Gender, Knowledge and Responsibility, 1992
People Living with HIV: The Law, Ethics and Discrimination, 1992
Sharing the Challenge of the HIV Epidemic: Building Partnerships, 1992
Female Genital Health and the Risk of HIV Transmission, 1991
Behaviour Change in Response to the HIV Epidemic: Some Analogies and Lessons from the Experience of Gay Communities, 1991
Women, the HIV Epidemic and Human Rights: A Tragic Imperative, 1991
The Role of the Law in HIV and AIDS Policy, 1991
Placing Women at the Centre of the Analysis, 1990
The Implications of HIV/AIDS for Rural Development Policy and Programming, 1998
From Single Parents to Child-Headed Households: The Case of Children Orphaned by AIDS in Kisumu and Siaya Districts in Kenya, 1998
Riding the Roller Coaster: Experiencing Transitions from HIV to AIDS, 1997
The Socio-Economic Impact of HIV and AIDS on Rural Families in Uganda, 1994
Wheeling and Dealing: HIV and Development on the Shan State Borders of Myanmar, 1994
The HIV Epidemic in Uganda: A Programme Approach, 1993
Books and Monographs
The Alliance of Mayors and Municipal Leaders on HIV/AlDS in Africa, Summary Reports, Xth International Conference on HIV/AIDS and STDs in Africa, 1998
Development and the HIV Epidemic: A Forward Looking Evaluation of the Approach of the UNDP HIV and Development Programme, UNDP, 1996
HIV & AIDS: The Global Inter-Connection, UNDP, 1995. Published by Kumarian Press, Inc. | <urn:uuid:f103ebb5-e256-4824-a08e-f3f48f0e72d3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nzdl.org/gsdlmod?e=d-00000-00---off-0cdl--00-0----0-10-0---0---0direct-10---4-------0-1l--11-en-50---20-about---00-0-1-00-0--4----0-0-11-10-0utfZz-8-10&cl=CL2.1&d=HASHae9cf34a236e1efdf1c761.9>=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00095-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.789141 | 6,563 | 2.609375 | 3 |
NOWHERE TO GO: The Purepecha family in Huancito, a once-thriving community that has lost much of its population to emigration
Land of the Abandoned
By Ann Aurelia Lopez
T he farm-to-farm research summarized in The Farmworkers' Journey derives from almost ten years of collecting data at each end of the migrant circuit between west-central Mexico and central California. The data collection consisted of extensive interviews with thirty-three farmworkers and their family members. I also studied twenty-two subsistence and small producer farms and farm families at the other end of the migrant circuit in west-central Mexico. There, during summer and winter research trips, I learned about the central California farm labor force's farms and families as well as the post-NAFTA effects on the rural Mexican countryside. Not since the Spanish conquest have so many farmers been driven off their land.
I found that many once-vital centers of community activity and commerce have become ghost towns. The majority are home to the elderly and their grandchildren; the working adults are in the United States. Abandoned and depressed women are a norm in the countryside, and everywhere the impact of environmental destruction in its many forms mars the once-pristine countryside.
Fractured families and farming communities no longer function as stewards of Mexico's rich and genetically diverse corn. Without the necessary labor force to carry them out, sustainable intercrop farming practices have been abandoned, resulting in genetic erosion throughout the Mexican countryside. Concomitantly, high-yielding hybrid varieties and genetically modified corn imported from the United States are replacing traditional strains of corn, further exacerbating the loss of genetic diversity.
Prior to the introduction of the Green Revolution, technology and corporate penetration into the countryside, rural campesinos enjoyed a diet of comparatively simple, healthy foods grown on their own land, purchased at the local market, or collected from the surrounding countryside. A scarcity of these foods along with Monsanto, Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo and Marlboro's aggressive campaigns to sell their health-compromising products to the rural poor of Mexico adversely impacts their health.
The replacement of traditional maíz criollo with hybrid corn has not only contributed to genetic erosion and potential intellectual deficits in the developing brains of children but also created indignation among many campesinos who claim that the hybrid corn is so lacking in both nutrients and fat that their animals don't grow or gain weight on a diet of hybrid corn.
As cultural and environmental disintegration and death slip through the Mexican countryside, primarily U.S.-originating transnational corporations are enjoying an economic boom and soaring profits by promoting deadly environment-, health-, and culture-destroying foods, drugs, chemicals, and agricultural products.
The ubiquitous poverty in the region combined with compromised sanitation standards has created a paradigm of familiar hunger and illness in the west-central Mexico countryside. Along with the many viral and bacterial species that plague farm families, serious illnesses also mar the countryside: cholera, dengue fever, malaria, and even several strains of hepatitis.
Farmland in west-central Mexico is subject to unregulated agrochemical spraying in the summer. Avoiding agrochemical exposure and toxic vehicle emissions in some regions is nearly impossible. In spite of exercising extreme caution in food and beverage choices and preparation, my research assistants and I found it nearly impossible to complete an entire trip without becoming ill.
I was also not prepared for the heavy emotional load I would have to bear as I listened to often tragic, almost inconceivable stories and witnessed equally tragic life circumstances. Almost from the moment this study began, interactions with farmworkers have often left me awash in an ocean of contrasting emotions, ranging from joy at life successes to deep sadness and anger at the nearly inescapable vicelike grip of poverty most Mexican subsistence farmers and California farmworkers are caught in.
The Farmworkers' Journey is organized in such a way that readers can follow and experience the real-life circumstances, including human rights abuses, that individuals face all along the binational migrant circuit. I explore many binational practices, institutions and laws that promote and maintain the media objectification and subjugation of Mexican farmworkers. Farmworkers are caught up in this binational framework of social, political, and economic institutions and practices, and escape is nearly impossible.
While engaged in this research, I was able to initiate a variety of community projects to bridge the chasm between the lives of those who live in "mainstream" U.S. society and those who live as farmworkers or farmers in Mexico. I am now working with a group of equally passionate, interested people and formed a non-profit Center for Farmworker Families. We have established a website, www.farmworkerfamily.org, and will provide interested individuals with opportunities to participate in projects and make donations designed to improve working and living conditions as well as educational opportunities for binational farm families.
I continue to visit farm families in Mexico every six months and to maintain contact with farmworker family participants in both Watsonville and Salinas. It is my desire and hope that the perspective and information garnered from this project serve to enlighten future immigration and agricultural labor policymakers and to dispel many of the nativist myths and folktales about Mexican immigrants currently in vogue in California and the rest of the nation. In addition, I feel that a "farm to farm" understanding of the human side of migration from west-central Mexico can ultimately serve as a nexus for the development of more enlightened international immigration and trade policy.
Excerpt from 'The Farmworkers' Journey,' by Dr. Ann Aurelia López, University of California Press, 2007, 362 pages, $22.95 paperback. López is a professor at UC–Santa Cruz, and a professor emeritus at San Jose City College, where she still teaches environmental sciences.
Send a letter to the editor about this story. | <urn:uuid:0dffe5c7-1555-4972-bccd-6b216e0f0209> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.metroactive.com/metro/12.10.08/cover-abandoned-0850.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00175-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947989 | 1,207 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Does daydreaming have a purpose? Neuroscientists have recently become enraptured with the workings of the brain at idle moments. Referred to as “default mode network,” letting the mind wander is in fact a busy, critical state that is the key to maintaining one’s sense of self and personality. The Los Angeles Times reports:
In the span of a few short years, [scientists] have come to view mental leisure as important, purposeful work — work that relies on a powerful and far-flung network of brain cells firing in unison. Neuroscientists call it the “default mode network.”
Understanding that setting may do more than lend respectability to the universal practice of zoning out: It may one day help diagnose and treat psychiatric conditions as diverse as Alzheimer’s disease, autism, depression and schizophrenia — all of which disrupt operations in the default mode network.
Beyond that lies an even loftier promise. As neuroscientists study the idle brain, some believe they are exploring a central mystery in human psychology: where and how our concept of “self” is created, maintained, altered and renewed.
The idea that there may be a physical structure in the brain in which we unconsciously define who we are “would warm Freud’s heart,” says Dr. Marcus E. Raichle, a neurologist who has pioneered work in this fledgling field.
Raichle suspects that during these moments of errant thought, the brain is forming a set of mental rules about our world, particularly our social world, that help us navigate human interactions and quickly make sense of and react to information — about a stranger’s intentions, a child’s next move, a choice before us — without having to run a complex and conscious calculation of all our values, expectations and beliefs.
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- Essential Vitamin B3 May Have Arrived From Space On Meteorites - Apr 18, 2014 | <urn:uuid:40c15538-eb70-4085-afdc-d02f3a54c45f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://disinfo.com/2010/09/the-importance-of-being-idle/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394987.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00017-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916021 | 458 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Sunscreen and Skin Cancer
Apply sunscreen generously. Skimpy application can reduce the sun protection factor (SPF) by up to 50 percent.
Thanks to our love affair with the sun, skin cancer is on the rise. With this in mind, taking precautions becomes paramount. So what about sunscreen? Can sunscreen protect you from skin cancer?
This is an important question. With more than 2 million people diagnosed in the U.S. annually, skin cancer is the most common form of cancer. These numbers don't even include melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer. Although most cases are highly curable, especially when detected early, treating skin cancer can be costly and difficult.
There are three main forms of skin cancer: basal cell, squamous cell, and melanoma. Like other cancers, skin cancer is influenced by genetics, so those with a family history of skin cancer are at higher risk. The most obvious sign of this genetic relationship is skin type. Fair-skinned people are at greater risk than darker-skinned people. However, the major culprit in the rise of all forms of skin cancer, regardless of genetics, melanoma included, is sun exposure.
Years ago, a golden tan was considered unfashionable and people went to great lengths to protect themselves from the sun. Many of us have seen old photographs showing women at the beach in floor-length dresses with long sleeves. Gradually, however, modest outfits gave way to bikinis and generations of sun worshipers were born.
How the sun damages skin
We used to think that it took decades for sun damage to accumulate, and that skin cancer developed no sooner than middle age. Now younger and younger people are being diagnosed. The reason for this change is not clear. It could relate to more sun exposure because of more leisure time, or even increased use of tanning parlors. Light-skinned races, such as Caucasians, are the most vulnerable. But African-Americans and those with darker skin are not immune, although they develop skin cancer far less frequently.
What role does the sun play? The sun is a source of radiation, which it emits in two main types of rays: UVA (ultraviolet A) and UVB (ultraviolet B). Although the UVA rays produce less skin redness than the shorter UVB rays, these longer rays, can also damage skin cells. Ultraviolet rays not only cause skin cancer, but also cause other effects from the sun, such as wrinkles and age spots. These skin changes were once attributed solely to aging, but experts now recognize that they are the results of long-term sun exposure. Those who live in sunny climates year-round have higher skin cancer rates. But don't be fooled; radiation from the sun can also occur on cloudy days, so sun protection is important no matter where you live and whether or not it's sunny outdoors.
How sunscreens protect you
Sunscreens are protective substances. They extend the length of time you can be outdoors before your skin begins to redden, but they don't give you total protection. Using sunscreen doesn't give you liberty to stay out in the sun indefinitely, since damage to the skin cells is still occurring.
How to pick the right sunscreen
You can judge the protectiveness of a sunscreen against UVB rays according to its sun protection factor (SPF). For instance, if your skin usually burns after 10 minutes, a sunscreen with an SPF of 15 extends this to 2.5 hours (10 minutes multiplied by the "15" protection factor = 150 minutes). Here are some general recommendations for sunscreen from the American Academy of Dermatology:
But if SPF 30 is good, isn't a higher number better? Perhaps, but it depends on your individual characteristics. For instance, if you're particularly fair skinned, live at a high altitude where the sun's rays are stronger, or spend a lot of time outdoors, you may want to choose a sunscreen with a higher SPF number.
How to be in the sun safely
Follow these tips for safe sunning:
Whether you prefer your sunscreen in the form of a cream, oil, lotion, or gel is up to you. However, some oils have very low SPF levels. Remember, too, that you need to reapply all sunscreens periodically, and you need to reapply gels more often. New continuous spray sunscreen may make it easier to apply sunscreen to hard-to-reach areas.
Apply the sunscreen 15 to 30 minutes before going outdoors. If you're going swimming, or if you're doing an activity that causes you to sweat, reapply the sunscreen afterward, and again every two hours.
Protect your children as well. Teach older children safe sun habits, including playing in the shade, wearing protective clothing, and applying sunscreen. Keep infants under age 6 months out of direct sun, keep their skin covered, and use an umbrella over their stroller. Use sunscreen on infants beginning at age 6 months.
Tanning beds and sun lamps
Many people believe that the UV rays of tanning beds are harmless because sunlamps in tanning beds emit primarily UVA and little, if any, UVB, the rays once thought to be the most hazardous. Plus, they are regulated by the FDA.
But no matter what the regulations say, these lamps do emit UVA rays, and UVA rays can cause serious skin damage, too, which can lead to skin cancer. Experts have linked tanning lamps to the most serious form of skin cancer, melanoma. Because of the dangers, health experts advise people to avoid sunlamps for tanning. | <urn:uuid:e7a5663d-96ae-401c-8347-b0845014d696> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mwmc.com/medical-services/cancer/health-library/cancer/sunscreen-and-skin-cancer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00013-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949259 | 1,155 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Digitized Collections - The Joplin Tornado
This item is available as a text document, which means that you will page through the document, rather than opening individual images. If you click on "Browse Collection," you will be able to advance pages by clicking the button in the upper left of the screen. If you choose "Keyword Search", you can type in a word or phrase to find where in the document the word(s) appear.
On May 5, 1971, a tornado struck Joplin, Missouri. It was near dusk, and most of the town was sitting down to dinner. The tornado dropped in for supper and stayed on the ground for almost 40 blocks through the center of town. During its rampage through Joplin, it killed one man and injured almost 50 people.
The Joplin tornado was one of a cluster of more than a dozen confirmed tornados in southwest Missouri that evening.
This picture book documents the storm's destructive pass through town in black and white photos.
This project has been made possible by a Library Services and Technology Grant administered by the Missouri State Library, a division of the office of the Missouri Secretary of State. | <urn:uuid:c9e31387-aa97-4e78-8259-01064e3d97cd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://joplinpubliclibrary.org/digitized/joplin_tornado_booklet.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397842.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00183-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959766 | 239 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (18701938). Rogets International Thesaurus. 1922.
Class IV. Words Relating to the Intellectual Faculties
Division (I) Formation of Ideas
Section III. Materials for Reasoning
UNCERTAINTY, incertitude, doubt; doubtfulness &c. adj.; dubiety, dubitation, dubitancy [obs.], dubiosity, dubiousness.
HESITATION, suspense, state of suspense; perplexity, embarrassment, dilemma, Mortons fork [hist.], bewilderment; botheration [colloq.]; puzzle, quandary; timidity (fear) [See Fear]; vacillation [See Irresolution]; aporia, diaporesis, indetermination; sealed orders.
VAGUENESS &c. adj.; haze, fog; obscurity (darkness) [See Darkness]; ambiguity (double meaning) [See Equivocalness]; contingency, double contingency, possibility upon a possibility; open question (question) [See Inquiry]; onus probandi [L.], blind bargain, pig in a poke, leap in the dark, something or other; needle in a bottle of hay; roving commission.
FALLIBILITY; unreliability, unreliableness, untrustworthiness; precariousness &c. adj.
BE UNCERTAIN &c. adj.; wonder whether.
lose the -clew or clue, - scent; miss ones way, wander aimlessly, beat about, hang around.
not know -what to make of (unintelligibility) [See Unintelligibility], - which way to turn, - whether one stands on ones head or ones heels; float in a sea of doubt, hesitate, flounder; lose oneself, lose ones head; muddle ones brains.
RENDER UNCERTAIN &c. adj.; put out, pose, puzzle, perplex, embarrass; muddle, confuse, confound; bewilder, bother, moider [dial.], rattle [colloq.], nonplus, addle the wits, throw off the scent, keep in suspense, keep one guessing.
DOUBT, (disbelieve) [See Unbelief. Doubt]; hang in the balance, tremble in the balance; depend.
UNCERTAIN, unsure; casual; random (aimless) [See Chance]; changeable, changeful [See Changeableness].
DOUBTFUL, dubious; dazed; insecure, unstable, indecisive; unsettled, undecided, undetermined; in suspense, open to discussion; controvertible; in question (inquiry) [See Inquiry].
VAGUE; indeterminate, indefinite; ambiguous, equivocal; undefined, undefinable, confused (indistinct) [See Invisibility]; mysterious, cryptic, veiled, obscure, oracular.
PERPLEXING &c. v.; enigmatic, paradoxical, apocryphal, problematical, hypothetical; experimental [See Experiment].
FALLIBLE, questionable, precarious, slippery, ticklish, debatable, disputable; unreliable, untrustworthy.
UNAUTHENTIC, unauthenticated, unauthoritative; unascertained, unconfirmed; undemonstrated; untold, uncounted.
CONTINGENT, contingent on, dependent on; subject to; dependent on circumstances; occasional; provisional.
in a state of uncertainty, on the horns of a dilemma, in a cloud, in a maze; bushed, off the track; derailed; ignorant [See Ignorance]; afraid to say; out of ones reckoning, out of ones bearings, astray, adrift; at sea, at fault, at a loss, at ones wits end, at a non-plus; puzzled &c. v.; lost, abroad, désorienté [F.]; distracted, distraught.
UNCERTAINLY &c. adj.; at random, until things straighten out, while things are so uncertain, in this state of suspense; pendente lite [L.]; sub spe rati [L.].
Who can tell?
Who shall decide when doctors disagree?
Spargere voces in vulgum ambiguas.Vergil
He is no wise man who will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.Johnson
A little philosophy inclineth mans mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth mens minds about to religion.Bacon
Dum in dubio est animus paulo momento huc illuc impellitur.Terence
To-morrow is, ah, whose?Mulock
Unborn To-morrow and dead Yesterday.Omar KhayyámFitzgerald
Gather ye rose-buds while ye may.Herrick
Uncertainty! Fell demon of our fears! The human soul, That can support despair, supports not thee.Mallet
There is such a choice of difficulties, that I own myself at a loss how to determine.General James WolfeDispatch to Pitt | <urn:uuid:6e72e445-6909-4b58-80ae-4a4bffdf8a5a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bartelby.net/110/475.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396945.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00187-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.72949 | 1,077 | 2.875 | 3 |
Psychology is the science of the mind and behavior. The word "psychology" comes from the Greek word psyche meaning "breath, spirit, soul", and the Greek word logia meaning the study of something. According to Medilexicon's medical dictionary, psychology is "The profession (clinical psychology), scholarly discipline (academic psychology), and science (research psychology) concerned with the behavior of humans and animals, and related mental and physiologic processes." Although psychology may also include the study of the mind and behavior of animals, in this article psychology refers mainly to humans. How do psychologists study the mind?
The mind is highly complex and enigmatic. Many wonder how psychologists can study such an intricate, seemingly abstract and extremely sophisticated thing. Even if scientists look inside the brain, as in an autopsy or during a surgical operation, all they see is gray matter (the brain). Thoughts, cognition, emotions, memories, dreams, perceptions, etc. cannot be seen physically, like a skin rash or heart defect.
Experts say that the approach to psychology is not that different to other sciences. As in other sciences, experiments are devised to confirm or disprove theories or expectations. For a physicist, the raw data during the experiments may be atoms, electrons, the application or withdrawal of heat, while for the psychologist human behavior is the raw data.
How many branches of psychology are there?
There are many branches of psychology; how you split them up will usually depend on which part of the world you are, even which university or institution you were trained at. The following are seen as the main branches of psychology:
* Clinical psychology - integrates science, theory, and practice in order to understand, predict and relieve maladjustment, disability, and discomfort. Clinical psychology also promotes adaption, adjustment and personal... | <urn:uuid:b1408e4c-aba5-41f9-861c-be291768211e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.studymode.com/essays/Psychology-And-Its-Branch-292905.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00191-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949284 | 368 | 3.46875 | 3 |
National Leaders Meet to Envision Future of Gulf Coast
Scientists from Italy, Egypt, Australia and across the U.S. gathered in New Orleans for a week long symposium to discuss the future of the Gulf Coast, build on existing research, and recommend specific scenarios for restoring coastal wetlands and increasing hurricane protection. On April 25, those scientists will meet with policy makers and key leaders from Gulf Coast states at Envisioning the Future of the Gulf Coast, an America’s WETLAND symposium sponsored by BP. Collectively, this group will shape a national call to action to protect coastal resources along the Gulf of Mexico, an area known as America’s Energy Coast.
“It is an honor for us to host this group of environmental experts from around the world who have come to New Orleans to help us determine the best methods of protecting the Gulf Coast communities and the wetlands essential for its future stability,” said Dr. Denise Reed, University of New Orleans, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. “We are bringing these scientists to ground zero for coastal land loss, to not only share with them some of our current approaches to coastal restoration and protection, but more importantly, to learn from their on-the-ground experiences in places as varied as Egypt, Australia, Italy, Alaska and California. Together we hope to develop approaches to coastal protection and restoration that can be applied locally and as well as globally.”
In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the issue of Louisiana’s coastal land loss was brought to the national stage. Louisiana is the home to almost 6,000 sq mi of coastal wetlands, but they are being lost at an alarming rate—a football field of land disappears every 30 minutes. This vanishing landscape, known as America’s WETLAND, provides critical habitat for thousands of species and is nature’s first line of defense against hurricanes. It protects the people and the important energy infrastructure that clings to Louisiana’s tattered coast.
“The scars of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will be long felt,” said King Milling, president of the America’s WETLAND Foundation. “As we rebuild our state, we must address the condition of our wetlands with the goal of making America’s WETLAND a model for coastal restoration.”
“The restoration and management of these coastal resources is one of the great challenges facing the science and engineering communities, and we must ensure they work together to create a comprehensive effort to restore and sustain this ‘working coast,’” said Sidney Coffee, executive assistant to Governor Blanco for Coastal Activities. “We know that others across the country and around the world have tackled similar coastal management issues, and our goal for this symposium is to assemble those experts, and facilitate a discussion about the work we have done, the problems we face and the findings of our own coastal scientists,” Coffee continued.
BP has joined with America’s WETLAND Foundation and has created the symposium in partnership with the states of Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Texas. “As an employer in the Gulf of Mexico and a company that values sustainable development, BP has joined with others to move this issue forward in the public arena,” said Ross Pillari, president of BP America, Inc. “The objectives of this symposium are to cultivate broad public understanding of the importance of these critical environmental, cultural and economic resources to the nation and to marshal a shared vision to take meaningful action to protect them over the long term.”
In August 2002, the state of Louisiana launched the America’s WETLAND: Campaign to Save Coastal Louisiana. The goal of the campaign was to raise public awareness that highlights the impact of Louisiana’s wetland loss and its effect towards the state, nation and world while gaining support for efforts to conserve and save coastal Louisiana. This ongoing national public education effort has helped elevate Louisiana's coastal land loss from a local or state issue to a national or international one. | <urn:uuid:6c169b64-87c3-499c-8cff-e9ba2ecd11c1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wqpmag.com/national-leaders-meet-envision-future-gulf-coast | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00080-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940501 | 832 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Posted December 05, 2012 by Kamal Nawash | 134 Comments
On December 1, 2012, Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi announced that Egypt's new constitution would be put to referendum on December 15. The previous report in this series reviewed Egypt's past constitutions and the events surrounding the establishment of the Constituent Assembly, and presented the articles of the draft constitution pertaining to the status of religion in Egypt.
The present report is a detailed review of the debate and controversy over each of these articles.
The Debate Regarding Article 1
Egypt - An "Egyptian Nation" Or "Part Of The Arab And Islamic Nation?"
In the 1971 constitution, Article 1 was phrased as follows: "The Arab Republic of Egypt is a state with a democratic system, based on citizenship, and the Egyptian people are a part of the Arab nation working toward achieving its comprehensive unity." This article was changed in the current draft constitution, and now reads: "The Arab Republic of Egypt is an independent sovereign state, united and indivisible, its system democratic. The Egyptian people are part of the Arab and Islamic nations, proud of belonging to the Nile Valley and Africa and of its Asian reach, a positive participant in human civilization."
This amendment is an intimation of the Islamization of the constitution. The proposal to change the wording to define the Egyptian people as part of the Islamic, and not merely the Arab, nation appears in an article written by Salafi Sheikh Yasser Burhami, one of the leaders and founders of the Al-Da'wa Al-Salafiyya movement. He wrote that this addition would "affirm the Egyptian people's belonging to both the Arab and the Islamic nation, which is enshrined in the hearts of all Egyptians since the Islamic conquest of Egypt and to this day..."
A dissenting opinion was heard in the public discourse, though not in the Constituent Assembly. In a series of articles published in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, columnist Taha 'Abd Al-'Alim called to define Egypt as an "Egyptian nation," not as Arab or Islamic: "Those who criticize the [notion] of upholding the national Egyptian identity are the ones who support Arab identity, pan-Arabism, and Arab unity... [and also] the ones who support Islamic identity, the Caliphate and Islamic unity, who would like [to restore] the Islamic Caliphate state... and those who support Westernization and globalization... In actuality, the Egyptian nation is an existing fact and a tangible reality, whereas... the call for Arab unity is a possible future enterprise... and the call for Islamic unity is a [utopian] Salafi enterprise striving to establish a global religious Caliphate state, which would subsume different and conflicting nationalities, languages, and interests."
"The Writing Of The Constitution"
Egypt - A "Civil State"?
The previous Egyptian constitutions did not define Egypt as a civil state. This amendment was the aspiration of liberal-secular circles and Copts, who view it as a guarantee that the Islamic shari'a will not be implemented, that religion will be separate from politics, and that religious minorities will enjoy equal rights. As early as August 2011, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) attempted to ensure that Egypt's definition as a civil state would be anchored in the constitution, as evident in the "Document of Constitutional Principles" written by Dr. 'Ali Al-Silmi, then-deputy prime minister for political affairs and democratization. However, the document aroused great public opposition and sparked violent demonstrations, and it was shelved when the government was disbanded and a new government, headed by Kamal Al-Ganzouri, was established. With the establishment of a Constituent Assembly with an Islamic majority, the hopes of the liberals that Egypt would be defined as a civil state were shattered.
It should be stressed that although most Islamic streams use the term "civil state" in order to appear liberal in Western eyes, they express reservations about including it in the constitution. The Salafis are adamantly against the addition of the word "civil" per se to the constitution, owing to its liberal-secularist connotations. The Al-Nour Party even threatened not to vote for the constitution in the referendum if this word were included, making it clear that it would accept the addition only with an accompanying explanation that the word was used to mean "non-military." The spokesman of the Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya party said that his party would not object to the word "civil" if the constitution explicitly explained that it is taken to mean "non-theocratic."
The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) adopted a middle-of-the-road solution with regard to the issue of the civil state. For several years, they have espoused the slogan "a civil state with an Islamic source of authority," which also appears in the platform of their political party. Consequently, they could not object to the use of the concept in the constitution, but they expressed their reservations, saying that it had gained a bad reputation in public opinion because it had come to denote the secularization of the state and a war against religion, and that the concept of "civil" does not appear in any other constitution in the world.
Al-Azhar opposed the use of the word "civil" in the constitution because it could be interpreted in a myriad of ways, and added that the meaning of the term as they understand it is already expressed in the constitution, so there is no need to include the explicit term. A spokesman for Al-Azhar's representatives in the Constituent Assembly explained that Al-Azhar considers a civil state to mean "a national, constitutional, democratic, and modern state, which guarantees the Islamic shari'a and whose source of authority is Al-Azhar." It was reported in the Egyptian media that the Sheikh of Al-Azhar had reached a compromise with the Salafis, according to which the expression "Egypt as a civil state" would not appear in the constitution and the Salafis, in return, would abandon their demand to amend Article 2.
The Controversy Over Article 2
Article 2 of the constitution, which is considered the main article to define the status of religion in Egypt, remains as it was in the previous constitution: "Islam is the state religion [of Egypt] and Arabic is the official language. The principles of Islamic shari'a are the main source of legislation." The debate with regard to this article rocked the Constituent Assembly, and the decision to leave it unchanged, without deletion of the word "principles," as the Salafis had demanded, was the result of MB efforts to allay the fears of many - in Egypt and in the West - that the MB rule in Egypt would lead to the Islamization of the country. The controversy sharpened the differences between the liberal-secular and the Islamic streams in Egypt, and also among the different Islamic streams, with regard to the relation between religion and state.
The Minority Opinion: Abolish Article 2
Only a few called to abolish Article 2 altogether, and this demand did not come to the fore in the Constituent Assembly. The Copts and the liberals in the assembly preferred to concentrate their efforts on struggles more likely to succeed, such as the struggle to leave the article as it is and prevent it from being amended according to the wishes of the Islamic majority in the assembly.
However, calls to abolish the article were heard in the Egyptian media. Egyptian intellectual 'Abd Al-Mu'ti Higazi, for example, wrote: "The constitution [should] recognize only common rights, which pertain equally to all citizens... Article is not a divine revelation, but bida' [a prohibited innovation that deviates from religious precepts], which is foreign to us and was not recognized in any of our constitutions, except for the patchwork constitution that we inherited from the days of Mubarak and Sadat... When [Islamic factions] say that the shari'a is the main source for legislation, they are bringing together two parallel threads that could never meet, for the shari'a pertains to Muslims alone, whereas legislation is the basic right of all Egyptians, since the people is the source of all authorities. How can an Egyptian who is not Muslim accept this article? In fact, how can any enlightened Egyptian [accept it], be he Muslim or non-Muslim?..."
The coordinator of the Egyptians Against Religious Discrimination organization, Muhammad Mounir Mugahid, likewise called to abolish Article 2, as it appeared in the 1971 constitution, because it "provides constitutional sanction for discriminating between citizens on a religious basis." He proposed an alternative phrasing: "Egyptian society is founded upon citizen rights, upon honoring pluralism and dissimilarity, and upon equality between citizens. Arabic is the official language of the state and Islam is the religion of the majority of its people. The intentions of Islam stand alongside the values endorsed by humanity [at large]. The conventions on human rights are a main source of legislation..."
The Salafi Approach: Amending Article 2 To Mandate Full Implementation Of Shari'a Law, Including Koranic Punishments
The Salafi parties Al-Asala and Al-Nour, as well as the Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya movement, advocate the full and literal implementation of the laws of the Islamic shari'a, including Koranic punishments such as cutting off the hands of thieves, stoning adulterers, and flogging alcohol imbibers - a radical approach that contravenes the international conventions on human and citizen rights. The proponents of this approach made two main suggestions for amending Article 2:
The first suggestion, typical of Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya and Al-Asala, is to omit the word "principles" from the article, so that it reads: "The Islamic Sharia [rather than the principles of the Islamic shari'a] is the main source of legislation." Al-Asala chairman Dr. 'Adel Al-'Afifi even ruled that leaving the word "principles" in place would be an act of heresy. He wrote in the Egyptian Islamic daily Al-Misriyyoun: "Is it permissible to vote for a constitution that makes the shari'a only a main source of legislation - which means that there can be other sources of legislation alongside Allah's shari'a, with equal weight? Is it conceivable that some of the directives of the shari'a will be discarded, and replaced with other directives, anchored in man-made laws? Can we cheat in implementing the shari'a by adding the word 'principles'...? There is no disagreement among religious scholars that whoever adopts another legislator in addition to Allah the Almighty and [grants him the authority] to judge, alongside the shari'a of Allah the Almighty, is an infidel..."
The second Salafi suggestion, promoted by the Al-Nour party, was to replace the word "principles" with the word "directives," so that the article reads: "The directives [emphasis ours] of the Islamic Sharia [rather than the principles of the Islamic shari'a] are the main source of legislation." This means that not only the general spirit or the general principles of the shari'a will be respected, but that all of its directives will be implemented. Al-Nour party spokesman, Yusri Hammad, explained: "The Islamic shari'a includes the absolute principles and the shari'a directives pertaining to all public affairs and all aspects of life, without neglecting even the smallest detail, from the definition of the tenets of the Islamic faith and the essence of belief and worship, to laws pertaining to all aspects of life - from laws on [issues of] family, divorce, marriage, custody, childrearing and inheritance, to laws on governance, justice, shura and the handling of state affairs, and also laws on commerce, buying and selling, possession, and maintaining and developing capital. Moreover, [the shari'a] regulates the state's relations with other states - what is called international relations - and the rules of war and peace according to Islam. It also regulates the relations among the people within the state.
"Then there is the [shar'ic] penal code, which comes to protect society from misconduct by [some people], which undermines these [religious] principles... The punishment for stealing applies to the well-fed who intimidated simple folk who work hard all day to earn a few pennies to feed their families. The punishment for robbery applies to someone who took up a weapon... to rob peaceful passersby, mug women, or kill children in a peace-loving society that seeks security. The punishment for adultery applies to someone who seduces a young girl who could be your daughter or sister. The [shar'ic punishments] are a fence protecting all those living on Egyptian soil, and are not used against honorable and peaceful people who respect the public's safety, property and honor..."
The Middle Way: Leaving Article 2 Unchanged
This approach, which was insistently advocated by the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Dr. Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, was the most common and dominant of the three. Al-Tayyeb explained his approach in a press conference: "[Article 2, in its existing form], is a message to the Egyptian legislator that he must base the Egyptian laws, in all branches of legislation, upon the laws of the Islamic shari'a and upon the familiar shar'ic schools of thought, or else base them upon the international traditions of legislation, as long as the latter do not contravene the shari'a and serve the public interest. The Supreme Constitutional Court is the only body authorized to assess whether laws are in keeping with the constitution and to abolish any legal clause that contravenes the Islamic shari'a..."
This wasati (middle way) approach aims to maintain the status quo and the delicate balance between the polarized sectors of Egyptian society, namely between those who call to abolish Article 2 altogether and the Salafis who wish to anchor the codification of the shari'a in the constitution. This compromise was endorsed not only by Al-Azhar but also by the Coptic Church and by the majority of liberal-secularists, who recognized the unlikelihood of abolishing the article altogether and preferred the option of leaving it as it is to the option of having it rephrased in more extremist terms. Among those who wished to leave the article unchanged was also the MB, on the grounds that changing it could lead to fitna (civil war) and that the controversy over it could tear the Constituent Assembly apart. In its present role as the ruling force in Egypt, the MB also preferred to leave Article 2 intact in order to calm the situation in the country and allay concerns worldwide regarding the possible Islamization of Egypt under its rule.
This approach was expressed in an article by Egyptian intellectual Fahmi Huweidi, who belongs to the wasati stream. He wrote: "[In drafting its new constitution, post-revolutionary Tunisia] made do with establishing Islam as the state religion, and steered clear of the question of the shari'a. The head of the Al-Nahda movement, Sheikh Rashed Al-Ghanoushi, explained that this phrasing was sufficient indication of the state's identity and religious affiliation. He added that the [Al-Nahda] movement sensed that the issue of the shari'a was a delicate one with [various Tunisian] elites, and therefore decided not to mention it [in the constitution], in order to avoid controversy and maintain national unity.
"Al-Ghanoushi was reasonable and responsible in taking this political [decision]. He read the reality well, and gave priority to the unity of the homeland. In contrast, our brothers [in Egypt] who insist on removing the word 'principles' [from Article 2] and replacing it with the word 'directives' [namely the Salafis] are thinking like preachers who are living in the past and have lost touch with reality and with the homeland. The difference between the two approaches is the difference between open-mindedness and intelligence [on the one hand] and blind narrow-mindedness [on the other]. Practically speaking, the principles [of shari'a], in the sense of its overarching intentions, are more important than its 'directives,' in the sense of its details... Closed-minded secularism is no different from its equivalent in the Islamic camp... There is no difference between one who insists on imposing the directives of the shari'a and one who insists on erasing [Egypt's] Islamic identity."
The MB, which advocated leaving Article 2 unchanged, and opposed the November 2012 protests held by Salafis in demand to implement the shari'a, was accused by many of abandoning the shari'a. The movement defended its stance in a communiqué posted on its official website: "For us, the shari'a is a complete way of life... The penal code of the shari'a is just and precise, for punishments are [only] applied after all the conditions for proving [the perpetrator's guilt] are met. [However,] society must first of all be prepared for understanding and accepting the shari'a, and must be led gradually to its practical implementation. [We] must [first] implement the general intentions [of the shari'a], which society is in need of, [by] observing religion and protecting life, reason, capital and property, so as to ensure the material and mental security of society."
The communiqué clarifies the MB's understanding of the expression 'principles of the shari'a': "The shari'a is based on a system of fundamental principles that are unique to it, in contrast to all man-made laws: leniency rather than severity; removing [the threat of] injustice and harm from individuals and society; placing the public good above the good of the individual and the avoidance of harm over the making of profit; a balance between the rights of the individual and of society; and other well-known shar'ic principles. Basing the laws [of the state on these principles] guarantees the security, welfare, and stability of society... The Islamic shari'a is the most important issue we deal with and aim to inculcate in society. Our brothers sacrificed their lives and suffered in jail and detention for many decades for the sake of this [goal], so we cannot conceivably give up the demand for this glorious shari'a... The MB always strove to grant the shari'a its rightful status in the constitution, so as to enable parliament to codify the laws of the Islamic shari'a, with Allah's help..."
Woman carrying a placard saying: "The Shari'a Is Our Constitution"
Article 219: An Opening For The Implementation Of Shari'a
Article 219 was added to the constitution as a clarification of Article 2 in order to satisfy the Salafis. It states: "[The expression] 'principles of Islamic shari'a' refers to the general methods of juridical argumentation, to fundamental juridical rules and principles, and to the [written] sources recognized by the Sunni juridical schools." The purpose of this article is to avoid narrow interpretations of Article 2, such as the liberal interpretation, according to which the principles of shari'a are synonymous with universal principles of freedom, justice, and equality, or the interpretation given to it by the Supreme Constitutional Court in 1996, according to which future (but not existing) legislation must conform only to the parts of shari'a whose validity is absolute and that are not disputed among different schools in Islam. Article 219, in contrast, gives Article 2 a broader reading, which would enable the implementation of a larger part of the shari'a and requiring legislation to conform to the principles of Sunni law - although it is unclear how broad the interpretation will actually be. The MB clarified that the Article 219 refers to "everything stated in the Koran and proper Sunna" and "the foundations stemming from all the methods of juridical argumentation that are undisputed and fulfill the intentions of the shari'a," and that the expression "sources" refers to "the Koran, Sunna, ijma', and qiyas."
Article 219 is meant to enable the MB to counter the Salafi claim that it forewent the implementation of the shari'a by objecting to amending Article 2, since Article 219 opens the door to the codification of the shari'a. Out of consideration for liberal circles, this article was placed toward the end of the constitution, and not immediately following Article 2, in order to indicate that it is of lesser importance. Therefore, it is still unclear how this article will influence legislation in practice.
The addition of this article was acceptable to the Al-Nour party, which is represented in the Constituent Assembly, but it did not satisfy all the Salafis. Thousands took to Al-Tahrir Square in protests organized by Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya and the Salafi Front on three Fridays in November 2012, protesting against Article 2 and demanding to implement the shari'a.
Article 219 was also criticized by liberals, Copts and Shi'ites, who see it as an opening for discrimination against all those who are not Sunni Muslims. For example, recently elected Coptic Patriarch Tawadros II said that, while he accepted Article 2, Article 219 is "a catastrophe that transforms Egypt from a civil state to the complete opposite." Dr. Khaled Fahmi, head of the History Department at the American University in Cairo, wrote on his Facebook page that Article 219 discriminates against the Shi'ite school of Islam and therefore violates the rights of Egypt's Shi'ite citizens.
Muhammad Al-Sayyed Salim, a political science lecturer at the University of Cairo, wrote in Al-Ahram: "It is unclear why the two articles [2 and 219] were not placed together... Was the idea to hide Article 219 by putting it at the end? We know that there is deep controversy among religious scholars of the various Sunni streams and schools of thought... regarding those fundamental juridical principles and sources [mentioned in Article 219], especially when it comes to political matters, chief among them the system of government. Can we [really] know what the 'fundamental juridical rules and principles' and the 'general methods of juridical argumentation' [say] about [the issues of] shura or the status of women and non-Muslims in the political sphere or about the international relations of an Islamic state? There are deep disagreements between [different] juridical schools of thought about these issues, and deciding [issues] based on controversial [opinions] opens the door to interpretations by [Al-Azhar's] Supreme Council of Clerics [a body disbanded by Gamal 'Abd Al-Nasser in the 1960s and reestablished after the 2011 revolution], establishing them as the rulers of society, like the Rule of the Jurisprudent [in Iran]..."
It must be noted that Article 222 of the draft constitution states that laws legislated in the past will stay in effect, but can be amended to conform to the new constitution. This means that the Islamic camp may demand the revision of existing laws in accordance with Article 219.
Article 3: Religious Tolerance Only Towards Members Of The Monotheistic Faiths
Article 3 states: "The canon principles of Egyptian Christians and Jews are the main source of legislation for their personal status laws, their religious affairs, and the selection of their spiritual leaders." Most Salafi streams objected to the addition of this article, on grounds that the Islamic shari'a guarantees minority rights anyway, and therefore, since the shari'a is defined as the main source of legislation, there is no need for a separate clause ensuring their rights. Some even objected to the mention of the word "Jews" in the constitution, claiming it might lead to an increase in the number of Jews in Egypt and to espionage.
The MB and Al-Azhar, on the other hand, were willing to accept the addition, provided that it would apply only to monotheistic religions and not to non-Muslims in general, so as to exclude groups they consider deviant, such as the Baha'is, Buddhists, Qadianis, and Quranists. This article was meant to create the impression of tolerance and to appease Copts who claim that Article 2 could serve as a basis for their discrimination.
The Coptic Church indeed accepted the article, but within the Coptic community in Egypt there were those who objected to it, on the grounds that it is a trap meant to get Copts to agree to Article 2 while enabling the Muslims to boast of their tolerance towards the Copts. They added that Article 3 would not really end the suffering of Copts so long as there was no equality in rights and duties among all citizens, due to the status of Islam as the state religion and of the shari'a as the primary source of legislation. Some in the Coptic community also explained that they did not want separate cultural rights, but only to be equal citizens and equal in the eyes of the law. Another argument was that Church laws are even more restrictive than Islamic law, especially in the domains of inheritance, as well as the law banning divorce, except in cases of adultery.
Article 4: The Status Of Al-Azhar
Article 4 defines Al-Azhar as "an encompassing independent Islamic institution, with exclusive autonomy over its own affairs, responsible for preaching Islam, [and teaching] theology and the Arabic language in Egypt and the world. Al-Azhar Senior Scholars are to be consulted in matters pertaining to Islamic law. The post of Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh is independent and [he] cannot be dismissed. The method of appointing the Grand Sheikh from among members of the [Supreme Council of Clerics] is to be determined by law. The State shall ensure sufficient funds for Al-Azhar to achieve its objectives. All of the above is subject to law regulations."
This article reflects the consensus regarding Al-Azhar's status in Egypt, and aims to establish that Al-Azhar is no longer dependent on the regime and that its rulings shall no longer be influenced by political considerations, after previous regimes used it to grant religious sanction to their policies. The article also reflects the considerable influence of the MB on the constitution's language, since a similar suggestion to reestablish the Supreme Council of Clerics, select the Sheikh of Al-Azhar from among the members of this body, and consult it on matters of Islamic shari'a appeared in the MB party's platform.
This article also reflects an attempt to find common ground that would please both the Salafis and those with more liberal leanings. At a certain point, the Salafis agreed with the Sheikh of Al-Azhar that they would remove their objection to the expression "principles of shari'a" in Article 2, provided that Al-Azhar (rather that the Supreme Constitutional Court) would be granted the sole authority to interpret "the principles of shari'a." However, this demand sparked criticism among elements demanding the separation of religion and state, since it means vesting a religious body with authority to influence legislation. This criticism stems from their fear of Egypt becoming a religious state, and the fear of a future Salafi takeover of Al-Azhar and the subsequent radical Islamist interpretation of "the principles of shari'a."
Tension between Al-Azhar and the Salafis peaked when the Sheikh of Al-Azhar insisted that Article 2 remain as it was, i.e., without an addition granting Al-Azhar the sole authority to interpret "the principles of shari'a." The Salafi parties - Al-Nour, Al-Asala, and the party of Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya - asked to reopen discussion on Article 2, and called on the Sheikh of Al-Azhar to resign, claiming that he had backed down from what had been previously agreed in the Constituent Assembly and that he was undermining their efforts to defend the shari'a. Ultimately, Al-Azhar was defined as a body that "must be consulted on matters of Islamic shari'a," meaning that Al-Azhar's opinion should be sought in such matters, but would not be binding. Article 175 stipulates that the Supreme Constitutional Court has sole authority to interpret laws and determine whether they conform to the constitution.
Article 5: Sovereignty Of The People Or Sovereignty Of God
Article 5 determines that "sovereignty is for the people; it is they who exercise and protect it, and safeguard national unity, and they are the source of authority, in the manner specified in the constitution." This article is identical to Article 3 in the previous constitution, despite the Salafi pressure to replace "sovereignty is for the people" with "sovereignty is for God." Dr. Younis Makhyoun, an official in the Salafi Al-Nour party and its representative in the Constituent Assembly, explained the benefit of the Salafi demand, as he saw it: "The idea of the sovereignty of Allah prevents the sovereignty of humans [in the name of the religion]. [This way] no one can speak for Allah or claim he is acting on His behalf..." Makhyoun added that the amendment his party proposed was meant to prevent a religious theocracy ruled by a person or a body seeking to govern by divine decree.
Most members of the Constituent Assembly, including from the MB, objected to this proposal, which also sparked criticism among the public. For example, columnist Dr. Osama Al-Ghazali Harb wrote: "There is no room for such a proposal. Sovereignty is a political and legal term... relating to the supreme independent rule of the state, meaning a specific area and a specific people. This rule is not in the hands of a single ruler or tyrant, or a minority with a monopoly, [so as to] strengthen the spirit of democracy and defend society from the evils of dictatorship and tyranny.
"The concept of 'sovereignty' bears no relation to religion. Moreover, forcefully inserting God's name into the concept [of sovereignty] is a mistake that must not be made, just as the term 'sovereignty' does not appear in the Koran. The most important and logical reason for this is that relations between man and Allah are much wider, deeper, and more lofty than those between ruler and subjects. Relations between the creator and his creations transcend the affinity to a particular country..."
The Controversy Over Article 6
Egypt - A "Democratic State" Or A "Shura State"?
The first part of Article 6 determines that "the political system is based on the principles of democracy and shura; citizenship, under which all citizens are equal in rights and duties; multi-party pluralism; peaceful transfer of power; separation of powers and the balance between them; the rule of law, and respect for human rights and freedoms - all as elaborated in the constitution."
The language of this article reflects an attempt to please the Salafis, who pressed for avoiding the use of the term "democratic regime" and for replacing it with the term shura (an Islamic principle requiring the ruler to consult with authoritative advisors, and which, according to some Muslims, proves that the modern concept of parliament comes from Islam). At the same time, this language aims to please the liberals, who objected to the reference to shura. The inclusion of both terms, suggested by the MB, represents a compromise between the Salafi and liberal approaches. The legal advisor for the MB party, Dr. Ahmed Abu Baraka, said that "shura means democracy... and there is no reason to avoid adding the term because it does not detract from the meaning of democracy in any way or from the principles of the people's sovereignty and the rule of law."
In the eyes of the Salafis, the addition of "shura" alongside "democracy" distinguishes Egyptian democracy, which conforms to Muslim traditions, from permissive Western-style democracy. The Al-Nour party spokesman clarified that shura is "an Islamic synonym for the Western word 'democracy.' [The latter term] poses many dangers to Egypt, since, in its Western sense, it means the absolute sovereignty of the majority's will, including... laxness regarding the tenets of the faith and moral values, which has led to the legalization of gay marriage in Western countries, [for example]. Can we accept that in Egypt? The democracy we want involves freedoms and shura, as long as they do not contravene a divine text..."
The addition of the term shura sparked concern in secular and liberal circles. Former People's Assembly member 'Omar Al-Hamzawi, who withdrew from the Constituent Assembly in protest over its Islamic majority, wrote: "Democracy does not stand in contradiction to [the notion of] shura in terms of participation, but rather subsumes it as a basic component and addresses meanings and mechanisms larger than it. I see no justification for the phrasing proposed [by the Al-Nour party]. We can make do with the term "democratic," with [the addition] of "civil," meaning equal rights without discrimination and transfer of power among elected citizens who manage public affairs..."
And indeed, the rest of Article 6 comes to clarify that the inclusion of the term shura does not imply theocratic rule, but rather a rule that leans on the principle of citizenship - meaning equal rights and duties among citizens without discrimination on the basis of religion, as well as a rule based on party pluralism, the separation of the powers, the rule of law, respecting human rights, and peaceful transfer of power.
Revoking The Ban On Establishing Religious Parties
The second part of Article 6 determines that "no political party shall be formed that discriminates on the basis of gender, origin or religion." This clause replaces an amendment made by Mubarak to Article 5 of the 1971 constitution, which used much stronger language, prohibiting any political activity or parties based on religion, on a religious source of authority, or on discrimination.
The Al-Nour party submitted a request to the Constituent Assembly to remove the ban on establishing religious parties, claiming that it contravened Article 2 of the constitution. The MB party supported Al-Nour's request, claiming that Mubarak had added the prohibition solely to prevent the MB itself from establishing a party. On the other hand, the head of the left wing Al-Tagammu' party, Dr. Rif'at Sa'id, objected to canceling the ban on establishing religious parties, on the grounds that no party can claim that its platform represents Islam, even if it defines itself as having an Islamic source of authority, since the various parties have different views of Islam. He warned that removing the ban could open a Pandora's box of sectarianism in Egypt.
Islamists in the Constituent Assembly
Article 10: Women's Status
Article 10, pertaining to women's status, states: "The family is the basis of the society and is founded on religion, morality, and patriotism. The State is keen to preserve the genuine character of the Egyptian family, its cohesion and stability, and to protect its moral values, all as regulated by law. The State shall ensure maternal and child health services free of charge, and enable the reconciliation between a woman's duties to her family and to her work. The State shall provide special care and protection to female breadwinners, divorced women, and widows."
An earlier version of this clause mentioned the state's obligation to take all steps to establish gender equality in politics, culture, the economy, society, and other areas, without violating Islamic shari'a. However, despite being included in the previous constitution, this phrasing sparked outrage among women's rights and human rights activists. They claimed these limitations could increase gender discrimination in Egypt, since they might lead, for example, to lowering the marriage age for girls, separating boys and girls in school, forcing female students to wear head scarves, permitting female circumcision, and forbidding women to run for president. The Salafis, for their part, were unwilling to include an article on gender equality without the caveat regarding conformity with the principles of shari'a. This eventually led to the elimination of this clause from the third draft of the constitution altogether. It should be mentioned that Article 33 states that citizens are equal in the eyes of the law without discrimination (though, unlike the previous constitution, it does not explicitly mention gender discrimination). In addition, Article 73 outlaws the "sex trade." However, the article from the 1971 constitution ensuring a minimal representation of women in parliament was removed.
"National Front for Egyptian Women: The women of Egypt call for fair treatment in the constitution."
In an article in the independent Egyptian daily Al-Shurouq, women's rights activist 'Izza Kamel wrote that the disappointing language of the article on women's status does not necessarily stem from the Islamic character of the Constituent Assembly, but rather from the patriarchal character of Egyptian society as a whole: "Patriarchal thought still controls [all of] us and the mentality of most members of the [Constituent] Assembly, which, in turn, besieges the woman with legal, social and religious restrictions, and pushes her to the margins of society. This patriarchal thought is not related to the fundamentalists' recent rise to power; it has been ongoing for centuries… Breaking free of the cycle of backwardness in which our Egyptian and Arab society is stuck - which marginalizes women and excludes them, and violates their most fundamental rights as citizens and human being - can only be achieved by striking at the foundations of the patriarchal system, which is not confined to the family, but is a phenomenon that applies to society as a whole: the family, the tribe, and the religious, cultural, societal and political state institutions."
It should be mentioned that Salafi members of the Constituent Assembly wanted the constitution to specify that not only women's freedoms but most freedoms must conform to the Islamic shari'a, including the freedoms of expression, congregation, and the press, and demanded not to define them as absolute freedoms. This demand was not met in full, but Article 81 determines that "rights and freedoms shall be practiced in a manner not conflicting with the principles pertaining to State and society included in Part I of this Constitution," which could be interpreted to mean that these freedoms must conform to the principles of Islamic shari'a as determined by Article 2.
Article 43: Restricting Freedom Of Worship
Article 43 states: "Freedom of belief is an inviolable right, and the state shall guarantee the freedom to practice religious rites and to establish places of worship for the divine religions." This article, like its equivalent in the previous constitution (Article 46), guarantees freedom of belief. However, the demand of human rights groups to specify that freedom of belief is "absolute" - which would include the freedom to convert from one religion to the other, as well as the freedom to practice non-monotheistic religions - was rejected. Yasser Burhami, one of the founders of the Al-Da'wa Al-Salafiyya movement, for example, explained that "absolute freedom of belief... includes devil and idol worship and heresy [ridha] against Islam, which would undoubtedly place society in grave danger."
Unlike the article dealing with freedom of belief and worship in the previous constitution, this one restricts "the freedom to practice religious rites" to members of the "divine" (i.e. monotheistic) faiths. Former People's Assembly member 'Omar Al-Hamzawi criticized this article: "Freedom of belief is severely restricted in the second sentence [of the article]... since freedom of belief is organically tied to the freedom to practice religious rites, which in turn involves the freedom to establish houses of worship, which must not be restricted in a democratic constitution to members of monotheistic faiths while excluding members of [other] religions..."
Similarly, Egyptian author 'Alaa Al-Aswany wrote: "What if a country with a Buddhist or Hindu majority decided to behave the same way [towards Muslims]? What if an Egyptian living in China or India, whether a Muslim or Copt, wished to pray but was arrested by the authorities and told that [the state] did not recognize Islam and Christianity, just as Egypt refuses to recognize Buddhism or Hinduism? A state cannot be considered civilized so long as it does not permit its citizens unrestricted freedom of worship."
Islamists hijack the constitutional article on rights and freedoms.
Article 44: Ban On Insulting The Prophets
Article 44 states that "insult or abuse of all religious messengers and prophets shall be prohibited, even if implicit." It was the result of a proposal by the Al-Azhar representatives in the Constituent Assembly to add an article that prohibits insulting the divine essence and depicting the Prophets, caliphs, and Companions of the Prophet Muhammad. This would mean not only a ban on cartoons of the Prophet, etc., but also on producing movies (including respectful ones) in which actors portray the Prophet, for example. This proposal received the support of the Salafis, who saw it as a way to restrict Shi'ite worship in Egypt, since Shi'ite rituals involve worshippers cursing the Companions of the Prophet. Shi'ites in the country indeed opposed the proposal, fearing it would be used to marginalize them and prevent them from establishing husseiniyahs (Shi'ite houses of worship).
The MB also supported Al-Azhar's proposal. MB General Guide office member 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Barr, who is on the Constituent Assembly, stated that Article 44 was intended to "first, defend the people's [understanding of] the religious tenets from confusion, and to protect society from the [religious] flare ups that occur from time to time; and second, [to address the problem of] the Shi'ites, who often insult the Companions of the Prophet and the Mothers of the Believers, who are revered by the Sunnis, which can cause fitna..."
Liberal elements, on the other hand, expressed reservations about the proposal. Former People's Assembly member 'Omar Al-Hamzawi wrote: "The challenge that the law will have to [deal with] is how to practically implement the ban on insulting religions without restricting freedom of expression, thought and creation." Al-Azhar's proposal also sparked criticism among the Copt minority in Egypt, since it includes a ban on the depiction of Jesus, whom Islam considers a prophet (while the Coptic faith does not forbid depicting Jesus). Due to this criticism, the language ultimately adopted was more moderate compared to Al-Azhar's initial proposal, and does not mention insulting the divine essence or the Companions of the Prophet.
* L. Azuri is a research fellow at MEMRI.Endnotes:
See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No.904, An Examination Of Egypt's Draft Constitution Part I: Religion And State - The Most Islamic Constitution In Egypt's History, December 3, 2012.
Translation: Egyptindependent.com, December 2, 2012.
Al-Ahram (Egypt), June 30, 2012; July 7, 2012; July 14, 2012.
Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), April 1, 2012.
See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 762, Egyptian Deputy PM's Document of Constitutional Principles: An Attempt to Bolster Military Supremacy, Curb Islamists' Influence on Constitution, November 16, 2011.
Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), July 2, 2012.
Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), July 1, 2012.
See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 753, Egypt's Islamic Camp, Once Suppressed by Regime, Now Taking Part in Shaping New Egypt - Part II: Muslim Brotherhood Prepares for Parliamentary, Presidential Elections, October 25, 2011.
Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), July 2, 2012.
Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), July 11, 2012.
Al-Ahram (Egypt), June 29, 2012.
Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), July 6, 2012.
Al-Ahram (Egypt), July 17, 2012.
Al-Shurouq (Egypt), July 15, 2012.
Al-Misriyyoun (Egypt), July 8, 2012.
Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), July 8, 2012.
Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), August 7, 2012.
Al-Ahram (Egypt), July 15, 2012.
Ikhwanonline.com, July 7, 2012.
Al-Shurouq (Egypt), July 8, 2012.
Ikhwanonline.com, October 31, 2012.
Al-Watan (Egypt), November 9, 2012.
Ikhwanonline.com, October 31, 2012. "Sunna" refers to the traditions describing the life and sayings of the Prophet and his Companions; "ijma'" refers to agreed-upon practices and beliefs that have become rooted among Muslims; "qiyas" is logical inference based on the Koran or Sunna regarding matters that are not explicitly stated.
Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), November 10, 2012.
Al-Wafd (Egypt), November 20, 2012.
Al-Wafd (Egypt), December 3, 2012.
Al-Ahram (Egypt), December 4, 2012.
Translation: egyptindependent.com, December 2, 2012.
Hurryh.com, July 12, 2012.
Islammemo.cc, October 16, 2012.
Hurryh.com, July 12, 2012.
Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), November 14, 2012.
Ahewar.org, April 28, 2012.
Al-Tahrir (Egypt), October 28, 2012.
Al-Ahram (Egypt), July 27, 2012; Al-Misriyyoun (Egypt), August 18, 2012. Due to the Coptic ban on remarrying, there is a trend in Egypt of women who covert to Islam in order to get divorced, which often causes tension between Copts and Muslims. See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis Series Report No. 693, In Egypt, Muslims' Attacks on Copts Increase, June 2, 2011.
Translation: egyptindependent.com, December 2, 2012.
See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis Series Report No. 753, Egypt's Islamic Camp, Once Suppressed by Regime, Now Taking Part in Shaping New Egypt - Part II: Muslim Brotherhood Prepares for Parliamentary, Presidential Elections, October 25, 2011.
Islammemo.cc, July 23, 2012.
Roz Al-Yousef (Egypt), September 29, 2012; Al-Musawwar (Egypt), August 8, 2012.
Al-Badil (Egypt), July 12, 2012.
Islammemo.cc, July 23, 2012.
Translation: egyptindependent.com, December 2, 2012.
Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), July 12, 2012.
Al-Ahram (Egypt), July 18, 2012.
Translation: egyptindependent.com, December 2, 2012.
Alnourparty.org, July 14, 2012.
Al-Watan (Egypt), July 23, 2012.
Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), July 11, 2012.
Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), July 11, 2012.
Al-Watan (Egypt), July 16, 2012.
Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), July 16, 2012.
Al-Ahram (Egypt), July 29, 2012.
Coptstoday.com, April 5, 2012.
Translation: egyptindependent.com, December 2, 2012.
Al-Watan (Egypt), October 30, 2012. It should be mentioned that several representatives from the Salafi Al-Nour party in the Constituent Assembly suggested lowering the marriage age of girls in the constitution to nine. Assembly member Yasser Burhami, one of the founding heads of the Al-Da'wa Al-Salafiyya movement, claimed that "Islam did not set a [minimum] marriage age for girls. If a girl can perform a wife's duties, she can be married at nine or 10, as long as her marriage does not prevent her from completing her studies." Roz Al-Yousef (Egypt), September 22, 2012; Al-Quds Al-Arabi (London), September 26,
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- December 2005 | <urn:uuid:a7609423-bc07-4809-a64c-bbb6b7669d65> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.freemuslims.org/blog/?id=285 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00184-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953904 | 10,347 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Franklin Expedition and Arctic Exploration collection
70 cm of textual records. -- 23 photographs. -- 9 microfilm reels
These records were gathered together from a wide variety of sources by the Glenbow-Alberta Institute, which has had an ongoing interest in the Franklin Expedition and Arctic exploration. In 1968 Glenbow salvaged the contents of a cache on Dealy Island, near Melville Island, which had been discovered during petroleum seismic work in the area. The cache had been left by British naval officer, Sir Francis McClintock, during his 1851 search for the missing Sir John Franklin. Artifacts from the cache are now held by the Glenbow Museum. This collection, which consists of both original documents and copies of records held elsewhere, provides detailed information about searches for Franklin and Arctic exploration.
Scope and Content:
The collection consists of diaries, letters, memoirs, reports and other records created by these individuals involved in searches for the missing Franklin Expedition, as well as other explorers who were comtemporaries of Franklin: Sir Edward Belcher, George Brown, E.N. Kendall, W.H. Hooper, Sir Francis McClintock, Sir Erasmus Ommanney, Sir William Edward Parry, Robert Peary, John Rae, Sir John Richardson, Sir John Ross, Sir Edward Sabine, R.C. Scott, and the Canadian Department of National Defence. Also consists of Robert Hood's diaries of the 1819-1820 Franklin Expedition and photographs of original watercolours painted by Lt. Hood on this Expedition; Robert McVicar's letters; Jane Franklin's signature; and miscellaneous correspondence of Sir John Franklin. Includes Royal Geographical Society articles and documents about Franklin and the Arctic (1825-1928); and records related to the following Arctic visits: M'Clure's navigation of the Northwest Passage (1876); George Back's northern Canada overland expeditions letters (1833); J.A. Cook's whaler's log, San Francisco to Arctic (1905-1906); James W. Allan's manuscript of a whaling voyage (1893); Henry W. Fielden's Arctic voyage diary (1875-1876); O.C. Forsyth-Grant's Davis Strait whaler's log (1903); Surgeon R.H. Hilliard's diary and sketches of a voyage to the eastern Arctic and Greenland (1859); log of the HMS Herald's Bering Strait voyage (1848-1851); Knud Rasmussen's Fifth Thule Expedition letter (1922); and B Westropp's journal while on the Parry polar expedition (1824-1825).
Source of Acquisition:
Jane Franklin's signature was a gift of T.H.R. Hicks, 1977. The remainder of the original records were purchased, 1957-1974.
The material is in English.
Originals and Reproductions:
The originals of copied records are held by the Codrington Library, Mr. Clark, Michael Forsyth-Grant, National Library of Scotland, Dumfries Burgh Museum, Canadian Department of National Defence, Library and Archives Canada, Royal Geographical Society, R.G. Birch, University of Glasgow Library, National Library of Ireland, and the Public Records Office.
Access to some materials is restricted due to their fragile condition. Transcripts or photocopies are available for research use.
Inventory available. Please consult before requesting material.
View finding aid / scanned documents:
(M=manuscript; N&P=photos; R=sound recordings; S=slides; F=films)
M 39, M 141, M 245, M 256, M 388, M 523, M 885, M 925, M 1016, M 1041, M 1800, M 3297, M 3302, M 3447, M 4507, M 4721, M 4726, M 4727, M 4733, M 4843 file 15, M 4843 files 16-17, M 4843 file 89, M 4843 file 123, M 4843 file 128, M 4843 file 131, M 4843 file 162, M 4843 file 199, AB Franklin & Arctic - Allan, AB Franklin & Arctic - Hilliard, AB Franklin & Arctic - Hood, AB Franklin & Arctic - Hooper, AB Franklin & Arctic - McClintock, AC Franklin & Arctic - Royal, BN Franklin & Arctic - Forsyth, NA 132, NA 221, NA 1813, NA 4839 | <urn:uuid:01eac2d9-7439-4922-8366-467210867f01> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ww2.glenbow.org/search/archivesMainResults.aspx?XC=/search/archivesMainResults.aspx&TN=MAINCAT&AC=QBE_QUERY&RF=WebResults&DL=0&RL=0&NP=255&MF=WPEngMsg.ini&MR=5&QB0=AND&QF0=Main%20entry%2B%7C%2BTitle&QI0=Franklin%20Expedition%20and%20Arctic%20Exploration | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396455.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00040-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.873937 | 931 | 2.734375 | 3 |
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