text stringlengths 199 648k | id stringlengths 47 47 | dump stringclasses 1 value | url stringlengths 14 419 | file_path stringlengths 139 140 | language stringclasses 1 value | language_score float64 0.65 1 | token_count int64 50 235k | score float64 2.52 5.34 | int_score int64 3 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
410-Million-Year-Old Arachnid Brought 'Back to Life'
Though this isn't quite a scene from a monster movie, researchers from the University of Manchester and the Museum fur Naturkunde, Berlin, might have been playing God when they recreated a 410-million-year-old arachnid.
To do so, scientists used preserved fossils from the Natural History Museum in London to concoct a video that demonstrates the ancient creature's range of motion. From this along with comparisons to other arachnids, they also used an open source computer graphic program called Blender to create a video showing the animals walking.
"When it comes to early life on land, long before our ancestors came out of the sea, these early arachnids were top dog of the food chain," said author Dr. Russell Garwood, a palaeontologist in the University of Manchester's School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, in a news release. "They are now extinct, but from about 300 to 400 million years ago, seem to have been more widespread than spiders. Now we can use the tools of computer graphics to better understand and recreate how they might have moved -- all from thin slivers of rock, showing the joints in their legs."
Co-author Jason Dunlop, a curator at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, said: "These fossils -- from a rock called the Rhynie chert -- are unusually well-preserved. During my PhD I could build up a pretty good idea of their appearance in life. This new study has gone further and shows us how they probably walked. For me, what's really exciting here is that scientists themselves can make these animations now, without needing the technical wizardry -- and immense costs -- of a Jurassic Park-style film.
"When I started working on fossil arachnids we were happy if we could manage a sketch of what they used to look like; now we can view them running across our computer screens."
More information regarding the findings can be seen via the Journal of Paleontology. | <urn:uuid:c0690ccd-e4a3-4f8b-bc22-5509904b453c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/15915/20140709/410-million-year-old-arachnid-brought-back-to-life.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00167-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953128 | 436 | 3.703125 | 4 |
What does Cotton mean?
Cotton [cot-ton] as a boys' name. Plant name. May originally have been an occupational name from England, though the cotton plant, requiring a warm climate, was a minor source of industry in Britain. In America, great Massachusetts clergyman Cotton Mather's writings contributed to the Salem witch trials. He was named for his grandfather, early American clergyman John Cotton. Actor Joseph Cotten.
Cotton has 1 variant: Cotten.Creative forms:
(male) Caiton, Coton, ..
(female) Cotne, Cottonne, .. Middle name pairings:
Cotton Robert (C.R.), ..
How popular is Cotton?
Cotton is an uncommonly occurring given name for men but a very prominent surname for both adults and children (#1006 out of 150436, Top 1%). (2000 U.S. Census)
Shown below is the baby name popularity of Cotton for boys. Cotton has yet to be listed in the list thus far. (Top Baby Names, 2015)
Cotton is pronounced similarly to Keaton▲ and Keeton. Other recommended names are Bolton, Boston▲, Button, Cadon, Caidon, Cathan, Caxton, Caydon, Coleton, Collton, Colson, Colston, Colten▲, Colton▲, Conlon, Crofton, Dotson, Dottson, Eatton, Gorton, Horton, Hutton, Kolton▲, Litton, Lytton, Morton▼, Norton, Patton and Sutton▲. These names tend to be more frequently used than Cotton. | <urn:uuid:6bc6756d-5a35-4428-9827-5ca429762d6b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/Cotton | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00061-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907912 | 346 | 2.984375 | 3 |
How to vote for a write-in candidate
Writing in the name of the candidate for President/Governor or the name of the Vice President /Lieutenant Governor is sufficient to the cast of a vote for the joint office.
Candidates may give out or publish information containing a diagram and instructions, including how to spell the candidate’s name, for casting a write-in vote. Any abbreviation, misspelling, or minor variation in the form of the name of a candidate shall be disregarded in determining the validity of the write-in vote as long as the intended candidate can be determined. Writing the last name will constitute a valid vote, unless there is more than one candidate with the same last name.
To vote for a person whose name is not listed on the ballot, you must follow these instructions:
- Touch the box to the left of the word “WRITE-IN” in the contest for which you wish to write in a person’s name. A write-in QWERTY keyboard will appear, with a text box to display your write-in choice.
- Using the write-in QWERTY keyboard, enter the last name then the first name (or at least
the initial of the first name) of the person for whom you wish to vote, by touching the keyboard letters one at a time. The name you enter will appear in the text box display above the keyboard. To make a space between parts of the name (for example, between last and first name), use the space bar at the bottom of the keyboard. To make a correction, use the back key found at the upper right corner of the keyboard.
When you have entered the person's name, press the RECORD WRITE-IN button on the keyboard. Your write-in choice will be electronically recorded and return back to the ballot page.If you change your mind and no longer wish to cast a write-in vote, touch the red X next to the name of the write-in candidate. The red X will disappear, and you may make a new selection for that contest.
To cast a write-in vote on the audio ballot:
- A voter must select "WRITE-IN" by following the audio ballot's recorded instructions for using the keypad to make selections.
- The voter will hear instructions for entering a write-in candidate's name using the keypad. Letters are assigned to the numeric keys similar to a telephone.
- The voter will use the keypad to enter, change and confirm each letter as he or she enters a write-in candidate's name.
- After entering a write-in candidate's name, the voter needs to follow the audio ballot's instructions to continue voting the rest of the ballot.
- The voter can follow the audio ballot's recorded instructions for changing a vote, including a write-in vote, before casing his or her ballot if he or she chooses.
To cast a write-in vote on an absentee or provisional ballot:
- A voter must write the name of the write-in candidate on the designated write-in line under the contest title.
- The voter must completely fill in the oval to the left of the write-in candidate's name.
- In the case of an absentee ballot, the voter will need to contact their local board of elections for a new ballot if he or she changes his or her mind after writing a write-in candidate's name before casting the ballot.
- The voter will need to see the Provisional Ballot Judge for a new ballot if he or she changes his or her mind after writing a write-in candidate's name before casting the ballot. | <urn:uuid:2bcb4f4f-fd67-4282-b45b-3cfc82c2f109> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.elections.state.md.us/voting/write-in.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00151-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913397 | 754 | 2.71875 | 3 |
This strategy teaches students to use prediction as a comprehension aid when reading expository text. The ability to predict what a passage will be about is often based on prior knowledge. Tapping this background knowledge can effectively increase the students’ comprehension of the text to be read.
Prereading – Have the students predict the gist, or main point, of the text by scanning the page to get a feel for what it will be about. Record predictions about the topic on the board.
Prompts – What do you think this text is going to be about? What makes you think so? What do you think it is going to tell us about our topic? What makes you think so?
Reading – Have the students read the assigned text.
Prompts – Did you find evidence to support your prediction? What was it? Did you find evidence that doesn’t support your prediction? What was it? At this point, do you want to change your prediction? Why or why not?
Postreading – Have the students think about what they have read and make a final revision of the gist statement. Discuss.
Prompts – Do you want to make any changes about this topic? If yes, what changes and why? What have you learned from this reading?
After this strategy has been demonstrated a few times, the students should be able to respond without the prompts, thus internalizing the process for independent use.
Schuder, T., Clewell, S., & Jackson, N. (1989). "Getting the gist of expository text." Children’s comprehension of text. In K.D. Muth, (Ed.),Newark, Del.: International Reading Association, 1989. pp.224-243. | <urn:uuid:a3855cc4-4de2-4a49-90fc-531a9e382c30> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://fcit.usf.edu/FCAT8R/home/references/additional-reading-strategies/gist-strategy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397795.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00007-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9404 | 354 | 4.21875 | 4 |
If you’re not familiar with badging as a concept, you would be wise to visit the fantastic HASTAC community entitled “Badges for Lifelong Learning” for a primer and then further your understanding with information provided by Mozilla’s Open Badges; one of the pioneers in the fledgling badging field.
How can badges play an effective role inside an organization?
When an employee is able to demonstrate levels of knowledge, experience or acumen to others in the organization via badges, they are instantly gaining credibility with their peers. Employees might not otherwise know that someone has a certain intellect, however, badges can provide this and in return, a level of credibility is gained in the eyes of the knowledge seeker with the badge holder.
Badges can help bring awareness to other employees that knowledge, experience or acumen actually exists in the organization itself. For example, if an employee is seeking ‘Java’ skills, and the system has been set to display certain levels of competence through badging (and search is enabled) this brings an awareness to employees that was otherwise missing.
It’s rather obvious, but badges can also be thought of as motivational opportunities. If an employee is interested in a higher degree of credibility or wants to contribute to organizational awareness, employing badges could help push the employee to higher levels of skill, knowledge or other traits. If, for example, your goal is a higher degree of collaboration in the organization, perhaps you could establish participation-based badges in your system to help motivate employees to contribute more.
Some employees may want to utilize badges as a way in which to highlight how they have been recognized in the company. A ‘badge of recognition honour’ is not out of the question. For example, what if an employee has crossed the 5-year mark at your organization; couldn’t he or she display a 5-year badge on their home profile page to denote the significant achievement? There are many more to consider as well.
Career development itself is a badge, isn’t it? Let’s say, for example, an employee enters the organization as a Level 1 Engineer. Over the next four years, she progresses to become a Level 4 Engineer, whatever that means in terms of the job description. Each step of the journey could have a badge associated with it, and the employee can prominently display it on their home profile page as well.
In summary, I’m not tying academic credentials to badges inside the organization; rather, I’m linking the concepts of work-based knowledge, experience, recognition and career development as ways in which to enhance the employee experience.
I’m also not at the stage where external badges may find a home inside the organization.
But when badges are used inside the organization for internal only purposes, there could be fantastic results culturally, collaboratively and educationally throughout the digital walls. | <urn:uuid:7f28a60e-eb4c-421d-b4bf-79abe8df167c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.danpontefract.com/5-use-cases-for-badges-in-the-enterprise/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393146.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00182-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957761 | 597 | 2.65625 | 3 |
The Ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras is best known today for his mathematical theorem, which haunts the dreams of many geometry students, but for centuries he was also celebrated as the father of vegetarianism. A meatless diet was referred to as a “Pythagorean diet” for years, up until the modern vegetarian movement began in the mid-1800s.
While Pythagoras was an early proponent of a meatless diet, humans have been vegetarians since well before recorded history. Most anthropologists agree that early humans would have eaten a predominantly plant-based diet; after all, plants can’t run away. Additionally, our digestive systems resemble those of herbivores closer than carnivorous animals. Prehistoric man ate meat, of course, but plants formed the basis of his diet.
Pythagoras and his many followers practiced vegetarianism for several reasons, mainly due to religious and ethical objections. Pythagoras believed all living beings had souls. Animals were no exception, so meat and fish were banished from his table. Strangely enough, he also banished a vegetable that has a place of honor on most vegetarian menus today, the humble bean. His followers were forbidden to eat or even touch beans, because he thought beans and humans were created from the same material. Fava beans were especially bad, as they have hollow stems that could allow the souls of the dead to travel up from the soil into the growing beans.
While the edict against beans was lifted not long after Pythagoras’ death, his followers continued to eat a meatless diet. His principles influenced generations of academics and religious thinkers, and it was a group of these like-minded individuals who founded the Vegetarian Society in England in the mid-1800s. The virtues of temperance, abstinence and self-control were all tied to vegetarian ideals, while lust, drunkenness and general hooliganism all resulted from a diet too rich in meat products. Notable early vegetarians included Leo Tolstoy, George Bernard Shaw, Mahatma Gandhi and American Bronson Alcott, a Transcendentalist teacher, reformer and the father of “Little Women” author Louisa May Alcott.
It wasn’t until the 1960s that vegetarianism moved into mainstream American life and the movement’s growth picked up speed in the 1970s when a young graduate student named Francis Moore Lappe wrote a book called Diet for a Small Planet. In it, she advocated a meatless diet not for ethical or moral reasons, but because plant-based foods have much less impact on the environment than meat does. Today, many vegetarians refuse meat because of animal rights issues, or concerns over animal treatment, a principle first espoused in Peter Singer’s 1975 work “Animal Liberation.” | <urn:uuid:a904dbde-b4ec-49b2-a51f-017d70370d9d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.history.com/news/hungry-history/beans-and-greens-the-history-of-vegetarianism | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396538.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00036-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979359 | 575 | 3.5 | 4 |
Paper-making is a Chinese invention. It
spread slowly from China along the silk road and reached Europe
from the Muslim world.
Paper was not necessary for the invention of printing, but printing
would not have been a commercial success without paper. At the same
time the commercial success of printing meant an explosive expansion
of paper-making in Europe. European paper was made from recycled
linen clothes. Linen was made from the flax plant. There was a trade
in linen rags, which were soaked and beaten into a thick pulp. It
was then scooped up in a frame with a wire-mesh bottom, allowing
the water to run out but keeping a thin layer of linen fibres.
Most 15th-century paper is of a very high
quality, as is the paper used for the Gutenberg Bible. Later the
quality of paper declined - most disastrously in the 19th century
when paper-makers began using wood pulp.
The paper used in the Gutenberg Bible was
imported from Caselle in Piedmont, Northern Italy being one of the
most important centres for paper-making in the 15th century.
Watermark of an ox head. Larger
It can be identified because it has watermarks. About 70% of the paper has the watermark of an ox head, 20% show a bunch of grapes (in two versions); 10% show a walking ox.
Watermark of a bunch of grapes. Larger image.
Its size is known as royal folio, already
at that time a fairly standard size of paper, each sheet measuring
about 430 x 620 mm, before being folded.
On the paper and its distribution within
each gathering see Paul Schwenke, 'Die Gutenbergbibel', in: Johannes
Gutenbergs zweiundvierzigzeilige Bibel: Ergänzungsband zur Faksimile-Ausgabe
(Leipzig, 1923), and Paul Needham, 'The paper supply of the Gutenberg
Bible', The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America,
79 (1985), 303-74.
The history of paper-making
The museum in the old paper mill in Basel
has a short
virtual tour as does the Italian paper museum, which has some
information on the important early
On the history of paper-making, especially
in England, see
The British Association of Paper Historians. See also The American Museum of Paper Making. | <urn:uuid:6a51a6d0-1be3-409a-821a-e65218522596> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bl.uk/treasures/gutenberg/paper.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397562.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00049-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912987 | 521 | 3.703125 | 4 |
Wetwood on cottonwood tree.
Photo: U of MN Plant Disease Clinic
Wetwood is a non-decaying, bacterial disease occurring in trunks, roots, and branches of many tree species, particularly elms. In severe cases, wetwood may disrupt the vascular flow causing branch dieback. However, this is rare and wetwood is mainly considered a cosmetic problem of the bark.
Bacteria associated with wetwood are commonly found in soil and enter through wounds. The presence of bacteria causes discoloration of the inner wood as well as increased moisture content, alkalinity, and gas pressure. Some of these changes give the infected wood resistance to wood decay organisms, but do not seem to change the strength of the infected wood.
During warm weather, bacterial metabolic activity increases, resulting in increased gas pressure which forces a liquid out of cracks, wounds, or branch crotches. The most noticeable symptom of bacterial wetwood is this liquid, called slime flux, which exudes from openings in the tree bark. Slime flux is tan or colorless, turns dark on exposure to air, and may be foamy or have an odor. As it flows down the trunk it dries a white-gray color, which is often seen as light discolored strips running down elm tress. The flux is toxic enough to kill grass at the base of the tree and prevent callus formation which is necessary for wound healing.
Cultural controls should include avoidance of wounding, watering during dry periods, mulching, proper pruning, and fertilizing when necessary. In the past, drain tubes were installed to remove excess liquid and lower internal pressures. However, it is now felt that additional wounds increase entry of wood decay fungi, which may be more damaging to the tree than the wetwood infection. For this reason, this procedure is not recommended.
Revised by Chad Behrendt and Crystal Floyd 1999 | <urn:uuid:6ba3e6a7-b529-4e4a-865a-4f567ce2d165> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.extension.umn.edu/Garden/yard-garden/trees-shrubs/wetwood/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392159.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00139-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95396 | 390 | 3.609375 | 4 |
Author: Andrew Rothe, Macquarie University
The Mekong River is one of the largest and most important rivers in Southeast Asia. It is an important source of income and sustenance for many in the riparian countries including China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Through large-scale development over the past few decades the river has become a valuable source of power for China.
In 1957, a study by the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (UNECAFE) saw great potential in developing the Mekong River. This development has boomed in the last two decades with a focus on large-scale infrastructure programs. China’s eight dam cascade in southern Yunnan province is a good example of such large scale hydro-power and irrigation programs. The development of the Mekong provides notable benefits, from large-scale power production and the economic development of impoverished areas, to curbing the frequency and ferocity of seasonal floods.
But over-development of the river could spell disaster. Excessive damming impedes water flow, in turn reducing fish stocks and raising silt levels downstream, upsetting the delicate ecosystem of the Mekong and tributaries, such as the Tonle Sap.
Large-scale, infrastructure driven development practices may provide profit in the short term, yet in the long term these practices are unsustainable. They may in fact undermine future profits when the river becomes a potential source of conflict or tension.
Traditional views of river management need to shift from seeing the Mekong as a resource in and of itself, to an asset that can provide resources if properly tended. This requires the adoption of sustainable development policies. These policies may cause immediate profit may fall, but the long-term profit will be substantial not only in dollar terms but also in terms of human security.
By definition sustainable development must be so for all parties and cooperation is the key to success. There is a long history of official Mekong cooperation, beginning with the foundation of the Mekong Commission in 1957. But historically cooperative management tends to focus on large infrastructure programs.
This focus began to change with the signing of the 1995 Agreement on the Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin, leading to the establishment of the Mekong River Commission. The MRC attempts to regulate the development of the river in more sustainable terms, yet, as with all systems, there are pitfalls.
Only four of the six riparian states are members, with China and Myanmar being only dialogue partners. Not being a signatory of the MRC, China was able to implement its dam cascade after minimal consultation with downstream states.
China could potentially be persuaded to join the MRC in light of its desire to be seen as a responsible international power. China’s rhetoric of a ‘harmonious society’ needs to be backed by action, and Mekong cooperation provides a profound opportunity to do so. Cooperation over Mekong management would go a long way toward reassuring the international community, especially ASEAN, that China’s rise should not be seen as a threat.
Yet China’s need for short-term growth may derail this process. China walks a fine line between the desire to implement sustainable policies for the long-term, and the need to produce immediate profit and results to foster economic growth and social stability.
This balance also spills into the lower riparian countries. In a desire to generate wealth, these countries are beginning to consider development of their own hydro-power schemes, with the backing of foreign companies. If the Mekong is to have a sustainable future then these plans will need to be carefully reassessed.
As a counter-consideration, there is considerable support for hydro-power schemes from the need for clean, renewable energy sources to combat climate change. Sustainable development is no simple matter.
With China’s rise under the spotlight, there is great potential for Mekong cooperation to flourish and for sustainable policies to be implemented. Yet all parties must be aware of the potential hindrances to this process, and understand that it will not be a jolt-free ride.
This piece is a runner up in the recent EAF Emerging Scholars competition. | <urn:uuid:ab502de0-d0e7-41c1-a23d-e5ebae2abbba> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2010/07/15/need-for-a-paradigm-shift-in-mekong-management/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397695.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00168-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934267 | 855 | 3.3125 | 3 |
Despite wide spread rumors in the medical community that Thimerosal is no longer used in vaccines; research scientists report that vaccines still contain Thimerosal. Find out what your doctor may have never told you regarding the dangers of Thimerosal. Read the material safety data sheet here and ask yourself why would anyone allow this substance to be injected into infants and children.
Thimerosal in Childhood Vaccines - Dr. Mark Geier David Geier (Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Spring 2003).
Toxicity of Thimerosal - David S. Baskin, Hop Ngo, Vladimir V. Didenko
Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine.
Autism: A Unique Type of Mercury Poisoning - Sallie Bernard Albert Enayati, BS, ChE, MSME Teresa Binstock Heidi Roger Lynn Redwood RN, MSN, CRNP Woody McGinnis, MD.
How Mercury Causes Brain Neuron Degeneration - University of Calgary.
The straightforward fact is that Mercury is so unimaginably toxic that a single drop on a human hand can be potentially fatal. Why must we continue to argue whether a toxin is really a toxin? Read about the mercury in dental fillings. | <urn:uuid:0348d26d-a16e-452d-99d3-6a9dd8bd9341> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.momsagainstmercury.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00119-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.844252 | 250 | 2.90625 | 3 |
III. Key Messages
Supplement G: Communication and Education
Public Health Guidance for Community-Level Preparedness and Response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Version 2/3
Lessons learned from the 2003 experience will help local, state, and national communications specialists refine their communications planning to facilitate appropriate and decisive actions in response to a re-emergence. The foundation for effective communication is a set of key messages that can be used consistently to highlight and reinforce the lessons learned and generate an appropriate response to SARS that minimizes risk while ensuring a strong and rapid response. These messages should be developed with the input of all decision-makers in the SARS response, and all communication messages should emanate from these central points. The following are examples for consideration:
- We have learned a great deal about SARS-CoV disease that is helping us prepare for the possibility that it will return.
- A SARS diagnosis is guided by a history of exposure to SARS-CoV or to a setting in which transmission is occurring.
- Most exposures to SARS-CoV occur in healthcare facilities and households. Community exposures outside of these settings have been reported, but these occurred rarely, under special circumstances, and, with few exceptions, after close contact with ill persons. Persons at risk in healthcare facilities include healthcare workers, patients, and visitors. In households, the greatest risk is to family members of SARS patients.
- In most instances, SARS outbreaks were localized to specific communities and often to specific locations or facilities in a community. For example, in Canada, most SARS cases occurred in Toronto, and in Toronto, most cases occurred in hospitals.
- SARS can be controlled by rapid, appropriate public health action that includes surveillance, identification and isolation of SARS cases, infection control, intense contact tracing, and quarantine of persons who may have been exposed to SARS-CoV. These measures can be a temporary inconvenience to those involved but are essential for containing SARS outbreaks.
- The United States is preparing for a possible reappearance of SARS-CoV by: 1) educating healthcare workers about SARS-CoV disease diagnosis, 2) developing SARS surveillance systems to determine if and where SARS-CoV has re-emerged, 3) developing guidelines for preventing transmission in different settings, 4) improving laboratory tests for SARS-CoV, and 5) developing better guidance for treating SARS patients.
- At this time, there is no evidence of ongoing transmission of SARS-CoV anywhere in the world. In the absence of SARS-CoV transmission, there is no need for concern about travel or other activities. Up-to-date information on SARS is available on CDC's SARS website.
- I. Rationale and Goals
- II. Lessons Learned
- III. Key Messages
- IV. Preparing for a Communications Response
- V. Communications Activities in the Presence of SARS
- VI. SARS Educational Tools and Resources
- Appendix G1: Fact Sheet - Joint Information Center
- Appendix G2: Media Relations
- Appendix G3: Community Relations/Outreach
- Appendix G4: CDC Field Communications Liaisons
- Page last reviewed: May 3, 2005
- Page last updated: May 3, 2005
- Content source: | <urn:uuid:9580307a-dbb4-480a-a985-11adbdda141e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cdc.gov/sars/guidance/G-education/key.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00071-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913905 | 690 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Mackintosh, Charles Rennie (măkˈəntŏshˌ) [key], 1868–1928, Scottish architect, artist, and furniture designer. Probably the greatest architect and designer Scotland has produced, he attempted to create a native style for the modern era. His decorative and graphic works are some of the finest manifestations of art nouveau while also being beautiful examples of early modernism. His few buildings are notable for their absence of external decoration and their subtlety of proportion—both qualities partially derived from Scottish medieval precedent and from the Scottish Baronial style of the 16th and 17th cent. Among these buildings are the Glasgow School of Art (1899, additional wing 1909), widely considered his masterwork; Queen's Cross Church, Glasgow; and two country houses—"Windyhill," Kilmacolm, and "Hill House," Helensburgh—both built around the turn of the century.
As a designer, Mackintosh was influenced in his early work by the English arts and crafts movement and, like the members of that school, he strove to integrate architectural and decorative elements in his work. Among his finest interiors were those executed for several turn-of-the-century Glasgow tea rooms. The sole survivor, the Willow Tea Room (1904), was restored and reopened in 1983. Many of his designs, often incorporating squares and stylized roses and other plant forms, were created in collaboration with his wife, Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh. Best known of his stark, elegant, and often beautifully detailed furniture designs are graceful wooden chairs with extremely high backs. He also designed other furniture, stained glass, murals, and clocks. His work influenced such important 20th-century figures as Josef Hoffmann and Frank Lloyd Wright.
See Charles Rennie Mackintosh: The Architectural Papers (1990), ed. by P. Robertson; studies by T. Howarth (1952) and A. Crawford (1995); E. Wilhide, The Mackintosh Style (1995).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:34cc203b-6ac9-4eb8-81fb-e40710b22809> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.factmonster.com/encyclopedia/people/mackintosh-charles-rennie.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397636.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00130-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97073 | 439 | 2.890625 | 3 |
One of the Univ Houston lectures on Vikings explained that riddles and sagas were part of the entertainment during those long winter nights.
But this lecture discusses how riddles were used in Anglo Saxon times.
There are several sources of riddles from the Anglo-Saxon era. The largest is the Exeter Book, a tenth-century collection of Anglo-Saxon poetry. Orchard believes that the this work originally contained 101 riddles, but the manuscript has been damaged, leaving only 91 riddles. Other sources of Anglo-Saxon riddles include the Berne and Lorsch collections, and in the work Carmen de virginitate, by Aldhelm, Abbot of Malmesbury (c.639-709). Orchard also notes that Bede, Alcuin and Boniface all wrote riddles, and that these examples show that they were part of “a learned literate Latin tradition” in Anglo-Saxon England.preview link
Part of the reason riddles were so popular was that they had a lot of pedagogical value – they could be used in schools to get students interested in language. | <urn:uuid:83fc1263-b5ee-42d1-aec1-e0aa48b27ed8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://fkclinic.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-riddle-game.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00161-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972149 | 235 | 4 | 4 |
Light Pollution - What You Need to Know
Everyone in amateur astronomy knows that light pollution is a serious problem. Scott Kardel of the International Dark-Sky Association presents a sort of a "state of the union" address on light pollution that will show off the magnitude of the problem; what is being done to slow and even reverse its effects; and how you can help join the cause. The talk will contain simple demonstrations and dramatic images from Earth and space that show how to the far-reaching impacts of the problem.
Scott Kardel has a BS in physical science / secondary education from Northern Arizona University and a Master's Degree in astronomy from the University of Arizona. He has worked as assistant director for the Lake Afton Public Observatory in Wichita, Kansas and as the public affairs coordinator for Palomar Observatory. There he directed their public outreach programs and was the observatory's representative on light pollution issues. He has been the public affairs director for the International Dark-Sky Association since August, 2011.
"What's Up?" in this month will be presented by Jim Benet | <urn:uuid:ccae8ec8-322d-47ea-aabc-5c6bece8b050> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ocastronomers.org/e-zine/monthly_meetings/details/MM201208.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00192-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943516 | 219 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Building literacy at home
Start reading with your young children and keep reading together even after your children can read on their own.
Read daily and frequently; pick a regular time to read.
Make sure your child has books appropriate for his reading level. If there are more than five words per page that your child cannot read, it is probably too difficult.
Choose books, or a series of books, with rhyme or repetition for learning new words because they use similar vocabulary and characters.
Encourage your child to make predictions about what will happen next.
Talk about the book and ask questions.
Link the story you are reading to your child's world: "Do you remember when we went to the farm/store/etc.?"
Re-read a favorite book many times.
Read books based on movies. It's fun to watch the movie after reading the book.
Use different voices for the characters in the book.
Place a reading light in your child's room.
Build a library corner for your child.
Subscribe to magazines that would interest your child.
Introduce your child to a book series.
Get a library card and plan regular visits.
Turn off the television and have family reading time.
Buy books as gifts
Source: Kiawatha Pine Ridge School District
Copyright 2016, Deseret News Publishing Company | <urn:uuid:cda4daab-5117-4995-9131-eba92870e457> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.deseretnews.com/article/print/765606422/Education-enrichment-Building-literacy-at-home.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404826.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00179-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95627 | 277 | 4.0625 | 4 |
[Description(s) transcribed by Martin Edwards ©2003 and later edited by Colin Hinson ©2010] [Transcribed mainly from Samuel Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831]
"THORNEY, a market town and parish in the hundred of WISBEACH, Isle of ELY, county of Cambridge, 35 miles (N.W.) from Cambridge, and 86 (N.) from London, containing 1970 inhabitants. This place derived its original name of Ankeridge from a monastery for hermits, or anchorites, founded here, in 662, by Saxulphus, abbot of Peterborough, who became its first prior; the edifice having been destroyed by the Danes, the site lay waste until 972, when Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, founded upon it a Benedictine abbey, in honour of the Virgin, which became so opulent that, at the dissolution, its revenue was valued at £508. 12. 5.: of this abbey, which was a mitred one, the only remains are portions of the parish church, a gateway, and some fragments of the old walls. A Literary Society was established, in 1823, which possesses a good library. The market, granted in 1638, is on Thursday; and fairs are held on July 1st and September 21st, for horses and cattle, and on Whit-Monday is a pleasure fair. Upwards of three thousand sheep are sent annually from this district to the London market. The petty sessions are held here." | <urn:uuid:2f8574d4-3df9-47ec-aa0f-423514e2b564> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/CAM/Thorney/ThorneyGaz1831S.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397842.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00076-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972778 | 316 | 2.546875 | 3 |
The new, decade long study conducted by the Kennedy Krieger Institute and published Friday in the Child Developmentjournal, finds that having a poor “gut sense” of numbers can lead to dyscalculia. An inaccurate number sense is just one cause of math learning disabilities, according to the study led by Dr. Michele Mazzocco of the Baltimore institute.
Mazzocco -- also a psychiatry and behavioral sciences and education professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine -- tracked 249 kindergarteners in Baltimore public schools in 1997. Johns Hopkins colleagues Lisa Feigenson and Justin P. Halberda later joined the project.
The team followed the Baltimore students’ math performance through 9th grade and, from grades 6 to 9, tested specific math-related abilities, such as timed computation and decomposition -- i.e. the ability to deduce which numbers in a group add up to a target number. The researchers also assessed students’ general cognitive skills, such as working memory, visual perception and symbol decoding.
When the students hit the 9th grade, the researchers conducted two experiments designed to gauge their mastery of foundational mathematical thinking, namely the “approximate number system," which refers to a person’s ability to understand a number’s magnitude, to see a group of items and estimate how many there are, or simply deduce that one group has more than another.
“Right away, early in the school-age years, it was apparent anecdotally that some of the children had real difficulty with that [estimation] number sense -- but not all of them,” Mazzocco said to Education Week.
The new experiments asked a representative 71 Baltimore students to complete a number naming and number discrimination task. The researchers then compared the performance of four groups: average math students, high-performers in the top 10 percent, students performing in the bottom 10 percent to 25 percent, and, finally, the bottom 10 percent, identified as having dyscalculia.
Mazzocco found students with dyscalculia were significantly worse at estimating than other students, with precision levels of a toddler or preschooler.
Her findings are in line with an emerging body of research in neuroscience and cognitive science.
Although math-learning disability affects about 5 percent to 8 percent of school-age children nationwide -- about as many affected by dyslexia -- research on the reading disability has for decades stunted studies of math disabilities by 20 to 1, say experts.
The recent spotlight on U.S. competitiveness in the STEM subject areas may help account for the new interest in math learning disabilities.
“Historically, there just hasn’t been as much focus in society on math difficulties as in reading,” Mazzocco said. “It’s exciting that it’s shifting a bit.”
The Kennedy Krieger Institute's findings -- which reveal that a weak sense of numbers is not the only potential source of math difficulties -- reinforce that a "one size fits all" approach to education may not be adequate for children who struggle with math.
“A key message for parents and teachers is that children vary in the precision of their intuitive sense of numbers. We might take for granted that every child perceives numbers with roughly comparable precision, but this assumption would be false. Some students may need more practice, or different kinds of practice, to develop this number sense,” said Mazzocco in an announcement.
“At the same time, if a child is struggling with mathematics at school, we should not assume that the child’s difficulty is tied to a poor number sense; this is just one possibility.” | <urn:uuid:5e1acaa5-966a-419b-81ea-5827796465e4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Baltimore-Based-Study-Finds-Core-Cause-of-Math-Disability--124101149.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00021-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950537 | 765 | 2.796875 | 3 |
“How Hanukkah Came to the White House”
Tonight, as Hannukah candles are lit, we post a piece by Tom Piatak on whether Hanukkah is a deep-structure effort to upstage Christmas.
How Hanukkah Came to the White House: Now and Then, an interesting December 2 piece in the Forward by Jonathan D. Sarna, coincidentally documents the (much denied) decline of Christmas:
For most of the 20th century, the only December holiday that gained White House recognition was Christmas. Calvin Coolidge inaugurated the practice of lighting an official White House Christmas tree in 1923, and he also delivered the first formal presidential Christmas message. He assumed, as most Americans of his day did, that everybody celebrated Christmas. In 1927, he proclaimed that �Christmas is not a time or a season, but a state of mind.� If we focus on its message, Coolidge explained, �there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world.� Silent Cal, so far as I can determine, uttered not one word about Hanukkah.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whom the American Jewish community adulated, proved no more sensitive when it came to Hanukkah. He sent evocative Christmas cards to Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and other friends in the Jewish community, and declared that Christmas was a national holiday �because the teachings of Christ are fundamental to our lives.� His successor, Harry Truman, another favorite of the Jewish community, echoed Roosevelt in his Christmas message to the nation. He called upon Americans to �put our trust in the unerring Star which guided the Wise Men to the Manger of Bethlehem.�
Perhaps the most astonishing of all White House Christmas messages was delivered by a man who should have known all about Hanukkah since he was born just blocks away from a large synagogue in Brookline, Mass., and had many Jewish friends and supporters. Yet John F. Kennedy egregiously declared in 1962 that �Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists, as well as Christians, pause from their labors on the 25th day of December to celebrate the birthday of the Prince of Peace.� He believed (or, at least, his speechwriter believed) that �there could be no more striking proof that Christmas is truly the universal holiday of all men.�
Particularly significantly in the light of Tom`s article, Sarna notes:
“The first president to host an official White House Hanukkah party, and the first to actually light a menorah in the White House residence, was George W. Bush, beginning in both cases in 2001…The annual Hanukkah party also underscored Bush’s deepening bonds with Orthodox Jews, the Jewish religious stream most sympathetic to his â€?faith-basedâ€? agenda. Hasidic leaders in distinctive garb regularly appeared at these parties, and beginning in 2005 (after an embarrassment in 2004 when kosher and non-kosher foods were mixed up), the parties became completely kosher.
“Barack Obama is thus only the second president in history ever to hold a White House Hanukkah party.”
The terrible time that Obama is having about how many invitations have been issued to his Hanukkah party is quite enough to make anyone feels sorry for him.
But perhaps we should feel sorrier for Christmas. | <urn:uuid:9bc87bf5-361d-4262-8824-bf300a471f2d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.vdare.com/posts/how-hanukkah-came-to-the-white-house | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00098-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956991 | 743 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Taking Touch Surfaces to the next Level with Disney Research's Touché
Researchers from Disney Research and Carnegie Mellon University are working on a technology dubbed "Touché" that will enable real-world objects like chairs or doorknobs to detect a touch event, and also recognize what they are being touched by and how they are being touched. The basic tenet of this new technology is to use sensing circuitry to monitor the change in electrical signal passing through an object when it is touched by a conductive material, such as our fingers. It goes the extra mile by sensing capacitive signals across a range of frequencies to build a "capacitive profile" whereas typical touchscreen systems only pick up signal at a single frequency.
With this "capacitive profile" or Swept Frequency Capacitive Sensing (SFCS), Touché is able to recognize to a certain degree the level of human interaction with an object or surface. The capacitive profile will vary depending on the stimuli applied, the system can distinguish the touch of a single finger, multiple fingers, a full-hand grasp and many other touch gestures.
Touché is in its nascent phase but researchers are already envisioning its application in a numerous scenarios, from controlling portable devices with only your body gestures, to a doorknob that knows whether to lock or unlock based on how it is grasped. Currently, it may seem to have rather mundane practical usage for its application; however, we do hope to witness more creative and useful implementations of Touché in the near future. On a side note, Disney will present the technology at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Austin, Texas from May 5-10. | <urn:uuid:3bcd55d2-c26b-4f2d-bb8b-6076e63123c1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/tech-news-taking-touch-surfaces-next-level-disney-researchs-touche | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00036-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933245 | 340 | 3.390625 | 3 |
|Grass at 16 (right) in his Waffen SS uniform.|
Moral inversions abound and are described brilliantly by Sarah Honig in Another Tack: The German Robbed Cossack. They have had a long history of preparing the ground leading to Ahmedinejad's calls for
Israel's extinction. She presents, for example, Leo Tolstoy's response to various entreaties by Jews to speak out against the Russian pogroms. Tolstoy was annoyed; the Jews have brought it upon themselves and must behave better. “The Jews must, for their own good, conduct themselves by the universal principle of ‘do onto others as you would have them do to you.’ They must resist the government nonviolently...by living lives of grace, which precludes not only violence against others, but also the partaking in acts of violence.”
As Honig writes: "Given the background of
Eastern Europe’s downtrodden Jewry, such ’turn-the-other-cheek’ sermons appear chillingly pitiless (to say the least) because all the Jews had been doing was turning the other cheek. Taken in a broader context, Tolstoy argued against Jewish self-defense before any self-defense was actually attempted. Jews, Tolstoy in effect said, share culpability for their tribulations, must suffer quietly and cannot rise to protect themselves."
For Grass and others throughout history, "Anti-Semites – whether they specialized in mere pogroms or outright Holocausts – habitually portrayed themselves as the aggrieved side."
Grass, "Like Tolstoy before him, demand they do nothing to defend themselves. If they do, they become, in Grass’s idiom, ‘the greatest danger to the world.’ It’s
Israel that threatens and not vice versa. By his criteria, our forebears threatened Egypt’s pharaohs, the Amalekites, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, Haman’s Persians, Greeks, Romans, Crusader marauders, Muslim conquistadors, Spanish inquisitors, Chmielnicki’s Ukrainian mass-murderers, Russian pogromchiks, to say nothing of the Germans, whose fuehrer always screamed hysterically about the danger posed to the world by ‘the forces of International Judaism,’ compelling him to formulate a ‘final solution’ to their problem." Iran
In Grass and the Sueddeutsche Newspaper, Dr. Clemens Heni notices another aspect of the inversion: "In the very beginning of his text Grass portrays himself and all of ‘us’ as possible ‘survivors’ of a hypothetical future war. Intentionally or not, Grass uses a term reserved for Jewish survivors of the Shoah. He is portraying himself as a possible victim of Jews, projecting his own guilt onto the victims."
Yet, as Heni posits, "Some might argue that Jews and the state of
Israel are living in a pre-Holocaust time due to the fact that Iranian President Ahmadinejad said on October 26, 2005, at a conference in Teheran about ‘A World without Zionism,’ that must be ‘wiped off the map.’” Israel
Bernard-Henri Levy catches another inversion in Grass’s fear that
Israel will force Germany's complicity in a potential Iranian holocaust because of it's sale of nuclear submarines to the Jews: "Germans are 'already sufficiently burdened' (one wonders with what) without becoming, what's more, 'complicit' in the present and future 'crimes' of ." Israel
And then there is the useful idiot, Larry Derfner, defending Grass in +972, the Israeli anti-Zionist website often cited by the NYTimes: “Gunter Grass told the truth, he was brave in telling it, he was brave in admitting that he’d been drafted into the Waffen SS as a teenager, and by speaking out against an Israeli attack on Iran, he’s doing this country a great service at some personal cost while most Israelis and American Jews are safely following the herd behind Bibi over the cliff.”
How cunning the use of 'following the herd behind Bibi'. Does that not have a whiff of Jews going sheepishly to their deaths? And isn't it grand of the former Nazi to warn them of the danger? | <urn:uuid:9b4ca623-25ca-4c9e-a140-0548f9defc52> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mideastparalleluniverse.blogspot.com/2012/04/moral-inversions-of-gunter-grass.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00007-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954709 | 951 | 2.59375 | 3 |
What is in this article?:
- Tornadoes 101: Stay alert, stay alive
- Tornado Safety
- Tornadoes can occur whenever and wherever conditions are right.
- Tornadoes can occur in every state in the United States, on any day of the year, and at any hour.
What is a tornado?
A tornado is a narrow, violently rotating column of air that extends from the base of a thunderstorm to the ground.
Where do tornadoes come from?
Tornadoes come from thunderstorms.
Where do tornadoes occur?
Tornadoes can occur whenever and wherever conditions are right! Tornadoes can occur in every state in the United States, on any day of the year, and at any hour. They also occur in many other parts of the world, including Australia, Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America.
Where is Tornado Alley?
Tornado Alley is a nickname for an area that has more tornadoes than other parts of the U.S. The area that has the most strong and violent tornadoes includes eastern South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, northern Texas, and eastern Colorado.
How much advance warning can forecasters give us before a tornado strikes?
The current average lead-time for tornado warnings is 13 minutes. NOAA Research is working to increase tornado warning lead-times much further.
What is the difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning?
A Tornado Watch means tornadoes are possible in your area. Remain alert for approaching storms. The NOAA Storm Prediction Center issues tornado and severe thunderstorm watches.
A Tornado Warning means a tornado has been sighted or indicated by weather radar — time to take cover! Your local National Weather Service office issues tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/
How many people are killed by tornadoes each year?
Tornadoes kill about 60 people each year, mostly from flying or falling debris.
How many tornadoes hit the US each year?
What is the EF-Scale?
The Enhanced Fujita Scale rates tornadoes by the damage they cause. Tornado categories are from EF0 to EF5. The EF-Scale takes into account variables such as building type, structures, and the sizes of trees. | <urn:uuid:ec035d2b-1429-4bd4-a6b6-ecc98dd69831> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://southwestfarmpress.com/government/tornadoes-101-stay-alert-stay-alive?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408840.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00139-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923029 | 468 | 3.8125 | 4 |
In its latest attempt to combat the issue of burmese pythons taking over the Everglades, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has turned to a time-proven method of wildlife population control. It is sponsoring a hunting contest.
Beginning in mid-January 2013, cash prizes will be awarded to the hunters who catch the most and largest Burmese pythons. The longest documented Burmese python in the Everglades is currently 17 feet in length, but this will likely be old news by the end of the contest in mid-February 2013.
All contest entrants are required to pay a $25 entry fee and complete an online training course. The 40 minute course, called REDDy, helps the hunters learn about the species that they shouldn't be targeting during the contest. While the primary goal is to reduce the population of the invasive python species, the secondary goal is to educate about the negative impacts of non-native, invasive species on an ecosystem.
If you are interested, contest rules can be found at PythonChallenge.org. More to come on this innovative population control technique. | <urn:uuid:a218f729-88cb-42dd-9646-cda6dcab9a86> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.takingawalkonthewildside.com/2012/12/python-challenge-2013.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408828.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00067-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934067 | 227 | 2.84375 | 3 |
- Language Tips
Liaoning province in northeastern China will dismantle all small heating boilers and replace them with urban central heating systems to reduce air pollution, according to the province's housing and urban-rural development administration.
Small heating boilers refer to those with a capacity of less than 10 metric tons.
The province aims to dismantle 3,805 boilers by the end of this year, the administration said.
It is part of the province's effort to lower the density of PM2.5 — air particles smaller than 2.5 microns and able to enter the lungs.
Other efforts include using new energy alternatives and controlling dust pollution.
In Dalian, a major city in the province, around 200 small heating boilers in the downtown area will be dismantled by 2015.
Meanwhile, the province is promoting the use of geothermal heat pumps to replace the heating system based on burning coal.
The geothermal heat pump, or ground source heat pump, is a central heating system that pumps heat from the ground.
Shenyang, capital of Liaoning, applied the new heating method in an area of 15.28 million square meters last year. ?
Calculations showed that the new heating method has saved the province from burning 630,000 tons of coal, on the condition that each square meter of architecture consumes 35 kilograms of coal during the five-month heating season in Liaoning province.
In result, it is estimated that the application of geothermal heat pumps has reduced sulfur dioxide emissions by 8,060 tons and soot discharges by 5,040 tons.? | <urn:uuid:2056bc9c-d90a-44a9-9ac5-e9a9e0bdb697> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-01/16/content_16127694.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00055-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920121 | 324 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Chronicling is the ticket for keeping your child interested the writing process throughout the summer. Most children need opportunities to practice the writing skills they have been learning at school, and keeping a chronicle of special outings is an enjoyable way to get your child to write during the summer months.
Let’s Get Started!
The next time your family heads for the beach or any other wide open territory, arm your child with a camera. Allowing your young ones to photograph the events of the day gives them the incentive needed to also chronicle the event once the photos are developed.
Once you have the photos in hand you are ready to begin the chronicling part of the project. Your child will create the chronicle by pasting his or her favorite pictures onto a blank piece of paper (or a blank page in a journal), and accompanying them with words about the event. You can think of the chronicle as a sort of newspaper page.
Here are some ideas for the writing portion of your child’s chronicle:
1. The Heading: select a title or “heading” for your chronicled event
2. Captions: write a caption under each of the photos that have been selected for your chronicle.
3. Quotes and Sidebars: collect some quotes from the event participants by asking them to respond to the photos or share their opinions about the events of that day. These quotes can be presented as a “Sidebar” along the edge of the paper. A sidebar is any information that is related to the body of the work.
4. Body: the body of the chronicled work will include some sort of a description of the event along with the details about when and where it took place as well as who was involved. “Highlights” are the main details about the day and will be included here as well. The writer can close the piece with his or her “personal response” to the events of the day. Sharing their feelings about the outing is a nice way to bring their work to a close.
5. Timetables, maps, drawings, poems and word boxes with lists of words that best describe the day are additional graphic skills that can be added to the chronicle.
And so, there you have it, parents. Not only are you teaching your children the skills needed for writing any good report in the future but you are also instructing them on the terminology and know-how for the meaningful use of any textbook. Don’t be afraid to make chronicling a family project or to allow your child to do it his or her way. The ideas I have laid out here are just suggestions.
Some children like to chronicle just one aspect of a trip. I saw a delightful book made by a child who chose to chronicle the plant life in Oregon. The important thing to keep in mind is that chronicling is done for fun. It can take any form you like and that is what makes it such a perfect vehicle for continuing the writing process throughout the summer months. Have fun and enjoy your summer and the happy memories to follow.
Images by pixelperfect | <urn:uuid:e71ccc1b-9efb-4b50-bfa6-73b2deadd6a3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.shutterfly.com/4136/chronicling-the-fun-way-to-teach-writing-skills/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404405.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00055-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967222 | 646 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Brief history of Norges Bank
Norges Bank’s history began in 1816, but Norway’s numismatic history dates back roughly to the year 1000.
The first known Norwegian coin is a penny attributed to Olav Trygvason, around the year 1000. Minting of coins was a royal monopoly. For long periods no coins were minted in Norway, and monetary needs were then satisfied through import of foreign coins.
4 mark, 1678
A mint was established in Christiania (now Oslo), using silver from the mines and works at Kongsberg. As a memento of that era we still have Myntgaten (Mint Street) in Oslo, c. 100 metres from the site of the royal mint.
Coin production was moved to Kongsberg, where the Mint of Norway (Det Norske Myntverket) is still located, Nybrofossen.
The first Norwegian banknotes. King Christian V granted the Bergen merchant Jørgen thor Møhlen the right to issue and pay with notes, which were supposed to be legal tender from the Åna-Sira valley (Flekkefjord) and north up the coast. The notes were meant to cover a transition period before being redeemed in coin, but were met with distrust and demands for rapid redemption. Møhlen could not meet the demands and went bankrupt.
5 Rigsdaler Courant, 1790
The first issuing bank in Denmark-Norway was established: the Assignations-, Vexel- og Laanebanken - also called the Courantbanken (after the name of the current coin of the realm, Rigsdaler Dansk Courant). It was a private bank, but subject to royal regulation. Apart from issuing notes, it also lent money to the government. There was, however, no restriction on the quantity of notes issued, and far too many were put into circulation. In 1745 the bank had to abandon redemption in silver, and the value of the notes fell. That the state took over the bank in 1773 and continued using it to finance the Treasury was not a great help.
1791 and 1799
In order to clean up the monetary system, in 1791 a new issuing bank was founded, Den Danske og Norske Speciebank, with regulations that were ahead of their time - and three branches in Norway. The regulations did not help, however, as the government used this bank as well to finance its expenditure. In 1799 it was replaced by the Deposito-Cassen, but the same policy continued.
"The state bank collapse" is what the Danes still call the events in connection with the foundation of the Rigsbanken as a new issuing bank on 5 January 1813, in order to put Danmark's monetary house in order. For simultaneously with the establishment of the bank, the currency was sharply depreciated. The Rigsbanken, too, was used to finance the government.
Norway was now as good as separated from Denmark, under Prince Christian Frederick as viceroy. There were bad harvests, and the state was short of money. To raise revenues he issued his own currency, the so-called "Prince's Notes", to supplement the notes from the Rigsbanken branch in Christiania. After Norway passed under Swedish control in autumn 1814, Carl Johan (Marshal Bernadotte) of Sweden regarded them as false, and declared that possessors of such notes would be treated as counterfeiters. For a while the Courantbanken's notes, the Assignation certificates, the Treasury certificates, the Rigsbanken's notes and the Prince's Notes all circulated together, to general confusion.
After a fierce debate, the Norwegian Constituent Assembly of spring 1814 passed the so-called "Eidsvold Guarantee" by 79 to 29: the Rigsbanken was to issue 14 million rigsdalers in new notes - and the Assembly guaranteed the rate personally. Minister Carsten Tank called the decision a national catastrophe and resigned. He was proved right: the guarantee was a broken reed. But in the light of the experience of the issuing banks described above, it was hardly strange that the framers of the Constitution emphasised that a future Norwegian bank "should not advance monies to the State", that is, not lend to the government.
Two years after the separation from Denmark and the union with Sweden, Norges Bank was established by Act of the Storting (the Norwegian parliament) of 14 June 1816. This bill followed work in several committees that replaced one another. The monetary unit was to be the speciedaler (rixdollar), divided into 120 skillings or five ort ("rigsort") of 24 skillings each.
The bank's silver fund of two million rixdollars was in principle to be obtained by voluntary subscription, but this was a huge fiasco. Over the subsequent years, therefore, the fund had to be financed by compulsory levies of coin or noble metals - the so-called "silver tax". Share certificates were issued for the contributions. The Storting had resolved that the headquarters would be located in Christiania if the silver fund could be created by voluntary subscription - if not, it would be sited in Trondheim with district offices in Christiania, Bergen and Kristiansand.
The latter turned out to be the case. The operation started up in small, leased premises in the Stiftsgaarden, Trondheim's old gubernatorial residence, in January 1817. Opening hours were one hour every day for exchange of notes, two hours for disbursement of loans and dividend on the shares. One of the five members of the Board of Directors was to be present two hours a day. The Board met twice a week, chaired by the most senior member; not until 1983 was there a permanent chairman. Most of the bank's management were immigrants or the sons of immigrants from Denmark or the German states. The first year the notes were printed in Christiania and transported to Trondheim for numbering and signing, a journey of 12 days.
The rixdollar note was supposed to correspond to "one Cologne mark of fine silver", that is, 233.85 grams, and to be freely redeemable for silver in 1819. In the period after the establishment of Norges Bank, however, the dollar fell in value, and by Act of 13 August 1818, the right of redemption was suspended. The rate fell further after that.
On November 15, 1822 the Storting resolved that silver redemption at rates below the previously decided par value should begin from January 1, 1823. An interval for silver redemption was fixed, which was gradually adjusted nearer par until 1842.
The rixdollar was finally pegged to silver at par in April 1842.
In the Money Act that became law on 4 June 1873, the Storting decided to go onto the gold standard and to use the terms krone and øre in parallel with daler and skilling, one rixdollar equal to four kroner. The silver was replaced by the gold standard from 1 January 1874. The gold standard had been recommended by an international money conference in Paris in 1867, in which Norway also participated. The intention was partly to achieve a more stable money value - gold was regarded as more solid than silver - and partly to achieve an international system based on fixed exchange rates vis-à-vis gold.
Under both the silver and gold standards the right to redeem notes for metal was suspended for long periods. The right was abolished forever in 1931.
1000 kroner banknote, 1877-1901
The Money Act of 17 April 1875 discontinued the terms daler and skilling, and it was decided that "The monetary unit shall be a krone, divided into 100 øre." This was done to prepare for Norway's entry, on 16 October that year, into the Scandinavian Mint Union. This union had been established between Denmark and Sweden in 1873 on the recommendation of a joint commission (in which Norway participated) to establish a common Scandinavian coin based on gold. It meant that the other countries' coins were to be legal tender on the same basis as those struck at home. The union functioned until 1914; thereafter it lacked all practical significance, but was not formally abolished until 1972.
A new law governing Norges Bank became law on 23 April 1892.
|Bankplassen 4, Norges Bank's offices 1906-1986.|
On 1 January 1897 the seat of Norges Bank was moved to Kristiania (Oslo), and in 1906 a new headquarters building on Bankplassen was opened - for 80 employees including the workers in the banknote printing plant.
The duty to redeem for gold was suspended on 5 August 1914 and the krone floated. Export of gold and silver was prohibited. During the war the volume of notes increased fourfold, but the krone nevertheless appreciated - in consequence of the sharp rise in revenues generated by the merchant marine. Gold redemption was reintroduced in 1916, but because the notes were now worth more than the official gold rate, in April 1916 the bank was exempted from the duty to buy in gold for the notes.
Gold redemption was suspended yet again on 19 March 1920. Inflation and a high volume of imports led to a crisis of confidence in the krone and a sharp fall in its value. The "par policy" led to a rise in the rate, and by 1926 the krone was par with the pound sterling.
The krone was pegged to gold at par on 1 May and gold redemption reintroduced.
On 27 September the gold standard was abolished, after the United Kingdom had left it seven days before. Norway and the other Nordic countries followed suit and let their currencies float, but were determined to prevent harmful fluctuations.
Banknote production, 1930
A fixed rate vis-à-vis the pound of NOK 19.90 was adopted.
The exchange rate is fixed in relation to the dollar, at NOK 4.40. Since the dollar was tied to gold, this brought Norway back onto the gold standard.
In 1940 the seat of Norges Bank was temporarily moved to London, in that the Norwegian government-in-exile established a new Board. The bank's gold reserves were evacuated via Åndalsnes, Molde and Tromsø to London, and thence to New York and Ottawa. This gold and the bank's other currency reserves were under the control of the London Board. The so-called London krone was fixed at NOK 17.70 to the pound.
At the same time, the bank continued its operations in Norway under the direction of the Occupying Power until the war was over and the London Board stepped down. A commission of inquiry after the war concluded that the Bank's Oslo management had taken a firm and correct attitude vis-à-vis the Nazi authorities.
A currency reform was implemented on 8 - 22 September 1945 to dispose of excessive notes in circulation and thereby prevent inflation.
Norway joined the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates from 15 September 1946. The par value vis-à-vis gold represented a rate of NOK 20.00 to the pound and NOK 4.03 to the dollar. The maximum permitted fluctuation was 1 per cent.
Up to 1949, Norges Bank was formally organised as a company limited by shares. By Act of 8 July 1949 private shareholders were bought out and the shares taken over by various state funds.
The pound sterling was devalued by 30.5 per cent, and like several other European countries, Norway followed suit. The new core rate vis-à-vis the dollar was NOK 7.14.
Quality control of banknotes, 1955
The Mint Supervisory Authority and the Royal Mint were transferred from the state to Norges Bank.
The Bretton Woods treaty system of fixed exchange rates broke down on 15 August, and the Norwegian krone floated. On 21 December a new system was created, the Smithsonian Treaty, with new parities and fluctuation margins of 2.25 per cent. The Norwegian (and Swedish and Danish) krone was devalued by 1 per cent.
On 23 May Norway joined the "European snake", in which the fluctuation margin was half of that laid down in the Smithsonian Treaty. There was thus a narrow margin of fluctuation inside a larger, and the combination was called "the snake in the tunnel".
The Smithsonian Treaty collapsed, but the European snake continued. This meant that the krone floated vis-à-vis currencies outside the snake, such as the dollar. The krone was revalued by 5 per cent within the snake on 16 November.
On 10 October 1976 the krone was devalued by 1 per cent, on 4 April 1977 by 5 per cent, and 29 August 1977 by 8 per cent. The reason for this was different trends in prices and wages in the countries of the snake, and adjustments were generally made for several countries at the same time.
On 12 December 1978 Norway left the snake and instead linked the krone to a "basket" of currencies, which were weighted according to the various countries' trade with Norway.
On 2 August 1982 the weightings of the currency basket were changed in accordance with the IMF's weightings for export industry competitiveness, which meant a downwards adjustment of 3.5 per cent. On 6 September 1982 the krone was devalued by 6 per cent.
On 2 July 1984 the currency basket was calculated on a geometric average instead an arithmetic, which meant a 2 per cent devaluation, and on 22 September it was decided to keep the krone 2 per cent weaker within the applicable fluctuation margin.
A new Act of 24 May 1985 on Norges Bank and the monetary system etc. (the Norges Bank Act) entered into force on 9 September 1985. The bank ceased to be a limited company and became a separate legal entity owned by the state.
Bankplassen 2, Norges Bank's
On 11 May the krone was devalued by 9.2 per cent.
On 1 September 1986 Norges Bank's headquarters and banknote printing plant moved to a new building at Bankplassen in Oslo.
The Storting decided to close eight of Norges Bank's 20 regional branches, those in Arendal, Drammen, Gjøvik, Halden, Hamar, Haugesund, Kristiansund N. and Skien.
The krone is pegged to the Ecu - the European Currency Unit, the precursor of the Euro.
Following turbulence on the international currency markets in November and December, the link to the Ecu was abandoned on 12 December and the krone floated. The same had happened to the Swedish krona, the Finnish markka, the pound sterling and the lira earlier in the autumn.
Guidelines for the floating exchange rate regime were issued on 5 May in government regulations on the krone's exchange rate.
Norges Bank was entrusted with the management of the Government Petroleum Fund.
A new settlement system between Norges Bank and the banks was commissioned. Norges Bank's settlement system (NBO) means settlement several times a day, with a facility for separate settlement of large sums. This was a step towards greater security and reliability in payments transfer.
The replacement of the coin series was completed, the first complete replacement since 1875.
The Act relating to Payment Systems, etc., enters into force. The Act introduces authorisation and supervision of payment systems and assigns these responsibilities to Norges Bank.
Den Kongelige Mynt (the Royal Mint) in Kongsberg is spun off as a separate limited company as of 1 January.
Norges Bank's Supervisory Council decides to close the regional branches in Bodø, Fredrikstad, Hammerfest, Vardø and Ålesund.
Norges Bank establishes an office in London to further develop the Bank's investment management activities.
The new Regulation on Monetary Policy was established by the Council of State on 29 March 2001. Norges Bank shall set the key rate with a view to maintaining low and stable inflation. The inflation target is set at 2½ per cent.
Together with other banks, Norges Bank establishes Norsk Kontantservice AS (NOKAS) on 1 July. The company will be responsible for cash handling for banks in Norway as well as for some of Norges Bank's statutory responsibilities in the area of cash handling. At the same time, Norges Bank's remaining regional offices are closed.
Den Kongelige Mynt AS (the Royal Mint) is sold to Samlerhuset AS Norge and Mint of Finland. The shares are transferred to the new owners on 30 June.
The Shanghai office
An agreement concerning the sale of Norges Bank's shares in NOKAS is signed with Hafslund Sikkerhet AS on 9 December. The shares are transferred to the new owners on 6 January 2006.
Norges Bank’s Printing Works was closed down in June 2007 in accordance with a decision taken by the Executive Board in 2002. From 2008, Norwegian banknotes will be delivered by commercial security printers in France and the UK. Read more about the history of Norges Bank's Printing Works.
In November the Shanghai office of Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) was officially opened.
In June the Singapore office of Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) was opened. | <urn:uuid:f2a5e51f-329f-4d81-a282-823cb5f3bab7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.norges-bank.no/en/about/history/norges-banks-history/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396147.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00144-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970808 | 3,651 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Posts by Category
No Nasal Spray Influenza Vaccine This Year, Says ACIP
Andrew Wakefield's Vaxxed: Scary Music and Specious Claims
Zika Virus: Expert Discussion by Scott Weaver, PhD
Zika Virus: History, Neurologic Disease, and Threat to the Americas
Hope for Zika Vaccine Stems from Precedent
Jonas Salk, Albert Sabin, and Hilary Koprowski all worked on polio vaccine development. Salk's inactivated vaccine was licensed in 1955.
Rukhsar's Story: A Little Girl with the Last Case of Polio in India?
By Lea Hegg. Originally posted on Impatient Optimists
We are looking for Rukhsar Khatoon, the young girl with the last reported case of wild poliovirus in India, when we set out for Shahpara village, near Kolkata in the Indian State of West Bengal. It had already been a long day of monitoring a polio immunization campaign and as we walk on, we see groups of vaccinators, lugging “vaccine carriers” and notebooks, headed back to the health center where they started the day’s activities.
Rukhsar, the focus of our search, was just 18 months old when she was paralyzed by polio in January 2011. Although her two siblings received polio vaccinations, Rukhsar was often sick with diarrhea and despite encouragement from local health workers her parents had thought it was safer for her to avoid the vaccine.
We find Rukhsar’s father on the broad, cobbled path that runs through the heart of the village and he leads us to his home. He, like most others in Shahpara, is an embroidery worker who spends long hours creating intricate designs with colorful thread and beads, the famous zardozi work that adorns beautiful clothing worn throughout the country.
Rukhsar is a chubby two-and-a-half-year-old and on this day she wears a bright orange dress.
The stream of doctors, polio workers, and media that have visited this little girl since her diagnosis has made her well known in the neighborhood, but she is still shy around visitors. She huddles against her mother, Shabida, as her family answers our questions. A host of extended family and neighbors gather around to hear her story as chickens and village dogs weave through the courtyard.
Thankfully, the effects of polio were mild and after extensive physical therapy, Rukhsar is now able to walk with little evidence of paralysis.
Her family is aware that she has been very fortunate.
They are now worried about other things: keeping her safe from other illnesses, equipping her to support her family, and, eventually, making sure she finds a caring husband and has a stable future. Since she came down with polio, they have encouraged other parents in their community to avoid the same mistake and have worked with local UNICEF staff to educate neighbors to about the vaccine.
Groups of children were everywhere as we left – playing at the feet of embroidering parents, and playing cricket in courtyards. All of these children are at risk for polio. And there was a time when many of them would have been at even greater risk from this debilitating disease. A teenager limps by with the help of a stick, reminding us of just how recently this greater risk existed. But will Rukhsar be the last to be affected by wild poliovirus in India?
There have been no other cases reported in India since hers. In this country – where some said polio could never be eradicated due to its sheer size, population density, poor sanitary conditions, weak public health system, and poor response to the vaccine -- thanks to millions of health workers, along with dedicated officials, community members and parents -- the tide has turned against polio.
Although we can’t say for sure that polio is gone from India yet, this is already a remarkable feat, of which India should be extremely proud. | <urn:uuid:6029448b-1358-43b6-ba20-614185831eaa> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/blog/rukhsars-story-little-girl-last-case-polio-india | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391634.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00078-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977056 | 832 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Adult women tend to slowly gain weight with age and many fret about the accumulation of fat on the hips, thighs and waist.
The usual response to tightening clothes is an occasional diet to shed unwanted pounds, and then the cycle begins anew.
But rarely do we ask what it would take to prevent weight gain in the first place.
"Compared with the vast body of research on the treatment of overweight and obese individuals, little research exists on preventing weight gain," said I-Min Lee, an associate professor in the department of epidemiology at Harvard University in Boston.
More specifically, she said, the "amount of physical activity needed to prevent long-term weight gain is unclear."
So, Dr. Lee decided to study the question.
In new research published in today's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, she and her team provide an answer: 60 minutes of brisk physical activity a day will do the trick, as long as your food intake is reasonable.
The study involved 34,079 healthy U.S. women, average age 54, who were tracked from 1992 to 2007.
The women gained, on average, 2.6 kilograms (5.7 pounds) during the study period.
"This seemingly small amount of weight gain is sufficient to adversely affect health," Dr. Lee said.
She also noted that "preventing weight gain is preferable to treating overweight and obesity because of the limited sustainability of weight loss."
Only 13 per cent of study participants maintained the same weight and same body-mass index during the study period. Their distinguishing characteristic was that they expended physical effort that totalled at least 21 metabolic equivalent (MET) hours per week - which translates into about 60 minutes of brisk physical activity daily.
(MET is a united used to estimate the amount of oxygen used by the body during physical activity; it allows researchers to compare the energy expenditure of people of different weight.)
The study also looked more closely at women who exercised, on average, 30 minutes daily and those who were essentially inactive. Surprisingly, there was no appreciable difference in how much weight the women in those two groups gained. Researchers noted, however, that women in the study all had "normal" diets, meaning they did not have excessive caloric intake.
Canada's physical activity guide suggests that adults should engage in 60 minutes a day of moderate-intensity activity such as brisk walking, and that children should be active for at least 90 minutes.
Fewer than one-third of Canadians meet those modest targets.Report Typo/Error | <urn:uuid:79271724-1147-408f-9b9a-4eb822d163a3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/conditions/the-key-to-fending-off-pounds/article573077/?from=4182609 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00081-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964579 | 518 | 3.109375 | 3 |
POLARIZATION OF LIGHT AND ELLIPSOMETRY
In a beam of electromagnetic radiation the vectors of electric field E and magnetic field H are perpendicular to the direction of the light propagation. Because vectors E and H of electromagnetic wave are perpendicular also to each other, the state of the light anisotropy in the direction perpendicular to the wave propagation can be described by any of these two vectors. Generally, the polarization direction is the direction of the electric field vector E.
Light emitted by separate atoms and molecules is always polarized. Nevertheless, any macroscopic source of the light consists of huge number of such separate emitters and the direction of the electric field at any moment of the time is not predictable. Such light is called unpolarized or natural light. Using light polarizer (polarization filter) we can suppress the component of the light polarized in one direction and transmit only the component polarized in perpendicular direction. Behind the polarizer the light will be plane-polarized. In general case, the totally polarized light consists of two perpendicular plane-polarized components. Depending on the amplitude of these two waves and their relative phase, the combined electric vector traces out an ellipse and the wave is said to be elliptically polarized. Elliptical and plane polarization can be converted into each other by means of birefringent optical systems. Animation shows two waves: one of them are linear polarized wave and the other one is the circularly polarized wave. The electric field vector of linearly polarized electromagnetic wave (marked in blue) oscillates only in one direction. In circularly polarized wave the end of electric field vector (marked in red) moves like a coil.
If the lineally-polarized (plane-polarized) light is incident onto the polarizer, then the intensity of the transmitted lightI will depend upon the angle a between the direction of the light polarization and the orientation of the polarizer as follows:
I = I0cos2a
Animation shows the experiment when the Gaussian beam with linear polarization is incident onto the rotating polarizer. As a result the intensity of light spot on the screen behind the polarizer is varied harmonically depending on the angle between the polarization direction and polarizer angle.
Let us consider flat electro-magnetic wave propagating in the positive direction along the axis x. In this case the equation of such a wave can be written as:
= 0, Ey = E0cos(wt
- kx), Ez = 0;
where k=w/c is the wave constant, c is the velocity of the light. As we can see from the animation there is no oscillation of electric and magnetic components of wave in the direction x (Ex= Hx = 0). This means the the electromagnetic wave is the transverse one. This is one of the principle differences of electromagnetic wave as compared to the wave of mechanical stresses. Another principle of electro-magnetic wave propagation is that the vectors E and H oscillate in phase, i.e. they achieve the maximum value in the same points of the space.
Ellipsometry is a non-destructive optical technique, which deals with the measurement and interpretation state of polarized light undergoing oblique reflection from a sample surface. Linearly polarized light, when reflected from a surface, will change its state to elliptically polarized because of presence of the thin layer of the boundary surface between two mediums. Dependence between optical constants of a layer and parameters of elliptically polarized light can be found on basis of Fresnel formulas. The green line of mercury lamp or laser beam is used in ellipsometry as a source of light. The wide-band light of incandescent lamp can also be used for spectroscopic measurements. The laser has a higher power which gives a higher signal to noise ratio for better imaging at a wavelength where the sample is transparent. Animation shows two linear polarized waves incident on the surface. The wave, which reflects from a thin film of a sample, becomes circularly polarized wave, while the other wave reflected from a substrate does not change the state of polarization.
The microscopy with the use of the principles of ellipsometry is shown in the next animation. The beam of light comes out of the laser or lamp (marked in red), then the first polarizer (green) selects an angle for linear polarization, then the 1/4 wave plate compensator (blue) generates the correct elliptically polarized light such that it reflects off the surface linearly, then the analyzer (green) is adjusted to cross with that angle to find a null. As a result the sample becomes visible as a black spot on the white background of substrate, which reflects the light in the same polarization. The image of a sample is detected and recorded with the aid of photodiode matrix. Changing the orientation of the polarizer and analyzer we can achieve the positive picture of the sample, the negative one and all intermediate states. More detail information on imaging ellipsometry can be found on the website of the company Nanofilm Technologie GmbH. | <urn:uuid:68f279b9-293d-4d0e-aa15-49c6e16b7153> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://physics-animations.com/Physics/English/ell_txt.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00116-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.899841 | 1,043 | 3.6875 | 4 |
Kentucky Union sympathizers had trained recruits at Camp Andrew Johnson, in Barbourville, throughout the summer of 1861.
Confederate Brigadier General Felix Zollicoffer entered Kentucky in mid-September intending to relieve pressure on General Albert Sidney Johnston and his troops by conducting raids and generally constituting a threat to Union forces and sympathizers in the area.
On September 18, 1861, he dispatched a force of about 800 men under command of Colonel Joel A. Battle to disrupt the training activities at Camp Andrew Johnson.
At daylight on the 19th, the force entered Barbourville and found the recruits gone; they had been sent to Camp Dick Robinson. A small home guard force commanded by Capt. Isaac J. Black met the Rebels, and a sharp skirmish ensued.
After dispersing the home guard, the Confederates destroyed the training camp and seized arms found there.
This was, for all practical purposes, the first encounter of the war in Kentucky. The Confederates were making their might known in the state, countering the early Union presence.
Result(s): Confederate victory
Location: Knox County Next Battle in Campaign Campaigns
Campaign: Kentucky Confederate Offensive (1861)
Date(s): September 19, 1861
Principal Commanders: Capt. Isaac J. Black [US]; Colonel Joel A. Battle [CS]
Forces Engaged: Home Guard (approx. 300 men) [US]; detachment of approx. 800 men under command of Colonel Joel A. Battle [CS]
Estimated Casualties: 20 total (US 15; CS 5) | <urn:uuid:253c3b6b-8bc5-43ba-90d8-b62134606277> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.americancivilwar.com/statepic/ky/ky001.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00106-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924752 | 326 | 3.53125 | 4 |
Definitions for mean lethal dose
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word mean lethal dose
Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms
mean lethal dose
1. The amount of nuclear irradiation of the whole body which would be fatal to 50 percent of the exposed personnel in a given period of time. 2. The dose of chemical agent that would kill 50 percent of exposed, unprotected, and untreated personnel.
The numerical value of mean lethal dose in Chaldean Numerology is: 1
The numerical value of mean lethal dose in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8
Find a translation for the mean lethal dose definition in other languages:
Select another language:
Discuss these mean lethal dose definitions with the community:
Word of the Day
Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?
Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:
"mean lethal dose." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2016. Web. 30 Jun 2016. <http://www.definitions.net/definition/mean lethal dose>. | <urn:uuid:73792781-97c7-460c-bf85-8b8583fa7d86> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.definitions.net/definition/mean%20lethal%20dose | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00146-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.72315 | 229 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Lymphogranuloma Venereum (LGV)
(caused by 3 subtypes of Chlamydia trachomatis, a bacteria)
NOTE: LGV is rare in the U.S. If you have signs or symptoms of any sexually transmitted disease you should see a health care provider for evaluation and possible treatment. Suspect cases of LGV should be coordinated by the MDH Public Health Laboratory to facilitate submission of diagnostic specimens. Please contact (651) 201-5257 for further information.
Lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) caused by a type of chlamydia trachomatis (serovars L1, L2, or L3) that rarely occurs in the United States and other industrialized countries. However, recent outbreaks of LGV have been reported among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Europe and other U.S. cities. If you have signs or symptoms of any sexually transmitted disease you should see a health care provider for evaluation and possible treatment.
Download PDF versions below, formatted for print:
- STD Facts: Lymphogranuloma Venereum (LGV) (English) (PDF)
- STD Facts: Lymphogranuloma Venereum (LGV) (Spanish) (PDF)
- STD Facts: Lymphogranuloma Venereum (LGV) (Oromo) (PDF)
- STD Facts: Lymphogranuloma Venereum (LGV) (Somali) (PDF)
Signs and Symptoms
Early stage LGV symptoms:
- Begin 3–12 days or longer after exposure
- Early symptoms often go unnoticed or never occur
- Soft red, painless sore or lesion that forms on or near the genitals or anus
- Sores can also occur in the throat or mouth from oral sex
- The sore heals rapidly in a few days
Later stage LGV symptoms:
- Begin 2–6 weeks or longer after primary lesion
- Swollen lymph glands on one or both sides of the groin
- Pain during urination or when passing stools
- Rectal bleeding
- Pain in lower abdomen or back
- Pus-filled or bloody diarrhea
- Fever, chills, joint pain, decreased appetite and tiredness
LGV is spread by:
- Vaginal sex
- Oral sex
- Anal sex
If left untreated, LGV can:
- Spread to sex partners.
- Cause severe scarring and deformed genitals.
- Cause scarring of rectum causing narrowing.
- In women, create an opening between the vagina and anus (fistula).
- Cause brain inflammation (very rare).
- Avoiding vaginal, oral or anal sex is the best way to prevent STDs.
- Latex condoms, when used consistently and correctly, can reduce the risk of transmission of LGV.
- Always use latex condoms during vaginal and anal sex.
- Use a latex condom for oral sex on a penis.
- Use a latex barrier (dental dam or condom cut in half) for oral sex on a vagina or anus.
- Limit the number of sex partners.
- Notify sex partners immediately if infected.
- Make sure partners are tested and treated.
Testing and Treatment
- Get a test from a medical provider if infection is suspected.
- LGV can be cured using medication prescribed by medical provider.
- Partners should be treated at same time.
NOTE: A person can be re-infected after treatment.
For More Information, Contact:
For more information, contact:
STD, HIV and TB Section
Minnesota Department of Health
Minnesota Family Planning
and STD Hotline
1-800-783-2287 Voice/TTY; (651) 645-9360 (Metro)
CDC National STD and AIDS Hotlines
1-800-CDC-INFO; 1-888-232-6348 TTY
Content Notice: This site contains HIV or STD prevention messages that may not be appropriate for all audiences. Since HIV and other STDs are spread primarily through sexual practices or by sharing needles, prevention messages and programs may address these topics. If you are not seeking such information or may be offended by such materials, please exit this web site. | <urn:uuid:4eb13f94-0627-423d-95b7-1fb91824e78f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/idepc/diseases/lgv/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402699.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00047-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.826366 | 908 | 2.59375 | 3 |
|Interactive Sea Vent Viewer|
This interactive viewer allows students to explore the various aspects of deep-sea hyrothermal vents and their ecosystems which exist in the total absence of sunlight. The cursor permits panning to the left and right or up and down; rolling it over a numbered feature provides the name of the item, and clicking on the label provides access to additional information.
Intended for grade levels:
Type of resource:
No specific technical requirements, just a browser required
Cost / Copyright:
Most text appearing on NSF web pages was either prepared by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties and therefore not subject to copyright or prepared under contracts that gave the Foundation the right to place the text into the public domain. The same is true of most publications available for downloading from this web site. You may freely copy that material and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation. With the exception of NSF logos, permission to use NSF graphics is granted on a case by case basis. Some are public domain, some are created by NSF contractors, and some are used by NSF with specific permission granted by the owner. Therefore, with the exception of the NSF logos provided, photos and illustrations found on the NSF web site should not be reused without permission.
DLESE Catalog ID: DLESE-000-000-009-120
Resource contact / Creator / Publisher:
Publisher: National Science Foundation
Earth and Environmental Science | <urn:uuid:918bf4f5-a84f-4f62-a583-cbb9bfe1694c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dlese.org/library/catalog_DLESE-000-000-009-120.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00108-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.881854 | 312 | 3.046875 | 3 |
A philanthropic priest and inventor of the sign alphabet for the instruction of the deaf and dumb; was b. at Versailles, 25 November, 1712; d. at Paris, 23 December, 1789. He studied theology, but, having refused to sign a condemnation of Jansenism, was denied ordination by Christophe de Beaumont, Archbishop of Paris. He then studied law, but no sooner had he been admitted to the Bar than the Bishop of Troyes consented to ordain him. This bishop died shortly afterwards, whereupon the Abbé de l'Epée returned to Paris, and began to occupy himself with the education of two deaf and dumb sisters who had been recommended to him by Father Vanin, of the Congregation of the Christian Doctrine. He endeavoured to develop the minds of his pupils by means of certain conventional signs constituting a complete alphabet. Succeeding in this attempt, he resolved to devote himself to the education of the deaf and dumb, and founded a school for their instruction at his own expense. His method is based on the principle that "the education of deaf mutes must teach them through the eye what other people acquire through the ear". Several other methods had been tried, previous to this time, to enable the deaf and dumb to communicate with one another and with the rest of mankind, but there can be no doubt that he attained far greater success than Pereira, Bulwer, Dalgano, Dr. John Wallis, or any of his predecessors, and that the whole system now followed in the instruction of deaf mutes virtually owes its origin to his ingenuity and devotion. His own system has, in its turn, been replaced by a newer method, which teaches the pupils to recognize words and, in time, to utter them, by closely watching, and afterwards imitating, the motions of the lips and tongue in speech, the different portions of the vocal organs being shown by means of diagrams. Excellent results have thus been attained, deaf and dumb persons acquiring the ability to converse fluently. This method has of late increased in favour. But it remains true that the Abbé de l'Epée by his sign system laid the foundations of all systematic instruction of the deaf and dumb, a system which was further developed by his pupil and successor, the Abbé Sicard.
The Abbé de l'Epée became known all over Europe. The Emperor Joseph II himself visited his school. The Duke of Penthièvre, as well as Louis XVI, helped him with large contributions. In 1791, two years after his death, the National Assembly decreed that his name should be enrolled among the benefactors of mankind, and undertook the support of the school he had founded. In 1838 a bronze monument was erected over his grave in the church of Saint-Roch in Paris. He published in 1776 "Institution des sourds-muets par la voie des signes méthodiques"; in 1794, "La véritable manière d'instruire les sourds et muets, confirmée par une longue expérience". He also began a "Dictionnaire général des signes", which was completed by the Abbé Sicard. (See EDUCATION OF THE DEAF AND DUMB .)
The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed between 1907 and 1912 in fifteen hard copy volumes.
Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.
No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny.
Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912
Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online | <urn:uuid:588fc32d-0aa4-4c7a-a39a-79899c50a4c3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=4307 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396027.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00105-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964306 | 1,063 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Scientists from the University of Queensland (UQ) and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) said the time required for one run is the same as existing methods but the nanobiotechnology will allow more reactions to be done at once, in a single run.
However, the reliability for testing very large panels of pathogens remains to be established, which is part of a new project, said the researchers.
How it works
The process involves colour coded polystyrene Luminex microspheres which are mixed with DNA extracted from the samples.
Up to 100 colour coded miscrospheres are available and each colour corresponds (one-to-one) to a particular target pathogen.
Professor Ross Barnard, director of the Biotechnology Program at the UQ School of Chemistry & Molecular Biosciences, said the techniques could help improve food safety.
“A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is carried out in a mixture, in a PCR reaction tube containing the colour coded beads.
“A fluorescent signal (green) develops on those beads on which a positive reaction takes place (I.e. the pathogen is present in the sample).
“After the PCR reaction the micropheres are separated in a capillary sorting machine, which uses lasers to detect the colour code on the microspheres, and the green signal on each microsphere can be measured at the same time.
Barnard said a stronger green signal on a particular microsphere means more of the corresponding pathogen was present in the starting sample.
He said while testing methods do exist, they had been slow and less effective, so focus had been turned to leveraging existing “microsphere” technology to a new level.
When asked about future developments, he said: “Extension to testing multiple pathogens (Campylobacter coli and Camplyobacter jejuni genotypes- of which there are many) and other disease targets.
“The test could be used for food samples before shipping, or in tracing outbreaks if and when they happened.”
The discovery was the result of five years of research and the full scale of the benefits is yet to be known, he concluded. | <urn:uuid:2eba3f1e-72f7-4211-bc03-3db9d9f4992c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.foodnavigator-asia.com/Topics/Food-safety/Technology-allows-faster-screening-for-bacteria-on-food | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00060-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941399 | 459 | 3.1875 | 3 |
This standard “decline” postcard was one of many that George Bernard Shaw used over his years as a public figure. The playwright and critic, who had a long and successful career, wrote on controversial topics (socialism, education, feminism, the class structure, pacifism, vegetarianism). As a result, he received a lot of unsolicited mail. Form postcards helped him handle that load.
With this 1948 card, the 92-year-old Shaw begs the reader to realize that he is growing older, his audience is large, and “war taxation has set narrow limits to his financial resources.” (With this last, Shaw infuses even this bit of ephemera with his pacifism.) Therefore, he can’t give anyone money, advise young authors, write back to strangers who write him long letters, or accept visitors he doesn’t already know.
In his handwriting, Shaw has edited this draft so that its language is slightly less harsh (he replaces “warnings” with “intimations”), and requested 150 copies of the amended card.
Richard Oram, associate director and Hobby Foundation librarian at the Harry Ransom Center, writes that Shaw’s papers at the center contain an entire folder of these postcards, in different colors, many annotated in Shaw’s handwriting. Shaw wasn’t alone in his practice. Oram writes that many authors whose papers are at the center, including Evelyn Waugh and Marianne Moore, used similar form response postcards.
Thanks to Jennifer Tisdale of the Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. | <urn:uuid:9a4055b5-d47f-4dd2-be79-78332af278de> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/03/28/george_bernard_shaw_the_playwright_used_this_postcard_to_respond_to_unsolicited.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00005-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973106 | 344 | 2.6875 | 3 |
- Rhymes: -æʃɪŋ
lashing (plural lashings)
- Something used to tie something or lash it to something.
- The lashings, which had been holding the chest to the deck of the storm-tossed ship, broke, and it went overboard.
- (in the form "lashings of"): plenty of
- Lashings of ginger beer
- The act of one who, or that which, lashes; castigation; chastisement.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of South to this entry?) | <urn:uuid:09fc8f4d-1fc9-46ef-bd4e-552f8cf115e3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/lashing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00073-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.855346 | 123 | 2.640625 | 3 |
What is feather-plucking? Feather-plucking, also known as feather-picking, is when a bird damages or removes its feathers. It is usually seen in captive birds, most commonly in African Greys and Cockatoos. Most often the bird plucks at its chest, but can also pick at the inside of its wings and legs. These are the easiest places for it to reach. The plucking can be mild giving the feathers a ‘ruffled’, damaged appearance. The plucking can also be severe, going as far as damaging the skin and causing pain. Most birds fall between these two extremes, and will pluck themselves bald without picking at or damaging the skin.
Feather-plucking is not the same as molting. Molting is a normal lifelong bodily function, just like shedding is in dogs and cats. When the feathers get old, they fall out, just like our hair. Molting is the release of feathers, while feather-plucking is the removal of feathers by the bird. It is important not to mistake feather-plucking for molting because you want to correct feather-plucking as soon as possible. That way you can discover the cause of the plucking, and stop the behaviour before it becomes a habit.
There is no ‘one cause’ for feather-plucking. Feather-plucking behaviour itself is not a disease; it is a behaviour caused by a main problem. The challenge is figuring out what that main problem is. The cause is usually either medical or behavioural. The first thing to do with a bird that is feather-plucking is to rule out medical problems. There are many skin and metabolic problems that can cause a bird to pick at its feathers. For example, many of the same causes for skin problems in humans can cause irritation to a bird’s skin. In response to that irritation, they can begin to feather-pluck. These include allergies, humidity, and inappropriate nutrition. If there are no apparent medical causes for the feather-plucking, the next step is to look at behavioural causes. Generally, birds will feather-pluck in response to stress or boredom. Like all pets, birds like to have a stable and safe place to live. They will get stressed if something new happens, like a new child, new owner, or even remodeling!
One very important fact about the two specific breeds listed above (African Greys and Cockatoos) is that they are very intelligent. Not only are they intelligent, but they also form strong bonds with their human owner. This combination often leaves us a very bored bird that pouts at home when the owner is gone. It is generally thought that in this case, feather-plucking is an exaggerated preening behaviour used to distract the bird from boredom. Preening is a natural behaviour, like self-grooming in cats. A bird preens its feathers to spread oils and remove dead, old feathers. Preening behaviour is meant to keep the bird healthy. It’s thought that behavioural feather-plucking may be an exaggerated form of preening; it’s a natural behaviour taken to the extremes to occupy the bored bird.
Hopefully it doesn’t take too long to figure out why the bird is feather-plucking. Your next step is to get rid of the cause. If it is a medical issue, treatments like anti-inflammatories may help the problem. If it is a behavioural problem, the solution is much more complex. You can put an E-collar on the bird, and although that can stop the plucking, it will still not solve the underlying problem. One of the best ways to decrease stress and boredom is to give the bird something else to distract it (other than pulling feathers!). Foraging is an excellent way to decrease boredom. Unlike dogs, which have been domesticated for thousands of years, birds have not been domesticated for long. Many birds are only the 4th or 5th generation of domesticated birds; some are still caught in the wild as babies. To properly understand bird behaviour we must understand their wild behaviour. In the wild, these birds spend most of their time and mental energy foraging for food.
Therefore, one of the best ways to fight boredom is to make your bird hunt for its food by hiding it. This activity will take time for you to construct, because you will have to outsmart them every day by changing the challenges constantly. Do not underestimate the intelligence of these birds. Making them work for their food is a great way to decrease stress and boredom.
There are also anti-anxiety medications available for birds. These medications have been effective in certain situations. The real solution will probably take some time to figure out. Feather-plucking is not a simple problem, and will not have a quick solution. You will probably have to try by trial-and-error to find the right solution for your bird and sometimes, the bird will not give up the habit.
The good news is that except in severe cases of skin damage, feather-plucking is not a huge health concern. It is not terribly painful for the bird. It does change the appearance of the bird though. Feather-plucking is a big issue for bird owners to think about, especially for those with the extremely intelligent parrot species. If your bird has this problem and you can’t solve it yourself then a trip to a veterinarian that specializes in birds is a great idea.
By Ashley O’Driscoll – Pets.ca writer | <urn:uuid:4c0379af-cb09-46b9-a634-651d9aac47d4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pets.ca/birds/articles/feather-plucking/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394937.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00056-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964168 | 1,137 | 3.515625 | 4 |
A Guide to Safe Use of Pain Medicine
Types of Pain Relievers continued...
FDA has recently notified makers of certain opioid drugs that these products will need to have a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) to ensure that the benefits continue to outweigh the risks.
Affected opioid drugs, which include brand name and generic products, are formulated with the active ingredients fentanyl, hydromorphone, methadone, morphine, oxycodone, and oxymorphone.
FDA has authority to require a REMS under the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007.
Types of non-opioid prescription medications include ibuprofen and diclofenac, which treat mild to moderate pain.
Use as Directed
Pain medications are safe and effective when used as directed. However, misuse of these products can be extremely harmful and even deadly.
Consumers who take pain relief medications must follow their health care professional's instructions carefully. If a measuring tool is provided with your medicine, use it as directed.
Do not change the dose of your pain relief medication without talking to your doctor first.
Also, pain medications should never be shared with anyone else. Only your health care professional can decide if a prescription pain medication is safe for someone.
Here are other key points to remember.
- Taking a higher dose than recommended will not provide more relief and can be dangerous.
- Too much can lead to liver damage and death. Risk for liver damage may be increased in people who drink three or more alcoholic beverages a day while using acetaminophen-containing medicines.
- Be cautious when giving acetaminophen to children. Infant drop medications can be significantly stronger than regular children's medications. Read and follow the directions on the label every time you use a medicine. Be sure that your infant is getting the infants' pain formula and your older child is getting the children's pain formula.
- Too much can cause stomach bleeding. This risk increases in people who are over 60 years of age, are taking prescription blood thinners, are taking steroids, have a history of stomach bleeding or ulcers, and/or have other bleeding problems.
- Use of NSAIDs can also cause kidney damage. This risk may increase in people who are over 60 years of age, are taking a diuretic (a drug that increases the excretion of urine), have high blood pressure, heart disease, or pre-existing kidney disease.
- Use of opioids can lead to drowsiness. Do not drive or use any machinery that may injure you, especially when you first start the medication.
- The dose of an opioid pain medication that is safe for you could be high enough to cause an overdose and death in someone else, especially children. | <urn:uuid:b6be49ed-d958-4161-a1e1-3dc913ff2ead> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/safe-pain-relief?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396455.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00183-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926486 | 565 | 2.765625 | 3 |
One of the first sights new telescope owners often observe is the scintillating dance of Jupiter’s moons as they orbit the planet.
Galileo Galilei was the first to observe Jupiter’s four bright satellites, and from them he was able to deduce that they orbited Jupiter. He grasped this as proof positive of Copernicus’ groundbreaking theory that the sun, not the Earth, was the center of the solar system.
Most of the time we see Jupiter’s four bright moons strung in a line on either side of the planet, because we are viewing this miniature solar system edge on.
Inevitably this means that most of the moons will also pass in front of and behind Jupiter once every orbit. When they pass behind Jupiter, the moons are sometimes in the huge shadow of the gas giant, and other times behind the planet itself. In either case, we cannot see them from Earth.
But when the satellites pass in front of Jupiter, many interesting things happen. The inner two satellites, Io and Europa, are highly reflective, even more so than Jupiter itself. This brightness is particularly noticeable when they are just beginning or ending their journey across the face of Jupiter. During these so-called transits, when Io and Europa are near the middle of the planet’s disk, they usually vanish from sight except in the largest telescopes. [Telescope Reviews for Beginners]
The two outer satellites, Ganymede and Callisto, are darker than Jupiter, and so are visible as dark gray spots when viewed against Jupiter’s cloud banks.
The Jupiter system's celestial show
This can be seen clearly in the computer-simulated image here, where Europa, just entering the disk, is a bright white spot, while Ganymede, leaving the disk, is dark gray.
The graphic depicts an actual transit which will be visible from the west coast of North America in the evening on Jan. 10. The event begins with the entry of Ganymede onto the face of Jupiter at 8:40 p.m. PST (11:40 p.m. EST; 0440 GMT Jan. 11). Incidentally, Jupiter's Great Red Spot will also be well placed for observation at this time.
Ganymede will slowly cross the face of Jupiter until it is joined by the bright Europa at 10:25 p.m. PST (1:25 a.m. EST Jan. 11; 0625 GMT Jan. 11). By then, Jupiter will be low in the west, and will set soon after. Unfortunately for viewers in eastern North America, most of this event will take place after Jupiter sets.
Ganymede will leave the disk of Jupiter at 10:47 p.m. PST (1:47 a.m. EST Jan. 11; 0647 GMT Jan. 11). Europa will follow at 12:53 a.m. PST (3:53 a.m. EST; 0853 GMT), but Jupiter will have set for most North American observers by then.
Viewers in the far northwest may be able to catch the intensely black shadow of Europa as it begins to cross the disk of Jupiter at 3:03 a.m PST (6:03 a.m. EST; 1103 GMT). You will need to be in Hawaii to see the shadow of Ganymede join that of Europa slightly over an hour later, and to follow them across the face of the planet.
Skywatching in 2012
Such a "double feature" with Jupiter’s moons is extremely rare, yet this is actually part of a series of similar skywatching events in 2012, culminating in August when half a dozen such events will occur.
Unfortunately, in most cases, the whole sequence takes place over too long a span of time for an observer in any one location to catch it all, but there will be many opportunities for all of us to catch parts of the shows.
While Jupiter’s moons are easily visible in even the smallest telescopes when they are "off-planet," they require a fair amount of telescope power to be seen while in transit. The satellite shadows, because they are intensely black, can be seen with a 90mm telescope. The darker satellites, Ganymede and Callisto, are visible with a 130mm telescope. In any case, you will need a magnification of at least 150 times to make them out.
All these transit events are predicted in the Observer’s Handbook 2012 of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, and in most computer planetarium programs. | <urn:uuid:5144bae8-74e0-4218-8bfd-64bc4f2cff24> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.space.com/14148-jupiter-moons-transit-skywatching.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00159-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922331 | 945 | 3.671875 | 4 |
Native American Bear Meaning:
Sybolic Wisdom from the Bear
When we walk the Path with the bear, this animal will inevitably tell us about its long history with the First People of North America.
As a Native American symbol, the bear is as free in spirit as the great wind; and grander than its mass. To match that magnitude is the quality of unpredictability in the bear. A massive animal who forages seemingly peacefully in the woods on berries and bush. when provoked in certain ways, the First Peoples witnessed a ferocity expressed from the bear that (understandably) could elicited terror.
Because of this potentially furious storm brewing just under the surface of bears spirit, our native forebears were extremely cautious and respectful of this animal. Even tribes inclined to peace honored the spirit of a warrior, and witnessing the bear seemed to embody that kind of blind, powerful surge of courage and strength that every warrior is want to tap into.
Bear meanings were enhanced by observations made tribal sages. These vital tribal figures were inclined to pensive and deeper understanding of how nature communicated intent in all her forms. These sages found connections between human and beast and from these associations would interpret profound meanings that propelled the community into direction, action, and wisdom.
One such connection to bear meaning comes from a Shoshone sage who, set about bridging worlds in a manner of trance walking. During his trance walk, he was gifted with the site of a clan of bears who were performing what seemed to be a ritual dance.
These were not spirit bears, but real bears, on their hind legs, dancing in the golden rays of the sun. The Shoshone sage understood this to be a dance of gratitude as well as a prayer for the healing and protection of their young. From that point further the Shoshone have instigated their own Sun Dance where the bear is a central figure of the ritual symbolizing protection, strength and continuation of the progeny of the tribe.
We see a lot of connections with bear and man in the Native mind. We can intuit these bear meanings to come from the human-like appearance of the bear when it's posed on hind legs. Further, the natives observed the bear looks remarkably human when skinned of its fur.
Bear meanings of motherhood and child protection continue in the Aleut and Haida minds where legend indicates the bear would take a tribal woman as its wife. From this union, man and bear strengthened their greatest aspects, combining the best (and sometimes worst) traits.
As a Sioux symbol, the bear also has healing symbolism. Sioux legend indicates mother bear was weary from carrying her heavy babies in her belly. She was having trouble walking and feared she could not make the journey to the great foraging fields to feed during her final days of pregnancy. She rested against redwood sorrel plant and the plant spoke to her, telling her that if she ate of its leaves her body would be able to sustain her load. Mother bear did as the sorrel advised to discover the treatment worked. She knew her Sioux sisters would have the same troubles when they were heavy with their own babies, so she shared the medicinal advice with the Sioux medicine woman.
The bear is a strong Native American symbol to the Cree who are powerfully connected with the bear. Recognizing its girth, and amazingly effective teeth and claws, the Cree adopted the bear as a symbol for successful hunt. Intricate preparations were made prior to a hunt. These preparations featured the bear as the guest of honor. Every aspect of pre-hunting ritual was designed to honor the bear. Even after the ritual bear skulls would hang in the lodge overnight to induce dreams of bears that provided good luck in the hunt. That is, if the bear was pleased, the dreams would come, and the hunt would be a success.
Above all, bear meaning holds incredible influence and magnitude to the North American tribes. And although the bear is a profound Native American symbol of majesty, freedom and power it is far more. The spiritual connections made with the bear makes it a brother to the First People.
As a brother, the bear imparts this advice to both our ancestors and us today...
I hope you have enjoyed these thoughts on bear meaning as they pertain to the Native American perspective. Click on the links below for more symbolic information, including Native American symbol meanings, and bear meaning (in general).
An Important Note About Signs, Symbols and Their Meanings
Signs and symbols cultivate their meanings according to culture, context, passage of time in society as well as mass societal opinion. What's cool and highly important is that signs and symbols earn their most powerful meanings from our own personal perspectives.
This website strives to provide you with the best, time-honored information when defining signs and symbols. However, in the final analysis, "Beauty (and symbolism) is in the eye of the beholder."
Having said that, it's in our best interest to invest the time to do personal research on symbolic events happening to us. This website is just one perspective in an ocean of variety and diversity in the realm of symbolism. So dive in! There is a whole universe of deeper meanings to explore! You can start your research by clicking on the links at the end or to the side of this page. Odds are good I've got a follow-up article about this symbolic topic. ;)
As always, thanks for your willingness to learn more about the language of symbolism. It's a language that is universal and everywhere. It's super-groovy to travel with you on your symbolic path, and maybe offer a little translation along the way. Thanks for reading and exploring!
|Get My RSS
|My Wordpress Blog
|My Tarot Site
|My Photo Site
|Native American Symbols
|Native American Animals
|Common Native Symbols
|Native Nature Symbols
|Native American Zodiac
|Native American Moon Signs
|Native American Bears
|Misc. Native American | <urn:uuid:ac24810f-cdea-4af7-a958-fd15a68349e5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.whats-your-sign.com/native-american-bear-meaning.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394937.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00177-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966431 | 1,231 | 2.9375 | 3 |
ArchiTreats: Food for Thought continues with another interesting and informative lecture on Alabama history at the Alabama Department of Archives and History. Thursday, award-winning author and historian, Dr. James C. Giesen will present "Alabama's got the Boll Weevil Blues."
Between the 1890s and the early 1920s, the boll weevil slowly ate its way across the Cotton South from Texas to the Atlantic Ocean. By the early 20th century, it had invaded Alabama and was quickly decimating our state's cotton crop. Dr. Giesen, author of Boll Weevil Blues: Cotton, Myth and Power in the American South, will explore how southerners misrepresented the invasion of the boll weevil. Central to his presentation is the odd case in Coffee County, where citizens built a monument to the insect in Enterprise in 1919. Join with others on Thursday to discover the many ways in which southerners learned - and didn't learn - the lessons taught by a voracious little beetle.
A native of Kalamazoo, Mich., Dr. James C. Giesen is a historian who specializes in the environmental and agricultural histories of the American South. His main interest has been attempting to understand the ways in which rural southerners represent their past. Dr. Giesen's book and articles have won a number of scholarly awards including the Deep South Book Prize, the Francis B. Simpkins Award, and the Vernon Christensen Award. He is an associate professor of history at Mississippi State University where he directs the Center for the History of Agriculture, Science and the Environment in the South. He and his wife, Mississippi State historian Dr. Anne Marshall, have two young children. Copies of Dr. Giesen's book, "Boll Weevil Blues: Cotton, Myth and Power in the American South" will be available for purchase on December 19th.
This ArchiTreats presentation is made possible by the Friends of the Alabama Archives and a grant from the Alabama Humanities Foundation, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The public is invited to bring a sack lunch and enjoy a bit of Alabama history.
The Alabama Department of Archives and History is located at 624 Washington Ave. in Montgomery.
The Tristan de Luna Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution will be available Saturday from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Mobile Public Library's Local History and Genealogy Room to assist those who are researching their family history. The department is located at 753 Government Street. For more information, please call 251-208-7093.
I am trying to locate the place of burial for Alex Boudreaux who was born March 23, 1877, in Lafourche Parish, La., and died March 1, 1966, in Mobile. I have found an obituary for him, but no place of burial was listed. No children were listed. Only his siblings were mentioned. I'm not sure if he ever married. Alex Boudreaux is the son of Melize Boudreaux and Angelle Barrios.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Climbing the Family Tree is designed to help our readers who have come to dead ends in family tree research. You can email firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:e115ee93-3d83-4463-bf89-d245b390e835> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.al.com/pr-community-news/2013/12/climbing_the_family_tree_learn.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399428.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00151-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96237 | 682 | 2.578125 | 3 |
As things now stand, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection must review timber plans before cutting can begin -- unless the chopping relates to specific ends such as fire prevention. Those exemptions come with guidelines stipulating that the trees can be no larger than 18 inches in diameter.
Legislators want to expand the maximum diameter to 24 inches through 2019 via gut-and-amend legislation, introduced by Assemblymen Brian Dahle, R-Bieber, and Rich Gordon,D-Menlo Park, and co-authored by Sens. Ted Gaines, R-Rocklin, and Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, that looks similar to a timber-harvesting bill that died in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee, its first stop, back in April.
A series of massive fires, including the ravenous Rim fire that swept across hundreds of acres of California in recent weeks, prompted the bill, according to Josh Cook, Dahle's chief of staff. He stressed that the bill creates a five-year pilot program to see if facilitating the process for harvesting larger trees would help stymie catastrophic blazes.
"With climate change we have drier years and need to adapt our practices," Cook said. "Clearly we have a problem. With the amount of structures being lost and watershed destruction, this is clearly the biggest environmental issue in the state."
Six inches may seem like a small difference, but environmentalists say the bill carries large implications for complex forest ecosystems and the habitats they contain.
"The bill would actually focus the cutting on the large, merchantable trees, which are not the trees that are the biggest part of fuel load in fire risk," said Brian Nowicki of the Center for Biological Diversity. "Large trees are the more fire-resistant trees."
PHOTO: A logger working in the Tahoe National Forest trims off branches and cuts trunks to the proper length for loading onto a logging truck in 1992. The Sacramento Bee/Jay Mather. | <urn:uuid:dbb3d0fd-dc88-46ca-bdc4-2960a2da75dd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/09/california-tree-measure-raises-environmentalist-hackles.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00170-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937346 | 402 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Fact Sheets on Wastewater Treatment
EPA Wastewater Technology Fact Sheets
These EPA fact sheets give overall descriptions, applicability, design criteria, costs, and operations and maintenance on wastewater processes such as anaerobic lagoons or screening and grit removal.
Geographic Information Systems Fact Sheet
What is GIS?
These give overall descriptions, applicability, design criteria, costs, and operations and maintenance on wastewater processes such as anaerobic lagoons or screening and grit removal.
A geographic information system (GIS) is a software tool for mapping and analyzing spatial data. GIS can model watersheds, manage collection systems, issue and track work orders, manage customer needs, manage infrastructure and map wetlands. You can also use GIS for hydrologic modeling, environmental assessments, contaminant transport modeling and permit management.
How can GIS help water and wastewater utilities?
GIS is very effective in helping municipalities and privately owned treatment plants manage spatial information to improve utility operations, maintenance, and planning. GIS:
- Provides a spatially-based approach to organizing information about the physical assets of a utility
- Organizes customer information
- Helps utility staff analyze that information and use it to improve operations. GIS can improve management of facilities (pipes, appurtenances, and pumping and treatment equipment) for business functions such as capital planning and maintenance
- Improves management of labor resources through more efficient deployment of field crews
- Acts as a data repository for the user and ensures accurate storage and easy access to geospatial information throughout the utility.
GIS software continues to increase in power while it becomes simpler to use, and includes options for intranet and internet accessibility throughout the utility's workforce. Exchange of data between GIS and CAD systems, and sharing data with Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA ) systems and hydraulic modeling software is becoming much simpler. These developments make GIS an excellent tool for managing utility data and improving utility activities. | <urn:uuid:81bc848d-133a-444b-9313-c677c67ae04d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wef.org/AWK/page.aspx?id=437 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00055-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909946 | 408 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Print This Page
Contribute to ReadWriteThink / RSS / FAQs / Site Demonstrations / Contact Us / About Us
Home › Email
Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Author: Martha Cheney, Jennifer Prior, Ph.D.
"Run, run, as fast as you can." Students use this refrain from The Gingerbread Man to learn letter-sound correspondence. Students use their new skills to write an online story.
(A link to this page will be included in your message.)
Back to this resource
Send me a copy
(Separate multiple e-mail addresses with commas. Limited to 20 addresses.)
characters remaining 300
To help us eliminate spam messages,
please type the characters shown in the image.
© ILA/NCTE 2016. All rights reserved.
Technical Help | Legal | International Literacy Association | National Council of Teachers of English | <urn:uuid:f4c774b5-51b8-44d2-accb-588f96b567dc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.readwritethink.org/util/email.html?url=/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/gingerbread-phonics-114.html?tab=4&title=Gingerbread+Phonics&id=114 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00044-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.782256 | 186 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Pregnancy Week 29 – The Baby’s Progress
By the time you have reached pregnancy week 29 your baby’s lungs will have developed small airways and air sacs known as ‘alveoli’. One of the most important developments with the lungs to ensure your baby is capable of breathing outside of the womb is a substance called ‘surfactant’ which is now beginning to be produced.
Pregnancy at 29 Weeks – Lung Development
Pulmonary surfactant is a complex mixture of surface-active lipoproteins that maintain a low surface tension of the lungs during expansion and contraction resulting in the stability of the air sacs and airways of the lungs. It is coated around the lung’s internal surfaces to prevent them from sticking together in the deflated state when exhaling. The progressive loss of surfactant would lead to fatal lung collapse and suffocation so it is absolutely critical to the survival of all mammalian species. The highest cause of premature birth fatality comes from an infants inability to self sustain their own breathing prior to the production of surfactant.
If a baby is suspected to be born prematurely then the mother will be given a steroid injection in order to stimulate the baby’s lungs to begin producing the substance. If the baby is born expectantly early then they will be placed in intensive neonatal care and given artificial surfactant and breathing aid until their lungs have managed to mature sufficiently. The surfactant is normally produced and secreted by the alveolar cells within the lungs and are also responsible for regenerating the lungs and aiding gas exchange. This week your 29 week fetus will now have advanced, spontaneous, rhythmic chest breathing motions that are now controlled by the brain, along with the baby’s body temperature.
The growth of the placenta, at this stage, is beginning to slow down although it still receives around 400 ml (14fl oz) of blood from your circulatory system every minute enabling it to continue providing essential life support to the infant by exchanging nutrients, gases and waste products. The placenta is always working hard to ensure the well being of your baby by preventing any harmful substances and toxins from entering from the mother’s bloodstream into the baby’s lifeline.
By the end of pregnancy week 29 your rapidly maturing baby will now have an expanding waistline of his own as his abdomen begins filling out with all the fat deposits that are now being distributed throughout the body. He will now measure around 16.75” (42.5cm) and weigh in at approximately 2.9 lbs (1.32 kg).
(See 29 Weeks Pregnant – The Mother’s Progress) | <urn:uuid:d0afb036-69bb-42b8-ae24-3bf776492c32> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://stages-of-pregnancy-development.com/pregnancy-week-29/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395613.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00139-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952491 | 557 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Healing Words: Poetry & Medicine
Reviewed By: Alysa Cummings
The Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Last Modified: July 27, 2008
Does poetry heal?
To answer that question, the filmmakers take us into the Shands Hospital at the University of Florida and invite us to experience their Arts in Medicine program. The film features intimate scenes and images that resonate powerfully and linger long after the documentary ends.
We stand next to a dance therapist who uses music and gentle movement to help a teenager with sickle cell anemia cope with chronic pain. We watch poetry therapist John Fox quickly jot down words on a pad uttered by young girl from her hospital bed. She describes her cat, and moments later her thoughts translate into an instant poem that is celebrated by being spoken aloud right back to her.
We walk down the hospital’s hallways and peek up at colorful ceiling tiles painted by patients. We watch the careful installation of a healing wall, each tile representing a Shands patient on the path to recovery. We peek in on a writing seminar for medical students as they explore their feelings in words. We listen to poems written by experienced doctors, poems that tell the stories of patients, people they will never forget, individuals who they have tried to heal.
According to Healing Words, “A lot of poetry comes from wounds…and language carries us from illness and loss, to hope and understanding.” Shands Hospital is one of a small handful of hospitals exploring the so-called “art of medicine” by inviting artists-in-residence to work at bedside with patients, using music, movement, expressive writing and other artistic media to promote creative expression and healing.
At one point in the film, one doctor speaks about the positive effects of endorphins being released and later a neurologist shares his research on brain changes resulting from expressive encounters.
But the answer to the question, ‘does poetry heal’ is clearly written on the faces of the patients we meet in the documentary. They find relief from suffering by sharing their feelings, by writing down their fears, by describing memories, by making peace with factors beyond their control. The camera records their tears and catharsis, as well as the peace that comes with insight, acceptance and life lessons learned.
Check PBS.org for information regarding when Healing Words is scheduled to air on the PBS affiliate in your area. The film is also available for purchase ($24.95 shopPBS.org). | <urn:uuid:26cc4cfa-e863-4eb9-8f87-d6795e56c2ad> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.oncolink.org/library/article.cfm?c=1&s=1&id=862 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396945.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00113-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958302 | 512 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Compare book prices
at 110 online bookstores
worldwide for the lowest price for new & used textbooks and
discount books! 1 click to get great deals on cheap books, cheap
textbooks & discount college textbooks on sale.
In April 1932, John Lorne Campbell, while on a visit to the United States, took the chance of going to Cape Breton Island and Antigonish County in Eastern Nova Scottia, to find out how the descendants of emigrants from the Scottish Highlands and the Hebrides were faring in their new country, and to what extent the Gaelic language had been maintained among them. In September 1937, after four years on Barra, he returned with his wife, Margaret Fay Shaw, taking with them a recorder in order to collect Gaelic song and tradition and compare it with surviving tradition in the Western Isles. This book is the result of that expedition. As a preface the book includes an account of the collapse of the Hebridean kelp industry after 1820 which led to the bankruptcy of the last Chief of the MacNeils of Barra in the direct line, and which was a major contributory factor to the great flood of emigration from the Hebrides to Canada and America. The title refers to the traditional song and lore preserved by emigrants from Scotland in the new land to which they came. Much of the tradition has been lost in Scotland and was only to be found in Nova Scottia. The quality of the music in the original edition was a matter of considerable concern and this edition completely corrects and revises it.
Recent Book Searches:
ISBN-10/ISBN-13: 0521266440 / 978-0521266444 / The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Middle Ages Volume I, 350-950 / 0521266459 / 978-0521266451 / The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Middle Ages, Volume 2, 950-1250 AD / 0521266564 / 978-0521266567 / The Diary Novel / Lorna Martens 0521266696 / 978-0521266697 / Neighbourhood and Society: A London Suburb in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time) / Jeremy Boulton 0521266815 / 978-0521266819 / China and the Christian Impact: A Conflict of Cultures / Jacques Gernet 0521266882 / 978-0521266888 / American Studies: An Annotated Bibliography / 0521267242 / 978-0521267243 / Transformation and Tradition in the Sciences: Essays in Honour of I Bernard Cohen / 0521267269 / 978-0521267267 / Egyptian Politics Under Sadat: The Post-Populist Development of an Authoritarian-Modernizing State (Cambridge Middle East Library) / Raymond A. Hinnebusch Jr 0521267277 / 978-0521267274 / The Indian Princes and their States (The New Cambridge History of India) / Barbara N. Ramusack 0521267587 / 978-0521267588 / Categorical Perception: The Groundwork of Cognition / 0521267668 / 978-0521267663 / William of Tyre: Historian of the Latin East (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series) / Peter W. Edbury, John Gordon Rowe 0521267676 / 978-0521267670 / Sufi Music of India and Pakistan: Sound, Context and Meaning in Qawwali (Cambridge Studies in Ethnomusicology) / Regula Burckhardt Qureshi 0521268400 / 978-0521268400 / Diplomacy and Intelligence During the Second World War: Essays in Honour of F. H. Hinsley / 052126846X / 978-0521268462 / Divided Staffs, Divided Selves: A Case Approach to Mental Health Ethics / Stanley Joel Reiser, Harold J. Bursztajn, Paul S. Appelbaum, Thomas G. Gutheil 0521268532 / 978-0521268530 / Collective Farms which Work? (Cambridge Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies) / Nigel Swain 0521268818 / 978-0521268813 / Inequality in Africa: Political Elites, Proletariat, Peasants and the Poor (African Society Today) / E. Wayne Nafziger 0521268885 / 978-0521268882 / Twilight in Italy and Other Essays (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of D. H. Lawrence) / D. H. Lawrence 0521269059 / 978-0521269056 / Militarism: The History of an International Debate 1861-1979 / Volker R. Berghahn 0521269075 / 978-0521269070 / An Introduction to the Properties of Condensed Matter / D. J. Barber, R. Loudon 0521269091 / 978-0521269094 / Focus on the Language Classroom: An Introduction to Classroom Research for Language Teachers (Cambridge Language Teaching Library) / Richard Allwright, Kathleen M. Bailey 0521269121 / 978-0521269124 / Statistical Foundations of Econometric Modelling / Aris Spanos 0521269164 / 978-0521269162 / Fashion Drawing / P. J. Ireland 0521266769 / 978-0521266765 / New Essays on 'The Scarlet Letter' (The American Novel) / 0521267323 / 978-0521267328 / English for Specific Purposes (New Directions in Language Teaching) / Tom Hutchinson, Alan Waters 0521267412 / 978-0521267410 / The Individual, Communication, and Society: Essays in Memory of Gregory Bateson (Studies in Emotion and Social Interaction) / 0521267439 / 978-0521267434 / The English Rising of 1381 (Past and Present Publications) / 0521267560 / 978-0521267564 / Mind and Brain: Dialogues in Cognitive Neuroscience / 0521267986 / 978-0521267984 / Cave Monasteries of Byzantine Cappadocia / Lyn Rodley 0521268125 / 978-0521268127 / Women in Modern India (The New Cambridge History of India) / Geraldine Forbes 0521268427 / 978-0521268424 / Our Green and Living World: The Wisdom to Save It / Edward S. Ayensu, Vernon H. Heywood, Grenville L. Lucas, Robert A. Defilipps
More About Using This Site and Buying Books Online:
Be Sure to Compare Book Prices Before Buy
This site was created for shoppers to compare book prices and find cheap books
and cheap college textbooks. A lot of discount books and discount text books
are put on sale by many discounted book retailers and discount bookstores everyday.
You just need to search and find them. Our site provides many book links to
some major bookstores for book details and book coupons. But be sure not just
jump into any bookstore site to buy. Always click "Compare Price" button to
compare prices first. You would be happy that how much you could save by doing
book price comparison.
Buy Books from Foreign Country
Our goal is to find the cheapest books and college textbooks for you, both
new and used books, from a large number of bookstores worldwide. Currently our
book search engines fetch book prices from US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, France, and Japan. More bookstores from other
countries will be added soon. Before buying from a foreign book store or book
shop, be sure to check the shipping options. It's not unusual that shipping
could take 2 -3 weeks and cost could be multiple of a domestic shipping charge.
Buy Used Books and Used Textbooks
Buying used books and used textbooks is becoming more and more popular among
college students for saving. Different second hand books could have different
conditions. Be sure check used book condition from the seller's description.
Also many book marketplaces put books for sale from small bookstores and individual
sellers. Make sure to check store review for seller's reputation when available.
If you are in a hurry to get a book or textbook for your class, you would better
choose buying new books for prompt shipping.
Please See Help Page for Questions
regarding ISBN / ISBN-10 / ISBN10, ISBN-13 / ISBN13, EAN / EAN-13, and Amazon | <urn:uuid:5039c2d5-10bc-485b-96cb-f7b0aad48ff4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.alldiscountbooks.net/_9781841580104_i_.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00155-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.818598 | 1,814 | 2.875 | 3 |
As world population increases, so do pressures on freshwater resources, making attention to household water consumption more important than ever. Fortunately, many opportunities exist for water conservation in home gardens and landscapes. Through thoughtful garden planning and practices, you can save time and money, encourage optimal plant growth and take responsibility for your part in protecting water supplies.
Native Plant Species
Choose native plant species and those well-adapted to your particular climate and soil type when planting vegetable gardens. Native species need little water aside from rainfall to thrive. Additionally, native species are naturally resistant to insects and diseases in your region that non-native species have not adapted to (see References 2, page 7). Contact your local agricultural extension service for information about native and drought-tolerant species specific to your area.
Mulch and Compost
Mulch is material placed on top of soil in garden beds that serves to reduce evaporation, minimize the growth of weeds (which compete with vegetables for water) and encourage consistent soil temperatures. Mulch materials vary, and some are more desirable than others, depending on the climate, local resources and soil type. Mulch materials include wood bark chips, pine needles, straw, gravel and shredded organic material from the landscape. As mulch decomposes, it improves the overall condition of your soil (see Resources 2, page 8). Add compost to garden beds to improve soil structure, health and water retention, and to reduce erosion.
Reduce evaporation by hand-watering only when necessary and early in the morning, before the sun is intense. Better yet, install drip irrigation tubes or lines. These systems water plants at the soil level, eliminating evaporation from leaf surfaces. Drip systems vary in cost and ease of installation -- they can be as simple as soaker hoses or as complex as customized, slotted pipe irrigation systems (see References 1). Consider installing a rainwater-collection system with a holding tank near your garden. A system as basic as a 50-gallon drum connected to the downspout of your gutters can help you offset water costs and maximize the benefits of rain.
Companion planting involves the intentional grouping of certain plants for their mutual benefit as they grow. When tall, sun-loving plants with large leaves are planted near shorter, shade-loving species, evaporation through the leaves of the shorter plant is reduced. Companion planting is also advantageous in deterring pests, promoting symbiotic nitrogen fixation, providing windbreaks and creating healthy microclimates for beneficial insects. (See References 3)
- Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images | <urn:uuid:b76c8d15-dce9-45fc-b359-46c265d9a291> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://homeguides.sfgate.com/water-conservation-vegetable-gardens-78689.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399428.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00109-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923562 | 529 | 3.734375 | 4 |
As with any scientific inquiry, conclusions to one question should lead to new questions. Even when time restrictions prevent execution of further experimentation, it is important to take time to articulate suggestions for further investigations and to propose improvements to the methods used in data collection and analysis.
The My World tool offers a myriad of possibilities for investigation. Any data that vary geographically can be studied in a GIS. This tool comes with a great deal of packaged data that can be used as the focus of an investigation, or students can collect their own data and bring it into a project as shown in this EET chapter.
Data can be seamlessly brought in to My World from ArcIMS servers on the web by selecting File > Import Layer from the Internet... from within the My World program. Then simply type in an appropriate URL for an ArcIMS server, such as http://www.geographynetwork.com
For additional data and project ideas, visit the My World Activity Center.
Case Studies with Tool
How Cities Affect Their Local ClimateExplore the urban heat island effect using student collected surface temperature data. Subset large datasets, buffer others, examine spatial relationships, and gather statistics to investigate temperature differences in urban and rural school sites.
Detecting El Nino in Sea Surface Temperature DataCreate and analyze fifteen years of average SST maps to find El Niño and La Niño events.
Evidence for Plate TectonicsIdentify relationships among sea-floor age, earthquakes, and volcanoes to understand how they support the theory of plate tectonics.
Exploring Monsoon Precipitation and Streamflow in a Semi-Arid WatershedInvestigate the effect of summer thunderstorms on streamflow in a semi-arid watershed in Arizona.
Investigating Earthquakes with AEJEEDownload earthquake data from the USGS. Bring it into a GIS and analyze it to predict where the next big earthquake will occur on Earth.
Is Greenland Melting?Explore map layers to examine annual melting and long-term changes of Greenland's ice sheet.
Looking into Earth with GISExamine seismic wave data in a GIS and analyze wave velocities to infer the depth of the crust-mantle boundary.
Seeing the Forest for the Trees: What's in Your Woods?Investigate forest biodiversity in Maine using a spreadsheet and My World GIS. Then consider the environmental factors that contribute to tree species diversity.
Protecting Wetlands from Exurban DevelopmentExamine land-use changes around Macclenny, Florida. Propose locations for future development that minimize impacts on wetlands.
Tsunami Run-up Prediction for Seaside, Oregon with AEJEEDownload and examine global, historical tsunami run-up patterns. Acquire DEM contours and import them into My World GIS. Then visualize the potential sea level rise that could occur during a tsunami run-up event near Seaside, Oregon.
Tsunami Run-up Prediction for Seaside, Oregon with My World GISDownload and examine global, historical tsunami run-up patterns. Acquire DEM contours and import them into My World GIS. Then visualize the potential sea level rise that could occur during a tsunami run-up event near Seaside, Oregon. | <urn:uuid:9b3db470-2e32-414b-ae85-fb0c4ec75a2d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://serc.carleton.edu/eet/local_data/going_further.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00085-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.872782 | 658 | 2.875 | 3 |
GIVE Frequently Asked Questions
Questions about the research study
What is meant by deep inquiry?
For us, deep inquiry is a sustained, intentional investigation of exhibit phenomena as visitors pursue their own questions. Our best measure in the study of deep inquiry was Linked Investigations.
When you taught people to do inquiry, they did it. What’s the big deal?
First, researchers working in schools will tell you that it’s difficult to get kids to engage in inquiry, even after 13 weeks of instruction (White, personal communication, 2006). So getting groups to do what we taught them in 20 minutes is a real achievement. Second, in GIVE we assessed more inquiry behaviors than just the two skills we taught, and families/field trip groups improved on those other inquiry behaviors. So while part of the big deal is that visitors can learn the skills we teach, an even bigger part is that they also engaged in other good inquiry behaviors. Our skills acted as gateways to other skills.
Is this approach too structured to fit within an informal learning context?
This is a real concern. It’s true that we are looking to create a short, structured program that Explainers/docents would be able to use on the floor. Still, this program does not have to feel like a “flash card” exercise. We’re working now on adapting the Juicy Question program to give it a bit more flexibility. But it’s important not to confuse structure with rote or didactic learning. For example, virtually all Exploratorium exhibit labels have the same structure – Try This, What’s Going On, and So What – but there is wide variety within that structure. Similarly, the Juicy Question activity provides some structure, but that structure encourages groups to collaborate in asking and answering their own questions at exhibits. As for empowerment, we believe that helping visitors build and practice scientific thinking skills is more empowering to their future learning than teaching them science facts.
How does this fit into the different kinds of pedagogy one might find on a museum floor – e.g., from unmediated exhibits to highly mediated programs?
At the Exploratorium, we imagine a continuum of mediation for engaging visitors, ranging from unmediated (e.g., exhibits designed to stand alone) to highly mediated (e.g., inquiry workshops). In between those extremes lie Explainer activities such as demonstrations and casual conversations. We believe that an Explainer-led Juicy Question activity would also fall into this middle-ground, offering Explainers yet another tool for engaging visitors more deeply with science.
Using Juicy Question in the Museum
How can Juicy Question be adapted for use on the museum floor?
It’s more difficult to teach and play the games on the distracting museum floor than it was in lab. We’ve found a couple of approaches that seem to work well. The approaches differ a bit for families and field trips:
- Pose an initial question. Rather than first outlining the steps of the activity and then asking families to generate their own juicy questions (as we had done in the lab), get the family started quickly by posing or suggesting an initial juicy question that the family could answer through experimentation. For example, at the Unstable Table exhibit, groups build structures on a gimbaled platform to learn about counterweights and torque. To teach Juicy Question, our Explainer on the floor began with a question like, “What’s the tallest tower that you can build without holding on to the platform?”
- Offer question starters. If a family needs help generating juicy questions, you can offer helpful question starters, such as, “What would happen if…?” or “What if we tried…?” or “Is it possible to…?” that guide families towards the kinds of questions that might turn out to be “juicy”—questions that can actually be answered at an exhibit. For example, the why questions many people initially generate might seem interesting, but are too difficult to answer without prior knowledge or additional tools. In contrast, what if questions often suggest obvious actions to take and experiments to carry out.
Field trip groups:
- Introduce the activity in a quiet space. Rather than teach groups Juicy Question on the museum floor, try first introducing it in a classroom or other quiet space, using a portable exhibit or even a card trick as an investigable prop. Once students have a sense of the game, bring them onto the floor and play it again at an exhibit.
- Introduce the activity later in the field trip. Rather than teach a class full of students Juicy Question when they first arrive at the museum, try offering the game later in the visit, perhaps to smaller groups of students. This gives students a chance to work out their initial burst of excitement at visiting the museum, allows chaperones to become more comfortable in their role before asking them to become Juicy Question facilitators, and provides a more intimate experience with fewer students.
Can Juicy Question be used with a large class of students?
Yes, but it’s important to ensure that the exhibits used in teaching and playing Juicy Question can accommodate a large group. The activity works best when all students can interact with the exhibit. One approach is to introduce Juicy Question to the whole group in a quiet space, and then break into subgroups on the museum floor. Teaching Juicy Question through a simple card trick works well for a large group in a quiet space. A sequence we’ve tried that works well goes like this:
- An Explainer performs a simple card trick, asking for “juicy” questions from the audience — questions that require the Explainer to repeat the performance in a different way that could shed light on the trick.
- Students shout out questions such as, “What if you do the trick more slowly?” or “What if you hold the deck upside down”.
- The Explainer repeats the card trick.
- The Explainer asks for “discoveries” — did anyone figure anything out about the trick during the last performance?
- The process repeats until a student in the audience figures out the trick.
- The Explainers summarizes the three steps in the game: Asking juicy questions, trying an experiment, and sharing discoveries.
Do Explainers/Docents already do this on the floor?
Not exactly. While Explainers do occasionally model inquiry for visitors, we believe they mostly engage visitors in three types of activity: (a) helping visitors see how to use an exhibit (again, usually by modeling for them), (b) demonstrating or explaining content, usually at a demonstration station, and (c) engaging visitors in an inquiry process that remains implicit. Explainers do not always explicitly teach visitors inquiry skills. Even if they did, we have never studied the impact of that teaching on visitors’ subsequent exhibit interactions.
What are some of other challenges with bringing this to the museum floor?
The main obstacles are that, compared to the lab, the museum floor is:
- Full of distractions (other people, other exhibits)
- Unbounded (larger spaces)
Another important challenge we had was inviting families to learn to play Juicy Question. We weren’t sure how to “advertise” the opportunity to them: Should we offer to help families “learn to play together,” or “learn to do inquiry” or “get more out of exhibits?” We tried a variety of approaches, but in the end, what worked best was not actually telling them anything. Instead, we simply put cordons partway around an exhibit, and had an Explainer play with the exhibit inside. Curious visitors drew near and asked what the Explainer was doing. The Explainer answered by inviting them to do “something fun” with the exhibit. Once the family had gathered inside the cordons, the Explainer posed an initial question (see FAQ #5) and Juicy Question had begun. | <urn:uuid:87b64ba3-c528-4cbf-91a1-0587c76eae70> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.exploratorium.edu/vre/visitor_research/give/FAQ.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404405.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00056-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95054 | 1,673 | 3.3125 | 3 |
Technology-Supported Math Instruction for Students with Disabilities: Two Decades of Research and Development
By: Ted S. Hasselbring, Alan C. Lott, and Janet M. Zydney
In this article:
- Mathematical knowledge and learning
- Building computational fluency
- Normal development of fluent math facts
- Developing fluency in math-delayed children using technology
- Converting symbols, notations, and text
- Building conceptual knowledge and understanding
- Making calculations and creating mathematical representations
- Organizing ideas
- Building problem solving and reasoning
Most people would agree that a major goal of schooling should be the development of students’ understanding of basic mathematical concepts and procedures. All students, including those with disabilities and those at risk of school failure, need to acquire the knowledge and skills that will enable them to figure out math-related problems that they encounter daily at home and in future work situations. Unfortunately, there is considerable evidence to indicate that this objective is not being met, especially for children exhibiting learning difficulties. Since the first discouraging results of mathematics achievement reported by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 1973, there has been little evidence to suggest that mathematics achievement has improved significantly, especially for students with disabilities.
According to the NAEP, the majority of elementary and middle school students are not proficient in math. Only 32% of fourth graders and 29% of eighth graders scored at or above the proficient level in math, and unfortunately this is an improvement over previous years (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2003). Students performing at the lowest level on the NAEP assessment are still not achieving the most basic level of math skills, and the gap between low and higher performers persists (NCES, 2003). This gap increases with each year as students with disabilities continue to fall further behind their peers (Cawley, Parmar, Yan, & Miller, 1998). For schools to close this achievement gap and meet the federal guidelines set forth by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, they must see that all students achieve academic proficiency. Technology-based innovations can form the basis of effective approaches to help students who have difficulty with math strive to achieve parity with their peers.
In this paper, we have adopted the term math difficulty to include terms frequently used to identify students who have difficulty with mathematics. We have established this term in order to review literature that addresses math achievement for various groups such as students at risk or disadvantage, with dyscalculia, learning disabilities, and so on in order to see a more complete picture of how students struggle with mathematical knowledge and learning.
Mathematical knowledge and learning
To better understand how to enhance mathematical thinking and learning in today's students, especially students with math difficulty, we must first understand the nature of mathematical knowledge. Mathematicians and cognitive scientists appear to agree that at least three basic types of mathematical knowledge exist and are required for the development of mathematical literacy and competence. These three types of knowledge are declarative, procedural, and conceptual. A brief overview of these knowledge types is provided below. For a more detailed discussion of this framework, please see Goldman and Hasselbring (1997).
Declarative knowledge can be considered factual knowledge about mathematics. Examples of this type of knowledge are 4 + 7 = 11 or the definition of a square as a four-sided polygon having equal-length sides meeting at right angles. Declarative knowledge serves as the building blocks for procedural knowledge.
Procedural knowledge can be defined as the rules, algorithms, or procedures used to solve mathematical tasks. For example, the order of operations is a rule for simplifying expressions that have more than one operation. In contrast, conceptual knowledge goes beyond mere knowledge of discrete facts and procedural steps to a full understanding of interrelated pieces of information. It can be thought of as a connected web of information in which the linking relationships are as important as the pieces of discrete information that are linked. For example, procedural knowledge that is linked to conceptual knowledge can help students select the appropriate mathematical operation to use in a particular situation, because the conceptual knowledge helps them understand the underlying reasons for selecting that operation. Mathematical competency requires the development of an interactive relationship between declarative, procedural, and conceptual knowledge. The development of relationships between these knowledge types is critical for knowledge to be accessible and usable.
- building computational fluency;
- converting symbols, notations, and text;
- building conceptual understanding;
- making calculations and creating mathematical representations;
- organizing ideas; and
- building problem solving and reasoning
These six purposes support the development of students' declarative, procedural, and conceptual knowledge. Declarative knowledge is developed through technologies that help build computational fluency. Challenges with procedural knowledge are surmounted with the assistance of technologies that help with converting mathematical symbols and notations, calculating mathematical operations, and inputting/organizing data. Finally, conceptual knowledge is enhanced by technologies designed to build conceptual understanding, problem solving, and reasoning. Research on the use of these different purposes of technologies is reviewed in the next sections.
Building computational fluency
The research on computational fluency suggests that the ability to fluently recall the answers to basic math facts is a necessary condition for attaining higher-order math skills. The rationale for this thinking is that all human beings have a limited information-processing capacity. That is, an individual simply cannot attend to too many things at once. Grover Whitehurst, the Director of the Institute for Educational Sciences (IES), noted this research during the launch of the federal Math Summit (2003):
Cognitive psychologists have discovered that humans have fixed limits on the attention and memory that can be used to solve problems. One way around these limits is to have certain components of a task become so routine and over-learned that they become automatic.
The implication for mathematics is that some of the sub-processes, particularly basic facts, need to be developed to the point that they are done fluently and automatically. If this fluent retrieval does not develop, then the development of higher-order mathematics skills—such as multiple-digit addition and subtraction, long division, and fractions—may be severely impaired (Resnick, 1983). Indeed, studies have found that lack of math fact retrieval can impede participation in math class discussions (Woodward & Baxter, 1997), successful mathematics problem-solving (Pellegrino & Goldman, 1987), and even the development of everyday life skills (Loveless, 2003). And rapid math-fact retrieval has been shown to be a strong predictor of performance on mathematics achievement tests (Royer, Tronsky, Chan, Jackson, & Merchant, 1999).
While the research cited above highlights the importance of math fact fluency, the computation capabilities of American students might well be diminishing. Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institute has reviewed responses to select items on the NAEP and concluded that performance on basic arithmetic facts declined in the 1990s (2003). More emphasis needs to be placed on developing rapid, effortless, and errorless recall of basic math facts.
Normal development of fluent math facts
Given the importance of the fluent recall of basic facts, the main concern is how this ability develops. For many children, at any point in time from preschool through at least the fourth grade, they will have some facts that can be retrieved from memory automatically and some that need to be calculated using some counting strategy. From the fourth grade through adulthood, answers to basic math facts are recalled from memory with a continued strengthening of relationships between problems and answers that results in further increases in fluency (Ashcraft, 1985).
The acquisition of math facts in most normally developing children generally progresses from a deliberate, procedural, and error-prone calculation to one that is fast, efficient, and accurate (Ashcraft, 1992; Fuson, 1982, 1988; Siegler, 1988). In contrast, most students with math difficulty, along with those lacking consistent math fact instruction, show a serious problem with respect to the retrieval of elementary number facts. Hasselbring, Goin, and Bransford (1988) found that students with math difficulty are substantially less proficient than their non-math-difficulty peers in retrieving the answers to basic math facts in addition and subtraction. Although information is still emerging about the particular difficulties experienced by these children in the retrieval of this information, the evidence that does exist suggests that these children do not suffer from a conceptual deficit (Russell & Ginsburg, 1984) but rather from some sort of disruption to normal development. What this suggests is that there are huge differences in the amount of instruction individual children need to become fluent at retrieving answers to basic math facts.
As shown in Figure 1, at age 7, regular and special education students are nearly identical in the number of math facts they can recall from memory, however this changes by age 8 and this discrepancy increases as age increases. As students with math difficulty get older, they fall further and further behind their non-math-difficulty peers in the ability to recall basic math facts from memory (Hasselbring, Goin, & Bransford, 1988). Further, this lack of fluency interferes with the development of higher-order mathematical thinking and problem-solving.Click to see Figure 1. A comparison of the number of fluent addition facts by age for regular and special education students
Developing fluency in math-delayed children using technology
To counteract the problem described above, educators have turned to technology with varying degrees of success to help students achieve fluency in math facts. Although it seems intuitive that using technology in a drill-and-practice format helps students develop the declarative fact knowledge, evidence suggests that this is not the case. In an early study by Hasselbring, Goin, and Sherwood (1986), it was found that computerized drill and practice was ineffective in developing declarative fact knowledge in students with math difficulty. The identified problem was that typical drill-and-practice software was designed in such a way that students were practicing procedural counting strategies instead of developing the ability to recall facts from memory. As a matter of fact, even studies that report reduced response latencies as a result of the use of computerized drill and practice could not demonstrate that facts were being retrieved from memory, only that procedural counting time was reduced (Christensen & Gerber, 1990; Pellegrino & Goldman, 1987).
- Identification of fluent and non-fluent facts;
- Restricted presentation of non-fluent information;
- Student generation of problem/answer pairs;
- Use of "challenge times;"
- Spaced-presentation of non-fluent information;
- The appropriate use of drill-and-practice; and
- Computer monitoring of student performance.
Each of the above features has been incorporated into a software program, called FASTT Math (2005) designed specifically to develop declarative fact knowledge.
Effectiveness of the FASTT model
The principles embodied in FASTT Math were validated over several years of research with more than 400 students. This research with students with math difficulty has shown that the FASTT approach can be extremely powerful for developing fluency in the basic math facts. Generally, the findings show that when used daily, for about 10 minutes, most students with math difficulty can develop fluency in a single operation after approximately 100 sessions. The key to success appears to lie in the consistent use of the program. As expected, students who use the program regularly do much better than students who are irregular users.
As shown in Figure 2, the effects of using FASTT Math can be quite striking. In the first controlled study examining the use of the FASTT model, three groups of students were matched for age, sex, and race. Two of the groups consisted of students with math difficulty and the remaining group consisted of students without math difficulty. In the experiment, one of the math difficulty groups (Math-Disabled Experimental), received an average of 54 ten-minute sessions on the FASTT software for addition, the other two groups (Non Math-Disabled and Math-Disabled Contrast) received only traditional fluency instruction delivered by their classroom teachers. As the data show, the students with math difficulty receiving instruction with the FASTT approach gained, on the average, 24 new fluent facts while their math-difficulty peers receiving traditional instruction gained no new facts and their non-math-difficulty peers gained only 8 new facts. Perhaps more impressive are the maintenance data. When the experimental students were tested 4 months after the posttest following summer vacation, the students regressed by only 4 facts, indicating that once facts become fluent, they are retained at a high level.
The results of this experiment have been replicated multiple times across all four operations. In all cases, when used consistently, the FASTT Math approach has a very positive effect on developing mathematical fluency in both students with and without math difficulty. Although FASTT Math is effective for all students needing assistance with developing fact fluency, it appears to be especially effective for students labeled as at risk and as learning disabled.
The result of this work demonstrates that students with math difficulty can be successful in attaining high levels of fluency in basic mathematical operations with the appropriate assistance of technology; however, this assistance must go beyond simple drill and practice if students have not stored the problem and the associated answer in long-term memory. FASTT Math was designed to help students create this network of problems and answers and then strengthen these relationships and increase fluency. For students who have already developed this stored network of relationships and do not rely on strategies such as counting to achieve a correct answer, then most any drill-and-practice activity will strengthen these relationships. There are many technology-based products available that will achieve this goal (see practice programs listed in the CITEd Mathematics Matrix under Building Computational Fluency).Click to see Figure 2. A comparison of the number of fluent addition facts for students with and without math difficulty
In sum, educators must know if students have developed a stored network of relationships containing basic problems and their answers or whether these relationships must be developed and stored in long term memory. This understanding is critical for educators to make an appropriate decision on which technology support will be most successful for students with math difficulty.
Converting symbols, notations, and text
Scaffolding has been defined as a “process that enables a child or novice to solve a problem, carry out a task or achieve a goal which would be beyond his unassisted efforts” (Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976, p. 90). This support structure, or scaffold, is “faded,” or reduced, over time as the student becomes more independently proficient. Scaffolding is rooted in the learning theories espoused by Vygotsky and Piaget (Greenfield, 1984; Rogoff & Gardner, 1984; Stone, 1993). The term "scaffolding" was first introduced by Wood, Bruner, and Ross (1976) in their article entitled, "The Role of Tutoring in Problem Solving" and the practice of scaffolding is primarily couched in the constructivism school of learning. Although scaffolding draws from the work of both Vygotsky and Piaget, it was influenced heavily by Vygotsky's (1935/1978) learning construct called the zone of proximal development (ZPD). This construct asserts that a more knowledgeable person could help learners perform beyond their actual developmental level.
The original concept of scaffolding applied to the context of tutoring or one-on-one support. However, a classroom has multiple children with multiple ZPDs (Brown et al., 1993):
A single teacher is often providing scaffolding for up to 35 students at the same time, usually basing their help not on what any individual requires at the moment, but rather on what they believe most of the class needs in order to be successful (Puntambekar & Kolodner, 2005, p. 189).
As a result, students who face learning challenges often struggle to achieve parity with their peers, and students who grasp the concepts quickly are often bored and unchallenged by the review of material.
In order to help overcome the challenge of having multiple ZPDs in a classroom, computer tools have been developed to provide scaffolding to students on an individual basis. Computer tools can provide a form of scaffolding as the tools help offload some of the learner’s cognitive task to the computer (Salomon, 1993). The goal of these tools is to enable the learner to eventually perform the task independently without the use of the tool (Salomon, 1993). As the students use these tools, they should begin to internalize this guidance, making the tools unnecessary.
One kind of cognitive task that can be offloaded to a computer is converting text, symbols, and mathematical notations. These tools can support students who have difficulty decoding text and symbols. By providing this individualized support, these tools are designed to take some of the burden off the teacher (who cannot work individually with 35 students simultaneously).
The problem with providing scaffolding to students in just the area of decoding is that it is not sufficient to address all students’ needs. Researchers have found that one tool may not be enough to support a wide range of learners with multiple ZPDs and recommend that multiple tools be used in the classroom (Puntambekar & Kolodner, 2005). Thus, scaffolding tools can be created to support various learning needs, including the five other areas of technology use found in the CITEd Mathematics Matrix. For example, common to many computer-assisted instruction interventions for students with math difficulty are representation techniques (e.g. pictorial instruction) to create mathematical representations and cognitive strategies (e.g. heuristic procedures) for problem solving (Xin & Jitendra, 1999).
Unfortunately, there are currently only a limited number of software packages that have been developed specifically to help students with difficulties decoding (see CITEd Mathematics Matrix for examples) as well as other learning needs and even fewer high-quality research studies identifying those that are effective. This lack of software and supporting research can be seen as an opportunity for researchers and math educators because there is currently a large quantity of non-special education-specific software that could be used to good effect for students with math difficulty. Using this new crop of software would provide researchers with new material for study, educators with the opportunity to expose their students to new tools, and students with the opportunity to gain exposure to new software that may be used to further maximize their potential.
Building conceptual knowledge and understanding
Many students do not make direct conceptual links between concrete and tangible mathematical concepts, do not grasp representations of those concepts or relationships, and struggle to make the link from representation to abstractions. An important prerequisite for making these connections is that the declarative and procedural knowledge be taught within the same context(s) where it will be utilized in the future (i.e. the real world). This teaching enables that knowledge to be activated when needed (Bransford, Sherwood, Vye, & Rieser, 1986). Too often, special education students study mathematics by first learning isolated skills. Then they apply these skills by solving narrowly defined math problems that are purported to provide practice for these skills. Unfortunately, this strategy often leads to the practice of rote procedural skills and knowledge without students having a conceptual understanding of why the procedure is being used (i.e. restricted context).
Knowledge that is accessed only in a restricted set of contexts, even though it is applicable to a wide variety of domains, is known as inert knowledge. In order for it to be useful, knowledge cannot be inert. Students must understand how to conceptually apply their knowledge and procedures to real-world contexts. This type of learning should result in mathematical knowledge that is organized to trigger the conditions when that knowledge will be needed. Lesh (1981) proposed that the ability to use a new idea depends on the way it is connected to our prior ideas and processes. Teaching a child a concept does not guarantee that it will integrate with other ideas that are already understood. As a result, situations in which the idea is relevant may not be recognized. The ability to retrieve useful information from memory appears to be especially challenging for children with learning disabilities or those who are at risk of school failure (Hasselbring et al., 1991).
One approach has been the use of video technology to create scenarios of real-world math problems (Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt [CTGV], 1997). This approach to math instruction is called anchored instruction and has been used successfully with regular and special education students. This approach emphasizes the importance of anchoring or situating mathematical knowledge in meaningful, real-world applications. Video is used as the instructional medium because of its engaging characteristics. It can bring math to life for the students. This approach is not unique because it is delivered through video, but because it provides students with an opportunity to use the declarative and procedural knowledge gained in school to develop a conceptual understanding through the real-world application of this knowledge. This format helps students overcome their challenges in perceiving instances in which knowledge they already possess is useful. Since these environments are used within the context of teaching mathematical problem solving, they will be discussed in detail in the section on problem solving and reasoning.
Making calculations and creating mathematical representations
In this climate of high-tech software solutions for education, simple, older technologies that provide users with electronic means to make calculations, simplify and solve mathematical expressions and algebraic equations, often adaptive calculators, allow the user to focus on the conceptual and problem solving aspects of math. Technologies of this type often adaptive calculators that serve as an equalizer in mathematics education and help students to more quickly and readily develop number sense, gain mathematical insight, and reasoning skills (Pomerantz, 1997, p.2).
- calculators will promote student laziness
- students will not be stimulated/challenged if they use calculators
- using calculators impedes the development of basic mathematical skills, and
- the use of calculators will create a dependency on technology
The common theme of these myths is that calculators will somehow hinder learning when, in fact, research has shown just the opposite to be true.
- promoted achievement,
- improved problem-solving skills, and
- increased understanding of mathematical ideas
Suydam and Brosnan (1993) also reported that students who use calculators as part of a mathematics curriculum showed higher rates of information retention. Hembree and Dessart (1986) reported that students who used calculators demonstrated higher levels of math self-concept and, in general, exhibited a better attitude towards mathematics.
As effective as they may be, calculators are not the only portable devices that can be used with positive effect in the classroom. Handheld computers such as Palm devices and Pocket PCs offer an advantage of flexibility over traditional calculators. These handheld devices offer a great deal of computing power in a small package and a wide variety of software applications that can be used in a mathematics curriculum—database, spreadsheet, scientific probes/sensors, etc.
Overall, the use of calculators and handhelds in the classroom for both students with and without math difficulty presents an opportunity for educators to tap into a relatively cost-effective solution that has the potential to reap huge benefits in terms of student performance. As scientific calculators become more sophisticated and additional mathematics software becomes available for handheld devices, the power of individual student computing will increase dramatically. Given this, classroom curriculums must be designed dynamically allowing swift adaptation in order to take full advantage of the higher-order mathematical reasoning that will be within the grasp of future students.
Research has shown that individuals who are skilled in math problem solving have something in common; they build a mental representation of the problem they are working (Nathan, Kintsch, & Young, 1992; Pape, 2004). Additionally, skilled math problem solvers tend to classify or group problems by type and then look for known strategies that may be applied to that class of problem. The common elements of a problem that allow classification are known as the “underlying problem model.” Research has found that the more effective students are at identifying the underlying problem model, the more successful they are at problem solving (Hegarty, Mayer, & Monk, 1995).
What this research effectively means is that individuals who are more effective at organizing their ideas about a math problem, in terms of identifying key features and elements, are ultimately more successful at solving problems. A graphic organizer is a visual representation of information. Past research has shown the use of graphic organizers to be an effective tool for math students (Jitendra, 2002; Willis & Fuson, 1988). Although the use of graphic organizers is widespread in education and the world of business (e.g. Microsoft PowerPoint presentation), math software that allows students to organize problems and help them identify underlying meaning has been limited; however, a new piece of software called GO Solve Word Problems has been created to help students organize math problems and discover their underlying structure. The software’s interface allows students to organize the component parts of a math problem and then helps student to identify the relationships between the values and component parts of the problem.
TinkerPlots, developed with funding from a National Science Foundation grant is another piece of inquiry-based software that allows student-driven data organization and analysis (Steinke, 2005). Using TinkerPlots, students can graphically organize and construct data graphs by “stacking” iconic representations of numerical data. Although students can use their own data, TinkerPlots has several integrated rich datasets that may also be used.
As stated in the CITEd Mathematics Matrix, technologies that [allow the organization of ideas] provide a digital workspace for users to explore the connections among the text of problems to the concrete, representational and abstract concepts and apply these relationship to a wide range of problem solving strategies in real-world and mathematical situations. Given this Mathematics Matrix purpose of Organizing Ideas, which includes the use of student-collected data in problem solving, software such as TinkerPlots and GO Solve Word Problems will undoubtedly open new doors to students’ understanding of data management.
Building problem solving and reasoning
Students with math difficulty find mathematical problem solving, particularly word problems, challenging for a variety of reasons as discussed by Babbitt & Miller (1996) in their review of literature. These challenges included misreading the problem, having difficulty detecting relevant versus irrelevant information, misidentifying the appropriate mathematical operation, making calculation errors, missing steps needed to carry out the problem, and having trouble organizing the information in the problem (Babbit & Miller, 1996). These challenges can be classified as problems with declarative, procedural, and conceptual knowledge. Students need all three types of knowledge to be able to solve problems. Problem solving requires students to know their basic mathematical facts, to execute the strategies and procedures needed to solve the problem, and to understand conceptually how to apply those facts and procedures. Without this conceptual understanding, there is no guarantee that the students will be able to apply this knowledge in meaningful ways when confronted with problem situations. Hasselbring et al. (1991) demonstrated that students often do not use prior knowledge spontaneously to solve problems unless they are explicitly informed about the relationship between that knowledge and the problem. In order for knowledge to be useful, students must understand how procedures can function as tools for solving relevant problems.
For example, when solving mathematical problems, students may have the mathematical knowledge and procedures they need but may be unable to use them because they lack the conceptual understanding that allows them to match their knowledge to the problem situation. The difficulty arises because their mathematical knowledge is either isolated chunks of knowledge or they are linked to conceptual understanding or models unconnected with the mathematics in the current problem. Without making these connections, students may be unable to detect when this knowledge applies to situations or when a strategy should be used during problem solving. Students who are unable to recognize situations in which their knowledge can be applied will likely be poor problem solvers. Knowledge that remains unused by learners even when it is relevant across several problem situations is wasted knowledge. For knowledge to be useful, it must be activated at the appropriate time. To enable students to become successful problem solvers, they must develop a working and dynamic relationship between declarative, procedural, and conceptual knowledge.
There are several approaches for helping students with mathematical problem solving. Some of these approaches target the declarative and procedural knowledge problems, some focus on students' difficulty with conceptual understanding, and others concentrate on improving students' reasoning and critical thinking. These approaches vary depending on the nature and complexity of the problem. For basic problems, some students are taught to search for key words. However, this approach has often been criticized because it does not always prompt the correct mathematical operation and creates a high likelihood of errors. Moreover, it does not require a real understanding of the problem situation and relegates the activity to an imitation of drill-and-practice (Porter, 1989). Another well-researched approach is to teach students with math difficulty cognitive strategies for solving problems. For example, Montague, Applegate, and Marguard (1993) studied the effectiveness of a cognitive strategy instruction. This 7-step strategy ranged from initial steps of learning to read the problem and develop hypotheses to the final steps of checking one's work. This method has proven to be effective in helping students with math difficulty. Similar types of instructional strategies have been applied to technology-based interventions. The majority of these interventions are still in the prototype phase and thus are not yet available commercially.
One prototype intervention that incorporated a word problem-solving strategy into a computer tutorial program was developed by Shiah, Mastropieri, Scruggs, and Fulk (1994–1995). The 7-step strategy included:
- reading the problem,
- thinking about the problem,
- deciding the operation,
- writing the numerical sentence,
- calculating the math operation,
- labeling the answer, and
- checking work.
These steps were incorporated into the program as text pop-up buttons that would prompt the student to complete each step. The researchers compared different versions of this computer program with 30 elementary school students classified as having learning disabilities. They found that students who used the computer program with the 7-step strategy significantly improved their word problem solving when tested online, but did not make significant improvements on the traditional paper-and-pencil test of word problems. Moreover, they did not find a significant difference in improvement between students who used the strategy and the control group. They hypothesized that this may have been caused by the fact that the control group had more time to solve problems because the strategy group required more time to learn the strategy. Future research may want to re-evaluate this type of computer program in a setting where all groups have equivalent time to solve the word problems.
Another prototype intervention designed to assist students with solving basic word problems was a program that focused on teaching students different methods of problem representation. Stellingwerf and Van Lieshout (1999) compared four different versions of a computer program with 140 students (between 9 and 13 years old) from schools for children with learning problems and mild mental retardation. One version prompted the students to represent the problem as a numerical expression. A second version asked students to represent the problem visually by selecting icons. A third version combined both techniques, and a fourth version just presented students with problems without either representation strategy. There was also a control group that did not use any software. Although all children improved in word problem solving from the computer instruction, the versions of the computer program that prompted students to write number sentences were most effective. However, this effect was only found for students who were relatively more competent in solving word problems. The students in the study had previous experience solving word problems, and thus, it may be that iconic representations are more helpful for students who are less familiar with solving word problems.
An entirely different approach that has proved effective in helping students with solving more complex, real-world problems is the aforementioned anchored instruction (CTGV, 1992). These anchored instruction environments combine video and audio technologies in a story format. Because students identify with the characters in the story, they are situated in the problem and motivated to find a solution. It is important to note that not all students may relate to the same story, or anchor, so it is important for educators using this technique to tailor anchoring content to meet the needs of their specific group of students.
The numerical data needed to solve the problem is subtly presented during the story, and the students must uncover the pertinent information needed to solve the problem. Instead of modeling a solution, the generative format encourages students to discover the final outcome and prompts them to be active participants in the learning process. These anchored instruction environments typically include two videos that focus on related content areas. For example, these videos might focus on the topics of measurement, fractions, and money within the context of a problem scenario. Moreover, they are interdisciplinary and connect math to other subject areas, such as science and social studies. Overall, these video-based adventures provide a motivating and realistic context for problem posing, problem solving, and reasoning within specific math topics for students having learning problems.
Early research and development efforts on anchored instruction began at the Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (1992) with the Woodbury Jasper Series. Bottge and Hasselbring (1993) were the first to develop these video-based adventures specifically for students with learning disabilities. More recently, Bottge and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin have explored a new approach called enhanced anchored instruction. This approach combines video-based anchors with applied problems, which allow students to physically build and test out their solutions in technology education classes (e.g. Bottge, 1999). Within enhanced anchored instruction, the videos are used as part of a broader curriculum that incorporates other forms of math instruction, such as direct instruction or cognitive strategy instruction, along with hands-on building activities.
One example of an anchored instruction environment is a video entitled Fraction of the Cost. This video was developed by the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. It begins with characters Cindy, Ryan, and Michael walking by a skateboard shop. They go into the store to look at skateboards, and they discover an indoor skateboarding park in the back of the store. While running around in the park, Michael has an idea about getting his own skateboard ramp. They inquire with the store owner about buying one, but the store owner says that the ramps are not for sale. Instead, he provides them with a link to a Web site that provides a plan for building a ramp. After examining the plans, the friends decide that the ramp won’t be too difficult to build because the plans are similar to the compost bin they built in their technology education class. The question is whether they have enough money to buy the materials to build the ramp. This video and accompanying lesson plans can be retrieved from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research Web site.
In order to solve the over-arching problem, students must first gather the relevant facts. All factual information is found in the video. These facts appear in the video in several different ways, all of which parallel natural settings. For example, the cost of lumber is provided in an advertisement in the Sunday paper. The viewer learns about the amount of money the kids have to spend on the materials through the kids talking about their savings. The skateboard dimensions are detailed in a schematic plan from a Web site. The solution requires that the students be able to use their declarative and procedural knowledge in several areas, including money, measurement, whole numbers, and fractions. More importantly, they must understand where and how procedural knowledge in each of these areas is useful and how it is applied. In enhanced anchored instruction, students are then asked to apply their procedural knowledge gained while solving the video problem to a real-life problem of building a bench or a hovercraft in their technology education class.
The researchers have examined the effectiveness of anchored instruction environments, like the Fraction of the Cost video, on the mathematical problem solving of students with learning difficulties. These environments were found to be more effective than other problem-solving instruction in helping students solve complex, contextualized video problems (Bottge, 1999; Bottge & Hasselbring, 1993; Bottge et al., 2002; Bottge et al., 2004). Students who used the anchored instruction environment also performed significantly better than groups that received other problem-solving instruction on a variety of transfer tasks, including complex text problems (Bottge, 1999; Bottge et al., 2002), contextualized video problems (Bottge & Hasselbring, 1993), and applied construction problems (Bottge et al., 2004). Only one study did not find this type of environment to have a significant effect on transfer for complex text problems (Bottge & Hasselbring, 1993).
Overall, students in the anchored instruction group were able to transfer skills learned during instruction to a variety of problems. These findings indicate that a much more robust relationship between these students' declarative, procedural, and conceptual knowledge was developed. On the other hand, the majority of these studies found that anchored instruction environments were no more effective than other problem-solving instruction on improving students' ability to solve traditional word problems (Bottge, 1999; Bottge & Hasselbring, 1993; Bottge et al., 2003; Bottge et al., 2001).
In general, research has found that anchored instruction environments are very effective for students with learning disabilities within remedial education settings (Bottge, 1999; Bottge & Hasselbring, 1993; Bottge et al., 2003; Bottge et al., 2001 ). On the other hand, when students with learning disabilities were taught within inclusive classroom settings, anchored instruction environments did not improve their scores to the same extent as when students were separated into remedial and general education classes (Bottge et al., 2002; Bottge et al., 2004). Bottge et al. (2004) recommend that, in inclusive environments, anchored instruction environments be used in conjunction with individualized or pull-out instruction.
In a different type of study, Fuchs, Fuchs, Hamlett, and Appleton (2002) compared computer programs that incorporate contextualized videos to small-group tutoring that provided instruction on problem-solving rules and transfer to students with math difficulty. Students in the tutoring group were taught to look for similarities between novel and familiar problems. On real-world problem-solving and transfer tasks, both groups improved to a similar extent. For the transfer tasks, both groups performed significantly better than the control group. However, for simpler word problems, students in the tutoring groups did significantly better than the computer group. These results were replicated in a later article by Fuchs and Fuchs (2005). These findings, along with the results from Bottge and his colleagues, indicate that anchored instruction or contextualized environments may be more beneficial for teaching students how to solve more complex, real-world mathematical problems, whereas other approaches may be more suitable for more traditional word problems.
As shown from this review of technological innovations for improving the mathematical problem solving of students with disabilities, there is a great need for empirical studies of software programs that are commercially available for use in inclusive and special education classrooms. It is also critically important for researchers to collaborate with software companies to further develop their research prototypes, so they can be made available to a wider audience. Although the majority of the technology-based interventions reviewed are still in the prototype phase, the findings may be helpful for educators in looking for software with specific features that have proven to be effective in helping students with mathematical problem solving.
In sum, the differential in mathematics performance between students with and without math difficulty that has been observed over many years remains, yet the commitment to improving outcomes for students with math difficulty continues to grow. One strategy that needs additional attention involves the use of technology designed to teach mathematical concepts in non-traditional ways. At present, the sheer quantity of educational software and other tools that are available for teachers to use in the classroom is significant. Additionally, the cost of much of this hardware and software is relatively low. Nevertheless, while the commitment to improving the math performance of students with math difficulty is strong and the technology to help educators accomplish this goal is readily available, there is a paucity of research related to the effectiveness of these approaches. Further, there is a dearth of research related to the identification of best practices necessary to effectively implement math instruction with the help of technology.
One major goal of educators of students with math difficulty should be to conduct ongoing research to determine the best use of existing technology for enhancing mathematical learning. Further, educators and researchers should work closely with developers and publishers of new hardware and software and conduct high-quality research targeted at identifying effective practices that accompany the use of new products. In this paper we have attempted to identify important areas in need of research and development and to examine a variety of technologies that can enhance the mathematical learning of all students, but especially those students with math difficulty. Hopefully, we have identified areas of need that will serve as a guidepost for future research and development activities.
Click the "References" link above to hide these references.
Ashcraft, M. H. (1985). Children's knowledge of simple arithmetic: A developmental model and simulation. Unpublished manuscript, Cleveland State University.
Ashcraft, M. H. (1992). Cognitive arithmetic: a review of data and theory, Cognition, 44, 75-106.
Babbitt, B., & Miller, S. (1996). Using hypermedia to improve the mathematics problem-solving skills of students with disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 29(4), 391-401.
Bottge B. A., Heinrichs, M., Mehta, Z. D., & Hung, Y-H. (2002). Weighing the benefits of anchored instruction for students with disabilities in general education classes. The Journal of Special Education, 35(4), 186–200.
Bottge, B., & Hasselbring, T. (1993). Comparison of two approaches for teaching complex, authentic mathematics problems to adolescents in remedial math classes. Exceptional Children, 59(6), 556-566.
Bottge, B. A. (1999). Effects of contextualized math instruction on problem solving of average and below-average achieving students. The Journal of Special Education, 33(2), 81-92.
Bottge, B. A., Heinrichs, M., Chan, S., Mehta, Z. D., & Watson, E. (2003). Effects of video-based and applied problems on the procedural math skills of average- and low-achieving adolescents. Journal of Special Education Technology, 18(2), 5-22.
Bottge, B. A., Heinrichs, M., Chan, S., & Serlin, R. (2001). Anchoring adolescents' understanding of math concepts in rich problem-solving environments. Remedial and Special Education, 22, 299-314.
Bottge, B. A., Heinrichs, M., Mehta, Z. D., Rueda, E., Hung, Y-H, & Danneker, J. (2004). Teaching mathematical problem solving to middle school students in math, technology education, and special education classrooms. Research in Middle Level Education Online, 27(1), 43-69. Retrieved July 5, 2005, from www.nmsa.org/research/rmle/winter_03/27_1_article_1.htm.
Bransford, J., Sherwood, R., Vye, N., & Rieser, J. (1986). Teaching thinking and problem solving. American Psychologist, 41, 1078-1089.
Campbell, P. F., & Stewart, E. L. (1993). Calculators and computers. In R. Jensen (Ed.), Early childhood mathematics: NCTM research interpretation project (pp. 251-268). New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.
Brown, A., Ash, D., Rutherford, M., Nakagawa, K., Gordon, A., & Campione, J. (1993). Distributed expertise in the classroom. In G. Salomon (Ed.), Distributed cognitions: Psychological and educational considerations (pp. 188-228). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cawley, J., Parmar, R., Yan, W., & Miller, J. (1998). Arithmetic computation performance of students with learning disabilities: Implications for curriculum. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 13, 68-74.
Christensen, C., & Gerber, M. (1990). Effectiveness of computerized drill and practice games in teaching basic math facts. Exceptionality, 1(3), 149-165.
Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt. (1992). The Jasper experiment: An exploration of issues in learning and instruction design. Educational Technology Research & Development, 40(1), 65-80.
Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt. (1997). The Jasper project: Lesson in curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
FASTT Math (2005). Tom Snyder Productions,www.scholastic.com
Flaischner, J.E., Garnett, K., & Shepard, M.J. (1982). Proficiency in arithmetic basic facts computation of learning disabled children. Focus on Learning Problems in Mathematics. 4, 47-56.
Fuchs, L. S., & Fuchs, D. (2005). Principles for the prevention and intervention of mathematics difficulties. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 16(2), 85-96.
Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., Hamlett, C. L., & Appleton, A. C. (2002). Explicitly teaching for transfer: Effects on the mathematical problem-solving performance of students with mathematics disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 17(2), 90-107.
Fuson, K. C. (1982). An analysis of the counting-on procedure in addition. In T. H. Carpenter, J. M. Moser, & T. H. Romberg (Eds.), Addition and subtraction: A cognitive perspective (pp. 67-78). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Fuson, K. C. (1988). Children's counting and concepts of number. New York: Springer.
Garnett, K. (1992). Developing fluency with basic number facts: Intervention for students with learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 7, 210-216.
Garnett, K. (1998). Math learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, November.
Goldman, S. & Hasselbring, T. (1997). Achieving meaningful mathematics literacy for students with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 30(2), 198-208.
Greenfield, P. M. (1984). A theory of the teacher in the learning activities of everyday life. In B. Rogoff & J. Lave (Eds.), Everyday cognition: Its development in social context (pp. 117-138). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Hasselbring, T., Sherwood, R. Bransford, J., Merty, J., Estes, B., Marsh, J. & Van Haneghan, J. (1991). An evaluation of specific videodisc courseware on student learning in a rural school environment. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University, Learning Technology Center.
Hasselbring, T. S., & Goin, L. (2005). Research foundation and evidence of effectiveness for FASTT Math. Retrieved September 16, 2005, from http://www.tomsnyder.com/reports/.
Hasselbring, T. S., Goin, L. & Bransford, J. D. (1988). Developing math automaticity in learning handicapped children: The role of computerized drill and practice. Focus on Exceptional Children, 20, 1–7.
Hasselbring, T. S., Goin, L. & Sherwood, R. D. (1986). The effects of computer based drill-and-practice on automaticity: Technical report. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University, Learning Technology Center.
Hegarty, M., Mayer, R. E., & Monk, C. (1995). Comprehension of arithmetic word problems: A comparison of successful and unsuccessful problem solvers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 87, 18–32.
Hembree, R., & Dessart, D. J. (1986). Effects of hand-held calculators in precollege mathematics education: A meta-analysis. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 17 (2), 83–99.
Jitendra, A. K. (2002). Teaching students math problem-solving through graphic representations. Teaching Exceptional Children, 34 (4), 34-38.
Lesh, R. (1981). Applied mathematical problem solving. Education Studies in Mathematics, 12, 235-264.
Loveless, T. (2003, February 6). Trends in math achievement: The importance of basic skills. Presentation at the Mathematics Summit, Washington, DC.
Montague, M., Applegate, B., & Marguard, K. (1993). Cognitive strategy instruction and mathematical problem solving performance of students with learning disabilities.
Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 8 , 223-232.
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). (1973). Retrieved September 19, 2005, from http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/.
National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). (2003). Retrieved September 19, 2005, from http://nces.ed.gov/.
Nathan, M., Kintsch, W., & Young, E. (1992). A theory of algebra-word-problem comprehension and its implications for the design of learning environments. Cognition and Instruction 9(4), 329-389.
Pape, S. (2004). Middle school children's problem-solving behavior: A cognitive analysis from a reading comprehension perspective. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 35(3), 187-219.
Pellegrino, J.W., & Goldman, S. R. (1987). Information processing and
elementary mathematics. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 20, 23-32, 57.
Pomerantz, H. (1997). The role of calculators in math education research. Retrieved August 31, 2005, from www.educalc.net/135569.page.
Porter, A. (1989). A curriculum out of balance: The case of elementary school mathematics. Educational Researcher, 18(5), 9-15.
Puntambekar, S., & Kolodner, J. L. (2005). Toward implementing distributed scaffolding: Helping students learn science from design. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 42(2), 185–217.
Resnick, L. B. (1983). A development theory of number understanding. In Herbert P. Ginsburg (Ed.), The development of mathematical thinking (pp. 109-;151). New York: Academic Press.
Rogoff, B., & Gardner, W. (1984). Adult guidance of cognitive development. In B. Rogoff & J. Lave (Eds.), Everyday cognition: Its development in social context (pp. 95-116). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Royer, J. M., Tronsky, L. N., Chan, Y., Jackson, S. J., & Merchant, H. (1999). Math fact retrieval as the cognitive mechanism underlying gender differences in math test performance. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 24, 181-266.
Russell, R. L. & Ginsburg, H. P. (1984). Cognitive analysis of children's mathematics difficulties. Cognition & Instruction, 1(2), 217-244.
Salomon, G. (1993). On the nature of pedagogic computer tools. The case of the wiring
partner. In S. P. LaJoie & S. J. Derry (Eds.), Computers as cognitive tools. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Shiah, R. L., Mastropieri, M. A., Scruggs, T. E., & Fulk, B. J. M. (1994-1995). The effects of computer-assisted instruction on the mathematical problem solving of students with learning disabilities. Exceptionality, 5, 131-161.
Siegler, R. S. (1988). Strategy choice procedures and the development of multiplication skill. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Gen, 117, 258-275.
Steinke, T. (2005). Tinker Plots turn students into data analysts. T.H.E. Journal. 32(9), 44.
Stellingwerf, B. P., & Van Lieshout, E. C. D. M. (1999). Manipulatives and number sentences in computer-aided arithmetic word problem solving. Instructional Science, 27, 459-476.
Stone, C. Addison (1993). What is missing in the metaphor of scaffolding? In E. Forman, Minick, N., Stone, C. (Ed.), Contexts for learning: Sociocultural dynamics in children's development (pp. 169-183). NY: Oxford University Press.
Suydam, M. and Brosnan, P. (1993). Research on mathematics education reported in 1992. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 24, 329-377.
Vygotsky, L. (1935/1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Whitehurst, G. (2003, February 6). IES Director's presentation at the Mathematics Summit, Washington, DC.
Willis, G. B., & Fuson, K. C. (1988). Teaching children to use schematic drawings to solve addition and subtraction word problems. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(2), 192-201.
Wood, D., Bruner, J., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17, 89-100.
Woodward, J., & Baxter, J. (1997). The effects of an innovative approach to mathematics on academically low-achieving students in inclusive settings. Exceptional Children, 63, 373-388.
Xin, Y. P. & Jitendra, A. K. (1999). The effects of instruction in solving mathematical word problems for students with learning problems: A meta-analysis. The Journal of Special Education, 32(4), 207–225.
Hasselbring, T.S., Lott, A.C., and Zydney, J.M. (2006). Technology-Supported Math Instruction for Students with Disabilities: Two Decades of Research and Development. Washington, DC: CITEd, Center for Implementing Technology in Education (www.cited.org). | <urn:uuid:489b9054-83b8-4b57-a52d-8e9e4345eabb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ldonline.org/article/6291 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00055-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93037 | 11,446 | 3.734375 | 4 |
...the CDC and [Dr. Clifford W.] Bassett, say the easiest and best way to avoid the virus is to prevent getting a mosquito bite in the first place.
Apply insect repellant that contains an EPA-registered active ingredient, such as DEET, to skin or clothing before you head out doors. Bassett said many people don't realize the prime times to get bit are dusk and dawn, and people may not worry about their bug bite risk when they are outdoors, or camping or at the beach.
The CDC adds that people should not spray repellants under clothing, over open cuts, wounds or irritated skin, nor near the eyes, mouth or directly on the face. Other repellants containing Picaridin may be used, and for those concerned with chemicals, there is oil of lemon eucalyptus. But Bassett says with natural products the protection likely won't last as long.
"You can prevent 90 to 100 percent of bite reactions by applying the appropriate insecticide," he said. Such tips can be applied to preventing other insect-borne diseases, like Lyme disease or babesiosis.
After returning indoors, wash the skin with soap and water, this is particularly important when repellants are used repeatedly in a day or on consecutive days, the CDC says. Treated clothing should be washed also before it is used again. People who have an allergic reaction to the repellant should see a doctor.
Health officials also recommend draining standing water, where mosquitoes breed.
keyboard shortcuts: V vote up article J next comment K previous comment | <urn:uuid:84818078-4333-49f1-be0b-c12bd1dabc2a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://carloz.newsvine.com/_news/2012/08/18/13350268-west-nile-virus-how-to-protect-yourself | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399522.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00091-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944767 | 325 | 2.765625 | 3 |
He was a shepherd from Tekoa, a small village in the hill country of Judah, but his message was for the whole house of Israel and the nations of the world. It was not then a new message, and it has significance even today. Though Amos spoke of the judgments which were about to descend on the nations surrounding Israel and on the two kingdoms of the house of Israel, his message is the same one God has given since the earliest history of the world. It is a simple yet profound message that carries a solemn warning: there is a way to come into God’s favor and gain eternal life. That way is always open to the penitent and obedient, but to the impenitent, those who harden their hearts against the Lord, the way is shut. In the place of life there is death; in the place of joy there is sorrow; punishments replace blessing; judgments and destruction replace protection and power.
Study Amos carefully, for his message is one that can help each of us find the way to life and peace.
Notes and Commentary on Amos
(8-2) Amos 1:1. Who Was Amos and When Did He Minister?
The Hebrew name Amos means “bearer” or “burden” and refers to the weighty warning that the Lord commissioned Amos to carry to the kingdom of Israel. Amos was a shepherd from a city called Tekoa, now a hilltop of ancient ruins about six miles south of Bethlehem, away from the normal trade routes. Although small and obscure, Tekoa was strategic enough that Rehoboam fortified it as a southern city of defense for Jerusalem (see 2 Chronicles 11:6). Amos was an alert observer of people and nations, and scholars agree that he was far from being an untutored rustic, even though he described himself as a simple herdsman (see 1:1; 7:14–15).
Since the contemporaneous reigns of Judah’s Uzziah and Israel’s Jeroboam II are specifically mentioned in the scripture, the ministry of Amos has been estimated to have been about B.C. 750. If so, he may have been contemporary with Isaiah and Hosea.
(8-3) Amos 1:2. “The Lord Will Roar from Zion”
“This introduction was natural in the mouth of a herdsman who was familiar with the roaring of lions, the bellowing of bulls, and the lowing of kine [cattle]. The roaring of the lion in the forest is one of the most terrific sounds in nature; when near, it strikes terror into the heart of both man and beast.” (Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible … with a Commentary and Critical Notes, 4:672.)
The term Zion sometimes refers to Jerusalem, where there is a hill by that name, but that is not always the case, as the following references indicate: Joel 3:16–17; Isaiah 2:2–3; 40:9; 64:10. Isaiah 2:2–3speaks of a latter-day Zion. This Zion will be located on the American continent (see Article of Faith 10). For a broader listing of references concerning the geographical location of Zion, see Bible Dictionary, s.v. “Zion.” See also Notes and Commentary on Joel 2:1.
(8-4) Amos 1:3–2:16. The Lord Will Pour Out Judgments
Here the prophet Amos forecast the Lord’s judgments upon the Syrians (see Amos 1:3–5), Philistines (see Amos 1:6–8), Tyrians (see Amos 1:9–10), Edomites (see Amos 1:11–12), Ammonites (see Amos 1:13–15), and Moabites (see Amos 2:1–3). All of these people were neighbors of the Israelites and in most cases had been enemies to the covenant people. Once those judgments had been pronounced, Amos outlined the judgments coming upon the kingdoms of Judah (see Amos 2:4–5) and Israel (see Amos 2:6–16). His linking the two kingdoms of the Israelites with other nations suggests that Israel was no longer a “peculiar people” (see Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 14:2) but had become like the gentile nations around them.
Even though Amos was sent especially to Israel, he spoke for God against the evils of all the nations. Some have termed Amos a prophet of doom, but he only warned the people of the calamitous paths they were following. All of these territories or kingdoms eventually fell.
(8-5) Amos 1:3, 6, 11. “For Three Transgressions … and for Four”
The expression “for three transgressions … and for four” indicates that the sins alluded to have been exceedingly abundant. The same style is used in Proverbs 6:16, “these six things … yea, seven,” and in Matthew 18:21–22, “seventy times seven,” referring to an infinite number. A modern English equivalent would be the expression “a hundred and one times.” The implication of the idiom is that three transgressions are too many, and you have even exceeded that. Or as C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch explained: “The expression, therefore, denotes not a small but a large number of crimes, or ‘ungodliness in its worst form.’” (Commentary on the Old Testament, 10:1:242.)
(8-6) Amos 1–2. Why Were These Nations to Be Punished?
The reasons given by Amos in his pronouncements of the judgments upon the various nations may seem puzzling at first. One could question whether one evil act, no matter how serious, normally brings the judgments of God upon a nation. Amos was inspired to use a poetic device. He selected the act or trait of each nation that dramatically illustrates the extent of their wickedness. The one act mentioned is proof of how far that nation has sunk in iniquity. The following table summarizes the items mentioned and their significance.
They “threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron” (Amos 1:3).
Gilead was part of the land on the east side of the River Jordan inherited by the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh (see Deuteronomy 3:10–13). When the Syrians conquered it under Hazael (2 Kings 10:32–33), they evidently treated their captives with barbaric cruelty, crushing them under iron threshing sleds. (A similar incident is recorded in 2 Samuel 12:31.)
They carried away “the whole captivity” to Edom (Amos 1:6).
This passage seems to refer to the time when the Philistines raided Judah under the reign of Joram (see 2 Chronicles 21:16–17). They sold all their captives to the archenemy of Israel, the Edomites.
Tyrus or Tyre
They delivered up the Israelite captives to Edom (Amos 1:9).
Like Gaza, Phoenicia also sold Israelite captives although it may be that Phoenicia bought the captives from other enemies of Israel such as Syria and then sold them to Edom, since there is no record of Tyre capturing Israelites directly.
Pursued his “brother” with the sword and kept his great wrath (Amos 1:11).
The Edomites were the descendants of Esau, whose name was also Edom (see Genesis 25:30). Thus, they were closely related peoples (“brothers”) to Israel, but showed only bitter hatred and hostility. The Edomites were some of Israel’s most determined enemies.
(Ammonites; Rabbah was the capital of Ammon)
They “ripped up the women with child of Gilead” (Amos 1:13).
The incident mentioned here is not recorded in the Old Testament, but the Ammonites were a fierce desert people who often conquered parts of Israel. To kill pregnant women shows a particularly brutal nature.
The king of Moab burned the bones of the king of Edom (see Amos 2:1).
Keil and Delitzsch noted: “The burning of the bones of the king of Edom is not burning while he was still alive, but the burning of the corpse into lime, i.e. so completely that the bones turned into powder like lime. … No record has been preserved of this event in the historical books of the Old Testament; but it was no doubt connected with the war referred to in 2 Kings iii., which Joram of Israel and Jehoshaphat of Judah waged against the Moabites in company with the king of Edom; so that the Jewish tradition found in Jerome, viz. that after this war the Moabites dug up the bones of the king of Edom from the grave, and heaped insults upon them by burning them to ashes, is apparently not without foundation.” (Commentary, 10:1:250.)
(8-7) Amos 2:4–16. The Punishments of Judah and Israel
The reasons for the punishment of Judah and Israel differ from those for the punishment of the gentile nations. No acts are mentioned except for the forsaking of the Lord and turning to wickedness. Israel had been given the law of God. Therefore, more was expected of them.
Panting “after the dust of the earth upon the head of the poor” (v. 7) refers to the people being general oppressors of the poor, showing them neither justice nor mercy. The idea is that the people longed to see the poor in such a state of misery that they threw dust on their heads (a sign of mourning). Verses 11 and 12 refer to the Nazarites, who were instituted by the Lord to show the spiritual nature of His religion (see Numbers 6:2–21). Amos condemned Israel for polluting the Nazarites by giving them wine to drink. He also chastized them for commanding the prophets not to prophecy. Apparently, Israel would have liked to set these servants of the Lord aside so that they could live every man according to his own way and feel comfortable in doing so.
(8-8) Amos 3:1–8. God Will Not Do Anything without Forewarning His Prophets
Amos spoke to the whole of Israel, all twelve families or tribes. Using the metaphor of a husband, the Lord reminded Israel that He had chosen no other (see Amos 3:2; Deuteronomy 7:6). He spoke of Himself as a faithful husband and reminded Israel of her covenant relationship with Him (see Jeremiah 3:19–20). In verse 3 He asked Israel to remember the need for unity in her relationship with Him. It is necessary, if they are to walk together, for them to be in agreement. The images are all chosen to express the same thing: God, has foreknowledge of all calamities (see vv. 2–6), but He never sends a calamity unless He first notifies His prophet of it (see v. 7; see also 2 Nephi 30:17; Jacob 4:8). Prophecy comes by direct revelation. God has knowledge of all His children and their doings and justly warns and threatens with His judgments. The fact that the prophets prophesy correctly is an indication that they are in communion with God and that they do indeed walk together.
Amos 3:7is a clear statement concerning the role of prophets. President N. Eldon Tanner said: “There are many scriptures which assure us that God is as interested in us today as he has been in all his children from the beginning, and thus we believe in continuous revelation from God through his prophets to guide us in these latter days. The Prophet Amos said, ‘Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.’” (In Conference Report, Apr. 1975, p. 52.)
(8-9) Amos 3:9–11. What Is the Significance of the Mention of Ashdod and Egypt?
“Ashdod, one of the Philistian capitals, is mentioned by way of example, as a chief city of the uncircumcised, who were regarded by Israel as godless heathen; and Egypt is mentioned along with it, as the nation whose unrighteousness and ungodliness had once been experienced by Israel to satiety [fulness]. If therefore such heathen as these are called to behold the unrighteous and dissolute conduct to be seen in the places, it must have been great indeed.” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary, 10:1:262–63.)
Amos 3:11says “an adversary there shall be,” which means there should be no escape. Wherever the people turned they would meet a foe, for God’s judgments and retributions are sure.
(8-10) Amos 3:12–15. What Is the Significance of the Imagery Amos Used Here?
Amos used vivid imagery to show that scarcely any would escape and those who did would do so with extreme difficulty. It is like a shepherd who can recover no more of a sheep carried away by a lion than two of its legs or a piece of its ear, just enough to prove that they belonged to his sheep. This prophecy saw fulfillment when Sargon took Samaria, part of the Northern Kingdom, captive about B.C. 721.
In the East the corner is the most honorable place, and a couch in the corner of a room is the place of greatest distinction. These words were used to mean that even in the cities which were in the most honorable part of the land, whether Samaria in Israel, or Damascus in Syria, none would escape the judgments. In that day the Lord would remove His power from among Israel, as symbolized by the cutting off of the horns of the altar (see Old Testament Student Manual: Genesis–2 Samuel [religion 301, 2003], pp. 166–67 for an explanation of the horns as a symbol of power).
Bethel (see v. 14) was the official religious capital of the Northern Kingdom. The prophet was saying that not only the poor habitations of the villages and the country would be smitten but also those of the nobility, those who had summer and winter homes adorned with ivory vessels and carvings.
(8-11) Amos 4:1–3. The Evils of Israel’s Women
The quality of life in any community is largely what its women make it. If they are cruel and covetous, their children will likely be the same. Here Amos compared the women of Samaria with the cows (kine) which fed upon the rich pastures east of the Sea of Galilee, caring for little but eating and drinking. Their sin consisted of urging their husbands to bring them food bought with money squeezed from the poor. Thus, in the same way that fish are caught with hooks and pulled from the pond, these women and their children would become ensnared by Israel’s enemies and violently torn from their affluence and debauchery. (See Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary, 10:1:266–68.)
(8-12) Amos 4:4–5:3. How Did the Lord Regard Israel’s Spiritual Condition?
The sacrifices of Israel had degenerated into heartless ritual. It did no good to go to religious centers, to Bethel or Gilgal, and offer sacrifice in a sinful state. The outward sacrifices should have symbolized repentance, an inward change; but outward sacrifice without inward change is a mockery, and God will not be mocked.
Sidney B. Sperry wrote: “Israel was meticulous in its performance of the outward requirements of its religion, but the inner and less tangible requirements of love, mercy, justice and humility either were not understood or were disregarded. In an endeavor to bring His people to their senses the Lord, said Amos, had sent upon them seven natural calamities. Cleanness of teeth [hunger], drought, blasting and mildew, insect pests, pestilence, death by the sword, and burning were brought in succession, but all to no avail. (4:6–11) Amos’s heart was bleeding over the sinful state of Israel. He could do nothing but warn the nation of the final blow which God would send and for which the people must prepare themselves. (4:12, 13) It was no pleasure for him to pronounce judgment upon his brethren.” (The Voice of Israel’s Prophets, p. 311.)
The God of hosts (see Amos 4:13) is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of heaven and earth (see Topical Guide, s.v. “Jesus Christ, Creator”). The first three verses of chapter 5 are a lamentation over Israel’s fallen state. The pure virgin (Israel) became an evil woman, and “there is none to raise her up” (Amos 5:2).
(8-13) Amos 5:4–27. “Hate Evil and Love the Good”
Here the Lord appealed to fallen Israel to repent and mend her evil ways: “Seek me, and ye shall live” (v. 4). This message is the same for every generation and people (see 2 Nephi 1:20; Mosiah 26:30). The Lord wants to be a personal God to His faithful, obedient children. It was not too late for Israel to repent. Failure to do so, however, would result in a situation like that of a man running from a lion only to meet a bear (see v. 19). Neither would various sacrificial offerings help unless true repentance followed: “Of what avail would feasts, solemn assemblies, burnt and meal offerings be in the worship of a righteous God, when their hearts and minds were evil and their actions toward their less fortunate brethren were unjust? All of this outward display was unavailing, and Amos cries out for justice in two lines that have become famous: ‘But let justice well up as waters, and righteousness as a perennial stream.’ (5:24) This clarion call to repentance is one of the finest of all times.” (Sperry, Voice of Israel’s Prophets, p. 313.)
(8-14) Amos 5:26. Who Were Moloch and Chiun?
Moloch and Chiun were heathen gods that the Israelite women had adopted. So grievously addicted to idolatry were those in Samaria that they carried miniature replicas of these gods everywhere they went. The Lord promised “captivity beyond Damascus” (v. 27) for this sin.
(8-15) Amos 6. “Woe to Them That Are at Ease in Zion”
The Lord enlarged here on the captivity that He foresaw for degenerate Israel. But first He invited them to visit other places of destruction—Calneh in Mesopotamia, Hamath in Syria, and Gath in Philistia—and observe what happened to the people there. Were the Israelites any better than they? Certainly not. They had been punished, and so would Israel. Moreover, the wealthy—those who lay on ivory beds and ate sumptuous food—would be the first to suffer (see Amos 6:3–7; 2 Nephi 28:21–25).
“Amos next turns his invective on the careless and reckless rich of Israel, on those who are at ease, on the self-satisfied and the arrogant—in short, on those who, having plenty, take no thought of the sad social and religious state of their country. These persons are absolutely indifferent to the threatened ruin of their people. The prophet indicates (6:1–8, 11–14) that exile is to be their portion, that the nation is to be destroyed because its inhabitants pervert truth and righteousness and trust in their own strength.” (Sperry, Voice of Israel’s Prophets, p. 313.)
Thus, Israel’s destruction was made sure by her own choice. Horses cannot run on rocks without slipping, nor can a man plough rocks in order to plant (see v. 12). By the same token, rebellious Israel could not expect to prosper in her state of evil. Verse 13 is an indictment against Israel, who rejoiced in casting off the Lord’s power and feeling sufficient in and of herself. What Amos had predicted came to pass within thirty years.
(8-16) Amos 7–9. The Visions of Amos
The last three chapters of Amos deal with five visions Amos had. The first four of these visions begin with a phrase such as “Thus hath the Lord God showed me” (see Amos 7:1, 4, 7; 8:1). The fifth commences with the words “I saw the Lord” (Amos 9:1). The first four visions show the various judgments of the Lord upon Israel, while the fifth vision portends the overthrow of their apostate theocracy and the restoration of fallen Israel. The visions are (1) a swarm of locusts (Amos 7:1–3); (2) devouring fire (Amos 7:4–6); (3) the master builder with the plumbline (Amos 7:7–9); (4) the basket of summer fruit (Amos 8); and (5) the smitten sanctuary (Amos 9:1–6). Each has a symbolic meaning that clearly shows that the Lord intended to bring the kingdom of Israel to an end if His people did not repent. The meaning of each vision will be considered individually.
A swarm of locusts (Amos 7:1–3). “The king, who has had the early grass mown, is Jehovah; and the mowing of the grass denotes the judgments which Jehovah has already executed upon Israel. The growing of the second crop is a figurative representation of the prosperity which flourished again after those judgments; in actual fact, therefore, it denotes the time when the dawn had risen again for Israel (ch. iv. 13).” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary, 10:1:306–7.)
Devouring fire (Amos 7:4–6). The fire that devoured the great deep (presumably the ocean) is symbolic of the partially destructive wars that Israel was later involved in. Like the fire which “did eat up a part” of the great deep, Israel’s land was partly despoiled and many of its people led away.
The master builder with the plumbline (Amos 7:7–9). A plumbline is used to obtain exactness and accuracy in construction work. Here it seems to symbolize that God’s strict justice will prevail in judging Israel for her evil ways. All wickedness will be sought out, measured (judged), and destroyed.
The basket of summer fruit (Amos 8:1–9). The harvest of summer fruit symbolized the ripening of Israel. Just as summer fruit must be eaten when picked or it will spoil, Israel was ripe for picking and spoiling by enemies.
The sun going down at noon (Amos 8:9–14). A man’s sun can be said to set at noon if he is taken by death during the prime of his life. A nation’s sun figuratively sets at noon when the country is destroyed in the midst of prosperity. But Amos’ dual prophecy is also a reminder that before the Second Coming of the Lord, the sun will be darkened and refuse to give her light. Indeed, it will be a sign for the wicked of the latter days that their sun is about to set at noon. (See Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary, 10:1:317.)
The smitten sanctuary (Amos 9:1–6). From His dwelling place, the Lord will smite the wicked. There is none to escape, hide where they may. Only the Second Coming of the Lord fulfills such a description, for when the Lord comes in His glory, the rewards of justice will be met. No mountain is high enough, no sea so deep that the unrepentant sinner can hide from the judgments of a just God.
(8-17) Amos 8:11–12. A Famine in the Land
Here again one finds a clear case of prophetic dualism. Amos predicted a famine of the word of the Lord, which famine certainly occurred during the period of apostasy in Israel and Judah. The hardness of their hearts reached such a state that from 400 B.C. until the ministry of John the Baptist, which began in A.D. 30, as far as we know there were no prophets in Israel (see Enrichment K).
But Amos’s prophecy was also fulfilled at a later time. After Christ reestablished His Church on earth, it too eventually fell into apostasy. Again revelation ceased, and there was a great famine of the word of God, this famine lasting for well over a thousand years. President Spencer W. Kimball, after quoting Amos 8:11–12, said of this famine:
“Many centuries passed and that day came when a blanket of disbelief covered this earth, not a blanket of cotton or wool, but a blanket of apostasy, and a hunger and a thirst by many which was not satisfied.
“It was the Lord our God who came to the earth and manifested himself and brought truth again to the earth with prophecy, revelations, authority, priesthood, organization and all of the benefits of mankind. It was the Lord our God who did all this for us.” (In Conference Report, Temple View New Zealand Area Conference 1976, p. 4.)
Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, who at the time was the Executive Area Administrator for one of the European areas, spoke of the effect this famine had had upon Europe: “We have observed a restless spirit of searching today among the people of Europe. Why? Because there is a gnawing hunger in the human heart that, if not fed by the truths of the gospel, leaves life empty and devoid of peace. The hodgepodge of economic ‘isms’ advocated by so-called wise men of the world has solved few, if any, problems, and has brought no real joy. Such empty nostrums have led mankind to seek worldly goods and symbols of material power, blinding humanity to the truth that only the righteous life firmly established in the daily living of God’s commandments brings true happiness. Anything less leaves the heart unfed, with a yearning inner hunger—a hunger which it is our mission to identify and define and of which we should make the people aware. I have seen in Europe the fulfillment of the words of Amos, that there would be ‘a famine in the land, not a famine of bread … but of hearing the words of the Lord.’ (Amos 8:11.)” (In Conference Report, Oct. 1975, pp. 154–55.)
With the restoration of the gospel, the famine came to an end, not for every individual at once, but for the earth in general. Elder Spencer W. Kimball said, “After centuries of spiritual darkness, … we solemnly announce to all the world that the spiritual famine is ended, the spiritual drought is spent, the word of the Lord in its purity and totalness is available to all men. One needs not wander from sea to sea nor from the north to the east, seeking the true gospel as Amos predicted, for the everlasting truth is available.” (In Conference Report, Apr. 1964, pp. 93–94.)
(8-18) Amos 9:7–15. “I Will Sift the House of Israel among All Nations”
Amos told Israel that they could not expect deliverance simply because they were the chosen people (see Amos 9:7). The kingdom of Israel, he said, would be destroyed, except for a remnant of Jacob whom the Lord would preserve because of His mercy (see v. 8). The gathering of the righteous remnant will be such that not one worthy soul will be unnoticed (see v. 9), and the Lord will establish His work, even to the raising of the temple in Jerusalem to its proper place (see v. 11a ).
Every righteous soul who has taken upon himself the name of the Lord—be he Israelite or Gentile—will be brought into the kingdom (see Amos 9:12). And the lands of the earth will shed forth their riches. The promises to scattered Israel are secure, for they will be gathered back into the kingdom of God, inheriting every blessing promised to the righteous with no fear of losing them evermore (see vv. 14–15).
Points to Ponder
(8-19) Amos: An Example for Today’s World
Amos was a discerning observer of the religious and social conditions of his times. The kingdom of Israel to the north was prosperous. Greed, corruption, and vice were common among the wealthy. The condition of the poor was pitiful. Religion had lost its vitality. Morals seemed forgotten. When called by the Lord, Amos was a herdsman, one who kept flocks and tended vineyards. Yet he rose fearlessly to the occasion and worked among the people, prophesying of their future as individuals and as a nation. The same counsel was given to other generations in similar words (see 2 Nephi 1:9–10).
One of the main values in having the scriptures and reading them is that we can become acquainted with the Lord and with His ways; we can then transfer the principles we learn to our own lives. This generation is under a greater obligation to live His commandments, for greater light and knowledge have been given to us.
In the face of Amaziah, the priest, Amos fearlessly declared his call from the Lord. In reply to Amaziah’s attempt to intimidate him, we can almost imagine him saying, as Paul did, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ” (Romans 1:16). Amaziah was one of many in Old Testament times who preached for hire. They taught what the people wanted to hear and belittled the Lord’s authorized servants. Are there Amaziahs in our day? Has their method changed? In quiet dignity the servants of the Lord go on, and in time the self-appointed prophets fade into obscurity.
Take a moment to read again Amos’s recounting of his call from the Lord (see Amos 7:12–17). Can you relate this event to similar events in the lives of some of the Lord’s prophets today? What really qualifies a man to be a prophet? (See Enrichment B.)
Amos 8:7–10gives a view of some of the circumstances associated with the Second Coming of Christ and the Judgment. Remember that Amos had seen the Lord and received His message. All the prophets through the ages have had a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and have testified of His mission (see Helaman 8:16; Jacob 4:4–5; Acts 3:21–24). | <urn:uuid:46641ab1-2d7a-4750-81c6-0752edd313f1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.lds.org/manual/old-testament-student-manual-kings-malachi/chapter-8?lang=eng&media=audio | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403508.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00111-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96284 | 6,627 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Connective tissue disease refers to a group of disorders involving the protein-rich tissue that supports organs and other parts of the body. Examples of connective tissue are fat, bone, and cartilage. These disorders often involve the joints, muscles, and skin, but they can also involve other organs and organ systems, including the eyes, heart, lungs, kidneys, gastrointestinal tract, and blood vessels.
There are more than 200 disorders that affect the connective tissue.
Causes and specific symptoms vary by the different types.
Inherited Disorders of Connective Tissue
Some connective tissue diseases -- often called heritable disorders of connective tissue (HDCTs) -- are the result of changes in certain genes. Many of these are quite rare. Following are some of the more common ones.
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). Actually a group of more than 10 disorders, EDS is characterized by over-flexible joints, stretchy skin, and abnormal growth of scar tissue. Symptoms can range from mild to disabling. Depending on the specific form of EDS, other symptoms may include:
Problems with the lungs, heart valves, or digestion
Epidermolysis bullosa (EB). People with EB have skin that is so fragile that it tears or blisters as a result of a minor bump, stumble, or even friction from clothing. Some forms of EB may involve the digestive tract, the respiratory tract, the muscles, or the bladder. Caused by defects of several proteins in the skin, EB is usually evident at birth.
Marfan syndrome. Marfan syndrome affects the bones, ligaments, eyes, heart, and blood vessels. People with Marfan syndrome tend to be tall and have extremely long bones and thin "spider-like" fingers and toes. Other problems may include eye problems due to abnormal placement of the eye lens and enlargement of the aorta (the largest artery in the body), which can lead to a fatal rupture. Marfan syndrome is caused by mutations in the gene that regulates the structure of a protein called fibrillin-1.
Osteogenesis imperfecta. Osteogenesis imperfecta is a condition of brittle bones, low muscle mass, and lax joints and ligaments. There are several types of this condition. Specific symptoms depend on the specific type and may include: | <urn:uuid:b2124e5a-4d2f-4087-b96a-9744dbe19972> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/connective-tissue-disease | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392527.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00195-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946745 | 480 | 3.8125 | 4 |
paper, 349 p., $26.95
Using Native American medicine wheels as its inspiration, E. Barrie Kavasch’s book offers new options for garden design. With ample illustrations and a historical account filled with regional and tribal examples, the author explains how medicine gardens have been used to create “sacred spaces.” Viewing the circle as a sacred symbol and a means of “centering earth energies,” Kavasch details ground plans and styles of medicine wheels, and the symbolic objects that they might include.
Kavasch discusses constuction, planting, and care of the garden, as well as uses, growth needs and propagation of 50 “key plants” ranging from angelica to yucca. Each plant is carefully illustrated, and companion plants and pertinent precautions are provided. The author’s ancestors—a mix of native Americans and “farming folk ... wildcrafted medicinal plants ... for early pharmaceutical companies.” Kavasch then explains therapeutic uses of medicine wheel plants.
The Medicine Wheel Garden ends with descriptions of the rituals and celebrations for which the garden and its plants are used. Appendices list native plant and Native American craft suppliers, as well as sacred sites in the United States and Canada. The book also includes a selected bibliography.
— Mary Louise Doherty, library volunteer, Chicago Botanic Garden | <urn:uuid:9fca2171-c724-40f3-ac42-e9afe6cf5908> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.chicagobotanic.org/book/medicine_wheel_garden_creating_sacred_space_healing_celebration_and_tranquility | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397842.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00058-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929996 | 286 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Parents too soon? Teen Pregnancy and Childbearing in the U.S.
Parenting at any age can be challenging, but it can be particularly difficult for teens. Compared with their peers who delay childbearing, teen girls who have babies are:
- Less likely to finish high school;
- More likely to be poor as adults;
- More likely to rely on public assistance; and
- More likely to have children who have poorer educational, behavioral, and health outcomes over the course of their lives than kids born to older parents.1
For these and many other reasons, a key priority for the Department of Health and Human Services is to reduce teen pregnancies. Keep reading to learn more, including what you can do to help!
Teen Childbearing: Prevalence and Trends
The positive news is that the teen birth rate in the U.S. has declined dramatically since the early 1990s—including a steep drop of nine percent from 2009 to 2010—and is currently at a historic low.2 Overall, the teen birth rate declined by 44 percent between 1991 and 2010, from 61.8 to 34.3 births for every 1,000 adolescent females.3
However, the U.S. teen birth rate is still among the highest in the industrialized world4 and there is wide variation by race/ethnicity and region of the country.5 For example, birth rates for Hispanic and black teens are more than twice that of white teens. And, in 2010, when almost 370,000 babies were born to teen girls between the ages of 15 and 19, the lowest birth rates were reported in the Northeast and upper Midwest, while rates were highest in states across the southern parts of the country.6,7 Check out how your state compares with OAH’s state fact sheets on reproductive health.
What Communities Can Do
- Implement an evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention program in your area. Visit OAH’s searchable database to find a program that was shown effective in reducing teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and behavioral risks that fits the needs of your community.
- Find out if there is an OAH-funded teen pregnancy prevention program in your area. Check out OAH’s list of grantees to find organizations working in your state and community!
- Consider creating a youth development behavioral intervention that emphasizes social and emotional competence, improved decision making and communication skills, self-determination, and positive bonding experiences with adult role models, with a goal of reducing sexual risks, as recommended by the Community Preventive Services Task Force.
- Encourage schools to utilize effective tools and resources that help to reduce sexual risk behaviors among adolescents.
- Learn more about the reproductive health of adolescents in your state or about how the teen birth rate in your county compares to other counties in your state and across the nation.
What Parents Can Do
Research shows that teens who talk with parents about reproduction and healthy relationships begin to have sex at later ages, use condoms and birth control more often if they do have sex, have better communication with romantic partners, and have sex less often than other adolescents.8
- Talk about it: Specifically, parents can teach their teen about the kinds of changes to expect during puberty, expectations for their dating and sexual behavior, abstinence and contraception, avoiding teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV/AIDS, and having healthy relationships.
- Start early: It’s important to begin these conversations early, rather than waiting for one big, “talk.” And be ready to listen to your teen and answer questions that might come up.9
- Set expectations: Communicate family values and rules about when it’s okay to start dating and your expectations around dating and sexual relationships.10
- Remember teens need health care support too: Make sure teens continue to have periodic physical exams so their healthcare providers can keep them up-to-date on immunizations, screening and counseling to prevent risky behavior, and as needed, tests for HIV and STDs.
For more strategies on how to get the conversation started and ideas for what to talk about, visit OAH’s Talking with Teens pages on these topics. Healthfinder.gov also has helpful strategies and tips for parents on how they can start and maintain conversations with teens regarding relationships and sexual decisions.
What Healthcare Providers Can Do
- Screen and counsel adolescents for sexual risk behaviors, HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and dating violence. Learn more about the preventive services covered under the Affordable Care Act.
- Provide teen-friendly sexual and reproductive healthcare services. The Provider’s Toolkit from MTV and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gives practical tips on communicating effectively with teens on important issues, such as how to take their sexual history.
- Locate continuing education opportunities and find teaching tools/curricula, current clinical practice references, and other helpful resources from the National Network of STD and HIV Prevention Training Centers. Also check out the latest STD Treatment Guidelines from CDC, other pregnancy prevention and STD resources for providers, new information on the gaps in testing for Chlamydia, and information on implementing Chlamydia screening.
- Locate a health center for well-child checkups and exams. The Affordable Care Act, passed in 2010, aims to improve access to recommended health care services for the entire population, including adolescents. The law expands health insurance coverage for adolescents, and offers new support for preventive services, innovative models of care, and clinical training.11
- Understand contraceptive options, and get more information on the types of birth control available and their effectiveness at preventing pregnancy at the Office of Population Affairs and the Office on Women’s Health’s websites on contraception. Girlshealth.gov also has a page on contraception.
- Find family planning services. Federally funded Title X family planning clinics offer low-cost contraceptive services and pregnancy testing for qualifying patients. Find a local Title X-funded clinic here.
1 Hoffman, S. D., & Maynard, R. A. (Eds.). (2008). Kids having kids: Economic costs and social consequences of teen pregnancy (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.
2 Hamilton, B. E., & Ventura, S. J. (2012). Birth rates for U.S. teenagers reach historic lows for all age and ethnic groups. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Available here.
4 United Nations Statistics Division. (2011). Demographic Yearbook 2009-2010. New York, NY: United Nations. Available here.
5 Hamilton, B. E., & Ventura, S. J. (2012). Birth rates for U.S. teenagers reach historic lows for all age and ethnic groups. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Available here.
7 Hamilton, B. E., Martin, J. A., & Ventura, S. J. (2011). Births: Preliminary data for 2010. National Vital Statistics Reports 60(2): Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Available here.
8 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). Parent and guardian resources. Available here.
9 National Health Information Center. (2012). Talk to your kids about sex. Available here.
11 English, A. (2010). The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010: How does it help adolescents and young adults? : Center for Adolescent Health & the Law, National Adolescent Health Information and Innovation Center. Available here. | <urn:uuid:f69a00ca-09b7-47c6-92aa-27199f66c1dd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/news/e-updates/may-2012.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00035-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920257 | 1,545 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Welcome to the Cardiff Gravitational Physics tutorial pages. We have put together a few pages describing our research into black holes and gravitational waves. We hope you enjoy them.
Also, why not try searching for gravitational waves with our game Black Hole Hunter.
Two Minute Introduction
A brief introduction to black holes and gravitational waves, with a discussion of the effects of gravitational waves as well as the Hulse-Taylor pulsar - the most famous source of gravitational waves.
Gravitational Wave Sources
Very massive and fast moving systems will give off gravitational waves. By observing the gravitational wave signal from these systems we will learn more about the universe around us.
Gravitational Wave Detectors
A network of gravitational wave detectors has been built around the world. The goal is the first direct detection of gravitational waves. There is also a space based decector planned.
Link to Full-size Image [83 KB]
Detecting Gravitational Waves
Even in the very sensitive gravitational wave detectors, the signal we are looking for is very weak. Many sophisiticated methods have been developed to enable us to differentiate a gravitational wave signal from the background noise. | <urn:uuid:9f07e132-99ae-4a65-8066-6f0d7d389a1e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.astro.cardiff.ac.uk/research/gravity/tutorial/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00029-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909428 | 233 | 3.609375 | 4 |
Expanded supply, brought about by technical innovation and investment, has helped moderate commodity prices over the past year after a decade of demand from China helped push up prices. As Patrick Barta and John W. Miller report:
Economists for years warned that rising demand for natural resources by China and other emerging markets would outstrip supply, leaving the world short of everything from nickel to coal, copper and corn.
But a remarkable period of innovation and investment has produced a far different picture. Expanded supply has helped moderate commodity prices over the past year after a decade of demand from China helped push many prices into the stratosphere.
China’s nickel production is one of the most dramatic examples of fresh thinking. In the early 2000s, prices were below $10,000 per metric ton. Then China’s economy took off, along with new demand for stainless steel, which requires nickel and iron.
With nickel largely controlled by Western companies, China’s swelling economy was especially vulnerable—until some of its steel producers figured out how to substitute a lower-grade “nickel pig iron,” unlocking a mother lode of cheap supply. | <urn:uuid:37139fc3-f490-4e74-af0d-8d1579321ab4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/12/09/innovation-investment-pop-commodity-bubble/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00025-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958873 | 236 | 2.609375 | 3 |
The Mad Scientist Presents: MAD ABOUT JESUS: Scientific Object Lessons to Teach Biblical Truths By Daniel A. Briere
Object Lesson 10: “All Things are Possible with God”
We are powerless by ourselves, but with God we are strong.
Just as air has the power to crush a can of soda or suspend a ping-pong ball in mid-air, so God has the power to do all things. We are powerless, but God’s power protects those he loves, for all things are possible with God.
Have you ever felt powerless, out of control?
“God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.” Psalms 62:7
“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10
“All things are possible with God.” Mark 10:27
Experiment 1: Crush the Can
2 empty cans of soda – 12 fl oz
Sterno burner or other suitable heat source (stovetop, camp stove, etc)
Small amount of water (a few tablespoons)
Large glass bowl filled with ice water
Matches or lighter (if needed for heat source)
Experiment 2: Floating Ping-Pong
Hair dryer (with cool setting)
Extension cord (optional)
The experiment used in this object lesson uses a heat source to boil a small amount of water in a can of soda. Extreme care must be taken to prevent fires and burn injuries, especially when handling the hot can. Under no circumstances shall ‘Mad About Jesus Laboratories’ be liable for any damages or injury that result from the use of, or misuse of, this or any other object lesson or experiment. The use of this experiment is at your own risk. For future details please note the legal disclaimer on the website (www.madaboutjesus.net).
Rinse out both empty cans of soda using water to remove any sticky residue. Let dry. Put one can on the left center of the display table. In the other, put 2-3 tablespoons of water and put it on the right center of the display table. Set up the heat source. If using a Sterno burner, open the lid to expose the flammable jelly. Ignite it using the matches or lighter to observe the flame (blue). Keep in mind that the flame is hard to see (use caution). Blow out the burner, recap (loosely), and set it just right of the center of the display table near the can of soda with water. Set the metal tongs on the table near the heat source. Fill a large glass bowl with ice water and set it in the center of the table. Plug the hair dryer into an outlet. Use an extension cord, if needed. Set the hair dryer and ping-pong ball on the far left side of the display table (far from the water).
1. “Hey kids.”
2. “Today I want to talk about the POWER OF GOD.”
3. “But first, let’s talk about a bit about ourselves.”
4. “How many of you have ever felt powerless, out of control?” Wait for a response.
5. “Can you tell me about it?” Wait for a response.
6. “Well, I think that we all feel that way from time to time.”
7. “The truth is there are things we cannot control.”
8. “But does this mean we cannot gain POWER or gain CONTROL?
Jesus walks on water
9. “Well, let’s turn to a story from the bible to find out.”
10. “In Matthew 14: 22-32, we read: ‘Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.'”
11. “After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.”
12. “When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.”
13. “During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.”
14. “When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified.”
15. “‘It’s a ghost,’ they said, and cried out in fear.”
16. “But Jesus immediately said to them: ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.'”
17. “‘Lord, if it’s you,’ Peter replied, ‘Tell me to come to you on the water.'”
18. “‘Come,’ he said.”
19. “Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.”
20. “But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!'”
21. “Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.”
22. “‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?'”
23. “And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.”
24. “Let’s summarize the story.”
25. “So, Jesus told the disciples to go on ahead of him in the boat and he went up to pray.”
26. “Then a huge storm comes up.”
27. “The disciples struggle against the storm.”
28. “Jesus walks out on water.”
29. “Peter tries to walk to him and begins to sink when he takes his eyes off of Jesus.”
30. “Jesus pulls Peter up out of the water and speaks to the storm and it stops.”
31. “So, this story illustrates many forms of God’s incredible power, doesn’t it?”
32. “First, God has the power to walk on water.”
33. “Second, God has the power speak to a storm and cause it to immediately stop.”
34. “Third, and most importantly, God has the power to help someone else walk on water.”
35. “You see, though, none of these things are possible in our own strength.”
36. “The disciples struggled to keep the boat afloat during the storm and eventually without God’s help it would have sunk.”
37. “Peter started to sink when he lost faith in God.”
38. “So, it is the invisible power of God that stopped the storm, that empowered Christ to walk on water, and that enabled Peter to walk on water.”
39. “Now we cannot see God, because He is invisible.”
40. “But we know he is there, because we can feel him, don’t we?”
41. “So, God is invisible, but we can feel him.”
42. “What else is invisible and can be felt?” Wait for a response.
43. “Yes, air.”
44. “Air is invisible.”
45. “Yet you can feel air when it moves.”
46. “We call that the wind.”
47. “So, let’s take a closer look at the POWER of air.”
Crush the can – volunteer crush
48. “First, let’s look at how POWERFUL air can be by itself.”
49. “For this I need a volunteer?” Get a young volunteer.
50. “Ok, here is a normal soda can.” Show the empty can to the audience.
51. “When I say go, I want you to crush this can with your hands.” “Ready?”
52. “Ok, crush!” Instruct the volunteer to crush it by squeezing the sides of the can.
53. “Good job.” Set the crushed can aside.
54. “Now, that required a lot of strength, didn’t it?” Wait for a response from the volunteer.
55. “Ok, you can sit back down.” Seat the volunteer.
Crush the can – air crush
56. “What if I told you that air itself has the power to crush the can?” Take the second can filled with 2-3 tablespoons of water and place it on the heat source. If using a Sterno burner, you will have to hold it up into the flame using the metal tongs or the lack of oxygen will extinguish the flame.
57. “All we have to do is entice it a bit heating it and then cooling it.” The water in the can will start to heat up and eventually you will observe steam coming from the can. At this point it is ready (do not attempt to proceed until steam is observed or the experiment will fail).
58. “You will then see the POWER of air.”
60. “Ok, here we go.” In a very rapid motion and using the metal tongs to hold onto the can of soda, quickly invert (turn over) the can into the ice water being sure to put the open side in first. The key is to cover the hole at the top of the can with the ice water as soon as possible, because that creates the vacuum. It may help to practice this motion prior to the lesson. If done properly, the can will make a large popping sound and the can will crush instantly.
62. “That can is crushed.” Pull the can from the ice water and show it to the audience.
63. “So the power of air itself was able to crush the can.”
64. “Pretty amazing.”
Floating ping-pong ball – ball alone
65. “Well, let’s now look at how air’s POWER can be used by something else.”
66. “Before you I have an ordinary ping-pong ball.”
67. “I want it to float in mid-air.”
68. “Let’s see, I put it here and let it go.” Show the ping-pong ball to the audience, holding it high in the air. Let go. Pick it up once it falls.
69. “Ok, obviously the ball does not have the strength to remain suspended in the air.”
Floating ping-pong ball – air support
70. “What about with the help of some air, specifically some wind?”
71. “Well, luckily I brought my wind machine with me today.” Show the audience the hair dryer.
72. “Now, let’s use the POWER of air to help this ball float in mid-air.”
74. “Ok, here we go.” With the hair dryer set on the cool setting, turn to high, direct the air stream towards the ceiling (point the hair dryer straight up), and carefully put the ping-pong ball into the air stream. If done correctly, the ball will seem to levitate (float) in mid-air. At first, keep the ball directly above the hair dryer, but after a few seconds, slowly tilt the hairdryer from side to side up to 45 degrees and watch the ball stay suspended in mid-air even though it is not directly above the hairdryer.
76. “The ball stays suspended by the air.”
77. “By itself the ball would fall, but the POWER of the air gives it strength to keep it from falling.”
Back to Peter
78. “Sound familiar?”
79. “Remember Peter from the story?”
80. “By himself he started to sink in the water.”
81. “But, he could walk on water by using the STRENGTH from God.”
82. “So, we just saw that air by itself can be very POWERFUL.”
83. “Remember the crushed can?”
84. “But it also has the power to GIVE STRENGTH.”
85. “Remember the ping-pong ball.”
Back to God
86. “But, what does that mean for us?”
87. “What does this have to do with God?”
88. “Well, remember air is invisible, yet can be felt.”
89. “God too is invisible, yet He too can be felt.”
90. “So, just as we can use the power of air to help us, God’s strength can become our strength.”
91. “In Psalms 62:7 the bible says ‘God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.'”
92. “In Isaiah 41:10, the bible says ‘Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.'”
93. “So, it is the invisible power of God that enables you to feel strength.”
94. “So remember, no matter how powerless you feel.”
95. “No matter how little control you seem to have.”
96. “You can seek strength through God, through Jesus.”
97. “There is nothing to fear, for all things are possible with God.”
98. “Well, I better get back to the lab.”
99. “I have lots to do to prepare for my next experiment.”
100. “You see, I think I discovered a way to change a yellow solution to a black one, change a clear solution to a red one, then combine the black and red solutions together and make them perfectly clear.”
101. “I just need to work the kinks out.”
102. “I will see you again soon.”
1. A video demonstration of crushing a can of soda using the power of air can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVayky_b-6U
2. A video demonstration of floating a ping-pong ball using the power of air can be found at http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-6JcQzlZW3qc/hair_dryer_and_ping_pong/
Please send comments, suggestions, and questions to the ‘mad scientist’ at firstname.lastname@example.org
Mad About Jesus Laboratories
By Daniel A. Briere | <urn:uuid:d957678b-6adb-4059-83f8-28174f6b73a0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://childrensministryvault.com/ministry-lessons-ideas-training/841/all-things-are-possible-with-god-scientific-object-lesson/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00152-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93474 | 3,346 | 2.515625 | 3 |
The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion (2005) is a nonfiction book written by scholars Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull. It is an annotated reference to J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
Hammond and Scull proceed chapter-by-chapter from the original foreword through to the end of The Lord of the Rings. Appendices, examining the evolution of the text, changes, inconsistencies, and errors, often using comments from Tolkien's own notes and letters. Other sections cover the numerous maps of Middle-earth, chronologies of the story and its writing, and notes on the book and jacket design of the first editions of 1954-56. The book includes some previously unpublished material by Tolkien. It also reprints part of a 1951 letter in which Tolkien explicates, at some length, his conception and vision of The Lord of the Rings. Reprinted for the first time since 1975, and corrected and expanded, is Tolkien's Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings (previously referred to as Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings), an index of persons, places, and things designed to aid the translator in rendering Tolkien's great work into foreign languages.
It is available in both hardcover and paperback.
|J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium| | <urn:uuid:535b1db3-bc7d-49b8-894c-83eac7f92f19> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings:_A_Reader's_Companion | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397873.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00062-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93986 | 281 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Some replica parts had to be obtained in the last two years: Huge glass panes, one-centimeter (0.39 inch) thick, were made in Belgium while the white linoleum that originally covered the floor was provided by the same German company that made it more than 80 years ago.
Fritz and Grete Tugendhat lived in the villa with their three children for eight years in the 1930s. Grete said she fell in love with it "from the first moment."
One of their daughters, Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat, now works as a professor of art history at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.
"For me, this is actually the most beautiful interior room in modern architecture," she told AP. "Usually, it's only in old churches that a room has such a meditative effect."
Hammer-Tugendhat and her husband are leading members of an international committee of experts overseeing the villa's reconstruction, co-financed by the city, EU funds and the state.
The villa's central living open space has its south and east walls made of huge steel-frame windows that allow a magnificent view of Brno's historical monuments and connect rather than separate the building with the garden.
Mies van der Rohe also designed the furniture, including his famed chairs, and equipped the building with air conditioning and security systems.
In 1938, the Tugendhats had to leave the country to escape the Nazis, first for Switzerland and later for Venezuela.
Mies van der Rohe, whose work did not meet Hitler's taste for monumental architecture, also fled the Nazis, purportedly using his brother's passport to get out of Germany. He settled in Chicago to work for the Illinois Institute of Technology and designed a number of significant buildings in his new land, including Lake Shore Apartments in Chicago, the Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois, the Seagram Building in New York City and Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington D.C. He died in 1969.
The Gestapo seized the building after invading Czechoslovakia and — insensitive to the original design — made changes, including erecting several extra walls inside and outside and increasing the height of the chimney.
All but one of the large windows was smashed by Allied bombings.
During the liberation by the Red Army in 1945, the living space was used as a stable for the officers' horses — and all but one of the shelves of a huge ebony bookcase was burned.
The Communists, who took power here in 1948, tried their hand at renovating the villa in the 1980s — but did more harm than good. The original bathroom equipment and the sole remaining pane of a wall of glass were destroyed because they didn't fit their plan.
The deal that split Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1992 was signed in the villa, adding to its historical significance.
The idea to restore the villa dates back to 2001 when UNESCO declared it a world heritage site. Copies of original plans and photographs from the MoMA in New York City as well documents from family and from Brno archives, including pictures taken by Fritz Tugendhat, were used to help restore the building.
City officials now are trying to buy the original pieces of furniture from the families that own them.
"It would be something extraordinary to get them all," said Brno mayor Roman Onderka.
A grand opening is scheduled for Feb. 29 and the villa will be reopen to the public March 6. Officials said they have already been flooded by requests from potential visitors.
APTN videojournalist Philipp-Moritz Jenne in Vienna contributed to this report
If you go:
VILLA TUGENDHAT: Brno, Czech Republic; http://www.tugendhat.eu/en/. Opens to the public March 6. Brno has an international airport and is also accessible by train, bus or car from Prague, about 200 miles away.
- Clashes between police, teachers leave 4 dead...
- NBC to unveil new theme song for 'Sunday...
- Pound surges amid apparent support for UK to...
- AP NewsBreak: UN: Israel for ratifying nuke...
- Solstice, full moon mark summer's official...
- UN says 65 million people displaced in 2015,...
- 10 years after housing bubble, damage lingers...
- Decade after housing peaked: Owners richer,...
- Immigration ruling called hurtful, a... 72
- Mormon youth leader dies on trek outing... 70
- Preventing mass shootings? Utah... 67
- Nearly 70 percent of Utahns say Donald... 62
- Dems stage election-year sit-in on... 46
- Poll: Trump up over Clinton in Utah,... 42
- Democrats end 25-hour plus protest to... 30
- Chaffetz: I'm going to be 'kid in a... 29 | <urn:uuid:3714986c-99f1-4189-b1d8-ce909bf1a7fc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700220630/Mies-van-der-Rohes-Tugendhat-to-reopen-again.html?pg=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392069.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00007-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963031 | 1,023 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Mike the Mad Biologist points to a nice article that describes aspects of the next-generation sequencing technologies with some helpful animations to illustrate the different styles. Mike goes on to describe that the sequencing itself isn’t the rate limiting step–the assembly and analysis steps are the hurdles really.
The dust certainly hasn’t settled on the strategies for that at this time–and as Mike describes the challenges may vary by species, but we are keeping an eye on some of the software that is being used (see Next-gen sequencing issue in Bioinformatics and Curious about short read sequencing? among others here).
This data is turning up in databases now (see this ENCODE data at the UCSC Genome Browser as just one example), and will continue to flood in at dramatic rates. And the same technologies are being used for analysis of other aspects of biology (not just sequencing new species and individuals)–such as promoter binding or nucleosome positioning or RNA protein binding. So it is worth taking a look at the underlying technology to understand what’s being sequenced.
and the Wellcome Trust article he describes is: Genomics – the next generation | <urn:uuid:9c618fb6-a3cf-4ae6-9958-c8aefc54a7bd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.openhelix.eu/?p=2216 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00021-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929851 | 239 | 2.515625 | 3 |
The use of brainwaves as control parameters for electronic systems is becoming quite widespread. The types of signals that we have access to are still quite primitive compared to what we might aspire to in our cyberpunk fantasies, but they’re a step in the right direction.
A very tempting aspect of accessing brain signals is that it can be used to circumvent physical limitations. [Jerkey] demonstrates this with his DIY brain-controlled electric wheelchair that can move people who wouldn’t otherwise have the capacity to operate joystick controls. The approach is direct, using a laptop to marshall EEG data which is passed to an arduino that simulates joystick operations for the control board of the wheelchair. From experience we know that it can be difficult to control EEGs off-the-bat, and [Jerky]’s warnings at the beginning of the instructable about having a spotter with their finger on the “off” switch should well be followed. Maybe some automated collision avoidance would be useful to include.
We’ve covered voice-operated wheelchairs before, and we’d like to know how the two types of control would stack up against one another. EEGs are more immediate than speech, but we imagine that they’re harder to control.
It would be interesting albeit somewhat trivial to see an extension of [Jerkey]’s technique as a way to control an ROV like Oberon, although depending on the faculties of the operator the speech control could be difficult (would that make it more convincing as an alien robot diplomat?). | <urn:uuid:485b154c-8413-4914-bc6a-7b9a24e3f10e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://hackaday.com/2010/12/10/eeg-the-locomotion/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00125-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957479 | 320 | 3.015625 | 3 |
A common belief among new mothers is that breastfeeding acts as a natural contraceptive. While it is true that breastfeeding delays ovulation, other factors must be taken into consideration to determine if a woman can trust breastfeeding as a method to prevent pregnancy.
If a new mother is breastfeeding exclusively, meaning she is not giving her baby any formula, breastfeeding can provide reliable contraception for as long as six months. However, if she is supplementing her baby with formula, then her chances of ovulation will increase and she can only depend on breastfeeding as contraception for the first six weeks following her baby's birth. A woman who chooses not to breastfeed can begin ovulating as early as four weeks postpartum. Also, a woman will ovulate before she has her first period following childbirth, so thinking she can't get pregnant because her periods haven't resumed is not a safe assumption.
Several contraceptive options exist for women who are breastfeeding and wish to have additional protection. They include an oral contraceptive known as the minipill or "breastfeeding pill," an IUD, Depoprovera shot, condoms, a diaphragm, and Implanon. Other birth control pills or the Nuvaring are not recommended as they contain estrogen, which can decrease milk supply.
Though women should abstain from sexual activity for at least six weeks postpartum, some choose to resume activity sooner. A woman should talk with her health care provider prior to giving birth to discuss which contraceptive options are best suited to meet her specific needs.
• Dr. Laurie Erickson is vice chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center. For more information on this topic, talk with your physician or call Erickson's Ahwatukee office at (480) 759-9191. | <urn:uuid:9a54f885-6daf-4576-b376-d05e08ce7b80> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ahwatukee.com/ahwatukee_medical/article_098e2bde-ebb8-11e0-a154-001cc4c03286.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00170-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954095 | 365 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Xray of Fracture of Medial Malleolus of Tibia
A malleolus is a projection of bone beyond ankle joint. The medial one is called medial malleolus. Other arising from tibia is called posterior. A counterpart called lateral malleolus is distal end of fibula.
The present xray shows a fractured medial malleolus.
Like other fractures, treatment of the fractured medial malleolus depends upon many factors which are injury related and patient related. These are presence of concomitant fracture of fibula, amount of displacement of medial malleolus, age of the patient and demands and expectation of the patient.
The treatment of of fracture of medial malleolus can be non operative or operative. Nonoperative treatment is also called conservative treatment.
In nonoperative methods, patients are given below knee or short leg casts. In some cases, where initial injury has led to substantial swelling, the patient may be given a temporary slab first and on reduction of swelling proceed to definitive cast. It is mostly done in cases of undisplaced fractures or patients with very low functional demands.
A fractured medial malleolus would take around 4-6 weeks to unite.
Xrayof Fracture of Medial Malleolus Fixed With Malleolar Screw
The xray in picture is of 27 years old male who fell after his ankle got twisted. He had a displaced fracture of medial malleolus and the fracture was fixed with two malleolar screws. | <urn:uuid:99e95a40-3473-4d35-9373-73b0181997aa> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://boneandspine.com/xray-of-fracture-of-medial-malleolus-of-tibia/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408828.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00201-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911513 | 314 | 2.75 | 3 |
What is Cite While You Write?
Cite While You Write (also known as CWYW) is a key feature of EndNote. It allows you to access EndNote from within Microsoft Word to insert citations into your Word documents. You can insert citations anytime during your writing process.
You can also use Cite While You Write to insert images (figures) from an EndNote library into your Word documents.
CWYW automatically builds a bibliography from the citations you insert. You can also create a list of figures.
What is a Citation?
A citation is a reference that appears in the text of your document. Typically it includes either the year of publication or a reference number. For example, the following is citation formatted in APA format:
The same citation in numbered style looks like this:
A bibliography entry for this citation (in APA format) looks like:
McInerney, C. (2002). Knowledge management and the dynamic nature of knowledge. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53(12), 1009-1018.
With CWYW, you can easily change the formatting (using "output styles") for the citations and bibliographies. This is a great feature if you want to submit articles to several publishers with different formatting requirements.
Requirements for using Cite While You Write
To use CWYW, you need to have Microsoft Word 2003, 2007 or 2010 installed on your computer. You also need to have EndNote. If you are using a Mac, CWYW is compatible with Microsoft Word for Mac 2004, 2008, and 2011.
It is important to install EndNote after you install Microsoft Word. When you install EndNote, an EndNote menu is added to the top toolbar (or in versions older than Word 2007, an Endnote submenu is added to the Tools menu). This menu doesn't appear if you install Word after EndNote.
Note: For troubleshooting problems with CWYW, see the FAQ at http://endnote.com/support/faqs/enw.
Using the Menu
Cite While You Write is used from within Microsoft Word. To access CWYW, open the Word document to which you want to add citations. From the Word menu, choose EndNote X5 tab. A submenu with the CWYW commands appears.
In discussing Cite While You Write below, we focus on tasks that use these commands:
To find and insert a citation
To edit citations
To find and insert a figure
For options to remove Field Codes
To change Cite While You Write preferences
You can insert citations as you write your document ("cite while you write"), or if you prefer you can wait and enter the citations after you finish writing.
To insert citations:
- Open the EndNote library you want to use. Then open your Word document. You can also set EndNote to start when you open Word. (This option can be set in CWYW preferences, by clicking on in theTools submenu.)
- In your Word document, position the cursor where you want to insert the first citation.
- Do one of the following:
- Highlight or select the citation you wish to use in your Endnote library. In the EndNote toolbar in Word, click on Insert Citation and then Insert Selected Citation(s); or
- In the EndNote toolbar , click on Find Citation. The EndNote Find Citations dialog box appears.
EndNote searches all fields in its library records to find matches.
Click on the reference you want to cite to highlight it. Then click Insert.
Note: In the above example, multiple references were retrieved. Click on the one you want to insert. To insert multiple citations, press the Ctrl key while you click to select citations (or press the shift key to select a continuous range of citations in the list).
Watch the Video
Note: After inserting citations, it is a good idea to save your Word document.
By default, when you insert citations into your Word document, EndNote formats the citations in the formatting style that is currently in effect (this is called "instant formatting"). Instant formatting also automatically generates a bibliography as you insert citations. (Instant formatting can be turned off in CWYW preferences.)
In some cases you may wish to change the formatting style. Or (if instant formatting is not in effect) you may want to generate a new bibliography.
- Choose Bibliography from the EndNote submenu.
The Format Bibliography dialog box appears:
- Choose the output style you would like to use from the dropdown menu. (If you don't see the output style you want, choose "Browse" for a comprehensive list.)
- Click OK. EndNote will instantly format your citations and bibliography in the output style you chose.
Watch the Video
If you change your mind, return to the Format Bibliography dialog box and choose a different style. The bibliography and all of your citations will instantly be reformatted to the new style.
After you format your bibliography, if you add more citations you can easily format them by choosing Format Bibliography again.
Note: You can also use the Format Bibliography dialog box to modify the bibliography layout (font, line spacing, etc.) by clicking the Layout tab. Click the Instant Formatting tab to turn instant formatting on or off.
Changing the Current Output Style
Once you have chosen an output style using the Format Bibliography dialog box, that output style becomes the current output style, and is displayed on the toolbar at the top of the EndNote window:
To change the current output style, click on the current output style drop down box in the toolbar, and the list of output styles you have previously selected is displayed. Click on an item in the drop down box to make it the current output style.
If you need to change (add to, modify, or delete) your formatted citations, use the Edit Citation(s) command.
- In your Microsoft Word document, click on the citation you wish to change.
- Choose Edit Citation(s) from the EndNote submenu ( ). The Edit Citations dialog box appears:
- Make sure the citation you want to change is selected, or click on another citation to select it.
- You can modify the citation, add additional citations to it, or delete it.
To modify the citation:
Exclude the author or the year by clicking the "Exclude author" or "Exclude year" checkboxes.
Add a prefix or suffix by typing text in the Prefix or Suffix boxes. The text will appear immediately before (prefix) or immediately after (suffix) the citation in your document.
In the Pages field, add page numbers to appear with the citation.(Note: The Pages field works only for styles containing a Cited Pages code in the output style. Examples include MLA, Chicago, and Turabian).
To add additional citations:
- Click the downward arrow on the "Edit Reference" menu next to the citation you have selected. This will bring up the Find Citations dialog box.
- In the Find Citations dialog box, click on the citation you wish to add, and click Insert. The citation will be added to your existing citation.
To delete the citation:
- Click the downward arrow on the "Edit Reference" menu next to the citation you have selected. Click "Remove citation."
Watch the Video
Note: Do not delete the citation in Word using the backspace or delete key. Special EndNote codes associated with the citation may not be erased and as a result your document file could become corrupted.
Cite While You Write allows you to insert images contained in an EndNote library into your Microsoft Word documents from within Word. These are called figures, and they are accompanied by figure citations. Figure citations are numbered sequentially and appear in parentheses, as in
The image itself appears either right below the citation or at the end of the document (in the figures list), depending on the formatting style you are currently using.
When you insert figure citations, EndNote automatically creates a figure list at the end of the document.
To insert images into your Word document:
- Open the EndNote library you want to use. Then open your Word document.
- In your Word document, position the cursor where you want to insert the image (figure citation).
- Choose Insert Citation, then Find Figure from the EndNote submenu (). The Find Figures dialog box appears:
- In the Find: box, enter text to bring up matching references that contain figures.
- Click Insert to insert the figure and its caption into your Word document.
Watch the Video
If you inserted an image as a figure and then later decide to delete it, do the following:
- Highlight the figure citation, including the parentheses.
- Press the Delete or Backspace key.
- Choose Update Citations and Bibliography from the EndNote submenu.
Watch the Video
Note: If you try to delete the picture without deleting the figure citation, it will reappear the next time a figure list is generated.
Journal publishers request that you remove EndNote’s field codes before submitting your manuscript. EndNote uses field codes to insert additional data into your document, and it interferes with the publisher’s software. To remove field codes, click Convert Citations and Bibliography
() in the Bibliography group of the EndNote submenu, and then select Convert to Plain Text.
Word will prompt you to save this version of your paper with another name. You should do this so that you can edit the original version with the field codes intact in the future. | <urn:uuid:75d4cbe6-4a29-4922-912e-f7baf5c1b962> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://hsl.lib.unc.edu/tutorials/endnote/cwyw | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00108-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.831764 | 2,014 | 3.21875 | 3 |
The National Museum of Mongolian History, Ulaanbaatar
The National Museum of Mongolian History so far has only a minimal presence on the
Internet, where one can find some general information about the scope of the collections and photographs of a few objects. The collections in fact
are very interesting, covering from pre-history through the 20th century and including a substantial selection of ethnographic materials
illustrating daily life and costume. Unfortunately captioning is often cryptic, for example not indicating clearly what objects are reproductions and
what are the originals. The museum collaborated with the University of Pennsylvania on an exhibition
in 2001-2002, “Mongolia: Reclaiming Genghis Khan,” which included
creation of a valuable set of web pages introducing Mongolia to a general audience. In 2005 a number of the important objects were on display in a
major exhibition in Germany.
- Dschingis Khan und seine Erben: Das Weltreich der Mongolen (München: Kust- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland; Hirmer Verlag, 2005). In German. Spectacular exhibition catalogue covering various eras of Mongolian history; includes substantial material on German excavations at Karakorum.
- Mon-Sol Tusliin 5 zhil. Korean-Mongolian Joint Expedition in Mongolia 1997-2001 (Mongolyn Undesnii Tuukhiin Muzei, etc., 2002). Text in Korean and Mongolian, with caption list in English. Excavated materials range chronologically from Paleolithic to Xiongnu periods.
- National Museum of Mongolian History [by S. Idshinnorov] (Ulaanbaatar: Decom Studio, n. d.). A brief, illustrated overview of the Museum’s holdings. | <urn:uuid:dc40166c-b965-4e11-a854-0a5d18abb95c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/museums/ubhist/ubhist.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399428.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00002-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.799193 | 385 | 2.59375 | 3 |
By Dr. Mercola
Antibiotic resistance is a serious threat facing all of us today, and there's plenty of blame to go around. Overall, modern science, especially veterinary medicine, has done a miserable job when it comes to predicting the outcome of its actions.
According to Dr. Cyril Gay,1 the senior national program leader at the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Research Service:
"The loss of antibiotics due to antimicrobial resistance is potentially one of the most important challenges the medical and animal-health communities will face in the 21st century."
Antibiotic resistance has also been declared "an increasingly serious threat to global public health that requires action across all government sectors and society" by the World Health Organization (WHO).2
Antibiotic overuse is rampant. Inappropriate use and negligent disposal of antibiotics is also a major part of the problem. Three of the primary sources of antibiotics entering the environment, the human food chain, and the human body are:
- Agriculture (both livestock and produce)
- Pharmaceutical processing plants dumping drugs into wastewater
Antibiotics are a foundational component of modern medicine, without which many of our current treatment modalities and medical procedures become exceedingly dangerous.
Due to overuse, bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to these drugs, and even "simple" infections like urinary tract infections can become lethal. It's also exceedingly costly.
What farmers are saving on the front end by using antibiotics instead of costlier alternatives, Americans pay for on the back end, via exorbitant health care costs. As noted by Scientific American:3
"[R]esearchers estimate that antibiotic resistance causes Americans upwards of $20 billion in additional healthcare costs every year stemming from the treatment of otherwise preventable infections."
Antibiotics in Agriculture
In the US, animals raised in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are routinely fed low doses of antibiotics to make them grow fatter, faster, and to prevent disease associated with crowded and unsanitary living conditions.
This appears to be one of the primary driving factors when it comes to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. According to CDC statistics,4 two million Americans are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria each year, and at least 23,000 of them die as a result of those infections.
A recent report,5 commissioned by the British government, estimates that by the year 2050, drug-resistant disease cause more than 10 million deaths and cost the global economy $100 trillion!
Even the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) acknowledges that antibiotic-resistant disease can be spread via ingestion or contact with contaminated foods. Despite this knowledge, the FDA has opted not to ban the use of antibiotics in agriculture.
Last year, the agency issued updated guidance on agricultural antibiotics, recommending that pharmaceutical companies voluntarily relabel certain antibiotics,6,7 reserving them for use in sick animals only, with a prescription from a licensed veterinarian.
Aside from the fact that they're leaving it up to pharmaceutical companies to be the heralds of change—a change that will reduce the drug companies' income, there are other glaring loopholes. As noted by Scientific American:8
"[S]ome worry that the FDA's action doesn't go far enough, given that farmers will still be able to administer antibiotics to their livestock for disease prevention.
The fact that more and more livestock operations are switching over to Animal Feeding Operations (AFOs) whereby animals are confined in crowded enclosures (instead of allowed to graze at pasture) means that antibiotics will play an increasingly important role in disease prevention."
US Meat Production Uses More Antibiotics Than Ever
The US uses nearly 30 million pounds of antibiotics each year to raise food animals.9,10 This accounts for about 80 percent of all antibiotics used in the US.11
Moreover, according to the most recent FDA report, antibiotic usage INCREASED by 16 percent between 2009 and 2012, and nearly 70 percent of the antibiotics used are considered "medically important" for humans.12
A 2013 paper by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) titled "Antibiotic Resistance in Foodborne Pathogens,"13 report that between 1973 and 2011, there were 55 antibiotic-resistant foodborne outbreaks in the US. More than half of these outbreaks involved pathogens resistant to five or more antibiotics!
In my view, these are highly compelling reason to switch to organic, grass-fed (pastured) varieties, as growth promoting drugs such as antibiotics are not permitted in organic farming.
Antibiotic Resistance Promoted via Drug Manufacturing Process
Forbes Magazine14 recently featured an article on the topic of antibiotic resistance, noting that the drug manufacturing process itself may also be a major contributor to drug resistant bacteria in the environment.
During the drug manufacturing process, significant quantities of antibiotics are flushed out into wastewater, which then find its way into rivers, drinking water, and agricultural crop lands. Many drug companies have located their manufacturing facilities in countries where production costs are low, such as China and India.
According to Forbes:
"Patancheru, near Hyderabad, India, has a treatment plant that receives wastewater from 90 pharmaceutical companies which discharge 400,000 gallons daily.15 This effluent from manufacturing is combined with domestic wastewater. In India, only 24 percent of domestic waste undergoes treatment.
Researchers from Sweden have studied the area around Hyderabad for a number of years, publishing a series of reports since 2007.16 They found a number of drugs contaminating the water, some in concentrations higher in the water than in patients' blood.
The worst was pollutant was ciprofloxacin, with concentrations up to 31 mg/L and in only one day totaling "44 kg, which is equivalent to Sweden's entire consumption over 5 days, or, expressed in another manner, sufficient to treat everyone in a city with 44,000 inhabitants."
These researchers also found that the effluent was toxic to many organisms, and that it promoted resistance genes.17 Almost two percent of DNA samples from downstream sites sampled had resistance genes"18 [Emphasis mine]
Aside from direct ingestion, contaminated wastewater also finds its way onto crop fields via irrigation and sludge (biosolids) used as fertilizer. In this way, drug resistant genes are spread throughout the environment. The spread is by no means contained in any way. According to a 2008 CDC report,19 E.coli bacteria resistant to multiple drugs have even been found in the Arctic; brought there by migrating birds... How can we even begin to address these issues?
As noted by Forbes:
"Clearly, this will require a multi-pronged approach. Besides the need to control agricultural misuse, a major area that requires urgent attention is the need for improved sanitation globally...
We also need better regulation of industrial waste and strengthening and enforcement of whatever environmental protections are available. Amy Pruden, Joikim Larsson, et. al. have an excellent overview20 of management options, ranging from wastewater and biosolid treatment, to limiting agricultural and aquacultural use, and the use of alternatives to antibiotics. One thing individuals can do is to educate about safe drug disposal..."
Researchers to Determine Role of Farm Practices in Rise of Superbugs
The farm industry has long denied or downplayed its role in drug-resistant disease, but scientists are now inching closer to determining exactly how the livestock industry's misuse of antibiotics contributes to human disease. As reported by Reuters:21
"Researchers at Colorado State University are rolling out a series of projects to track antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the livestock industry, in an attempt to determine whether farm practices are fueling the rise of "superbugs." Using a $2.25 million grant from the US Department of Agriculture, the scientists will focus on the DNA of these bacteria to help identify and trace back where such organisms become drug-resistant. 'We're trying to answer the question, 'Are agricultural production systems truly affecting human health by increasing antimicrobial resistance?' said veterinarian Paul Morley, a professor of epidemiology and infection control at Colorado State University, Fort Collins."
A recent Frontline News documentary also investigated the role of large scale meat production as a primary breeding ground of drug-resistant bacteria. According to their investigation, meat may be a source of potentially lethal infections—not simply because you're eating antibiotics and therefore building resistance, but also because the meat may be tainted with drug-resistant bacteria that can cause acute disease if the meat is improperly handled or undercooked. Previous research22 has suggested you have a 50/50 chance of buying meat tainted with drug-resistant bacteria when shopping at your local grocery store.
One example given is drug-resistant urinary infections, which are on the rise. If the antibiotics fail to wipe out the bacteria, the infection can progress to your kidneys, which allows the bacteria access to your blood. The result is sepsis, which kills 40,000 Americans each year. Using state of the art genome sequencing, researchers have compared E.coli samples found on supermarket meat with E.coli samples collected from patients with drug-resistant urinary tract infections, genetically linking more than 100 urinary tract infections to tainted supermarket meat products.
Why Were Warnings Not Heeded Decades Ago?
As reported by The Atlantic,23 we had foreknowledge that using antibiotics for growth promotion in animals was a bad idea, but industry interests won over concern for human and environmental welfare:
"Dr. Stuart B. Levy... author of the book The Antibiotic Paradox: How the Misuse of Antibiotics Destroys Their Curative Powers... has been warning about this impending disaster for nearly 40 years, a couple of decades after farmers discovered that putting small amounts of antibiotics in the animals' feed resulted in increased growth. Even back then, a study24 led by Levy found that chickens developed resistance to the antibiotic tetracycline at a rapid pace–within a week, the animals had resistant bacteria in their gut.
Months later, the stubborn bugs had spread to untreated chickens and even the farmers. And it didn't stop there: Those resistant bacteria also became resistant to other antibiotics that the chickens hadn't even consumed. 'Antibiotics used anywhere creates antibiotic resistance, and that resistance doesn't stay in that environment,' Levy says. And resistance is transferrable among bacteria of different types."
Antibiotics Also Contribute to Obesity
While antibiotic-resistant disease is perhaps the most acute danger of antibiotic overuse, it also has more insidious and hard to prove consequences on human health. We now know that antibiotics alter the microbiome—the microbial composition in your gut—which can result in obesity and any number of other health problems. It's also worth recalling that antibiotics are used in livestock to promote weight gain.
As previously stated by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food:25
"Continuous, low-dose administration of an antibiotic can increase the rate and efficiency of weight gain in healthy livestock. The presence of antibiotics likely changes the composition of the gut flora to favor growth. Debate is ongoing as to how gut flora are changed; change may simply be a reduction in numbers, a change in species composition or a combination of the two… Some antibiotics may also enhance feed consumption and growth by stimulating metabolic processes within the animal."
If low dose antibiotics make animals fatter, why would we assume the effect on humans would be any different? A recent paper in the New England Journal of Medicine,26 authored by Dr. Tine Jess, MD discusses the scientific evidence linking antibiotics and obesity. For example, mice exposed to subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics early in life suffered "lasting effects on body composition owing to alteration of the intestinal microbiota." Studies suggest there may be a critical window of time, right before and after birth, when exposure to antibiotics can cause long-term alterations in body composition.
According to Dr. Jess:
"Male mice whose mothers were treated with penicillin before the birth of the pups and throughout the weaning process had a markedly altered body composition in adulthood, with increased total mass and fat mass, increased ectopic fat deposition, increased hepatic expression of genes involved in adipogenesis, decreased bone mineral content, and increased bone area.
By contrast, the body composition of adult male mice who had received penicillin after weaning and of female mice who had received penicillin at either phase of development (just before birth or after weaning) was more similar to that of controls. The results suggest that even transient changes to the microbiota caused by limited exposure to low-dose penicillin during a specific time window during development may have a sex-specific long-term effect on body composition."
Your Gut Bacteria and Your Waistline Go Hand-in-Hand
One 2011 study27 shed light on the mechanisms by which antibiotics can promote obesity. It found that 18 months after antibiotics are used to eradicate H. pylori bacteria, there is a:
- Six-fold increase in the release of ghrelin (the "hunger hormone") after a meal
- 20 percent increase in leptin levels (leptin is a hormone produced by fat tissue)
- 5 percent increase in body mass index (BMI)
Levels of ghrelin should ordinarily fall after a meal to signal your brain that you're full and ready to stop eating; an increase would therefore essentially tell your brain to continue eating, leading to weight gain. Further, the increase in leptin levels is concerning because overexposure to high levels of the hormone can lead to leptin resistance, which means your body is unable to properly hear leptin's signals. The way your body stores fat is a highly regulated process that is controlled, primarily, by leptin. If you gain excess weight, the additional fat produces extra leptin that should alert your brain that your body is storing too much fat and needs to burn off the excess.
To do this, signals are sent to your brain to stop being hungry and to stop eating. When you become leptin-resistant, your body can no longer hear these messages -- so it remains hungry and stores more fat. You can also easily become leptin resistant by eating the typical American diet full of refined sugar (particularly processed fructose), refined grains, and processed foods—which, like antibiotics, will upset the balance of bacteria in your gut. Multiple studies have shown that obese people have different intestinal bacteria than slim people, and that altering the microbial balance in your gut can influence your weight. Such research includes but is not limited to the following:
|Research by Dr. Martin Blaser found that mice fed antibiotics (in dosages similar to those given to children for throat or ear infections) had significant increases in body fat despite their diets remaining unchanged.28
One 2011 study29 showed that rats given lactic acid bacteria while in utero through adulthood put on significantly less weight than other rats eating the same high-calorie diet. They also had lower levels of minor inflammation, which has been associated with obesity.
Babies with high numbers of Bifidobacteria and low numbers of Staphylococcus aureus – which may cause low-grade inflammation in your body, contributing to obesity – appeared to be protected from excess weight gain in a 2008 study.30 This may be one reason why breast-fed babies have a lower risk of obesity, as Bifidobacteria flourish in the guts of breast-fed babies.
Two studies found that obese individuals had about 20 percent more of a family of bacteria known as Firmicutes, and almost 90 percent less of a bacteria called Bacteroidetes than lean people. Firmicutes help your body to extract calories from complex sugars and deposit those calories in fat. When these microbes were transplanted into normal-weight mice, those mice started to gain twice as much fat.
In 2010, researchers found31 that obese people were able to reduce their abdominal fat by nearly five percent, and their subcutaneous fat by over three percent, just be drinking a probiotic-rich fermented milk beverage for 12 weeks.
Probiotics (good bacteria) have been found to benefit metabolic syndrome, which often goes hand-in-hand with obesity.
Probiotics may also be beneficial in helping women lose weight after childbirth when taken from the first trimester through breastfeeding.
Essential Oils Might Be the New Antibiotics
Fortunately, some farmers and scientists have started investigating various plant extracts, hoping to find alternatives to antibiotic drugs. Essential oils have antimicrobial, antibacterial, and antifungal properties, rendering them useful in various areas of food production. A recent article in The Atlantic32 discusses the experimental use of essential oils to combat disease and pests. Mounting research also suggests they may be potent enough to address diseases like cancer.
According to The Atlantic:
"Numerous recent studies—including several done by the USDA—have shown great promise in using essential oils as an alternative to antibiotics in livestock. One of their studies, published in October 2014 in the journal Poultry Science,33 found that chickens who consumed feed with added oregano oil had a 59 percent lower mortality rate due to ascites, a common infection in poultry, than untreated chickens.
Other research,34 from a 2011 issue of BMC Proceedings, showed that adding a combination of plant extracts—from oregano, cinnamon, and chili peppers—actually changed the gene expression of treated chickens, resulting in weight gain as well as protection against an injected intestinal infection. A 2010 study35 from Poultry Science produced similar findings with the use of extracts from turmeric, chili pepper, and shiitake mushrooms."
Scientists have also compared the effectiveness of antibiotics versus various essential oils. Rosemary and oregano oil, for example, resulted in the same growth rate in chickens as the antibiotic avilamycin.36 The oils were effective against pathogenic bacteria as well. Essential oil blends have also been found effective against salmonella in chickens.37 According to Dr. Charles Hofacre, a professor at the University of Georgia's College of Veterinary Medicine, "There is some strong evidence that [essential oils] are functioning by both an antibacterial action in the intestine and also some have an effect to stimulate the intestinal cells ability to recover from disease more quickly–either by local immunity or helping keep the intestinal cells themselves healthier."
In humans, a combination of thyme and clove essentials oils was found to be as effective against bacterial vaginosis as standard antibiotic treatments.38 Researchers have also successfully treated staph infection with tea tree oil vapors.39 An added boon: Essential oils appear to be less likely to cause resistance, for the fact that they contain hundreds of different chemical compounds, which makes bacterial adaptation more difficult.
Healthy Gut Bacteria Cannot Coexist with Antibiotics
Antibiotics can save your life if you develop a serious bacterial infection, but it's important that you resist the urge to ask your physician for a prescription for every infection you come down with, especially viral infections such as the common cold and influenza. Antibiotics are useless against viral infections. Remember that whenever you use an antibiotic, or if you're frequently eating treated animal foods, you're:
- Decimating your microbiome, which will need time and proper diet and/or a probiotic supplement to restore rebalance. An unbalanced microbiome can contribute to both obesity and disease
- Increasing your susceptibility to developing infections with resistance to that antibiotic -- and you can become the carrier of this resistant bug and even spread it to others
It's quite clear that the foods you eat are a major source of chronic low-dose exposure to antibiotics, so to protect your gut bacteria you need to buy antibiotic-free, organically raised meat and, yes, even produce. Conventionally farmed vegetables are often grown in fertilizer derived from factory-farmed animal waste and sewage sludge, which is yet another source of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
My bottom-line recommendation is to take decisive action for yourself and your own family, and seek out trusted sources of food that do not use antibiotic pesticides and/or antibiotic growth promoters. Your best bet for finding healthy food is to connect with a local farmer that raises animals according to organic standards, allowing them to roam freely on pasture. Some grocery chains also offer 100% grass-fed meats these days. In the US, the following organizations can help you locate farm-fresh foods:
Weston Price Foundation40 has local chapters in most states, and many of them are connected with buying clubs in which you can easily purchase organic foods, including grass-fed raw dairy products like milk and butter.
Local Harvest -- This Web site will help you find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies.
Farmers' Markets -- A national listing of farmers' markets.
Eat Well Guide: Wholesome Food from Healthy Animals -- The Eat Well Guide is a free online directory of sustainably raised meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs from farms, stores, restaurants, inns, and hotels, and online outlets in the United States and Canada.
Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) -- CISA is dedicated to sustaining agriculture and promoting the products of small farms.
FoodRoutes -- The FoodRoutes "Find Good Food" map can help you connect with local farmers to find the freshest, tastiest food possible. On their interactive map, you can find a listing for local farmers, CSAs, and markets near you. | <urn:uuid:4dc0109d-2585-409b-88b1-b961e94af59d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/02/04/3-sources-antibiotics.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395548.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00014-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946426 | 4,409 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Healthcare is the source of eight percent of the nation’s carbon footprint, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Quality care does not have to come at the expense of Mother Earth – instead, many healthcare organizations can pursue sustainability without compromising quality care. Environmentally-conscious organizations can rely on the pharmacists and related professionals trained under a University of the Sciences and Practice Greenhealth (PGH) partnership to put sustainability in focus in the pharmacy or pharmacy department.
Since 2011, the partnership between USciences – specifically, the university’s Mayes College of Healthcare Business and Policy and Philadelphia College of Pharmacy – and the nonprofit Practice Greenhealth has yielded three sustainability training modules for pharmacists, with three modules for community pharmacists in development. USciences has also incorporated components of the modules into its Public Health and Pharmacy course, while faculty and staff have presented the modules and related coursework at state-wide pharmacy associations. The program underscores the notion that pharmacists are in a prime position to contribute to environmental sustainability – especially on issues such as the contamination of the nation’s rivers, streams, and lakes with pharmaceuticals.
Medication dispensed by a pharmacist and consumed by a patient quickly enters the water supply – often contained in human waste, or more directly, in the form of medicine flushed down a toilet. Repeated millions of times, the end result is widespread contamination – with dramatic consequences. Lake Mead, a 250-square-mile body of water on the Arizona-Nevada border, is a great example. High levels of contamination there are cited as a potential cause of reproductive problems in the local fish population, such as males with low sperm counts or females that develop abnormal sexual organs.
Like Lake Mead, the nation’s drinking water contains pharmaceuticals. Recently, the Associated Press concluded that 41 million Americans rely on drinking water that is contaminated with pharmaceuticals. Even without definitive links between contamination and human health problems, many experts agree pharmaceutical contamination must be addressed and pharmacists should be involved.
The USciences and Practice Greenhealth program underscores the notion that pharmacists are key players in sustainability due to a role that has them interfacing with the public. From this position, pharmacists can advise the public to follow proper disposal guidelines issued with each prescription…and consume the entire prescription. If a prescription cannot be finished, pharmacists are in a position to refer patients to FDA disposal guidelines, or advise them of a pharmacy take-back event or municipal hazardous waste day. Ending the flushing of excess medication down the toilet – a major cause of contamination – becomes a reality with sustainability training for pharmacists. Together, these actions are strong initial steps in the push to halt further pharmaceutical contamination of the nation’s water supplies. | <urn:uuid:05108ea5-406f-4a4e-add7-850c1bb47032> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.usciences.edu/newsEvents/newsDetails.aspx?Channel=%2FChannels%2FAdmissions%2FAdmissions+Content&WorkflowItemID=836d33be-21c8-4889-bf55-89efaeb46b25 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00077-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937065 | 566 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Europe in Year 2000
Europe in Year 1900
Europe in Year 1800
Europe in Year 1700
Europe in Year 1600
Europe in Year 1500
Europe in Year 1400
Europe in Year 1300
Europe in Year 1200
Europe in Year 1100
Euratlas Periodis Web shows the history of Europe through a sequence of 21 historical maps, every map depicting the political situation at the end of each century.
Here, on the left, are 21 mini-maps giving access to 21 full maps and to 84 quarters of maps with more detailed views of the states, provinces and main cities.
Moreover, each map offers a historical gazetteer. Thus you can highlight in red each sovereign state and in green each dependent entity. See the Map Legend for more details.
Navigation through the atlas is easy: on the left side of the pages, you simply need to choose a century for temporal navigation. French and German versions of this historical atlas are also provided and you can view them by clicking on the small flags at the top of the pages.
However, if you want to perform highly detailed searches, we recommand the program Euratlas Periodis Expert available by direct download or as a CD-ROM, with a very high zoom level and a search index or Euratlas Periodis Basic with a 6000 % zoom factor.
You may use the Euratlas images and maps, as they are available on the websites euratlas.com and euratlas.net, for educational or illustration purposes but you must mention the source in that way: © 2010 Christos Nussli, www euratlas.com. No commercial use is allowed.
See also an Euratlas video
1000 Years Europe | <urn:uuid:6d57f056-a64f-4bfb-bb8a-4646251b4e4c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.euratlas.com/time2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393442.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00195-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.883561 | 352 | 2.703125 | 3 |
What is heart-healthy eating?
A heart-healthy eating plan is full of foods that can lower your risk of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. This plan can help you stay at a healthy weight and manage cholesterol and blood pressure. It is part of a heart-healthy lifestyle that includes regular activity and not smoking.
You can choose from several eating plans to keep your heart healthy. They include the American Heart Association diet, DASH diet, Mediterranean diet, and MyPlate plan.
Heart-healthy eating is for everyone. It is not just for people who have heart problems or who are at a high risk for heart problems. Heart-healthy eating focuses on adding more healthy foods to your plan and cutting back on foods that aren't so good for you.
If you already have heart or blood vessel problems, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure, specific eating plans can help you manage those problems.
A few simple ideas
- Eat more fruits and vegetables and other high-fiber foods.
- Choose foods that are low in saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol.
- Eat at least two servings of fish each week. Oily fish, which contain omega-3 fatty acids, are best. These fish include salmon, mackerel, lake trout, herring, and sardines. If you cannot eat fish, you can also get omega-3 fats from omega-3 eggs, walnuts, flax seeds, and canola oil.
- Limit sodium, alcohol, and sugar.
American Heart Association diet
The American Heart Association publishes heart-healthy diet guidelines for all adults and for children older than age 2.
To put these guidelines into action, see:
Heart Disease: Eating a Heart-Healthy Diet.
The DASH diet is a good choice for people who have high blood pressure. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. Hypertension is high blood pressure.
For help with the DASH diet, see:
High Blood Pressure: Using the DASH Diet.
To learn more, see a sample menu for the DASH diet.
Dietary Guidelines for Americans
With the Dietary Guidelines for Americans plan, you enjoy your food but eat less. This plan recommends eating lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat or nonfat dairy products. You limit or avoid saturated fats, trans fats, and added sugars. These guidelines are from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
For more information, see the topic Dietary Guidelines for Good Health. | <urn:uuid:0b044019-d2b9-4516-a5f2-33932ae80b15> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.webmd.com/heart/tc/heart-healthy-eating-topic-overview | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391634.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00187-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926609 | 527 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Half of new electricity capacity in the US came from renewables during 2012
- 17 January 2013
NEW YORK: New Government figures show that clean energy made up almost half of all the new electricity generating capacity that was installed in the US in 2012.
The data comes from a report called Energy Infrastructure Update by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Energy Projects.
In its lists of specific energy highlights, the report states that just under 13 gigawatts of clean energy capacity was added in 2012, which is around 50% more than 2011’s total of 8.5 gigawatts.
Of these lofty figures, wind dominates, with almost 10.7 gigawatts of new projects. This means that wind accounts for 5% of the US’s total electricity capacity in 2012.
Other clean energy capacity included almost 1.5 gigawatts of solar, and over 0.5 gigawatts of biomass.
Amy Davidsen, US Director, The Climate Group said: "The new capacity numbers show that we are headed in the right direction, and they point to what is possible for the future. But with renewables accounting for only 15% of total US capacity, we still have a long way to go.
"The transition to clean energy is happening, but it must happen faster if America is to seriously compete in the global race to lead the clean revolution." | <urn:uuid:1593113d-6966-469a-901e-91a5a6843557> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.theclimategroup.org/what-we-do/news-and-blogs/half-of-new-energy-capacity-in-the-us-from-renewables/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00074-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94886 | 279 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Major General, United States Army
Capehart of Pennsylvania
Appointed from West Virginia, Surgeon, 1st West Virginia Cavalry, 6 September 1861
Colonel, 22 February 1864
Breveted Brigadier General, U. S. Volunteers, 13 March 1865, for gallant and distinguihed service
Breveted Major General, U. S. Volunteers, 17 June 1865, for gallant and meritorious service in the war
Honorably mustered out 8 July 1865
Awarded a Medal of Honor, 12 February 1895, for having saved, under fire, the life of a drowning soldier at Greenbriar River, Virginia, 22 May 1864
Died 15 April 1895
Born on March 18, 1825, he earned the while serving as Colonel, 1st West Virginia Volunteer Cavalry at Greenbrier River, West Virginia on May 22, 1864. The Medal was actually issued on February 12, 1895.
He was commissioned as Surgeon, 1st West Virginia Cavalry, September 6, 1861, Colonel, February 22, 1864 and mustered out of the volunteer service in July 1865. The Medal was issued for saving a drowning soldier under fire.
He died on April 12, 1895 and was buried in Section 1 of Arlington National Cemetery. His wife, Elizabeth Kingsley Capehart (March 8, 1829-March 7, 1908), lies with him.
PVT/MAJ/GEN US VOLS CW
DATE OF DEATH: 04/15/1895
BURIED AT: SECTION W/SID SITE L 140/P
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
CAPEHART, ELIZABETH K W/O HENRY
Rank and organization: Colonel, 1st West Virginia Cavalry. Place and date: At Greenbrier River, West Virginia, 22 May 1864. Entered service at: Bridgeport, Ohio. Born: 18 March 1825, Johnstown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania. Date of issue: 12 February 1895.
Citation: Saved, under fire, the life of a drowning soldier.
Photo courtesy of Raymond L. Collins
Updated: 24 September 2000 Updated: 18 August 2001 Updated: 15 March 2003 Updated: 27 July 2003 Updated: 5 September 2005 Updated: 17 October 2007
Photo By: M. R. Patterson, October 2007
Photo By M. R. Patterson, 28 June 2003 | <urn:uuid:9744485d-0591-428a-954b-dc3acaaca054> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/hcapehar.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403825.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00095-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948313 | 505 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Tyson Foods, one of the largest producers of meat in the world, is responsible for dumping more toxic pollution by volume into U.S. waters than companies like Exxon and Dow Chemical, according to a new analysis from environmental advocacy group Environment America.
The analysis, released last Wednesday, coincides with a decision by Tyson shareholders not to institute a new water policy that would have mandated the company keep better track of its water pollution both inside and outside of its direct facilities.
Water pollution from Tyson Foods comes from a variety of sources, from the fertilizer used by farmers to grow feed for animals to the manure produced by raising thousands of animals in factory farms. But those figures aren’t publicly available, as Tyson is only legally required to report pollution from its processing plants to the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory. According to those reports, Tyson dumped 104 million pounds of pollutants into U.S. waterways between 2010 and 2014 — the second highest volume of toxic discharges reported by any company, and higher than the discharges of companies like US Steel Corp, Koch Industries, and ExxonMobil.
“In the public’s mind, if you were to ask who are the big polluters, they would say Exxon, Dow, Dupont,” John Rumpler, senior attorney with Environment America, told ThinkProgress. “I think most people who go to the supermarket to buy chicken don’t realize that Tyson is — by volume — heads and shoulders above some of these well-known polluter names.”
Much of the pollution from Tyson’s processing facilities — which includes animal waste and waste products — are nitrate compounds, which can have a detrimental effect on both environmental and public health. In high concentrations, nitrates in drinking water can hinder a body’s ability to carry enough oxygen to cells, causing potentially severe health problems for infants and people with compromised immune systems. In the environment, nitrates can lead to algal blooms and dead zones that deprive marine ecosystems of oxygen needed to sustain aquatic life.
In 2014 alone, processing plants owned by Tyson Foods dumped 20 million pounds of pollution into U.S. waterways, according to Environment America’s analysis — an amount that has remained fairly steady over the past five years, according to Rumpler.
Tyson’s pollution has been the subject of several legal challenges over the years, with the company paying more than $25 million in legal settlements and fines since 2001. Most recently, the Attorney General of Missouri filed a lawsuit against Tyson Foods accusing the company of illegally discharging untreated wastewater that led to the death of up to 100,000 fish. Tyson settled with Missouri in 2015 and agreed to pay
But Rumpler says that Environment America’s most recent analysis “just scratches the surface” of water pollution created by Tyson and other agribusiness giants like Cargill, Pilgrims Pride, and Perdue.
“At a certain point, we have to ask ourselves if the amount of waste created by this [industrial food] system is sustainable,” Rumpler said.
Industry-wide statistics on the total amount of waste created throughout a meat producer’s supply chain — from grain grown for feed to waste created during processing — are hard to come by. Maryland, which is home to the United States’ ninth-largest poultry industry, estimates that chicken farming in the state produces a total of 650 million pounds of manure each year. Of those millions of pounds of waste, more than 200,000 pounds annually makes its way into the Chesapeake Bay.
And Maryland isn’t unique — by some estimates, factory farms can produce more waste than some U.S. cities. According to a 2010 report released by the National Association of Local Boards of Health, livestock animals in the United States can produce anywhere from 1.2 to 1.37 billion tons of waste each year. And while human waste must be handled by waste treatment plants, no such requirement exists for animal waste.
Recently, a coalition of legislators and environmental groups in Maryland introduced a bill that would require chicken producers — companies like Perdue, which is headquartered in Maryland, and Tyson — to be responsible for dealing with the excess manure produced by their chickens. Historically, excess manure has been the burden of contract farmers, who grow chickens for the integrators but do not own the chickens. And attempts to hold agribusiness responsible for the waste produced by their operations — even if that waste occurs outside of their facilities walls — are on the rise throughout the country. In Eastern Washington, a judge recently ruled that several dairies must treat their manure as a solid waste after high concentrations of nitrates were found in nearby drinking water. And in Iowa, the Des Moines Water Works, a regional utility, is currently suing three counties over water quality, which the utility claims has been impaired due to excessive fertilizer runoff.
“All of our human waste goes to a sewage treatment plant,” Rumpler said. “All of this animal manure gets spread on cropland, over-applied to a laughable degree, and of course it ends up in our water. We have to stop allowing that to happen if we really want to see clean water.” | <urn:uuid:9a4cc2f0-9d7d-4933-ad3a-b65af3726145> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/02/08/3747114/agribusiness-tyson-water-pollution/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397864.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00172-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960954 | 1,074 | 3.015625 | 3 |
A cache of ancient insects trapped in amber reveals that the Indian subcontinent wasn't as isolated 50 million years ago as previously believed, according to a new study.
The find, 330 pounds (150 kilograms) of fossilized tree resin excavated from northern India, contains more than 700 preserved insects and spiders, as well as plant spores, leaf portions and small flowers. Geological evidence shows that the landmass had been drifting independently for about 100 million years at the time, but the organisms in the amber are closely related to other species found in northern Europe, Australia, New Guinea and tropical America, the researchers report online this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
That means the fauna of India didn't evolve in isolation, said study researcher David Grimaldi, the curator in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
"There must have been some connections between India and Asia that geologists aren't accounting for," Grimaldi told LiveScience.
The resin is found in India's Gujarat province, where open-pit mining brings it to the surface. For the past three years, researchers have been visiting the mines for 10 days per year to collect the fossil-rich amber, study coauthor Jes Rust, professor of invertebrate paleontology at the Universität Bonn in Germany, told LiveScience.
Rust, Grimaldi and their colleagues then return the amber to the lab, where they painstakingly seek out the tiny insects, spiders and other arthropods inside. The preservation of the arthropods is particularly good in this amber, Rust said, meaning the researchers can dissolve the resin and extract whole preserved insects for study.
"This is really unusual," Rust said. "It's like if you would have a complete dinosaur."
What is now the Indian subcontinent broke away from Africa about 150 million years ago and didn't join up with another landmass — Asia — until about 50 million years ago. So the research team expected to find a host of unique species that had evolved over those 100 million years. Instead, they learned that the insects and spiders in the amber are related to other species found fossilized everywhere from the Dominican Republic to the Baltic.
That could mean that Asia and India collided a few million years earlier than geological evidence suggests, Grimaldi said. Or it could support the theory that there were small islands connecting the continents, allowing species to "hop" across.
"Even though India might not have slammed into Asia at that time, there might have been stepping stones," Grimaldi said.
Also hidden in the amber were clues to the ecosystem in India 50 million years ago. The Gujarat amber is the oldest evidence of a modern-type tropical rainforest in Asia, Grimaldi said. Plant fragments both in the amber and fossilized nearby paint a picture of an ancient landscape that would have looked much like the forests of Borneo today. The resin itself comes from a family of trees called Dipterocarpaceae, which dominate modern tropical forests in southeast Asia.
"The evidence is beginning to accumulate that tropical forests are ancient," Grimaldi said. "They probably go back to right after the K-T boundary," between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods 65 million years ago, when non-avian dinosaurs went extinct.
The team plans to return to Gujarat in January to collect more samples, and the work in the lab is only beginning, the researchers said.
"We're still discovering all sorts of cool stuff in this amber," Grimaldi said. "Every day." | <urn:uuid:c1e73601-8c7a-4c49-84d9-1510435a4726> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.livescience.com/8810-insects-ancient-amber-reveal-unexpected-india-asia-ties.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396875.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00176-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959852 | 734 | 3.796875 | 4 |
PRINT THIS DATA
Under the Köppen Climate Classification climate classification, "dry-summer subtropical" climates are often referred to as "Mediterranean". This climate zone has an an average temperature above 10°C (50°F) in their warmest months, and an average in the coldest between 18 to -3°C (64 to 27°F). Summers tend to be dry with less than one-third that of the wettest winter month, and with less than 30mm (1.18 in) of precipitation in a summer month. SMany of the regions with Mediterranean climates have relatively mild winters and very warm summers.
The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "Csb". (Mediterran Climate).
The average temperature for the year in Shelter Cover Airport is 56.4°F (13.6°C). The warmest month, on average, is September with an average temperature of 61.3°F (16.3°C). The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of 51.7°F (10.9°C).
The highest recorded temperature in Shelter Cover Airport is 100.0°F (37.8°C), which was recorded in July. The lowest recorded temperature in Shelter Cover Airport is 28.0°F (-2.2°C), which was recorded in February.
The average amount of precipitation for the year in Shelter Cover Airport is 61.9" (1572.3 mm). The month with the most precipitation on average is December with 11.4" (289.6 mm) of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is July with an average of 0.2" (5.1 mm). There are an average of 96.0 days of precipitation, with the most precipitation occurring in January with 14.0 days and the least precipitation occurring in July with 1.0 days.
In Shelter Cover Airport, there's an average of 0.1" of snow (0 cm). The month with the most snow is February, with 0.1" of snow (0.3 cm). | <urn:uuid:1becb7c5-c36f-4fe1-9518-0c336262f7bf> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather-summary.php3?s=361841&cityname=Shelter+Cover+Airport%2C+California%2C+United+States+of+America&units= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396100.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00199-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95246 | 443 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Take the vector v =
A = is a basis
B = is a basis
the coordinates for v with respect to basis A is
the coordintes for v with respect to basis B is just
By geometrically the same vector, perhaps you means do both of these coordinates are of the same magnitude and direction.
Right of the bat we see they are not of the same magnitude so regarless of direction they are not the same vector. | <urn:uuid:c44ea253-7ab1-449a-9144-db765655d57a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mathhelpforum.com/advanced-algebra/214028-general-question-about-change-linear-basis.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00051-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947717 | 95 | 2.859375 | 3 |
pictures meant only the movement that is perceived when a string
of celluloid - recorded images are projected at a rate of 16 or more
frames per second (see persistence of vision). Today, motion pictures
(or "movies") are an art form, as well as one of the most
popular forms of entertainment.
A feature film is usually defined as being more than 60 minutes
picture film was shot at a nominal 16 frames per second, but was
changed to 24 frames per second with the introduction of sound.
Other improvements since the late 1800s include the mechanization
of cameras, allowing them to record at a consistent speed, the invention
of more sophisticated film stocks, allowing directors to film in
increasingly dim conditions, and the development of synch sound
- , allowing sound to be recorded at the same speed as its corresponding
video. Since the advent of many other media technologies, film may
include a broad range of media - - both linear and non - linear,
dramatic and informational, motion and still (though progressive). | <urn:uuid:e25e5b08-0ad9-4b66-a932-6ec4d3e78f1f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cinemateca.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397567.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00129-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948574 | 219 | 3.484375 | 3 |
People are hard-wired to take shortcuts due to the balance between energy intake (i.e. food) and energy output (i.e. effort spent on an activity) which means we automatically take the “path of least resistance.”
Competence is defined as “the ability of an individual or organization to do a job properly.” Competencies comprise of a set of defined behaviors (i.e. standards) that provide a structured guide enabling the identification, development and evaluation of specific behaviors so people can do their job properly.
Trust is one of the fundamental aspects contained in the British Health & Safety Executive’s ubiquitous definition of Safety Culture, which states “organizations with a positive Safety Culture are characterized by communications founded on mutual trust, by shared perceptions of the importance of safety, and by confidence in the efficacy of preventative measures”[i].
Without clear, strong sponsorship from executive leadership and other management teams, a change process is unlikely to [a] secure the necessary resources, [b] have the means to obtain and retain the support of others, and/or [c] overcome the tendency of many to resist change. | <urn:uuid:a4b47af5-0335-44a5-8603-d9d85a620ba7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ishn.com/authors/2730-dominic-cooper/articles | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00100-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94623 | 241 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Probing The Sun's Spots
IRA FLATOW, host:
Flora Lichtman is here with our Video Pick of the Week. Hi, Flora.
FLORA LICHTMAN: Hi, Ira. This week, we have something for our fun-in-the-sun series. Fun - or maybe this - better to say fun with the sun, I think, on this one.
(Soundbite of laughter)
LICHTMAN: It's about the sun, that's the spoiler.
FLATOW: It's about the sun. And we had a sun piece on a few weeks ago about what to do with the sun.
LICHTMAN: So it's continuing ed, really.
FLATOW: It's continuing...
LICHTMAN: It's a continuing ed piece. It turns out that scientists are still looking at sunspots, and I say still looking because there are sort of one of the earliest astronaut, I mean, people have been looking at them for 400 years. Galileo was interested in them.
LICHTMAN: But they now have bigger telescopes. And a study out this week, sort of looks at the anatomy of a sunspot and how the plasma flows within that structure. So just as a little recap - which I needed to do - went back and relearned - sun has - is made of hot plasma that's boiling to the surface of charged gas.
LICHTMAN: And sunspots are formed when you have a magnetic field that comes out of the sun in sort of a vertical way, so that dark spot is where the boiling motion that happens all over at the surface of the sun gets interrupted.
LICHTMAN: And so it's a little bit cooler. It's still pretty hot, I mean. It's not like you want to hang out there.
(Soundbite of laughter)
LICHTMAN: And then around that black spot...
LICHTMAN: ...you have these sort of stringy things called the penumbra, and this study is about the penumbra.
FLATOW: And on your video - in our Video Pick of the Week up there, sunspots on our website at sciencefriday.com, it's such a beautiful image of a sunspot.
LICHTMAN: It's really mesmerizing.
FLATOW: It's - it looks like an iris or an eye, and it's just absolutely fascinating.
LICHTMAN: It's really worth taking a look, even the scientist I talked to, Goran Scharmer, said, you know, this is - this stuff is just so fascinating and beautiful to look at. And, of course, people have said it all the time.
FLATOW: And it doesn't lose its beauty to him.
LICHTMAN: It has not. I think, actually, you know, we were talking earlier about finding - pleasure of finding things out. And it seems that, you know, it's sort of taken on new beauty when you understand it better, when you can deconstruct what you're looking at.
FLATOW: Yeah. You know, we can, of course, we can't look at the sun with our naked eye. We don't want to tell anybody to do that.
LICHTMAN: Do not do that.
FLATOW: We, you know, there are ways to look at it, through a lens on a piece of paper or something like that.
FLATOW: But you can actually see it on the ground sometimes, speckling through leaves coming through. I've actually seen the sun projected on the ground that way. But it's part of the fascination we have with the sun.
FLATOW: And your video is just beautiful, right?
FLATOW: It's nothing else. It's just a beautiful look at the sun.
LICHTMAN: It does have that going.
FLATOW: It has gorgeous - but then learning why it's beautiful is intellectual value.
LICHTMAN: Yeah. I think you're right. And you know what, that's a good point, that we can't look at it directly so these views of it seem almost kind of magical because it's something that we are sort of encounter every single day, but these telescopes just give us a new look.
FLATOW: It's our Video Pick of the Week. It's up there in our website at sciencefriday.com. You can also download it on iTunes as a Podcast, if you have a podcast. Thank you, Flora.
LICHTMAN: Thanks, Ira.
FLATOW: And it's great having you (unintelligible) with another fun in the sun.
LICHTMAN: Fun in the sun.
FLATOW: Fun in the sun.
LICHTMAN: If you have suggestions for other fun-in-the-suns, send us an email.
FLATOW: Send them in. Send them in.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. | <urn:uuid:234b7dad-62b5-44fc-b9b3-2924f6bd654c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.npr.org/2011/06/03/136926220/probing-the-suns-spots | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00042-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959954 | 1,142 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Is sugar toxic?
This cannot be true. If sugar were toxic, then we would need to change our common definition of the word “toxic” or agree that everything is toxic and just a question of dose. Clearly, a high-calorie diet high in sugar can lead to higher blood glucose levels, which in turn can lead to obesity and eventually diabetes. The question to ask is, is this news?
What makes sugar bad for you?
There are two main arguments. The more credible argument points out that high blood glucose concentrations can lead to a resetting of the appetite suppression mechanism and insulin response, which eventually causes obesity and diabetes.
The second, less convincing, argument begins with the fact that glucose and fructose can be metabolized through separate pathways that store energy in different ways. The good pathway uses glucose and leads to glycogen as the energy-storage molecule, and the bad pathway uses fructose and leads to fatty acid synthesis. This argument is fundamentally flawed because the two metabolic pathways are not independent. In fact, these pathways are reversible and interconnected at several levels. Thus, the body can compensate for a lack of sugar from one by using the other. As a result, the difference in these two pathways is only revealed when both glucose and fructose are present in abundance, which may be the case in “The Typical Western Diet.”
If you wanted to limit sugar intake, it would be more effective to reduce your consumption of fructose over glucose, by drinking less soda, for example. Of course, even this is a simplistic view. There are a lot of genetic, environmental and dietary factors that go into how we absorb glucose from complex carbohydrates that affect our total calorie intake and choice of diet.
How much sugar and carbohydrates do you recommend we consume each day?
As a general principal, we should think of less rather than more. In trying to reduce caloric intake, we should reduce fructose and sucrose followed by the more complex carbohydrates. Having said that, I am not arguing for the choice of a potato (carbohydrates) over a tomato (fructose/sucrose). Similarly, when you examine the long-term effects from years of exposure, you have to wonder whether fructose or a sugar substitute, like Sucralose, is better for you. | <urn:uuid:f88bf4b9-d4f8-488d-8e1b-1f0e7d052c7d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.northeastern.edu/news/2011/05/sugar/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00120-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941455 | 466 | 2.65625 | 3 |
07 July 2010
The impact of genetic selection for increased milk yield on the welfare of dairy cows
Milk yield per cow has more than doubled in the previous 40 years and many cows now produce more than 20,000 kg of milk per lactation. The increase in production should be viewed with concern because: i) the increase in milk yield has been accompanied by declining fertility, increasing leg and metabolic problems and declining longevity; ii) there are unfavourable genetic correlations between milk yield and fertility, mastitis and other production diseases, indicating that deterioration in fertility and health is largely a consequence of selection for increased milk yield; and iii) high disease incidence, reduced fertility, decreased longevity and modification of normal behaviour are indicative of substantial decline in cow welfare. Improving welfare is important as good welfare is regarded by the public as indicative of sustainable systems and good product quality and may also be economically beneficial. Expansion of the Profitable Lifetime Index used in the UK to include mastitis resistance and fertility could increase economic response to selection by up to 80%, compared with selection for milk production alone. In the last 10 years, several breeding organisations in Europe and North America followed the example of Nordic Countries and have included improving fertility and reducing incidence of mastitis in their breeding objectives, but these efforts are still timid. A multi-trait selection programme in which improving health, fertility and other welfare traits are included in the breeding objective, and appropriately weighted relative to production traits, should be adopted by all breeding organisations motivated in their goal of improving welfare. Animal Welfare 2010, 19(S): 39-49
Author/Organization: Oltenacu, P.A. and Broom, D.M.
Topics: dairy production, genetic | <urn:uuid:63099797-8931-48a6-a1ac-7cc0b4dcdfbd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/themes/animal-welfare/news-detail/en/?dyna_fef[uid]=43866 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00160-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957392 | 348 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Goose-Human Conflicts and Control Techniques
The sight and sounds of a flock of Canada geese marks the passage of time, the turning of seasons, evoking deep-seated emotions, and for many, affirming perennial connections with the wild. Yet the recent dramatic increase in giant Canada goose populations can evoke an entirely different range of emotions. The following information describes common problems and solutions for people inhabiting areas with Canada geese.
The once nearly extinct giant Canada goose (Branta canadensis maxima) has experienced population explosions in areas throughout North America. This trend is due in part to the success of wildlife management programs and the adaptability of these magnificent birds.
In Michigan, the number of giant Canada geese counted each spring increased from about 9,000 in 1970 to over 300,000 today. Giant Canada geese nest in every Michigan county, but are most common (80 percent of population) in the southern third of the state.
Geese are herbivores and have a preference for grass shoots, aquatic vegetation, seed heads, and various grains. Canada geese usually nest in March and April. Adult Canada geese have very few predators, though raccoons, skunks, fox and crows sometimes prey on their eggs.
In general, geese have benefited from the way humans have altered the landscape. Canada geese are attracted to areas that provide food, water, and protection. Urban areas with lakes and ponds offer all the resources that geese need to survive. During the summer months, Canada geese can be a problem for some property owners. Birds often find refuge on lakes and golf course ponds, taking advantage of the lush lawns, while experiencing their annual wing molt (loss of flight feathers). Most human-goose conflict is associated with urban settings where manicured lawns are located in close proximity to water and molting geese. Geese take advantage of large agricultural fields in fall and winter. These areas provide high energy foods, allowing some geese to stay in Michigan throughout the winter.
Goose Droppings: Most complaints about geese are from residents and businesses frustrated with goose droppings. When geese concentrate at specific sites, droppings can become aesthetically unpleasant, particularly on lawns, beaches, docks, sidewalks, and golf courses. If high goose numbers persist in shallow water areas, they may even elevate bacteria levels via fecal coliform. Coupled with other contaminants, this can lead to the temporary closure of beaches. Public health agencies frequently test for levels of fecal coliform to determine if public lakes are safe for swimming.
Nesting Behavior: Occasionally geese nest in inappropriate sites, such as in shrubbery near buildings or parking lots. They can demonstrate aggressive behavior toward people while defending their nesting territory.
Agricultural Damage: In some areas of the state, Canada geese may cause agricultural damage to crops through consumption or trampling. Sprouting crops can be severely damaged by grazing, and muddy fields can be compacted by trampling, resulting in reduced yields to the farmer.
Elimination of Feeding: Artificial feeding can lead to large concentrations of geese as they congregate for "free handouts." Feeding causes the loss of wild instincts and can lead to nutritional imbalance. Geese also lose their fear of humans when fed, which can lead to abnormal behavior such as aggression towards humans, causing an animal/human conflict. Communities must work to abolish feeding resident Canada geese. Some local governments have established "no feeding" ordinances.
Hunting: Where permitted by law, hunting is an effective and economical tool to control goose populations. Hunting provides opportunities for friends and family to participate in an important Michigan heritage plus procure a valued, healthy food source. Michigan has special goose hunting seasons established in cooperation with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in early September and January to target resident geese. The annual Michigan Waterfowl Hunting Guide contains season dates and bag limits, but be sure to check local township firearm ordinances before hunting geese in suburban settings.
Scare Devices: Scare devices can be a cost-effective way to repel geese when applied consistently as soon as geese arrive on your property. There are many commercial companies that sell the scare devices listed below:
There are also visual stimuli techniques used to scare geese:
Dogs: Many golf courses and airports have reported success using dogs trained to chase geese off the property. Increasingly, lakefront property owners are also finding their dogs are effective goose chasers and provide the best means to prevent geese from over-staying their welcome.
The best results for control may be obtained by using a combination of several different control methods and changing tactics often to prevent geese from becoming conditioned to any one of them. In addition, studies show that geese exposed to hunting are more likely to respond to scare devices outside the goose hunting seasons. There are private animal control companies (check the yellow pages) available that can be consulted for help in scaring and controlling geese. Before using any explosive devices, remember to check local ordinances and inform your neighbors.
Repellents: Repellents can be applied on lawns to deter geese from feeding on the grass. Repellents made from grape extract may repel birds from turf areas. The disadvantage to using repellents is that they are effective only over a short period, before rain or mowing reduces their impact. Remember, geese are more prone to avoid sites where repellents have been used if alternative feeding sites are available
Barrier Fencing: Fence barriers constructed at least 30 inches high, can exclude molted (non-flighted) geese from lawns in June and July. Barriers can be constructed from plastic snow fence, chain link, woven wire, string, mylar tape or chicken wire. Barrier fencing works most effectively when placed along shorelines, but it has to be used at times when young birds would not be trapped on land.
Landscaping or Habitat Modifications: Making your yard less attractive to geese can reduce goose use. An un-mowed 6-foot wide shoreline buffer of tall native grasses or a hedgerow 20 to 30 inches tall can discourage geese from visiting your lawn. Allowing lawns or common areas used by geese to grow taller vegetation can also discourage geese from using these sites. Geese are especially attracted to lawns that are heavily fertilized, watered, and mowed. Studies show that fertilizing lawns increases their nutritional value to geese. Letting the lawn grow longer and not fertilizing or watering it will make it less attractive to geese. When establishing a new lawn, consider planting fescues instead of Kentucky blue grasses, since they are less attractive to feeding geese.
Goose Translocations: Removing or killing geese outside of the normal hunting season is considered a last resort after other techniques have been unsuccessful. Since 1972, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has coordinated and assisted in "goose round-ups." Problem geese are trapped and transported out of the area at the request of local residents and/or a local unit of government. This program takes place in late June and early July when the birds are flightless. Since the program began, more than 50,000 birds have been relocated to other areas within the state or to other states. Some birds have even been taken to a processor and donated to feed needy people.
The translocation program has limited success in reducing the number of nuisance complaints. While it does provide lakefront owners temporary relief, the same or different birds move back into the area within a short time. Unless the attractive habitat is modified, or birds are removed from the population (via hunting), geese will return. In addition, it is becoming more difficult to find areas in state or neighboring states who are interested in receiving more giant Canada geese. Special permits from the DNR must be obtained for translocation.
When considering nuisance goose control methods for an area, you have to consider several things: how large is the problem area, how do the geese get there, what specifically is the problem. If geese always walked to the site, then consider exclusion techniques. If they fly onto the site, use harassment techniques. Another consideration is size of the affected area. The chart below summarizes which techniques, either by themselves or in combination, may be effective for various sized areas.
SMALL- a 150-foot lakefront lot
Canada geese are an important natural resource and are federally protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. They can be legally hunted during the hunting seasons with the proper licenses. The frightening and repellants described in this brochure are methods sanctioned by the DNR. Throwing firecrackers or chasing geese with any motorized device (on land or water) are NOT authorized scare methods. Killing geese outside of the established hunting season and disturbing nests with goose eggs present can be done only under special permit, which can be applied for only when other techniques have been unsuccessful.
Canada geese are highly prized game birds and enjoyed by hunters and non-hunters alike. Their presence in some locations, however, may result in conflicts from area residents. Various control methods have proven successful to discourage geese in a variety of conditions. The method that will work best for you depends on your situation.
Remember, giant Canada geese are thriving in large part because of the landscape changes brought on by human development. Some level of tolerance for the many other state residents, including Canada geese, must be expected of today's growing human population. | <urn:uuid:e4d86cf3-bf3f-4367-a70f-8f94921ba1cc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10370_12145_25065-59467--,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392159.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00147-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940164 | 1,978 | 3.296875 | 3 |
The success of the Models 1891 and 1892 in .22 caliber, and the popularity of the takedown system of Marlin's center-fire lever action rifles, prompted John Marlin to develop this takedown .22 lever action rifle, introduced in 1897. A number of variations on this basic design were produced, from magazine size to barrel lengths, and even a "bicycle gun" with a 16" barrel and magazine.
It is speculated that over 81,000 Model 1897 rifles were manufactured, with serial numbers ranging from 150,021 to A7,938 and 450,036 on the "Model 97" (during 1905 the model designation was changed from "Model 1897" to "Marlin Model '97". Records on the production of this rifle ended in 1905. A hard rubber buttplate was standard, and the receiver was case colored at the factory. | <urn:uuid:cc451ea9-8e28-4f1c-9a74-33d5efea9a6a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.precisiongunstocks.com/contents/en-us/d68.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397744.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00080-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961259 | 174 | 2.828125 | 3 |
The Lewisburg Animal Shelter Adoptions (LASA) group is going from strength to strength, with more and more dogs adopted, conditions improving at the Shelter, and Facebook friends increasing every day.
However, things could soon take an abrupt turn for the worse, with an outbreak of parvovirus.
According to LASA members this seems be an annual occurrence in the spring.
"A lot of people will be seeing parvo and don't understand it," said LASA board member Tisha Poling. "It's not specifically a shelter issue," she continued, but, due to the close quarters, disease can spread easily throughout a shelter population.
The symptoms of parvovirus are frothy vomit and very bloody diarrhea, leading to dehydration, then depression, lethargy, and -- very often -- death.
"It's frightening," Poling exclaimed.
An effective vaccination is available, and usually given to puppies in a series of doses. If you have a puppy that is not yet fully protected by vaccination, Poling urges you to keep it at home, away from other dogs that may not have symptoms but could be shedding the parvovirus. The virus will live in the environment for up to a year, and the only household disinfectant that will kill it is bleach.
A variation of parvo affects the heart and lungs, and young puppies can die from this in 24 to 48 hours with the only symptom being respiratory distress. Poling emphasizes that the cause of death in a young puppy needs to be identified -- it could be parvo, which is then present on the property, ready to infect your next puppy.
Parvo can be treated, but survival depends on quick diagnosis and aggressive treatment. Severe cases require prolonged veterinary hospitalization, and antibiotics, intravenous fluids, and even plasma transfusions. Even with the best, and most expensive care, there is no guarantee that a puppy will survive. | <urn:uuid:46292487-c88f-4509-8c79-be1ff24144dc> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.marshalltribune.com/story/1704132.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00074-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955416 | 398 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Editor's Note: The Education Innovator will take a break for the holiday season. Please look for the next issue on February 8, 2007.
Akira Yokomi Elementary School, Fresno, California
- From the U.S. Department of Education
- From the Office of Innovation and Improvement
- American Competitiveness
- American History
- Charter Schools
- No Child Left Behind
- Raising Student Achievement
- Charter Schools/Magnet Schools
- Parental Involvement
- Private Schools
- Raising Student Achievement
Yokomi Elementary School Educates Fresno's Littlest Scientists
Six-year-olds Kellyn and Julissa hunch over a bottle containing a mysterious liquid, examining it with a flashlight. These students at Akira Yokomi Elementary School in Fresno, California, may only be in first grade, but they already understand how to use words like "transparent" and "opaque" to discuss the properties of liquid. Down the hall, sixth grade students dressed in white laboratory coats peer through their goggles into microscopes, type their observations into laptop computers, and project their findings onto interactive whiteboards. With its high-tech classrooms, hands-on curriculum, and intense focus on science and preparing students for success in the 21st century, Yokomi is not an average elementary school.
Yokomi was born out of a clarion call issued in a report on economic development, education, and workforce issues in 2005 by the Fresno County Grand Jury. The report cited the need for Fresno students to receive additional educational opportunities to build technological literacy and practice skills in applied science and technology fields. In August 2005, Yokomi opened in downtown Fresno as a way of answering this call.
Breaking the Cycle of Underachievement
The new, two-story technology-infused building stands out against the backdrop of a community that was identified in 2005 as having the highest concentration of poverty in the United States by the Washington, DC-based nonprofit Brookings Institution. The school currently serves a population of 660 students in kindergarten through sixth grade who are 67 percent Hispanic, 12 percent African American, 12 percent Asian, eight percent white, and less than one percent Filipino, Pacific Islander, and American Indian or Alaska Native. More than 70 percent of Yokomi students are from families who do not speak English as their primary language, and 42 percent are designated as English language learners (ELLs). As a magnet school, Yokomi pulls students from across local districts, but over half live in the low-income neighborhood surrounding the school.
Studies show that certain family risk factors, such as poverty or the language spoken in the home, present challenges to students' educational achievement and progress. For example, The Condition of Education 2006 from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) revealed that in 2005, fourth grade students in the highest poverty public schools scored lower on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Mathematics Assessment than their peers in the lowest poverty public schools. The same report also showed that the number of school-age children who spoke a language other than English at home and who spoke English with difficulty increased between 1979 and 2004.
With the challenges that face low-income and ELL students in mind, Yokomi works to provide enriching educational opportunities and extra support to students so that regardless of their socio-economic status or native language, all may experience academic success. This approach appears to be paying off since, in its first year of operation, Yokomi met all targets for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), and results from the 2006 California Standard Tests (CSTs) show that fourth grade students are reaching district performance goals in English language arts and surpassing those goals in mathematics.
A Technology-Infused Environment
Yokomi administrators and teachers believe that, with the support of appropriate technology and engaging instruction, all students - from those who may be at risk for academic failure to those who are performing above grade level - can master key concepts in core subjects and perform to high levels. At Yokomi, technology does not mean a row of dusty computers in the back of a classroom with outdated software and slow dial-up modems. Rather, technology means digital projectors, scanners, and wireless slates that are used to enhance the curriculum, provide assistance to students who may need extra help, and get teachers excited about teaching and students passionate about learning.
During a recent visit to Fresno, Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement Morgan Brown took a tour of Yokomi and noted, "This is an amazing school to walk into. The concept of integrating technology and science into a school curriculum is not unusual, but it usually does not happen for students until they are in middle or high school."
Yokomi's classrooms are equipped with at least one laptop computer, a digital projector, and document cameras. Students in kindergarten through second grade learn basic keyboarding skills on special word-processing laptops, while older students use traditional laptops as learning tools. Additionally, teachers wear wireless microphones that amplify their voices through surround-sound systems so students are able to clearly hear lesson instructions. Possibly the most frequently used piece of classroom equipment is the Smart Board. This interactive whiteboard looks much like a traditional mounted writing surface, but the touch-sensitive display enables teachers and students to access and control computer and multimedia applications, the Internet, CD-ROMs, and DVDs with their fingertips. The Smart Board may be connected to a computer and projector so that it functions as a giant computer screen. Teachers and students can write on the whiteboard with digital "ink" and save their work for future study or review.
Yokomi's principal, Steve Gonzales, notes, "Every one of our teachers, from kindergarten through sixth grade, has embraced this technology wholeheartedly. And parents say that their children come home from school excited about what they've just learned, largely due to the technology-infused lessons."
Although Yokomi has a technology and science theme, all academic subjects are taught with the same level of rigor, based on state standards. Students participate in English language arts, reading, mathematics, science, history, and social studies, as well as art and music classes. As a matter of fact, music has a special place in the Yokomi curriculum based on research that has indicated a powerful connection between the subject and the development of key cognitive skills. Students engage in a specialized music curriculum that combines the use of musical instruments and computers so that students may make music and observe how it relates to other disciplines, such as mathematics.
Science: The Yokomi Way
Science instruction occurs daily and is designed to improve students' literacy levels while enhancing their inquiry and problem-solving skills. Students in kindergarten through third grade spend about 70 minutes each day studying and exploring science concepts, and students in fourth through sixth grade spend about 120 minutes working with the subject. For half of this time, students learn in specially designed elementary science laboratories that are fitted with child-sized furniture and equipment. In addition to laboratory work, every day for 45 to 60 minutes, students participate in science-based literacy instruction where they learn key vocabulary terms, read scientific journals and articles, and practice writing. For the first time this year, the school also is instituting the Lego Engineering curriculum so that students may apply skills they learn in science and mathematics to build their own robots.
The overall science curriculum at Yokomi is based on Harcourt Science and the Full Option Science System (FOSS), the latter of which was developed by the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkley. FOSS is a research-based science curriculum for students in kindergarten through eighth grade and an ongoing research project. The project began over 20 years ago, and its development continues to be shaped by advances in the understanding of how children think and learn. The Fresno Unified School District (FUSD) has been implementing FOSS in its classrooms since 1993, with teachers receiving ongoing training.
FOSS has three goals: 1.) to promote scientific literacy by providing all students with science experiences that are grade-level appropriate and that serve as a foundation for more advanced ideas; 2.) to be instructionally efficient by providing teachers with a complete, easy-to-use science program; and 3.) to promote systemic reform by providing real experiences for students that reflect National Science Education Standards.
The FOSS kindergarten through sixth grade program used at Yokomi consists of 26 modules in scientific reasoning and technology, and life , physical , and earth sciences. Twice per year, Yokomi students create science fair projects that are based on one of the FOSS modules they have studied. The inaugural science fair last year focused on physical science using modules such as Solar Energy, Magnetism and Electricity, and Solids and Liquids. As a testament to how dedicated the community and parents are to Yokomi, over 500 family and community members attended the fair.
Microscopes and Computers are Great, but Parents are Key
In fact, the school was created with parents in mind. Parents who work near Yokomi in the downtown area are offered priority in the school's application and lottery processes so that they are closer to their children and freer to visit the school during the day. Parents also are involved with the daily operations at Yokomi. For example, the School Site Council and English Language Learner Committee, which prepare the budget and programming for the school, are open to families. Also, the Student Study Team (SST), which assists students who may be experiencing academic, behavioral, or emotional issues, has parents actively participate in meetings. Parents interact with resource specialist teachers, classroom teachers, the principal, and often the school psychologist and speech therapist to determine how best to support individual students.
With its strong support network for students and innovative curriculum, Akira Yokomi Elementary School is giving Fresno 's littlest scientists a strong academic foundation that will assist them in their pursuit of higher education and work in the 21 st century. Yokomi graduates are particularly well prepared to enroll in the science/medical middle and high school choices that FUSD offers, such as Fort Miller Medical Careers Academy , Sequoia Middle, Duncan Polytechnical High School , and the Sunnyside High School Doctors' Academy (see Innovator, July 18, 2005). A Magnet Schools Assistance Program grant from the Office of Innovation and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education helped create Yokomi - the only FUSD elementary school with a science focus, and the most technologically advanced school in Central California.
Resources: Note: The featured program is innovative; however, it does not yet have evidence of effectiveness from a rigorous evaluation.
From the U.S. Department of Education
In Mountain View (CA), U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings met with nearly 100 business leaders to discuss the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and how to strengthen higher education to meet students' needs in the 21st century. (Dec. 12)
Secretary Spellings visited Noble Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles (CA) to raise awareness of Supplemental Educational Services (SES), or free tutoring, available to students in Los Angeles and cities across the country. Secretary Spellings held a roundtable with state and local education leaders to discuss ways to better inform parents about SES options and to ensure that school districts are working with SES providers to enable eligible students to receive the services they need. (Dec. 11)
At New York University 's Kimmel Center , Secretary Spellings announced the winners of the 2006-2007 Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology. Top mathematics and science students were in contention for the grand prize of $100,000, which was awarded to the student team of Scott Molony, Steven Arcangeli, and Scott Horton of Oak Ridge High School (TN). (Dec. 4)
An accreditation forum was convened by Secretary Spellings to discuss strategies for making higher education more accessible, affordable, and accountable. Participants at the forum also explored ways to implement the recommendations of the Secretary's Commission on the Future of Higher Education. (Nov. 28)
Nearly 3,300 participants attending the 2006 Federal Student Aid (FSA) conference in Las Vegas (NV) heard Secretary Spellings deliver remarks. Attendees included financial aid officers and other officials from more than 2,000 colleges and postsecondary institutions, as well as representatives of the lending industry, guaranty agencies, nonprofit organizations, higher education associations, and software developers. (Nov. 28)
Secretary Spellings announced the approval of three high-quality growth models that follow the bright-line principles of NCLB. Delaware is immediately approved, while Arkansas and Florida also have submitted quality growth models. The latter two states must have their assessment systems approved by the U.S. Department of Education before they can implement their growth models for the 2006-2007 academic year. (Nov. 9)
U.S. Department of Education Deputy Secretary Raymond Simon, First Book Senior Advisor Kit Lunney, and Bay Saint Louis-Waveland School District Superintendent Kim Stasny highlighted the importance of reading and presented free books to students at Bay St. Louis-Hancock County Library (MS). The donation included some of the 200,000 books provided by First Book and the U.S. Department of Education as part of the Gulf Coast Holiday Book Donation. (Dec. 13)
Four new states (Missouri, New Hampshire, South Dakota and Wyoming) have been selected for participation in the State Scholars Initiative, a national business-education partnership designed to increase the number of students who take a rigorous curriculum in high school. (Dec. 14)
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics released Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2006 (NCES 2007-003). This annual report provides the most current, detailed statistical information on the nature of crime in schools. Secretary Spellings released a statement noting, " While this year's report shows that crime rates have continued to decline, even one incident is too many. This report will help school officials and law enforcement better focus their resources and efforts to ensure our schools are safe and our students protected." (Dec. 4)
A new study from NCES presents 11 years of data from 1994 to 2005 (no survey was conducted in 2004) on Internet access in U.S. public schools by school characteristics. The report provides trend analysis on the percent of public schools and instructional rooms with Internet access and on the ratio of students to instructional computers with Internet access. (Nov. 29)
Opportunities for school choice in the United States have expanded in the last decade. An NCES report highlights this trend by using data from the National Household Surveys Program. The report presents information about public schools (assigned and chosen), private schools (religious and non-religious), and home-schooled students between 1993 and 2003. (Nov. 28)
A new NCES report uses transcript data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002) to provide nationally representative information about the level of academic preparation that the high school graduating class of 2003-2004 had when leaving high school. The report supplies a brief examination of the course-taking patterns of the graduates, with a focus on their participation in mathematics, science, and Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate courses. (Nov. 22)
The Overview of Public Elementary and Secondary Students, Staff, Schools, School Districts, Revenues, and Expenditures for the 2004-2005 academic year and 2004 fiscal year has been released from NCES. This report contains information from five Common Core of Data (CCD) surveys. (Nov. 21)
Results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2005 science Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) have been released, comparing the performance of fourth and eighth grade students in 10 large urban school districts. Overall, student performance in the TUDA districts was comparable to that of students in large central cities, but below student performance in the country. Secretary Spellings issued a statement regarding the TUDA results noting, " While urban school districts are making good progress, much work remains before all students perform at grade level." (Nov.15)
From the Office of Innovation and Improvement
The latest guide in the Innovations in Education series, Charter High Schools Closing the Achievement Gap, is now available from ED Pubs. The guide highlights eight charter high schools from areas across the country that are holding all students to high academic standards, raising achievement, and preparing students for college and work in the 21 st century. (See Innovator, Nov. 2006) (Dec. 7)
A new report from the Council on Competitiveness entitled Competitiveness Index: Where America Stands includes a special section on education. The report identifies the United States' level of educational attainment (in terms of average years of formal education) as one of the highest in the world. Other countries, however, have surpassed the United States in terms of high school and college graduation rates. The report also points out that "significant numbers" of Americans - particularly those from racial and ethnic minorities - are not being adequately served in high school. The report is available for purchase online. (Dec. 14)
Although Veterans' Day was celebrated last month, individuals interested in learning more about history through the words of veterans may visit the Los Angeles County Office of Education's World War I Living History Project anytime. On the project website, visitors may hear a radio tribute to the last surviving veterans of World War I hosted by Walter Cronkite. The Los Angeles County Office of Education receives funding from the Teaching American History program in the Office of Innovation and Improvement. (Dec. 14)
A new video and resource guide, Schools Designed for Learning: The Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST), offers educators, architects, and community leaders insight into designing school facilities to support student learning. The American Architectural Foundation, KnowledgeWorks Foundation, and Target have partnered to produce the 17-minute video about DSST, a public charter high school in Colorado where learning occurs in a high-tech environment. (Dec. 4)
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has issued Charter School Achievement: What Do We Know. Bryan C. Hassel and Michelle Godard Terrell evaluated 58 recent comparison studies of charter school and district school performance and examined each by its methodology and findings. Of the 58 studies, 25 focused on data from separate points in time and 33 evaluated performance changes over time. Mr. Hassel and Ms. Terrell point out that, while there are many studies relating to student achievement, there are not many dedicated to research that evaluates chartering as a policy. (Oct. 2006)
The Harvard Business Review issued How to Manage Urban School Districts, a study carried out by the Public Education Leadership Project (PELP), which is a partnership between Harvard University 's business and education schools. The study examines 15 urban districts to identify management practices that are most effective in raising student achievement. The study may be purchased online
No Child Left Behind
Over 85 percent of the respondents to a recent survey by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce believe the requirements of NCLB should be extended to high schools. Over half of respondents also reported that the current curriculum in K-12 classrooms does not adequately prepare students for college and the workforce. The survey reflects the opinions of 571 business organizations that responded to the survey. (Dec. 14)
Raising Student Achievement
The Center for American Progress recently released Expanding Learning Time In High Schools PDF, (2.10MB). This report examines high schools that require an extended learning day (rather than schools that offer extra time on task as a voluntary elective). The report also evaluates the success of these schools and analyzes how such reforms could be accomplished on a larger scale. (Oct. 2006)
A report PDF, (59.86KB), from Educational Testing Service (ETS) reveals that while adults generally view students as technologically savvy, few have high levels of information literacy, or the ability to use technology to find the information for which they are searching. The report finds that the majority of high school and college students lack proper critical thinking skills when it comes to researching online and using sources. (2006)
Innovations in the News
Charter Schools/Magnet Schools
Fifth grade students at James M. Grimes Performing Arts Magnet School in Mount Vernon (NY) are participating in a pilot program where they are reading a new classroom collection of children's books bearing the name of boxer Muhammad Ali. As a child, Ali had to overcome dyslexia to learn how to read and write. The book collection bearing his name is intended to help motivate young students, particularly boys, to overcome a different kind of obstacle to becoming readers: disinterest. Francesann Lightsy, principal of the pilot magnet school notes, "Sometimes parent involvement is a challenge, but Muhammad Ali is a common denominator between generations. He bridges the gaps in a lot of ways for us. I'll be able to get parents involved [through this pilot]." [More-The Washington Times] (Dec. 4)
Philanthropist Eli Broad has donated $10.5 million to Green Dot Public Schools, a Los Angeles (CA) charter school organization (see Innovator, June 28, 2004). The funding will help the organization reach its goal of opening 21 new high school campuses and, by 2010, enrolling up to 10 percent of high school students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The Green Dot model has created promising results. Nearly 80 percent of students who enter Green Dot schools as ninth graders go on to graduate in four years, and three of every four graduates go on to four-year colleges. [More-The Los Angeles Times] (Nov. 30)
New research from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools shows promising signs that chartering is helping to increase the performance of Hispanic students. The report points to studies that show the Hispanic achievement gap closing. For example, a 2006 study by the Massachusetts Department of Education reveals that Hispanic students in charters are performing to higher levels than their peers in non-charters on reading and mathematics exams. Also, the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) found that Hispanic fourth grade students in charter schools are outpacing non-charter students in reading. [More-U.S. Newswire] (Nov. 28)
Foreign languages, drama, technology, and dance - Wake County's (NC) magnet schools program enables students to explore them all. Generally, magnet schools focus on specific themes so that students may tailor their education to their interests. For example, at Moore Square Museums Magnet Middle School in downtown Raleigh , students can choose to study ballet, music, and Latin in addition to core academic subjects. Any student enrolled in Wake County schools can apply to attend a magnet school. The magnet program is so popular that most schools in the district have waiting lists. [More-News 14 Carolina] (Nov. 29)
Earlier this year, Newsweek magazine named Basis School, Inc.'s (See Innovator, March 21, 2005) high school in Tucson (AZ) the third best in the country. More recently, Intel Corp. Chairman Craig Barrett and his wife donated $450,000 to the Basis middle school in Scottsdale (AZ), citing its excellence. Basis offers a rigorous curriculum in which teachers begin in fifth and sixth grade to prepare 11-year-olds to take pre-algebra and the first of three years of chemistry, biology, and physics. By the end of eighth grade, students are ready for pre-calculus. Parents of Basis students note that students do not have to be gifted to survive at the school; they only have to be driven. [More-The Arizona Republic] (Nov. 22) (subscription required)
Romero Perez used to sign his name on his stepson's homework assignments without understanding what was written on the papers. Now, Mr. Perez reads with his stepson and asks questions about report cards. The Parent Institute for Quality Education, or PIQE (pronounced "pee-kay"), helped Mr. Perez and hundreds of other parents in Arizona become more invested in their children's schooling. PIQE is a nine-week course that teaches mostly Spanish-speaking immigrant parents how the state's public school system works and how to advocate for their children's education by providing tutorials in how to set up appointments with counselors, read report cards, and help with homework. [More-The Arizona Republic] (Dec. 4)
The private Montessori School of Lake Forest has broken ground on a $1 million campus at Prairie Crossing's organic farm in Grayslake (IL). The new facility will house a fledgling Montessori junior high school, one of only a handful nationwide. The school is located on a "Learning Farm" and will offer a challenging curriculum along with agrarian learning experiences. Students will spend up to five hours each week working in fields surrounding the school, eventually bringing their own harvests to market. Linda Davis, the inaugural director of the school for grades seven through nine, projects a maximum of about 40 students at the new facility. [More-The Chicago Tribune] (subscription required)
More than 350 executives converged in New York City (NY) recently for a one-day conference aimed at examining how the Internet will transform learning in 21 st century classrooms. One of the conference speakers, Paul G. Vallas, chief executive officer for the 194,500-student Philadelphia (PA) school district, noted that technology can help ameliorate problems often faced by districts, such as encouraging parental involvement, revamping aging facilities, and providing students with engaging instructional resources. [More-Education Week] (Dec. 1) (paid subscription required)
In an age where the term "Google" is both a proper noun and a verb, more teachers will be able to find lesson plans and other resources using the California-based Internet search engine company. Google, Inc., recently unveiled "Google for Educators" and "Google Apps for Education," both of which contain a variety of online tools, curriculum resources, and lesson plans for teachers. The new site features a tutorial that shows teachers how to conduct better Internet searches. Other tools include "Google Earth," three-dimensional mapping software based on satellite imagery; "SketchUp," a three-dimensional software program that allows students to design buildings and explore geometric concepts; "Google Book Search," which finds books that match students' search terms; blog and photo-sharing software; and word-processing applications that enable students to work simultaneously on the same document from different computers. [More-Education Week] (Nov. 29) (paid subscription required)
A year-old campaign dedicated to improving the collection and use of data to drive school reform appears to be showing positive results. Over the past year, the Data Quality Campaign ( DQC) has stressed the importance of developing and using data systems that follow individual students' progress over time as a key tool to improve student achievement. According to the DQC, 42 states (up from 37 last year) now report having a unique student identifier in place, which is an integral part of a longitudinal data system. [More-eSchool News] (Nov. 27)
Raising Student Achievement
Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano will announce the formation of a national task force of education, business, and government leaders that will work to ready America for the economy of the future. The 17-member task force will be unveiled as part of a National Governors Association (NGA) meeting. Governor Napolitano is chairwoman of the NGA and has made the "Innovation America" initiative her priority. The hope is to inspire students to be better able to compete with their international counterparts in mathematics and science. [More-The Arizona Republic] (Dec. 5) (subscription required)
What will close the achievement gap? For founding principal Donna Rodrigues of the University Park Campus School in Worcester (MA), her solution simply is not to allow students to fail. Of some 230 students at the school, more than 70 percent are low-income. Many students come from troubled home situations, others are homeless, and still others are in foster care. Home life is no excuse for underperformance, however. Students are engaged in a challenging curriculum and teachers share best practices and plan lessons together. The payoff: hardly any students fail the 10 th grade Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS). (See Innovator, [More-The Boston Globe] (Dec. 3) (Editorial)
Seafaring is alive and well at the Sound School Regional Vocational Aquaculture Center at Oyster Point in the harbor of New Haven (CT). At this innovative regional vocational education center and college preparatory high school, students learn mathematics through boat building and navigation, music through sea-shanty singing, and literature and history through the study of nautically themed writings. The school's curriculum is not all brine-covered - plenty of modern chemistry, technology, and other subjects are taught using state-of-the-art equipment. The 25-year old, 320-student school draws its population from 19 surrounding districts, including New Haven. [More-Teacher Magazine] (Dec. 1)
Students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade at the private Chinese-American International School in San Francisco (CA) learn all subjects, from mathematics to music, half in Mandarin and half in English. In the last few years, the school has seen rapid growth in the number of non-Asian families enrolling their children. School officials attribute the growth largely to an expanding awareness of China as a global economic power and the belief of many parents that learning Mandarin will help improve their children's academic performance and help them professionally. Shuhan Wang, executive director of the Asia Society's Chinese Language Initiative, reports that several states are developing Chinese curricula for their public schools as well. [More-The New York Times] (Nov. 29) (paid subscription required)
Four years ago, educators in Seaford (DE) began offering special tutoring, summer classes, and Saturday sessions to "average" students. The aim was to help more students performing in the middle of the academic spectrum to reach rigorous academic goals. Since that time, the number of Advanced Placement (AP) classes at Seaford High School has swelled from four to 14, and minority enrollment in the most rigorous classes has increased. The largest effort to prepare average students for rigorous coursework is led by the nonprofit AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program based in San Diego (CA). (See Innovator, August 8, 2005) [More-The Washington Post] (Nov. 28) (subscription required)
Last Modified: 07/10/2009 | <urn:uuid:da9a91ce-5a64-496b-9958-7e5c50ee1cf6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www2.ed.gov/news/newsletters/innovator/2006/1221.html?exp=8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408840.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00057-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953328 | 6,320 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Were Sodom and Gomorrah real cities, and were they really destroyed in catastrophic firestorms? Can we respond to the historians who have long claimed that King David was only a mythical figure? Is there archaeological evidence for Jesus’ historical existence here on earth? In recent excavation, archaeologists have unearthed both surprising and substantial answers to these questions and others. Pottery shards, stone inscriptions, ancient scrolls, and other fascinating artifacts have shed new light on the people and events of the Bible--bringing them from the realm of mystery to the world of fact. Discover what new archaeological finds have to tell us about Israel’s journey to the promised land, the fall of Jericho’s walks, the ark of the covenant, the kings and prophets of Israel, the Assyrian and Babylonian invasions, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the time and people of Jesus, and more. Includes testimonies and interviews from leading archaeologists and exciting pictures featuring the latest finds made in the lands of the Bible. The Stones Cry Out will give you a new appreciation for both the world and the Word of the Bible!
Back to top
Rent The Stones Cry Out 1st edition today, or search our site for other textbooks by Randall Price. Every textbook comes with a 21-day "Any Reason" guarantee. Published by Harvest House Publishers.
Need help ASAP? We have you covered with 24/7 instant online tutoring. Connect with one of our tutors now. | <urn:uuid:7c401ae8-43ca-457e-92e8-8e946480aa4a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.chegg.com/textbooks/the-stones-cry-out-1st-edition-9781565076402-1565076400?ii=2&trackid=07327e83&omre_ir=1&omre_sp= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395621.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00125-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932558 | 297 | 2.71875 | 3 |
The Economics of the Recent U.S. Shift Away from Coal for Generating Electricity
The Montana Chamber of Commerce recently attacked EPA’s regulation of the emissions from coal-fired electric generators. That regulation, the Chamber argued, would have catastrophic consequences for both controlling carbon emissions and for the Montana and American economies.
These criticisms of EPA’s attempts to clean up the emissions from coal-fired electric generators are part of a national campaign by coal interests that asserts that the federal government is engaged in a “war on coal.” Unfortunately these critics are massively confused on all of the basic facts.
The main charge of the Montana critics of EPA’s expanded regulation of power plant emissions is that EPA’s regulation of those emissions is destroying the market for Montana coal. In fact, however, it was EPA’s regulation of sulfur emissions that help create the market for Montana’s and Wyoming’s Powder River Basin coal. Because Powder River Basin coal was low in sulfur, power plants around the nation turned to using that Montana and Wyoming coal to avoid the costs associated with capturing the high sulfur emissions that came from burning eastern coals. Without EPA’s regulations limiting sulfur emissions, Montana and Wyoming Powder River Basin coal would have remained a huge deposit of low Btu coal located in the middle of nowhere. It was EPA’s regulation of sulfur that turned our low-sulfur coal into such a valuable energy resource.
The critics of EPA’s regulations restricting the emission of carbon from power plants also have argued that that regulation will destroy any incentive for American utilities and coal producers to develop commercially viable carbon capture technology. The opposite is true. If EPA does not regulate carbon emissions, there will be no incentive at all to capture and sequester carbon. No one would have any interest in such carbon capture technologies if they could freely emit all of the carbon they wanted. Just as EPA regulation of sulfur emission created incentives for the use of low sulfur coal, such as Montana’s, as well as a market for sulfur removal technologies, EPA’s regulation of carbon will have the same effect on the development of carbon capture and storage technologies.
Those who see a “war on coal” being waged argue that EPA regulations are forcing Americans to use more costly fuels to generate electricity, natural gas rather than coal, making us poorer and hobbling our industry in global competition. Again, this turns reality on its head. Coal is losing market share in electric generation in the U.S. not because of EPA but because of low natural gas prices. Those low natural gas prices are a boon to American consumers and businesses. Even before natural gas prices came tumbling down and before EPA’s new regulations, electric utilities were turning away from using coal because natural gas plants were cheaper to build; they could be built more quickly and in smaller modular units so that utilities could follow load growth more closely; and, finally, natural gas plants were less polluting.
All of these advantages made the capital costs of building gas-fired electric generators lower than those of coal plants. When natural gas prices also fell to low levels, coal did not stand a chance in the competition. Very few new coal-fired plants were built; even fewer are planned; and the older, less efficient coal-fired plants are being retired because they are too costly to operate.
As a result, coal’s share of American electric generation fell from 53 percent in 2001 to 32 percent in April 2012, while natural gas’ share increased from 13 percent to 32 percent. For the first time, natural gas and coal were providing virtually equal shares of the nation’s electricity.
EPA’s critics tell us that that regulation of power plant emissions is driving electricity costs up as those plants are forced to use more expensive fuel and install costly emission controls. But the U.S. Energy Information Administration data show that over the last five years overall electric prices in the U.S. have been flat despite the decline in our nation’s reliance on coal to generate electricity.
Critics of EPA’s efforts to control emissions from coal-burning plants point out that U.S. carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions have fallen recently to levels not seen in many years, suggesting that there is no longer any need to regulate those emissions. What is conveniently ignored here is that those greenhouse gas emissions have fallen because the share of our electricity coming from burning coal has plummeted as the nation has turned to using more natural gas, which is much less carbon intensive, and renewable energy sources. If more coal had been burned, as the proponents of the “war on coal” hypothesis desire, those greenhouse gas emissions would have been higher. (Of course, the Great Recession and the slow recovery from it also reduced energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions.)
There is no doubt that the U.S. coal industry faces challenges. But if we are searching for someone or something to blame, we should be blaming good old fashion market forces, market forces driven by the development of shale gas and oil resources such as in the Bakken region in eastern Montana. But most of the proponents of the “war on coal” hypothesis passionately believe that markets always do the right thing. That ideological bias prevents them from seeing the strong market forces working against the expansion in the use of coal in the U.S. So instead they have twisted the facts to blame, that always convenient scapegoat, the federal government. | <urn:uuid:3133f9de-0512-4252-9991-b871aa5fa99f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mtpr.org/post/economics-recent-us-shift-away-coal-generating-electricity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402699.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00064-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963019 | 1,119 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Researchers Demo All-Optical Nanowire Switching
Sep 12, 2012 11:43 AM PT
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated the feasibility of using all-optical switches for possible use in computing.
(Source: University of Pennsylvania)
They also demoed a functional NAND gate built from multiple switches.
The team, led by professor Ritesh Agarwal, grew nanowires, grew a silicon oxide shell on their surfaces to improve their optical properties, cut a nanowire, pumped light through it, and turned off the light, making the device a switch.
This growing of the silicon oxide shell on the nanowires is a technique known as surface passivation.
The team used vapor-liquid-solid synthesis to grow the nanowires out of pure cadmium sulfide powder, Brian Piccione, the first author of the paper and a graduate student at the university, told TechNewsWorld.
It then used a focused gallium ion beam to cut the nanowire into two segments.
Next, the researchers pumped a pulsed laser beam from a commercially available Coherent Chameleon laser through the first segment, Piccione said. The energy pumped varied, and, in some cases, the team was able to show switching with less than 1 miliwatt of optical power applied to the switch.
That pulsed light was absorbed and conducted through the second segment. A second pulse of light was then sent through the second segment to turn off the light being transported through it.
"Energy was continuously pumped into the first portion in order to create a continuous on-chip laser probe source," Piccione explained. "This on-chip source in turn continuously stayed on for the duration of the experiment, in order to produce something for us to switch on and off."
Lights, Switching, Magic?
The team isn't clear as to why pumping a second pulse of light through the second segment of the nanowire turned off the first pulse being transported through it.
"We believe the light is switched off via a scattering mechanism, potentially aided by the strong light-matter coupling which we have previously shown exists in our nanowires," Piccione said.
Last year, a team that included Piccione and Agarwal demonstrated that polaritons have increased coupling strength in nanoscale semiconductors. This showed that photonic devices, which use light instead of electricity, might be workable.
"All-optical switching has never been shown before in individual nanowires, and therefore the exact mechanism causing this brand-new result [turning off the first light] could be further explored and researched," Piccione stated. | <urn:uuid:d225a203-abe8-4894-9ac1-9408491b9531> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.technewsworld.com/story/science/76135.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00189-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948068 | 558 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Division of Bacterial Diseases (DBD) News Bulletin
This website is archived for historical purposes and is no longer being maintained or updated.
November 3, 2011: Content on this page kept for historical reasons.
In This Issue
A new scarlet fever podcast is now available featuring Kathryn Fleming-Dutra discussing scarlet fever, its cause, how to treat it, and how to prevent its spread.
A new appropriate antibiotic use podcast produced by NCIRD, in collaboration with MMWR, has launched. Hear Tarayn Fairlie talk about when acute respiratory infections should be treated with antibiotics and why antibiotics are unnecessarily prescribed.
On September 20, 2011, Kathleen Dooling, Tarayn Fairlie and Alison Patti, along with staff from the Influenza Division joined ABC News’ senior health and medical editor Dr. Rich Besser for a live Twitter chat on how to manage illnesses during cold and flu season. Tweets included facts about the common cold, sore throats, and the flu. More than 4.8 million impressions were made, meaning that that many people could have seen a message included in this live chat. Stay tuned for more live chats with Dr. Besser on pneumonia and antibiotic resistance.Top of Page
- Page last reviewed: November 3, 2011 (archived document)
- Content source: | <urn:uuid:38dc2fa3-75c1-4180-a9d8-7bab29979226> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cdc.gov/ncird/div/DBD/newsletters/2011/fall/communications.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397562.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00017-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945747 | 273 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Safe Preservation of Venison
Posted: November 14, 2012
Care must be taken to avoid contamination of the meat while dressing, handling, and transporting it. Field dress the deer as soon as possible and quickly cool the carcass to 35 to 40°F. Transport the carcass to a processing facility as soon as possible and keep it cool during transport. Practice cleanliness; wash your hands, knife, and cutting boards frequently with warm, soapy water.
As of October 2012, Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) has not been detected in Pennsylvania’s wild deer population. However, CWD has been detected in a captive deer in Adams County Pennsylvania, as well as in wild deer in other states, including ones bordering Pennsylvania. Harvest only healthy looking deer and avoid eating the eyes, brain, spinal cord, spleen, tonsils or lymph nodes of any deer.
Freezing is the easiest way to preserve venison. Catherine Cutter, associate professor of food science and food safety Extension specialist at Penn State, gives the following suggestions for freezing venison. Cut and package into meal-size portions. Wrap the meat tightly in heavily waxed paper, freezer wrap, heavy-duty aluminum foil, or plastic freezer storage bags. Remove all the air from the bag or wrap before sealing. Space packages in the freezer to allow proper air circulation so that the meat freezes quickly. After packages are solidly frozen, restack them to save space.
Properly wrapped venison can be stored in the freezer for 9 to 12 months. To avoid quality deterioration, do not refreeze thawed products. Thaw all frozen meats in the refrigerator or microwave and use immediately. Cook venison, including jerky, to a minimum internal temperature of 160°F to reduce the risk of food-borne illness.
Many people enjoy canned venison because the processing breaks down the muscle tissue making it very tender. Venison, like all meats, is a low acid food and must be processed in a pressure canner at the proper pressure and time. Boiling water bath processing, even for an extended period of time, will not provide enough heat to destroy bacterial spores that can cause illness.
Venison is canned like beef. Choose high quality, chilled meat. Remove excess fat. Strong-flavored wild meats can be soaked for 1 hour in brine made from 1 tablespoon salt per quart of water. Rinse the meat. Cut into 1 inch wide strips, cubes or chunks. You have a choice of packing it into jars hot or raw. To raw pack the venison, simply pack the raw venison in hot jars allowing 1 inch headspace. Do not add liquid. To hot pack venison, pre-cook it to the rare stage by roasting, stewing or browning in a small amount of fat. Pack the hot meat loosely into hot jars, leaving 1 inch headspace. Fill the jar to 1 inch from the top with boiling meat juices, cooking broth, water, or tomato juice. Tomato juice is especially desirable for masking the strong flavor of venison. Another option is to add a slice of onion. One-half teaspoon salt per pint may be added for flavor if desired. Remove air bubbles; wipe jar rims; and adjust lids. Process in a dial gauge pressure canner at 11 pounds pressure or a weighted gauge pressure canner at 10 pounds pressure. Make pressure adjustments for high altitudes. Process pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes.
Ground venison may be canned, although freezing gives a higher quality product. Add one part high quality pork fat to three or four parts venison before grinding. Shape the ground meat into patties or balls and cook until lightly browned. It may also be sautéed without shaping. Remove excess fat. Pack hot meat loosely into hot jars and cover with liquid and process the same as for venison strips or chunks.
Venison that you plan to use fresh must be refrigerated and used within two or three days. Marinate all meats in the refrigerator and not at room temperature.
For more information read “Proper Care and Handling of Venison from Field to Table” and “Proper Processing of Wild Game and Fish”. You can also obtain a copy of the “Field Dressing Deer Pocket Guide”. | <urn:uuid:924530c8-87ee-4661-b90b-f6448d2e01ec> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://extension.psu.edu/food/preservation/news/2012/safe-preservation-of-venison | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00132-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915793 | 886 | 2.6875 | 3 |
CHULA VISTA, Calif. (AP) -- Amid the nation's childhood obesity epidemic, schools in nearly a quarter of all states record body mass index scores, measuring hundreds of thousands of students.
The Chula Vista Elementary School District near the California-Mexico border is being touted for its methods that have resulted in motivating the community to take action with healthy programs at schools.
But the practice hasn't been embraced everywhere.
Other school districts have angered parents and eating disorder groups by conducting screenings to identify overweight children and sending home what critics call obesity report cards or “fat letters.”
Chula Vista does what is known as surveillance, in which students are measured to identify how many are at risk for weight-related health problems but they remain anonymous. Supporters say the local data has brought in help. | <urn:uuid:fa767885-b3ef-4d89-8c50-0fa4657d9031> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.sddt.com/News/article.cfm?SourceCode=20140329cg | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00142-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968636 | 166 | 2.890625 | 3 |
The Three Pillars of Sustainability
The three pillars of sustainability are a powerful tool for defining the complete sustainability problem. This consists of at least the economic, social, and environmental pillars. If any one pillar is weak then the system as a whole is unsustainable. Two popular ways to visualize the three pillars are shown. 1
Why this is important
Most national and international problem solving efforts focus on only one pillar at a time. For example, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), the environmental protection agencies (EPA) of many nations, and environmental NGOs focus on the environmental pillar. The World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) focus mostly on economic growth, thought the OECD gives some attention to social sustainability, like war reduction and justice. The United Nations attempts to strengthen all three pillars, but due to its consensual decision making process and small budget has minor impact. The United Nations focuses mostly on the economic pillar, since economic growth is what most of its members want most, especially developing nations.
This leaves a void. No powerful international organization is working on the sustainability problem as a whole, which would include all three pillars.
However, as the Great Recession of 2008 demonstrated, weakness in the other pillars can directly weaken the environmental pillar. Many nations and states are cutting back or postponing stricter environmental laws or investment, since their budgets are running deficits. Many environmental NGOs are seeing their income fall. If the Great Recession grew substantially worse and morphed into another Great Depression, you would expect the environmental pillar would get severely less attention, since eating now is a priority over saving the environment.
The social pillar is critical too. Once a war breaks out environmental sustainability has zero priority. If a nation lives in dire poverty, the environment is pillaged with little thought for the future.
Therefore solutions to the sustainability problem must include making all three pillars sustainable.
Thinking deeply in terms of the three pillars of sustainability requires systems thinking. You start seeing the world as a collection of interconnected systems.
The standard diagrams for visualizing the three pillars are simplistic. To see the more correct relationship requires a diagram like the one shown.
The largest system of them all is the biosphere we live in. It contains the human system, which has two main systems: social and economic. When groups of people, from a tribe to a nation, agree to form a government they form a social contract to increase their general welfare. This contract binds the social and economic systems of the group of individuals together. The people (the social subsystem) are working together under a central government to maximize their economic system's output.
Seeing the overall system this way makes it clear that environmental sustainability must have the highest priority, because the lower the carrying capacity of the environment, the lower the common good delivered by the social system and the less output the economic system can produce.
Going even deeper
How do you analyze something as complex as all three pillars of the sustainability problem? Can the problem be solved?
Yes. Solutions exist. The sustainability problem is no more difficult than monumental historic problems like:
1. The shortage of food problem - This was solved ten thousand years ago by the invention of agriculture.
2. The short lifespan problem - Prior to the Industrial Revolution in 1800, the average lifespan of (for example) British people was 40 years. Today it's 78 for men and 82 for women. The problem was solved by the incremental invention of practices like sewage works, clean water sources, and better housing, along with inventions like germ theory and antibiotics. 2
3. The autocratic ruler problem - It was not so long ago that kings, warlords, chieftains, dictators, and the like ruled the world. Might made right. The vast majority of the population lived at the subsistence level. There was no middle class. The upper class aligned themselves with whoever was in control at the top. It was a system as old as human history. But it changed nearly overnight with the birth of modern democracy in the late 16th century.
4. The Cold War problem - From the end of World War II to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the free world held its breath in fear that nuclear war could erupt anytime. School children cowered under their desks during nuclear attack drills, as the arms race caused both sides to accumulate massive quantities of bombs. Mutually assured destruction (aptly abbreviated MAD) seemed like the only way to achieve detente. The Cuban missile crisis of 1962 brought the US and the USSR to the brink of launching missiles to protect their interests. But one side blinked and a holocaust was averted.
If these problems can be solved, so can the sustainability problem.
The first three problems were solved by invention of something new. But the last problem was not. What was common to the solutions that allowed them to solve all four problems? If we knew that it could help us solve the sustainability problem.
Thwink.org is an information rich educational website. After you've considered that question, click on One Possible Answer.
What the solution to all four problems had in common was it resolved the root cause of the problem. For example:
1. The root cause of the shortage of food problem was total dependence of Homo sapiens on the what the environment naturally provided for food via hunting and foraging. Invention of agriculture changed that radically. Now Homo sapiens is only partially dependent on the environment for sustenance.
2. The root cause of the short lifespan problem was unchecked infectious disease. All the practices listed reduced chance of infection or, in the case of antibiotics, cured infection after it had started.
3. The root cause of the autocratic ruler problem was there was no reliable feedback loop between a ruler and his subjects. After democracy there was. It was The Voter Feedback Loop.
4. The root cause of the Cold War was mutually exclusive goals between communistic and democratic societies. The root cause resolved itself when the Soviet Union collapsed due to the gross production inefficiency of its economic system, compared to democratic free market systems. Russia was forced to change its goal to one compatible with democracy, beginning with the courageous reforms by Mikhail Gorbachev of perestroika and glasnost in the late 1980s.
The pages of history whisper loudly if read closely. These pages tell us that the task before us is to find and fix the root causes of the sustainability problem.
(1) The colorful three pillar image is from Wikipedia. The architectural style image was prepared by Thwink.org. It's based on numerous similar diagrams.
(2) The information on British lifespans is from this article on Growing lifespan shows no sign of slowing, but don't expect immortality. | <urn:uuid:b7b46c3b-15f0-452f-8c4c-d5b7bd5a2901> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thwink.org/sustain/glossary/ThreePillarsOfSustainability.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00067-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958698 | 1,378 | 3.625 | 4 |
Family Drama, Philosophical Literature, Mystery, Realism, Literary Fiction
The Brothers Karamazov spans almost 800 pages (at least in its English translation) – which leaves plenty of room for various literary genres. The novel's way of turning characters into symbols of ideas inspired the genre of symbolist novels in Russia, but The Brothers Karamazov is widely considered a realist novel for its detailed portrayal of the mores and controversies of its time. The tempestuous Karamazovs provide the core family drama that explodes into a suspenseful whodunit over the murdered Fyodor Karamazov. Alongside this juicy plot runs an intense debate about weighty philosophical questions such as the existence of God, free will, and the fate of humanity. The Brothers Karamazov masterfully orchestrates these various genres into a comprehensive literary work, making it one of the great classics of literary fiction. | <urn:uuid:9fadb4ce-df9f-4505-9097-b3714789ec05> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.shmoop.com/brothers-karamazov/genre.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396147.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00019-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918937 | 182 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Build a Rainforest
- 2-liter bottles with bottle caps (one for each student)
- Potting soil
- Gravel/small rocks
- Houseplants (such as philodendron)
- Carpenter's knife
- Clear packaging tape
- Remove wrapping from bottle. Clean inside and outside of the bottle.
- Have an adult cut the bottle in half.
- In the bottom half of the bottle put 1.5- to 2.0-inch layer of gravel.
- Cover the gravel with 4 inches of potting soil.
- Carefully place the plants in the soil.
- Water plants.
- Place top half of bottle on top of bottom half and tape securely.
- Place terrarium in a sunny window.
Design an observation chart. Chart any changes in your plants. Give water in increments of a 1/2 cup. Keep track of the amount of water given. | <urn:uuid:fa337925-9674-4bef-bc3d-d9b293f662fb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Experiments/Biome/hobuildrainforest.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00197-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.783079 | 192 | 3.28125 | 3 |
I've come across some books that are really detailed and go through how they solve something and I prefer. I hate books that just give you an answer without any meaning behind it and expect you to figure out for yourself if you don't have a clue what some symbols might even mean or why nothing is actually showing up on the internet because they have written it down differently.
Anyway, I got passed that and onto the next set of exercises which is about finding the slope, y-intercept for each equation and the number of solutions. Well, I thought that a system of equations had to consist of more than one equation, if they don't, then I am completely lost because not even my previous books showed a system of equations with just one equation...
Anyway, the equation is:
x + y = 7
So the slope would be -1. The y-intercept would be: y = -x + 7.
Earlier in the book it tells you that to find out how many solutions a system of equations has by checking to see if the slopes of both equations are the same. If they are NOT the same, it has one solution, if it does, you then need to find the y-intercept and check to see if b1 and b2 are the same. b1 in this question would be 7.
So I have m1 = -1, and b1 = 7. The answer gives me that, but with m2 = 1/3 and b2 = 2/3, with only one solution.
I know you mentioned that I should focus on the theory and I guess understanding how it works, but I just wish someone could shed some light on this one so I can move on. If all of the exercises are like this, where they are giving me false answers or not explaining how they got the answer, I just don't see the point in the exercises... | <urn:uuid:93e3587c-537e-407e-9d5a-8616dcd47350> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.gamedev.net/user/203285-motoky/?tab=reputation&app_tab=forums&type=received | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979925 | 389 | 3.484375 | 3 |
To determine numbers of tigers in this remote, densely forested land, researchers sent out nearly one thousand fieldworkers to canvass the entire region where it is believed tigers could occur. Though wary of people, and seldom seen, tigers nonetheless leave evidence of their presence with their massive footprints in the snow. With some workers spending months in the field and covering over 21,000 km (13,000 miles) of transects by foot, ski, snowmobile, and car, over 4,100 tracks were recorded, most representing multiple tracks of a single individual. Researchers map out the location of all these tracks, and then estimate a minimum number of tigers, based on their size and distribution.
Dale Miquelle, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Russia Program, and overall coordinator for the project, remarked, "This tiger survey represents a milestone in cooperative, international conservation efforts, with full political support from both regional and national governmental bodies of the Russian Federation, as well as financial and technical support from the international conservation community." The project was funded not only by Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources, but by a host of international organizations, led by Save the Tiger Fund, the US Fish and Wildlife Service's Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Fund (both from the US), Britain's 21st Century Tiger, and WWF.
The last winter survey, conducted in 1996, reported 330-371 adult tigers, with 85-105 cubs. "The difference in results between 1996 and this survey," said Dimitri Pikunov, coordinator of the survey in Primorye Province, and a well-known specialist on this big cat, "is not due to a change in numbers, but simply reflects the additional effort we made to survey the entirety of tiger range." Coordinators agree that this survey represents the most extensive effort to date to count tigers in Russia.
Tiger conservationists around the world were buoyed by these results, especially since India, once considered the greatest stronghold for tigers, is now under pressure after recent reports of tigers completely disappearing from some of their core tiger reserves. Yuri Darman, Director of the WWF Russian Far East Office, declared, "these results are a tribute to the hard work and dedication of conservation organizations and government officials here in Russia. Despite massive poaching pressures in the 1990s, we have been able to turn back the tide, and retain our tiger population." John Seidensticker, of the Save the Tiger Fund, a partnership between Exxon Mobil, U.S. National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, added, "Russia is a bright spot in the conservation of tigers in Asia, and is proof of our belief that a few dedicated individuals, with sufficient motivation and adequate support, can make a difference in the world."
Coordinators of the survey effort gathered in Vladivostok today to present their results, but emphasize that numbers are still preliminary. Still to come will be an assessment of the prey species tigers are dependent on, and a more rigorous analysis of tiger distribution and abundance. According to Miquelle, "Over the next few months, we will be completing the geographic database to ensure these data are preserved, and then we will begin a more intensive analysis of the data. Results may change slightly, but we think it's safe to say that the population appears stable." | <urn:uuid:18b923a7-05d6-4651-83e9-4ec0ac315c93> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-06/wcs-sth061605.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00170-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94854 | 683 | 3.40625 | 3 |
int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv)
printf("I hope you're prepared to enter the world lying beneath the kettle lid\n");
printf("This is a text based adventure game created based on the imagination of young \n");
printf("Sam Downey. As you walk around in this world you will have to choose your own\n");
printf("path and if you're lucky you might even get to met Ms Downey yourself, though\n");
printf("she is a busy programmer and might just shake your hand in the end (but the \n");
printf("more you impress her the better chance you'll have of meeting Samantha ;D)\n\n");
printf("So if you are ready to begin the adventure, please enter your name here.");
scanf("%d", name); //The name of the users charactor
if ( name )
If I did it correct then the user's answer should have stored their name into the int name;
So my question is how do I make it so the given name is put in the printf(); Dialogue. Sorry if I don't make since or sound stupid. And tell me if I did something wrong.
First and foremost, unless your user is a computer that only has a number for a name, you're going to get a problem with type casting. Others may point out other problems, but that is going to be a big one. String, or a char, but not int.
Btw, do you know C++ basics? If not, please go for a quick tutorial.
char name is a cstring (character array) of 64 characters. Since you are not familiar with strings and cannot use iostream, you're left with cstrings. And, when declaring a cstring, you need to include the number of characters it can hold.
Well, no offense but the fact that you declared your characters name as an integer means you might want to go through some basic tutorials again. I think you're missing out on a very fundamental concept here. Come up to speed on C++ I/O too. printf and scanf are plain old C commands. C++ has better options. The tutorial on this site is quick and should bring you up to speed: http://cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/ | <urn:uuid:4f7c651b-2de8-4889-95a1-13f5db7b80c3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/beginner/76319/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399425.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00033-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927743 | 488 | 2.984375 | 3 |
The enormous Blaksley Boulder sits at the symbolic center of the Botanic Garden. The boulder, like the early Garden itself, was dedicated in 1926 as a memorial to Henry Blaksley, our founder’s father. The main structural axis of the Garden’s landscape design is aligned with the boulder. The view north from the Blaksley Library is centered on the boulder, as is the view west from the original entry steps.
The Blaksley Boulder is just one of many huge boulders in the Garden. These boulders are composed of sandstone from the Santa Ynez Mountains. Many wonder how they got here. Amazingly, it seems that they floated here in prehistoric debris flows that likely occured every few thousand years. Torrential rains, and possibly earthquakes, triggered massive landslides, and the boulders floated like corks on top of a high density mixture of water, fine sediment, and rocks. These catastrophic events are recorded in the exposed walls of the canyon where layers of rock and sediment can be seen piled 60 feet high.
The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden fosters the conservation of California's native plants through
our gardens, research and education, and serves as a role model of sustainable practices. | <urn:uuid:a8d107cc-fb91-4bc0-a1a3-40574e898457> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.sbbg.org/explore-garden/garden-features/blaksley-boulder | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00074-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955624 | 251 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Written by Annie Mesavage, Junior at Penn State
The cobblestone street of Red Square has seen a lot of history. It once was the marching ground for the Soviet Union’s military. It has seen the construction of Russia’s most famous sight, St. Basil’s Cathedral under rule of Ivan the Terrible. Today, it even houses Lenin’s mausoleum where his embalmed body can be seen by tourists. But on this past Sunday, March 9th, it was the witness of something even more profound: several hungry, unsuspecting American college students who just wanted a “Russian pancake” or blini. Why on this day? This food is the most popular associated with the Russian holiday Maslenitsa, celebrated each year during a Sunday in March.
Maslenitsa was originally a holiday of the equinox. The pancakes were meant to symbolize the shape of the sun. It occurs the week before the Russian Orthodox celebration of Lent and thus is a day when people ask for forgiveness from past sins before going into the Easter season. It is a very cheerful holiday as it represents the ending of winter and the beginning of spring. A large straw doll, symbolizing winter, is typically burnt as an attraction. People cumulate throughout Red Square and around Alexander Gardens outside of the Kremlin walls. Maslenitsa is also the day after women’s day celebrated this year on March the 8th. This is a special day where men often buy wives or loved ones flowers and other gifts.
This year we were taken to these festivities by two of our fellow Russian students, Dmitry and Alexander as well as their mother and other friend. We all walked around the Kremlin and took in the sights of Red Square. People bustled around with figurines of the small straw dolls and bouquets of flowers. Others ice skated on the square’s large rink or listened to singing. Later in the afternoon, we walked to the main celebration where thousands of people waited in lines to get blinis filled with caviar, sour cream, or fruit. Traditionally meat was not eaten for Maslenitsa. Yet, today the Russian shashlik, a kind of kabob is just as popular as blinis. Besides the food, there was also a live stage where dance and theatrical groups performed and sang many traditional folk songs. There were also numerous carnival game booths.
Before returning home, we walked across the large highway bridge overlooking the Moscow River (minus the crazy European drivers) as it is closed to traffic for the festival. There we could take photographs with government buildings and cathedrals of the city in the background.
Yes we did get a taste for some of those Russian pancakes but also for more culture. The snow has melted here and the days are longer and sunnier. The effects of Maslenitsa are in full swing!
Also in this Issue...
- Weekend Excursion to the Timirazevskaya Region
by Becky Dunmyer
"I have always enjoyed saunas but this was my first banya experience. I loved it. I never knew that being beaten with tree branches, running towel-clad through the snow, and dumping buckets of water on myself could be so much fun. The banya will certainly be one of my favorite memories of Russia."
- Where We Are: (a.k.a.) Moscow State
Agro-Engineering University by Ben Crooke
"Our host university here in Russia is Moscow State Agro-engineering University (MSAU), located in northern Moscow. This university started about 200 years ago and was originally called Peter’s Agricultural Academy, named after Peter the Great."
- Stuff from the Buff by Marina Besedina
"This was a two- part lecture with the first part being in the classroom discussing the world market for mushrooms and who are the leading producers and the second part seeing a farm first-hand."
This past weekend, Marina Besedina and I had wonderful time visiting the home of our new friend Marina Gorshkova. She and her family live in a town called Kimry, which is located about two hours outside of Moscow. The beautiful weather allowed us to enjoy lots of time outdoors.
After our train arrived Saturday afternoon we were greeted by the friendly faces of Marina’s happy parents. Once we were settled in everyone had lunch and tea together. I really enjoyed trying all of the different foods that Marina G’s mother and grandmother prepared for us. Being that Saturday was Women’s Day the ladies were given special treatment. Our dinner was followed by a relaxing night in the sauna and banya room. I have always enjoyed saunas but this was my first banya experience. I loved it. I never knew that being beaten with tree branches, running towel-clad through the snow, and dumping buckets of water on myself could be so much fun. The banya will certainly be one of my favorite memories of Russia. One more round of tea, candy, and conversation perfectly concluded a very special Saturday.
Sunday was also very exciting. We walked all around the town and spent a day in the park.
The town was having a celebration for Maslenitsa, which is meant to welcome the spring season. We ate blini and shashliks, which are Russian pancakes and kabobs. The food was delicious of course. We took lot of pictures, had a snow ball fight, and listened to music performed by a local group. Everyone was having a great time laughing and dancing. At the end of the day an effigy was burned to symbolize the end of the winter. Nothing’s better than fresh air, good food, and live entertainment.
For Marina B. and I the end of our visit came all too soon. No one was ready to leave the comfort of a warm house and a welcoming family. This weekend was fascinating to say the least.
Slowing down from the upbeat Moscow city life and enjoying the simple comforts of a small town proved to be a much needed luxury. | <urn:uuid:dbe026fc-68be-4f75-a014-bd6f0b4127e9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.clemson.edu/agcom/rasa/newsletters/2008/issue3/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403508.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00052-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983059 | 1,257 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.