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Syncope in Children
What is syncope?Syncope is a brief loss of consciousness and muscle tone that can occur when not enough blood gets to the brain. Syncope is commonly called fainting. In most children, it’s usually harmless. But in a few children, syncope is serious. This is usually because of a heart problem, or sometimes a neurological problem.
What causes syncope?
The common reason behind each fainting episode is a temporary lack of oxygen-rich (red) blood getting to the brain. However, many different problems can cause a decrease in blood flow to the brain. Some causes of syncope include:
- Vasovagal syndrome (or neurocardiogenic syncope). A sudden drop in blood pressure with or without a decrease in heart rate. It is caused by a problem with the nerves controlling the heart and blood vessels. This is the most common cause of syncope and can follow periods of extreme emotion.
- Arrhythmia. A heart rate that is too slow, too fast, or too irregular to keep enough blood flow to the body, including the brain. This is a fairly rare cause of syncope.
- Structural heart disease (muscle or valve defects). There may be problems with the heart muscle or one or more of the heart valves. This may cause a decrease of blood flow to the body, including the brain. Inflammation of the heart muscle known as myocarditis can also cause fainting. The heart muscle becomes weak and is not able to pump as well as normal. The body again reacts to decreased blood flow to the brain by fainting.
- Orthostatic hypotension. This is a drop in blood pressure that occurs when a person has been standing for a while, or changes from a sitting to a standing position. Blood pools in the legs, preventing a normal amount of blood from being pumped to the brain. This brief drop in blood flow to the brain causes a person to faint. This more commonly occurs in senior adults.
Other situations or illnesses that can cause syncope include:
- Head injury
- Inner ear problems
- Low blood sugar
- Breath holding episodes
- Brain mass
- Aneurysm or abnormality of the blood vessels of the brain
- Having a bowel movement
What are the symptoms of syncope?
Some children will have symptoms before they faint. A child may have:
- Changes in his or her vision
- Cold, damp skin
There may be enough warning signs that your child will have time to sit or lie down before fainting occurs. This can prevent injuries that may happen because of falling during syncope, such as head injury.
How is syncope diagnosed?
The healthcare provider will ask about your child’s symptoms and health history. He or she will give your child a physical exam. Helpful details you can provide include answers to these questions:
- How often does syncope occur?
- What your child was doing before the syncope?
- Did your child had any symptoms before the syncope?
- What did he or she ate before the syncope?
- What happened during and after the syncope?
- Was the syncope witnessed?
- How long did the period of loss of conscious persist after syncope?
The provider will check your child's blood pressure and heart. Your child’s blood pressure is usually checked more than once in different positions. It may be taken while your child is lying down sitting, and standing. The provider will look for changes in blood pressure that occur with orthostatic hypotension.
Often your child will not need any tests. If your child's provider thinks there may be a serious problem, he or she may refer you to a pediatric cardiologist. This is a doctor with special training to treat heart problems in children. He or she may order tests, such as:
- Electrocardiogram (ECG). This test records the electrical activity of the heart. It shows any abnormal rhythms (arrhythmias) and problems with heart function.
- Tilt table test. This test checks a child's blood pressure and heart rate while he or she is in different positions.
- Holter monitor. This test uses a portable monitor that your child wears for 24 hours or longer. It is used to evaluate irregular, fast, or slow heart rhythms while your child does his or her normal activities, even while away from the provider's office.
- Echocardiogram (echo). This test studies the heart's function. It uses sound waves (ultrasound) to make a moving picture of the heart and heart valves, pumping function, and blood flow through the heart.
How is syncope treated?
After an episode of syncope, your child should lie down for 10 to 15 minutes. Or, your child can sit with his or her head between the knees. Give your child a drink of water.
Work with your child's healthcare provider to figure out the cause and ways to prevent further syncope.
If a heart problem is the cause of syncope, the pediatric cardiologist will figure out what treatment is needed.
Occasionally, the problem can also be due to a brain problem and may require consultation with a pediatric neurologist.
What are the complications of syncope?Most syncope in children is harmless. In a small number of children, serious heart problems may be the cause of syncope. Sudden death can occur.
Can I help my child prevent passing out?
To prevent passing out caused by dehydration:
- Stay hydrated. Be sure your child stays well hydrated. Encourage him or her to drink plenty of water.
- Increase salt intake. Try non-fat salty snacks such as pretzels or crackers.
If passing occurs when standing too long:
- Advise your child not to lock his or her knees when standing.
- Advise your child to promote blood flow by relaxing and tightening the leg muscles.
If your child has passed out upon standing:
- Make sure your child sits up slowly, lets his or her legs hang off the bed, and tell him or her to wiggle the toes and take a few deep breaths before standing up.
If your child feels like he or she may pass out, advise him or her to sit or lie down quickly.
When should I call my child's healthcare provider?
Call your child's provider if he or she has syncope, especially if:
- It continues even with preventive efforts
- It occurs with irregular heartbeats
- It occurs with exercise
- You have a family history of syncope
- There is no known cause
- It occurs unpredictably and in dangerous situations
- Injuries occur afterwards
Key points about syncope
- Syncope is a brief loss of consciousness and muscle tone. It’s caused when the brain doesn’t get enough blood.
- It is usually harmless, but in a small number of children, it is caused by a heart problem.
- Syncope is usually diagnosed with a health history and physical exam, including checking blood pressure and heart rate.
- If there is no serious cause, syncope is managed by finding the cause and learning ways to prevent it.
Tips to help you get the most from a visit to your child’s healthcare provider:
- Know the reason for the visit and what you want to happen.
- Before your visit, write down questions you want answered.
- At the visit, write down the name of a new diagnosis, and any new medicines, treatments, or tests. Also write down any new instructions your provider gives you for your child.
- Know why a new medicine or treatment is prescribed and how it will help your child. Also know what the side effects are.
- Ask if your child’s condition can be treated in other ways.
- Know why a test or procedure is recommended and what the results could mean.
- Know what to expect if your child does not take the medicine or have the test or procedure.
- If your child has a follow-up appointment, write down the date, time, and purpose for that visit.
- Know how you can contact your child’s provider after office hours. This is important if your child becomes ill and you have questions or need advice. | <urn:uuid:c2e003bd-2cc3-4dba-98d1-d31222685046> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://healthcare.utah.edu/healthlibrary/related/doc.php?type=90&id=P01818 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394987.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00191-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940722 | 1,734 | 3.625 | 4 |
Sri Lanka has more than 2,500 years of continuous written history by means of the Mahawansha, and was also mentioned in several ancient Indian texts. One of the most famous is the Ramayana, in which the island, which was referred to as Lanka, was the island fortress of the evil king Ravana, who captured the wife of Rama, an incarnation of the Hindu God Vishnu. Legend has it that Hanuman the monkey flew over to Lanka and destroyed the capital by setting it on fire, while Rama and his remaining troops later crossed over from the mainland by building a land bridge across the sea. Evidence for the existence of a land bridge has since been found by NASA satellite images. Conspiracy! Juicy! | <urn:uuid:e23f1f2c-38c3-41be-afef-f1236c83f069> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nileguide.com/travel/country/sri-lanka | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392527.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00134-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987232 | 150 | 2.59375 | 3 |
MESSAGE OF THE PROPHETS - JEREMIAH 7
God appears to Jeremiah in a cloud (14th century).
A fascinating aspect of Jeremiah 7:1-15 is its density as a summary of the message of Israels prophets. A number of details keep interpreters busy; the main thrust is what will concern us here.
Particularly intriguingand not noticed enoughis that the text does not report a speech from Jeremiah to the people but a command from God to Jeremiah: Proclaim there this word (7:2). The prophetic message is coming straight from the horses mouth, from God. Surprisingly, there is no record of Jeremiahs delivering the speech.
The theme recurs in another story, in Jeremiah 26 (our topic in the next issue), but it is a different story. Jeremiah 7 is about the message of the prophets; Jeremiah 26 is about the fate of the prophets. The two provide an excellent example of the potential of what may have been one event to generate two different accounts.
The speech is to be addressed to the people of Judah entering the Jerusalem temple, presumably on a feast day; it is a dense text. The proclamation is put both positively, Amend your ways, and negatively, Do not trust in these deceptive words. The plea to amend assumes there is still time for it; later, after v. 12, the time for amendment has passed. Many argue that two independent passages have been combined. If so, the combination is eminently understandable; two stages are indicated.
The principal focus of the sermon is on the behaviours that are to be amended and the deceptive words that are not to be trusted. The two are spelled out globally in vv. 3-4. The behaviours (v. 3) are taken up in vv. 5-7; the deceptive words (v. 4) are unpacked in vv. 8-10. In both cases, the issues are identical: social injustice and religious infidelity. In vv. 5-7, the issue of social injustice is given particular emphasis; if anything, in vv. 8-10, religious infidelity is given rather more space.
Amendment (vv. 5-7) is articulated first in terms of social justice: if you truly act justly with one another. This is spelled out in the traditional triad of the defencelessthe alien, the orphan, and the widow. To this is added Jeremiahs particular interest in the shedding of innocent blood in this place (the land or the temple). Religious infidelity is listed second, going after other gods, with the particular focus of to your own hurt. Religious infidelity may not damage God; it certainly damages Israel.
The destructive words come next (vv. 8-10). First, categories of social injustice: stealing, murder, adultery, dishonesty; second, religious infidelity: making offerings to Baal and going after other gods that you have not known. The reasons for the great attraction that the worship of Baal exercised on Israel are unknown to us. Apparently, early in Israels story, it did not seem to be a problem; King Saul gave two of his sons names with the god-element Baal (Ishbaal and Meribaal). Later the worship of Baal became an enormous problem to Israelperhaps much as practical atheism is to so many of us today. Other gods you have not known may point to the attraction of novelty. The familiar easily becomes boring; Israel was surely familiar with their God.
Whatever we make of Israels motives, the outcome was clear. Social injustice and religious infidelity made Israel incompatible with God. As northern Israel had lost its freedom to the Assyrians in 722 (the northern exile), so Judah would lose its freedom to the Babylonians in 587 (the exile). From Jeremiah, the word was devastating: I will cast you out of my sight (v. 15). | <urn:uuid:b779737e-a9cd-4584-a297-ccb73fb518c2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.madonnamagazine.com.au/articles/0505campbell.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00043-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953941 | 804 | 2.625 | 3 |
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2007 October 5
Explanation: A mere 20,000 light-years from the Sun lies NGC 3603, a resident of the nearby Carina spiral arm of our Milky Way Galaxy. NGC 3603 is well known to astronomers as one of the Milky Way's largest star-forming regions. The central open star cluster contains thousands of stars more massive than our Sun, stars that likely formed only one or two million years ago in a single burst of star formation. In fact, nearby NGC 3603 is thought to contain a convenient example of the massive star clusters that populate much more distant starburst galaxies. Surrounding the cluster are natal clouds of glowing interstellar gas and obscuring dust, sculpted by energetic stellar radiation and winds. Recorded by the Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, the image spans about 17 light-years.
Authors & editors:
Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U. | <urn:uuid:b1ebbd61-8673-4136-9d27-d97ed42d5b83> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap071005.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00153-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.891086 | 244 | 3.65625 | 4 |
Report Examines Impact of Climate Change on Drinking Water Supplies
WASHINGTON - Warming of the earth's atmosphere will continue to put mounting pressure on America's drinking water sources, leading to diminishing supplies in some regions and flooding in others, according to an analysis released today by the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA), a nonprofit organization of the largest publicly owned drinking water systems in the United States.
AMWA's report, Implications of Climate Change for Urban Water Utilities, forecasts the likely impacts of climate change on water supplies in different regions of the U.S., such as an accelerated hydrologic cycle of evaporation and precipitation, water contamination, rising sea levels and pressure on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The report is available for viewing and download at AMWA's new climate change webpage, www.amwa.net/cs/climatechange.
The national debate on climate change has so far been limited to the effects of greenhouse gases," said AMWA Executive Director Diane VanDe Hei. "For community drinking water systems, climate change has broader implications. The question we ask is: 'To what extent will our water supplies be affected?'"
This report shows that climate change may pose great challenges to delivering limited amounts of clean and safe water to a rapidly growing population," added VanDe Hei.
Among the actions that the report suggests water systems take to prepare for the impacts of climate change are vulnerability assessments to identify short-term adaptation needs; cooperative planning and modeling efforts among utilities to devise strategies addressing likely regional water resource issues; and efforts by utilities to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions.
"The ramifications identified in the report point to at least two key needs," said VanDe Hei. "Scientific research is needed to better understand the impacts of climate change on existing fresh water resources and to help develop and assess the affordability of alternative water sources -- such as reuse, recycling, conservation and desalination."
"In addition, an increased federal investment in water infrastructure is needed to help offset the costs of new supply development and capital projects to ensure that all Americans continue to have access to safe and affordable drinking water," she said.
In conjunction with the release of the report, AMWA's new climate change webpage will serve as a resource for water utility managers and policy makers seeking the latest information on the impacts of climate change on drinking water supplies. The page includes fact sheets and presentations on local impacts of climate change, and can be viewed at www.amwa.net/cs/climatechange.
Source: Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies | <urn:uuid:9ac8b5bc-c13b-45f6-b3b3-33b9c2f4f00f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/27478 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00144-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935037 | 520 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Cranial anatomy and phylogenetic position of the titanosaurian sauropod Bonitasaura salgadoi
Knowledge of titanosaurian cranial anatomy has improved substantially in the last decade because several skulls have come to light or were restudied. The discovery of Bonitasaura salgadoi, a partial titanosaurian skeleton including cranial bones, permitted the definitive recognition of square jaws in a titanosaurian sauropod as well as a peculiar skull morphology that increases the morphological diversity of the group. Here we present a full description and illustration of the skull material of B. salgadoi. Among cranial bones, the lacrimal, quadrate, and dentary exhibit apomorphic differences from those of other titanosaurians. Conversely, the frontal and parietal are more conservative. Aphylogenetic analysis recovers B. salgadoi as a member of the Titanosauria, related to mid−sized to large titanosauroids from the Turonian–Campanian of South America, in contrast to a previous hypothesis that suggested a nemegtosaurid affinity. The skull reconstruction presented here shows that the skull of B. salgadoi is anteroposteriorly short and dorsoventrally high, contrasting with the elongate skull of Rapetosaurus krausei.
Key words: Sauropoda, Titanosauria, skull, Late Cretaceous, Río Negro, Argentina.
Pablo A. Gallina [[email protected]] and Sebastián Apesteguía [[email protected]], CONICET. Area de Paleontología, Fundación de Historia Natural “Félix de Azara”, CEBBAD-Universidad Maimónides, Buenos Aires (1405), Argentina.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (for details please see creativecommons.org), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | <urn:uuid:5b265fd9-1a18-441c-9881-84c8f1ff3533> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.app.pan.pl/article/item/app20100011.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00145-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.820829 | 441 | 2.671875 | 3 |
IOWA CITY, IowaSince the emergence of machine vision in the 1960s, debate has raged over whether a parallel or serial architecture is best. Researchers modeling visual processes in the brain observed parallelism in neural structures, but didn't know enough about how visual information was being represented to resolve the issue. Now University of Iowa researchers say they've solved this vision research question: Does the brain operate in parallel or serially?
"We are the first research group to show definitively that the human brain processes images serially-paying attention to only one object at a time and shifting rapidly from object to object," said University of Iowa professor Steven Luck. According to the new insights, the brain does perform many tasks in parallel, such as muscle coordination for walking in the park while simultaneously listening to birds chirping. These are cognitive operations that involve separate processing on different types of data.
For such diverse tasks it is clear that the brain does operate in parallel. But when it comes to tasks involving similar data items, the brain appears to time-division multiplex, that is, focus its attention on one object at a time so quickly that the conscious mind is not aware of it. "It's counterintuitive because it seems to our conscious mind that we are comparing objects simultaneously, but we now think that the brain's parallelism is similar to a computer's-that is, a computer has millions upon millions of simultaneously acting transistors, but at the functional level it is operating serially-one instruction at a time," Luck said. The new theory says that the brain operates the same way at the functional level; it processes information serially, even though the underlying neural hardware is operating in parallel.
Luck was able to determine whether the brain's processing was parallel or serial through an experiment he performed in 1994. This experiment identified a pattern in brain waves known as N2PC, which stands for the second negative peak (N2) of the posterior contralateral (PC). The N2PC identifies the location of brain waves as emerging from either the right or left side of the brain. By arranging the experimental situation, Luck was able to use N2PC to identify whether a person was processing visual signals one at a time or simultaneously.
He enlisted the help of graduate student Geoffrey Woodman to perform the experiment and study the collected data. The experimental setup presented to subjects a landscape-shaped display of different colored blocks, most of which were black except for a red block on the left side and a green block on the right. The subjects were instructed to find the block with a nick in it and told that it was probably red but could be green. Those instructions allowed subjects to either process all blocks in parallel, focus their attention on just the red and green blocks simultaneously or search for the correct block in the same order each trial-that is, red, then green, then black.
"It was important that we knew the order in which they paid attention to the colored objects, because the N2PC works by correlating the brain waves coming from each side of the brain over many statistical trials, so we had to always have them search in the same order," Luck said. By observing the brain activity of the subjects performing the search and recognizing tasks using N2PC, Luck and Woodman discovered that the brain turned its attention from one block to the next at intervals of about 1/10th second. "There wasn't a single subject that did the task in parallel," Luck said. | <urn:uuid:2215986b-ac12-442b-96b1-de440c57bd6c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1140355 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00186-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963167 | 706 | 3.546875 | 4 |
Following some of the recent security breaches which involved hacking user account databases, I thought I'd write a short article on how to create a good password.
The main points to consider:-
1.Using a word like password or any other word that can be found in the dictionary gives the hacker an easy place to start.
So think about making up something that can never be considered a word.
2.Add some random numbers to the password and not something obvious like your date of birth or home address or postcode.
If you're being targeted specifically and the hacker has gained access to your personal account information which may include such details, this is one of the first things they will try.
Using parts of your name, date if birth and address all jumbled up are also too obvious.
The hacker can go through every combination of these details in a matter of seconds with a modern pc.
3.Consider not saving your password on your browser especially if it's a site that you use to purchase items using your credit card or other payment method such as a music download site.
If the password has been saved in your browser and therefore on your computer, and your computer becomes infected by a virus that specifically looks for stored passwords, there's a very big chance that your accounts will be compromised.
This may mean you have to write down your passwords and manually enter them everytime you visit your favourite shopping site, but it also takes your pc out of the equation when hackers try this method.
4.Keep your computer safe. Use up to date anti-virus software and regularly scan for infections.
If you have an infection that uses keylogging, keeping your passwords away from the computer by never saving them there won't mean anything when the hacker logs every key stroke.
If they see an odd looking word that has been typed, it's obviously a password.
4.Having a random password that includes letters, numbers and special characters leaves the hacker with the only sensible choice of using their computer.
This is where the computer becomes extremely useful in both encrypting and cracking passwords.
5.Most internet security firms will recommend at least a 12 character password. This is where the maths determines everything.
How fast can the computer go through every possible 12 character password?
This can easily go into decades!
6.If the hacker has access to the key that was used to encrypt the data on your pc, including your passwords, they can decrypt everything!
In the next article I'll go into a little more detail on encryption techniques and what the hacker needs to do once they have all the encrypted data from a user account.
In the meantime, take note of the bullet points above and remember that there are plenty of people out there that want all your personal information and want to spend your money instead of theirs!
Thanks for reading.. | <urn:uuid:15a5fea0-ddb4-4f9e-9e5a-d09d90839f2a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.syschat.com/the-best-password-you-can-have-7109.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396147.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00128-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954376 | 583 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Lysine: The Amino Acid for Cold Sores
Lysine is an essential amino acid. Lysine occurs abundantly in fish and poultry, dairy, wheat germ, and other legumes, and in smaller amounts in grains and peanuts. You may need extra lysine if you eat a high-carbohydrate diet.
Make sure that you’re getting enough lysine if you’re a vegetarian. Grains, especially refined grains, are particularly poor in lysine. Adding beans to grain foods provides a more complete protein, containing all the essential amino acids.
Lysine is a precursor for the amino acid carnitine and is the best known for lessening and preventing herpes simplex virus infections. (It balances the tendency of another amino acid, arginine, to induce herpes attacks.) Lysine appears to work better at reducing the fever blisters, or cold sores, associated with Herpes simplex type I than it does on the blistering rash and genital sores of Herpes simplex type II.
The key uses of lysine include:
Lysine helps your body absorb calcium and promotes bone health — especially important for post-menopausal women. For the same reason, researchers found a positive effect for lysine to reduce dental cavities.
Lysine can also enhance recovery from hard-to-heal wounds or injuries.
Along with garlic, vitamin C, and niacin, lysine can help in lowering your cholesterol levels if they are too high.
This amino acid is important to collagen formation, thus adding to tissue strength.
Collagen is an important component of the lower layers of the skin. Good collagen support can help your skin look young and reduce wrinkling. | <urn:uuid:af82d6a2-646a-43a9-aee3-5299ea9ca0d9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/lysine-the-amino-acid-for-cold-sores.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397562.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00063-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90591 | 362 | 3 | 3 |
Traditional Principles of Animation/Squash and stretch
The principle of Squash and Stretch implies that no matter how much an object deforms, it must always maintain the same apparent volume. Proper use of Squash and Stretch illustrates just how dense or rigid an object is. All real world objects, unless extremely hard, exhibit some form of squash and stretch.
The classic example is the bouncing ball. The ball squashes as it hits the ground, then stretches on its way up and then back down. When an object squashes along one axis (direction), it automatically expands along the other two. It is up to you, as the animator, to ensure that any deformation along on axis is offset be an opposite deformation along other axes maintaining a constant volume.
Consider the way a pillow changes shape as it's tossed across the room. The shape deforms, but does the volume of the pillow change? No matter how contorted the pillow becomes, it still maintains the same weight and amount of stuffing. | <urn:uuid:89bf65cf-bc7b-4ea2-b799-e5d5077ddca7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Traditional_Principles_of_Animation/Squash_and_stretch | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00173-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927683 | 205 | 3.921875 | 4 |
Woolf in the World: A Pen and a Press of Her Own
Virginia Woolf read North to the Orient in 1935. The book was written by Anne Morrow Lindbergh about her historic survey flight to Japan and China in 1931 via the Arctic on the Great Circle course. The wallet that Charles Lindbergh carried on this flight is also on display. The contents include pictures, currency, a code key, compass bearing corrections, and a license to carry a pistol. Anne Morrow Lindbergh was the co-pilot and radio operator during the trip.
Writing North to the Orient between 1931 and 1935 was probably therapeutic. Anne Morrow Lindbergh faced many personal tragedies during this period, including the death of her father, Dwight Morrow, in October 1931, the kidnapping and murder of her first-born son in March 1932. The trial of Bruno Hauptmann in January and February 1935 followed. After the trial, the Lindberghs moved abroad, and lived for a time at Long Barn, the home of their friends Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson. The Lindberghs returned to the United States in 1939.
In Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s speech “The Journey Not the Arrival,” which she gave at Smith College in 1978, she said: “every woman needs ‘a room of her own’—not simply to separate her from husband and children but also to separate her two selves.” Harold Nicolson gave Woolf a copy of Lindbergh’s book in 1935. Nicolson published his biography of Dwight Morrow in 1935.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh ’28 Papers on North to the | <urn:uuid:5b0550a8-0812-488c-b6dc-8b3522e325c8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/rarebook/exhibitions/penandpress/case11c.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00062-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965169 | 344 | 3.34375 | 3 |
The following are proposals that the GO TO 2040 Plan may address to insure optimal waste disposal for the Chicago metro region:
Adopt Source Reduction/Waste Prevention
In this method, material is managed so that it never enters the waste stream. Examples include reusable beverage containers and mulching lawnmowers (National Solid Waste Management Association, 2004). Substituting plastic for metal or glass in the manufacture of products so that they can be reused is a form of waste prevention. This also involves Zero Waste which refers to producing, consuming and recycling products without throwing anything away. The USEPA shows that in 2000 Americans source reduced more than 55 million tons of waste. The region can proactively promote these concepts to residents, commercial, institutional and industrial sectors with an ultimate goal for zero waste to be achieved by 2040.
Implement policies for waste reduction in the region
- Pay-as-you-throw Policies: consumers pay for volume of garbage that they generate and nothing or a minimal fee for recycling. The goal is to provide a financial incentive for recycling while reducing waste.
- Extended Producer Responsibility: insures that manufacturers are responsible for the safe disposal and recycling of their products post-consumption.
- Close the Loop- buy recycled: buying products made from recycled or recyclable materials to insure the continuum of the recycling process by creating sustainable markets for goods.
Corporate Recycling Examples
Alternative waste disposal means
As our region's landfills have only 8 years of capacity in them steps must be taken urgently to insure proper disposal of waste once that period passes. Alternative waste disposal methods may result in alternative energy sources as well as innovation in engineering applications. The region should take a leadership role in exploring these methods and implementing them in the most economically feasible manner for residents and businesses. There exists a plethora of options that can be utilized. An example is scrap tire reuse, recycling (round rubber, rubberized asphalt or energy recovery by burning and producing Tire Derived Fuel). Another example is the use of Clean Construction or Demolition Debris (CCDD) as fill in mines, quarries or other excavation. Co-incineration is yet another one, whereby waste is used in high energy demand sectors to provide power thus saving non-renewable resources by substituting fossil fuels.
Further Research and Policy Development
Construction and demolition Debris (C & D) constitute approximately 20% of landfill space (Rathje, 1995). This should be the target for future source reduction and recycling programs as well as better legislation to allow municipalities to have such facilities without dependence on specific population figures as is currently the case. This is one example of where future efforts should head for 21st century waste disposal (link to Teardowns).
In Chicago, there are demolition auctions in which buyers can get fixtures and building material for a greatly reduced price from structures prior to their demolition. More like a treasure hunt than a traditional auction setting, buyers are guided from site to site by Murco Recycling Enterprises, Inc. in pursuit of doors, appliances, kitchen cabinets, etc. which they will uninstall and remove at their own expense. (Murphy, 2008- http://blog.teardowns.com/?p=63)
The region could take a variety of directions in its approach to solid waste disposal. Due to limited landfill space within the region and the difficulty of opening new landfills, shipping larger quantities of waste out of the region is a potential strategy. However, shipping waste long distances consumes fuel unnecessarily, with financial and environmental implications. New landfills or transfer stations could be established within the region, but this is challenging due to high land value, few appropriate sites, and local concern about these projects. In the long term, devising new methods of waste disposal in conjunction with resource reduction, recycling, and more research into new technologies, or innovative approaches like demolition auctions are more sustainable measures for waste disposal. Regardless of the approach, CMAP can collaborate with its partners to investigate, explore and propose waste disposal methods that will insure the continued prosperity of the region and its leadership in green technology and enhanced environment. | <urn:uuid:4e5f74ca-8a35-4c1e-9e12-9851ebb40404> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/about/2040/supporting-materials/process-archive/strategy-papers/waste-disposal/recommendations | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396147.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00119-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927327 | 839 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Kidney Pain Symptoms
The kidneys are a pair of bean shaped organs located one on each side of the spine in the mid section of the back. The kidneys are responsible for the removal of waste products and excess water from the blood. The kidneys also prevent toxic build up of chemicals, drugs and vitamins in the body.
A common x-ray test used to determine the cause of kidney pain is the intravenous pyelogram, or IVP. Dye is injected into the patient’s vein and x-rayed as it travels through the kidneys, ureters and bladder. This test can show any obstructions in the urinary system. It may also indicate the kidneys functioning ability to remove the dye.
There are several illnesses that cause kidney pain. Symptoms that include kidney pain indicate a problem that generally needs further investigation by a physician. Kidney pain symptoms include pain of acute onset, at waist level in the back and side. Sometimes kidney pain is also called flank pain.
Kidney stones are mineral deposits that form within the kidney. A stone can cause excruciating pain when it begins to pass through the urinary tract system. Fever, chills, blood in the urine, nausea and vomiting may be present in addition to pain. The pain associated with kidney stones generally comes in waves that last various lengths of time. X-ray imaging is used to find the location of a kidney stone. Treatment usually includes medications to relieve pain, increasing fluids to help flush out the stone and or surgery to remove the some in some cases.
A urinary tract infection that has spread to the kidneys can cause kidney pain. A urinary tract infection is most often diagnosed by a urine screening and treated with antibiotics. A kidney infection can move into the bloodstream and become life threatening if left untreated. Fever, burning and pain upon urination, urgency and or hesitancy to urinate usually (not always) accompany kidney pain if you have a urinary tract infection.
Kidney pain following an accident or blow to the flank area may indicate bruising, contusion or damage to the kidney. CT scan and urinalysis aid in diagnosing any damage to the kidneys caused by trauma. Treatment will depend on cause and severity of the injury.
There are some disease processes that cause kidney pain. Most require x-ray imaging and other special diagnostic tests to diagnose them.
An example of kidney disease is polycystic kidney disease which causes cysts to be formed in one or both kidneys. Gradually kidney tissue is lost and so is the functioning ability of the kidney.
A serious illness that may present with symptoms very much like a kidney stone is an abdominal aortic aneurysm. This is a bulging weakness in the aorta, the large blood vessel that provides blood to the lower body. If an aortic aneurysm ruptures it is almost always fatal. Palpating the abdomen for a pulsating mass is how a doctor will check for an aneurysm of this type. | <urn:uuid:920b04f6-a4d8-4141-9a05-fdc29358b85d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.symptom-diagnosis.com/kidney-urinary-symptoms/kidney-pain-symptoms | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00020-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953533 | 608 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Glaciers have been retreating globally since the end of the “Little Ice Age” in the mid-19th century, but now humans are the primary culprits.
A new study has confirmed what many who follow the science already assumed: that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are leading glaciers to melt faster than they otherwise would. The study, published Thursday in the journal Science, found that between 1851 and 2010 humans were responsible for only about a quarter of global loss of glacier mass. However this ratio has soared over the last two decades, with humans now accounting for around 69 percent of the melting.
“Typically, it takes glaciers decades or centuries to adjust to climate changes,” Ben Marzeion, lead author of the paper and a a climate scientist at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, said in a statement. “In the 19th and first half of 20th century we observed that glacier mass loss attributable to human activity is hardly noticeable but since then has steadily increased.”
Even as melting glaciers represent some of the most emblematic and visually stunning imagery associated with climate change, they are slow to respond to changes in climate. Because of this complex physical process, it will be decades before humans can start to see future impacts from the decisions made today around climate change mitigation.
“Over the next 50 years or so there is hardly anything we can do about it,” Marzeion said. “Whether we really limit the greenhouse gas emissions or not, the glaciers are going to continue to melt.”
However, in the long term, the fate of the glaciers rests firmly in the control of humans, Marzeion added. If strong mitigation measures are taken now, glaciers may recede about another 40 percent by 2100. However, if little action is taken and GHGs continue to rise sharply, 70 percent of global glacier mass could enter the rivers, seas, and oceans of the world by 2100. And the remaining 30 percent likely wouldn’t be far behind. The world’s glaciers contain enough water to raise sea levels by 16 inches, according to the United Nations.
This study is the first to quantify the established theory in the climate community that as humans warm the climate, associated glacier melt will lag as they are slow to respond to the warming. To reach these results, the scientists used climate computer modeling to map glaciers everywhere in the world outside of Antarctica. They studied how glacier melting would occur with and without human-generated GHGs and factored in natural variables such as solar variability and volcanic eruption.
Another study this week focused on Antarctica’s ice discharge, which has been shown to be entering an irreversible decline in some areas. Led by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, the study found that ice melt from Antarctica could raise seas levels by as much as 14.6 inches this century if GHG emissions continue to steadily mount. This is more than was previously thought. The Antarctic ice sheet contains enough water to raise sea levels by over 190 feet, though even with the current elevated levels of GHGs this would take thousands of years.
“If greenhouse gases continue to rise as before, ice discharge from Antarctica could raise the global ocean by an additional one to 37 centimeters (14.5 inches) in this century already,” lead author Anders Levermann, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said in a statement. “Now this is a big range — which is exactly why we call it a risk: Science needs to be clear about the uncertainty, so that decision makers at the coast and in coastal megacities like Shanghai or New York can consider the potential implications in their planning processes.”
Even if humans limit global warming to 2°C, a common target to avoid catastrophic damage, the contribution of Antarctica to global sea level rise covers a range of zero to nine inches. | <urn:uuid:e11bed36-2c85-4ac4-944a-4dbdd3004d37> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/08/15/3471750/humans-glacier-melt-faster-study/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397795.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00065-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949465 | 800 | 4 | 4 |
One of the most fundamental distinctions in legal theory is that between "positive legal theory" and "normative legal theory." This post provides a very brief introduction to the distinction, aimed at law students (especially first years) with an interest in legal theory.
The core idea of the distinction between positive and normative legal theory is simple:
- Positive legal theory seeks to explain what the law is and why it is that way, and how laws affect the world, whereas
- Normative legal theories tell us what the law ought to be.
Thus, a positive theory of tort law might seek to explain what causal forces have produced the existing principles of tort law, whereas a normative theory of tort law would tell us what rules of tort liability would be best, right, or justifiable. Or more simply: positive legal theories are aboutfacts and normative legal theories are about values. (This simple formulations assumes that facts and values are mutually exclusive, but that may not be correct.)
Positive Legal Theory
Sometimes, the notion of positive legal theory is presented in an oversimplified way--as if there were a single, well-defined type of theory that counted as positive. In fact, the phrase "positive legal theory" is used in a variety of ways. The one thing that positive legal theories have in common is that they are not normative. Nonetheless, there are three characteristic type of positive legal theory that can be identified:
Positive Legal Theory Type 1: Doctrinal Theories--The first kind of legal theory that is called "positive" is quite simply a theory of what the content of a particular field of legal doctrine is. Thus, a theory of the freedom of speech might simply seek to explain the shape of existing first amendment doctrine. Or a theory of hearsay rule might seek to provide an account of the rule and exceptions that explains and accurately predicts particular applications of the rule. Doctrinal legal theories are responsive to questions like, "What are the principles that shape this area of the law?" or "Can these cases be explained by some underlying theory?" What I am calling a "doctrinal theory" is also sometimes called a "descriptive theory."
Positive Legal Theory Type 2: Explanatory Theories--The second kind of legal theory to which the label "positive" is applied are explanatory theories--theories about why the law is the way it is. For example, a very simple Marxist theory might state that the content of the law can best be explained by the interests of the ruling class. Some legal economists have tried to argue that common-law rules are efficient, because there is "evolutionary pressure" on inefficient legal rules. What I am calling an "explanatory theory" is also sometimes called a "causal theory."
Positive Legal Theory Type 3: Effects Theories--The third kind of legal theories that are referred to as "positive" are theories about the consequences that will be produced by a given regime of legal rules. This is the sense of "positive theory" that is most frequently invoked by legal economists. The question --"What effects will a strict liability regime (as opposed to a negligence) regime have on the manufacturers of consumer products?"--can be answered by a legal theory that is positive in the sense that it predicts behavior but does not explicitly evaluate the desirability of the rule. What I am calling an "effects theory" is also sometimes called a "predictive theory."
Normative Legal Theory
Normative legal theories, on the other hand, are by their nature evaluative. Thus, a normative theory of products liability law would take a stand on the question whether negligence or strict liability is the better rule. Normative legal theories tend to be entwined with more general normative theories, e.g. moral or political theories, although this is not necessarily the case. TheLegal Theory Lexicon already includes entries on deontology, utilitarianism, and virtue ethics--three of the most important general normative theories that have had an influence on the law. There are three other distinctions that are important to understanding the general idea of a normative legal theory:
Ideal versus Nonideal Theory Some normative legal theories are "ideal"--that is, they are theories about what the best legal rule would be in the world in which everything was politically possible, the law could be adequately enforced, and other legal rules that interact with the subject of the theory could be adjusted to produce the best overall system. Other normative legal theories are "nonideal"--that is, they are theories that assume a variety of constraints on the choice of legal rules. For example, a nonideal theory might take into account political feasibility or it might take into account the possibility that the system would not provide an optimal level of enforcement for the rule that would otherwise be best. TheLegal Theory Lexicon entry on second best explores these ideas in greater detail.
Justificatory Theories and Critical Theories Normative legal theories also vary in their "attitude" towards the status quo. You are likely to encounter normative legal theories that start with the question, "What is the best justification that be given for such and such a legal rule?" These justificatory theories have a limited purpose. Dworkin's theory--"law as integrity"--is an example of a justificatory theory: Dworkin offers theories that "fit and justify" existing law. Such justificatory theories do not address the ultimate question, "What is the best legal rule?" On the other hand, many legal theories have the opposite purpose--the critique of existing legal doctrine. Thus, a critical theory might enumerate all of the criticisms that could be made of an existing legal rule--even though some of the criticisms may rest on inconsistent premises.
Normative Legal Theories, Political Philosophy, and Comprehensive Moral Theories Another important issue concerns the relationship of normative legal theory to other normative theories, especially political philosophy, ethics, and comprehensive moral theories. Normative political philosphy asks questions about the normative justification for the state and the normative principles that establish the ends of and limits on the content of the law. The term ethics can be defined in various ways--but for our purposes on this , ethics might be seen as concerned with the morality of individual action outside the political sphere. A comprehensive moral theory might encompass both ethics and normative political philosophy. Normative legal theories have as their domain the normative evaluation of legal substance and procedure. Normative theories about the law as a whole might be called "general normative jurisprudence." There can also be normative theories of particular legal domains--"normative constitutional theory," "normative tort theory," and so forth.
One picture of this relationship normative legal theory, on the one hand, and moral and political philosophy, on the other, might be called "top-down." That is, we might start with a comprehensive moral doctrine (such as utilitarianism or Kant's version of deontology). Using the method of deduction, we might try to deduce the principles of political philosophy and ethics from a comprehensive moral theory, and the principles of normative legal theory might in turn be deduced from those of political philosophy and ethics. The top-down approach is exemplified by some consequentialists, who argue for a comprehensive moral doctrine such as welfarism or utilitarianism and then derive normative justifications or criticisms from the comprehensive doctrine and facts about which legal rules will result in what consequences.
Another possibility is that normative legal theory is relatively independent of ethics and political philosophy. It is at least conceivable that one might believe that the realm of interpersonal ethics is governed by a different set of principles and theories than is the law. For example, one might espouse deontological ethics, but believe that the laws should (for the most part) be aimed at maximizing utility.
The Intersection of Positive and Normative Theory
So far, we have been assuming a fairly sharp distinction between positive and normative legal theory. And for many purposes, assuming that there is a bright line that separates normative and descriptive legal theory is a good working hypothesis. Even assuming there is such a bright line, however, there are relationships between positive and normative legal theories.
Positive Theory in the Service of Normative Theory--One relationship is clear and straightforward. Many normative theories underdetermine what the legal rules should be in the absence of substantial information about the effects of the rules. This is most obvious in the case of utilitarian theories, where information about consequences does all the real work of determining which legal rule is best. For normative theories like utilitarianism, positive theory performs an essential service. Without a positive account of the effects of a given rule choice, utilitarianism has nothing to say about what rule is best.
Positive Theory as a Constraint on Normative Theory--Another relatively noncontroversial relationship between positive and normative legal theories arises when a positive theory that explains why the law has the shape that it does, is taken as imposing a constraint on normative theory. For example, public choice theory makes certain predictions about how legislatures will act in response to various incentives. Some legal rules that might be justified by ideal normative legal theory may be considered "unrealistic" in light of positive theory. In cases like this, positive legal theory provides constraints that limit the options available to normative theory.
Interpretivism and "Law as Integrity"--There is another, more controversial, way that positive and normative legal theory can interact. Ronald Dworkin's theory of law, "law as integrity," attempts to combine the aims of positive doctrinal theory and normative theory. The idea is that a legal theory should both fit and justify the existing legal landscape. Thus, a Dworkinian theory of the freedom of speech would need to both fit the contours of the Supreme Court's decisions and justify those decisions. Of those interpretations of free speech doctrine that fit the legal topography, Dworkin maintains that judges should select that interpretation that makes the existing law, "the best that it can be." Dworkin's view of legal theory blurs the line between positive and normative legal theory--essentially combining the enterprises that I have called positive doctrinal theory and justificatory normative theory. As you might imagine, this is hugely controversial--although that is a topic for another post.
The distinction between positive and normative legal theories is fundamental, but once you have the terminology down, it is usually easy to apply. The tricky part comes when you are confronted with theories like Dworkin's that blur the lines between the positive and the normative. When you do, my advice is that you stay on your toes. A common mistake is to try to force interpretivist theories into either the positive or the normative. Although there may be deep reasons of legal theory that would justify such a forcing move, it will rarely be productive to start there. A better strategy is to try to understand such hybrid theories from the inside first. When you are constructing your own theories, it is always important to be sure you know whether your theory is positive, normative, or has elements of both. One of the oft-repeated questions that law professors ask of entry-level candidates giving job talks (or ambitious students writing papers) is whether their theory is positive or normative. Be sure you know the answer before the question is asked!
- Legal Theory Lexicon 008: Utilitarianism
- Legal Theory Lexicon 010: Deontology
- Legal Theory Lexicon 011: Second Best
- Legal Theory Lexicon 012: Virtue Ethics
- Legal Theory Lexicon 014: Fact and Value
- Legal Theory Lexicon 031: Virtue Jurisprudence
- Legal Theory Lexicon 044: Legal Theory, Jurisprudence, and the Philosophy of Law
- Legal Theory Lexicon 058: Contractarianism, Contractualism, and the Social Contract
- Adrian Vermeule, Connecting Positive and Normative Legal Theory, 10 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 387 (2007).
(This entry was last revised on June 9, 2013.) | <urn:uuid:13cc7039-a740-4405-a060-c64af478b439> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://lsolum.typepad.com/legaltheory/2013/06/legal-theory-lexicon-positive-and-normative-legal-theory.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394605.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938327 | 2,464 | 2.984375 | 3 |
In the first week of September 1901, President McKinley was killed
by an anarchist in Buffalo. The young man who shot him was rather
weak-minded, and had been led to believe, by the speeches and
writings of others, craftier and wickeder than himself, that he
could help the poor and unfortunate by murdering the President.
This he treacherously did while shaking hands with him.
One of the leaders of the poisonous brood who had made this young
man believe such villainous nonsense was a foreign woman named
Emma Goldman, who for twenty or thirty years went up and down the
land, trying to overthrow the law and government, yet always
calling for the protection of both when she was in danger. The
American Government tolerated this mischiefmaker until 1919, when
it properly sent her, and others of her stripe, back to their own
President McKinley, who was the gentlest and kindest of men, did
not die immediately from the bullet wound, but lingered for about
a week. Vice-President Roosevelt joined him in Buffalo, and came
to believe, from the reports of the doctors, that the President
would get well. So he returned to his family who were in the
Adirondacks. A few days later, while Mr. Roosevelt was mountain-
climbing, a message came that the President was worse and that the
Vice-President must come at once to Buffalo. He drove fifty miles
by night, in a buckboard down the mountain roads, took a special
train, and arrived in Buffalo the next afternoon.
Mr. McKinley was dead, and Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of
office as President. He was under forty-three years of age, the
youngest man who had ever become President.
It is important to note his first act. It was to insist that all
of Mr. McKinley's Cabinet remain in office. Thus he secured for
the continued service of the Nation, some of its ablest men: Mr.
Hay, one of the most accomplished Secretaries of State we have
ever had, and Mr. Root, Secretary of War, and afterwards Secretary
of State, whose highly trained legal mind placed him at the head
of his profession.
A test of a great man, as well as a test of a modest man, in the
true sense, is whether he is willing to have other able and
eminent men around him as his assistants and fellow-workers. The
most remarkable instances of this among our Presidents were
Washington and Lincoln. The latter appointed men not because they
admired him, or were personally agreeable to him; indeed some of
his strongest and bitterest antagonists were put in his Cabinet,
because he knew that they could well serve the country.
Mr. McKinley had chosen excellent Cabinet officers, and these Mr.
Roosevelt kept in office, promoting them and appointing other men
of high ability to other offices as the need arose. He did not
care to shine as a great man among a group of second-rate persons;
he preferred to be chief among his peers, the leader of the
strongest and most sagacious of his time.
In saying this, I do not mean to compare Roosevelt with Washington
or Lincoln or any of the noble figures of the past. Such
comparisons are made too often; every President for fifty years
has been acclaimed by his admirers as "the greatest since
Lincoln," or "as great as Lincoln." This is both foolish and
useless. There has been no character in our land like Lincoln; he
stands alone. What we can say of Mr. Roosevelt, now, is that he
was admired and beloved by millions of his fellow-countrymen while
he lived; that his was an extraordinary and entirely different
character from that of any of our Presidents; and that upon his
death thousands who had opposed him and bitterly hated him but a
few years before, were altering their opinion and speaking of him
in admiration--with more than the mere respect which custom pays
to the dead. This has gone on, and other unusual signs have been
given of the world's esteem for him. So much we can say; and leave
the determination of his place in our history for a later time
One thing which many people feared when Roosevelt became President
was that he would get the country into a war. They thought he
liked war for its own sake. Men said: "Oh! this Roosevelt is such
a rash, impulsive fellow! He will have us in a war in a few
months!" The exact opposite was the truth. He kept our country and
our flag respected throughout the world; he avoided two possible
wars; he helped end a foreign war; we lived at peace. Of him it
can truly be said: he kept us out of war, and he kept us in the
paths of honor.
He preached the doctrine of the square deal.
"A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country, is
good enough to be given a square deal afterward. More than that no
man is entitled to, and less than that no man shall have."
[Footnote: Springfield, Ill., July 4, 1503. Thayer, p. 212.]
He did not seek help and rewards from the rich by enabling them to
prey upon the poor; neither did he seek the votes and applause of
the poor by cheap and unjust attacks upon the rich. To the people
who expect a public man to lean unfairly to one side or the other;
who cannot understand any different way of acting, he was a
"Oh! we have got him sized up!" they would say, "he is for the
labor unions against the capitalist!" and in a few months they
would be puzzled again: "No; he is for Wall Street and he is down
on the poor laboring man."
For a long time they could not get it into their heads that he was
for the honest man, whether laboring man or capitalist, and
against the dishonest man, whether laboring man or capitalist.
"While I am President the doors of the White House will open as
easily for the labor leader as for the capitalist,--and no
easier." [Footnote: Hagedorn, p. 242. ]
Many Presidents might have said the first part of that sentence.
Few of them would have added the last three words.
He annoyed many people in the South by inviting a very able and
eminent Negro, Booker T. Washington, to eat luncheon with him.
According to the curious way of thinking on this subject, Mr.
Washington who had been good enough to eat dinner at the table of
the Queen of England, was not good enough to eat at the White
House. Shortly after being violently denounced for being too
polite to a Negro, he was still more violently denounced for being
too harsh to Negroes. He discharged from the Army some riotous and
disorderly Negro soldiers. Persons with small natures had attacked
him for showing courtesy to a distinguished man; other persons
with equally small natures now attacked him for acting justly
towards mutinous soldiers.
What did he do while he was President? What laws were passed by
Congress, which he advocated or urged, and which he approved by
his signature? Here are some of them as they are given by Mr.
Washburn, [Footnote: Washburn, "Theodore Roosevelt," p. 128.] a
Congressman of that time:
The Elkins Anti-Rebate Law, to end unjust business dealings of the
The creation of the Department of Commerce and Labor.
The law for building the Panama Canal.
The laws to prevent impure and poisonous food being sold under
false labels; and the law to establish the proper inspection of
The creation of the Bureau of Immigration.
The law limiting the working hours of employees and protecting
them in case of injury in their occupations.
The law against child-labor in the District of Columbia.
The reformation of the Consular Service.
The law to stop corporations from giving great sums of money for
political purposes at election time.
You will notice that these were not laws to enable a few rich men
to get richer still at the expense of the many; neither were they
designed to help dishonest labor leaders to plunder the employers.
They were aimed to bring about justice between man and man, to
protect the weak.
There was, when Mr. Roosevelt became President, a long standing
dispute between this country and England and Canada about the
boundary of Alaska. This was quickly settled by arbitration; our
rights were secured; and all possible causes of war were removed.
The South American country, Colombia, made an attempt to block the
building of the Panama Canal. This canal had been planned to run
through the State of Panama, which was part of the Republic of
Colombia. It was a part of that country, however, separated by
fifteen days' journey from the capital city, Bogota, and so
separated in friendship from the rest of the country that it had
made over fifty attempts in fifty years to revolt and gain
independence. Our State Department, through Mr. Hay, had come to
an understanding with the Minister from Colombia as to the canal,
and the amount we were to pay Colombia for the privilege of
building this important waterway, for the benefit of the whole
But the Colombian Government at that time were a slippery lot,--
dealing with them, said President Roosevelt, "was like trying to
nail currant jelly to a wall." It struck them that they would do
well to squeeze more money yet out of Uncle Sam, and that they
might by twisting and turning, get forty million dollars as easily
as ten millions. So they delayed and quibbled.
In the meantime, the people of Panama, not wishing to lose the
advantage of the canal, and desiring greatly to take any
opportunity to free themselves from the Colombians who had
plundered them for years, declared a revolution, which took place
without bloodshed. Colombian troops, coming to try to reconquer
Panama, were forbidden to land by our ships, acting under
President Roosevelt's orders. We were under treaty agreement to
preserve order on the Isthmus. Our Government recognized the new
Republic of Panama, an act which was promptly followed by all the
nations of the earth. We then opened negotiations with Panama,
paid the money to her, and built the Canal.
Of course the politicians in Colombia howled with rage. A tricky
horse-dealer, who has a horse which he has abused for years, but
desires to sell to a customer for four times its value, would be
angry if the horse ran away, and he lost not only the animal, but
also his chances of swindling the customer. So with the
Colombians. Some people in this country took up their cry, and
professed to feel great sorrow for Colombia. It was noticed,
however, that this sorrow seemed to afflict most pitifully the
people who were strongest in their opposition to Mr. Roosevelt,
and this caused a suspicion that their pretended horror at the act
of our Government was not so much based upon any knowledge of the
facts, as upon a readiness to think evil of the President. Others
who joined in an expression of grief at the time, and later
attempted to bolster up Colombia's claims for damages, belonged to
that class referred to in connection with the sinking of the
Maine, who always think the best of any foreign country and
suspect the worst of their own.
The fact that other countries instantly recognized Panama, and
that President Roosevelt's action was completely and emphatically
endorsed by Secretary Hay, proved that the Panama incident was an
example of the promptness, wisdom and courage in the conduct of
foreign relations which leads alike to justice and the
satisfactory settlement of difficult problems. For not the
bitterest opponent of Mr. Roosevelt's administration ever dared to
cast a shadow of doubt upon the honesty of Secretary Hay. The
canal is now built, thanks in large part to President Roosevelt,
and we have had a chance to see that wise decisions may often be
reached swiftly; whereas dawdling, hesitation and timidity, which
are sometimes mistaken for statesmanship, are more than apt to
end, not only in general injustice, but in practical failure.
The war between Russia and Japan took place during President
Roosevelt's term of office. After it had been going on over a
year, and Japan had won victories by land and sea, the President
asked both countries to open negotiations for peace. He continued
to exert strong influence in every quarter to help bring the two
enemies to an agreement. Only since his death has it become
generally known how hard he worked to this end. A peace conference
was held at Kittery Navy Yard in Maine, and a treaty was signed
which ended the war.
For his action in this, President Roosevelt was the first American
to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This was a sad reverse to the
predictions of those who had been so sure that he was longing to
start wars, instead of end them. Indeed, men who prophesied evil
about Mr. Roosevelt, as well as those who tried to catch him in
traps, had a most disappointing experience. The Nobel Prize
consisted of a diploma, and an award in money of $40,000. This he
tried to devote to helping the cause of peace between capital and
labor in America. When Congress failed to take the needed action
to apply his money for this purpose, it was returned to him.
During the Great War he gave all of it to different relief
organizations, like the Red Cross, and other societies for helping
The President assembled the most powerful fleet we had ever had
together, sixteen battleships, with destroyers, and sent them on a
cruise around the world. This was bitterly opposed at the time.
Public men and newspapers predicted that the fleet could never
make the voyage, or that even if it could, its effect would be to
cause war with some other nation. The most emphatic predictions
were made by a famous newspaper that the entrance of the fleet
into the Pacific Ocean would be the signal for a declaration of
war upon us by a foreign power. Nothing of the sort happened. The
cruise attracted to the American navy the admiration of the world;
it immensely increased the usefulness of the Navy itself by the
experience it gave the officers and men; and it served warning
upon anybody who needed it (and some folk did need it) that
America was not a country of dollar-chasing Yankees, rich and
helpless, but that it had the ability to defend itself.
This was an illustration of Roosevelt's use of the old saying:
"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." When he
first repeated this, it was seized upon by the newspapers for its
amusing quality, and he was henceforth pictured as carrying a
tremendous bludgeon, of the sort which giants usually bore in the
tale of "Jack the Giant Killer." Timid folk thought that it proved
their worst fears about his fondness for a fight. They failed to
notice the "Speak softly" part of the saying. It was only a vivid
way of advising his countrymen to be quiet and polite in their
dealings with other nations, but not to let America become
defenseless. What hasty and shallow critics denounced as the
threat of a bully, proved in practice to be the sagacious advice
of a statesman, whose promise when he took office, to preserve the
peace and honor of his beloved country, was kept faithfully and
And he was able to keep the peace, to fill the office of President
for seven years without having a shot fired by our forces, because
he made it clear that this country would not submit to wrong,
would not argue or bicker with foreign trespassers, kidnappers,
highwaymen or murderers, but would promptly fight them. He did not
fill the air with beautiful words about his love of peace; but we
had peace. For as he knew perfectly well, there were countries,
like Canada, with which we could live at peace for a hundred years
and more, without needing forts or guns between them and us,
because we think alike on most subjects, and respect each other's
And there were other countries, Germany in particular, against
whom all her neighbors have to live armed to the teeth, and in
deadly fear, because the Germans respect nothing on earth except
force. To argue or plead with the Germans, as he well knew, was
not only a waste of time, it was worse: it was a direct invitation
to war. Because since 1870 the Germans think that any country
which professes to love peace, any country whose statesmen utter
noble thoughts about peace, is simply a cowardly country, bent on
making money, and afraid to fight. So when,--during Roosevelt's
administration, the biggest swaggering "gun-man" of the world, the
Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, made a threat against the peace of
America, Roosevelt no more read him pretty lectures about his love
of peace, than he would have recited poetry to that other gun-man
in the hotel in Dakota years before. He simply told the Kaiser in
a few words, just what would happen if Germany didn't drop it. It
was so quietly done that nobody knew anything at all about it
until years afterward. There was no delay; there was no endless
note-writing; there was no blustering; the Kaiser climbed down;
and there was no war.
This, I am inclined to think, was one of the most important events
of Roosevelt's seven years in the White House. If we wish America
to live henceforth in peace and in honor, there is no incident of
the past thirty years which should be studied by every American
with more care. Germany began her attack on the world long before
1914. She bullied here, and she schemed and plotted there, but she
was at work for years. In 1898 she tried to range the countries of
Europe against us, as we went to war with Spain. England stood our
friend and kept her off. Germany sent a fleet meddling into Manila
Harbor to annoy and threaten Admiral Dewey. He refused to be
frightened by them however and as an English squadron which was
also there played the part of a good friend, the German admiral
had his trip for nothing.
Later, about a year after Mr. Roosevelt became President, the
German Kaiser discovered a way, as he thought, to grab some
territory in South America. Our Monroe Doctrine, which insures
peace in the Western Hemisphere, by forbidding European nations to
seize land here, was an obstacle to the Kaiser. He disliked it.
But taking as pretext the fact that some people in Venezuela owed
money to various Europeans, including Germans, he induced England
and Italy to join in sending a fleet for a blockade of the
Venezuelan coast. The English and Italians agreed, before long, to
arbitrate their difficulty with Venezuela, and moreover they had
no intention of seizing land. The German plan was quite different.
They threatened to bombard Venezuelan towns, and we know enough
now of their methods to say that they were hoping for something
which might serve as an excuse for landing troops and taking
possession of towns and territory. This was in defiance of our
Monroe Doctrine; it aimed at setting up an Emperor's colonies in
South America, and putting the peace of both South and North
America into danger. Mr. Roosevelt did not mean to allow it. But
consider the situation. Germany was the foremost military power of
the world. Her army was almost the greatest; probably the best
trained and equipped. Ours was one of the smallest. Germany was
not engaged in difficulties elsewhere. She faced us across no
barriers but the sea. No great French and British armies held the
lines against her, as they did in later years when once more she
threatened America. No mighty British fleet held the seas and kept
the German Navy cooped up where it could do no harm,--except to
such merchant ships, passenger steamers and hospital boats as it
could strike from under the water. We faced Germany alone. But we
had two means of defense. One of them was Admiral Dewey and his
ships. The first of them, however, and the only one needed, was
the cool-headed and brave-hearted man in the White House.
He told the German Ambassador, quietly and without bluster, that
unless the Kaiser agreed to arbitrate his quarrel with Venezuela,
and unless he agreed within a short time, ten days or less,
Admiral Dewey would be ordered to Venezuela to protect it against
a German attack. The German ambassador said that, of course, as
the All Highest Kaiser had refused once before to arbitrate, there
could be nothing done about it. All Highests do not arbitrate.
People simply have to step aside.
President Roosevelt informed the German Ambassador that this meant
war. A few days later when the German Ambassador was again at the
White House, the President asked if the Kaiser had changed his
mind. The Ambassador seemed to think that it was a joke. The
Kaiser change his mind at the bidding of a Yankee President! It
was almost funny!
"All right," said President Roosevelt, "I can change my mind.
Admiral Dewey will not even wait until Tuesday to start for
Venezuela. He will go on Monday. If you are cabling to Berlin,
please tell them that."
The pompous Ambassador was much flustered. He hurried away, but
returned in about a day and a half, still out of breath.
"Mr. President," he said, "His Imperial Majesty the Emperor has
agreed to arbitrate with Venezuela."
So there was no delay, no long and distressing argument; and there
was no war. The President could do this because he knew his
countrymen; he knew that they were not cowards. He knew they never
had failed to back up their leader in the White House. He knew
that no President need worry about loyalty when he tells America
that a foreign enemy is making threats. He had seen his courageous
predecessor, Grover Cleveland, rouse America, as one man, over
another Venezuelan incident, a dozen or more years before. And he
knew that the only occasion when America had ever seemed about to
fall into doubt and hesitation in time of danger, was when that
doubt and hesitation began in the White House,--in the
administration of Buchanan, before the Civil War. America will
always support her President, if war threatens,--but America
expects him to show leadership. Timidity in the leader will make
timidity in the nation.
So the Kaiser changed his mind and gave in,--why? Because he knew
that there was a President in the White House whose words were
easy to understand; they did not have to be interpreted nor
explained. And moreover, when these words were uttered, the
President would make them good, every one. | <urn:uuid:a46abb43-5ac4-4237-9e63-69bd7bfbd18c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.humanitiesweb.org/spa/slc/ID/1143/o/blank | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00176-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979471 | 5,014 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Check if wide character is punctuation character
Checks whether c is a punctuation character.
A puctuation character is a character considered by a specific locale as a punctuation mark. These are characters with a graphical representation (as in iswgraph) that are necessarily non-alphanumerical (as in iswalnum).
This function is the wide-character equivalent of ispunct (<cctype>): If c translates with wctob to a character for which ispunct is true, it is always considered a punctuation character by this function (except possibly for certain locale-specific printable white-space characters other than L' ').
In C++, a locale-specific template version of this function (ispunct) exists in header <locale> for all character types.
- Wide character to be checked, casted to a wint_t, or WEOF.
wint_t is an integral type.
A value different from zero (i.e., true) if indeed c is a punctuation character. Zero (i.e., false) otherwise.
/* iswpunct example */
int main ()
wchar_t str = L"Hello, welcome!";
if (iswpunct(str[i])) cx++;
wprintf (L"The sentence contains %d punctuation characters.\n", cx);
The sentence contains 2 puntuation characters.
- Check if character is a punctuation character (function
- Check if wide character has graphical representation (function
- Check if wide character is a control character (function
- ispunct (locale)
- Check if character is a punctuation character using locale (function template | <urn:uuid:d6dc4db9-d59e-4513-ad30-2e957d52b6ac> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/cwctype/iswpunct/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395613.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00071-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.819919 | 358 | 3.234375 | 3 |
St. Egwin of Worcester
Roman Rite Calendar - 12/30
Also known as
10 September (translation of his relics)
11 January (translation of his relics)
English nobility, and the descendant of Mercian kings. Benedictine monk. Bishop of Worcester, England from 692 to 711.
There was a need in his diocese for some reform, but Egwin let it get out of hand, and he was charged with being too severe with his priests. To answer the charges, give everyone a chance to cool off, and show his repentance for any harm done, he made a penitial pilgrimage to Rome. Legend says that he locked his feet in shackles and threw the key into the River Avon; when he arrived in Rome the key was miraculously found in the belly of a fish he bought in the market.
Founded the Benedictine monastery of Evesham, England; the site was chosen because of an apparition of the Virgin Mary to a local herdsman. It became one of the great Benedictine houses of the Middle Ages.
7th century England
30 December 717 of natural causes
buried at the monastery at Evesham, England
relics translated for veneration in 1039
relics translated again in 1077 when they were taken on tour throughout the region which drew enought donations to rebuild the monastery church
All information used with permission of the Patron Saint Index.
All content copyright 2016. | <urn:uuid:b7005b51-fa68-4a47-812f-2d01cfc270db> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.aquinasandmore.com/fuseaction/store.patronsaintpage/saint/489 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408828.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00107-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969921 | 302 | 2.71875 | 3 |
From a technical perspective, the typical expert system can be divided into two essential parts: the knowledge base and the inference engine. The knowledge base contains the body of knowledge, or set of facts and relationships, obtained from the knowledge acquisition phase. The rules associated with a knowledge base tend to be heuristic and take the form of conditional statements. Whereas, the inference engine is a collection of computer routines that control the system paths through the knowledge base to enable recommendations. In addition, the inference engine serves as a bridge between the knowledge base and user.
Methodologically, the knowledge engineer defines the ambit of issues that the purposed system will address because one logic path too broad may result in a system too difficult to manage and may generate a system crash. Contrastingly, the knowledge engineer must be careful not to limit an issue too much because a logic path too narrow will produce a system so rudimentary that results will be worthless.
“View Part I of the Compliance through Automation: Expert Systems series here“ | <urn:uuid:bd87da0e-bac3-4b72-8394-9a8f3ca4edb0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/it-governance/compliance-through-automation-expert-systems-part-viii/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397797.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00031-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927737 | 204 | 3.5625 | 4 |
1. A modified bud consisting of a thickened globular underground stem serving as a reproductive structure.
5. English essayist (1775-1834).
9. A metric unit of weight equal to one thousandth of a kilogram.
13. Nocturnal mouselike mammal with forelimbs modified to form membranous wings and anatomical adaptations for echolocation by which they navigate.
16. American novelist (1909-1955).
17. Large burrowing rodent of South and Central America.
18. Characterized by lightness and insubstantiality.
19. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).
20. Characteristic of the classical artistic and literary traditions.
22. Disparaging terms for the common people.
24. An undergarment worn by women to support their breasts.
25. Salted and smoked herring.
26. Bar temporarily.
28. The longest and thickest bone of the human skeleton.
30. (used of count nouns) Every one considered individually.
32. Cause to become alive again.
36. According to the Old Testament he was a pagan king of Israel and husband of Jezebel (9th century BC).
40. A sheltered and secluded place.
42. A public promotion of some product or service.
44. An ugly evil-looking old woman.
48. Rich cake usually covered with cream and fruit or nuts.
49. A radioactive element of the actinide series.
51. A word or phrase spelled by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase.
55. An aromatic ointment used in antiquity.
56. An Italian poet famous for love lyrics (1304-1374).
59. A person who possesses great material wealth.
60. Fish eggs or egg-filled ovary.
61. Low stingless nettle of Central and South America having velvety brownish-green toothed leaves and clusters of small green flowers.
62. (Babylonian) God of storms and wind.
64. Large hairy humanoid creature said to live in the Himalayas.
65. The capital and largest city of Yemen.
67. A colorless and odorless inert gas.
69. A toxic nonmetallic element related to sulfur and tellurium.
70. Any of several small ungulate mammals of Africa and Asia with rodent-like incisors and feet with hooflike toes.
72. Reindeer or caribou.
75. An ancient city is southern Greece.
79. A soft white precious univalent metallic element having the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal.
81. Large northern deer with enormous flattened antlers in the male.
82. Australian clover fern.
83. A region of Malaysia in northeastern Borneo.
86. An officer who acts as military assistant to a more senior officer.
89. Water frozen in the solid state.
90. In some classifications considered a genus of the subfamily Lutrinae.
92. United States poet and critic (1899-1979).
95. A sharp hand gesture (resembling a blow).
96. Fiddler crabs.
97. The part of the small intestine between the jejunum and the cecum.
98. The basic unit of money in Bangladesh.
99. Canadian hockey player (born 1948).
100. A member of a Mayan people of southwestern Guatemala.
101. Any of a number of tiny parallel grooves such as.
102. The fleshy part of the human body that you sit on.
103. A rapid bustling commotion.
1. Related to or located at the back.
2. Large sweet juicy hybrid between tangerine and grapefruit having a thick wrinkled skin.
3. Advancing as if in the game of leapfrog.
4. Be a signal for or a symptom of.
5. An ancient area on the Ionian Sea that flourished as a kingdom in the 3rd century BC.
6. Resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects.
7. Being nine more than ninety.
8. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.
9. Mentally or physically infirm with age.
10. A used automobile tire that has been remolded to give it new treads.
11. A constellation in the southern hemisphere near Telescopium and Norma.
12. One ten thousandth of a centner.
13. A small cake leavened with yeast.
14. A city in northern India.
15. An official language of the Republic of South Africa.
21. (prefix) Half or partial.
23. A French abbot.
27. The sixth month of the Hindu calendar.
29. A rare heavy polyvalent metallic element that resembles manganese chemically and is used in some alloys.
31. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.
33. The grasses.
34. God of love and erotic desire.
35. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali earth group.
37. The capital and largest city of Zimbabwe.
38. (biology) Bent or curved forward or upward.
39. German publisher of a series of travel guidebooks (1801-1859).
41. An ancient country is southwestern Asia on the east coast of the Mediterranean.
43. A highly unstable radioactive element (the heaviest of the halogen series).
45. A fraudulent business scheme.
46. The capital and largest city of Bangladesh.
47. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).
50. Adorned with braid.
52. Measuring instrument in which the echo of a pulse of microwave radiation is used to detect and locate distant objects.
53. Evergreen Indian shrub with vivid yellow flowers whose bark is used in tanning.
54. A master's degree in education.
57. Explosive consisting of a yellow crystalline compound that is a flammable toxic derivative of toluene.
58. A genus of Laridae.
63. A fractional monetary unit in Bangladesh and India and Nepal and Pakistan.
66. A state in the southeastern United States on the Gulf of Mexico.
68. An inflated feeling of pride in your superiority to others.
71. New World chameleons.
73. A member of the Wakashan people living on Vancouver Island and in the Cape Flattery region of northwestern Washington.
74. South American shrub having edible greenish plumlike fruit.
76. West Indian evergreen with medium to long leaves.
77. Thick like cream.
78. Formed by reaction between an acid and an alcohol with elimination of water.
80. A rare silvery (usually trivalent) metallic element.
84. Wild sheep of northern Africa.
85. A protocol (utilizing TCP) to transfer hypertext requests and information between servers and browsers.
86. Having been read.
87. Any of a group of Indic languages spoken in Kashmir and eastern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan.
88. A Spanish river.
91. In or of the month preceding the present one.
93. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.
94. Take in solid food. | <urn:uuid:33737712-0b9f-42ee-919b-7371f469f200> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.crosswordpuzzlegames.com/puzzles/gl_217.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397565.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00162-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.882125 | 1,564 | 2.65625 | 3 |
The 66-year-old speaks evenly and thoughtfully. His manner is measured and reassuring -- except for the frustration that seeps into his voice when he ponders why he has Parkinson's disease, which causes his body to roll and occasionally shake, and parts of his body to stiffen.
Parkinson's, thought to affect more than 1 million people in the United States, is a chronic and progressive neurological disease that occurs when dopamine-containing cells in the brain begin to malfunction and die. Most people know of the disease from Michael J. Fox, the actor of "Back to the Future" fame who revealed the disease's trademark tremors during a broadcast of his congressional testimony for stem-cell research funding.
What most people don't know is that the disease can affect anyone. There is no known cause. There is no known cure.
Todd Sherer, chief executive officer for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, describes the disease's prevalence as a "sort of major ticking time-bomb situation," because as the baby boomer population ages, the likelihood of more people being diagnosed dramatically increases. The biggest risk factor for Parkinson's is age: Most people who develop the disease are at least 60 years old, but not all. There are 50,000 to 60,000 new diagnoses in the United States each year, although there is no official registry that tracks the disease. And as we live longer, those numbers are expected to increase.
Generally, the first sign of Parkinson's is tremors, but not always. The tremors typically begin as an involuntarily movement of a finger or arm. For Atkinson, one finger began moving, unexpectedly curling while he was sitting at a desk.
The disease usually progresses slowly, affecting a finger or limb and then stiffening one side of the body. Eventually, sufferers experience increasing limitations to their movement and losses of balance, speech and even memory.
Atkinson, who at 6 feet 5 inches was an athlete in his youth, spent 30 years exercising before going to work each morning. When talking about his long-term healthy lifestyle and the possible cause of his disease, Atkinson quickly recalls getting hit hard on the side of his face while playing baseball in high school.
Perhaps a dormant head injury caused his disease, he wonders. In 2003, Mayo Clinic researchers found that those who suffered head injury were four times more likely to develop Parkinson's later in life.
Or maybe Atkinson's culprit was the fertilizer he was exposed to while growing up on his family's Olmsted Falls farm. In 2009, researchers at Rhode Island Hospital linked higher levels of nitrates in food and fertilizer with increased deaths from diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
There is also the possibility that an unknown genetic link could be the underlying factor, although Atkinson doesn't have any family members with Parkinson's. Doctors agree that people who have a close relative with the disease are more likely to develop it, though the risk factors vary depending on the form of genetic mutation.
Until the 1990s, experts thought that Parkinson's had no genetic link. Since then, 11 genes have been found to correlate with an increased incident. Five of those 11 genes were announced in February.
Now, many experts agree that Parkinson's is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Still, it's a guessing game.
Cleveland researchers looking for clues
"Many people believe we will eventually land in a place where there will be a lot of people who have a genetic vulnerability that was triggered by an environmental factor," explains Amy Comstock Rick, chief executive for the Parkinson's Action Network, the leading lobbying organization for research dollars spent on the disease.
In Cleveland, researchers and doctors are actively trying to understand the disease.
At Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine, two researchers are digging through the blood samples of about 250 Parkinson's patients in a search for genetic mutations.
"The hope is that someday we will understand what is happening at the molecular level," said Shu Chen, an associate professor in the department of pathology at the school. He and Amy L. Wilson-Delfosse, an associate professor of pharmacology and assistant dean for basic science education, gathered the samples from patients at University Hospitals Movement Disorders Center, where about 300 Parkinson's patients receive treatment for their often-debilitating symptoms.
The trick, Chen and Wilson-Delfosse said, will be finding the cell mutation and then analyzing it to see if those cells respond differently to stress-inducing tests. Eventually, they hope to understand how the cells work so they can slow the progression of the disease.
"If someone gets it at 60 and we buy them 20 years, that may be enough," Chen said.
One of the most common gene mutations is known as LRRK2 (pronounced "lark-two"), which occurs at a higher rate in the Ashkenazi Jewish population. An Ashkenazi Jew who has a relative with Parkinson's is 30 percent more likely to develop the disease, Chen said.
Cuyahoga County's 81,500 Jews, last measured in 2004 and one of the largest such populations in the nation, are at least 90 percent Ashkenazi because most originated from Western and Central Europe, according to Sean Martin, associate curator for Jewish history at the Western Reserve Historical Society.
That local concentration, Chen said, is a "major advantage" for research purposes.
At the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Hubert Fernandez is recruiting newly diagnosed Parkinson's patients for a study in conjunction with the Fox foundation. The study, which is called the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiatives, is being conducted at 20 sites around the world.
The global study will observe 400 newly diagnosed Parkinson's patients and 200 unaffected people who are in the control group and collect urine, blood and spinal fluid over a period of years. In the end, researchers hope to have definitive identifiers, called biomarkers, for the disease.
The biomarker could be a substance or characteristic in the body that is associated with the presence of the disease. For example, a high blood-sugar level is a biomarker for diabetes. It can be measured and controlled to help the patient cope with that disease.
Diagnosing disease can be difficult
For Parkinson's patients, there is no simple way to measure the progress of the disease. No one indicator, such as blood pressure, can tell them to change their lifestyle.
In fact, just determining whether a person really has Parkinson's is difficult in the early stages as doctors have nothing to measure. Fernandez said he tends to ask new patients how they feel and how fast they can walk, using knowledge from his years of experience to determine if someone has the disease.
"It's a crude, clinical eyeball test," Hernandez said.
In some cases, it can take years to confirm whether a patient has Parkinson's. Cleveland OB-GYN Dr. Karen Jaffe was diagnosed twice before finally believing she had the disease. She said it took two years of symptoms developing before she was convinced. Even then, she hid the disease from all but her closest family members.
Jaffe, 52, said her first symptom was a sharp pain in her shoulder blade. Over two years, Jaffe went to an orthopedic surgeon for what she presumed was tendinitis. But after a second shot of steroids, the pain didn't go away.
In 2007, after the second shot failed, Jaffe feared the treatment had caused problems in her arm, which was jittery and felt "like caffeine was running through it," Jaffe said. She went to a neurologist for a consultation and he reluctantly diagnosed Parkinson's.
"I left never believing him for a minute," Jaffe said. She had no visible tremor, which is usually an early sign of the disease.
A year later, with increasing pain in her shoulder -- it turns out the pain was caused by a stiff lack of movement she hadn't noticed -- she went to another neurologist, who gave the same diagnosis.
Jaffe eventually began to tell people about the disease, which is still progressing slowly. She has become an outspoken advocate and fundraiser.
So far, Jaffe says the disease doesn't affect her work; there are no tremors when she is on medication. She also exercises, a proven treatment, to keep the symptoms at bay.
"My neurologist calls me Parkinson's light," Jaffe jokes. "If you were sitting here right now, you wouldn't know I had Parkinson's."
Atkinson has struggled with his Parkinson's for more than a decade. He uses medication, too, but also had doctors at University Hospitals Case Medical Center implant a deep brain stimulator, or DBS, in his head and chest. The device works like a pacemaker for the brain, sending electrical currents that block the brain signals that cause shaking.
Atkinson said that without the DBS, he would almost certainly be in a wheelchair. With the implant, he still has tremors but can control them and move more freely. He still tires easily and has difficulty walking on his treadmill every day. But there are also signs that life can be close to normal.
Right now, Atkinson is waiting for Cleveland's cloudy spring to pass so he can get out on the golf links. At the same time, he is waiting for researchers to find a cause and a cure.
"It's a mystery to be solved in the future," Atkinson said. "Hopefully, I'll be here." | <urn:uuid:1999e50f-f308-4c2b-8155-00feb23eb87d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2011/05/the_parkinsons_mystery.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00181-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978738 | 1,947 | 2.9375 | 3 |
The Netherlands 1600-1700
Rembrandt and his Time
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69) is the most famous Dutch 17th century painter. He was apprenticed at the age of 15, and at the age of 19 he set up a workshop that specialised in history painting and portraits. A few years later he began to take on students; a practice he would continue throughout most of his life.
Rembrandt is known for his special ability to convey states of mind. One of the painterly devices he used for this purpose was the contrast between light and shadow.
Rembrandt used light – natural light as well as divine and mysterious light – as a narrative element and to bind his compositions together.
Another artistic device concerns how he builds up his paintings in layers upon layers. His manner of painting is coarse, sketch-like and ephemeral.
Such paintings must be regarded from a certain distance to allow the visual input to coalesce into an optic image. In Rembrandt’s art the brushstrokes live lives of their own. | <urn:uuid:773441df-bdf2-4053-a27a-41ab445029cd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.smk.dk/en/visit-the-museum/exhibitions/european-art-1300-1800/rooms-in-european-art/room-209/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00133-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977974 | 224 | 3.921875 | 4 |
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My story, too, Stranger, when you hear it, will show you that you may boldly say all you wish. You have probably heard how that inspired man Epimenides, who was a family connection of ours, was born in Crete; and how ten years1 before the Persian War, in obedience to the oracle of the god, he went to Athens and offered certain sacrifices which the god had ordained; and how, moreover, when the Athenians were alarmed at the Persians' expeditionary force,
1 Epimenides really lived about 600 B.C.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system. | <urn:uuid:5d842778-94cb-4e40-82dd-fc155202e57a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0166:book=1:section=642d | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396538.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00015-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958418 | 194 | 2.546875 | 3 |
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The Augustinian theology of W. H. Auden
- ""When W.H. Auden returned to Christianity in the early 1940s, he identified himself with what he called an 'existential' method of spiritual and literary inquiry, which the writings of St. Augustine helped him define as a mode of thinking that not only allows for human subjectivity, but emphasizes the hopes, fears, needs, desires, and anxieties of the individual. Augustine thus became for Auden a model of a thinker who seamlessly merged psychological reflection with philosophical speculation and theological insight, and it is this combination of introspection and theoretical investigation that shapes much of Auden's later poetry. The Augustinian Theology of W.H. Auden illustrates that Augustine's thought is a major influence on Auden's postconversion poetry and prose. Auden encountered Augustine both directly, through his reading of the Confessions, and indirectly, through several of Auden's contemporaries, such as Reinhold Niebuhr, Charles Norris Cochrane, and Charles Williams. Stephen J. Schuler argues that Augustine provided Auden with the language of privation to describe the nature of moral and social evil, enabling him to make sense of the pervasive anxieties produced by World War II. Augustine's works also offered Auden a rationale for his intuition that the physical world, and especially the human body, is intrinsically good. Auden's struggle to reconcile the implications of his Augustinian theology with his attitudes toward romantic love and sexuality are explained by Schuler, who demonstrates how the Augustinian theology of Reinhold Niebuhr helped shape Auden's ideas about human identity and community, which is defined and maintained by love in all its various forms. Finally, Schuler analyzes Auden's Augustinian view of the ethics of poetry. By examining the presence of Augustinian ideas in Auden's poetry and prose, Schuler establishes the Augustinian origins of several crucial but often misunderstood features of Auden's work as well as the importance of Augustine in shaping and articulating the concerns of Auden's later poetry."--book jacket."
- "The Augustinian theology of W. H. Auden" | <urn:uuid:95625c26-af90-486a-9830-b93bfd6a8d8e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://experiment.worldcat.org/entity/work/data/1426625711 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00113-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955048 | 447 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Synonyms for rubric
- 1. rubric, rule, prescript
- usage: an authoritative rule of conduct or procedure
- 2. gloss, rubric, explanation, account
- usage: an explanation or definition of an obscure word in a text
- 3. rubric, direction, instruction
- usage: directions for the conduct of Christian church services (often printed in red in a prayer book)
- 4. title, statute title, rubric, heading, header, head
- usage: a heading that names a statute or legislative bill; may give a brief summary of the matters it deals with; "Title 8 provided federal help for schools"
- 5. rubric, heading, header, head, title
- usage: a title or heading that is printed in red or in a special type
- 6. rubric, category
- usage: category name; "it is usually discussed under the rubric of `functional obesity'"
WordNet 3.0 Copyright © 2006 by Princeton University.
All rights reserved.
- 1. rubric, rubify
- usage: adorn with ruby red color | <urn:uuid:523c6a27-fea8-4450-9faa-e4a96f3a1350> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://thesaurus.infoplease.com/rubric | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403508.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00008-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.827165 | 236 | 3.015625 | 3 |
The perils of plastic
A report by Maldives Minivan News
From polythene bags to nappies, a growing tide of plastic is destroying beaches and harming coral reefs and marine life in the Maldives. Talk to any marine biologist in the country and you will hear tales of plastic bags smothering corals, or turtles mistaking plastic bags for jellyfish and swallowing them whole.
“I dive pretty much every day and come back with plastic bottles and bags,” says Abbie Hine, a marine biologist at Four Seasons. “There’s a lot of stuff down there and with the incredible marine life here it gets ingested by a lot of animals.”
Most plastic is not biodegradable and remains in the oceans for centuries. Naturally buoyant, it gets carried across vast distances, breaking down into successively smaller particles which are ingested by creatures lower and lower down the food chain. Throw in the effects of climate change, ocean acidification and overfishing, and marine animals appear to be fighting a losing battle. “Scientists are now saying there’s more plastic than plankton in the ocean,” says Hine.
Hussein Zahir, a senior reef ecologist at the Marine Research Centre, attributes the rise in plastic debris to a change in lifestyle in the Maldives. While consumption of inorganic goods, such as bottled water, has increased, he says, waste disposal methods have remained the same.
Traditionally, waste has been disposed of at designated areas on the beach, or piled up on uninhabited parts of an island for natural composition. But in reality, most of it ends up in the sea. The word for beach in Dhivehi, “godudhoh”, literally means dumping site. “People think that the ocean is a big waste bin,” says Mairyam Shafiya, assistant research officer at the Marine Research Centre. A report on marine litter published by the United Nations Environment Agency in June, notes that one of the main sources of marine litter around he world is from dumpsites located near the coast.
Adam Rasheed, a wind-surfing instructor, from Shaviyani atoll Feydhoo, says that while there is an allocated spot for rubbish on his island, most people throw their litter onto the beaches and into the bushes. “In one or two years, we won’t be able to even walk there. It’s not only one place. It’s everywhere,” he says. “I went snorkelling yesterday for lobsters and saw two or three nappies, three to four plastic bags and some clothes.”
Plastic debris left over from fishing is another source of marine litter, leading to the entanglement of marine animals in fishing lines and nets. “We have found Olive Ridley turtles before. We have collected quite a few entangled in nets. Sometimes dead, sometimes alive, sometimes disabled,” says Zahir. But, he says, there is very little that can be done about ghost nets which are believed to float down from India and Sri Lanka. Discarded fishing lines, he says, are mainly left behind by tourists on recreational fishing trips.
The impact of marine litter on the environment can result in serious economic losses, especially important in the Maldives, which relies heavily on both tourism and fishing as two of its primary sources of income. A joint UN-government entitled Valuing Biodiversity published earlier this year established unequivocal links between biodiversity and the economy. It examines the tourism and fisheries sectors which provide three-quarters of the country’s jobs, 90 per cent of the GDP and two-thirds of the foreign exchange earnings.
While the government has no specific objectives to reduce the use of plastic, it is working towards establishing a solid waste management system, says Ahmed Murthaza, assistant director of the Environment Protection Agency. He adds that regulations are being drawn up to establish waste collection points and disposal, and should be completed by January next year.
“There’s a lot of work that we need to do,” says Murthaza. “We need to charge more for plastic bags and not charge for environmentally-friendly products. Changing behaviour is not a very easy thing. We don’t be able to do it overnight.” Littering, according to the UN report, has largely cultural roots with current attitudes and behaviour demonstrating that people do not feel responsible for their rubbish.
On World Ocean Day in June, the head of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) called for a world-wide ban on thin film plastic bags, which he described as “pointless”. Achim Steimer, UN under-secretary-general and UNEP executive director said marine litter was symptomatic of a wider malaise: the wasteful use and poor management of natural resources.
“The plastic bags, bottles and other debris piling up in the oceans and seas could be dramatically reduced by improved waste reduction, waste management and recycling initiatives,” he said. “Some of the litter, like thin film single use plastic bags which choke marine life, should be banned or phased-out rapidly everywhere – there is simply zero justification for manufacturing them anymore, anywhere.” Steimer added other waste could be cut by boosting public awareness, and promoting the three Rs – reduce, re-use and recycle – rather than dumping waste into the sea.
Around the world, a number of countries have banned or limited the use of plastic bags. One of the biggest successes is Ireland, which in 2002 passed a plastic bag tax, around Rf4, charged at the till. Within weeks there was a 94 per cent drop in plastic bag use. France is aiming for a complete ban by 2010.
Even in the developing world, countries have been making efforts to restrict the use of plastic bags. In May 2003, South Africa set the ball rolling by banning thinner plastic bags and charging levies on thicker ones with Kenya and Uganda following suit in 2007. In 2005, Eritrea, Rwanda and Somalia all banned plastic bags. In South Asia, Bangladesh imposed a ban on light-weight plastic bags in the capital, Dhaka, while Mumbai, in India, banned plastic bags in 2000.
For Hine, most people in the Maldives simply do not think about their use of plastic. When in Male’, she says, her refusal of plastic bags in shops is met with perplexed looks. “I would love to get the Maldives plastic-bag free,” she says. “The government is very proactive on the environment and this would be a way to keep the global attention on the country.” | <urn:uuid:72846d2d-dc36-484d-ad9f-25bcf2b4e6aa> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.maldivesdivetravel.com/maldives-blog/the-perils-of-plastic.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783400031.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155000-00107-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956826 | 1,395 | 2.609375 | 3 |
As stated in the habitat section, harp seals spend a lot of their time in the water. A seal can spend approximately 15 minutes submerged without having to come back up for air. They conserve oxygen by lowering their heart rate by 90%; only the nervous system and sense organs receive a normal flow of blood. After swimming for a while harp seals do not wear out easily because of the lack of lactic acid in their muscles as other animals would. Unfortunately harp seals need time to rest after a swim in order for their body to return to is normal chemistry.
Harp seals, just like all other pinnipeds, have well adapted lungs for the semi aquatic lifestyle. The airways of pinnipeds are supported by smooth muscle and cartilage, as well as alveoli (small sacs under the surface of the membrane in cells) most commonly known as capillaries. They are used as a site of diffusion for gases and nutrients. The alveoli completely collapse in a harp seals lungs during deep dives. Unlike terrestrial animals, harp seals are able to inflate their lungs even after they collapse due to a pulmonary surfactant system that they have evolved to have. The surfactant acts as an anti-adhesive during lung collapse and the reopening of alveoli.
When migrating, harp seals can spend long periods of time at sea, without ever stepping foot on land. During this time it is not abnormal for a harp seal to sleep while in the water. Scientists have found them sleeping for mere minutes at a time, belly up.
The eyes of harp seals are well adapted to seeing both above and below the surface of the water. Because sight is extremely important to the seals for navigation, their eyes have evolved to be proportionally large, and contains a large spherical lens that helps them focus in on things much more easily. Interestingly enough, in order to deal with the intense glare of arctic ice harp seals have evolved to have a pupil that is mobile. Similar to that of a camel, harp seals also have a membrane that covers the eyes to protect them from the harsh marine waters.
The bodies of harp seals are designed to be good for swimming. Unlike a lot of mammals, the mammary glands and testicles are found under the skins surface to minimize the resistance in the water. It takes far less energy to move without the extra resistance. Flippers are able to easily move their bodies straight through the water. Because water is much more dense than air, the flippers of a harp seal can be much shorter than, for example, the wings of a bird like a penguin.
Regulating body temperatures
Harp seals are very good at conserving their body heat. With a thick layer of blubber under their skin, harp seals are able to hold their body heat more easily. This layer of fat also provides a means of buoyancy, stores energy, and gives the seals a shape that is better suited for the aquatic environment where they are often found. In young harp seal pups you can find fur on the surface of their skin in order to keep their small bodies warm.
Another interesting way that the seals keep warm has to do with the same redirect of blood flow that allows them to remain submerged longer. They lower their heart rate by 90%; supplying only the nervous system and sense organs with a normal flow of blood. By redirecting the circulation away from the surfaces, they are preventing a substantial amount of heat loss.
Skin & Molting
Harp seals are well known for having a fuzzy white coat as a pup. The fur of a pup is well adapted to the lifestyle of harp seals. There is a water repellant layer on the outside to help lessen resistance in water; however there is still a warm insulating layer underneath that to help with thermoregulation. It was for this very reason that the harp seals were almost hunted to extinction. Hunters found the fur of these creatures to be very valuable.
Molting for harp seals happens once a year. During the molting period the seals get rid of their worn out skin and replace it with a new one. Most often during this time, harp seals remain on land; when replacing their skin there is a compromise to how well they can retain body heat. So as not to risk hypothermia, harp seals wait for their skin to be ready for the frigid waters of the arctic.
Harp Seal Digestion
Harp seals, being a carnivorous creature, have a relatively short digestive tract in comparison with herbivorous animals. This is due to the fact that a carnivorous diet supplies its consumer with high quality nutrients. Unlike an herbivorous diet that requires far more digestion to get the same amount of nutrients. Because the quality of their diet is so high, harp seals do not need the excess intestine to soak up the nutrients as an herbivore would need. Weirdly enough though, harp seals do have a longer intestinal tract than an animal with a comparable diet, the minke whale. This could be due to the fact that harp seals have to work harder than the whales to get to the locations where their prey are located. Whales are creatures of the sea and only the sea; whereas seals tire and need to be on land from time to time. With the excess intestine seals can receive more nutrients than a whale would eating the same thing, prolonging the time till they need to return to the water to feed again.
To learn about the harp seals reproduction techniques, follow this link! REPRODUCTION | <urn:uuid:453dcce5-7eb8-4bc6-b2d4-893c05089978> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2012/lind_vale/adaptation.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00193-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968112 | 1,152 | 3.703125 | 4 |
The acute impact that alcohol can have on controlling inhibitions has been well documented in healthy drinkers. On the other hand, there has been little research into the effect of alcohol on individuals with disorders characterized by poor impulse control, such as those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A study published in a recent issue of Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology tested the impact of alchohol on subjects with ADHD (n = 10) and controls (n = 12) using the cued version of the go/no-go task (a measure of implicit social cognition). The task requires quick responses to go targets and suppression of responses to no-go targets following the presentation of cues. Prior research on healthy adults has shown that valid cues can protect against alcohol impairment. Performance was tested under 3 doses of alcohol: 0.65 g/kg, 0.45 g/kg, and 0.0 g/kg (placebo). Alcohol dose-dependently increased inhibitory failures in controls in the invalid, but not the valid, cue condition. By contrast, those with ADHD displayed significant alcohol impairment regardless of cue condition. Thus, unlike controls, valid cues offered little protection from the disinhibiting effects of alcohol in drinkers with ADHD, suggesting an increased sensitivity to alcohol impairment of inhibitory control. The authors conclude that adults with ADHD exhibit an increased sensitivity to alcohol impairment of basic acts of inhibitory control, and this may contribute to the high incidence of impulsive behaviours observed in individuals with this disorder. | <urn:uuid:2c7d8077-2f54-4bf9-91d3-bd50b3808354> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://drvitelli.typepad.com/providentia/2009/07/psycnet---display-record.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00045-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920506 | 308 | 2.796875 | 3 |
The events surrounding Homer's epic poem "The Iliad" are as complex as the story plot and the characters themselves. This tragic, yet inspirational, Greek poem details the struggles and conflicts between human characters and the gods (and among the gods themselves). Both mortals and immortals react out of selfishness and pride, and during the journey learn to forgive. Events surrounding the poem provide critical information that allows readers to understand just how tumultuous love and revenge can be.
Paris and Helen
The back story to "The Iliad" provides vital information as to why the poem centers on the Trojan War. According to Greek mythology, Zeus received a golden apple addressed to "the fairest" and was forced to choose a goddess as the recipient. He didn't want to face the wrath of the women who were not chosen, so he asked his son Paris to decide. Athena, Hera and Aphrodite each tried to convince Paris to choose them. After a number of contests, he eventually chose Aphrodite because she promised him the love of the beautiful demigod Helen. Paris didn't realize that Aphrodite had ulterior motives. As a result of Paris' decision, Athena and Hera devised the destruction of Troy to get back at Aphrodite.
The Trojan War
According to history and mythology, Troy was a prosperous city in what is now Turkey that was in constant competition with Greece. Both economies were dependent on sea trade, so rivalry between the nations was unavoidable. Somewhere between 1450 and 1250 B.C., war broke out between the Greeks and Trojans, according to David Jordan, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of California at San Diego. With the war that would bring about the destruction of Troy, instigated by the outcome of Paris and Helen's back story, the Greek gods were forced to take sides.
Conflicts Among the Gods
Major events surrounding the plot of "The Iliad" were also influenced by conflict in the heavens and disagreements among the Greek gods. Throughout Greek mythology, they often fought for supremacy and had hidden agendas. For example, the goddess Hera despised the Trojans because they descended from her husband's illegitimate son. Helen's human father Tyndareus was forced to protect his half-god, half-human daughter, knowing that the gods played favorites. Tension between the gods result in emotional decisions within the epic poem that affect specific battles and the eventual outcome of the war.
Achilles' Personal Struggle
Achilles, the main protagonist of "The Iliad," is half-human and half-god, so he has the strength and combat skill of a god but must function on earth as a man. His underlying struggle is the basis for the poem. Achilles wants Zeus to punish Agamemnon for taking his war-purchased lover, Briseis. He asks his mother to persuade Zeus to side with the Trojans against the Greeks out of revenge. "The Iliad" is about Achilles' physical and emotional journey to address his jealousy, subdue his pride and face his opposition. Eventually, he makes peace with himself and returns to fight for the Greeks.
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- Photos.com/Photos.com/Getty Images | <urn:uuid:81ba986e-5632-44ee-a1ad-6f326536c7f8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://classroom.synonym.com/description-events-surrounding-epic-poem-the-iliad-2257.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394605.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00076-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966935 | 737 | 3.90625 | 4 |
Russian scientists have managed to grow a plant from 32,000 year old seeds that had been buried by an Ice-Age squirrel. (Who knew that the Ice Age animated films were documentaries?) The previous record for such an achievement was a mere 2,000 years. This is an interesting story in its own right because of what we can learn scientifically about how plants evolve over time since there are contemporary versions of the same plant.
But what struck me was the way that our local newspaper The Plain Dealer reported it. Like the dog that did not bark in the night in the Sherlock Holmes story Silver Blaze, what was noteworthy was what was not said. The paper ran it straight with a long story on page 2 of the front section with a prominent heading giving the age of the seed. There was no attempt to try and accommodate those creationists who think that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old. The article and heading simply assumed that there was no question that the seed was much older than that. This is in contrast to how much sensitivity there is whenever the word evolution appears.
I am curious as to how young-Earth creationists, and hard as it is to believe there are many in America, react to news stories like this that matter-of-factly challenge their core beliefs without any kind of hedging. Do they get angry? Do they try to avert their children’s eyes from them? Do they create an alternative ad hoc explanation, involving biased and mistaken scientists and media? I suspect that the last option is the likely one but you have to think that this will eventually wear them down since this kind of discovery of very old things happens repeatedly and they will get exhausted. There are only so many small fires that you can put out before it gets out of hand and the whole structure burns down.
I suspect that creationism will eventually die like this, a death of a thousand cuts rather than a climactic battle with evolution, with belief in a young Earth quietly disappearing first. The next belief to go will be that humans have been around for less than 10,000 years, leading to some unspecified form of god-guided evolution that too gives way to thinking of god’s role being just to initially create the universe and in some mysterious way creating and interacting with each person’s soul.
This will be their last stand. | <urn:uuid:e397659d-39ee-458a-89d7-87d6c3f0a545> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/2012/02/26/the-likely-cause-of-death-of-young-earth-creationism-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397864.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00019-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980276 | 478 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Citrus tree maintenance is important to influencing quality production and early spring is the perfect time of year to conduct pruning, weeding, and fertilization of citrus trees.
As there is no set rule for pruning citrus trees, the primary consideration is to remove all weak or broken branches including branches that cross or rub each other, branches that touch the ground, and all water sprouts arising from the center and base of the tree. To limit the tree’s height, taller branches can be traced to their origin on the trunk and removed or taller branches can be simply cut back to a preferred height. Width can be adjusted as well by cutting long and often weaker limbs back to a preferred length. Care should always be taken to make a sharp, smooth and flush cut to allow the pruning wound to heal over more quickly.
Weeding is an important practice for citrus and all grass and weeds including mulch should be removed from beneath the tree to expose a bare soil all the way to the drip line. This “bare soil” should be maintained throughout the entire growing season. Approved glyphosate herbicides such as Round Up are safe and can be effective in controlling vegetation under citrus trees. Be sure however, when spraying with a glyphosate herbicide that there is no wind as drift could occur that may injure nearby landscape plantings.
Fertilization should be completed by the end of February and would involve broadcasting an 8-8-8 or 13-13-13 fertilizer underneath the tree throughout the bare soil area. The amount would include 5 to 7 pounds for trees 6 years or older and 1 to 2 pounds for citrus trees 5 years or less. The fertilizer application could be split to include half the amount of fertilizer applied in late February and the remainder in early April. Do not fertilize beyond April as this would be the only fertilization necessary for the entire growing season.
Another important and beneficial practice is to remove all fruit good or bad, prior to flowering. Removal of fruit will provide the benefit for plant energy and nutrients to be directed to new buds and shoot growth rather than to the older remaining fruit.
After citrus trees have finished blooming, spray as needed with an insecticide containing the active ingredient spinosad to control leaf miners, such as Fertilome Bagworm and Borer Spray and then monthly with non-petroleum oil such as All Season Oil mixed with Malathion to control white flies, aphids, mealy bugs and citrus scale. Control of these insects in turn will control the black sooty mold that occurs as a result of their infestation. When applying insecticides always spray in late afternoon or evening and be sure to always follow label directions.
Rene’ Schmit is the LSU AgCenter county agent for the St. Charles Parish and can be reached at 985-785-4473. | <urn:uuid:638ce260-a936-42c0-9312-7036eb95b247> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.nola.com/river/2013/02/citrus_tree_maintenance_in_riv.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397748.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00062-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952508 | 582 | 2.78125 | 3 |
CDC Guidance for Commercial Aircraft Operators: Seasonal Influenza
Commercial air travel involves the movement of large numbers of people in closed and semiclosed settings. As with other close contact environments, these settings may facilitate the transmission of influenza viruses from person to person or through contact with contaminated environmental surfaces. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that efforts to reduce the spread of influenza virus on commercial aircraft focus on encouraging airline employees and passengers to:
- Get vaccinated
- Postpone travel when sick
- Take everyday steps to protect themselves and others while traveling
This document contains information to help limit the spread of seasonal influenza viruses during air travel and also provides guidance for the management of travelers with influenza-like illness (ILI) during a flight. It will be updated as needed. More information on influenza is available at:
Get Vaccinated: Influenza Vaccine Recommendations
The primary and most effective to way to protect oneself and limit the spread of influenza is to be vaccinated each year. CDC recommends that everyone 6 months of age and older be vaccinated against influenza every year, including crew members and passengers. Because the antibody response after influenza vaccination takes about 2 weeks, travelers should be vaccinated at least 2 weeks before travel for optimal protection against influenza, if influenza vaccine is available and the person has not been vaccinated with the current year’s vaccine.
Access CDC’s website for general influenza vaccination information at:
Postpone travel when sick
- Symptoms of influenza can include some or all of the following: fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills, tiredness, and less commonly diarrhea, or vomiting. An ILI is often defined as an illness with fever or feverishness plus either a cough or sore throat. However, not everyone with an influenza illness will have all of these symptoms, including fever, and not everyone with these symptoms will have influenza.
- CDC recommends that persons with ILI postpone travel by public conveyance (including commercial airlines) until at least 24 hours after fever has resolved without the use of fever-reducing medications (e.g., acetaminophen, ibuprofen, paracetamol). Airline crew members should also follow individual company policy if they become ill with ILI before a flight.
- The use of fever-reducing medications can help to lessen fever associated with influenza; however, it is important that aspirin not be used to treat influenza in children younger than 19 years because of the risk of Reye’s syndrome.
- More information for travelers is available at: http://www.flu.gov/individualfamily/travelers/index.html
Protect yourself and others
- In addition to annual influenza vaccination, take simple steps to protect yourself from influenza viruses and other germs that cause illness.
- Avoid sick persons (stay more than 2 meters away, or about 6 feet)
- Cover your coughs and sneezes
- Wash your hands often with an alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water
- Join CDC’s public awareness campaign to reduce disease transmission among travelers. Access CDC posters and other campaign material at the following link:
“Cover Your Cough” available at:
Management of Passengers and Crew Members with ILI
Influenza-Like Illness (ILI)
Flight crew should consider someone to have a fever if the ill person feels warm to the touch, gives a history of feeling feverish, or has an actual measured temperature of 100° F (37.8° C) or higher. ILI has been defined as an illness with fever or feverishness, plus either cough or sore throat; however, not all ILI is influenza, and not all influenza illnesses fit the definition of ILI. Anyone with a respiratory illness should exercise good hand and respiratory hygiene, as noted above, to reduce the chance of spreading respiratory illnesses to others.
Steps to take on board
Crew members should take the following actions if a person has ILI during a flight:
- Keep interactions with the ill person as brief as possible.
- Ask the ill person to wear a face mask, if it can be tolerated and one is available.
- If a face mask cannot be tolerated, provide tissues and ask the ill person to cover his or her mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing.
- If the ill person is a passenger, move her or him to a seat that is separated from other passengers, if possible (≥6 feet of separation is ideal).
- Provide a plastic bag for proper disposal of used masks and tissues.
- Practice good hand hygiene and encourage others, including the ill person, to do the same:
- Hands should be washed with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub especially after coughing or sneezing, after using the restroom, or after touching potentially contaminated surfaces or items (e.g., faucets, door handles, or someone’s mobile phone).
- Persons who are experiencing more severe illness (e.g., high fever, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, rapid breathing, chest pain, altered mental status, dehydration, or worsening of chronic underlying medical conditions) should be reported to the airline in-flight medical consultant, according to airline protocols.
- If possible, continue operating the aircraft air-conditioning or ventilation system until all passengers and crew have disembarked to maximize air circulation in the cabin and thus the filtering of virus particles. Safety concerns may preclude this step on some aircrafts.
If the ill person is a crew member, CDC recommends, in addition to the actions listed above, that the ill crew member:
- Follow individual company policy for onset of illness or incapacitation during flight operations.
- Discontinue work as soon as possible without affecting flight safety.
- See his or her health care provider, or a company-recommended health care provider if away from home base, and take antiviral medication for treatment of influenza if prescribed by the health care provider.
- Return to work only after fever has resolved for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications.
Personal Protective Measures
Routine hand hygiene is an important line of defense against infection with influenza viruses, as well as other viruses and bacteria. Wash hands with soap and water for 15-20 seconds or use an alcohol-based hand rub. Hands should always be washed before donning and after removing gloves and other personal protective items.
Crew members should wear impermeable, disposable gloves if they are assisting an ill passenger or have contact with potentially contaminated surfaces or lavatories. Crew members should avoid touching their faces with gloved or unwashed hands. Hands should be washed with soap and water or with an alcohol-based hand rub after removing gloves. Improper use or disposal of gloves may actually increase transmission of infectious pathogens.
Face Masks and Respirators
Routine use of face masks and N95 respirators is NOT recommended for airline crew members. Crew members who wish to voluntarily wear face masks or N95 respirators while tending to an ill person should follow their airline’s policy on the use of personal protective equipment during flight. To best ensure maximum protection from an N95 respirator, fit testing and training on proper technique is required.
Cleaning and Disinfection
Environmental management of influenza and other respiratory viral diseases should include routine cleaning and disinfection strategies, as well as more frequent cleaning of commonly touched hard surfaces, such as food trays, lavatory surfaces, and door handles. Commonly used environmental cleaners certified for use in the aircraft cabin are sufficient.
Based on the current prevalence and level of severity of influenza-related illness in the United States, CDC does not recommend that commercial air carriers traveling to or within the United States routinely report individual cases of suspected or confirmed influenza. However, if a traveler has fever and difficulty breathing or multiple travelers with ILI are identified, the airline should report these events to CDC. For interstate domestic flights the airline may notify the local public health authority with jurisdiction for the arrival airport in lieu of notifying CDC.
- Page last reviewed: February 7, 2014
- Page last updated: February 7, 2014
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Remember life before cell phones? Now, think back to life before text messages…it was pretty DULL without OMG, LOL and LMBO. The quick method, short messaging service (SMS), more commonly known as text messaging, turns 20 years old today.
Former Finish civil servant Matti Makkonen conceived the thought of text messaging in 1984 but it was 22-year-old British engineer Neil Papworth who sent the first text message from a PC to a mobile device in December 3, 1992. He used Vodafone’s UK network to say “Merry Christmas.”
“We thought SMS was a clever way for a company’s staff to send simple messages to one another,” Papworth told the Daily Mail last year, “I’d never have predicted that it would spread into the consumer world… at the time it didn’t seem like a big deal.”
In the 1990s, few people had cell phones, let alone used text messaging prolifically. But by 2000, text messaging had become a hit. With approximately 8 trillion SMS messages sent to date, it’s no surprise that unlimited text message plans are so popular. Experts estimate that mobile networks will earn $726 billion from SMS text messaging over the next five years.
Happy B-Day Txt 🙂 | <urn:uuid:8e28b4d5-6971-43c4-aab7-4b085a25e082> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.blackenterprise.com/technology/text-message-20-years-old/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403502.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00101-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942967 | 279 | 2.53125 | 3 |
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION.
The present invention relates to pulse-type radar systems. It relates more particularly to radar systems having high range resolution.
The concept of resolution is defined as the ability to detect separately, that is to say to distinguish from one another, two objects which are very close together. The range resolution is the minimum distance separating two separately detected objects, and is normally referred to as "minimum recognisable separation".
According to P. M. Woodward: "Probability and Information Theory with application to Radar", edited by McGraw Hill, the range resolution is inversely proportional to the spectral width of the transmitted and received signal, and this depends upon the pass band of the overall system.
In certain known systems, a substantial spectral width is obtained by emitting very short pulses (Modern Radar pages 195-197, Berkowitz, edited by Wiley). In other known systems, long pulses are emitted but they are linearly frequency modulated within a wide frequency band (Berkowitz pages 108 and 209).
By way of example, if it is desired to reduce the range resolution to values in the order of one metre, the signal being processed must have a spectral width of 150 megahertz. Receivers and processing circuits which operate within a very wide frequency band are required and their design then becomes highly complex. In particular, numerical processing of the signal requires extremely fast signal coding. For a signal having a spectral width of 150 megahertz, the sampling of the signal which is to be encoded, must be effected at intervals of no more than three nanoseconds. Coding at this kind of rate is at the present time an extremely tricky matter. The limits of the range resolution of known radar systems are always determined by the performances of the circuits used.
The radar system in accordance with the invention does not suffer from these drawbacks. Its makes it possible, in particular, to obtain a very high range resolution with emitted signals having a substantial spectral width, whilst utilising at the receiving end circuits which operate with a reduced pass band.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with one feature of the invention, there is provided a radar system having a high range resolution, comprising means for emitting a series of n pulses whose carrier frequencies are distributed within a band B and whose time positions are associated with the frequency in accordance with a linear relationship, said series of pulses being repeated with a given recurrence periodicity, means for receiving the echo signals from objects in space and for effecting demodulation using the corresponding waves which gave rise to them, means for supplying each series of demodulated echoes to a bank of filters for producing at different outputs, different signals which correspond to separate objects.
Two objects in space are thus separately detected when the corresponding output signals from the filter bank appear at two separate outputs designated by their order, the distance separating said objects being proportional to the difference between said orders.
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, the emitted pulses are regularly spaced in time and the carrier frequencies of the pulses are regularly distributed within the band B. The relationship linking the frequency and the position of each pulse, being a linear one at the time of emission, at the receiving end an analogue or a digital filter bank is provided. In the event that a digital filter bank is used, such as a spectral analyser of the kind employing a Fourrier transform computing circuit, the order of emission of pulses may be modified. The linear frequency-position relationship is restored by consequently modifying the order in which the signals received and stored are extracted by the computer, that is to say by modifying the computing programme.
To obtain a given range resolution, the frequency band required is therefore divided up into n equal parts and each of the pulses emitted has this fraction of the necessary band as its spectral width. Thus, for each pulse the spectral width of the emitted and received signal is small if n is large.
By way of example, using conventional circuits at emission and reception ends, the system in accordance with the invention can readily distinguish two objects 30 centimetres apart, the pass band of the signal processing circuits then only being in the order of 1 megahertz.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Other features of the invention, the principle of which will be explained hereinafter, will become apparent from the ensuing description which is illustrated by the figures where:
FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of the system in accordance with the invention;
FIG. 2 is an example of the form of the emitted waves;
FIG. 3 is an example of a complete radar system according to the invention; and
FIG. 4 is a diagram of improved digital processing circuits.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION.
In any kind of radar, the range resolution ΔD is associated with the spectral width B of the signal emitted and received, by the relationship: ##EQU1## where c is the velocity of light.
Instead of emitting a signal within a wide frequency band for each pulse, the system emits the signal with the help of a series of n successive pulses, n being a whole number greater than one and each pulse in the series having a reduced spectral width. The frequency band required to achieve the desired range resolution, is split into n equal parts distributed over said n pulses. The system thus emits a recurrent series of n pulses regularly spaced in time and having carrier frequencies regularly spaced within the frequency band B. The spectral width of each pulse in the series can be reduced to the nth part of the bandwidth B.
At reception, the received signal will be demodulated by the wave which produced it, that is to say by the wave from which each pulse is chopped.
The pass band of the video frequency signal which it is required to process in the receiver circuits, is thus reduced to the value B/n.
Considering a single fixed object located at a range x from the radar, the phase difference φ between an emitted signal and the received echo signal is proportional to the range x and to the frequence F of the emitted signal, as follows: ##EQU2## c being the velocity of light.
Let F1, F2, . . . Fn be the carrier frequencies of n pulses emitted in a series. From one pulse to the next, the carrier frequency varies by a quantity ΔF which is constant and may be positive or negative. Whatever the order i of a pulse in the series, the following conditions holds
ΔF = Fi+1 - Fi
Fi and Fi+1 being respectively the carrier frequencies of the pulses of order i and i+1.
Let φ1, φ2, . . . φn be the phase intervals when each received pulse is demodulated by the wave which produced it.
From one received pulse to the next, this phase difference will vary by the amount: ##EQU3## which amount is independent of the order i of the pulses. The frequency interval ΔF being defined at constant, this amount depends linearly upon the range x.
Thus, after demodulation the video signal corresponding to an object in space is constituted by a series of n recurrent signals whose phase varies from one to the next by the quantity Δφ.
The signals thus constitute samples of a sinusoidal function whose frequency f depends upon the range x of the object or target. If Tr is the recurrence periodicity of the pulses: ##EQU4##
A first object at range x1 is characterised by a sinusoidal function of frequency f1, a second object at range x2 by a sinusoidal function of frequency f2. Sinusoidal functions of this kind are displayed in the radar with the help of a circuit which filters the video signal and, preferably, with the help of a digital filtering circuit or, and this comes down to the same thing, a circuit for computing the Fourrier transform of the video signal.
At the input of the Fourrier computing circuit, the signal takes the form of a series of samples regularly spaced in time. It thus produces at its output the power spectrum of the input signal. To do this, it is provided with a large number of outputs equivalent to the outputs of a similar number of narrow band-pass filters with regularly distributed centre frequencies.
The separation of two objects is space located at neighbouring radial ranges x1 and x2, is equivalent to the separation between the two corresponding frequencies f1 and f2. The difference between the frequencies, f2 - f1, is proportional to the difference between the ranges, x2 - x1. The range resolution thus comes down to a matter of frequency filtering and this is an operation which can be carried out with high accuracy.
FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a radar system in accordance with the invention. The nature of the circuits in this figure will be specified at a later point. The system comprises a generator 1 producing n waves of frequencies F1, F2, . . . Fi, . . . Fn, regularly spaced and distributed within a given frequency band B. A switch 2 successively and cyclically selects the frequencies Fi. A circuit 3 chops a pulse of given duration from each wave. These pulses are subsequently emitted by a transmitter 4, a circulator 5 and an antenna 6.
At the receiving end, the waves reflected by one or more objects are picked up by the antenna 6 and directed to the receiver through the circulator 5. The simplified receiver comprises a mixer 8 which, on the one hand, receives the received signal, and, on the other hand, the signal from the generator 1, which was responsible for producing it in the first place. The video signal produced by the mixer 8 is successively fed through a filter 9 whose pass-band is matched to that of the pulses, a digital coding circuit 10, that is to say an analogue-digital converter, a storage circuit 11, a digital filtering circuit 12 and an extraction circuit 13. The output signal, appearing at a terminal S, is then processed by the user who may either display it upon the screen of a cathode ray tube 14 or record it etcetera, etcetera. The utilizing circuit 14 is synchronized by the extraction circuit 13.
The operation of the system is as follows: the n pulse carrier frequencies are produced by the generator 1 at its n outputs. The switch 2 successively moves to each of the n outputs for a time Tr. During said time Tr, the circuit 3 chops out a pulse of given duration. This pulse is produced at the beginning of the period Tr so that during the remainder of the period the signal selected by the switch 2 can be used to demodulate in mixer 8 the echo signal received from an object. The duration of the pulse is such that the spectral width is at least equal to B/n. Each pulse in a series is produced in the same fashion.
FIG. 2 illustrates as a function of time, the form of the emitted signal. This signal is a repetitive sequence of n pulses of frequencies F1, F2, . . . Fn; the pulse of frequency F1 in a series, is emitted after the last pulse in the preceding series, and in fact after the same time interval Tr.
At reception, the received signal is demodulated by the wave which first produced it, that is to say by the corresponding signal from the generator 1.
The sequence of processing of the output video signal from the mixer 8, is a conventional one. A filter 9 whose passband is matched to the spectral width of each pulse, eliminates all signals not demodulated by the wave which has produced them. The signals are then fed into a conventional digital filter 10, 11, 12, 13.
The samples of the sinusoidal function, after digital coding, are stored in the storage circuit 11 until the n samples have been collected.
The digital filter bank 12 is an element which computes the Fourrier transform of the input signal. This is a computer programmed in accordance with an algorithm known as a fast Fourrier transform. It comprises, therefore, n inputs supplied with the n successive samples corresponding to the same pulse train, and n outputs. Such a digital filter bank is more completely described on pages 35-14 to 35-17 of McGraw Hill's Radar Handbook.
Each output produces a signal whose amplitude represents the power of an echo of given frequency or, more correctly, within a small band of given frequencies.
If the computer input receives n samples at a recurrence periodicity of Tr, the outputs will produce n signals and the frequency interval between two consecutive outputs will be 1/nTr. The presence of an object at a range x from the radar is characterised by n samples of a sinusoidal function of frequency ##EQU5## The range resolution of the radar is ΔD. Two objects will be separately discerned if the corresponding sinusoidal functions are detected at two separate outputs and at a minimum at two consecutive outputs of the digital filter, between which the frequency interval is ##EQU6## the range interval ΔD between two objects thus being represented by a frequency interval between the sinusoidal functions, of ##EQU7## The equality of these two relationships, results in ##EQU8## ΔF being the interval between the frequencies of two consecutively emitted pulses, nΔF being equal to the total frequency bandwidth B, so that ##EQU9## which is the definition of the range resolution of any radar system.
The signals appearing at the n outputs of the filter 12 are successively picked-off by the circuit 13 which may be a simple switch. The output signal at S then takes the form of a series of n digital signals which represent the appearance of a block of space.
In reality, the block of space observed has the dimension n ΔD and is very small in relation to the detecting capability of the radar and in relation to the range x of the object. It is therefore necessary to eliminate all those received signals which do not relate to this block of space.
This function is partially achieved at the time of demodulation in the mixer 8.
After the emission of a pulse, in order for an object in space to be detected it is necessary that the go and return times of the waves between the radar and the object should be shorter than Tr which is the recurrence periodicity of the pulses. In this case, the received signal can be demodulated by the wave which produced it. The signal required for this demodulation operation and applied to the mixer 8, is taken from the output of the switch 2 as indicated in FIG. 1.
If, the go and return time is longer than Tr, the received signal is demodulated by a wave other than the one which produced it and will subsequently be eliminated by the filter 9. The range span containing the only objects visible, is thus equal to ##EQU10##
To detect an object at a range greater than this value, it is necessary to know the approximate range of the object, that is to say to know whether it is between ##EQU11## where k is a whole number between 0 and n-1. Knowing the number k from the appproximate range of the object being observed, the range span containing the object will be rendered detectable by the radar by picking off that demodulation signal from the outputs of the generator 1, whose order is displayed by k in relation to the position of the switch 2.
For this purpose, a second switch (k2 visible in FIG. 3) is used, operated synchronously with the switch 2 but with an offset of order k.
The range span containing the sole objects which are visible still remains equal to 1/2cTr. The radar is blind with respect to objects located beyond this range span.
Since this range span is generally still very much larger than the block of space nΔD, the system must furthermore contain a range gate, that is to say a circuit which only transmits the received signal during a given period of time and thus eliminates all echos arriving prior to and after the closing of the gate. It is possible for example, to use a logic gate arranged between the coding circuit 10 and the store 11, or an analogue gate placed between the filter 9 and the coding circuit 10.
The instants at which the gate opens and closes, are defined, respectively, by the start and end of the range span which is to be swept.
On the basis of an approximate indication of the range of the object or objects being observed, it would be possible to use a control circuit to control the operation of the range gates (circuit 40,41; FIG. 3). Self-evidently, the control signals are supplied at the same instant in each recurrence during the reception of one and the same echo series. To cover a wider range span, the instant of opening and closing of the gate can be shifted from one series of pulses to the next. The time required for the observation of a larger span is longer since it requires several pulse series.
FIG. 3 illustrates a preferred example of a complete radar system. It comprises circuits identical to those shown in FIG. 1 which latter was purely an explanatory diagram. These circuits will be marked by the same references used there.
The emission part comprises a stable local oscillator 20; the oscillator is followed by a series of frequency dividers 21 and a synchronisation control circuit 22 through which the general synchronising of the radar is effected. The oscillator 20 is also connected to a series of frequency multipliers 23 which furnish the high frequency carrier wave and to a synthesized frequency generator 24 supplying the n separate frequencies distributed within the band B. This generator 24 can be constituted by an arrangement of n mixer circuits and a series of frequency dividers producing, from the wave of frequency F furnished by the oscillator 20, the frequencies ΔF, 2ΔF, . . . nΔF, ΔF being the frequency interval between two successive outputs of the generator. Each of the mixers is supplied on the one hand with the wave of frequency F and one of the waves of frequency ΔF, 2ΔF, . . . nΔF. The mixers are followed by a filter and produce waves of frequencies F + ΔF, F + 2ΔF, . . . F + nΔF. The outputs are connected cyclically to a pulse choper circuit 3 by means of a n-position switch K1.
A second switch K2 identical to K1 connects one of these outputs to the demodulation circuits of the receiver.
The switches K1 and K2 are controlled by a control circuit 34 known as a "frequency selector", in accordance with the synchronising signals from the circuit 22 and with an approximate range indication Da (range of the object being observed or of the block of space to be observed) which makes it possible to define the difference in order between the positions of the two switches. This range indication can be furnished by an associated measuring system or can be fed in manually by a system user. The control circuit 34 produces signals which control the step-by-step advance of the switches K1 and K2. It comprises dividing means for determining the whole number k which is the whole integer part of the quotient 2Da/cTr. The circuit 34 then controls the switch K2 with a shift of k positions in relation to the switch K1.
The choper circuit 3, from the signal applied to its input, chops pulses in accordance with control signals issuing from the circuit 22. It is constituted for example by an analogue gate or a two-position switch, one of the two positions corresponding to transmission of the signal and the other to signal inhibition. The chopper 3 is followed by conventional transmitter circuits, namely a mixer 25 connected to the frequency multiplier 23, a transmitter 4, a circulator 5 and an antenna 6.
At the receiving end, the system comprises conventional frequency changer circuits. After the antenna and the circulator, it incorporates a mixer 30 likewise connected to the frequency multiplier 23 and producing a first frequency change, a wide-band amplifier 31 and a second frequency changer comprising mixers 32 and 33. The mixer 33 is connected on the one hand to the switch K2 and on the other to the oscillator 20. The mixer 32 is connected to the output of the amplifier 31 and the output of a mixer 33.
The mixer 32 is followed by an amplifier 35 associated with a filter 36 whose pass band is matched to that of the pulses and centred on the frequency F.
The detecting and filtering circuits for the received signal comprise two amplitude-phase detectors 37-38 supplied in quadrature by the oscillator 20 and through a phase-shift circuit 39 producing a 90° phase-shift respectively; two analogue-digital converters 42 and 43; two range gates 40 and 41 controlled by a circuit 44 called a "gate selector circuit" ; a buffer store circuit 11 with n outputs; a unit 12 with n channels, for calculating the fast Fourrier transform; a pickoff circuit 13; and an output terminal S.
The computer circuit 12 uses signals which are in quadrature, the calculations being performed in the complex plane. The input and output channels therefore number two. The storage circuit 11 has 2n outputs and the pick-off circuit has 2n inputs. The computer circuit 12 has 2n inputs and 2n outputs, an operating store, and output store and a programmed computer element. It can therefore treat the whole of the signals received during the n recurrences, en bloc. Each pair of outputs furnishes two signals which are the components of a vector whose amplitude represents the power of the echo at the frequency in question. The pick-off circuit 13 is constituted by an electronic switch which successively selects the output signals from the computer 12, at a given rate, and by a circuit for computing vector module. The range gates 40-41 can be associated with the A/D converters 43 and 42 which take the form for example of circuits for zeroing the output signals from the converter when the gate is not open. The gate selector circuit 44 can then be constituted by analogue or digital timer circuits controlled in accordance with the approximate range indication Da. For example, the circuit 44 may comprise a divider which determines the remainder of the division 2Da/cTr in the form of an analogue signal, a sawtooth generator synchronised with the emission of each pulse and a coincidence detector which produces a pulse of given duration when the amplitudes of the output signals from the divider and the sawtooth generator, are identical. The duration of the pulses controlling the range gates is substantially equal to ΔD/c.
The operation of the system is identical to that of FIG. 1.
The n frequencies of the pulses are produced by the arrangement of oscillator 20, synthesiser 24 and frequency changer 25.
The form of the pulses is defined by the chopper circuit 3 in accordance with the synchronisation signals of the synchro circuit 22.
At the receiving end, the frequency change taking place in the mixer 30 converts the frequencies to those at the synthesiser output. Demodulation is effected in two stages: The set of mixers 32 and 33 supplied by the oscillator 20 and the synthesiser via K2, brings all the pulse frequencies to F, this being the frequency of the oscillator 20.
The signals corresponding to objects outside the range span being observed, are eliminated by the filter 36, and final detection is carried out by the detectors 37 and 38. The output signal at S can be displayed directly upon the screen of a cathode ray tube, the horizontal deflection being proportional to the amplitude of the signal and the vertical deflection being linear and synchronised with the picking off of the output signals from the computer 12.
By way of indication, in order to achieve a range resolution of 30 centimetres, the system has to emit series of 500 pulses having lengths of 0.5 microsecond. The recurrence periodicity of the pulses is 10 microseconds, and the complete cycle therefore lasts 5 milliseconds. The band of frequencies required is 500 megahertz and the pulses are frequency staggered at 1 megahertz intervals.
The circuit for computing the Fourrier transform comprises 500 double outputs. The frequency shift between two consecutive outputs is 200 hertz. The maximum range span which can be covered with each pulse series, is 150 metres, this is reduced to 75 metres by the range gates in order to give clean ends. An offset of k orders between the switches K1 and K2 defines a range span of 1.5 kilometres located a k × 1.5 kilometres from the radar.
FIG. 4 illustrates the diagram of an improved digital processing circuit. The part of the receiver comprising the amplitude phase detectors 37-38, the A/D converters 42-43, the range-gates 40-41 and the store circuit 11 has only be reproduced.
The variations in carrier frequency of the pulses are responsible for variations in the propagation time of the signals in particular through the transmitter 4.
To compensate it is necessary to simulate echos from an object at zero range by transmitting a series of pulses directly from the transmitter to the receiver. A coupling element 50 is provided (FIG. 3) between the transmitter 4 and the circulator 5, associated with a switch 51 between the circulator and the mixer 30.
The variations in propagation time at emission are translated, at reception, into terms of unwanted phase-shifts which must be measured, stored and subtracted from the phaseshift values obtained in normal operation.
A circuit 52 (FIG. 4) for measuring phase-shifts comprises two inputs connected respectively to the outputs of the two amplitude phase-detectors 37 and 38, and an output connected to a storage circuit 53. The control of the measuring circuit 52 as well as of the switch 51 has not been illustrated; this control may be manual in nature. The storage circuit 53 can be an n-1 position shift register, the shift junction being controlled by the radar synchronising signals or by the signals which control the switches K1 and K2 and are furnished by the circuit 34.
A phase-shift operating circuit 55 is arranged between the storage circuit 11 and the output of the range gates 40 and 41. The two input signals to this operating circuit or operator, represent the components of a vector. The circuit 55, at its output, furnishes two other signals representing the components of another vector having the same modulus as the input vector but whose orientation in relation to a reference datum is modified by a given angle. This angular value or phase-shift angle is extracted from the store 53 and applied to the operator 55 through the medium of a selector circuit 54 and an adder 56. A second phase-shift angle value is likewise applied to the adder 56 by a circuit 57 effecting a radial speed correction. The two circuits 54 and 57 operate in accordance with control signals from the circuit 34.
The operator 55 takes the form of a computer circuit comprising for example a wired programme. It is possible to use a digital or analogue computer if the latter is arranged before the digital coding circuits. The phase selector circuit picks-off the phase-shift values which have been stored, in order to apply them successively to the operator 55 at the start of each recurrence.
These phase-shift values are produced in the following manner:
On reception of the first pulse from the emitter directly the output signals from the two detectors 37 and 38, representing the components of a vector V1 in a rectangular resolution system, are stored in the circuit 52. On reception of the next pulse and until the last in the pulse train, the output signals from the two detectors represent the components of the vectors V2, V3, . . . Vn which are compared with those corresponding to the first pulse. From the second pulse onwards and up to the last, the circuit 52 supplies a signal which is a function of the angle between the vector V1 and each vector V2, . . . and Vn which angular value is stored in 53 and applied to 55 during normal operation of the system. Instead of comparing the vectors V2 to Vn with the vector V1, the circuit 52 could equally well compare the vectors V1 to Vn with an appropriate reference seeing that said reference is the same for all the vectors.
The circuit 57 effects a phase correction in the case of moving objects. In this case, the phase correction to be applied must be proportional to the radial speed of the object and to the square of the order of the pulse received. The circuit 57 is therefore a computer circuit which received an indication of the radial speed Vr of the object from an associated measuring system which has not been shown and which supplies to the operator a series of phase-shift values which are added by the adder 56 to those in the compensating circuits 52-53-54. The system is then once again in the condition of observing fixed objects.
It is possible, however, to dispense with the correcting circuit 57 in the case where the displacement of the object, during the time of emission of a series of pulses is less than the range resolution ΔD of the system.
In the system which has been described, the pulses emitted had carried frequencies and time positions linked by a linear relationship. However, it is convenient in certain cases to be able to modify the order of emission of pulses, for technical reasons, or to reduce the risk of jamming. At reception, it is then necessary to restore the linearity of the relationship so that the bank of filters operates normally. What happens is simply that the order of the received signals is restored to accord with the order of the emitted pulses.
In the case in which a spectral analyser unit is being employed, such as a circuit for calculating the Fourrier transform, the system remains unmodified. The received signals are applied to the store 11 as before, that is to say in the order of their arrival; to restore the linearity of the frequency-position relationship, it is merely necessary to modify the order of picking off of the stored signals, by the computer 12. This is obtained for example by changing the indices of the signals to be picked off, in the computer programme.
Where it is a bank of analogue filters which is involved, it is necessary for the trains of signals applied to the filters to be presented in an order such that the pulses with which they correspond have frequencies and positions which are linked by a linear relationship.
In a first example, n received signals in a series of pulses can be distributed between n delay lines using an electronic switch synchronised with the switches K1 and K2.
The n outputs of the delay lines are then connected to the inputs of the filters bank. The delays of the lines are determined in accordance with the order of emission of the pulses.
In a final example, it is equally possible to utilise between the demodulating means and the filters bank, analogue-digital and digital-analogue converter circuits between which the signals are stored and then picked-off in a different order using switches synchronised with K1 and K2 for example.
The radar system described makes it possible to achieve a high resolution coupled with relatively simple processing of the video signal since the pass band of the circuits utilised is not necessarily wide.
The system can be employed to monitor distant and isolated objects (satellites, ships, etc . . .).
Surveillance is of course only possible in the direction of propagation of the waves. When used jointly, with a side-looking precision system and a dummy antenna, it is possible to produce a high-precision radar chart of a small region of space. | <urn:uuid:cb840d5e-e1ec-46bb-a80b-fdd03023e1c4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3896434.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391766.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00178-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939654 | 6,518 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Scheduled to switch on in 2007, LHC is a particle accelerator that will probe deeper into matter than ever before. It will collide beams of protons with an energy level of 14 TeV. Beams containing lead nuclei also will be accelerated, and smashed together with collision energy of 1,150 TeV. A unit of energy used in particle physics, 1 TeV is approximately the energy of motion equivalent of a flying mosquito. LHC will squeeze this energy into a space about one trillion times smaller than that mosquito.
The Internet, which CERN helped invent, also will be used to give physicists and others remote access to LHC’s capabilities and resulting data. To make this access secure, CERN has evaluated dozens of control and networking devices to achieve a “defense-in-depth” strategy that provides security at each level, including PLCs and other devices, firmware, hardware connections, network protocols, software and third-party software, as well as requiring cooperation by users, developers, and manufacturers.
Stefan Lüders, cybersecurity coordinator of control systems at CERN IT’s controls group, reported at the Process Control Systems Forum’s (PCSF) meeting earlier this year that CERN used Nessus5 and Netwox6 software to test the security resilience of 25 devices, mostly PLCs, from seven manufacturers as part of its Teststand on Control System Security (TOCSSiC) program. Though the PLCs were minimally configured and running idle, only 68% passed Netwox’s test, and only 57% passed Nessus’ test, usually due to communication failures, system crashes, and unprotected servers.
To improve security, CERN has initiated its SCADA Honeynet project to examine malformed data packets and other problematic traffic on its network, and emulate several PLCs to avoid compromising, implement network authorization mechanisms, and generally make industrial security a key ingredient of CERN’s controls and networking. | <urn:uuid:9de5da80-4240-4ef8-ba0b-10bef2dd9172> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.controldesign.com/industrynews/2006/079.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00127-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924424 | 412 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Genetic analysis of Neolithic deer hair from Italian Alps mummy's clothes ties deer population to modern day western European lineage, in contrast to the eastern lineage found in the Italian alps today, according to a study published July 2, 2014 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Cristina Olivieri from University of Camerino, Italy and colleagues.
Found in the Italian Alps in 1991, Tyrolean Iceman's body, clothing, and equipment were exceptionally well preserved. The mummy lived ~5,300 years ago, during the Copper Age and previous analysis suggests that Neolithic red deer were a source for clothing, food, and tools. However, little is known about the lineage of the Neolithic red deer population. Combined with current lineage information about contemporary and ancient red deer populations, scientists scientists analyzed red deer hair from the mummy's clothing. The scientists obtained DNA from the hair shafts collected from the fur worn by the Tyrolean Iceman. Then using genetic analysis, sequenced the DNA and compared the results with phylogeny of contemporary and ancient red deer populations.
Red deer fall into three distinct genetic lineages, western, eastern, and North-African/Sardinian. The genetic analyses of the Neolithic deer hair showed that the Alpine Copper Age red deer falls within the western European lineage. This contrasts the current populations in the Italian Alps, which belongs to the eastern lineage. The authors suggest these differences in lineage may highlight the impact of different glacial refugia and postglacial recolonization processes of the European red deer population.
In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper: http://dx.
Citation: Olivieri C, Marota I, Rizzi E, Ermini L, Fusco L, et al. (2014) Positioning the Red Deer (Cervuselaphus) Hunted by the Tyrolean Iceman into a Mitochondrial DNA Phylogeny. PLoS ONE 9(7): e100136. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0100136
Funding: This study was supported by the University of Camerino (Fondo di Ricerca di Ateneo). ER was supported by Italian Research Ministry grants ''Futuro in ricerca'' RBFR08U07M_003 and RBFR126B8I_003. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
Competing Interest: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. | <urn:uuid:55c82377-4bf7-4c92-8f96-5c43c81ecb59> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-07/p-hfm062714.php | 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 | 0.916609 | 527 | 3.6875 | 4 |
Details about Sanctuaries and the Sacred in the Ancient Greek World:
This book explores the variety of ancient Greek sanctuaries--their settings, spaces, shapes, and structures--and the rituals associated with them, such as festivals and processions, sacrifice and libation, dining and drinking, prayer and offering, dance, initiation, consultation, and purification. Subsequent chapters trace the consequences of the Roman conquest, the triumph of Christianity, as well as the impact of Turks, travelers, archaeologists, and tourists on these sites. Featuring an exhaustive glossary and bibliography, the volume provides an accessible, authoritative introduction to ancient Greek sanctuaries and their ritual activities.
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Rent Sanctuaries and the Sacred in the Ancient Greek World 1st edition today, or search our site for other textbooks by John Griffiths Pedley. Every textbook comes with a 21-day "Any Reason" guarantee. Published by Cambridge University Press.
Need help ASAP? We have you covered with 24/7 instant online tutoring. Connect with one of our tutors now. | <urn:uuid:cbcfa115-f071-4ee4-a7a7-6cf03d91dff7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.chegg.com/textbooks/sanctuaries-and-the-sacred-in-the-ancient-greek-world-1st-edition-9780521006354-052100635x | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00116-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.884763 | 220 | 2.75 | 3 |
Problem 2239. Avalaible area: wall construction
You need to build a wall to enclose a certain area. Calculate the available area after you build the wall.
- Wall could consist of multiple layers of material. example: a wall of 2 materials: rock of 1 meter thickness and wood of 0.5 meter thickness. The total thickness of the wall 1.5 meters.
- x and y: the dimensions of the area before the wall is build. example: x=5m,y=4m. Total area 20m^2.
Area of dimensions x=5m,y=5m and wall of 3 materials with thicknesses: 0.2m,0.1m,1m . Avalaible area after the wall is build : 5.76m^2 | <urn:uuid:346595e4-fd12-4001-ac03-3db279c4f245> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/cody/problems/2239-avalaible-area-wall-construction | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00161-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.789105 | 167 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Webmap Yacyreta Dam
- Energy for the future (official site)
website of affected people (Yacyreta)(es)
website on the cological and social Impact
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About RiverNet and ERN
A part of our text is inspired by Wikipedia
Infomations on Yacyreta :
(or just Yacyretá, often Yaciretá) is
a hydroelectric dam located on the Paraná River
between Argentina and Paraguay, 83 kilometers downstream
of Posadas City, next to Paraguayan city of Ayolas,
and Argentine city of Ituzaingó, Corrientes Province.
It was named after the Yacyretá Island (Guaraní:
jasy "moon", reta "country"), now
80% covered by the waters of the reservoir, and the
Apipé islands, now completely covered.
dam is 808 metres long and has 20 turbines with a power
4 050 MW that can produce 19 080 GWh per annum, with
maximum water flow of 55 000 Cubic metres per second.
is a canal lock to let ships through the dam overcoming
25 metre water difference, as well as a system to allow
fish to go upstream during their reproductive season.
project was heavily criticised before construction,
as 1600 square kilometres of land were to be covered
by water as reservoir to the dam, which finally eliminated
the natural environment of a number of species. As a
result, a lot of fish died right after the dam was filled
(due to the oxygen difference in the water), and fish
mortality is at high levels. The reduction of inhabitable
environment has decreased the number of several species
of the area. Also in danger were the Iberá Wetlands
in Corrientes, through suspected underground infiltration.
City floods during heavy rains have been also said to
be caused by the higher level of the waters. Before
flooding the reservoir, new houses had to be built for
the relocation of 40 000 people who lived in the area.
( Phase 1)
though it was started at the end of 1983, it was not
until 1994 that the dam started working, in the middle
of a corruption scandal (often called "The Monument
to Corruption"), and after the original budget
was largely exceeded.
Since 1998 all the generators are working, but the water
level only reaches 76 metres over the sea level, which
is 7 metres less than the original planned level of
83 metres. For this reason, the dam only generates about
60% of its planned power. While 7 meters may seem like
a small difference, because the dam is located on a
plain, that additional height of water would cover 500
extra square kilometres and affect the homes of 80,000
people (Phase 2)
2006, amid concerns about energy shortage in Argentina,
President Néstor Kirchner vowed to study the
feasibility of finishing the works by 2008. A few months
later, the governments of Paraguay and Argentina reached
an agreement to cancel Paraguay's debt of $11,000 million,
by having smaller countries supply Argentina with
8 000 GWh per year during 40 years in exchange.]
End of the Wikipedia text
Yaciretá dam, is a joint project between Paraguay
and Argentina. The project, although generally overshadowed
by the colossal Itaipú project, was one of Latin
America's major publicsector projects in the 1980s.
Established hastily by Argentina's Peronist government
on December 13, 1973, the Yacyretá project was
stalled for years as a consequence of regional maneuvering,
lobbying by the Argentine nuclear and oil industries,
and political instability in Argentina. After ten years
of delays, the first major engineering contract finally
was awarded in June 1983. As with Itaipú, Yacyretá
was hindered by the general lack of physical infrastructure
at the dam site. Also as with Itaipú, Paraguayan
firms did not receive equal work, despite stipulations
in the initial agreement. Construction of the dam and
the hydroelectric plant continued throughout the 1980s,
but the major construction phase did not begin until
the late 1980s, and numerous delays-- mostly political--persisted.
Yacyretá was not expected to become fully operational
until the mid-1990s, more than twenty years after the
treaty's signing and at a cost of as much as US$10 billion,
five times the original calculation.
early point of contention between Paraguay and Argentina
was the percentage of each country's land that would
be flooded for the project's dam; more than 1,690 square
kilometers would be needed--a larger area than was flooded
for Itaipú. It esd sgreed that flooding was to
be just about equally divided. Another disagreement
involved Paraguay's exchange-rate policies. Exchange
rates determined the final price Argentina would pay
for the plant's electricity. This issue continued to
be negotiated in the late 1980s.
massive reservoir is the source of big problems for
people living along the river, most notably the poorer
merchants and residents in the low lying areas of Encarnación
(Paraguay) , a major city on the southern border of
Paraguay and in Posadas ( Argentina). River levels rose
dramatically upon completion of the dam, flooding out
large sections of the cities lower areas.
last step is to rise the water level in 2008 for 5 -
8 meters and will affect 60 000 people in Argenina and
When completed, Yacyretá would be roughly one-quarter
of the size of Itaipú.
affected people ( the forgotten people of Yacyreta)
back to the RiverNet Homepage
pages and their content are © Copyright of European | <urn:uuid:82686bd4-b664-4ce8-8241-da4c7c77d056> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.rivernet.org/southamerica/parana_basin/yacyreta.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404405.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00107-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946907 | 1,270 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Bermuda grass makes a lush and thick lawn. It is grown primarily in the southern United States because it is a warm season grass. This grass thrives in locations that have a long season of soil temperatures over 65 degrees F. Bermuda grass spreads through above ground stolons and below ground rhizomes which are basically shoots from the parent plant. These root and take hold to form new plants. Occasionally, weeds can take hold and become problematic in your Bermuda grass lawn. With a few easy practices you can kill weeds in Bermuda grass and restore your lawn to its former healthy self.
Fertilize your Bermuda grass with 1 to 2 lbs of nitrogen per 1,000 sq. ft. every four to six weeks during the growing season. The lawn fertilizer bag will specify what to set your broadcast spreader at. This promotes healthy, lush turf which will choke out and kill many weeds.
Irrigate your Bermuda grass with 1 to 2 inches of water per week over one to two waterings. Set a pan out on the lawn to measure how long it takes to supply that much water. Adequate irrigation also allows the grass to become thick and lush and promotes the choking out of weeds.
Mow your grass frequently. A lot of weeds don't tolerate frequent mowing and will die out. Your goal is to never remove more than 1/3 of the grass blade at once so set your mowing frequency with that in mind. For Bermuda grass you need to typically mow it every five to seven days.
Apply an herbicide that contains the broadleaf herbicide 2,4-D. Weed-B-Gon is a popular brand that contains this chemical. Herbicides typically come in a bottle that attaches to the garden hose which makes application easy. Simply spray over the entire yard until all the foliage has been moistened. The herbicide will kill broadleaf weeds like dandelions and clover, but will leave the grass unscathed. | <urn:uuid:ce033617-f2b1-4cc5-abd1-291d4ea0ec4b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.gardenguides.com/97009-way-kill-weeds-bermuda-grass.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403823.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00118-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957565 | 400 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Smith not only describes this laissez-faire system (sometimes called social Darwinism) but also lauds it highly.
This nonfiction work was followed 175 years later by another ringing partisan nonfiction treatise.
It is “Road to Serfdom” by Friedrich A. Hayek. In great detail, he opined a regulating capitalism eventually lead to socialism.
Hayek’s work was proceeded 15 years later by a fictional account of laissez-faire capitalism titled “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand.
She maintained the economy should be run by talented entrepreneurs without government regulation. She apparently concluded if these people are capable and talented, they will also be moral, honest, virtuous and humane.
In 1936, the classic nonfiction work that described and extolled the antithesis of unregulated capitalism was John M. Keynes’ “General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.” He explains in great detail why the preferred economic system should be democratic progressive (regulated) capitalism.
About a decade later, Herman Finer in “Road to Reaction” wrote a nonfiction rebuttal of Hayek’s “Road to Serfdom.”
For some unknown reason, there apparently has not been a democratic-progressive-capitalist refutation to Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged.”
The closest to a rebuttal are probably novels written in the 1900s muckraker era.
These include Frank Norris’ “The Octopus,” which describes an unregulated western railroad’s mistreatment of wheat farmers, and Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle,” which recounts the horrible conditions in a meatpacking plant which has no outside regulation.
However, society usually changes as a result of the above arguments through thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, and then the synthesis becomes the new thesis to continue the cycle.
This debate and struggle will probably continue indefinitely.
As a result, at least two trends always seem to be present in the capitalism debate.
One is if there is no government regulation of the economy, those persons with property will make most of the basic economic decisions that will favor them rather than those who have little property, without property or served by property. And second, if there is too much government regulation of the economy, it is possible that totalitarianism may result.
Since the people of the United States seem to be aware of these economic trends through study and experience, they have attempted during their history to make compromises to keep either of the two above outcomes from reaching fruition. Hopefully this situation will continue. | <urn:uuid:d5c14928-b5b5-4284-bb80-9c0faea7944e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.couriernews.com/view/full_story/18432882/article-Literary-classics--capitalism-s-feuding-apologists-related | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395546.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00032-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954072 | 547 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Definitions for accumulatorəˈkyu myəˌleɪ tər
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word accumulator
collector, gatherer, accumulator(noun)
a person who is employed to collect payments (as for rent or taxes)
storage battery, accumulator(noun)
a voltaic battery that stores electric charge
accumulator, accumulator register(noun)
(computer science) a register that has a built-in adder that adds an input number to the contents of the register
One who, or that which, accumulates.
He is a great accumulator of bad jokes.
A wet-cell storage battery.
Looks like it's time to recharge the accumulator again.
A collective bet on successive events, with both stake and winnings being carried forward to accumulate progressively.
A system of elastic springs for relieving the strain upon a rope, as in deep-sea dredging.
A vessel containing pressurized hot water ready for release as steam.
A container which stores hydraulic power for release, in the form of a pressurized fluid (often suspended within a larger tank of fluid under pressure).
A register in a calculator or computer used for holding the intermediate results of a computation or data transfer.
A derivative contract under which the seller commits to sell shares of an underlying security at a certain strike price, which the buyer is obligated to buy.
one who, or that which, accumulates, collects, or amasses
an apparatus by means of which energy or power can be stored, such as the cylinder or tank for storing water for hydraulic elevators, the secondary or storage battery used for accumulating the energy of electrical charges, etc
a system of elastic springs for relieving the strain upon a rope, as in deep-sea dredging
In a computer's central processing unit, an accumulator is a register in which intermediate arithmetic and logic results are stored. Without a register like an accumulator, it would be necessary to write the result of each calculation to main memory, perhaps only to be read right back again for use in the next operation. Access to main memory is slower than access to a register like the accumulator because the technology used for the large main memory is slower than that used for a register. The canonical example for accumulator use is summing a list of numbers. The accumulator is initially set to zero, then each number in turn is read and added to the value in the accumulator. Only when all numbers have been added is the result held in the accumulator written to main memory or to another, non-accumulator, CPU register. An accumulator machine, also called a 1-operand machine, or a CPU with accumulator-based architecture, is a kind of CPU where, although it may have several registers, the CPU mostly stores the results of calculations in one special register, typically called "the accumulator". Historically almost all early computers were accumulator machines; and many microcontrollers still popular as of 2010 are basically accumulator machines.
The Nuttall Encyclopedia
a hydraulic press for storing up water at a high pressure; also a device for storing up electric energy.
The New Hacker's Dictionary
1. Archaic term for a register. On-line use of it as a synonym for register is a fairly reliable indication that the user has been around for quite a while and/or that the architecture under discussion is quite old. The term in full is almost never used of microprocessor registers, for example, though symbolic names for arithmetic registers beginning in ‘A’ derive from historical use of the term accumulator (and not, actually, from ‘arithmetic’). Confusingly, though, an ‘A’ register name prefix may also stand for address, as for example on the Motorola 680x0 family. 2. A register being used for arithmetic or logic (as opposed to addressing or a loop index), especially one being used to accumulate a sum or count of many items. This use is in context of a particular routine or stretch of code. “The FOOBAZ routine uses A3 as an accumulator.” 3. One's in-basket (esp. among old-timers who might use sense 1). “You want this reviewed? Sure, just put it in the accumulator.” (See stack.)
The Standard Electrical Dictionary
(a) A term sometimes applied to the secondary or storage battery. (See Battery, Secondary.) (b) See Accumulator, Electrostatic (c) See Accumulator, Water Dropping. (d) See Wheel, Barlow's
The numerical value of accumulator in Chaldean Numerology is: 4
The numerical value of accumulator in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2
Images & Illustrations of accumulator
Translations for accumulator
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
- painesäiliö, höyryakku, akku, varaajaFinnish
- accumulator, verzamelaar, accuDutch
Get even more translations for accumulator »
Find a translation for the accumulator definition in other languages:
Select another language: | <urn:uuid:9ec746f9-e6a4-40ed-8e96-c22eded53451> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.definitions.net/definition/accumulator | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397797.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00102-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.8742 | 1,094 | 2.890625 | 3 |
noun, plural: malocclusions
(1) A faulty occlusion
The name was coined by Edward Angle, the father or modern orthodontics. Some childhood habits that lead to malocclusion include thumb sucking, prolonged pacifier use, and prolonged bottle feeding. Other causes include abnormal tooth shape, crowding, lost teeth, and jaw fractures.
Malocclusions can be classified into three classes:
Word origin: Latin malus (bad) + occlusion | <urn:uuid:bccd2366-5c93-4c3d-857c-b5709a484e4c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Malocclusion | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403823.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00172-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.869595 | 100 | 2.8125 | 3 |
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SIAM (known to its inhabitants as Muang Thai), an independent kingdom of the Indo-Chinese peninsula or Further India. It lies between 4° 20' and 20° 15' N. and between 96° 30' and 106° E., and is bounded N. by the British Shan States and by the French Laos country, E. by the French Laos country and by Cambodia, S. by Cambodia and by the Gulf of Siam, and W. by the Tenasserim and Pegu divisions of Burma. A part of Siam which extends down the Malay Peninsula is bounded E. by the Gulf of Siam and by the South China Sea, S. by British Malaya and W. by the lower part of the Bay of Bengal. The total area is about 220,000 sq. m. (For map, see Indo-China.) The country may be best considered geographically in four parts: the northern, including the drainage area of the four rivers which unite near Pak-Nam Po to form the Menam Chao Phaya; the eastern, including the drainage area of the Nam Mun river and its tributaries; the central, including the drainage area of the Meklong, the Menam Chao Phaya and the Bang Pakong rivers; and the southern, including that part of the country which is situated in the Malay Peninsula. Northern Siam is about 60,000 sq. m. in area. In general appearance it is a series of parallel ranges of hills, lying N. and S., merely gently sloping acclivities in the S., but rising into precipitous. mountain masses in the N. Between these ranges flow the rivers Meping, Mewang, Meyom and Menam, turbulent shallow streams in their upper reaches, but slow-moving and deep where they near the points of junction. The longest of them is over 250 m. from its source to its mouth. The Meping and Mewang on the W., rising among the loftiest ranges, are rapid and navigable only for small boats, while the Meyom and Menam, the eastern pair, afford passage for large boats at all seasons and for deep draught river-steamers during the flood-time. The Menam is the largest, deepest and most sluggish of the four, and in many ways resembles its continuation, the Menam ChaoPhaya lower down. On the W. the river Salween and its tributary the Thoung Yin form the frontier between the Siam and Burma for some distance, draining a part of northern Siam, while in the far north-east, for a few miles below Chieng Sen, the Mekong does the same. The districts watered by. the lower reaches of the four rivers are fertile and are inhabited by a considerable population of Siamese. Farther north the country is peopled by Laos, scattered in villages along all the river banks, and by numerous communities of Shan, Karen, Kamoo and other tribes living in the uplands and on the hilltops.
Eastern Siam, some 70,000 sq. m. in area, is encircled by well-defined boundaries, the great river Mekong dividing it clearly from French Laos on the N. and E., the Pnom Dang Rek hill range from Cambodia on the S. and the Dom Pia Fai range from central Siam on the W. The right bank of the Mekong being closely flanked by an almost continuous hill range, the whole of this part of Siam is practically a huge basin, the bottom of which is a plain lying from 200 to 300 ft. above sea-level, and the sides hill ranges of between moo and 2000 ft. elevation. The plain is for the most part sandy and almost barren, subject to heavy floods in the rainy season, and to severe drought in the dry weather. The hills are clothed with a thin shadeless growth of stunted forest, which only here and there assumes the character- istics of ordinary jungle. The river Nam Mun, which is perhaps 200 m. long, has a large number of tributaries, chief of which is the Nam Si. The river flows eastward and falls into the Mekong at 15° 20' N. and 105° 40 E. A good way farther north two small rivers, the Nam Kum and the Nam Song Kram, also tributaries of the Mekong, drain a small part of eastern Siam. Nearly two million people, mixed Siamese, Lao and Cambodian,. probably among the poorest peasantry in the world, support existence in this inhospitable region.
Central Siam, estimated at 50,000 sq. m. in area, is the heart of the kingdom, the home of the greater part of its population, and the source of nine-tenths of its wealth. In general appearance it is a great plain flanked by high mountains on its western border, inclining gently to the sea in the S. and round the inner Gulf of Siam, and with a long strip of mountainous sea-board stretching out to the S.E. The mountain range on the W. is a continuation of one of the ranges of northern Siam, which, extending still farther southward, ultimately forms the backbone of the Malay Peninsula. Its ridge is the boundary between central Siam and Burma. The highest peak hereabouts is Mogadok, 5000 ft., close to the border. On the E. the Dom Pia Fai throws up a point over 4000 ft., and the south-eastern range which divides the narrow, littoral, Chantabun and Krat districts from Cambodia, has the Chemao, Saidao and Kmoch heights, between 3000 and 5000 ft. The Meklong river, which drains the western parts of central Siam, rises in the western border range, follows a course a little E. of S., and runs into the sea at the western corner of the inner gulf, some zoo m. distant from its source. It is a rapid, shallow stream, subject to sudden rises, and navigable for small boats only. The Bang Pakong river rises among the Wattana hills on the eastern border, between the Battambong province of Cambodia and Siam. It flows N., then W., then S., describing a semicircle through the fertile district of Pachim, and falls into the sea at the north-east corner of the inner gulf. The whole course of this river is about ioo m. long; its current is sluggish, but that of its chief tributary, the Nakhon Nayok river, is rapid. The Bang Pakong is navigable for steamers of small draught for about 30 m. The Menam Chao Phaya, the principal river of Siam, flows from the point where it is formed by the junction of the rivers of northern Siam almost due S. for 154 m., when it empties itself into the inner gulf about midway between the Meklong and Bang Pakong mouths. In the neighbourhood of Chainat, 40 m. below Paknam Poh, it throws off three branches, the Suphan river and the Menam Noi on the right, and the Lopburi river on the left bank. The latter two rejoin the parent stream at points considerably lower down, but the Suphan river remains distinct, and has an outlet of its own to the sea. At a point a little more than halfway down its course, the Menam Chao Phaya receives the waters of its only tributary, the Nam Sak, a good-sized stream which rises in the east of northern Siam and waters the most easterly part (the Pechabun valley) of that section of the country. The whole course of the Menam Chao Phaya lies through a perfectly flat country. It is deep, fairly rapid, subject to a regular rise and flood every autumn, but not to sudden freshets, and is affected by the tide 50 m. inland. For 20 m. it is navigable for vessels of over r000 tons, and were it not for the enormous sand bar which lies across the mouth, ships of almost any size could lie at the port of Bangkok about that distance from the sea (see Bangkok). Vessels up to 300 tons and 12 ft. draught can ascend the river 50 m. and more, and beyond that point large river-boats and deep-draught launches can navigate for many miles. The river is always charged with a great quantity of silt which during flood season is deposited over the surrounding plain to the great enhancement of its fertility. There is practically no forest growth in central Siam, except on the slopes of the hills which bound this section. The rest is open rice-land, alternating with great stretches of grass, reed jungle and bamboo scrub, much of which is under water for quite three months of the year.
Southern Siam, which has an area of about 20,000 sq. m., consists of that part of the Malay Peninsula which belongs to the Siamese kingdom. It extends from N. southwards to 6° 35' N. on the west coast of the peninsula, and to 6° 25' N. on the east coast, between which points stretches the frontier of British Malaya. It is a strip of land narrow at the north end and widening out towards the south, consisting roughly of the continuation of the mountain range which bounds central Siam on the W., though the range appears in certain parts as no more than a chain of hillocks. The inhabitable part of the land consists 'of the lower slopes of the range with the valleys and small alluvial plains which lie between its spurs. The remainder is covered for the most part with dense forest containing several kinds of valuable timber. The coast both east and west is much indented, and is studded with islands. The rivers are small and shallow. The highest mountain is Kao Luang, an almost isolated projection over 5000 ft. high, round the base of which lie the most fertile lands of this section, and near which are situated the towns of Bandon, Nakhon Sri Tammarat (Lakhon) and Patalung, as well as many villages.
Very little is known of the geology of Siam. It appears to be composed chiefly of Palaeozoic rocks, concealed, in the plains, by Quaternary, and possibly Tertiary, deposits. Near Luang Prabang, just beyond the border, in French territory, limestones with Productus and Schwagerina, like the Productus limestone of the Indian Salt Range, have been found; also red clays and grauwacke with plants similar to those of the Raniganj beds; and violet clays with Dicynodon, supposed to be the equivalents of the Panche series of India. All these beds strike from north-east to south-west and must enter the northern part of Siam. Farther south, at VienTiane, the Mekong passes through a gorge cut in sandstone, arkose and schists with a similar strike; while at Lakhon there are steeply inclined limestones which strike north-west.
Although enervating, the climate of Siam, as is natural from the position of the country, is not one of extremes. The wet season - May to October - corresponds with the prevalence of the south-west monsoon in the Bay of Bengal. The full force of the monsoon is, however, broken by the western frontier hills; and while the rainfall at Mergui is over 180, and at Moulmein 240 in., that of Bangkok seldom exceeds 54, and Chiengmai records an average of about 42 in. Puket and Chantabun, being both on a lee shore, in this season experience rough weather and a heavy rainfall; the latter, being farther from the equator, is the worse off in this respect. At this period the temperature is generally moderate, 65° to 75° F. at night and 75° to 85° by day; but breaks in the rains occur which are hot and steamy. The cool season begins with the commencement of the north-east monsoon in the China Sea in November. While Siam enjoys a dry climate with cool nights (the thermometer at night often falling to 40°-50° F., and seldom being over 90° in the shade by day), the eastern coast of the Malay Peninsula receives the full force of the north-easterly gales from the sea. This lasts into February, when the northerly current begins to lose strength, and the gradual heating of the land produces local sea breezes from the gulf along the coast-line. Inland, the thermometer rises during the day to over 100° F., but the extreme continental heats of India are not known. The comparative humidity of the atmosphere, however, makes the climate trying for Europeans.
In its flora and fauna Siam combines the forms of Burma and the Shan States with those of Malaya, farther south, and of Cambodia to the south-east. The coast region is characterized by mangroves, Pandanus, rattans, and similar palms with long flexible stems, and the middle region by the great rice-fields, the coco-nut and areca palms, and the usual tropical plants of culture. In the temperate uplands of the interior, as about Luang Prabang, Himalayan and Japanese species occur - oaks, pines, chestnuts, peach and great apple trees, raspberries, honeysuckle, vines, saxifrages, Cichoraceae, anemones and Violaceae; there are many valuable timber trees - teak, sappan, eagle-wood, wood-oil (Hopea), and other Dlpterocarpaceae, Cedrelaceae, Pterocarpaceae, Xylia, ironwood and other dye-woods and resinous trees, these last forming in many districts a large proportion of the more open forests, with an undergrowth of bamboo. The teak tree grows all over the hill districts north of latitude 15°, but seems to attain its best development on the west, and on the east does not appear to be found south of 17°. Most of the so-called Burma teak exported from Moulmein is floated down from Siamese territory. Among other valuable forest products are thingan wood (Hopea odorata), largely used for boat-building; damar oil, taken throughout Indo-China from the Dipterocarpus levis; agilla wood, sapan, rosewood, ironwood, ebony, rattan. Among the chief productions of the plains are rice (the staple export of the country); pepper (chiefly from Chantabun); sirih, sago, sugar-cane, coco-nut and betel, Palmyra or sugar and attap palms; many forms of banana and other fruit, such as durian, orange-pommelo, guava, bread-fruit, mango, jack fruit, pine-apple, custard-apple and mangosteen.
Few countries are so well stocked with big game as is Siam. Chief of animals is the elephant, which roams wild in large numbers, and is extensively caught and tamed by the people for transport. The tiger, leopard, fishing-cat, leopard-cat, and other species of wild-cat, as well as the honey-bear, large sloth-bear, and oneand two-horned rhinoceros, occur. Among the great wild cattle are the formidable gaur, or seladang, the banting, and the water-buffalo. The goat antelope is found, and several varieties of deer. Wild pig, several species of rats, and many bats - one of the commonest being the'flying-fox, and many species of monkey - especially the gibbon - are also met with. Of snakes, 56 species are known, but only 12 are poisonous, and of these 4 are sea-snakes. The waters of Siam are particularly rich in fish. The crocodile is common in many of the rivers and estuaries of Siam, and there are many lizards. The country is rich in birds, a large number of which appear to be common to Burma and Cambodia.
1 See E. Joubert in F. Garnier, Voyage d'exploration en IndoChine (Paris, 1873), vol. ii.; Counillon, Documents pour servir a l'e'tude geologique des environs de Luang Prabang (Cochinchine), Comptes rendus (1896), cxxiii. 1330-1333. Inhabitants. - A census of the rural population was taken for the first time in 1905. The first census of Bangkok and its suburbs was taken in 1909. Results show the total population of the country to be about 6,230,000. Of this total about 3,000,000 are Siamese, about 2,000,000 Laos, about 400,000 Chinese, 115,000 Malay, 80,000 Cambodian and the rest Burmese, Indian, Mohn, Karen, Annamite, Kache, Lawa and others. Of Europeans and Americans there are between 1300 and 1500, mostly resident in Bangkok. Englishmen number about boo; Germans, 190; Danes, 160; Americans, 150, and other nationalities are represented in smaller numbers. The Siamese inhabit central Siam principally, but extend into the nearer districts of all the other sections. The Laos predominate in northern and eastern Siam, Malays mingle with the Siamese in southern Siam, and the Chinese are found scattered all over, but keeping mostly to the towns. Bangkok, the capital, with some 650,000 inhabitants, is about one-third Chinese, while in the suburbs are to be found settlements of Mohns, Burmese, Annamites and Cambodians, the descendants of captives taken in ancient wars. The Eurasian population of Siam is very small compared with that of other large cities of the East. Of the tribes which occupy the mountains of Siam some are the remnants of the very ancient inhabitants of the country, probably of the Mohn-Khmer family, who were supplanted by a later influx of more civilized Khmers from the south-east, the forerunners and part-ancestors of the Siamese, and were still farther thrust into the remoter hills when the Lao-Tai descended from the north. Of these the principal are the Lawa, Lamet, Ka Hok, Ka Yuen and Kamoo, the last four collectively known to the Siamese as Ka. Other tribes, whose presence is probably owing to immigration at remote or recent periods, are the Karens of the western frontier range, the Lu, Yao, Yao Yin, Meo and Musur of northern Siam. The Karens of Siam number about 20,000, and are found as far south as 13° N. They are mere offshoots from the main tribes which inhabit the Burma side of the boundary range, and are supposed by some to be of Burmo-Tibetan origin. The Lu, Yao, Yao. Yin, Meo and Musur have Yunnanese characteristics, are met with in the Shan States north of Siam and in Yun-nan, and are supposed to have found their way into northern Siam since the beginning of the 19th century. In the mountains behind Chantabun a small tribe called Chong is found, and in southern Siam the Sakei and Semang inhabit the higher ranges. These last three have Negrito characteristics, and probably represent a race far older even than the ancient Ka.
The typical Siamese is of medium height, well formed, with olive complexion, darker than the Chinese, but fairer than the Malays, eyes well shaped though slightly inclined to the oblique, nose broad and flat, lips prominent, the face wide across the cheek-bones and the chin short. A thin moustache is common, the beard, if present, is plucked out, and the hair of the head is black, coarse and cut short. The lips are usually deep red and the teeth stained black from the habit of betel-chewing. The children are pretty but soon lose their charm, and the race, generally speaking, is ugly from the European standpoint. The position of women is good. Polygamy is permitted, but is common only among the upper classes, and when it occurs the first wife is acknowledged head of the household. In disposition the Siamese are mild-mannered, patient, submissive to authority, kindly and hospitable to strangers. They are a light-hearted, apathetic people, little given to quarrelling or to the commission of violent crime. Though able and intelligent cultivators they do not take kindly to any form of labour other than agricultural, with the result that most of the industries and trades of the country are in the hands of Chinese.
The national costume of the Siamese is the panung, a piece of cloth about 1 yd. wide and 3 yds. long. The middle of it is passed round the body, which it covers from the waist to the knees, and is hitched in front so that the two ends hang down in equal length before; these being twisted together are passed back between the legs, drawn up and tucked into the waist at the middle of the back. The panung is common to both sexes, the women supplementing it with a scarf worn round the body under the arms. Among the better classes both sexes wear also a jacket buttoned to the throat, stockings and shoes, and all the men, except servants, wear hats.
The staple food of the Siamese is rice and fish. Meat is eaten, but, as the slaughter of animals is against Buddhist tenets, is not often obtainable, with the exception of pork, killed by Chinese. The men smoke, but the women do not. Everybody chews betel. The principal pastimes are gambling, boat-racing, cockand fishfighting and kite-flying, and a kind of football.
Slavery, once common, has been gradually abolished by a series of laws, the last of which came into force in 1905. No such thing as caste exists, and low birth is no insuperable bar to the attainment of the highest dignities. There are no hereditary titles, those in use being conferred for life only and being attached to some particular office. Towns. - There are very few towns with a population of over 10,000 inhabitants in Siam, the majority being merely scattered townships or clusters of villages, the capitals of the provinces (muang) being often no more than a few houses gathered round the market-place, the offices and the governor's residence. The more important places of northern Siam include Chieng Mai, the capital of the north, Chieng Rai, near the northern frontier; Lampun, also known as Labong (originally Haribunchai), the first Lao settlement in Siam; Lampang, Tern, Nan and Pre, each the seat of a Lao chief and of a Siamese commissioner; Utaradit, Pichai, Pichit, Pechabun and Raheng, the last of importance as a timber station, with Phitsnulok, Sukhotai, Swankalok, Kampeng Pet and Nakhon Sawan, former capitals of Khmer-Siamese kingdoms, and at present the headquarters of provincial governments. In eastern Siam the only towns of importance are Korat and Ubon, capitals of divisions, and Nong Kai, an ancient place on the Mekong river. In central Siam, after Bangkok and Ayuthia, places of importance on the Menam Chao Phaya are Pak-Nam at the river mouth, the seat of a governor, terminus of a railway and site of modern fortifications; Paklat, the seat of a governor, a town of Mohns, descendants of refugees from Pegu; Nontaburi, a few miles above Bangkok, the seat of a governor and possessing a large market; Pratoomtani, Angtong, Prom, Inburi, Chainat and Saraburi, all administrative centres; and Lopburi, the last capital before Ayuthia and the residence of kings during the Ayuthia period, a city of ruins now gradually reawakening as a centre of railway traffic. To the west of the Menam Chao Phaya lie Suphanburi and Ratburi, ancient cities, now government headquarters; Pechaburi (the Piply of early travellers), the terminus of the western railway; and Phrapatoom, with its huge pagoda on the site of the capital of Sri Wichaiya, a kingdom of 2000 years ago, and now a place of military, agricultural and other schools. To the east, in the Bang Pakong river-basin and down the eastern shore of the gulf, are Pachim, a divisional headquarters; Petriou; Bang Plasoi, a fishing centre, with Rayong, Chantabun (q.v.) and Krat, producing gems and pepper. In southern Siam the chief towns are Chumpon; Bandon, with a growing timber industry; Nakhon Sri Tammarat (q.v.); Singora; Puket (q.v.); Patani.
Central Siam is supplied with an exceptionally complete system of water communications; for not only has it the three rivers with their tributaries and much-divided courses, but all three are linked together by a series of canals which, running in parallel lines across the plain from E. to W., make the farthest corners of this section of the kingdom easily accessible from the capital. The level of the land is so low, the soil so soft, and stone suitable for metal so entirely absent, that the making and upkeep of roads would here be ruinously expensive. Former rulers have realized this and have therefore confined themselves to canal making. Some of the canals are very old, others are of comparativel y recent construction. In the past they were often allowed to fall into disrepair, but in 1903 a department of government was formed to control their upkeep, with the result that most of them were soon furnished with new locks, deepened, and made thoroughly serviceable. The boat traffic on them is so great that the collection of a small toll more than suffices to pay for all maintenance expenses. In northern and southern Siam, where the conditions are different, roads are being slowly made, but natural difficulties are great, and travelling in those distant parts is still a matter of much disccmfort. In 1909 there were 640 miles of railway open. All but 65 miles was under state management. The main line from Bangkok to the north had reached Pang Tong Phung, some distance north of Utaradit and 10 m. south of Meh Puak, which was selected as the terminus for the time being, the continuation to Chieng Mai, the original objective, being postponed pending the construction of another and more important line. This latter was the continuation through southern Siam of the line already constructed from Bangkok south-west to Petchaburi (110 m.), with funds borrowed, under a recent agreement, from the Federated (British) Malay States government, which work, following upon surveys made in 1907, was begun in 1909 under the direction of a newly constituted southern branch of the Royal Railways department. From Ban Paji on the main line a branch extends north-eastwards 110 m. to Korat. To the east of Bangkok the Bangkok-Petriew line (40 m.) was completed and open for traffic.
The postal service extends to all parts of the country and is fairly efficient. Siam joined the Postal Union in 1885. The inland telegraph is also widely distributed, and foreign lines communicate with Saigon, the Straits Settlements and Moulmein.
The cultivation of paddi (unhusked rice) forms the occupation of practically the whole population of Siam outside the capital. Primitive methods obtain, but the Siamese are efficient cultivators and secure good harvests nevertheless. The sowing and planting season is from June to August, and the reaping season from December to February. Forty or fifty varieties of paddi are grown, and Siam rice is of the best in the world. Irrigation is rudimentary, for no system exists for raising the water of the innumerable canals on to the fields. Water-supply depends chiefly, therefore, on local rainfall. In 1905 the government started preliminary surveys for a system of irrigation. Tobacco, pepper, coco-nuts and maize are other agricultural products. Tobacco of good quality supplies local requirements but is not exported; pepper, grown chiefly in Chantabun and southern Siam, annually yields about 900 tons for export. From coco-nuts about 10,000 tons of copra are made for export each year, and maize is used for local consumption only. Of horned cattle statistical returns show over two million head in the whole country.
The minerals of Siam include gold, silver, rubies, sapphires, tin, copper, iron, zinc and coal. Tin-mining is a flourishing industry near Puket on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula, and since 1905 much prospecting and some mining has been done on the east coast. The export of tin in 1908 exceeded 5000 tons, valued at over f600,000. Rubies and sapphires are mined in the Chantabun district in the south-east. The Mining Department of Siam is a well-organized branch of the government, employing several highly-qualified English experts.
The extraction of teak from the forests of northern Siam employs a large number of people. The industry is almost entirely in the hands of Europeans, British largely predominating. The number of teak logs brought out via the Salween and Menam Chao Phaya rivers average 160,000 annually, Siam being thus the largest teak-producing country of the world. A Forest Department, in which experienced officers recruited from the Indian Forest Service are employed, has for many years controlled the forests of Siam.
The government has since 1903 given attention to sericulture, and steps have been taken to improve Siamese silk with the aid of scientists borrowed from the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture. Surveying and the administration of the land have for a long time occupied the attention of the government. A Survey Department, inaugurated about 1887, has completed the general survey of the whole country, and has made a cadastral survey of a large part of the thickly inhabited and highly cultivated districts of central Siam. A Settlement Commission, organized in 1901, decided the ownership of lands, and, on completion, handed over its work to a Land Registration Department. Thus a very complete settlement of much of the richest agricultural land in the country has been effected. The education of the youth of Siam in the technology of the industries practised has not been neglected. Pupils are sent to the best foreign agricultural, forestry and mining schools, and, after going through the prescribed course, often with distinction, return to Siam to apply their knowledge with more or less success. Moreover, a college under the control of the Ministry of Lands and Agriculture, which was founded in 1909, provides locally courses of instruction in these subjects and also in irrigation engineering, sericulture and surveying.
Rice-mills, saw-mills and a few distilleries of locally consumed liquor, one or two brick and tile factories, and here and there a shed in which coarse pottery is made, are all Siam has in the way of factories. All manufactured articles of daily use are imported, as is all ironware and machinery. The foreign commerce of Siam is very ancient. Her commerce with India, China and probably Japan dates from the beginning of the Christian era or earlier, while that with Europe began in the 16th century. Trade with her immediate neighbours is now insignificant, the total value of annual imports and exports being about £400,000; but seaborne commerce is in a very flourishing condition. Bangkok, with an annual trade valued at £13,000,000, easily overtops all the rest of the country, the other ports together accounting for a total of imports and exports not exceeding £3,000,000. On both the east and west coasts of southern Siam trade is increasing rapidly, and is almost entirely with the Straits Settlements. The trade of the west coast is carried in British ships exclusively, that on the east coast by British and Siamese.
The Siamese are an artistic nation. Their architecture, drawing, goldsmith's work, carving, music and dancing are all highly developed in strict accordance with the traditions of Indo-Chinese art. Architecture, chiefly exercised in connexion with religious buildings, is clearly a decadent form of that practised by the ancient Khmers, whose architectural remains are among the finest in the world. The system of music is elaborate but is not written, vocalists and instrumentalists performing entirely by ear. The interval corresponding to the octave being divided into seven equal parts, each about 14 semitone, it follows that Siamese music sounds strange in Western ears. Harmony is unknown, and orchestras, which include fiddles, flutes, drums and harmonicons, perform in unison. The goldsmith's work of Siam is justly celebrated. Repousse work in silver, which is still practised, dates from the most ancient times. Almost every province has its special patterns and processes, the most elaborate being those of Nakhon Sri Tammarat (Ligore), Chantabun and the Laos country. In the Ligore ware the hammered ground-work is inlaid with a black composition of sulphides of baser metals which throws up the pattern with distinctness. Government. - The government of Siam is an absolute monarchy. The heir to the throne is appointed by, the king, and was formerly chosen from among all the members of his family, collateral as well as descendants. The choice was sometimes made early in the reign, when the heir held the title of "Chao Uparach" or "Wang Na," miscalled "Second King" in English, and sometimes was left until the death of the king was imminent. The arrangement was fraught with danger to the public tranquillity, and one of the reforms of the last sovereign was the abolition of the office of "Chao Uparach and a decree that the throne should in future descend from the king to one of his sons born of a queen, which decree was immediately followed by the appointment of a crown prince. There is a council consisting of the ten ministers of state - for foreign affairs, war, interior, finance, household, justice, metropolitan government, public works, public instruction and for agriculture together with the general adviser. There is also a legislative council, of which the above are ex officio members, consisting of forty-five persons appointed, by the king. The council meets once a week for the transaction of the business of government. The king is an autocrat in practice as well as in theory, he has an absolute power .of veto, and the initiative of measures rests largely with him. Most departments have the benefit of European advisers. The government offices are conducted much on European lines. The Christian Sunday is' observed as a holiday and regular hours are prescribed for attendance. The numerous palace and other functions make some demand upon ministers' time, and, as the king transacts most of his affairs at night, high officials usually keep late office hours. The Ministry of Interior and certain technical departments are recruited from the civil service schools, but many appointments in government service go by patronage. For administrative purposes the country is divided into seventeen montons (or divisions) each in charge of a high commissioner, and an eighteenth, including Bangkok and the surrounding suburban provinces, under the direct control of the minister for metropolitan government (see Bangkok). The high commissioners are responsible to the minister of interior, and the montons are. furnished with a very complete, staff for the various branches of the administration. The montons consist of groups of the old rural provinces (muang); the hereditary chiefs of which, except in the Lao country in the north and in the Malay States, have been replaced by governors trained in administrative work and subordinate to the high commissioner. Each muang is subdivided into ampurs under assistant commissioners, and these again are divided into village circles under headmen (kamnans), which circles comprise villages under the control of elders. The suburban provinces of the metropolitan monton are also divided ' as above. The policing of the seventeen montons is provided for by a gendarmerie of over 7000 men and officers (many of the latter Danes), a well-equipped and well-disciplined force. That of the sub: urban provinces is effected by branches of the Bangkok civil police.
The revenue administration is controlled by the ministers of the interior, of metropolitan government and of finance, by means of well-organized departments and with expert European assistance. The total revenue of the country for.1908-1909amounted to 58,000,000 ticals, or, at the prevailing rate of exchange, about £4,3 00, 000, made up as follows: Farms and monopolies (spirits, gambling, &c.). £783,000 Opium revenue. 823,000 Lands, forests, mines, capitation.. 1,330,000 Customs. and octroi 653,000 Posts, telegraphs and railways. 331,000 Judicial and other fees. 270,000 Sundries. 110,000. Total. ... £4,3 00, 000 The unit of Siamese currency is the tical, a silver coin about equal in weight and fineness to the Indian rupee. In 1902, owing to the serious depreciation of the value of silver, the Siamese mint was closed to free coinage, and an arrangement was made providing for the gradual enhancement of the value of the tical until a suitable value should be attained at which it might be fired.: This measure was successful, the value of the tical having thereby been increased from 'Id. in 1902 to Is. 51W. in 1909, to the improvement of the national credit and of the value of the revenues. A paper currency was established in 1902, and proved a financial success. In 1905 Siam contracted her first public loan, £1,000,000 being raised in London and Paris at 952 and bearing 42% interest. This sum was employed chiefly in railway construction, and in 1907 a second loan of £3,000,000 was issued in London, Paris and Berlin at 931 for the same purpose and for extension of irrigation works. A further sum of £4,000,000 was borrowed in 1909 from the government of the Federated (British) Malay States at par and bearing interest at 4%, also for railway construction.
Weights and Measures
In accordance with the custom formerly prevalent in all the kingdoms of Further India, the coinage of Siam furnishes the standard of weight. The tical (baht) is the unit of currency and also the unit of weight. Eighty ticals equal one chang and fifty chang equal one haph, equivalent to the Chinese picul, or 1332lt avoirdupois. For the weighing of gold, gems, opium, &c., the fuang, equal to s tical, and the salung, equal to 4 tical, are used. The unit of linear measure is the wall, which is subdivided into wah or sauk, a wah or kup, and into 9 1 6 wah or niew. Twenty wah equal one sen and 400 sen equal one yote. The length of the wah has been fixed at two metres. The unit of land measure is the rai, which is equal to 400 square wah, and is subdivided into four equal ngan. Measures of capacity are the tang or bucket, and the sat or basket. Twenty tanan, originally a half coco-nut shell, equal one tang, and twenty-five of the same measure equal one sat. The tang is used for measuring rice and the sat for paddi and other grain. One sat of paddi weighs 422 lb avoirdupois.
Army and Navy
By a law passed in 1903, the ancient system of recruiting the army and navy from the descendants of former prisoners of war was abolished in favour of compulsory service by all able-bodied men. The new arrangement, which is strictly territorial, was enforced in eight montons by the year 1909, resulting in a standing peace army of 20,000 of all ranks,. in a marine service of about 10,000, and in the beginnings of first and second reserves. The navy, many of the officers of which are Danes and Norwegians, comprises a steel twin-screw cruiser of 2500 tons which serves as the royal yacht, four steel gunboats of between 500 and 700 tons all armed with modern quick-firing guns, two torpedo-boat destroyers and three torpedo boats, with other craft for river and coast work.
Since the institution of the Ministry of Justice in 1892 very great improvements have been effected in this branch of the administration. The old tribunals where customary law was administered by ignorant satellites of the great, amid unspeakable corruption, have all been replaced by organized courts with qualified judges appointed from the Bangkok law school, and under the direct control of the ministry in all except the most outlying parts. The ministry is well organized, and with the assistance of European and Japanese officers of experience has drafted a large number of laws and regulations, most of which have been brought into force. Extra-territorial jurisdiction was for long secured by treaty for the subjects of all foreign powers, who could therefore only be sued in the courts maintained in Siam by their own governments, while European assessors were employed in cases where foreigners sued Siamese. An indication, however, foreshadowing the disappearance of extra-territorial rights, appeared in the treaty of 1907 between France and Siam, the former power therein surrendering all such rights where Asiatics are concerned so soon as the Siamese penal and procedure codes should have become law, and this was followed by a much greater innovation in 1909 when Great Britain closed her courts in Siam and surrendered her subjects under certain temporary conditions to the jurisdiction of the Siamese courts. When it is understood that there are over 30,000 Chinese, Annamese, Burmese and other Asiatic foreign subjects living in Siam, the importance to the country of this change will be to some extent realized.
While the pure-blooded Malays of the Peninsula are Mahommedans, the Siamese and Lao profess a form of Buddhism which is tinged by Cingalese and Burmese influences, and, especially in the more remote country districts, by the spirit-worship which is characteristic of the imaginative and timid Ka and other hill peoples of Indo-China. In the capital a curious admixture of early Brahminical influence is still noticeable, and no act of public importance takes place without the assistance of the divinations of the Brahmin priests. The Siamese, as southern Buddhists, pride themselves on their orthodoxy; and since Burma, like Ceylon, has lost its independence, the king is regarded in the light of the sole surviving defender of the faith. There is a close connexion between the laity and priesthood, as the Buddhist rule, which prescribes that every man should enter the priesthood for at least a few months, is almost universally observed, even young princes and noblemen who have been educated in Europe donning the yellow robe on their return to Siam. A certain amount of scepticism prevails among the educated classes, and political motives may ' contribute to their apparent orthodoxy, but there is no open dissent from Buddhism, and those who discard its dogmas still, as a rule, venerate it as an ethical system. The accounts given by some writers as to the profligacy and immorality in the monasteries are grossly exaggerated. Many of the, temples in the capital are under the direct supervision of the king, and in these a stricter rule of life is observed. Some of the priests are learned in the Buddhist scriptures, and most of the Pali scholarship in Siam is to be found in monasteries, but there is no learning of a secular nature. There is little public worship in the Christian sense of the word. On the day set apart for worship (Wan Phra, or" Day of the Lord ") the attendance at the temples is small and consists mostly of women. Religious or semi-religious ceremonies, however, play a great part in the life of the Siamese, and few weeks pass without some great function or procession. Among these the cremation ceremonies are especially conspicuous. The more exalted the personage the longer, as a rule, is the body kept before cremation. The cremations of great people, which often last several days, are the occasion of public festivities and are celebrated with processions, theatrical shows, illuminations and fireworks. The missionaries in Siam are entirely French Roman Catholics and American Protestants. They have done much to help on the general work of civilization, and the progress of education has been largely due to their efforts.
As in Burma, the Buddhist monasteries scattered throughout the country carry on almost the whole of the elementary education in the rural districts. A provincial training college was established in 1903 for the purpose of instructing priests and laymen in the work of teaching, and has turned out many qualified teachers whose subsequent work has proved satisfactory. By these means, and with regular government supervision and control, the monastic schools are being brought into line with the government educational organization. They now contain not far short of 100,000 pupils. In the metropolitan monton there are primary, secondary and special schools for boys and girls, affording instruction to some 10,000 pupils. There are also the medical school, the law school, the civil service school, the military schools and the agricultural college, which are entered by students who have passed through the secondary grade for the purpose of receiving professional instruction. Many of the special schools use the English language for conveying instruction, and there are three special schools where the whole curriculum is conducted in English by English masters. Two scholarships of £300 a year each for four years are annually competed for by the scholars of these schools, the winners of which proceed to Europe to study a subject of their own selection which shall fit them for the future service of their country. Most of the special schools also give scholarships to enable the best of their pupils to complete their studies abroad. The result of the widespread monastic school system is that almost all men can read and write a little, though the women are altogether illiterate.
History. Concerning the origin of the name" Siam "many theories have been advanced. The early European visitors to the country noticed that it was not officially referred to by any such name, and therefore apparently conceived that the term must have been applied from outside. Hence the first written accounts give Portuguese, Malay and other derivations, some of which have continued to find credence among quite recent writers. It is now known, however, that" Siam "or" Sayam "is one of the most ancient names of the country, and that at least a thousand years ago it was in common use, such titles as Swankalok-Sukhotai, Shahr-i-nao, Dwarapuri, Ayuthia, the last sometimes corrupted to" Judea,"by which the kingdom has been known at various periods of its history, being no more than the names of the different capital cities whose rulers in turn brought the land under their sway. The Siamese (Thai) call their country Muang Thai, or" the country of the Thai race,"but the ancient name Muang Sayam has lately been revived. The gradual evolution of the Siamese (Thai) from the fusion of Lao-Tai and Khmer races has been mentioned above. Their language, the most distinctively Lao-Tai attribute which they have, plainly shows their very close relationship with the latter race and its present branches, the Shans (Tai Long) and the Ahom of Assam, while their appearance, customs, written character and religion bear strong evidence of their affinity with the Khmers. The southward movement of the Lao-Tai family from their original seats in south-west China is of very ancient date, the Lao states of Luang Prabang and Wieng Chan on the Mekong having been founded at least two thousand years ago. The first incursions of Lao-Tai among the Khmers of northern Siam were probably later, for the town of Lampun (Labong or Haribunchai), the first Lao capital in Siam, was founded about A.D. 575. The fusion of races may be said to have begun then, for it was during the succeeding centuries that the kings of Swankalok-Sukhotai gradually assumed Lao characteristics, and that the Siamese language, written character and other racial peculiarities were in course of formation. But the finishing touches to the new race were supplied by the great expulsion of Lao-Tai from south-west China by Kublai Khan in A.D. 1250, which profoundly affected the whole of Further India. Thereafter the north, the west and the south-west of Siam, comprising the kingdom of Swankalok-Sukhotai, and the states of Suphan and Nakhon Sri Tammarat (Ligore), with their sub-feudatories, were reduced by the Siamese (Thai), who, during their southern progress, moved their capital from Sukhotai to Nakhon Sawan, thence to Kampeng Pet, and thence again to Suvarnabhumi near the present Kanburi. A Sukhotai inscription of about 1284 states that the dominions of King Rama Kamheng extended across the country from the Mekong to Pechaburi, and thence down the Gulf of Siam to Ligore; and the Malay annals say that the Siamese had penetrated to the extremity of the peninsula before the first Malay colony from Menangkabu founded Singapore, i.e. about 1160. Meanwhile the ancient state of Lavo (Lopburi), with its capital at Sano (Sornau or Shahr-i-nao), at one time feudatory to Swankalok-Sukhotai, remained the last stronghold of the Khmer, although even here' the race was much modified by Lao-Tai blood; but presently Sano also was attacked, and its fall completed the ascendancy of the Siamese (Thai) throughout the country. The city of Ayuthia which rose in A.D. 1350 upon the ruins of Sano was the capital of the first true Siamese king of all Siam. This king's sway extended to Moulmein, Tavoy, Tenasserim and the whole Malacca peninsula (where among the traders from the west Siam was known as Sornau, i.e. Shahr-i-nau, long after Sano had disappeared - Yule's Marco Polo, ii. 260), and was felt even in Java. This is corroborated by Javan records, which describe a" Cambodian "invasion about 1340; but Cambodia was itself invaded about this time by the Siamese, who took Angkor and held it for a time, carrying off 90,000 captives. The great southward expansion here recorded is confirmed by the Chinese annals of the period. The wars with Cambodia continued with varying success for some 400 years, but Cambodia gradually lost ground and was finally shorn of several provinces, her sovereign falling entirely under Siamese influence. This, however, latterly became displeasing to the French, now in Cochin China, and Siam was ultimately obliged to recognize the protectorate forced on Cambodia by that power. Vigorous attacks were also made during this period on the Lao states to the northwest and north-east, followed by vast deportation of the people, and Siamese supremacy was pretty firmly established in Chiengmai and its dependencies by the end of the 18th century, and over the great eastern capitals, Luang Prabang and Vien-chang, about 1828. During the 15th and 16th centuries Siam was frequently invaded by the Burmese and Peguans, who, attracted probably by the great wealth of Ayuthia, besieged it mote than once without success, the defenders being aided by Portuguese mercenaries, till about 1555, when the city was taken and Siam reduced to dependence. From this condition, however, it was raised a few years later by the great conqueror and national hero Phra Naret, who after subduing Laos and Cambodia invaded Pegu, which was utterly overthrown in the next century by his successors. But after the civil wars of the 18th century the Burmese, having previously taken Chieng-mai, which appealed to Siam for help, entered Tenasserim and took Mergui and Tavoy in 1764, and then advancing simultaneously from the north and the west captured and destroyed Ayuthia after a two years' siege (1767).
The intercourse between France and Siam began about 16So under Phra Narain, who, by the advice of his minister, the Cephalonian adventurer Constantine Phaulcon, sent an embassy to Louis XIV. When the return mission arrived, the eagerness of the ambassador for the king's conversion to Christianity, added to the intrigues of Phaulcon with the Jesuits with the supposed intention of establishing a French supremacy, led to the death of Phaulcon, the persecution of the Christians, and the cessation of all intercourse with France. An interesting episode was the active intercourse, chiefly commercial, between the Siamese and Japanese governments from 1592 to 1632. Many Japanese settled in Siam, where they were much employed.
They were dreaded as soldiers, and as individuals commanded a position resembling that of Europeans in most eastern countries. The jealousy of their increasing influence at last led to a massacre, and to the expulsion or absorption of the survivors. Japan was soon after this, in 1636, closed to foreigners; but trade was carried on at all events down to 1745 through Dutch and Chinese and occasional English traders. In 1752 an embassy came from Ceylon, desiring to renew the ancient friendship and to discuss religious matters. After the fall of Ayuthia a great general, Phaya Takh Sin, collected the remains of the army and restored the fortunes of the kingdom, establishing his capital at Bangkok; but, becoming insane, he was put to death, and was succeeded by another successful general, Phaya Chakkri, who founded the present dynasty. Under him Tenasserim was invaded and Tavoy held for the last time by the Siamese in 1792, though in 1825, taking advantage of the Burmese difficulty with England, they bombarded some of the towns on that coast. The supremacy of China is indicated by occasional missions sent, as on the founding of a new dynasty, to Peking, to bring back a seal and a calendar. But the Siamese now repudiate this supremacy, and have sent neither mission nor tribute for sixty years, while no steps have been taken by the Chinese to enforce its recognition. The sovereign, Phra Paramendr Maha Mongkut, was a very accomplished man, an enlightened reformer and devoted to science; his death, indeed, was caused by fatigue and exposure while observing an eclipse. Many of his predecessors, too, were men of different fibre from the ordinary Oriental sovereign, while his son Chulalong Korn, who succeeded him in 1868, showed himself an administrator of the highest capacity. He died on the 23rd of October 1910.
Of European nations the Portuguese first established intercourse with Siam. This was in 1511, after the conquest of Malacca by D'Albuquerque, and the intimacy lasted over a century, the tradition of their greatness having hardly yet died out. They were supplanted gradually in the 17th century by the Dutch, whose intercourse also lasted for a similar period; but they have left no traces of their presence, as the Portuguese always did in these countries to a greater extent than any other people. English traders were in Siam very early in the 17th century; there was a friendly interchange of letters between James I. and the king of Siam, who had some Englishmen in his service, and, when the ships visited" Sia "(which was" as great a city as London ") or the queen of Patani, they were hospitably received and accorded privileges - the important items of export being, as now, tin, varnish, deer-skins and" precious drugs."Later on, the East India Company's servants, jealous at the employment of Englishmen not in their service, attacked the Siamese,, which led to a massacre of the English at Mergui in 1687, and the factory at Ayuthia was abandoned in 1688. A similar attack is said to have been made in 1719 by the governor of Madras. After this the trade was neglected. Pulo Penang, an island belonging to the Siamese dependency of Kedah, was granted on a permanent lease to the East India Company in 1786, and treaties were entered into by the sultan of Kedah with the company. In 1822 John Crawfurd was sent to Bangkok to negotiate a treaty with the suzerain power, but the mission was unsuccessful. In 1824, by treaty with the Dutch, British interests became paramount in the Malay Peninsula and in Siam, and, two years later, Captain Burney signed the first treaty of friendship and commerce between England and Siam. A similar treaty was effected with America in 1833. Subsequently trade with British possessions revived, and in time a more elaborate treaty with England became desirable. Sir J. Brooke opened negotiations in 1850 which came to nothing, but in 1855 Sir J. Bowring signed a new treaty whereby Siam agreed to the appointment of a British consul in Bangkok, and to the exercise by that official of full extraterritorial powers. Englishmen were permitted to own land in certain defined districts, customs and port dues and land revenues were fixed, and many new trade facilities were granted. This important arrangement was followed at intervals by similar treaties with the other powers, the last two being those with Japan in 1898 and Russia in 1899. A further convention afterwards provided for a second British consular district in northern Siam, while England and France have both appointed vice-consuls in different parts of the country. Thus foreigners in Siam, except Chinese who have no consul, could only be tried for criminal offences, or sued in civil cases, in their own consular courts. A large portion of the work of the foreign consuls, especially the British, was consequently judicial, and in 1901 the office of judge. was created by the British government, a special judge with an assistant judge being appointed to this post. Meanwhile, trade steadily increased, especially with Great Britain and the British colonies of Hong Kong and Singapore.
The peaceful internal development of Siam seemed also likely to be favoured by the events that were taking place outside her frontiers. For centuries she had been distracted by wars with Cambodians, Peguans and Burmans, but the incorporation of Lower Cochin China, Annam and Tongking by the French, and the annexation of Lower and Upper Burma successively by the British, freed her from all further danger on the part of her old rivals. Unfortunately, she was not destined to escape trouble. The frontiers of Siam, both to the east and the west, had always been vague and ill-defined, as was natural in wild and unexplored regions inhabited by more or less barbarous tribes. The frontier between Siam and the new British possessions in Burma was settled amicably and without difficulty, but the; boundary question on the east was a much more intricate one and was still outstanding. Disputes with frontier tribes led to complications with France, who asserted that the Siamese were occupying territory that rightfully belonged to Annam, which was now under French protection. France, while assuring the British Government that .she laid no claim to the province of Luang Prabang, which was situated on both banks of the upper Mekong, roughly between the 18th and 10th parallels, claimed that farther south the Mekong formed the true boundary between Siam and Annam, and demanded the evacuation of certain Siamese posts east of the river. The Siamese refused to yield, and early in 1893 encounters took place in the disputed area, in which a French officer was captured and French soldiers were killed. The French' then despatched gunboats from Saigon to enforce their demands at Bangkok, and these made their way up to the capital in, spite of an attempt on the part of the Siamese naval forces to bar their way. In consequence of the resistance with which they had met, the French now greatly .increased their demands, insisting on the Siamese giving up all territory east of the Mekong, including about half of Luang Prabang, on the payment of an indemnity and on the permanent withdrawal of all troops and police to a distance of 25 kilometres from the right bank of the Mekong. Ten days' blockade of the port caused the Siamese government to accede to these demands, and a treaty was made, the French sending troops to occupy Chantabun until its provisions should have been carried out.
In 1895 lengthy negotiations took place between France and England concerning their respective eastern and western frontiers in Farther India. These negotiations bore important fruit in the Anglo-French convention of 1896, the chief provision of which was the neutralization by the contracting parties of the central portion of Siam, consisting of the basin of the river Menam, with its rich and fertile land, which contains most of the population and the. wealth of the country. Neither eastern nor southern Siam was included in this agreement, but nothing was said to impair or lessen in any way the full sovereign rights of the king of Siam over those parts of the country. Siam thus has its independence guaranteed by the two European powers who alone have interests in Indo-China, England on the west and France on the east, and has therefore a considerable political interest similar to that of Afghanistan, which forms a buffer state between the Russian and British possessions on the north of India. Encouraged by the assurance of the Anglo-French convention, Siam now turned her whole attention to internal reform, and to such good purpose that, in a few years, improved government and expansion of trade aroused a general interest in her welfare, and gave her a stability which had before been lacking. With the growth of confidence negotiations with France were reopened, and, after long discussion, the treaty of 1893 was set aside and Chantabun evacuated in return for the cession of the provinces of Bassac, Melupre, and the remainder of Luang Prabang, all on the right bank of the Mekong, and of the maritime district of Krat. These results were embodied in a new treaty signed and ratified in 1904.
Meanwhile, in 1899, negotiations with the British government led to agreements defining the status of British subjects in Siam, and fixing the frontier between southern Siam and the British Malay States, while in 1900 the provisions of Sir J. Bowring's treaty of 1855, fixing the rates of land revenue, were abrogated in order to facilitate Siamese financial reform.
In 1907 a further convention was made with France, Siam returning to the French protectorate of Cambodia the province of Battambang conquered in 181r, and in compensation receiving hack from France the maritime province of Krat and the district of Dansai, which had been ceded in 1904. This convention also modified the extra-territorial rights enjoyed by France in Siam, and disclosed an inclination to recognize the material improvements of the preceding years. In 1907 also negotiations were opened with Great Britain, the objects of which were to modify the extra-territorial rights conceded to that power by the treaty of 1855, and to remove various restrictions regarding taxation and general administration, which, though diminished from time to time by agreement, still continued to hamper the government very much. These negotiations continued all through 1908 and resulted in a treaty, signed and ratified in 1909, by which Siam ceded to Great Britain her suzerain rights over the dependencies of Kedah, Kelantan, Trengganu and Perlis, Malay states situated in southern Siam just north of British Malaya, containing in all about a million inhabitants and for the most part flourishing and wealthy, and obtained the practical abolition of British jurisdiction in Siam proper as well as relief from any obligations which, though probably very necessary when they were incurred, had long since become mere useless and vexatious obstacles to progress towards efficient government. This treaty, a costly one to Siam, is important as opening up a prospect of ultimateabandonment of extraterritorial rights by all the powers. Administrative reform and an advanced railway policy have made of Siam a market for the trade of Europe, which has become an object of keen competition. In 1908 the British empire retained the lead, but other nations, notably Germany, Denmark, Italy and Belgium, had recently acquired large interests in the commerce of the country. Japan also, after an interruption of more than two hundred years, had resumed active commercial relations with Siam.
Authorities.-H. Alabaster, Wheel of the Law (London, 1871); Dr Anderson, English Intercourse with Siam in the 57th Century (London, 1890); W. J. Archer, Journey in the Mekong Valley (1892); C. Bock, Temples and Elephants; Sir John Bowring, The Kingdom and People of Siam (London, 1857); J. G. D. Campbell, Siam in the Twentieth Century (London, 1902); A. C. Carter, The Kingdom of Siam (New York, 1904); A. R. Colquhoun, Amongst the Shans (London, 1885); J. Crawfurd, Journal of an Embassy to Siam (London, 1829); Lord Curzon, Nineteenth Century (July, 1893); H.R.H. Prince Damrong," The Foundation of Ayuthia,"Siam Society Journal (1905); Diplomatic and Consular Reports for Bangkok and Chien Mai (1888-1907); Directory for Bangkok and Siam (Bangkok Times Office Annual);- Francis Garnier, Voyage d'exploration en Indo-Chine (Paris, 1873); Geographical Journal, papers by J. S. Black, Lord Curzon, Lord Lamington, Professor H. Louis, J. M `Carthy, W. H. Smythe; Colonel G. E. Gerini," The Tonsure Ceremony," The Art of War in Indo-China ";" Siam's Intercourse with China,"Asiatic Quarterly Review (1906);" Historical Retrospect of Junkceylon Island,"Siam Society's Journal (1905); W. A. Graham," Brief History of the R.C. Mission in Siam,"Asiatic Quarterly Review (1901); Mrs Grindrod, Siam: a Geographical Summary; H. Hallet, A Thousand Miles on an Elephant (London, 1890); Captain Hamilton, A New Account of the East Indies (1688-1723); Prince Henri d'Orleans, Around Tonquin and Siam (London, 1894); Professor A. H. Keane, Eastern Geography: Asia; Dr Keith, Journal Royal Asiatic Society (1892); C. S. Leckie, Journal Society of Arts (1894), vol. xlii.; M. de la Loubere, Description du royaume de Siam (Amsterdam, 1714); Captain Low, Journal Asiatic Society, vol. vii.; J. M`Carthy, Surveying and Exploring in Siam (London, 1900); Henri Mouhot, Travels in Indo-China (London, 1844) F. A. Neale, Narrative of a Residence in Siam (London, 1852); Sir H. Norman, The Far East (London, 1904); Bishop Pallegoix, Description du royaume Thai ou Siam (Paris, 1854); H. W. Smythe, Five Years in Siam (London, 1898); J. Thomson, Antiquities of Cambodia, Malacca, Indo-China and China (London, 1875); P. A. Thompson, Lotus Land (London, 1906); Turpin, Histoire de Siam (Paris, 1719); F. Vincent, Land of the White Elephant; E. Young, The Kingdom of the Yellow Robe (London, 1898).
Language and Literature. Siamese belongs to the well-defined Tai group of the SiameseChinese family of languages. Its connexion with Chinese is clear though evidently distant, but its relationship with the other languages of the Tai group is very close. It is spoken throughout central Siam, in all parts of southern Siam except Patani Monton, in northern Siam along the river-banks as far up as Utaradit and Raheng, and in eastern Siam as far as the confines of the Korat Monton. In Patani the common language is still Malay, while in the upper parts of northern, and the outlying parts of eastern, Siam the prevailing language is Lao, though the many hill tribes which occupy the ranges of these parts have distinct languages of their own.
Originally Siamese was purely monosyllabic, that is, each true word consisted of a single vowel sound preceded by, or followed by, a consonant. Of such monosyllables there are less than two thousand, and therefore many syllables have to do duty for the expression of more than one idea, confusion being avoided by the tone in which they are spoken, whence the term" tonal,"which is applied to all the languages of this family. The language now consists of about 15,000 words, of which compounds of two monosyllabic words and appropriations from foreign sources form a very large part. Bali, the ancient language of the kingdom of Magadha, in which the sacred writings of Buddhism were made, was largely instrumental in forming all the languages of Further India, including Siamese - a fact which accounts for the numerous connecting links between the Mon, Burmese and Siamese languages of the present time, though these are of quite separate origin. When intercourse with the West began, and more especially when Western methods of government and education were first adopted in Siam, the tendency to utilize European words was very marked, but recently there has been an effort to avoid this by the coining of Siamese or Bali compound words.
The current Siamese characters are derived from the more monumental Cambodian alphabet, which again owes its origin to the alphabet of the inscriptions, an offshoot of the character found on the stone monuments of southern India in the 6th and 8th centuries. The sacred books of Siam are still written in the Cambodian character.
The Siamese alphabet consists of 44 consonants, in each of which the vowel sound" aw "is inherent, and of 32 vowels all marked not by individual letters, but by signs written above, below, before or after the consonant in connexion with which they are to be pronounced. It may seem at first that so many as 44 consonants can scarcely be necessary, but the explanation is that several of them express each a slightly different intonation of what is practically the same consonant, the sound of" kh,"for instance, being represented by six different letters and the sound of" t "by eight. Moreover, other letters are present only for use in certain words imported from Bali or Sanskrit. The vowel signs have no sound by themselves, but act upon the vowel sound" aw "inherent in the consonants, converting it into" a," i," o," ee," ow,"&c. Each of the signs has a name, and some of them produce modulations so closely resembling those made by another that at the present day they are scarcely to be distinguished apart. A hard-and-fast rule of pronunciation is that only vowel or diphthong sounds, or the letters" m," n," ng," k," t "and" p "are permissible at the end of words, and hence the final letter of all words ending in anything else is simply suppressed or is pronounced as though it were a letter naturally producing one or other of those sounds. Thus many of the words procured from foreign sources, not excluding Bali and Sanskrit, are more or less mutilated in pronunciation, though the entirely suppressed or altered letter is still retained in writing.
Siamese is written from left to right. In manuscript there is usually no space between words, but punctuation is expressed by intervals isolating phrases and sentences.
The greatest difficulty with the Siamese language lies in the tonal system. Of the simple tones there are five - the even, the circumflex, the descending, the grave and the high - any one of which when applied to a word may give it a quite distinct meaning. Four of the simple tones are marked in the written character by signs placed over the consonant affected, and the absence of a mark implies that the one remaining tone is to be used. A complication is caused by the fact that the consonants are grouped into three classes, to each of which a special tone applies, and consequently the application of a tonal sign to a letter has a different effect, according to the class to which such letter belongs. Though many syllables have to do duty for the expression of more than one idea, the majority have only one or at most two meanings, but there are some which are used with quite a number of different inflections, each of which gives the word a new meaning. Thus, for example, the <<" " " "syllable khaq may mean they," badly,"rice," white," old,"or" news,' simply according to the tone in which the word is spoken. Words are unchangeable and incapable of inflection. There is no article, and no distinction of gender, number or case. These, when it is necessary to denote them, are expressed by explanatory words after the respective nouns; only the dative and ablative are denoted by subsidiary words, which precede the nouns, the nominative being marked by its position before, the objective by its position after, the verb, and the genitive (and also the adjective) by its place after the noun it qualifies. Occasionally, however, auxiliary nouns serve that purpose. Words like "mother," "son," "water" are often employed in forming compounds to express ideas for which the Siamese have no single words, e.g. luk can, " the son of hire," a labourer; me ma," the mother of the hand," the thumb. The use of class words with numerals obtains in Siamese as it does in Chinese, Burmese, Anamese, Malay and many other Eastern languages. As in these, so in Siamese the personal pronouns are mostly represented by nouns expressive of the various shades of superior or lower rank according to Eastern etiquette. The verb is, like the noun, perfectly colourless - person, number, tense and mood being indicated by auxiliary words only when they cannot be inferred from the context. Such auxiliary words are ya2, " to be," "to dwell" (present); dai, " to have," leas, " end" (past); ca, " also" £future); the first and third follow, the second and fourth precede, the verb. Hai, " to give" (prefixed), often indicates the subjunctive. As there are compound nouns, so there are compound verbs; thus, e.g. pai, " to go," is joined to a transitive verb to convert it into an intransitive or neuter; and thz2k, " to touch," and tang, " to be compelled," serve to form a sort of passive voice. The number of adverbs, single and compound, is very large. The prepositions mostly consist of nouns.
The construction of the sentence in Siamese is straightforward and simple. The subject of the sentence precedes the verb and the object follows it. The possessive pronoun follows the object. The adverb usually follows the verb. In compound sentences the verbs are placed together as in English, not separated by the object as in German. When an action is expressed in the past the word which forms with the verb the past tense is divided from the verb itself by the object. Examples are: Rao (We) dekchai (boy) sam (three) kon (persons) cha (will) pai (go) chap (catch) pla (fish) samrap (for) hai (give) paw (father) kin (eat). Me (Mother) tan (you) yu (live) ti (place) nai (where), or "Where is your mother ?" Me (Mother) pai (go) talat (bazaar) leao (finish), or "(My) mother has gone to the bazaar." The difficulties of the Siamese language are increased by the fact that in addition to the ordinary language of the people there is a completely different set of words ordained for the use of royalty. This "Palace language" appears to have come into existence from a desire to avoid the employment in the presence of royalty of downright expressions of vulgarity or of words which might be capable of conveying an unpleasant or indelicate idea other than the meaning intended. In the effort to escape from the vulgar, words of Sanskrit origin have been freely adopted and many Cambodian words are also used. The language is so complete that the dog, pig, crow and other common or unclean animals are all expressed by special words, while the actions of royalty, such as eating, sleeping, walking, speaking, bathing, dying, are spoken of in words quite distinct from those used to describe similar actions of ordinary people.
The prose literature of Siam consists largely of mythological and historical fables, almost all of which are of Indian origin, though many of them have come to Siam through Cambodia. Their number is larger than is usually supposed, many of them being known to few beyond the writers who laboriously copy them and the professional "raconteurs" who draw upon them to replenish their stock-in-trade. The best known have all been made into stage-plays, and it is in this form that they usually come before the notice of the general public. Amongst them are Ramakien, taken from the great Hindu epic Ramayana; Wetyasunyin, the tale of a king who became an ascetic after contemplation of a withered tree; Worawongs, the story of a prince who loved a princess and was killed by the thrust of a magic spear which guarded her; Chalawan, the tale of a princess beloved by a crocodile; Unarud, the life story of Anuruddha, a demigod, the grandson of Krishna; Phumhon, the tale of a princess beloved by an elephant; Prang tong, a story of a princess who before birth was promised to a "yak" or giant in return for a certain fruit which her mother desired to eat. Mahasot is an account of the wars of King Mahasot. Nok Khum is one of the theories of the genesis of mankind, the Nok Khum being the sacred goose or "Hansa" from whose eggs the first human beings were supposed to have been hatched. A considerable proportion of the romances are founded upon episodes in the final life, or in one of the innumerable former existences, of the Buddha. The Pattama Sompothiyan is the standard Siamese life of the Buddha. Many of the stories have their scene laid in Himaphan, the Siamese fairyland, probably originally the Himalaya.
A great many works on astrology and the casting of horoscopes, on the ways to secure victory in war, success_in love, in business or in gambling, are known, as also works on other branches of magic, to which subject the Siamese have always been partial. On the practice of medicine, which is in close alliance with magic, there are several well-known works.
The Niti literature forms a class apart. The word Niti is from the Bali, and means "old saying," "tradition," "good counsel." The best known of such works are Rules for the Conduct of Kings, translated from the Bali, and The Maxims of Phra Ruang, the national hero-king, on whose wonderful sayings and doings the imagination of Siamese youth is fed.
In works on history the literature of Siam is unfortunately rather poor. There can be little doubt that, as in the case of all the other kingdoms of Further India, complete and detailed chronicles were compiled from reign to reign by order of her kings, but of the more ancient of these, the wars and disturbances which continued with such frequency down to quite recent times have left no trace. The Annals of the North, the Annals of Krung Kao (Ayuthia) and the Book of the Lives of the Four Kings (of the present dynasty) together form the only more or less connected history of the country from remote times down to the beginning of the present reign, and these, at least so far as the earlier parts are concerned, contain much that is inaccurate and a good deal which is altogether untrue. Foreign histories include a work on Pegu, a few tales of Cambodian kings and recently published class-books on European history compiled by the educational department.
The number of works on law is considerable. The Laksana Phra Thamasat, the Phra Tamra, Phra Tamnon, Phra Racha Kamnot and Inthapat are ancient works setting forth the laws of the country in their oldest form, adapted from the Dharmacastra and the Classification of the Law of Manu. These, and also many of the edicts passed by kings of the Ayuthia period which have been preserved, are now of value more as curiosities of literature and history than anything else, since, for all practical purposes, they have long been superseded by laws more in accordance with modern ideas. The laws of the sovereigns who have reigned at Bangkok form the most notable part of this branch of Siamese literature. They include a great number of revenue regulations, laws on civil matters such as mortgage, bankruptcy, rights of way, companies, &c;, and laws governing the procedure of courts, all of which adhere to Western principles in the main. The latest addition is the Penal Code, a large and comprehensive work based upon the Indian, Japanese and French codes and issued in 1908.
Poetry is a very ancient art in Siam and has always been held in high honour, some of the best-known poets being, indeed, members of the royal family. There are several quite distinct forms of metre, of which those most commonly used are the Klong, the Kap and the Klon. The Klong is rhythmic, the play being on the inflection of the voice in speaking the words, which inflection is arranged according to fixed schemes; the rhyme, if it can so be called, being sought not in the similarity of syllables but of intonation. The Kap is rhythmical and also has rhyming syllables. The lines contain an equal number of syllables, and are arranged in stanzas of four lines each. The last syllable of the first line rhymes with the third syllable of the second line, the last of the second with the last of the third and also with the first of the fourth line, and the last syllable of the fourth line rhymes with the last of the second line of the next succeeding stanza. The number of poems in one or other of these two metres is very great, and includes verses on almost every theme. In the Nirat poetry, a favourite form of verse, both are often used, a stanza in Klong serving as a sort of argument at the head of a set of verses in Kap. This Nirat poetry takes the form of narrative addressed by a traveller to his lady-love, of a journey in which every object and circumstance serves but to remind the wanderer of some virtue or beauty of his correspondent. In most of such works the journey is of course imaginary, but in some cases it is a true record of travelling or campaigning, and has been found to contain information of value concerning the condition at certain times of outlying parts of the kingdom. Of the little love songs in Klon metre, called Klon pet ton, there are many hundreds. These follow a prescribed form, and consist of eight lines divided into two stanzas of four lines each, every line containing eight syllables. The last syllable of the first line rhymes with the third syllable of the second, and the final of the second line with the final of the third. The songs treat of all the aspects of love. A fourth poetical metre is Chan, which, however, is not so much used as the others.
The introduction of printing in the Siamese character has revolutionized the literature of the country. Reading has become a general accomplishment, a demand for reading matter has arisen, and bookshops stocked with books have appeared to satisfy it. The historical works above referred to have been issued in many editions, and selections from the ancient fables and romances are continually being edited and reissued in narrative form or as plays. The educational department has done good work in compiling volumes of prose and verse which have found much favour with the public. All the laws, edicts and regulations at present in force are to be had in print at popular prices. Printing, in fact, has supplied a great incentive to the development of literature, the output has increased enormously, and will doubtless continue to do so for a long time to come. (W. A. G.)
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Middle East to Dominate World Oil for Many Years
Bright E. Okogu
Oil has dominated world energy consumption for many decades, although its share has declined from almost 50 percent in 1975 to about 40 percent at present. This decline is due to improvements in energy efficiency; consumers' switch to substitutes, including coal and natural gas; a desire to reduce dependency on foreign oil, largely because of the oil price increases of the mid-1970s to the early 1980s; and recent concerns about global warming and climate change.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that, by 2020, world energy demand will increase by about half from its current level, with the share of oil holding at 40 percent—still the dominant fuel—while the share of gas will increase from about 23 percent to about 26 percent. Demand growth will be fastest in developing regions, where income growth and industrialization have continued to gather pace.
With oil exports from MENA projected to more than double by 2020, this region will continue to dominate the oil market for the foreseeable future.
The world's largest consumers are the United States, 26 percent; European industrial countries, 20 percent; and Japan and Korea, 11 percent. In 2020, according to IEA projections, these countries' dependency on imports to meet their oil needs will rise from 53 percent of total oil consumed currently to 70 percent, highlighting the growing lack of congruence between the location of oil reserves and the major consumers of oil.
The Middle East and North Africa region has the world's largest proven reserves of crude oil, accounting for almost 70 percent of global reserves at the end of 2001, but it produces only about 35 percent of global oil output. The Middle Eastern members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries hold 95 percent of the organization's existing spare capacity, making them the suppliers of last resort. Indeed, most other producers are operating at close to full capacity and play only a marginal role in meeting unexpected supply shortfalls. While oil exploration and production in the former Soviet Union, Africa, and South America have increased in recent years, production in the North Sea and elsewhere is declining. | <urn:uuid:7a759272-1108-4ca6-a8fd-1c1db7eca1e1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2003/03/okog.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396872.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00000-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94248 | 437 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Apr. 1, 2007
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Poem: "Despair" by Anthony Hecht, from Collected Later Poems. © Alfred A. Knopf. Reprinted with permission.
Sadness. The moist gray shawls of drifting sea-fog,
Salting scrub pine, drenching the cranberry bogs,
Erasing all but foreground, making a ghost
Of anyone who walks softly away;
And the faint, penitent psalmody of the ocean.
Gloom. It appears among the winter mountains
On rainy days. Or the tiled walls of the subway
In caged and aging light, in the steel scream
And echoing vault of the departing train,
The vacant platform, the yellow destitute silence.
But despair is another matter. Midafternoon
Washes the worn bank of a dry arroyo,
Its ocher crevices, unrelieved rusts,
Where a startled lizard pauses, nervous, exposed
To the full glare of relentless marigold sunshine.
Literary and Historical Notes:
Today is April Fools' Day, a holiday celebrating practical jokes of all kinds. The British collection of folk wisdom known as Poor Robin's Almanac (1662) says: "The first of April, some do say, Is set apart for All Fools' Day."
One theory about the origin of April Fools' Day is that it started in France in 1582. Up until then, New Year's Day was celebrated on April 1st, but when Europe adopted the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day was moved to January 1st. At the time, news of such things traveled slowly, and it took many years for everyone to get up to speed. People who continued to celebrate New Years on April 1st came to be known as April Fools.
John Updike said, "Looking foolish does the spirit good."
It's the birthday of playwright Edmond Rostand, (books by this author) born in Marseilles, France (1868). He's best known as the author of the play Cyrano de Bergerac (1897), about a dashing, brave and romantic man who is able to compose sonnets while engaged in a sword fight, but who also has the largest nose anyone has ever seen. Because of his huge nose, he decides he can never win over the love of his life, Roxanne.
It's the birthday of the pianist and composer Sergey Rachmaninoff, born in Novgorod, Russia (1873). He was a tall, imposing man and his hands were so big they could span an interval of 13 keys on the piano. He went on to become a big success, as a composer and a performer, after he debuted his Prelude in C-sharp Minor in 1892. The piece was so popular that audiences requested that he play it for the rest of his life.
He escaped from Russia just before the Revolution, and spent most of the rest of his life in the United States. When Vladimir Horowitz arrived in New York City, the two pianists sealed their friendship by going down into the basement of Steinway and Sons and playing Rachmaninoff's own Third Piano Concerto (1909). Horowitz played the solo part on one piano, and Rachmaninoff the orchestra reduction on another.
Rachmaninoff was in the middle of writing his famous Second Piano Concerto (1901) when his first symphony received a lukewarm response. He stopped writing music for three years, during which he felt as though he was like a man who had suffered a stroke, losing the use of his head and hands. He was able to overcome his nervous breakdown by visiting a psychiatrist, who cured Rachmaninoff by repeating the following line to him each time they met: "You will write your Concerto. ... You will work with great facility. ... The Concerto will be of excellent quality."
It's the birthday of novelist Francine Prose, (books by this author) born in Brooklyn, New York (1947). She's the author of Judah the Pious (1973), Hungry Hearts (1983), and Bigfoot Dreams (1987). Her most recent book is Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them (2006).
Francine Prose said, "For now, books are still the best way of taking great art and its consolations along with us on the bus."
Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® | <urn:uuid:55878bcb-033d-4565-a2f4-16219886f0a7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2007/04/01 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393442.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00005-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969343 | 957 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Portland, Ore. EEs are desperately needed to help design magnetized-beam plasma propulsion systems that could send future spacecraft to Mars and back in 90 days. The systems would use a mag-beam to accelerate a craft out of Earth's orbit and another to decelerate it in Mars' orbit, eliminating or greatly reducing the need for on-board fuel or engines. Such systems would rejigger the cost and time calculations of manned flights to Mars, which would take more than two years with current propulsion technology.
"We want to get the word out to electrical engineers, because this is a field where EEs can make major contributions," said Robert Winglee, an earth- and space-sciences professor at the University of Washington who is leading a multidisciplinary group at the school's Research Institute for Space Exploration. "Mag-beams could make space travel routine, and they are enabled by electrical engineering."
NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts (www.niac.usra.edu) has given Winglee's group $75,000 and six months to prove its plasma propulsion system can work. Eleven other teams have received similar funding, and, like Winglee's group, will be eligible for $400,000 of phase two monies.
"Once we have the prototype built and tested, we could be sending it on its first mission in as little as five years," said Winglee. He is calling for new graduates to work as postdoctoral researchers, and for undergraduate EEs already at the university to come over and join the project. He called the mag-beam a "ground-floor" opportunity for EEs wanting to launch their careers by helping design a new technology.
To put a mag-beam system to use, an initial investment in the billions would be required for a conventional rocket that would lift the seminal stations around the solar system. But once in place, they should be able to generate plasma indefinitely, thereby enabling routine shipping routes around the solar system and eliminating the need for spacecraft to carry their own propulsion systems and fuel.
"With a system like this, man could really begin to populate space; that's our ultimate goal," Winglee said. "And we need EEs to achieve it."
Winglee said that all the parts of his group's propulsion system have already been proven and prototyped, so the proposal due to NASA in six months involves detailed integration of the systems with their on-board control and diagnostic electronics.
"We are desperate to get electrical engineers interested in plasma propulsion, because most of our postdoctoral and graduate researchers are from aeronautic and astronomic engineering, so they don't have the skill set that we really need," Winglee said. "They understand mechanical propulsion but they aren't prepared for plasma propulsion, which involves high-voltage RF, magnetic beams, control circuits and electronic diagnostics. We need electrical engineers to help us design these systems so the aeronautic and astronomic engineers can then build and test them."
The group intends for its proposal to include a design for a working prototype of a full system, plus a plan to build it in 2006 and 2007. Reusable vehicles will be cheaper if they don't need to carry their own power source or fuel. They will be faster than rockets, thanks to magnetic focusing of a beam on a stripped-down payload vehicle.
The key to mag-beams is large plasma propulsion thrusters that would be in permanent orbit around the planets and the moon. For instance, Winglee's group suggests first sending a mag-beam to Mars using conventional rocketry. Once it's in orbit there, a matching system in Earth's orbit could begin lobbing payloads toward the Mars orbiter, which would decelerate them. Such a system of orbiting beamed plasma thrusters could enable payloads to other planets at little cost compared with today's spacecraft. (Winglee proposes solar-powered thrusters around planets as close as Jupiter and atomic-powered units farther out.) | <urn:uuid:705a32e7-07dc-4ad6-8f41-a9009ad2870d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1151650 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396959.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00108-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960374 | 813 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Implementation of deque using doubly-ended linked list
Define a class doubly_linked_list in which a function create_node is created to create nodes of type doubly_linked_list which contains the data field of type int which are further inserted into the double ended queue by using methods defined in the derived class queue.
Define a class dequeue in which doubly_linked_list class is inherited. This class is defined for performing operations on double ended queue. Operations are put(insert at the head), get(remove from the head), push(insert at the tail end), pull(remove from the tail).
At the end, define main class to test hierarchy of classes for performing operation on double ended queue that is dequeue and also contains the switch for providing choice of choosing operation to be performed on the deque to the user and calls methods chosen by user. | <urn:uuid:e5576c08-f5ed-47c9-94fc-d0d5367bb381> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.chegg.com/homework-help/programming-language-pragmatics-3rd-edition-chapter-9-problem-6e-solution-9780080922997 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00125-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901589 | 184 | 3.125 | 3 |
Knowledge for Wildfire
Improving management of UK wildfire through knowledge exchange
What are wildfires?
A wildfire is any unplanned and uncontrolled vegetation fire which may require suppression. Most wildfires in the UK are started by humans, and occur on moorlands, heaths, grassland, woodland and agricultural land. We can help to prevent damaging fires by managing people (ignition sources) and vegetation (fuel).
Not all fire is damaging – controlled fire is a traditional management tool in fire-tolerant ecosystems. Zero tolerance to all fire can create larger fires. Fire ecology recognises the complex interactions between fire, ecosystems and people.
Why are wildfires important?
- Wildfire was included for the first time in the National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies 2013 (section 2.3, p8).
- It is identified as a key risk in Defra’s (2012) UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA). The likelihood of wildfires occurring may increase between 10% and 50% by the 2080s with projected warmer, drier spring and summer conditions.
- Wildfire is cross-sector risk; CCRA identifies it as a major risk for biodiversity (BD 12) (Brown et al., 2012), but it is also cited in the forestry (Moffat et al., 2012), transport and water sector reports.
- More frequent severe vegetation fires would lead to significant loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services such as carbon storage for ecosystems like peatland and heathland, which are particularly sensitive to fire.
- Over 118,000 ‘grassland’ fires were recorded by Fire and Rescue Services in Great Britain in the financial years 2010/11 and 2011/12.
- They are strongly weather-related so are challenging to plan for; on average there were 374 a day in the dry April of 2011 compared to 30 a day in January 2012. [Fire Statistics Great Britain, 2011-12].
- UK-wide, in the dry April and May of 2011, it is estimated that there were 44 of over 40 hectares in size, using satellite-derived data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) Rapid Damage Assessment (Joint Research Centre, 2012, Table 38, p87)
- Response costs alone are estimated at £55 million a year, and up to £1 million for a big moorland fire. | <urn:uuid:31eae80f-7010-4231-9efe-d47595e7cb45> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.kfwf.org.uk/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00131-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942822 | 486 | 3.953125 | 4 |
Pulsars are noted as being some of the universes best clocks. Their highly magnetized nature gives rise to beams of high energy radiation that sweep out across the universe. If these beams pass Earth, they can rival atomic clocks in their precision. So precise are these timings, that the first extrasolar planet was discovered through the effects it had on this heartbeat. But in September of 2007, pulsar J1718-3719 appears to have had a seizure.
These disjunctions arent unprecedented. While not exactly frequent, such glitches have been noted previously in other pulsars and magnetars. These glitches are often displayed as a sudden change in the period of the pulsar suddenly drops and then slowly relaxes back to the pre-glitch value at a characteristic rate dependent on the previous value as well as how large the jump was. Behavior like this has been seen in other pulsars including PSR B2334+61 and PSR 1048-5397.
The size of a glitch is measured as a ratio of the change in speed due to the glitch as compared to that of the pre-glitch speed. For past glitches, these have generally been changes that are around a hundredth of a percent. While this may not sound like a large change, the stars on which they act are exceptionally dense neutron stars. As such, even a small change in rotational energy means a large amount of energy involved.
Previously, the largest known glitch was 20.5 x 10-6 for PSR B2334+61. The new glitch in PSR J1718-3718 beats this record with a frequency change of 33.25 x 10-6. Aside from being a record setter, this new glitch does not appear to be following the trend of returning to previous values. The changed period persisted for the 700 days astronomers at the Australia Telescope National Facility observed it. Pulsars tend to have a slow braking applied to them due to a difference between their rotational axes and their magnetic ones. This too generally returns to a standard value for a given pulsar following a glitch, but PSR J1718-3718 defied expectations here as well, having a persistently higher braking effect which has continued to increase.
Currently, astronomers know precious little about the effects which may cause these glitches. There is no evidence to suggest that the phenomenon is something external to the body itself. Instead, astronomers suspect that there are occasional alignments of the stars internal superfluid core which rotates more quickly, with the stars crust that cause the two to occasionally lock together. Models of neutron stars have had some success at reproducing this odd behavior, but none have suggested an event like PSR J1718-3718. Instead, the authors of the recent study suggest that this may have been caused by a fracturing of the crust of the neutron star or some yet unknown internal reaction. The possibilities currently are not well constrained but studying future events like these will help astronomers refine their models.
Explore further: Astronomers discover fastest-spinning pulsar | <urn:uuid:eeed958b-4cb2-42af-9a49-7c2e2af45161> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://phys.org/news/2011-06-glitch-pulsar-j1718-.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00079-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959259 | 621 | 3.3125 | 3 |
By Hernando Salazar
BBC Mundo, Narino, Colombia
Stunning landscape in Narino belies brutal conflict
At first glance, it is hard to believe the Colombian province of Narino is at the centre of the country's brutal civil conflict.
But the lush vegetation and beautiful countryside are a backdrop to the long-running armed struggle between Marxist rebels and the government.
There are also simmering border tensions with Ecuador and, with thousands of hectares planted with coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine, Narino has become a key drug-trafficking corridor.
"Every week, there are shootings in my area. It's really bad, especially in the middle of the night," says a woman living near the border.
"The guerrillas are less a kilometre from my house," she says. "We pray to God for help."
Despite the danger, she says she has no intention of leaving her little wooden house where she lives with her two children and elderly mother in Ospina Perez, a small hamlet of the town of Ricaurte.
But many people have fled their homes. The conflict in Colombia has left the country with one of the world's biggest populations of internally displaced people.
The regional government estimates that since 2001, some 117,000 people have been displaced in Narino.
You only have to look at the faces of people walking around the streets to realise just how scared they are.
Martha Isabel Velasquez was forcibly displaced from the countryside and now lives in Ricaurte.
"My husband, who was a cattle dealer, was attacked by the paramilitaries. We lost everything and had to leave the farm," Ms Velasquez says.
Xabier Hernandez, peace adviser for the provincial government, says that Narino is "a geo-strategic area", because its location in south-west Colombia means it connects the Amazon and the Pacific.
The region - rich in natural resources but one of the poorest and most backward areas of Colombia - has become a base from where traffickers can send cocaine to the Mexican cartels.
This hugely profitable trade has led to unlikely alliances being formed between guerrillas and paramilitaries, as they work together to control the areas of cultivation, the processing plants and the cocaine shipments.
"It's a perverse relationship," says Javier Dorado, president of the Permanent Committee for Human Rights in Narino.
The guerrillas are, as he puts it, "in bed with the paramilitaries".
Xabier Hernandez says some areas have double the national murder rate
Travelling south on the Pan-American Highway, then veering west, you go through Tuquerres, a mountainous area famous for its potatoes.
Just a few kilometres from a village, the burnt-out remains of a bus, destroyed by guerrillas, lie on the roadside.
Little by little, you begin to notice the increasing number of police and army patrol posts along the highway.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe recently urged the security forces "to restore total security to the area".
"Let the day come soon when we can truly say we have defeated the criminal drug-trafficking gangs and the guerrillas who still linger out there causing so much damage, killing our indigenous Awa," Mr Uribe said.
This was reference to a series of attacks on the Awa indigenous community this year that are thought to have left about 50 people dead.
While violence has decreased in many of Colombia's urban areas, the opposite has happened in Narino.
The rise in violence is attributed by some to the arrival of so many drug traffickers driven out of neighbouring areas by government forces under the US-backed anti-drugs initiative Plan Colombia.
"In several municipalities, the murder rate is double the national average," says Mr Hernandez.
But the government secretary of Narino, Fabio Trujillo, says drug trafficking has long existed in the area.
And he says that the authorities "have regained control of the territory".
"These days we have police stationed in every town and village and the conflict has shifted to the jungle areas," Mr Trujillo said.
But for the time being, Narino seems destined to continue suffering from the effects of drug trafficking and an armed struggle that shows little sign of ending. | <urn:uuid:297b5a13-5768-4a3c-96fa-a8f4668adf06> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8237869.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392159.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00016-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960575 | 893 | 2.546875 | 3 |
- Buyers Guide
Exploiting Filter Symmetry
The manifestation of physical and response symmetry in electric-wave filters
Symmetry is an element of beauty. Besides it's esthetic appeal, symmetry is practical. Symmetry has two important manifestations in electric-wave filters: symmetry with respect to element values mirrored about the input and output (physical symmetry) and symmetry in the responses mirrored about the center frequency of bandpass filters (response symmetry).
For lumped-element filters, physical symmetry results in the reduction by a factor of two of the number of unique elements that must be designed, modeled, purchased, tested, stocked and picked for assembly. This leads to savings in both design and manufacturing effort. For distributed-element filters that are simulated using electromagnetic simulation, physical symmetry can reduce the required execution time and memory by as much as a factor of sixteen if the simulator takes advantage of symmetry. Electromagnetic simulation of complex circuits might not be feasible without this memory reduction, while the increased execution speed often reduces simulation time from hours to minutes.
Response symmetry is particularly desirable for IF filters. Conventional exact transform bandpass filters have a symmetrical response when plotted on a logarithmic frequency scale (geometric symmetry); however, it is typically arithmetic symmetry (a plot on a linear frequency scale) that is desirable. Arithmetic symmetry also results in symmetry in the group-delay. Symmetry in the group-delay response results in simplified group-delay equalizer design.
Physical symmetry results naturally, without additional user effort, in filter types that are: (1) Butterworth, (2) odd-order Chebyshev and (3) coupled-resonator bandpass filters. It also is present in (4) low pass filters with finite transmission zero pairings and an odd quantity of zeros at infinity, and (5) bandpass filters with finite transmission zero pairings above or below (not both) the passband and with odd and equal quantities of zeros at DC and infinity (for example, 3 zeros at DC, 3 at infinity and 2 at equal frequency below the passband).
Physical symmetry maybe forced by (6) optimizing the response while forcing symmetry.
The design of types 1 through 3 is straightforward using well-known routines.1 These are restricted to all-pole filters. Types 4 and 5 with finite transmission zeros require direct synthesis techniques. Type 5 is useful when an asymmetric response is required, such as high selectivity on one or the other side of the passband. The design of type 6 benefits from the integrated synthesis and simulation environment provided by GENESYS 7.5.2 The design of physically symmetric filters will be illustrated for the type 4 low pass.
A LOW PASS WITH FINITE ZEROS AND PHYSICAL SYMMETRY
Consider the =S/FILTER= specification tab of a 2300 MHz low pass filter shown in Figure 1. All-pole low pass filters have all zeros of transmission at infinite frequency. To improve selectivity this filter includes transmission zeros at finite frequency. The placement of zeros conforms to the rules of type 4: the number of zeros at infinity is odd (1) and finite zeros are paired at 3800 MHz.
The schematic for the low pass is shown in Figure 2. Note the symmetry of the component values mirrored about the center 4.8914 nH inductor.
CONVERTING THE 2300 MHz LOW PASS TO DISTRIBUTED
This example illustrates how to realize the previous 2300 MHz low pass with distributed elements. The inductors are replaced with high impedance transmission lines3 using the formula
Z0 = ωL/sin
Z0 = characteristic impedance of the line
= electrical length of the line
ω= cutoff frequency in radians of the low pass filter
A higher impedance line results in shorter lengths thus improving the equivalence of a line to a lumped inductor.
The capacitors are replaced with low impedance lines3 using the formula
Z0 = sin /ωC
The series inductors are replaced with 10 mil wide lines and the shunt capacitors are replaced with 280 mil wide lines. The substrate parameters are
Er = 2.55
Tan = 0.0004
Rho = 1
Roughness = 0.055
Tmet = 0.71 mils
H = 31 mils
Using =T/LINE= the 10 mil wide lines are found to have a characteristic impedance of approximately 135 Ω and a full wavelength is 3733 mils at 2300 MHz. The 280 mil wide lines have a characteristic impedance of 20.7 Ω and a full wavelength is 3380 mils. The equivalent distributed structure is then shown in Figure 3 with the following dimensions
L1 = ?156
L3 = ?329
L4 = ?82.9
L6 = ?211
W1 = 10
W6 = 280
The effects of discontinuities are included by adding tee, step and end models. The lumped to distributed equivalents are only approximate and the discontinuities impact the response as well. All line lengths were therefore optimized using the circuit theory simulator =SUPERSTAR= to obtain the best response. The transmission and reflection plots with circular and square markers, shown in Figure 4, are for the original symmetric low pass filter. The triangular and diamond markers are plots of the distributed low pass after optimization. The degraded stopband performance of the distributed filter above 5000 MHz is a natural limitation of distributed filters and is due to re-entrant modes.
Next =LAYOUT= is used to create a layout of the filter. This same layout is used to export a Gerber file for manufacture and as a complete circuit description for the electromagnetic simulator =EMPOWER=. The layout is given in Figure 5. Note the second series L-C to ground was turned upward, resulting in 180° rotational symmetry that is even more efficient than mirror symmetry about the center. =EMPOWER= automatically performs an electromagnetic analysis of this layout.
The responses of the circuit theory simulation in =SUPERSTAR= and the =EMPOWER= simulation are shown in Figure 6. This exceptional correlation is not always achieved because =EMPOWER= often reveals limitations associated with circuit theory simulation.
None of the popular low pass to bandpass transforms have arithmetic symmetry. The conventional bandpass filter with alternating series and shunt resonators has an equal number of transmission zeros at DC and infinite frequency. For example, a 3-section (6th-degree) bandpass has 3 transmission zeros at DC and 3 at infinity. Carassa4 proved that if the number of transmission zeros at infinity is 3 times the number at DC then the response can be symmetric. This can be maintained even with the addition of transmission zeros at finite frequencies. The conventional bandpass has too few zeros at infinity in relation to the number at DC and therefore too little selectivity above the passband to be symmetric.
Blinchikoff5 described a flat group-delay bandpass that satisfied Carassa's criteria but it is only available for third-order all-pole filters of 30 percent to 70 percent bandwidth. In 1989 a low pass to bandpass transform was developed that complied with Carassa's rule and resulted in arithmetic symmetry. Rhea3 described this transform in more detail. However, this transform is approximate and is available only for all-pole filters.
The direct synthesis routines in =S/FILTER= offer a more elegant solution to this problem because the user may specify all infinite and finite transmission zero frequencies. The following example illustrates how to design bandpass filters with arithmetic response symmetry.
A FILTER WITH RESPONSE SYMMETRY
The specifications tab for a 70 MHz IF filter with 30 MHz bandwidth is shown in Figure 7. Notice that the quantity of zeros at infinity is 3 times the quantity at DC. Finite transmission zeros were added above and below the passband to improve selectivity. They were manually tuned to 38.7 and 103.2 to achieve a minimum attenuation in the stopband of 42 dB.
The four non-finite and two finite zeros may be extracted in a number of different sequences. The =S/FILTER= Extraction tab shown in Figure 8 illustrates there are 120 possible permutations of extraction sequence, and 30 unique and different possible filter topology schematics.
The extraction sequence 103.2 38.7 DC was selected because it contained the fewest number of inductors (4) and had a desirable maximum to minimum ratio of inductor values (6.48888) thus improving realizability. The resulting schematic is shown in Figure 9.
=S/FILTER= includes built-in transforms to manipulate a topology to one that is more desirable. Here it is desired to remove the transformer and the following transforms were applied.
1) C4 was swapped with L3/C5
2) L4 was swapped with C6
3) A Norton Series was applied to C6 using the option "Calculate N to remove existing transformer"
4) Simplify Circuit was clicked
The final schematic is shown in Figure 10. Notice the transformer is removed and the inductor ratio is reduced to 2.56 (L2/L1). If this filter were realized using a conventional elliptic filter the response would not be symmetric, 5 inductors rather than 4 would have been required and the minimum to maximum inductor ratio would exceed 8. The response for this remarkable filter is shown in Figure 11. Notice the excellent transmission and amplitude and group-delay symmetry.
The previous filter has non-standard component values and ignores parasitic effects. Converting a theoretical design to a more realistic design that considers standard values and parasitics is illustrated next. This is best classified as an activity because it involves procedures that rely not only on theoretical concepts but also the user's knowledge of the components. One of this author's work responsibilities is to influence the development of products to optimize their usefulness from the engineer's perspective. However, regardless of the sophistication of a software suite, a skilled designer will leave his creative mark on circuits. Parasitics are strongly influenced by the choice of components and their environment. The set of steps described here should be interpreted broadly.
Only one set of component values resulting from each specific extraction sequence realizes the exact transfer function. A Norton transform may be applied to the filter to change the internal impedance level of the filter to make a specific component a standard value. This may be applied repeatedly from left to right until each component is a standard value. However, each Norton transform application adds a component to the design, therefore doubling the number of elements in the filter. Furthermore, the termination impedances are modified.
One may select nearby standard values and accept a degraded response. However, the presence of parasitics makes standard values an idealistic concept. Furthermore, acceptance of a compromised response is subjective. One designer might choose the next highest standard value while another might choose the next lowest standard value based on response objectives.
There is more freedom in dealing with these issues than might at first be imagined. Only three basic principles define a bandpass filter. First, resonators must exist. Secondly, the resonators must be coupled and third, the end resonators must be coupled to the terminations. The response is naturally more sensitive to the individual resonator frequencies than to coupling values. Therefore, since the frequency a resonator operates at may be adjusted by either the capacitor or the inductor, a strategy of setting the frequency by adjusting either the capacitor or inductor is generally successful. In other words, setting all capacitors on standard values and using tunable inductors, or vice versa, works well.
Both standard values and parasitics disturb the ideal response. An effective procedure is to deal with both issues simultaneously using optimization. Our strategy here is to add parasitics to the simulation, set capacitors on standard values and optimize the inductors to recover the response.
The filter will be constructed with leaded capacitors and inductors. The estimated inductance in series with each capacitor is 10 nH and the capacitance associated with the inductor is modeled as 0.125 pF to ground at each end of the inductor. Figure 12 shows the final schematic with parasitics added, standard capacitors and optimized inductor values. The inductors are not standard values because the strategy was to use tunable inductors.
Figure 13 shows the responses before (dashed) and after (solid) optimization. The primary effect of standard values and parasitics was degradation of the return loss. The degradation here is moderate. Higher frequencies, better return loss and narrower bandwidth increase component sensitivity and realistic designs often result in more severe degradation. In this case, optimization improved the return loss from 11 to 13 dB. *
1. G. Matthaei, L. Young and E.M.T. Jones, Microwave Filters, Impedance-matching Networks and Coupling Structures, Artech House, Norwood, MA, 1980.
2. GENESYS Version 7.5 Operation Manuals, Eagleware Corp., Norcross, GA, 2000.
3. R. Rhea, HF Filter Design and Computer Simulation, Noble Publishing, Atlanta, GA, 1994.
4. F. Carassa, "Bandpass Filters Having Quasi-symmetrical Attenuation and Group-delay Characteristics," Alta Frequenza, July 1961, p. 488.
5. H. Blinchikoff and A. Zverev, Filtering in the Time and Frequency Domains, Krieger Publishing, Malabar, FL, 1987.
Randall Rhea has degrees from the University of Illinois and Arizona State University. He worked at the Boeing Company, Goodyear Aerospace and Scientific Atlanta, where he was appointed Principle Engineer in 1985. In 1985, Randy founded Eagleware Corp., developer of the analog, RF and microwave design tool GENESYS, with thousands of users worldwide. In 1994, he founded Noble Publishing. Randy is the author of numerous technical articles and the books Oscillator Design and Computer Simulation and HF Filter Design and Computer Simulation. He is also the author of Chapter 6 of the Handbook of Microwave Technology. He is the author of the original versions of four programs in the GENESYS software suite. For a decade he has taught workshops worldwide at trade shows and within corporations. | <urn:uuid:160d5a94-14eb-4701-af5d-aed341f6a713> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.microwavejournal.com/articles/3162-exploiting-filter-symmetry | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404405.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00038-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912979 | 2,984 | 2.765625 | 3 |
You can read about fractional distillation here.
In simple language, each component of a mixture that has a different boiling point will distill and be separated into its fractions, hence the name.
To determine the number of fractions you will get from your compound, you will first need to determine the number of possible isomers, look up the boiling point of each, and IF THE BOILING POINTS ARE SUFFICIENTLY DIFFERENT, then you could separate each of them.
Just a few tips when working out isomers for a molecular formula such as this.
1. If the molecular formula corresponds to Cn(Monovalent)2n+2 there are no double bonds/rings to be taken into account. Here it is C4(Monovalent)10 which corresponds to the formula so there are no double donds or rings. [There is a formula which calculates the number of double bond equivalents, but I do not need to complicate things]
2. Decide on the hydrocarbon structures that are possible. There are only 2 here.
3. Using the hydrocarbon structures replace the H atoms, in this case with Cl atoms. There are a number of isomers, about 9 but I have only doodled on a envelope, plus some optical isomers.
In your answer I would note the optical isomers but the optical isomers can't be separated by fractional distillation.
Good luck, it is an interesting question. | <urn:uuid:91ddb424-348c-4bfc-82e4-69a74fd730f9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jiskha.com/display.cgi?id=1228106880 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397567.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00064-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.898134 | 306 | 3.34375 | 3 |
A study on the value of the Glycemic Index of food, released in February 2006, claims that there is no correlation between the glycemic index and blood sugar levels. Let's evaluate this study.
First, of course, it's important to understand what the glycemic index is. I have a Full Definition of Glycemic Index, but in short, glycemic index is how quickly a given food kicks up your blood sugar levels. If you eat white rice, it makes your blood sugar levels spike high - then plummet again when the sugar is absorbed. This roller coaster effect is of course not great for you. If you eat brown rice instead, it is absorbed slowly by your body - so you get a nice, smooth influx of sugar. This is easier for your body to handle. Even if both had the "same carbs", the brown rice would be better for you.
Now, on to the study, discussed in the British Journal of Nutrition. They asked 1,000 people about their eating habits - high glycemic or low glycemic - over 5 years. So far, so good. However, apparently they only tested the blood sugar levels of the people TWICE! TWO TIMES! Doesn't this seem a little odd to you? Note that it seems so odd to me that I'm personally writing the study lead, to get exact clarification on this.
The whole point of glycemic index is that when you eat a food, you have something happen shortly after you eat it. But say you ate a plate-load of Ring Dings at noon. Say your sister ate a plate-load of broccoli at noon. If you tested both of your blood sugar levels the next day, they'd probably be the same! Nobody was ever saying that eating Ring Dings would *permanently* affect your blood sugar levels for the rest of your entire lifetime. If it did, then you wouldn't have the roller-coaster effect, where your blood sugar levels spike high, then trough down low, enticing you to eat more sugary food. We wouldn't have the "Chinese Food Effect" where you eat a lot of starchy Chinese food, get a high from it, then feel really hungry again when you come down from that high.
In a press release, the study lead explained that part of her issue with glycemic index numbers is that they were determined in a lab and are always estimates, subject to situational adjustments. That is, if you ate a carrot on an empty stomach, it might be absorbed differently than if you ate it after eating 2 tons of whole wheat bread.
Sure, that's true! That's true with anything. That's true with alcohol. If you drink alcohol on an empty stomach, it reacts differently than alcohol with a meal. If you eat an orange, it is absorbed differently than if you drink orange juice. Heck, if you eat a super sweet variety of apple, you get more calories/carbs/etc. than if you eat a really non-sweet variety of apple, but all of the charts only have one "apple" value.
Life is like that. No number is absolute. All numbers are guidelines. Still, if you know the *range* of a celery stick is really low, and that the *range* for a piece of pineapple is really high, it gives you relative weights to start working with.
There have been other studies that have shown that low glycemic foods do help maintain an even keel and therefore control hunger. For example, a study done at the Boston's Children's Hospital had a group of people eat low glycemic food and another eat high glycemic food. Later THAT SAME DAY, the people who ate the high glycemic food were hungry again, quickly. It's the Chinese Food effect. This is the way you test the impact of glycemic index issues - not over five years.
Read the study details for yourself, to see how glycemic index should actually be tested.
High Glycemic Study Details
Similar High Glycemic Study at Oxford
Lisa Shea's Library of Low Carb Books | <urn:uuid:89a0ab12-f446-48df-bc6c-94ee5d0dab8e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bellaonline.com/ArticlesP/art26894.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00087-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961548 | 833 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Katie is sharing a fun summer project we can do with our kids: Grow vegetables in jars! Who says learning has to stop, just because school is out?
The first question you might be asking yourself is, why on earth would anyone want to plant vegetables in a jar? After all, isn’t that what a garden plot or flower pots are for? Well yes, they are, but something unique happens when you plant vegetables in a jar. When you plant root vegetables in a jar such as carrots, radishes, or onions, the clear glass of the jar allows you to watch the underground growing process. This is something you can’t do when you plant in a garden or pot! In just a few days, you can easily watch the roots sprout and grow under the dirt, and soon after watch the vegetable form to maturity. It is almost like having a secret window to an underground world where vegetables flourish and grow, just waiting to be picked and enjoyed.
If you have kids, they will love getting involved in this activity. It is easy for them to help with and they will enjoy checking the below ground progress each day. Vegetables in a jar are ideal for windowsill gardens, or if it is warm enough you can choose to place them directly outdoors on a deck or patio. Are you ready to get started? Let’s take a look at how easy it is.
How to Plant Vegetables in a Jar:
Glass canning jars. (Use the larger jars for optimum depth. These can be found at most craft stores and thrift stores. You don’t need the lids so don’t worry about those.)
Root vegetable seeds. This includes: onions, radishes, turnips, and carrots.
As you can see, these supplies are easy to come by. You should be able to find everything you need at your local big box retail store. Your local dollar store will even carry the seeds and potting soil for $1.00 each so be sure to keep your eyes peeled the next time you stop in. Your pebbles can be found in your own backyard. These don’t need to be fancy, just something that is pea sized.
1. Rinse out your jars to remove any debris.
2. Fill your jars ¼ full of your pebbles. They should coat the bottom well. This step is important because the pebbles will provide some drainage since you don’t have drainage holes.
3. Now add your soil. Fill to the top of the jar, leaving about 1 inch of space.
4. Use your finger to make a hole for your seed. Consult your seed packet to find out how deep the hole should be for proper growth.
5. Put in 2-3 seeds. Not all of the seeds will grow, so by putting in 2-3 you are insuring yourself with some back up. Cover with more soil.
6. Water gently. Don’t allow the water to pool or puddle.
7. Place in a sunny spot and continue to water to keep the soil moist.
In a few days, you will start to see the sprouting take place. The roots will develop quickly and begin to show through the glass. Eventually, the vegetable will start to take place and you can watch its development! The amount of time the vegetable takes to reach maturity will depend on the variety of vegetables you have planted. The important thing to remember is to keep your plant watered and in a sunny spot as you would any other plant. When it does reach maturity, you can pull directly from the jar and enjoy!
This is such a fun experiment to do with your family and one you will want to try each year. It is inexpensive, easy, and quite the conversation starter when guests come over and see it sprouting in your window. So give it a try, and see what results you can come up with. Happy growing!
Katie Femia is a wife and mother of three. She loves vintage finds, handmade goodness, the frugal life, and the long road to publication. You can find her at The Savvy Luna Bugg, the blog for frugalistas seeking simplicity through a handmade and vintage lifestyle. | <urn:uuid:b1b9eb30-856d-4d3c-86f2-ef829e294a82> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://premeditatedleftovers.com/gardening/how-to-grow-vegetables-in-a-jar/ | 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 | 0.943149 | 879 | 2.703125 | 3 |
What does Boris mean?
The meaning of Boris is "battle".
It is also of Bulgarian origin, where its meaning is "small, short, wolf, snow leopard".
Boris is generally used as a boy's name.
It consists of 5 letters and 2 syllables and is pronounced Bo-ris.
The Given Name Boris
An auspicious name, it is one that will be admired.
Wrap it up and take it home, Boris may just be the name you're looking for.
Some famous bearers of this name include: Boris Dvornik, and Boris Godunov.
In contrast, the year before it ranked 2367 in baby name popularity for boys with 54 occurrences. Less than 5 girls were given the name.
The trend's your friend. See how Boris has changed in popularity since 1880 by visiting the Boris Name Popularity Page.
Boris Related Names
- Boris ~ Saint
- Boris Dvornik ~ Actor
- Boris Godunov ~ Russian Ruler (1598-1605)
- Boris I ~ Bulgarian King (852-889)
- Boris I of Bulgaria ~ Saint
- Boris II ~ Bulgarian King (969-977)
- Boris III ~ Bulgarian King (1918-1943)
- Boris Karloff ~ Actor
- Boris Pasternak ~ Nobel Prize for Literature 1958
- Boris Spassky ~ Chess Player
It may all be in the numbers.
The numbers that make up your child's name.
Numerology may give you some insight.
Children named Boris are often loud and playful but most of all they are read more >>
Boris Name Fun
Then just follow the diagram below. | <urn:uuid:fe2d1b00-8761-4863-94b4-b27a64f097fe> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ourbabynamer.com/meaning-of-Boris.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393332.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00053-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.866656 | 355 | 2.578125 | 3 |
The process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. Photosynthesis in plants generally involves the green pigment chlorophyll and generates oxygen as a byproduct.
- Stomata are involved in two of the most important plant processes, photosynthesis and transpiration.
- To avoid the production of oxygen via photosynthesis, plants were kept in the dark.
- It is created, as we have seen, during photosynthesis, when organisms strip oxygen from water molecules.
Words that rhyme with photosynthesissynthesis
For editors and proofreaders
Definition of photosynthesis in:
What do you find interesting about this word or phrase?
Comments that don't adhere to our Community Guidelines may be moderated or removed. | <urn:uuid:81d641a0-7182-49c8-9d3d-6f30b6954aac> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/photosynthesis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00111-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927036 | 160 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Frequent Flyer Beware: Jet Lag Is Bad for the Memory
Previous work by Cho and others has shown that long distance flights stimulate the body to produce a stress hormone called cortisol. While the flight attendants taking transatlantic flights less often had normal cortisol levels, those who crossed time zones more frequently had high cortisol levels in their saliva.
Over the long haul, Cho believes that elevated cortisol due to shifting time zones is responsible for both the loss of brain cells and the memory impairment. The higher the elevations in cortisol levels, the smaller the temporal lobe volumes on MRI.
To determine how long these effects last and to see whether they are reversible, Cho plans to study the women after they retire. Similar long-term effects of high cortisol on memory and on loss of brain cells have been reported in severe depression and in posttraumatic stress disorder.
This study is an interesting look at the possibility of permanent damage to the structure and functioning of the temporal lobe caused by a long-term disturbance of the body-clock, Rodolfo Costa, PhD, tells WebMD after reviewing the findings.
"It would ... be of major interest to investigate whether similar effects can be observed in people exposed to work-shift regimens," says Costa, a professor of biology at the University of Padova in Italy. Shift workers and even parents of young children may also have chronic sleep-deprivation and body clock disruption.
But Atkinson feels that the issue of shift work might be more complicated. Although night and day may be reversed for shift workers, this may not be as disruptive to the body clock as regular transcontinental flights, as there is at least a daily pattern to the disturbance. | <urn:uuid:d93ecd3f-659a-4544-b2d3-ed4af8a00c14> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20010522/frequent-flyer-beware-jet-lag-is-bad-for-memory?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403823.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00062-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941813 | 339 | 2.9375 | 3 |
|Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute||Home|
This unit is about how students learn. It details extensive study into the physiology of the brain and how the brain works. In my unit, a comparison of Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences and the general beliefs of mainstream psychologists was created. The unit reviews how Gardner believes in different independent intelligences such as Verbal/Linguistic, Logical /Mathematical, Visual/Spatial, Bodily/Kinesthetic, Musical/Rhythmic, Interpersonal and Intrapersonal skills. Then this theory is compared to the ideas of other researchers, such as Thomas Armstrong, Dr. Susan Teele, Ceci and Liker, as well as Dr. James Austin and Dr. Andrew Newberg, who support Howard Gardner’s claims of Independent Intelligences. It also looks at mainstream psychologists like Sperman, Wissler, Lewis Terman and R.B Cattel and their determination of “g” or general intelligence as well as the research into specific intelligence also known as “s”.
This unit encourages students to learn about how the brain functions when using different styles of learning. The use of hands-on activities will be the thrust of this classroom curriculum. The purpose of this unit is to let the students develop concrete guidelines that will help them understand how they learn best. The opportunity for the students to learn about how their brain functions will also help them to understand their own shortcomings or strengths at an early age. They may also begin to analyze how their intelligences have changed and can modify over time. This will also help students employ the learning styles that work best for them at this point in their lives.
(Recommended for Science, grades 7-8.) | <urn:uuid:c7ba4146-765d-4438-8680-abb0dcfb08c4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/guides/2001/6/01.06.11.x.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00158-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945789 | 364 | 4.28125 | 4 |
Definition of clamps. Meaning of clamps. Synonyms of clamps
Here you will find one or more explanations in English for the word clamps. Also in the bottom left of the page several parts of wikipedia pages related to the word clamps and, of course, clamps synonyms and on the right images related to the word clamps.
Definition of clamps
ClampClamp Clamp (kl[a^]mp), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Clamped
(kl[a^]mt; 215) p. pr. & vb. n. Clamping.]
1. To fasten with a clamp or clamps; to apply a clamp to; to
place in a clamp.
2. To cover, as vegetables, with earth. [Eng.] ClampClamp Clamp, n. [Prob. an imitative word. Cf. Clank.]
A heavy footstep; a tramp.
Clamp Clamp, v. i.
To tread heavily or clumsily; to clump.
The policeman with clamping feet. --Thackeray.
Meaning of clamps from wikipedia
Recent Searches ...
Related images to clamps | <urn:uuid:fe303da2-daf2-43ef-8022-32e7c31fd42a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wordaz.com/clamps.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403508.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00040-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.738662 | 261 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Altitude Training: Getting a Performance Boost Has Its Risks
Altitude training refers to a situation where athletes are competing at higher altitude than what they are accustomed to. Even an elevation as little as 7,500 feet can lead to a 5% deterioration in performance. The reason for this is because there is a decrease in the amount of oxygen (lower barometric pressure) that can be taken into the body and transported to the muscles. More specifically, a decrease in the maximum oxygen consumption.
People who are native to altitudes have shown to have larger chest capacity, more red blood cells (oxygen carrying cells), and more capillaries and more alveoli in the lungs. Some evidence indicates that this is some kind of genetic adaptation and much more than experienced by people who may relocate to altitude but are not native to it.
Someone who moves to altitude, even just after a months, show a conservation of glucose, more mitochondria, and more red blood cells (hemoglobin).
During the struggling phase, when a person first arrives at altitude, the following can be experienced; increased breathing, increased heart rate, increased hemoglobin in the blood, and changes in blood flow distribution (e.g. more blood being sent to the muscles as opposed to the digestive system).
The more time someone spends at altitude, e.g. before the competition, the better they will acclimatize. Some experts believe that 3 days is adequate, while other believe that 3 weeks is needed. Obviously the greater the altitude the more time will be needed.
Beware that there are problems that can occur. If the altitude is too great, or not enough time is allowed to acclimatize, the person could experience sleep problems, nausea, headaches, and dyspnea. This may happen at around 8000 feet. Pulmonary edema is much more serious and may occur at approximately 10,000 feet. This is when blood begins to pool in the lungs. As you can imagine if this continues it can become life threatening. The best treatment is to administer oxygen and to take the person to lower altitude.
In severe cases of altitude, called altitude sickness, the lungs are simply not able to absorb any of the oxygen in the air. This occurs because the oxygen pressure at those levels is very low. Bleeding can also occur in the lung tissue and may show up in coughs. If this continues death is imminent. | <urn:uuid:d8807006-ef8f-43ed-ae9c-1af81a523345> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://infolific.com/health-and-fitness/fitness/altitude-training/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397565.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00177-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953846 | 492 | 3.453125 | 3 |
The daily northwest winds of fall have been blowing through our August skies for two weeks now. On these winds come migrating birds from the forests of Canada, reaching our woods long before summer is over. Many of our tropical nesting birds have left us, spurred south by the cool, clear nights when they can see the stars.
Some of these migrants from Canada do not breed here, but only pass through in May and September, on their way to and from their more northern breeding grounds. A short walk in the thickets and forest edge behind the house gave me a close look at one of these, a Philadelphia vireo.
It emerged from the deeper but nearby woods when aroused by the pssssh noise I made. Birds are most attracted to this noise in late summer and fall, when the instinct to protect young birds is still strong. The vireo emerged from the deeper forest and foraged in the open along with several warblers.
Other such migrating species that have already been found in our region are a Wilson’s warbler, an olive-sided flycatcher, and two yellow-bellied flycatchers at different places on different days. These are some of the earliest autumn migration dates ever for such uncommon migrants.
Another group of birds that migrates from the north through our region in late August are the shorebirds. They will pause their southward rush only if they see some mudflats along our broad rivers or around receding reservoirs. The water levels were low here during early August, but the monsoon rain of Aug. 9 covered every muddy edge.
The rivers still ran too full when I visited on Aug. 15, but a few days later I got a call from a friend, Tom Gagnon. He was on his way to lead a butterfly walk in the Longmeadow Flats and Fannie Stebbins Wildlife Refuge, but stopped to search for waders and shorebirds first.
In West Springfield, he found five species of wading birds; green-heron, great blue heron, great egret, snowy egret, and black-crowned night-heron. At a spot on the Westfield River behind the Eastern States Exposition grounds, he found a muddy sandbar only just exposed by the falling water level.
Here were a group of shorebirds criss-crossing the sandbar on the far side. Two species were local residents, the killdeer and the spotted sandpiper, but others were migrants from farther north. These were least sandpipers, a solitary sandpiper and a Baird’s sandpiper.
I had not seen a Baird’s sandpiper in several years, so I dashed to this place soon after receiving Gagnon’s call. I found several least sandpipers in a small pool shaded by the overhanging trees at the edge of the river. With them was the Baird’s sandpiper, slightly larger, with longer wings that extended beyond the tail, and black rather than yellow legs.
At 6-inches long, the least sandpipers is our smallest shorebird, and the most common away from the coastline. In summer, flocks of up to fifty fly low over the Connecticut River, pausing briefly to rest or forage on sandbars.
The Baird’s sandpiper is one of our rarest shorebirds, either inland or at the coast. Its normal migration route is over the Great Plains, except for a few inexperienced young birds that wander east after leaving the Arctic islands of Canada and the Alaskan plains, where they are hatched.
Their migration takes them to and from the grasslands of Argentina and Paraguay, a trip of about 3,700 miles. They do not tarry much along the way, covering this enormous distance in about five weeks. It is hard to imagine how a 7-inch bird, poking at a puddle in a river sandbar in West Springfield, might manage such a feat, even on long wings.
While I watched this little brown bird, a series of enormously loud and grating croaks gave me a start. It came from downstream a short way, and was quickly followed by two gargantuan white herons flying toward me. They circled before me and silently headed down the river.
These graceful sailing creatures were great egrets, another coastal species that visits us in late summer, tasting the banquet of fish our rivers afford. Who can say summer birding has no excitement?
Seth Kellogg can be contacted at [email protected]
The Allen Bird Club website can be found at massbird.org/allen | <urn:uuid:2f13ad7a-6ccc-427f-8ee7-a72f4786bc61> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.masslive.com/living/index.ssf/2013/08/seth_kelloggs_birds_of_the_air_early_migrants_add_excitement_for_birders.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00130-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961822 | 960 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Definition of double bar
: two adjacent vertical lines or a heavy single line separating principal sections of a musical composition
First Known Use of double bar
Rhymes with double bar
abattoir, acinar, air guitar, Aligarh, aide-mémoire, arctic char, au revoir, avatar, blazing star, bolivar, Bolívar, brittle star, bumper car, cabin car, cable car, café noir, Castlebar, cinnabar, coffee bar, color bar, command car, commissar, coplanar, Côte d'Ivoire, cultivar, deodar, dining car, double star, error bar, escolar, escritoire, evening star, exemplar, falling star, feather star, funny car, giant star, handlebar, insofar, isobar, Issachar, jacamar, jaguar, jaunting car, Kandahar, kilobar, Krasnodar, mason jar, megabar, megastar, millibar, minibar, minicar, Miramar, montagnard, morning star, motorcar, Mudejar, muscle car, Myanmar, neutron star, objet d'art, open bar, parlor car, pinot noir, Qiqihar, registrar, rent-a-car, repertoire, reservoir, ricercar, rising star, salad bar, Salazar, samovar, scimitar, seminar, shooting star, Silver Star, simular, sleeping car, steak tartare, steel guitar, subahdar, superstar, tiki bar, torsion bar, touring car, tutelar, turbocar, Valdemar, VCR, Veadar, wrecking bar, wunderbar, X-ray star, Yourcenar, zamindar, Zanzibar
Seen and Heard
What made you want to look up double bar? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible). | <urn:uuid:e7d14394-7573-4d33-8ee4-5bcd06748587> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/double%20bar | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00176-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.69365 | 429 | 2.6875 | 3 |
A solid-state drive (SSD), like the name suggests, consists of flash memory, similar to what's in USB flash drives...
or Secure Digital media cards.
From the outside, SSDs intended for notebook computers have the size, shape and SATA interface of their 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch hard disk drive (HDD) counterparts, and appear the same to the operating system.
However, there are some important differences:
- Capacity and price
Notebook HDDs today go up to 500 GB (although 160 GB to 320 GB is more typical), and cost about $1/GB through a notebook vendor, or .50/GB or .25/GB as swap-in component purchases from sources like Micro Center or Newegg.com.
Typical notebook-sized SSD capacities are 32 GB, 64 GB, 80 GB, 128 GB and 160 GB. The first 256 GB notebook SSDs are expected by the end of 2008, and can add several hundred to more than a thousand dollars to the cost of a notebook -- or cost $3/GB to $10 per gigabyte purchased separately.
And unless a user has lots of data, or feels the need to consume mass quantities of music and videos, 32 GB is more than enough space. (A full Windows OS and Office install plus other typical applications can be squeezed into 3 GB or 4 GB, and fits quite comfortably in under 10 GB.)
- Reliability and availability
SSDs will survive, and keep working, through bumps and thumps that can either damage HDDs, or cause the heads to auto-park, which can interfere with operations that need disk access.
Depending on your application and configuration, SSDs may speed up anything from boot time to application loading to application performance. Some users report seeing a meaningful difference, but many others don't.
- Environmental factors
Many hard drives don't do well at high altitudes, due to the lower air pressure. However, SSDs should still work under these conditions. Even when hard drives work in higher altitudes, they may degrade or fail sooner. SSDs like Super Talent's I-temp SSDs are designed to tolerate extreme temperature, vibration or humidity conditions.
There are many differences in SSD, and they are not all created equal.
There are two different architectural approaches -- Single-level Cell (SLC) and Multi-level Cell (MLC).Single-level Cell SDDs are more expensive and historically more reliable. However, MLC SDDs from vendors like Intel are closing the performance and reliability gap versus SLC SDDs.
Also, there may be differences due to each vendor's drivers, software, algorithms and manufacturing technology. For example, Intel uses 10 parallel NAND flash channels with its MLC SSDs. This supports up to 32 concurrent operations through its Native Command Queuing, and Intel says it has an extremely low Write Amplification Factor compared to other vendors. This factor represents the amount of overhead in doing a write, which impacts how fast the chip will wear down and improves the performance and longevity of its MLC and SLC NAND flash.
Notebook vendors offering SSD-based notebooks, or SSD options, include Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard Co., Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba. Intel, Samsung and other vendors offer SSD notebook hard drives, and you can find and buy SSDs from NewEgg.com and other outlets.
Many of the $299 to sub-$1,000, two to three pound "netbook" computers, like the Asus Eee, also use solid-state storage, which is for smaller capacities and is less expensive than hard drives. Many netbooks also offer a choice of SDD or HDD.
For now, says Joseph Unsworth, research director, NAND flash semiconductors, Gartner Inc., "Companies should consider SSD if their needs demand greater reliability and higher performance with relatively low storage requirements."
For example, field service, industrial, military and mobile/in-vehicle applications, where there's lots of environmental stress, and/or timely fix or return isn't an option, SSDs (and a semi-rugged or fully-rugged notebook, overall), are likely to be a good investment. Equally, SSDs may be worth the added price bump for circumstances where other benefits like low-noise or performance/runtime improvements are meaningful, e.g., for lawyers and frequent travelers.
Otherwise, says Unsworth, "Gartner has recommended that outside of [these] special circumstances, companies should hold off on mainstream PC SSD adoption until 2010. This will allow more competition, considerably lower prices (128 GB available at around a $200 price-point) and technological advancements that will enhance the value proposition."
Meanwhile, while a full SSD is expensive, if your notebook can accommodate it, you can get the outstanding performance benefit of an SSD with a comparatively inexpensive Intel Turbo Memory ExpressCard or mini-PCIe add-on/in, notes Howard Locker, director of new technology, Lenovo. "In addition to the hard drive, my ThinkPad has 4 GB of solid-state memory that caches everything, and the performance is unbelievable."
Daniel P. Dern is an independent technology writer. He can be reached at [email protected]. His web site is www.dern.com and his technology blog is Let us know. Please let others know how useful this tip was via the rating scale below.
Do you know a helpful storage tip, timesaver or workaround? Email the editors to talk about writing for SearchSMBStorage.com. | <urn:uuid:2714f02a-1098-4814-be27-224fb057382d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://searchsmbstorage.techtarget.com/tip/The-pros-and-cons-of-solid-state-drives-for-notebook-computers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396945.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00016-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930953 | 1,154 | 2.90625 | 3 |
These are quadratic equations. You solve them by factorising. The coefficient of x^2 is called a, the coefficient of x is called b, and the constant is called c.
1. Find ac.
2. Find the factors of ac which add and make b.
3. Rewrite the bx term using these factors.
4. Factorise the first and last terms.
5. Find the common factor, put that in the first bracket.
6. Put what is left in the second bracket.
I'll do the first one for you.
a = 1
b = -1
c = -6
Now you have factorised it. Now one of the brackets must equal 0, as anything multiplied by 0 = 0.
So for the first bracket to equal 0, x would have to be -2, as -2 + 2 = 0
For the second would it would have to be 3, as 3 - 3 = 0.
So your solutions are x = -2, and x = 3.
You should be able to finish the rest following my steps. | <urn:uuid:82a72899-758a-40c4-a1a0-93676dc1509f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://mathhelpforum.com/math-topics/71355-please-help-me-solve-these-things.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395548.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00127-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977079 | 231 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Investments in education and human capital have long been recognized as precipitators of future economic growth. Rapid development in Korea in the second half of the 20th century, for instance, has been traced by scholars back to high levels of investments in schooling and training, creating the enabling environment for industrialization and further specialization.
There is no doubt that commitment to education for economic development requires both long-term funding and the multiplying effects of time.
But what causes countries with similar levels of sustained spending to achieve vastly different outcomes? It's a question that burns in the minds and wallets of governments and development efforts around the world. | <urn:uuid:5d9c704f-7442-4e42-85c3-f0a8032ca6e3> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.worldbank.org/education/archive/201004 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397567.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00182-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958084 | 126 | 2.875 | 3 |
August 30, 2000
'Dead' Time Between Photon Emissions From Quantum Dots Proves Quantum Theory of Light
Result Occurring at Room Temperature Surprises Researchers, Makes Applications in Quantum Computing and Optics Promising
Santa Barbara, Calif.--A research team at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) has proved that a "dead" time exists between emission of photons from a single quantum dot. The experiment, the first to detect this phenomenon variously called "photon anti-bunching" or "quantum correlation" for a single semiconductor quantum dot, represents a verification of the quantum theory of light.
Achievement of that experimental milestone alone would have merited publication of the research in Nature. But the article in the Aug. 31 issue announces another result that surprised the researchers themselves -- that quantum correlation could be detected at room temperature. That finding is significant for applications in quantum computing and quantum optics.
Quantum dots are made by enclosing a small amount of a semiconducting material within another semiconducting material. Energy added in the form of light particles or photons causes a particle (electron, hole, or an electron-hole pair) in the contained material to move to a higher energy state. Band gap refers to the difference between the original and the more energetic particle states.
In quantum dots the band gap of containing materials is higher than the band gap of the contained materials. That difference in band gaps leads to input energy being trapped in the smaller band-gap material. That energy is released in the form of a photon.
The experiment described in the Nature article "Quantum Correlation Between Photons From a Single Quantum Dot at Room Temperature" showed that an interval of time existed between the emission of photons from a single quantum dot. In other words, the energy emitted was not continuous but in packets or quanta, as the theory of quantum mechanics prescribes.
The down time between emissions is accounted for by the charge carrier moving to a lower energy state and then absorbing more energy to move to the higher state before being able to emit another photon.
Such experimental verification of the quantum nature of energy emitted from a single quantum dot was done for a single atom in 1977 and for a single molecule in 1992. The current experiment shows that in terms of absorbing and emitting energy (i.e., the electromagnetic force), quantum dots behave like atoms -- hence the appellation, "artifical" atom.
UCSB researchers with different interests teamed up to do the experiment. Ataç Imamoglu, professor of computer and electrical engineering and of physics, and his postdoctoral fellow and the paper's first author, Peter Michler, focused on the implications of the research for quantum computing.
The other four authors are members of the Chemistry Department, including associate professor Steve Buratto and his graduate student, Michael Mason, and postdoctoral fellow Paul Carson. Assistant professor Geoffrey Strouse, a synthetic chemist, made the nanoscale semiconductor quantum dots.
Those quantum dots consisted of a core material cadmium selenide (low band gap) enveloped in zinc selenide (high band gap) enveloped in an organic molecule that acts like a greaseball to keep the aggregates in a solvent from clumping together. Synthesizing semiconductors via the techniques of chemistry (in contrast to the more standard Molecular Beam Epitaxy [MBE] and Metal-Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition [MOCVD] techniques of engineering) is about 10 years old.
Imamoglu has laid out a multi-step research program which represents, in effect, a campaign he means to conduct on the overarching problem of quantum information processing. Proving the quantum correlation effect for quantum dots is the first step in his program because it shows that quantum dots consist of a two-level system.
The idea eventually is to use spin states of electrons as the quantum-bits or Q-bits analogous to the zero and one binary code of electronic computing. That code requires a two-level system. The reported work demonstrates that a single quantum dot exhibits the necessary two-level system and therefore opens the way towards quantum information processing in an all semiconductor system.
Top, plot of continuous light in contrast to bottom,
showing light as discretely emitted particles or photons.
Imamoglu said, "In a sense we were expecting that a single quantum dot would behave the way we proved it behaves. But the real surprise -- something I wasn't expecting -- was getting this result at room temperature. That's exciting in terms of applications because it is so much easier to operate at room temperature than at cryogenic temperature."
Why was obtaining the result at room temperature such a surprise?
Imamoglu explains that with other features that have been identified in both atoms and quantum dots or "artificial" atoms, the similarity in features occurs when the quantum dots are at low temperature. "What is nice in our experiments," said Imamoglu, "is that this property of generating non-classical light is a robust property that survives at room temperature despite other signatures being washed away. That is our most striking result!"
Buratto's long-term research interests diverge from Imamoglu's. He and his collaborators "want to explore the fundamental photophysics of these kind of systems. We want to understand the excited state dynamics and measure the distribution of lifetimes."
He explains that for a physical chemist nanoscale quantum dots are like snowflakes, each with a different structure and a different longevity in the excited state. "The idea," said Buratto, "is to plot the distribution of lifetimes to see if we can detect a pattern and see if we can figure out what determines how long a given particle stays in the excited state."
Does Buratto envision any practical consequences of such fundamental photophysics explorations?
"Possibly a whole new way of making Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and lasers," he responded. "Think, for instance, of making a laser from an ordered array of self-assembled quantum dots."
Note: Professor Imamoglu can be reached in Istanbul, Turkey, by phone at 011-90-216-308-3482 or by e-mail at [email protected]. Professor Buratto can be reached at (805) 893-3393 or [email protected].
Media ContactTony Rairden | <urn:uuid:0a63cff6-5ec6-42df-a0a5-0fccbf2f0d71> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.engr.ucsb.edu/news/115/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00051-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923934 | 1,321 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Much of what we believe to be factual has an expiration date.
In primary school you learned that there were nine planets in the solar system. There weren’t any that were known to exist outside of it. Since then, astronomers have spotted over 800 planets around other stars (and thousands more “candidates”) and demoted Pluto to a mere “dwarf planet”. Even a cursory glance at other fields reveals similar patterns.
Samuel Arbesman, a mathematician at Harvard, calls this “The Half-life of Facts”, the title of his new book. In it he explains that this churn of knowledge is like radioactive decay: you cannot predict which individual fact is going to succumb to it, but you can know how long it takes for half the facts in a discipline to become obsolete. Such quantitative analysis of science has become known as scientometrics. We talked to Dr Arbesman about how knowledge changes over time, and what this means for the way people consume information.
What is scientometrics?
Put simply, scientometrics is the science of science. It grew out of bibliometrics, the science of books and research papers. In bibliometrics the unit of measurement is a research paper, which are easy to study because you can quantify different aspects of it: who the authors are, who has co-authored papers with those authors, how often a paper is cited, by whom, and so on.
Librarians were some of the first people to do this. In the 1970s people started looking around and noticing that scientific knowledge was growing very rapidly, but papers had not been digitised yet, and libraries were finite in size and had finite resources. And so librarians had to grapple with the question what to carry on their shelves. They had to calculate which fields get overturned really rapidly, in other words, which papers and books people were unlikely to care about in the future.
But bibliometrics is only one subfield of scientometrics. There are all kinds of ways that you can quantify science: you can measure the number of discoveries that are occurring within a particular field, the number of elements in the periodic table, etc. Broadly, scientometrics is about quantifying and understanding how science occurs.
That includes both the social aspects of science and the relationship between science and technology. There is a tight interplay between the capacities of our tools and what we can actually discover. Technology is crucial to the story of science. Science of science is about all these different things. And my book is about how the facts of the world—the stuff we know—grow in number, and how they change.
What does it mean to say that a fact has a half-life?
When I say that a fact has a half-life, I am trying to illustrate how knowledge changes by making an analogy to radioactivity. With radioactivity, if you give me a single atom of uranium, I can tell you it will eventually decay. When it does, it will break down into specific bits and release a certain amount of energy. But I have no way of telling when it is going to decay. It could be in the next half-second or not for millions and millions of years.
But things change when you go from a single atom to lots of atoms. When you have a big chunk of uranium, you can graph out the decay; you can say it takes 4.47 billion years for half of the atoms in a chunk of uranium to break down. You aren’t going to know which half, but you know the overall rate of the decay. And the same thing is true for science, and for knowledge in general. Even though I cannot predict what discovery is going to be made or what fact is going to be overturned, there are regularities in how knowledge grows and changes over time.
For example, in the area of medical science dealing with hepatitis and cirrhosis, two liver diseases, researchers actually measured how long it takes for half of the knowledge in these fields to be overturned. They gave a whole bunch of research papers from fifty years ago to a panel of experts and asked them which were still regarded as true and which had been refuted or no longer considered interesting. They plotted this on a graph. What they found is that there is a nice, smooth rate of decay; you can predict that every 45 years, half of this particular sort of knowledge gets outdated.
You can use these same methods with citations in newer papers. There, you look to see how long papers are cited in a field and then derive a half-life based on how long it takes for papers to receive half the citations they used to receive. Of course, some papers are no longer cited precisely because they are so influential. No one is citing Newton’s Principia even though we still use a lot of his ideas. But by and large, the citation rate of papers is a good proxy for the half-life of knowledge.
What scientific fields decay the slowest—or the fastest—and what drives that difference?
Well it depends, because these rates tend to change over time. For example, when medicine transitioned from an art to a science, its half-life was much more rapid than it is now. That said, medicine still has a very short half-life; in fact it is one of the areas where knowledge changes the fastest. One of the slowest is mathematics, because when you prove something in mathematics it is pretty much a settled matter unless someone finds an error in one of your proofs.
One thing we have seen is that the social sciences have a much faster rate of decay than the physical sciences, because in the social sciences there is a lot more “noise” at the experimental level. For instance, in physics, if you want to understand the arc of a parabola, you shoot a cannon 100 times and see where the cannonballs land. And when you do that, you are likely to find a really nice cluster around a single location. But if you are making measurements that have to do with people, things are a lot messier, because people respond to a lot of different things, and that means the effect sizes are going to be smaller.
What is a “fact phase transition” and how does it make events like the first Moon landing predictable?
First, here is what I mean by a phase transition. An example in the natural world is when water goes from liquid to ice when it freezes. For most people that is pretty unremarkable. But it is actually really interesting when you look at it from a physics perspective. A continuous change—in this case, a change in temperature—is accompanied by a step-change is other properties: water going from being a liquid to a crystal. This is a good way to think of rapid changes in knowledge.
Some of these happen rapidly, but underneath there are these gradual changes. For example, with the moon landing was a pretty big change in human knowledge and human accomplishment. For all of human history, no one had ever set foot on the moon, and then one day in 1969 people had. But if you look carefully you will see that the moon landing was completely predictable. Look at the fastest speeds enabled by technology, for instance, and it turns out that they follow a regular curve. In the 1950s the American air force graphed this out and determined that if transportation speeds continued rising at the rate they were going, humans should be able to get into orbit, and then eventually land on the Moon, within a set number of years. And, sure enough, right on schedule, Sputnik happened, and a decade later humans landed on the moon. That was a fact phase transition, an abrupt change with slow incremental processes hiding beneath the surface.
One theoretical fact phase transition that you describe is “actuarial escape velocity”, a concept borrowed from medical science.
Actuarial escape velocity is the idea that at some point average human lifetime will grow by more than a year each year. Right now the rate is only a fraction of a year (thanks to changes in medical science and hygiene) a year. If it exceeds one year per year, people will effectively live for ever, without having to solve the immortality problem. The reason I bring it up in my book is to illustrate that small changes in science can actually bring about big changes in other areas of knowledge, or elsewhere in the world.
For example, if an astronomer finds another planet outside solar system, unless it has certain properties, it will just be another piece of data. It is not going to alter the structure of people’s ideas about planets. But if he discovers a planet that can harbour life, that is a game-changer. And actuarial escape velocity is similar, in the sense that these incremental changes in medical science and hygiene can eventually create a huge change in how we live our lives.
In your book, you make a convincing case that scientific breakthroughs are becoming more difficult to achieve with time. One gets the sense that the low-hanging fruit of empiricism have been picked. But you also argue that science as a human activity is growing, and getting better. How is that?
In some fields science is getting harder, but I would not say that science as a whole is becoming more difficult. We are still adding new scientists every year, but the rate of growth has slowed and science is increasingly being done by large teams. But there are many areas where we thought there is nothing left to explore, only for someone to come along and say that there is something there, after all.
In mathematics there was an extreme case of this in the 1990s, when two high-school students figured out a new way to prove one of Euclid’s theorems, something that had not been done in a thousand years. So even though basic geometric proofs are not the frontier of mathematics, there are still things you can do. And even where things slow down in science, often that slowing forces scientists to be cleverer, both in finding ways to create new knowledge but also in finding new ways to combine disciplines. Plus nowadays new technology is a real driving force; the new computational tools have created the potential for a scientific revolution.
Reading your book it is difficult not to think about consilience, the term that Edward Wilson uses to describe an idealised unity of all scientific knowledge. Do you think scientometrics can get us to something like consilience faster than if science were merely left to its own devices?
There is a great deal of power in the idea of consilience, and in synthesising ideas. When it comes to understanding the march of knowledge, scientometrics can be very helpful. I don’t think it is necessarily going to help us realise the complete synthesis of all knowledge, but if we have a better sense of how we know what we know, and how what we know changes, that will force a reckoning in how we think about how knowledge as a whole is organised. If you create a networked view of different scientific fields, you quickly realize how connected they are. There are surprisingly few steps from thinking about abstract mathematics to thinking about models of how population size changes in an ecosystem. As science grows and becomes more and more complicated, having people that can exist in these liminal spaces is going to be increasingly important.
It seems that one of your purposes in writing this book is to call attention to the human habit of becoming accustomed to whatever state of affairs is true when a situation is initially examined. By showing how knowledge about the world shifts systematically, you seem to be suggesting a renewed vigilance against growing complacency about knowledge of the world.
That is certainly one of my arguments. I want to show people how knowledge changes. But at the same time I want to say, now that you know how knowledge changes, you have to be on guard, so you are not shocked when your children coming home to tell you that dinosaurs have feathers. You have to look things up more often and recognise that most of the stuff you learned when you were younger is not at the cutting edge. We are coming a lot closer to a true understanding of the world; we know a lot more about the universe than we did even just a few decades ago. It is not the case that just because knowledge is constantly being overturned we do not know anything. But too often, we fail to acknowledge change.
Some fields are starting to recognise this. Medicine, for example, has got really good at encouraging its practitioners to stay current. A lot of medical students are taught that everything they learn is going to be obsolete soon after they graduate. There is even a website called “up to date” that constantly updates medical textbooks. In that sense we could all stand to learn from medicine; we constantly have to make an effort to explore the world anew—even if that means just looking at Wikipedia more often. And I am not just talking about dinosaurs and outer space. You see this same phenomenon with knowledge about nutrition or childcare—the stuff that has to do with how we live our lives.
Photo credit: Brain Pickings
Via The Economist | <urn:uuid:b7392c38-48a5-4b6d-be1a-65cd84131016> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.impactlab.net/2012/11/30/samuel-arbesman-explains-the-half-life-of-facts/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396222.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00024-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966102 | 2,712 | 3.46875 | 3 |
It's seed collecting time! We're processing Upstate Oxheart, Stone Ridge Tomato (formerly known as Ulster Germaid), Isis Candy Shop Cherry Tomatoes every day along with Spider Flowers. Our Japanese Cucumbers, Blacktail Mountain Watermelon, Cocozelle Zucchini, Flashy Butter Oak Lettuce, Calendula, and Piracicaba Broccoli are almost ready to start harvesting for seed. What are you saving for seed this season? Whatever it is, it's time to open up your Membership Pack, take out the seed saving envelopes, and get seedy.
The first seed return of the year just came in from Margaret Roach who saved five ounces of Breadseed Poppies from her garden for the Seed Library. Five ounces may not sound heavy, but it's about 300,000 seeds! Of course, we don't expect anyone to return such quantities of seeds. Margaret is clearly an over achiever, and we thank her for it! Depending on the variety, one tomato, or one pepper, or one cucumber, or one flower head often contain more seeds than you checked out.
Why is it so important for you to return some seed saved in your garden? You are our all-important in-situ preservationists.
Seed banks, many of which focus on native and wild plant varieties, have two main ways of thinking about seed preservation: ex situ and in situ. Ex situ conservation means off-site conservation--storing and growing a seed and plant outside of its natural habitat. Usually, these seeds are not available to the public. In situ refers to seeds and plants being protected and conserved in their natural environment. For example protecting and maintaining a prairie meadow. Again, these seeds and plants would not normally by accessible for the public to grow.
Here at the Seed Library we also think in terms of ex situ and in situ seeds. Our ex situ seeds are the ones grown on our seed farm or grown by other seed producers. Seed farms are their own special kind of farm, different from food production farms. They are close, but not quite the same as the natural habitat for the seeds.
But what does in situ mean for the cultivated varieties? Your garden.
The "native habitat" of most of the varieties we offer has become tended garden plots and small diversified farms. This cultivated landscape bridges the wild past of the seeds we depend on with the human collaboration needed to keep them alive. Unlike the banking model, we have chosen to use the library model because we want our seeds to be accessible to the general public. This ensures their continued growth in their natural habitat.
While our own library of seeds from our seed farm is a growing collection, what makes our seed library a living collection is when our members return seed they've saved from their own gardens and farms. Our library is healthiest when the ex situ become in situ and the in situ return to the library. This continual exchange, from hand to hand, person to person, garden to seed farm, keeps varieties dynamic—changing with the ever changing conditions of the climate, disease pressures, and human desires.
You can help keep seeds spiraling up and out to gardens and back into the Seed Library.
If you're up for the adventure, try to save seed from the healthiest plants, most delicious varieties, and most beautiful flowers. Stick to saving seeds within your skill level. If you don't yet know how to hand-pollinate or build an isolation cage, save seeds from beginner varieties. Some plants will produce an abundance of healthy seed just through benign neglect. Every time you save seeds from strong plants you are helping to improve the variety, keeping it healthy, helping it adapt to our region, and passing on the best genes to the next grower—which may be you!
You can get up to speed with seed saving how-to by looking back at previous blog posts: | <urn:uuid:bd83aa05-84da-445b-be7d-c1a25c9da0a5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.seedlibrary.org/blog/seeds-eye-view-3-a-living-seed-library/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00077-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941466 | 800 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Exactly 76 years ago this week in June 1936, the exiled Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia (1892-1975) stood before the League of Nations to appeal for international support against the Italian Fascist conquest of his country.
A few weeks earlier, he and his family had taken refuge in Wimbledon with a sympathetic family living in Parkside.
After a while, they moved on for a longer period in Bath but his stay at Lincoln House, opposite Wimbledon Common, marked one of the town’s most remarkable events and is still recalled by a statue in Cannizaro Park.
It was five years before he would return to Ethiopia in 1941, supported by British forces fighting in the Second World War.
The Emperor’s hosts that summer, Dr Richard Seligman and his wife Hilda, were very happy to accommodate the imperial retinue at their home with its five acres of grounds.
Richard Seligman was a leading metallurgist and entrepreneur in Wandsworth. Hilda and a group of supporters including Sylvia Pankhurst, the former Suffragette, were leading campaigners against Britain’s pre-war appeasement of the dictators Mussolini and Hitler.
Years later when the war was over, Hilda herself became well known in Ethiopia for her humanitarian work. Her three sons, Adrian, Peter and Madron, all made their own marks in adulthood.
An amateur sculptor, Hilda took advantage of Haile Selassie’s presence at her house to create the bust now standing in Cannizaro Park. It originally stood in the grounds of Lincoln House until the building was demolished in 1957, making way for the roads and houses now on that site.
Wimbledon Council was given ownership of the statue and it was moved to Cannizaro Park’s rose garden beside Camp Road. In the 1980s it was transferred again to its present position in the former Tennis Garden amid rhododendrons behind the aviary.
Over the years the bust deteriorated and in 2004, Hilda’s daughter-in-law, Nancy-Joan Seligman (widow of Madron), offered what was now Merton Council and the Friends of Cannizaro Park some funding towards its restoration. Eventually, Merton's arts development officer persuaded the Council to carry out the project, supported by the Friends.
Haile Selassie himself was assassinated following a coup in Ethiopia in August 1975. However, following his exile in the 1930s, he had become an inspirational African leader known as the Lion of Judah to followers of the Rastafarian faith.
So when the restored bust was formally unveiled by the Mayor of Merton on 22 October 2005, the ceremony was attended by a remarkable mix of Rastafarians, members of the Seligman family, relatives of the late Emperor himself - now exiled once more - and Friends of Cannizaro Park.
Sir Peter Seligman and his two sisters-in-law, Nancy-Joan and Rosemary (Adrian’s widow), all recalled the Emperor’s time at Lincoln House. Rosemary, still a Wimbledon resident herself, also recalled visiting Haile Selassie at his palace in Ethiopia in the early 1970s, shortly before his final overthrow.
The bust’s restoration cost some £1000 for pressure cleaning, chemical treatment, and repairs of hairline cracks. Seven years on it has deteriorated again.
For Haile Selassie, Africa’s last true Emperor and 225th in a line traced to back to the Biblical Queen of Sheba, holding a unique status had its ups and downs.
The Wimbledon Society is working with the Wimbledon Guardian to ensure that you, the readers, can share the fascinating discoveries that continue to emerge about our local heritage. | <urn:uuid:7c78b090-d943-418c-a885-369524827e33> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wimbledonguardian.co.uk/heritage/news/9784805.The_African_Emperor_who_found_refuge_in_Wimbledon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00171-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977296 | 788 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Zambezi region launches effort to eliminate malariaListen /
A regional initiative that aims to eliminate malaria in the Zambezi valley was launched Thursday by Zambia and Zimbabwe, with support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The Trans-Zambezi Malaria Initiative, announced on World Malaria Day, will accelerate efforts to eliminate malaria in the region with focused intervention, supported by existing grants from the Global Fund.
Malaria infects 219 million people and causes 660,000 deaths per year. About 80 per cent of those cases and 90 per cent of those deaths occur in Africa.
Zambia's Minister of Health Dr. Joseph Kasonde said the cross-border initiative "will accelerate reduction of malaria transmission among border communities through implementation of coordinated cost-effective malaria control activities," adding that "It will also initiate new ones, such as the upcoming Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi initiative."
Southern Africa's climate and geography are a breeding ground for the deadliest form of malaria. The transmission season for malaria generally extends from November to May.
The Global Fund is currently supporting three malaria grants in Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Donn Bobb, United Nations. | <urn:uuid:d164b785-2ea2-45a2-aabb-272b43e5aa3a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/2013/04/zambezi-region-launches-effort-to-eliminate-malaria/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00120-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91731 | 249 | 2.734375 | 3 |
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Mouth problems are common in people with HIV. Although they usually are minor compared to other HIV-related health problems, they can be painful, annoying, and cause embarrassment. Mouth problems also can make eating hard. Here are some mouth problems that commonly affect people with HIV:
- Canker sores and ulcers – Red sores on roof of mouth, tongue, inside cheeks and lips, or outside the lips.
- Hairy leukoplakia (loo-koh-PLAY-kee-uh) – White, hairlike growths that usually appear on the side of the tongue or sometimes inside the cheeks and lower lip.
- Thrush – White, creamy or bumpy patches appearing anywhere in the mouth.
- Warts – Small bumps that look like cauliflower that appear on the inside of your lips or other parts of the mouth.
The most common mouth problems linked with HIV can be treated. So talk to your doctor if you notice any symptoms. See a dentist who has experience treating HIV-positive patients. With treatment, your mouth can feel better.
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More information on Mouth problems
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- Canker Sores - This fact sheet talks about what canker sores are and gives treatment options for severe cases.
- Herpes Labialis - A herpes labialis infection is caused by the herpes simplex virus and can lead to fever blisters and cold sores inside or outside of the mouth. This publication discusses the causes, symptoms, and treatment of fever blisters and cold sores and when to see a doctor.
- Leukoplakia - Hairy leukoplakia is an oral health condition that is seen mostly in people who are HIV-positive. This publication discusses leukoplakia, including the signs, symptoms, testing and treatments.
- Mouth Problems and HIV - People who are infected with HIV can also have problems with their oral health. This publication discusses oral problems common among people with HIV and how they can be treated.
- Oral Thrush (Copyright © Mayo Foundation) - Oral thrush, a fungal infection in the mouth, is common in people with HIV. This publication shows a picture of oral thrush and also includes symptoms and other risk factors for oral thrush.
Content last updated: July 01, 2011.
Return to top | <urn:uuid:582304b8-cd2d-4c76-8051-dac681aeef06> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://womenshealth.gov/hiv-aids/opportunistic-infections-and-other-conditions/mouth-problems-and-hiv-aids.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00097-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922989 | 497 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Tesla 20 series
14 December 2009
Nvidia has unveiled its Tesla 20-series of parallel processors for the HPC market, based on its new generation Cuda processor architecture, codenamed Fermi.
Designed from the ground-up for parallel computing, the Nvidia Tesla 20-series GPUs slash the cost of computing by delivering the same performance of a traditional CPU-based cluster at one-tenth the cost and one-twentieth the power.
The Tesla 20-series introduces features that enable many new applications to perform dramatically faster using GPU computing. These include ray tracing, 3D cloud computing, video encoding, database search, data analytics, computer-aided engineering and virus scanning.
At their core, Tesla GPUs are based on the massively parallel Cuda computing architecture that offers developers a parallel computing model that is easier to understand and program. | <urn:uuid:704d62ee-59bb-4ceb-b0a2-0b4239e325aa> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.scientific-computing.com/press-releases/product_details.php?product_id=698 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00055-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906411 | 176 | 2.703125 | 3 |
The Siege of Lachish 701BC - A Bretwalda BattleAuthor: Andrew May
In 701BC Sennacherib of Assyria marched his army to crush a rebellion in Judah. The city of Lachish was among the cities to be attacked and the siege proved to be a classic action of its time.
The Siege of Lachish is unique among battles of the ancient near east in that we have an account from both sides of the action. The version of the defenders appears in the Bible, while the Assyrian version was unearthed when the royal palace of Nineveh was excavated in the 19th century.
Sennacherib unleashed on the walled city all the most modern techniques of siege warfare that the mighty Assyrian Empire could produce. Archers rained arrows on the defenders while mighty rams smashed at the walls and complex picks prised the stonework apart.
In this fully illustrated book, military analyst Andrew May describes the action, explains the course of the siege and looks at the aftermath of one of the Bible's great battles.
Chapter 1 - The Assyrian Empire under Sennacherib
Chapter 2 - The Rebel: King Hezekiah of Judah
Chapter 3 - Sennacherib's Campaign against Judah
Chapter 4 - The Siege of Lachish
Chapter 5 - Aftermath
About the Author
Andrew May is a former defence scientist with an MA from Cambridge University and a PhD from Manchester University. His thirty year career spanned academia, the civil service and the defence industry. He has worked on advanced technology research in Farnborough, strategic planning in Whitehall and operational analysis for a large defence company. He is now based in the South-West of England where he works as a freelance writer and blogger. | <urn:uuid:d27e6c2c-c64a-4bc3-a42c-614844f78859> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://bretwaldabooks.com/book.php?p=75 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00008-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944599 | 358 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Reducing the risk of pandemic influenza in Aboriginal communities
Citation: Massey PD, Pearce G, Taylor KA, Orcher L, Saggers S, Durrheim DN. Reducing the risk of pandemic influenza in Aboriginal communities. Rural and Remote Health (Internet) 2009; 9: 1290. Available: http://www.rrh.org.au/articles/subviewnew.asp?ArticleID=1290 (Accessed 29 June 2016)
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Context: Aboriginal people are particularly vulnerable to pandemic influenza A, H1N109. This was first recognized in the First Nations of Canada. There have been calls for close planning with Aboriginal people to manage these risks. This article describes the process and findings from preliminary community consultations into reducing influenza risk, including pandemic H1N1(09) swine influenza, in Aboriginal communities in the Hunter New England area of northern New South Wales, Australia.
Issue: Consultation was conducted with 6 Aboriginal communities in response to the rapidly evolving pandemic and was designed to further develop shared understanding between health services and Aboriginal communities about appropriate and culturally safe ways to reduce the influenza risk in communities. Agreed risk mitigation measures identified in partnership are being introduced throughout Hunter New England area.
Lessons learned: Five theme areas were identified that posed particular challenges to limiting the negative impact of pandemic influenza; and a number of potential solutions emerged from focus group discussions: (1) local resource person: local identified ‘go to’ people are heard and trusted, but need to have an understanding of H1N109; (2) clear communication: information must be presented simply, clearly and demonstrating respect for local culture; (3) access to health services: sick people need to know where to get help and how to get there without infecting others; (4) households and funerals: infection control messages should be aligned with the reality of life in Aboriginal communities, and the importance of attending family and cultural gatherings; (5) social and community support issues: Aboriginal people need to have a say in how support is provided. Influenza pandemics are a serious threat to the health and social functioning of Aboriginal communities. Measures to reduce the risk of influenza in communities must be developed with the communities to maximise their acceptance. The process of engagement and ongoing respectful negotiations with communities is critical to developing culturally appropriate pandemic mitigation and management strategies.
Key words: Aboriginal communities, Australia, H1N1(09) swine influenza, pandemic.
Human swine influenza (influenza A H1N109) has resulted in the first pandemic of the 21st Century. The symptoms of human swine influenza are similar to seasonal influenza and include: fever, cough, fatigue, myalgia, pharyngitis, chills, dyspnoea, coryza and headache. Complications include pneumonia, and even death in severe cases1.
Influenza is principally transmitted through respiratory droplets from a symptomatic individual. Until a vaccine becomes available, it is necessary to increase community infection control measures to limit transmission. Social distancing through limiting community activities has also been advocated.
The Australian Health Management Plan for Pandemic Influenza 20082 was prepared to protect all Australians and reduce the impact of a pandemic on social function and the economy. Recent experience suggests that control measures may be imposed on all communities, including rural and remote Aboriginal communities, in a ‘one size fits all’ approach. It is suspected that certain advocated strategies were not adapted or informed by Aboriginal voices.
During the pandemic of 1918-1919, Australian Indigenous populations were severely affected with a mortality rate approaching 50% in some communities3. In contrast, the mortality rate in Australia overall was less than 0.4%4. Social, ecological and geographical factors, as well as increased prevalence of co-morbidities, may provide an explanation for the disproportionately high mortality rates in Aboriginal communities.
H1N109 notifications indicate that Indigenous people are over-represented in the Australian cases (current at 6 August 2009). Statistics indicate that Indigenous people are approximately five times more likely than non-Indigenous Australians to be hospitalised for swine influenza and a similar proportion required intensive care treatment5.
Other countries have also found higher risks of severe disease in Indigenous people groups, for example the First Nations of Canada, and this has led to calls for close planning with Aboriginal people in response to these risks6.
Quarantine and isolation are public health measures that were used in the early response to H1N109. Although the mainstream Australian community has indicated support for these containment strategies7, there is no evidence that the measures have been developed in respectful negotiation with Indigenous communities.
In northern New South Wales (NSW) a shared understanding of the threats of pandemic influenza has been developing since 2006. In a pilot project conducted during 2008 under the auspices of the Hunter New England (HNE) Aboriginal Health Partnership – collaboration between the Area Health Service and all Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS) – a focus group identified many difficulties posed by the national containment strategy in Indigenous communities8.
The purpose of the current work was to consult Aboriginal communities in response to the rapidly emerging H1N109 pandemic, and further develop understanding in health services and Aboriginal communities about appropriate and culturally safer ways to reduce the risk of influenza in communities. Measures identified in partnership to reduce the risk to individuals and community were then implemented.
The HNE Aboriginal Health Partnership encouraged consultation with communities served by the NSW ACCHS of Awabakal (Newcastle), Armajun (Inverell), Armidale, Biripi (Taree), Tamworth and Tobwabba (Forster). Community groups, including Lands Councils, Elders groups, and playgroups, Aboriginal health service staff and ACCHS Board members participated in the consultation. Input was also encouraged from the broader local Aboriginal community by email distribution of the consultation paper to key informants. Key stakeholders in these communities identified by the ACCHS and key informants were approached to input into the influenza consultation.
Typically the consultation focus group discussions took place in the community during normal activities, and were facilitated by two team members. The team provided input about the nature of influenza, its transmission, and the evolving pandemic. The community representatives were then encouraged to identify potential issues before further discussion was facilitated to allow identification of possible solutions.
The initial phase of the consultation took place over a 3 week period leading up to the National Aboriginal and Islander Days Of Celebration 2009 when many community events were scheduled. The consultation occurred during the ‘contain’ and early ‘protect’ phases of the Australian pandemic response. The consultation focused on reducing the risk of influenza at home and at community gatherings such as funerals; and providing access to health services. Scenarios in each of these focus areas were used to seed the conversations. The scenarios were constructed by the project team and trialled with Aboriginal health staff prior to field use. Examples of scenarios used include:
When a person has the new influenza strain everyone who lives in the house with the person will need to stay home and go onto influenza medication. There are all sorts of challenges with doing this; one of them is working out who lives in the household. Health services often think from a non-Aboriginal way instead of an Aboriginal way, so need a better process for talking with households or communities.
If a family member comes and stays at a home that is in home isolation they will be at an increased risk of getting the disease. People coming to stay will either have to find somewhere else to stay or have to also go into quarantine and go onto the influenza medication.
As a starting point for the conversation people were asked:
What do you see as the main problems in this scenario? What could be done to work through these issues to help reduce risk of influenza in the community?
Field notes were recorded during these focus groups discussions. Themes from the consultation were identified by the project team in consultation with the HNE Aboriginal Health Partnership.
The consultation took the form of participatory action research (PAR), a research process used to initiate positive change, not simply to investigate an issue. The research process is based on the equal and collaborative involvement of the community in which the issue is located9-14 and allows Indigenous people to determine and control the research. PAR is based on a continuous research cycle of planning, action, observation and reflection to ensure that the recipients of the planned change are involved at every stage of the research, from the definition of the ‘problem’ to the implementation of a ‘solution’.
During the period 15 June–17 July 2009, 19 community groups from across the area participated in the consultation. In addition, a small number of individuals provided written input or phoned through with their thoughts on the consultation issues.
Five issue theme areas and a number of potential solutions emerged from the conversations:
- Local resource person
- Clear communication
- Access to health services
- Households and funerals
- Social and community support issues.
‘Go to’ (local contact) persons
The importance of having local people who are well informed and can advise on what to do in the event of an infectious disease incident, was expressed in every conversation with community groups. Having a local person meant that people in the community would have someone they could trust and could access easily. They were much less likely to contact someone from another community or area with whom they were not familiar. The local person would need training and support from the health service to meet this need. When asked about who these local contacts should be, most people identified Aboriginal health workers and ACCHS staff as the best ‘go to’ people.
Every focus group emphasised the need for clear communication with each community. Information was required in a clear and simple format, while demonstrating respect for the local culture. Specifically, people wanted to know what symptoms of illness they should be alert to and what they should do in the event of these symptoms appearing. Aboriginal radio programs and newsletters from Aboriginal organisations with locally made announcements were considered necessary if the messages were to be successful. Written information, such as posters and pamphlets with key messages, was considered helpful but needed to be supported by local people with photos or quotes to illustrate that these messages were supported by local, trusted people.
Groups consulted identified the need for specific information for particular risk groups, such as pregnant mothers and their babies.
Each community consulted indicated that conversations at community level were very important in sharing understanding.
Access to health services
Key informants consulted expressed their concern about their community’s access to health services during a pandemic. Many people indicated already having trouble having their health needs met and felt that if the system was under more pressure this might mean it would be even more difficult to access health services. They expressed the need for clear guidance as to the particular service that was most appropriate: ACCHS, GPs or the hospital. After-hours access was considered a particular problem due to safety concerns related to past experiences. People felt discriminated against and that their needs were ignored. Having extended hours or clinics available on weekends through ACCHSs, specific GPs or clinics was considered a potential alternative.
Transport to health services was also identified as posing problems in all areas because many community members relied on a few drivers and only a few registered cars to transport them to health services. The drivers were considered very important people who needed to be protected from influenza. Suggestions included making sure that masks were available for the main drivers providing transport to health services, and to consider opening car windows.
Access to appropriate medications, particularly TamifluTM suspension, was raised as an important issue due to distance to hospitals. It was suggested that TamifluTM suspension should be kept at local ACCHSs and by GPs who support Aboriginal communities.
Households and funerals
In the focus group consultations people talked about large social gatherings, such as funerals and cultural celebrations, and the risk these posed for infection spread. Hand-wash or hand gel supplies were considered necessary for community events, with local contacts such as Aboriginal health workers being available to demonstrate to attendees how these should be used. The health services may have a role in supporting this prevention strategy by providing the products and training in their use at gatherings.
In each area key informants and groups reported that many households do not have tissues because these were too expensive and therefore not generally used. As a result the message about using tissues needs to be changed.
Masks were considered a possible option by some respondents but these would be particularly acceptable if provided in Aboriginal colours. Some respondents indicated that masks would not be used.
For funerals and other important family gatherings, the community members consulted indicated that people who are sick were still very likely to attend. When asked how infection might be reduced during these events, focus groups suggested that standing back from the others would be acceptable as long as it was considered to be a sign of respect and not disrespect. Elders could provide this interpretation for the community if they were provided with this information and support by Aboriginal health workers before the funeral.
When asked what the person sick with influenza should do at funerals and other family gatherings, some suggested not kissing, not hugging and not handshaking but this was not supported by others during the consultation.
Concern was expressed in each community about the risks for pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and the risks for young children and Elders with pandemic influenza. These special groups in the community were felt to be very important. Further discussions are needed to determine appropriate measures for reducing the risk of pandemic influenza in these groups.
Preventing infection at home was considered challenging by each focus group, because many houses had large numbers of inhabitants, with inadequate bathrooms and bedrooms, and limited space. The presence of many visitors and extended family made limiting infection transmission difficult. Further discussion is clearly needed to develop acceptable and effective strategies.
Social and community support issues
Some people talked about the impact of influenza on other aspects of their lives. There was concern about being absent from work due to illness and not being paid because of casual employment status. Guidance is required from CentreLink (the social security agency), and key people in the community should be consulted for accurate information on addressing this concern.
Concern was also expressed about how to obtain a medical certificate if someone was sick at home and was not able to see a doctor. One suggestion was that, where necessary, the ACCHS nurses could write isolation certificates.
Influenza pandemics are a serious threat to the health and social functioning of Aboriginal communities. Measures to reduce the risk of influenza in communities need to be developed with communities to maximise their acceptance. The process of engagement and ongoing respectful consultation with communities is critical to identifying effective and culturally acceptable strategies. These understandings will now be used as the foundation for community PAR in northern NSW, North Queensland and the Kimberly areas of Australia.
The authors acknowledge the traditional owners of the land, Elders past and present of the communities who took part in this project. The authors are grateful to community key informants who generously shared with us their concerns and ideas about pandemic influenza, particularly the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services at Armidale, Forster, Inverell, Newcastle, Tamworth and Taree.
1. Novel Swine-Origin Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Investigation Team. Emergence of a novel swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus in humans. New England Journal of Medicine 2009; 360: 2605-2615.
2. Commonwealth of Australia. Australian Health Management Plan for Pandemic Influenza 2008. Canberra, ACT: Department Health & Ageing, 2008.
3. Cleland Burton J. Disease among the Australian Aborigines. Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 1928; 6: 65.
4. Curson P, McCracken K. An Australian perspective of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic. NSW Public Health Bulletin 2006; 17: 103-107.
5. Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. Australian influenza surveillance 2009. (Online) 2009. Available: http://www.healthemergency.gov.au/internet/healthemergency/publishing.nsf/Content/ozflucurrent.htm (Accessed 6 August 2009).
6. Groom AV, Jim C, LaRoque M, Mason C, McLaughlin J, Neel L et al. Pandemic influenza preparedness and vulnerable populations in tribal communities. American Journal of Public Health 2009; 99(S2): 2-8.
7. Eastwood K, Durrheim D, Francis JL, Tursan d’Espaignet E, Duncan S, Islam F et al. Knowledge about pandemic influenza and compliance with containment measures among Australians. Bulletin of the World Health Organisation 2009; 87(8): 565-644. Available: http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/8/08-060772/en/index.html (Accessed 1 September 2009).
8. Massey PD, Miller A, Durrheim DN, Speare R, Saggers S, Eastwood K. Pandemic influenza containment and the cultural and social context of Indigenous communities. Rural and Remote Health 9: 1179. (Online) 2009. Available: http://www.rrh.org.au/ (Accessed 1 September 2009).
9. Kemmis S, McTaggart R (Eds). The action research planner. Geelong, Vic: Deakin University, 1998.
10. Stringer E. Action research, 2nd edn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1999.
11. O'Kane A, Tsey K. Towards a needs based mental health resource allocation and service development in rural and remote Australia. Australasian Psychiatry 2004; 12: 390-395.
12. Tsey K, Patterson D, Whiteside M, Baird L, Baird B. A micro analysis of a participatory action research process with a rural Aboriginal men’s health group. Australian Journal of Primary Health 2004; 10: 64-71.
13. Tsey K, Wenitong M, McCalman J, Baird L, Patterson D, Baird B et al. A participatory action research process with a rural indigenous men’s group: monitoring and reinforcing change. Australian Journal of Primary Health 2004; 10(3): 130-136.
14. Saggers S. Negotiating definitions of Indigenous participation in community development. In: R Eversole, J Martin (Eds.). Participation and governance in regional development Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005.
© Peter Massey, Glenn Pearce, Kylie Taylor, Lisa Orcher, Sherry Saggers, David Durrheim 2009 A licence to publish this material has been given to ARHEN, http://www.arhen.org.au
|This article has been viewed 6264 times since September 3, 2009.||Article No. 1290| | <urn:uuid:177dd018-5f81-47a8-8cf5-db84b6e1cf6c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.rrh.org.au/articles/subviewnew.asp?ArticleID=1290 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397111.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00051-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957598 | 3,945 | 3 | 3 |
Adult Education Program + The Reckoning
180 Minute Running Time
Ever since the Nuremberg Trials, individuals around the world have imagined how an international judicial body could be used to prevent genocide, crimes against humanity, and other violations of civil and human rights. In 2002, more than 100 nations made this vision a reality with the establishment of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The film The Reckoning chronicles the battle for the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in response to mass atrocities around the world in the late 20th Century.
In conjunction with the Denver Film Society’s HRW Film Festival, Facing History and Ourselves will host an educational seminar allowing participants to explore the historical context of the ICC and examine the complexity of justice and judgment in a global context. We will discuss questions such as: Are wrongdoers less likely to commit crimes when they think they might be caught and punished? What is justice? Does it look the same in all communities? Under what conditions does an institution have the right to intervene in the affairs of an individual or an independent nation? How can individuals and nations work together to create a safer, more just community? Can post-conflict commu¬nities attain peace without first achieving justice for the victims? | <urn:uuid:4f764a4a-36f0-4892-ba13-e1b9f3b509ad> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.denverfilm.org/filmcenter/detail.aspx?id=23237&FID=56 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00025-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909337 | 260 | 3.40625 | 3 |
As per a US research, it has been revealed that health experts have underestimated the infection severity of bird flu. The study, which has been published in the Journal Nature, has unveiled that the World Health Organization
(WHO) targeted only death cases and forget to stress the mild infection cases.
There is no doubt that in maximum cases bird flu has no escape but death and this is the reason that people have got scared of birds. They feel that bird flu is untreatable and leads to death. However, the WHO figures have intentionally inflated the death numbers.
Bird flu infection cases are double than the deaths taking place in different countries due to it. Lead researcher microbiologist Taia Wang of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, was of the view that they have assessed more than 600 cases.
The assessment has made them to reach at the conclusion that the WHO has forgotten to account for a majority of infections. It would not be wrong to say that they have targeted severe bird flu cases, who were admitted in hospital taking last few breadths.
It is one of the vast studies ever being conducted on bird flu, said Wang. He further affirmed that they collected virus antibodies samples from 12,677 Asians, Africans and Europeans and to do that they have assessed 27 studies from 1997 to 2009.
After assessing all the studies, the study researchers have reached at a conclusion that the survival rate of bird flu cases is 1.2%, which means that millions of people across the world are able to survive the bird flu infection.
Wang said that their main aim is to pass on the message that bird flu infection cases are quiet more than being reflected. Therefore, all possible preventive measure should be adopted to remain safe from the infection.
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- Marriott and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc Shareholders Approve to $14.41 Sales Deal
- UK plan to impose additional tax on sugary drinks
- Obesity during pregnancy may increase risk of very ‘large babies’
- Dropping Sales at Gap’s Key Brands hurt the Company’s Shares | <urn:uuid:42b7d783-34d9-4e83-8f59-33737e40f025> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://topnews.ae/content/210666-bird-flu-infection-cases-underestimated | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00122-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970731 | 440 | 2.78125 | 3 |
An emerging field of science termed "isoscapes" is making it possible to pinpoint the geographical origins of illegal drugs, trafficked endangered animals, dismembered human body parts at crime scenes, and even pricey scotch whiskey and cheese, according to an article in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the American Chemical Society's weekly newsmagazine.
In the article, Sarah Everts, C&EN European correspondent, explains how isoscapes has even led to development of one of the newest and most unusual maps of the world. It is a map showing the isotope contours of the world, which scientists and others are using in tracking the geographical origins of objects, and even in research on global climate change. Isoscape is a combination of the words "isotope" and "landscapes," where isotopes are atoms of an element that differ slightly in the number of subatomic particles called neutrons that they possess.
Identification by isoscapes is based on the discovery that the tissue in a person's body and composition of drugs, whiskey, and other objects contains a distinctive isotope ratio "fingerprint." That fingerprint stems from the isotope ratios of food, water, and air where the person, whiskey and other objects originated. And those isotope ratios vary with geography that can be plotted on a map. The article explains how the isotope-based map can help convict murderers and authenticate the origins of fancy foods. | <urn:uuid:d3c186a4-3a68-4413-b1a4-78263e981543> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-06/acs-pto062911.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402699.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00008-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911703 | 301 | 3.53125 | 4 |
Price Gap Portends Gold Price Boom
Most consider the New York market 'spot' price for an accurate indication of the true price. However, investors now buying buy physical or 'fabricated' gold, are paying a premium of between $20 and $30 per ounce. When these gaps existed in the past, major increases in the price of gold were imminent.
For much of the 20th Century, gold continuously defied global government efforts to restrain its price. The premium currently in place may be evidence of the latest round of such policies.
In 1934, President Roosevelt devalued the U.S. dollar by some 75 percent by raising the official price of gold from $20 to $35 an ounce. This opened the door to the first great wave of inflation of the 20th Century. Following World War II, national governments, particularly the American Treasury, held the vast bulk of the free world's gold. The official $35 price was maintained, almost by official dictate.
However, in the 1960's, a 'free' market gradually developed that traded gold at a premium to the official $35 price. In response, the London Gold Pool, a central bankers' gentlemen's agreement led by the Bank of England and the New York Fed, was established to hold the so-called 'free' market price of gold "to more appropriate levels" ... to "avoid unnecessary and disturbing fluctuations in price" which could erode "public confidence in the existing international monetary structure." The agreement lasted until 1968. Thereafter, the price of gold was set solely by the free market.
As the inflationary financing of the Vietnam War began to filter into the international economy, private investors and nations with trade surpluses began to buy gold to protect their wealth. The 'free' market price began to soar above $35 an ounce. Far from reducing the demand for gold, as many esteemed Keynesian economists had predicted, this free market price increased the demand for gold.
Surplus nations demanded gold from the American Treasury at the official price. Experiencing a serious run on the national official gold reserves, President Nixon broke the U.S. dollar gold exchange link in August 1971. It unleashed a wave of competitive international currency devaluations and the second great inflation of the 20th Century. Subsequently, the U.S. dollar was devalued further, by some 20 percent, as gold officially was revalued to $42 an ounce.
However, led by America, the central banks then made a determined attempt, through the IMF, to "demonetize" gold. Central banks agreed not to fix their exchange rates against gold and agreed 'voluntarily' to the removal of their obligation to conduct transactions between themselves at the official price.
In addition, the IMF was persuaded to 'distribute' some 153 million ounces of gold into the market and to minor nations. This had the perverse effect of greatly increasing the interest in owning gold.
An even stronger 'free' market began to operate alongside the official price. As inflation continued to clime, so did gold. In the early 1980's the free market price reached $850 an ounce, while the official price remained at $42 an ounce.
In 1999, the Central Bank Gold Agreement (CBGA), also known as the Washington Gold Agreement, led to the coordinated sales of central bank gold via the IMF. Clearly designed to depress the free market price, it is widely believed that the IMF sales were timed to magnify volatility in the free market price in order to destroy gold's perceived worth as a 'store of value'. The CBGA was renewed on September 27, 2004, for a further five years.
More recently, market dealers have become increasingly aware of a covert official 'blessing' for large naked short positions opened by major 'bullion' banks. These bets are designed to force down the free market price of gold.
In the mainstream investment community, gold has been consistently scorned as an investment. Many respected analysts have even suggested that gold's allure is wholly based on perception and that the metal lacks intrinsic value. And yet, in terms of U.S. dollars, gold returned about 5.8 percent in 2008, following a 31.4 percent return in 2007. Thus far in the 21st Century, gold has delivered an average annual return of some 16.3 percent.
Despite the powerful attempts of governments to eradicate gold's role in monetary affairs, the free market price has risen continuously. Today, although the possibility of global depression act as a head wind, the existence of an "above market" premium for fabricated gold, may foretell a major threat to the credibility of paper currencies, a major U.S. dollar devaluation and a consequent strong rise in the price of gold in the months ahead.
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More importantly, don't wait for reality to set in. Protect your wealth and preserve your purchasing power before it's too late. Discover the best way to buy gold at www.goldyoucanfold.com. Download Euro Pacific's free Special Report, "The Powerful Case for Investing in Foreign Securities" at www.researchreportone.com. Subscribe to our free, on-line investment newsletter, "The Global Investor" at http://www.europac.net/newsletter/newsletter.asp. | <urn:uuid:9cb3cd9e-8d6d-47bc-8806-350da532dfd2> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.safehaven.com/article/12325/price-gap-portends-gold-price-boom | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00195-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954737 | 1,177 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Source: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
TAYLOR, Sir ANDREW THOMAS, architect, university lecturer, politician, and educational administrator; b. 13 Oct. 1850 in Edinburgh, son of James Taylor, a printer and publisher, and Agnes Drummond; m. 5 Dec. 1891 Mary Elliott (d. 1925) in Lambeth (London), England; they had no children; d. 5 Dec. 1937 in Hampstead (London), England.
Andrew Thomas Taylor’s maternal grandfather, George Drummond, had been an Edinburgh builder and contractor, a circumstance that perhaps influenced his own decision to become an architect. Following the accepted route into the profession, Taylor began a five-year pupillage in 1864 with an Edinburgh firm, Pilkington and Bell, known for its progressive Gothic Revival work. In 1869 he moved to Kelso, where he spent 18 months working for the Duke of Roxburghe’s estate architect. From that position he sought urban experience in the employ of William Smith, city architect of Aberdeen. In 1872 he entered the London office of Joseph Clarke, a prominent Gothic Revivalist who specialized in church design and restoration as well as in the design of schools. In his spare time Taylor attended classes at the Royal Academy Schools and at the Architectural Association and supplemented these studies with sketching tours in Britain and on the Continent. Admitted as an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1878, he would win three of its medals by 1881. The last award was presented for an essay that was published as The towers and steeples designed by Sir Christopher Wren … (London, 1881).
Taylor opened his own practice in London in 1879. His first notable commissions, a chapel and school for a Baptist congregation in Dover (1880–81) and a row of almshouses in Chislehurst (London) (1881), both reflect the flexible medievalism of the late Victorian Gothic Revival and, in the case of the almshouses, Old English, a new style popularized by London architect Richard Norman Shaw. In 1882, with Henry Hall, he won second place in the important competition for the Glasgow Municipal Buildings. That year he took on a partner, George William Hamilton-Gordon. Now with an associate who could run the London office, in 1883 he opened a branch of his firm, known as Taylor and Gordon, in Montreal, where he had close relatives. During the previous year he had travelled to the United States to study recent work in such cities as Boston and New York. This tour gave him an exceptional grasp of current American styles and technology that would serve him well in Canada.
Taylor’s career in Canada, from 1883 to 1904, would benefit from the country’s growth as well as from family connections. His maternal aunt Jane Drummond was the widow of John Redpath*, founder of the Province of Canada’s first sugar refinery. His maternal uncle George Alexander Drummond*, who had also married into the Redpath family, was one of the nation’s foremost industrialists and financiers. Taylor’s links to leading members of Montreal’s English-speaking community would provide an invaluable source of patronage.
The most significant among Taylor’s early commissions was the renovation and redecoration (1884–86) of a landmark, the Bank of Montreal’s monumental head office on St James Street (Rue Saint-Jacques), designed by John Wells in 1845. Taylor’s uncle George, a director of the institution, oversaw the project, which called for the enlargement of the banking room to nearly twice its original size without significant change to the historic exterior and for extensive interior decorations. The ornamentation, described by the Gazette (Montreal) as being “in a style quite new to this part of the world,” was executed by Herter Brothers, decorators and cabinetmakers whose work had impressed Taylor in New York. The bank’s subdued decor was replaced with rich, warm colours and materials that reflected the fashionable Aesthetic movement at its most luxurious. The renovations were innovative in another way: even before the city’s streets would be electrified in 1889 the bank produced its own electricity from engines and dynamos in the basement. For this complex assignment, Taylor took on an additional partner, Robert William Bousfield, who was associated with the firm until 1888.
It was expected that Taylor’s expansion would accommodate the head office for many years. Yet by 1900 even more space was needed. A further enlargement and redecoration (1901–5), the grandest Canadian bank commission of the time, was carried out by the celebrated New York architects McKim, Mead, and White, whose work Taylor admired. He served with them as associated architect, sharing the fees. Herter Brothers again carried out some interior work.
Between these two notable projects, Taylor had designed many branches for the Bank of Montreal and other Canadian banks across the country. His early edifices confidently broke with accepted classical modes in favour of the more picturesque Queen Anne and Romanesque revivals, whose colour, height, and lively rooflines gave distinction to a townscape. As fashions changed, especially after the 1893 Columbian exposition in Chicago, which Taylor visited, he created a series of classical structures and, finally, in Winnipeg, the Merchants’ Bank Building (1900–2), the city’s first tall office building, which had seven storeys and two electric elevators.
Equally up to date were Taylor’s ideas for residences. The first houses he constructed in Montreal had been built of red brick with some timber, tile, and plasterwork. They show English styles adapted to Canadian conditions, combining Queen Anne and Old English features, but simplified and boasting modern heating systems. His most prominent city house, a mansion for George Drummond in Montreal (1888–89), was in a robust Richardsonian Romanesque with touches of Scottish Baronial, reflecting his uncle’s Scottish heritage and Taylor’s great admiration for the famous American architect Henry Hobson Richardson.
For his country homes Taylor looked to what is known today as the Shingle style. Developed in the United States during the 1870s and 1880s, it was associated in its earliest, picturesque phase with Richardson and in its later, more formal manner with McKim, Mead, and White. Two houses Taylor had designed in the 1880s in the summer community of Petit-Métis (Métis-sur-Mer), Que., reflect the style’s initial phase, while a fashionable Colonial Revival design was chosen for the grand estates of banker Hugh Montagu Allan* in nearby Cacouna and for Drummond in what would become Beaconsfield, near Montreal. These projects both dated from the turn of the century. Taylor also tried his hand at a newer type of residence, the apartment building. One was the stylish Marlborough on Milton Street, the other intended for artisans in a working-class neighbourhood.
Taylor’s receptivity to new trends is perhaps nowhere more evident than on the McGill University campus, where in the 1890s he designed the Redpath Library and the three science buildings financed by William Christopher Macdonald*. These, together with large additions he conceived for the old Medical Building, made him the most important architect at McGill in the 19th century. Harmonizing greystone was chosen for all four, but otherwise the designs varied. Engineering and chemistry were given Renaissance treatments, but Romanesque, with its sturdy, round-arched forms, was chosen for the physics building to provide the stability needed for delicate experiments. Fitted with state-of-the-art equipment, this new structure and its facilities so impressed Ernest Rutherford, then at the University of Cambridge, that in 1898 he accepted McGill’s invitation to serve as the third Macdonald professor of physics.
The Redpath Library (1892–93), also in the Romanesque style, was Canada’s second university library building, preceded by the University of Toronto’s, which had opened in 1892. Indeed, the two were among the few free-standing libraries of any kind in the entire country. While Richardson’s handsome Romanesque libraries were surely influential, McGill’s library has greater affinities with his famous Trinity Church in Boston and demonstrates Taylor’s own background in flexible medieval design. The Redpath building successfully joined a great navelike reading room featuring a fine hammer-beam roof and large, round-arched windows to a modern, extendable stack wing, the second of its kind in Canada.
The Montreal Diocesan Theological College (1895–96) clearly illustrates Taylor’s Gothic Revival roots. A dormitory, classrooms, a library, and a chapel were required, so he looked to one of the century’s most innovative works, William Butterfield’s church of All Saints’ Margaret Street, in London, England, the paradigm of a modern urban religious complex intended to fit a restricted site. Like Butterfield, Taylor disposed independent but linked structures around a small courtyard, using a low wall topped by a Gothic arcade and pierced by a pointed gateway to seclude the ensemble from its busy surroundings. The materials – red pressed brick from La Prairie, Que., trimmed with buff Ohio sandstone set on a grey limestone base – subtly recalls the constructional colours beloved by Butterfield and other mid Victorians.
A second Anglican institution, Bishop’s College in Lennoxville (Sherbrooke), Que., was also the beneficiary of Taylor’s designs in the 1890s. A fire in 1891 had destroyed the main edifice and most of the chapel. First completed was an L-shaped, all-purpose school building in a plain brick Gothic, which harmonized with what remained. Restoration of the chapel continued through much of the decade, while in 1897 a new headmaster’s house and a gymnasium were constructed according to Taylor’s plans.
Various commissions serving medical and charitable needs figured in Taylor’s practice over the years. Among these were alterations to the Montreal General Hospital, whose benefactors included both John Redpath and his son Peter, and to the historic Notman house, originally designed by John Wells (1845), in order to transform it in 1894 into St Margaret’s Home for Incurables, a renovation funded by Drummond. Other projects included a new wing for the Protestant Hospital for the Insane, located in Verdun (Montreal) (1896), and the Jubilee Nurses’ Home (1897), a handsome villa-like structure, the residence for the Montreal General Hospital’s nursing staff. Further afield was the Ross Memorial Hospital (1901–2) in Lindsay, Ont., the gift of Montreal railway contractor James Ross*. The homelike, Georgian Revival exterior of red brick concealed a modern steel frame manufactured in Pittsburgh, Pa, and concrete floors.
One of Taylor’s most novel commissions was his design for the first crematorium in Canada (1901–2). Located in Mount Royal Cemetery, Montreal, this extremely contentious project, which clashed with Christian belief in the resurrection of the body, was pushed through by Sir William Christopher Macdonald, a strong advocate of cremation. A glass-roofed entrance hall that could be filled with flowers was especially welcome during Montreal’s long winters.
In 1892 Taylor had been called on to plan a large extension to the gallery of the Art Association of Montreal on Phillips square. The imposing addition provided ample space not only for the institution’s own exhibitions but also for those of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Taylor had become an associate of the RCA in 1885 and an academician in 1890; he showed his drawings and watercolours in various exhibitions and encouraged his Canadian colleagues to do the same.
Despite his busy, far-flung practice, Taylor spent countless hours seeking to improve the architectural profession in Canada. A founder and early president of the Province of Quebec Association of Architects, incorporated in 1890, he had recognized that dramatic changes in building types, materials, and technology demanded provision for adequate training as well as regulation of the profession. His efforts were critical in Macdonald’s decision in 1896 to endow a chair of architecture at McGill, which led to the creation of Canada’s first university architecture department. Over the years it would train some of the country’s major architects, including such internationally known figures as Arthur Charles Erickson and Moshe Safdie. Taylor himself taught architectural courses during his years in Montreal, serving as instructor in freehand and model drawing for the faculty of applied science at McGill and as lecturer in ecclesiastical architecture at the Presbyterian College of Montreal.
In 1904 Taylor retired and returned to England, where he embarked on a second career in public service. His Montreal firm carried on under the name of Taylor, Hogle, and Davis, run by two younger employees; Taylor’s early partner, Hamilton-Gordon, had been practising independently in England for some time. After settling in Hampstead, in 1908 Taylor won a seat on the London County Council, the city’s governing body. He would be a member until 1926, sitting on a number of important committees and acting as the LCC’s representative on the boards of numerous other organizations. He was mayor of Hampstead in 1922. Among the many institutions that he served, one stands out: University College, founded in 1826 as the first English establishment of higher education with a modern curriculum and no religious restrictions. Appointed by the LCC to the college committee in 1910, he worked with various bodies over the years and was the college’s delegate to the senate of the University of London from 1918 to 1935. Two of his bequests, the Sir Andrew Taylor Prize in Architecture and the Sir Andrew Taylor Prize in Fine Art, expressed his special interest in the Bartlett School of Architecture and the Slade School of Fine Art and continued into the 21st century.
Taylor’s years of service were widely recognized. In 1919 he was granted the Medal of the City of Paris, in 1926 he received a knighthood, in 1928 he was made an honorary fellow of University College, and in 1936 he was awarded the Honorary Freedom of the City of London, the highest honour bestowed by the city. His work in Canada was acknowledged in 1931 when he was made an honorary fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada; this distinction had been given only once before – to Governor General Lord Willingdon [Freeman-Thomas*].
At the time of Taylor’s death, a long-standing colleague on the LCC wrote, “He was outwardly austere, but with a soft heart easily touched by any tale of distress…. His greatest happiness was work. Ascetic and conscientious to a fault, a strict disciplinarian, he never spared himself.”
Taylor was one of a number of British-trained architects who sought opportunities in Canada during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Although he benefited from links to some of the country’s most prominent families, his ultimate success was the result of his extensive training, his openness to current developments, and his efforts to improve the architectural profession.
GRO, Reg. of marriages, Lambeth (London), 5 Dec. 1891. Univ. College London Arch. (London), Council records, college committee minutes; Managing committee records, managing sub-committee minutes. Victoria and Albert Museum, Royal Instit. of British Architects Library (London), Drawings and Arch. coll., RIBA nomination papers, vol.6: 11; vol.9: 127. Gazette (Montreal), 29 April 1884, 24 July 1886, 26 Aug. 1897, 7 March 1898. Montreal Daily Star, 18 April 1891, 25 March 1893, 3 Nov. 1894, 4 July 1896, 14 May 1931. Times (London), 3 Dec. 1937. Canadian Architect and Builder (Toronto), 3 (1890): 116; 6 (1893): 104–5; 8 (1895): 96–97, plates 1, 3, 4 (between pp.98 and 99); 11 (1898): 27, plates 2a, 2b (between pp.210 and 211); 13 (1900): 4, plate 6 (between pp.8 and 9); 15 (1902): 64 (see also the corresponding illustration in the architects’ ed.), 146, 175, plate 1 (between pp.176 and 177). Canadian Contract Record (Toronto), 3 (1892–93), no.5: 2; 4 (1893–94), no.27: 2; 7 (1896–97), no.5: 2; 8 (1897–98), no.8: 2. R. G. Hill, “The biographical dictionary of architects in Canada, 1800–1950”: www.dictionaryofarchitectsincanada.org (consulted 29 October 2013). Oswald Howard, The Montreal Diocesan Theological College: a history from 1873 to 1963 (Montreal, 1963). K. S. Howe et al., Herter Brothers: furniture and interiors for a gilded age (New York, 1994). P. F. McNally, “Dignified and picturesque: Redpath Library in 1893,” Fontanus (Montreal), 6 (1993): 69–84. R. M. Pepall, Montréal, 1912: building a beaux-arts museum (exhibition catalogue, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1986). Royal Instit. of British Architects, Trans. (London) (1882–83). F. Tillemont-Thomason, “The physics building at McGill University,” Canadian Magazine, 7 (May–October 1896): 425–34. S. [W.] Wagg, The architecture of Andrew Thomas Taylor: Montreal’s Square Mile and beyond (Montreal, 2013); “Bank of Montreal addition,” in Money matters: a critical look at bank architecture (New York and Montreal, 1990), 69–71. | <urn:uuid:1d8b6499-28ab-4a92-a4c3-12817a616797> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/taylor_andrew_thomas_16E.html?revision_id=24282 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00036-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965721 | 3,771 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Predicting where the Gulf oil will go
Oil reaches Louisiana coast
Mother Nature is no longer helping matters in the Gulf of Mexico, where the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and collapsed on April 20.
For a time, winds mainly from the north and west had kept the sheen of expanding oil in the Gulf of Mexico away from the Gulf Coast. But that started to change Wednesday night, when winds shifted and began to blow from a more southerly direction. The onshore flow, which has now brought the outskirts of the oil spill ashore in Louisiana, is expected to persist at least through the weekend, raising the prospects for devastating effects on the environment, wildlife and economy.
Wind direction alone is far from the whole ballgame when it comes to predicting the movement and spread of an oil slick.
Other factors include surface currents, wave action, tides, air and water temperatures, salinity, and characteristics of the local shoreline and sea bottom. Knowledge of each of these interacting components is required as input for mathematical models used to forecast the evolution of an oil spill. The grade of oil (e.g., light, medium, heavy), depth of the oil slick, and the chemistry of oil degradation given environmental conditions also come into play.
The most common models for oil spill prediction, such as those used by NOAA, are known as trajectory models. Such models generate the predicted trajectory, or track, of many small "parcels" of oil, which collectively provide the basis for charting the movement of the entire spill. As we all know, any model involving weather has its limitations. The black outline in the image to the right indicates the area of uncertainty for Saturday's predicted oil spill location.
Only time will tell whether response efforts, supported and guided by modeling capabilities, will be enough to avert or mitigate the potential environmental and economic damages threatened by the oil now oozing toward the Gulf Coast. In the meantime, it seems the Gulf Coast is once again at the mercy of Mother Nature, this time a full month before hurricane season even gets underway.
One of the better websites to stay up to date on the oil spill is "Gulf of Mexico - Transocean Drilling Incident" at http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/.
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The comments to this entry are closed. | <urn:uuid:50786599-6b6d-4401-81ed-ec7f597c2bb4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2010/04/predicting_the_gulf_oil_spill.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00032-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943909 | 534 | 2.921875 | 3 |
The Lymph System
Within the adipose tissue is a network of ligaments, fibrous connective tissue, nerves, lymph vessels, lymph nodes, and blood vessels.
The lymph system, which is part of the immune system, is a network of lymph vessels and lymph nodes running throughout the entire body. Similar to how the blood circulatory system distributes elements throughout the body, the lymph system transports disease-fighting cells and fluids. Clusters of bean-shaped lymph nodes are fixed in areas throughout the lymph system and act as filters by carrying abnormal cells away from healthy tissue.
The type of breast cancer is generally determined by the origin of the growth of cancer cells, which is almost always in the lobes, lobules, or ducts. When cancer is found in the nearby lymph nodes, it helps doctors identify just how far the cancer has spread. If the nearest nodes contain cancer, additional nodes are usually examined for the presence or absence of cancer cells to understand how far the disease has progressed. | <urn:uuid:9e82c7bd-2635-45f9-a576-8e104c617990> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/breast-anatomy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00191-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954535 | 204 | 3.375 | 3 |
Teachers Lesson Plans
What is the biggest difference between these two paintings?
As a topographical artist, Woolford's vision of Detroit is an exact rendering of a specific place that he saw. Probably on Dalhousie's orders, Woolford depicted the town in such detail because Detroit at this time was part of the enemy territory. The town is recognizable as a place and Woolford sights its strategic position on the shores of the Detroit River and identifies its important buildings. Although Woolford made many sketches during this trip with Dalhousie, this is his only major painting of the enemy shoreline. Woolford's style is very academic. He uses linear and aerial perspective to unify the composition and to create a strong sense of space.
Forrest was not interested in depicting the place realistically. He was more interested in capturing the magic of the changing Fall colours, to which Dalhousie was very sensitive. He probably placed his easel in the lower right foreground of this well kept property. His style, unlike Woolford's traditional landscape format, is very personal and very modern in the use of stylization, bright colours, and composition in the form of a freize. The focus on the changing autumn colours is also a rather unusual subject for a painting at this time. Forrest spent two years in the early 1820's as Dalhousie's assistant military secretary and had no equal among watercolourists working in Canada at the time. | <urn:uuid:1537944a-ec5f-466f-bca9-40cdd896e564> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/teachers/plans/compare_e.jsp?lessonid=264 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391634.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00153-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977551 | 296 | 3.453125 | 3 |
The story of Tarquin’s rape of Lucrece is an ancient Roman legend that has been presented in many versions, including in this poem by William Shakespeare. The Elizabethans were especially fond of this legend, so Shakespeare had numerous sources upon which to draw. Compared with his other writings, this poem is far more conventionally Elizabethan, yet its passages of great emotion and its consistently beautiful poetry rank it above other interpretations of the story known in his day.
The Rape of Lucrece was entered at the Stationers’ Register on May 9, 1594. Like Venus and Adonis which had been published the previous year, it was finely printed by Richard Field and dedicated to the earl of Southampton. Both of these narrative poems had been written while the theaters were closed because of the plague, but these companion pieces are not the idle products of a dramatist during a period of forced inactivity. Rather, as the dedications and the care in publication indicate, they are efforts at what, in Shakespeare’s day, was a more serious, more respectable type of composition than writing plays.
Longer and graver in tone than Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece was extremely popular, going through many editions, and was quoted frequently by contemporaries. The stern Gabriel Harvey, a Cambridge fellow and friend of Edmund Spenser, enthusiastically approved of the poem and paired it with Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (pr. c. 1600-1601, pb. 1603) for seriousness of intent. The poem may be the “graver labor” that Shakespeare promises Southampton in the dedication to Venus and Adonis. Whether or not Shakespeare intended to pair the poems, The Rape of Lucrece does provide a moralistic contrast to the view of love and sexuality expressed in the earlier poem.
The genre of The Rape of Lucrece is complaint, a form popular in the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and particularly in vogue in the late 1590’s. Strictly speaking, the complaint is a monologue in which the speaker bewails his or her fate or the sad state of the world. Shakespeare, however, following the example of many contemporaries, took advantage of the possibilities for variety afforded by dialogue. The poem includes the long set speeches and significant digressions that had become associated with the complaint. The poetic style is the highly ornamented sort approved by sophisticated Elizabethan audiences.
The rhyme royal stanza may have been suggested by its traditional use in serious narrative or, more immediately, by Samuel Daniel’s use of it in...
(The entire section is 1075 words.) | <urn:uuid:0c2f1ff7-58d3-4a16-b608-f5049082b699> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.enotes.com/topics/rape-lucrece/critical-essays | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00134-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973473 | 544 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Riboku (里木) are trees bearing the ranka of humans and hanjyuu. The trees have white branches and trunks made of a hard substance that cannot be cut, even by swords such as the Suiguutou. Each village will have a riboku located at its centre, which people will pray to for livestock, grain, and children. Ranka may only be picked by the person who prayed for it.
Most prayers to the riboku occur on the first seven days of a month. To indicate their prayers, people will tie ribbons to the branches of the riboku. Fowl, such as chickens and ducks, are prayed for on the first day, dogs on the second, sheep and goats on the third, boars and pigs on the fourth, cattle on the fifth, and horses on the sixth. Livestock take one month to ripen and people may tie multiple ribbons, though there is no guarantee that all of them will grow a ranka. Human children may be prayed for on the seventh day, and any day after the ninth of a month. However, only one ribbon may be tied onto the tree at a time. The eighth day is reserved for the ruler of a kingdom to pray for crops.
Human children may only be prayed for by married couples and they will often design their own ribbons to reflect what they wish for their child. | <urn:uuid:fb7dd314-5868-44be-86fe-1711c7789aeb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://12kingdoms.wikia.com/wiki/Riboku | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00024-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975622 | 289 | 3.203125 | 3 |
"Communication can play a much greater role in enabling people to take control over their own lives, in enabling people and societies to set their own agendas in relation to political, economic and social development; and in enabling, in particular, the voices of the economically and politically marginalized to be amplified and channeled to mainstream public and political debate." DevMedia 2003 Based in local geographic areas or communities of interest, community media is accessible, in terms of production and use by citizens and in terms of the capabilities and costs involved.
In other words, community media enables citizens to be meaningfully involved in the creation of media content: there are few barriers to listening or viewing content; the overall process of media management is relatively simple compared with that for other forms of media; and, relatively speaking, the costs of production and distribution are low. Community media's relative technical accessibility is combined with a stated mandate for socio-cultural development.
The growth of community media, in regions such as South Asia and the Commonwealth countries of Africa, is based partly on the interest of governments and civil society groups in the explicit developmental orientation of community media — specifically, how this media contributes to social change and local development by giving citizens greater chance to participate in public life and to be empowered by opportunities to voice ideas, concerns and experience. The field of community media like community radio and Community TV is often framed by freedoms associated with free speech, expression and information. It has most famously been described as the voice of the voiceless. Expression and what Latin American scholars have long identified as the "right to communicate" are closely linked to the empowerment and agency of citizens, which underlie any type of participatory development. Literature about community media highlights the media's role as local watchdog, which favours press functions, reporting and news in the service of keeping local government accountable.
The community radio movement started in Bangladesh in 1998. After a long journey of advocating and lobbying with the government line departments, organizing a number of awareness-raising meetings, gatherings and seminars, finally the government has approved and given permission to 14 community radio stations to broadcasting programs. It is no doubt an admirable decision of the government. This agenda was included in the election manifesto of Awami League. Recently, Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) took the initiative to publish a booklet on how the existing stations started working, how they function, what possible impacts they might create on the community and so on. I was given the responsibility to edit the Book. The Minister for Information and Cultural Affairs launched the book, as Chief Guest at the Bangladesh Community Radio Conference on February 25 at IDB Bhaban, Dhaka. The conference was organized by BNNRC.
BNNRC is a common networking platform for all the CR initiators and involved in capacity strengthening of community radio professionals of the country. It promotes advocacy with the government in relation to community radio with other organizations since its emergence in 2000. It addresses the radio access issue, helping to bridge the information gap. At the moment, positive and supportive condition is prevailing in our country. The government has announced the Community Radio Installation, Broadcast & Operation Policy. Bangladesh is the second country in South Asia to formulate a policy for Community Radio. Separate reports were prepared on 14 Community Radio stations by local journalists. I also visited some of the stations personally. I shared experiences with station staffs. I found some positive response within the community to the radio stations of their area. At certain places, it seems even greater than FM commercial radio channels. At the moment, there are six FM (commercially-run) radio stations. These are: ABC Radio, Radio Today, Radio Furti, Radio Amar, Radio Dhaka and People's Radio. They don't have any broadcast boundary. With this freedom, Radio Today and Radio Furti have already started their transmission in big cities outside Dhaka.
ABC Radio is likely to broadcast programs in Chittagong and Cox's Bazar this year. Whereas the community radio policy has fixed its transmission area within the 17 km radius, which may cover one or more upazila of a district. In 1st phase of 14 stations, Community Radio Padma 99.2 FM was set up in Rajshahi city. The Center for Communication & Development (CCD), an organization promoting mass communication and journalism, is the initiator of this station. It started its formal transmission on October 7 as the 1st Community Radio station of the country. Community Radio Mukti 99.2 FM, initiated by an NGO-Landless Distressed Rehabilitation Organization (LDRO), started test transmission on October 31 (2011) from Bogra. Naogaon Human Rights Development Association, an NGO of Naogaon, is starting test transmission of "Community Barendra Radio 99.2 FM". RDRS Bangladesh. a reputed NGO started broadcasting Community Radio Chilmari 99.2 FM (set up at Chilmari Upazila) on January 5 this year. "Shono Bahe, Jago Bahe" is their slogan. Community Radio Mahananda 98.8 was initiated in Chapainawabganj by Proyash Manobik Unnayan Society, an NGO of the area. It has started transmission on October 28, 2011. BRAC, the largest NGO of the subcontinent has initiated, Community Radio Pallikantha 99.2, at Moulvibazar. It started formal transmission on January 12 this year.
Mass Line Media Center, a media organization, started test transmission of Community Radio LokoBetar 99.2 at Amtali of Barguna district on May 27, 2011. Nalta Hospital and Community Health Foundation established Community Radio Nalta 99.2 at Kaliganj upazila of Satkhira dstrict. It has started its transmission on May 13 last year. Broadcasting Asia of Bangladesh, a TVET organization, initiated Community Radio Sundarban 98.8 at Koyra upazila of Khulna. It has started transmission on February 15 this year. Community Radio Jhinuk 99.2, initiated by Srijoni Bangladesh, started transmission on December 17 last year at Jhenaidah Sadar.Young Power in Social Action (YPSA) established Community Radio Sagargiri 99.2 at Sitakunda in Chittagong district. It started its transmission on November 24 last year. ACLAB, an NGO, will soon start Community Radio Naf 99.2 FM at Tekhnaf of Cox's Bazar. Environment Council Bangladesh (EC Bangladesh) established Community Radio Bikrampur 99.2 at Munshiganj. The stations are broadcasting programs as per their capacity and convenience. However Radio Padma may be an exception, for they are broadcasting programs 18 hours in a day and presenting news per hour. Meanwhile, this radio, by broadcasting programs on diversified issues, has made an enormous impact and gained popularity in the community.
Now 14 Community Radio stations are broadcasting 97.5 hours of programs for rural people and 536 youth and young women are working with community radio as rural broadcasters. Most of the programs deal with education, information, local entertainment and development motivation. Recently the Ministry of Information declared the National Strategy for Implementation of Community Radio Installation, Broadcast and Operation in Bangladesh. We hope by 2015 we will have 60 community radio stations around the country and by 2021 we will have 400 community radios all over the country. Most of the stations have scanty resources, particularly human resources, equipment, creative ideas and program production capacity. Some of the stations are found quite organized; having soundproof studio and somewhere the situation seems reverse. But the local people are now aware of their radio stations.
On one hand, community radio plays a significant role in information sharing on important development issues like agriculture, education or health and, on the other hand, it is a popular source of entertainment. Community Radio has become a pioneering example of people's participation in mass media. On top of that, the people of the community now consider community radio as their own media. They feel pride and pleasure in this sense of ownership. Within a few months of broadcasting of Krishi Radio at Amtali, revolutionary changes through information flow could be seen in the lives and livelihood of the farmers in the area.
The radio programs had an impact and accelerated the rural economy of the area. Ten voluntary groups have been formed there by involving local farmers and fisherman. They have been provided training on capacity development so that they would act as news workers by sending different types of information (including farmers' problems) to radio stations, using cell phones. Radio Pallikantha has become so popular that the people of the community purchase radio sets and invite the others to listen. The radio clubs arrange radio listening for the community. Since the programs are broadcasted in their own dialect, the community people consider the station as their own. Zahid Hasan, an auto rickshaw driver of Chilmari stated, "We have listened radio from the outside throughout our lives, now we listen to our performers sing in our own station. This is really a great experience. Upazila Chilmari is constituted of a number of char islands mostly, where boat is the only means to connect to the upazila sadar. In the evening, when boats do not ply and the char dwellers become disconnected from the main land, only Radio Chilmari connects them. Likewise, Radio Jhinuk gives special focus on suicidal issue, since this is a serious social problem in Jhenaidah. In mainstream (traditional) mass media, we usually listen, read or see the lives and stories of the privileged community. The disadvantaged community can only visit the media when any disaster occurs or any rare success story happens in their life.
A long-cherished dream has now been fulfilled that community people have got their own mass media, where they will operate and control, perform, listen and share their own pleasure and pain, disseminate weather forecasts or market prices in their own dialect. That dream is now a reality. If we can have at least 60 community radios by 2015 and 400 community radios by 2021 for a country of 1.6 billion people, that would be a true achievement. We can dream of community radio becoming he mainstream media in the disadvantaged areas of the country. Community radio is a successful step to the Right to Information. Now is the time we can start Community Television.
Mainstream television channels, now captured by the national and multinational corporate agencies, are mostly busy for business and advocating for their own initiators where marginalized and deprived peoples' agenda is neglected. So we need Community Television immediately to change this situation and focus on the needs, views, struggles of marginalized people and help them solve their problems on their own. As community radio is a new intervention and still in testing mode, one may ask how can we think of community television at this stage? Is it relevant? The fact is that after struggling on this issue for last 12 years, we have convinced the government about community radio. If we don't start planning this issue now, it will not be possible to start telecasting community television any time soon. Community Television will not be a competitor of mainstream television, but it will be a supplement media. Community television can start with just a little equipment. Community television is like community radio. It needs very simple equipment and a few members of staff.
It could be run locally with the help of cable line operators, till the government permits community-based telecasting service and gives them terrestrial license. Community television can communicate effectively and directly with the community. It will be more powerful and popular than community radio because people can hear and watch events. Participation will be higher than in community radio. The challenge of running community television is having equipment and skilled manpower. Community Television needs skilled manpower, but that is not impossible. Nepal is socio-economically weaker than Bangladesh but recently has start running community television successfully. So we believe our dream for community television can materialise. We are confident about this.. Television has the advantage of visual images as well as narrative. Community television should have the potential to communicate directly with its limited audience and thereby tailor the messages effectively. According to DevMedia 2003, communication programming has, very simplistically, tended to fulfill three roles in development thinking and practice: To inform and persuade people to adopt certain behaviour and practices that are beneficial to them; to enhance the image and profile of the work of organizations involved in development with a view to boosting the credibility of their work; raising more funding and generally improving public perceptions In order for community media to be effective, it should: make people agents of their own change, support dialogue and debate on key issues of concern sensitively place information into the dialogue and debate, focus on social norms, social policies, culture and a supportive social-cultural environment. negotiate the best way forward, in a partnership between the community and the station · get the people most effected by issues of concern playing a central role in local development rather than acting as technical experts for outside agencies. To ensure the creation and exhibition of locally produced, locally reflective community programming; To foster a greater diversity of voices and alternative choices by facilitating new entrants at the local level, To promote the development of rural Bangladesh identity and reflecting cultural diversity; To promote the availability of television programs about matters of local significance; and ensuring diversity in broadcasting services in the transition to digital broadcasting The role of the community TV should be primarily of a public service non profit nature, facilitating self-expression through free and open access by members of the community.
Community TV should ensure a high level of citizen participation and community involvement in community programming; actively promote citizen access to the community channel and provide and promote the availability of related training programs; provide feedback mechanisms, such as advisory boards, to encourage viewer response to the range and types of programs aired; seek out innovative ideas and alternative views; provide a reasonable, balanced opportunity for the expression of differing views on matters of public concern; reflect the official languages, ethnic and Aboriginal composition of the community; provide coverage of local events; and publicize the program schedule. Core Values: Promote positive self-images among underrepresented youth & communities by providing a platform for self-representation and means for dissemination to large audiences, encouraging them to overcome the realities of poverty, inequality, and injustice. Stimulate youth development, cultivating critical thinking, interpersonal and leadership skills, strengthening literacy, and fostering the development of strong work habits and real world skills. Empower youth to articulate their own truths, to seek and develop independent perspectives, and to involve their communities in solving the issues that matter to them most. Engage underserved youth in quality, sequential technology and arts training, and teaches them to apply this training to explore positive values and attitudes through creative expression BNNRC aims to provide the following for its constituents over time, as possible in regard to available resources and priorities as identified in Annual Training Plans.
BNNRC will: (a) provide appropriate training in television production and transmission to groups and individuals. (b) promote and assist the development of Community Television Groups (c) support the access of its constituents through the provision of training in specific skill areas. (d) assist with the training of program providers in the operations and goals of the Programming Department; (e) assist program providers to become familiar with and have access to relevant information regarding the production, administrative, classification and technical requirements of the station; (f) make available to its constituents information on the necessary elements for program production and broadcast, including knowledge, competencies, resources, costs and support (g) provide training to enable program providers to submit programs to at least the minimum standard as within the guidelines of the station, the current Community Television Code of Practice, and relevant legislation applying to community television. (h) where possible, provide training to facilitate those communities under-represented in station programming in their capability to produce. Opportunities for Community Broadcasting: There are many prospects for the community broadcasting in the country that includes increasing numbers of applicants who may apply for establishment of community radios, enlightening possibilities for lowering tariffs and fees for community radios and especially the support indicated by the government in the national ICT policy and Community Radio policy . Specifically, the prospects include:
There is an increasing commitment by the private sector and NGOs in supporting establishment and supporting of community radio and TV; & Digital Bangladesh Strategy. The writer is CEO, Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication [email protected] | <urn:uuid:6404a612-25b3-4c37-a25b-68dc6b98a955> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://frontlinesms.ning.com/profiles/blogs/community-media-for-development-now-time-to-act-to-open-up?xg_source=activity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00169-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954789 | 3,354 | 2.8125 | 3 |
PRELIMINARY PUBLIC HEALTH ASSESSMENT
U.S. SMELTER AND LEAD REFINERY, INC.
(a/k/a USS LEAD REFINERY INC.)
EAST CHICAGO, LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA
The U.S. Smelter and Lead Refinery, Inc. (USS Lead), in East Chicago, Indiana, has been operating as a primary and secondary smelting facility since 1906. Since 1920, the primary product of USS Lead has been lead. Wastes which were produced during smelting operations are calcium sulfate sludge, blast furnace flue-dust, baghouse bags, rubber and plastic battery casings, and waste slag. Much of these wastes was stored on-site for recycling or disposal. All of the wastes, as well as on-site surface soils are heavily contaminated with lead and other metals. The plant ceased operations in 1985. Clean-up efforts were overseen by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. The site was proposed to the National Priorities List in February 1992, when USS Lead's parent company, Sharon Steel, filed for bankruptcy.
Limited sampling information is available, and indicates that on-site soils and wastes are contaminated with lead and other metals. Additional sampling of off-site surface soils indicate that the contamination has spread off-site as far as one-half mile from the site. High lead levels have been found in surface soils at E.C. DuPont, which is adjacent to USS Lead. Ambient air monitoring, available for 1985 through 1989, indicates that elevated levels of lead were present in ambient air, both on- and off-site in 1985, when the smelter was in operation. Surface water and sediment on-site has also become contaminated with lead and other metals, as well as waste oil. Adverse health effects which could result from exposure to lead include impaired learning and behavioral tasks, altered motor activity, and mild changes in blood heme synthesis. Based on the completed exposure pathways to lead through soil ingestion and dust inhalation, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry concludes that contamination from the USS Lead site is a public health hazard. Recommendations to reduce exposure include the use of dust-control methods during site remediation, and community education regarding the health effects of lead exposure and methods to lessen potential exposure.
The U.S. Smelter and Lead Refinery, Inc. (USS Lead) formerly operated on a 79-acre tract of property at 5300 Kennedy Avenue in East Chicago, Lake County, Indiana. The Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad is to the north of the site, the east-west toll road, and the east branch of the Grand Calumet River to the south, Kennedy Avenue to the east, and Indiana Harbor Canal to the west. It lies within the flood plain of the Grand Calumet River.
From about 1906 to 1920 a copper smelter operated on the property. Most of the buildings remaining on-site are part of the original facility and include the Tank House (baghouse dust), Store Building, Club Building, Main Office and Laboratory Building, Sulfuric Acid Building (renamed the Battery Breaker Building), Tellurium Building, and the Byproducts Building. There was also an Old Silver Refinery Building, which was demolished in the late 1960s; however, the concrete foundation of this building still remains. Starting in 1920, among other activities, USS Lead operated a primary lead smelter on 25 acres of the property. In 1973, USS Lead converted to secondary smelting, recovering lead from scrap metal and old automobile batteries. Batteries were dismantled on-site, littering the area with rubber and plastic battery casings, and contaminating area soils with battery acids. Acid crystals have been seen in on-site soils . Two waste materials were generated during smelting. The blast furnace slag was piled up south of the plant building. The pile was leveled off once a year into what was originally a nearby 21-acre wetland, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. Tests conducted in 1986 by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) detected elevated levels of lead in the slag. The second waste material, lead-containing flue-dust emitted by the blast furnace stack was originally trapped in bag filters and stockpiled on-site for possible recycling or sale. A larger blast furnace installed in 1973 was intended to recycle both new and stockpiled dust. Dust awaiting recycling covered a three- to five-acre area. In 1982, the dust was brought under cover in the Tank House building to prevent dispersion by wind and rain. The dust was removed from the site in June 1992. An additional facility to produce arsenic may have existed on-site .
In 1975, USS lead received a permit under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination system (NPDES) to discharge furnace cooling water and storm water runoff collected from the site to the Grand Calumet River. A second permit was issued in April 1985. Over the years, the permit levels for lead, cadmium, copper, arsenic, and zinc were frequently exceeded according to IDEM. In the 1980s, several state and federal enforcement actions were taken against USS Lead for permit violations. These violations, plus the dumping of slag water into the wetland, have contributed to contamination of surface water in the area .
USS Lead ceased operation in December 1985. The site was proposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) to the National Priorities List (NPL) in February 1992, after USS Lead's parent company, Sharon Steel Corp, filed for bankruptcy. USS Lead's current parent company, the Mining Remedial Recovery Company (MMRC), has since agreed to financially support the clean-up activities at the site.
Dr. Dana Abouelnasr and Ms. Manna Muroya of ATSDR, and Ms. Dollis Wright and Mr. Garry Mills of the Indiana State Department of Health conducted a site visit of USS Lead on January 19, 1993. Also present were representatives from the US EPA, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, and the Lake County Health Department. Representatives were present from USS Lead and from Birchett Environmental Management, a contractor to MMRC. Evidence of damage from vandals was present throughout the site. A fence was installed around the facility in late 1991, restricting access to the area. Several buildings are on-site, and have become unsafe through lack of upkeep and by acts of vandals. A large portion of the area is wetlands, much of which have been filled with primary and secondary slag. A canal drains stormwater runoff from the area, and flows directly into the Grand Calumet River. Runoff from the southern portion of the site flows through a ditch to a marsh. The marsh drains into the Grand Calumet River. Large oil storage tanks were located near the canal. They have been removed from their pads and temporarily placed nearby. Groundwater seeping out of the banks reportedly contained floating fuel products. A black oily layer was observed floating on the canal water. A fuel odor was evident in the area. Battery casings littered much of the site. Old drums were also scattered throughout the site. Several piles of lead-contaminated baghouse bags were in one area. The building in which the baghouse dust had been stored prior to removal contained some dust, which the Birchett representative indicated would be cleaned. During the visit, Birchett Environmental Management employees were sorting chemicals from a chemical laboratory and storage room for disposal. They reported also finding asbestos pipe wrap which had been removed from scrap pipes by vandals.
The immediate vicinity surrounding the site was inspected. Several schools, one day care, and a nursing home (E.C. Rehab Center, now Lake County Rehabilitation Center) were observed within one mile of the site. Although the site is surrounded by industrial areas, residential areas are less than one-quarter mile away. Residences in the area are relatively small, and constructed on small lots. No evidence of vegetable gardens was observed. The population in the area appears to be in the lower income group.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported in 1990 the East Chicago population at 33,892, down from 39,786 in 1980. Approximately 7,500 people work or attend school within 2 miles of the site. A total of 71 people were employed at USS Lead while in operation.
Land use in the immediate area is predominantly industrial; a DuPont Plant is located to the west, across Kennedy Avenue, and a tank farm is to the south, across the Grand Calumet River. Much of the southern part of the site adjacent to the Grand Calumet River is swamp. The nearest residences are within one-quarter mile north of the site.
Natural Resource Use
All water for drinking, commercial, and industrial uses is obtained from Lake Michigan. No private wells are in use near the site. A total of 4.1 million people obtain drinking water from intakes primarily into Lake Michigan within 15 miles downstream of where hazardous waste substances from the site enter into surface water. Lake Michigan, 3 miles south of the site, is used for fishing. The Grand Calumet River and Indiana Harbor, into which the river drains, are not fished. Hammond Beach Marina, which is used for recreation, is 4 miles west from where the canal enters Lake Michigan. Wabala Beach and several other major recreation areas are within 15 miles of the site.
The Indiana State Board of Health conducted blood lead screening for children in East Chicago . This screening was performed in response to ambient air monitoring results for lead in Lake County. The study included children aged six months to six years, and was performed over a two day period in June, 1985. USS Lead was still in operation at the time of the study.
No community health concerns were identified through questioning of representatives of the Lake County Health Department, the US EPA, and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
The ISDH released this public health assessment for public comment on May 20, 1993. The public comment period lasted until June 21, 1993. No comments were received by the ISDH in this period. Additional comments and new information on the site will be considered by ISDH and ATSDR for future assessments of, or consultations on, the site. | <urn:uuid:d2bb9324-93cc-40d6-b93c-b982f47e6b94> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/pha/pha.asp?docid=892&pg=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399428.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00118-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972414 | 2,117 | 2.875 | 3 |
Term used in philosophy to express a characteristic of an object or notion which does not necessarily follow from its nature and is not essential to its concept, but is connected with the object as an unessential, seemingly, by chance or Accident. The opposite notion is that of the essential, that is, a necessarily contained characteristic, without which the object would lose its identity. That a human being is mortal or a biped is necessarily contained in the notion "human being," but to be white is only the chance or accidental characteristic of any particular human being, for negroes are also human beings.
Among the Arabic and Jewish philosophers the doctrine of accidents = or , also , assumes special importance, particularly as a proof of the existence of God (compare Munk, "Guide des Égarés," i. 385, 398, 424; Kaufmann, "Gesch. der Attributenlehre," p. 281). Descartes, Hobbes, and Locke substitute for the term "Accident," which had been universally used in the Middle Ages, the term "modus" (= temporary condition), and this change was adopted by Spinoza ("Ethics," part i., definition 5). The logical relation is that of subject and predicate, the metaphysical relation that of substance and Accident ( in Arabic-Jewish philosophic phraseology). The relation of Accident, as a chance quality, to attribute, as a permanent characteristic of the substance ( ) has been clearly explained by Maimonides, "Moreh Nebukim," ii. 19. Maimonides distinguishes between separable and inseparable accidents, and .
- Maimonides, Moreh, i. 73, ii. 19;
- idem, Yesode ha-Torah, iv. 8;
- idem, Millot ha-Higgayon, § 9;
- Schmiedel, in Monatsschrift, xiii. 186.
In daily life, Accident means unforeseen harm that comes to persons or things, presumably through lack of care. When the contributor to an Accident is another than the person injured, or is the owner of the things destroyed or depreciated, there is room for litigation, which, in every system of jurisprudence, is governed by special laws.
The Torah treats of the law of negligence in Ex. xxi. 28-36 and xxii. 4, 5, the leading cases being those of an ox goring a man or beast; an open, unprotected pit; fire spreading to a neighbor's property; also, to a certain extent, trespassing cattle. For the rules of Ex. xxii. 6-14, concerning the liability of a person lawfully possessed of another's goods for loss or destruction, see Bailments. In the language of the Mishnah the chief instances given in the Torah for a more broadly applicable law, such as those relating to the Goring Ox or those relating to any animal that inflicts unusual harm, or to the open pit or any similar inanimate thing, are called ("fathers"); other instances derived from these are known as ("descendants"). The latter may be called "derivatives."The Four "Fathers," or Leading Cases.
The Mishnah and the Tosefta treat the law of compensation for results of negligence in Baba Ḳamma, i.-vi., commented on in the Babylonian Talmud, 2-62b, and in the Jerusalem Talmud, 2-5c. Maimonides, in his "Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah," treats the subject under the heading "Nizḳe Mamon" (Damage to Property).
The "goring ox" with its derivatives is put aside, because full compensation for its acts can be demanded only when the master has been forewarned, and the treatise opens with the following four "fathers" for full compensation, under the technical names of "ox," "pit," "chewer," and "kindling." Here the "ox" means an animal allowed to trespass on a stranger's land and do injury with its foot; the "chewer," a like animal that does harm with its teeth. Both examples are derived from Ex. xxii. 4. The damage done may far surpass the gain to the owner of the animal. The "pit" refers to Ex. xxi. 33, the "kindling" to Ex. xxii. 5. It may be remarked that Abba Arika, the eminent Babylonian authority, understands the "ox" among the "fathers" to embrace both the foot and tooth, and regards the word here rendered "chewer" as standing for man; for when a man himself commits an injury he is always mulcted in full damages (B. Ḳ. 3b).Derivative Cases.
Any tame animal permitted wilfully or carelessly to go on a neighbor's land, and which does mischief by knocking things over with its body, or by dragging them along by means of its hair, tail, harness, bridle, or yoke, or by the burden which it carries, or by rubbing against a post or wall, is a derivative of the "ox," while an animal breaking down a post or wall by rubbing against it, or defiling grain or grass with its excrements, is a derivative of the "chewer." But striking with the body, or malignantly biting, or crouching on something, or kicking, is treated on the same principle as "goring." Chickens, dogs, cats, and even hogs are named among the animals for which the owner is made liable. Derivatives of the "pit" are a stone, knife, burden, or a mound; in short, anything over which one can stumble or from which one can receive injury if left in (public domain); that is, on the highway or on common lands. Derivatives of the "kindling" are articles which the owner has left on his roof, whence the wind carries them off to the injury of person or property. For whatever damage arises indirectly, the ultimate author is liable to the extent of only half compensation. Thus, when the foot, in striking the ground, kicks up pebbles, and these cause an injury, or when the animal upsets any implements, which in turn fall upon other implements and break them, the damage is considered remote, and only half compensation is given. These remote damages, when caused by animals, are known generally as the "case of pebbles."Placing the Liability.
Herein the Jewish law differs very widely from the English common law, as laid down in the leading case of Scott versus Shepherd (the "Squib case"), well known to lawyers. The four "fathers" and their derivatives have this in common: The entire estate of the owner of the guilty beast or thing is liable for the full damage, to be paid from "the best"; for Scripture (Ex. xxii. 4) says, "Of the best of his own field and of the best of his own vineyard shall he make restitution." For the explanation of "the best" see Appraisement. The ground of liability is based upon the natural tendency of animals to do harm, and the owner is bound to watch them. The general principle is thus stated: "I am considered to have caused the injury done by anything I am bound to watch; and if I have actually caused the injury in part, I am bound to make good the whole injury" (B. Ḳ. 1. 2). This latter point is thus illustrated: "If a pit be nine palms in depth and I dig it down a tenth palm, so as to make it deep enough to kill a beast that falls into it, I am as liable as if I had dug the whole pit" (B. Ḳ. 10a). While in the case of the "ox" and the "chewer" the owner is bound only for damage done on the land of the injured party, the "pit" is supposed to be on the public domain; the fire may start from that, or on the guilty party's own ground, presumably from the latter, and he is liable. The "ox" and the "chewer" make their owner liable for harm done to man or beast, to buildings or goods; the "pit," according to the words of Scripture, should "an ox or ass fall therein" (Ex. xxi. 33), only for the killing or maiming of animals—as ox or ass is supposed to exclude human beings and goods (, literally "implements"); though R. Judah, one of the older sages, who is mentioned as dissenting on this point of law, held that satisfaction must be made for goods.Contingent Results.
The law, however, remains such that there is no liability for loss or destruction of goods, other than the falling animal, by the "pit" or by any of its derivatives, even when man and goods or beast and goods fall in together. But while no redress is given for persons that fall into a pit and die, there is redress for injuries not fatal (B. Ḳ. 28b). For the death of a beast, only the owner of the pit is liable, when it happens at night or when the beast, by reason of youth, blindness, or deafness, is not able to take care of itself; but it is otherwise when the beast is injured, but not killed. The digger of a pit on his own ground may become liable if he open the property to public use and an injury ensue from the pit. On the other hand, where there are public places in which it is customary to deposit certain articles—for instance, jars of wine around a wine-press—the owner of these utensils is not liable if man or beast stumble over them. Again, whoever throws water from his house, or cellar, or yard, into the highway, is liable for any damage to man or beast, from sliding and falling, but not for damage to goods; for such water on the highway is legally considered in the nature of a "pit." As to derivatives of the "pit," the Mishnah teaches: If a jar be left upon the highway, and a traveler stumble over it and break it, the traveler is not liable for the loss, but, on the contrary, the owner of the jar is liable if the traveler is hurt by the water or the potsherds (Mishnah B. Ḳ. iii. 1). A distinction is attempted by some who say that when the article thus left on the highway or public domain has been abandoned by its owner he is no longer responsible for the injuries caused by it; but this is disallowed by most authorities (Maimonides, "Nizḳe Mamon," xiii. 2).
If any one start a fire on the field of another, he is of course liable for the result; if he start it on his own ground, and there is either a stone fence of sufficient height to check the flames, or a stream, or a public road (sixteen cubits in width), between the place and a neighbor's ground, the crossing over of the flames or the sparks is regarded as the result of unusual forces, against which human foresight can not avail. But in case of a fire that passes from point to point, whoever starts it is liable for whatever damage it may do at any distance. The starter of a fire is responsible for injuries to anything except things hidden, as in the Scriptures (Ex. xxii. 5) mention is made only of "stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field." Goods hidden in a field or among thehayricks need not be paid for by one that starts a fire; but such a one is liable for the furniture in a house and, it would seem, for the goods in a shop; for things of value are expected to be deposited in a house, but not in a field (Maimonides, l.c., xiv. 12).Indirect Liability.
When a spark is emitted from a hammer and does damage the striker is liable. "When a camel laden with flax passes along the highway, and the flax, being pressed into the shop, catches fire from a lamp of the shopkeeper, and the house is burnt, the owner (ba'al) of the camel is liable" (B. Ḳ. vi. 6). Here is shown the kindling of a fire treated as damage arising from the ordinary walk of an animal; for it is not the driver, but the owner, of a camel on whom the blame is laid. Maimonides declares him liable because the camel was too heavily laden. But when the shopkeeper leaves his lamp on the outside, he is liable to the owner of the flax. The above-mentioned passage of the Mishnah is remarkable for the closing words (which are, however, not good law): "R. Judah says, when it is the Ḥanukkah lamp, he is not liable," for this happens to be the only mention made of the Ḥanukkah lamp in the whole compilation known as the Mishnah.
Other cases are discussed in the Mishnah, such as the aggravation of "pit" and "fire," when occurring on the ground of the injured party or on the common ground of injurer and injured.
From the Scriptural phrase "the ox of his neighbor" the principle is drawn that damages for negligence can not be exacted where the thing injured belongs to a heathen, or is consecrated property, or res nullius, such as the estate of a convert dying without issue. The term mu'ad ("witnessed against" or "forewarned") is derived from the case of the goring ox in Scripture (Ex. xxi. 29), extended by the Mishnah to those agents who, without any proof of former viciousness, are held responsible for any damage that they inflict. Thus, as already stated, a human being is mu'ad whether acting wilfully or unwittingly, whether awake or asleep; if he blind his neighbor's eye or break his implements, he must pay the full damage. But the word nezeḳ for damage must be here taken in the narrow sense of depreciation; for the one that unwittingly or unwillingly inflicts a personal injury is liable for the lasting injury only, not for the four other causes of damage—pain, loss of time, cost of cure, and disgrace—for which the wilful assailant must answer (Maimonides, l.c., xliii. 1-5; "Ḥobel," i. 11 et seq.).
Such animals as a wolf, a lion, a bear, a panther, a leopard, and a serpent are held to be always vicious, and their owner is consequently "forewarned"; the exception sought to be made in favor of such animals, when tamed, is disallowed by the majority (B. Ḳ. i. 4).Value of a Human Life.
With the exception of the ransom which the owner of the "forewarned" ox has to pay in certain cases for a man or woman killed by the beast—this being demanded by the very words of Scripture—no conpensation is ever paid for causing the death of a human being; for the idea of atoning by money for the loss of human life was abhorrent to the Hebrew mind. This rule was applied even when a slave was killed by an Accident; wherein the Talmud differs from the Roman law, which says only liber homo nullius est pretii (a freeman can have no valuation put upon him). It is only since Lord Campbell's Act, in 1846 (9 and 10 Vic. c. 93), that the English common law has allowed compensation for the death of persons by negligence. The master of a slave is not liable for the torts done by him, even to the extent of giving him up in compensation for them; nor is the husband bound for the torts of his wife. But should the slave be manumitted, or the woman be divorced or become a widow, he or she may be sued for the damage done during slavery or coverture. Deaf-mutes, insane persons, and minors (boys not over thirteen) are not liable for their own torts, while other persons are liable to them or to their representatives (Mishnah B. Ḳ. viii. 4).Legal Status of Agent.
The maxim of the Roman and the English law, qui facit per alium facit per se (he who acts through another acts of himself), has its equivalent in the phrase of the Talmud, "A man's agent [literally, "messenger"] is like himself"; and this should lead to the master's liability for the acts of his agents and servants (not slaves), which in modern law is the most important point in the law of negligence.
On the contrary, the Mishnah says, when one delivers his cattle to an independent herdsman, the liability devolves on the latter. But where the offending beast has been entrusted to a person unfit to care for it, such as a deaf-mute, an insane person, or a minor, the owner is liable for all mishaps, as if he had retained personal control (B.Ḳ. vi. 2). While full damages are held a personal debt of the owner, half damages are to be paid only "from the body" of the offending animal. The law in Exodus says: "They shall sell the live ox, and divide the money of it; and the dead ox also they shall divide" (Ex. xxi. 35). The old sages showed how this law, when literally enforced, might often work hardship, as when a worthless steer or he-goat should kill a valuable cow, worth more as a carcass than her living slayer; hence they deduced their own rule. The owner in such cases pays half the damage, but only as far as the animal causing the injury will satisfy it. This corresponds to pauperies of Roman law, by which, however, slaves as well as animals can be surrendered in satisfaction for any harm done by them; and it finds an analogue in modern maritime law, in which the liability of the ship-owner is in most cases narrowed down to what can be realized upon the ship. The rule that half damages are always paid "from the body" only, has one exception, known as that of "the pebbles" and referred to above.
Full damages are deemed to be of the nature of a debt, and may therefore be adjudged upon the wrongdoer's admission; half damages are regarded in the light of a penalty, and can only be adjudged on the testimony of witnesses, as in prosecutions for crime. But all appraisement of either full or half damages must be made by a court of experts; that is, on the judgment of ordained judges, not of private men chosen by the parties. Hence, when all semblance of ordination had come to an end the Jewish rabbis could no longer adjudge these damage cases except by way of arbitration, conciliation, and religious advice; consequently the later practical codes, like the "Shulḥan 'Aruk," are silent on the whole subject.
For the rules by which a tame animal becomes "forewarned," together with the liability of its owner for the death of human beings, see Goring Ox. | <urn:uuid:6a2c8f8f-c981-446a-aa87-3033e13f22ee> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/722-accident | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00191-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966432 | 4,071 | 3.046875 | 3 |
It’s the typical picture of a six-month old: mashed peas smeared all over one cheek, goopy rice cereal caught in his hair, and a parent sitting nearby playing “airplane” with a tiny spoon. But some parents are passing on the typical “baby food” route. In fact, they don’t feed their babies mush at all. These parents are following the “baby-led weaning” (BLW) trend, in which babies are given, well, regular food.
In BLW circles, the typical picture of an eating six-month old looks quite different. It looks like a curious baby chowing down on a full stalk of broccoli in one hand and a slice of chicken cutlet in the other. The parents are sitting nearby watching, possibly eating their own meals alongside their baby. In fact, the parents are probably eating cutlets and broccoli for dinner as well.
But what is baby-led weaning? Why do parents do it? And should all parents feed their babies “grown-up food” as soon as they start eating solids?
BLW Vs. Parent-Led Weaning
When parents lead the weaning (or solid introduction) process, babies are first given foods that they can swallow without chewing. During BLW, on the other hand, babies are given foods that they can touch, mouth, and play with, even though they won’t be able to actually swallow them yet. Instead, the budding epicures explore the textures and tastes of various types of food, regardless if the dish is typically labeled kid-friendly.
BLW is based on the fact that when children begin eating solid foods, it is mostly a sensory experience, since the food is not yet needed for nourishment. Many parents who feed their infants baby food find themselves measuring exactly how many spoonfuls the baby consumed, but some BLW proponents see this as counterproductive. Instead, they believe that little ones should feel that they're eating because they want to, as opposed to because they're forced to.
You may believe that your tiny foodie won't necessarily reach out for food if it is offered to her, especially around six months, the age that solids are often introduced. Research shows, however, that 94 percent of infants will grasp the offered food between the ages of six and eight months, so don't be concerned about using BLW on your typically developing child.
Sites like www.babyledweaning.com attempt to educate parents about this feeding option and give them a place to ask questions and get information about BLW. When asked why parents would choose to go the BLW route, “Aitch,” the owner of the website, responded, “Why would they not? It’s fun, it’s easy, enjoyable and the parents get to eat their dinner while it’s still hot. Seriously, what is not to like?” Here are some other reasons why parents might choose BLW over the typical route:
- They believe that it helps develop better eating habits in children. After all, kids are making their own choices about what to eat from day one, and parents are learning to back off.
- It allows babies to become part of the family meal. Instead of feeding baby and then having to keep her entertained while the parents eat, the entire family gets to sit together and enjoy each other’s company during mealtime. It’s never too late to start a family meal together, is it?
- No need to fret over preparing special "baby food" for your child--simply give her the same food that's on your plate, in infant-friendly portions. If she doesn't eat it, no work is wasted! Plus, she's getting her calories from breastmilk or formula anyway.
- It gives kids exposure to tastes and textures that other babies may not encounter until much later. BLW proponants often wonder aloud whether other children prefer bland food because, well, that’s all they were exposed to when they first learned how to eat. When you’re raised on rice cereal and mashed bananas, why would you deign to try black-bean quesadillas dipped in salsa? Perhaps these tastes are foreign to children because we train them at a young age to prefer bland food.
Is BLW For You?
At the same time, some people feel uncomfortable with baby-led weaning. “People who can’t tolerate mess will probably enjoy this style of weaning,” says Aitch. “You really do have to unclench and leave it up to the child. Some people (like me) find that ‘hands-off’ approach liberating, but if you’re the sort of person who likes to be in control you might struggle.”
At the same time, parents who avoid BLW for this reason may be simply postponing the inevitable. “The way I see it, they ALL have to learn how to self-feed at some point, so you might as well get it over with before their throwing arm gets stronger,” jokes Aitch.
You may worry about how other people will react to a very young child eating whole solid foods. Aitch says that surprisingly, people tend to react with “curiosity and delight.” She notes that “especially in restaurants, where they are often used to seeing children reject food, seeing a chubby six-monther chowing down on a green bean is fantastic.”
A surprising trend? Perhaps, and yet it calls into question whether baby food is truly best for a young child learning how to eat. Why not try it with your baby, and see what happens? | <urn:uuid:2d54d121-fadb-43a9-b87b-83fca494dcc5> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.education.com/magazine/article/letting-your-baby-take-charge-when-eating-solids/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00133-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97543 | 1,196 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Unit 10. December Celebrations
TARGET GROUP: Grades 2-6
In these activities, children have the opportunity to experience, compare, and contrast December celebrations with those of other cultures.
TIME: 5 days
Using a Variety of Media
Symbols (holidays, religious)
History and Geography
- Identify common holiday and religious symbols.
- Draw symbols.
- Sequence Advent calendar "windows".
- Identify the elements of other cultures in their community or region.
- Construct a visual representation of the cultural element.
- Involve family in cultural observation of a custom.
- Understand and illustrate symmetry.
- Learn about the origin of the Advent wreath.
- Locate Germany on a map of the world.
- See progression in time.
- Follow directions.
Please Note: Most of the items listed below
were originally printed for teachers to photocopy and use in their classrooms.
Because this unit is now Web-based, we have tried to scan and size those pages
so that youthe teachercould still print off the pages and make
photocopies for classroom use.
ADDITIONAL MATERIALS NEEDED
- Colored pencils
- X-acto knife
- 11" x 14" cardboard
- 11" x 14" colored tagboard
- 8-1/2" x 11" white tagboard
- 8-1/2" x 11" sheet colored cellophane
- Tongue depressors (optional)
- 1/2" self-stick stars
- Glitter (optional)
- 1/2" red or green adhesive tape
- 1/2"-wide ribbon
- Assortment of Christmas seals
- Individually wrapped candy and small trinkets (optional)
- Green, purple, pink, and yellow 8-1/2" x 11" construction paper
- Dinner-size paper plates
- General cooking utensils
Enlarge pattern (see Appendix 10-A-1) to fit on 11"x14" paper. Trace pattern on tagboard. Cut open 23 windows and front door (an X-acto knife works well). Draw and cut out 24 pictures depicting Christmas to go behind windows and door. Door scene could be Santa or nativity scene. Cut cellophane to fit behind windows allowing a slight overlap for a place to glue. Glue cellophane in place. Glue picture on cellophane. Close shutters with a stick-on star. Fold house on fold lines. Glue on glue tabs. Cut out roof (see Appendix 10-A-2). You may color the roof and glue in onto the tabs on the house. Or cut tongue depressors and glue them in the pattern shown, then glue roof onto tabs. Cut a slit in the roof for the chimney (see pattern). Cut, fold, and glue chimney according to pattern. Insert chimney in slit about one-half inch.
Have children take their Advent houses home with a letter (Appendix 10-B) explaining the cultural elements and how to use this activity.
Advent is celebrated the four Sundays before Christmas. This is a time set aside to prepare for the coming of the Christ Child who brings gifts on the Eve of Christmas. German families have a circle of greenery with four candles in the center that sits in the middle of their table. The first week, one candle is lighted, the second week two candles, and so forth until all four candles are lighted, heralding the many lights of the Christmas tree which are to appear in but a few more days. Traditionally, red candles were used, and more recently, white and violet.
The teacher needs a completed wreath and the materials for a wreath to demonstrate as the class goes along.
Students will each have a paper plate. The paper plate is folded in half (symmetry), and the inside is cut out leaving only the rim. This can be adjusted according to skill level (e.g., less skillful students can leave more rim).
Students need a piece of green construction paper. They fold it in half and in half again the long way (symmetry), then open the paper and cut on the lines. They take each strip and fold it in half and in half again, then open and cut. This will give the child 16 rectangular pieces.
These 16 rectangular pieces are folded in half once again, and the children draw the shape of a leaf on each piece. They then cut the leaves out, and each piece will have two identical leaves (symmetry). The children may draw in the veins using pencil, crayon, etc. These leaves are then glued to the paper plate. Any additional leaves needed are cut following the above procedure.
Students need a half-sheet of violet, red, or white construction paper. They fold it in half and in half again lengthwise, then open it and cut. The result is four long, rectangular shapes to be used as the candles. Yellow construction paper is used for the flames. The same procedure is used as for cutting out the green leaves.
A piece of yarn can be attached to the back of the wreath for hanging purposes.
German children often make or receive Advent calendars to mark days until Christmas. The calendars are illustrated with holiday symbols or scenes. They feature 24 windows which are opened one at a time beginning on December 1. The child searches the scene for the number of the day and opens the corresponding window. When the window is opened, it reveals a symbol, picture, or tiny holiday scene.
Discuss with students the Christmas holiday traditions, symbols, etc. Generate a list of possible symbols or scenes that could be included in the calendar. Distribute the pattern (Appendix 10-C-1) for the Advent calendar windows. Glue the pattern onto the tagboard. Students then create a holiday picture with crayons. The picture is drawn to include the windows in strategic places, as shown in the example (Appendix 10-C-2). Glitter and other decorations may be added to the picture. Collect the finished pictures and use the X-acto knife to cut the window openings on three sides. After the windows are cut, return the calendars and have the students apply glue to the outside edge on the back of the picture and between the window openings (a gluestick works best). Then with the windows closed, picture side down and glue side up, they place the picture pattern paper face down over the glue so that all edges match. Now have students turn the calendar over and gently smooth around each window, and check that pictures show through the windows. Windows may be held closed with self-stick stars if desired. Students open one window each day until Christmas.
Discuss the tradition of baking Christmas cookies as it relates to German customs. Choose one or all of the recipes (Appendix 10-D) and follow directions. Some students or parents may enjoy baking the cookies at home and bringing them in to share with class members.
Cornucopia - Christmas Decoration.
Reproduce pattern (see Appendix 10-E), one for each student. Copy pattern on an 8-1/2"x11" sheet of white tagboard. Cut out on outside lines. Score on lines marked "score". Fold on scored lines bringing the two open edges to meet. Cut four lengths of colored 1/2" adhesive tape. Bring open sides together. Press 1/4" of tape on one side; press tightly all the way down. Repeat on all scored edges. Cut a 12" length of 1/2"-wide ribbon. Fasten 1/2" ribbon to each end facing sides of the cornucopia. Tape strips of the colored tape around the top of all four sides of the cornucopia. Add a matching or contrasting piece of tape around the inside top of all four sides. Stick Christmas seals in different places all over the cornucopia. Fill with candy and small trinkets. Hang on the Christmas tree.
St. Nicholas Day.
On the day students return from Thanksgiving vacation, arrange to receive a letter from St. Nicholas (see Appendix 10-F-1). Have the letter read to or by the class. Once class members have decided they would like to receive a visit from St. Nicholas, have them begin to write their letters to him, using the writing process. In the pre-writing phase, compare and contrast the visits St. Nicholas on December 6 with the visits of Santa Claus in the United States on December 25. Include in that discussion the role of St. Nicholas's helper, Pelznickel, as he is known in northwest Germany (or other names in other parts of Germany; see Appendix 10-F-2).
Prepare small plastic sandwich bags filled with wrapped candies to place in the children's shoes. You migh wish to use wrapped candies produced in the United States (Hershey's Kisses, Spangler's Candy Canes) in one bag and those produced in Germany (Werther's Originals, Riesen's Chocolates, Haribo Gummi Bears) in another bag to point out origins of different candies.
On December 6 (or if December 6 falls on a weekend, the Friday or Monday around the weekend), pre-arrange a time for students to place their letters to St. Nicholas in their shoes and place them in the hall outside the classroom. Choose another location if it is more convenient. Ask a parent aide, the principal, another teacher, or another person to fill the shoes and collect the letters for you. If possible, your St. Nicholas stand-in should ring a bell loudly enough to be heard in the classroom before he or she leaves. Have the children retrieve their shoes and candy shortly after "St. Nicholas" leaves.
It is an excellent follow-up if St. Nicholas or his helper writes an answering letter to each child, making references to the child's original letter.
Stille Nacht - Silent Night.
A few days before Christmas in 1818, Joseph Mohr, the pastor of a small church in Obernof, Austria discovered that the church organ was broken, which meant no music for Christmas mass. This was a major catastrophe, because organ building and repair was a secret art, and only a few families had the necessary skills. No one was immediately available to repair the organ.
*While Mohr was preparing his Christmas homily, he was asked to go to a mountain cabin to bless a newborn child. On his way home, walking through the silent snow, he became inspired. Back in his room, he composed a poem, and his organist, Franz Gruber, put it to guitar music. As the story goes, the people of Obernof became a part of history on that memorable Christmas morning. They heard Stille Nacht for the first time on December 25, 1818.
If you school will permit, you may choose among the following activities at your discretion:
Compare the Christmas story from the Bible with Mohr's experience on Christmas Eve. Older children, after discussion of the above, could write comparisons.
See Appendices 10-G-1, 10-G-2, and 10-G-3 for "Silent Night" phrase strips. Duplicate and cut out the strips. Put the strips in a box or bag and allow each child to pick one. The children illustrate the phrases on paper (whatever size is appropriate) and then glue the phrase strips under the matching pictures. They sequence the strips while singing or listening to a recording (See Appendix 10-G-4 for sheet music).
The teacher may assess the following student outcomes through observation:
- Ability to sequence from 1 to 24
- Ability to follow directions
- Ability to work in groups
- Ability to handle scissors
- Pride in final product
information received from Bill Egan, Christmas Historian, from the Franz
Gruber - Joseph Mohr Society:
Where unit 10 states:
While Mohr was preparing his Christmas homily, he was asked to go to a
mountain cabin to bless a newborn child. On his way home, walking through the silent snow, he became inspired. Back in his room, he composed a poem, and his organist, Franz Gruber, put it to guitar music.
The facts are:
Visit "Silent Night!" and Oberndorf
Joseph Mohr wrote the words to Stille Nacht in 1816 when he was assigned to the pilgrim church in Mariapfarr, Austria. His reason and inspiration for writing the poem is not known at this time. The music was added by Franz Xaver Gruber on December 2
4, 1818 in Arnsdorf, Austria and it was sung that night in St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf.
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Learning About Our World: Germany
Ohio Department of Education
Created: 30 September 1999, SEK
Last Updated: 6 April 1998, JAF | <urn:uuid:d9098dc5-3ea1-411e-8b6a-cb76c7557e11> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://maxkade.iupui.edu/unit10/unit10.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403823.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00199-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9293 | 2,718 | 4 | 4 |
I began the series on religious statistics by asking the question: is religion disappearing? Okay, I didn’t ask it that explicitly, but it’s the question at the heart of secularization. And the question keeps intriguing me because it’s so difficult to answer. In America alone there are increasing numbers of religiously unaffiliated, but among those ranks, religion is still described as important to their daily lives. How do we explain that? Worldwide, the picture becomes even more complex.
One of the most difficult things to figure out is why most industrial nations show a decline in religious affiliation, but worldwide the number of people holding strong religious beliefs is at an all time high. How do we juggle these seemingly opposed trends?
The World Values Survey is one of the few research groups attempting to explain both trends with one cause. Led by political scientists Ronald Inglehart and Chris Welzel, this team has tracked the changing values of nearly 87 nations from 1981 until now. The surveys include wide-ranging questions from political attitudes, to acceptance of homosexuality, to a variety of religious beliefs and practices. As you can imagine, this creates an enormous amount of data, capable of exploring a wide range of questions about cultural change.
Inglehart teamed up with Harvard’s Pippa Norris to try and discover what drives religious change worldwide. The result is a book, Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide, which is a substantial contribution to the secularization debate. Their theory challenges many previously held ideas about what causes religious change.
For example, many scholars follow the sociologist Max Weber, and argue that science and rational thought dispel religion within a culture. They point to the high levels of non-belief within scientific institutions as evidence for their theory. But Norris and Inglehart argue that this correlation can’t be causal.
The first argument against the Weberians is that rates of religious belief fluctuate too rapidly to be tied to rational thought. A generation’s educational level doesn’t change; once educated, people generally remain educated. But rates of religiosity change dramatically within a single generation. Furthermore, they found that a higher trust in scientific advance actually corresponds with higher rates of religious belief. The countries that are the most secular – the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, and Denmark – are also the most skeptical of scientific progress.
Norris and Inglehart also challenge the Religious Marketplace theory, which argues that diversity and competition among religious groups promote overall religiosity (like the free market). This theory was put forward by sociologists Rodney Stark and Roger Finke to explain why the US has such high levels of religion compared to other, equally industrial, countries. To test this theory, Norris and Inglehart examined the relationship between religious pluralism and religiosity. They found no clear relationship when considered globally. This finding makes sense – the other most religious nations in industrial Europe are Italy and Ireland, both of which have a near religious monopoly with the Roman Catholic Church.
Instead of rationality or competition, Norris and Inglehart argue that existential security has the strongest relationship to a country’s religiosity. They define existential security as the feeling of assurance that survival can be taken for granted. This construct can be tracked by a variety of other measures: per capita GNP, access to clean water, number of doctors available, and rates of AIDS/HIV, to name a few. When people feel that their survival is not at risk, then religion diminishes in importance.
While “existential security” is a somewhat ambiguous construct, the authors reliably show its relationship to religiosity. For example, the high levels of religiosity in the US are explained, not by religious competition, but by the high economic inequality in the US (the highest among highly developed, industrialized, nations). This economic inequality undermines people’s existential security. Ireland is the second most religious nation in the West and also has the second highest level of inequality. This roughly linear relationship doesn’t prove their theory, but it does provide a much stronger correlation than Stark and Finke, or other secularization theories.
In further support of their theory, Norris and Inglehart predicted the emergence of “post-materialist” needs in highly secure nations. They are not arguing that religion will disappear; instead they argue that religious authority will diminish and new needs for meaning and purpose will emerge. It seems likely that the rise of New Age spiritualities in secular cultures may fulfill this prediction.
Even if you’re not too interested in the secularization debate, the World Values Survey offers a huge amount of other data, allowing many interesting relationships to be drawn. For example, researchers have recently used the data from the surveys to argue that belief in hell leads to lower crime rates and that religion discourages suicide. Whatever your interests, it’s a good bet that the World Values Survey has some data to support your ideas or challenge what you thought to be true. | <urn:uuid:62377357-cf7c-4210-8d03-f90ad168ee2e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://exploringmyreligion.org/blog/2013/08/20/statistics-on-religion-part-iii/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00017-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952751 | 1,020 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Harmful Noise LevelsSkip to the navigation
The effects of noise on hearing vary among people. Some people's ears are more sensitive to loud sounds, especially at certain frequencies. (Frequency means how low or high a tone is.) But any sound that is loud enough and lasts long enough can damage hearing and lead to hearing loss.
A sound's loudness is measured in decibels (dB). Normal conversation is about 60 dB, a lawn mower is about 90 dB, and a loud rock concert is about 120 dB. In general, sounds above 85 are harmful, depending on how long and how often you are exposed to them and whether you wear hearing protection, such as earplugs or earmuffs.
Following is a table of the decibel level of a number of sounds.
|Noise||Average decibels (dB)|
|Leaves rustling, soft music, whisper||30|
|Average home noise||40|
|Normal conversation, background music||60|
|Office noise, inside car at 60 mph||70|
|Vacuum cleaner, average radio||75|
|Heavy traffic, window air conditioner, noisy restaurant, power lawn mower|
80–89 (sounds above 85 dB are harmful)
|Subway, shouted conversation||90–95|
|Boom box, ATV, motorcycle||96–100|
|Chainsaw, leaf blower, snowmobile||106–115|
|Sports crowd, rock concert, loud symphony||120–129|
|Stock car races||130|
|Gun shot, siren at 100 feet||140|
As loudness increases, the amount of time you can hear the sound before damage occurs decreases. Hearing protectors reduce the loudness of sound reaching the ears, making it possible to listen to louder sounds for a longer time.
Preventing damage to your hearing
An easy way to become aware of potentially harmful noise is to pay attention to warning signs that a sound might be damaging to your hearing. A sound may be harmful if:
- You have difficulty talking or hearing others talk over the sound.
- The sound makes your ears hurt.
- Your ears are ringing after hearing the sound.
- Other sounds seem muffled after you leave an area where there is loud sound.
Most cases of noise-induced hearing loss are caused by repeated exposure to moderate levels of noise over many years, not by a few cases of very loud noise. Wearing hearing protectors can help prevent damage from both moderate and loud noise.
If your workplace has harmful noise levels, plan ahead and wear hearing protection. People who may be regularly exposed to harmful noise because of their jobs include:
- Those who work with loud machines, vehicles, or power tools, such as construction workers, factory workers, farmers, truck drivers, mechanics, or airport ground crew workers.
- Military personnel.
- Police officers and firefighters.
Primary Medical Reviewer William H. Blahd, Jr., MD, FACEP - Emergency Medicine
Specialist Medical Reviewer Charles M. Myer, III, MD - Otolaryngology
Current as ofNovember 20, 2015
Current as of: November 20, 2015
Author: Healthwise Staff
To learn more about Healthwise, visit Healthwise.org.
© 1995-2016 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated. | <urn:uuid:9a1c9199-a245-41ea-a977-c0a57b6d4c7f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cheshire-med.com/health_wellness/health_encyclopedia/tf4173 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403826.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00116-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902149 | 727 | 3.8125 | 4 |
A recent study conducted in the United Kingdom proves a point that attachment parenting advocates have been making for years, child development is negatively affected by strollers. The study looked at 2,722 infant/parent pairs using strollers. They found that 62 percent of babies were facing away from thier parents and that number grew to 86 percent for those between one and two years old. A smaller, related study demonstrates why facing away from parents can be so damaging to a baby's developing brain.
In the second study, Dr. Zeedyk observed 20 parents with their infants. For half of the time the children were looking away from their parents in forward facing strollers. The other half of the time they were facing towards their parents in rear-facing strollers. While the babies were facing them, the parents were far more likely to interact with their babies. The mothers and babies facing each other laughed more. Only one baby laughed while facing away from their parents. Parent-facing children were also twice as likely to fall asleep and had slightly lower heart rates, indicating that they felt more relaxed.
Perhaps the most surprising result of the study was that only 22 percent of the parents were talking to their babies at all, regardless of which direction the stroller was facing. This is where babywearing can make such a difference in development.
As any babywearing parent can tell you, when you wear your baby you are much more likely to interact with and talk to your baby. It is hard to ignore a baby that is right near your face. While the results do the stroller studies are dramatic, how much more interaction do babies in slings get versus babies in strollers? When your baby is near your face it is much easier to talk to them and point out the things that they are seeing.
We know that the first three years of life are the most important for brain development. Using a rear-facing stroller, or wearing your baby are important ways that you can increase your attachment with baby and improve their language development during this critical time.
Click here to read the full details of the study.
Babywearing is easy with these slings, wraps and carriers. | <urn:uuid:c66a2ccd-b450-49b3-912d-a759ec8b9491> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bellaonline.com/ArticlesP/art59690.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402516.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00119-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984993 | 443 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Reading literacy achievement: senior secondary schooling
Reading literacy achievement at senior secondary level contributes to preparation for successful participation in tertiary education and training. Achievement level is also related to people's well being and influences their ability to contribute to, and participate in, a changing labour market
and increasingly knowledge-based society.
Literacy involves the ability of individuals to use written information to fulfil their goals, and the consequent ability of complex modern societies to use written information to function effectively.
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study assessed 15 year-old students' reading ability on accessing and retrieving information, integrating and interpreting texts, and reflection and evaluation.
The reading scores from PISA 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2012 can be summarised on a combined reading literacy scale. This enables a comparison to be made between the reading literacy achievements of 15 year-old students in each of these years.
The Item Response Theory (IRT) scaling approach and plausible values methodology is used in PISA. This involved estimating the parameters for each item (question) and examining the background characteristics of the students. From this, estimates of proficiency for each student and IRT scales for reporting student achievement were generated; in aggregate and for each major content domain. Finally, the resulting values were placed on a reporting scale in PISA 2000 with a mean of 500 and standard deviation of 100. Subsequent cycles (2003, 2006, 2009 and 2012) were anchored against the PISA 2000 scale. This enables a comparison to be made between the reading literacy achievement of 15 year-old students in each of 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2012.
The IRT analysis provided a common scale on which the performances of students within and across countries may be compared.
Each student has 5 estimates of ability called plausible value (PV1-PV5). For each student the plausible values represent a set of random from the estimated ability distribution of students with similar item response patterns and backgrounds. They are intended to provide good estimates of parameters of student populations, for example, country mean scores, rather than estimates of individual student proficiency.
For any group of 15 year-old students, for example, the New Zealand Population, Māori, or Girls, the numerator and denominator are defined as follows:
Numerator: (Data source: OECD: Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA))Sum of the mean reading literacy scores for each plausible value for that group. [Where the mean for each plausible value is defined as:
Numerator: Weighted sum of scores for that group.
Denominator: Sum of the weights for that group (equivalent to the estimated number of students in that group).]
Denominator: (Data source: OECD: Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA))5 (number of plausible values).
Mean PISA scores for the New Zealand population and sub-populations are based on scores generated using Item Response Theory. These scores are reported on an international scale with a mean of 500 and standard deviation of 100 for OECD countries so that approximately two-thirds of all students in the OECD have a score between 400 and 600.
In PISA 2012 proficiency levels related to the difficulty of the tasks that students were assessed on, with each content area having its own set of proficiency levels. These range from Level 1 for the simplest tasks to Level 6 for the most complex. For information on the proficiency levels for each content area see: OECD (2013). PISA 2012 Results: What Students Know and Can do: Student Performance in Mathematics, Reading and Science (Volume I). OECD: Paris.
Evidence about what works for this indicator can be found in:
- May, S., Cowles, S. & Lamy, M. (2013). PISA 2012: New Zealand Summary Report. Wellington: Ministry of Education.
- OECD (2013). PISA 2012 Results: What Students KNow and Can do: Student Performance in Mathematics, Reading and Science Volume I. Paris: OECD.
The Ministry of Education has established an Iterative Best Evidence Synthesis Programme to systematically identify, evaluate, analyse, synthesise and make accessible, relevant evidence linked to a range of learner outcomes. Please visitBES (Iterative Best Evidence Synthesis) Programme
to find out more. | <urn:uuid:200a30a5-cdfb-46a4-93ed-090e6308e1d4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/indicators/definition/education-and-learning-outcomes/949 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394937.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00144-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.89124 | 880 | 3.453125 | 3 |
Le Verrier, Urbain Jean Joseph (1811–1877)
In 1845, Le Verrier learned from François Arago of certain irregularities in the movements of Uranus, which hinted at the existence of an eighth planet. His calculated position of this perturbing body enabled Johann Galle to confirm it observationally, though John Adams had made a similar but unpublished prediction some months earlier. Le Verrier, not one to avoid publicity, suggested that Uranus be renamed for Herschel, the finder, and that the new discovery be named after himself. In the event, man lost out to (Roman) god and the eighth planet was called Neptune. Le Verrier's other prediction, first made in 1845, was for a new innermost planet, which became known as Vulcan. Searches turned up nothing and we now know that the irregularities in Mercury's orbit are an effect of general relativity.
Related category• ASTRONOMERS AND ASTROPHYSICISTS
Home • About • Copyright © The Worlds of David Darling • Encyclopedia of Alternative Energy • Contact | <urn:uuid:2e527678-69a6-4742-9159-bc5c0435fe7a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/L/Leverrier.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00029-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928921 | 223 | 3.3125 | 3 |
Released: June 22, 2012
Libraries, patrons, and e-books
Part 3: Library users
Our December 2011 survey showed that 58% of Americans ages 16 and older said they had a library card.
Women, whites, and parents of minor children are more likely to have library cards than other groups, and having a library card is also strongly correlated with educational attainment: 39% of those who have not completed high school have a library card, compared with 72% of those with at least a college degree. Those living in households making less than $30,000 per year and those living in rural areas are less likely than other groups to have a library card, and seniors ages 65 and older are somewhat less likely to have one as well.
These findings are in line with the results of a January 2011 ALA/Harris Interactive poll, which found that 58% of adults ages 18 and older said they had a library card. (Our survey found 57% of those ages 18 and above had a card.34)
Technology users are more likely to have library cards than non-users. For instance, those who use the internet are more likely to have a library card than non-internet users (62% vs. 37%); cell users are more likely to have a library card than non-users (59% vs. 47%); and those who own e-readers (like an original Kindle or NOOK) are more likely to have a library card than non-users (69% vs. 56%). However, tablet owners are no more or less likely to have library cards than non-owners.
How important are libraries?
Beyond the particulars of library card holding, we asked respondents about the role of the local library in their life. Almost seven in ten Americans (69%) say that public libraries are important to them and their family: 38% of Americans ages 16 and older say that the public library is “very important,” and 31% say it is “somewhat important.” Some 17% say it is “not too important,” while 13% say it is “not important at all.”
Many groups that are less likely to have a library card are also more likely to say that the public library is not important to their family, including men (compared with women), those who have not completed high school (compared with those with higher levels of education), rural residents (compared with urban and suburban residents), and people without minor children living at home (compared with parents).
At the same time, minorities are generally more likely to say libraries are important than whites and minorities are notably more likely to say libraries are very important: Some 48% of African-Americans say that and 44% of Hispanics say that, compared with 35% of whites. Though the number of Spanish-speaking respondents was relatively small in the sample (89 cases), they were more likely than English-speakers to say the library was very important to them and their families. Fully half (50%) of parents with minor children say that libraries are very important to them and their families, compared with 35% of non-parents who have that view.
On the other hand, the youngest respondents (those 16-17 years old) were substantially less likely than adults to say that libraries are “very important”—just 13% of this youngest age group say this, compared with over a third (39%) of adults ages 18 and older.
There are others who are particularly likely to say the library is important to them: Those who have listened to an audiobook in the past year are more likely than others to say libraries are very important (49% vs. 39%). Those who read at least monthly for their own pleasure are also more likely to say libraries are very important (41% vs. 29%). And those who read monthly to keep up with current events are more likely to say libraries are very important (39% vs. 33%).
In our survey we asked if respondents had any physical or health conditions that make reading difficult or challenging for them. Some 17% of respondents said they had an issue like that in their lives and those who have health or physical issues that make reading difficult are more likely than others to say the library is very important to them—44% vs. 37%.
Library users are more engaged with all kinds of reading
Those who have library cards and think well of the library’s role in their lives stand out in several ways from others. For starters, they are more likely to say their own quality of life is good or excellent.
When it comes to technology, library card holders are more connected than those who don’t have cards. They are more likely than others to be internet users (88% vs. 73%), more likely to own a cell phone (89% vs. 84%), and more likely to have a desktop or laptop computer (81% vs. 67%). And they are more likely than others to say they plan to purchase an e-reader or a tablet computer.
Library card holders read more books than non-holders. In the 12 months before our December survey, library card holders say they read an average (the mean number) of 20 books, compared with 13 books as the mean number of books read by non-card holders. The median (midpoint) figures for books read were 10 by library card holders and 5 by non-holders.
On any given day, those who have library cards are considerably more likely to be reading a book than non-card holders: In our survey, 53% of card holders said they had read a book “yesterday”—or the day before we reached them to take the survey. Some 31% of non-card holders responded yes to that question.
These library card holders are also more likely than non-card holders to have read a book in the past year in every medium, as shown in the following chart.
When it comes to people’s different purposes for reading, library card holders are more likely than others to say they read for every reason that we queried in the survey—for pleasure, to keep up with current events, to conduct research on subjects that were personally interesting to them, and for work or school. Card holders are also more likely to read more often for each of those purposes.
When asked what they most like about reading, library card holders are similar to other readers, but they are a somewhat more likely to say they enjoy the escape that reading gives them and chance to use their imaginations.
- January 2011 Harris Interactive Poll (PDF) http://www.ala.org/ala/research/librarystats/2011harrispoll.pdf and http://www.ala.org/news/mediapresscenter/americaslibraries/publiclibraries ↩ | <urn:uuid:4cec71c8-0b4d-4f4c-bc35-f846edc71349> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2012/06/22/part-3-library-users/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00045-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9813 | 1,403 | 2.546875 | 3 |
The La Brea Tar Pits in California are known for saber-toothed cats and mastodons but they also have insects. Recent examination of fossil leafcutter bee nest cells, led by Anna Holden of Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and colleagues, reveal insights into the habitat and climate at the La Brea Tar Pits toward the last Ice Age.
Holden conducted the study with bee specialists Jon B. Koch and Dr. Terry Griswold from Utah State University, paleobotanist Dr. Diane M. Erwin, from the University of California Berkeley, and Justin Hall from NHM, who used micro CT scans to reconstruct images of the nest cells and bees.
It was necessary to micro CT scan the specimens in order for Holden and colleagues to determine that each leaf-constructed nest contained an intact pupae. The team examined the physical features of the bees, the nest cell architecture, and used environmental niche modeling to best match the ancient Ice Age specimens to Megachile gentilis.
Because M. gentilis still lives today (as is the case with most insects excavated from the tar pits), the team linked records of its restricted climatic range to late Ice Age environmental conditions at Rancho La Brea which suggest that M. gentilis lived in a moderately moist (mesic) environment that occurred at a lower elevation during the Late Pleistocene. The identification of nest cell leaf fragments, which were collected in close proximity to the nest site, indicate a nearby wooded or habitat with a stream or river.
These unusual bee fossils, housed at the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits, were recovered from Pit 91. Dating back to the beginning of the 20th century, scientists have unearthed more than 5 million fossils representing 600+ species of plants and animals from the tar pits — evidence that Los Angeles was densely populated by wildlife for more than 50,000 years. "This vast treasure trove of fossils is key to understanding the response of the wildlife and habitats of Southern California to global cooling and warming at the end of the Ice Age," said Dr. John Harris, Chief Curator of the Page Museum. "It affords an evolutionary perspective to ongoing climate change."
"Because this is a fossil of rare life-stage, it's an exceptional find in itself," Holden said. "But it's just the tip of the iceberg, we know that insects offer a vivid portrait of the prehistoric conditions of this area, and there are literally thousands more to study." | <urn:uuid:55b5b629-40c9-48f2-9568-c3a86d69a284> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.science20.com/news_articles/ice_age_leafcutter_bee_fossils_at_la_brea_tar_pits-133872 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399106.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00085-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939857 | 516 | 3.671875 | 4 |
Revised: January 2012.
We want to encourage interaction between algorithm learners by having them refute each others' algorithmic claims. We want to give algorithm learners some control over their learning experiences. Choose your game (claim) in an area where you want to refine your skills. Adults strive for control over their learning experiences.
We learn about algorithms using a high-level "algorithm" executed by humans to improve their learning experience about algorithms. The high-level "algorithm" we call SCG Scientific Community Game = Specker Challenge Game (SCG). The key concept in SCG is a claim. In this course we focus on algorithmic claims. A claim is defined by a refutation protocol which is a little algorithm involving two players to decide whether the claim is "right" or "wrong". Here "right" does not necessarily mean "true" and "wrong" does not necessarily mean "false" because the players may be imperfect. The game is played as a "board" game with the two players jointly enforcing the rules of the game.
We will play the game partially on Piazza to see public performances of the game. In this case we have multiple players out of which two at a time take the initiative to play a game.
The refutation protocols we use are determined by the claims. For example, if the claim is of the form: ForAllExists, the opposer of the claim will first provide an instance and the proposer a solution.
With SCG, we create a learning environment that provides opportunities for collaboration with other algorithm learners. What learning objectives are covered by playing the game? (1) recognizing incorrect algorithms (2) finding inputs that show why the algorithm is incorrect (3) recognizing algorithms with a wrong performance analysis (4) finding inputs that show why the algorithm analysis is incorrect (5) solving algorithm design problems and predicting the resource consumption of the algorithms. (6) describing algorithms at various levels of abstraction (7) distinguishing true algorithmic statements from false algorithmic statements
While the game creates a productive learning environment, only your active engagement with the topic area can realize the skills described in the above learning objectives.
SCG is a two-player game where each player, called Scholar, proposes and opposes claims about algorithms.
Students form teams of two, each one acting as Scholar.
Claim selection takes two forms:
1. You choose from one of the claims that I put into the claim market for the current assignment.
2. You come up with your own claims using material that we covered in class.
Note that the claims you propose should not be refutable.
Opposition engages two scholars in an opposition protocol which has a success or failure outcome. The opposition protocol for a claim involves the scholars providing instances legal by the claim and solving them to substantiate the claim.
For the opposition role: When Scholar 2 successfully refutes, but Scholar 1 does not then Scholar 2 wins. In other words: For the proposition role, When Scholar 2 successfully supports the claim, but Scholar 1 does not then Scholar 2 wins. In summary, when the outcome of both rounds is the same, we have a draw. If the outcome is different, one of them wins: In the proposition role the supporter and in the opposition role the refuter.
At the end of the game, the scholars get together and propose an improved claim which is "close" to the given claim. Ideally it should be a theorem.
Scholars mutually agree on Claim, Instance and Solution languages to be used. You may use a formal notation defined by a grammar (see Theory of Computation) or an informal notation.
The scholars, through mutual agreement, play the role of the administrator which makes sure the game rules are followed.
Game steps to follow:
Choose claim H Scholar 1 proposes H Scholar 2 opposes H following the refutation protocol Reverse roles of Scholar 1 and Scholar 2 ============ Game in a nutshell: claim, instance, solution claim = claim about instances and solutions, together with a refutation protocol
Shapes of claims: mathematical claims E: exists a instance A: for all solutions (EA) A: for all instances E: exists solution (AE) algorithmic claims E: exists an algorithm A: for all inputsExamples: Network flow claims for second half of course
Mathematical claims: Flow networks: G=(V,E), with each edge a capacity c(e), non-negative number single source node s in V single target node t in V definition of flow with capacity and conservation constraints. based on (7.9) for all network flow instances G=(V,E) such that f is an s-t-flow such that there is no s-t path in the residual graph G[f] there exists an s-t cut (A*, B*) in G for which v(f) = c(A*, B*). Algorithmic claims: C = sum [e out of s] c(e). m = |E|. based on (7.10) There exists an algorithm FF for all network flow instances nfi FF(nfi) computes a maximum flow in time O(mC). based on (7.11) There is an algorithm that computes for all network flow instances G with maximum flow f an s-t cut of minimum capacity in time O(m). Mathematical claim: based on (7.12) For all flow networks G, there exists a flow f and a cut (A,B), so that v(f) = c(A,B). | <urn:uuid:a0976b57-923c-4ec7-baba-40017a418e10> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/lieber/evergreen/specker/short-explanation/cs4800-scg-sp12.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00073-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92222 | 1,147 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Anaphylactic reaction is acute, life-threatening IgE-mediated hypersensitivity reaction, provoked by variety of injected, inhaled or ingested foreign substances. Note that the term anaphylactic reaction denotes clinically similar reactions to certain agents e.g. radid-contrast dyes, which are not immunologically mediated.
Common precipitating agents for anaphylactic reaction are shown on many sites online, though the cause remains unidentified in many cases.
Anaphylactic reaction is type I hypersensitivity reactions, mediated by specific IgE antibodies, formed in response to previous sensitization.
These antibodies are present on surface of basophils and mast cells and subsequent exposure to the same allergen leads to degranulation of mast cells and release of numerous chemical mediators.
Final effect of these mediators may manifest immediately with few minutes (acute phase reaction), or after many hours (late phase reaction), with three essential components of anaphylactic reaction — acute bronchospasm, increased vascular permeability and increased secretory activity of mucous glands.
Clinically, these reactions usually begin within 20-30 minutes of exposure to offending allergen, presenting with —
• Pen-oral tingling sensation, with flushing of face and extreme diaphoresis (earliest)
• Exudative manifestations e.g. urticaria, conjunctival congestion, sneezing, abdominal cramps with diarrhea,
• Stridor or bronchospasm with labored breathing,
• Sudden hypotension, bradycardia or shock, and
• A general feeling of sinking or impending doom, with rapidly developing unconsciousness.
Many cases die rapidly due to airway obstruction or cardiorespiratory arrest, unless treated immediately. Some patients after initial recovery develop recurrence (Biphasic reaction) after 1-8 hours due to late-phase reactions.
DID: Although history of exposure to an offending agent and catastrophic clinical picture is characteristic, anaphylactic reaction needs to be differentiated from
a) vasovagal attacks,
b) cardiac arrhythmia,
c) foreign body aspiration,
d) hypoglycemia and
e) acute poisoning.
Elevated IgE levels and eosinophilia differentiates anaphylaxis from anaphylactic reaction.
Management of anaphylactic reaction
Anaphylaxis is a life-threatening emergency, which needs immediate resuscitative measures and subsequent hospitalization for at least 24 hours to watch for late-phase reactions. Immediate resuscitative measures include —
a) Subcutaneous Adrenaline 1:1000 aqueous preparation (0.1 ml/kg; max 0.5 ml), followed by repeat doses at 15 minutes interval or continuous IV infusion (0.1 mg/kg/mm). In superficial venom injections e.g. insect stings, half of the SC dose (diluted in 2 ml saline) may be given locally, at the site of injection.
b) Respiratory support with airway maintenance, suction, oxygen/ventilatory support and tracheostomy, if needed.
c) Cardiovascular support with IV fluids and inotropes e.g. dopamine.
d) Nebulized salbutamol or IV theophylline, to control bronchospasm.
e) Antihistaminics e.g. Diphenhydramine (1 mg/kg 8- hourly) or Chlorphenarmine (0.3-0.5 mg/kg 8-hourly) for next 24-48 hours, to prevent late-reactions.
1) Systemic steroids e.g. IV hydrocortisone (5 mg/kg 6- hourly), although controversial in acute management, may help to decrease the duration and severity of manifestations.
g) If a precipitating agent e.g. drug is identified, a clear warning should be noted on medical records to prevent further episodes of anaphylactic reactions. | <urn:uuid:26fc7506-117f-404c-aa9a-fcc1ac9d5351> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://healthdrip.com/anaphylactic-reaction/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396029.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00170-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.8569 | 840 | 2.90625 | 3 |
'I want to begin by declaring that I regard scientific knowledge as the most important kind of knowledge we have', writes Sir Karl Popper in the opening essay of this book, which collects his meditations on the real improvements science has wrought in society, in politics and in the arts in the course of the twentieth century. His subjects range from the beginnings of scientific speculation in classical Greece to the destructive effects of twentieth century totalitarianism, from major figures of the Enlightenment such as Kant and Voltaire to the role of science and self-criticism in the arts. The essays offer striking new insights into the mind of one of the greatest twentieth century philosophers.
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Rent In Search of a Better World 1st edition today, or search our site for other textbooks by Karl Raimund Popper. Every textbook comes with a 21-day "Any Reason" guarantee. Published by Routledge.
Need help ASAP? We have you covered with 24/7 instant online tutoring. Connect with one of our tutors now. | <urn:uuid:1c18923e-b29a-478e-bd70-411b8784e14d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.chegg.com/textbooks/in-search-of-a-better-world-1st-edition-9780415135481-0415135486?ii=10&trackid=deea4231&omre_ir=1&omre_sp= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00103-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928731 | 209 | 2.6875 | 3 |
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